Holiday reading

The City at the End of Time by Greg Bear -- about that city, and stories and cats. Name-drops and apes Clive Barker, William Hope Hodgson and Borges in about that sort of order, reading a bit like Clive Barker dropping some gratuitous SF terminology. Mostly harmless, readable tosh.

The Labyrinth Key by Howard V Hendrix -- Dan Brown does Neal Stephenson with quantum voodoo added. Interesting in juxtaposition with the previous, but an airport novel at best.

Dark Space by Marianne de Pierres -- dreadful hokum, with perhaps an unremarkable Renaissance Italy historical struggling to escape from the Sci-Fi trappings. Unlovely people, unlovely setting, dropped.