Doctor Who: Totenwinter (James Goss)
I haven't actually read that many Doctor Who books and/or short stories yet, but I've heard that they're usually something of a mixed bag. This one was pretty good: it had a proper intriguing mystery and the danger didn't come from some evil monster-of-the-day, but from something way more ambivalent. I also liked how the inner life of our protagonists way portrayed. I don't know, but Rory talking about how much he loves Amy even though she's sometimes more than ready to leave him behind for a new adventure (or for the Doctor) was quite heartbreaking. Consider becoming my boyfriend if you ever tire of your wife, man! Well, and the book also made me realise how much I want to rewatch DW, but I don't think I'll get to that anytime soon...
Doctor Who: Die Blutzelle (James Goss)
The 12th Doctor is my personal favourite, and Clara is on of my least favourite companions. That often made watching Twelve's series of the show something of an exhausting affair, but thankfully Clara was a lot less annoying in this book. I'm still not entirely sure whether I liked the book in the end...the mystery was interesting and I liked the way the truth was slowly revealed over the progression of the story. But the end was...confusing and sort of weird. I have exactly no idea how the mysterious 'blood cell' looked because the author just ducked out by letting his characters say 'what we saw was too weird to describe'. Uh, sure, alright then. Don't expect me to be thrilled upon hearing this, though.
Jagd der Vampire (Barbara Hambly)
I initially dropped this book after reading like 30 pages last year. Before throwing it out I started a second attempt and well, it was actually pretty good. I like the way the vampires are portrayed: they are retaining some of their human characteristics, but they are also very, very different because some of the smaller or bigger things humans care so much about (keeping up appearances for example) just lose much of their importance once you're undead for hundreds of years. I'm not sure if I could entirely follow the main plot, but overall I really enjoyed it and I also liked the resolution. What I didn't like was the sequel: I dropped that one for good around halfway through because I was either bored or wondering if any of this made any sense. Plus, I absolutely didn't like how the protagonist's wife Lydia was being such a bitch to another woman just because she thought her to be stupid. Even more so when her own actions in this book could be called more than stupid. Still, at least the first book was a good read.
Sherlock Holmes: Der Wille des Toten (George Mann)
Note to self: don't buy any of those popular Holmes pastiches anymore. You won't enjoy them anyway and it's a waste of money. Ahem. Well...I didn't like that one. I'm generally very picky about pastiches and my pet peeve is when the main characters don't feel like Holmes and Watson. And here they clearly didn't. Also, I didn't like the case solution. Oh, and one more thing: Holmes novels just rarely ever work in general. Not even ACD's own full Holmes novels are even that good if you ask me. The short stories are what makes Holmes great, so maybe pastiche writer should rather stick to those anyway...
Die Chronik der Unsterblichen: Der
Gejagte/Die Verfluchten/Blutkrieg/Das Dämonenschiff/Göttersterben/Glut und Asche/Der schwarze Tod (Wolfgang Hohlbein)
I think this series is still going strong, although by now some things are slowly getting repetitive or just not as good as during the first few books anymore. A lot of the enjoyment depends on whether I liked or didn't like the setting of the different books though. I guess that was why volume 7 about the Order of Saint John defending Malta against an armada of Ottoman ships. Volume 8 saw our heroes travel though the desert and visit the graves of the Pharaohs...yep, that was right up my alley again. The extra volume Blutkrieg plus volume 9 told a story about Norse gods and some Viking-esque tribes of people – not my favourite book setting, but then again, I love things set in cold climates, so that was also nice. Volume 10 was sort of a continuation of where 9 left off, but I didn't like that one as much again (it had a nice and surprising cameo of a real historical figure though!). Volume 11 and 12, well...I'm not sure I entirely understand that whole storyline about Andrej's dead son, but at least that story should be over by the end of volume 12. That was also when I meant to take a break from the series, but you know what, I just want to go on reading now. I'll probably finish the last four books in November, so let's see whether I'm finally fed up with it by then. I sincerely doubt it, because the whole series is just immensely fun reading.