Exit Ghost

By Philip Roth
Devoted readers of Philip Roth certainly know that force that drives Nathan Zuckerman, hero of a lifetime of Roth novels, is located just below the midriff and just above the knees. The problem for Zuckerman in Exit Ghost is that the force, to coin a phrase, is no longer with him. That's a travesty, a reviewer from the New York Review of Books pointed out, that's akin to "Odysseus losing his wit, Achilles losing his shield, Quixote losing his Sancho." After returning to New York City for a bladder operation, he falls into a series of unexpected meetings and even an infatuation with a young woman. Ultimately, Zuckerman must confront the ghosts of his former virility--a task that in the telling has bored many critics who nonetheless still sing Roth's praises as one of the best American novelists.

Confessor

By Terry Goodkind
This 11th volume in fantasy author Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series of books brings protagonist Richard Rahl into direct conflict with Emperor Jagang. In Confessor, he must first escape from prison to rendezvous with free forces and plan an attack. Complications pile up, and so do action sequences, including breath-taking descriptions of a matches in a mystical "game of life" as well as battle sequences. Goodkind rushes to wrap up storylines involving a large cast of characters, fantastic locales and fanciful objects of power and oppression. Fantasy fans have lauded this conclusion to a series of books 10 years in the making, and fans have more often than not reported delight at how Goodkind has crafted the ending and forgiven some sins of omission.

The Six Sacred Stones

By Matthew Reilly
Jack West, Jr. returns in Aussie Matthew Reilly's sequel to Seven Ancient Wonders. West faces apocalypse as The Six Sacred Stones opens, after a prologue involving the wrath of Ra, the sun god of ancient Egypt. Soon West is winging away in a plane he has stolen from Saddam Hussein to collect six legendary pillars to avert the coming disaster. Reviewers have noted Reilly's drawing on "comics, video games, thrillers and Code-style puzzle novels" and his nonstop action. Fans report eyes bugging out from adrenaline rushes from reading Reilly's full-out writing style.