Well, I haven't actually read it yet (it'd been sitting on my bookshelf since I brought it back from Florida), but Faith and Fire by James Swallow gets a glowing recommendation by my dad. He apparently took it with him while hunting, and was so engrossed that a doe managed to stroll pretty much unnoticed within ten yards of him, which is saying something if you know my dad.

In other news, I just thought I'd reiterate that I'm a big fan of community integration. That is whether on a, say, inter-city level such as The Frank Show being broadcast in both Tucson and Reno - allowing a caller from one city to offer a caller from the other city a job. Or, the head instructor at the east-side dojo's manner of reaching out to the community in the immediate area of the school, such as setting up self-defense workshops at apartment complexes. Or, in a kind of converse of that, the diner wherein the community comes to a center in a kind of forum cum social cum haggling center. Or, in an artistic way, promotion of local music and events through, say, the community radio station. Not really going to go into reasons why, right now, just that it's something I'm into.

-on sci-fi leading characters: "Theirs would be without the standard white guy lead whose name starts with "J" (James T. Kirk, John Crichton, John Sheridan (Babylon 5), Jeffrey Sinclair, Jonathan Archer, Jack O'Neill (Stargate), John Sheppard (Stargate), J. Koenig, J. Robinson, Jean-Luc Picard, Jeremiah (series))."
--I'd never made that connection; I also find it funny that I recognize all but two of those.