I just finished Betrayer of Worlds by Edward Lerner and Larry Niven.

This continues the Puppeteer focused, pre-Ringworld collaboration. I wrote about the last book here. This book resolves a lot of the conflicts from earlier books, so it will be interesting to see if there is another in the series.

The overall story is just OK. It didn't grab me like the previous book, though there were some good moments. My biggest problem with this book, similar to some of the earlier ones, is how it undermines other, better books. As mentioned before, the authors are taking characters and situations from other Niven books, and revising what happened. In this book, it has finally reached Louis Wu, the main protagonist of Ringworld, and this book totally undermines everything that happens to the character in that book. This is a shame, since Ringworld is a much superior book to any from this series.

A few days ago, I finished The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich.

The Bride Wore Black is a classic pulp work from 1940. It's a mix of revenge story and police procedural, as a woman works her way through killing a number of men that seem un-connected. The antagonist is a classic noir femme fatale, cool, calculating, competent and deadly.

It's a short, fun read, if you are a noir or pulp fan.