readers advisory for all discussion

I suffer from intermittent insomnia. I was recently thinking about what makes a good insomnia book for me after reading The Native Star. I came up with this list:

Tone: light to medium
Pace: fast
Setting: not contemporary, possibly with magic, aliens, gadgets, spaceships or other neat ideas that are fun to watch play out
Romance: light
Narrator: inobtrusive

Examples of books that I consider good insomnia reads include:

Soulless
Cordelia's Honor
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Old Man's War

You should check out Blake Charlton's Spellwright. The tone is fairly light and, except for a few exposition dumps that could've been handled better, the pace is quick. It is built on a really cool linguistic approach to magic and although I didn't totally love it I did find it quite enjoyable and plan to read the next book in the series to see where Charlton takes his ideas.

Recently, I've also enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, feeling like it was steampunkily entertaining without demanding too much of me, and Margaret Killjoy's What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower, which is a political steampunk choose-your-own-adventure book. It's not as awesome as I think it could've been, but I got sucked into exploring it one night and was up half the night doing so.

One more suggestion for now, and this one comes with the caveat that I know the author personally and am therefore a bit biased: Bad Radio by Michael Langlois. It's fast-paced, entertaining, and includes some fun science fictional / horror elements. It's maybe a little darker than the other suggestions and has a more contemporary setting, so it might not be what you're looking for, but it occurred to me as maybe being enjoyable for insomnia reading and I'd like to support my friend, so . . . maybe check it out. :-)

Sweet, thanks Christy! I'm not really opposed to contemporary, just I think I'm trying to avoid contemporary paranormal romance in the middle of the night.

Ooooh, I forgot about Moon. I have Once a Hero somewhere in the mess, so I'll have to remember that in the dark hours.

Tepper, much as I love her, would not be a good insomnia read for me, I think.

Bad Radio looks really interesting, sleepless or not.

How do you feel about mysteries? I tend to fall back on Agatha Christie when I can't sleep and don't want to read one of my beloved fluffy Regency romances.

I'm a little iffy on mysteries, through no fault of the mysteries. I do keep meaning to read Christie though, insomnia or not.

i just came across this. it looks like it fulfills most of your needs: fast paced, steampunk-historical - i flipped through, and i don't know if it is romance per se, but i did find something saucy!it is not a romance novel, though, it is sci-fi/fantasy with romantic/erotic elements. looks like it could be fun. or stupid. or stupid-fun.

Phoenix Rising

karen wrote: "i just came across this. it looks like it fulfills most of your needs: fast paced, steampunk-historical - i flipped through, and i don't know if it is romance per se, but i did find something saucy..."

I have a lot of friends who really loved this one.

At first glance, that has a terrible cover. Sold!

(But after reading a friend's review, Phoenix Rising looks really perfect, snark aside. Thank you!)

I'm not opposed to mild romantic elements, but I'm not looking for a full blown romance novel, is all.

Nine Princes in Amber
The Thief
Jhereg

What about Maria V. Synder's Study series? It's got just a touch of romance (the characters eventually do get into a relationship, but it's really not a big part of the plot), the magic grows and becomes more fantastic as it goes on and the setting it some sort of fantasy-political dystopia. There's quite a bit of adventure and I really liked the heroine.

Thank you!