I finished Gone and while it was an entertaining read the reveal at the end as to identity of the kidnapper seemed kind of lame and not entirely well thought out - almost as if was just a plot twist for the mere sake of having a plot twist and really any old plot twist would do. (I guess I've just gotten spoiled over the years by Jeffery Deaver.)
So I finished that book half-way through an all-day courier mission on a military plane. Fortunately, I brought a spare: The Siege of Eternity by Frederik Pohl, published back in 1997. I picked it up because the back cover blurb seemed interesting: aliens coming to Earth from Skylab and bringing with them several clones of people who had already come back from there. However, about 50-60 pages in I started wondering if I'd read this before and 100 pages in I was certain I had, for I specifically recognized the alien named "Dopey" and his two golemlike "Docs." When I got home I realized why I hadn't recognized the title: it's the middle book of a trilogy that I have in one entire volume, The Eschaton Sequence, which I've previously read. So now I'm considering dropping the book entirely, as having already read it once before and it barely registering in memory means it apparently wasn't that exciting a read. (And reading through it this second time a couple decades later just reminds me I tend to prefer Frederik Pohl's short stories over his novels.)
So, next up I'll probably go with Mike Resnick's Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future. I've heard good things about it from several sources, so when I saw it for sale I thought I'd give it a go. After all, that's what got me to try The Lies of Locke Lamora, one of my smartest purchases ever. I won't hold Resnick to that high standard, but I am hoping for a good read.
Johnathan