Wow, so [spoiler omitted] continued that long. I'll be looking forward to Shadows in Flight.

As for Empire, I read most of it. But for some reason I never finished it, something that never happens to me, regardless of author. I did enjoy it, but I must have gotten distracted by something...

I've been forced to read quite a bit of novels for my Lit classes, and though I usually don't like when I'm forced to read (one should be reading for pleasure really), I was surprised how much I enjoyed some of the books.

Perhaps my favorite of them was The Professor's House by Willa Cather. Not too much happens in it overall, but the interactions with the family get pretty interesting about halfway into the first part. It's an older one, but worth a try.