Current:
Swallows And Amazons by Arthur Ransome – almost finished
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, by Nancy Kress (Hugo novella) – halfway through
Last books finished: (both finished today)
Zamper, by Gareth Roberts (Doctor Who New Adventure)
Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
Next books:
The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie; 1632, by Eric Flint; Father Time by Lance Parkin (Eighth Doctor Adventure); The Emperor's Soul, by Brandon Sanderson (Hugo novella)
I read the first few in translation many many years ago, and I have to concur. There’s no literary merit that I spotted, no extraordinary ideas, lousy 2-dimensional characters, and little point in it as anything other than being a reprise of old pulp SF for those people for whom pulp SF was what they grew up with and therefore loved.