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Vimes

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Posts posted by Vimes

  1. While I have not read The Shadow of the Wind, it dose sound similar to The Black Opera by Mary Gently. I didn't finish it but it was good, just wasn't what I wanted to read...warning there are a LOT of lectures from the main character, he has a issues....shame. lol :P

     

     

    The Black Opera - Mary Gently

     

    In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, holy music has power. Under the auspices of the Church, the Sung Mass can bring about actual miracles like healing the sick or raising the dead. But some believe that the musicodramma of grand opera can also work magic by channeling powerful emotions into something sublime. Now the Prince’s Men, a secret society hope to stage their own black opera to the empower the Devil himself–and change Creation for the better. Conrad Scalese is a struggling librettist whose latest opera has landed him in trouble with the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Rescued by King Ferdinand II, Conrad finds himself recruited to write and stage a counteropera that will, hopefully, cancel out the apocalyptic threat of the black opera, provided the Prince’s Men, and their spies and saboteurs, don’t get to him first.

     

    And he only has six weeks to do it . . . .

  2. I loved both Hobbit movies and thought that Jackson did a great job of adding the extra stuff that was in the index and left out of the LOTR movies. I thought that he had done this while not losing the hart or the story of the Hobbit. I also don't mind the love story with Kili and whatsherface...it helps fill the characters out well as the original character's in the book were rather flat. If you actually think about how simple and well flat the original story was you start to realise just how good a job Jackson has done with finding extra material to add to the story so that it is in fact watchable...

  3. The Starbuck chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction) are brilliant, I would also recommend:

     

    Shape series - Bernard Cornwell

     

     

    Phules Company series - Robert Asprin (Sci-fi but not every so, the story is much more focused on the characters than space travel and that. I am loving them and I'm not a Sci-fi fan :) )

     

    Ramage series - Dudley Pope (great action packed naval historical fiction novels)

     

    Riyria Revelations - Michael J Sullivan (Great epic fantasy series)

     

    Corean Chronicles - L.E Modesitt

  4. Hmm, well as you didn't mention any specific genre I am just going to list an assortment of books from different genre, :)

     

    Historical Fiction :

     

    Starbuck Chronicles - Bernard Cornwell

     

    Sharpe series- Bernard Cornwell

     

    Range series- Dudley Pope

     

    Flashman series - George Macdonald Fraser

     

    Sano Ichiro- Laura Joh Rowland

     

    Falco series - Lindsey Davis

     

    Genghis series - Conn Iggulden

     

    Emperor series - Conn Iggulden

     

    Brother Cadfael series - Ellis Peters

     

     

    Fantasy:

     

    The great Book of Amber - Roger Zelazny

     

    Riyria Revelations - Michael J. Sullivan

     

    Corean Chronicles - L.E. Modesitt

     

    Bardic Voices - Mercedes Lackey

     

    Bards Tale - Mercedes Lackey

     

    Deathgate Cycle - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

     

    Memory, Sorrow and Thorn - Tad Williams

     

    Elemental Masters - Mercedes Lackey

     

    Sarrated Edge - Mercedes Lackey

     

    Tamuli - Favid Eddings

     

    Elenium - Davd Eddings

     

    Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb

     

    Liveship Traders - Robin Hobb

     

     

    Humor :

     

    Xanth - Piers Anthony

     

    Jeeves - P.G Wodehouse

     

    Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

     

     

    Detective and mystery novels:

     

    Archaeological Adventures - Lyn Hamilton

     

     

    James Bond - Ian Flemming

     

    Spencer series - Robert B. Parker

     

    Dalziel and Pascoe - Reginald Hill

     

    Detective Chen series - Qiu Xiaolong

     

    Body Farm - Jefferson Bass

     

    Nic Costa - Avid Hewson

     

    well there are a few choices for you to take a look at and see if anything grabs :) hope you find something to read...

  5. Well while I have never gone off an author because of something I learned about them, it comes from knowing that I would do so if I ever knew anything about them so I never look them up or read about there personal lives and avoid all info about them except if a new book is out. lol It is sometimes hard to play deaf, you know, hear no evil see no evil will still buy book :-P lmao!

  6. Rodeo horses buck because of the bucking strap around their middle which irritates the genital area. Animal advocacy groups actively oppose rideos for the various different cruelties.

     

    As for your riding scene - that "traditional" idea of "breaking" a horse is outdated and cruel. No-one does it like that, and even when they sort of did it was rare that it was like in the movies.

     

    If she does not know how to ride just let him put her on a difficult horse. That will be more than enough challenge.

  7. Something terrible happened this evening, when I tried to put new books on my kindle I was told that it's memory was FULL! I had to go through my books and make some tough decisions about my books. :) I took some books off that I have read and won't read again but it was sad...here I was thinking that it would take ages to fill the memory on the Kindle. Sigh will take a other amble through my library and see what else can go...

  8. The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy movie was HORRID!! I watched it a few years ago and sat there wondering if at any point they were going to put do anything that was going to save the movie but they didn't. I find it hard to even choose a worst moment as the movie seemed to lurch from bad scene to a awful scene to worse. Thankful I can still injoyed the books :) I just won't be watching the movie !

  9. I am busy making my way through the Ramage series by Dudley Pope. I am now on book twelve and have loves every one of them, the books follow Lord Nicholas Ramage as he goes from a lieutenant in charge of a sinking frigate through his (I don't know how far up the chain of command he goes as I haven't finished the series yet) various adventures while fighting the French and Spanish during the French revolution. The books are fun and well written with the author having an obvious love and interest in the ships (and the time in history) that are as much a part of the story as any of the characters. I would recommend these books to anyone who has an interest in the sea and the ships of the time this book is set in as well as whoever has read the Sharpe series and has injoyed them.

  10.  

    I have just finished watching the Desolation of Smaug and I loved it! I thought that it followed a lot closer to the original story and I can see why he added some extra scenes in the few places that he did deviate from the story. I am also enjoying seeing the other side of Gandalf that was hinted at in LOTR but never quiet seen. So all in all I enjoyed it and there is only one thing I have to say about the movie that is anything but good, one is that they ought to have made the jewels and gold on Smaugs underside more visible, after all he did have about a kings ransom stuck into his tummy scales after sleeping on all that gold for so many years!

  11. I watched Eragon first then read the books as I like books with dragons but I wouldn't saw I got the books because of the movie, in fact I was hopping that the books would be totally different from the movie but was disappointed as although they were different they were different in the way I wanted them to be. But if I read a book first I decently want to see the movie version of it IF it looks good and sometimes I will watch anyway just to see how badly the movies makers messed up :P .

  12. Hmm I rather found the Narnia movies to be rather a let down even though they did follow the books. I remember watching the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and thinking that they lost something in the scene when Aslan gets killed, it was so much more scary and dark in the book, I get the feeling that they toned down the monsters a wee bit to much... :)

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