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Timstar

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  1. The Aeronaut's Windlass - Jim Butcher Synopsis Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace. Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy's shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion-to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory. And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity's ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake. Review Unlike a lot of people coming to this novel, I don't have a history with Jim Butcher's books. I started his Codex Alera series but lost interest after the second book (despite enjoying them somewhat) and I haven't even started on the Dresden Files, it's always been one of those 'someday' series for me, especially it is 15+ books and growing fairly fast. However, when I saw he is starting a brand new series with a steampunk feel, I jumped at the chance to read it. I have been looking for something to rival the Ketty Jay books by Chris Wooding and this series may just do it. After the surface becomes inhabitable the worlds population are living in enormous spires, travelling around in airships powered by both magic and steam. When a petty conflict between two towers erupts into war, Captain Grimm of the Predator is caught in the middle. There is a host of supporting characters too numerous to mention including one particularly menacing cat that Butcher appears to have lifted straight out of the Ketty Jay by giving him his own POV chapters. He does, however, take the whole cat idea a few steps further, giving them warring clans and fierce combat skills. The action is frequent and very well written, the humour keeps the book to a light tone that suits it perfectly and the characters are believable and not stereotypes. A couple of downsides, I feel it lacked some of the charm that I felt strongly with the Ketty Jay books particularly from the characters and the I struggled to understand the magic involved. But with a 9 book series planned there will be plenty more time for it to be explained in full and grow to love the characters more. I am keen to start the Dresden Files now Overall 9/10
  2. Yeah I saw that on his Twitter, very funny! Has anyone else read Revival? I've just finished it and thought it was borderline awful, some good characters as always but just really dull story that felt like a padded out novella
  3. New books! From Gollancz Festival: My favourite inscription: (though you need to have read the book to understand it) Birthday books: From Waterstones with a birthday voucher:
  4. Saw Spectre last night: Simple to say, I didn't like it.
  5. He's a really nice guy, and very funny. Yeah, reading the second volume at the moment, it's incredible! Also got an extract from his new book coming next year.
  6. Very true, also led to a whole debate on why modern fantasy should feature less bowel control
  7. I went to the Gollancz festival on 17th Oct and really enjoyed it (sorry Laura), there were six 30 minute discussion panels all with 5 or 6 different authors followed by a mass signing. Before going I was interested in seeing: Joe Abercrombie, Joe Hill, Brandon Sanderson, Ben Aaronovitch and Chris Wooding. Whilst there I also bought books by Pat Cadigan, Stephen Hunt and Paul Cornell (who wrote my favourite Doctor Who Episodes 'The Family of Blood'). And ended up buying a few more on kindle the next day. Apart from Brandon Sanderson none of the authors tables were busy by the time I got there and I managed to have a nice chat with Chris Wooding and Joe Hill as well as getting all my books signed (12 books by 8 different authors). Apart from carrying all those books back from London (most of which are Epic Fantasy!) I had a great time. Highlight of the evening was Joe Abercrombie stating "My books are just like David Eddings'... only with looser bowel control"
  8. I really enjoyed it! Some patchy dialougue and fairly predictable at the beginning but I was really into it by the end. Fairly fast-paced for a series opener, covered a lot of plot.
  9. Great review! Luna was one of the main books that picqued my interested at the Gollancz Fest. He did mention there was a lot of sex ETA: In the book... not at the festival
  10. The Martian. Fantastic film and a great adaptation. It was a shame some things had to be cut out but it still had a fairly long run time and stuck pretty close to the book Really glad they didn't try to throw in any typical Hollywood tropes like an unnecessary love story or pointless villian.
  11. yeah I would agree with that, but the language is so captivating you almost forget there isn't a plot at the beginning
  12. Yes, yes it is too big. Not going to count them but it must be around 500, which will take me 5 to 10 years if I don't buy any more which we all know isn't going to happen
  13. It's OK I know you wouldn't do something like that Annoyingly Gotham on Channel 5 seems to be doing the same thing!
  14. I was enjoying it until the fight scenes at the end which were tedium amounting to boredom.
  15. Have you been downloading them? Don't think they are airing until the new year here
  16. Still need to see Ant-Man and the new series of Agents of Shield. But Jessica Jones next month has a lot of potential!
  17. I have high hopes for these films. But then again I did for Man of Steel as well and that was mostly a let down.
  18. Sounds good, I made a start yesterday. He's a little bit contradictory at the beginning but enjoying it so far
  19. Welcome to the forum! I can't really expand on the SF list above but I can highly recommend: Fantasy: Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bast*ard series starting with The Lies of Locke Lamora. Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn trilogy Joe Abercrombie - First Law Thriller: Patrick Lee - The Runner is a fantastic read and fits your criteria quite well I think.
  20. Windhaven and A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin also going cheap.
  21. I got that too. It's a large Gollancz wide reduction to coinside with the Gollancz Festival at the weekend. Also got Voyage by Stephen Baxter Twelve Kings by Bradley Beaulieu The Beauty of Murder by A.K. Benedict Son of the Morning by Mark Aldar Apart from Baxter they were all at the Festival on Saturday in London.
  22. Surely it's better than the film!?
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