Raven

The TV series was more or less a straight remake of the original radio series (and has the same ending). The books aren't as good, to my mind!

I'm more inclinded to try The Magician by Raymond Feist first, but I will bear that suggestion in mind. You might enjoy this then, because it's about Kobe being hit by an Earthquake!

Definitely science fiction (though contrary to some of my recent posts, there are a few fantasy book I do like!). As KO has said above, sci-fi tends to be more about ideas, which is why it appeals to me. Fantasy, on the other hand, just seems to get bogged down in clich

Juliet, Naked By Nick Hornby Tucker Crow is an American rock star who mysteriously withdrew from the public eye in 1986. Duncan is probably Tucker's number one fan - he has run a Tucker Crow web site and has written numerous articles on the significance of his work. Annie is Duncan's long suffering girlfriend and she is beginning to wonder why she is still with him . . . When an acoustic version of Tucker's most notorious album Juliet is released, a disagreement with Duncan over the merits of the work leads Annie to write a fairly damming review, that results in an e-mail from Tucker himself. Nick Hornby once again delves into the world of male obsession and uselessness in this moderately entertaining novel. The focus of the story is on Annie and her deteriorating relationship with Duncan and her developing relationship with Tucker. Lacking confidence, and bored with her life in the drab Northern seaside town of Gooleness, Tucker is her secret escape. Tucker, who is having problems with his latest wife, uses his communications with Annie to reflect upon the choices he has made in his life, and to exorcise some of his demons. As you would expect from Hornby, the book is full of perceptive observations and excellent humour. The characters are interesting and convincing, but there is something about it that didn't quite click for me. Whether it was the way the story developed, or that it felt like it was running out of steam out towards the end, I am not sure. Also - and I don't know if this was me reading when tired or not - but there were several occasions where I found myself losing track of who was saying what in a conversation and had to go back and work it through. Overall though this is a fairly good summer read, and one that will make you think a bit about life and the passage of time, but it is nothing amazing and certainly not in the same league as Fever Pitch or High Fidelity.

If you like Saving Private Ryan, try Band of Brothers, as it is similar in content (to a point) but the events in it actually happened. I wrote a review of it here, if that helps!

^ No, the Tiara.

Honey Queen, but only at weekends . . .

The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks has a minor character who designs orbitals.

You'll see on Saturday!

Exactly, and they helped with the washing up!

The image of dwarves eating seed-cake and washing it down with a cuppa is all wrong! Red meat on the bone and beer, yes! Afternoon tea, no!

^ I love finding money!

Time to bang the John Wyndham drum again: The Kraken Wakes has some good descriptions of the sea and the deep ocean. If you are aquaphobic though you might find it a tad unsettling!

I don't remember Gollum having a sword . . . *Run's away, very quickly!* I'm in, in fact, I've already finished the first chapter!

Kick them in the shins, grab the book and run - you get extra points for avoiding them by sliding Indiana Jones style under a table or other low obstacle! (Funny post btw, post more!).

^ Lordy, why?! Bill Nighy may have been good, but large parts of the rest of it were just so wrong! (Have you seen the BBC version? Okay, so it has rubbish effects and sets etc, but it is so much better as a story!).

Ponyo What a nice little film (I was reminded several time of Totoro, which has to be a good thing!).

Just had this in an e-mail from someone in South Africa: I'm not really watching the footie, so it's not really affected me so far.

As with a lot of others, I really don't like James Corden (I don't think he is half as clever as he likes to think he is) but he was okay in this - mainly because he was playing the straight man to Smith's comedy Doctor. One of the stronger episodes this year, but not quite as funny as I was expecting. I'm revising down my opinion of Vincent and the Doctor, after watching it again on Friday, from Good to OK. There were some very good performances, and some good individual moments, but it doesn't hang together very well. Yes, you have a big emotional hit at the end (which was very good), but the whole Space Chicken bit wasn't half as good as it should have been. There were some very unconvincing bits where Curran is looking one way and the monster is evidently somewhere else. For a lot of the time he is swinging around as though he can't see it as well - which I guess was true for him as an actor, but it shouldn't have been for the character he was playing!

Who the hell are you, and where is Mia?

Films one and two are pretty close to the books because they are the only books that were short enough to do a straight adaptation of! Personally, I think they rather mangled The Prisoner of Azkabhan, but I have enjoyed the three adaptations after that because they distilled the essence of those books into three good films. I'm concerned that in splitting the last book we will end up with two films that sag in places.

For some reason, I read that as: Quite right too!

Headline of the day: Murray beaten by Fish at Queen's

The entire series! (It is something I've been thinking of doing for a while now, perhaps it could be made a forum challenge, or something?!).