Raven

I, for one, welcome our new book reading overlord! (It's about time we had some male representation around here!) *runs away*

The first book in this series, The Strings of Murder, is 99p on Kindle this month. Just bought a copy, based on the above reviews.

No, although thinking about it I'm not sure how you would define it. Epic science fiction? (for Foundation) not sure about the Robot series as I've not read it. You can have high fantasy, can you have high science fiction (and I don't mean a Phillip K Dick novel...). You are more right than you know: The term has no relation to music, as in a traditional opera, but is instead a play on the terms "soap opera", a melodramatic television series, and "horse opera", which was coined during the 1930s to indicate a clichéd and formulaic Western movie. More here: Space opera - Wikipedia

I've always thought of Star Wars as defining the style of Space Opera, but the list of recognised Space Opera on Wikipedia is a lot broader than that: List of space opera media - Wikipedia My previous perception was that Space Opera doesn't have an awful lot of actual science in it and that it is just a sweeping/epic story set in space, hence Star Wars, but there are a lot on that list that encompass what I would call hard science fiction (Asimov's Robert series, for example). In looking this up, I've found that Horse Opera is a thing, so time well spent! (it's a clichéd and formulaic Western movie, in case you are wondering!)

D7s! Woooooot!

Peninsular I didn't know that, and now know that Linda and Grace are of Korean descent because of that!

I take your point, to a point, but Star Trek is also about things blowing up (see: The Wrath of Khan, The Best of Both Worlds, most of Deep Space Nine etc..). I believe Strange New Worlds may be more in line with your expectations, from what they have been saying about it.

And yet more! I, Claudius, by Robert Graves and The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell are both 99p on the Kindle today. And if you don't have it, the Rivers of London short story collection Tales from the Folly is 99p all month.

I still don't agree, but also, don't forget that Data sacrificed himself to save Picard, and that was a big part of Picard's motivation in this series (he says as much on more than one occasion). The shows are both definitely Star Trek; I just think both have just suffered - certainly in the last year or so - from poor writing and a lack of a clear identity and/or direction. I liked the first series of Discovery; I enjoyed the Klingon plotline and the whilst I was left thinking "that wasn't very Star Fleet" on several occasions, the plot-twist with Lorca explained why that was, and the "We are Star Fleet!" bit at the end of the series worked and wrapped up the season nicely. Season 2 wasn't anywhere near as cohesive, story wise, but it was saved for me by the presence of Anson Mount's Christopher Pike, and I'm still genuinely looking forward to seeing how Strange New Worlds will play out. Season 3, though, was just poor. I don't understand why they have taken the series in the direction they have and I have no idea what they are trying to achieve. For the most part I like Burnham as a character and Sonequa Martin-Green really has pulled off some great acting performances playing the character, but they have to stop making the show all about Burnham, because it is just not plausible for one character to be constantly at the centre of events. Take the last episode; they have to force the ship to drop out of warp - who comes up with the plan for how to do that? Tilly? Reno? (the two engineers left on the ship). No, Burnham phones in what to do whilst she is in the middle of Die Hard tribute elsewhere on the ship... *face palm* The episode before; who talks round the scared, young Kelpian? Saru, surely, the ship's captain and only Kelpian in the series? No, Burnham is the one to have the heart-to-heart chat. Earlier in the series, when Adira is facing going through a Trill ritual, who is chosen to go with her? The ship's heart and soul, Tilly? The ship's chief medical officer, Dr. Culber? No, Michael Burnham gets to jump in the pool of milk... There have been plenty of chances for the writers to get other crew members involved in a more significant way, but they just keep defaulting to Burnham. It's not realistic and it' doesn't make for very good television. Star Trek TV sequels have form for being poor for the first three series and then getting better, though, so I can only hope Discovery turns it around next year, but I think that is going to require a change the writers don't even know they need to make. As for Picard, I have zero interest in finding out more about Picard's new crew, and not much more in what they might get up to, so the writers are going to have to work really hard to pull that one back as well.

I wasn't a fan of what they did with the Federation. As the series went on it did start to make a little more sense, but I don't think it was very credible (I think this is a common problem in the new Trek series; none of them do a very good job with their world building (especially the most recent series of Discovery). Of course, the main reason for the change in the Federation was to give Picard a reason for leaving Star Fleet.... I was never much of a Seven of Nine fan, or Voyager fan, for that matter. After Deep Space Nine, Voyager always felt like a string of missed opportunities and under utilised characters. I don't agree with that. Picard was pretty stand-offish with the whole Enterprise crew throughout TNG (with the exception - in the later series - of Crusher) but I think that all changed in All Good Things when Picard joined the rest of the bridge crew to play poker at the end of the episode. After that - in the films - Picard does seem to be a lot closer to the rest of the crew, and especially Data in both First Contact and Nemesis.

That's a pretty fair summary of the first series of the Clone Wars, in my opinion. I'm currently about a third of the way through series two, but haven't watched an episode for several weeks now because it is yet more of the same, but there are some signs of plot development going on now, instead of it just being baddy-of-the-week stories. I know the latter series have garnered a lot of praise, and it seems to be being referenced quite a bit - both directly and indirectly - in The Mandalorian, so I'm trying to stick with it (and then Rebels that follows...)

I quite enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea, when I read it a few years ago. I liked Hemmingway's writing and intended to go on and try some more of his books, but haven't done so yet..

A Confederacy of Dunces is 99p in the Kindle daily deal today. New month, so new list to look through later as well!

Hello everyone; feel free to pull up a seat (and don't worry about the smell, I think something died behind the Twilight review thread...)

Yes, and with her books being billed as Space Opera (by some) that kind of implies a degree of action and adventure - if they are not that, I would say the tag is misleading. From this novella alone, I would say she is definitely on the contemplative end of the writing spectrum.

Thanks for that! (not sure how I missed this when you originally posted it!) I can easily see her books being like that, to be honest. There's is not a whole lot of plot in To Be Taught, if Fortunate. As I said in my review, it is more about the science, concepts and the characters (that doesn't make it a bad book, but - again, as I said - there were times where things were a little laboured).

Thanks for all your efforts with this, Hayley.

I enjoyed the Roga Danar discussion at the beginning of one of the episodes (who is the biggest bad ass), and the punch line of episode 3 had me laughing for quite a while (I think more because I wasn't expecting it, than anything else).

Star Trek: Lower Decks has unexpectedly - for me, anyway - popped up on Amazon Prime, and I watched the whole series over the weekend (10 x 25 minutes episodes over 3 nights isn't that taxing!). It's basically Futurama meets The Next Generation, and moderately adult in content, but it has some good stories, some good jokes and overall I quite enjoyed it, although it did take a few episodes to get going. I'm pretty au fait with the various incarnations of Star Trek, but even so I'm pretty sure half the references went straight over my head.

Thank you. I must admit to being more affected by this than I would have previously thought I would be. I'm guessing part of that is due to it being completely unexpected. I'm not really one for the cult of celebrity, but her death has had as big an impact on me as the deaths of Leonard Nimoy, Terry Pratchett, Carrie Fisher and Clive James. All helped to shape who I am today, and I do miss them all.

I am very saddened to read that Babylon 5 actress Mira Furlan has died at the age of 65. Back in the early/mid 90s, when I was in my early 20s, Babylon 5 was must watch science fiction television. What initially looked like a low budget, clunky show quickly engaged me as a viewer and before long I was hooked. This was back in the day when Star Trek and other series were still largely doing episode-of-the-week stories, with very little joined narrative and certainly no on-going story lines. Babylon 5, along with other shows like Buffy, changed that, and help usher in TV series that did tell on-going stories with linked narratives. Babylon 5 was truly ahead of its time; epic in its scope, ambition and with strong writing and story telling, but at the heart of it all was a very talented cast who gave life to some brilliant and wonderful characters. Mira played the part of Delenn, an ambassador from an alien race, who was strong, compassionate and loyal; she played the role with good humour, warmth and conviction that genuinely endeared her character to the viewer. Of course, she did a whole lot more than Babylon 5; others may remember her character from Lost and she was a well known actress in her native Yugoslavia for many years before she moved to America (I once read an article where she was likened to that country's version of Meryl Streep). I went through a phase of drawing portraits in the 90s and once drew a picture of Mira, copied from a magazine, that has hung in my hallway for the last 18 years (and it is of her, she is not in character). I cannot say that it is very good; to be honest I rarely look at it anymore - it's just there - but I think the fact that it still is says something about the impact she had on me as an actress at the time. I am very sorry to hear she has gone.

The Honourable Schoolboy, by John le Carré is 99p on the Kindle daily deal at present!

Dinklage was just too pretty. Make up isn't an issue these days; look at shows like Star Trek where actors like Doug Jones have the same prosthetics applied each week, making someone up isn't a problem and on shows and films with a big enough budget, CGI is now commonly used as well. I think, in this case, it was just the choice they went with.

Tipp-Ex.

Good though he is in the role, Peter Dinklage didn't look anything like Tyrion as described in the books (a deformed, hunch-backed dwarf with eyes of different colours, if I remember correctly, and - after the Battle of the Blackwater - no nose!). That's just one example; I didn't dislike the first series, but I had such a strong mental image from the books in my head at the time - and I was still reading them at that point - that I stopped watching. I suppose I could watch it now, as it's been so long since I finished the last book and it's not like I'll be reading another any time soon! The new Lord of the Rings film isn't a remake, btw, it's a prequel from way before the Hobbit/LotRs etc. centred on a character called Morgoth.