Raven

I don't think I should have eaten that whole bag of Mango Chutney flavoured Poppadoms...

Trump ETA: (hehe, that actually works on more than one level...)

The world done and got sick on us... (in oh so many ways...). In the words of River Song, spoilers: I may have said this in my review (can't be arsed to go and look!) but I found all the Hitch-Hikers references a massive distraction and, as you say, unrealistic. Someone would have thrown the copyright hammer at the company for such flagrant commercial use of the IP, if nothing else! If the company had to be a bit geeky, he could have gone with names of computer pioneers, like Babbage, Lovelace and Turing etc. Although I enjoyed it, I think with distance I would mark False Values down as well, and give it 4/5 (though that might go up again on a re-read!). At the end of Lies Sleeping it felt like there was going to be a massive change in direction for the series, but that never really happened. False Values feels like a side story before what comes next, although I think there may be parts of it that will prove to be very significant later...

^ It is still very muggy though; the walk home from work left me as tired as on any other day this week. My flat is the top floor of an old house that has very thick walls that retain the heat very well, so I will need a couple of days at this temperature before the flat fully cools down again. Joy!

*gasp* Really surprised someone has gone to the length of remastering this, given the BBC seem to put very little out on Blu-ray, but I'm not complaining! If anyone hasn't seen it, this is by far the best adaptation of Triffids anyone has done. Release date Monday 7th September.

It's too damn HOT

Dreadful film, as was The Last Jedi. I quite liked The Force Awakens; it reinvigorated the franchise after the kack-handed prequels, but the last two films just didn't hang together, either story wise or emotionally.

I've not actually bought it yet. I'm knee deep in an Iain M. Banks book that is talking me an age to read and I don't want the distraction! (I suspect I have also read several of the stories before, so it's not as high on my to-read list as it would otherwise be!).

Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection, is published tomorrow as a e-book. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Folly-Rivers-London-Collection-ebook/dp/B08BW6LCPH I think this may be a collection of the Waterstones exclusive short stories plus some others and some new ones.

And no frickin' circles!

I have watched so many films over lockdown, I'm getting bored of them.

I wouldn't claim to be as up on sci-fi news as I was a few years ago, but I've not heard anything about an adaptation. I've not read any of the books though, so if I have seen anything about this it may have just passed me by.

I read it quite a few years ago now, and don't remember it all that well, except for the idea of handing on stories by an oral narrative. I know that feeling! What kind of story are you in the mood for? (if any).

I have a copy of that to read. And that. Have read that one, though...

'lo!

Meeting

I've been picking off a couple of Iain M. Banks Culture novels that I've not read before. I finished Inversions at the end of last month and am now onto Surface Detail. Picked up a book of Japanese short stories and the second Tegan Frost novel last weekend.

It is a good start, and they get better as they go along as well. I like Feynman; What Do You Care What Other People Think? is an interesting account of his time on the Warren Commission, investigating the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger. I've been reading Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! in stages on my Kindle, that is good as well. You might find Moondust, by Andrew Smith interesting.

Last Saturday was the first time I've been in a bookshop since lockdown started, and I did look at a copy, but it was a bit dog-eared so I left it. I'm not in hurry; if I don't get a copy for a while it's not a problem!!

There are quite a few Poldark books on Kindle for 99p today.

And Ian Holm has gone as well. I had no idea he was 88.

Nearly half way through the year and I'm probably on target for 10 books by the end of the month. I had expected to be a lot further ahead than that, given the current situation and the fact that I'm confined to being at home most of the time, but I used to read books on my Kindle when sitting in the pub, which I am obviously no longer doing, and this seems to have had a bigger effect on the amount I am reading than being at home is countering. The thought has crossed my mind I was probably spending too much time in the pub, but - pff - how can that be remotely right? Either way, I found myself flicking through the first 40 pages of my current book again this evening (Inversions, by Iain M Banks, which is excellent, by the way) because I've read it in such a disjointed manner - a few pages here and there over the last couple of weeks - that I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I should give this one more time, because it is shaping up to be a very good book indeed.

If you haven't read it, The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler's first Philip Marlowe novel is 99p on Kindle today. Murder Most Unladylike, by Robin Stevens, is also 99p.

The first five books in Patrick O’Brian's Aubrey & Maturin series are 99p each on Kindle today.