Raven

For anyone who is interested in science fiction and who hasn't read it yet, the excellent The Player of Games by Iain M Banks is just 99p on the Kindle as part of Amazon's Cyber Monday sale. Also, Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama is also the same price.

Clive James It has been a long time coming, but I'm sad to hear that Clive James has died (for those who do not know, he was originally diagnosed with a terminal illness 10 years ago). As a presenter during the 80s and 90s he gave us a unique insight into the world he travelled and also through his Clive James on TV program but, for me, his writing - and in particular his autobiography Falling Towards England - was a joyous read. I'm genuinely sad to see him go.

Do you have a link? 2001 is 99p on Kindle, but Rosewater is still £6.49! ETA: Ignore the above, it is 99p, I was looking at the paperback price...

Well, two episodes in and I think I'm beginning to spot a trend - they seem to be avoiding effects shots as much as they can get away with, which makes me think they may have had a limited budget. This is supposition on my part of course, but the replacing of the Martian in the first episode with a spinning black orb and the lack of the Thunderchild in the second (amongst other scenes that are missing) makes me think His Dark Materials got all of the BBC's effects wonga. And next week it looks as though we'll be getting turn of the [last] century Alien. *Sigh*

My local Waterstones, despite their not listing it as being in stock on their website!

The latest novel, Lies Sleeping, is now 99p on the Kindle. Managed to pick up Action at a Distance yesterday, will be reading it shortly...

Eleanor Tomlinson's Amy probably is the most interesting character, which is mildly annoying as she wasn't in the book! (coincidently, there is a shot very early on when they do a close up of her smiling and it's been annoying me since I saw it who she reminded me of, but it's just clicked! Karen Gillian playing Amy Pond in Doctor Who has a very similar close up in her first story).

The alien fighting machines in the Tom Cruise version were very good, but the rest of the film was cobblers. Welding broken families and science fiction into a cohesive story used to be Spielberg's forte (Close Encounters, ET, Jurassic Part etc) but I think he got the balance wrong in this one; not enough aliens, far too much annoying Dad and family (it really didn't help that none of the characters were particularly likeable!) Back to last night and I'll save going into detail until I've seen the whole thing, but at this point I am struggling to see how they are going to fit the rest of the book into two hours, after spending a good deal of the first part setting up a relationship that isn't in the novel at all! Where they are at the moment feels like the end of the first part if the series were six episodes long, not three. I suspect this means that something is going to get cut/significantly shortened. The flash-forwards didn't work for me, either!

Well, that was painful...

None I can remember off the top of my head! I know I have seen some, however.

The first series of Sherlock was very good and - with the excerption of Hounds - series two was as well. After that, however, it got a little up it's own bottom and went down the pan. Series three was poor and the Christmas special they did after that was a joke. I cannot tell you about series four because I haven't watched it.

No, no typo! I'm talking about the Benedict Cumberbatch series Sherlock that was on a few years ago. Their take on HotB was... poor, to say the least. I watched the Brett version of it after writing the above and whilst I really like that series, I would have to say that their take on HotB was a pretty dry adaptation and very stilted in places. So, in summary, the best adaptation I think I have seen is the Rathbone one!

^ I still mean to have a go at it one day, maybe next year...

It is absolutely hosing down outside... Hope this clears before I have to go to work in the morning!

Starts this Sunday, 9pm on BBC1. ETA: Just listened to an interview with writer Peter Harness on Radio 4's Front Row (broadcast on Monday if anyone wants to catch up with this on BBC Sounds) where he confirmed this is not a faithful adaptation of the book, even though that is the way the BBC are pushing it. It sounds like he has used elements of the book along with some aspects of Wells own life to tell the story.

Have been intending to pick up the new Nightingale centred graphic novel Action at a Distance, but nowhere seems to have it (including Amazon who were listing a four to six week lead time yesterday!).

Started re-reading The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy, at the weekend. I first read this over 25 years ago now, and I remember enjoying it a lot (I really like the film version as well) but I'm finding the writing isn't as good as I remembered it to be (the Russians are coming across as being a bit hysterical at times, rather than passionate. as I suspect was the intention). It's also depressing reading for a couple of hours only for the page count to move on 5%!

I agree with @willoyd on the first two books; if you are going to start anywhere start with The Lord of the Rings. I found The Hobbit to be a little Tolkien-lite, as you might say, when I tried to read it directly after LotR, and I put it down, but I went back to it several years later and didn't find it so bad (indeed, the last half of the book is quite a good read, but you have to get through the Dwarf singing in the first half first!). I have a friend who has read The Silmarillion and he described it as trying to read the biblical book of Numbers! (from what I understand it's one for the fans - if you really enjoy the detail of Middle Earth - more than an enjoyable read in its own right). In my book news, I picked up a free* copy of Haruki Murakami's latest, Killing Commendatore at the weekend. *Points from my Waterstones card!

Some authors do have Patreon sites you can support them directly through.

The complete His Dark Materials is just £3.99 on Kindle today.

The Basil Rathbone one isn't bad; it was made in Hollywood in the 1930s and it changes some story points but it is largely faithful to the novel. There s a Jeremy Brett version, which is also on YouTube. I would recommend avoiding the Sherlock version, it was pretty awful!

100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts New TV program about books going out at 9pm this Saturday! (09/11/19). List here Looks like there will; be some talking points!

Stories of Your Life and Others, a collection of short stories by Ted Chang (which includes the story the film Arrival was based on) is 99p in the monthly deal at the moment. Annoying, as I only bought the paperback last month...

Most of my reading is done in my living room, the bath or the pub (with a bit most nights in bed before turning out the light). I used to read during breaks and when travelling on the bus to work and back each day, but I don't have the latter anymore and I now walk to work, so that has cut my reading time by over an hour a day from what I was doing 20 odd years ago.

Finished reading The Hound of the Baskervilles this evening, taking my total for the year to 18. It is the first Holmes story I have ever read, but I already knew it backwards because of all the different adaptations I have seen down the years (have just noticed the Basil Rathbone version is on YouTube, so I know what I'll be watching later!) Back to the book, though, and I quite enjoyed it, although the tension that was built nicely all through the book was somewhat wasted on the page and a half of actual hound action! I have an idea I have a collection of Holmes novels somewhere, I think I'll have to dig it out...