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Karsa Orlong

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Posts posted by Karsa Orlong

    Strictly Come Dancing

    in Music / TV / Films

    Posted

    Don't blame me!!! Although I can't say I blame you either … Flackers and Pasha, something for everyone. :yes: Glad to hear you use the site though :smile2:

     

    It's a great site :smile:   And you're totally to blame. When my boss demands to know what I've been doing I say 'It's all Claire's fault!' :giggle2:

    Strictly Come Dancing

    in Music / TV / Films

    Posted

     

    Haha :D .. no harm done. I'm expecting a Jurassic Park theme one day. Some poor female celeb, dressed as Dr. Ellie Sattler .. with a severed arm taped to her shoulder .. being chased around by Brendan in a T.Rex outfit. 

    Actually, please make that happen :D  

     

    I would pay to see that :lol:

    Strictly Come Dancing

    in Music / TV / Films

    Posted

    Shame, I would've liked to see Joanne competing again.  Re Ogogo, I never quite understood the point of him taking part when he couldn't move his arm :shrug:

     

    Anyway, thanks to Claire's site I spent most of this afternoon watching Flackers' dances again.  I was supposed to be working but, you know, Flackers! :wub:  :D

    Strictly Come Dancing

    in Music / TV / Films

    Posted

    I have a question maybe Claire can answer - how come Kevin's sister isn't competing this year?  I noticed her around and about when Claudia's been doing her post-dance interviews a couple of times.  Seems odd that she's been there but not really involved :unsure:

    Strictly Come Dancing

    in Music / TV / Films

    Posted

    You two are aware that NaNoWriMo is next month, eh?  :giggle2:  :D

     

     

     

    Kellie and Kevin were very good but it was all a bit manic for me. 

     

    That dance has forever ruined Star Wars for me  :(   Oh, wait - George Lucas had already ruined it :banghead:   Carry on  :D

    Steve's Bookshelf 2015

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    The King Must Die by Mary Renault

     

    post-6588-0-23881400-1444488620_thumb.jpg

     

     

    1958 - Virago ebook - 342 pages

     

    Theseus, the boy-king of Eleuisis, is ritually preordained to die after one year of marriage to the sacred Queen, but he defies the Gods' decree and claims his inheritance - the throne of Athens. His friends are the young men and maidens, slaves of the Gods, chosen for death in the Bull Dance. His fabled enemy is the monstrous, half-man, half-bull, Minotaur, devourer of sacrificial human flesh. In her classic re-creation of a myth so powerful that its impact has survived down the centuries, Mary Renault has brought to life the world of ancient Greece. For here is the true Atlantis legend, with its culmination in the terrible, fateful destruction of the great Labyrinth, the palace of the house of Minos.

     

     

    I'm trying desperately to summon up some enthusiasm to write about this book.  I've wanted to read it for ages, but Renault's historical novels had been out of print for a while in the UK.  Late last year they started to be re-issued, beginning with Fire from Heaven, the first of her trilogy about Alexander the Great.  That was the one I really wanted to read but, having also recently bought another book about Alexander, I decided to go for this one instead.

     

    This is the sort of historical fiction that takes a well-known myth or legend and turns it into something more believable, that could actually have happened.  I've read other historical fiction in this mould and loved it: Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy and Gemmell's Troy trilogy, to name my favourites.  So I was really excited about reading Renault's take on Theseus, Ariadne, the minotaur, etc etc.  All the elements are there for a truly brilliant story and, judging by all the comments and reviews I've seen, for the majority of people it's a complete success.

     

    For the first third of the book I thought it was brilliant.  I thought I was going to love it.  Young Theseus, growing up in Troezen believing he's the son of Poseidon, proves to be a likeable character in the early stages.  His relationship with the King of the horses drew me into his world completely it's so beautifully written.  And then, of course, when he turns 16 his mother, Aethra leads him to the stone under which his true father has left a sword and a pair of sandals.  If Theseus is strong enough to move the rock then Aethra is to tell him of his father's real identity.  Renault's Theseus is a small, wiry boy, and he doesn't have the strength to move the rock.  But he is quick and clever and he soon enough works it out, and so begins his journey to find his father, and everything after that is the stuff of legend.

     

    So far, so brilliant.  But I started to get bogged down around the halfway point.  My problem is that I found it all very dry and it takes itself incredibly seriously.  It's a tad on the pompous side.  I understand that Renault has done a great job of putting the reader completely in those times in terms of setting and attitudes and dialogue, but I can't believe these people were without a sense of humour or a witty turn of phrase.  As Theseus heads towards Athens and his future as a bull dancer I started to find him, well, a little tedious.  The book is written in the first person, and I found it a tough slog through the inner workings of his mind.  By the time I was 80 - 90% of the way through the book I was losing the will to live, struggling to keep my eyes open, and at several points was on the verge of giving up.  I really wasn't taking much of it in towards the end.  I'd stopped caring.

     

    I so wanted to love this book, and I'm really sad that I found it ultimately so disappointing.  The worst part is, it's put me off reading any of her other historical fiction in the foreseeable future.

     

    Oh, and for the record, this being an attempt to create a more believable version of the legend, there are no mythical creatures - so don't expect and actual minotaur to turn up in a labyrinth, cos you'll be sorely disappointed.

     

    Laura's Fantasy Corner 2015

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    I've just seen a couple of very nice sketches when flicking through book 3. :D

     

    I'll see them in Kindle version, no doubt.  I just can't bring myself to buy the paperbacks at the mo :shrug:

     

     

     

    New books!! :wub:

     

     

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    I have my eye on The Traitor (Baru Cormorant).  I've read some great reviews of it :smile:

    Steve's Bookshelf 2015

    in Past Book Logs

    Posted

    I may have bought all of Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet/Beyond the Frontier/Lost Stars books - barring the two I already had - for 99p each in the Kindle Autumn Sale.  That was 12 books for the total of £11.88 :thud:

     

    Hard to pass that sort of offer by, even if I end up not liking them :giggle2:

     

    May also have got the second book in Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga, The Hollow Hills, also for 99p :hide:

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