Karsa Orlong

Recent purchases: Killer of Men by Christian Cameron Tribune of Rome by Robert Fabbri Prophet of Bones by Ted Kosmatka The Whale Road by Robert Low Relentless by Jack Campbell The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart Alexander: God of War by Christian Cameron The King Must Die by Mary Renault The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

I'm roughly 130 pages into The King Must Die by Mary Renault.

The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory?

You're right! I just glanced at them and thought one would be about serpents and the other about basilisks, but that's not what the titles say at all

Yes, that's true. I'm still not sure why none of the other historical fiction I already had seemed to grab me, though You may like it You have a higher tolerance for bog-standard fantasy than I do There's about as much chance of that as there is of you reading any David Gemmell any time soon

Never mind, it's the thought that counts Just recently I've been having trouble settling on what I want to read, more than I have done in a long time. I started The Martian but dumped it for various reasons, one of which was that I really wanted to be reading A Natural History of Dragons. Then I thought I'd want to read some historical fiction, got distracted thinking I should get back to the 'Merrily Watkins' books, then decided on a halfway house in Naomi Novik's Temeraire (largely because I found out she's a big Patrick O'Brian fan and the book was marketed as 'Aubrey/Maturin with dragons' - which I suppose it is, but it's very basic and aimed at a younger audience), read 150 pages of that and started getting distracted by historical fiction again. Last night I decided to dump Temeraire, but I still couldn't decide what to read instead. I was torn between the next Cornwell, Penman's Lionheart, and Christian Cameron's Killer of Men (which I picked up for 99p in a Kindle Daily Deal a week or two back). So what did I do? Bought two new books instead : Cameron's Alexander: God of War (cos I've been wanting to read more about Alexander) and Mary Renault's The King Must Die. And then I couldn't decide between them, either! Too much choice, that's what it is

Yeah, I said similar in my reviews. It's like holding an old map. Actually, thinking about it, I kind of hope she'll keep their appearances quite sparse, as I think it'll increase their impact when they do appear. The series appears set to got to at least five books, so maybe she'll return to them in the later books Coward!

From the upcoming R40 blu-ray/dvd https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=362&v=kZmK4PKrJ60

Read the first three chapters of The King Must Die by Mary Renault this morning. I had started Temeraire by Naomi Novik yesterday, and read about 150 pages of it, but it was a bit too YA for me. This one, though, is hypnotic so far.

It's also available on Prime Instant Video, if you have Amazon Prime

Lucky! I don't think it'll be on over here until next year. ETA: I stand corrected - season 4 starts on 17th November

And you haven't seen season 2 - the best season so far

Renly Baratheon, the one Brienne was committed to Shame - it's one of those series that starts off slowly then gets really good. Season 2 was fab.

Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay 2012 - Orion ebook - 505 pages What would you do if you witnessed a murder - but no one believed you...? Another masterful suspense novel from the bestselling author of the Richard & Judy summer read winner, NO TIME FOR GOODBYE. This is the story of two brothers, Ray and Thomas Kilbride. Both in their mid-to-late thirties, Ray is a successful cartoonist working for various publications and websites, whilst Thomas lives with his father. He is schizophrenic and at an early age developed an obsession with maps. Now he spends all day in his bedroom, on his computer, using Whirl360 (think www.instantstreetview.com) to explore cities all over the world, committing them to memory, and believing this is work he is doing for the CIA because of an impending catastrophe that only he can help them avoid. Soon after their father is killed in a mysterious gardening accident (he must've been a drummer with Spinal Tap ), Thomas is exploring New York's streets when he pans up to look at a building. And there, caught in the camera lens, he witnesses a murder in progress. Of course, being Whirl360, they have no way of knowing how long ago the photo was taken, but - just to appease Thomas - Ray travels to NYC to see what he can find out. That's when the trouble really starts. This is the first Linwood Barclay novel I have read. I found his writing style instantly engaging and very readable. I was most impressed by the relationship between Ray and Thomas, which I found very believable. Ray's difficulties in dealing with his brother's mental illness are conveyed in a fraught first-person view, whilst other characters are represented in third person. I thought this might be jarring but it worked surprisingly well, jumping backward and forward in time to tell what each character is doing whilst other events are unfolding, then bringing them slickly together towards the end. There are a whole load of twists, several of which I did not see coming at all, and they are fairly evenly spread throughout the novel, accelerating in frequency towards the end. In fact, the only slight issue I had with the book is that the ending wasn't quite as tense and exciting as it possibly could have been and took some liberties with leaps in logic, with the twists coming thick and fast. The final twist actually felt like one too many, as if it was just thrown in for the hell of it rather than because it made any sense. The plot itself is far-fetched but well-realised, and it all fits together very well. I enjoyed it a lot and will definitely read some more of Barclay's work.

I sort of vaguely recognised the guy playing Manson, but had no clue from where. Never would've twigged him as the guy who played Renly in GoT Midwinter of the Spirit ep 2 - not bad. Ray Donovan season 3 finale - holy ****

That's not fair, that's three books

This is so true. I've read quite a few fantasy novels where dragons are made ordinary - there's no thrill or sense of wonder about them (Tom Lloyd and James Barclay, I'm looking at you ). I thought what Brennan did so well was make the dragons so varied, mysterious and frightening, and did it with a 'less is more' approach - kind of like Spielberg did with the shark in Jaws. I'm just a little sad that it looks like the other two books (so far) in the series aren't about dragons - but maybe that's a good thing? Yeah, it was all done without that mind-numbing sentimentality that could have ruined it. Blimey, high praise indeed So glad I recommended it to you

Interesting you should say that cos, when I read it, it was some time after I'd read and not particularly liked the First Law trilogy, so I'd managed to forget everything about it - but I still gave BSC 10 out of 10. It'll be interesting, one day, to go back and re-read them all in order and see if I enjoy it even more. Is it possible to enjoy a book I scored 10 more than I originally did?? ETA: How'd you manage to get through the whole review without mentioning the way the cover art is the map

^^ My favourite PT album

It's not out until 22nd October - I've had it on pre-order for a while. Thanks though!

It's decent I thought it was going to be more about Charles Manson when it started, but that side of it has become less interesting as it's gone on, I find. Maybe they'll focus more on that at the end of the season. It feels like it captures the era pretty well, though. Duchovny's performance keeps me watching it