Karsa Orlong

As if I'd've watched a film of that

I have no hair colour preference. I just wish I had some.

I've been naughty and bought some books. I had a £5 off voucher to use at Waterstone's, so I got the next two Patrick O'Brians (The Mauritius Command and Desolation Island) and, fancying something completely different, James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia. None of these were part of the plan, so won't get read for a while. I veered away from buying any sf or fantasy, as I may still buy one or more of the ones in the plan. I was originally going to Waterstone's for Lonesome Dove and Shogun, but they're both so huge I decided to wait and have a look at the Kindle editions instead. Has anyone else seen this latest scheme Waterstone's are running? They give you a card with ten boxes on it, and each time you spend more than £10 in store they stamp one of the boxes. When you have all ten boxes stamped they give you a £10 gift card. The offer runs till the end of June. What are the chances of anyone spending over £100 on books before then?

Voyager had my favourite opening title sequence of all the Treks (apart from the original), but that's about it. I'd watch it just for that

New novel The Abominable out this coming October Can. Not. Wait.

Same here! Fox never seemed to want it, messing with the running order and showing it opposite the World Series that year. It was never going to succeed. At least he got the chance to finish the story, though. We managed to get to an advance screening of Serenity - that was a fun night with the Browncoats

At last, an official publication date for Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves

Steven Erikson interview His "Not that I’m aware of" response to the "Are there particular fan sites or message boards that are best for reading analysis of your work?" question has caused some upset over on Malazan Empire

Woolf. Werewoolf. Ba-dum-tish! Never mind

Only when there's a full moon, surely?

I'm still waiting for something - anything - to happen I'm guessing he gets paid by the word - that's the only reason I can come up with for all the talk about jam and/or stew. Do these fantasy authors have any idea how long it takes to make a stew? Oh, we've just spent all day getting slaughtered by the enemy. Tell you what, let's make a stew

Okay, thanks poppy

Finished The Way of Kings. Oh wait, that was just Part One. Damn. Now on Part Two. Another 500 pages to go . . .

I'm guessing it's better than the Dragonlance books, then, poppy?

Yeah, it's decent (amazing, considering it's ITV!). I record it and watch it later in the week, so I don't have to sit through all the ad breaks.

I nearly started buying these a little while ago, but I held off because I didn't like their Dragonlance books very much. I've got a friend who loves them, though, so I may give them (the authors) another try at some point. I was very tempted by Hickman's 'Annals of Drakis' as well, when I saw them in Forbidden Planet, but have so far held off for the same reason. I'll cave in one day . . .

No wonder no-one on Warcraft knew what you were on about I didn't like SG:U at all - I got bored after eight episodes and gave up I liked both the others, though. Atlantis was my fave, I just preferred the characters in it, for the first three seasons at least, until they started messing around with it. I've still got about three seasons of SG-1 to watch, so I still haven't got to the seasons where Syfy tried to mollify us Farscape fans by bringing half the cast over No, I won't get over it

^^ Just finished reading through the 19 pages of posts Abercrombie's posts provoked on the SFF Chronicles forum. He and a few other authors contributed to the debate, which got quite heated at times. Fascinating to read.

What is this spok you speak of? As Raven said, you can't really lose whichever you choose, Athena. For argument's sake, though, I'd personally go with Firefly first (14 eps, a movie, and you're done - although you'll undoubtedly wish there were more), then Star Trek TOS (or the first two seasons, anyway), and then Game of Thrones as - by the time you've watched the other two shows - the third season will probably be available as well

Interesting post from Joe Abercrombie on his blog, about gritty - or 'grimdark' - fantasy. Given my preference for grittier fantasy, I agree with much of what he says, but I can understand why others would disagree. I think, with the quote below, he summed up my feelings pretty well, and his thoughts in the full post probably go a long way toward explaining why I struggle with more traditional takes on the genre these days. In my case, he's certainly right: it has reinvigorated my interest in the genre. The full post is here. Well worth a read

Shocking! Where's Scarlett Johansson when you need her? Oh, there she is

480 pages into The Way of Kings. This book is in danger of killing my mojo

Five hours till Wembley!

I like the murder/mystery books that weave in and around real historical events, so I've enjoyed Rory Clements, Phil Rickman and C. J. Sansom the most. Just started on S. J. Parris's series as well

I enjoyed Pandora's Star but I found the sequel, Judas Unchained, was a real let down and it put me off reading his Void Trilogy. The Night's Dawn trilogy is his best, imo, and his Greg Mandel books are worth checking out, too Currently 410 pages into The Way of Kings.