Karsa Orlong

I'm shocked

Without spoiling, that's always the danger with that kind of plot. Fortunately I've only read it the once, and am unlikely to ever re-read it, so it's still my fave

Giant spiders. That's all I'm saying.

Agreed! PoA is far and away my favourite

No, they're sentient creatures.

Because they are living ships (quite a common sf concept, actually). I don't want to say more than that because it would spoil the story and the fun of discovering it for yourself. Read on and find out, basically. If you really want spoilers, though, you can look here

Yeah, me too. I noticed the other day that they've re-issued the trilogy with new artwork on the cover. Mwah!

Thanks! It's gone much better than I thought it would. Be interesting to see what happens with the next one

Didn't read much yesterday, but made a start on Heresy by S. J. Parris. Got about 50 pages into it

Plan update: Marathon Man - William Goldman - finished 03/02/13 The Kingdom of Bones – Stephen Gallagher - finished 24/02/13 The Mozart Conspiracy – Scott Mariani (next in Ben Hope series) The First Men In the Moon – H G Wells - finished 10/02/13 The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan (next in Wheel of Time series) - finished 21/02/13 Heresy – S J Parris (first in Giordano Bruno series) - started 02/03/13 Post Captain – Patrick O’Brian (next in Aubrey/Maturin series) - finished 01/03/13 The Heresy of Dr Dee – Phil Rickman (next in Dr Dee series) - finished 07/02/13 Dead Beat – Jim Butcher (next in Dresden Files series) The Coldest War - Ian Tregillis (Milkweed Tryptich Book 2) - finished 14/02/13 Currently considering swapping out Dead Beat, as I haven't bought it yet, for something on the TBR pile <<ponders>>

Battleship. Well I've seen worse films based on games. That's not saying much, though. The Darkest Hour. Mildly diverting alien invasion tale set in Moscow. Rubbish acting but it took great pleasure in killing most of the characters

After finished this one I can well believe that - I would really love to jump straight into HMS Surprise

Hehe, I haven't yet, no. When I decided I wanted to read something with a nautical flavour it was a toss up between Hornblower and Aubrey, and I went with the latter. I hope I'll get to them one day!

Book #14: Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian From Amazon: Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Patrick O’Brian is regarded by many as the greatest historical novelist now writing. Post Captain, the second novel in his remarkable Aubrey/Maturin series, led Mary Renault to write: ‘Master and Commander raised dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them.’ This tale begins with Jack Aubrey arriving home from his exploits in the Mediterranean to find England at peace following the Treaty of Amiens. He and his friend Stephen Maturin, surgeon and secret agent, begin to live the lives of country gentlemen, hunting, entertaining and enjoying more amorous adventures. Their comfortable existence, however, when Napoleon breaks the peace treaty. Aubrey’s adventures on land will grip the reader as fast as his unequalled actions at sea. Thoughts: A few months back I read the first book in this series, Master & Commander (review here), and had quite a tough time with parts of it, due to the nautical terms etc. But there was enough in that book to make me want to read the next one. The story begins a while later, as peace is declared, and Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England. Setting themselves up as country gents they come under the attentions of an ambitious mother, Mrs Williams, who has her heart set on marrying her daughters well. These particular adventures form an ongoing strand throughout the novel, but are most prevalent in the opening hundred pages and, as such, it's quite a slow - if mildly amusing - beginning. But then various spoilery things happen and the story really gets going. All of my problems with the first book seem to have been swept away here. Whether this is because the prior novel was a scene-setting exercise, or whether O'Brian had got all that out of his system, or - more likely, I suspect - his writing skills were growing immensely, I don't know. I found that there is a hypnotic rhythm to his writing in Post Captain and, once I realised that and settled into it, I was swept along by it. It's a novel that is bursting with character, action, adventure, and laugh-out-loud humour (I found an episode with bees particularly amusing ). Aubrey and Maturin fall in love (not with each other), fall out spectacularly (with each other), and basically continue to develop the friendship begun in the first book, and what we soon find is that Aubrey is very much at home on the sea whilst being completely at sea when he's at home, which leads to much awkwardness, amusement, and danger. There are a number of main plot threads woven amongst the thrilling naval battles, from the love interests to Aubrey's less than glowing finances to Maturin's other job as a spy. What almost passed me by as I was reading is the way O'Brian handled historical information: rather than info dumps, talking heads, or masses of exposition, he somehow sneaks it into the narrative in a way that you almost absorb it by osmosis. It's not apparent at all as you read, and yet it's there. The book is almost episodic in nature, moving from one tale to another before you can blink, and it is set as much on land as it is at sea. Once it hits its stride it is almost impossible to put down. Hugely enjoyable and exciting, it's a cracking read. It would have got a 9 but for the slow start. I can't wait to read HMS Surprise. But it's not in The Plan, so I'll have to 8/10

Just in case you don't know, If At First is actually a short story (about 11 pages in the paperback) that is included in his Manhattan in Reverse collection, so I hope you got it as a freebie Re the Kindle, I don't know how it works on the Paper White, but on my keyboard one you highlight the book in your collection, press right on the directional pad and then click on 'Book description' and it goes off and finds the Amazon page for it, so yeah, you'd need wifi ETA: Don't know if this applies to the version you have, Athena, but people on goodreads are saying the ebook is the short story, If At First, plus a promotional extract from one of his novels, which takes up about 75% of the file.

When Austin Powers lost his mojo it meant the latter

I read Tau Zero a few years back. It wasn't my cup of tea, so I hope you enjoy it more!

Any good? I've managed to miss both of them, so far

Best listened to late night in a dark room, headphones on, and the volume cranked up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adVD2H95ZGM

Hyperion is one of my favourite books, Ian. I hope you enjoy it

New Amplifier song

Weird yet somehow addictive . . .