Karsa Orlong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyu_iZE8A2Y Hmm, Christian Bale as Fiddler . . . could work . . .

This one wasn't weird, it was poo

Nazis at the Centre of the Earth. Quality.

The Forever War is fantastic. I haven't bothered with the sequels, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-TDvjtI54

Ooh, jolly good

I should've gone and looked at your wishlist

It is a great book - I reviewed it here if you're interested, and I know Janet's read it, but The War of the Worlds is fantastic, if you haven't read it already

Hi Bree, don't worry, there are five novels in the one volume, and the other three I've read so far have all been fantastic I am a bit annoyed with myself, though, as I somehow managed to get a fingerprint on the cover this weekend. I must have picked the book up after reading the newspaper and had ink on my finger and, with the book having a cloth cover, I'm not sure it will ever come off

Of the ones I've read, I'd definitely recommend going for The Time Machine or The Island of Doctor Moreau over this one, Janet

Plan update: Marathon Man - William Goldman - finished 03/02/13 The Kingdom of Bones – Stephen Gallagher 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) Heresy – S J Parris (first in Gordiano Bruno series) Post Captain – Patrick O’Brian (next in Aubrey/Maturin series) 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) - started 11/02/13

Book #10: The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells From Amazon: When penniless businessman Mr Bedford retreats to the Kent coast to write a play, he meets by chance the brilliant Dr Cavor, an absent-minded scientist on the brink of developing a material that blocks gravity. Cavor soon succeeds in his experiments, only to tell a stunned Bedford the invention makes possible one of the oldest dreams of humanity: a journey to the moon. With Bedford motivated by money, and Cavor by the desire for knowledge, the two embark on the expedition. But neither are prepared for what they find - a world of freezing nights, boiling days and sinister alien life, on which they may be trapped forever. Thoughts: This is the fourth of Wells's novels that I have read. I've loved the previous three without reservation, but this one not so much. For a start, it is the first of those that I have read where we have actually achieved the landmark to which it relates, i.e. landing a man on the moon. As far as I'm aware, no-one has invented a time machine, and I'm pretty sure we haven't been invaded by Martians (unless you count Dale Winton and Joan Rivers, cos I'm pretty sure they're both aliens wearing rubber masks). The First Men in the Moon suffers immediately from over a century's worth of further knowledge. I can still appreciate the imagination that has gone into it, but I found it harder to suspend my disbelief when I was told of atmosphere and life in the craters up there. That wasn't the main problem, though. I could deal with that. The opening of the book is good, quirky fun, as we're introduced to the eccentric Cavor and his experiments. The narrator, Bedford, describes this man and their initial encounters with a lot of wit and pace. It's once they get to the moon that my problems really began. For the first time, I found Wells's plotting rather directionless and padded. There is a lot of jumping around, a lot of description of strange plant life, but it all felt rather aimless to me. Then it lurches rather alarmingly into Jules Verne territory, becoming something of a re-run of A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, or at least it felt like it to me. Wells even name-checked Verne earlier in the story, referring to From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon. I'm not saying that he deliberately copied Verne but the running through tunnels felt distinctly similar to me. But the biggest problem for me was Bedford himself. In the previous books, The Time Traveller, Edward Prendick, and the nameless narrator of The War of the Worlds have all been extremely likeable, sympathetic protagonists. Bedford is anything but. He is driven by selfishness and greed. He is bankrupt, and invites himself along on Cavor's escapades purely with £ signs in his eyes. Worst of all . . . So, for me, this is nowhere near Wells at his best and, even though the final chapters redeem it somewhat, I found it all a bit laborious. It's also the longest of his novels that I've read, and yet it has the least actual story. Quaint. That's the word that springs immediately to mind. Of course, it's a story borne of its time, and it still manages to pack in social commentary but, boy, it's not half as much fun as what had gone before. 5/10

Headhunters - good fun And for the umpteenth time, The Birds.

Yeah, I always look for recommendations on there. It's the first one that I haven't really enjoyed. I haven't as yet, but it's a definite at some point soon.

Strange, cos they seem quite popular books. A lot of people over on the Malazan Empire forums rave about them.

I tried to read that last year, emphasis on 'tried'. I would offer to send it to you, but I gave it to the local hospice with a load of other books just before Christmas. Hope you like it more than I did. One thing to note - the sequel is expensive to get hold of, which was another thing that put me off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU9NZUyiEbI

Plan update: Marathon Man - William Goldman - finished 03/02/13 The Kingdom of Bones – Stephen Gallagher The Mozart Conspiracy – Scott Mariani (next in Ben Hope series) The First Men In the Moon – H G Wells - started 08/02/13 The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan (next in Wheel of Time series) Heresy – S J Parris (first in Gordiano Bruno series) Post Captain – Patrick O’Brian (next in Aubrey/Maturin series) 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)

Ditto!

Book #9: The Heresy of Dr Dee by Phil Rickman From Amazon: All talk is of the End-time... and the dead are rising. At the end of the sunless summer of 1560, black rumour shrouds the death of the one woman who stands between Lord Robert Dudley and marriage to the young Queen Elizabeth. Did Dudley's wife, Amy, die from an accidental fall in a deserted house, or was it murder? Even Dr John Dee, astrologer royal, adviser on the Hidden and one of Dudley's oldest friends, is uncertain. Then a rash promise to the Queen sends him to his family's old home on the Welsh Border in pursuit of the Wigmore Shewstone, a crystal credited with supernatural properties. With Dee goes Robert Dudley, considered the most hated man in England. They travel with a London judge sent to try a sinister Welsh brigand with a legacy dating back to the Battle of Brynglas. After the battle, many of the English bodies were, according to legend, obscenely mutilated. Now, on the same haunted hill, another dead man has been found, similarly slashed. Devious politics, small-town corruption, twisted religion and a brooding superstition leave John Dee isolated in the land of his father. Thoughts: The Bones of Avalon, the first book in this series and the first of any by Phil Rickman that I had read, was a cracking historical mystery with more than a hint of the supernatural about it, as Queen Elizabeth's astrologer and adviser on the occult, Dr John Dee, travelled to Glastonbury to try and locate the bones of King Arthur. That book, in turn, led me to Rickman's 'Merrily Watkins' series, similarly creepy mysteries only set in the present day. I think the blurb above says more than enough about the plot of this book without me going into any further detail. It seemed, to me, to be an appropriate time to read it, having just read another book (Traitor) in which Dee featured heavily. What I have really enjoyed about Rickman's two Dee books is the way in which true events are woven so seamlessly into his stories. Just take Robert Dudley, in this case. Queen Elizabeth's supposed one true love but married to Amy Robsart, who had to remain away from court because of the Queen's dislike for her, and went a year without seeing her husband, she died from a fall down a short flight of stairs, leaving her husband free to marry Elizabeth. But was it an accident, or did he arrange her murder? The subsequent scandal is entwined brilliantly with this story, as is the history of the Battle of Brynglas, and the alleged rising of the dead from grounds around that hill, a mystery brought about by the presence of a young woman and her handicapped brother who can divine where the bones are buried. As with all of his books that I've read so far, Rickman seems to have an innate ability to create an atmosphere of forboding in his tales. Whilst they are rarely scary, they never fail to be creepy, and he ties together very well all the various plot threads as the story reaches its climax. Rickman's style is sometimes deliberately obtuse, meaning that you have to read carefully at times to pick up on everything he is trying to convey. I don't think this is bad writing, it's a stylistic choice, and his language is chosen carefully to pass on a sense of the period and the way people spoke then. Many of his stories focus on ignorance and intolerance towards others' beliefs, and this is no different. It's a cracking read. 8/10

It's been on there for while, at least since I read the first book. I think I mentioned it in the Bitter Seeds post in last year's log

What a surprise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSiv7U6k6vs

I didn't forget, I'll get to it soon enough True! Adding more books to the TBR pile wasn't part of the original plan, though (apart from the two I'd included in the plan itself). So now, rather than getting seven books off the TBR list and buying two, I'm buying four, so only a reduction to the TBR list of three books overall . . .