Karsa Orlong

It is coming out in the UK on 25th October, Michelle http://www.amazon.co...&pf_rd_i=468294

Marvellous So this is all your fault, poppy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufvvcXXPUFU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYeUK0GvgI0&feature=related

The US series was cancelled, although there are rumours that another network might pick it up. It was pretty poor, though - not a patch on the original

Pleased to see that season 2 of The Bridge is going into production this month, too

Excellent, thanks for the date

I should probably whisper this: I'm not that keen on Neil Gaiman. There, I've said it I've seen the movie though

I kind of struggled with It. I thought the first two thirds of it was brilliant, but the final third was waaaaaaay too long. It is about 25 years since I read it, though, so I may give it another go at some point.

Pendles doesn't do chilled out We were taking bets on how long it would be before she cried. I said it would be before the opening credits

Book #67: Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher Blurb: Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac, is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn't remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance. Thoughts: I've come to the conclusion that Neal Asher doesn't write bad books, but he may write slightly lesser ones, such as this. Shadow of the Scorpion is a straightforward action/adventure story with an underlying mystery. It's the sixth of his books that I have read to date and, whilst it possibly doesn't rise to the challenge of equalling his brilliant 'Spatterjay' trilogy or the standalone blitzkrieg that is Prador Moon, it does manage to be taut and intriguing, and it doesn't overstay its welcome - far from it, in fact - I thought the ending felt a little abrupt, like there could and maybe should have been more. But maybe that leads into the first Cormac novel proper, Gridlinked, which I am currently resisting the urge to purchase immediately (along with everything else he's written that I don't already own . . . ). Starting with the central character, Ian Cormac, as a young boy, Asher immediately introduces us to the mystery that is central to the story - that of a giant metallic scorpion - a war drone - that keeps turning up at various stages of Cormac's formative years. The story then jumps ahead to the aftermath of the Polity/Prador war when Cormac has joined Earth Central Security. Working as part of a trainee unit he is involved in an operation to guard a downed Prador warship. However, it has crashed on a world inhabited by Polity separatists and, on Cormac's watch, they gain access to the Prador vessel and attempt to steal various weapons from within. Cormac and his fellow soldier, Carl, or ordered to disable the separatists and keep them alive for interrogation but, when Karl decides to gun them down in cold blood instead, Cormac finds himself dragged into a quest for revenge. Cormac has been the subject of another Asher series, the 'Agent Cormac' books, of which I have read absolutely none. But, seeing as this seems to act as a prequel to that series (despite being written afterwards), I figured it was as good a place as any to start. I seem to be reading the books completely out of sequence, having started with The Skinner, but this is how it fits in with the Polity timeline: How much the information in this book will spoil any reveals in the main Cormac sequence remains to be seen, but I thought this one worked quite well, even though it did call upon my knowledge of his Polity universe gained through the other books mentioned above. As such, it's maybe not a good place to start for anyone new to Asher's work. 8/10

Not before he's seen this one, surely?

Good stuff, Tim I remember reading that book (must be 30 years ago now), sitting on the tube and getting absolutely terrified when the kid was stuck in the room with the . . . oh, you know the bit I mean

Someone please tell Brassy Dussell to stop saying 'yeah' at the end of every sentence!

Hang on, Total Recall was an 18 certificate wasn't it? And your dad let you watch it when you were six? Crikey

This is what the squirrels do when you're not there

The Awakening. Meh.

You weren't recording it and making money off it, though . . . were you??

Fixed that for you

Blimey, how long has that taken? I think the highest mine's ever got before I used it was 95p I don't think the bog could handle it

I'll let you off - just this once I grew up listening to Simon & Garfunkel, cos my mum was always playing their records. They're the only music we ever agreed upon The Boxer has always been my favourite, too, so anyone else attempting to sing it goes straight to the top of my 'want to kill' list

I'm a Simon & Garfunkel snob