Karsa Orlong

David Gemmell's final book was completed by his wife and published almost to schedule, and Robert Jordan told Brandon Sanderson the details of his plan (even if Sanderson is milking it). Martin has so far refused to tell anyone, apparently. The final book will probably say 'Based on the tv series' on the cover

Or because they stole them . . .

I turned it off when Murray was 5-1 down in the second set. When I turned it back on he was serving for the third set and I thought 'oh, he's going to get one set back', then I looked at the score and had to doublecheck it

Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' books. Not a female POV but, if you're flexible, you'll find werewolves, vampires, zombies, ghosts, and loads more ongoing plots. Plus there are a lot of books to get through: Dresden Files books

It's one thing taking his time and getting them right, but he's taken 10 years to write the last two books and they were most definitely not right, imo.

I think it just wasn't for me, Julie - a lot of other people seem to like it a lot. There wasn't much in the way of cowboy life in the book, really, so that's probably how he got away with it Yes, Lonesome Dove is definitely at the top of the list, when I get my TBR pile down a bit!

Book #62: Rivers of London by Ben Aaranovitch Blurb: My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and my world has become somewhat more complicated: the spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying. Thoughts: Constable Peter Grant is standing guard over a headless corpse found in Covent Garden, when he is approached by someone who witnessed the whole crime. The problem is, that witness is a ghost. This leads Peter, naturally, to discover a whole new world lurking in the corners and shadows of London. It's not a complex plot but it moves at such a cracking pace that, I think, to say anything more about it would be wrong. Peter's a very likeable character, with a winning line in self-deprecating humour, and the people who gravitate towards him, particularly Nightingale, Beverley and Lesley are also very likeable (although my favourite was Molly, and she barely says a word!). There's a quote on the front of the book that says something like "What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the police". That's the weakest thing about the book, imo - that quote, it's shameless, hoping the Harry Potter fans will jump onboard. If it is a grown up Harry Potter, then he's an occasionally foul-mouthed one, too. It reminded me a whole lot more of Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' series in so many ways, just that it's set in London, not Chicago. That's not to say that Butcher's work is original, either, but it's got a very similar feel to it, without even mentioning the supernatural elements. You can tell that Aaranovitch lives and works in London because the geography of the city comes across really well and if, like me, you spend a lot of time here, you'll be able to see the locations quite clearly as he strings them together through various chase scenes etc (there's one particular bit that went right past my office ). In fact, a couple of times I thought maybe he over-egged it with the street names and such, but that is a really minor point. His writing style is fluid, fast-moving and very easy to read. Rivers of London is, I think (given the way the Dresden books I've read so far have developed the mythos), a great start to a series that has a huge amount of potential. Looking forward to reading Moon Over Soho. 8/10

You probably already know this but, just in case - the boxed set you have isn't the complete series, because he hasn't finished writing them yet. I reckon it'll be another 10 years before he completes it, the speed he's going at.

This explains why there are so many Swedish crime writers around these days . . .

Agree with all of this, it's been a bit amateurish (but, when compared to the BBC's marvelous coverage of the Olympics, I think that was always going to be the case). It seems every time I switch over it's talking heads sitting around a table in a garishly coloured studio. I've seen very little of the actual events on C4 - I've resorted to watching channels 450, 451, 452 on Sky. The commentary is pretty terrible, but it's better than listening to that lot in the studio - plus, no ad breaks!

220 pages into Rivers of London. Enjoying it

The parade in London next Monday is going to pass right outside our office on Fleet Street - should have a great view from my window

Funnily enough it was a toss-up between buying that one or Childhood's End. I'll get to it eventually I think it's just personal taste, really. The book covers a long period of time, so there are quite a few info dumps in it, necessarily. The only alternative, I guess, would be for it to have been a much longer book, but I actually appreciated its brevity

Oh, I thought it was the other way around

The cheek!

Book #61: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke Blurb: The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city--intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began. But at what cost? Thoughts: I can't think what to say about this book without spoiling it in one way or another. Even the various blurbs I looked at gave something or other away. In fact, the one on Amazon, for the edition of the book that I have, gave the whole plot away, including the ending! Worse than this - and in what seems to be a disturbing trend for some SF Masterworks editions - the newly written foreword also contains a multitude of spoilers. Fortunately, I didn't read either it or the blurb before reading the novel itself . . . Anyway, in a 1950s sf movie stylee, spaceships appear in the skies above many cities around the world (anyone thinking 'Independence Day', leave now) and bring to an abrupt halt man's quest to set foot on Mars. The Overlords have arrived, and they set about bringing peace and prosperity to Earth. But why are the doing this? This is one of the major questions the book poses, and it's one that is gradually answered over its course, and would ruin the novel to discuss in any detail at all. Another is: what do the Overlords look like? Again, this is another mystery that would be incredibly spoilery to discuss. Crikey, this is difficult What can I say? Well, I haven't read a lot of Clarke. For me, he's an ideas writer - and his ideas are incredible (bear in mind, this was written before we'd even put a satellite into orbit) - but I tend to find his characters a little sterile, for want of a better word. The best character in this book, for me, is Stormgren, an ageing diplomat who is chosen as the Overlords' mouthpiece on Earth. He, at least, has something of a sense of humour, and gets into some interesting situations, and Clarke did a good job of getting me inside his head. But the other characters, perhaps with the exception of Jan, didn't really grab me. I think this is because the novel covers a span of over a century in its relatively brief 230-odd pages, so there really isn't time for Clarke to do characterisation at the same time as conveying all his ideas. There's a lot of tell in this book, but not an awful lot of show. This doesn't mean I think it's a bad book - I enjoyed it a lot - but I would have engaged with it more fully had there been more characters like Stormgren. Thankfully, having not read the disastrous blurb - I had no idea why the Overlords were here, or what was going to happen, so the story's progression was fresh and full of suprises, right until the end. I could be wrong, but believe that Clarke himself was childless. If so, his observations herein take on a whole new level of meaning, for which I can only applaud him. 8/10

Finished Childhood's End and started Rivers of London. Right near the start of it there's mention of Waterstones, but it's written as 'Waterstone's' Kylie won't be happy!

Just about to sit down and finish Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End

I'm Serenity on there They sure know their stuff - some of the things they pick apart within the novels is amazing. After trying to remember all the characters I liked, I started thinking about the different races, and as soon as I got to the T'Lan Imass I remembered Tool (and his sister, Kilava) and Onrack the Broken . . . *sigh* Really want to do another re-read

This one seems to be spoiler free - certainly a good place to comment/ask questions, I would have thought Shame about the spoilers you found elsewhere, though - I hope it doesn't ruin things for you

Oh yes, all of those are great characters. Rake is pure awesomeness. I've got too many favourites to mention, really. Kalam is pretty special. And Quick Ben, Karsa, Trull, Mappo, Icarium etc etc. Of the female characters, Apsalar is a stand-out for me, and Korlat, Scillara, Shurq, Lostara, Hellian, Hettan. Too many! Do you go on the Malazan Empire forums at all?

Ooh, telepathy! Nice to see the fabled locker 42

Adding: The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells