Karsa Orlong

Nice, thanks poppy. Love Thick As A Brick and Aqualung, especially

Thanks Chrissy - do join in That's a bad cough you've got there, btw

I really wanted to pick something off my TBR list, but I couldn't make up my mind. I pulled The Algebraist, Shadow of the Scorpion, Childhood's End and Mockingbird off the shelf but none were grabbing me. After a while I realised why: all the talk in Tim's thread about science fiction series had got me in the mood for some space opera. I didn't want any of the authors I've already tried, either, so I ended up reading samples of Leviathan Wakes and Old Man's War. I went with Old Man's War in the end. http://www.amazon.co...38542379&sr=8-2

I think you're slowing down, pickle

Not yet, no. I read a sample of it last night, looks good. The second book is out next week, so I'll give it a go soon.

Thick As A Brick? Aqualung? Details please!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4txSldNFE8&feature=related

Here's another series for you, Tim: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leviathan-Wakes-Book-One-Expanse/dp/1841499897/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1338492243&sr=8-1

That's about the third one this year But then the other two books (Replay and Gates of Fire) were superb, too The question is, what do I follow it up with. I can't make up my mind.

Book # 37: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon Synopsis: Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a beautiful friendship. In short order, Sam's talent for pulp plotting meets Joe's faultless, academy-trained line, and a comic-book superhero is born. A sort of lantern-jawed equaliser clad in dark blue long underwear, the Escapist "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains". Before they know it, Kavalier and Clay (as Sam Klayman has come to be known) find themselves at the epicentre of comics' golden age. Thoughts: For a long while, as I was reading this book, I was thinking to myself "oh gawd, I'm going to have to revise all of my other scores downwards" I found the first two thirds of the novel spellbindingly, astonishingly brilliant. It's the sort of book that makes me look at my own attempts to write stories and think I might as well give up. It's written with such verve and style that it took a hold and wouldn't let go, and it's the sort of book where I found myself annoyed when I had to stop reading, and then thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. The main reason for all this is the characters. Starting with Josef Kavalier's tense escape from Nazi-occupied Europe (the culmination of his studies in magic and escapism, no less). Leaving his immediate family behind, he comes to reside with his aunt, Ethel Klayman, in New York, where he meets his cousin Sam. Sam is something of an artist, and has a job creating ads for a company that sells novelties. When Sam discovers that Joe has studied art, and sees the quality of his work, he begins to form the idea for a comic book, and his bosses - seeing the success of Superman - see the dollar signs. I couldn't really believe how thrilling this stage of the novel was. Chabon writes the creative process that the two, and a select group of friends, go through in a fashion that is more exciting than most action sequences in supposed thrillers. The tales that Joe and Sam create come vividly to life in your imagination, from the genesis stories of their characters - which are told quite superbly as stories within the story - to the descriptions of the cover art and the composition of the panels on the pages of the comic books. It really is some of the most confident and imaginative writing I've yet come across. It made me wish that I could actually read the adventures of The Escapist and Luna Moth for myself. Chabon keeps this going for a long time, and sustains the pace really well. I was swept along, and happy to believe that Sam and Joe would achieve such success so quickly. Perhaps this panache doesn't carry on quite through the final third, which is necessarily downbeat, but that is a really minor and probably unavoidable issue, I think. Naturally, proceedings gradually become darker and darker, as Joe watches events in Europe from across the ocean and fears for the lives of those he loves and left behind. The story subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) deals with bigotry, both religious and sexual, and even intellectual, from the treatment of the Jews to the deriding from some quarters of the comic books themselves. It covers two decades with a sweep that sometimes verges on epic but ultimately relies on the intimate. It made me really care about its wonderful characters, who leap off the page, and makes you root for them throughout. And it's full of period detail and atmosphere, and the amount of research that Chabon must have done into the so-called 'golden age' of comic books is astonishing. It's a book that, I think, works on practically every level. Most importantly, this was one of frankie's recommendations to me in our 'challenge'. So all I can say is thank you thank you thank you, frankie, for pointing me in the direction of this marvellous book. I think I can safely say it will go down as one of my all-time faves 10/10

I didn't know cats could clap.

It's an odd one. The original trilogy is Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. Dragonsong is the first book in the second trilogy, but it was written before The White Dragon.

Oh nice! Does that include Dragonquest and The White Dragon? I've got them on my TBR list (although I'm sure I've read TWD before).

I recently gave a friend a copy of Replay for his birthday. He finished it last night and said it's usurped LotR to become his favourite book. It prompted me to dig out my copy again, and I noticed that the author, Ken Grimwood, died aged 59, of a heart attack, whilst writing the sequel. I wonder if he's replaying his own life like Jeff Winston did in the book.

Oi, troublemaker I really don't think I am Maybe I've read more of the recent stuff, that's all, if anything

That isn't by Jack Vance I'm only messin' wit ya, VF!

It wasn't difficult Nah, this is what I really look like:

Thanks See, I'm even polite when insulted

Yeah, but I'm learning from others, so now I hold the door open, wait until they get halfway through it, then let it shut in their faces. That'll learn 'em I think I would be strangely impressed if that happened

Yeah, but I didn't say whether they were good or bad manners Whatever you do, don't watch the film, at least until after you've read the book. I almost hated the movie: it spends two hours on the first half of the novel and then rushes through the rest of it in ten minutes. Awful. Same goes for the tv mini series Schoolboy error on my part But can she run as fast me?

It's still an interesting question, because I wouldn't class those I have read as series in the usual sense. Some of them are sequences of books set in the same universe, some with the same character(s), some not. Others are interlinked trilogies and such. So not continuous stories, like GRRM. The recent ones I have read (all of, or part of): Peter F. Hamilton: Misspent Youth, Commonwealth Saga and Void Trilogy - all set in the same universe but at different points in time Dan Simmons: Hyperion Cantos Iain M. Banks: Culture novels, all set in the same universe Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space series, all set in the same universe Neal Asher: Polity novels, all set in the same universe with recurring characters Chris Wooding: Ketty Jay series Others I want to read: John Scalzi: Old Man's War series (really want to read this!) Richard Morgan: Takeshi Kovacs books Jack Campbell: Lost Fleet series Stephen Baxter: Xeelee Sequence Neal Stephenson: Baroque Cycle Considering: Kevin J Anderson: Saga of Seven Suns David Weber: Honor Harrington series Someone else might be able to recommend a series more similar to Ice & Fire

Interesting question! Does that mean you want a series of books that is showing no signs of completion, so you will be left hanging for years without knowing how it will end?? Or do you want a recent series that is actually complete?

I'll bring it with me next year. Then I can throw it at you. It's a hardback. A very big hardback If only Silly billy Here's a review of it from SFReviews.net, edited for spoilers: Full review, with spoilers, here: http://www.sfreviews...rbert_dune.html

Just think of all the re-reads! Get a display case made Kate Beckinsale told me that as well I wonder if she's that rude to all her stalkers <<ponders>> Nah, I think you're just being more open to bad cover art Why, what did he tell you about it?

Hi Gabbie, welcome Be careful of those Finns, especially the one called frankie!