Karsa Orlong

The Pineapple Thief - Remember Us

Despicable Me. Loved it. It's so FLUFFY!!!

Okay, so I finished Orbus and it was great - quite tightly focused with a smaller cast of characters than Sable Keech. It was written in the present tense, which seemed to make the action more visceral than ever. A good ending to the series, I thought. Orbus - great conclusion to the Spatterjay series - 9/10 Then I read Zoo Station by David Downing. This was about a freelance journalist living in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War, and how he gets drawn into a situation where he is helping both the Russian and English secret services to smuggle information out of Germany, and also how he innocently gets involved in teaching a Jewish family to speak English and ... well, you can imagine what happens. I thought it was a well written book, and it certainly kept me turning the pages, but it wasn't quite as tense as I expected it to be. For sure, there is tension, and it is ever present throughout the book, but it never seemed to ratchet up in the way I thought it might. I thought that the ending would have me genuinely fearful for the characters, but it didn't happen. Zoo Station - worth a read - 7/10 Next up was Fallen Idols by Neil White. I knew this would be pulp, and it didn't disappoint. Premiership footballers are being shot dead by someone using a high power rifle. A freelance journalist (again!) - who just happens to have a thing for the female detective investigating the case - works out an exclusive angle for a feature which leads him back to his home town and into its murky past. There's a character in this book called David Watts. Every time he was mentioned I started singing The Jam's cover version of that song. Fortunately, I was singing it in my head, otherwise wildlife for miles around would now be fleeing the country. Anyway, the book's a page-turner for sure, and it's not badly written, but the plot is so far-fetched it made me laugh more than it had me on the edge of my seat. Still, it was only £1.99 on Kindle when I bought it, so it was worth the price. Fallen Idols - wish I could be like David Watts (not in this case!) - 6/10 Finally, All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman was my first Kindle purchase via the all-new (and rather excellent) SF Gateway. This is a book about a trained killer, and how he deals with the emotional turmoil caused by those actions. Like The Forever War, it's Haldeman drawing on his own experiences in Vietnam. AMSR is basically three short stories pulled together by a common character and an overlying framework where he is briefed and debriefed. Within the short stories there are some good and fascinating ideas but, as a whole, it doesn't quite hold together. I think this is mainly down to the main character, Otto, being under cover in each story, and therefore being an almost completely different person each time. It makes it hard to identify with him, which is a shame. A great idea, just a bit lacking in the execution. If you fancy trying some Haldeman then The Forever War is definitely the place to start. All My Sins Remembered - great idea that doesn't quite come off - 7/10

Nice! I guess the copy I bought my mum for her birthday for £7.99 kind of pales into insignificance in comparison

I recorded that but I'm scared to watch it because the original was sooo good.

Epica - Sancta Terra

Ditto. Going to try and clear some of my backlog before buying any more, though (let's see how long that idea lasts ). Started The Fall of Hyperion this morning. I've also got Grass by Sheri S tepper sitting on the shelf - it's been there for ages, so I really should read it I suppose

It was pretty decent. Not a patch on The Forever War, though. It was more like a set of short stories linked together by a common character, and like TFW it seemed to very much be to do with Haldeman's experiences in the Vietnam War, and how a trained killer deals with what he/she has done.

Not a lot, but last night I saw an ex-colleague of mine win £20k on The Chase

The worst thing is, you know it WILL happen

Finished Fallen Idols by Neil White (thriller about the murders of Premiership footballers - some might say they've been getting away with murder for years ). 'Twas okay in an 'easy-to-read-but-not-particularly-brilliant' kind of way. Now reading All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman.

Yeah, it'd be nice if Sky, with all their sports channels, could find a bit of room to show more live games. I guess it must get very low viewing figures or something, which might explain why ESPN America didn't fight a bit harder to get the NHL rights

Probably a bad time to start watching the NHL in the UK, bearing in mind my post, above. If you're in Yorkshire, you might be better off going to live matches in the UK Elite League: http://www.eliteleague.co.uk/ If we had a London team I'd be going - I used to go when we had the London Knights, but they folded a few years ago

William Shatner does Bohemian Rhapsody ... :lol:

You might enjoy this then! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hmek5FadSU&feature=related If you look hard enough you might spot me in the crowd

Wow, that's pretty impressive! Which ones did you get?

So the NHL have taken the broadcast rights away from ESPN and given them to two different companies who have proceeded to re-sell the rights across the world, supposedly with a view towards expanding the sport's popularity. So what have they done? They've priced ESPN America out of the bidding and sold the UK rights to Premier Sports. Premier Sports! Another extra subscription to a channel that will be showing less games, most of which won't be live, and only in standard def. The only other alternative is to pay £101 to subscribe to the NHL's internet-only Gamecenter Live. No thanks. I'll do without the NHL. Idiots.

I took the plunge and bought All My Sins Remembered. Of course, in the meantime I started reading another book so it'll be a few days before I get to it, as I have this total inability to read more than one at a time

willowroolz - which is the name I use on practically every other forum I've been on, except this one for some bizarre reason

My neighbour's got builders in. They turned up at 8:30 on Saturday morning blasting music out of their van and woke me up - so I opened the window and gave them a blast of The Leper Affinity. That'll teach 'em.

I thought you'd be pleased I'm guessing you think I should read that before I read Tales of the Dying Earth? I see we're both posting on the SF Gateway forums as well

I've just downloaded a few samples from Amazon: Pavane by Keith Roberts Suldrun's Garden by Jack Vance City Under the Sea by Kenneth Bulmer The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman Agent of the Terran Empire by Poul Anderson Shall have a glance through them and then make my first puchase!

Yeah, A Company of Liars was okay, although I didn't think it was as good as it could have been - I can't exactly remember why, I just remember being a little disappointed when I finished it.

Just this second finished Zoo Station by David Downing, about an English journalist working in Berlin on the eve of WWII. I enjoyed it a lot, although it wasn't quite as tense as I thought it was going to be. Haven't decided what to read next, although it may be either The Owl Killers or The Drawing of the Dark.

For some reason I watched Skyline last night. I really wish I hadn't bothered