Karsa Orlong

I don't think there's much doubt that he's used history for the basis of certain characters/events in the books. He's even said that he views it as his version of the War of the Roses. If only Ned had worked that middle one out as fast as you Should it be marked as a spoiler, though, for anyone who's yet to watch/read the series?

So now that Waterstones is owned by a Russian billionaire, does that mean the new manager will only have one year and then get the sack?

Sansa is really annoying at the moment. Loved Arya's "Seven hells!" line Edit: Also thought Tyrion's confession was brilliant

Episode six. Awesomeness. Although I missed the presence of the direwolves when Bran was attacked But still ... Bronn!!!

A couple more: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson The conclusion of the Mistborn trilogy. A bit better, after the dull-as-dishwater second book. I thought Sanderson handled the end very nicely, and he explained and tied together lots of different plot threads and unanswered questions in a very efficient manner. The characters still spend a bit too long moping around dealing with their insecurities for my liking, and that side of it got a bit repetetive I found, but all in all it wasn't too bad. 7/10 Heartstone by C J Sansom Sansom's latest Shardlake novel has the following tag line on the cover: "Shardlake goes to war". I won't spoil it by saying whether it's true or not. The novel, however, is set against the backdrop of the imminent invasion of England as Henry VIII wages his foolhardy campaign against the French. Shardlake gets drawn south to Portsmouth for various reasons, where the armies and fleet are gathering for the defence. Once again Sansom neatly weaves several storylines together, one completely new to this book, and a couple of others that have either been carried over from the previous book, Revelation (Ellen in The Bedlam), or back over the course of the series (Shardlake's continuing problems with Richard Rich). As always, once the pieces of the puzzle(s) begin to slot into place I have to marvel at Sansom's ability to juggle these threads and have them all make sense and, also once again, Shardlake's flaws are what make him such a good character. A few truths about himself come home to roost as this book progresses and it's handled really well. And, without giving anything away, the final hundred pages are thrilling and horrifying in equal measure. Fantastic stuff. 9/10

Classic! One of mine, too Right now I'm listening to Subdivisions by Rush, getting goosebumps in memory of last night's gig

^^ What Pickle said. Although the main plot in each book stands alone, there are other plot threads that run through several of the books, so you might end up wondering what that stuff was about if you started with anything other than The Redbreast In order, they're: The Redbreast Nemesis The Devil's Star The Redeemer The Snowman The Leopard

LOL, yeah, I should get royalties Really hope you enjoy it

Mine definitely ran down in sleep mode, with wireless turned off. Mind you, I hadn't used it for about two months.

SF Site non-spoilery review of the series as a whole: http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ma343.htm

If I Could Fly by Joe Satriani

Can't believe the Sharks let the Wings off the hook Game 6 tonight

Oh yes Another more thoughtful, character-driven episode last night, which I'm all for. I'm liking the way they're dealing with Ned's investigation into Jon Arryn's death (CSI King's Landing!), and Arya trying to balance on one toe (she wasn't in it nearly enough last night). I also liked how they dealt with Sam's introduction, and it was good to see Jon's direwolf, Ghost, if only for a few seconds, and Dany finally coming into her own. Their version of Hodor is older than the one I'd imagined, and the tournament was a HUGE disappointment compared to the book. Budget constraints, no doubt.

Got to be the Kevin Spacey character in 'Swimming With Sharks', surely? "Say this one time with me: "Would you like that in a pump or a loafer?"... Good. Now memorize it, because starting tomorrow, the only job that you're going to be able to get is selling SHOES!"

I bought the treebook of Peter V Brett's The Desert Spear from Amazon for £4.49 - that was £3.50 cheaper than the Kindle version. Madness.

Maybe you're too in touch with your Scandanavian side Nah, it'd be a pretty boring world if we all liked the same things!

Zero Option by Chris Ryan The prequel to this, called Stand By, Stand By, was one of the first books I read on my Kindle. I got it cheap and thought it was passable for the price. But it ended on a cliffhanger, so I kind of had to get this follow on to find out what happened. I really wish I hadn't Without looking back at my review of the first one, I think I probably said that Ryan's ability to bring his technical knowledge from his time in the SAS to the table was good, but that his grasp of characterisation and especially dialogue was poor, and that I hoped he stepped it up in subsequent books. Well, he didn't. In fact, the dialogue in this book is even worse than the first. It's atrocious. I nearly gave up on it several times, but fortunately it's quite short and only took me a couple of sessions to read. Coupled with that, he once again throws in laughably unbelievable events. I won't go into detail, but if the Prime Minister ever got to hear of a particular plan in this book I would be astounded - I doubt it would even get past a person like Geordie Sharp's lips, let alone be proposed, accepted by his superiors and then passed up the chain right to the very top. And then agreed to by the PM. Good grief. Anyway, not the worst book I've ever read, but about a kazillion miles away from the best. I'll give it four just because there was one scene that was quite tense, and the ending was surprisingly downbeat and miserable 4/10

Maybe you're not in touch with your Scandanavian side

There's an entertaining Q&A session with Mark Addy, Sean Bean, Harry Lloyd and Gemma Jackson here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pJzPbNFETR0 Mark Addy and Harry Lloyd are really into the whole thing, by the looks of it. Sean Bean keeps putting his foot in it

Thought episode three was the best so far. The pacing's finally settled down and they're giving the characters a bit of room to breathe now, plus a couple of characters I've been waiting to see finally turned up. The closing scene was perfect!

Stephen Baxter's Voyage is a personal fave - it's about what would have happened to America's space programme if JFK hadn't been assassinated.

Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor This is the second of Saylor's 'Roma sub Rosa' books, about Gordianus the Finder, the Ancient Roman detective. Written in 1992, this one tells of a murder at a villa to the south of Rome, on the Cup of Italy, for which two slaves have been blamed. As a background to this, the story takes place at the time of Spartacus and the slave revolt. Really, to reveal more than that would spoil this cracking novel. Once again, Saylor works real-life characters into his story quite seamlessly, and all of his characters are fully realised people. There are plenty of suspects on show, and Saylor has this wonderful ability to educate and entertain at the same time. He works historical background into the dialogue in such a way that it never feels dry or boring, it just feels natural to the characters and the situation. Gordianus is a brilliant character (as is his mute adopted son Eco). He is flawed and far from fearless, yet once his spider sense starts twitching he sinks his teeth in and won't let go. And he is motivated by money, which is the only reason he gets dragged into this story in the first place. It's kind of refreshing. The pace is also fantastic. There's no 'down time' in it at all, it just gets on with it. It's only 300 pages long, but I felt like not a single word had been wasted. The similarities between this series and C J Sansom's Shardlake novels is amazing. The quality of writing is obvious, the atmosphere and sense of time and place is equally well done, and the characters themselves have lots in common. If you like one I'm sure you'll like the other. 9/10

I've only read the first two Mistborn books of his so far. I thought the first one was pretty good. I really liked the magic system. I found the second book to be a bit of a let down, though. It was just too long with too little plot, and I found it hard to care about any of the characters. It's strange, because I liked Vin a lot in the first book (although Kelsier really annoyed me). It did leave me wanting to know what happens in the end, though, which is good. I have the final book and will read it soon.