Karsa Orlong

Thanks! Normally, by now I would have started another book already, but I've decided to give myself a couple of days rest

That's it, then. 11,000 pages on from where it began, I've finally turned the last page of The Crippled God and finished Erikson's epic tale. I'm gutted that it's over but relieved that it's finished, if that makes sense. The ending was truly magnificent I'll take some time to absorb everything that happened in those final pages before posting any more thoughts.

Why would you want to focus on an upcoming defeat when you can dwell on the resounding one you've just had? Neither's the 50 over version either, these days, what with this power play nonsense and all.

Seems we can't have a good test side and a good one day side at the same time

Well, there you go - it's being published in July, from the horse's mouth: George R R Martin official website Bet he regrets the tsunami comment

Sweet Soul Sister by The Cult

Reaper's Gale - the seventh Tale of The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson Not my favourite of the series, it has to be said. It certainly has its moments, but it gets a little bogged down in places as The Bonehunters invade the Letherii Empire, dwelling a little too much on minor characters among the soldiers and switching viewpoint a little too frequently to indulge in largely irrelevant banter between them (this is a trend that continues to an alarming degree in Dust of Dreams). However, when he tells the story of the major characters he gets it right, as usual. The continuing story of the Sengar clan is brilliant, well told and ultimately heartbreaking. Then there is the burgeoning relationship between Karsa Orlong and the terrifying and yet tragic Icarium. As always seems to be the case, Erikson gets the pacing of the grand finale spot on, and it keeps you turning the pages right till the very end. It's just that a little judicious editing in its first half would not have gone amiss. I do feel, at this stage, that a couple of the later books - this being one - were long just for the sake of being long, whereas there was a point to it with the earlier novels in the series. 7/10 Toll The Hounds - the eighth Tale of The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson This one, on the other hand, is something of an underrated gem, imo. Here, Erikson decided to return to the setting of the first and third books in the series, Darujhistan, and with it tied up many plot lines before proceeding with the final two books. As such, we get to meet up with many characters not seen since Memories of Ice. Karsa's there again (yay!), as are Anomander Rake, Crokus/Cutter, Murillio, and the last Bridgeburners who were given leave to depart, such as Picker. I know a lot of fans didn't like the way Erikson changed his style for this book. The story is told from Kruppe's point of view, and Kruppe has a very distinctive and flowery way of talking. Personally I think it works brilliantly, and this is a wonderfully heartfelt novel about life and death. In fact, it does include one of the most memorable deaths in the series. Here, Erikson knows how to conduct the pacing and tugs on the heartstrings perfectly. The finale is breathtaking. Again, it's 1,200+ pages long, but it didn't overstay its welcome. Underrated, but one of my favourites. 9/10 Dust of Dreams - the ninth Tale of The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson I actually liked this one on first read. On re-read, though, I almost lost the will to live. It is overly long, dwells far too much on characters that matter very little to me, indulging in conversations that - I'm guessing - were supposed to be humourous but ended up just irritating. I skimmed much of it. Perhaps it was a case of reading too many Erikson books in a short space of time, but I suspect it was more to do with the fact that the first six novels were so awesome and are so etched in my memory. The problem is that, as Erikson stated in the foreword, this is essentially the first half of the final novel and, as such, it's build up, build up, build up and not a lot else. There is a HUGE event at the end of the book which is told with all Erikson's usual flare for the epic, and is probably more awe-inspiring than anything else in the series so far (one word: skykeeps!), and the use of the K'Chain Che'Malle as major characters is inspired, but it all takes a little too long to come about. Again, it's long for the sake of being long, but it doesn't have as many redeeming qualities as Reaper's Gale. As such, it's easily my least favourite book in the series. 6/10

Finished re-reading the first nine books (phew! - I confess that I skimmed much of the penultimate one, Dust of Dreams, cos it's a lot of talk and not much action ... ) and am now halfway through the finale, The Crippled God. I must admit that I was worried. Erikson thanks his long-time editor at the start. Perhaps he would have been better served by an editor who was strong enough to tell him to 'GET ON WITH IT!!' As with Dust of Dreams, the start was very s-l-o-w, with lots more talk between characters I care little about (most of whom have been brought in to replace wonderful characters he either killed or sidelined earlier in the series ). But now, at last, it's all kicking off, old favourite characters are returning after being absent for several books, and I can feel the tension building towards the big climax. Erikson proves, yet again, that when he's on form there are none better. Bring it on

He's spending too much time 'advising' on the tv series instead of getting on with what he should be doing I reckon, at this rate, the tv series will get to the sixth book before he's even started writing it I'm planning on re-reading A Game of Thrones when the show starts next month

If you want to try some modern fantasy aimed at older readers you could try any of the following: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's wonderful, and doesn't involve having to read lots of sequels to get the whole story Same goes for The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. If you want a series, though, try George RR Martin, Steven Erikson, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson etc.

Parabola by Tool

A Prophet - fantastic, but a little bit too long.

Blue Heaven by C J Box Twelve year-old Annie's a bit angry when Tom, her mum's friend, walks into the kitchen first thing in the morning, acting like he owns the place. She didn't know he'd stayed over, and her mum had promised her she wouldn't do anything like that. Tom tries to smooth things over with Annie's little brother, William, by promising to take him fishing when they finish school at lunch time, but he knows he won't get around Annie so easily. When lunch time comes Tom doesn't show up, so Annie takes William, grabs Tom's fishing gear, and heads off into the woods towards the creek. Big mistake. On the way they come across a picnic area and watch, horrified, from the trees as three men execute another man - and then see Annie and William watching them. The kids run for their lives, with the men in hot pursuit. That's the set up for C J Box's Blue Heaven. It all happens in the first few pages, and what follows is an exciting, often tense and always entertaining novel. It's set in small town Idaho, where all sorts of characters are not necessarily the good guys they appear to be. It's the sort of situation you can imagine Jack Reacher walking into, saving the kids, killing the bad guys and walking out unscathed on the other side. That doesn't happen here. Things get messy very quickly, and practically every character has hidden secrets and imperfections which quickly rise to the surface. I found the characters were really well written and fully realised, apart maybe from the main bad guy, who did come across a little two-dimensionally, but it is a minor complaint. The end of the book is top-notch thriller writing that didn't end up quite how I expected, which is good. I am trying to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. I went into the novel without knowing anything more than the set-up I wrote above, and was carried along by its twists and turns. It's written very well, keeps the pages turning, and doesn't overstay its welcome. If you like thrillers I can highly recommend it, and I'll definitely be reading some more by this author. 8/10

Just purchased the final tale of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Crippled God, for my Kindle. I'm very excited. Now I just need to finish re-reading the three previous books in the series, Reaper's Gale, Toll The Hounds and Dust of Dreams so I can read it

Same here - Killing In The Name and Fell On Black Days were highlights for me, too

Yeah, I managed to get to see them once at Brixton Academy. Great gig, shame they're no more - the biggest reaction was saved for Killing In The Name, which must've been a bit of a kick in the teeth for Cornell One Great Summer by Amplifier

Ooh, I got that one for £1 as well - I'll have to bump it up the TBR list

I'm only up to episode 7. I thought the last couple of eps I watched had lost their way a little, so it's good to hear it's got better

I Am The Highway by Audioslave

Read the first couple of chapters of C J Box's Blue Heaven on the tube this morning. So far, very good

Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden I really enjoyed the first book in Iggulden's series about Genghis Khan, Wolf of the Plains. It felt like a good old fashioned adventure story, using history as a loose backdrop, and it moved at a cracking pace, had a boo-hiss bad guy and a good ending. So I was quite looking forward to this follow-up. For some reason, though, I couldn't get on with it. This is the story of Genghis grown up, and leading his now unified people against the Chin. The viewpoint switches between several characters, among them Genghis (of course!), a sly, manipulating shaman and a Chin general. I think, perhaps, it was this switching that lessened my enjoyment of the book. The first novel stuck largely to Genghis (then known as Temujin) and his family as they were outcast, and how they fought to stay alive and then regain what they had lost. The constant change of viewpoint in this book meant it lost impetus continually. I can see why he did it, in that he was able to leave characters at cliffhanger moments, and I absolutely love this style if it's handled well (like George RR Martin etc), but although the writing is good I found it a little dry. Sure, he's dealing with big battles and sieges here, which don't exactly lend themselves to a lightness of touch, but for large parts of it I didn't care. Maybe it was me just not being in the right mood for it, which makes me wonder if I'll come back and read the rest of the series. Obviously I'm in a minority with this view, though, cos it's got 4.5 stars on Amazon, with some people saying it's his best novel to date For me, though ... 6/10

Great book - very inventive and quite scary - and left me feeling really grimy!

I was in Waterstones in Oxford Street yesterday and they already had The Crippled God on sale. I didn't buy it, though. It is HUGE, so I'd rather wait for a Kindle version

I haven't gone into a great deal of detail with it, but I have created some simple collections such as 'books to read', 'books finished', 'book samples' etc. When I read a book I've been moving it out of the collection so that it's available on the main menu, but I've had a couple of instances where I've gone back to the menu and the book has disappeared, meaning I've had to re-sort either by author or title in order to find it. It's a bit strange