Karsa Orlong

That's one of my favourite films - much, much better than the remake(s) imo, even if they had to change the end because the studio thought cinema-goers wouldn't be able to handle it. The scenes with the pool table and the greenhouse are absolute classics! They're here already. You're next.

I'm doing the latter. I just noticed that I'm on my tenth book since I read The Devil's Star Of course, the danger is that I'll forget all the important little details by the time I read The Redeemer. Harry who?

Yes, it is. I agree with mummymunt, actually, it is a daft title. Dancing With The Stars makes far more sense. I still blame the Aussies, though

Didn't the title come about thanks to an Aussie film, Strictly Ballroom? It's all your fault!

That's the sort of thing I do. I'm trying to spread them out a bit so they last longer I'm about 250 pages into my re-read of Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star, of which I read about 150 pages yesterday.

Ironic, that people are now - finally - voting for her when she's given up politics ... Just wait for when Brendan or James get booted out while she stays in - they'll have something to say about it all

Ah, you went along - nice! Did he have a good number of people turn up? Have you read the other Void books?

Black Mourning by Pure Reason Revolution

Nothing like resurrecting an old thread! I knew I'd seen Mr Hamilton's name on here somewhere. I'm just about to start re-reading Pandora's Star (my third time, lol), to give me an excuse to finally read Judas Unchained. And then I can read the Void trilogy in time for the paperback release of the final book in April Mr H is guilty of writing my favourite sf trilogy - the quite brilliant Night's Dawn books, which include my single favourite sf novel in The Neutronium Alchemist, which I've read twice (and The Reality Dysfunction, which I've read three times). Loved his Greg Mandel books as well, especially A Quantum Murder I'm quite stupidly excited about reading some Hamilton again

I've been watching this. It's the one 'reality' show I do watch, because I'm always impressed by the amount of time and effort the celebs put in. Having said that, I think it's reaching the point this year where some geniunely good dancers (Scott, Kara, Matt, Pamela) are in danger of being ousted because of the Widdecombe factor, and that kind of undermines the whole thing, imo. I know a lot of people regard it as an entertainment show rather than a dance competition, which is fair enough I suppose, and Anton's always good for a laugh, but if I wanted to watch a comedy routine I'd switch over to Dave. It seems to me that Widdecombe's getting very arrogant about the whole thing, too. Still, I suppose the BBC are loving it as the ratings shoot up

Sovereign by C.J. Sansom I thoroughly enjoyed this - it's probably my favourite of the series so far. Setting the bulk of the story in York works a treat (although I missed the frequent references to the areas of London in which I work that were a major part of the previous book, Dark Fire). Set in and around the events of Henry VIII's 'Progress' to the north in the wake of the conspiracy against the crown in early 1541, we're once again in the company of lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. Around them, Sansom introduces a set of characters who are particularly devious. When Shardlake is tasked with protecting a prisoner who is destined for the Tower of London, he finds himself sucked into a mire of plots and sub-plots, all of which I thought Sansom juggled brilliantly. I found the story very well paced, with the solutions to various mysteries revealed in an unhurried style which gave the resolution time to breathe. Sometimes I find that the endings of these sorts of books feel a little rushed, but this one gets the balance just about spot on, I think. What I really like about these books is that the characters all have flaws. Shardlake grows immeasurably during the course of this story, I think, and a certain twist towards the end reveals a side of him that is wholly believable and yet shocking at the same time. The sense of time and place is second-to-none, and the interweaving of real and fictional people and events with the main plot is seamless. Great stuff! 9/10

I might get up to date eventually - I'm still on season 1 Not watching now, but last night I watched the first episode of the new HBO series Boardwalk Empire. It should be renamed Bored-Walk Empire. Yawn.

Oooooh, that sounds interesting; I love those movies. Where would I find this? It was originally included in the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set, and now in the blu-ray Anthology box set, and you can get it separately as well: Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set Alien Anthology Blu-Ray box set Alien3 Director's Cut

Geek alert!! I re-bought two books that I already own - Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, both by Peter F. Hamilton - purely because I prefer the new cover art. Gives me an excuse to re-read them.

Back To The River (Live At Nearfest 2006) by Riverside

I loved that film Last night I watched the 'working cut' of Alien3, which is supposedly closer to David Fincher's original vision for the film than the one the studio ultimately released. And, indeed, it was much, much better.

Prince of Persia. Utter tosh but Gemma Arterton's alright

Tbh, although I thought I might have seen him before, I had no idea he was English - so the accent sounded okay to me!

Yes, I may have to re-watch it! I may have been imagining it, but I could've sworn the FXUK trailer said it's going to be the 'director's cut', which makes me wonder if it'll be different from the version I watched. Anyway, I'd say it's a 'must'. I'm not really into zombie stories, but this one grabbed me from the first scene. It's quite slow paced but the good news is that it's character driven, rather than going for cheap shocks. I was going to post a link to the trailer, but it seems to be intent on showing most of the first episode so I shan't. Even though you probably know what to expect, I reckon it's one of those things that's best watched 'fresh'

Nice one, Mac. I haven't read anywhere near all of Iain M. Banks's novels but I totally agree that he rocks. I've read Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Feersum Endjinn and Against A Dark Background and loved all of them I know you're not particularly a fan of sf but, just out of interest, have you tried any of Peter F. Hamilton's books?

I watched the first episode last night and thoroughly enjoyed it

Yes, I'd say if you want to see it try and rent it rather than buy it

Just read the first 50 pages of Sovereign. Thoroughly enjoying it already. Will post some comments (in my own thread ... ) when I'm done

Agreed. In my opinion, although I'm not a huge fan of the novel, I found the tv series very poor in comparison, mainly because of the changes they had to make to the characters to fit the format. I guess it comes down to which you did first: read the book or watched the mini-series, because either one will colour your view of the other, I think