Karsa Orlong

The Pacific Part 4 and Spartacus: Blood & Sand 1x07.

Finished George RR Martin's A Storm of Swords 2: Blood & Gold. Thought it was absolutely brilliant and the ending was magnificent - talk about leaving you wanting more! Makes me want to start the next one straight away but I've read two of his books on the trot so am going to read something different for a while, just haven't decided what as yet

Ah well, in that case, value for money says you could get the first three Black Company books in one volume (Chronicles of The Black Company) from Amazon for a tenner. Or you could get the first Coldfire book for about

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Casablanca

Get 'em both

Paramount have supposedly been developing one of the Jack Reacher novels, One Shot, to be made into a movie. From Lee Child's website: I'd love to see this happen

Spot on Weave, over to you

Yep, same discussion and, in general, I totally agree with you. When I watched it on my tv I found the music ridiculously loud and intrusive (as I did with all the specials last year). My mate's obviously got his system set-up in some peculiar way, cos I definitely didn't find it anywhere near as bad when we watched it again. I actually thought some (only some!) of the music was quite good - which can't be right, surely!

Yay, thanks "Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets."

The Bourne Identity?

I got to re-watch the episode in HD with 5.1 surround sound and the issues with the overpowering incidental music did not apply. Even the new theme sounded good. I was wondering if it's a case of the BBC not getting the stereo mix right but obviously your tv disproves that theory!

That reminds me - I still haven't watched season 4, despite buying it ages ago.

You're not wrong there I made myself stick with it to the end. I ended up quite liking it but it did take an eternity to get where it was going.

I'm currently halfway through George RR Martin's A Storm of Swords 2: Blood & Gold and, yes, you really have been spoiled - it is one of the best fantasy series I've read. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it feels more like a historical novel: there are fantasy elements in there, but they take a back seat to the characters, the politics, the relationships and betrayals etc. His writing style has a wonderful flow to it, and I like that each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character. He gets you inside their heads and manages to leave each one on a mini-cliffhanger so that you can't wait to get back to them and find out what happened. If I have one complaint it's that he sometimes throws so many names at you it can be a bit bewildering. I just wish he'd hurry up and write the remaining books, as it's going to be a long wait for the last one. Some others you might like, with excerpts so you can try before you buy: The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, starting with Assassin's Apprentice. Excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-Farseer-Trilogy-Robin/dp/0006480098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270474599&sr=1-1#reader_0006480098 The Riftwar trilogy by Raymond E Feist, starting with Magician. Excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/Magician-Apprentice-Riftwar-Raymond-Feist/dp/0553564943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270474641&sr=1-1#reader_0553564943 The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, starting with The Blade Itself. Excerpt: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0575079797/ref=sib_rdr_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S00F&j=0#reader-page The Black Company by Glen Cook, the first three of which are available in one volume called Chronicles of The Black Company. Excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Company-Chronicles/dp/0812521390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270474718&sr=1-1#reader_0812521390 Legend by David Gemmell. Excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Drenai-Tales-Book-1/dp/0345379063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270474765&sr=8-1#reader_0345379063 The Malazan Book of The Fallen by Steven Erikson, starting with Gardens of The Moon. Excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Moon-Malazan-Book-Fallen/dp/0765322889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270464761&sr=8-1#reader_0765322889 I'd heartily recommend all of those but especially the last one. Steven Erikson's not for everyone - he's like Marmite - but if you do get into it there's no looking back. And he's the only one I'd currently rate above Martin

Agreed! I thought it was great - I really don't think I've enjoyed an episode that much since Blink. This was high energy (but without all the annoying, nonsensical running around that seemed to take over RTD's latter efforts), a little bit scary, and there's already a good chemistry between the new leads. I prefer Matt Smith to Tennant already - it looks like he'll bring a lot of fun to the role - and I thought Karen Gillan was great, too. The Doctor's relationship with Amy looks like it'll be sparky! I agree with the comments about the incidental music, though - it's still overpowering. And the new version of the theme is dreadful. Hasn't Doctor Who always been creepy? I remember watching most of it from behind the couch when I was a kid

Episode 10 of Merlin

Last night I finished George RR Martin's A Storm of Swords 1: Steel And Snow and moved straight on to A Storm of Swords 2: Blood And Gold.

Yeah, I was expecting at least 4 weeks. My history with ordering stuff from the US usually involves the parcel getting stuck in Customs for ages. The box had been opened but I guess they didn't find anything untoward. Maybe the Customs official is a fan One of the covers got a bit knackered in transit, which is annoying, but hey ho.

Mine have arrived. Only took eight days. I'm quite surprised as I went for the cheapest delivery option from Amazon US and wasn't expecting them to come for a couple more weeks at least

Funnily enough, one of the series I'd like to see filmed has recently begun production. HBO have been filming George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice And Fire in Ireland. They've commissioned a ten episode season to be based around the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones. If it's anywhere near as good as the book it'll be fantastic. It is HBO after all! I'd love to see someone have a crack at Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, and Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of The Fallen, but I reckon they're both pretty much unfilmable. Mind you, Alan Moore said the same about Watchmen

Similarly, Steven Erikson's Toll The Hounds caught my eye because of the title, and the doom-laden quality of both it and the cover. I went away and looked him up and became an addict as a result And Iain M Banks' Feersum Endjinn always makes me smile - it reminds me just how funny that book is.

The Skeksis that keeps saying "Mmmmmm, Gelfling!" always amuses me

Thanks, I'm looking forward to reading them Although I do have to get up to date with A Song of Ice and Fire first - I'm on book 3 and have two more to read after that. My TBR pile seems to be growing out of control at the moment

Probably my all-time favourite tv series. Season 4 is perfection. It's an acquired taste, I know, but so are most of the things I like Tonight I shall be watching Legend of The Seeker and Supernatural, catching up cos I'm a couple of episodes behind on each at the moment. Or I might watch the footie instead ...