Karsa Orlong
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Posts posted by Karsa Orlong
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I'm excited about this one:
Loved the first game
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24) A Morbid Taste For Bones by Eliis Peters
In 1137, the Abbot of Shrewsbury decides to acquire the remains of St Winifred. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to her final resting place in Wales and they find the villagers passionately divided by the Benedictines' offer for the saint's relics. (amazon)
This is the first book in Ellis Peters historical murder mystery series. Cadfael, the series central protagonist is a worldly Welsh Benedictine monk living in a Shrewsbury monastery in the 12th Century.
A really enjoyable read, and I declare myself a Cadfael fan right here!
Warm, earthy and worldly, Cadfael knows the ways of the world, from the ordinary through the pious to the princely. He puts his deep and loving understanding of his fellow man to great purpose as he uncovers the true identity of a murderer, and enables a small Welsh community comes to terms with the visit, demands and departure of the monastic group. I bought a fair few of the Cadfael series when they came up on special offer a while ago, so I have many more to read over time. I am looking forward to them.
Ooh, goodie!
I, too, bought three or four of these for 99p in Kindle deals (there's another one in the current monthly deal for about £1.69), so I'm looking forward to them. Got to finish at least one other series before thinking about starting them, though -
Oh really? Hmm... I have that book on my wishlist... Might have to remove it now
I would!
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You're talking about the game show, right? It's shown here every afternoon and I watch it most days. I love it! But it's such a rip-off. The contestants hardly ever win, and when they do, it's usually a relatively small amount. It's certainly not How to be a Millionaire, is it? I wish they'd make it just a little bit fairer. Maybe the contestants could get to keep the amount they earn in their individual round, and then aim for a larger group amount. It's sad to see them walk away with nothing time after time. My Mum refuses to watch it because she gets so cranky that they never win.
Noooo, it's the whole point of the game, they must not change it!
Your mum sounds like mine - she gets peed off when the team has accumulated a lot of money and then the last person comes along and takes a minus offer. She says that person shouldn't get any money.
A former colleague of mine (Bryn, a Kiwi!) went on the show and went for the high offer of £40,000, which he then had to split with another person who got £0, so he got £20k out of it
He was the contestant who was playing during the famous Fanny Chmelar incident -
Also I played on Xbox and it was clearly designed for PC.
Have to disagree there - the first game was designed for the PC but the second one was far too console-ified for my liking (QTEs being the most obvious sign of that).
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I played the 2nd Witcher game but never really got into it which is strange because it is the sort of game I love, I think I found it a bit too slow.
That's what I thought, too. Played about 6 hours of it and seemed to spend more time sitting and listening than actually playing. Too many quick time events and not enough actual gameplay. Very pretty, though.
The first game, on the other hand, was brilliant.
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8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. I know I shouldn't have, but I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so much at this bit:
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I've just watched the clip on Youtube, and it's the very first story in the book, called 'The Witcher'. Incidentally that was my very favourite story. D'you reckon you'd ever go back and read more?No, I don't think so - too much else to read
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Smiler's Fair (I'm reading The Hunter's Kind at the moment and it is glorious and I'm excited for Uprooted next).
I've been steering clear of fantasy for a while, but I read this review of Smiler's Fair a while back and liked the sound of it. You've just sold it
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Lamentation by C.J. Sansom 4.5/5
Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer in the time of King Henry VIII is a "crookback". In earlier books in this series he was attached to Thomas Cromwell and managed to escape with his life when Cromwell fell from Henry's graces. Ever since he has pretty much stayed out of trouble, and away from anything to do with Henry or his Court. But Henry's last wife, Catherine Parr needs his help and Matthew must rally to her assistance.
Catherine has written a book, 'Lamentations of A Sinner', a book that could be considered heretical and she could be burned at the stake for it. The only hand-written manuscript of it has disappeared from it's secure lockbox. There are factions that would use it against Catherine and some that would publish it to further their Protestant cause. But, no matter what, it must not reach Henry's hands.
The political machinations of Henry's court are staggering, dwarfing anything in modern times. These people are not simply two-faced, they are treble faced, several times over. It's practically impossible to know who is on what side. In fact there are spies upon spies and double traitors.
Matthew must make his way through this labyrinth without losing his own life, or the life of those he holds dear.
Sansom ratchets the tension until the very last pages of the book.
I must add that these events are totally based in historical fact. Catherine did really write such a manuscript, but it was not stolen. The surrounding historical events are true, the historical personages mentioned were real people. Sansom makes the reader feel the terrible fear that all classes of people felt at that religiously divisive time in history. Neighbors reporting on each other, families torn apart, the hunger and poverty are felt by the reader.
Recommended.
Oh cool, I'd been trying to decide whether or not I wanted to read this. I wasn't a fan of Heartstone (the last third of it, in particular) and thought maybe the series had run out of steam.
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Glad you enjoyed The Last Wish more this time around
I can't remember which one, but they used one of the early stories in the book for the opening cinematic for the first Witcher game. It was odd reading it, as I'd already played the game. I kept thinking 'this seems familiar somehow' . . . and then the penny dropped 
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No One Gets Out Alive - Adam Nevill (abandoned)
I wouldn't want to completely write off Nevill, as many reviews have said this one isn't his best, but I think it will be a while before I give him another go.
1/6
I missed this when you posted it, but I have to say I agree about Nevill. I've only read one of his books, Apartment 16, but I thought it was dreadful and vowed never to go near his books again
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Blast Amazon and its Monthly Deals! For once, there are several books on there that I was interested in, so I had to get them at those prices, naturally
A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
Winterkill by C J Box
Force of Nature by C J Box
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Dauntless (Lost Fleet Book 1) by Jack Campbell
all for the total of £7.24. Shouldn't complain, I suppose, but that's six more books to add to the TBRPFH
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Jo Walton's written some good articles about the series over on Tor.com, starting with this one where she tells about how she originally read the books completely out of order, which is quite interesting (except the last paragraph's a bit spoilery, so I skipped it!), and there's a re-read blog for the whole series, as well.
ETA: actually, this one's probably better as an overview of the series, and it's negligible in terms of spoilers.
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Well I think the only one of those that I've read so far that can't be read in isolation is Memory. I think Bujold's done a pretty good job of keeping the stories in the other novels self-contained, although obviously there are character threads that crop up from book to book. I reckon the Young Miles omnibus is a pretty good place to start, as it contains two of the best stories (The Warrior's Apprentice and The Mountains of Mourning novella) and introduces Miles for the first time. If you like those then Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance are, I think, pretty essential to get the most from Memory
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The Vorkosigan Saga is a multi-award-winning series of interlinked novels and novellas, most of which feature the lead protagonist Miles Vorkosigan, although a few have used other characters' points of view. They often cross genres, from adventures to thrillers to mysteries. They concentrate on great characters and are not heavy on the science (I'd class them as 'light' SF), although the subject matter often revolves around something of a medical nature - cloning, bioengineering etc (Miles himself was born with disabilities) - and there's usually a good mixture of humour, action, and a bit of romance.
I've been slowly working my way through this series over the past year or so and have been enjoying it a lot, but my posts about it have so far been scattered about in my reading logs, so I thought I'd start a thread for it and gather them all together in one place. So here goes!
This is a list of the 'Vorkosigan Saga' novels and novellas (in italics). This list shows the books in the series internal chronological order, rather than publication order, with the applicable omnibus edition shown in brackets.
Falling Free (Miles, Mutants & Microbes) - Nebula Award Winner for Best Novel
Shards of Honor (Cordelia’s Honor)
Barrayar (Cordelia’s Honor) - Hugo and Locus Award Winner for Best Novel
The Warrior's Apprentice (Young Miles)
"The Mountains of Mourning" (Young Miles) - Hugo and Nebula Award Winner for Best Novella
The Vor Game (Young Miles) - Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel
Cetaganda (Miles, Mystery & Mayhem)
Ethan of Athos (Miles, Mystery & Mayhem)
"Labyrinth" (Miles, Mystery & Mayhem)
"The Borders of Infinity" (Miles Errant)
Brothers in Arms (Miles Errant)
Mirror Dance (Miles Errant) - Hugo and Locus Award Winner for Best Novel
Memory
Komarr (Miles in Love)
A Civil Campaign (Miles in Love)
"Winterfair Gifts" (Miles in Love)
Diplomatic Immunity (Miles, Mutants & Microbes)
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
CryoBurnGentleman Jole and the Red Queen coming in 2016
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Finally made a start on Ray Donovan season 2 - it's been sitting on my Sky box for months.
Also, The Chase is back today
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Hi Catherine and welcome - always good to see another fantasy/science fiction fan here
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Oops. This is the only Vorkosigan book I own.
Well on the plus side you've got the best book in the series. But you'd need to read at least Mirror Dance beforehand, and probably Brothers in Arms, too. Which is no bad thing, really, cos they're both very good
Which other books were you skipping about between? And which one are you reading next?
I was jumping back and forth between Memory, The Quantum Thief (Hannu Rajaniemi), and Blindsight (Peter Watts). I was enjoying all of them, which made the decision even harder, but I'm determined to get one or two series finished, so Vorkosigan got the nod. And now I'm on the next Patrick O'Brian
ETA: Elephants?
There's always an elephant
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Oh good, I'm glad you liked it - nice to know that I didn't pick a bad one
I had no idea there was a film version
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Memory (Vorkosigan Saga Book #12) by Lois McMaster Bujold
1996 - Baen ebook - 463 pages
No blurb for this one, as it would completely spoil the previous book. This one picks up soon after the events of Mirror Dance, when Miles is summoned back to Barrayar, he assumes simply to pick up another mission for his Dendarii Mercenaries. But this is one of those stories that ongoing series occasionally throw out there, where lots of chickens come home to roost. Miles has been 'getting away with it' for far too long; taking chances, ignoring the rules, playing the hero. A medical problem has caused him to make a near-fatal mistake - but near-fatal for someone other than himself - and his attempts to hide the cause could have huge ramifications for his career, and especially for his alter-ego Admiral Naismith.
When I started this book I didn't think I was in the mood for another of Miles's adventures. In fact, I spent two days hopping back and forth between three books before finally deciding to throw myself into this one. Bujold's flowing style made the decision for me in the end, almost like a comfort read. Yet this story is anything but comfortable - in fact, it is very uncomfortable in many ways, as that poultry comes home and Miles's life begins to fall apart. Some of what happens - and it is all incredibly, painfully real - is very difficult to read, when it's happening to character(s) that one has come to know and love so well.
And yet Bujold kept me reading despite that. She's not scared to stick the knife in, but she is so light of touch with the humour and so deft with the wonderful character moments, it all feels completely organic and logical. It's a book that develops the characters in completely unexpected, believable ways. It's a book about counting the cost and paying the price, and is all the more effective and affecting through having spent so long with these people. It's a book that draws deeply on the series' history (even so far as tying in with the novellas) and feels very much like a fulcrum, an ending and a beginning. As such, I don't think it could be read in isolation.
Memory is completely devoid of action - it is a character piece through and through. The main plot doesn't even begin until nearly 200 pages in. If the book has one fault it is that I guessed the solution to the central mystery long before it was revealed. But none of that matters because the narrative and the characters are so strong. I thought it was compellingly, convincingly, utterly brilliant. My favourite book in the series so far.
Memorable Quote:
“Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.”
His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.
“You go on. You just go on. There's nothing more to it, and there's no trick to make it easier. You just go on.”
Money, power, sex ... and elephants.
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Hi Garcia, welcome!
It's a To Be Read pile
I'm starting to call mine the TBRPFH (To Be Read Pile From Hell)
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although I enjoyed it at the time, it's not left a big impression on me
That's pretty much how I feel about it. I enjoyed the stuff about Strange this week, but the rest of it was fairly boring, to the point where my mind started to wonder - not a good sign for me
Your Book Activity - June 2015
in Past Book Logs
Posted
I thought The Interpretation of Murder was fun but it's not 'spectacular' or 'fiendishly clever' (which is what The Guardian said
).
I should finish The Commodore (Patrick O'Brian) today.