Karsa Orlong
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Posts posted by Karsa Orlong
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
1966 - Hodder paperback - 408 pages
In 2075, the Moon is no longer a penal colony. But it is still a prison...
Life isn't easy for the political dissidents and convicts who live in the scattered colonies that make up lunar civilisation. Everything is regulated strictly, efficiently and cheaply by a central supercomputer, HOLMES IV.
When humble technician Mannie O'Kelly-Davis discovers that HOLMES IV has quietly achieved consciousness (and developed a sense of humour), the choice is clear: either report the problem to the authorities... or become friends.
And perhaps overthrow the government while they're at it.
With its highly stylised narrative voice and its endless political and economic diatribes, I found this book to be far from an easy read. At times it was a struggle to summon the enthusiasm to pick it up and continue (I nearly gave up on it on several occasions). In the end, I discovered that it benefited from extended reading periods, where my reading got into a flow with the deliberately awkward narrative style.
There's a lot of merit in the book, really. It seemed to me that Heinlein had examined every angle from which a revolution - on the Moon or anywhere else, for that matter - could stand or fall, and Mike, the sentient computer (named after Mycroft Holmes), is a fun character - but he's really the only one.
I liked it, I didn't love it. I much, much, much preferred Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon.
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Watched the first four episodes of Jessica Jones over the weekend. I like that it's so low-key and has that noir-ish feel to it, and the undercurrent of paranoia running through it. Impressed, so far, both with the show and my first foray onto Netflix
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Last Kingdom.
And it was bloody brilliant!
Yes, it was!
Jessica Jones 1x01 - 1x04. Very impressed!
The Bridge 3x01 and 3x02 - welcome back Saga, I've missed you
Agents of SHIELD 3x08 - cracking!
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Might as well get four chimpanzees to sit behind that desk - they'd make more sense. That decision was a fecking disgrace. Darcey, in particular, should be ashamed of herself
Georgia's dance was the best, again, followed closely by Anita.
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Gaaagh! Rush R40 Live blu-ray release delayed from this Friday till December 4th
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Glad you enjoyed it! I was a bit disappointed, tbh - it's easily his weakest effort so far, IMO. The ending was shockingly rushed and unsatisfying.
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I know I've recommended this before, but it doesn't hurt to try again....
Yeeeeah, not going to happen
As we are nearing December, and the season, I was reminded last night how I read The Lions of Al-Rassan a few years ago and again I remembered how much I loved it. I think I will always think of the book in December
I really want to re-read it at some point. It's been in the cards for a long time now.Wonderful book
Aren't you tempted to read one of his others, though? -
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Jonah Lomu, 1975 - 2015
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Mitchell Johnson has retired from international cricket:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/34840712
A fair few English batsmen breathing a sigh of relief, I expect!
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I`m now going for Barry`s double on Earth2, aaka, Bad Barry.
I have no idea who Zoom is, but I've been thinking it's Eddie
Those Thawnes are a bad bunch 
From what I've heard, it's going to be someone different from the person in the comics 
I had problems with Constantine`s accent at first - just me ?
I didn't have a problem with it
I've never seen the Constantine tv series and probably never will now it's been cancelled. I liked that they got the same actor to play the role, though. Wonder if we'll see him again. -
You'll have to watch Daredevil as well, it's brilliant.
Definitely - I've seen some of it via other means so really want to see the rest
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I gasped when she did that - she was very brave!
So was Giovanni, considering where she had to grab hold
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The Frankenstein Chronicles 1x01. Meh.
The Walking Dead 6x06. Meh.
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It's great to hear that, I've got the book on my TBR. I'm pretty sure though I read it before and liked it and that's why I bought my own copy, but for the life of me I can't remember anything about it. Maybe I haven't read it and I just thought I did, or maybe I dreamed it
. Oh you'd know if you'd read it. Time travel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Egyptian gods and werewolves, that's all I'm saying Is it hard work then?
It's not an easy read, for sure. I saw one comment which called it a 'textbook for revolution'
Someone on another forum likened the narrative voice to Bascule in Banks's Feersum Endjinn, which excited me (cos I love that book), but it's a bit lacking in the life and humour that book had by the bucket load. It's not bad, just not setting my world on fire -
I'm sorry about those people being disrespectful though, that is annoying
I'll never understand why people pay good money to go to a gig and then shout to each other during the songs, thereby spoiling it for those around them. Between songs, fine. During them, go stand at the bar and let others enjoy what they paid for.
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Looks like I'll finally have to sign up for that free 30-day trial on Netflix
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Just finished On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. A bizarre but fun piratical fantasy.
I quite liked that one, although it's a shame it got kind of hijacked for the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The Anubis Gates is still my favourite of his that I've read.
I'm still soldiering on with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
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No, unfortunately not
. They were nearby once, and I didn't go because my friends couldn't go, and since then I've regretted that. Then again, I'd be pretty scared on my own so 
. Ah, that's a shame. There's always this
Completely understand not wanting to go on your own, although fans at metal gigs are generally pretty respectful of each other. Having said that, I did have a bit of a to-do with two people standing behind me who were shouting to each other during the songs whilst Eluveitie were on stage. I could hear them more than the band and it was irritating the hell out of me, coupled with one of them who kept taking photos over my shoulder so I had the fake shutter noise from her phone clicking in my ear
Turned round and asked them to shut up in the end. Stupid thing to do really, cos it could have just made things worse. Fortunately a couple of other friends turned up before Epica came on and pushed in front of them, so they moved away -
Can just about see myself in that photo
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Is Zoom going to turn out to be `our` Wells who ended up in that Earth2 timeline before getting stranded in ours ?
I thought 'our' Wells died in the car accident caused by Eobard Thawne, who then took his place. I think Earth 2 is a parallel world, rather than an alternate timeline
Re Cisco and the woman in the coffee shop, yeah, there's something not right there
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I do love it when singers / band members are fans of other singers / band members, and can't stop talking about them.
Had to laugh at the BLEEPS
He appears in their 'Beyond the Lighted Stage' documentary, too
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^^ Good stuff
Helps that Billie Corgan's a massive Rush fan, too -
Okay, I'll wait until after you've posted
Steve's Bookshelf 2015
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Sharpe's Tiger (Sharpe Book 1, chronological order) by Bernard Cornwell
1997 - Harper ebook - 401 pages
Richard Sharpe avoids the tyrannical Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill and endeavours to rescue a British officer from under the nose of the Tippoo of Mysore.
But in fleeing Hakeswill, Sharpe enters the exotic and dangerous world of the Tippoo. An adventure that will require all of his wits just to stay alive, let alone save the British army from catastrophe.
So, finally, I've started Cornwell's 'Sharpe' series, nearly two years after I bought all 21 books for less than £21 in Amazon's Christmas Kindle Daily Deal. I'd put it off for so long because I wanted to at least get up to date with his 'Warrior Chronicles' series (fat chance, seeing as the ninth book has recently been published!) and also to finish Patrick O'Brian's 'Aubrey/Maturin' series (mission accomplished, there, but still in the grips of withdrawal symptoms
).
Set in 1799 this is, chronologically, the first book in the series, although it was somewhere around the 15th written. From that point of view Cornwell's writing is well-developed by this stage, and he serves up a story set around the siege of Seringapatam, full of action, friendships, betrayals, a bit of romance, and lots of characters to either sympathise with or hate. I'd go so far as to say that in Sergeant Hakeswill he created one of his most memorable and hateable character I've yet come across (hard not to imagine him being played by Philip Glenister . . . ).
It's a fairly straightforward story, including plenty of set-ups and pay-offs and twists you can see coming a mile away. To be fair, it never claims to be otherwise - it's just a rollicking good adventure story. I found it kind of strange, in that I'm so used to Cornwell's novels being written in the first person (as with the Warlord and Warrior Chronicles) that reading a story told in the third person made it feel like reading a different author. No bad thing, really. Plus it's set far more recently than any other of his books I've read, which gave it a completely different feel. No shield walls here.
Cornwell never seems to fail to entertain. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't really ask more for 99p!