Karsa Orlong

Thanks Gaia, that's very good of you to say Taking a brief break from Aubrey/Maturin and have started Trafalgar: The Men, The Battle, The Storm. It's a long time since I read a non-fiction book

It was pretty decent, I thought. It was never going to be as good as the book, cos it can't get inside Cromwell's head the way the book does, but it was a promising beginning. I thought Jonathan Pryce was excellent. It was all a bit dark, though, wasn't it? Where are they? I can't see them!

The Reverse of the Medal (Aubrey/Maturin Book #11) by Patrick O'Brian 1986 - Harper ebook - 304 pages The Reverse of the Medal is in all respects an unconventional naval tale. Jack Aubrey returns from his duties protecting whalers off South America and is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make investments in the City on the strength of supposedly certain information. From there he is led into the half worlds of the London criminal underground and of government espionage – the province of his friend, Stephen Maturin, on whom alone he can rely. Note: This book begins shortly after the events of The Far Side of the World. I liked: It's a complete change of focus and pace. Largely set on land, there are no naval battles at all, whilst it concentrates on the fortunes of its two central characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, and systematically tears their lives apart in different ways. It brings back characters who haven't been seen for several books, and introduces one particular character who completely turns Jack's world on its head. It brings together plot lines that have been simmering away in the background from right back to the beginning of the series, puts them front and centre, and brings them to the boil. So attached am I to the characters now, and so beautifully orchestrated is O'Brian's series-to-date-spanning plot, that I found several developments in this book genuinely moving. One particular scene at the end actually brought tears to my eyes, dammit!! Like all of the books in the series so far, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and it has left me still wanting more. It seems somehow apt that, at the halfway point, this book feels like it is an ending and a beginning. Patrick O'Brian was a very clever author indeed. I disliked: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Apart from the fact that it's impossible to go into detail without massive spoilers. I keep wondering when I am going to run out of steam on this series. I keep wondering when the quality is going to take a nose dive. Well, not here. If I'd had any expectations of this book it would have defied them. The best book in the series so far? Quite possibly. I thought it was wonderful. Memorable Quotes:

Yes, that's the one

A blast from my past . . .

I don't dislike it I actually re-read the first one before Christmas with the intention of reading the others, then thought - as it's similar to Dresden in some ways, and as I'm a lot further into that series - I'd be better off finishing Dresden before getting deeper into another one. There was some weird logic going on, I'm sure

And you wonder why I can't be bothered with it at the moment

Oi, keep your spoilery posts in your own thread!

I feel a lot better now

You know I never do as I'm told

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Actually, it's made me realise that there are a few there I'm no longer interested in and can happily dump. No more Cook, Esslemont, or Aaronovitch. Possibly no more Butcher, not for a while anyway. Stover can wait. Mariani's good fun and completely different from all the others, so I'll pick those up occasionally. For now, I'm going to concentrate on O'Brian, Cornwell and Bujold. Maybe Problem is, I can't remember much of what happened in Blood Song, and the thought of re-reading it fills me with apathy, as fantasy is doing in general at the moment. I'll see how I feel come the end of next month

What do you mean eventually? Dogs have owners, cats have slaves. Fact.

My cat does this frequently. And she poos all over the lawn. You can have her if you want! Are they the Ten Commandments?

For gawd's sake, let it go!

Oh, so that's where all those little rocks came from!

Yes, me too. I think I might start leaving myself notes (in spoiler tags) at the bottom of my reviews to remind myself what was going on at the end of the book for whenever I pick up the next one I've done that in the past when I've been waiting for the next book to come out. With Peter F Hamilton's 'Night's Dawn' trilogy I ended up reading the first book three times, the second book twice, and the third book just the once

Yay, another one for the 'No Scores' club!

I gave up on that after a couple of episodes - thought the 'dreadful' was very appropriate. But then I have a friend who watched it right through and enjoyed it, so . . . Episode 2x04 of Continuum last night. Really good.

Maybe it didn't like the books you'd put it between

Ha! I love this '10 Reasons to Read Gravity's Rainbow' review on Amazon (scroll to the top from where the link puts you) I'm currently 180 pages into Patrick O'Brian's The Reverse of the Medal. It's typically brilliant.

He appears in O'Brian, too. Hornblower will be my first point of call when I finish the Aubrey/Maturin series. Which reminds me, I haven't read the latest Shardlake yet - although I thought Heartstone was a bit of a let down - and I'm about three books behind on the 'John Shakespeare' series by Rory Clements (which I was up to date with for the first four books . . . ). And I've got Sharon Penman's 'Queen's Man' series sitting on my kindle, too. Oh Lord . . . It's not so much that as that I don't usually like reading multiple books from the same series/author in quick succession, and I'm thinking I should now try and do that to finish some of the series. But then my continuing enjoyment of the O'Brian books (currently on my fourth in a row) might be deluding me a bit, as I doubt the other series are quite so enjoyable when chain-read. I've only got one of Cornwell's 'Warrior Chronicles' books to read to be up to date on that one, but then I have the Sharpe books waiting on my Kindle, too, so that's one series new to me that's already set up and ready to go. On the plus side, I am completely out of love with fantasy novels/series at the moment, so I may dump a few of those completely

ADwD pretty much killed my interest in the books, aided and abetted by the incessant hype brought on by the tv show. Not for me! Arya gets my vote I enjoyed Farseer (the second book in particular, although I did find the third book dragged badly) and then stalled completely on the Liveship Traders trilogy, for no particular reason that I can think of. I keep meaning to go back and read the second and third books but I can't remember much of the first one at all, so I'd have to re-read it, which is what's stopping me, unfortunately. I did really like her writing style, though.

There are a few bits in The War of the Worlds that got me, particularly . . . Very much so. Any chance you'll go on and read this? It's very good It sticks to the story quite well, generally - far more than the newer version, for sure Yes, I only heard about this the other day - just happened to be talking about him in the pub and a friend told me. I always liked him - he was in some great films.

Er, I mean, yes, yes, of course. I've only read East of Eden and I loved it. Should read some more, I suppose.

Without opposable thumbs? They've got no chance