Karsa Orlong

I'm pretty sure that only happens in the extended version

The Pagan Lord (The Warrior Chronicles Book #7) by Bernard Cornwell 2013 - HarperCollins ebook - 321 pages The seventh book in Cornwell's series about Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Alfred the Great is dead and Edward his son reigns as king. Wessex survives but peace cannot hold. The Danes in the north, led by Viking Cnut Longsword, stand ready to invade and will never rest until the emerald crown is theirs. Uhtred, once Alfred’s great warrior but now out of favour with the new king, must lead a band of outcasts north to recapture his old family home. I liked: The characters. Uhtred is awesome (just as well, seeing as it's written from his point of view in first person): he's ruthless but fallible and Cornwell always does a great job of getting you inside his head. He's also brilliant at developing the other characters, even though we're only getting Uhtred's view of them. Cnut Longsword. Fantastic antagonist. Cornwell must've had to be very careful when typing the name, though The writing style. It flows beautifully, and it has a sense of urgency and momentum about it that kept me hooked. The plot. It's tight, focussed, and moves at a fantastic pace. The fact that Uhtred didn't keep changing sides like he did a couple of books back. The ending. Wow. I didn't like: In the historical note at the end Cornwell manages to tell the fate of a couple of the real life figures in the book. Not a problem for those who know the history, but a bit of a shame for those who don't. It ended. I didn't want it to. Memorable Quote: Book six was a return to form. This one's as good as, if not better than, the earlier novels. I loved this book

Thanks everyone My comment on reviews may have been a bit misleading - I'm not going to give up on them, just going to experiment with the way I do them. They'll be a lot shorter, for a start . . . I hope I have some ideas but it may take a few reviews before it settles down. Sounds like I need to see a doctor Marie, I'll definitely aim for anarchistic minimalism if at all possible

I've pretty much come to that decision, too. I spent the latter part of last year looking at my earlier scores and thinking how many of them needed revising

The 4th episode was so bad not even Bruce Campbell could save it! The first couple were better when Noah Wyle was in them, he seemed to be having a lot of fun with the character. I haven't seen any of the movies that preceded the series - he was in all of them, I think. I don't know how many appearances he's going to make in the series The Aussie guy hasn't had much to do in the eps I've seen, to be fair, apart from boast about how good a thief he is - not much to work with so far. Christian Kane and Lindy Booth have had a bit of conflict between their characters to work with, so maybe he'll get a bit more to do later on Watched the second ep of Continuum last night. Already hooked

Happy reading in 2015, Devi

Happy reading in 2015, bb

Happy reading in 2015, Anna

Happy reading in 2015, Janet! The Time Machine Wow, good start!

Happy reading, cat person! Is 2015 the number of books on your TBR pile(s)?

Happy reading in 2015, Michelle

Happy reading in 2015, Weave

Happy reading in 2015, Chrissy You know what's needed, don't you - some David Gemmell

Happy reading in 2015, Kylie!

Hope you have a fantastic reading year, Sari What's wrong with Carter Beats the Devil then?

Happy reading in 2015, Claire Some more Alastair Reynolds, perhaps . . . ?

I watched the first two episodes of The Librarians and thought it was fun. Then the next two episodes were rubbish. Oh well I watched a re-run of episode 1x01 of Continuum on Syfy last night. Glad they're repeating this as I missed it first time around. They're stripping the first two seasons over the next three weeks in the run-up to the premiere of season 3 on the 28th.

I couldn't be arsed to go and see it. Can't say I'm sorry! I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier again.

Hello and welcome to my 2015 bookshelf I've decided to simplify things this year, so no TBR list, no wishlist, no 'books purchased' list. I haven't even decided whether or not to score books yet. So it's anarchy, basically. It's a bit like burying my head in the sand, I suppose, not seeing how many books have suddenly found their way into my possession, but I found that last year the keeping of lists and statistics, especially the TBR list, was sucking my enjoyment out of reading, because I was forever looking at it and putting pressure on myself to read books I was no longer interested in. No more! I will no longer be a slave to lists and statistics! I've set a few ground rules for myself this year, too, primarily that I'm no longer going to force myself to finish a book if I'm not enjoying it. I did that up until now and I drove myself through some absolute stinkers last year. No more! I will no longer be a slave to the guilt of unfinished books! Those suckers are getting dumped if they fail to entertain me - the charity shop isn't that far away I'm also going to try something a bit different with any reviews I write, cos I was fed up with writing most of them, so I can only imagine what it was like to read them Anyway, the thread's now open for business, even though there's nothing to see at the moment

Past Bookshelves: 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Books Read in 2015 (alphabetical, by author): Abercrombie, Joe - Half the World (Shattered Sea Book 2) review Abnett, Dan - First and Only (Gaunt's Ghosts Book 1) review Barclay, Linwood - Trust Your Eyes review Bear, Elizabeth - All the Windwracked Stars (The Edda of Burdens Book 1) review Box, C. J. - Open Season (Joe Pickett Book 1) review Box, C. J. - Savage Run (Joe Pickett Book 2) review Brennan, Marie - A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent review Brennan, Marie - The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent review Bujold, Lois McMaster - Mirror Dance (Vorkosigan Saga Book 11) review Bujold, Lois McMaster - Memory (Vorkosigan Saga Book 12) review Bujold, Lois McMaster - Komarr (Vorkosigan Saga Book 13) review Bujold, Lois McMaster - A Civil Campaign (Vorkosigan Saga Book 14) review Cherryh, C J - Foreigner (Foreigner Book 1) review Clayton, Tim and Craig, Phil - Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm review Collins, Max Allan - True Detective (Nathan Heller Book 1) review Cornwell, Bernard - The Pagan Lord (Warrior Chronicles Book 7) review Cornwell, Bernard - The Empty Throne (Warrior Chronicles Book 8) review Cornwell, Bernard - Sharpe's Tiger (Sharpe Book 1) review Finney, Jack - The Body Snatchers review Flynn, Vince - American Assassin (Mitch Rapp Book 1) review Gold, Glen David - Carter Beats the Devil review Green, Simon R. - Deathstalker (DNF) review Heinlein, Robert A. - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress review Iliffe, Glyn - King of Ithaca (Adventures of Odysseus Book 1) review Kasasian, M.R.C. - Death Descends On Saturn Villa (The Gower Street Detective Book 3) review Lebbon, Tim - The Silence review Lebbon, Tim - The Hunt review Leckie, Ann - Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch Book 1) review Lee, Patrick - Only to Die Again (Sam Dryden Book 2) review MacLean, Alistair - HMS Ulysses review Mariani, Scott - The Doomsday Prophecy (Ben Hope Book 3) review Matheson, Richard - The Shrinking Man review May, Julian - The Many-Coloured Land (The Saga of the Exiles Book 1) review McCullough, Colleen - Caesar (Masters of Rome Book 5) review McDonald, Ian - Luna: New Moon review Miéville, China - The City and the City review O'Brian, Patrick - The Ionian Mission (Aubrey/Maturin Book 8) review O'Brian, Patrick - Treason's Harbour (Aubrey/Maturin Book 9) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Far Side of the World (Aubrey/Maturin Book 10) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Reverse of the Medal (Aubrey/Maturin Book 11) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Letter of Marque (Aubrey/Maturin Book 12) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Thirteen Gun Salute (Aubrey/Maturin Book 13) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Nutmeg of Consolation (Aubrey/Maturin Book 14) review O'Brian, Patrick - Clarissa Oakes (Aubrey/Maturin Book 15) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Wine Dark Sea (Aubrey/Maturin Book 16) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Commodore (Aubrey/Maturin Book 17) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey/Maturin Book 18) review O'Brian, Patrick - The Hundred Days (Aubrey/Maturin Book 19) review O'Brian, Patrick - Blue at the Mizzen (Aubrey/Maturin Book 20) review Polansky, Daniel - The Builders review Rajaniemi, Hannu - The Quantum Thief review Renault, Mary - The King Must Die review Reynolds, Alastair - The Six Directions of Space review Reynolds, Alastair - The Prefect review Reynolds, Alastair - Slow Bullets review Rollins, James - Sandstorm (Sigma Force Book 1) review Salvatore, R. A. - Homeland (The Legend of Drizzt Book 1) review Taylor, Stephen - Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain review Vandermeer, Jeff - Annihilation (The Southern Reach Trilogy Book 1) review Vinge, Vernor - Rainbows End review Watts, Peter - Blindsight review Watts, Peter - The Colonel review Watts, Peter - Echopraxia review Wilson, G. Willow - Alif the Unseen review Womack, Jack - Random Acts of Senseless Violence review

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (again!) Pacific Rim - truly dreadful, but it worked for me as it was late at night and I didn't need to concentrate on it. Or stay awake, for that matter Elysium - apart from Jodie Foster phoning in the worst performance of her career it was passable, if predictable. Not as good as the director's previous, District 9.

^^ I read another Bradbury short story a couple of days ago called A Sound of Thunder. It was talked about on a recent BBC2 documentary series about science fiction, which made me want to read it. It's a very good story about chaos theory, well worth a read. It can be found in Volume 1 of his short story collections (£2.48 for a hundred stories!), or read for free here. Now reading The Pagan Lord, book 7 of Bernard Cornwell's 'Warrior Chronicles' series. Won't finish it before midnight tonight, so it'll be the first book to appear in next year's reading log

Read a couple more books in the last few days: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury 1952 - Harper Voyager paperback - 294 pages From Amazon: If El Greco had painted miniatures in his prime, no bigger than your hand, infinitely detailed, with his sulphurous colour and exquisite human anatomy, perhaps he might have used this man’s body for his art… Yet the Illustrated Man has tried to burn the illustrations off. He’s tried sandpaper, acid, and a knife. Because, as the sun sets, the pictures glow like charcoals, like scattered gems. They quiver and come to life. Tiny pink hands gesture, tiny mouths flicker as the figures enact their stories – voices rise, small and muted, predicting the future. Here are sixteen tales: sixteen illustrations… the seventeenth is your own future told on the skin of the Illustrated Man. Thoughts: I just loved the idea behind this: a wandering man whose body is covered in tattoos which come alive in the mind of whoever looks at them whilst the Illustrated Man sleeps. Ultimately, this is just a framing prologue and epilogue to pull together sixteen Bradbury short stories, most of which tell of man's downfall due to hubris or other weaknesses. There are some crackers in here, particularly The Veldt, The Fox and the Forest, Zero Hour, and The Long Rain. I love Bradbury's writing style to bits. I didn't enjoy this collection quite as much as The Martian Chronicles, which I felt was more cohesive even though it was another collection of short stories, but it's still a brilliant read. 9/10 Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge 1986 - Tor paperback - 271 pages From Goodreads: Multiple Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge takes readers on a fifty-million-year trip to a future where humanity's fate will be decided in a dangerous game of high-tech survival. In this taut thriller, a Hugo finalist for Best Novel, nobody knows why there are only three hundred humans left alive on the Earth fifty million years from now. Opinion is fiercely divided on whether to settle in and plant the seed of mankind anew, or to continue using high-energy stasis fields, or "bobbles," in venturing into the future. When somebody is murdered, it's obvious someone has a secret he or she is willing to kill to preserve. The murder intensifies the rift between the two factions, threatening the survival of the human race. It's up to 21st century detective Wil Brierson, the only cop left in the world, to find the culprit, a diabolical fiend whose lust for power could cause the utter extinction of man. Filled with excitement and adventure, Vinge's tense SF puzzler will satisfy readers with its sense of wonder and engaging characters, one of whom is a murderer with a unique modus operandi. Thoughts: This is a sort-of-sequel to Vinge's The Peace War, which I read a while ago and enjoyed, although I didn't think it was anywhere near his best. This one is brilliant, though: a murder mystery which takes place fifty million years in the future. It sees the return of the 'bobbles' from the previous book, the stasis fields which people use to suspend themselves in time while the universe carries on around them. At some point near the end of the 2200's, mankind is nearly wiped out. The last few remaining people were in stasis when it happened, and emerge to find an empty world. In an attempt to bring civilisation back to Earth they decide to move into the future, going in and out of stasis at regular intervals until they can gather together the last remnants who have yet to come out of stasis at all. Once they are all together they will begin to rebuild. However, when the last 'bobbling' takes place, one person - the brains behind the plans to rebuild - is deliberately left out of the stasis fields and is left completely alone for the next forty years until death. When the rest come out of stasis and discover what has happened a murder investigation ensues. I really enjoyed this book. As seems to be the case with Vinge at his best, the characters are good and the ideas are so different from anything else I've read that they're always intriguing and exciting. Whilst not as good as his Hugo winners A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky (few sf books are!), this one's much more concise and focuses on fewer characters and plotlines whilst still packing in the ideas. Recommended. 9/10