Karsa Orlong

At least it was about two of the regular characters this week . . .

The Flash 1x05 Agents of SHIELD 2x07 Arrow 3x06 All pretty average episodes this week.

Death of Kings (The Warrior Chronicles Bk 6) by Bernard Cornwell 2011 - HarperCollins ebook - 330 pages From Amazon: The master of historical fiction presents the iconic story of King Alfred and the making of a nation. Alfred, the great king, is said to be dying. Rivals for his succession are poised to tear the kingdom apart. The country Alfred has worked thirty years to build is about to disintegrate. Uhtred, the King’s warrior, Viking born but Saxon bred, wants more than anything else to go and fight to reclaim his stolen Northumbrian inheritance. But he knows that if he deserts the King’s cause, Alfred’s dream – and indeed the very future of the English nation – will very likely vanish. Death of Kings is an outstanding novel by a master storyteller of how England was made – and very nearly lost. Thoughts: There's not a lot else left to say after that blurb, is there? I'm somewhat shocked to see, looking at the list of books I've read this year, that I read the previous book in this series, The Burning Land, all the way back in April. I was a tad - just a tad - disappointed with that one because of the way Uhtred, with his divided loyalties - kept changing sides between the Danes and the Saxons, largely so Cornwell could tell the story from both sides. Happily, whether by design or coincidence, this doesn't happen at all in Death of Kings, and it's a better book for it, in my opinion. What I really love about Cornwell's brand of historical fiction is that it doesn't become a case of him showing off his research. The story always seems to have an organic flow to it, with vivid characters and terrifying battles - not just between men but also for Uhtred's soul. Alfred is forever trying to convert him to Christianity but Uhtred, brought up by Vikings, wears Thor's hammer about his neck (not really Thor's hammer, else he'd never be able to stand up ) and makes sacrifices to the Norse gods. It makes the quieter moments in the story just as interesting - if not more interesting - than the thick of battle. The story is just as comfortable in dealing with religion and politics as it is in war - the books, after all, are dealing with the birth of a nation. Naturally, being told in first person these books are testosterone-fuelled and often brutal. The dialogue is muscular and in your face. Uhtred is a combination of intelligence and ferocity, bluntness and arrogance, and he's fearless and fearsome. He dominates the story but the characters around him are also wonderfully brought to life, from Alfred himself to his daughter, Æthelflæd, to Finan and Osferth - they're all brilliant. Whilst it doesn't quite recapture the brilliance of the earlier books, Death of Kings is a return to form, I think. 8/10

I've just compensated for it by spending £7.49 on the Kindle edition of Shogun

I'm up to page 116 of Bernard Cornwell's Death of Kings. Loving it so far.

Oh I do like it, but the last two episodes (5x04 and 5x05) have been incredibly boring. They're concentrating on characters I'm not the least bit interested in Still better than season 2, though. God, that was dull! Get off the bloody farm already!!

The sequel's gone up to £1 overnight . . .

No, not really - it's a dedicated e-reader with an e-ink screen, so it's supposedly easier on the eyes than a tablet. It has an experimental browser, as did my old Kindle. I haven't opened it up on the Voyage, though, so I've no idea what it's like. One thing I have noticed is that the higher resolution screen improves cover art and illustrations quite a bit, which is logical, I suppose. And maps! I'm reading a Cornwell now, and the map at the start is actually readable!

The Mangle Street Murders (Gower Street Detective Series Bk 1) by M.R.C. Kasasian 2013 - Head of Zeus ebook - 336 pages From Amazon: Funny, fresh and sharply plotted Victorian crime starring a detective duo to rival Holmes and Watson. Gower Street, London, 1882: Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven's sake - she is wearing brown shoes. Set between the refined buildings of Victorian Bloomsbury and the stinking streets of London's East End, THE MANGLE STREET MURDERS is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny. Thoughts: This story begins with a brief introduction, written (supposedly!) in 1941, by the narrator, M.M., who tells us of how they first met Sidney Grice - London's premier personal detective (he gets very annoyed when called a 'private detective' ) - some 60 years beforehand. The narrator then proceeds to tell how Grice's reputation may have been somewhat enhanced over the years. "He never, for example, climbed Niagara Falls in pursuit of a werewolf," we are told. From there the story whips back those 60 years to tell us of M.M.'s and Grice's first meeting. Because it's told in first person, it took me a few minutes to cotton onto the fact that M.M. (March Middleton) is actually a young woman. I say this because I've mentioned in the past how women writing science fiction often conceal the fact by using their initials, as has M.R.C. Kasasian - but he's a bloke Anyway, March's father has recently died. Grice is her godfather and is to become her guardian. When a woman arrives at his house, seeking his help to prove her son-in-law's innocence in the murder of her daughter, Grice and March are quickly swept into the heart of the case, along with the dependable Inspector Pound. If it sounds very Holmesian that's because it is! I don't think Kasasian makes any attempt to hide his fondness for Sherlock Holmes, or the period, or the kind of story he wants to tell. Much like John Watson tells us of Holmes's cases, here it's March relating the tale, placing the reader at a distance from Grice until he decides he wants to reveal his deductive thought processes to his young charge. He's a prickly, unsympathetic character who simultaneously annoys and amuses for his rudeness and his arrogant, patronising attitude. He even has an addiction - to tea, rather than drugs. To top it off, a certain real-life person makes a cameo appearance which is a complete indulgence but somehow manages to be affectionate rather than irritating. The case itself is well thought out, and all the loose ends are nicely dealt with. I guessed who the murderer was well before they were revealed, but the reasons behind it were, I thought, cleverly and clearly presented. What's more, it's well written, full of quirky characters and sparky, often very funny dialogue, and it moves fast and doesn't overstay its welcome. Perhaps - just perhaps - the ending might seem a little anticlimactic to some but I actually thought it was quite nicely done, and I can see how the characters might learn and develop from it. It's a little gruesome at times, be warned, and it maybe lacks a little in the atmosphere of Victorian London, which I think is down to Kasasian's close focus on the characters. It's more an observation than a complaint. So, basically, I loved it. I got it on a whim during the Kindle Christmas sale last year. I think it cost 99p, which was 99p well spent, and it holds the honour of being the first book I read on my Kindle Voyage. What an honour for it! I've already bought the sequel, The Curse of the House of Foskett, which is currently 59p on Kindle 9/10

Yeah, I'm finding it very exciting, for several reasons. Bear in mind that I am going from a Kindle Keyboard to the Voyage. I've never had a gadget with a touch screen display before, so I'm finding it something of a revelation, not just because tapping the screen turns the page (the page turns are so fast compared to the Kindle Keyboard), but for things like using the dictionary and highlighting passages, using the menus etc. Nothing new for Paperwhite users, there, but very new to me and I love it The screen resolution is so far above the Kindle Keyboard, that's been a revelation, too. It's to the point where it really does feel to me like reading ink on paper. I always noticed that I read faster on my original Kindle than I did a paperback, but I seem to be reading faster still on the Voyage (once I got over poking about in the menus and setting up cloud collections for my books ). Maybe I'll get over it when the initial excitement fades I'm still not convinced that an e-reader needs a light but I can say that the one here lights the screen very evenly and I like that it has a sensor that lets it adapt to the lighting conditions that you're using it in. Also, if you don't like the setting it chooses you can adjust it and it remembers your chosen setting next time you're in the same conditions, which is great as I am tending to turn it down a lot. It's got a 'night light' feature which gradually reduces the light when you read in the dark and your eyes adapt, but I'm unlikely to use this. The pressure-sensitive areas for turning the page work fine, and you can adjust the sensitivity and feedback (they vibrate for a fraction of a second when you press them), but I'm barely using them as I'm too fascinated by the touch-screen Seems like a decent feature for those who preferred the old page-turn buttons, though I splashed out and got one of the leather origami covers to put it in. I've seen a lot of negative comments on Amazon about them not doing a book-style cover for it but, again, I've never had anything like that for my Kindle Keyboard so it's not bothering me. I actually love this cover, and that it folds to make a stand for the Kindle. The past couple of mornings I've sat at my desk with the Kindle on the stand and eaten my breakfast whilst reading, just needing to tap the screen once in a while to turn the page

It started a long time (ago) before you came along!

I've got about 40 pages left of M. R. C. Kasasian's The Mangle Street Murders. I got it in the Kindle sale last Christmas and I've enjoyed it muchly so far, enough so that I've bought the sequel (helped by the fact it's going for 59p on Kindle at the moment ).

Maybe she doesn't like fantasy books

Hear hear!

The Walking Dead. Yawn.

Ha! I do have a Kindle Voyage after all - she gave it back to me as an early Christmas present I agonised for 24 hours or so about whether I should start using it before Christmas or not, but I couldn't resist in the end

Brothers in Arms (Vorkosigan Saga #10) by Lois McMaster Bujold 1989 - Baen paperback - 338 pages From Wikipedia: Miles is having enough trouble keeping his two identities separate -- the charismatic Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Mercenary Fleet and a Vor lord of the Barrayan aristocracy -- when assassination attempts begin. But are his enemies after Miles Naismith or Lord Miles Vorkosigan? Thoughts: This story picks up some three months after the events of the preceding novella, The Borders of Infinity. It's probably the first book in the series where I'd say that, to get the most out of it, one would need to have read Barrayar, The Warrior's Apprentice, The Borders of Infinity, and maybe even Cetaganda. It adds so much depth to the plot, the characters and their relationships/predicaments to know what has happened in those previous stories. This book takes place on Earth (in a futuristic London, in fact!) as Miles and the Dendarii fleet stop over for repairs in the wake of their escape from previous adventures. Strapped for cash and pinned down by orders from Barrayar, Miles is trying to evade Cetagandan assassins whilst carrying out his duties for the both the mercenaries and the Imperial military. I found there was a lot to like in this novel, as usual. It's filled with Bujold's usual wit and intelligence, sharp observation and wonderful characterisation. In fact, I got the feeling that the whole series is starting to move through the gears. One of the major plot developments I had been expecting finally happens herein, and it was handled in almost exactly the way I had hoped. One particular chapter was riveting for its tension, not knowing which way the story would take it. If I had one niggle with it, it's that it seemed to slightly lose its impetus in the wake of that scene, as if the real climax of the novel had passed, and the latter stages became something of an extended chase sequence, rolling from one cliffhanger to another as Miles continually outwits his enemies. That said, the set up for the next book, Mirror Dance, almost had me diving straight into that one. It's the book I've most been looking forward to reading in this series. Can't wait! 8/10

Pfft, they're far better since Fish left

Sleepy Hollow 2x04 Arrow 3x05 Defiance 2x07

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

That's been happening on my Kindle Keyboard, too. More worryingly, though, the page turn button on the right-hand side has stopped working properly, and that's the button I use most of all.