Karsa Orlong

I was in Waterstone's yesterday and they had Kindle Voyages in stock What happened next was completely beyond my control, of course So I got it home, took it out of the box and had a little play with it, then my mum was saying she didn't know what to get me for Christmas. So I put it back in the box, and now I won't see it again until Christmas Day

Thanks Kylie Bradbury's definitely climbing up my list of favourite authors. I've got a couple more of his waiting to be read. I don't suppose your partner's read Baxter's Xeelee books? I've read a few Baxters but not those, and I'm torn between reading them or Proxima/Ultima next

The Borders of Infinity (Vorkosigan Saga #9) by Lois McMaster Bujold 1987 - Baen ebook - 78 pages From Wikipedia: Miles goes undercover and allows himself to be captured by the Cetagandans, who have invaded and occupied Marilac, in order to infiltrate a maximum-security POW camp on Dagoola IV. His mission is to get a single man out of the camp, but he has to improvise when his target proves to be on the verge of death. Thoughts: Quite a dark story, this one. It's another novella which, along with Labyrinth, squeezes in between the novels Ethan of Athos and Brothers in Arms in the series' internal chronological order. And, again, the publication order is bonkers, as it was written a couple of years before Labyrinth. These two novellas, plus the brilliant The Mountains of Mourning, were published together in one volume in 1989 (called, confusingly, Borders of Infinity), with a framing story (which I haven't read) to tie the three together. The start of this story was a little confusing, too, as there is no set up. It begins as Miles is thrown into the Cetagandan prison, so there is no explanation of how he got there, why he's there, and I don't think it was until later in the story that I realised he was there under cover as his mercenary alter-ego, Admiral Naismith. This all served to cause me some disorientation, which I think was the intent. Bujold wanted the reader to be as off-balance as Miles quickly becomes once the conditions of the prison become apparent. The darkness in the story comes from the Cetagandan intent to push the convention for the treatment of POWs to the very limits by adhering to them in principle but not in spirit. It's quite disturbing because of the psychological impact it has on the prisoners, and it also shows a darker side to Miles's character. He has to make some tough decisions in this story, and there's one particular happening later in the tale that really was a shock. Also, Bujold drops the c-bomb several times during a conversation with one particular hard case, which was another shock as I don't think there has been any swearing of that nature at all in the series up until now. Anyhoo, it's another solid, gripping entry into the series. What impresses me is how Bujold is able to change tone and cover a whole range of emotions within each story, or from book to book. Sometimes it might just be a light-hearted romp, other times it's like a dagger to the heart, and she seems to be able to cram so much into each story, whether it be short or a full-length novel. I continue to be impressed. 8/10

Like paperbacks have a light built in? I'm still on my Kindle Keyboard, so the Voyage is appealing to me. I'm going to wait until people have put up reviews on Amazon after they've been using it for a while, though.

Did anyone get a Kindle Voyage? It was out today - although I see Amazon won't have any more in stock until 8th December . . .

Replay is part of the Fantasy Masterworks series.

Strength and Honor (Tour of the Merrimack Book 4) by R. M. Meluch 2007 - DAW paperback - 363 pages From Amazon: Captain John Farragut and the crew of the U.S.S. Merrimack face their greatest challenge as Caesar Romulus declares war on the United States of America with a direct attack on Earth. The Merrimack retaliates with an assault on the Roman capital world of Palatine, and in the midst of the chaos, the Hive descends on Earth. With the battle raging, Farragut finds himself in the middle of a final deadly showdown. Thoughts: This is the fourth book in the series and the final one in this particular story arc, wrapping up pretty much all of the plot lines from the previous books and doing it with some style. The Hive threat largely takes a back seat here as - unsurprisingly - humans prove far more adept at killing each other than any alien threat could. This series shouldn't work. There is so much about it that is problematic. And yet. I think Rebecca Meluch's biggest and most important decision was to focus on the characters. They are cliched military types but she's taken them, rounded them, and made me care about them, whether it's Farragut himself, or Augustus, or T R Steele, or Kerry Blue, or Calli Carmel - she's somehow made them come alive through their dialogue, their actions, their humour, their relationships. I enjoyed spending time with them. Even here, when I started the book, I thought I wasn't in the mood for it, that I wasn't going to enjoy it but, through the characters and some nifty plot developments, it dragged me in again, kicking and screaming. I've found each of the books so entertaining, and it left me wanting more. There is a fifth book (The Ninth Circle), which I own and begins a new story, and I was very tempted to dive straight into it, but I'll save it for a while. It was published in 2011, and Rebecca had started work on a sixth but, sadly, she lost her husband and has quite understandably taken time away from writing. I believe she's back at it now, so the next book will appear sooner or later. Perhaps it never regained the heights achieved in the latter stages of the first book, but Strength and Honor was a rousing close to the sequence, taking much of the set-up work done by the third book and running with it, snowballing to a well-worked finale. It's quirky, snarky, often both laugh-out-loud funny and exciting. The series has been a real guilty pleasure and, compared to the other military sf I've read (admittedly, not a lot), just a huge amount of fun. When I think about how seriously a lot of science fiction takes itself, the pure entertainment value was worth the price of admission on its own. 9/10 ETA: Rats! I forgot to end the review with the immortal words "Shut up Dak!"

Make it difficult, why don't you Have a look at: David Gemmell - Legend Ken Grimwood - Replay Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword Patricia A. McKillip - The Forgotten Beasts of Eld Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes Michael Moorcock - Elric

Glad you enjoyed it, Kay

The Strain 1x07. I'm enjoying this more as a tv series than I did as a book. Which isn't actually saying much

2x06

Agents of SHIELD 2x06 Arrow 3x04 The Flash 3x04

I got 7. Most of them were guesses

Hope you enjoy it, Ben

Room looks great, Laura. You did far better than my DIY disaster yesterday And yay for the The Last Kingdom and Morningstar Shame about the Brooks, though. Kili seems to agree - she's pointing to it with a disapproving look on her face

They'll still play the good stuff live

I'm surprised on your Kindles' behalf In retrospect I wish I'd saved it to read today Mind you, given that the doorbell will probably ring every five minutes tonight, I probably wouldn't have got very far with it

Mine too I've been following what they've been saying about the final book over on the Malazan forums. They seem to love it. I'm still unconvinced about Morgan, though

Yeah, it really is. I'm amazed there hasn't been a proper film version of it. I can imagine what Tim Burton could do with it in a Nightmare Before Christmas/Corpse Bride way

Interesting! I've been put off Morgan a bit by the last of his SF books I read. Everything you say about this one applies equally to the Kovacs trilogy. Good to read your thoughts on his fantasy work.

Aw well, on the plus side, I'm sure there'll be plenty more chances to see them

I was there that night! Can you see me in the crowd?

Strange - when I looked on Amazon earlier it was £1.66, now it's back down to 99p again Which is a good thing, of course!