Karsa Orlong

Sounds rubbish.

Does your TBR list include books on your wishlist? Don't go and buy it twice http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12398-athenas-reading-list-2014/?p=375011

Of course it is! http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/11123-steves-bookshelf-2013/?p=350246

Yeah, it's a terrific film - glad you enjoyed it

Excuses excuses When we lose, we lose in style. Not a good style, but still a style

That's actually the reason I was glad he steered away from it

Nice to see we're improving . . . "Netherlands 133-5 (20 overs) beat England 88 (17.4 overs) by 45 runs"

One thing I loved about this aspect was how it could have been awfully cliched and predictable, but he kept it moving at such a pace and with enough twists that it avoided all the potential pitfalls. He really managed to put his own mark on that part of the story.

Couldn't keep GRRM's name off it, though, could they?

Yay! Welcome to the Ryan fan club

I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of the Greg Keyes book, Laura - that's one I've looked at several times but not bought as yet.

Yeah, I think it originally moved from July to September. Those, plus the Esslemont - although I may wait for the paperback of that one, seeing as I still have a couple of his previous ones to read

^^ That's much better than the previous cover style.

I don't think I've seen Jeff Kober in anything where I've trusted his character. And it's got nothing to do with him looking like Steven Tyler

Good to see you back, Km - and with an impressive haul, too!

I do tend to read the 'look inside' excerpts on Amazon if I'm tempted by a book, just to see how the first page or two reads. That's usually as far as I go, though. I do the same thing when I'm choosing which book to read next - the one that keeps me reading past the first page wins

# 21 Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny 1976 - Star paperback - 185 pages From Wikipedia: The star-stone is missing, and Fred Cassidy, a perpetual student and acrophile, is the last known person to see it. Various criminals, government agents and aliens torture, shoot, beat, trick, chase, terrorize, stalk, and importune Fred in attempts to get him to tell them the location of the stone. He denies any knowledge of its whereabouts, and decides to make his own investigation. Thoughts: Earth has become part of a cultural exchange with alien races, and part of this involved the Mona Lisa and Crown Jewels leaving the planet in exchange for a very odd contraption, called the Rhennius Device, and the mysterious star-stone. Fred Cassidy has been a student for 13 years, exploiting a loophole in his uncle's will that allows him to continue his studies whilst raking in a healthy income. When the star-stone goes missing various parties believe that Fred has it in his possession. Then things get weird. What follows is a series of chases, traps, kidnappings and confrontations that slowly lead Fred to the truth, involving aliens masquerading as wombats and kangaroos (among other things). This is a relatively short book, but I was still tempted to give up on it a couple of times - not because I didn't understand it, but because I found it quite irritating. It's one of those books that sets out to do humour and, because it is told in the first person, this resulted in me finding Fred to be quite the smartass, both arrogant and annoying. As mentioned somewhere up-thread, I don't really get along with comedic books and, whilst this isn't out and out comedy, it's so intent on showing how clever it is that it quickly began to grate on me. Page after page is taken up with nothing but dialogue - the kind where you can lose track of who's saying what if you don't pay attention, because everyone talks the same, even the chain-smoking aliens (everyone smokes in this book - you can tell it was written in the 70s). On top of that, every chapter begins at the end, on a cliffhanger of sorts, and then works back to tell you how Fred got into that situation. It was fun at first, but then quickly lost it's appeal. I'm not entirely sure what I think of Zelazny. I loved Lord of Light but wasn't at all keen on the Amber books. This one falls somewhere in between, I think. I liked the story itself, but wished it wasn't swathed in such underwhelming clothing. Fancy word-play and puns don't really work for me. If it hadn't been so short I doubt very much that I would have bothered finishing it. The most amusing thing about it, for me, was the price on the back of the book: 75p. Those were the days! 5/10

Making a start on C. J. Cherryh's Faded Sun Trilogy

Yeah, the background's great. Shame they seem to have cut-and-pasted the soldier's image - his feet don't seem to touch the ground In other news, the publication of Fall of Light has been pushed back to next year On the plus side, that means there won't be such a deluge of books I want to read come this June and July

I haven't even read the whole of the first chapter But yeah, there's the re-reading, plus I want it all to be new and fresh when I get the book. I'm happy to wait

Thanks! I could've sworn you had Shards of Honor on your TBR pile

Apart from Assassin's Creed, apparently.

I'm guessing you've read his blog post about YA fiction? It's a very interesting read, and I think he makes a lot of good points I'm not going to read anymore of the book until it's actually published and I can read it from start to finish. I don't really get this trend for releasing multiple chapters from books in advance

Lexicon sounds intriguing. Lucky you with your free books!