Karsa Orlong

I don't normally post about this sort of thing, cos I tend to be very private about personal stuff on here, but I agree with a lot of what's been said above. I'm an introvert, too. I used to be painfully shy - I'm not quite so bad now, but I still tend to fade into the background if I'm with a group of people I don't know very well. I kind of recognise the comment about interaction being exhausting, in that - if I am going into a situation I'm not comfortable with, i.e. with a bunch of people I don't know - I expend a lot of nervous energy beforehand and end up clamming up and seeing the conversation pass me by. I'm not good with first impressions - I think it takes a long time for people to get to know me, and vice versa.

AC/DC - Problem Child

That's the one.

Yeah, it does look good! I haven't read either of the prequels with young Gordianus, yet - shall get there . . . eventually! I started with Roman Blood - well worth a look, and cheap on Kindle in the US at the moment, if you're interested

Brilliant Okay then, can I ask: is The Unquiet Grave a good place to start?

Interesting that you put it that way, Andrea - my feeling with Hobb is that she doesn't have enough going on to justify the length of her books - that's why I found the last Farseer book, in particular, dragged. I felt similar about the first Liveship book, which is why I haven't been back for The Mad Ship yet. Do you think you'll read the final book in the trilogy?

I do wonder about his preoccupation with magic systems, and the need to explain everything. Sometimes, to me, it makes the magic make less sense when it's explained in such detail. I don't remember Tolkien ever explaining the magic in LotR, and it made it all the more magical, imo Out of the four of his books I've read, I think the first Mistborn is the one I liked the most, too. There was much I did like in The Way of Kings, believe it or not. I liked the setting for the battles, and I liked the whole idea of the bridges, which gave it the feel of a WWII movie, like they were landing craft on D-Day (although those sequences did get a little repetitive over the course of such a long book), and the shards, or whatever they were called. I loved the artwork, which gave the book a very polished feel and was quite exciting. I just wish the character development hadn't been so predictable. It was a shame that the most interesting character didn't appear very much. I'm assuming he's being saved for a later point in the series

So you're just going to spoil things intentionally from now on, then? Control Point sounds interesting. There are so many of these mash-ups around these days. Peter Cline's Ex-Heroes is another one that's intriguing me at the moment - it's been going down a storm over on the Malazan forums. Super-heroes versus zombies, what's not to like?

And don't you forget it! Hyperion is most definitely allowed So would I - providing she was wearing it at the time I don't know, I'm confused. Let's ask Kidsmum

Those last two episodes - blimey Best thing on tv for ages. And as usual, two episodes each week for five weeks and it's all over too quickly

I remembered one particular bit in The Peace War that made me chuckle, when the events were likened to something "from Lucas' Lord of the Rings". God forbid George Lucas should ever have got his handses on LotR

Don't get this one, get A Fire Upon the Deep! It would have got an extra mark if Rachel Riley had been in it

Noooo, sf is right - sci-fi is wrong It's the sort of name only an author could have

Just had a look at this one - sounds right up my street. Thanks for the recommendation

As Andrea said, I'd class it as a sub-genre. I'll add Steven Saylor to the list - his novels about Gordianus the Finder, set in Ancient Rome, are very, very good. I'm also a fan of Rory Clements and C J Sansom, and I'm interested in - but have yet to read - Susanna Gregory and James Forrester. Must give them a try soon!

# 8 The Peace War by Vernor Vinge 1984 - Tor Paperback - 304 pages From Amazon: The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent. But they've never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to defeat the Authority. With the help of an underground network of determined, independent scientists and a teenager who may be the apprentice genius he's needed for so long, he will shake the world, in the fast-paced hard-science thriller that garnered Vinge the first of his four Hugo nominations for best novel. Thoughts: Starting in the late 20th century with the crew of a space plane returning after a spying mission during which they recorded some suspicious goings-on at a California military base, the story then leaps forward 50 years and introduces a post-war America where plague and the strict control of technology - by a shady agency called the Peace Authority - has returned civilisation to a feudal state. Among fear of the bioscientists who unleashed the plague - which has caused widespread infertility in the survivors, leading to the few children being even more cherished than before - and anger at the Authority for denying them access to the tech that could change their lives, a rebellion is brewing. Into this situation blunders Wili, a 15 year-old thief from the New Mexican Republic whose growth has been stunted by the plague. He is playing a game called Celest, which requires remarkable reflexes and mathematical prowess. Witnessing his performance, the 80 year-old leader of the rebellion realises he may have found the genius he needs to take his fight to the next level. It's easy to see that this novel was written in the early 80s - barely a year after Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defence Initiative, or 'Star Wars' project. This novel posits that the world was on the brink of nuclear war, and that one enterprising scientist created the so-called 'bobbles', spherical, mirror-like force fields that trap anything caught within in stasis. The Peace Authority gets hold of this device and puts a stop to the impending war by placing force fields around the most dangerous weapons and installations, taking them out of the game altogether. The only problem is that, fifty years later when the story begins, the bobbles are starting to burst. As is usual with Vinge, the beginning of the story is deliberately confusing. Half the fun with his books, I find, is figuring out exactly what's happening as he gradually reveals the whole picture. That is true here, but to a lesser degree than usual, I found. This is a reasonably short book by his standards, but he still takes a long time to set up the situation. This is mitigated somewhat by Wili's arrival and his first days in the hands of the rebellion, but somehow none of the characters quite develop into Vinge's usual warm, fully-rounded individuals. It's surprising, especially since it is a relatively small cast, but the whole story seems somewhat disjointed and lacks the narrative flow of his later books, and the heart that his characters usually bring to it. Overall, I think this was written at the stage where he was just getting going. There are some great ideas here that just needed a better story to work. It has a good beginning, tends to sag a bit in the middle, and then reaches an exciting conclusion. It is followed by a novella called The Ungoverned and a sequel called Marooned in Realtime. I'll be reading them fairly soon, I think. 7/10

No. I checked.

Wow, ten books - well done, Chrissy!

Thanks to you both I just noticed that the cover image says 'The House of Vestals', which is wrong - it's definitely 'The House of the Vestals', as per Saylor's own site

Hope your shoulder gets better soon, Sarah

# 7 The House of the Vestals by Steven Saylor 1997 - Robinson ebook - 340 pages From Amazon: Wonderfully entertaining mystery stories set in the world of the acclaimed ROMA SUB ROSA series. It is the Rome of the Late Republic, and Gordianus the Finder has a knack for finding trouble - and dead bodies. Known to many as the one man in the ancient world who can both keep a secret and uncover one, Gordianus lays bare some of his most intriguing adventures in this new volume in Steven Saylor's highly acclaimed mystery series. The result is an engrossing collection of finely wrought mystery tales with all the suspense and craft that are the trademark of Saylor's work. Thoughts: So far I've read three of Steven Saylor's novels about Gordianus the Finder and I've enjoyed all of them. Each of them uses as its background a major event in the last years of the Roman Republic: Roman Blood, the first novel, had Sulla's dictatorship and the emergence of Cicero as its backdrop; Arms of Nemesis had Spartacus and the slave revolt; and Catilina's Riddle had the Catilinian conspiracy. Using these meant that the stories were set years apart, so Gordianus and his adopted son, Eco, aged considerably in the telling. This collection of nine short stories, set between the end of Sulla's dictatorship and the Spartacus slave revolt, goes some way to filling in the gap between the first two novels. The stories included here are: Death Wears A Mask The Tale of the Treasure House A Will is a Way The Lemures Little Caesar and the Pirates The Disappearance of the Saturnalia Silver King Bee and the Honey The Alexandrian Cat The House of the Vestals Over the course of the nine tales Saylor tells of how Gordianus first became friends with his patrician benefactor, Lucius Claudius, and how he met his bodyguard, Belbo. Eco, the mute child adopted by Gordianus, plays an important role, and he's a very engaging character, as is the Egyptian concubine, Bethesda. Cicero and Catilina crop up at various points, and corpses seem to lurk around every corner. The stories generally flow very nicely. Told in the first person, Saylor's style is as easy to read as ever. However, as mystery stories go, these are pretty basic. Whilst I'd say they are never less than entertaining - mostly down to the characters - and I was certainly never bored, the solutions to all nine of the tales are so glaringly obvious that even I could spot them early on (which shows how simple the solutions are, before anyone else says it ). In his historical note at the end of the book, Saylor details the real events that he used as inspiration for these stories and, indeed, most of them are based on actual historical events. The ones that don't have that basis are more inspired by his desire to illustrate Roman life in those times, something which he always does very well. I must admit, I'm not a big reader of short stories, but I would have liked some genuine surprises in here. Unfortunately, because there is a limited cast in each tale, and because Saylor seems to have been very heavy-handed in the way he presents the clues, I felt it lost much of what I have found so enjoyable about the series. It's not a bad read, by any stretch of the imagination, but the novels are so much better. 6/10

Happy anniversary Devi

I really should get around to re-reading that one, so I can finally get the second and third books off my TBR pile. I'm currently about two thirds of the way through The House of the Vestals by Steven Saylor.

Yep, I know that feeling The Arthurian trilogy is still my favourite, but the Saxon series is brilliant, too. Once I'm up to date with that I'm going to move on to the Sharpe books

For you, yeah - after all, they're big books and not for the simple-minded