31 July 2005

July's Reading

Very few again. Not just because of World of Warcraft, either (although I am still playing and enjoying it). 7 this month for 102 over the year. Read Make Tea Not War's month of reading here.

Honour This Day
and The Only Victor by Alexander Kent. Further changes in the series as it becomes much more about the way the many years of war have affected and damaged the characters. Interesting.

One King, One Soldier by Alexander C Irvine. Good historical/supernatural/conspiracy tale. Weaves some rather pedestrian starting points (e.g. holy grail, etc) into a pleasing novel. Some unusual choices for historical character involvement, too.

Accelerando by Charles Stross. Nine short snapshots in a history of a Singularity. Lots of fun, some thought provoking bits but mainly just nifty ideas.

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J K Rowling. Enjoyed this. As expected, a fun story.

Olympos by Dan Simmons. Certainly concludes the story. Basically good with a lot of jarring bits. Some important things do not get explained and some things get resolved in annoying ways. Hard call. Read it if you want to find out what happens after Ilium, I guess.

The Life of Mammals by David Attenborough. Interesting coffee-book, lots of good animal factoids and nice photos.

Serenity Trailer #3

Serenity

Second US trailer and third overall, this one includes some extra funny lines from Jayne. Yay!

23 July 2005

New Series Of Battlestar Galactica Has Started!

Just in case anyone hadn't been aware. The first one was really good, took all the cliffhanger bits of the end of series one and made everything worse. They really make a scary show as well as a good piece of science fiction.

01 July 2005

June's Reading

This is going to look pretty damn short, due mainly to World of Warcraft. As usual, you can see Make Tea Not War's list here. Total this month is a feeble seven, bringing the year's score to 95.

A Tradition of Victory, Success To The Brave and Colours Aloft by Alexander Kent. I'm still enjoying the Bolitho novels, but the ones I'm reading at the moment (mainly mid to late 1970s) seem rather more formulaic. Even so, the characters (Bolitho especially but some of his companions as well) are developing in interesting ways as the saga continues.

The Charnel Prince by Gregory Keyes. Second in his current fantasy series. Doesn't seem as original as the first one... his characters here seem to have dropped back into being fantasy novel standards.

More Than Human by Ramez Naam. A good, up to date overview of where transhuman technologies are right now and where they might go. Loads of interesting stuff in here, nothing in a great deal of detail however.

Sharpe's Escape by Bernard Cornwell. A very good novel. As the latest in the series, it really shows how Sharpe has mellowed over time. Cornwell is filling in gaps in Sharpe's history but the man's character is much more honourable now than when the original books were written. I'm pretty sure the Sharpe of the books that go chronologically before and after this one was a much nastier piece of work. This version is scarcely a brutal murderer at all! Still, overall I prefer to read about this Sharpe. His mind-space is an easier place to share.