I bought that today at Forbidden Planet. You could probably kill someone with it.

I gave up on this one because the plot was too heavy and the characters too bland IMO - the narrator was always talking about how sheltered she was which is fair enough - but doesn't make a good read or a vivid story.

And then the stuff about the dragon in the book and the mystery death of the scholar was really atmospheric and inventive. There could have been a lot more pace and far less backstory - then the book would have excelled itself.

An absolutely terrific book. I was really impressed by his ability to respect the work of the police without putting them on a pedestal; they're all real, flawed people doing very tough work and he really understands that.

I agree with all of the above.

Me too - it could have been a much shorter and pacier book without losing anything, and in fact would have been better I think. It seemed like she was trying to mirror the narrative style of Dracula, with the letters and so on, but it dragged out too much and I kept forgetting the important details. However I still enjoyed it.

I raced through The Hellfire Conspiracy by Will Thomas this weekend - I was only going to start it in preparation for my flight tomorrow but, as with all mystery books, I couldn't put it down. Another enjoyable story in the Barker and Llewellyn series. Got one more left to read, but I'm stretching it out and interspersing with Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks. So far it's been great.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through, having picked it up on Friday, and am really enjoying it so far. I'll say no more until everyone has had a chance to catch up.

Dam you all, you'll all of read it before the sodding Royal Mail can manage to drag it from wherever Play have their Glorious Warehouse of Treats™ to my office.

I started reading it yesterday, and quickly realised I'll have to re-read The Dreaming Void to remind myself who and what all these people, factions, places and things are.

Aw, does Hamilton not do a 'What happened previously' in his books? I'm expecting mine to arrive today. I'd actually considered skimming the last 20 pages or so last night of Dreaming Void, but decided I'd rely on a summary in the new book instead.

I read the first 80-or-so pages last night, and had TDV next to me as a reference. It's not too bad to catch up with, but the first one was so complex, a gentle squeeze on the memory glands doesn't do any harm.

As someone who's already made the jump and read a good chunk, if you feel like writing a 'this is what you need to remember; type synopsis, I wouldn't try and stop you. My copy still hasn't arrived

Well, it's not as if rereading TDV is a terrible chore; I'm enjoying it so far!

Thanks to Rachel & Pete's literary tour of New York, I am currently reading Craig Nelson's biography of Thomas Paine.

It's here and I've read 20 pages ish. Can anyone remind me who or what Illanthe is/are? Also, what was the relation at the end of the book between Oscar/Paula. Did Paula give Oscar her ship and team him up with a bunch of Knight Guardians to track down the Second Dreamer? Also, am I right in thinking Troblum betrayed the Accelerators and stole the ship/drive he was building? And are the Accelerators the ANA faction that want to use the void as some sort of medium to transcend to a higher plane or something? Also, what are the Advancers in relation to the Highers? Seriously, you need a Tolkienesque Appendices to keep up with all this.

Umm, here are the few things I can recall which I reminded myself of last night:

ANA has split into several factions, some of whom want to influence human development in different ways. Gore Burnelli leads the good guys with his daughter Justine and Paula Myo; Edeard is a young man living within the Void a long time ago and is slowly harnessing telekinetic powers; Inigo (the first dreamer of Edeard's life and inspiration to millions of Living Dream followers) has disappeared and a Second Dreamer, Araminta, has appeared; Oscar (aka Gene Yahoui) has been recruited (along with a bunch of the Guardians of Selfhood from Far Away) by Paula to track down the Second Dreamer before Living Dream do; and the mysterious Aaron, with no memories of his own, is attempting to find Inigo through some strange compulsion, causing total devastation in his wake.

At the end, the Void begins to expand into a devourment phase; Living Dream have launched a potentially fatal pilgrimage there; Aaron is under attack on Inigo's original homeworld; Araminta is just as she is about to marry and go 'multiple', and fat, sweaty Troblum (Can anyone remember what Troblum's role was?) has escaped from the Accelerator faction.

Troblum was building something, a ship drive I think, for either the Accelerators or the Living Dream. Accelerators I think. Is Myo working directly for Gore, or they just on similar sides? I can't remember that. And am I right in thinking it was Cat who attacked Aaron? Presumably she then buggered off somewhere else then ... cool fight right off the bat! I think Chapman Baxter is reading The Dreaming Void now - if that comment is anything to go by, so I figure I'll spoiler anything that may not have happened yet in that, or that has happened in TTV. He might also be able to clear up any questions like who is Troblum.

Cool! Hope it's interesting.

Despite already owning it, I had to buy another copy of The Gum Thief yesterday - limited edition signed hardback, boxed with a copy of Glove Pond. I'm such a Coupland fanboy...

2/3rds of the way through Temporal Void now. It's seriously void heavy. I just finished a 123 pages of Inigos Eleventh Dream. I like it and all, but I prefer the Commonwealth stuff generally. The ratio in the first book was more what I like. Although, as a stand alone story, Edeards saga so far hasn't been bad anyway. He's really getting some power now huh?

Spending a lot of time of long public transport journeys has helped the reading muchly. I have in the past three weeks consumed the following:

My Booky Wook by Russell Brand Only bought it as part of a 2 for 7 quid thing but it was interesting. He has been a bit of a shit in the past, but then, he had a bit of a shit past. Very frank and sometimes uncomfortable but worth a read.

Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry as above but posh. ;-) Cracking read - he was a bit of a twat for most of his youth but it makes for a good read.

Men with Brooms by erm... a Canadian - what is better for a train trip across Canada than a novel about curling? Absolutely loved it and really want to see the film now.

and I am now halfway through Microserfs by Doug Coupland recommended by Julie in her infinite wisdom and I am tearing through it. Fan-bloody-tastic. Makes me wish I was older in the 90s and more of a nerd and living in Seattle.

Need more books now though. Am going to be hitting the Doug Coupland shelf at the bookshop tomorrow and have a list provided by Julie including some Christopher Moore that I am sure will make it into my purchasing.

Yes.

Lamb, The Stupidest Angel, or A Dirty Job are great places to start. Actually, The Stupidest Angel should be read after Lamb for maximum enjoyment, but it'll stand on it own (as every Christmas zombie book should).

I can't claim credit for that one, but you will enjoy it muchly.

You might also really enjoy this.

Ta Craig - Julie did say that you were the Christopher Moore pimp around here.



Yes, yes I think I will.

I'm going to need a bigger backpack....

Yay for the Moore love. I'd second Craig's recommendations but would particularly recommend Lamb since that was the first of his books that I read. He's bloody brilliant.

My copy of The Dechronization of Sam Magruder should be arriving soon.



10 points to anyone who's heard of it.

That's a rather unfortunate name.

It's quite interesting, actually. He was a palaeontologist, and when he died his daughter was going through his things and she found this manuscript for a sci-fi short story, that he'd written years ago and never told anyone about. She paid to have it get a brief run of production about 12 years ago, and it's an obscure classic.

It's about a man who's experimenting with this machine one night, and it sends him back in time to the Cretaceous Period. He has no way of getting back, and has no tools or anything. The story is of his life there, until he dies.

Now, the interesting thing about it is that it's all set in the future. Some archaeologists find these stone tablets with engravings on, and it's his diary of his life with the dinosaurs. So the narrative is all done as diary entries, which are infrequent and strange because it's so hard for him to carve them. The reader assumes he dies, because the entries just stop. The only speech and characters are the editors at a publishing house talking to other experts to decide how this discovery should be told to the public and published.

It's incredible. I'd really urge sci-fi fans to track it down, it's such a unique way of doing a time travel story.

I want this.

Might ask for it for Christmas though, low on £££

I've dipped in and out of it over the last six months or so, but I finally finished The Stand by Stephen King.

All in all, I enjoyed it, but I did have problems with it. I read the Uncut version, which goes on for 1300 pages and that, frankly, is too long and it feels a bit indulgent. I never got bored and from what I can tell the stuff that was reintroduced featured some sequences that I loved, but it still felt like a grind sometimes. I didn't like the ending, which is probably one of the most literal deus ex machinas I've ever read and didn't really seem to do justice to the terrific build up.

Still, the story is good, particularly the sections dealing with the outbreak and spread of the superflu, the characters are well rounded and each brings something to the story, with the obvious exception of The Walkin' Dude, but then again it wouldn't be so much fun if we knew about him.

Not as good as The Shining, in my opinion, but a grand and ambitious fantasy that just runs away with itself a little too often.

My interest is truly piqued, sounds fascinating. That's going down on my list.

Read The Stand years ago (two or three times in fact), used to be a huge Stephn King fan. I remember really enjoying the book and still wonder what the world would be like if something like this really did happen. The only problem I had with the book was the whole Good vs Evil thing going on, but then it wouldn't be a King book without it!!

Thoroughly reccommend to anyone.

I've just bought Jonathon Ross' book which looks quite fun - just need the time to read it! Need to get the new Pratchett too - even though it's not a Discworld novel.

I finished Temopral Void a while back, and really quite enjoyed it. I liked the Edeard parts more this time, which is good because, especially towards the end, there were so many of them. I still prefer the stuff out of the void, but it wasn't such a drag getting another dream now. You could take the Void parts in isolation, and you'd have the fairly fleshed out bones of a decent fantasy/sci-fi in it's own right.

I've also read The First Lensman by E E 'Doc' Smith. I can't recommend it. In it's time, it was a popular series i think, but it's so dated it's almost unreadable. The good guys are one hundred percent GOOD! In fact, a requirement of becoming a lensman is that they be incorruptible. There also seems to be a little bit of domestic violence in there* as well as some very badly veiled anti-communist propaganda and some really dated dialog and terminology. When a criminals headquarters is described as 'doubly spy-ray proof' I just stop taking things seriously. And the prevalance of asbestos in our future is frightening. And also, in the future, you can tell someone's a bad guy, because they have no first name.

*by the good guys, I quote:

"It wasn't always easy to tell what Impish Mrs Costigan meant by what she said. Conway thought about it and decided she was taking him for a ride. He smacked her a couple of times where it would do the most good, kissed her thoroughly, and left."

All this because she said she was 'deleriously delighted' to have her husband back from across the galaxy.

Finished Microserfs on the way up to Churchill. Made me want to be more of a nerd than I am. In 1996.

On the way back I read Lamb by Christopher Moore - bloody excellent. Thank you Craig and Jules - you are both wise and good.

And half of Girlfriend in a Coma by Doug Coupland. Which is also brilliance and reminded me that I had read Generation X and it was a favourite of mine for a while and I had totally forgotten about it. So no wonder I am having a bit of the Coupland love at the moment.

I bought a bulk load of Robert Rankin on ebay the other week (this was when I could afford such things)
I figure this lot will last me til next summer.

So I finished at the weekend. Pretty good overall, but with the usual Hamilton handicaps. Although for the first time I've enjoyed being submerged in his worlds for extended periods rather than resenting his endless unnecessary description, I wonder why he feels the need to describe what everyone eats at mealtimes; it's just a little bit twee.

But things are set up nicely for the 'The Evolutionary Void'. I imagine the two universes will begin to merge somewhat. Any ideas about what the Deterrent Fleet is? Who were Rah and The Lady? What role will Ozzie play?

I've just picked up a boxed, hardback edition of The Lord of the Rings that was published in 1974.

The cover is fantastic and it's printed on India paper, so it's a bit like reading a bible. Best of all? It has large fold out maps! (I like a good map!). The box itself is a bit scuffed, but the book is in very good condition indeed.

I have an idea they re-issued something like this when the films came out, and that cost about £50, so I reckon I got a bit of a bargain!

ETA:

Cripes! I've just had a look on eBay and the cheapest version I've been able to find, which is a later imprint than the copy I picked up, is selling for £100! (first editions are going for £250 to £400+).

I recently finished Blood of Angels by Michael Marshall, which was a hugely entertaining and provocative conclusion to his Straw Men trilogy, particularly after the good but confused second book, The Lonely Dead. I still think it's a shame that he seems to have turned his back on sci-fi now, choosing to not write as Michael Marshall Smith, but the wit and invention he brings to his 'conventional' thrillers is refreshing and his philosophising about modern life and the human psyche has not been tethered by his switch in genre one iota.

Cool, sounds like a jolly nice find there, sir!

Nice find, Paul! I love accidentally finding a good book deal.

Cheers! It's over two days latter and I'm still chuffed with it, not because of it's apparent value, but it is a jolly nice book. I do believe I will be re-reading Lord of the Rings again sometime soon!

THOMAS PAINE by Craig Nelson
I admit I never even heard of Paine until SONY III, but once I heard a little about his life I had to find out more. Paine was an Englishman and follower of the Enlightenment movement who, after moving to America, became the biggest selling author in the 18th century (though never really made any money - he gave up copyright so as many people as they wanted could print and sell his work) following the publication of two works advocating American independence . He became a major player and influence in the fight for American independence, as well as becoming amajor influence on the French Revolution to the extent where he ended up becoming a member of the French government. He was also equally loved and hated in England and scared the King and Parliament so much that the Government introduced censorship laws that would put the Nazis to shame - Paine would have been executed if he returned to England and anyone who printed his books was jailed.
Not only is the book an interesting insight into Paine's life - from his early years as tax man, to his escape by luck from the guillotine in Paris, up to the robbing of his grave and the selling/distribution of parts of his corpse throughout the world - but also an interesting look at the history of the time. I found it surprising how much American independence owes to pure luck, misunderstanding and arrogance on both sides, as well as being a war full of contradictions. As for the French Revolution, it really was a bloody, nasty mess.

A great book about one of the most important, divisive, yet little known men in history.


Pete/Rachel - the bar we visited that Paine stayed in towards the end of his life - who was the woman that looked after him? Also, dd you say he was disliked by many Americans because he kept his British citizenship as a protest against the American support for slavery?

I'm about a third of the way into LA Confidential and it's pretty good, if slightly hard going (probably just me having trouble adjusting to James Ellroy's writing style)

I've put it temporarily on hold to read Danny Wallace's Yes Man, which I am enjoying very much as a break.

This has, I think, been covered before, but I've read Girlfriend in a Coma (excellent) and Microserfs (more excellent) and I was hoping for some forum recommendations about which Coupland books to read next.

Since you've read Microserfs, I'd say read JPod now. It's a great follow-up.

No clue what the deterrent fleet will be. I assumed it would just be some super secret super powerful ships, although nothing completely out of the ordinary, or maybe they'll be massive or something, or perhaps based on Raiel DF technology? I suppose it would have to be pretty out of the ordinary, as the ultra drive ships are all pretty tasty in their own right. Do we have any allies that haven't been mantioned yet? Ooh, perhaps they're run by the SI? Although it appeared that it had been pretty much cut off from humanity for while. Oh wait, what if Nigel Sheldon runs the deterrent fleet? He might have a system or two just churning out super specced ships and manned by an army of young Sheldons?

Rah and the Lady? I guess they were pioneers. Do they ever mention colony ships in the Commonwealth saga timelines? That certainly seems to be what is hinted at. And they may have been the captain and second in command, perhaps their names have been corrupted over time? I can't think of any familiar names they could have been corrupted from though. It would have to be pre- commonwealth saga wouldn't it? Time in the void is screwy though. Perhaps Justine is the Lady and Gore will be Rah?

And I like the way Gore is able to work out what the Void is so easily. Making the consequences of actions within the void very real outside the void should also make the Living Dream lot think twice, some of them anyway.

I'm sure Nigel will come back into it somehow, despite him supposedly flying off to other galaxies, so maybe. I can't imagine that they have Raiel technology, otherwise they wouldn't have been so surprised at the power of the Raiel defenders who nearly killed Justine. It'll be fun to find out!

Hamilton has said that Justine is not the Lady. They are definitely people from Coomonwealth ships but were they anyone of import from the Commonwealth books? I'm not sure. Apparently Aaron is not someone particularly well-known either.

Unfortunately the Living Dream followers don't care about the outside world enough to save it, so I'm not sure the way it functions will deter them at all.

Only 18 months to wait...

Has he? Ah well, guess she's not then. It would be too obvious. Maybe Rah and the Lady are Inigo and Araminta?

Since I'm (finally) about to start reading The Temporal Void, was I correct to skip over the last few posts, or are they spoiler free?

I wouldn't read them if I were you!

Probably right to, although there's not a huge amount of actual factual spoilerage in there. Sorry, I'd thought by now it would probably be safe. Mea culpa.

Her name was Marguerite de Bonneville and the bar was Marie's Crisis Cafe. He did keep his British citizenship, apparently because he felt the American Constitution was such an abhorrent document (because of the language in it that condone the owning of slaves) that he refused to become a citizen of the USA.