I am currently waiting eagerly for the arrival of the latest James Bond film, Skyfall at my local cinema. Unfortunately this is still a month away, thanks to the staggered distribution of these films worldwide. However, it does give me the opportunity to reflect on my history with James Bond. It’s strange, but one of my clearest memories of my childhood is not knowing who … Continue reading Thoughts on James Bond: Novels, Movies and RPG
My RPG book collection isn’t that big. Let’s face it, I mainly just play D&D. This is my D&D collection: From top to bottom you can see… SHELF ONE:* Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e SHELF TWO:* Dungeons and Dragons 4E* Battletech SHELF THREE:* AD&D Rulebooks* AD&D 2nd Edition Rulebooks and supplements* D&D 3rd edition* A very small number of d20 System publications SHELF FOUR:* AD&D 1st … Continue reading Not that many books…
Last night, when I got home, I went looking for third book in the Alcatraz series by Brandon Sanderson. They’re gloriously funny and enjoyable books I bought through Amazon earlier in the year. Book 1, “Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians” is terribly playful and the second book is even better. So, I wanted to read the third book, but I couldn’t find it. I rummaged … Continue reading Arrgh!!!! Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz books
I’ve just been struggling with Jennifer Fallon’s website, trying to work out if she’s working on a new book. Urgh. Look, I realise that most authors have better things to do than spend a lot of time working on their website, but the website is hard work to find anything useful on. Laurell K Hamilton also used to have a pretty good website; it’s still … Continue reading Author websites
I just bought the the latest of the Anita Blake novels, “Flirt”. I also finished it during my lunch break. It’s actually a novella, but hey, it’s the new Anita Blake book! I also paid way too much for it, but… new Anita Blake book! (I also picked up the second book of Robin Hobb’s Dragon duology, I haven’t actually finished reading the first one … Continue reading Authors I like and recent reading
I’ve just been watching (reading?) Nathan Fillion and Simon Pegg engage in a bout of starship envy on twitter. The world is a strange and glorious place.
On the way home from Jeremy and Venetia’s place in Melbourne on Boxing Day after a very pleasant lunch, I stopped into Minotaur Books to use a voucher I’d been given for my birthday by Jess (thanks, Jess!) A few moments later, I had a couple of new books by one of my favourite science fiction author, Jack McDevitt – Infinity Beach and Moonfall. (Alas, … Continue reading A couple of books
Tallow, by Karen Brooks, is the first of a new fantasy trilogy by an Australian author set in a fantasy version of Venice. It has a number of really good things about it: the setting is interesting, there are a number of intrigues swirling about, a fascinating magic system and, of course, a prophecy. Unfortunately, all of these good premises are let down by indifferent … Continue reading Tallow
Oddities of oddities, we saw the 10th episode of Flashforward before you folk in the States did. And now the show is on hiatus until March… Is it dead? I hope not. The reasons for delaying it – to stop a horror run of preemptions – make sense, but the show, for all its intriguing ideas, has been rather hit and miss. In some ways, … Continue reading FlashForward
Well, I now have it: The Gathering Storm, book 12 of the Wheel of Time, and the third-last volume in the tale. The book was partly written by Robert Jordan, and completed by Brandon Sanderson. Over (hopefully) the next two years, the remainder of the tale will be released and we will finally have the Wheel of Time in its entirety. It’s been a long … Continue reading The Gathering Storm – The Wheel of Time
