Snuff by Terry Pratchett

The Blurb: At long last, Lady Sybil has lured her husband, Sam Vimes, on a well-deserved holiday away from the crime and grime of Ankh-Morpork. But for the commander of the City Watch, a vacation in the country is anything but relaxing. The balls, the teas, the muck—not to mention all that fresh air and birdsong—are more than a bit taxing on a cynical city-born and -bred copper.

Yet a policeman will find a crime anywhere if he decides to look hard enough, and it’s not long before a body is discovered, and Sam—out of his jurisdiction, out of his element, and out of bacon sandwiches (thanks to his well-meaning wife)—must rely on his instincts, guile, and street smarts to see justice done. As he sets off on the chase, though, he must remember to watch where he steps. . . . This is the countryside, after all, and the streets most definitely are not paved with gold.

I must confess that I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan. I have been one for years, and I'll defend his world and works  to any who dares to belittle his works or who is insane enough to try to discuss it with me after a few drinks. Ask my wife, I do not stop, go in circles and basically bash you over the head with my argument until you agree with me, if only to make me stop. That's how big of a fan I am. I'll try to be impartial in my review, but that's probably a lost cause.

This time most of the action happens at Ramkin Hall, Lady Sybil's childhood country home, and now belonging to Sir Samuel Vimes, Duke of Ankh and Commander of the City Watch. The all round hero, policeman and mainly city rat. He is out of his element and he knows it. His first real holiday since for ever.

A lot of people arguethat Sir Pratchett's earlier works are better. That he has lost his edge. I won't say better, but they are more satirical and laugh-a-minute without question. That is understandable, with old age and that bastard Altzheimer's looming over a person, I'm sure that satire seems a bit difficult to achieve. The guy has sold over 70 million books. And his books are the most stolen on earth. True story. The guy is a legend.

Willikins emerges as a bodyguard in this book, and that transformation that started in Thud! is complete. Vimes has someone from his own background that he can trust with his and his family's life, and I feel that it was needed to help keep Sam Vimes sane. Good touch that. And it made him bloody good fun to read.

Sam Vimes Jr is six in this book, talking, running and collecting poop. It will be interesting to follow the development of Vimes II, and I'm sure that all the fans will love him.

Oh yes, and there are Goblins. The theme of introducing new races are continuing, and that helps to keep the stories fresh. The Dwarves, Fey, Trolls and Undead has been done, and done brilliantly. The Orcs and Goblins should shake up The Discworld and shake out some new tales.

All in all, Snuff was an enjoyable read. Not as funny as his earlier works, but I've covered that. A bit darker for Pratchett, but it is done well and the darkness matches the Vimes books. It was an honour as a fan to read. I'm pretty sure anyone will enjoy it.

8/10

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

The Blurb: Welcome to the future. Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer, Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

This is the first book of the Expanse by James S.A. Corey, who is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. It is brilliant. I can stop the review right there. Go and read it.

OK. A few words. It seems that Abraham and Franck wrote the two main characters, Miller and Holden's chapters on their own(ish), then polished the complete work together so that it flows nicely. I thought that it would be difficult to get into the flow of the book, but I was really pleasantly surprised. The brilliant upshot of writing in a team is that the two main characters each have a very distinctive voice, character and thought pattern. Holden is the crusader of righteousness, Miller the semi-alcoholic burnt out detective.  They react differently to the same pressures, and it makes for some fun reading.

The setting of the book is mostly in the Kuiper Belt, with people who work and live there seen as the lower class, scummy part of our universe. It's the industrial district of space. Mars is terraformed (mostly) and being lived on and Earth still exist, which is nice. All three cultures hate each other, which is right up our human nature alley.

Holden starts to flounder the deeper into the plot we go. His black/white world view starts to struggle when morality is more a shade of grey. He sticks by his decisions, come hell or high water. He stands by his crew, and he deserves respect for it.

Miller is my favourite though. Drunk for the first part of the book, hallucinating and half insane for the rest. He sees the world as it is. Broken and cynical. He does what he knows is right, even at major cost to himself. All for the best of humanity.

I was put off from science fiction for quite a few years, but these guys has restored my faith in the genre. Epic scope, brilliant characters, believable physics for a sci fi book and loads of fun! 
Hell, it was good enough the keep me off Skyrim last night.

10/10 

Skyrim: The best timesink on earth.

So I received quite a nice bonus from my boss, and I bought myself and Xbox360. I know I'm about five years after the times with my purchase, but I would like anyone out there to try to afford one on an article clerk's salary. Especially a married article clerk.

I've never been too interested in console gaming. I've always had my PC and the thing was quite a monster five years ago. But that means it sucks in today's terms. So no chance of playing any new game on the old dinosaur. When Batman: Arkham City came out, I thought it would be fun to play. But then I saw the screenshots of Skyrim, and I fell in love.

I just knew that I had to have it. I've finished Neverwinter nights 1&2 as well as Oblivion, and this was the game that finally sold me on the Console deal.

And yes, the game is so cool and pretty that it justifies spending R3,500 (about $430) on a Xbox360. I'm loving every second of it so far. That the Kinect should be handy for insane drinking games is also quite a bonus.

So, since I'm working straight through to the end of the year, and spending a lot of my free time on hunting dragons in Skyrim, reading has been slow. But I do not care.

I'm having a blast!

Current Reading

I felt that I needed a change of scenery reading wise so to speak, and I thought I'll give good old Sci Fi another bash. I've been put off in the past by all the weird sex that the writers hope will happen in the future. Hmmmm.

I've only heard good things about Leviathan Wakes though. It's a collaboration written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey. I'm a Abraham fan, and this is the first thing I'm reading that Franck has done. I'm about halfwayish and enjoying it immensely. A review should be up next week sometime.

In other news, my huge bookase is done and up! For a first ever woodworking project, it went surprisingly well. I bled quite a bit, but no stitches was needed. Photographic proof will be added as soon as I can find my damn camera.

Massive giveaway over at The Qwillery

I have no idea how I have managed to miss this site for so long. Go here to win a load of books and even a Nook for the American people. The reviews and book challenge looks pretty awesome as well.

Among Thieves

The Blurb: Drothe is a Nose, an informant who finds and takes care of trouble inside the criminal organization he’s a part of. He also smuggles imperial relics on the side. 

When his boss sends him to Ten Ways to track down who’s been leaning on his organization’s people, Drothe discovers hints of a much bigger mystery. Someone is trying to stir up trouble between lower-level criminal organizations, including the one Drothe belongs to. And there’s a book rumored to contain imperial glimmer (or magic) that a lot of very dangerous people seem to be looking for - including two crime bosses known as the Gray Princes.

When Drothe discovers the book, he finds himself holding a bit of swag that can bring down emperors, shatter the criminal underworld, and unlock forbidden magic…that's if he can survive long enough to use it. 

After I finished the frankly lovely Prince of Thorns a while back, I was a bit stuck what to read. Then, as if by miracle, the friendly guys over at fantasy faction had a "best book of 2011" list going. A lot of the guys on the forum suggested it, so I gave it a go.

Drothe is a criminal. Working for an organisation as a nose, collecting rumours and starting them, protecting his boss and his interest by anticipating what is going to happen based on the information he gathers. Drothe hangs out with Bronze Degan, who is a member of a group of mercenaries. They are fast friends. He's the muscle, Drothe the brains. Is it sounding familiar yet? A lot like Lies of Locke Lamora? That is the main reason why I waited before reading this, since Locke Lamora was bloody brilliant, and I wasn't in the mood for a pale imitation thief story.

It starts slowly. Very slowly. The story plods along a bit at first as Drothe does his job, mainly as a mid level criminal. As bigger players are introduced, the pace picks up and the story just sucks you in. Drothe and Degan deals with people who they thought of as legends at the start of the book. The Empire and the history behind he Emperor hints at delicious stories to come. Hulick put in quite a lot of legwork on the imperial history, but since it fits it doesn't detract from the story. The thief slang that he uses throughout the book is a bit confusing for the first twenty or so pages, but when you get used to it it really adds to the book. Hulick even explains at the end where he got his ideas and the words from, which was quite a nice touch.

Drothe thinks he is a good guy, but he is a bastard. Throughout the book he betrays just about everyone, justifying his actions as he moves along. That make for some compelling reading, since in another novel Drothe could easily be the bad guy in stead of the hero. 

Is it the same as Lies of Locke Lamora as so many people say? Well, both deals with thieves and both happen in a city, and that's about it in my opinion. The characters are vastly different, and the cities as well. It's a brilliant book and you won't be disappointed if you buy it.

7/10 

This is insane

I ran into this while browsing the web this morning. It's bloody insane that a guy as big as G.R.R. Martin can be saddled by crap like this. Well done Paypal. You are trying to expand into Africa, and then something like this happens? Way to go to get the public to believe in you. Paypal is a brilliant service in principle, but if you are going to be stubborn and idiotic about stuff like this, you won't get many guys in South Africa using you. It's easy enough to make internet banking transfers, and we are used to have to struggle a bit to get our money out of the banks, what with dumb SASWITCH fees killing us and all. You were supposed to make it easier and cheaper to transfer money and pay people. 


I was bloody happy when I heard that Paypal is going to be linking with the Big 4 banks that we have. Now, not so much. I'd rather stick to my bank screwing me. At least I'm used to them. A new player with the same old crap and horrible public service? And doing essentially the same service as a bank? You must be joking if you think the normal person who only does payments locally would use you.


Idiots

Come on weekend!

No reading will be happening this weekend. There is a birthday party tonight that cannot be ducked, and tomorrow it's me, my friends and the Nedbank Golf Challenge. It was free tickets, and we are going to be allowed into the very fancy sponsors areas. It helps when a good friend works for South African Breweries. Beer will be consumed. Lots of beer.
Sunday will be a construction day. That bookcase is taking forever.

I'm currently blazing my way through Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick and I'm enjoying it so far.

Onwards and Upwards!

City of Hell Chronicles Vol1

The blurb: The Ant-Headed Old One ‘The Great Maurr’ has risen and brought hell to earth. The land is scorched and the human race decimated, eaten or tortured. Only three cities remain, a crumbled, dying version of their former selves: London, Moscow and Hong Kong. The Great Maurr’s own City of Hell dominates most of North America. Its diabolical influence has turned ordinary citizens into torturers, debased slaves, lunatics and zealots.


City of Hell is, as can be gathered from the title, a collection of pretty awesome horror stories. Not my usual cup of tea I must say, but I always like to read new things. Maurr has come to earth to destroy and dominate. Seven writers tell of these trying times.


I must say, it took me a good run to get into the premise of the book. Not reading a lot of horror and not reading a lot of short stories made this quite an interesting read The first story, Genesis by Colin F. Barnes, tells of the coming of Maurr and his minions, with a pretty cool device playing a central role that I would have loved to read some more about. 


Medical Report by Victoria Griesdoorn was done awesomely. It's written as a report, and thus most of the emotional reactions is left out, which makes what happens a lot worse. It was a good way to get to know the bugs a bit better and it works well in the short story format, Possibly my favourite.


The Door From Below by Ren Warrom has the best scariest monsters in the book. The Stock Takers sounds bloody awful, and the powerlessness of the characters against them shines through well. 
London Calling by Kendall Grey made me feel a bit sick. Since that is a huge part of being a horror story, that's understandable. Rane as a character was written well, and the bugs were sneaky bastards this time.
The Lucky Ones by Anne Michaud Made me feel worse than London Calling. It's a tale of despair and the fruitlessness of struggle. It was gripping to read, and right up there with my favourite in the whole book


Final Passage by Belinda Frisch and The Nursery by Amy L. Overley reads a lot alike. Both handle transformation, loss, blood, more blood, vomit and death well. I started to get quite depressed by this time, since this book is quite a crapload of death and dismemberment to take in quite a few pages. 
Sanguine by Victoria Griesdoorn takes a refreshing viewpoint on the whole deal, dealing with human interaction after the invasion. The french terms used felt forced and didn't really add to the story, which in the end is an enjoyable tale about revenge. It was a good point to end on.


Was it a good read? Yes it was. I can't wait for more editions, since there are whole swathes of the globe that wasn't explored in the whole Maurr universe. The blood, guts, death, rapes, disembowelment and horror isn't for everybody. Steer well clear if you do not like bodily fluids. 


If you enjoy a good post apocalyptic tale about the futility of life with extra measures of guts, blood and despair. Get your hands on this book. You'll love it. 


7/10

Zoo City the Movie

Via www.angryrobotbooks.com. Well done for one of South Africa's best writers!

TOP SOUTH AFRICAN PRODUCER WINS COVETED FILM RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL “BID FEST” TO MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING AND BESTELLING NOVEL ZOO CITY BY SOUTH AFRICAN AUTHOR LAUREN BEUKES

“Beukes’ energetic noir phantasmagoria, the winner of this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, crackles with original ideas.” (Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times Book Review)

South Africa, November 22nd
Helena Spring, widely regarded as one of South Africa’s most accomplished motion picture producers, has just been awarded the highly sought-after film rights to Zoo City, the Sci-Fi thriller penned by South African author Lauren Beukes – who garnered the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award for best Science Fiction novel. In the wake of whopping sales figures, multiple awards and critical acclaim Beukes’ book generated fierce interest from numerous bidders in the entertainment industry, putting Spring alongside major US and UK producers eager to tell Beukes’ unique tale.

Zoo City was published first in South Africa by Jacana Media and thereafter internationally by by Angry Robot.

The urban fantasy is set in a futuristic, gritty and hard-core Johannesburg where the eponymous ghetto has been colonised by society’s outcasts – like criminals, drug-dealers and psychopaths, and their animal companions. Like the other residents of the Zoo City slum, Zinzi, the anti-heroine, is “animalled”, but she is also a shrewd, street-smart girl with the gift (or burden) of finding lost things. Zinzi wears her power animal, a sloth, on her back. When she is hired to find a missing teenybopper star, she hopes that it will be her ticket out of Hell’s waiting room.

“I’m delighted to have secured the film and television rights for Zoo City,” commented Helena Spring. “It is a groundbreaking, magical novel begging for a life on the big screen. Lauren’s storytelling is masterful – edgy and futuristic, unique yet universal. It is high in entertainment value yet emotionally charged, a dream project for any producer.”

Beukes positively acknowledges the choice of the winning producer. “Every novelist dreams of a movie deal – but you actually want more than that. You want to find a producer of great vision and integrity and experience who fundamentally gets the book and understands how to transform it into an entirely different creature based on the same genetic material. I’m thrilled that it’s being produced in South Africa – for an international audience.”

Spring’s career in the entertainment industry spans nearly three decades, during which time she has produced over twenty motion pictures – including the first ever South African film to receive recognition at the Academy Awards®: Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday earned a Best Foreign Picture nomination in 2004.

Spring, who has worked with some of the foremost filmmakers in the world – such as Paul Greengrass who helmed the box office smash hits The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and Academy Award® winner, Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), will soon be putting the project out to a select party of directors, while Beukes has first look as screenwriter to adapt her novel for the screen. “Lauren is perfectly placed to do this. The characters are alive inside her,” says Spring.

Julian Friedmann of Blake Friedmann (the literary agency that reps Beukes), says that: “Helena outbid all the others in a spirited auction for film rights to this extraordinary book. She had an extremely proactive, writer-friendly approach to working with Lauren and offered an imaginative and creative proposal that was irresistible.”

Lauren Beukes’ meteoric rise seems unstoppable and recently a new megabucks book deal was announced. The working titles of the two novels – due in 2013 and 2014 – are The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters. They were picked up by publishers in the US, the UK, South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

Ahem....

And by Monday, I meant Friday. I forgot about a birthday party that had to be attended as well as how shitty too much beer makes a person feel.

On the plus side I'm constructing a massive bookcase. Since this is my first woodworking project and I still have all my fingers, I feel it's proceeding quite well.

I'll be reading and reviewing this over the weekend:

The Blurb: There is no god, no angels, no redemption. There is no hope, only suffering. The great Ant-headed Old-One has risen and brought hell to earth. The land is scorched and the human race decimated, eaten or tortured. Only three cities remain, a crumbled dying version of their former selves: London, Moscow and Hong Kong.The Old-One’s own City of Hell dominates most of North America. Its diabolical influence has turned ordinary citizens into torturers, debased slaves, lunatics and zealots.


Mwhahahaha! Should be an interesting read, watch for review on Monday.
Well, I'm off to my day job's year end braai. That's a barbecue to the uninformed. May everyone have an epic weekend.

The book I've been waiting for for the last 10 years. If Sanderson screws it up, I'll never forgive him...
That must be one of the worst covers I've seen in many a year.

Prince of Thorns – Mark Lawrence

The Blurb: Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse. They say these are violent times, the end of days when the dead roam and monsters haunt the night. All that's true enough, but there's something worse out there, in the dark. Much worse."

Once a privileged royal child, raised by a loving mother, Jorg Ancrath has become the Prince of Thorns, a charming, immoral boy leading a grim band of outlaws in a series of raids and atrocities. The world is in chaos: violence is rife, nightmares everywhere. Jorg's bleak past has set him beyond fear of any man, living or dead, but there is still one thing that puts a chill in him. Returning to his father's castle Jorg must confront horrors from his childhood and carve himself a future with all hands turned against him.

This is the debut novel of Mark Lawrence. I’ve seen it on the 

shelves of bookstores and on Amazon for a while now, floating around my recommendation lists. I haven’t been that interested in it. The hooded man with sword cover has been done to death, and it sure as hell didn’t shout out to me “Read me, I’m awesome.” When the Best of 2011 lists started showing up and most had Prince of Thorns on it, I decided it should be worth my while.

Boy, am I lucky I listened to myself.

The setting of Prince of Thorns is a broken Empire, with everyone who has a claim competing for the throne. It’s been going on for generations, with no end in sight. The story is told from the viewpoint of Prince Jorg, who, when we meet him, leads a band of criminals and highwaymen on a spree of murder and mayhem. And all that at thirteen. They rape, pillage, murder and do all the dark deeds that could be thought off. Now Jorg as a thirteen year old bloodthirsty highwayman was a cause for me to pause and groan. I hate it when the hero is basically a teenager and he is the bestest and brightest in all that he does. He does impossible things on a regular basis in the book, and it almost spoiled it for me.

However, it all gets explained in quite a satisfactory way towards the end of the novel, which made me enjoy it a million times more.

The story is action packed, delivering fight scenes and normal conversation with fast pacing and a bit of insanity. The setting is one I quite enjoyed. It hasn’t been used to death and the setting alone promises to influence the way the story will unfold in the future. I won’t spoil it for you, but that alone is worth a read.

Jorg is a bastard, but the book is full of bastards and at least Jorg is a lovable bugger underneath all his faults and hurts. He even eats a heart, and I still like him.

There are magic in the world, but it isn’t the focus or that important in this novel. I’m sure that it will be included into the story a bit more in the next installment, but I didn’t miss it.

The only big faults with this book? Well, I don’t really care about the cover at all. And I wish I’ve read it sooner. That’s about it really.

Is it worth a read? Hell yes. 8/10

Time flies!

Oh how time flies when real life gets in the way. A lot has been read in the last months, and some reviews will be popping up shortly.

The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss

                                                                                                                                                

The Blurb:

 In The Wise Man's Fear, Day Two of The Kingkiller Chronicle, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, forced to reclaim the honor of his family, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived...until Kvothe.

In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

Patrick Rothfuss dazzled everyone with his debut novel published in 2007, The Name of the Wind. This is his second instalment in the series and one of the most anticipated books of 2011. The first one was pretty brilliant. The way that Mr. Rothfuss writes pulls you into the story, and the pages just fly by. His pacing, humour, and settings are masterfully crafted.

Kvothe is still a student at the University, struggling to make tuition each term and battling with Ambrose, the “rich kid” in the book that had everything handed to him. Their animosity gets out of hand a bit and Kvothe decides to take some time off from his studies until the dust settles. Denna is the one constant in his life, even if she is never around. And a bit slutty.

I’m glad that Rothfuss managed to get him out into the world, since there is only so much that can be said about student life. Yes, he gets expelled sometime in the future as mentioned in The Name of the Wind, but a less serious break was needed to move the story along. He still has to earn some of his reputation.

He gets a hand from his friend, Count Threpe, to travel to a distant land to help a king court a lady, saving the king form poisoning, hunting bandits and becoming one of his trusted advisors, even though he is only sixteen. Then he meets Felurian, the sex bot Fae who can steal a man’s sanity with her prowess. Except for Kvothe, of course. He’s the man.

It is about here in the book that I started rolling my eyes and wishing some serious bodily harm on Kvothe.

I understand that he has to enter the Fae realm, otherwise how is his friendship with Bast explained? Did he have to meet the sex-elf as a sixteen year old? And then trick her into letting him go? As a SIXTEEN year old? And of course he learns her pleasure secrets, so that he can basically make a woman orgasm with a look. (Insert me puking my guts out here).

Yes, I understand that it’s fantasy. I understand that there should be a reason for it beyond the sex education of a young man. Or at least I hope there is a better explanation. Otherwise, why not just use a hot prostitute? Or milkmaid?

The training with the Adem was just as brutal. Zen buggers with a life philosophy that helps them kick you in the neck faster than you can blink. Yawn. And Kvothe gets accepted and trains and he get the pretty girl. Again.

Now he can speak with his hands and slice you to pieces with a sword. Since he is awesome and spent two months with them. But it’s mostly the awesomeness. And the sex tricks he picked up of course.

Throughout the first and second books Kvothe brags about inventing rumours about himself, writing songs about his exploits and padding his experiences a bit to make the stories better, for the sole reason to stoke his reputation. That’s all well and good, but then he goes and achieves all of the above before he is eighteen? Not to judge, why invent anything, since the sun shines out of your ass anyways?

The breaks in the story shows Kvothe as a broken innkeeper who cannot use his sympathy or secret ninja training received from the Adem. The world is at war. That is well and good. It shows that the third book has to be a helluva lot better than this one.

My biggest problem with the book is that it’s been reading as a classic fantasy novel thus far. Good guy is good in everything, he gets the girl(s) and he is the smartest, best looking and most talented bugger to walk the earth. I do not like that type of fantasy. If I want that, I’d go and re read Eddings.

I’m not saying that Rothfuss should kill off half his characters to show that he is serious, but jeez. Making your one hero so heroic that he’s nauseating?

If all Edema Ruh are as arrogant as Kvothe, it would explain why no one likes them much.

My opinion: The writing is beautiful. Interaction between characters are well done, the world is explained enough so that you know what is going on, but not so much that Rothfuss can be accused of wordbuilding just for worldbuildings sake. I just hate Kvothe, which makes it hard to enjoy the book.

No one should be as good as that. Not even in fantasy.

6 out of 10.

I found this bloody funny.


 Am I the only one a bit bored about all the Martin? Maybe it's because we haven't seen Game of Thrones in South Africa? Maybe I have to re read his work? I've read it, and it was good. It wasn't the best I've read by a long shot, but I enjoyed it.But the whole internet seems to orgasm if Mr. Martin as much as moves.


"With all the GRRMbling that has been going around the past few days (not to mention the hugely popular HBO series Game of Thrones), I thought it would be a good time to unveil the cover art for the Sixth and Final Volume of George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Originally intended to be published as two volumes, A Flood of Flames reflects Martin's new direction for the series after carefully considering fan input he's received over the years."



Cover Artist: Jennifer Wolohan

Borrowed from http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/

On rebirth

Well, life seems a bit less hectic. Things are falling into place and cooling down at last. I've even found time to start reading a few books!

So without too many promises, hopefully some reviews should be making their way onto this site some time soon...