Order of the Golden Sprout The New Robert Rankin Fan Club

This was an Isis Audio (Unabridged book) read by David Thorpe. I've not read (or listened to) any of Elton's Novels before & picked this one totally at random. I was initially rather disappointed by the concept, but soon grew to like the work itself. Thorpe is an excellent reader & his voices fitted perfectly.

I've always been aware of Asimov's Foundation as a series that ought to be read and I must say I enjoyed the first book, though I wouldn't call it the greatest sci-fi ever written. Maybe you need to have read the whole series to get that impression. I don't know.
It starts with Harry Seldon's prophesy of the the destruction of the mighty Galactic Empire and the need for all human knowledge to be secured before then in the Foundation in order to rebuild.

I'm not sure what H.G Wells was intending with this book. As science fiction, it's rather poor. As a story, it's a bit of a 'Boy's Own' adventure. As a satire of the archetypal 'Brit abroad' and social comment, it's rather enjoyable, I'm just not entirely sure that was Well's intention.

Mr Cavor, a scientist, invents a substance that negates gravity and builds a sphere that will travel to the moon. Unfortunately, he takes Mr Bedford, a failed entrepreneur with him which causes no end of problems.

This was where Reggie started. For anyone who doesn't know, Reginald Iolanthe Perrin (RIP) is a middle class, middle management, middle of the road man - with issues. He's stuck in a depressingly pointless job working for Sunshine Desserts, with depressing work colleagues (well except maybe his secretary, Joan) and he is going slowly mad.

This book was the first incarnation of Reggie. It was soon made into a TV series staring Leonard Rossiter & much more recently a TV series staring Martin Clunes. I shall ignore the latter series & make comparative reference only to Rossiters Reggie.

I found this a very hard book to read & am immensely glad it was only 200 pages long, the story washed over me (& not in a good way). Things, places, people, situations are often not fully describes, as though I'm supposed to know what's going on already.

I've given this 5 stars because though its content at times is stomach churning, sick making and repulsive, it is nevertheless an exceptional book. It is the story of Frank who lives with his father on a small island in Scotland. Living according to his self created mythology of protection which includes the regular sacrifice of small animals in imaginatively cruel and vile ways. Several times I put the book down, resolving not to read any further. The attack on the rabbits with a flame thrower and the burning dogs were the worst parts for me.

A novel of three several parts: a self contained City, an open community & a voyage amongst the stars. I found the initial part set in the City of Dispar to be the most intriguing section, featuring many classic SF wonders for 1956. Some great concepts of virtual reality, computer simulation, human storage & regeneration, along with moving walkways, domes cities & robot assistants.

Despite it's far-far future setting, once Alvin (not a very SF name is it) leaves the City it becomes a simple tale of exploration & discovery.

Revelation Space is first full length novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. I'd put this firmly in the Space Opera bracket with some Hard SF leanings. I rather enjoyed this book on the whole, the main characters were interesting but not that likeable (maybe that's what made them interesting?) The set pieces and locations where well defined & moved the narrative on well, especially the final journey into they mysterious “moon”.

This is the sequel to 'The King Must Die' and is an excellent account of the later life of the Greek Hero Theseus. My only criticism is that there was no indication on the book that this was part 2 of a series, so I read it before 'the King Must Die'. It stood up well on it's own but needed the first story to give a better understanding of Theseus's motives.

The book begins after his triumphant return from Crete where he killed the 'Minotaur'. Coming home, he finds himself and his bull dancers have become foreign to their own people and the return is difficult for all of them.

I actually listened to this on audio book (cassette tapes!), read by Stephen Briggs. I've got to say for a humorous fantasy, there is very little humour or fantasy in there. That said it's a decent book, with good characters, a good story & it's pretty grim in places too, especially when they come across the torture chambers.

The basic premise is that Sam Vimes of the Night Watch is accidentally sent back in time along with the criminal Carcer. The History Monks will help him return but not before he gets involved in a major Revolution.

Like volumes 3 & 6 this is really a collection of short stories. Framed around people trapped at an Inn (poor buggers) whilst a storm rages outside, telling stories to help pass the time in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales style. Volumes with one continuous story arc work better for me than these shorter stories though. The artwork is stunning as ever, with each section illustrated by a different artist(s) highlighting a different style for each story.

The stand-out story for me was Cerements. Where we visit the Necropolis, a city of the dead.

Paul Cornell is well known for writing some of the best episodes of the new series of Doctor Who, along with some excellent comics. As a result I was keen to try out some of his novels, and I wasn't disappointed with British Summertime.

This is an excellent account of the early life of the Greek Hero Theseus.
It tells the story of Theseus from his birth, his adventures while returning to King Aegis, his father and his choice to go to Crete with the sacrifice of young men and women to the Minotaur at Knossos.

Mary Renault has taken the stories and stripped out the myth, and reworked them into a plausible history which is just as, if not more fascinating for having had the magic and myth removed.

This is an intelligent and well written book which explains the dangers of quantum mechanics. The main Character, John Ringer, a theoretical physics professor meets an old flame, though she claims to be someone else. At the same time, Ringer is receiving odd texts on his phone and a man called Harry is in hospital suffering from a new illness called AMD, the symptoms of which are false memories and hallucinations. The story also randomly jumps back and forth in time to give us fascinating views into the life of Erwin Schrödinger and Schumann.

I'd never read any Stephen Fry before & knew nothing about him as an author, so had very little idea what to expect from this 367 page novel from 1991. If you had to guess you'd probably go for “funny & clever”? Well, you wouldn't be to far off the mark with that, but it still wasn't quite what the book I had envisioned.

This is the story of Adrian Healey. An overly clever young man, with a chronic tendency to lie & exaggerate in virtually every situation he finds himself in.

I stopped reading Stephen King’s books a while ago as I was finding them formulaic. However, this one was recommended to me as something different. And it was. This is a fairy tale written in the old fashioned style and is the standard tale of a usurped throne and a wrongly imprisoned, handsome prince, but I’d say it’s definitely for the adult market.

The style of the writing is very entertaining, especially the way the sing song ‘Once upon a time’ voice deals with things like the king’s erectile problems and his reluctance to perform his husbandly duties.

This is a book of two halves. The first half is pretty dire but the second half is reasonably enjoyable. It tells of 3 men, a monk, a barbarian and a barman, on a quest to find the recipe for the best ale in the world in order to save their local pub. All the while being pursued by 5 Hull's Angels from the competing pub.

Being an ale drinker myself, I had high hopes of enjoying what looked like a fun and entertaining romp. Instead it rather shambled along and up to about page 200 was very easy to put down and difficult to pick up again.

I found this novel well written but rather tedious. It was an interesting experiment to see how a single day in one man’s life could be made to fill an entire book. However, if such an experiment were to be done again, I would suggest finding a more interesting man to follow. The main plot line of the book lies in Henry’s confrontations with the psychotic Baxter but there was not enough action to hold my interest.

This is a seriously good book, well written and compelling. Lucifer is
placed in a human body and given a chance by God to redeem himself. The story is told from Lucifer’s point of view and and one can’t help but feel empathy with him. Some seriously scary questions are asked, such as ‘Since God is all seeing, how did the Serpent get into the Garden of Eden in the first place?’ God, from Lucifer’s point of view is unkind, unfair and full of ulterior motives.

A charming and very funny collection of fairy tales for grownups. Written with a wicked sense of humour, the stories take modern romance and give them a rougish twist that can warm the cockles of the most jaded heart. An ideal stocking filler, this little book is pure gold

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. It is light but very well written. Without being either catty or judgemental, it gives a delicious insight into the excesses, self absorption and jostling for position of the gossip fuelled jet set of New York. The main character goes from small town hair dresser to celebrity colourist but never forgets her roots (pun intended). The main characters are engaging and I found the book hard to put down, perfect holiday reading.

An enjoyable, easy to read book about an aspiring writer, Andrea Sachs, who somehow gets herself sucked into becoming the junior assistant to Miranda Priestly, the nightmare boss and exalted fashion guru not from hell, but from somewhere pretty close. She is told that a year with Miranda Priestly equals three years with anybody else and is a short cut to her ideal job. However, can she survive a year?

I find I need to get in a particular mood to read a Charlie Stross novel. This suits me fine, since once I'm in such a mood there are few other authors I find satisfy it. I generally find myself in such a mood about once a year, which means Charlie is writing them slightly faster than I'm reading them.

Finding myself in the right mood, I picked up The Glass House, which must have been sitting on the "to read" shelf for at least a year, and found myself engrossed in it for about a week, which is fairly quick for me (I can struggle through a book for months).