Elizabeth Moon's "The Deed of Paksenarion"

Very enjoyable fantasy about a young woman who leaves her farming roots to become a warrior. The first part ("The Sheep farmers Daughter") is available for free download from Baen Ebooks and if you like it you can buy the rest, good system. In Paksearnion's world the southern realms are constantly engaged in factional wars. This provides ongoing opportunities for mercenary armies from the more peaceful North to earn their keep campaigning for Southern lords and our aspiring heroine joins one such army. Most of the book is regular soldiering but the regular cast of characters including elves and dwarves turns up and there  is a smattering of magic both good and bad thrown in too.  The magic is tied closely to the religious framework of the book world with various God's both evil and just endowing their followers with abilities. In fact the main theme of the saga is Paksenarion's (Paks)  development from mercenary to holy warrior.

The villains unfortunately are the weakest element of the story for me, particular the magical ones. On several occasions Paks has to clear out dungeons populated with minions and boss monsters that are lifted straight out of a 1980's isometric computer role playing game. The boss is always lying in wait in the deepest dungeon and his minions appear to be constrained to moving on fixed paths.  At one hilarious juncture we even had minions lining up in groups of three to be moved down by the advancing heroes. The similarity is so close it has to be deliberate but it doesn't really work for me. Happily once they get out of the dungeons the story is much more fluid and the combat more enjoyable.

David Weber: "On Basilisk Station" and "The Honor of The Queen"

The first two books in David Webers popular series about astarship officer in the Royal Manticoran navy. This is space opera at is finest. Weber's starship warfare is closer to Horatio Hornblower than Captain Kirk with Starships reduced in Webers vision of future science to firing broadsides at each other much like 18th Centuy ships of the line. It is pue hookum of course but well written and enjoyable hookum.

Brian Aldiss: Non Stop

Timeless Vintage Sci Fi.

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Warhammer 40k: Tales of Heresy

Pulp fiction at its finest. Place holder post

Suzanne Collin's: "The Hunger Games", "Catching Fire", "Mockingjay"

My thirteen year old daughter recommended that I read Collin's blockbuster young adult trilogy about a despotic future world where children are forced to fight to the death in an arena. This shocking premise has already been explored in Koushin Takami's Japanese novel "Battle Royale" but the "Hugner Games" has an enthralling story  all of its own.

First book: "The HungerGames": Much more enjoyable than I expected and very well written. This sucked me in and kept me reading.

Second book: "Catching Fire": A worthy successor that broadens out knowledge of the society that spawned the games. Probably my favourite book of the trilogy.

Third book: "Mockingjay": The final volume was a bit of a dissapointment to me. In a nutshell there was too much emotional angst and not enough shooting bad guys. Nevertheless the story is resolved reasonably and Collin's characters develop in a credible way.

All in all the series is very good even though I was a bit dissapointed by the ending. Collin's has becpome the best selling author on Kindle so obviously a lot of other readers like this series too.

George R. R. Martin "A Dance with Dragons"

The paperback edition of the latest installment of Martin's Ice and Fire sage is split into two volumes but each has more than 700 pages so I didn't feel too cheated at having to shell out for both.

Ice and Fire continues to enthrall me, even though Martin shares the late Robert Jordan's view that you should never tell a tale in 10 words when you could use 10,000. Martin's characterisation remains strong as always. The main protagonists of Dragons are Daenerys Targaryen, John Snow and Tyrion Lannister. Daenerys's fledgling empire in the East seems to be coming apart due to her unwillingness to act despotically. John Snow is desperately trying to strengthen the Night's Watch and enlist any allies he can get for the forthcoming battle against the terifying ceatures (the "Others") who live beyond he wall. Tyrion contiues to be my favourite character in the series even though his fortunes are much diminished.  Now he is heading for a meeting with Daenerys in the East and his cunning would be the perfect foil for her compassion but knowing Martin he will kill off one or other of them before they even get to meet. 

Sadly I have yet to see any episodes of the Game of Thrones televisd series because Sky have an exclusive license and I use a different cable provider.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

An alien race send thousands of short lived probes to take a peek at earth. Now something is approaching the outer edges of our solar system so mankind sends a mission out to meet them.

In his Starfish sequence Watts postulated that living in the extreme environment of the ocean floor would require a very unusual mix of people and he continues that theme here. The ship is crewed by a bunch of genetically engineered oddities. None more so than the Vampire Captain, a member of the once extinct race that preyed on humans now resurrected through genetic technology.

This isn't necessarily an easy read. The action is often interrupted by meandering thoughts on the meaning and value of human consciousness. It is high quality hard sci fi but don't expect to come away cheered up.

Side note: the main protagonist suffered serious brain malfunction in his youth which has left him without empathy but with a remarkable algorithmic ability to explain things to people even when he doesn't actually understand them himself. His name is Siri. I think someone on Apple might have read this book.