Big Chief Elizabeth by Giles Milton

This is a great retelling of the story behind the early British Colonies in Virginia. If you ever wanted to know about the Jamestown settlement or colony of Roanoke and wonder where people like Walter Raleigh, John Smith, Pocahontas and Virginia Dare fit in then I highly recommend this book. Entertaining as well as educational

Orcs (First Blood Trilogy) by Stan Nicholls

The unique selling proposition of Nicholls' trilogy is that orcs are the good guys while humans, for the most part are the baddies. This was enough of a hook to sell millions of books but to be honest it wasn't as revolutionary as it sounds. These Orcs are not the baby eating monsters of legend, they are worthy and honourable fighters who are far more sinned against than sinning. Thankfully it doesn't matter because Nicholls has crafted a highly entertaining tale of a troop of Orc warriors who find themselves declared renegades when they inadvertently make off with a magical artifact. Learning that this artifact is only one of five and realising that they cannot return to their despotic queen they embark on a epic adventure to find all the pieces. Highly enjoyable.

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.