A to Z Blogger Book Survey

This has been floating around a few different blogs lately, saw it on Lead Warrior, who saw it over at Glue in the Carpet who saw it. . . and so on and on.  I quite enjoy these wee quizzes and I enjoy reading other peoples lists even more.  No real logic behind that, but this one is for the avid readers out there.

Just fyi, I mainly read history, fantasy and sci-fi nowadays; years of reading serious literature has left me feeling entitled enough now to only read stuff I genuinely enjoy!

Author you've read the most books from:

A rather boring answer.  Both in terms of words and books, it would have to be Dickens.

Best sequel ever:

Not sure about best sequel ever, but Raymond E Feist's Silverthorn is one of the best second books I've ever read.

Currently reading:

The Plantagenets by Dan Jones

The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote

Drink of choice whilst reading:

Reading in the bath?  A crisp, cold beer, something European preferably.

Around the house? A cup of tea, steeped for two minutes and a sploosh of milk.

E-reader or physical book:

Physical books still.  You can't scribble on an E-reader, fold the pages over, fall asleep and drool on them.  Plus there's no proper smell.  I managed recently to finish an audiobook for the first time, so, that barrier crossed, in time I may succumb to an e-reader too.

Fictional character you would probably have dated in high school:

Err, as a teen Tess Durbeyfield, later Anna Karenina and most recently, Fire (from the eponymous Kristin Cashore book)

Glad you gave this book a chance:

The first Discworld book, The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.  I was a very late convert to Pratchett, he seemed a bit too twee for my tastes.  Also, lots of people told my I just HAD to read them, so, obviously, I avoided them for years.  However, once I'd read the first one, I kind of understood what people saw in Pratchett; British wit and humour, irreverence, farce, biting-BITING dialogue.  Glad to have given it a go, although I'm reading them very slowly in case of burnout!

Hidden book gem:

The Painted Man by Peter V Brett.  When I started reading, I thought it was a shallow, teen fantasy novel. However, it turned out to be one of the best modern fantasy novels I've read in recent years.  The fact it is easy to read disguises how skilfully the characters, world and plot have been put together.  The series is onto the third book now, the second was excellent, but I'm delaying reading the third until I'm ready (I've a funny feeling about one of my favourite characters in the next book.)

Important moment in your book life:

Reading The History of the World by J M Roberts as a teenager.  We had next to no history taught at my school.  In summary, we were told: the Romans were in Britain, Anne Frank complained a lot, people in London during the Blitz somehow won the second world war.  J M Robert's books single handedly changed that.

Just finished:

Ice Forged by Gail Z Martin.  God this one was drivel.

Kind of book you won't read:

Biographies and any self-help, pop-psychology based nonsense.  Also, anything by Dan Brown.

Longest book you've read:

Couldn't really say specifically.  Three of the longest are surely War and Peace, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton.

Major book hangover because of  disappointing endings:

First off, an ending should never ruin a book for you.  If the last few pages leave you feeling unsatisfied, think instead of how you enjoyed the days and weeks of reading to get there instead.

So the ending to the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks didn't ruin the series, but it wasn't really that satisfying.  Minor spoiler alert:  there's an essentially immortal character (well two actually) who tells the reader what happens to the rest of the cast after the last book ends. It was so Hollywood, it was horrible. However, until then, the series was outstanding, I can still quote bits from it!

Number of bookcases you own:

I left all my furniture behind with my ex when I moved back home this year, so technically, none. Most of my books are boxed up in the loft.  At the last count (in 2005,) I was sitting at a nudge over two and a half thousand books.

One book you've read multiple times:

Agatha Christie (allegedly) said "Reading a book once is like taking a dog to the theatre." I try to read the majority of my books at least twice.  A notable read?  Dune, must had read it through a dozen times or more.

Preferred place to read:

My sadly departed comfy leather chair (still traumatized by its loss,) the Duthie Park in Aberdeen (on a very sunny day of course) or the bath.

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you've read:

I was going to go all serious and take the literary high ground with my teenager book, The Great Gatsby "here was a new generation. . . grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken."  But instead, I'll have to go with "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

Reading regret:

I can't think of anything serious or trivial for this one.  Can't say I've ever regretted reading or not reading a book.  Gun to the head, I'd have preferred to avoid any of the Song of Ice and Fire sequels.  The first book was immense though.

Series you started and need to finish:

The Godless World trilogy by Brian Ruckley.  Read the first two, but need to get to the third. Not because it's a struggle to read or they're poorly read though; it's an outstanding series of books.  So good in fact, that I'm holding off reading it until I'm in the mood for a really good book.  This is something I do a lot, so many mediocre series out there, when I find one I like, I try and prolong the satisfaction as much as possible.

Three of your all-time favourite books:

Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

Damn, can't commit to a third, I'll just say War of the Worlds by HG Wells (poor ending though, see above.)

Unapologetic fanboy for:

Hmmm, wouldn'y say I'm a fanboy for anything other than Star Wars and Star Trek.  That said, I've read some rubbish Star Wars books and thought they were great.

Very excited for this release:

Again, nothing I'm really looking forward to.  I'd have to say the Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch, mainly because it's been so long in coming out.  More cautious than excited though, the second book in the Locke Lamora series was entertaining, but had some serious flaws. This one had better be better.

Worst bookish habit:

Not lending books out.  I'm a bit of a hoarder, but I do try and give out books when I can.

X marks the spot - Start at the top left of your bookshelf and pick the 27th book:

No bookshelves at the moment, but I have a few arranged in stacks on the floor.  Starting at the top left and working down: The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf.

Your latest book purchase:

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks.  It's been a while since I finished his last book, so time for the next one.  It's got a lot to live up to, so it had better be good.  If not, I'll be writing smack about him on the internet.

Zzz snatcher book (the last book that kept you up waaay too late:)

One of my bad habits, I stay up far too late reading.  The last notable book to keep me up properly was In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland, good, but not great.

So that was my A-Z.  I'd love to see more bloggers put up their lists and link back to whose they have seen.  For ease, here are the 26 questions all together:

Author you've read the most books from:

Best sequel ever:

Currently reading:

Drink of choice whilst reading:

E-reader or physical book:

Fictional character you would probably have dated in high school:

Glad you gave this book a chance:

Hidden book gem:

Important moment in your book life:

Just finished:

Kind of book you won't read:

Longest book you've read:

Major book hangover because of  disappointing endings:

Number of bookcases you own:

One book you've read multiple times:

Preferred place to read:

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you've read:

Reading regret:

Series you started and need to finish:

Three of your all-time favourite books:

Unapologetic fanboy for:

Very excited for this release:

Worst bookish habit:

X marks the spot - Start at the top left of your bookshelf and pick the 27th book:

Your latest book purchase:

Zzz snatcher book (the last book that kept you up waaay too late:)

The Norman Conquest - Two Minute Review

In amongst the frantic packing/moving activity this week, I've eased through Marc Morris' highly readable narrative history, The Norman Conquest (TNC.)  Like the Persian invasion of Greece and the Punic Wars, the Norman invasion is something I don't get tired of reading about., just get more familiar with.

TNC follows a fairly chronological pattern, starting with chapters on the decades before 1066 in England and Normandy.  The Conquest chapters themselves are fairly by the numbers, but do go to lengths to present the different crises and rebellion as serious as they were at the time.  For instance, although the Danes invading turned out to be nothing but an irritant, at the time it was as serious as it got for William. 

Hastings comes and goes, with more time spent discussing the choices made and the options available to the two sides, rather than discussing the actual fighting.  The Bayeux Tapestry turns up and we get the familiar propaganda and updated in the 1700s discussions.  Still, Morris drops in enough that was new to me to keep this section interesting (first known depiction of a plough, it survived because it was regularly used, it's actually an embroidery.) 

Come the 1080s, we get to the Domesday book aka the other bit everyone knows about!  As most of the other Conquest books have explained it to me, the Domesday was a massive tax collection exercise.  Morris instead makes the convincing case that, although tax was a part of it's purpose, the Domesday book was a massive exercise in codifying feudalism.  As it was new to me, this it an extremely engaging chapter (a few online searchs imply this is an accepted viewpoint, but, as I said, new to me!)

The book rather arbitrarily sticks to England and Normandy, referencing other places, but not dealing with the consequences of the Conquest for the rest of the British Isles.  To be fair, the author acknowledges this as a choice he made, but I'd have preferred a bit more detail on William's sojourns to Wales and Scotland.

Although it's a very readable book, Morris doesn't skimp on the detail and, in particular, his sources. We frequently pause for a quick discussion of the merits of the various sources at hand, as well as discussing any author or time bias.

All in all, I can't really fault TNC for anything other than focusing solely on England and Normandy. The problem is, of course, that I now want to get a Norman army together.

The Innocent Mage - Two Minute Review

It's been a wee while since the last one, so here's another two minute review.

Before we get going though, I should point out that I'm a little bit sexist, but only in a very limited way.  For the record, I've never discriminated against a woman at work, nor do I think someone's ability to do something is affected by their gender. . .  With two exceptions; fiction author and stand-up comedian.  The Mrs pointed both of these out to me when I refused to read a Maria Snyder book (because it was too "wooly") and when I switched the tv off when Shappi Khorsandi was on.  In my defence, we watched the comedy show (it was alright) and I read the Snyder book (better than I thought,) nor can I adequately explain why I instinctively avoid female fiction; Alison Weir is a favourite writer, but she's a historian.

As a result of this (and the subsequent nagging I got from the Mrs) I've read more female authors than previously, Kristin Cashore and Gail Martin being two that I've particularly enjoyed.  Still struggle with female comedians though.

So it was against this backdrop that I picked up The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller.  I was havering between this and the new Brent Weeks book, but went with this because, you know, trying not to be sexist.  The Innocent Mage is primarily the story of Asher, a young fisherman who goes off to make his fortune in the big city.  The city Dorana is in the kingdom of Lur, occupied by two different peoples, the Olken and the Doranen.  Asher arrives in the city and picks up a job and . . . that's pretty much it.

What made the book enjoyable to me was the decent range of characters and the skillfully written dialogue (and there's a lot of it.)  There's an interesting tension on offer between the two groups of people, with one being the ruling class, but it isn't overdone, just nicely there in the background. There's also a decent supporting cast offsetting the main characters, although not developed as far as some other writers do, Miller has done well populating her fictional land.

You can tell that it's a début novel however; the pacing is waaay off, with the book gradually drawing you in and then abruptly hurrying you to a finish.  There are other issues as well, notably the perspective bizarrely starts jumping round to multiple different people, when it's been exclusively two characters for the first three quarters.  Lastly, there's the plot itself which, magic and prophesy mumbo-jumbo aside, it's the story of an individual pursuing a sensible and efficient career in the public sector!

So excellent dialogue, interesting premise and some wonderful scenes, The Innocent Mage is easily worth a read.  FYI, if you end up getting the same edition I did, don't flick through to the author bio, it's on the same page as the preview to the sequel with a fairly big spoiler in the first line! Enjoy.

Prince of Thorns - Two Minute Review

Although I've not managed much gaming lately, I've still ploughed through plenty of books. The latest fiction book I finished was Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, a fantasy released in 2011.  By many measures, PoT is your standard fantasy fare.  Starting not quite in medias res, we meet the protagonist, Jorg, in the company of a criminal gang, burning their way though a rural village.  The pacing is fairly quick and we soon discover more about Jorg's past, the associated tragedies and how he ended up where we found him.

Put simply, PoT is character driven fiction, specifically one charater, Jorg.  If you don't take to him fairly quickly, you'd be as well putting the book down and not bothering.  In fact, you could read the first two or three chapters in a bookstore and decide before even buying the book.  So what's so engaging about Jorg?  Well, his age and situation aren't what you might initially expect, he has a fairly odd view of the world that is really engaging, but what grabbed me was that he (very early in the book) makes an undead wight run away in terror!  How he manages it is one of the questions that drew me in.

The author has adopted a very easy, flowing style of writing, something that has become very common recently, and combined with the fast pacing, I found that the pages just flew by.  In this respect, Mark Lawrence has a lot more in common with Kristen Cashore or Peter Brett than with more "wordy" authors like Peter Hamilton or Iain M Banks.  So don't expect to need a dictionary here, the depth comes form the dialogue and Jorg's internal monologue.

There were a couple issues to get past before I could fully enjoy PoT.  Firstly, Jorg has a copy of Plutarch he enjoys reading.  Now this is the Plutarch, so what's he doing in a fantasy world?  Hmmm, not sure if this is clever or lazy on the authors part.  It only really affects the plot directly once, so at the moment it feels a little unnecessary, but that may change over the next two books (because, obviously, every new fantasy has to be a trilogy or a quartet or a series or something!)  Secondly, PoT is written in the first person i.e. I did this, I think that...  Not that this is a huge problem, indeed it is almost mandatory given how Jorg explains his view of the world, but it does lessen the tension somewhat as you know the hero can't die!

Despite that, PoT is a highly enjoyable, highly readable little fiction.  If you need a quick fantasy fix, and you could easily read this in an afternoon, I'd heartily recommend picking this up.  Better yet, have a quick read of the first chapter on Amazon, PoT continues like it begins.

Things you don't want to hear at a job interview.

Well last week didn't turn out as I'd planned.  Some progress on the Hoplites and Fallschirmjager, but not as much as I'd hoped.  Three reasons for this;

i)  I got a job interview at short notice that took up a couple of days with travelling and prep.  I didn't get offered the job, but at least they were good enough to actually call and let me know.  Much better than the last interview I had a couple weeks ago.  It went something like this:

Guy in suit:  Hello.

Me: Hello.
Guy: Pleased to me you.
Me: Likewise.
Guy: *** Small talk ***
Me: *** Small talk ***
Guy: *** Small talk ***
Me: *** Small talk ***
Guy: So tell me a bit about yourself.
Me: Blah, blah, blah.
Guy: And how long have you been speaking Italian.
Me: . . . . . . Errr, I don't speak Italian.
Guy: . . . . . . Oh, your CV says you're fluent.
Me: *** sigh *** Nope.

There was another half hour of this, I'm pretty sure they had someone else's CV but my app on top of it.  Muppets.

ii)  Xbox.  I got back into Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim last week as expansions have just been released for both of them.  I'd forgotten how quickly the hours drift by when you're into a game.

iii) The Reality Dysfunction.  This is one of the few books I've started reading but didn't finish (the others being American Psycho, Paradise Lost and something be Anthony Trollope.)  I was initially put off by the glacial pace of the plot and the direction of one of the plot strands.Second time round however, I can properly appreciate what a cracking read this is.  It has everything you'd expect from modern sci-fi; blurry technology/biology divide, interesting future human history, cracking dialogue.  Something the author Peter Hamilton is known for is the sheer scale and scope of his novels, this is pure space opera and well worth the 1221 pages of text.

Of particular note, there are plenty of instances where I've reread a passage or chapter because they were just that good.  I don't know if I'm the only person who does that with a good book, but there are so many of these here; the Lord of Ruin, the Ly-cilph/singularity mix, Joshua and the mayope deal.  Too many to list.  One little gripe though; if humanity has had centuries of genetic engineering, or geneering, then surely some (male) scientist would have figured out a way not to accidentally get a girl pregnant?

So I'm still working on the two units this week, hopefully I'll get at least get one of them finished.

An excuse, a couple photos and a good book!

We had a rare sunny day last week, so my immune system responded by going on holiday and leaving me laid up all week.  So instead of being productive, I've spent the last week lying around on the couch and generally being pathetic!

I managed to get started basing the British Heavy Mortar platoon I've been working on.  They have had the first layers of flock and some tufts added and next I'm going to try a new way of making hedges.  These were quite fun to paint up, I've tried a new way of applying the main colours using my wet palette and this certainly sped up the whole process.  I'm still concerned that overall the figures will be too dark, or at least lack contrast, when compared to the base.  Once they're finished, I'll see how they look under proper lighting.

Things haven't been all bad though, not least by getting to spend the entire weekend watching sport on the box!  I also treated myself to Adrian Goldsworthy's In the Name of Rome.  Goldsworthy is one of my favorite authors, siting somewhere between being a narrative historian and a "proper" academic.  Each chapter looks at a particular general (Caesar gets two, greedy bugger) and discusses two or three of their most notable battles or campaigns.  It's a wonderfully old fashioned history book, in that Goldsworthy doesn't bother getting bogged down in economic or political themes, but focus on each man, their military skill and the decisions they make.

In the Name of Rome is also a wonderfully "male" book.  Each chapter is self-contained, can be read in around an hour and has plenty of anecdote and amusing little notes, for instance, I never knew that Caligula means "Little boots."  None of the figures in the book are new to me, as I've read a fair bit of Roman history, but that doesn't detract from enjoying the little journeys the author takes you on - no matter how often you've heard it, I love reading about Pompey mincing around the Mediterranean.