No war today, come back tomorrow.

So there was a meeting about the agebanding issue between Phil Pullman and several representatives of the publishers. From his description (which you will have read if you’d signed up, as it was sent out in an e-mail last night), it sounds like the publishers are basically frlipping their authors the bird in the politest no-we’re-totally-not-doing-it kind of way.

And Mugabe is not actually declaring war. This is a goodness.

But the most ultimate goodness of all is: I am reading the Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton. The last book in the series, and even though I have been warned that it’s one of the most blatant deus ex machina in human history, I am still adoring it.

Herewith my wishes:

• Something really horrible happens to Quinn Dexter. And I do mean horrible.
• Louise is okay.
• We see Fletcher again.
• Something really, really horrible happens to Quinn Dexter.

Quentin Tarantino has more issues than the Daily Planet

Seriously. Watch Death Proof and you’ll see why. He’s a genius, of course, but he’s also more than a little mental, seems to me. He has this skill with that moment where you realize something really horrendous is going to happen to a character, but they don’t. And he draws this moment out for ages, while you’re sitting on the edge of your seat screaming at the screen like a demented person, hoping that by some miracle they’ll actually listen to you for once.
Alas, they never do.

In other news, I am reading The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton. As brilliant, if not more so, than the one before. Al Capone takes over the world, for crying out loud!
This book is the source of much joy, and also many panicky phone calls to my brother along the lines of ‘this and this and this just happened and please you have to tell me if Character X is going to be okay!’
But also, the book sucks rotten eggs. Because I am almost finished with it, and I won’t be able to get the next one for three weeks! muttermuttersulkfret.

In other other news, I have decided that reading too much grown-up Heinlein and too many bodice-rippers when I was young has permanently warped my mind and left me with the morals of an alley-cat. Haven’t decided whether I care or not.

Have you read this book?

Seriously – have you read this book? Talk about epic space opera.

Synopsis
In AD 2600, the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature’s boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems. And throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace. A true golden age is within our grasp. But now something has gone catastrophically wrong. On a primitive colony planet a renegade criminal’s chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of all our fears. An extinct race, which inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called it “The Reality Dysfunction”. It is the nightmare, which has prowled beside us since the beginning of history.

And that doesn’t cover the half of it. The book is simply so vast that no mere blurb can give you any sense of how brilliant it really is.

But on the other hand I hate this book with a fiery passion. Because it’s part of a trilogy,and I can only get to read the others next month! I’ll have to read it again just so I don’t forget who’s who!
On second thought, I probably would have read it again anyway.Technorati Tags: Books, Reviews, Fantasy/SF