Sunday 30 November 2008

The Testament of Caspar Schultz

This book by Jack Higgins is part of the Paul Chavasse series which I absolutely love but cannot find the books in it. That might be partially because they were originally published under the name Martin Fallon (I think, don't quote me on that). That's odd. I've just had a look on the Fantastic Fiction site to see if I can verify that, and they don't have any record of Jack Higgins ever having written The Testament of Caspar Schultz or any of the Paul Chavasse series. Hmm... I shall have to investigate. Ooh, it says it's the first book. It also says it was written as Martin Fallon, a psudenym of Harry Patterson. Now I'm really confused. Especially because the book cover it shows says Jack Higgins on it. Ok, so Harry Patterson and Jack Higgins are both the same person. All the book covers I can see on the right show Jack Higgins as the author. But they aren't on Jack Higgins' page on the site. I think it's a bit screwed up. That's odd. Really odd. Anyway...
It's a fantastic book. It's the tale of the quest for a book to be published by an ex-Nazi by a British spy. There's a pretty girl who gets involved (an Isreli who wants to get hold of the book) and her step-brother, and there's plenty of excitment. Apparently it's the first book in the series, but I'm no longer quite sure I trust Fantastic Fiction after what I've just found out. Hmm. Anyway, it's well worth reading if you like action. If not, well, you might still enjoy it, because it's very well written and there're plenty of twists in the plot, but it is a thriller. I'd really recomend it. Haven't yet read a Jack Higgins (or maybe I should say Harry Patterson!) book which I don't like.

RAF Harrier Ground Attack Falklands

Yes, I actually read some non-fiction. And very interesting it was too, even though I know absolutely nothing about the Falklands War. Or I didn't until now. It's basically the autobiography of Squadron Leader Jerry Pook, spreading the (as far as I can tell) pretty much untold story of the ground attack sorties flown pretty much exclusively by the RAF pilots who were sent in as attrition replacements. He tells of how the navy was incompetant, the Harrier equipment dodgy, and gives plenty of detail about just what went on. I really enjoyed it actually. It was a lot longer than it first looked because the print was pretty tiny. So if you've any interest in history or aeroplanes or anything like that, it's a very good book to read. If not, you might still find it fairly interesting. I should probably start assessing the reliability and all that of the book now as source material, but I don't think it matters. It's an eyewitness account. Maybe it has a little bias, maybe it says very little about anything bar the ground attack sorties, but I read it out of interest, not after using it as a source. Anyway, it's well worth reading.

The Romanov Prophecy

Set a short distance in the future, this book is about what happens when the Russians decide they want their Tsar back. So begins a discussion over which person has the closest relation to Tsar Nicholas II. Several contenders appear, and Miles Lord has been ordered to check for any weaknesses in the candidate a group of powerful men decided to support. He discovers a suggestion that the two youngest children may have survived. Guided by an ancient prophecy from Rasputin and a secretive group that has been around since the fall of the Romanovs, Lord is launched into a quest to find a direct descendent of Nicholas II. However, the men who have their puppet Tsar ready and willing to step into position are not so happy about this, and try to stop him. It was quite an interesting idea. However, it wasn't that well written I have to admit, and it would've been much more interesting if the reader wasn't told pretty much straight away that Lord's boss was working for the group trying to bring in a puppet Tsar. I've not spoilt anything by telling you that--you find out pretty much as soon as the group is first shown to exist. So, it's not a terrible book, but it's certainly not the best thing I've ever read either. If you've an interest in Russian history at all, or conspiracy theories about the survival of Anastasia, you'll probably find it fairly good. If not, you might not want to bother reading it.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Whoo! I am now an official winner!

So, here are all the badges etc... Haven't yet decided which one to use. Maybe you can help if I can work out how to use that new voting thing...

Monday 24 November 2008

Whoooo!!!!

Hello. I finished my story this morning. Just over the 50000 mark, though the nanowrimo word count checker seems to eat some of the words that OpenOffice gives me. Humph about that. But never mind, the official count is still enough. I finished One For Sorrow (before version). Which means I need a new name for the original One For Sorrow, but I don't yet know where in the series it's going to come. So I guess I could just call it after version or something temporarily. Anyway. My story involved lots of explosions and fighting and so forth, was pretty good fun to write, and didn't go anywhere near as random as last yaer, despite the fact taht I started with no clear plan at all, and the fact that plenty of unexpected characters or characters with unexpected twists (such as Jon being in a wheelchair, and the appearance of a love interest in Lady Irin...). I enjoyed it. Needs a little editing, but not so bad as last year's needed it. Shall now try and finish The Desert Rat, which needs renaming, perhaps to The Snake of the Desert because the title hasn't shown up how I expected it too. Anyway. Maybe I'll call it something completely different. Still. Just thought I'd tell you that. And I'm not dead, despite the fact my lack of posts seems to suggest otherwise...

Saturday 15 November 2008

Brisingr

Have just realised I never reveiwed this. It stole me from writing last Friday. Started reading it in the car on the way to Aunty Gladys' funeral. Should've posted about that too. Ooops. Anyway, I borrowed it off a friend, and I couldn't put it down. Finished it at ten past midnight that night. It was AMAZING! The only thing that really annoys me is that you still don't find out who the new rider is. But the revaltation about Brom was incredible. I was just stunned. Wow. Won't tell you, as it happens near the end of the book and I don't want to spoil anything for you. Eragon learns where the emporer gets his power from too, and that's pretty impressive, a very clever idea indeed. Didn't see it coming. But again, you find out near the end, so you'll have to read it yourself. Don't read it before the other two though. It'll spoil them. And it won't make as much sense. I have to admit I thought the whole thing rescuing Katrina could've been made more of, but then it would've detracted from the rest of the story.
Gotta go. Worth reading for sure. Very good book.

I'm Alive!

And loads of stuff has happened recently. I've just been writing waaaay too much to post. :D Sorry. So. My nano story is on 34147 words, which is *fishes out calculater thing on computer* 9147 words above where I should be. Yay! It's going well. Random events, but going well. And I can hardly claim it isn't going to plan when I had no plan to start with. Lady Irin showed up and Ash fell in love with her. She was a bit of an unexpected character to say the least. Ash ran into a room when the building was under attack by a load of Birdie terrorists (it followed naturally from the one scene, a broken lift, that I had planned. Actually, I had kind of planned that attack. Just not Ash meeting Lady Irin and managing to fall in love with the head of the police, and not the whole blowing up police headquarters that followed that). She's a great character though. Very interesting. As is writing the romantic bit, which I'm really enjoying. Have settled on the piece I'm using for my English coursework. I would post it up, only that might be a bit of a cutting your own throat type thing since they search the web to check you've not nabbed it from anyone, and as this doesn't have my real name, that could prove interesting. I also had an unexpected abused small child show up, called June. She's Ash's ex-girlfriend's daughter, and she betrayed him to the cops, and pretty much straight after that had the girl, who definitely isn't Ash's child. He was pretty miffed about that, as you can imagine. I'm amazed he didn't just kill her when he found out to be honest. Um... What else?

Mum's started back playing her oboe at church, which is great, it makes me feel like she's actually better now. I have to admit I've missed hearing it, even if it is a pretty noisy instrument (almost as bad as James' tenor horn, but it usually sounds nicer). She's going back to work in January all being well.

College is great fun and I still love it. History is hard work though. As is English Lit. Sociology and maths just aren't though. Although we're starting Decision next week, oh heck I have maths homework, I forgot all about that, and apparently that's quite different. It's all been algebra so far, which I love. (Weird, I know, but I can't help it.)

I'm listening to WOW Hits 2009 as I post this, which is basically a complation of 30 songs by Christian artists. It's really good, I'm enjoying it. I hope it'll fit on my iPod. Should do. I only have 2 GB, and I doubt there'll be a whole lot of room left now. Maybe I should start saving up for a new one. Especially if I ever get round to writing a reveiw for Crossrhythms and joining their reveiw team, getting 'paid' in CDs. Which could fill up what remains of iPod space pretty quick.