Fancy reading some fantasy based entirely on the life of moles? Well, the books have been written by an author called William Horwood and are spellbinding and beautiful. If Richard Adams’s Watership Down and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows are your cup of tea then you should definately give these a shot. http://astore.amazon.co.uk/fantasybookreview-21?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=29 ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under Kenneth Grahame, William Horwood
I am currently listening to Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on audiobook. Luckily, to start with, it is an excellent book. The audiobook is narrated by Simon Prebble and I can’t think of anybody who could possibly have done a better job of narrating this, it is spot on in every way. I had never heard of Simon Prebble before and still know little of him but will look at what other books he has read and would not hesitate in downloading another. There is a page on ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under Susanna Clarke
So far there are very few fantasy books that I have given up on midway through. Once I have bought a book and invested time in reading through at least some of it I carry on either through wanting to get my money worth or in the faint hope that things might improve towards the end. The only book so far that I have thrown down in disgust is Robert Jordan’s New Spring: A Wheel of Time Prequel. From reviews that I have read on Mr Jordan his work seems to be a mixed bag. The impression I ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under General Interest, Robin Hobb, Steven Erikson
Great news, Peter Jackson who did such a fantastic job on The Lord of the Rings trilogy has once again joined up with New Line Cinema and MGM to make 2 films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The 2 films will again be shot simultaneously with pre-production starting ASAP. The release dates at the moment are - The Hobbit for release in 2010 and the sequel to be released in 2011. Fingers crossed, hopefully these films will be up to the same standard as the Lord of the Rings but ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under General Interest, J.R.R. Tolkien
Robin Hobb was awarded the Endeavour Award for the second book of the Soldier Son Trilogy, Renegade’s Magic. A well deserved award for an wonderful author. ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under Robin Hobb
Ryan Grohsmeyer very cleverly displays how the word earthsea can be read both downside up and upside down. It took me a few moments to understand what was going on but I’ve never been the sharpest knife in the drawer. http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Graphics/Ambigram.html ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under Ursula Le Guin
If ever I wanted the low-down on a recently released film then I would go to Empire. Not any more, the Joe Abercrombie journal features far more honest and less pretentious reviews with a fine smattering of abstract humour thrown in. If you want to know what American Gangster and I am Legend are like and whether they are worth spending your hard earned money on then these reviews are top notch. http://www.joeabercrombie.com/news.htm ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under Joe Abercrombie
The recent Led Zeppelin re-union took me back to thinking about my younger years when I first read The Lord of the Rings. It was a time when I was also a huge Led Zeppelin fan and was steadily buying all the albums from Led Zeppelin 1 up to Coda and In Through The Out Door. The books and the music seemed to go hand in hand perfectly and this was in no small part due to the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant being a huge Tolkien fan. From memory, the songs that are direct references to ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under General Interest, J.R.R. Tolkien
I plan to watch the 3 Peter Jackson movies over the Christmas period as it has been some time since I last watched them. I remember being impressed by the films and liked what had been done but thought that there were a few additions that did spoil the film slightly - Legolas surfing down stairs on a shield is the one that stands out the most. The bit about “tossing a dwarf” seemed out of place to. Still, there are worse ways to spend 6 plus hours and I look forward to seeing the ... read more
Posted: December 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under J.R.R. Tolkien
I have already mentioned in an earlier post the great fantasy books that were in the top 10 ten books of the BBC’s Big Read poll. I thought I would revisit the list and see what other fantasy classics appeared. The Harry Potter series is in the top 100 in its entirity and The Hobbit has a high placing too. Artemis Fowl appears after the 50 mark as does Terry Pratchett’s Mort ( my favourite Pratchett novel ). Raymond E Feist’s wonderful Magician can also be found in ... read more
Posted: December 18th, 2007 by admin | No Comments | Filed under General Interest, J.R.R. Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Guin