The Book With No Name.

Due to an upcoming trip that would no doubt be mind numbingly boring i browsed my shelf for a book I had yet read. I decided on The Book With No Name, I'm not sure why; probably something to do with the rather cool name and nice cover artwork - two very important features for me.

Set in Santa Mondega, a city that the rest of the modern world would rather forget, shit is going down. The only interesting and unique feature that Santa Mondega has to separate it apart from the other dead end cities is it's peculiar lunar cycle. Santa Mondega has a full solar eclipse every 5 years.

A mythical stone: The Eye of the Moon, has been stolen by a vicious bounty hunter from the monks that guard it and has arrived in Santa Mondega. Two monks have set out to return it, five years ago the same happened - the two monks then never returned.

As the thugs, lowlifes, bounty hunters and gangsters fight for the valuable stone, the Bourbon Kid is back.

I loved this book, The many characters and plots merged together seamlessly: Two defectives trying to get to the bottom of what's going on, foreign monks trying to get the stone back to the safety of their island, the bounty hunter who has promised the gang boss of Santa Mondega the stone and has his life at stake as a result are just a few of the characters who have been thrown together in the pestle and mortar that is Santa Mondega.

Riddled with violence like bullet holes in the tapioca bar. The Book With No Name leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next - I ended up going to sleep post 2AM, three nights in a row due to this book.

A very, VERY, enjoyable read. Brilliant from the start through to the end, the only problem was I couldn't read fast enough! upon recollection I think this book would translate to film very well, it's not a very big book.

If you are looking for a modern fantasy, with a crime and investigation twist and lots of violence then you can't go wrong with The Book With No Name.

Definitely worth a read.

5/5


Here's a referral link to Amazon if you are interested:

The Steel Remains

This book was one of my Borders impulse buys and I have to say, I wasn't disappointed.

Richard Morgan has built himself a bit of a name as a sci-fi writer and this was his first go at a traditional fantasy novel. Unfortunately the Sci-fi fans in general seem a bit disappointed that it's a traditional fantasy rather than a space romp but alas, it is a pretty good first fantasy novel, in what hopefully is a trilogy at the least.

I wasn't disappointed but I had better clarify; I wasn't disappointed at the end. I did feel however that the start was rather weak, fortunately it got progressively stronger towards the finish ending on a very strong note that just left me wanting more.

Morgan has a nice writing style, he's not afraid to be blunt, say things as they are and be as crude as possible and I like that. What I didn't like however was Morgans lack of detail in certain areas. I assume this is to build a sense of mystery and lure readers in, I however got frustrated with it very quickly and just felt cheated.

For example:

1) The main character Ringil will have a 'flashback' of sorts, he will be half way through visualising what happened and then the train of thought and story is just dropped.

2) Throughout the whole story we are told he is the hero of Gallowsgap. I would have liked some information on what Ringil did, little scraps are given here and there but there were plenty of opportunities for the story to be told in full.

The Steel Remains was a very enjoyable book, definitely worth a read if you can battle past the rather boring start you are in for a treat.

Note to readers: This book has a strong theme of violence, coarse language and scenes of a sexual nature.

3/5

A song of ice and fire

A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin is personally one of my favourite book series. The Series seems to be gaining a lot of momentum recently and that's what I'm going to talk about today.

A Dance with Dragons: Very little news from George on the subject of the latest book in the series - The last post on his website about his progress was 1st of Jan '08.

In his last post he says

"I probably won't update this page again for quite a long while, so let me close by saying once again that when A DANCE WITH DRAGONS is finished, I will post that news here. The moment I finish the book, I will log on and make the announcement."

Over a year later and still no news, this book is getting some serious hype - I just pray it delivers.

Merch: Recently a lot of small companies have been licensed to produce various products from the Song of Ice and Fire realm.

* Replica Swords - A small US company are making the swords, so far they have only produced one sword (longclaw) available to purchase, and yes, they do ship internationally.



Arya's Needle is currently undergoing design a prototype has been mocked up and upon confirmation from GRRM will go into full production.



Ice (the sword I'm waiting for) has just begun it's design process and i assume will be ready in 3 months + (time to get some money together)

For more information and barter go to: Valyrian Steel

* models and busts - The company making the resin models has already got quite a few models ready for purchase including: Daenerys, Eddard, Sandor (the hound) and there are two versions of each available.
These are 'limited collector' models (that term gets thrown around a lot) only 250 of each made hence the quite high price.

for more information and barter go to Valyrian Resin

* There is also an extensive range of miniature models from the Song of Ice and Fire series. There are Warhammer style models/figures.



for more information and barter go to darksword miniatures

The TV series:

Taken from wikipedia

Variety reported on 17 January 2007 that the rights for A Song of Ice and Fire have been sold to HBO with the intent of turning the novels into a television series.^[12] Written and executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the series is expected to cover one novel’s worth of material per season. Martin plans to co-executive produce the series and is expected to write one episode per season. The series is likely to be filmed in the UK^[27].

Martin reported in August 2007 that the first draft of the script was complete^[28] and stated in November that the script was approved and budgeting had begun. At this point the series had still not been officially greenlit, and the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike could have delayed the process.^[29]

In April 2008 David Benioff confirmed that development of the script and series was continuing.^[30] He suggested a ‘crappy’ tagline for the project could be, “The Sopranos in Middle-earth.”^[31] In June, Martin reported in his blog that the second draft of the script was complete, but again a final decision had not been made. If the series were to go ahead, the BBC would also be financially involved much as they were for the HBO series Rome.^[32]

In September 2008, according to Martin's not-a-blog,^[33] HBO exercised its option to buy the television rights to produce A Game of Thrones. Martin is quick to point out the project has still not been greenlit, but it is an encouraging first step. In November, Variety reported that HBO has committed to filming a pilot episode before a decision is made in regards to filming the entire first book of the series. ^[34]

I'm totally stoked for this, it's great to see that George is taking an active roll in script writing! Could this be part of the reason for the delay in a Dance with Dragons? I don't think so, I think the reason Dance is taking so long is that the series has so many threads of plot - it's not as simple as one character- one plot. A song of Ice and Fire's multiple POV style is so ambitious that i think it is becoming a struggle to write.

I plan on trying to star as a minor background actor in the TV series. As a Scottish lad it is likely that the series (the north) will be filmed in the north of Scotland. I could be in the right place i just need to wait for the right time and find the right arse to smother in lip prints until I'm in!

Later

Sam

Write off episode 1

Here is me and James' latest personal project.

we are engaging ourselves in short story battles. Everyweek we will decide on a topic and we have a week to have a finished story or there will be reprocussions which we haven't decided on (somthing that make us look as stupid as possible will be suitable)

Anyway, the first topic we have decided on is magic based.

i will be starting a new blog to house our competitions and link to it here - we will release the details of the story when we publish our stories.

they may be finished by the weeks end +/- 2 days.

'till then

Sam