Helloooo! Sorry no WiW last week I was very unwell with a chest infection. Messed up my week’s plans quite a bit and I decided to be sensible (I even missed an episode of Doctor Who being asleep it was that bad). I’m lucky work allow me to work from the sofa occasionally and ensured I got a lot of rest. This makes my update pretty boring – there was a lot of reading but is that a surprise?

What have I been watching?

Farscape Season 2 – I’m no quite enjoying season 2 as much as season 1 – felling very undercooked

Battlestar Galactica – Pilot – Well when the world is ending always a good dystopia can be a lot of fun. So nice to see everyone all alive and intact, so young and it’s a pilot that always holds up showing how different it intended to be from the original – still powerful.

What have I been listening to?

My ears were bunged up but I did enjoy at loud volume Frank Turners’s live album Show 2000 – do love his lyrics and approach

So what have I been reading and reviewing?

Runalong Readalongs

Discworld – The first two The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic ere a fascinating experience. One I really fees like it it is now showing its age and fairly weak the other you can see a lot easily where the Discworld template starts

Octavia E Butler -the fun in a new author is I never know what to expect. The Patternist saga begins with Wild Seed which is both brilliant and just a little disturbing

Deverry the saga starts with the delightful and surprising Daggerspell

Next week – Lois McMaster’s Bujold’s science fiction begins with Shards of Honour and Discworld looks at Equal Rites

Reviews and Reading

The Silver Wind by Nina Allan he Silver Wind by Nina Allan – fantastically intricate tale of other worlds all using the same characters

Sky Light Rain by Judy Darley – a great intriguing collection of short fiction

The Pseudopod Tapes Vol 2 by Alasdair Stuart - a very motivating set of horror-based episodes by one of our best writers in the genre

Not So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore – a reminder this intelligent qand great varied short fiction collection is coming out on Tuesday

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire – The latest Wayward children tale is a great trip to those Gothic Moors and an important message about finding your own world.

All That Remains by Sue Black All that Remains by Sue Black – continuing my non-fiction reads with this humane look at forensic anthropology and death

I also looked at the pros and cons of Diversity Read Challenges and the internet had some great ideas on what to introduce books to new fantasy and science fiction readers.here

What Am I Reading?

Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward – its taking a bit of time as huge but am enjoying this new start to a fantasy series

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by HG Parry – very impressed that someone with the power to release characters from books is NOT being treated as a joke book.

American Monsters Part 2 edited by Margret Helgadottir - time to read the latest entry in one of my favourite series

X Men Mutant Empire by Christopher Golden – Magneto has a cunning plan

X Men Gamma Quest by Greg Fox – Avengers versus X-men nuff said

The Manifestations of Sherlock Holmes by James Lovegrove – a new short story collection of ghostly Holmes tales

Seven Deadly Swords by Peter Sutton – An immortal warrior seeks redemption.