Life, the Universe, and isn't that enough for you?!

Hi all, and welcome back to the blog. Realise that I've not posted anything in a while, and I also realise I said I'd do something about that - well, I'm sorry, but I never said I'd stick to it... I try, and God loves a tryer, so they tell me. And they also tell me I'm very trying, and they're definitely right about that part.

A few things to talk about here - first off, Book Two in the War Beyond the Veil series just went live on create space, and here's the link in case you're interested. It's quite a bit cheaper, due to being a little bit shorter and also some sort of discount I get as a return customer, so check that out if you've not yet joined the Kindle revolution or whatever they're calling it right now! I think it's pretty good, but then of course, I would... I don't want to reveal too much, since I know there's at least one Book Club heading towards it at present, but I'll just say, if you think how the last one ended, and you thought there was something I didn't tie up, the chances are I probably do in this one. And if not, then I'll probably deal with it in the next...

Not content with releasing one book, I'm nearly finished on the edit of the third (and, hurrah, last) of the trilogy, The Unknown King. And the least said about that one for now the better I think! If you've read any of these by the way and you liked it please, please PLEASE recommend to someone else - only you can buy me my Californian Mansion where you know I belong... 20 cents at a time... ;)

In other news, I finally managed to get around to trying Red Faction Armageddon, which surprisingly I'm enjoying more that I expected (It goes to show, if you liked one game that the critics panned you should probably try the sequel, even if they do pan it too). As soon as I heard about the Aliens that were going to be the main part of the game I expected some sort of Dead Space clone, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong. It's a bit of a return to the roots of the series (minus the First Person aspect). It's just a shame you can't blast through the walls like you could in the original, and as for the new features... the reconstruction thing reminds me of Singularity A LOT (Another game I really have to go back and finish...) and the magnet gun, well, it's ok but not amazing, at least not yet. Like Daggerfall with so many other RPGs I think I've just been spoiled here - oh for a free roaming sandbox in tunnels you can dig yourself... despite that, it was ten quid so well worth a go. If we can thank Modern Warfare 3 for nothing else it destroyed the price of most other games around Christmas...

Books wise, I finally (finally!) managed to slog through Citizens. This probably isn't fair, someone who was very interested in economic history would probably think it was a lot of fun, it's just not my sort of thing, but thankfully there are only really two big sections that deal with it, and it introduced me to the idea of 'Tax Farming' that I might make use of at some later date. Also I have to thank it for the idea of a penniless nobility little better than the peasantry that's going to get an airing in the upcoming series of books I'm currently working on. So, now that's out of the way I've also finished Metro 2033 - this was quite fun, but I'd only give it a try if you've read a few books translated from the Russian before it. I remember the first time I tried Blowing Up Russia and couldn't make head nor tail of what was going on after twenty pages, thanks to the seemingly uniquely Russian way of going off on a ten page tangent and then saying 'Anyway, back to what we were talking about before' and expecting you to be able to do so... still, the surroundings were very dark and interesting, there's quite a bit of exploration of the wreck that is the world and some really really good bits... and a largish twist at the end, so I'd recommend it if you like your sci fi dark and gritty and I suppose pretty realistic.

So now I'm currently reading Rebels and Redcoats by Hugh Bicheno. Another book that assumes you know what it's talking about before you start... obviously from the title we're talking about the American War of Independence, and the introduction touts it as something of a reply to Mel Gibson's The Patriot, which it is... but somehow 'A Few Bloody Noses' seems to do what Rebels and Redcoats does but better. Anyway, I'm veritably steaming through this one (Which means my concerns about the slowness of my reading can really be put down to the fact that Citizens just wasn't easy going), and have already discovered my little factoid that makes me glad I picked the book up - one of the British officers at the Battle of Saratoga (I think it was) was the Earl of Balcarres, one of whose other titles was the Baron of Wigan, so there's something of a local link there. So now I have somewhere else to visit if you all start buying my book like the clappers and I finally get to make some use out of that passport I paid for (Which has depressingly nearly expired).

Well, I think that's enough for now - hopefully I'll be back along with more news soon...
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Published on February 16, 2012 09:33
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