Rae of Light

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett This book is cleverly done there’s no doubt. Pratchett looks at the world of film making with his particular eye and encapsulates the ludicrous nature of acting and film making, especially Hollywood. As is the way with all things Pratchett, he turns everything you know on its head.  In this book he certainly does that.  However, I felt it was trying to be a bit too clever and that irritated me. There were moments when I laughed out loud as I haven’t done in a while with some of the other Discworld novels I’ve been reading. There is a deep message at the core of this book and I wanted to fully understand it but was a bit inundated by the endless topsy turvy film references. I felt there could have been less of this and more story. To top it all off, the main characters were seriously beginning to annoy me and I had an urge to slap either one or both at several points during the reading. I’m used to reading a Pratchett and co...

Eric by Terry Pratchett Finally another episode involving Rincewind. Like the Librarian, I was wondering where he’d got to after his shenanigans in Sourcery . And of course, wherever Rincewind goes there too must go The Luggage. I was pleased to see it had more or less got over its bout of lovesickness. But understandably, as with anyone spurned in love, it seems a tad more cantankerous.  Surprisingly our young hero or anti-hero Eric, while his name is proudly sprawled across the front cover of this book, doesn’t actually do very much at all apart from be an annoying teenager.  And worse than that, he’s only mildly annoying. Rincewind plays a major role while constantly doing his best to run away or hide in the shadows as is his wont.  Nothing really grabbed my attention in this Pratchett offering. The ending felt rather rushed and lacked the meatiness that many of his other writing has. I’m waiting with anticipation for the later books in the series an...

While August saw me contemplating the benefits of coming to the UK, this month has me thinking about all the mistakes I made along the way. One which popped to mind immediately was the fact I felt it necessary to be chameleon-Rae when I was first assimilating. I can confirm it was exhausting. What this basically entailed was me being whoever I needed to be at any given moment to fit into whichever social group I was a part of at that point in time. During my A’ Levels I hung out with the sixth formers, dressed like them and tried to learn their slang. I didn’t succeed with the slang at all – my private school vocab kept invading my mouth when I least expected.  At university I tried to become a slob who stayed in bed till late in the afternoon, do as little work as possible and loiter in pubs till chuck out time so I could be invited to the lock-in.  The trouble with this scenario was I really liked doing the work except for the research part and all I ever want...

Guards Guards  by Terry Pratchett Before I started this I was told by several people that it was brilliant. I hesitated and waited to be disappointed. But I wasn’t. I’ve always had a fondness for Vimes ever since I read Snuff so I was delighted that I got to read about his rise in the Ankh-Morpork constabulary. The wonderful and terrifying thing about this novel is how aptly Pratchett captures the essence of society’s worst aspects. The main reason I read Fantasy is because it leaves me with the hope that right always triumphs over wrong. It’s an optimistic view which I find needs re-enforcing more and more as I grow older. This book contained so many favourite characters that it’s difficult to pinpoint whose performance I loved best.  I however found the raw recruit Carrot totally and utterly endearing.  Having met him, The Patrician, The Librarian, Lady Sybil, Nobby and Colon in more mature format in other Pratchett novels, it was a great pleasur...

Yep, it’s that time again. I’m so not ready. I’ve been lazing around the house, reading, watching iPlayer and doing a bit of writing here and there.  Okay, I haven’t been doing that much writing. The majority of my summer has been about the final edit of my YA SciFi Sequel.  The main reason for this is that this book is due out in December. Just in time for Christmas presents right.   I finished the final edit of When Rainbows Cry 2 weeks before the end of August so the book is now with the proof reader and my editor for the last bits of tweaking.   As you can see, the cover is also sorted thanks to the magnificent assistance of Jaya Prime in getting me rights for use of the original picture. I can now adapt it to my heart’s content for this and the final book in the series which I’ll start working on next year. More of that later. There has been the odd bit of new writing but it’s mainly been notes for the future when I can focus on projec...