Leisure Listens
I love reading and I like all kinds of genre, but the genre I read to the most is Science Fiction and Fantasy. There's just one problem, and you may have gained a clue about this from the page title, I don't have a lot of time to sit down with a book and "read", and that really annoyed me. So I started listening to audio books, and I've found that they work really well for me, after all you can't read a book while you're driving to work, or doing the washing up can you...
So here I'm compiling a list of all the audio books I've ever listened to and sharing my thoughts on them, my hope is that this page will become and interesting archive of past listens.
Time's Eye By Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
A Time Odyssey is Arthur C. Clarke’s last series of books before he passed away. Times Eye is book 1 and it’s been sat on my book shelf for a while. I started it and then for one reason or another I stopped. So I thought it time to pick it up again. It’s definitely not his strongest work, and the story is a little predictable, especially when you throw the armies of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan together, you know they’re going to battle it out, however it’s grasped my interest enough to move onto the next book in the series.
Dreamcatcher By Stephen King
Hmm... Now I saw the film before reading the book, and I have to say I thought the film was rubbish. Now that I’ve read the book I’d have to say that I think the film is chronically rubbish. Not a bad book, bit of a weird ending but made a hell of a lot more sense that what they changed it to in the film. I mean, were did Duddits being an alien in the film come from?
Salem's Lot By Stephen King
Well I really enjoyed this book. From what I recall there has been a couple of film versions of Salem's Lot, and I think the one I remember was the most modern one which had a completely different ending. So the end of this book was a nice surprise. I also love how Father Callahan's final scene in this book works perfectly into Wolves of the Calla. Great story!
Matter By Ian M. Banks
Matter is about... well I actually have no idea. This was my second attempt at an Ian M. Banks and it was again a complete failure. There's something about the way he writes that my brain just cannot process. I got half way through the book and gave up having no idea of what had happened...
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower By Stephen King
The climatic finally of Stephen Kings Dark Tower series and it's interesting to note that between the publishing of The Gunslinger and the release of this book it took 22 years for him to finish it, an incredibly clever ending to an incredibly well written saga.
The Dark Tower VI: Songs of Susannah By Stephen King
Roland and Eddie go to New York to save the Rose, which is linked to the Tower and holding reality together. Father Callahan and Jake go after Susannah who has run away to give birth a demon baby. (I couldn't make this stuff up). Stephen King actually writes himself into the story!
The Dark Tower V: Wolves Of The Calla By Stephen King
This one was my favourite of the series. Roland and his Ka-Tet save a village from horse riding robots that kidnap children for their brain matter (just reading that back makes it sound ridiculous, but it seems completely plausible when you read it.) Throughout the Dark Tower series Stephen King includes fragments of his other books like they're all connected somehow. This is most prominent in this book when he brings back Father Callahan, a lead character from Salem's Lot.
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard And Glass By Stephen King
In the Wizard and Glass the story takes us back to when Roland first started his quest for the Dark Tower and his lost love Susan. This one was probably the weakest of the series, I think because there's no hope in it. You know from the start that Roland is going to lose everything because from the start he has nothing. Still a good read though.
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands By Stephen King
Roland, Eddie and Susannah continue their pursuit of the Dark Tower across The Waste Lands, were they fight cyborg bear, find the third member of their Ka-Tet, Jack and ride Blaine the insane train.
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing Of The Three By Stephen King
The story of Roland Deschain of Gilead continues as he draws two of his three companies into his world, Eddie Dean, a heroin addict and Susannah Homes, a schizophrenic, cripple.
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger By Stephen King
The very first audio book I ever listened to, and I loved it. I'd never read anything by Stephen King before, mainly because I'm not into horror films/stories, not because I'm a wimp... well partly because I'm a wimp, but I've always found them to be too predictable. The Gunslinger isn't a horror and it certainly isn't predictable, it"quo;s an action packed suspense thriller that has you hooked from the first line, "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed..."
Quotes
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. - Arthur C. Clarke
Tech Read
A great reference book for learning jQuery, broken into sensible chapters focused on jQuery's core functions.
Leisure Listen
Book 1 of A Time Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke's final trilogy before passing away. Time's Eye is an interesting idea, but not his strongest novel unfortunately.