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The GOT Book Club
- Thread starter chicoazul
- Start date
random
Player Valuation: £15m
Ciaphus Cain: For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell
Blurb
Commissar Ciaphas Cain - hero of the Imperium and renowned across the sector for his bravery and valor - is sent to help maintain order on an outpost world on the borders of Tau space. But when the alien ambassador is murdered and the situation quickly spirals out of control, Cain and his regiment of Valhallans find themselves in the middle of a war. As the Imperial Guard struggles to contain worldwide civil insurrection, can the wily Commissar Cain identify the real villain before the planet is lost to the Imperium forever?
Another book with huge scores (Amazon 5* 84% - Goodreads Av 4.23)
The book is a tie-in with Warhammer 40K but can be read as a standalone. I don't know much about the 40K universe other than it's a game with orcs, I have got the 1st book in that series to read (Horus Rising), I am not a big fantasy fan, but will give that a go at some point.
The hero of this book is a sort of future Edmund Black Adder, he even has a Baldrick type of character as an aide. The book is written as a memoir, with interjected parts written by characters who were present at the time of the action. The Hero does anything he can to stay out of danger, but unfortunately, whatever he does just makes things worse, however, at the close of each situation, he comes out looking even more heroic than he did previously, which consequently leads him into even more dangerous situations.
I am a big fan of Blackadder, but after about 250 pages of this, everything became much of the sameness. That is not a criticism of the writing or editing which is very good. It may be a fault of mine that I like to blast through a book, If I took a week to read it then maybe I wouldn't have gotten so jaded with it.
A lot of the reviews mention the 40K tie-in, I guess the character features prominently in those books, but even as someone who knows little about that stuff, it didn't spoil my enjoyment with this one.
There are some very clever one-liners and a few times I was chuckling when I was reading this book. But if you are not a fan of the Rowan Atkinson character I doubt you would like it. A certain sense of humour is definitely needed.
Reviews
1. The basic premise is that Commissar Ciaphas Cain is renowned far and wide as a great and noble hero... while secretly being a cynic, a rogue, and a (self-professed) coward. It's basically a sci-fi version of Flashman, which is a deserved classic, except I actually think Mitchell one-ups the originals in certain ways.
2. Commissar Ciaphas Cain has a formidable reputation: an outstanding soldier, an inspiring officer and a terror to the enemies of the God-Emperor of Mankind. However, it is completely unearned. Cain actually spends his missions desperately trying to stay out of trouble and trying to find the best place to hunker down and ride out any conflict. Instead, he finds that events conspire to place him on the front lines and in the most dangerous hotspots.
3. I'm sorry I read some reviews before reading this book and they all said the same thing: Ciaphas is like Blackadder in space. Now I can't picture the character in any other way than Rowan Atkinson slaying Tyrannids.
The book suffers from character development (as in there isn't any) and somewhat from the story structure. The characters seem to fumble from one situation to the next and you can't be able to see an objective for them, they just prance around doing whatever a senior military command character tells them to do.
4. Enjoyed the first-person view of Commissar Cain, who turns out to be more of a coward than the great hero of the empire everyone takes him for. Most of his decisions are made out of self-interest & for his own good, or so he believes himself at least. However, he's a much better person than he seems to think.
Price
£5 for Kindle, £370 for paperback.
If you like dry, cynical humour you will enjoy this for a fiver, I don't think it worth just shy of £400 for the paperback though.
Don't belt through it either, take your time reading it over a period, it will be more enjoyable.
Book 1 in a three book series, I will give book two a go, but it won't be for a while, there is only so much cynicism I can take.
Something to remember.......
You get more with a kind word and an excruciator than with just a kind word - Inquisitor Malden
Blurb
Commissar Ciaphas Cain - hero of the Imperium and renowned across the sector for his bravery and valor - is sent to help maintain order on an outpost world on the borders of Tau space. But when the alien ambassador is murdered and the situation quickly spirals out of control, Cain and his regiment of Valhallans find themselves in the middle of a war. As the Imperial Guard struggles to contain worldwide civil insurrection, can the wily Commissar Cain identify the real villain before the planet is lost to the Imperium forever?
Another book with huge scores (Amazon 5* 84% - Goodreads Av 4.23)
The book is a tie-in with Warhammer 40K but can be read as a standalone. I don't know much about the 40K universe other than it's a game with orcs, I have got the 1st book in that series to read (Horus Rising), I am not a big fantasy fan, but will give that a go at some point.
The hero of this book is a sort of future Edmund Black Adder, he even has a Baldrick type of character as an aide. The book is written as a memoir, with interjected parts written by characters who were present at the time of the action. The Hero does anything he can to stay out of danger, but unfortunately, whatever he does just makes things worse, however, at the close of each situation, he comes out looking even more heroic than he did previously, which consequently leads him into even more dangerous situations.
I am a big fan of Blackadder, but after about 250 pages of this, everything became much of the sameness. That is not a criticism of the writing or editing which is very good. It may be a fault of mine that I like to blast through a book, If I took a week to read it then maybe I wouldn't have gotten so jaded with it.
A lot of the reviews mention the 40K tie-in, I guess the character features prominently in those books, but even as someone who knows little about that stuff, it didn't spoil my enjoyment with this one.
There are some very clever one-liners and a few times I was chuckling when I was reading this book. But if you are not a fan of the Rowan Atkinson character I doubt you would like it. A certain sense of humour is definitely needed.
Reviews
1. The basic premise is that Commissar Ciaphas Cain is renowned far and wide as a great and noble hero... while secretly being a cynic, a rogue, and a (self-professed) coward. It's basically a sci-fi version of Flashman, which is a deserved classic, except I actually think Mitchell one-ups the originals in certain ways.
2. Commissar Ciaphas Cain has a formidable reputation: an outstanding soldier, an inspiring officer and a terror to the enemies of the God-Emperor of Mankind. However, it is completely unearned. Cain actually spends his missions desperately trying to stay out of trouble and trying to find the best place to hunker down and ride out any conflict. Instead, he finds that events conspire to place him on the front lines and in the most dangerous hotspots.
3. I'm sorry I read some reviews before reading this book and they all said the same thing: Ciaphas is like Blackadder in space. Now I can't picture the character in any other way than Rowan Atkinson slaying Tyrannids.
The book suffers from character development (as in there isn't any) and somewhat from the story structure. The characters seem to fumble from one situation to the next and you can't be able to see an objective for them, they just prance around doing whatever a senior military command character tells them to do.
4. Enjoyed the first-person view of Commissar Cain, who turns out to be more of a coward than the great hero of the empire everyone takes him for. Most of his decisions are made out of self-interest & for his own good, or so he believes himself at least. However, he's a much better person than he seems to think.
Price
£5 for Kindle, £370 for paperback.
If you like dry, cynical humour you will enjoy this for a fiver, I don't think it worth just shy of £400 for the paperback though.
Don't belt through it either, take your time reading it over a period, it will be more enjoyable.
Book 1 in a three book series, I will give book two a go, but it won't be for a while, there is only so much cynicism I can take.
Something to remember.......
You get more with a kind word and an excruciator than with just a kind word - Inquisitor Malden
Last edited:
random
Player Valuation: £15m
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
Blurb
The epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine will take her and her fifty-strong crew to a planet some thirty light-years distant. But, because the ship will accelerate to close to the speed of light, for those on board subjective time will slow and the journey will be of only a few years' duration.
Then a buffeting by an interstellar dustcloud changes everything. The ship's deceleration system is damaged irreperably and soon she is gaining velocity. When she attains light-speed, tau zero itself, the disparity between ship-time and external time becomes almost impossibly great. Eons and galaxies hurtle by, and the crew of the Leonora Christine speeds into the unknown.
This got average scores on Goodreads and Amazon, the readers that liked it really rated it. The concept of the story intrigued me and although it is an old book, I don't mind some of the older stuff, (Azimov wrote some great books that have aged well). This however I cannot understand why some readers are raving about it. I managed to get to 25% then gave it up as a waste of my time. This was drawn out and tedious, I don't mind character development, but I can't really say there was any.
Let me give you a summary of the first 25% of this book in 10 words....
"Two crew members hook up and the ship takes off"
That's it, there isn't anything else.
One very boring book, I can only think that it improves and the brave ones that make it to the end have some sort of epiphany that rewards their perseverance.
I certainly took one for the team having a go at this one.
Reviews
1. Anderson has in Tau Zero, more than any other book I have ever read or heard about, created a sense of unimaginable isolation and otherworldliness.
I am sure there is a list on Goodreads about books that must be read by a true science fiction fan, and Tau Zero by Poul Anderson should be on such a list.
2. Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero is—warts and all—an immensely enjoyable novel, by turns sublime, exhilarating, and beautifully poetic.
3. Fine and grand hard sci-fi, which unfortunately gets constantly distracted by tediously petty relationship drama and archaic attitudes.
4. Nope, I just can’t do it. 25% is more than enough for me. The writing was awkward. The characters were awful and it was dry as dirt. I’m assuming it gets better with all the glowing reviews but I’ll never know. Movin’ On...
Number 4 matches my thoughts entirely, we both stopped at exactly the same point as well
Price
Kindle £3 paperback £7
Overpriced if it was free imo
Blurb
The epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine will take her and her fifty-strong crew to a planet some thirty light-years distant. But, because the ship will accelerate to close to the speed of light, for those on board subjective time will slow and the journey will be of only a few years' duration.
Then a buffeting by an interstellar dustcloud changes everything. The ship's deceleration system is damaged irreperably and soon she is gaining velocity. When she attains light-speed, tau zero itself, the disparity between ship-time and external time becomes almost impossibly great. Eons and galaxies hurtle by, and the crew of the Leonora Christine speeds into the unknown.
This got average scores on Goodreads and Amazon, the readers that liked it really rated it. The concept of the story intrigued me and although it is an old book, I don't mind some of the older stuff, (Azimov wrote some great books that have aged well). This however I cannot understand why some readers are raving about it. I managed to get to 25% then gave it up as a waste of my time. This was drawn out and tedious, I don't mind character development, but I can't really say there was any.
Let me give you a summary of the first 25% of this book in 10 words....
"Two crew members hook up and the ship takes off"
That's it, there isn't anything else.
One very boring book, I can only think that it improves and the brave ones that make it to the end have some sort of epiphany that rewards their perseverance.
I certainly took one for the team having a go at this one.
Reviews
1. Anderson has in Tau Zero, more than any other book I have ever read or heard about, created a sense of unimaginable isolation and otherworldliness.
I am sure there is a list on Goodreads about books that must be read by a true science fiction fan, and Tau Zero by Poul Anderson should be on such a list.
2. Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero is—warts and all—an immensely enjoyable novel, by turns sublime, exhilarating, and beautifully poetic.
3. Fine and grand hard sci-fi, which unfortunately gets constantly distracted by tediously petty relationship drama and archaic attitudes.
4. Nope, I just can’t do it. 25% is more than enough for me. The writing was awkward. The characters were awful and it was dry as dirt. I’m assuming it gets better with all the glowing reviews but I’ll never know. Movin’ On...
Number 4 matches my thoughts entirely, we both stopped at exactly the same point as well
Price
Kindle £3 paperback £7
Overpriced if it was free imo
I've just pre-ordered this for October Looking forward to reading it.
My goodness, this is one hell of a plot summary!! Worth a read. The book is "Mott the Hoople" of which I pretty much only knew from the band name. I didn't realize the book was so bizarre.
I bought this on the strength of the dramatisation of the book, starring David Tennant as Nilson.
It was a bit of a tough read tbh, not because of the content, but because it was quite dry.
Well written, but I’ve read much better true crime / serial killer books.
Try Marko Kloos and his Frontlines series if you haven't already. (Or Old Man's War series from John Scalzi.)
All sounds a bit Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE...
Who, iirc, for instance got mixed up in The charge of the light brigade while running away from something else.
The Flashman Papers 11 books by George MacDonald Fraser who 'pinched' the character himself and ran with it.
Well researched historical drama, where the truth part is...as usually happens, strange than fiction.
A series worth the read.
Not that either is necessarily poorer or better by comparison to each other.
If it reads well and holds the attention everyones a winner
Daz1878
Player Valuation: £8m
Just finished Later, by Stephen King. As always, King knows how to entertain the reader, but what's a bit odd about this book is that it's part of the Hard Case Crime imprint, when the supernatural is clearly the driving force behind the story. Beyond certain features, I wouldn't consider it to be a crime novel, and the main character frequently asserts that it's a "horror story", which it most definitely is. Anyway, irrespective of what genre it belongs to, it's an easy and very enjoyable read. I've been a bit slack with my reading habits this year, so this was a good one to get me back into it.
random
Player Valuation: £15m
The Alpha Protocol by Duncan Hamilton
Blurb
Naval Officer Jack Samson thought a posting to the frontier of human-inhabited space was the death blow to his career. He couldn't have been more wrong. A routine inspection of a small merchant vessel leads to devastating loss and the discovery of strange, fascinating objects.
As astonishing discoveries unfold, a mysterious and hostile ship proves that Samson has a competitor in unlocking the secrets of an ancient alien civilization and that humanity might not be alone in the galaxy after all.
The Alpha Protocol is a fast-paced science fiction novel in the classic space opera and military sci-fi traditions, by Amazon Best Selling Author Duncan M. Hamilton.
A high Goodreads score, not so much Amazon though. Hamilton is an experienced writer with quite a few books out there. Mainly fantasy from what I can see but with so many books and the Goodreads score I was hoping that this would be another hidden gem. It wasn't.
The hero of the book finds himself on the outskirts of human exploration and is thrust into a scenario whereby he has to take command of a ship with a small crew. To try and make the book exciting the author throws the hero into some dubious situations. He makes some decisions that quite frankly anyone with a few brain cells would take an alternative route/method.
The high point of the book was the introduction of a rich villain and to be honest, I think a book about him would have been a better story.
As it is the implausible storyline moves along, but there is an element missing to make it an average/above average read. It's not a page-turner by any stretch of the imagination, it just seemed a bit flat to me.
Reviews
1. I have to start off by saying that this is not my typical genre. I loved Mr. Hamilton’s fantasy books and was willing to try this space/sci-fi book. The beginning was kind of slow and I was waiting for the hook. It’s about men and women in the military protecting space from alien invaders. This book is also about leadership and the qualities it takes to be a strong and admirable one. It also adds in about insecurities and climbing back up after being knocked down. The main character Samson was intelligent and this book was a depiction of mind games rather than just physical interaction.
2. A very entertaining story from this heretofore fantasy writer. A great step into sci-fi and as easily readable as his previous novels. A great way to pass a few hours in lockdown! Finishes nicely as a one-off but wide open for a sequel which will hopefully follow soon. Has comfortably switched genres.
3. I received an ARC. Sci-fi is not my preferred genre, but I was more than willing to give it a try due to previous works I have enjoyed from this author. It grabbed me from the beginning. It was a very entertaining story. Before I knew it I was near the end and wanting more. I read a lot of fantasy and historical fiction and many of the elements carried over to this even though it is set in space.
4. Oh look! The main character has found himself in another accidental humanity-changing event. Never mind that this is the fifth time this has happened since I cracked this book. The author has trouble creating characters, so he’ll just pop in another action sequence with aliens. This book is a slog.
I wouldn't be as harsh as no.4 but I can see where they are coming from, I suspect most of the other reviewers are fan-boys of his fantasy stuff.
Price
Free on kindle unlimited, if you have nothing else in your to-be-read pile and you like a bit of military sci fi, then you might want to try it out despite the glaring mistakes hero makes.
Avoid the paperback at £12
The author has labelled this book #1 so we can expect a series and the ending supports this. I doubt I will be looking out for #2 though.
Blurb
Naval Officer Jack Samson thought a posting to the frontier of human-inhabited space was the death blow to his career. He couldn't have been more wrong. A routine inspection of a small merchant vessel leads to devastating loss and the discovery of strange, fascinating objects.
As astonishing discoveries unfold, a mysterious and hostile ship proves that Samson has a competitor in unlocking the secrets of an ancient alien civilization and that humanity might not be alone in the galaxy after all.
The Alpha Protocol is a fast-paced science fiction novel in the classic space opera and military sci-fi traditions, by Amazon Best Selling Author Duncan M. Hamilton.
A high Goodreads score, not so much Amazon though. Hamilton is an experienced writer with quite a few books out there. Mainly fantasy from what I can see but with so many books and the Goodreads score I was hoping that this would be another hidden gem. It wasn't.
The hero of the book finds himself on the outskirts of human exploration and is thrust into a scenario whereby he has to take command of a ship with a small crew. To try and make the book exciting the author throws the hero into some dubious situations. He makes some decisions that quite frankly anyone with a few brain cells would take an alternative route/method.
The high point of the book was the introduction of a rich villain and to be honest, I think a book about him would have been a better story.
As it is the implausible storyline moves along, but there is an element missing to make it an average/above average read. It's not a page-turner by any stretch of the imagination, it just seemed a bit flat to me.
Reviews
1. I have to start off by saying that this is not my typical genre. I loved Mr. Hamilton’s fantasy books and was willing to try this space/sci-fi book. The beginning was kind of slow and I was waiting for the hook. It’s about men and women in the military protecting space from alien invaders. This book is also about leadership and the qualities it takes to be a strong and admirable one. It also adds in about insecurities and climbing back up after being knocked down. The main character Samson was intelligent and this book was a depiction of mind games rather than just physical interaction.
2. A very entertaining story from this heretofore fantasy writer. A great step into sci-fi and as easily readable as his previous novels. A great way to pass a few hours in lockdown! Finishes nicely as a one-off but wide open for a sequel which will hopefully follow soon. Has comfortably switched genres.
3. I received an ARC. Sci-fi is not my preferred genre, but I was more than willing to give it a try due to previous works I have enjoyed from this author. It grabbed me from the beginning. It was a very entertaining story. Before I knew it I was near the end and wanting more. I read a lot of fantasy and historical fiction and many of the elements carried over to this even though it is set in space.
4. Oh look! The main character has found himself in another accidental humanity-changing event. Never mind that this is the fifth time this has happened since I cracked this book. The author has trouble creating characters, so he’ll just pop in another action sequence with aliens. This book is a slog.
I wouldn't be as harsh as no.4 but I can see where they are coming from, I suspect most of the other reviewers are fan-boys of his fantasy stuff.
Price
Free on kindle unlimited, if you have nothing else in your to-be-read pile and you like a bit of military sci fi, then you might want to try it out despite the glaring mistakes hero makes.
Avoid the paperback at £12
The author has labelled this book #1 so we can expect a series and the ending supports this. I doubt I will be looking out for #2 though.
Inspired by the big stuck boat I ordered "Ninety Percent of Everything" by Rose George.
Halfway through it, excellent read and illuminates an area of global trade that most of us take for granted.
Halfway through it, excellent read and illuminates an area of global trade that most of us take for granted.
I don't think we need to sort of sub catagorize Stephen King, He just tells stories...and very good readable ones.
He's just a one off, like Pratchett or...of a different type obvs...PG Woodhouse
He just IS.
Philw
Player Valuation: £50m
Read The Institute if you haven't. 1st on of his I've read in a while and loved it.
Daz1878
Player Valuation: £8m
I bought it when it came out, but it's still on the ceiling-high pile I need to get round to. Glad to hear you really enjoyed it. I think it's fair to say that King writes them faster than I can keep up with... Billy Summers comes out just a few months from now. Although I have to say I do like how he's no longer limited to putting out one book a year.