Hello, and welcome to the everything else section of the board.

We apologise for the temporary inconvenience...

(five hundred rep points to whoever gets where that is from)

Services are temporarily crippled as Monty is currently waaaaay overtired and drunk, spelling cannot be guanrateed.

In the meantime, members shoud be aware that Monty is currently re-reading Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent, which is a Discworld novel featuring Rincewind the Wizzard which is not a typo but is a parody of all things Australian up to the point where we started to do reality TV and turn soap operas into teen fashion plates mixed with post adolescent angst. Not that Monty cares or even is aware of what happens on two of Australia's TV channels between six and seven each week night religiously except for non ratinga periods; let the record state that Monty is blissfully unaware of anything soapish post early Holly Valance music videos.

Re Terry Pratchett and his Discworld novels, there isn't a single one that is less than screamingly funny fantasy comedy disguised as wry socaial commentary with occasionaly moments of visionary insight into the human condition but don't worry: One's guaranteed at least three Benny Hill scenes per novel, particularly if Mrs Whitlow and Unseen University's lecturer in recent runes Ponder Stibbons is involved.

In the interest of clarity, Monty would appreciate any feedback on the obscurity of the arcane references he all too frequently employs in his posts: Are they too pre-post Cold war for the members here? We appreciate your feedback, and assure you that Monty will care as soon as he's had a bit of a lie down then gotten over his hangover.

Now a short word from our sponsors: Gaia wants you to consume more.

You're reading when drunk? Holy shit..

Well, obviously not both at the same time.

I took the bus to work most of last week, ran out of new stuff to read so I managed to polish off the best part of three Discworld novels I've read before.

I'm currently awaiting the release of Peter F Hamilton's The Evolutionary Void, the concluding novel of the Void trilogy. It's slated for release next month.

Damn it, Old FC has lost the posts I made about the first two novels of the Void trilogy! Not happy.

Oh well, I'll have to do them over, but not right now.

What I will say is that I've read most of Peter Hamilton's novels. He is an extraordinary writer: Clear, vivid exposition of character, setting and wonderfully conveys the zeitgeist of the future societies he creates, along with their marvellous technology.

Hamilton writes slightly softer Sci-Fi than Asimov and Clarke did, on occasion resorting to gee-whiz gimmickry that seems too obviously Deus Ex Machina- for example, Edeard the Waterwalker's exponentially waxing telekinetic powers in The Temporal Void. On the other hand, Hamilton's plot and characters are better than Clarke's and Asimov's were. Hamilton has a better ability to create novel situations to explore the human condition; in areas like cultural diversity, imperial hegemon, threat from the unknown or misunderstood and the folly of self interest when combined with ignorance/shortsightedness.

Hamilton is the best author I've discovered for quite some time. He's definitely in my top five; I highly recommend his work.

I liked all the non sci-fi parts that Asimov has written.
>_> Or at least stuff that didn't sound like it was sci-fi.