Dawnthief by James Barclay

Dawnthief is the first book in both the Chronicles of the Raven trilogy and the longer seven-volume Raven sequence featuring a band of mercenaries striving to save the 'continent' of Balaia (it's actually about the size of France, from what I can tell) from various threats. It was originally published in 1999 and launched the career of British fantasy author James Barclay, whose most recent work was the Ascendents of Estorea duology (Cry of the Newborn and Shout for the Dead).

The Raven are a band of mercenaries bound together by ties of honour and friendship. During the defence of a beleaguered castle, one of their number is accidentally killed due to the machinations of a wizard named Denser. The Raven don't take too kindly to this, but learn that Denser is on a mission to save the curiously rectangular landmass of Balaia from the return of the evil Wytch Lords, who are being resurrected by the evil Wesmen to spread fear and, erm, evil across the lands of eastern Balaia. The Raven thus join forces with the redoubtable Denser to collect together the pieces of a badass spell called Dawnthief which will defeat the Wytch Lords but could possibly blow up the entire world at the same time.

Dawnthief is not a very successful novel (artistically, although it's been a solid seller, hence the six sequels). From the start it was a tough read, not because of dense prose but because the story was so bland I had a hard time staying focused on it. The characters are all pretty shallow and tend to blur into one another, making following them and their adventures difficult. The prose is workmanlike and the story is told via massive info-dumps with the odd action sequence to break them up in a very mechanical fashion. The writing actually reminded me of David Eddings, except unlike Eddings there are bursts of graphic sex, rape and violence that mean I cannot recommend the book to a YA audience. There is very little in the way of worldbuilding, and no real sense that an exterior world exists beyond the bubble our characters are travelling in. There are nonhuman races such as elves, but aside from having better eyesight there is nothing to distinguish them from the humans. Barclay does kill off some major characters in a possible attempt to make things more interesting and exciting, but then they tend to come back again, which makes the effort rather pointless. There is also little to no tension, as you never doubt for a microsecond that the Raven will fail.

I know from reading Barclay's more recent duology that he does get a lot better as his books continue, but I'm not sure I want to read another six books just to find out when that happens. Still, I may give the second volume, Noonshade, a go at some point in the future.

Dawnthief (*½) is available now in a new paperback edition from Gollancz in the UK. Pyr will start publishing the series in the USA in late 2009. The seventh Raven novel, Ravensoul, has just been published in trade paperback in the UK.

The David Gemmell Awards 2009

Voting is now open for The David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Heroic Fantasy Novel (although that definition is a bit loose, as the list shows). Almost eighty books are nominated for the award, including Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings, Andrzej Sapkowski's Blood of Elves, Brent Weeks' The Way of Shadows, Peter Brett's The Painted Man, Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains and Brandon Sanderson's The Hero of Ages. After some debate, my vote went to Paul Kearney's splendid The Ten Thousand.


The voting is open for registered users of the website and newcomers alike.

The Wertzone Awards for Other Stuff in 2008

Best Computer Game

Fallout 3

This may be an indication that I didn't play many games this year. In fact, I can safely say that 2008 was my worst year for staying up to date with new game releases since somewhere around 1991. To some extent this is because I game on PC, and the PC format is being killed off by the publishers for reasons that seem entirely impenetrable. Ludicrous waiting times between the console release of a game and the subsequent PC version, insane and invasive copy-protection schemes that don't actually work and the increasing tendency of publishers to release incomplete games and patch them up six months later have all combined to make PC gaming an increasingly frustrating pastime. I must admit to nearly giving in and getting a 360 earlier in the year, but managed to stave it off.

Anyway, Fallout 3 - for all its issues - is great, an atmospheric and fun RPG with the best combat system seen in the genre for absolutely ages.

My second choice would be Rock Band 2, which completely threw my gaming group's ongoing Deadlands game out the window in favour of using rocking out but is more fun than should be strictly legal.


Best TV Show

Lost

Lost's rehabilitation continues with its best season yet, with tons of secrets revealed and the storyline moving forward in leaps and bounds. Admittedly, it's a bit odd that the central conflict of the series is now revealed as being an epic life-and-death struggle between two supporting characters, neither of whom appeared before the end of Season 2, but when the actors involved are Michael Emerson and Alan Dale that's hardly a problem. Some jaw-droppingly unexpected deaths (thing of GRRM-style, out-of-nowhere fatalities) and a huge mind-frak of a season finale combined to give us a really strong show.


Best TV Episode

Battlestar Galactica: Revelations

It was a slightly unhappier year for BSG, which started the year off by trying to repair some of the damage done by the poor second half of Season 3. It succeeded in regaining its former fire, but it took ten episodes to do it. Nevertheless, Revelations was a stunning piece of work with the actors firing on all cylinders, the writers getting back into the groove and the final act and the jaw-dropping final scene being fantastically handled. Hopefully the show can continue at this quality or improve upon it once Season 4.5 begins in less than three weeks.

I'll be doing a big preview of stuff to watch out for in 2009 next week, so watch out for that!

Heroes: Season 3.0 - Villains

Sometimes you have to admit defeat and that it's time to take the poor old dog outside to the yard and put the shotgun to use. If Heroes was a dog it would be one that's become confused and incontinent, not quite capable of operating healthily any more and whose quality of life is doubtful. NBC have started loading the shotgun but aren't quite ready to put the show out of its misery yet. Amidst plummeting ratings and mounting critical scorn, producers have been fired and the main creative force behind the barnstorming first season, Bryan Fueller, has been brought back to see if he can put the show back on track.

Fueller's return won't have any impact until late in the second half of Season 3 and into Season 4, when he will be co-showrunner. In the meantime, Season 3 has been split into two arcs. The first, consisting of thirteen episodes, is subtitled 'Villains' and sees the show's roster of good and bad guys shaken around, with some good guys turning bad and some bad ones at least being teased towards becoming good. The second arc, 'Fugitives', will see most of the heroes on the run as the US government finally learns of the existence of people with powers and sets out to contain them.

The first arc starts off strongly. Picking up the wreckage from the troubled second season, the heroes quickly learn that a formula exists that could grant powers to everyone in the world. However, a future incarnation of Peter Petrelli travels back in time and reveals that doing so will doom the world to destruction. A convoluted opening set of episodes reveals that someone long thought dead has returned to threaten the world and the heroes must act against him, but his agenda tempts some of the good guys to the dark side. At the same time, Sylar finds himself reluctantly joining forces with the Company in order to survive.

The opening half of Heroes' third season is a mess, and no mistake. Character motivations are confused and not tremendously well-defined. Whilst the first couple of episodes succeed in giving us a rapidly-moving storyline and establish a clear threat to the world, the precise nature of that threat rapidly becomes diffuse (the exact, specific cause of the destruction of the world is never defined, unlike the first two seasons) and muddled. The big selling point of the season is characters swapping sides, but the reasons for them doing so are monstrously contrived and don't always make sense, particularly the evolution of Nathan's character. The nerfing of Peter and Hiro's powers, although interesting from a dramatic point of view, likewise feels too much like a set-up. The world-ending threat is also far too repetitive. For the third year running the entire planet is in danger and our heroes have to save the day. There's also the time travel, which now makes no sense at all.

Amidst the dross there are some good ideas. Recasting Ali Larter as a new character (albeit one set up by prior seasons) is a good move and she works better in a supporting role rather than as a major protagonist. Moving characters who have nothing to do off-screen rather than trying to find things for them to do is also a sensible development. Individual character arcs also work well: new character Daphne (Brea Grant) has a good storyline and a fun power which is explored logically throughout, and her activities bring Matt (the always-likable Greg Grunberg) back into the main storyline. The attempt to push a wedge between the Hiro 'n' Ando partnership is clumsy, but the reunion between the two and their adventure in Africa is amusing. Kristen Bell's character, Elle, after being ill-served in Season 2 is given a much greater chance to shine in Season 3 as well.

Unfortunately, the good points about the season only barely manage to keep the show's head above water. The trite dialogue, clumsy exposition, confused motivations and bizarre character twists make watching the show hard work this season, and it has to be said that NBC has shown remarkable confidence in keeping the show on-air for another year to see if Fueller can work his old magic on it once more.

Heroes: Villains (**) has just finished broadcasting in the USA and UK. The next 'volume', 'Fugitives', will begin airing on 2 February 2009, and will frankly have to seriously raise its game to be noticed whilst Lost's penultimate season and Battlestar Galactica's final ten episodes are airing.

The Wertzone Awards for SF&F Novels in 2008

Due to coincidence, I read the same number of books released in 2008 as I did in 2007: fourteen.

Here are my thoughts on the genre books that I read this year:

Best SF&F Novel Released in 2008

1. The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney
A stand-alone fantasy set in the world of the Macht, chronicling the trials and tribulations of a human mercenary army left deep behind enemy lines after the death of their patron. Kearney's lean prose, focused storytelling and unbeatable skills at describing not only battles but also the ethics and morals of war make this the stand-out fantasy novel of 2008.

2. Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy comes to an earth-shattering close with this novel, which makes the first two look like a David Eddings-penned nursery rhyme. Amidst the carnage, death and destruction, Abercrombie closes the character arcs of his protagonists in an appropriate manner and the mage Bayaz, torturer Glokta and barbarian Logen emerge as three of the most magnificent bastard figures even seen in fantasy. The messy, uncompromising ending makes this the most satisfying end to a fantasy trilogy...well, possibly ever*.

3. The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton
After a disappointing Judas Unchained, Hamilton kick-started his Void Trilogy with the interesting but flawed The Dreaming Void. This middle book of his trilogy is a real return to form, mixing hard SF and inventive, exciting fantasy to superb effect and events build to a stunning climax that leaves the reader eager for the concluding volume in the series.

4. Nation by Terry Pratchett
Pratchett steps off the Discworld to deliver a fascinating story which reflects on life, death, faith and religion in a thoughtful, adult manner. Nation may contain odd bursts off Pratchett's trademark humour, but this is one of his most mature and sobering works, and it succeeds in its aims superbly.

5. The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan
Richard Morgan swaps cyberpunk for swords 'n' sorcery in his tribute to authors like Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock and Fritz Leiber. It's old-school sensibilities are meshed well with its hints of hard SF underpinnings, and its hard-as-nails protagonists are an interesting bunch. Another angry, brutal and fascinating novel from one of the genre's most notable rising stars.

6. The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett
This debut fantasy novel mixes some traditional fantasy trappings with some fascinating new ideas, and its ward-based magic is an interesting new form of sorcery. However, it's the path of the protagonists which veers sharply from the traditional which attracts the most interest, and the final lines hint at a very different type of book for the forthcoming sequel, The Desert Spear.

7. Swiftly by Adam Roberts
A sequel to Gulliver's Travels set over a century later, which sees the little people and the giants as slaves of the British and French empires, helping the two nations fight a devastating war. However, it is the expansion late in the novel of the book to a cosmic scale which most impresses, as is the author's total mastery of the comic potential of fecal matter.

8. Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Cameron Esslemont
Whilst Steven Erikson seems increasingly preoccupied by the thematic and philosophical ponderings of his Malazan series, to the detriment of its previous sense of fun and featuring of furious action, his co-creator and writing wingman has turned in a book that is much more Malazan old-school. It features vast armies clashing, some brilliant black humour and a focused, relentless pace which comes as a refreshing change after Erikson's recent indolent sprawls. With this book Esslemont more than proves that he has the chops to handle the Malazan universe's expansion, and his next novel is awaited with interest.

9. Shadow Gate by Kate Elliott
Spirit Gate, the first book in what is now the Crossroads Trilogy, was an interesting but flawed read which seemed to delight in withholding vital character and worldbuilding information from the reader. Shadow Gate remedies that by showing the flipside of events from the first book, as well as pushing the storyline on further. The result is a much stronger, more fascinating novel which fleshes out the settings and characters in a vivid manner, and also makes the first book much more cohesive in retrospect. The final volume of the trilogy is due in early 2009.

10. Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
As the Malazan Book of the Fallen series has continued, it has increasingly abandoned the furious pace of the earlier novels in favour of greater exploration of the ideas at the heart of the series. Whilst this has left some fans cold, others have enjoyed Erikson's increasingly verbose divergences from his core storylines. This reaches its apex in Toll the Hounds, a novel whose connections to the rest of the series seem at times tenuous, but features some of Erikson's best writing. Whether Erikson can ramp up the tension and intensity once more for the final two-volume sequence of the saga remains to be seen.

11. The Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass
This novel about religion and science may be a little heavy-handed in places, but Melinda Snodgrass has delivered a fine, enjoyable book. Expect the sequel in 2009.

12. Flood by Stephen Baxter
The science may be shaky, but Flood is a grand disaster novel which sees civilisation destroyed as the world's oceans increase in depth by staggering amounts. The story of how humanity survives is compelling and fun, with a few moments of genuine tragedy and pathos evoked amongst the more cinematic, widescreen scenes of mass destruction. Again, a sequel is due in 2009.

13. The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert VS Redick
Robert Redick's debut novel is a great read, chronicling life on aboard the colossal sailing vessel Chathrand as it sails on a diplomatic mission to avert a devastating war. Only a slightly confusing and unrealistic stalemate-inducing ending prevents it from ranking higher.

14. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The blogger and Internet commentator creates an enjoyable story about a young man, mistakenly arrested in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco, who uses his Internet skills to expose the illegal activities of the government. It's a bit heavy-handed and in some areas reads like out-and-out propaganda about the perils of a government with too much power, but in others it raises interesting and well-conceived questions.

In the interests of full disclosure, these are the major 2008 releases that I didn't get around to reading in time:

An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham
The Gabble by Neal Asher
Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker
Matter by Iain M. Banks
Ravensoul by James Barclay
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Small Favour by Jim Butcher
Princeps' Fury by Jim Butcher
The Lees of Laughter's End by Steven Erikson
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Thunderer by Felix Gilman
Inside Straight by George RR Martin (ed.)
Busted Flush by George RR Martin (ed.)
The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber

*Note: I don't consider Lord of the Rings to technically be a trilogy, before people start having heart attacks and berating me.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

Every time a Command and Conquer game has appeared, a new iteration of its brighter, shiner, much stupider cousin, the Red Alert series, has rapidly followed. With Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars proving to be a big hit in 2007, the news that Red Alert 3 would be making an appearance in late 2008 wasn't exactly a major surprise.

Red Alert 3 opens towards the end of Red Alert 2, with the Allies about to overrun Moscow. In a last-ditch gambit, the Soviet leadership time-travels back to 1927 and kills Albert Einstein, after he had executed Hitler in the original Red Alert (thus ensuring WW2 never happened, the core premise of the Red Alert series) but before he started developing high-tech weaponry for the Allied cause. Upon returning to their home time, the Soviet leadership discovers that they have proven victorious and driven the Allies from the European mainland. However, they also discover that, rather than joining the Allies as in the original timeline, Japan has become an independent nation, the Empire of the Rising Sun, and forged a vast and powerful war machine which it has now unleashed on both the Allies and Soviets. With no nuclear weapons to hold them at bay, the Empire seems poised to take control of the entire globe.

Red Alert 3 is a throwback to the good old days of the earlier Red Alert games, throwing out the tighter narrative focus and sequential campaigns that Tiberium Wars brought in and reverting to having each of the three campaigns in the game take place in an alternate history to the others. For example, one of the Japanese missions has you racing to defend the Empire's colony at Pearl Harbour from a surprise Allied naval assault (irony!), an event not mentioned or replicated in the Allied or Soviet campaigns, which is a bit odd. However, those used to the prior Red Alert games are used to this by now, so it is not a major issue.

Unfortunately, whilst Tiberium Wars proved to be the best Command and Conquer game to date, with a tight storyline, fast-paced combat and doing a sterling job of updating the geriatric SAGE engine, Red Alert 3 is not as successful. The game engine is looking increasingly ancient these days, especially when compared even to the two-year-old Company of Heroes, and the bright, primary colour scheme of Red Alert 3 doesn't play to it as well as the darker, muted C&C3 aesthetic. The exception is the new water system, which is fantastic but also system-intensive, with even more powerful machines likely to stutter during busy naval battles. There is also disappointment with the unit roster: the Allied and Soviet unit selection is mostly just copied over from Red Alert 2, with a few new units thrown in.

On the plus side of things, the new Japanese faction is innovative, with many units lifted directly from anime, such as the mecha which can transform from a ground robot to a fighter, which seems to directly inspired by the Valkyrie from Macross (aka the Veritech from Robotech). In addition, several of the Japanese cut scenes use music cues which seem to be heavily inspired by Ghost in the Shell's soundtrack. This new faction requires a totally different approach from the Allies and Soviets, and their part of the campaign proves to be the most challenging and interesting.

The campaign itself is delivered through the familiar mix of briefings and FMV. An all-star cast leads the way, with Tim Curry as the Soviet Premier, Jonathan Pryce as the Allied Field Marshal Bingham and George Takei as the Japanese Emperor Yoshiro. The higher quality of acting means the FMV side of things is not quite as ludicrously camp as Red Alert 2, but the story is still extremely daft, filled with plot holes, military impossibilities (how the hell did the Japanese get to Stalingrad?) and, for some reason, an apparent reliance by all three sides on attractive young female military advisers. None of this is exactly new to seasoned Red Alert vets, however. Suffice to say that the tradition of silliness in the spirit of the prior Red Alert games is carried on here.

All in all, Red Alert 3 (***) is fun and fast-paced, but it seems a bit too contrived compared to its forebears. The game isn't quite as intense and furious as C&C3 gets in multiplayer, and the storyline isn't far off from being a comedy, meaning you don't get as much emotional investment in it, the games or the characters. For knockabout entertainment, Red Alert 3 suffices but it won't be dragging RTS fans away from Company of Heroes multiplayer for very long. The game is out now on PC (UK, USA) and X-Box 360 (UK, USA).

A Note on DRM: The PC version of Red Alert 3 is protected by SecuROM, the same digital-rights-management software that previously blighted Spore and Mass Effect. It requires an internet connection for the game to work even in single-player and the game is limited to five 'activations'. EA has not been forthcoming on what constitutes an 'activation' but experiments by players have shown that even simply changing a graphics card can use up an activation. After a chorus of complaints, the latest patch allows the game owner to de-authorize the game prior to carrying out any modifications to their PC, so they don't use up an activation, but it is still a hassle for players. Naturally, all of this proved totally unnecessary as the game was hacked and leaked onto the Internet a week before its official release date.

Stardust

Released in 2007 and based on Neil Gaiman's 1998 novel, Stardust is an unexpected gem among recent SF and fantasy films, a fairytale with some interesting and modern twists delivered by a cast on fine form.

The movie opens with young Englishman Dunstan Thorn crossing the forbidden wall near his village to investigate the magical kingdom that is said to lie beyond. There he has an amorous encounter with a young woman claiming to be a captive princess. Nine months later, after Dunstan's return home, a baby is deposited outside his house. Dunstan raises Tristan (Charlie Cox) to become a fine and adventurous young man, who becomes besotted with the most beautiful girl in the village, Victoria (Sienna Miller). After they see a shooting star fall beyond the wall one night, Tristan vows to find the fallen star and give it as a gift to Victoria to prove his worthiness.

Unfortunately for Tristan, the shooting star is the result of a scheme by the late King of Stormhold (Peter O'Toole), who has hurled his amulet from his bedchamber and decreed that whoever of his surviving sons who finds the amulet will be worthy to succeed him. The amulet's return to Earth has knocked a star named Yvaine (Claire Danes) out of the sky, forcing her to take human form. Tristan swiftly locates her and decides to fulfil his promise to Victoria, but their return to the wall is strewn with obstacles, not least in the form of the witch Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) who wishes to find the star and consume it to restore youth and long life to herself and her sisters. The King's squabbling sons are also searching for the star as well. The result is a road movie taking in an airship commanded by a fearsome pirate (Robert De Niro) who harbours a secret, a magically-created inn, a unicorn and lots more as well.

Stardust is a tremendously good movie. The number of fantasy films (excluding Lord of the Rings) that have really worked in the last few years is pretty low, and you arguably have to go back to The Princess Bride to find the last undisputed classic in the genre (although no doubt some would speak up in favour of The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth). Stardust works because it has excellent pacing, fantastic acting, great dialogue and a strong script which shoots down inconsistencies and plot holes whenever they show up. Charlie Cox and especially Claire Danes make for appealing protagonists and De Niro gives his all in a gift of a role with the self-contradictory Captain Shakespeare. Pfeiffer's excellent turn makes you ponder why she doesn't seem to crop up very often in movies any more. Ricky Gervais is less successful in a minor cameo, but luckily (despite his appearance on the DVD cover) he is in the movie for barely two minutes, so that isn't an issue. The story takes some highly unexpected twists and turns before an impressive showdown is reached, and the ending, whilst a happy one, isn't exactly saccharine (the body count needed to get there is quite high).

It's difficult to think of any negatives with this movie. It's light, breezy, fresh and fun but not shallow. A great story with intelligent characters it is laugh-out-loud funny in many places, but with some real moments of pathos and emotional intensity elsewhere. Fantasy movies as good as this don't come along very often these days, so check it out.

Stardust (*****) is available now in DVD in the UK and USA.

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry passes away

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and known as the 'First Lady' of Star Trek, sadly passed away earlier today.

Her connection to Star Trek goes right back to the original pilot, The Cage, where she played 'Number One', the first officer of the USS Enterprise. At the behest of the studio, the role was eliminated and Leonard Nimoy's popular character of Mr. Spock was made first officer in the ongoing series. Majel Barrett was moved to the role of Nurse Christine Chapel, whom she played several times over the course of the original series and also voiced in the animated series. She revisited the role in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, by which time the character had been promoted to full Doctor. She also provided the voice of the Enterprise computer and voiced several other characters in the animated Star Trek series of the mid-1970s.

In 1988 she reappeared in front of the camera in the role of Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role she revisited several times throughout both that series and Deep Space Nine. She became involved closely with Star Trek fandom, often appearing at conventions, and championed attempts by writer Peter David to get his Star Trek novel Imzadi adapted as an episode, which came to nothing. She continued to provide the computer voices on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Episodes set in the future on Star Trek: Enterprise also featured her voice, making her the sole actor to be involved in every different iteration of the Star Trek franchise to date, a feat that looked set to continue when JJ Abrams asked her to repeat her iconic role for his new film, simply entitled Star Trek, due in May 2009. However, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry's passing came just a few days after this announcement, and it is unclear if she had filmed her lines by this time.

In 1995 she played a key conciliatory move by appearing as the Centauri Lady Morella, the widow of the late Emperor, on Babylon 5, having been asked to personally by J. Michael Straczynski. Barrett-Roddenberry confirmed she was a fan of the show and hoped that other Star Trek fans would check out the 'rival' series after her appearance. For his part, Straczynski admits to having been a huge fan of the original Star Trek and gave her some lines about her husband's legacy that some took as a tribute to Gene Roddenberry as well.

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was 76 and suffering from complications arising from leukemia when she passed.

A Game of Thrones: Pilot Script Review

The Winter is Coming blog has an interesting review of the Game of Thrones pilot script here.

Some thoughts:

• Having the map of Westeros in the title sequence is a canny and necessary move, as the viewers will be reminded of the geography every week.
• The prospect of 'new' (albeit GRRM-approved and possibly tweaked) scenes may be distressing, but as with most of the new 'good' stuff in the Lord of the Rings movies (i.e. not Aragorn getting thrown over a cliff for no reason) these scenes flesh out the story and better establish character rather than be gratuitous additions to the plot. Getting our first glimpse of Tyrion in a brothel establishes facets of the character better than just seeing him arrive in Winterfell's courtyard.
• At this stage, no flashbacks. Whilst I'd hope we eventually see the Tower of Joy 'in the flesh' as it were (in Ned's dream sequence), the decision to have only dialogue references to the War of the Usurper and Lyanna's death seems reasonable. However, I do really want to see the Rhaegar/Robert fight as it is an iconic image from the novels, often used in artwork. Again, maybe we get to see it later on.
• The Others' full capabilities are not revealed in as much detail as in the novel, presumably to make later sequences more of a surprise.
  
• Condensing Dany's story into larger, but less frequent chunks may be a good idea, similar to how smaller secondary characters are handled in other HBO shows such as The Wire and Rome. Following the book slavishly would only give us 5-minute bursts of Dany every week or so, whilst this scheme means she won't be in every episode, but will have big chunks of time when she does so.
• Most encouraging is the news that both the Wall and Dany's storylines will be followed faithfully from episode one. There had been much speculation that both may have been marginalised or not even featured in the first season, but clearly the writers are playing for keeps here.

That's about it. Remember to keep an eye on the Winter is Coming blog for further updates!

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

2057. In the depths of the Solar system, large spacecraft routinely intercept and redirect ice asteroids and comets into Earth orbit, where their raw materials can be used to fuel Earth's growing economy and incessant need for raw materials. When Saturn's moon Janus inexplicably leaves its orbit and heads out of the Solar system in the direction of the star Spica, an 'ice-pusher' ship named Rockhopper is the only vessel positioned to intercept it. The plan is for the ship to tail the anomaly for a week before returning to Earth. Naturally, complications ensue and the crew of Rockhopper are forced to make a home on Janus as it accelerates towards lightspeed, which will carry them to Spica in 250 years, although thanks to time dilation only a dozen years will pass for those on board.

Pushing Ice is a hard SF novel in the 'Big Dumb Object' tradition, following in the footsteps of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, Larry Niven's Ringworld and Greg Bear's Eon. However, unlike a lot of BDO books which tend to put characterisation way behind spectacle and awe, Pushing Ice is centred firmly on the relationship between two female crewmembers of the Rockhopper, Captain Bella Lind and navigator Svetlana Barseghian, two firm friends who suffer a catastrophic falling-out over the Rockhopper's new mission and whose subsequent relations colour much of the novel. This gives the book an emotional centre which helps make it easier to relate to the more traditional, awe-inspiring spectacle stuff that unfolds later on.

Whilst unrelated to any of his other novels, Pushing Ice features Reynolds' trademark use of non-faster-than-light travel and the inevitable closer interrelationship between humanity and its machines, although broadly along more positive lines than his Revelation Space novels. Pushing Ice is also more relatable, as its technology is less exotic and much closer to current day levels, meaning his characters have to work even harder to survive in the hostile environments they find themselves in.

Pushing Ice becomes a multi-generational tale as life on Janus during and after is voyage unfolds and Reynolds' story reaches impressive new levels of invention as we discover more about the alien Spicans and their goals. There is a strong similarity here to Clarke's Rama Cycle, but he makes more interesting and focused points in considerably less time and pages than Clarke's earlier work, and the characters he uses to achieve that goal are considerably more interesting.

Pushing Ice (****½) doesn't quite hit the same high as Reynolds' masterwork Chasm City, but it comes damn close. As a hard SF novel in the Big Dumb Object tradition, Pushing Ice is a triumph, but achieves its success with more emotion and heart than most such books. This novel is thoroughly recommended and is available from Gollancz in the UK and from Ace in the USA.