Books<\/strong><\/p>\n I mentioned last month that I’d started\u00a0The Grace of Kings<\/em>\u00a0by Ken Liu, and sure enough I finished it off during August.\u00a0It turned into much more of an epic story than I was expecting from the first 20% or so. It is a “high level” novel – covering a fair period of time and dipping in and out of the various characters stories. The writing is very good and the novel pulls you along. I haven’t read much of Liu’s short fiction, but I could certainly see why he has gathered much acclaim in his short fiction career.<\/p>\n I also read Chuck Wendig’s latest Star Wars novel,\u00a0Life Debt<\/em>. This is one of the novels released around the new movies, to provide some context between the end of\u00a0Return of the Jedi\u00a0<\/em>and the start of\u00a0The Force Awakens<\/em>. The novel is written in present tense, which is interesting but ultimately a little jarring. I know present tense is meant to impart a sense of immediacy, however I’m so used to reading in past tense that it kept jarring me out of the novel. Apart from that, it was a good read. I enjoy Wendig’s style of writing, and it is a good way to get a better sense of the new “canon”.<\/p>\n I’ve started on\u00a0Lois McMaster Bujold’s\u00a0Falling Free<\/em>, billed as Book 1 in the\u00a0Vorkosigan Saga. It is an OK read, although it doesn’t seem to have anyone called “Vorkosigan” in it. Still, I haven’t finished yet so more next month.<\/p>\n TV<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve been making my way through\u00a0the second series of\u00a0Marvel\u2019s Agent Carter<\/em>\u00a0on Channel 7’s catch up TV\u00a0(I missed one episode because it expired, but other than that I’ll be able to see the rest). A great show – I love the retro look and the storylines without all the complexity of the 21st century version of the Marvel universe. It made me go back and re-watch Captain America: The First Avenger<\/em> the other day. Well worth the watch if you can find it somewhere.<\/p>\n Not much else on the TV front – I’ve been watch a couple of non-genre shows on Netflix, but nothing worth including on a speculative fiction blog! I’m hoping to pick up Orphan Black next month and watch that from the beginning.<\/p>\n Movies<\/strong><\/p>\n No visits to the cinema this month, had to compensate for the glut last month. I’ve been re-watching a couple of Marvel movies at home, but that’s about it. Sorry!<\/p>\n Other<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve mentioned before that I produce the eBook versions of the Antipodean SF<\/a> monthly fiction releases. Worth checking out if you like flash fiction, we just put up issue 218 on the website at the time of writing.<\/p>\n What’s everyone else been consuming?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n <\/p>Hi,\n