Terry Pratchett - Mort

`Although the scythe isn't pre-eminent among the weapons of war, anyone who has been on the wrong end of , say, a peasants' revolt will know that in skilled hands it is fearsome...'
For Mort however, it is about to become one of the tools of his trade. From henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the end, merely the means to an end. He has received an offer he can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse and being dead isn't compulsory. It's the dream job until he discovers that it can be a killer on his love life...

Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!

Guards! Guards! is the 8th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1989. It is the first novel about the City Watch. The first Discworld computer game borrowed heavily from Guards! Guards! in terms of plot.

The story follows a plot by a secret brotherhood, the Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night, to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork and install a puppet king, under the control of the Supreme Grand Master (Vetinari's secretary, Lupine Wonse). Using a stolen magic book, they summon a dragon to strike fear into the people of Ankh-Morpork. Once a suitable state of terror and panic has been created, the Supreme Grand Master proposes to put forth an "heir" to the throne, who will slay the dragon and rid the city of tyranny. It is the task of the Night Watch – Captain Vimes, Sergeant Colon, Corporal Nobbs, and new volunteer Carrot Ironfoundersson – to stop them, with some help from the Librarian of the Unseen University, an orangutan trying to get the stolen book back. The Watch is in bad condition; they are regarded as a bunch of incompetents who just walk around ringing their bells, and this is mostly true. The arrival of Carrot changes this; Carrot has memorised the Laws and Ordinances of the Cities of Ankh and Morpork, and on his first day tries to arrest the head of the Thieves' Guild for theft (the Thieves' Guild is permitted a quota of legally licensed thieving, a concept that the book of ancient Laws does not take into account). Carrot's enthusiasm strikes a chord with Vimes; the Watch should prevent crime, not ignore it. Vimes begins investigating the dragon appearances, which leads to an acquaintance with Sybil Ramkin, a breeder of swamp dragons. Ramkin gives an underdeveloped dragon, Errol, to the Watch as a mascot. The leader of the Elucidated Brethren is initially successful in controlling the dragon, but he has not accounted for the dragon's own magic. The banished dragon returns, and makes itself king of Ankh-Morpork (keeping the head of the Elucidated Brethren as its mouthpiece) and demands the people of Ankh-Morpork bring it gold and regular virgin sacrifices. Vimes is imprisoned in the same cell as the Patrician, who has been leading a relatively comfortable life, with the help of the rats he uses as spies. The Librarian helps Vimes to escape and he runs to the aid of Sybil, who has been chosen as the first virgin to be sacrificed. The Watch's swamp dragon, Errol, reorganises his digestive system to form a supersonic jet engine and fights the king, eventually knocking the king out of the sky with a shock wave. While a crowd attempts to close in on the King to kill it, Sybil tries to plead for it, while Carrot places it under arrest; but Errol lets the dragon escape, to be his mate. It turns out the King is a Queen. The Night Watch are offered anything they want as a reward, and only ask for a pay raise, a new kettle and a dartboard.

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Infinite Crisis

"Superman, the Man of Steel. Wonder Woman, Amazon Princess. Batman, the Dark Knight. Together, they are the greatest super heroes of all. But they have turned away from each other in Earth''s hour of greatest need. As space is ripped apart, super-villains unite, and four mysterious strangers threaten reality itself. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman must put aside their differences to save the world, but even the combined might of all Earth''s heroes might not be enough to stop the coming crisis..."

Infinite Crisis was a seven-issue limited series of comic books published by DC Comics beginning in October 2005. It was written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez. The series storyline was based on the 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it revisits characters and ideas that were from the earlier work. Once again I was treated to a Graphic Audio performance that really brings you into the story. The combination of sound effects and artistic vocal performances creates what Graphic Audio calls a Movie in your Mind, and that is truly what it is. We enter the story just as the Justice League of America's watchtower has been destroyed and the heroes of the world are facing a variety of menaces. Maxwell Lord, the head of the O.M.A.C. project a super-spy satellite that has been gathering information on the super heroes found out that the Blue Beetle discovered the project and shot him dead when he would not be enlisted to the cause. In fact he was going to expose it. When Lord tried to use mind control to get Batman to kill Superman, Wonder Woman stepped in and killed Lord. Now the O.M.A.C project has taken on a life of its own and is broadcasting Wonder Woman's "Murder" of Maxwell Lord while in the process trying to rid the world of magic and the super heroes who use it. Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman are all feuding: Wonder Woman for killing Lord, Batman for being paranoid and developing the out of control O.M.A.C project, and Superman for not being there when people need him most. On this Earth, Earth one, is a dark and cold place where people are distrusting. Is there something that has gone wrong? The only problem that I had with this book was that being unfamiliar with the story and the fact that there are so many characters, it was hard to keep up with at first. This is more of a problem with translating this kind of story from a comic book, where you can read the names and descriptions over again. On audio, you have to rewind if

The Amazing Spiderman BBC Drama

Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider during a college experiment and finds he has aquired the proportional strength and agility of a spider! The amazing Spider-man is born - but will Peter learn that with enourmous power comes enourmous responsibility?
Cast: Actor - Character;William Dufris - Peter Parker;William Duffris - Spider-Man;Lorelei King - Sue Storm;Lorelei King - Betty Brant;William Roberts - J Jonah Jameson;William Roberts - Uncle Ben;Peter Marinker - Reed Richards;Buffy Davis - Aunt May;Jonathan Kydd - The Green Goblin;Gary Martin - The Thing;Gary Martin - Ben Grimm;Gary Martin - The Dead Dormammu;Garrick Hagon - Prince Namor;Garrick Hagon - The Sun Mariner;Eric Meyers - Johnny Storm;Eric Meyers - The Human Torch;David Bannerman - Flash Thompson;Michael Roberts - Doctor Doom;Michael Roberts - Sandman;Simon Treves - Doctor Octopus;Anita Dobson - Liz Allan

Episode List:
Episode 1 It's Clobberin' Time!
Episode 2 Here Comes the Human Torch!
Episode 3 Get a Life, Parker!
Episode 4 Ouch, It Bit Me!
Episode 5 Jeepers, My Zit's Gone!
Episode 6 That's the Greatest Act I've Ever Seen
Episode 7 This Guy Could Be a Threat
Episode 8 I'm Strictly in It for the Cash!
Episode 9 Spiderman Should Be Banned!
Episode 10 Uncle Ben's Dead and It's My Fault!
Episode 11 Look, Up on the Wall!
Episode 12 Spidey, You're Box Office Poison!
Episode 13 Can I Cash This Check, Please?
Episode 14 Doctor Octopus? In There ...?
Episode 15 Hey! You're Talkin' to a Superhero!
Episode 16 The Good Doc Has Flipped His Lid!
Episode 17 I Ain't Dyin', I'm Spiderman!
Episode 18 I Think He's Sorta Cute!
Episode 19 Goodybye, Spiderman!
Episode 20 I Blew It!
Episode 21 I'm Spiderman, I Wanna Join You
Episode 22 There's a Nice Boy Under that Mask!
Episode 23 I'm the Sandman
Episode 24 Find Me a Fresh Pair of Pants
Episode 25 These Kids are My Hostages
Episode 26 I Can't Pull Free
Episode 27 Say Ya Prayers, Web Head!
Episode 28 Take Your Shot, Bookworm!
Episode 29 I Ain't the Thing Anymore
Episode 30 Ben, You Okay?
Episode 31 Enter the Green Goblin
Episode 32 Greetings, Web-Spinners
Episode 33 I'm a Pumpkin Bomb
Episode 34 Spiderman Turned Chicken
Episode 35 I am Prince Namor
Episode 36 I Will Return to Atlantis
Episode 37 Admiral! The Prisoner's Escaped
Episode 38 Farewell, My Love
Episode 39 Stop That Aircraft!
Episode 40 That's No Torpedo!
Episode 41 Doctor Doom Has Returned
Episode 42 What a Disgrace!
Episode 43 Welcome Home Submariner!
Episode 44 Catch Me Spider-Man!
Episode 45 We All Know Where Doom Is!
Episode 46 Kill the Idiot in the Spider-Suit!
Episode 47 The War Has Started!
Episode 48 Help Me, Doctor Doom!
Episode 49 Spidey! You're My Hero!
Episode 50 I Will Have My Revenge!

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Kate Wilhelm - Desperate Measures

Oregon lawyer Barbara Holloway and her father, Frank, formerly her partner, find themselves on opposite sides in the murder of Gus Marchand, a case with two suspects. Kate Wilhelm gives this smoothly told version of "Beauty and the Beast" an interesting added dimension, since the relationship between the two equally hardheaded and talented lawyers has usually been collaborative, at least professionally. But when the school principal, who's Frank's client, dies under mysterious circumstances, Frank's determined not to let Barbara pin the blame on the dead woman in order to deflect attention from her own as-yet-unidentified client. By the time Frank learns that the defendant in question is Alex Feldman, a horribly disfigured and immensely secretive young man who was accused by Marchand of stalking his teenage daughter, the reader has begun to understand why Barbara is so convinced of Alex's innocence in Gus's death and so determined to protect him from public scrutiny. Alex is a man with a secret: was Frank's late client (and friend) killed to protect it? As usual, Wilhelm devises a clever plot and peoples it with a cast of well-developed, fully human and complex characters. There's Alex himself, who's found a way to cope with the circumstances of his disfigurement and the rage and bitterness that might otherwise have consumed him; Graham Minick, the elderly doctor who has been his friend and confidante since he was a teenager; and Shelley, Barbara's beautiful young associate, who sees beyond Alex's ugliness and into his heart. By the time the trial of the man they call "the devil's spawn" begins, Frank and Barbara are on the same side, but it's the younger Holloway's star turn in the courtroom, which is where the novel really shines. A solid page turner that should delight the prolific Wilhelm's (No Defense, Defense for the Devil) many fans. - Jane Adams

Dean Koontz - The Face

Ten-year-old Aelfric Manheim is home alone when he receives a call from a stranger with a simple and terrifying message, "There is trouble coming, young Fric...You're going to need a place to hide." Meanwhile, security chief for the Manheim estate, former detective Ethan Truman, is tailing a "deader than dead" body that got up and left the morgue when he vividly experiences his own death--twice. In The Face, Dean Koontz delivers yet another spellbinding and chilling novel, where real and imagined monsters walk the streets, ghosts travel through mirrors, and the devil makes house calls. Stalked by both real and supernatural evil, the bright and sensitive Fric, virtually orphaned by his A-list Hollywood parents, and the brave but disillusioned former detective Ethan Truman, himself suffering from the loss of his wife, must rely on their wits and each other to escape a dark and disturbing fate.
The supernatural lurks just beneath the surface of the "real" in Koontz's novels, and The Face is no exception. Ghosts, angels, demons, child predators and serial anarchists run rampant in Koontz's tale--the unsuspecting reader never knows what is real or imagined until the characters themselves know--creating a disorienting and frightening experience, and one that is vintage Koontz. Whether it be the real-life "agents of chaos" who roam the world creating mayhem and death or the phone lines that carry words of the dead to the living, this is Koontz at his most powerful and terrifying. In The Face, Koontz has created a modern fable for adults, taking the bones from tales of old and breathing new life into the characters. Clearly written for adults, The Face nevertheless channels the wit and wisdom of Aesop as well as the violence and villainy of the Brothers Grimm. While Koontz's penchant for elaborately singsong descriptions can be grating, ultimately it lends this tale its folkloric quality, i.e. "The June-bug jitter, scarab click, tumblebug tap of the beetle-voiced rain spoke at the window, click-click-click." In this fable, the world is a menacing and threatening place for adults and children alike, and the naïve and uninformed go trip-trapping through life with no notion of the trolls that lurk in the dark. The moral of this story is that, good or evil, you will get what is coming to you; it's up to you to succeed or fail for you alone decide your path punishment or redemption.

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Jack Higgins - Pay The Devil

Searching for the peace and quiet that eluded him for four long years as a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, surgeon Clay Fitzgerald sets out for Ireland to lay claim to the estate and fortune he's recently inherited. Once there, he finds himself caught in the midst of yet another civil disturbanceAthe Fenian Rising. Clay finds he can not stand idly by, having witnessed the awful living and medical conditions of the poor. With the help of neighbors, his new love, Joanna Hamilton, and a dutiful servant, Clay comes to embrace the plight of the passionate Irish rebels. Assuming the identity of a legendary romantic outlaw hero, "Captain Swing," he puts his own life at risk to further the peasants' cause. Higgins (Drink with the Devil) adds fuel to his intense plot with well-defined characters and atmospheric historical details.

John Grisham - Bleachers

With Bleachers John Grisham departs again from the legal thriller to experiment with a character-driven tale of reunion, broken high school dreams, and missed chances. While the book falls short of the compelling storytelling that has made Grisham a bestselling author, it is nonetheless a diverting novella that succeeds as light fiction. The story centers on the impending death of the Messina Spartans' football coach Eddie Rake. One of the most victorious coaches in high school football history, Rake is a man both loved and feared by his players and by a town that relishes his 13 state titles. The hero of the novel is Neely Crenshaw, a former Rake All-American whose NFL prospects ended abruptly after a cheap shot to the knees. Neely has returned home for the first time in years to join a nightly vigil for Rake at the Messina stadium. Having wandered through life with little focus since his college days, he struggles to reconcile his conflicted feelings towards his former coach, and he assays to rekindle love in the ex-girlfriend he abandoned long ago. For Messina and for Neely, the homecoming offers the prospect of building a life after Rake. Physically a narrow book, Bleachers is a modest fiction in many respects. The emotional scope is akin to that of a short story, with a single-minded focus on explorations of nostalgia and regret. The dialogue, especially that of Neely's friend Paul Curry, is sometimes wooden as characters recall Messina history in paragraphs that were perhaps better left to the narrator. But Grisham has otherwise written a well-made, entertaining--if a bit sentimental--story.

John Grisham - The Partner

Literary slugger John Grisham returns with a story about-- surprise!--a lawyer in trouble. Patrick Lanigan had been a young partner in a prominent Southern law firm. He had a beautiful wife, a new baby girl, and a bright future. Then one winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car; the casket they buried held nothing but ashes.
A short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial then fled. A fortune was stolen from his ex-firm's offshore account. And Patrick ran, covering his tracks the whole way.
But, now, they've found him!

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Ted Dekker - Thr3e

Dekker delivers another page-turner with this psychological Christian thriller about Kevin Parson, a 28-year-old seminary student who suddenly becomes the target of an evil nemesis called Slater. Obsessed both with Kevin's downfall and the number 3, Slater initiates a game in which Kevin must answer riddles to avoid Slater's destructive, potentially murderous retribution. Slater particularly wants Kevin to publicly confess a secret sin, and Kevin is at a loss as to what that sin might be. Once Dekker establishes this premise, he masterfully takes readers on a ride full of plot twists and turns. Not only does he spin a compelling tale of cat and mouse, but he also creates a narrative world in which it's possible that no one is quite who he or she seems. Dekker gradually discloses his protagonist's nightmarish childhood and delivers an almost perfect blend of suspense, mystery and horror. Dekker's prose is strong, putting him in a league above many other evangelical Christian writers and showing improvement over his previous work. Aside from following certain Christian fiction guidelines such as making his gorgeous 20-something characters entirely virginal, Dekker eschews most of the conventions of evangelical fiction. His spiritual message is subtle and devoid of the theologically and politically conservative agenda present in other novels.

Bryce Courtney - Tommo and Hawk

This novel - a sequel to 'The Potato Factory' (a great book, mind you!), is a rollicking tale of 2 unlikely brothers, with a lot of grisly adventure and the typical BC-style of lots of bad things happening that make you really care for the characters and then, gee, things seem to turn out OK in the end (but not without a lot of pain and suffering, thank you Charles Dickens).
Nevertheless, I loved this book for all of the 650+ pages that Bryce decided to put into it... Being very critical, I would say that gee yep, this coulda been better and all (as I did not like all of the things that happenend in the end), but it was a great read from one of the best authors in the land of OZ (for this type of literature). He has a great style and command of words that makes you want to know what is going on with the characters, and is very conscious of what is going on at the time as well. No, this is not big time literary stuff, but it is simply GREAT entertainment that won't leave your head and will keep your mind off the othe worries of the world...

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Robin Cook - Crisis

Guidall's experienced reading brings a pleasant touch of class to Cook's latest thriller. A distinguished and self-confident physician, Craig Bowman is delivered an ego-shattering blow when he is sued for malpractice by the husband of one of his patients, hypochondriac Patience Stanhope, who died while under his care. The trial takes up the bulk of this wordy novel. Bowman's wife asks her brother, medical examiner Dr. Jack Stapleton, to use his expertise to help with her husband's defense. Stapleton agrees, but what should be a routine forensic exercise quickly turns into a dangerous trail of lies, deception and murder. While it takes some time to get to the story's climax, Cook eventually ties up all the loose ends, although the denouement feels more gimmicky than surprising. Guidall exhibits admirable vocal talents as he manages to keep this overwritten novel moving at a satisfying pace, and the ease with which he works his way through the mounds of legal and medical jargon throughout the book is a testament to his skill as a narrator. Fans of Cook's writing should enjoy this dignified presentation.

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