[DanWoodbury]

I have found a great science fiction author, AJ Marshall. I came across his website mpressbooks.co.uk after looking on the Peoples Book Prize website and decided to buy his book 'The Bastion Prosecutor, Episode 1' and found it a great read. I have now ordered the second episode of this book in confidence that it will better the first, if this is the case i cannot wait to read the third.

[psikeyhackr]

I have found a great science fiction author, AJ Marshall. I came across his website mpressbooks.co.uk after looking on the Peoples Book Prize website and decided to buy his book 'The Bastion Prosecutor, Episode 1' and found it a great read. I have now ordered the second episode of this book in confidence that it will better the first, if this is the case i cannot wait to read the third.

It would be nice to know what you regard as a "great read".

I have been researching reviews of LMBujold's books because there are so many of them and so well regarded by so many people. I have deliberately read the reviews on Amazon where people were giving a book of her's one or two stars. The comments are rather funny. It seems that some people don't like the last 3 books, Komarr, Civil Campaign and Diplomatic Immunity because Miles was getting romantically involved rather than running around blowing stuff up. Personally I think Komarr is about the best book of the series but for reasons that most people say nothing about and one reviewer pointedly said was irrelevant. So what people do and don't care about affects what they regard as a "great read" so if they don't explain what "they mean by that" it is nearly meaningless.

I think we need to come up with more characteristics of books and rate those characteristics so people can figure out what aspects they care about most. I am way passed tired of checking out stuff that someone said was great that I can't stand.

psik

[Rulkez]

You would think authors creating new accounts to spread the word about their self published works would be smarter about it.

[Glelas]

LOL, shameless.

[JunkMonkey]

At least he's consistent (http://www.tv.com/science-fiction/aj-marshall--the-bastion-prosecutor/topic/107-1343739/msgs.html).


You would have thought a publisher would have made sure there weren't any common grammatical errors in its home page - and made sure the blurbs to two of the books weren't exactly the same.

I've often wanted to start a Worst Self-Published Book of the Year
Award - but then I remember if I did that I'd have to actually read some of the ****ers.

If ever I do start one, the craptastic The Bastion Prosecutor Episode 2 looks like being in the running from the off.


The vertical shaft was narrow and claustrophobic. Asharf had slipped down with relative ease and Naomi, evidently well practised as well as fiercely independent, had climbed down the cable, arm over arm, like a professional. For Richard, however, it was a different story. The diameter was smaller than it promised and despite an apparent off centre quiver of the drilling bit, there was barely room for his shoulders; even by collapsing his chest, restricting his lung capacity and hunching his shoulders together under his chin, it was tight. He had squeezed into the hole feet first, exhaled and wriggled to allow his body to drop and taken a last, hapless look at the dreary surroundings before his head disappeared below the desert surface. Now an anxious frown was stamped across his forehead and an uneasy churning unsettled his stomach. It was as if the resentful desert made claim on every living thing, and he felt as if he was being swallowed.

Surprisingly, tiny spores of green, greasy mould had already begun to deposit themselves on the mainly smooth walls of the shaft and, combined with a continuous film of running water, their effect added lubrication to his descent. Even so, his clothes began to bunch up uncomfortably.

Eventually, looking down between his legs, Richard could see occasional flashes from Asharf’s torch beam; whilst looking skywards, through the two-metre tube of limestone he had already painfully negotiated, an occasional raindrop splattered on his face. His discomfort increased with every slithering centimetre he descended. He could endure being wet, miserable, and downright wretched; but jammed in a hole, barely able to move, he sensed his vulnerability. Richard shuffled and squirmed, exhausting his lungs from time to time in order to collapse his ribcage. Little by little, he slipped further and further down.

After six metres Richard stopped to rest, he merely had to take a hearty gasp of damp, fusty air to secure his position. He was beginning to get cold. His head and face were soaked and he had suffered several grazes to his back and shoulders from the unevenness and the occasional lump in the shaft wall. Below him, Naomi and Asharf – having already safely alighted on the smooth stone floor of the great mausoleum – grew increasingly concerned.

Before commencing his decent, Richard had first dropped their rucksacks down the shaft and then followed the three bags with his coat, and Asharf – who had missed its fall in the darkness and subsequently retrieved it from a shallow puddle – followed his orders by checking various pockets for his pager, torch, Illuminac and ISTAN. Naomi, meanwhile, who was mumbling nervously in Arabic whilst repeatedly looked upwards, soon had Asharf shouting encouragement.

‘Effendi!’ He called, cupping his hands around his mouth to direct the sound upwards. ‘The roof of the tomb lies three metres above us, which means no more than three metres remaining. You should make haste, Effendi . . . quickly, you must continue!’