While there was a lot to like about the episode, it felt like there was a lot left out as well. I was looking forward to more Jaime and Brienne, and really wanted to see more of his homecoming. And the crowd surfing ending felt like a weak way to end the season compared to the first two. It's not that I have an issue…

Enough of this world. I'm leaving tonight, having booked passage on The Sleeper Service.

Crow Road is fantastic. The Culture books don't really need to be read in any order, though I did start at the beginning. They are all good, but for a first timer I'd recommend The Player of Games.

While I loved The Culture novels, his stand alone SF was amazing too, like The Algebraist. Feersume Endjinn and Against a Dark Background are incredible also.

I like to think so.

I'm looking forward to reading it. I guess one of the best things I can say is that the man's left a great body of books behind. I really hope that if one good thing comes from this is that people who only knew him from his contemporary work are now encouraged to read his science fiction, and vice-versa. Banks was a…

I have some Highland Park and Bruichladdich.

Another Fine Product of the Nonsense Factory

It's look losing a good friend. Though I didn't have the good fortune of meeting him, you can sometimes feel you know someone through their books, and I'd read most of them. I like to think he's in the Sublime now, or in a substrate of some passing GSV. Goodbye Iain! You made as all the richer for your being here.…

James McCaffrey was one of the main reasons I got so invested in the Max Payne series; he brought so much humanity, humor and world weariness to a character who's essentially a noir archetype, and could have been a boring cliche in the wrong hands.

I was just going to ask that same question.

But, but... I like Lena Headey. And Ethan Hawk's OK too.

The Eiffel Tower shots look uncannily as though someones taken an eraser to them.

I'd pay anything for Culture style drug glands. Of course if we lived in The Culture they would be free.

Do finish it if you get the chance. I wont say anything for the plot, the less you know the better. It really was a satisfying read.

Curse the cover blurb, a mixed blessing: there to draw you in, but often misleading. And there was two things that got me to read the book; that comparison to Gibson, and a review from this website. I think the comparison works only in terms of the potential (unfortunate) prophetic aspect of the book. Having just…

"I know this hurts. Call to John now."

That's one of the best new SF novels I've read in years.

And yet... there was something gloriously demented about it all. Maybe I have a soft spot for it because I lived in Scotland for a while. And Rhona Mitra was just fantastic.

The best thing about Battlefail Earth was the way Jon Stewart described it, as "A cross between Star Wars and the smell of ass."