Selling the Sizzle.

Going Postal, a discworld novel by Terry Pratchett.

Moist Von Lipwig is a face in the crowd, even when he is by himself.

He uses his natural gifts of a unremarkable face, irresistible showmanship and a silver tongue to defraud, trick, pass false cheques and generally relieve fools of their money.

As fools like to keep hold of their various monies, some less than foolish persons have tracked him down, caught him and thrown him into an Ankh-Morpork jail cell for the six weeks he has before he is to be hanged. For six weeks Moist has been chipping away with a spoon at the crumbling mortar around the large stone in the wall to which he is chained. His spoon is now a stub, his mattress is full of mortar and the rock is almost free. One last tug and it is free and behind it he finds.......

.......... Another spoon, another rock and some suspiciously new mortar. He whimpers. The guards walk and see that the rock is free, one of them grumbles and hands the other some money.

After a short explanation of why he was led to believe he could win his freedom involving "occupational therapy", "keeps you from moping" and "the greatest gift of all, hope" he is taken to the gallows and hung. CRACK! The lights go out.

"Mr Lipwig, Have you ever heard of Angels?"

After being hung to within an inch of his life Moist von Lipwig is offered a choice, be hung for real or aid the ailing Ankh-Morpork postal service.

It is a tough decision.

I am a bit of a diehard Terry Pratchett fan but this is one of the prime examples of his work, just real enough to be believable but the situations and people are quite literally out of this world, a lively and likeable contrast to the normal and ploding plot lines of most other books, have fun reading it =)

The soul of a dragon.

Brisinger by Christopher Paolini, third in the Inheritance series.

Eragon and Roran are hunting.

During the thrilling finale's of the last book, Eldest, Eragon battles against the new evil dragon rider, Murtage and Thorn (his dragon) and loses but is spared. Roran's epic trek across his world with his home village ends with Roran killing the twins with his hammer and turning the tide of battle as a consequence.

Eragon is now torn between oaths. He has made commitments to the Varden, the Dwarves, Natasha, the Elves and to his cousin Roran and he is having trouble keeping them all. In the last book Katrina, Roran's beloved is kidnapped by Sloan and the Ra'zac and are currently housed in Hellgrind, home of the Ra'zac.

This is the purpose of Eragon and Roran's hunting deep within the empire, to find and kill the Ra'zac and their mounts and rescue Katrina from her prison. At first everything seems to work out fine, a Ra'zac is dead and so are both its mounts, Katrina has been found, but then Eragon finds Sloan. Sloan is a murderer, a traitor and Katrina's father, Roran would kill him if he found him and Sloan would return the favour if his eyes hadn't been pecked out and he wasn't half starved.

Eragon cannot find it in himself to end Sloan's miserable existence and instead sends away Roran, Katrina and Sapphire so Roran will not learn that Sloan is still alive. Eragon begins a long arduous trek through the heart of the empire in an effort to bring himself and Sloan to safety.

Good book, necessary reading if you have read the first and second installments, getting deeper moralistically at points but the characters are 3D and the setting is amazing as usual, hop to it.

Red and gold scales...

Eldest by Christopher Paolini, second in the Inheritance series

Eragon is now a cripple. During the epic battle at the end of the first book Eragon fought against Durza, the shade, and won turning the tide of battle but only with the help of Ayra and Sapphire. The victory came at a cost, the star Sapphire is broken and Eragon has an enormous scar across his back that sends him into seizures when he does anything physical rendering him effectively useless as a rider.

Directly at the start of the book, the twins , the leader of the Varden and Murtarg are killed by a group of Kull and Eragon is in time to hear the last words of the Varden's leader, compelling him to make sure the Varden is not thrown into turmoil. These deaths as well as the thousands from the battlefield throw Eragon into emotional and political turmoil.

Eragon now has many problems, his love for Ayra is causing problems, his back is rendering him ineffective, he must delve in politics, he is emotionally fraught and his magic is weak. Eragon is not the only one with problems and in this text a parallel story emerges telling the story of Roran and what happens when the Ra'zac come to Carvahall and threaten Katrina, Roran's beloved.

Both Eragon and Roran set out on a journey, Eragon to the elves and Roran to the Varden, both get more than they bargained for.

A worthy second installment of the inheritance series perhaps not as imaginative as the first but a good read nevertheless with a good assortment of new information to digest. Go forth and read!

Eragon and his Dragon.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini, part one of the Inheritance series.

Eragon, the hero of the story, is an orphan who was placed in the hands of his uncle Garrow when he was a baby. He has grown up with his cousin Roran and learned to farm, hunt and work under the tutelage of his uncle.

While out hunting for deer in the treacherous range of mountains called The Spine, he is witness to an explosion of fire and noise. When he investigates the source, he finds a polished blue stone.

Coming home in a failed attempt to sell the thing, he places it on the shelf and sleeps. The blue "stone" hatches. It is in fact an egg, a dragon egg to be precise. Over the next few months he both feeds and hides his growing dragon, until the day the Ra'zac (evil servants of a mad tyrant) destroy Eragon's uncle's farm and his uncle.

With the help of the village storyteller Brom, he sets out with his dragon Sapphire to exact a heavy revenge upon the Ra'zac, growing and learning on the way all the skills he will need and the rich history that it is a part of.

A good and lively tale full of twists, turns and realistic settings. characters, A little cliched but never the less a a good story.

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams is the single greatest book of all time in its category.

This statement, grand though it may seem, is not an overstatement (at least in my opinion).

This book tells the tale of an inconspicuous and seemingly insignificant British man named Arthur Dent, who wakes up one morning to find a yellow bulldozer advancing down his garden path with the intention of demolishing his much ignored brick house. This slight misunderstanding starts the morning in which,

1). He meets a direct male-line decendent of Genghis Khan,

2). His house is destroyed to make way for a bypass,

3). He finds out his best friend Ford Prefect is from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse,

4). The earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

He wakes up upon a Vogon spaceship having being saved by his friend Ford and begins walking running and randomizing his way around the universe, unwillingly on a quest to discover the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything and meets some interesting characters on the way.

A sci-fi, a comedy, a damm good book.