An Exercise in Irrelevance

Always nice to be in Edinburgh, although I’d prefer not to be in a hotel again so soon after ISMB.

Just been to George Hotel: posh, but lots of twiddly bits never impressed me; food was plausible, wine was indifferent, coffee was awful. Staying in the SAS Radisson: good points, free internet; bad points, they have authentic wooden windows to look nice, and a inner draw window which acts as, well, a window. Sounds fine, but it’s single, transparent sheet of glass, 10cm in front of the wooden frame and I nearly broke my nose on it trying to look out of the window.

Ouch.

p.s. there’s a 2cm step between bedroom and bathroom with no function other than to provide a place to stub your toe.

Originally published on my old blog site.

So, I am sure the world is waiting to know what I thought of it; actually, it’s very good. Although it is long, it does not feel flabby like the last book. It is by far the darkest of the books, with familiar object and characters dying off left, right and centre — it’s clear that she does not want to leave any possibility of a follow up. The plot is fast and thick. As previously, she starts fast, then slows for the middle, then speeds up again. I though that she managed to tie up all the loose ends rather well, with her rapid style mostly covering up the technobabble (or whatever the magical equivalent is).

I’m glad she’s managed to pull it off. With the combination of Harry Potter and Northern Lights, we seen two epic serials released. I am sure that they will be read for many generations to come, but only we will be lucky enough to have had the anticipation of waiting for the new books as they arrive.

Originally published on my old blog site.