I went on holiday last month, without a computer. That gave me a chance to read some of the printed todo-pile that’s been building up since the 1430s.

The Cassini Division, by Ken MacLeod: The publication dates may prove otherwise, but this felt like a fictionalized rehash of a pseudo-scientific paper on Matrioshka Brains I read years ago, glued together by some Iain M Banksisms. The political axe-grinding severely stunted my interest at points, but I plowed on and found the tale of post-human cold war mostly satisfactory. Only now that I come to look up how to spell “MacLeod” do I find that it’s actually the last book in a trilogy. Huh. I’ve never done that before. I’m tempted to read the other two to provide a little more closure and perhaps give the series a chance to up its rating, but the first book is apparently about the “fall revolution”, the event that lead to the anarcho-socialist takeover of the world, and the source of all the petty, bitter politics that I found so obnoxious in the third book. Frankly, I have reason to believe there are better things to read.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by JK Rowling: According to good reviews, the series has avoided CMF and ended well. So I felt it was finally time to find out what all the fuss is about, and start reading the meaty end of the Harry Potter heptalogy (septology appears to be the more common usage, but heptalogy makes more sense, being derived from Greek rather than Latin in correct analogy with trilogy, although the Alien series plumped for quadrilogy over tetralogy; I’m sure they’ll change their minds if they ever decide to sell Alien vs. Predator in the same box set and are forced to choose between pentalogy and quinquelogy).

I enjoyed reading HP6 immensely. It’s written just a hell of a lot better than The Cassini Division, even though it’s essentially the plot from Lord of the Rings (Harry = Frodo, Dumbledore = Gandalf, Voldemort = Sauron, Horcrux = Ring, etc.) melded with some teenage relationship soap opera. But then Star Wars has its fair share of similarities to Lord of the Rings. Are all Epic Tales homeomorphic?

Er, anyway. The back story on Voldemort is told well and I look forward to finishing the series - something I haven’t done in a long time.

The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett: Does every Terry Pratchett book end with a storm, or an explosion, or a variation on the phrase “And then the world exploded”? Spotting the parodies of Australian stereotypes is the main activity for readers of this book. There are about 947. The humour wears thin after the first 80 or 90, and what remains is a very ordinary Discworld book with little to distinguish it from any of the others. I was not impressed, but perhaps I’ve just read too many of them.

The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett: On the other hand, this was much better! It’s the first illustrated book I’ve read since I was about 4 (which I believe was The Giant Jam Sandwich). Paul Kirby collaborated with Terry Pratchett to create all the drawings, so they’re relevant and funny rather than pictures tacked on by an editor. The shorter story format is a relief too. I think my complaints about Pratchett-fatigue revolve around joke dilution, and there’s none of that here.