Finally!

Okay, so Crusader is finally out. Huzzah! And so on and so forth.

On CreateSpace, on Amazon.com (Kindle and print) and Amazon.co.uk (only on Kindle as yet).

Oh, but no time to rest on my laurels. Renegade is a-calling.

Canadian Pagan!

So, Pagan is now available direct from Amazon.ca (clickety click here) and it's actually a direct buy, rather than through 3rd party sellers, which is more than can be said for Amazon.co.uk (here). The Kindle version on the UK site is now down to a silly 69p (here).

I'm available in France (here), Germany (here), and Japan (here) believe it or not, and based upon my limited international language skills, all three appear to be places where you can buy it direct. Everywhere apart from good ol' Blighty.

So... yeah.

Moving again

So, we're packing for a move. That's, what, the fourth time since I started this blog? Well, we learned our lesson this time. Last time, I may have mentioned, I had to do most of the move myself, between Mrs. D's infirmity and our legions of friends utterly (with scant exception) failing to appear. It took me almost three days, I kid you not.

This time we're paying a company to do it for us. We pack, then sit back and watch them do all the actual lifting. As someone who has moved more times than I've eaten curry (again, I kid you not) this seems a bit wimpy. But then I remember struggling to lift Mrs. D's antique china hutch in and out of the Uhaul and I think "you can take wimpy and shove it".

See you on the other side, possibly.

Oh, and for those waiting, CRUSADER is squeakingly close to finished. Proofreading and then it'll be out. Keep it here.

Update

I have finished writing CRUSADER, book two of the MPRD novels. With a some editing and a little luck it should be available around March/April.

So now it's on to book three: RENEGADE.

For everyone yelling for Marie to get her own book, I've decided that the fourth, after RENEGADE, will be a Marie novel. It'll probably be called SCRAPPER and will deal with Marie having to go hunting without Jack, in a team run by another hunter, someone who has good reason not to like werewolves. I'm not saying why Jack can't go hunting, that would spoil RENEGADE.

RENEGADE will also feature a 'flip-back-and-forth' between Jack's POV and Marie's, seeing as they spend much of the novel apart.

More updates wll be forthcoming as they become available.

Have a safe and fun holiday season.

Andy.

Umm... what?

Can someone please explain to me why there's a used copy of PAGAN, my novel, being sold on Amazon.com for $39.38 when anyone can get a new copy for $15.99?

NaNoWriMo and why I fell short.

Well, NaNoWriMo has come and gone and I failed. All told I ended up about ten thousand words shy of the total.

My heartiest and sincerest congratulations to everyone who signed up and managed to hit the total. You guys rock. However you managed to do it, you did manage it and my hat is off to you.

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, an annual event which seeks to encourage writers, both amateur and professional, to commit the month of November to ... look, the name is National Novel Writing Month. Do I really need to explain further?

Anyway, the target is fifty thousand words words or roughly sixteen hundred and sixty-seven words a day. A not-impossible target. So why did I fall short?

Well, I could talk about how I was sick for a large slice of the month, and that would be true. I could talk about setting aside last Friday as the day when I was going to catch up, only to find myself hit by the worst migraine I've had in nearly a decade, and that, too, would be true. I could mention the Bengals unexpectedly being quite good this year and how I had to--no choice, you understand--watch them every Sunday. I could add Thanksgiving into the mix and lament about how, between the cooking and the going to relatives houses, I had to take valuable hours away from the keyboard. I could mention that I do my best writing at work during my split shifts, and how, for reasons unknown, I didn't get split shifts for at least a week. I could mention the sick wife that I nursed. I could talk about all of these things and more.

But let's face it, those are just excuses.

They're not reasons.

The reason I fell short was because I just didn't write enough words. And that's didn't, not couldn't. I can write seventeen hundreds words a day. I can do that easily. On three separate occasions during November I sat down and wrote five thousand words, often in four hours or less. On Monday, the last day of the month, I spent a total of four and a half hours bashing out over seven thousand words.

I can do it. I had the time. It was not a failure of time, or ability, it was a failure of motivation.

I messed around on facebook when I should have been writing. I tormented the cat when I should have been writing. I watched a half-dozen movies, three seasons of Blackadder, three episodes of Stargate Universe, the same number of Sanctuary, and went through most of the Military Channel and the Science Channel on Insight's Free Spot. I watched Stargate: Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum. I watched American football. I watched a spot of real football. And I could have written whilst I was doing all that. I have my AlphaSmart. It's portable and cord free.

I read, too. Boy did I read. I went on a Terry Pratchett binge, reading most of my collection. I read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I proof-read Pagan again before authorising it for sale on Kindle. All told, during November, I read close to twenty novels. Twenty! When I could have been writing!

There was also the whole issue of getting started. I didn't set finger to keyboard until the fourth of the month. The fourth! I was already over five thousand words behind by the time I got started.

Maybe if I had got started early and worked a little every day, I could have...

Excuse me, I just have to go and have a flashback to every rushed homework assignment from my school days.

So, lessons learned?

Let's find out, and I don't have to wait 'till next year. December is my private NoWriMo. I'm going to write fifty thousand words in the month of December, if only to prove to myself that I can do it.

Just as soon as I've finished watching this really cool special on the History Channel. And I still have four episodes of V on the DVR. And the cat's looking bored. And I never did get around to reading Sourcery. And I have food to serve on Cafe World.

Oh, this month's not looking good, either.

PAGAN on Amazon.com

PAGAN is now available on Amazon.com, click here.

PAGAN, Now Available.

My first novel, PAGAN, is now available through my CreateSpace store at https://www.createspace.com/3402911.

I'm so excited I can barely stand to be in the same room as myself.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Third in the series. You know the drill. If you didn't like the first two, why would you go see the third?

Okay, The Bourne Ultimatum. Third movie about the rogue assassin Jason Bourne, based upon The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. I stress that The Bourne Ultimatum isn't based upon the book of the same name (and neither was The Bourne Supremacy based upon the second book in the series), because the first movie departed so radically from the book's storyline that the second and third installments just wouldn't have made sense as written.

I loved the books. The books are incredible. The films, though different in many ways, are almost as good.

There is, as with the first two, one flaw. Shakicam. It's like the opposite of Steadicam. It's where many scenes are shot from a shaking camera, as though filmed by an amateur using a hand-held whilst sitting on a massage chair. I guess there's supposed to be some aspect of this that lends gritty realism to the movie that I am simply too unsophisticated to grasp, in my ignorance of the director's art, but it annoys the hell out of me. If I wanted to see the action wobbling all over the place I'd consume a bottle of fine Scotch before watching, and have a much more pleasurable experience for it.

Seriously, it's not big and it's not clever. Hold the bloody camera steady.

The movie itself is excellent. The storyline is gripping, the action is thrilling, and Matt Damon as Jason Bourne is as violently endearing as ever. The movie is a fitting continuation of the Bourne narrative.

Oh. Continuation? Yeah, there's a fourth and fifth book - The Bourne Legacy and The Bourne Betrayal - so it's even money that there may be one more film at least. I haven't read, nor do I have plans to read, these new books because they are not written by Ludlum, but by Eric Van Lustbader, and such projects are, in my experience, invariably disappointing.

This movie is, though, worth your time.

Doombreed Rating: * * * *

Less Interesting Day

Today, May 11th, is the sixth anniversary of the day that the world became significantly less interesting because a great man left it.

Ever Felt That Dumb?

This morning, before leaving for work, I perused my "library" for a book to read. I think I've mentioned on here before how I have a book for work and a book for home. This moment's home book is The Bourne Supremacy, purely because I'd just read The Bourne Identity and will, no doubt, be continuing on to The Bourne Ultimatum next. Workwise, I'd just finished Deathwing*, so I needed some more reading material.

I ran my eye along my modest collection of Games Workshop books. Farseer? Nah. Storm Of Iron? Maybe next. Into The Maelstrom? Hmm.. I remember reading that and not liking a few of the stories, but I could always skip those and read the good ones. I almost didn't. I almost went back to Storm Of Iron.

But off I toddled to work, Into The Maelstrom tucked into my pocket. First break rolls around and outside I go. The first story, Salvation by Jonathan Green, is very good. But I don't remember it. Next came Into The Maelstrom by Chris Pramas. Also very good. Again, I don't remember it. After that, and by now I'm back outside for my lunch, I read Emperor's Grace by Alex Hammond. Not quite so good, but also unknown. Then I hit The Raven's Claw by Jonathan Curran. Now I know I've never read this one before. I would definitely have remembered this one. As I cross over into Children Of The Emperor by Barrington J. Bailey, I find, hiding between the pages like some anorexic bookmark, the original receipt from when I bought the book.

That's right. For two years this book has been sitting on my bookcase, me thinking that it was "okay" and "not the best", and I had never even read it. Ever.

Sad.

*And not the crappy new Deathwing either. This is the old version, where Grimm's still a Squat and compacks aren't called "vox casters".

Legion Of The Damned

Whilst I was rooting through a second-hand bookstore a while back, I found a copy of a book by William C. Dietz, called Legion Of The Damned.

Now, for some time, I had been hearing rumours that Games Workshop were planning to release a novel concerning the Legion Of The Damned, which would answer some of the many questions concerning that mysterious band of undead Space Marines, so I grabbed it.

Of course, I didn't check the cover too closely. If I had, I would have noticed that the GW logo appears absolutely nowhere.

Anyway, I eventually got around to reading it and.. well, it took me about three lines to realise something was amiss. I closed the book and looked at the cover. Legion Of The Damned. "Across a thousand years, across a thousand stars, they stand alone..."

Sounds good. Flip the book over. Read the back.

"When all hope is lost-for the terminally ill, for the condemned criminal, for the victim who cannot be saved-there comes one final choice.

You can choose life-as a cyborg soldier in the Legion.

Both more and less than human, these steel warriors with determined human minds are the most elite fighting force in the Empire.

The are fearsome-and expendable. They are the...

Legion Of The Damned

...God help them."

Disheartened, I put the book down and reached for another.

Some time later, I picked up another book that looked promising. Steelheart. After reading it I decided to look into what else the author had written, because it was a very enjoyable story.

Guess what?

Steelheart was written by none other than William C. Dietz.

Cautiously, I returned to Legion Of The Damned and picked it up..

..And didn't put it down until it was finished.

Legion Of The Damned is a fantastic book. It's actually better than I was expecting when I thought it was a Warhammer 40,000 novel.

So now I'm looking out for The Final Battle, By Blood Alone, By Force Of Arms, More Than Glory, For Those Who Fell, and When All Seems Lost, which continue the story started in Legion Of The Damned.

Yes, picking up that book may well turn out to be an expensive mistake.

What Have You Been Reading?

I was recently tagged by Notorious Apostate to partake in the "What Have You Been Reading?" meme. I have been strenuously avoiding anything approaching hard typing, but I can't put it off any longer. Here's a glimpse into The Horror That Is Doombreed:

1: One book that changed your life:

Billions & Billions by Carl Sagan.

This was Sagan's last book, in fact, he died before he could properly finish it and the afterword was written by his widow. From a lightly humourous look at our global ecosystem in The World That Came In The Mail, to a deceptively simple look at very large numbers in The Persian Chessboard, from a darkly worrying treatise on global warming in Ambush: The Warming Of The World, to a surprisingly hopeful piece on cooperation called Religion and Science: An Alliance, Sagan weaves his magic over science in an eye-opening book of this great man's last thoughts.

The afterword, though, is almost the most powerful part of all. Ann, Sagan's widow, writes a heart-wrenching account of her husband's last days, his courage against adversity and and the simple, overwhelming love they shared, and I, unashamedly, cried the first time I read it.

2: One Book You've Read More Than Once:

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett.

I read most books more than once, but Night Watch probably counts as the one I've read the most. Certainly, it's one of Pratchett's best.

3: One Book You'd Want On A Desert Island

This is a toughie. My first instinct is to cheat and think of a compendium, like The Lord Of The Rings, or The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, or something. Then I think of something silly, like Building A Boat And Getting The Hell Off Of A Desert Island For Dummies. Okay, then I think of being typically me and asking for The Bible so I'll always have firelighters.

Then I settle on The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy. I could, and have, read that book over and over and over again.

4: One Book That Made You Giddy:

The Messianic Legacy by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry Lincoln.

This book made my head spin. The incredible evidence for a 2000 year coverup of the truth about Christianity's origins is just breathtaking.

5: One Book You Wish Had Been Written:

U.S. Road Cav.

In the late eighties, a British company called Games Workshop started to publish novels based around their table-top roleplaying games. Several were printed for Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and some were published for a now-defunct game called Dark Future.

The game, set in the near-future, dealt with a blasted, wasted world, ruled over by gangs and the big corporations. The books were, originally, Route 666, Daemon Download, Comeback Tour, and Krokodil Tears, and traced the gathering of forces towards some massive apocalyptic End Of Days style final battle type of thing.

The fifth book in the series was supposed to be U.S. Road Cav, but GW dropped the Dark Future line before it was published.

6: One Book That Wracked You With Sobs:

Apart from Billions & Billions (see above), I would have to say The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings.

Kurik's death, and Talen's subsequent revenge. 'Nuff said.

7: One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written:

The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit.

It's not a bad book, per se, it's just that I was forced to read it at school, and then forced to watch the BBC TV version of it. And now this supremely useless crap is taking up space in my already overtaxed brain.

8: One Book You're Currently Reading:

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Is there any need for explanation beyond that fact that this is the greatest five-book trilogy ever written?

9: One Book You're Meaning To Read:

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

I'm told that the book differs considerably from the movie, so I'm interested in picking up a copy, if I can ever find one.

10: Now Tag Five Bloggers:

(who will hate me for doing so)

3vil g3nius
Simon
Marindazza

And.. I'm out of ideas..

Dan Bown's Deception Point

Dan Brown's latest novel is, it has to be said, a little bit of a disappointment. Many of the literary conventions and set-pieces used in either Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code make an appearance, leading to a rather unfair impression that one has "read it all before".

Brown once again takes the notion of the "flawed hero" a little too far, but whereas Robert Landgon suffered from claustrophobia, Rachel Sexton suffers from hydrophobia, and as sure as you knew Langdon was going to end up stuffed into confined spaces, you just know Sexton's going into the water.

Brown weaves a good tale, with suspense and shock along the way. It's an engrossing story about politics, backstabbing and a cloak-and-dagger military unit, but it falls down in some aspects.

Brown repeats a few urban myths as if they are fact, including the utterly debunked theory that the head of the eagle on the US Presidential Seal faces the other way during wartime, and gives the US special forces group known as "Delta Force" a rather rough write-up. Brown sometimes goes to ridiculous lengths to preserve the suspense, leading to some cases of characters acting in ways that are just a touch unbelievable because they're trying not to give the twist away a few chapters early.

Other than those, though, the book is fun, fast, and fascinating. Just, as always, bear in mind that it's fiction.

Millions flock to Da Vinci Code

Y'know, Dan Brown owes a lot to the Catholic church. If they hadn't made such a stink about The Da Vinci Code, he would still be a relatively unknown author and his book would have never made it to film. Then, had they not made such a fuss about the movie, it wouldn't have grossed $224 million at the box office on its opening weekend.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Millions flock to Da Vinci Code: "The Da Vinci Code movie took $224m (£119m) at box offices around the world at the weekend despite controversy and bad reviews, its distributor has said.

That is the second most successful film opening in history, Columbia said."

It seems like, in this, the church is its own worst enemy. Seriously, just ignore it and it wouldn't have been a problem.

And, of course, they're still at it.

More TV documentaries, more books, more magazine articles, more crap and wind, keep appearing, all seeking to "refute" the book and movie.

(BTW, most make the mistake of trying to refute the book because it, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, do not agree with established views of history. Which, of course, completely misses the point of both the movie and the two books, which is that established history is a fiction created in part by the Catholic church to consolidate their grip on power, and in part by the group The Priory Of Sion in order to conceal their true agenda.

It's like using The Da Vinci Code to refute all the refuting because the refuters don't agree with the book. Stupid.)

There's even some blowhard here urging Christians to take "legal action" against the movie.

Sort of a "who would Jesus sue?" kind of thing.

Again, I'm forced to wonder why Catholics are taking such pains to refute a book and movie that they are so anxious to remind us is fictional.

I don't recall this much fuss over the historical licence taken with U-571 or Braveheart, not to mention The Passion Of The Christ (there always seems to be one too many "the" in that title) or, when you get down to it, Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Maybe this one hits a little too close to home?

I would urge anyone who wants to know more about the background to the story to actually sit down and read Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

At least then you'll know why many of the charges brought against Dan Brown are simply so much guff.

The Da Vinci Code, the movie

Mrs Doombreed and I went to see The Da Vinci Code today. It's pretty good. Not as good as the book, but then, it never was going to be. Hanks as Langdon is almost convincing, but Ian McKellen as Teabing was not how I'd imagined him (I saw Teabing as more like Freddie Jones' "Kenneth Aubrey" from Firefox, for those with long memories).

Jean Reno was smooth and incredible, but then, when is he not?

The movie does take a slightly different direction than the book did - Langdon and Teabing being more confrontational over their interpretations of the Priory "myth", and Langdon being slightly less "militant atheist with an axe to grind" - but the same message is there.

Mrs Doombreed - she who is the Christian yin to my atheist yang - thoroughly enjoyed it, and came out of the theatre with her faith completely unshaken, scoffing at all the Catholics who have their panties in a bunch.

Worth a watch. Especially if, like us, the projector breaks halfway through, providing a much-needed restroom break and apologetic management handing out free movie passes as we left at the end.

Doombreed rating: ****1/2

The Da Vinci Deception Deception

Before I commence, here's a little info:

In order that I should not spoil, for anyone that has not read it, the "twist" in The Da Vinci Code, I shall, henceforth, refer to it simply as "The Theory."

Anyone who has read The Da Vinci Code knows what The Theory is, and exactly why it's caused the Vatican to get its knickers in a twist, not to mention getting Christian apologists everywhere foaming at the mouth.

In response to The Da Vinci Code, several of these apologists have published books claiming to refute it. Titles like The Da Vinci Deception, The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code, The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing The Errors In The Da Vinci Code and Cracking Da Vinci's Code stand in bookstores, often sharing displays with the book which was their inspiration.

Firstly, let's examine the dichotomy here. Christian apologists are falling over themselves to remind us over and over that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. Now, why are these people spending so much time and effort in refuting a work of fiction, and a self-admitted work of fiction at that? Why are they searching its pages for even the tiniest of errors so that they may trumpet its fictional status from the rooftops?

Okay, I always remind myself to look for the lowest common denominator. Some of these authors, at least, are likely to be simply jumping on the bandwagon, using the hype surrounding the upcoming movie release in order to make money or increase their literary standing amongst the Christian bookbuying public.

But at least some must be doing it because they genuinely believe that The Da Vinci Code represents a genuine threat to the Roman Catholic church - and to Christianity in general - and desperately want to refute it.

But that's not what prompted this entry, per se.

I was in Waldenbooks today, where I picked up a copy of Deception Point by Dan Brown and The Massianic Legacy by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Both of these books were on a display with various books related to The Da Vinci Code including the Christian apologist books named above.

What startled me is that most of the books that seek to refute The Theory contain, on their back-cover blurb, the same error. Most describe The Theory as being "Dan Brown's wild theory", or some variation thereof.

But it's not Dan Brown's theory, wild or otherwise.

The Theory was first advanced in the pages of Holy Blood, Holy Grail which, remember, was first published in 1982.

Dan Brown even mentions Holy Blood, Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code as being the first place that The Theory was brought to the attention of the public.

But it's easier to undermine The Theory if it's the work of one novelist than if it's the product of three highly respected historians' years of painstaking research.

And if these apologist authors cannot even get the basic facts straight for the back-cover blurb, what makes them believe we'll trust them with what's inside the book?

From The Da Vinci Code to..

I've gotten into the habit of reading two books at once recently. One book stays at home, and the second is kept, usually, in my backpack or in the back pocket of my jeans (if it fits). This is because I like to read on my breaks at work, and I know that if I take my "work" book out of my backpack tonight, tomorrow I'll leave without it.

Anyway, this moment's "work" book is Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, he of The Da Vinci Code fame (or should that be infamy?). Angels & Demons is the book that came before The Da Vinci Code, also featuring Robert Langdon as the lead (yeah, Tom Hanks' character), but this time he's defending the Vatican against a dastardly plot by The Illuminati.

Brown again delves deep into the we'd-rather-you-kept-that-secret history of the Roman Catholic church, and reveals some surprising architectural and historical insights. So far it's keeping me enthralled and has almost made me late returning from break on two occasions.

Yes, it is fiction. I get it.

My "home" book is currently Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book that, apparently, inspired The Da Vinci Code. This book is not fiction. It is the account of a number of scholars who, through researching various mysteries and trying to put together documentaries for the BBC, stumbled across clues to what might be the most startling secret in history.

If you've read The Da Vinci Code, you know what it is. If you haven't, I won't spoil it. And if you have, and liked it, you'll enjoy Angels & Demons. Holy Blood, Holy Grail is less entertaining, but then, it's not a novel.

The Da Vinci Code

Nope, I haven't seen the movie (it's not out yet), but I did finally get around to reading the book. And boy, I can understand why various Christian organisations are pretty pissed about it.

The book - and, presumably, the film - brings into the popular consciousness many facts about the Roman Catholic church that they'd rather remain hidden.

Author Dan Brown brings together a staggering array of church history and weaves a tight little story around them, often leaving one wondering exactly where the facts end and the fiction begins.

The book begins with two facts and a kind of "inverse-disclaimer":

Firstly, that the Priory of Sion is an actual organisation, a so-called "secret society", formed in 1099, which has had, apparently, amongst its members Sir Isaac Newton, Boticelli and, of course, Leonardo da Vinci.

Second, that Opus Dei is, also, an actual organisation which claims over 80,000 members worldwide. A very powerful sect within the Roman Catholic church, Opus Dei (lit. "work of God") is ultra-conservative and is rumoured to have had a strong hand in the election of conservative Benedictine XVI as successor to the relatively liberal John Paul II.

The author then goes on to state that all descriptions of "artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals" are also factual and accurate.

What the author studiously avoids stating is whether the little tidbits of background on the church are also accurate.

Now, I'm not going to go into detail here, because that would spoil the book and/or the movie - but there a few facts - that may, or may not make it into the movie - which might cause more than a few people to draw in a startled breath.

Opus Dei is already preparing a response to The Da Vinci Code, and has repeatedly taken great pains to remind people that the story is fictional.

(Yeah, we know that. But if I write a story about a guy who drives a Ford Mustang, lives in Tampa, Florida, and shoots people with his H-K PPK, does the fact that it's fictional mean that Mustangs, PPKs and Tampa, Florida do not, in reality, exist?)

The book is outstanding, and it's amazing to be able to go send Google off to find actual pictures of the buildings, carvings, pictures, and places that the characters are dealing with.

And, yes, you have a choice. Either let the book spoil the movie, or let the movie spoil the book.

I've already done the former.

Banquets of the Black Widowers

I must confess to being something of an Isaac Asimov fan. As far as I'm concerned, no writer has contributed more quality work to the literary world than he, and I had thought myself fairly well-read in his works.

Until, that is, my wife brought home a copy of Banquets of the Black Widowers for me the other day. I had never heard of this book - unsurprising considering Asimov's over four hundred books in print - but had also never heard of the series.

The Black Widowers series, which number six volumes - Tales, More Tales, The Casebook, Banquets, Puzzles, and The Return - spin short stories of a group of six friends who hold monthly dinners at New York's Milano restaurant.

Each month, one member, excluding the esteemed and peerless waiter, Henry, serves a turn as host, wherein they are required to bring a guest. The guest is, in return for the sumptuous free meal, required to submit to questioning by the members. Each question session starts with a demand that the guest justify his - and Asimov shows great insight by making this group just chauvinistic enough to exclude women from the meetings - existence. Not an easy question to answer. Try it for yourself.

Each guest then, under questioning, reveals a puzzle that has been taxing him - even if he did not know it - and the Widowers solve it for him.

Actually, it's almost always Henry that solves it, but he diplomatically allows the other members a shot first.

Banquets is a fascinating read, even more so because Asimov had to come up with the puzzles as well as the solutions, and represents, in this blogger's opinion, the man's unrivalled genius at its peak.

And, with a birthday coming up, I think I know what to ask for...