Hugbot wrote:

Got another batch of reprints of the Airpirate pulp series originally published c. 1908–1910. Usually, reading Wilhelminian space opera provides a welcome distraction from your everyday worries. But guess what happens in issue no. 82? Mankind faces nothing less than a pandemic, ominously dubbed, ‘The Grey Death.’ While a Swedish physician finds a cure, it turns out that the main ingredient is very rare on Earth. The required amounts can only be found on Venus. Hence, Captain Mors has to set out for Venus again, well knowing that the very nature of the planet is as hostile as its inhabitants.

Apart from the topical story, it was quite interesting to read the description of the highlands near the North Pole of Venus: while the authors of the series dreamed up oceans, a breathable atmosphere and giant salamanders, the northern continent looks suspiciously like the real Maxwell Mountains in the Ishtar Terra region of Venus – strangely accurate for a novel written more than 100 years ago!

As far as I know, ep. 140 (which I will receive in January) has a similar plot. In that instalment, Mors even has to fly to Neptune to get a cure for yet another plague! Well, let’s hope that we will never need a cure from outer space...

Travisina wrote:

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

The TV adaptation was on Amazon Prime, which inspired hubby to get the DVDs, and now we're powering through the novels which are quite different to the TV series. Great stuff.

Ellen York wrote:



Glad you are enjoying the series, it is a favorite of mine. And there is a new one just out this month.

Klenotka wrote:

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon....so far so good. I am about on page 200 which is relatively in the beginning but it is really fun to read, and I am curious if this is going to turn into a real ghost story or if it is something else. (no spoilers if you read it )

One Spare Part wrote:

Re-reading many Stephen King books. They are very relaxing. I am discovering they read differently as an older reader. I appreciate his talent more.

Vanessa Doffenshmirtz wrote:

I'm still on my Tudor novel binge.

So why is the latest thing HVIII's last wife, Katherine Parr, shagging Thomas Seymour?

All through her second marriage with John Neville, Lord Latimer and into her third with Good King Hal?

The guy who had his second wife beheaded because of suspected adultery and his fifth also beheaded for suspected adultery?

It makes so much sense that his street-smart sixth wife would be jumping into bed with a known rake...

sighs....

Travisina wrote:


In my young teens, I binged the Tudor novels by Jean Plaidy - 'Murder Most Royal' (wives 1-5) and 'The Sixth Wife' (Katherine Parr). I don't remember her shagging Seymour, or perhaps I've forgotten or perhaps I was too young and innocent when I read it to realise what was going on...