Brian is a down to earth chap who enjoys travelling. From hitching a ride on a lorry to a pub crawl around London, each chapter and location was not just interesting, but fun to read.

Brian isn’t scared to tell you about the good and the bad of his trips, which make for a more rich reading experience. Whether he is busy trying to find his camera whilst horseback riding in Mongolia, else trying to not get lost riding a bicycle around Beijing, it was all interesting.

Now admittedly this book covers the experiences of a young male, but I think there is something for everyone. Now if I should find myself in some of the same locations, my experience will be better for reading this book, such as not eating the salad on a Nile cruise!

My favourite chapter was his journey on the ‘Trans-Mongolian’ train ride. I had previously read about this train journey before, but Brian’s was more detailed and interesting.

This book is filled full of fun moments, many of which I found myself laughing out loud. So this isn’t a typical travel book and nor does it pretend to be. It is a fantastic travel book with plenty of humour written by someone travelling on a budget.

So if like me you enjoy reading travel books, especially trips which are more authentic, with plenty of good humour, you should check this book out. Brian has a website www.brianthacker.tv, plus he has written plenty of other books, which I must read sometime.

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I’ve read hundreds of science fiction books, and a healthy dollop of them have been related to time travel. You could say I know what constitutes a decent time travel book, so I’m not sure why I persevered so much with this book, when I realised there were plenty of holes in the story.

There wasn’t an issue with grammar, the author can form lovely sentences. The problem was this book at times, just didn’t make sense, have depth, enough juicy science fiction details to make it believable.

This was my first ‘Christian’ science fiction read, but regardless of the religious ideals of the book, it just wasn’t a good science fiction book, which is a shame. The beginning of the story held so many possibilities, and I truly hope the author revisits his book, and gives it a major rewrite, to take this book to the next level, but it seemed at the end, which felt rushed, the book was just written to fit around a few Christian principles.

So after four paragraphs, I’d better tell you what the book is about! You follow a chap called Skylar Rains who time travels to the future, but accidentally makes a mistake and goes further than he original intended. Upon arriving he realises humanity is nowhere to be seen on Earth. What happened to humanity? What should Skylar do next? Sounds like a pretty kick-ass beginning, and it was, but alas for me that was the best part of the book.

After a while any seasoned science fiction reader will start questioning actions, details, parts of the story and then at that stage why continue to read?

I’m not going to lie, I found it difficult to write this review. As I mentioned Scott can produce lovely sentences, but this wasn’t a science fiction story, and if I was to try and think about it in terms of a religious story, it wasn’t that good either.

Without doubt this was a missed opportunity. I hope the story is revisited, reworked and given solid science fiction credentials.

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This book was first published in 2009 and in it Fleur Britten takes us on a couch surfing adventure that covers China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The adventurer travels from Moscow to these destinations via the Trans-Siberian railway.

Couchsurfing aka find a space for free to sleep for a night interests me, which is why I decided to read this book. However I soon discovered there was far more to couch surfing than a place to lay your head.

Fleur is British as I am, and it was interesting to read a Brits take on the couchsurfing community, to find out about the experiences, the logistics and really what could be expected. This book was quite addictive to read, as I was always wondering would the ad-hoc network of strangers hold up, would she find herself stranded, struggling to find safe haven, in the middle of nowhere?

The book was more about the individuals than the locations, indeed I didn’t realise quite how much time hosts spent with their guests. Unquestionable it was eye opening, and humbling to see people opening their doors, sharing their daily lives and welcoming strangers into their homes. At other times in the book, things didn’t go according to plan, which was covered as well.

This wasn’t a story of epic adventure, indeed many of the situations were quite dull, and often conversations reminded me of my youth down the local pubs! So yes on occasion I felt the experience was wasted, but then some gems would crop up, some insight into lives and views that were not to be had locally.

When Fleur was out exploring, I did find it quite interesting, including the lifestyle, food and locations. This wasn’t the tourist trail, this was a more humble and native experience, which is where this book excelled.

When reading this book, you can’t help but ask yourself, would I couch surf? Would I host couch surfers? Plus think ‘Blimey how brave is Fleur!’

If you are interested in the topics of couch surfing, cheap travel or more raw travel experiences, you should find this book a good read, I know I did.

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The science fiction book is from 1990, but it had the feel of an older sci-fi story, which isn’t a negative, it is a compliment as it stood up on its own two feet, away from the technology and presented a fairly decent story.

This books mainly follows the lives of two beings, one human called Viktor, and Wan-To a plasma based life-form. Discover how Wan-To’s almost childlike outlook causes problems for Viktor, the rest of humanity and Wan-To as well. Wan-To is practically immortal, whereas Viktor who is the underdog of the two uses other means to survive. It is said that with great power, comes great responsibility, but this book at times turned this on its head, and the results laid out across the story were interesting and fun to read.

There are plenty of supporting characters in the book, but I won’t say more abount them, as I don’t want to spoil the read. This book did shows the effects of technological advancement, but the book wasn’t really about technology, but a book about characters.

I’m not going to lie and say this is a must read, or that it is an awesome science fiction book, it isn’t. Yet I enjoyed its honesty, in looking at how selfishness and immaturity can impact life. It shows just because someone has experiences, doesn’t mean they always walk away for the better, matured and can use that knowledge to not repeat errors later on.

Its take on dealing with space travel, the wonder of travelling to the stars, meeting new life-forms and humanity over long periods of time were quite unexpected at times, and interesting to follow. So read this book if you want a good space science fiction read, but for me was more about characters than the settings and technology.

A good science fiction story, that didn’t hold its punches and provided plenty of twists and turns that kept me reading till the end.

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These were not quite the Wizards I knew from later books as only a couple of familiar names jumped out such as Rincewind and the Librarian, but the usual attitude of the Wizards was there to read, well for a short while at least!

Back in time sourcery and wizardary was not a good combination, and the Discworld and its population suffered whilst they fought amongst themselves. In current times sourcerers have vanished from the Discworld, but that is all about to change!

There is a wizard called Ipslore the Red and his eighth son called Coin was born a sourcerer, and his father has big plans for him, only the wizard died, but that doesn’t stop the determined wizard from being an influence! Young Coin appears at the Unseen University (the wizard university in Ankh-Morpork) and this sets in motions events…. which I’m not going to tell you about!

Let me just say that Rincewind a wizard (just) once again finds himself having to be involved in dangerous situations, whereas if you know Rincewind, he would rather be having a rather dull time.

This 1988 Discworld book is no disappointment and Terry Pratchett’s wonderful use of the english language to lay out his story, weave in an assortment of unusual characters and situations is as per usual, a joy to read.

The book takes you from Ankh-Morpork to Klatch, as well as various other locations on the Discworld. Rincewinds luggage is naturally within the book, and plays a starring role, plus Death also makes some appearances, with his usual awesome dry conversational skills.

It is amazing how even if I’ve not read a Discworld book in a while, once I start reading one I feel like I didn’t leave the world, and I am eager to find out what occurs next, which is a testament to the quality of writing and the world Terry created.

My absolute favourite Discworld characters are the Night Watch, but they are not in this book, but I do quite like reading about the wizards as well, and this book showed another side of the wizards.

Like other Discworld books, it was a great read and I highly recommend this book.

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Sci-Fi literature from the 1960s and earlier in the 20th Century can’t rely on as much ‘techno-babble’ as current authors can – the story as any good sci-fi story should be, is about the characters and in this case the dramatic changes around them and how they adjust.

Many writers plunge people in alternate Earths similar to our own, but slightly off, whereas Philip José Farmer was more ambitious. His Earth wasn’t about a difference such as a war being lost instead of won, or another person hadn’t existed, but in this case the difference was Earth itself developing differently, such as different sea levels and thus some land mass missing and the impact upon humanity.

This saw our trio of characters, two U.S. Military airmen and a German pilot being plunged into a world with different civilizations, motivations and at times different moral values. Is this an opportunity or this a struggle to return home, to their own Earth?

The book does has a strong focus on War, but that was a good backdrop for the characters. What does the civilizations, who are caught in bitter rivalry and wars, make of these humans from elsewhere, especially as the trio hold knowledge of technology, that hasn’t been created in the alternate Earth?

The book primarily follows the main character Roger Two Hawks one of the U.S. airmen, and for the reader he is the grounding, the lightning rod in which the readers can gauge the affects this alternate Earth has upon a strong willed person pulled out of their reality, and follow his journey.

Which leads me to the book title ‘The Gate of Time’, which to be honest I thought was slightly off the mark, as it wasn’t about time travel at all, which you would be forgiven for thinking, upon seeing the title, but regardless if you do happen to like time travel books, which this book is not about, you hopefully should enjoy this alternate Earth story.

One of the best parts of the this story, was the twist in the story left to the end, which I didn’t see coming. It was a sort of ‘wow’ factor for me, which gave the book a ‘lift’, even when the story was being wrapped up.

I hugely enjoyed reading this book.

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This book wasn’t just about Star Trek, but it did have a strong influence on Wil’s life during the show and after he chose to leave the show. The books follows a struggling actor, trying to come to terms with his his old role, decisions he made, his current circumstances and trying to turn a new chapter in his life, not just for his sake, but for his family’s as well.

For this is Wil Wheaton grown up, family man and geek with a dog. I will admit I spent the majority of the time reading the book, feeling sorry for him, until I gained perspective and realised he didn’t have to be a struggling actor, he could of ventured off into other avenues of employment a long time ago, so it was tough going reading about the coping with bills etc. It showed though that a man who knew he had talent as an actor, didn’t want to give up, and felt he had something to offer.

Even though this wasn’t a book solely about Star Trek, there was a healthy dollop of Trek contained within the pages, including his time working on the STTNG movie ‘Nemesis’ and attending Trek events. It was very interesting reading about some of the ex-STTNG actors working together at Star Trek events years after their time on the TV show.

Unlike some others, I had enjoyed his role as Wesley Crusher on STTNG, but this book showed you who the man is behind his roles, shows you how much he cares about acting, and the amazing preparation he puts into auditioning, plus how Hollywood treats struggling actors. This books also gives you insight into a struggling actor’s life and how it impacts his family.

Yet this book also showed the development and turning point of not just Wil’s career choices, but progress as a family man. For those who follow his blog, it tells the story of how is blog got started and thus his writing career was born. The book shows that Wil is indeed a geek, but also an intelligent and caring geek, who has much to offer, both creatively as an actor, writer and more.

I’m not going to say this was a must read for geeks or Trek fans, but it was a good read. You do really need to know quite a bit about Star Trek – The Next Generation to truly enjoy this book, but this book is more than another Trek book,  it is a book by a Geek, for Geeks.

So where did this book leave me, after I had read the last page? Recently I had seen Wil’s acting on ‘The Guild’ (an online geek tv show), which I thought was top notch and fun. Plus after reading this book I’ve taken a look at his blog, plus he has his own online tv show on the ‘Geek and Sundry’ channel, which I’m going to watch.

If you choose to read this book and then watch his online tv shows or read his blog, reading this book should enrich those experiences.

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The Time Riders series centres around three teenagers called Liam, Maddy and Sal, plus their supporting A.I. Units and a mentor of sorts. The trio were been plucked out of time shortly before their tragic demises, to have a second change at life protecting the time stream as part of an agency.

In the latest offering, the main stage was ancient Rome, with people from 2070 venturing back and altering history. It is up to the Time Riders who are based in New York in 2001 to work out when, who and how to set things right, but as you might expect, it really isn’t as simple as that.

The Time Riders have been struggling to find their own places within their new roles over the last five books, plus throw in some interesting twists and turns and you end up finishing one book, ready for the next! Well I do anyhow, but that doesn’t mean you can’t read these books as standard alone books, which you can (just), but you really should delve into the whole series to enjoy a richer reading experience.

It was good to see some issues that have been bubbling in the series for a while, come to the surface, some resolved and some not, plus naturally new questions have been presented, which help tie this book to the next in the series.

There was an unexpected twist in this book, with the Time Riders themselves becoming a target from another time!! I’m not going to say anything more, but it opens up possibilities and I hope in future books this is explored, which I’m sure it will be.

As always I enjoyed reading the authors take on the period of history, this time ancient Rome and the stark realities of yesterday, are not covered up, even though this is a teenage aimed book.

It would have been all too easy for the author to have gone for some clichés in this book. i.e. Have Bob (a strong A.I. support unit) become a gladiator or turn Liam into a Roman squad leader or something similar, but Alex Scarrow resisted and the book was richer for how he used his characters in this time period.

With each book there are new characters and from the good, the bad and the ones somewhere in-between, I enjoyed the new characters for this book, both the ones in Ancient Rome and the ones from 2070.

So what didn’t I like? After all this is a review, I can’t just say ‘great read’, and move on. I missed the Becks character not having a major role, as she has in previous books, but I presume that could change in book six or seven? I was eager to see a Liam and Foster meet up, but I hope that occurs soon. I was also surprised by Liam’s character not being more commanding after all this time, especially after Nottingham (part of a previous Time Rider storyline). Though these are not faults with the writing, and book five is part of a series, so character development, plotlines etc can be expanded over the series and not neatly tied up by the end of the book.

So there you have it, I hope I’ve given a fair review, talking about positives and negatives from my viewpoint. I will admit I am a huge Time Riders fan! I find it relaxing to read these books, the writing is top-notch, the storyline interesting and although it wasn’t the stand-out book of the series so far, it was a great read.

I’m already looking forward to the sixth Time Riders book.

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This book is basically a storyline set in the future, following a spaceship captain called Calvin Cross and his military spaceship crew who get caught up in a conspiracy. The book falls into the ‘space opera’ genre, but its focus is character based, not going overboard on the technology descriptions, which I suspect will help the book not date quickly, as some science fiction books do.

I will admit I found some aspects of the storyline implausible, especially the command structure and Calvin Cross, plus the ships doctors in particular, and they were weak points for me. I didn’t like the fact the main character took drugs, regardless of the reason and the doctors involvement. I hate to be negative, but I’m being honest.

So I’m four paragraphs into my review and what is the story actually about? I don’t wish to give spoilers, but Calvin and his crew are chasing after an admiral who has gone on the run. Naturally that one sentence doesn’t properly describe the story, but you should get the gist.

I will admit without the book being free I might never had read it, as I hadn’t heard of the author. It wasn’t the best science fiction book I read in 2011, but Richard Sanders is a good writer and I’m glad I read this ebook, but I probably won’t read any follow-ups. If you were a fan of the Star Trek Enterprise TV series with Scott Bakula, then this book is probably for you.

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This is a fantastic book choc-a-bloc full of useful advice and insight into how to improve your work life quality and accomplish more in less time. Even if you are happy with your current job, this book should give you much to think about.

This book isn’t all talk either, as Tim gives plenty of insight into his own work life balance and there are great reader contributions to enjoy. I had already begun a transition in my work life when I read the book, and the book helped me evolve some of the changes I had made, plus gave me plenty of advice and new actions to take.

Each day the book gave me something to consider and some of the actions I’ve taken have had immediate benefits, others will not bare fruit for a while, but the wheels have been set in motion. One of the areas that has had the most impact is changing how I communicate. i.e. less, but in a more focused way. There have been other equally important changes, but unfortunately I’m not willing to discuss here, but all positive!

I didn’t read this book in one sitting, but over a month and this is a book I will revisit. It is a book to keep, and is one of the best lifestyle books I’ve read in a long time, as influential on my life as Ricardo Semler’s business books are.

This book has made a difference to my life already.

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