Been reading : Tim Akers - Knight Watch (2020)

 

"John Rast went to the Ren Faire looking for a fight. Well. a simulated fight with blunt swords and safety equipment. But when his final opponent turns into a living, fire-breathing dragon John finds himself in the fight of his life. And that's when destiny comes to call." 

  One reason I still prefer bookshops to online is the simple pleasure of spotting a book on the shelf and thinking "That looks interesting"

 I do something similar with comics, DVDs and CDs; I like to think of it as the "Ooh Shiny" method of browsing. 

  Hence me picking up "Knight Watch" from Southampton's Forbidden Planet.  It looked like something I'd enjoy and as it turns out, I did. 

  

 The idea of a newb stumbling into a hidden world of fantasy isn't new and it isn't even the first book where a Ren Faire suddenly gets all real - or the second, if I think about it - but Knight Watch kept me engaged for a couple of sessions and intrigued enough to see what the second book looks like. 

 To go into a bit more detail, I did appreciate the fact that John doesn't take to his new life by immediately becoming the bestest warrior ever.  In fact, it's pointed out that tournament fighting does not translate well to genuinely fighting for your life. 

 There's some interesting supporting characters, a lot of backstory waiting to be uncovered and a decent amount of action.

 Not sure about the attempts at snappy one-liners though.  They don't all land well. 

 Then again, Knight Watch gets plus points for getting the whole story done in one relatively slim volume.

To sum up: Knight Watch may not hit anybody's "Book Of The year" lists but I enjoyed it and I plan to keep an eye out for the sequel. 

That's All Folks
 

Southsea Food Festival 2022

 Evening all. 

  So yesterday I went and had a look at the Southsea Food Festival, which, as you may guess is a street event with a whole bunch of stalls selling various foods ( plus some stray stalls selling clothes and stuff.)  

 

As it turns out I never actually got round to buying any food because the queues for all the stalls were insane and there was no way I was going to wait in line for twenty minutes to buy a punnet of  noodles. 

Which is why I ended up buying some books instead. (Surprising nobody who knows me. )

Having said that, a lot of people came down to Southsea to enjoy the sun and the foods so here's the pictures I took.