Most of the books I read tend not to be worth writing about, being either ones I’ve read before or dodgy Sci-fi or Fantasy novels, but Brian Blessed’s autobiographical Nothing’s Impossible is noteworthy.

It’s a collection of some of the more interesting stories from his life, told in a very conversational and excitable way, which is entirely what we would expect from one of Yorkshire’s most larger than life characters. A friend asked “Does he roar in it?”. Yes, yes he does. In amongst spinning some good yarns, that is.

The choice of stories he included in the book give a good impression of what the author enjoys, tales of personal adventure be it spending 20 years finding somebody to pay for him making a film about Mount Everest, or him working with Judi Dench trying to learn to dance enough to cope with the West End musical “Cats”.

It’s a concise paperback that could be easily devoured in a lazy afternoon, but that by no means diminishes the entertainment you get from knowing that these tales really happened. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t put up with half of the discomfort he described from his mountain climbing escapades, so it really does go to show what one can do if one puts one’s mind to it.

I was introduced to Elizabeth Bear the other weekend whilst I was helping some friends break in their new allotment. Her debut novel is set in a Shadowrun style environment, 50 years in the future. The gulf stream has packed up, the USA isn’t so united any more, the sole remaining superpower is Canada and transnational corporations are all the rage.

The story, however, is what sets this apart from all the other shadowrun novels I’ve been ploughing through of late. The heroine is a 50year old, world weary combat veteren who, with her group of equally heroic friends, is uniquely qualified to save the day. True, there are one or two characters who meet the usual sterotype of a cybernetically boosted street samurai, but even they’re tempered with a degree of normality and a liberally applied sense of cool taken straight out of film noir. Richard Feymann gets one of the more gratiuitous characters, lending his name to a rakish AI who runs round the Matrix in an amusing and morally ambiguous way. If the book has a weakness, it’s that the antagonists are given the same treatment as the good guys and, well, they’re insufficiently evil.

It wasn’t the smoothest book I’ve ever read, but the story arc is compelling and leaves you wanting the next one. Luckily there’re another 2 in the series.

I found Sniper One to be a particularly gripping read, I picked it up one Sunday morning and then proceeded to devour it cover to cover that afternoon in the armchair by the fire (awww). It’s an account of an Sergeant from the British Infantry’s tour of duty in Iraq from 4 years ago and is presented in the first person.

I found the style very similar to Andy McNab’s earlier books, the sentences were kept short and snappy, the action fast and furious. The conversations and comments were very much towards my sense of humour, very deadpan and matter of fact, not at all politically correct and taken from a highly British point of view. All of the soldiers from his unit were strong, mostly likable characters, who had a clearly infectious enthusiasm for their chosen profession. All the usual military terms and codenames were explained as they went along and most of the scenes and bits of equipment wouldn’t have been out of place in any modern military story.

It’s definately not for children, some of the scenes would be horrific if your suspension of disbelief isn’t quite tuned in and the language. It’s refreshing to come across one small corner of the war that isn’t presented in the same “everything’s going to be alright, we’re all winning here” that the home media consistently reports. I clearly don’t know which is correct, but the contrast is pleasing.

The book is easy reading and I’m glad Sgt Dan Mills took the time to write it.