If a book has been serialised on TV I rarely choose to buy it. I don’t think it’s logical not to choose a book because it’s been on TV, especially when I never saw the series. The mere fact it has been turned into a TV Drama must be because it has a very good story. Still, I avoid them in the bookshop. This one was given to me with a pile of other books and has sat on the shelf for almost a year being unread. Still, when every other book has been read these less attractive titles have to have their turn.

What a turn! Superb crime story with our fictional detective out to catch a killer. Initially there seems to be no link to the killings and eventually our hero detective works things out… almost. The really nice thing about this story is how human the detective is. He makes mistakes (quite a few) but gets there in the end. As a reader, I made them myself trying to figure out who did it.

I’m not normally one to choose Crime Fiction so please understand that me giving this book a Rootie Rating of 4 out of 5 shows just how good a read I found it to be.

Parts 3 and 4 of a series of 4 (why do I rarely get to read them in order?)

Part 3, A distant colony grows following a revolution. Times are hard, technology they once took for granted is no longer available from mother earth. Isolation will not remain forever though, a new startship travels from Earth which will change their relationship. No longer isolated, we get to follow how the colonists react and the changes (for better and worst)

Part 4, The colonists discover they are not alone in the universe, beings other than than human are not far away. How does first contact go? First contact isn’t at the new colony of Coyote though, it happened many years before Coyote was settled, it’s just the people who made first contact didn’t send a message home.

A story worth reading? Yes, for both of them and I’ll be keeping my eye out for the first two. Rootie Rating 3 out of 5 and 3 out of 5.

Imagine time travel was possible. Would changes in the past affect the present? Most books assume that is the case. However this book assumes that the controlers of time travel are not affected by changes to their history. They use this to constantly prevent the errors of history. What sort of errors? War, they can prevent that from happening. Famine, by studying the factors that affected the events of the time a small change as insignificant as moving the position of a jar of beans would prevent a famine. Side effects? There were a few, millions would live, but billions would never get the chance to live. What would happen, in the past, and the future?

Yet another fascinating set of ideas presented by Isaac Asimov, well worth the time of reading, Rootie Rating 4 out of 5