The blog of Steve Root

  • Spam wars – court date set

    I haven’t posted about this for a while and thought I should just say what’s happening. The company in question ignored letters from the court, or at least, they chose not to reply. That’s right, no defence, no counter claim, nothing. So, the court have set a date to make a judgement on the case. I have no idea if they’ll turn up to the hearing (it’s a long drive – they’re based in Lancashire and the case has been set in Canterbury). Seeing as they didn’t contest the location of the hearing, I guess they’re not coming. I can give them the benefit of the doubt though and assume they will though.

    It does bring another question up though. As a limited company (as well as individuals, they could never make up their mind who they were trading as so I brought the claim against all of them) what happens if it doesn’t respond? I have a feeling (I’m not certain) the directors are responsible for the company responding and if they don’t (or the company, as it’s own legal entity doesnt) respond, they may have to answer to a criminal court which can fine them personally (I’ll have to look though the detail of the companies act)

  • Messiah (Boris Starling)

    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.

  • Coyote Frontier (Allen Steele) & Spindrift (Allen Steele)

    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.

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