Track of the Week: Murray Richardson, Forever Young
So if you're a little fish in the sea, all innocently going about your little-fish business, and suddenly this track comes on? Man, you are diving for the nearest rock to hide under, because its chugging, jagged bassline and mid-line that's like metal being torn can mean only one thing: a pack of Great White sharks is about to roll through the neighbourhood.

And a sensible little fish would cower in the sand, praying not to be noticed. But if you're a fish who's a little more adventurous, you might peek out wistfully, because the chord change tells you that there's something sweet and elevated here in addition to the bad-assery.

And you're a little fish, but you can dream of being able to shake it like a shark.

Book of the Week: The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi
Old Man's War was an excellent homage to Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and this follow-up does not disappoint. Both novels are set in a universe in which the human race is duking it out for real estate with hundreds of often hostile alien species, using a military that includes soldiers cloned from the DNA of dead people. I particularly like the fact that the action in what's an essentially plot-driven novel depends on character development - specifically, whether the personality of a traitor to the human race can be re-created in a clone of his body.

Scalzi's prose is so deft, like that of Lois McMaster Bujold, that the writing rarely gets in the way of the story; all that's required is that you strap yourself in to enjoy the ride.