John Scalzi wrote "Old Man's War" which is quite entertaining (and the amusing Redshirts, too).
He also has a blog (do we still call them blogs?) at https://whatever.scalzi.com. First a warning: he is sort of the anti-OSC: he is a bit (well a lot) of a Social Justice Warrior (he carries a lot of guilt about being a rich middle aged white man with privilege), which leads to a lot of ignorable drivel. Then the point: he has two regular posts, one is "New Books and ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies)", which does what it says on the tin, and the other is "The Big Idea", in which he posts an essay by a book author on their motivation in writing the book. This can lead to some good stuff (and also some rubbish). Because of his political leanings these authors tend toward the female/ LBQTQBTLQWTBI, but that probably isn't altogether a bad thing.
I checked Scalzi's blog and it looks promising, particularly because it includes The Light Brigade, which is on my ipad, in the reading queue.
goldie, I've never read much historical fiction, but have heard of the movie, Spartacus (with Kirk Douglas) which is supposed to be a kitschy delight. So I expect the book is even more interesting, especially given the date of its release. I was, for some reason, (perhaps because the author is Scottish) reminded of the fact that I've always wanted to read Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. I read one of his books, Kenilworth, mostly because I picked it up in a sale and the binding was beautiful. It's about Sir Robert Dudley, a suitor of Queen Elizabeth I. Quite the page turner. It whetted my desire to read others by the same author. I'd audited an intellectual history course a million years ago that had assigned Ivanhoe and never got around to reading it. But the subject of Orientalism and the situation of this heroine in the Crusades is intriguing to me. Suddenly, I'm in the middle of time, time from quarantine and waiting, so I'm reading like I'm on a desert island with a library.
