Topics About Which I Know Nothing
This is a collection of short stories, with no overarching theme.
Several of the stories are kind of funny, and a couple are brilliant – especially the groomgrabbing one and the christian urban myths one.
There are stories in there I enjoyed less, but none of them are less than very readable.
I’d recommend this book if you enjoy quirky black humour and are looking for small doses at a time.
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09:52, June 25th 2005
The Atrocity Archives
This is a brilliant combination of science fiction, horror and spy thriller.
Imagine a world where, after the Second World War, the SOE wasn’t completely wound up.
Imagine a world where Alan Turing proved the mathematics of what most people would call magic.
Imagine that the biggest danger from computer hackers is not from viruses, but that they might replicate Turing’s work and by accident destroy the world by summoning a extradimensional monster.
This is the world of Bob Howard. The book begins with Howard taking on his first active duty for the Laundry (that vestigial remnant of the SOE, charged with keeping the lid on this knowledge) experiencing first-hand the extreme boredom involved with being a spy. Howard works at the Laundry because he has no choice – he nearly destroyed Birmingham when he developed his own version of Turing’s maths.
This book contains two stories of Howard’s work in the field, the full novel length Atrocity Archives and the rather shorter Concrete Jungle. Both are brilliant.
If you love spy thrillers, Lovecraftian horror or tech geek science fiction I recommend this book without hesitation. Hell I enjoyed it so much I’d say anyone should give it a try. This Stross guy is good.
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21:09, June 22nd 2005
Constantine: The Hellblazer Collection
This is the comic adaptation of the film Constantine, itself based on the classic comic book series Hellblazer. While the film adaptation takes up the vast majority of the book there are also three original Hellblazer stories, written by Jamie Delano, Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis.
The film plot is alright I suppose, not terribly involving and probably a lot more thrilling with the big budget effects of the big screen. The Delano and Ellis stories are only brief sections of much bigger plotlines and are presumably included in that form in order to tempt people to buy the older collections. They are both pretty damn good from what you get to read. The Neil Gaiman one is a stand alone short story and is excellent.
This is one to buy if you loved the film, or if you are a Hellblazer or Gaiman completist. I’d recommend that you do what I did and borrow it from your local library.
If it were just the film adaptation itself I’d say to give it a miss, but the extra content makes it worth your time.
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16:46, June 20th 2005
Silent Bob Speaks
This is a collection of essays, columns and interviews by the director of Clerks, etc.
Generally speaking it’s entertaining enough, but the interviews especially are far too obsequious.
If you have any kind of fondness for the man’s films then you’re not wasting your time when you read this. Otherwise, I’d give it a wide berth.
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19:01, June 5th 2005
To Say Nothing Of The Dog
A few years back I won a prize from an online Science Fiction magazine. I received a copy of all the books nominated for best novel in the 1999 Nebula awards. This particular novel was one of those books and this is the first I’ve gotten around to reading it (by the way it didn’t win the Nebula, but it did win the Hugo.)
The book revolves around time travel. Ned Henry, a historian working on the reconstruction of Coventry Cathedral in 21st Century Oxford, develops a serious case of time lag. Suffering from extreme tiredness and sensory confusion he is sent to the Victorian era to rest, but before he can do that he must complete a mission. Of course in his confused state he has no idea what that mission is.
It took a while for me to get into this book, but once I did I really started to enjoy it. The mixture of time travel, mystery and comedy really works. I’d recommend it.
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10:35, June 2nd 2005