goooooooool?

Futebol

Fabulous history of Brazilian football and an examination of Brazil through it’s relationship with football.
Everyone knows about Brazil’s national team and the skillful game they personify, but I’ve never known much about the history of football in Brazil – even though I’ve always wondered how they got to be so good.
This book is a fascinating introduction to the way football became the Brazilian obsession and so tightly bound up with national identity and pride.
By looking not only at their World Cup teams and players (fascinating chapter about Garrincha by the way), but at club football, grassroots football, the Brazilian ‘mystique’ and how politics and religion all tie in together to create potent mix in this giant country.
It was mind blowing to realize that the most supported club in Brazil, Flamengo, has a support somewhere in the region of five times the population of Scotland.
If you’ve ever wanted to know more about Brazil or Brazilian football I would highly recommend this book.

Rating: A

A, Books, Football, Non-Fiction, Rated

A, Books, Football, Non-Fiction, Rated
17:51, May 26th 2006

belles?

Bluebells
More photos by treefell .

It’s not often that you discover a part of your hometown that you didn’t even know existed. On Tuesday, while walking with Mum and Sammy (her dog), we went along a series of paths in the woods in Beveridge Park. I genuinely didn’t have a clue that these were in the park. I’ve always confined myself to the bits around the boating pond, pitches and formal garden.
So many more photo opportunities in the woods – check some of the pictures I took in my flickr account via the link above.
Oh and thanks to Theo for dealing with the dreaded paypal so I could get a pro account. Cheers man!

Life, Photography

Life, Photography
14:35, May 25th 2006

puzzle box?

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

This book is made up of the novellas that comprise the title. Both take place within the Revelation Space universe and shed light on various aspects of Reynolds’ creation that aren’t discussed elsewhere.
Diamond Dogs is about a group of adventurers who attempt to solve the puzzle of an alien artifact known as the Blood Spire. Nothing new here, in fact many of it’s ideas are cribs from other better realized works.
Turquoise Days is the more interesting of the two pieces, but still nothing remarkable. This one is set on an isolationist Pattern Juggler planet and follows a researcher called Naqi as she deals with the legacy of the Jugglers and the implications of the arrival of off planet visitors. It’s too short to deliver on it’s promise.
I’d only recommend this to someone who has become hooked on Reynolds’ universe and wants to know more. Outside of that context these are pretty forgettable little pieces

Rating: C

Books, C, Novella, Rated, Science Fiction

Books, C, Novella, Rated, Science Fiction
21:31, May 17th 2006

clown assassin?

Iron Sunrise

Iron Sunrise is the sequel to Singularity Sky . This is a significant improvement over that work.
The main plot revolves around young girl known as Wednesday who uncovers proof of a plot by a group called the ReMastered that resulted in the destruction of New Moscow, a relatively low tech planetary system. As the ReMastered set events in motion to cover their tracks, Wednesday goes on the run. Rachel Mansour and Martin Springfield (from Singularity Sky) appear in another plot thread – New Moscow?s revenge against the (wrongly) suspected New Dresden government was to send slower-than-light
weaponry to destroy the planet. These ships can be recalled, or set on an irrevocable course by the remaining Muscovite Ambassadors – except they are being assassinated one by one and their authority keys taken.
Wednesday ends up on a cruise ship and in the company of Frank Johnson, a warblogger with reason to hate the ReMastered. Gradually these plots are drawn together with the realization that the cruise ship has been in port at every location that a Muscovite ambassador has been killed and Mansour & Springfield board the ship to investigate.
This is a well written and well plotted book. I really enjoyed it.
I’d recommend it to anyone would likes their science fiction.

Rating: A

A, Books, Rated, Science Fiction

A, Books, Rated, Science Fiction
19:55, May 11th 2006

azure?

Maul

This is an enjoyable piece of work. A cartoonish thriller, heavy on the thriller element and light on scientific logic, it sets out to shock from the opening masturbation scene. Now normally this would just bore me, but it’s so fast paced that you just move through the story so quickly that you don’t have time to sit down and think about the absurdities and excesses.
The main plot takes place in a near future society where most males have been wiped out by an artificial phenomenon known as the Y plagues. The lead character is an autistic male clone, called Meniscus, who is used as a guinea pig in experiments designed to harvest useful chemicals from the human body by using modified Y plague strains. This process causes Meniscus terrible pain and the only thing that lessens it is immersion in a game called Mall.
The Mall forms the second thread of the story, an ultraviolent story of gun toting teenage girls, with the Jewish-Korean Sun as the main character. This part is very incoherent and sometimes completely ridiculous, but then again I suspect that this is a deliberate move to reflect the unreal nature of the Mall.
This book is a bit of a mess, but still a lot of fun. I wouldn’t read it if you were looking for subtle characterization or plausible science.
I’d recommend it if you’re in the mood for a pumped up, fast moving, science fiction thriller.

Rating: A-

A-, Books, Rated, Science Fiction

A-, Books, Rated, Science Fiction
17:37, May 10th 2006

hot dust?

Revelation Space

This is Reynolds’ debut novel and what a remarkable debut it is.
He takes three separate story threads taking part in completely different environments, gives you taste of them and their cultures. He stretches events across decades, gives you flashbacks hundreds of years in the past. Then he sets events in motion that draws these threads together with minimal clunkiness.
There are some fabulous pieces of alien tech, some remarkably plausible extrapolations of past galactic history and future human development.
There’s really interesting characters, great set pieces and it\’s all done with real style.
I think I’ll be buying more of his books.
I\’d recommend this to anyone starved for a genuinely great piece of hard SF in the current market of post-geek Singularity science fiction.

Rating: A

A, Books, Fiction, Rated, Science Fiction

A, Books, Fiction, Rated, Science Fiction
09:05, May 5th 2006