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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
So I finally got round to seeing this.
After reading the book of the film I was expecting this to be a bloated beast but was pleasantly surprised when I realized that nearly all the exposition and subplots were cut out. Comparing it to the book they’ve even edited down a bunch of the big set pieces. Which has had the effect of making the film move really quickly.
Yes the dialogue is atrocious. Yes all subtlety is lost. Yes the acting is mince (well mostly). Yes this film is a lot of fun to watch.
It’s no masterpiece. It’s probably the third or fourth best Star Wars film (with a big gap between the top two and the rest). I’ll be quite happy to buy it on DVD, whereas I only got Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones for completeness’ sake.
The main thing about this film is that when it does things right you can see how the prequel trilogy could have worked really well and when it does things badly you can see why it failed.
It’s an action packed adventure film with great battle sequences, lightsaber fights and some nice touches linking it with the original trilogy. If you can suffer the non-action scenes without Ian McDiarmid in them then you’ll enjoy the film. Just don’t expect anything meaningful out of it.
My verdict? Unless you’re a pretty rabid Star Wars fan, you’d be better off waiting for the DVD.
The Family Trade
This is the highly enjoyable first volume of Stross’ fantasy epic The Merchant Princes. Which, if Stross himself is to be believed, was intended to be a fat trilogy, but after the publisher decided they wanted to print slimmer books, will now stretch to ten or twelve volumes!
The book follows Miriam Beckstein, a tech journalist, as she discovers that she is a high ranking member of a clan of ‘world walkers’ and thrust into a world of intrigue, politics and cold-blooded murder.
As with all multi-volume fantasy series my recommendation is to wait until the whole thing is out to read unless you want to suffer from extreme frustration (curse you Robert Jordan!). If you can’t wait, well it’s a damn good read.
In Your Dreams
This is the sequel to The Portable Door. It’s OK.
The Serpent Mage
Second of the ‘Songs of Earth and Power’ series finds the protagonist, Michael Perrin, back on Earth and discovering he has more power and more responsibility than he ever thought responsible.
Compared to the first of the duology this feels more bitty, and some of the characters are decidely wooden. It’s still enjoyable though, if not the book that it could have been.
A must read for those who’ve read The Infinity Concerto, otherwise a relatively lifeless and predictable piece of fantasy.
The Infinity Concerto
The first book of a fantasy duology by reknowned Science Fiction author Bear.
It tells the story of a sixteen year old called Michael Perrin. Perrin is bequested a key and directions after the death of his friend, Arno Waltiri. Using the key and following the directions he finds himself in the Realm, legendary home of the Sidhe.
This is an enjoyable fantasy novel, even if the lead character is a bit whiny at times. Strong points include some of the invention in the later parts of the book and the interesting way poetry is used.
Well worth a read if you like your fantasy novels.