Category: A-

jeremy?

Posted on by Greig

Mrs Frisby & The Rats Of NIMH

Robert C. O’Brien

Mrs Frisby and the Rats Of NIMHThis classic children’s book was one of my favourites when I was young.
I continue to be very glad to this day that I read the book before I ever saw the film adaptation (a typically clumsy Don Bluth animated thing). It’s quite a brief read, but still quite enjoyable.
The story is of an anxious field mouse with a sick child who will not be strong enough to leave the family winter home before the farmer ploughs up the field and destroys it.
After a desperate search for help she’s directed to a group of odd rats living beneath a giant rosebush on the farm. These are the rats of the title and their story is the single best thing about the book.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this little book and it remains a really good piece of kid’s writing and I have no hesitation in recommending it for what it is.

Rating: A-

pious?

Posted on by Greig

Our Band Could Be Your Life

Michael Azerrad

Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael AzerradThe story of the American indie underground in the eighties as told through short biographies of some of the leading lights of the scene.
I really enjoyed at least half of these short bios, as some of the bands had fascinating interpersonal struggles, financial problems and made great music.
However, the author made some odd decisions. Your band is only indie if your records are recorded for an indie label who used only indie distribution? A pointless distinction if you ask me. If, as I suspect, he only did this to avoid covering REM for the millionth time, then why not just say that?
Why, also, decide to not cover the major label careers of the bands that he does write about beyond a brief sneery paragraph or two about how none of their records were as good once they took money from the big boys?
Why spend countless pages wittering on about the idealism of certain bands? Sure they had admirable politics, that’s great, I want to read about the music too at some point though.
Maybe I’m too comfortably cynical about the music business as a whole but the whole concept of indie purity just seems silly to me nowadays. So I’m docking points for his pious devotion to his precious hardcore band’s purity.
Otherwise highly recommended for those with an interest in 80’s underground indie music.

Rating: A-

azure?

Posted on by Greig

Maul

Tricia Sullivan

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-

static?

Posted on by Greig

Double Vision

Tricia Sullivan

Double VisionKaren “Cookie” Orbach is a sci-fi loving nerd. An overweight, over naive, African American woman that can see the events of a war taking place far from Earth when she watches TV.
This book is quite interesting, especially as you watch Cookie’s character become more self aware and self confident throughout the story.
The alien side of the story is very interesting, but the best of the book is reserved for the real world as Cookie’s wall of denial starts to collapse around her after a family tragedy.
I’d recommend it to science fiction fans looking for something a bit different and very much so to anyone looking for a book with a full on female perspective.

Rating: A-

black plan?

Posted on by Greig

The Star Fraction

Ken MacLeod

The Star FractionMacLeod’s debut novel. Set in a Britain fractured into small territories divided by religion, politics, etc. after a political settlement imposed after the fall of the British republic.
Lead character is Moh Kohn, a mercenary for a trotskyist defence collective who defends technological businesses from attack by militant green and anti-tech groups.
Through a strange combination of memory enhancing drugs, the limited AI of Kohn’s Gun and his father’s software development Kohn finds himself at the centre of the Black Plan and the mysterious Star Fraction.
This is thoroughly enjoyable science fiction. Let down only by a circuituous set up, no real payoff on the Star Fraction of the title and some poorly developed secondary characters. For a first novel, this is brilliant.
I’d recommend it to anyone with a weakness for literate science fiction and a decent awareness of the breadth of political thought.

Rating: A-

where’s my cow?

Posted on by Greig

Thud!

Terry Pratchett

The latest Discworld book. This is another focussing on Sam Vimes, and the City Watch.
The city is on edge, Dwarfs and Trolls are spoiling for a fight as Battle of Koom Valley day approaches. A high-ranking religious dwarf has been killed and Vimes has to find the person really responsible before the city falls apart. All the while making sure he makes it home for 6pm to read ‘Where is my Cow’ to young Sam Vimes jr.
Vimes is my favourite Discworld character after the outstanding ‘Night Watch’ and this book has done nothing to change that.
Not in the very top rank of Discworld books, this one is nonetheless very strong and has some interesting things to say. It’ll be interesting to see how the events that happen in this book play out in future books.
I’d recommend this to anyone. Pratchett is a genius.

Rating: A-