the summer tree by guy gavriel kay
Category: Uncategorized
lilac?
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
hair?
fargo rock city by chuck klosterman
junky?
JPod
Found only in the “On Demand” service from Virgin Media this adaptation of Coupland’s book is remarkably successful.
JPod
When I first reviewed this book I really didn’t like it, mainly because I loved (and love) Microserfs so much.
This time around, after seeing the TV series CBC made of it I enjoyed the story much more. Having the TV versions of the characters in my head made them much more likeable and their bizarre, nihilistic, acts much sillier and funnier.
The book’s still flawed and the overkill of concrete text and lists of numbers and words is very annoying but at least I can honestly say I found it entertaining.
waltz?
Colin Meloy
Laura Gibson
Showbox at the Market, Seattle
A salutory lesson in why some acts become headliners and others stay support acts.
dover?
M*A*S*H
The original source material for the film and subequently the very long running sitcom.
Set during the Korean war in a mobile army hospital this book follows Hawkeye Pierce, Duke Forrest and Trapper John as they try to stay sane working as field surgeons.
The book is funny, laugh out loud in places, but also satisfyingly dark at times. The only flaw is it’s brevity.
I’d recommend this one if you find dark humour particularly appealing, or are just curious about the starting point of a cultural phenomenon.
homunculi?
Under Old Earth and Other Explorations
This collection, as with the majority of Cordwainer Smith’s work, is set among the worlds of the Instrumentality – his vision of far future humanity. Smith was primarily a short story writer – only writing one novel – and this book contains some of his finest work.
For much of this collection I found it a chore to finish the stories.
Smith had some fantastic ideas, with some very astute insights into the future of humanity, the milieu is superbly realised with every nuance thought through, but his writing can be as dry and unexciting as cold toast.
(As an aside Smith’s real name was Paul Linebarger, and he was a professor of Asiatic Studies and an expert on psychological warfare. I suppose I could blame his writing style on this background, but I’m clueless when it comes to literary theory)
Highlight for me would be the story of the deposed ruler, who instead of coming back to his kingdom with an army, sneaks in and saves his people by subtly altering the mind of the dictator who replaced him.
This is worth a quick read if you have a keen interest in the past giants of science fiction, or if you are particularly keen on short
story collections. It really wasn?t my kind of thing.
284?
Anansi Boys
Fat Charlie’s Dad is dead. Fine time to learn that he was a god. Oh and to find out that you’ve got a brother.
This is a brilliant mixture of horror and comedy, handled with Gaiman’s customary skill.
Odd thing about this one is that I think it may work better as an audiobook.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It’s such an unusual creature that I can see it appealing to a really wide audience.
283?
The Hidden Family
The second book in Stross’ new fantasy series. This one wraps up the story started in the first.
The heroine spends much of this story in a third parallel world, building up interests to protect herself from the various people out to kill her.
This is very entertaining, well written fantasy and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.
Oh, yeah and I read The World According To Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson too. I’m not proud. Oh and it was crap.
282?
My Latest Novel – Saint Jude’s Infirmary
I’m friends with the guys in Saint Jude’s Infirmary and I turned up to this one as I’ve got a terrible record of attending their gigs. It’s the perils of commuting mostly, well that and my frequent bouts of avoiding social contacts as much as possible.
Saint Jude’s are incredibly tight these days and have built up a really good set of songs. They did well in spite of some sound issues. I also managed to take a few pictures of them playing (110 or so!) and some have turned out well. I’ll link to them once they’ve gone up on the band’s site.
My Latest Novel were much better in more intimate surroundings, but their songs still lack much in the way of punch. This is not a bad thing, but as a result, I still think that they’ll work best on record where the fluid dynamics of the songs can work their way into your head.