Comfort Reading
As escape and for comfort, I pulled Stephen Baxter’s Space off the shelf on the weekend. Gosh it’s good. I’ve always liked scifi, but I think he’s the one who really got me into hard scifi – credit him with my appreciation of Alastair Reynolds, I think. I really must find my copy of Time, the first one written in the Manifold series – someone out there has it – or maybe I should just deal with it and buy another copy. I feel a bit bereft without it.
Galactic North
I finished this a couple of days ago – given it is a set of novellas, it serves as my break from reading about the Chinese Revolution, which book I will also post about at some time – there are some doozies of quotes that I have to share with people.
Anyway, to Galactic North: the latest Alastair Reynolds (although apparently there’s a new novel on the way – hurrah). I am eternally grateful to Kate for getting me to to read short stories, since before she started foisting Urchin stories on me (an example of which can be read here – I do so love the Wild Hunt), I never was much of a fan. This I have since repented, and am doing my part in reading a large stack of Aussie shorts (don’t believe me? Check this out). But back to the point. The first two stories (Great Wall of Mars, and Glacial) of this collection are about Galiana and Clavain, familiar to anyone who has read Revelation Space stories and still fascinating characters for newbies. Representing very different forms of culture and humanity – one a Conjoiner, those humans who exist with what is, crudely, an interweb between them, connecting them irrevocably, the other from a faction implacably opposed to such forms of humanity. They are great stories, and although you can read them as stand-alones, as I said, i think they are best seen as filling in (very nicely) holes from the novels.
Those two stories were probablymy favourites, because they did plug holes. “A Spy in Europa” is excellent, a very clever twisty story; “Weather” looks at both Ultras (space-adapted sailors, basically) and Conjoiners more than usual. “Dilation Sleep” is apparently a very old story, and suitably creepy, although not the most interesting of the set; “Grafenwalder’s Bestiary” allows Reynolds’ macabre side out to play. “Nightingale” (took me a while to get the name; it’s the name of a hospital ship) is also quite macabre, and an anti-war gem. Finally, “Galactic North” reminded me a lot of Time, Space, and Origin by Stephen Baxter, for its sheer scope of time and space. It was really, really good, too – picking up on something mentioned in one of the novels, and running with it to what should be a ridiculous extent, and yet… it works.
All in all, a glorious set of stories. And it just makes me want more from the Revelation Space ‘verse.
The Player of Games
I found Iain M Banks when we were in the UK – reminds me that I should get around to talking at least about the books I read over there, if not about the whole trip. It feels like it was such a long time ago, now, though – 10 weeks in fact. Anyway: I just finished his The Player of Games the second of the Culture novels. I think I’ve decided they can be safely read out of order, which is nice – now I can just go nuts at the second hand book shop, and buy whatever they happen to have.
It’s a great book. Banks is a great storyteller – you know, after you’ve read one, that there is a fair bit more going on than is obvious at the first and that this will be revealed in clever ways, and pretty much logically too: that is, there won’t be ta-dah! moments just to get the hero out of a sticky spot. I have to say, though, that I found the conclusion to this one just a bit anti-climactic. I don’t know what else I was expecting (well, yes actually I do, and it has a lot to do with Janny Wurts and the Empire books), but it wasn’t what happened.
Getting to that conclusion, though, was fun. The main character isn’t much of a hero – just an every-day Culture dude, who happens to be about the best games-player in the entirety of the Culture. He gets contracted, basically, to go and play the highest-stakes game he’s ever come across, and the book is about him learning it and playing it. Which sounds daft, except that the stakes are who gets to Emperor of Azad.
One of the more interesting, if surprisingly understated, aspects is the difference between Azad and the Culture, in politics and morals and pretty much every other aspect of life. There are a few conversation where these things are explored, and – I think deliberately – it’s weird for a reader to try and figure out exactly where they want to position themselves. With the Culture, that tolerates incest and pretty much anything else its citizens can come up with, or the Empire, that goes around subjugating everyone they meet (sounds familiar)? And really, as things are presented here, there are no half-measures. One side or the other.
Interesting. Fun. And, unlike Consider Phlebas (the one I read in the UK), only one page of ickiness that I had to skip over.
Reading for pleasure (gasp!)
I feel like it is a long time since I read anything without another agenda in mind: it was for school, or I was going to write a review of it… even history books I read for fun still have the not-very-subliminal purpose of increasing my general (trivial) knowledge. That’s not to say that I dont enjoy those books, of course; just that as I read I’m thinking of things other than just the enjoyment.
To celebrate the start of my break, I am reading Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds. It has been sitting on my shelf for a while, holding out the promise of complete escapism and masterful writing, for a while now, and it is with a huge sense of relief and relaxation that I dived into it yesterday. It’s 8 short stories – novellas, really – set in the Revelation Space et al universe. The first two are about Nevil Clavain, Galiana, and Felka. I remember them from at least one of the four stories set in that ‘verse, and it’s really nice to get some background on them. It also, of course, makes me itch to go back and read them all again. I think I read them too fast first time around and may have missed some of the subtleties. Plus, they are jsut damned fine stories. Truly, Reynolds is a heroic storyteller.
BSG baby
We bought the pilot of the new BSG a couple of weeks ago. We’re watching it right now. Gosh it’s good. And it’s interesting on a couple of levels, having almost got to the end of season 3 (not quite up to where America is, because our friend hasn’t come through with them yet…). The blokes who put on weight and lost hair; Starbuck looking quite young, although just as cocky and arrogant as I remember enjoying. And spotting the people I now know are Cylons! Eeek.
Ooooh Helo giving up his seat for Baltar… makes me mad.
And hearing the music for the first time, again – like when the raiders arrive – very poignant.
I do like this series, I have a friend who refuses to watch it because she loved the original so much… I think the original is one old series I won’t watch, because I like this one so much.
[ominous] Dr Strangelove [/ominous]
or [perky] How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [/perky].
That’s how the theatrical trailer presented it, anyway, and it was very apt.
The bro-in-law gave it to me a couple of Christmases ago, and I finally got around to watching it on Friday. It wasn’t entirely what I was expecting.
1. I hadn’t realised it was black and white.
2. I hadn’t realised Peter Sellers played three roles. That was cool.
3. I had no idea what the comedy in it would be like; that it was so esoteric was unexpected. I think I had thought it would be a bit more laugh-out-loud funny.
I did like it. Peter Sellers was very clever; I am not sure that I have seen him in anything else – which is a terrible burnish on my would-be movie guru plaque – but I was impressed by his physical comedy, as well as his absorption into the characters. It took me a significant while to realise that he was both Strangelove and the English dude; I didn’t realise at all that he was the president at all until maybe the end of the film!
I can’t imagine what it must have been like when it first came out. I am used to seeing apocalyptic movies, and I am not living in the Cold War so it doesn’t feel at all prescient. For a 60s audience… whew. Must have been a bit of a head-spin.
ASIM
New ASIM! Hurrah! Voume 26… review to follow… I’ve read maybe half; it’s mostly good, but not as overwhelmingly good as previous issues.
Children of Men
…is great. Clive Owen is great. Of course.
It’s a very clever movie: it’s set in 2027, and women have been infertile for 18 years or so. The world seems to be going to hell in a handcart, the implication being that without children, there is no hope, so people give up. It’s a world that is very recognisable: not as London or the UK in general maybe, but Baghdad – Belgrade – Srebrenica – absolutely. In fact, the world as a whole and the ideas are very close to 2006, just taken to a slightly further extent – refugee camps that are like concentration camps, Britain closing its borders…. The movie doesn’t explain very much about the situation, which I think is a good part – there is no huge exposition of the situation to bore you stupid, you’re just meant to pick it up as you go along – which you can indeed do.
It’s a good flick. Go see it!
Delano R Franklin
…is one of the cleverer names I’ve heard recently in a story. This is from “Paradox and Greenblatt,” written by Kevin J Anderson, from EscapePod (episode 74). This was a very, very clever story – well worth streaming or podcasting!
New reviews
I’ve read Deucalion and The View from Ararat recently, both by Brian Caswell. I’ve read the first before, but not the second. I do love Caswell, but I’m actually reading these with a purpose – to review them for ASif! Which I have done.
I’ve also read and reviewed the stories currently up at New Ceres. New Ceres is a fascinating idea: it’s a world created by a couple of people, and other people are able to write stories about the place. A lot of time and effort has gone in to this already – the planetary system is completely worked out, the basic history is there… it’s very impressive. And the most interesting thing, I think, is that the culture is resolutely eighteenth-century. This, of course, allows for interesting things like coffee houses, highwaymen, and High Culture. Anyway, people can write both fiction and pseudo non-fiction: this first issue includes a travel piece, originally written for The Martian Eye, and a column on decorum and politness. The point of all of this, though, is that I am very much looking forward to reading more articles about the world… who knows, maybe I will even write something sometime. The idea that I could write non-fiction about a fictional place actually stirs my creativity a bit, which nothing has in a while.
Randomly Yours, Alex 