PotW—Some Kind of Fairy Tale

I heard about Graham Joyce in the worst way there is to discover an amazing author—through the sad news of their death. Having heard some personal stories from people who had known or met Graham, I made a note to make a effort to read something of his in the near future. He sounded like a wonderful person. One of the great thing about art is that, even if you hear things which make you wish you had known them only after it’s too late, they have been decent enough to leave a part of themselves behind. 

Last week, I finished Some Kind of Fairy Tale on Audible. A woman returns home after a long, unexplained absence, and her family has to come to terms with this strange reappearance. As much as ‘modern fairytale’ is an overused tag, this truly is that. It enchants, sings; it touches and affects. It sparkles with a glinting light that will not let you be. Read it.

10 books that have stayed with me

I know this meme has probably been and gone and had its day in the internet sun (which is like our normal sun, but made of cats), but I thought it would make an interesting enough blog post (read: I’m light on content this week, but still wanted to put something out there). 

Because brevity is the soul of basically tolerable writing, I’ll restrict myself to three sentences on each at most, and not my normal kind of Inspector-Gadget-super-extendy sentences. 

In no particular order:

Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
A sci-fi tale told from the perspective of a former ship’s AI, the core conceit and narrative structure make for a very entertaining read as the reader pieces together the context from flashback and wide-reaching senses. Ancillary Justice received a lot of attention (and awards) last year, too much of which focussed on its approach to gender which, while interesting, was not what made the book so good. It surprised me that a character who, on one level, you would expect to be so clinical could be so compelling.

The Secret History – Donna Tartt
My long-time favourite book, despite the fact that I have only read it fully once, and not for some years. Maybe it stuck with me because it was a tale of classicists in a classic ‘greek tragedy’ style ; maybe it just made us seem clever, if not good. Regardless, Donna Tartt spins an intriguing, alluring, and rather distressing tale (as, I gather, many are now finding with The Goldfinch—I am yet to read it) that haunted me for a long time after.

Use of Weapons – Iain M Banks
Not even my favourite Banks book, but, like many others on this list, possessed of a haunting characteristic that won’t quite leave you alone ever again. A rougish type is hired by a highly advanced civilisation to do their dirty work. On one level, it’s a space opera romp where he displays his impressive and devastating capabilities, but it takes you to some dark and unexpectedly revealing places.

On Writing – Stephen King
This is one of the most-recommended texts for writers, but it it was far from what I expected. As time passes and I spend more time trying to improve my writing, the lessons it sets out (plainly and directly) increasingly click into place. The reasons come clear in and of themselves and I suddenly understand the 'why' behind them and wonder why I couldn't just bloody well heed them in the first place—but the points are all the stronger for being learned in this way.

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
Sci-fi that adopts an intricate and interesting stance on gender (Ancillary Justice owes Le Guin more than a little in this regard). Above all else, it was a deeply revealing story about humans and the way we are. I only read it last year, and I long to read it again and again.

Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
I can’t pinpoint the exact moment that I fell in love with Neil Gaim—errrr, fell in love with his work *cough*, but it was probably while reading Smoke and Mirrors. A catalogue of wonders and horrors, his spinning of fairytales (both in spirit and more literally) cemented my love of his work and was probably the first time I really saw the beauty of the short story in all of its glory.

Watchmen – Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
Watchmen felt like the first time I had read a comic in real depth, and I see more each time that I read it again. There were things I encountered before it which merited as close a reading, but it was Watchmen that actually opened my eyes to this. It’s a timeless classic for a reason, and it deserves its place in the literary canon.

The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller
Another graphic novel, and one of the greatest Batman stories, despite the fact that exists outside the main canon. Bruce Wayne returns from retirement to save a city sliding into near-future chaos, confronting all the logistical challenges a long retirement from a demanding (*cough*) job brings. An examination of the concept of Batman as a ‘fascist’ vigilante. A classic in narrative and form.

The Neonomicon – Alan Moore, Jacen Burrows
A disturbing, horrible, and horrifying tale that marries the mythos of H P Lovecraft with Alan Moore’s brilliant, twisted storytelling. Dark, really dark, but darkly compelling.

The Gift of Fear – Gavin de Becker
I used to see this book talked about a lot, but it doesn’t seem to be as oft-mentioned these days, but something I think everyone would benefit from reading. The warning signs and precursors to violence, how to recognise them and, hopefully, avoid them. It may help you understand people better.

Atonement – Ian McEwan
A decent if too-long book that, as is the case with most books one studies at school, we did rather over-read. Still, the feelings of anger at injustice that the book inspired are surprisingly strong even now.

The thing that surprised me the most was how many of these are books I first read in the last two years. I am not sure whether that constitutes a better record/memory of what I've been reading, or a better ability to select good books.

What are some of the ones that have stayed with you?

Context Is Everything

It's amazing the difference a small piece of contextual information can make. I'm not sure precisely what reminded me of this this morning (when I get up early, my mind tends to jump around between things with no particular direction. There's just no stopping it.), but this is something that struck me with one of the books I read towards the end of last year, Neuromancer, by William Gibson.

I had it in my head that Neuromancer was one of the classics of science fiction, the book that dragged cyberpunk kicking and screaming into the light, biofeedback wires still attached and throbbing. As I started, I checked the published date via Amazon (since they provided the esteemed vehicle through which I would be reading it). 2011. Huh. I guess I must have been thinking of some other seminal piece of future-looking fiction.

So I read it, and it was fine. Good, but not the amazing book I had been led (or, perhaps, had led myself) to expect.The style was oddly confusing, and a lot of the concepts seemed stale, or poorly handled. Then I reached the end, and found the actual copyright notice. 1984. Well, that makes more sense. The concepts seemed overused because they have been aped by just about every instance of the cyberpunk genre in every medium since. The style and aesthetic felt a little jumbled because it wasn't projecting technological advances of the next 20 years, it was preempting those of the last 20.

Now, that didn't make me enjoy the book more in retrospect, as such, but it did provide an important piece of missing information which made me re-evaluate how I viewed the book. To put it another way, divorcing a book from its context can fundamentally change how we experience it (as does adding our own contexts), which, now that I say it, seems bleedin' obvious. But Neuromancer was one of the places where I've been able to observe this specifically, rather than continuing to bask in contextual ignorance after the fact.

What pieces of information have radically changed the way you view things? Not just limited to books, but to all media; I think music is a particularly good one for this.

-----

Now for some general updates. Clearly, I haven't been blogging much on here, to the surprise of no-one. As ever, busy busy. I have been reading a respectable-enough amount, though understandably not at the rate I did last year. I'm still working on a spidering number of writing projects, though, I seem to have been for a while without producing anything finished. I'm in a bit of a 'sprint' right now with a bunch of first drafts, and them am going to endeavor to turn out something shareable in the near future. Blogging shall continue, as far as is practical!


Above image taken from Wikipedia; using book covers to illustrate a piece about the work should constitute Fair Use.

Journey's End

Well, it's officially done. I have just set down Patick Ness' A Monster Calls, which you must read (you will cry), which makes 52 for 52. I was dimly worried that I would finish this one just in time, only to count up to find one missing and have to spend New Year's Eve powering through something else...

The blogging certainly got a bit lax towards the end (okay, a lot lax), but the reading continued, and that's what matters. I want to share some more thoughts on a couple of them, and highlight the best books of this year, but that's for another time.

Though this had better not be the end! The last thing I now want to do is go back to not reading. If nothing else, I've amassed a large number of recommendations to work my way through, and reminded myself of many other books which I've read previously that I'd love to revisit, but haven't for reason of GRaBaW metrics. So, this is not so much the end of the journey, as a breathing point at the end of the first leg.

So, I wish you all a very happy New Year, and leave you with the full, final list of books.

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)
The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)
I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)
Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)
Jobs* - Walter Isaacson (2012)
The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)
Ready Player One* - Ernest Cline (2011)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)
Storm Front* - Jim Butcher (2000)
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)
Fool Moon* - Jim Butcher (2001)
Iron Man: Extremis - Warren Ellis (2006)
Ultimate Thor Vol.1 - Hickman, Pachego & Vines (2010)
How To Eat Out - Giles Coren (2001)
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran (2011)
In The Garden of Beasts* - Erik Larson (2011)
Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctrow (2012)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2012)
The Illustrated Man* - Ray Bradbury (1951)
The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2013)
The Player of Games - Iain M Banks (1988)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)
Stardust - Neil Gaiman (1998)
The Knife of Never Letting Go* - Patrick Ness (2008)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane* - Neil Gaiman (2013)
Facing Violence - Sgt. Rory Miller (2011)
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (2008)
Terra* - Mitch Benn (2013)
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (2009)
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (2010)
Fables vol.1: Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham (2002)
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader - Neil Gaiman (2009)
Feed - M T Anderson (2002)
Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood (2003)
Carrie* - Stephen King (1974)
The Android's Dream* - John Scalzi (2006)
The Graveyard Book* - Neil Gaiman (2008)
Fortunately, the Milk... - Neil Gaiman (2013)

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin (1969)

Boneshaker* - Cherie Priest (2009)

Reading Like A Writer - Francine Prose (2012)

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan (2002)

Celtic Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs (1892)

Consider Phlebas* - Iain M Banks (1987)

Neuromancer - William Gibson (1984)

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness (2011)

Short, Sweet, and Aliiiiive!

"Igor, fetch me a syrette of the revivication serum and the electrodes. The big ones."

"Yes, mahthhter. Will you be requiring anothher tethht subthject athh well?"

"No Igor. Tonight, I will be attempting to rethherrect...er...resurrect...the blog!"

"No mahthhter, thhurely it can't be done!"

-  -  -

So, I've been bouncing back and forth from this blog like an indecisive spacehopper. The problem is, as are problems, to do with time. Specifically, not having enough of it. But there you go. I'd like to think that, in the new year, when I'm reading less (or, at least, less draconically), I'll dedicate more time to blogging. But we'll see. 

Reading still all on schedule. Despite a few very long trips last week, I got nowhere near enough reading done (despite having raved about the productivity of flights before), but should make up for it at Christmas. Most recently, I read a book of Celtic Fairy Tales, prepared and collected by Joseph Jacobs. As a part of myth I haven't really touched before, it was fascinating, and thoroughly enjoyable, full of fantastic imagery, outrageously bold heroes, and plots that were equally informative, educational and disturbing, as, indeed, all good fairy tales should be. It you fancy brushing up on your Connlas, your Gruahachs and your Jacks-of-varying-trades, it's pretty inexpensively procured from Amazon or any other faintly disreputable seller (or, now that I think of it, probably free from copyright at this stage). 

Outside of that, I'm working, albeit eeextreeemly slowly on a couple of writing projects (what fun! Remember you can read Winter's Tale here, and the shorter and more whimsical Wordmarket here), and we're getting stuck into the second 'season' of my D&D campaign. Since I've raved about the possibilities and pleasures of such a game before, next time, I might recap some of the more intrepid adventures of the first season... 

Sound interesting? Know any good Celtic folk tales I may have missed? Have a 'best word when pronounced by Igor'? Let me know in the comments. 

Lefhanded Steampunk Milk Zombies...or something. Anyway A BLOG (post)!

So, I think it's fair to say that I'm a bit behind on blogging... Apologies for that, for anyone who actually reads what I write here, but busy-ness appears to be my...well, business, at the moment.

I'm definitely aiming to pick up some more activity on here towards the end of the year, but otherwise, will try to do some more posts, albeit sporadically.

The reading has been going well. Today, I hit 46 books, right on schedule (this being week 46). It seems crazy that this means I only need to get through 7 more before the end of the year. I'm obviously shooting for more, but it looks like I'll meet my target. I just wanted to briefly call attention to a couple of the things I've read recently.

Today, I finished Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. This is a self-proclaimed zombie steampunk novel, set in a slightly alternative history Seattle, where the civil war rages on. For all that it plays on several big genre trends - zombies and steampunk - it doesn't overplay them. It's a fun read (or rather, for me, a decent audiobook, with Wil Wheaton narrating half of it), with a cool setting and interesting enough characters. I don't think it's anything groundbreaking, but it's a entertaining and solidly written. Priest has written some other books in the same steampunk universe, which I'd be interested to check out at some point.

Another one I finished fairly recently is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. This is phenomenal. I've never read any of her stuff before, and, though the basic premise, as laid out in her introduction, was interesting, it didn't hook me in straight away. Or rather, I thought it didn't, but I think that's partly because it underplays itself and its own brilliance.

It's a view of a world without gender, through the eyes of an 'alien' (read: sex binary). The natives are essentially human, except that, most of the month, they are neither male nor female until they enter a period of fertility, which later passes. This, along with aspects of the environment in which they live, has produced some interesting social trajectories. Obviously, the novel explores issues of gender, but its even more fundamental than that in its anthropological scope. This is a book I see myself come back to again and again, and I really recommend checking it out.

Lastly, something I was going to do a full blog post on, but that definitely deserves a mention. I went to see Neil Gaiman (him again!) reading his new children's book Fortunately, the Milk... I say 'read', but really, it was a performance, with 'special guests including Mitch Benn and Lenny Henry (as a dinosaur! the book has dinosaurs!). Chris Riddell, illustrator extraordinaire, did live-drawing to match. It was unique event (sidenote: can an event be non-unique, really?) about a pretty magical children's book (then again, there weren't that many children in the audience). You can read it in under an hour (unless you're ACTING IT OUT WITH GUITARS), so why wouldn't you read it?

Oh, and Amanda Palmer showed up and the end with a ukelele.

Oh, and lastly for real this time - I posted two bits of writing to the blog in the last few weeks. You can read Winter's Tale (intrigue! parallel worlds! a Japanese folk monster!) here, and Wordmarket (a much shorter, more random thing) here. You can always find either via the 'writing' tab at the top (including downloadable formats for Winter's Tale, if white text on black background isn't your thing). Read, share, tell me they're dumb (and why!), whatever you like!

CUT TO PHOTOS *flaps cape and disappears*

Two Neils and a Chris, who is making one of the Neils.

Wumpires.

Lenny Henry-saur.

"Play your ukelele!"

We're so happy we're blurring!

Dreaming of Electric Books

So, I'm still here. I thought that I would remind you of that, since it's increasingly long since I've updated this blog. I've made it to the other side of a couple of crazy work weeks, and have been plugging away at some other projects. Still trying to decide if/how to share them on here - but hopefully more on that soon!

Importantly, I'm still reading! At last count, I had hit 42 books - just ten more to go! Practically speaking, I'm not going to get around to doing a post on each of them, but perhaps I'll do a roundup where I share a couple of thoughts on each one which I've read but haven't written up. Anyway, see below for the full list. 

I DID have the itch to talk about one of the books I've just finished, however. The Android's Dream, by John Scalzi, is fantastic. Light-hearted, fun and well-paced, it's something like James Bond meets Yes, Minster, but in space. Or something. Anyway, it's full of inter-, intra-, and extra-government conspiracies, obnoxious aliens, some of whom, it has to be said, are nothing but a bunch of trolls. And sheep. Oh boy are there sheep.

The opening of the book had me laughing in raucous disbelief right from the start (one of my new favourite first lines, however puerile it may be). I've seen it described online as the 'Terrence and Phillip' chapter, but in the context of the book it sort of...makes sense. That line, if you're wondering is 'Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out.' Intrigued and a little weirded out? Me too.

The icing on this particular sheep-shaped cake was the fact that it was an audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton (you may remember that he also narrated Ready Player One, to which I listened to earlier this year). I could listen to that man read anything. For days.

One thing about Android's Dream, though, bugged me significantly. In fact, if you've got a minute, it bugged me more than the head of the ant NSA installing tiny listening devices in the offices of the ant-people government. That was the lack of female characters in the book, or rather, a limited number of them, whose roles are disappointingly restricted.

Looking back, I can only think of three female character that appeared significantly. One of them appears very little overall. Another is more interesting and somewhat pivotal for the plot, but again, appears comparatively little, and comparatively late in the game.

(Very) Light spoilers follow.

The third, Robin, is one of the main characters. You could make an argument for her being the deuteragonist, but I really don't think that will fly. She is one half of the pair we follow for most of the book, but it's not an equal pairing, and the rest of the cast that we follow (male) are given all the action. Robin really doesn't get any of her own agency throughout the book - she's pushed from one thing to the next, with no real control herself, and, for reasons I won't get into here (read it!), her role in the story is heavily objectified. She's not a bad character, it's just that her role pretty much sucks.

Now, just to be clear here, this didn't stop me from enjoying the book. The book was great. I loved it, and I'm recommending it to all of you if you fancy going on a ridiculous sci-fi tear. Nor is it an indictment of Scalzi - he's known for his fairly vocal support of feminism, and the depiction of women in the book wasn't all that bad. There just aren't enough of them with any decent roles.

I get why Robin's role is what it is - it actually makes a weird kind of sense in the context of the story, which is a topic that is dealt with directly a few times. It's just a shame that she's also the only female character who gets any real 'screen time' in the story. I don't know how that compares with Scalzi's other works, but it needled me throughout.

But don't let that put you off! It's still a great book, and worth reading. This element is the one thing about it that stuck in my craw. Otherwise, pretty much high fun from start to finish.


Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)
The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)
I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)
Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)
Jobs* - Walter Isaacson (2012)
The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)
Ready Player One* - Ernest Cline (2011)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)
Storm Front* - Jim Butcher (2000)
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)
Fool Moon* - Jim Butcher (2001)
Iron Man: Extremis - Warren Ellis (2006)
Ultimate Thor Vol.1 - Hickman, Pachego & Vines (2010)
How To Eat Out - Giles Coren (2001)
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran (2011)
In The Garden of Beasts* - Erik Larson (2011)
Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctrow (2012)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2012)
The Illustrated Man* - Ray Bradbury (1951)
The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2013)
The Player of Games - Iain M Banks (1988)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)
Stardust - Neil Gaiman (1998)
The Knife of Never Letting Go* - Patrick Ness (2008)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane* - Neil Gaiman (2013)
Facing Violence - Sgt. Rory Miller (2011)
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (2008)
Terra* - Mitch Benn (2013)
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (2009)
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (2010)
Fables vol.1: Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham (2002)
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader - Neil Gaiman (2009)
Feed - M T Anderson (2002)
Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood (2003)
Carrie* - Stephen King (1974)
The Android's Dream - John Scalzi (2006)

Currently Reading:
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (2008)
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin (1969)

Method and Madness

I'm still a little behind on #GRaBaW blogging, but that's because, as I mentioned before, I'm working on some other writing projects which I want to get 'finished'. It's also down to that fact that some of the books I've read recently will require some more interesting write-ups, which I haven't had time to do yet.

Just a quick note, then on my reading process. You may remember that I've previously expressed my obsession with audiobooks and that I recently acquired a Kindle. The Kindle really has made a big difference in the last month or two. I'm not a new convert to ebooks, by any means - I've previously used a Sony Reader, and my iPad and iPhone have served well in this regard also. 

The Kindle, though, has really set itself apart - just so small and easy to hold (important to be able to do so comfortably one-handed on the tube) and to buy/load books onto (almost too easy, in fact - curse you, Kindle daily deal!). The fact that you get a sense of how long you have left in each chapter, time-wise, also makes it easy to work out if you can realistically get through a section in whatever time you have. The WhisperSync aspect also means that I don't worry if it's not practical to bring it - I'll always have access to whatever I'm reading via my phone, in a pinch.

Audiobooks also make life very easy. I've done the same with podcasts for years, but an Audible account has come as a real blessing. It's good to be able to get lost in a book while doing housework, some other mindless task, or walking on the commute. I like the fact that I can listen to one book on the way to the tube, whip out my Kindle on the train for another, then instantly switch back when changing trains (or if the tube is too crowded to have free hands!).

Okay, it's also nice to be unplugged sometimes, or to listen to music, but it's good to be able to make use of 'dead time' in this way, and it's harder to have an excuse to be bored. 

I'm currently at 37 books, at the end of week 33, so am doing pretty well. I've had a burst of acceleration and travel in the last week or two, which has helped that figure enormously.

For what it's worth - I pretty much always post my blog entries on Facebook, but if you want to follow the blog and get all the updates when they go up, you can follow with your Google/Blogger account, or latch on to the RSS feed here: http://altthoughtprocess.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default. If you're not already following me on Twitter, you can find me on @mastergeorge.

If you enjoy reading, it's always awesome if you can share or retweet the links to the posts. That shows me that I'm doing something right - or, at least, what's working and what's not!

How the Other Half Read: The Mortal Instruments books - read them; read them now!

The Mortal Instruments series can roughly be divided into two trilogies (book 6: Heavenly Fire is due next spring; hurry up, hurry up!) is fantastic. Thematically, it's sort of a cross between Buffy and Harry Potter, with a bunch of angelic influence thrown into the mix. The Shadow-Hunters are a race descended from a human who drank the (willingly-given) blood of the angel Raziel in order to give him and his descendants the strength to fight demons. There also exist warlocks, vampires, werewolves and fairies (known as Down-Worlders) who are descended from demons but keep an uneasy peace with the Shadow-Hunters. Since the film of the first book (City of Bones) is out this month, I don't want to say much more about the plot, because spoilers, Sweetie :) The film, incidentally, contains such acting gods as Lena Headey and Aidan Turner, and I am really looking forward to see it.

My favourite character is definitely Isabelle, not just because she's tall and has an amazing dress sense, but more because she is clearly the most sorted character of the lot - and that includes the adults; as everyone else blunders about trying not to tell their best friend/sibling that they're in love with them, trying to come out ("I'm gay!"; "I'm a vampire!") to their parents and generally wreaking bloody havoc in an exciting and violent manner, Izzy is calm, kick-ass and shod in the best heeled-boots an author can imagine.

Another fist-punching-the-air thing about this series is that there is diversity in the characters (Not like at Hogwarts where there are a pair of Patels, one Irish guy, one black guy, everyone has (or had) a pair of parents and everyone is straight; correct me if I'm wrong - it's been some time since I read it!). TMI has plenty of people of different ethnicities, a guy who loves glitter, mixed-race relationships (even including living/undead, mortal/immortal and many other combinations), single mums, girls who don't want relationships, gay guys, gay girls...basically it's not a cis-white-straight party, and that makes things more believable. This isn't to say there isn't any prejudice against a bunch of the stuff I've mentioned, but the experience of dealing with this makes the characters even more interesting.

The Classicist in me loved the occasional Latin and Greek (Shadow-Hunters are well-versed in these and well-read in their ancient authors) and I'd be curious to hear how the suspense in these sections worked for those who had to wait for a translation. The fifth book finishes with a one word cliff-hanger which is, I truly believe, the most exciting cliff-hanger I've ever read/seen. (OMG, OMG, OMG! Can't wait till next March! Thankfully, there are various other connected series of prequels to keep me going until then.)

The character-development, relationships and twists in the plot are brilliantly done and I honestly cannot conceive how one person has an imagination big enough to create five such incredible books' worth of story. Countless times I ended up kicking myself because I was so excited to find out who so-and-so was or what was about to happen that my eyes skipped down the page and spoiled the surprise (delayed gratification is difficult when the thing is right there in front of you!).

Seriously, go and read the first three books. Then KEEP READING!

Georgia's list as it stands:

Stabat Mater, Tiziano Scarpa (2011)
Facing Violence, Rory Miller (2011)
Un Lun Dun, China Mieville (2007)
Open Secrets, Alice Munro (1994)
The Dragon Queen, Alice Borchardt (2001)
Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Walters (1998)
The lost books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason (2007)
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, (1937)
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman, (1991)
The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler, (2012)
The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010), The Night Eternal (2011), Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman (2010)
Angry White Pyjamas, Robert Twigger (1997)
50 shades of Feminism, ed Lisa Appignanesi et al (2013)
Further Voices in Vergil's Aeneid, R O A M Lyne (1987)
The Journal of Dora Damage, Belinda Starling (2007)
Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud (1992)
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (2007)
Disgrace, Jussi Adler Olsen (2012)
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
Romanitas, Sophia McDougall (2005)
Selected Poems, Sophie Hannah (2013)
The Long Earth, Terry Pratchett and Steven Baxter (2012)
A very short introduction to the Roman Republic, David M Gywnn (2012)
The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng (2007)
The Mortal Instruments 1: City of Bones, Cassandra Clare (2007)
The Mortal Instruments 2: City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare (2008)
The Mortal Instruments 3: City of Glass, Cassandra Clare (2009)
The Mortal Instruments 4: City of Fallen Angels, Cassandra Clare (2011)
The Mortal Instruments 5: City of Lost Souls, Cassandra Clare (2012)
The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury (1952)

How The Other Half Read: Trouble at the Top: Sex, Drugs and Rockin' Romans

Crikey, its been a while since my last post! I have read lots of books and am going to try to keep my discussion fairly brief, particularly as some of them are book club books, or so good you really ought to read them for yourself!

The the first group of books I'd like to talk about is linked by corruption in the aristocracy. The books involved are: The Journal of Dora Damage, set in the Victorian era; Disgrace, set in modern Copenhagen; and Romanitas, set in an alternative present where the Roman empire never fell. Dora... is not your typical Victoriana - true, it does have some wonderfully evocative scenes of what working class life in London was like for its dear protagonist, struggling to run her ailing husband's printing business without anyone finding out (Women? Working? Don't be daft, Son!) whilst caring for her epileptic daughter.

However, the premise of this book is much darker; Dora finds herself keeping her business afloat by printing pornography for a ring of upper class gentlemen, who will do anything to keep their niche, sexual interests private. Plus, Dora experiences the thrill and confusion of desires of her own which society deems inappropriate. Gripping, engaging and occasionally causing one to cross one's legs in sheer terror, this book is a real page-turner.

Disgrace IS your typical Scandi crime-thriller; blackmail, gruesome murder and very grumpy cops who reside in untidy offices and survive on poor-quality coffee. Carl Mørk is a believable (if grumpy) detective who, along with side-kicks Assad (questionable background) and Rose (maddeningly competent with a furniture fetish), has to tiptoe through his investigation of some of the most powerful families in Denmark. And, yes, something definitely is rotten in the state...

Romanitas is a dangerously enjoyable book which has all the political intrigue, suspicion and suggestion of Tacitus, coupled with freedom-fighting and rage against the oligarchy. I don't want to say too much about this one, as it may be a book-club offering, but the world-building of MacDougall is fascinating and compelling. It's the first of a trilogy, but, as you'll discover in my next post, I'm doing alright for series at the moment, so I may put the rest of this series on hold for a while!

I'm just going to slip a non-fiction book in at the end here: A very short introduction to the Roman Republic. This is a GREAT introduction to a period of Classical history which is really interesting; often people know a fair bit about the end of the first century BC (assassination of Julius Caesar, subsequent war between Octavian/Augustus and Mark Antony and the foundation of the Principate), but this book goes right back to the beginning, expanding on topics such as the Etruscan kings of Rome, the Conflict of the Orders (the unwashed masses going on a strike from military service until the patrician class gave them some rights), the rise of the war-lords such as Marius, Sulla and Pompey, right up to Augustus. This is an engaging, informative (and short!) introduction to what is often viewed as the less interesting bit of Roman history and it is well-worth reading.

Next time: a series so good I read all five books in a week!

Literary love xxx

The Storyteller

I’ve been on a bit of a Gaiman reading kick recently. Right near the beginning of GRaBaW, I talked a bit about Neil Gaiman, and I’m pretty sure I may have dropped one or two hints about how he was my favorite author.

“Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself on Twitter) is one of my absolute heroes, and probably my favorite author of all time (you’re certainly going to see more from him on here!)”

*Ahem*. Well, in the last few weeks, I’ve made it through a couple more of his books that I had yet to read - one older, one brand new. Sidenote: it is my continuing goal to get through everything he’s written. Given that I claim him as my favorite author, it seems pretty deplorable not to do so. But that’s one for next year, as I think GRaBaW merits a bit more variety.





First, there was Stardust, first published in 1998. Since it was made into an excellent film in 2007, this is usually my go-to reference when describing Gaiman to people who haven’t heard of him. Unfortunately, people who haven’t heard of him seem to also be people who didn't see Stardust. Which is doubly sad.

I’ve always very much enjoyed the film adaptation, but had never got to reading the book. I heard from friends that it was significantly different from the film, so I thought I was prepared for this - but, as it turns out, I really wasn’t.

At their cores, both the film and the books are fairy tales and share many elements in theme and content - but it’s similar to the difference between the slightly fluffy things that many people now consider fairy tales to be and the harsh reality of the Grimms stories. I won’t say that Stardust was ‘sanitised’ for the big screen, but it was definitely made more palatable to a wider film audience - with some dramatic action scenes added in, and some of the more interesting side adventures expunged. I will say that the film was worth it for [film spoilers in link] Robert De Niro alone, though.

If you enjoyed the film, read the book - it’s better. If you didn’t enjoy the film, read the book. It’s better.






Gaiman’s newest work, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, released just a few weeks ago, has been getting a lot of attention and prompting an interesting range of reactions (mostly adulation). Those I know who read it before me had some interesting takes - mostly, they were unsure precisely what to make of it. Now that I’ve finished, I understand how they feel.

The protagonist of Ocean is an unnamed, timid boy of seven years. The novel is written from his perspective, and the relative simplicity of the writing made a narrator who seemed oddly heartbreaking, though I still cannot entirely articulate why.

It is hard to separate the protagonist from Gaiman himself. Is this meant to be difficult? Probably less so than I think, but the parallels between the two are so strongly inbuilt that I found them next to impossible to ignore. This was not helped by the fact that I listened to much of it in audiobook format - read by Gaiman himself.

I’m still not sure what to make of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It actually feels like a very simple book - and the fact that it started life as a novella makes complete sense. The story that unfolds is relatively straightforward in outline, but is permeated with that nebulous magic of Gaiman’s universe. The relatively simple writing underscores this. The story is told through the eyes of a child, and that makes the stakes feel so high, when the drama and pain is so personal.

The best advice I can give about Ocean is - if you’re thinking of reading it, do so, and form your own opinion. Reviews and other people’s opinions always only get you so far, and I think that’s doubly true with this book. If you haven’t read any other Gaiman, there are definitely more accessible and imagination-capturing places to start, but for Gaiman fans, this is a must.

I am intrigued to see that Gaiman is now working on his own game - Wayward Manor. As many people have pointed out ‘just because he’s a great writer, doesn’t mean he knows how to make a great game’, and that’s true, but as he himself points out in the linked video, he is a storyteller. It doesn’t mean the game will be great, but I honestly don’t expect it to be anything less than a wholly compelling story.

We’re coming into week 31 as I write this, and I’m currently at 32 books down, which is an excellent feeling. Still have a full 20 more to go, but at this point, that doesn’t seem so bad.


Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)
The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)
I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)
Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)
Jobs* - Walter Isaacson (2012)
The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)
Ready Player One* - Ernest Cline (2011)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)
Storm Front* - Jim Butcher (2000)
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)
Fool Moon* - Jim Butcher (2001)
Iron Man: Extremis - Warren Ellis (2006)
Ultimate Thor Vol.1 - Hickman, Pachego & Vines (2010)
How To Eat Out - Giles Coren (2001)
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran (2011)
In The Garden of Beasts* - Erik Larson (2011)
Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctrow (2012)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2012)
The Illustrated Man* - Ray Bradbury (1951)
The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2013)
The Player of Games - Iain M Banks (1988)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)
Stardust - Neil Gaiman (1998)
The Knife of Never Letting Go* - Patrick Ness (2008)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane* - Neil Gaiman (2013)

Currently Reading:

Facing Violence - Sgt. Rory Miller
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Terra* - Mitch Benn

The Player of Ender's Game

Two books following a common theme this week - and one that is very dear to my heart indeed. I didn’t intentionally stack these up thus, but I got through both The Player of Games (Iain M Banks) and Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card), two classic sci-fi novels which I’ve somehow managed not to read so far in my life.

The Player of Games is actually the second novel in the late Iain M Banks’ Culture series. I’ve been meaning to read some Iain Banks sci-fi for years - and this was recently brought up again by the sad news of his cancer and recent death. I’ve read novels he’s written under his ‘Iain Banks’ name, but never ‘Iain M Banks’. The Culture series comes highly recommended, but several people encouraged me to start with Player rather than Consider Phlebas, the series’ first novel.

I was certainly not disappointed. This is the first ‘hard’ sci-fi I’ve read for quite a while, where I really felt that the setting was something so ‘other’ as to require getting your head around to appreciate. In the Cuture, Banks created a society which, at leisure, really does seem to be a credible Utopia (readers of the other books may have information that contradicts this, but I’m only going on what I have seen!), even twenty years after the novel was written.

The novel focuses on Jernau ‘Morat’ Gurgeh, a famous and extremely talented Culture game player (the title ‘hero’, if he can be considered such), who is experiencing feeling increasingly disaffected with his lot in life - in spite of, and in fact due to, the comfort and ease of life in the Culture.

“...the true gambler needs the excitement of potential loss, even ruin, to feel wholly alive.”

“The game’s the thing. That’s the conventional wisdom, isn’t it? The fun is what matters, not the victory. To glory in the defeat of another, to need that purchased pride, is to show that you are incomplete and inadequate to start with.”

“The individual is obsolete. That’s why life is so comfortable for us all...No one person can have any real effect anymore.”

This disaffection prompts a few erratic turns in Gurgeh’s behaviour, until, finally, the chance of a true, meaningful challenge is dangled in front of him. Everything unfolds from here, and delivers with increasing satisfaction.

I’d recommend this to even those who are not fans of ‘traditional’ science fiction. The setting requires a small amount of getting your head around to truly understand the motivations of the Culture characters, and where their perspective is routed - maybe this is something you already have if you’ve read the first book, I’m not sure. But the book is extremely compelling, and every payoff satisfying.

Ender’s Game has a very different pace and structure, but I found almost as enjoyable. There are some ongoing controversies ongoing with the author, Orson Scott Card. I say ‘controversies’; I actually don’t think it’s all that controvertial - Scott-Card is a bigotted dick - but I remain of the opinion that we should be able to separate artists from their art. There is a more important question raised around the upcoming film adaptation of Ender’s Game (with Harrison-freaking-Ford!), but I digress...

Ender’s Game tells the story of Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin, an exceptionally talented tactician being hand-reared to apparently defend humanities future from the alien race known as the ‘buggers’. Told almost entirely from the six-year old Ender’s perspective, with a few teasers at the start of each chapter pointing to the bigger picture, the story unfolds with Ender being put through Battle School, to test his abilities and develop him to become the commander they need.

I don’t want to go into too much detail for fear of spoiling things, but it’s a really interesting analysis of the psychology of strategy - to such an extent that it’s recommended reading for various ranks of the U.S. Marine Corps. It’s a short and easy read, so definitely think this is worth picking up.

Ender’s Game is actually intended as a short introduction to a longer series of novels with an apparently very different scope and nature. I’m told that the rest of the series is interesting, if less worthwhile. I’m trying to avoid getting locked into too many series at the moment - which is frustrating, as I’ve read some very strong openings (or seconds, in the case of The Player of Games), but I want to keep a bit of variety going on right now.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m managing to stay just ahead of the curve, currently on 31 books right at the start of week 30 - so expect a couple more updates soon.

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)
The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)
I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)
Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)
Jobs* - Walter Isaacson (2012)
The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)
Ready Player One* - Ernest Cline (2011)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)
Storm Front* - Jim Butcher (2000)
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)
Fool Moon* - Jim Butcher (2001)
Iron Man: Extremis - Warren Ellis (2006)
Ultimate Thor Vol.1 - Hickman, Pachego & Vines (2010)
How To Eat Out - Giles Coren (2001)
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran (2011)
In The Garden of Beasts* - Erik Larson (2011)
Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctrow (2012)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2012)
The Illustrated Man* - Ray Bradbury (1951)
The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2013)
The Player of Games - Iain M Banks (1988)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)
Stardust - Neil Gaiman (1998)
The Knife of Never Letting Go* - Patrick Ness (2008)

Currently Reading:

Facing Violence - Sgt. Rory Miller
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

The Long War

In a rare piece of reading consistency, I followed up my reading of The Long Earth immediately with the sequel - The Long War (on my shiny new Kindle, mwhaha). This is partly down to the quality of the first one, but also because I wanted to read it with the Pratchett/Baxter author talk still fresh in my mind.

The Long War is pretty consistent in both quality and style with the first one. The theme of an exploration novel which came out so strongly in the first one is still very prominent. At times, it actually gives off a very Star Trek vibe - not something I want to go into too much (discover it for yourself), but I'm sure I can't be the only one to have found this.

The strength of the setting is still very obvious. Not too many new elements are introduced to shake up the formula. Since the book is set a decade further down the line, it's more of a continuation of the 'thought experiment' of how the phenomenon of stepping affects humanity 10 years on. Again, as I said last time, there's clearly still a lot more scope for the series inherent in the setting.

This setting is hung around largely the same group of characters. A few new ones are introduced, both to expand the 'core group' from The Long Earth, and to provide some new perspectives and storylines. It's nice to see a half-decent proportion of good female main characters. I actually enjoyed reading Maggie's arc the most, which is one of the most separated from the main plotline.

This bring me onto my last big thought. As with The Long Earth, I felt that there was an odd narrative structure to the book. While a lot of time is spent establishing the context and backdrop to the events, not much actually happens throughout. There's a comparatively low sense of threat throughout The Long War - it's still present, and is strong than in the first book, but it's disarming. 

Parts of the section towards the end left my scratching my head slightly in terms of character motivations relating to what actually takes place. Again, I'm avoiding details because it would be spoilers, but I didn't quite sit right with me. That's not enough to significantly negatively impact on my impressions of the book. 

I certainly don't think that these books should follow some cookie-cutter recipe to hit all the beats we are expecting (thus becoming more predictable) - and I get the sense that avoiding this and reaching a different pace is intentional - but it's noticeable. The stakes don't seem to be all that high until the very last chapters of the book. That's something I quite enjoy - Baxter and Pratchett have made it a setting worth exploring, and it is on the whole enjoyable to do so with their characters, but I know that it's not for everyone. 

Week 28
28/52

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (2011)
The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (1988)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carré (1974)
I Can Make You Hate - Charlie Brooker (2012)
Looking For Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville (2005)
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (1989)
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (1979)
Jobs* - Walter Isaacson (2012)
The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)
Ready Player One* - Ernest Cline (2011)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman (2010)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)
Storm Front* - Jim Butcher (2000)
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)
Fool Moon* - Jim Butcher (2001)
Iron Man: Extremis - Warren Ellis (2006)

Ultimate Thor Vol.1 - Hickman, Pachego & Vines (2010)
How To Eat Out - Giles Coren (2001)
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran (2011)
In The Garden of Beasts* - Erik Larson (2011)
Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctrow (2012)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2012)
The Illustrated Man* - Ray Bradbury (1951)
The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (2013)
The Player of Games - Iain M Banks (1988)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)

Currently Reading:

The Knife of Never Letting Go* - Patrick Ness
Stardust - Neil Gaiman

How the Other Half Read: Children's Fiction is Not Just For Children!

George and I were exhorted by his mum to read some books written for the younger reader. I have three offerings so far, the first of which is Treasure Island. I'd never read this before, never seen a film of it, and I finally understand who Blind Pew is. This is a great swash-buckling adventure, although, I have to say, I think I enjoyed the beginning when Jim Hawkins meets his very first pirate at least as much as I enjoyed the second half of the book when he's creeping around the island humming 'fifteen men on a dead man's chest' (or so I imagine that's how he creeps). An oldie but a goodie.

Second, is a book I have read before, but could barely remember: Hideous Kinky. The title confuses everyone; yes, it *is* a children's book; the two girls in it just happen to really like those two words. This book transports you all the way to Marrakech and its young narrator tells you of her adventures with her big sister, Bea, as her mother does a whole bunch of stuff that, reading the book as an adult, seems pretty irresponsible. However, since I discovered recently that the story is actually autobiographical, I shan't publicly question the mother's actions further. I tried to list my favourite bits, but there are just too many of them; this is a great book which makes Morocco seem all the magical since its wonders are seen through the eyes of a small child.

Thirdly, (appropriately enough) comes the third book in a series: Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse.  I know, I'm a Classicist; this is probably why I find these books so enjoyable, as I notice all the little references (which are clearly put there for Classics teachers to find), but my pupils love these books too, so there must be more to them than self-congratulatory allusion-spotting, I don't want to spoil the first two books, so shan't say too much, but basically, dark forces are rising against the Olympian gods and it's up to their (very much put-upon) illegitimate, half-blood children to save the day. One of the things I really loved about this book in particular is that the gender balance was right on the money - in the previous two books there is one excellent, prominent female character, but there are two male ones - in The Titan's Curse the girls are running the show. It's a shame that we're so used to there just being the one main girl that having equal, or superior, numbers of female main characters is comment-worthy, but there you go. The whole series of books is highly enjoyable and well-worth a look; they're a quick read and a great reworking of the Classical myths.

Check in next time for some seriously screwed up fiction!

G xxx

Books completed in chronological order of reading:

Stabat Mater, Tiziano Scarpa (2011)

Facing Violence, Rory Miller (2011)

Un Lun Dun, China Mieville (2007)

Open Secrets, Alice Munro (1994)

The Dragon Queen, Alice Borchardt (2001)

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Walters (1998)

The lost books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason (2007)

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, (1937)

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman, (1991)

The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler, (2012)

The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010), The Night Eternal (2011), Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman (2010)

Angry White Pyjamas, Robert Twigger (1997)

50 shades of Feminism, ed Lisa Appignanesi et al (2013)

Further Voices in Vergil's Aeneid, R O A M Lyne (1987)

The Journal of Dora Damage, Belinda Starling (2007)

Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud (1992)

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (2007)

Disgrace, Jussi Adler Olsen (2012)

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)

Romanitas, Sophia McDougall (2005)

Selected Poems, Sophie Hannah (2013)

A Million Parallel Earths

I feel like I've got my momentum back. It's a good feeling - I would attribute much of this to giving myself freer choice of books, and to happening to have picked a few awesome ones recently.

Today, I'm mostly focussing on one of these - The Long Earth, written collaboratively by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

Sir Terry casts aside his hat

I picked this up almost on a whim, with the generously-loaded Waterstones card which was a birthday gift from the team at work (thanks, guys!). I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to pick up, but this caught my eye on a display stand, and looked like good flight reading. 

I had assumed that this was a new book, having not heard of it previously, but it transpires that it was being promoted just ahead of the launch of the second book in the sequence. 

It's very a sci-fi novel, making it feel like a bit of a departure for Pratchett. At a recent talk at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, he revealed that the concept was something he came up with even before Discworld, but her set it aside and only rediscovered it recently. He decided that it had been a great idea, but that he would need someone with a working knowledge of the 'quantum bollocks' (actual quote) to execute it - hence the collaboration with Baxter.

The premise is actually very simple, but opens up so many questions and interesting scenarios to explore that the series, I'm sure, could feasibly be spun on and on and still remain interesting. Pratchett and Baxter indicated that they've got solid material to explore for about five books, and are not sure about going beyond that at this point.

Right from the start, we are introduced to the 'Long Earth', on what becomes known as 'Step Day', the population of earth discovers an unknown number of parallel earths, trivially easy to reach from this one (dubbed 'Datum Earth'), through a process called 'stepping'. Each is effectively a copy of this world, with some small changes - most notably, that each world is untouched by the presence of humanity.

This makes each world a rich haven in its own right, a sort of natural paradise, rich with life and animals. There turn out to be some simple but crucial limitations around stepping which make the inevitable exploration and expansion more interesting - people aren't just able to port their entire houses across.

This turns the book into an exploration of frontiers and survivalism for humanity, and raises plenty of interesting questions - suddenly, scarcity is not the issue it once was. What does that mean for how people develop and fan out across the long earth. It is a great representation of what sci if can be - a sort of thought experiment with a relatively simple concept (though one with interesting characters and story to hang it together).

The main plot of the book follows a few characters aiming exploring the Long Earth and answer some of the many questions that it raises. This gave it, for me, a very 'Jules Verne', adventure novel feel - venturing out in the unknown. This is part of the reason I'm trying to discuss it rather elliptically here (with mixed success, I'm sure), to avoid answering too many questions, and leaving that for you to discover, if you choose to explore the book yourself.

From the title of the sequel 'The Long War', I'm expecting to find something rather different. I'm very much looking forward to breaking into that - though I'm reluctant to pick it up in hardback, so it will be one for audiobook or ebook formats.

If you've enjoy science fiction or adventure stories, or Pratchett or Baxter's previous works (though this feels nothing like Discworld), I'd recommend that you give this one a try. 

How the Other Half Read: Reality Bites

So, I have a lot of books to tell you about. As usual, I'm going to group then thematically, so this post is all about non-fiction books. I've read three and a half of these so far (the half will be explained shortly).

First up is Angry White Pyjamas, a book about a really irritating, sexist man who decides that, since he's done nothing worthwhile with his life since moving to Japan to teach English, he'll join the Japanese riot police course and learn aikido, grading from novice to black belt in nine months - and taking the exam to become an instructor (sensei) three months after that. Words cannot express how much I dislike the writer: for his portrayal of the only two female aikidoka he meets as sex-crazed loonies who are each obsessed with their sensei; for his infantilisation of his Japanese girlfriend; for his offensively generalised and objectifying assertion that what Japanese girls lack in breasts they make up for in skimpy skirts.  (Perhaps the book should be retitled Angry, Right Feminists.)

If you can see past this twattery, the discussion of his experience doing the riot police course is quite interesting. The senshusei (students on the course) are a fascinating mix of varying manifestations of crazy, and it seems the course itself, run largely by sadistic sensei (fainting will earn you burpees; leaving bloody patches on the mat is a good thing; broken bones earn you mere days of convalescence...) is designed to make you more machine than human. I found the whining of the author ("I'm in pain, but I can't quit because I hero-worship one of the sensei, and if I stop now my life means nothing") quite tedious, and his description of the injuries which were wilfully inflicted by sensei horrific; however, all in all, the huge culture shock made for fascinating reading. Seriously, what sane person puts themselves through that?!

Thankfully, the next book I read was a balm for my offended XX chromosomes: Fifty Shades of Feminism.  (When discussing this, you have to say the title really quickly, otherwise people make snap judgements about your taste in literature...). This book is fab; it's a collection of fifty very short essays, written by notable women, on women's lives and experiences in 2013. They are all great, I'll just mention two which I found pertinent to my own politics. Firstly, Juliet Stevenson's discussion of how, in acting, the older you get, the more interesting the parts - if you're a man; if you're a woman they are few and far between and pretty simple in terms of character. For studies on this, look at the Geena Davis Institute's work. The second was Jeannette Winterson's pithy and deeply uncomfortable discussion of objectification being enforced by pornography. For studies on the under- and mis-representation of women in the media, see the resources produced by the EAVES charity. Fifty Shades of Feminism's greatest achievement, in my opinion, is that it concisely and articulately provides a starting point for a huge range of issues that, really, ought to be seen as important to (and by) everybody.

Here is where I explain the half book comment, and apologise to my father. Dad recommended that I read "anything by Stephen Jay Gould". I have tried.  Honest I have.  I downloaded Leonardo's Mountain of Clams (1998) and have been working my way through it, and I have really enjoyed some bits (for example, the history of the aquarium - they started in Victorian times, before that stable, watery communities did exist but were always viewed from above, consequently diagrams of sea-creatures changed in perspective with the introduction of aquaria, there are some hilarious anecdotes about the lengths people went to to populate their glassy mini-seas...it's fascinating stuff); however, I find it really hard to read long essays about non-Classical material - I feel like I'm missing so much of the background that it takes me a long time to process. Having said that, I just looked at the contents page and the essays I have left to go seem much shorter than the first half of the book - maybe I will finish it this year!  For now, though, it is on the iBooks shelf.

The final non-fiction book so far is Further Voices in Vergil's Aeneid, which I borrowed from a library at university for an essay but only had time to read the relevant section.  This book is amazing.  The basic premise is that there is an epic voice (the one telling the story of the Trojan hero, who founds the Roman race) and then there are further voices - little hints and allusions to previous Classical authors, inviting us to question the validity of the story - saying, for example, is it all good? Is it alright to kill an enemy who has already been defeated? Is it okay to leave the woman you've been having a relationship with without so much as saying goodbye, just because your superior tells you to stop procrastinating and sod off to Italy? This is a great book, which has some really interesting ideas (eg, that bit in Aeneid IV when Aeneas is described as Apollo, looking good, with his clashing weapons, because he's so fit? Yeah, that's totally a reference to Apollo as the PLAGUE-BRINGER in Iliad I, because Aeneas is bringing DOOM to Dido. In fairness, I probably should have spotted that one myself, but it's still a great call.). I shan't go on, but if you've read the Aeneid, this is great, and if you haven't, do read the Aeneid, because it's a seminal work of literature and, although Aeneas is pretty much a dickhead (or, perhaps, *because* Aeneas is...), it's an awesome story.

To sum up, I find non-fiction slower-going but very interesting. Now, go and read Fifty Shades of Feminism. Off you go!

G xxx

Books completed in chronological order of reading:

Stabat Mater, Tiziano Scarpa (2011)

Facing Violence, Rory Miller (2011)

Un Lun Dun, China Mieville (2007)

Open Secrets, Alice Munro (1994)

The Dragon Queen, Alice Borchardt (2001)

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Walters (1998)

The lost books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason (2007)

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, (1937)

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman, (1991)

The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler, (2012)

The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010), The Night Eternal (2011), Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman (2010)

Angry White Pyjamas, Robert Twigger (1997)

50 shades of Feminism, ed Lisa Appignanesi et al (2013)

Further Voices in Vergil's Aeneid, R O A M Lyne (1987)

The Journal of Dora Damage, Belinda Starling (2007)

Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud (1992)

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (2007)

Disgrace, Jussi Adler Olsen (2012)

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)

Romanitas, Sophia McDougall (2005)

Selected Poems, Sophie Hannah (2013)

How the Other Half Read: She's Loving Angels Instead

George: I've been sitting on this guest post from Georgia for waaaay too long. This should be from way back in March or April, so mentally adjust any time references accordingly. Georgia, too, has been keeping up with reading, and should be doing some more guest blogs in the near future. This time, I promise to post them in a more timely fashion.

Hello again! Over the past couple of weeks I have read four books - The Strain Trilogy (Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan) and The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ (Philip Pullman). As serendipity would have it, these are connected by their reference to angels and the questioning of the existence of a Judaeo-Christian god. The trilogy weaves this into a combination of old-school vampire stories and 28 Days Later-style, virally-proliferated apocalypse - which sounds overly complicated but actually works quite well. I'm not sure that there was quite enough material to warrant the third book being as long as it was (not actually that long, to be fair) but, overall, this is a gripping story which goes well beyond the usual vampire story and proffers a compelling origin myth.

Similarly, I suppose, Pullman offers his own take on the origin story of the New Testament. A very quick read, I found this extra interesting as I read it the day before the first day of Passover, during which I also watched Giles Coren's BBC programme on a Seder where Jews from lots of different families, traditions and geographical origins were invited. Obviously, the climax of the Jesus story occurs at this time of year, so it seemed really appropriate to read the book at this point. The reason I mention the BBC programme is because both it and Pullman invite you to consider how very old stories are remembered and interpreted very differently by pretty much everyone - whether as history or parable or fiction. Speaking as someone raised by a secular, humanist mother and a practising Jew, turned C of E priest father, the book certainly prompted me to reconsider the messages within all those stories surrounding Jesus which I was taught in Primary school but never really discussed at home, and which I have not considered at all for at least a decade.  Which was refreshing, but the book also resurrected frustrations about the virulent nature of proselytism - linking us neatly back to The Strain. (I'm aware that my last comment, with some extrapolation, could perhaps be interpreted as my likening what some people believe to be god incarnate to a vampire...so I'm going to say sorry and stop talking about it.)

I'm also trying to unlock some of George's proposed achievements (having already attained my own Three is a Magic Number - read a trilogy) so I'm aiming for the Internacional (foreign language book) by reading The Eclogues and Georgics in the original Latin (some 3000 lines of hexameters). This also completes what I'm going to call the Fields, Farming and Furor achievement (aka the Why Did You Bother achievement), namely reading everything Vergil ever wrote (I read the whole Aeneid for finals). It also allows George the opportunity to keep repeating a terrible Classicist joke, which, judging by the frequency with which he is making said joke, he is very much enjoying. 

 I don't know what to read next...hmmmm...

Literary Love xxx

Books completed in chronological order of reading:

Stabat Mater, Tiziano Scarpa (2011)

Facing Violence, Rory Miller (2011)

Un Lun Dun, China Mieville (2007)

Open Secrets, Alice Munro (1994)

The Dragon Queen, Alice Borchardt (2001)

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Walters (1998)

The lost books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason (2007)

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, (1937)

The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman, (1991)

The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler, (2012)

The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010), The Night Eternal (2011), Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman (2010)

Burn Them All

I've survived most of June! I realised close to the end of May that the first two thirds or so of June were going to be totally ridiculous, but looks like I've not only made it, but actually been able to catch up reading also. I've still got a backlog of books to write up, but looks like I'm back up to date (thanks, again, long-haul flights and audiobooks). 

The latest two books I've finished have both been very interesting ones… These are Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctrow and the absolute classic Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 

For those that haven't come across Doctrow before, he's an irrepressible blogger and 'net activist, editor at Boing Boing (the 'zine/group blog). I can't remember where I first came across Doctrow, but I've a feeling that it was through one of several references to him on XKCD. I went to a talk of his at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2011, the title of which I sadly can't remember or find easily, but this prompted me to pick up his book Makers, focusing on 'maker culture' in the near-future - being the living embodiment of hardware- and life-hackers.

Pirate Cinema, like Makers, feels fundamentally like a form of geek wish-fulfilment. Unlike Makers, Pirate Cinema is aimed primarily at Young Adults, which gave it a rather different (and more accessible) tone, and made it on the whole less depressing. The novel focusses on a near-future Britain where over-bearing technological restrictions and laws have been put in place in attempt to curb piracy, with the media companies easily able to twist the collective arm of the government to get what they want in terms of legislation, despite general unpopularity. Being caught pirating leads to having your internet cut off, which, as the politicians in the book seem to generally fail to grasp, is for many families, a sort of death sentence, with some people unable to work, get their medication, study, or pay their bills.

The message here is clear - the politicians are sufficiently far removed that they don't understand that the internet is increasingly becoming another vital service, more akin to water or electricity, than a passing distraction or pure entertainment tool. The implication is that this is as true now as it in the novel, and this viewpoint has been validated repeatedly in the past. 

But the book is not a pro-piracy tract. The specific emphasis is on piracy enabling creativity. One example is the main character's, Trent McCauley's, pastime - cutting footage from movies of a particular dead actor to construct entirely new short films through a mixture of encyclopaedic knowledge of his work and nifty video editing. The results, it is indicated, are generally as good or better than the original works, and is a clear example of artistic creativity - something which, it would seem, the media companies want to stamp out at any cost, regardless of the resulting curbs to the freedom of the general populace. 

Pirate Cinema is a fun read, which is formulated to induce anger at how close we are to some of the thing in the book actually happening (I refer you to the repeated attempts to introduce stupid and ill-considered internet legislation which have been repeatedly shown to be wildly unpopular, and yet which still keep resurfacing - you can certainly find more on Boing Boing). It's not a must-read, by any stretch, but is a entertaining look into this topic from a YA perspective. 

Next, we have the phenomenal Fahrenheit 451, probably Ray Bradbury's most famous work. Now this is something I feel that everyone should read. Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopian world where books are banned, the population is kept disinterested and desiccated through easily-digestible and trite, meaningless television broadcasts and driving their cars really fast. Houses are fireproofed, so now the job of the 'firemen' is to go and burn books where they are reported, and ensure that those who are found to have them are dealt with. 

The story follows the fireman Guy Montag in his awakening into the real horrific nature of the world around him. The whole narrative burns with passion - throwing the rage of someone waking up to the truth of their situation against the sterile, processed world. At its heart, it is a love story to books and libraries, and a cautionary tale of the world we might expect if we give in to censorship, but there's so much more to it than that. It's not just some broad allegory warning 'there but for the grace of God go we' - it's the painful journey of one man in an impossible world. As with 1984, we see the world through the eyes of one, solitary figure and feel their pain, which makes the impact of the world so much more striking.

I saw the 1966 film version of Fahrenheit 451 some years ago. I don't remember much of it, but I still think it's worth checking out. While reading the book, I couldn't tell whether there were some big differences between the two, or whether I was just misremembering - it seems it was the former, and that efforts were made by the director to soften some of the punches of the book. Looking back, I think it strips out some of the most interesting elements of the book, but is telling partly a different story (which Bradbury seems to have been on board with). 

If you haven't read Fahrenheit 451, I would highly recommend it. It's not a long read, and is powerful and illuminating. 

Look out for another gaming blog post on Monday, and more book write-ups when I get the chance. Until next time...