Let me start that I really enjoyed Stephen Baxter’s Flood. It’s a ripping yarn, well told by an author who, it seems to me, has reached a new level with his writing. I think Flood might be in the top five of my favourite Baxter novels. It is one of his most accomplshed.

Posted June 29, 2009 Comments(0)

It appears that this blog isn’t being displayed properly in Internet Explorer. I believe this is one because of one of the (many, many, many) glitches that appear to have been introduced into Wordpress with the release of version 2.8. I’ll try and fix it, but this leads me to offer two pieces of advice.

1. If you have a Wordpress blog DON’T UPGRADE TO 2.8 – it’s an utter dog. What use, for example, is blogging software that won’t let you type in text unless you install a plug-in text editor?

2. Don’t use Internet Explorer. But hey, that’s just common sense.

Posted June 27, 2009 Comments(0)

Call me an idiot – you won’t be the first – but it wasn’t until half way through China Mieville’s The City and The City that I realised I’d grown up in Beszel/Ul Qoma.

Posted June 27, 2009 Comments(1)

For my fort-cough-ieth birthday I demanded (well, suggested that I would prefer) to receive cash, not presents and I bundled it all together and added some more of my own and bought myself a 42 inch Sony flatscreen television. Then I went to the Sky website and ordered a high-definition box.

Seven weeks later the Sky engineer finally arrived.

This week most of my free time has been taken up flicking between HD and standard-definition channels showing the same programmes and going, “Wow! You really can see the difference.”

Pirates of the Carribbean 3 doesn’t suddenly become a better movie when you can see every CGI-ed barnacle and nail on the hull of The Black Pearl – sadly – but (at least at the moment) there’s something fascinating about being able to immerse yourself in the detail of every splash of water. Explosions take on a whole new dimension. Even cricket, at high definition, becomes momentarily interesting as new details emerge (although that may also be the novelty of watching the Irish out-perform Australia).

And I’ve also discovered an important new equation.

HD plus slo-mo plus explosion equals Michael Bay nirvana.

All this obsessing over extraneous detail reached something of a nadir last night when I found myself transfixed by how orange the Dutch shirts were during the highlights of Holland versus Chile semi-final of the Toulon Tournament (for under 20s) on Eurosport HD.

There are moments, though, when things really pop from the screen in a way that I’ve only previously experienced in really good cinemas where the projectionist gives a damn about his job and has the technology to get it right. And those moments are, for someone who loves movies like I do, are definitely worth the price of admission.

Now I have to buy a high definition DVD player. And probably some decent speakers. And some sort of media streaming device. And a new sofa…

Thank goodness the recession is over.

Posted June 11, 2009 Comments(0)

Here is a story I like.

It’s a story I’ve spent quite a bit of time on, over the years. It’s even a story I’ve sold - twice – only to see the magazines that accepted it both shut before the story ever saw the light of day (so if this blog mysteriously goes tits-up in the next few days, perhaps the story is to blame). Its done the rounds of publishers, many of whom have been nice about it but none of whom want to print it. Perhaps they were just being nice. But then again, it’s probably not quite fantastical enough to fit most of the markets I’m trying to sell. Plus it features Nazis, and that seems to be enough to put some publishers off. Which, I suppose, is their perogative.

So, rather than leaving it rotting on my hard drive, unseen, I thought I’d offer it up to you, dear readers, for nothing. Free. Gratis.

I should say that while Marcus is a fictional character, IBM really did supply the Germans technology throughout most of WW2 – through a Swiss subsidiary – and the census data was eventually used to round up undesirables. The story was inspired by a Edwin Black’s fascinating IBM and the Holocaust. I have no idea if Albert Speer knew anything about the IBM Hollerith machines but he could have and the excerpts from Speer’s final address at Nuremburg are his own words, though I’ve juggled the order of the paragraphs for effect.

Feedback would be nice. Otherwise, enjoy.

The full text is after the break, or you can download it in MS Word (be_aware.doc) or pdf versions (be_aware.pdf). Read more »

Posted June 5, 2009 Comments(0)

Very briefly.

You know what really pisses off ordinary members of the Labour Party? It’s having spent the best part of 20 years being told we mustn’t rock the boat, we mustn’t challenge the leadership, we must always be loyal, and we must never allow the press to allow us to appear split. Because divided parties are doomed. Aren’t they?

And then, after we made years of sacrifices waiting for you milksops to deliver, we get to spend the last three or four years watching one Blairite arsewipe after another publicly indulge their plotting, hissy-fits and whining.

Piss off, the lot of you, and don’t the door hit your arse on the way out.

Posted June 5, 2009 Comments(2)

So today I was working from home and I was listening to a new CD - “… and all the pieces matter” (which is music from the TV show The Wire).

Don’t panic! I’m not going to turn into one of those people who nags you incessently about how good The Wire is. To be honest I started watching the first season casually recently when the BBC started showing it every night and wasn’t that impressed. But I stuck with it and when the second season ended I suddenly realised that I’d been organising my life around making sure I was watching. Still, if you haven’t got into it by now, I’m not here to convince you. This post is actually about music. Read more »

Posted June 5, 2009 Comments(1)

If there were no other reason to like No Heroics the fact that it was the first attempt by ITV2 to produce an original comedy show would be enough to rouse a cheer. But, thankfully, it also turned out to be a rather good .

Situation comedies are tricky things and often the struggle to establish themselves in their first season as writers, audiences and performers come to terms with the format, relationships and voice of the show. Some sitcoms spring perfectly formed from their creators’ brains – Fawlty Towers, The Office, The Thick of It – but others struggle to be born before hitting their full stride – Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, Men Behaving Badly.

So the fact that the first season of No Heroics stands up pretty well to a second viewing is a considerable success. Read more »

Posted June 2, 2009 Comments(0)

There is no point mincing my words. As a work of fiction, Bernard Beckett’s Genesis is a bit of a disaster. While there are interesting philosophical points raised, Beckett has made the fundamental mistake of forgetting that the first task of a novelist is to engage and entertain. If instruction is the author’s goal – and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with that aim – then it should emerge from the plot and characters. Genesis is too didactic. Beckett is too determined to teach us a lesson – even to the point that the story is told through the framing device of a viva voce examination.

Read more »

Posted June 2, 2009 Comments(0)