Books I read in 2023

Fevre Dream by George RR Martin – Sublime vampire tale set in the world of 19th century USA riverboats.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu – Lots of hype surrounded this superb sci fi book, almost all of which was deserved.

A Ship of the Line by CS Forester – Reasonable adventure story, there are many others in the series but somehow don’t care enough about the characters to be chomping at the idea of reading more.

The Fall by Albert Camus – Existential classic. Re-read this one every now and then and see something different every time. When I first read it in my teens I thought it was a design for life. I now see it as a horror story of how life can go awry.

The Expanse novels 3- 6 by James S A Corey – Absolutely amazing hard sci-fi series. Am already feeling sorry that one day I’ll not have any new parts of the cycle left to read.

The Moon and Sixpence by W Somerset Maugham – Another novel I first read in my teens, which comes with a different inflection when read in later life. Loved it in a whole new way to how teenaged me had.

The Shards by Brett Easton Ellis – A return to form for one of the most important novelists in modern America. In writing about his possibly embellished last year at high school Ellis shows us the darkness behind the glossy American dream and explores the nature of truth,

The Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St John Mandel – A novel about time travel and pandemics. Beautifully written and spanning centuries, this is a delightful book.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – Weir returns to what he does best and shows us some hard sci fi with the sardonic voice which made his name.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins – People seem to not believe me when I tell them this book is better than any one of the Hunger Games novels – the few that picked up a copy and read it have told me they now agree. A prequel you could think of as President Snow’s school days…

Truth be Told by Kia Abdullah – Great premise. But what should have been a thrilling suspense novel didn’t carry me along as I had expected it would. That said, the ending contained a couple of twists, one I was not surprised about, while the other was so sublime that, had this novel been the page turner it should of been, I might have opened the first page and started to re-read the minute I had finished the last to see if I could spot the clues.

I recently finished the latest novel from Brett Easton Ellis

Reading Brett’s work is not for the faint-hearted – his seminal work “American Psycho” is one of the most important pieces of literature of the late 20th century.

But as anyone who has read that novel, or seen the film, knows it is complicated and controversial (I am at least a little biased as I wrote my dissertation on “American Psycho”).

“The Shards” is a sort of fictionalised (or is it?) depiction of Brett’s final year at high school in LA, the year before the events he wrote about in his debut “Less than Zero“.

He is young, rich, attends an exclusive private school and is just one year away from leaving for college. This should be the best year of his young life.

But what happens to him and his social circle that year are not what anyone expected.

In nearly 600 pages Brett explores what it is like to be young when things are not happening how you wanted them to.

If you like your contemporary fiction to ask questions about morality, the nature of truth and be pretty dark and nilhilistic, then I would highly recommend “The Shards” to you.

(If that is not how you like your fiction, avoid this book.)

10 books I read in 2022

Animal by Lisa Taddeo – This has one of the best openings for a novel which I have read in a long, long time. From that shocking scene a narrative of modern American life unfolds. This includes a view on modern feminism which shows there is more to be done to achieve true equality.

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett – You know what you are going to get with Pratchett, an easily accessible text, full of humour, with the odd piece of astounding insight thrown in. Love the side story about over promotion of certain people. I found myself in a bit of reading cul de sac – nothing I picked up was really doing it for me – so I picked up a Pratchett and eased myself gently back into reading.

This Book Will Save Your Life by A M Homes – just so lovely from start to finish. The story of a man who has almost no human contact at the start of the book, but is pulled back into the world by damage to his house, the imminent arrival of his seldom seen kid and his friendship with the owner of a doughnut shop. Delightful.

On The Flip Side by Nicholas Fisk – A book I read multiple times in Junior School. I was absolutely fascinated by the idea that if things got too bad here, you could – by will of your mind – just decide to flip to another place. It is a booked aimed at 10-year-olds, so some of the characters aren’t fully fleshed out, but it is a great concept and if you have a 10yo who is interested in speculative fiction, I’d highly recommend this novel.

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham – Cards laid on the table, I have never read a Wyndham novel I didn’t love. This is no exception. He finds an odd occurrence and leads you to the logical conclusion of that strange happening. In this case aliens moving in to the depths of the Earth’s oceans. Mankind is none too welcoming and a weird ‘war’ is fought, the logical conclusion of which is terrifying for humanity. As well as the high end speculative fiction, Wyndham also covers the inner workings of the media as well as not meddling in other people’s relationships. He was a genius.

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton – Alien viruses are always en vouge when it comes to sci-fi tales. Crichton is a great writer and the story carries you along from the first encounter through to the scientists battling the virus in a secret underground research station. This is the same mind which would later bring us Jurassic Park. He explains scientific concepts in an accessible way, allowing difficult concepts to be the premise of his work. Like his later work, and indeed the works of Wyndham I discuss above, Crichton takes a “what if..” concept and explains to you exactly how such a thing would go down if it ever came to pass.

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov – Another instalment of one of the father’s of Sci-Fi’s Foundation collection. This time the Foundation comes into direct conflict with what remains of the once mighty galactic empire. Some of the concepts are dated, but the overall thrust of mankind expanding his reach across the galaxy, but like ancient Rome, that might one day fade – still resonates.

Pompeii by Robert Harris – The beautifully told tale of the new aqueduct manager who faces a number of mysteries in the days leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius. Of course, at the time, no one knew the volcano was about to erupt – so the blockage of the aqueduct is a surprise to all citizens. But this is not the only mystery the protagonist faces. Harris has form for making ancient Rome accessible via his Cicero trilogy

Leviathan Awakes by James S A Corey – The first of the Expanse cycle of novels starts at break neck speed, which doesn’t really slow to the last page. A turbo charged piece of sci-fi – breathtakingly good.

The Soft Talkers by Margaret Millar – I’d never heard of Millar before this novel came my way, which is a shame as she is an outstanding writer. The narrative chuggs along at the required steady pace, while Millar weaves a web of possibilities, that despite putting a lot of thought into what could have possibly happened, none of my guesses were even close to what the true reveal at the conclusion showed us to be the Answer to the puzzle.

Today is Blue Monday, made up to sell holidays, but a good reason to talk about mental health

Today is the third Monday of January, dubbed “Blue Monday” so the legend goes by a holiday company trying to give people a reason to book their summer holidays.

The claim went it is cold, dark, yet another Monday and still not pay day in the stretched month after Christmas; which makes it the unhappiest day of the year.

Whether or not there is any real evidence for this, lots of people identified with the idea of feeling down during January, for these exact reasons.

So the day caught on.

While it is not backed by any evidence as far as I know, I think it is a good opportunity to think about mental health and give the all important message, if you are feeling down, feeling like you can’t cope – the most important thing to do is find someone you trust to talk to.

And if you feel OK, maybe reach out to some of your friends and check they are OK?

10 books I read in 2021

Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Received as a gift this book which I probably would not have selected for myself. Turns out to be a good read covering an area of science I am not usually concerned about. But learning about how brains work on a different evolutionary path turned out to be a fascinating adventure. Looking at octopuses in a whole new way now.

Agency by William Gibson

A not quite sequel to his previous book about time shifting parallel worlds. This is a good ensemble story where you manage to care about protagonists across the different parallels while Gibson maintains a narrative which doesn’t get lost in its own complexities.

The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davison and Lord William Reese Mogg

I remember picking up a copy of this in a book shop in the late 1990s and being really tempted to buy it. But at the time I didn’t want to give money to the Rees-Mogg clan (they are not my kind of people) so Iput the book down and carried on with my life. Having learnt the important life lesson that people I don’t like can still be right, I finally picked up this book and can honestly say I wish I’d stumped up the cash back in the day as it is a really important piece of non-fiction, which has described a lot of what has come to pass in the intervening years. The first half is especially vital, the second half theorises a world of smaller nation states which, if this is to come, I don’t yet see the direction of travel in our world, yet.

The Pursuit of William Abby by Claire North

This novel is gripping from the first page to the last. The concept is genius and the execution of the narrative is wonderful. At times heart breaking, but always exciting and definitely a page turner.

The last two of the Hunger games trilogy by – Suzanne Collins ( Mockingjay and Catching Fire)

Sometimes you just gotta believe the hype. These are riveting reads and have emotional highs and lows, particularly in that last 100 pages. While aimed at teenagers, I would recommend anyone who likes sci-fi or adventure novels should read the trilogy. The final book follows a different tack to the first two, but it doesn’t feel like you have strayed outside the logical narrative of the books.

The Rampart Trilogy by MR Carey (The Fall of Koli, The Trials of Koli and The Book of Koli)

Look. Basically stop whatever you are doing and go and read these books. It takes a bit longer than I’d have liked to get into the story in the first book, but once you get into this vision of post apocalyptic Britain you won’t want to stop till you have reached the last page. There is a sequence in the last book which is on a par with some of the breathtakingly widescreen set pieces in the late Iain M Banks’ Culture novels, which is probably amongst the highest praise I can think to give any novel.

If you haven’t read the Girl With all the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge by this author, again, stop everything and seek them out.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

A classic of the genre which I had never read before (somehow!). Great concept, which you would expect from one of the all-time sci-fi masters. Galaxy spanning epic which in so many ways has laid the foundation (pun intended) for the sci-fi which came after it, from Dune to the Culture.

You always need to know where your towel is – especially today as it is #TowelDay

So today we celebrate #TowelDay which remembers the genius of Douglas Adams, author of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy – the extremely named trilogy which is available in all good books shops, in all of its five parts.

While Adams is most remembered for Hitch Hikers, he also wrote the Dirk Gently novels as well as quite a bit of Dr Who in its 1970s Tom Baker heyday.

If you are not familiar with his work I would highly recommend you read some as soon as you can.

There is a film version of Hitch Hikers, which is worth a watch, but the BBC TV show is somehow far superior, despite being 40 years old.

You will then learn how important it is to know where your towel is at all times.

Celebrating the annual joy which is #StarWars Day thinking about the non core movies so far…

Today is the annual Star Wars Day, celebrated by geeks like me, who think it is hilarious today is May the Fourth – because it sounds like the start of the Star Wars line “May the force be with you,”.

So I am pondering the legacy of the sale of the franchise rights by its creator George Lucas. Warning – SPOILERS ahead.

When Disney purchased the rights to Star Wars, I was not sure if this was the bargain of the century or a massive overpayment for a much loved – but old and well watched already – set of film rights.

Looking at the kind of money they have made from the five movies they have pushed out since that acquisition, I think they probably did get a bargain.

The final three films in the nine sequence core Star Wars movies, referred to as the Skywalker cycle (incorrectly in my opinion, as they are very much the Palpatine chronicles, as he it turns out, is somehow the ever present evil) have made a bucket load of money and shown us the death of Luke, Leia and most poignantly, Han Solo.

Whether or not you find them satisfying ends to the saga or not, they are the official conclusion. It may not be the best praise, but they are superior in many ways to the prequal trilogy, so we have that at least.

While Disney will have achieved one of its goals by concluding the nine movies Lucas had promised, yet never quite got round to delivering, the legacy they have created it best seen outside of these core movies.

Rogue One is an amazing film – the movie of the 11 released so far I love the best – yes, even more than a New Hope and Return of the Jedi (the first film I vividly remember seeing at the cinema way back in 1983). I was never much of a fan of Empire Strikes Back, which perhaps will get discussed in a blog post another time.

The start of Rogue One is so different from everything which went before – the rules are completely different in the non core movies (see also the conventions between Doctor Who characters and those in its spin off, Torchwood, which again I may blog about in detail another time).

There is no set of words scrolling through space, so hilariously and famously lampooned by Space Balls.

The Imperial Commander at the start of the movie is properly evil, having Jyn Erso, the main character’s, mother shot within moments of the film kicking off. turns out storm troopers can occasionally hit their target.

The other hero of the movie, Cassian Andor, within minutes of appearing on screen has killed the man passing him information. A much more pragmatic approach to the reality of rebellion against the empire.

Speaking of which, the Rebellion is not one big happy group fighting imperial rule, but a splintered set of factions, seemingly akin to Monty Python’s People’s Front of Judea and Judean People’s front. Except not so funny.

Rogue One shows us a much more real war than the nine movie cycle did. Here the battles are not glorious as portrayed in the main cycle, heroes make poor decisions and kill their allies in order not to get caught themselves.

The other thing Rogue One does is it closes a massive plot issue which had existed since the 1977 opener – why is the Death Star so easy to destroy?

The whole movie’s premise is to explain that one away – and it does so successfully, which is to say believably.

As for the ending – sublime, doing things no Star Wars movie before even contemplated and that cameo from Darth Vader is worth the admission price alone.

Then there is the Solo movie, which has had some criticism. While not as complete a movie as Rogue One, I felt a lot of the criticism of Solo was unfair.

Again this movie attempts, these two films are like Disney’s Sam Beckett of Quantum leap, to put right what once went wrong all the way back in that classic first movie.

Th Kessel Run in 12 parsecs – if you haven’t seen the Family Guy take down of this scene, then go find it as Peter Griffin absolutely destroys this concept.

What Peter decimates, Disney has rebuilt into a firm concept explaining how a 12 parsec Kessel Run was totally an achievement.

What I have always assumed was a misunderstanding of a concept in the first movie’s script is now a solid gold reason to show us the origin story of Han.

The film gives us an understanding of why Han knows shooting first keeps you alive – another important element of the original film.

I suspect the subtext in the movie is also showing us the concept many have believed that Han takes care of Chewbacca kind of like a pet is not the case and the reverse is true. The long-lived Chewie is keeping Han safe as his pet is very much what the film suggests to me at least.

So I think the Disney purchase of Star Wars has been both a giant commercial success, but also, particularly in the add on movies, a story-telling success too.

We hear the next film may well be an exploration of what Obi Wan Kenobi did between Episode III and IV. Time will tell how this pans out.

An honourable mention should go out to The Mandalorian. While a TV series, rather than a movie, Disney have extended the Star Wars universe in a thoughtful – and faithful way – with this show.

To date I have only seen the first series, which I enjoyed for the most part. It certainly feels like it is building to something. My understanding from those who have seen season two, is this show gets better and better.

The launch of Disney+ has, to my mind, cemented the strategic use Disney have in mind for the Star Wars brand. It sits alongside it’s Marvel and Pixar universes as a pillar of the modern Disney offering.

A further note about COVID-19

I mentioned in my previous post about COVID-19 how a senior guy in London was holding a hastily arranged conference call with teams across the country to rally the troops way back at the start of the pandemic.

Since then, the same guy now holds monthly sessions for everyone to call in to.

But now they are held using Microsoft Teams and are slickly produced affairs – he even has a set which he now narrowcasts to us from.

A vast improvement on that initial conference call.

As I said in the previous post about COVID-19, it has heralded positive change in many areas of our lives.

Reflections on a year of COVID19 – a time which has changed all our lives

A little over 12 months ago when we were teetering on the brink of a national lockdown here in the UK.

We had no idea exactly how bad this new disease was, how contagious and if any of us might be naturally immune.

While other people were out panic buying toilet roll and food for next week and the week after, I went to the supermarket and purchased seeds and a solar charger for my phone. On the way home I made sure to fill up the car with petrol.

I came home and thought about where I would plant my seeds, whether I had enough plastic boxes and trugs to collect enough rainwater for drinking and where in the garden we would dig the hole for the latrine waste.

These were the practicalities I thought were needed in case the worst really did happen.

I do not and never have viewed myself as one of those survivalists, preparing for what they see as the inevitable apocalypse.

But I have read and watched enough science fiction about extinction level events to have an idea what I needed to do to survive the early days of such an event.

So I planned for that.

Just prior to the announcement of an unprecedented (that word was certainly the one which we heard a lot in that early period) national lockdown we had a hastily set up call with someone very high up in London.

This was a conference call on a massive scale, with the poor guy trying to rally the troops, while at the same time, due to how the call was set up, not being able to hear any of us as we were all muted, so self doubt crept into his voice at times when he mused if he was talking to himself or if we were there listening (we were).

While he urged us to keep a brave face and that we’d get through this, he sounded, to my imagination at least, like a man deciding if it was time to leave the office and head home to one assumes his family, wondering if he might ever return to the city.

Strange times for so many of us.

My work quickly switched to being remote, particularly when the national lockdown was finally (and it has been argued, belatedly) announced.

I set up my laptop on the dining room table and we started using this thing called Microsoft Teams, a function which apparently had been on my laptop all along, but had never been used and despite viewing myself as slightly more tech savvie than the average person, I had never heard of.

I fully expected to see the number of people on the video screen dwindle over time until the two or three of us left on the calls we all just realised everything had fallen apart and it was time to put our end of days plan into action.

The days turned into weeks and then it seemed the apocalypse was not upon us.

While COVID-19 was pretty bad for some people who caught it – deadly in fact – for the most part the actions taken to spread its halt seemed to be effective.

Our healthcare system didn’t become overwhelmed and the supermarkets remained open, the power and water stayed on and the sewage left our homes as normal.

But everything changed.

We stopped commuting. We found alternate ways to socialise through technology. Schools set up effective remote learning systems. I have been to the office I used to attend daily, perhaps half a dozen times in 12 months.

A friend of mine, in an instant message told me he has filled up his car with petrol twice in 12 months. I fill mine up about once a month now, as I do the school runs and my children attend schools several miles away from the house.

I moved my laptop from the dining room into the box room, which has now become my office. I am growing garlic and spinich and spring onions in my office in reused plastic pots that once contained porridge (I am all about the recycling).

I was already a big user of Amazon and Ebay for purchasing and what we have seen is this change has accelerated.

Pretty much anything I want to buy can be delivered to my door.

What I think has really happened during this year of forced change is existing trends have been accelerated.

Remote working was possible – indeed I used to work remotely once a week. I took my laptop home, had no meetings and had an immensely productive day.

Now my meetings happen every day from home, so I am back to being as productive as I used to be in the office when meetings and colleagues interrupting to ask questions diverted me all the time.

Remote shopping existed before, as did lots of food delivery services. Lockdown has accelerated their use.

Supermarkets and online shopping were eating away at smaller, local businesses and those businesses being closed while their larger rivals stayed open, will only have accelerated this.

Companies which used to be giants of the High Street are going to the wall on what feels like a weekly basis.

Shopping will never be the same again.

Pubs were already being shut as unviable and I am sure the extent that will have accelerated during this period has not yet fully been seen yet.

The Government found enough money to pay everyone who needed it a Basic Income (furlough) – I will come back to this in detail in its own post.

The trends of the 21st century were sped up and things which would have happened eventually happened extremely quickly.

When historians look back at this period, it will be that reflection of accelerated existing trends which they will focus on, I believe.

What will come from this period will be looked back on as the true start of the 21st century – of what we who live here now, call the modern era.

We will refer to this period in the same way the entire second half of the 20th century (and from a historical period perspective that will extend to 2019) was looked upon in terms of being post World War Two as its defining historical moment.

Apologies for the delay in service – getting back to blogging more regularly (I promise!)

Been a weird time for everyone lately and I have not added to my blog in over a year.

I can only apologise and lament the early days when I posted every week and sometimes (often) twice each week.

I can’t promise a return to that level of output, but I do intend to post much more often than I have been,