Books I have read in 2019

Below is a list of some of the books I have read during 2019. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of them in the comments section:

This is quite hard sci fi, but the journey to and colonisation of a world orbiting the nearby star Proxima always had the potential to be a complex scientific affair. An interesting read for fans of the genre:

A story of the ancient demi god who defied her father the sun and was banished to an island where she meets many a Greek hero, not least amongst them Odysseys:

Poker is not really my game, but this is an accessible memoir which happens to be about the game. Written by the star of the BBC game show Only Connect, I highly recommend this biography:

I re-read this one and continue to be shocked no one has managed to make a film version of this novel which is so cinematic in scope and ripe for transformation to the screen. Great novel, one of my fav sci fi books of all time:

A more user friendly story about colonising a planet around a nearby star, and a debut from a lady with a bright future in writing:

The only water in the forest is the river

Professor River Song is among the best characters ever to grace Doctor Who.
My brother complains she is essentially a renamed Bernice Summerfield from the spin off books from the 1990s . But the on screen coup of getting Alex Kingston to play a recurring character in the series cannot be underplayed.
From her first appearence in the Library she was a force to be reckoned with. The constant use of wibbly wobbly timely wimey to show what would really happen to time travellers who cannot possibly meet in the right order.  River’s last chronological lines before she dies are that through everything they have been through he has always known how she is going to die. At that point she is basically a stranger to the 10th Doctor.
The 11th Doctor then slowly gets to learn more about her as they meet again and again all the while more mystery being revealed as we discover who River is and how she fits in to the lives of the 11th Doctor’s other friends.
The way she gets to know more than the Doctor is a refreshing change for a show which has run, with a break, since 1963. Previously the only characters who have got anywhere near him have been other timelords.
Her entrance into the 11th Doctor’s life involves some pretty awesome shoes followed by psychic lipstick and a cameo from Mike Skinner of The Streets fame.
The Weeping Angels, one of the best baddies of modern Who play second fiddle to her.
The juxtaposition of transformation is one of the funniest elements of the show in recent years. The Doctor doesn’t recognise himself when Prisoner Zero takes on his form, but the first thing River does is find a mirror.
Rule number one is the Doctor lies, which River oft repeats. But she is a liar too and this is clear when she sees Amy just after she has defeated the Weeping Angels, but much later on in Amy’s timeline.
The definitive moment of River Song is when facing a dalek in the pandorica story, where the dalek predicts she will let it live and she says: “I’m professor River Song, look me up.” It’s response after looking her up sums up why River is so unique in Doctor Who.

50 years of the little blue phone box

Today the BBC is celebrating 50 years of Dr Who (no one is dwelling on the decade and half (ish) when they did not make the show for TV (aside from the under rated US pilot).

Why has the show endured for so long, especially during that TV show blank period (altho I understand the continuation books flew of the shelves during this era). There are countless audio books available and fan sites, blogs and the British tabloids go properly nuts for any snippet of Dr Who news.

But why is this the case?

Well, certainly domestically, the Doctor is very British. An eccentric, intelligent gentleman (so far – am personally very pro a female Doctor as that would be within the (modern) show’s ethos of refreshing itself). There is a bit of Sherlock Holmes in there and as quoted in the BBC dramatisation of the genesis of the Doctor a bit of HG Wells, CS Lewis and father Christmas. British quirkie-ness, British geekie-ness (before the term geek probably existed).

Outside of the UK, why has the Doctor endured? Well in the US he is so that lone hero character so popular in Westerns and beyond: think Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy, Batman or Superman or the Lone Ranger. Even Buffy – which I remember reading somewhere the 2005 return was particularly influenced by, in terms of the companion element of the narrative. Buffy was that lone hero who had friends, but walked a path they could not ever fully understand. The Doctor walks a path like that too.

And what has contributed most to the longevity of the Doctor on TV? The genius idea of regeneration – or what to do with your TV show when the star wants out. This sci fi way of dealing with the problem is completely genius and works so well within the narrative universe of the Timelords. This also gives the producers a way of refreshing the show every so often and, in theory at least*, allowing it to go on and on. What is not to like: a little blue phone box; new Doctors every now and then; endless new companions; adventures across all of time and space.

 

* There is that lingering plot device about the Master being on his last regeneration (13th, if memory serves) but I am sure some genius already has that covered (spoilers alert) – I expect River Song gave him all of hers when she saved his life that time, or maybe he has all of the Timelords regenerations ever, assuming it was he who wiped them out during the Time War.

 

Did you ever watch Blake’s Seven?

Did you ever watch Blake’s Seven – either when it was first broadcast or on video / DVD / download/ whatever.

I  was quite young when it was broadcast in the late 70s / early 80s, but one of my earliest memories is of my older sister loving / talking about / drawing images from the show Blake’s Seven.

I remember watching parts of the last series in the 80s and especially the shock ending of the show.

During the late 90s I watched most of the show on video (my sister owned them) and it was then I really GOT it.

Terry Nation (inventor of the Daleks) created the show and one of the key ideas what that these people were more real than anyone else in TV sci fi ever had been before. These characters had faults, were sometimes morally ambiguous and would not always make the right decision based on doing something which was right, but didn’t benefit them. They were pragmatic.

TV sci fi before then had been very black and white in terms of you were either completely good or completely bad. Star Trek so far was all about that – as was Dr Who (altho interestingly, Dr Who has had a slight edge at certain periods since then – Sylvester McCoy‘s Doctor always had a very dark side).

If you look at TV sci fi since then – Farscape, re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Firefly – or many others, they have that edge. And in my opinion this is down to Blake’s Seven.

If you haven’t seen it before take a look (but please forgive the 1970s BBC special effects).

Is this iPad book the future of publishing?

With thanks to my old friend Dave for pointing this out to me.

If you go forward to around 2 hours 50 mins there is a piece about the author David Eagleman.

(This is a link to a BBC radio programme, so will disappear after a week unfortunately,  see my earlier comments on broadcasters approach to having their back catalogue online).

This author has published an iPad book which has lots of graphs / images and can be read from any chapter (he speaks of a Random Access Chapter device, which I assume is named to remind us of how RAM works). The book sounds like the kind of future I have been talking about for publishing, and in fact probably goes further than I have thought – the chapters can and will be updated as time goes on to ensure they remain relevant.

He also talks about the importance of sources for his work and highlights the use of hyperlinks to confirm what he is saying (which is exactly what bloggers do all the time, so I am not too surprised by this).

The interview is not a great one – would a BBC interviewer have asked any other author a question about how readers can trust what is being said in this new format – just the sort of material which will be replayed in half a century and people will laugh at how stupid the questions were as all books are made that way in 2060.

This blog is about the influence on publishing of what David Eagleman has done – you may also want to have a look at his website and get the book (Why The Net Matters: How the Internet Will Save Civilization) as the topic itself is quite interesting to (may blog about it once I have had a good look at what he says)

Big Women – 4OD

4OD is probably one of my fav things in the entire world.

Everything Channel 4 (in the UK) has ever made is stored here and is accessible to stream to your PC.

Which is great, as the channel is owned by the government and therefore the citizens of the UK and we can watch what we have already paid for (and paid for again, as unlike the BBC, this channel sells advertising space as well) whenever we like.

As opposed to the BBC iPlayer system which only allows you to view things shown on one of its channels in the last week (or broadcast on its national radio networks). Which is fine for catch up, but not good for discovering hidden gems.

Something I found, watched and enjoyed the other day was Big Women, a four-part series about a woman’s publishing house, set up to promote feminist issues in the 1970s.

Great drama, great cast (including Daniela Nardini – who originally came to my attention in the BBCs amazing This Life series, which I loved watching while living in London while at uni) and a great service from Channel 4.

I found it interesting as drama and as a historical piece about the publishing industry.

Download free Doctor Who PC games

I am a fan of Doctor Who. It is sci fi, so no real surprise there.

The BBC is giving away PC games featuring the latest Doctor and his assistant Amy Pond.

The games are pretty good fun and can be downloaded for free here.

BBC on robots

There is an interesting story on the BBC website about the use of robots.

And a film on the subject as part of this evenings (West) regional Inside Out show at 7.30pm on BBC 1.

Might make interesting viewing if you are interested in either robots or social services.

 

Animal Kingdom

I’ll let you in to a little secret.

I quite like Aussie cinema.

I know, I must be a bit of a weirdo.

But BMX Bikers, Emerald City are all a bit of fun (both feature the early career of a certain Nicole Kidman) – Picnic at Hanging Rock and Walkabout are a bit surreal and could do with a re-imagining, but are still pretty good movies all told.

Muriel’s Wedding is strangely lovely (and I still go thru phases of saying: “you’re terrible Muriel”) and Priscilla Queen of the Desert has some awesome cinematography in it.

Sample People is pretty good too, an ensemble melodrama, this time set in the Sydney club scene. And Kylie in a red wig somehow works for me.

While Strange Planet, despite being an (again) ensemble melodrama, is one of my top 10 movies of all time.

And one that has come out this year I’m really hoping to catch at some point – probably on DVD is Animal kingdom.

Nick Bryant, one of my fav bloggers wrote a column about it earlier this year (before his column got dominated by the Aussie election).

So check out Animal Kingdom (and maybe some of the others). When I get to see it I’ll post something about on this blog.

Why do I like Aussie cinema? I think because a lot of the time you get good movies but without all the Hollywood schmaltz.

Digital media v “real” books

One of the biggest concerns in publishing at the moment is what effect the rise of digital media will have on physical books.

I have been advocating for some time that the most pronounced change will be a reduction in paper back sales as the sale of digital books rise. But this will be coupled with a rise in the sale of quality hardbacks. The theory being that if you read a reasonably priced digital book (US $1.99 or so) and really, really love it, you will buy a high end quality real  book to have in your house.

An article about Oprah and books on the BBC website tends to back this up:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11260600

Particularly the paragraph:

“One of the early titles she recommended, from the back list of a well-known author, was only available in paperback. Oprah expressed the view strongly on her show that the work ought to be made available in an inexpensive hardback, since that was what her audience wanted – a book to keep.”

The real issue I have so far with the change to digital books is that from what I can tell the publishers are reluctent to reduce the cost of the work.

For example Tony Blair’s autobiography (apparently the quickest selling such book since records began) is priced £12.50 on Amazon hardback and £6.99 as a download to your Kindle:

This Amazon link also says the rrp for both hardback and digital is £25.00 – 25 quid for the hardback OR the digital file!

As I recall CD singles used to cost £1.99 – £3.99 whereas Apple pretty much destroyed the concept with iTunes selling the digital versions for under a quid.

I have a feeling publishers will need to adapt to this kind of paradigm shift in their business in order to survive the shift to digital.