Monthly Archives: May 2009

METAtropolis by John Scalzi (2009)The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (2004) A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (1992) Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with … Continue reading →

Non-fiction: 10 (YTD 36)          Shakespeare: 4 (YTD 18)    Fiction (non-sf): 6 (YTD 22)      SF (non-Who, including Apuleius): 9 (YTD 36)         Who: 2 (YTD 14)  Comics: 2 (YTD 6)  11 (YTD 28/132) by women (Nafisi, Tocci, Mendlesohn, David, Oswald, 3x Wilson, Jenkins, Spencer, Rowling) 2 … Continue reading →

Browsing through LibraryThing one day, I noted that Beverly Jenkins, of whom I had not heard, was one of the highest rated authors by the owners of her books – not many, but enough to reassure me that this was … Continue reading →

I’ve read a certain amount of Michael Moorcock, but until now no Elric, so have filled that gap in my knowledge of sff classics. This is the Fantasy Masterworks edition which brings together The Stealer of Souls and Stormbringer, which … Continue reading →

Over the last few weeks I’ve been listening to the BBC’s 1981 audio version of The Lord of the Rings, having run out of Who audios to listen to. It is very very good, and I strongly recommend it. Ian … Continue reading →

Long, long before Torchwood or the Sarah Jane Adventures, the BBC made a pilot for a possible spinoff series, K9 and Company, which lasted for precisely one 50-minute episode in December 1981. The novelisation, by Terence Dudley who also wrote … Continue reading →

ukpollingreport.co.uk » Northern Ireland European Best guide so far to NI European election – look esp at comment from Sammy Morse! (tags: northernireland) Asking the Wrong Questions: The 2009 Hugo Awards: The Novella Shortlist Abigail looks at the nominees (tags: … Continue reading →

This is the second of last year’s Who stories to make the Hugo shortlist (the other being Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead). I wasn’t overwhelmed with it myself on first watching, but liked it a bit … Continue reading →

Well, I’ve done the page for next week’s elections on my website. This is probably the most interesting European election in Northern Ireland since 1979 (though that is not saying much). Given the strength of their respective parties in recent … Continue reading →

EU Leadership or Losership? | Oxfam International Oxfam on the EU and climate change (tags: eu climatechange)

Short stories mostly set in twentieth-century Mississippi but some also in Rome. Didn’t grab me and I stopped reading at the half-way mark.

Triggered by a business email I just sent and by various musings on my f-list: I really hate people signing off emails or messages “With kind regards”. It’s not up to me to describe myself as being kind, it’s up … Continue reading →

…for putting into my office letterbox their well-argued briefings on why Tory MEPs should continue to sit with the EPP. I’m not sure if this was specifically because I have blogged on the topic or if it was a general … Continue reading →

We rewatched Midnight last night. I wrote previously that I couldn’t understand why this story didn’t get a Hugo nomination this year; I am still baffled. I think it’s the best episode of the season, and certainly the best ever … Continue reading →

Browsing through the Hugo shortlists, I discovered that one of the Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form nominees is an audiobook anthology with stories by Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, and Karl Schroeder, edited by Scalzi. Since … Continue reading →

A lecture about orgasms Exactly as described. Warning – includes pig insemination. (tags: sex) YouTube – Girls Rock A Giant Piano Bach's Tocata and Fugue – can't quite believe this is real (tags: youtube) Former Libertas Director Switches Sides on … Continue reading →

The two noble kinsmen of the title are Palamon and Arcite, kin of the ruler of Thebes, taken as prisoners of war to Athens where they both fall in love with the Duke’s sister. Arcite is paroled, Palamon escapes, and … Continue reading →

Karabakh: is war inevitable? | open Democracy News Analysis A good question (asked by a good friend) (tags: caucasus) Avuncular American: Europe’s Multiplicity of Messengers The real problem with writing about the EU: it’s not very interesting. (tags: eu) Cameron … Continue reading →

I got this book because LibraryThing predicted I would not like it. Earlier this year I ran all the books I had read that month through the LibraryThing “unsuggester” and this and one other book (to be revealed in due … Continue reading →

Last year I wrote up the first half of Series Four of New Who, but never got around to doing the rest. We’ve been re-watching them over the last few days, and now have reached the first of the two … Continue reading →

Jon Worth Some wacky ways to improve the EU I completely agree with #2, #7, #8, #9, #10 and particularly #11. Mildly in favour of #3 and #4 (#4 sort of happens anyway). Neutral on #1 and #6. Only bad … Continue reading →

Blair is the natural successor of A[t]tlee New Labour’s centralising instincts are not new (tags: ukpolitics) Carne Ross: The New Power Dispensation at the UN Security Council China’s increasing influence (tags: carneross china burma) Obama Urged to End "Silliness" over … Continue reading →

All Doctor Who books should be like this. This is pretty much the perfect Fifth Doctor novel. Two of my favourite Big Finish audios are The Reaping, bringing Peter Davison and Janet Fielding together again, and The Bride of Peladon, … Continue reading →

Someone asked me recently about the claims made by "No2EU – Yes to Democracy", a eurosceptic group (supported by the RMT, one of the larger British trade unions) running in the coming European elections. I had a look at the … Continue reading →

I knew nothing about this book other than that it was very popular among the dead people whose libraries are catalogued on LibraryThing (including C.S. Lewis, Lawrence Durrell, T. E. Lawrence, William Faulkner, W.B. Yeats, Robert E. Howard, and Danilo … Continue reading →

I forced myself to read twenty pages of this horrendous mish-mash of Celtic, Viking and Arthurian myth, in which all characters speak the fantasy novel dialect of English yet none of them does anything interesting, and then I gave up.

This is a compilation of Scalzi’s writing from his blog, essentially a set of rants and thought pieces on various subjects. I only became aware of his blog when I featured on it myself, but his writing is entertaining (more … Continue reading →

The title of this book sounds rather general, but it has a much more specific subtitle: “Catalysing Peace or Consolidating Partition in Cyprus?” The second of those options, at least from the perspective of late 2004 when the book was … Continue reading →

I knew the names of Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore from their excellent essays on Doctor Who, so I hoped very much that this book, subtitled “the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner“, would be up to the same … Continue reading →