- Oh! The places you CAN go!
My former colleague Vibeke (@GenderHopes) writes to her daughters.
- de Brontës in Brussel
Audio tour (in English) of Brussels places associated with Charlotte and Emily Brontë.
- UK Local Elections 2013 – Live Data, Live Results Maps…
Varying degrees of penetrability (thanks to redfiona99).
- Orphan works – the new law in the UK
Francis explains.
- GPs ‘flooded’ with letter requests due to UK benefit reforms
in Scotland, so presumably elsewhere too.
- 102 hours in pursuit of Marathon bombing suspects
As it happened.
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Links I found interesting for 03-05-2013
- Cyprus and the memory stick
Peter Birks explains it all.
- Genesis of the Remembrance
Davros learns the reason for every Dalek defeat. "Bugger!"
- Is the flags row running out of steam?
My views on the 2014 Belfast elections.
- The Yeni Tzami, Salonica’s esoteric mosque
The legacy of the Dönmeh.
- UN report on killer robots (PDF)
Disappointingly fails to cite Asimov.
2013 Hugos: Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
5) Fringe: Letters of Transit
As with last year, I had actually seen four of the five nominees on (or very shortly after) first broadcast, which left me with only Fringe to catch up with. It’s not my show, and there were obviously lots of payoffs for narrative lines of which I was utterly unaware, but there was plenty of interesting stuff going on and one or two good lines, certainly enough to justify putting it above “No Award”.
4) Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks
It gets really difficult after that. I loved all four of the other nominees and one gets into really spurious grounds for ranking one below another. My spurious reason for putting Asylum of the Daleks below the other three is that I didn’t think it handled the Rory/Amy relationship well.
3) Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan
Now it gets even more difficult. I loved The Angels Take Manhattan too, but my spurious reason for putting it below the other two is that the payoff for Amy and Rory’s departure was a bit disappointing; they could easily enough travel away from New York to see the Doctor again.
2) Game of Thrones: Blackwater
Only one episode from the second series of GoT got nominated this year, but this was clearly the best set piece: an excellent chapter from the book, steered to the screen by GRRM himself. I felt the ending was fumbled, but otherwise really enjoyed it. I would not be at all surprised to see this win in San Antonio.
1) Doctor Who: The Snowmen
But my vote will go to The Snowmen, which ticked many of my fannish boxes, and has set up the mystery of Clara which we are still waiting to see resolved. I don’t think one should be rude even to Sontarans, but otherwise I fully approved. In any case, I will cheer if any of my top four wins, and shrug in bemusement if the voters opt for Fringe.
See also: Best Novella
Perry Rhodan
Does anyone have recommendations on how (or indeed whether) one should start reading Perry Rhodan? Is it a continuous narrative where you need to know what happened from the beginning, or are there particular arcs you can jump into (and if so, which)? Or should one just start with the latest and keep going from there?
Links I found interesting for 02-05-2013
- 22 Unbelievable Places that are Hard to Believe Really Exist
Brilliant photographs.
- Azerbaijan’s government rolls out new defamation bill, leaving public figures free to gag online critics
Democracy inaction!
Wednesday reading
Current (all just started)
Redshirts, by John Scalzi
The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi
Deadly Reunion, by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
Last books finished
Blackout, by “Mira Grant”
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Next books
A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Niall McGregor
Toy Soldiers, by Paul Leonard
April Books 20) Blackout, by “Mira Grant”
“You said you were my personal physician.”
“That’s correct.”
“So tell me: How long have I been a clone?”
Dr. Thomas dropped his pen.
The last of the trilogy about political bloggers after the zombie apocalypse, Blackout resurrects Georgia Mason, killed at the end of the first book, and reunites her with her brother Shaun to sort the world out (where “the world” should be understood as largely coextensive with the forty-eight contiguous states). There are some nice vignettes of the post-disaster society, but an awful lot of pointless running around to get our characters in place for the two denouements mid-book and at the end. I’m feeling a bit uninspired by the Best Novel nominations this year.
(NB this is the third book with this title which had failed to impress me in the last few years – see also Connie Willis and Oli Smith.)
April Books 19) Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Oh God, midnight’s not bad, you wake and go back to sleep, one or two’s not bad, you toss but sleep again. Five or six in the morning, there’s hope, for dawn’s just under the horizon. But three, now, Christ, three A.M.!
A quote which is not so representative of the book, but will strike a chord with anyone who has ever grappled with insomnia.
This is of course a classic, but was also one of the books listed in the Locus Poll of Best 20th Century Fantasy which spurred me to get it. I was familiar with Bradbury’s style, both lyrical and stark at the same time, from The Martian Chronicles and other short stories; I am not actually sure that I had read one of his novels before. It is an effective tale of a creepy carnival coming to a small Mid-Western town, the central characters being two teenage boys and the older father of one of them; apart from the spooky adventure there are musings on adulthood and aging. I see that Bradbury was in his early 40s when he wrote this; that’s the point when the limits of your lifespan really start to hit most people. I enjoyed it a lot.
The Begijnhofkerk in Tienen, then and now
1920:
2013:
(Allied bombing in 1944, followed by a 1976 fire in what was left.)
