This is a Third Doctor novel with some fairly gritty horror elements. It wasn’t at all to my taste; the same author has also done a pretty violent Second Doctor novel, Combat Rock, where I felt it was just about justifiable given the colonial situation on which it was based. Here however I felt there was no such excuse; it’s a story of a rock band taken over by an alien entity and spreading Evil around 1970s Britain (where, in a dystopian alternate universe, they have started showing Blankety Blank several years before it affected our time line), attempts at pastiche flopping miserably in several places and simply gratuitous. One of the rather few Who books I really wouldn’t recommend to anyone.Charmagne knew she was screaming, but there was no sound in the horror truck. No echo.
Nothing.
Her hands were over her mouth, but she knew she was screaming.
And then the Ragman showed her things.
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Links I found interesting for 14-06-2013
- Insubordination and the surveillance state
"There’s nothing new about this, just the tools to do so are far more powerful."
- All of Mercury
Amazing!
- Will Doctor Who have a very special surprise for us in November?
I really really hope this rumour is true.
- North Down elects gay mayor
My old friend Andrew making history. Delighted to bump into him this evening.
- Duyuyor muzun bizi? Turkish protesters sing
Spine-tingling and moving.
- Irish government publishes plans to abolish Seanad
Hooray!
Wednesday reading
Current:
The Gondola Scam, by Jonathan Gash (close to the end)
The Irish Constitutional Revolution of the Sixteenth Century, by Brendan Bradshaw (just started)
Head Games, by Steve Lyons (half way through)
Miradal, by Hans Baeté, Marc De Bie, Martin Hermy, Paul Van den Bremt and Sara Adriaenssens (half way through)
Last books finished
Rags, by Mick Lewis
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, ed. Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn
The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng
Locke & Key: Clockworks, Vol. 5, by Joe Hill
Next books
The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston (birthday present)
Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig (Hugo pack)
The Also People, by Ben Aaronovitch (Eighth Doctor Adventure)
Starship Fall, by Eric Brown (nice short books list)
Books acquired in last week:
Standing in Another Man's Grave, by Ian Rankin
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
LT Unread books tally: 454
Links I found interesting for 12-06-2013
- Disagree With An Atos Decision? Then Starve Says DWP
The UK government decide that severely sick and disabled people will have no benefits at all if they appeal their assessments.
How to find missing historical documents
Mark Simpson of BBC Northern Ireland called me last night to ask for my reaction to the distressing news that the 1926 census has been mislaid. I didn't come up with any quoteworthy lines at the time, but this morning – after, as it turned out, he had filed the story – my wife and I had a couple of thoughts which I sent to him and which he was kind enough to include in the radio coverage of the story. The funnier of the two thoughts is actually not mine, but Anne's.
(I'll be in Belfast on Thursday to launch the expanded elections site.)
Links I found interesting for 11-06-2013
- Cyprus artist protests country’s financial woes with mock toilets outside Central Bank
Headline says it all.
- Ken MacLeod on Iain Banks
"He was one of our very best, a star whose light will travel a long way, and fall on places not yet built."
- The Myth of an American Coup
A revisionist account of what happened in Iran in 1953.
Links I found interesting for 10-06-2013
- Raw Spirit, Iain Banks talks to Kirsty Wark
Extract from last interview, to be broadcast Wednesday
- Iain Banks obituary in the Guardian
"It was striking how many of those who responded to the news spoke of having encountered him in person, often after a reading or public interview. A significant number recalled sharing not just a conversation but also a drink with him: he was an author whose readers felt in close touch with him."
- Charles Stross on Iain Banks
"Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying."
- Iain Banks in Brussels, 2008
"There is no such thing as a perfect novel. You can have a perfect poem, so it is worth putting in the effort to try and get a poem to the right degree of perfection, but you will never achieve that with a novel, and too much editing en route means you will never finish."
- Iain Banks in Belfast, 2007
His Guest of Honour appearance at MeCon.
- Iain Banks Interview at Odyssey 2010
As conducted by Jane Killick.
- Iain Banks. With or without the M. (by Neil Gaiman)
"If you’ve never read any of his books, read one of his books. Then read another. Even the bad ones were good, and the good ones were astonishing."
- Roz Kaveney’s elegy for Iain
"For once, the subject of one of my elegies got to read it before he passed and sent notes of thanks… Always a gentleman was Banks."
- Roz Kaveney’s second elegy for Iain
"We mourn him not as we’d have mourned him old complete and done. We mourn the might-have-been"
- Iain Banks quotes
Too many good lines here to single any one out.
Company and Georgian recipes
We were blessed with the company of
250g dried kidney beans
60 ml olive oil
60 ml red wine vinegar
1 tsp ground coriander seed
mixed chopped fresh herbs – parsley and basil (could also use coriander/dill/tarragon)
Salt & black pepper
Soak the beans overnight in water to cover. The next day, drain and rinse them. Place in a large pot and cover with fresh water. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring the water to boil and simmer until the beans are tender, about 1 hr. Drain. While the beans are still warm, stir in the remaining ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste. Allow the beans to cool to room temperature before serving.
Comment: Very tasty and more-ish.
350g minced beef
60 ml olive oil
180g of raisins
1 medium potato, boiled
60g walnuts
50g chopped parsley
salt
pepper
1 egg, well beaten
40g of fine dry dread crumbs
Parsley sprigs for garnish
In a skillet braise 130g of raisins and cook them, covered, over low heat until plump, about 10 minutes.
Blend together the mince beef, boiled potato, walnuts, the remaining 50g of raisins, and parsley. Stir in the salt, pepper to taste, and egg. Shape the mixture into 12 burgers, about 8cm long. Dust the burgers with breadcrumbs on both sides.
Fry the burgers slowly until browned. Arrange the burgers decoratively on a platter and strew the plumped raisins over them. Garnish with sprigs of parsley.
Comment: worked beautifully except for the raisins, which I prepared some time earlier and which were a bit caramelised. The original recipe had them fried in butter rather than olive oil which might have made a difference.
I did the burgers long and sausage-like rather than the flat discs suggested by my recipe book (Darra Goldstein's fantastic The Georgian Feast) and which would have been in line with classic burger theory. Nobody complained.
400g white flour
125g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves (ground)
¼ tsp coriander (ground)
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
4 eggs
350g honey
60 g almonds (chooped walnuts also possible)
Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 25 cm cake tin.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, spices and salt. Make a well in the middle and add the beaten eggs and honey. Stir enough to mix thoroughly.
Pour into the cake tin and sprinkle the top with the almonds. Bake for 75 mins [this is too long] or until the top springs back when touched. Allow to cool.
Comment: In fact young F did all of the actual cooking on this one. It tasted fine but the given cooking time was too long, and it was a bit dry even taken out after only an hour. Now that I look at the quantities I also wonder if we used enough honey.
A nice afternoon, somewhat dampened by the sad news about Iain Banks.
reposting from 2008: Iain Banks in Brussels
Originally posted by
As mentioned a few weeks back, Iain Banks gave a lunchtime talk in Brussels on Tuesday, in Scotland House which is the top two floors of the building where my own office is located. (The building also houses the Brussels representations of Norway, just below Scotland; Sweden, occupying the three lowest floors; and Gibraltar, around the corner from my office; and of course I myself have certain quasi-diplomatic duties too.) The Scots put on a decent spread of standard Brussels sandwiches; I was pleased to see both
The actual lecture room was filled up, with a dozen people left standing at the back after the 150 or so seats were taken; we were welcomed formally by the jolly Linda Fabiani, Scotland's Minister for Europe and Culture, and then Iain Banks immediately began by standing up and dominating the entire room, leaving the unfortunate Scottish attaché for fisheries and agriculture (nominally chairing the meeting) cowering in his seat and attempting to interject the occasional question.
But then he turned to the Minister's question, and said that indeed, he does write to the end and only then go back and edit what has been done. There is no such thing as a perfect novel. You can have a perfect poem, so it is worth putting in the effort to try and get a poem to the right degree of perfection, but you will never achieve that with a novel, and too much editing en route means you will never finish.
He then read the Paris scene from The Steep Approach to Garbadale, and remarked that he had given very few of the characters "normal names", so as not to be sued – "We live in litigious days." The Wopuld family in the book are named after his own frequent mis-typing of the word "would". He then allowed the chair to start taking questions from the audience.
Politics: Banks says he is a frustrated political novelist; he would like to be muich more political but just can't do it, and feels that when he does incorporate politics into his work it ends up rather shallow. On the other hand he wants to make his novels as precisely contemporary as he can, and likes a chance to rant – he filled an entire book (Dead Air) with rants. Canal Dreams is the one book he will never allow to be filmed, because he is afraid that Hollywood will invert the political message behind it.
Two names: Banks described the contrast between "Iain Banks" and "Iain M. Banks" as a "grievous mistake", but launched into an entertaining account of how the family name had changed from "Banks Menzies" to "Menzies Banks" as a result of his grandfather's political activities, and his own attempts to subvert the Sirling University database. Though there might be other possibilities, "Iain W. Banks" for Westerns, "Iain X. Banks" for erotica… He pointed to the precedent of "Brian W. Aldiss" for non-fiction (I am not sure if this is quite accurate, myself). Apparently he had at one point hoped to use the pseudonym John B. McCallan, but this fell by the wayside.
Treatment by the literary establishment? – as a "serial offender". SF is actually lower than Westerns in the pecking order of genres. But he gets invited to lots of posh parties. But he lives in Fife so doesn't get to go to many of them.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer? – Banks drew a picture of a writer in his P7 exercise book (aged about 11) when asked what he wanted to be, and shaped his university studies to suit this ambition.
Are you mellowing? No more exploding grandmothers… – yes, Banks concedes that he probably is mellowing. having fewer ideas and fewer mad ideas. He likes writing about big families, being himself an only child from a big extended family.
Do you like reading your own work aloud? – I'm rubbish at it! And think of all those poor unemployed jobbing actors…
(My own question) Seeing as you famously destroyed your passport, how did the Scottish Executive get you here today? (At this the Minister turned round to me and loudly corrected my question – "The Scottish Government, not Executive!") – A very funny answer.
Who else do you like to read? – Jane Austen, Roger Zelazny, Shakespeare, Tolstory, Bellow, Greene; but of contemporary writers especially David Mitchell and Alan Warner, the only people I read where I don't find myself thinking, "I could have done that." I'm quite a slow reader, but I get there in the end.
Anyway, great fun; I was feeling pretty grotty, but the event lifted my spirits for the rest of the day.
reposting from 2007: Iain Banks at MeCon
Originally posted by
A great day at MeCon yesterday – I post these pictures and a video to make you all feel jealous that you weren't there.
Guest of honour in the glowing sunlight
An excerpt from Iain M Banks' Guest of Honour speech, in which he is answering a question about how his writing career had got started. (Thanks to Mecon and Iain M Banks for permission to post this.)
But I spent most of the time just sitting around and talking.
Paul Cornell,
The two Annas,
The two Ia(i)ns, McDonald and Banks
Apart from the GoH speech the only panel I attended was a discussion of Doctor Who. None of my shots of the panel itself were particularly good, but here is a much better one of two of the panellists beforehand:
and here is another of the panellists plus two audience members immediately afterwards:
Paul Cornell, Leah Moore, Caroline
We settled back to chatting again, so that an observer who had left and returned might have believed that some of us hadn't moved (indeed, I believe that one of us hadn't)
Sleepy Paul, Caroline,
while at the other end of the room the whiskey tasting was in full flow:
Things seemed to be going well for the whiskey tasters!
Not sure if I will make it again today, but thanks to all for organising and doing it.
Links I found interesting for 09-06-2013
- Continuum GoH Speech
N.K. Jemisin on race, gender, history and SF.
Links I found interesting for 08-06-2013
- What if…Ireland had joined the Allies in World War ll?
A pleasing fairy tale by @jasonomahony.
- The Guilty Pleasure of Seanad Abolition
@jasonomahony again, on getting rid of the Irish Senate – completely right.
- China inside out
An Australian journalist reflects.
Links I found interesting for 07-06-2013
- 22 Maps That Show The Deepest Linguistic Conflicts In America
Do *you* pronounce "Mary", "marry" and "merry" differently? (I do!)
- Woman was incorrectly assessed as fit to work – twice
More news from the UK government’s war on the disabled.
- The YouGov Doctor Who poll
Ten still rules, apparently.
- Tartaglia attacks ‘injustice’ of Coalition benefit reform
News flash: Catholic Archbishop makes compassionate and sensible statement!
Links I found interesting for 06-06-2013
- Why this army wife says no to the Snoopers’ Charter
"What the UK leads on is exporting the policy, laws and, increasingly, the actual technology of political suppression and social control to some of the nastiest countries in the world."
- Where was Game of Thrones Filmed?
Largely in County Antrim.
- Project Gutenberg books ranked by download popularity
Surprised by #1; never heard of #9.
Wednesday reading
Current:
The Gondola Scam, by Jonathan Gash (a bit more than half way through)
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (a bit more than half way through)
Rags, by Mick Lewis (half way through)
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, ed. Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn (a third of the way through)
Last books finished
Aldébaran, tome 4: Le Groupe, by Leo
Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone
Next books
The Irish Constitutional Revolution of the Sixteenth Century, by Brendan Bradshaw (Tudor Ireland)
The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston (birthday present)
Locke & Key: Clockworks, Vol. 5, by Joe Hill (Hugo nominee)
Head Games, by Steve Lyons (New Adventure)
Books acquired in last week:
Empire of the Sun, by J.G. Ballard
Street Lethal, by Steven Barnes
LT Unread books tally: 458
Someone just knocked on our office door asking if he could check into his hotel room
Obviously the unseasonable sunshine was getting to him. The hotel is two doors down from our building!
Links I found interesting for 05-06-2013
- Somewhere, there’s a couple all of a sudden reconsidering their Game of Thrones-themed wedding.
Tweet of the week!
- Germany ditches longest word
Farewell Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz.
- House of Lords backs same-sex marriage
Hooray! #fb
- The Grieving Process
"How I am and how you can help."
- Japan’s radiation disaster toll: none dead, none sick
Despite a tsunami and three reactor meltdowns.
Another reference to Belgium in the Whoniverse
Gita: It can’t be any worse than *our* honeymoon. Total disaster!
Haresh: Um, I *enjoyed* it!
Gita: Brussels. There’s nothing there!
(At 23:00 into here.)
Links I found interesting for 04-06-2013
- Protocol 15 gives Tories what they want on European court of human rights – so why leave?
They need a reason?
- Emily Davidson
@cobrunstrom against electoral cynicism.
- EU Shouldnât Reward Russiaâs Repression With Visa Deal
"Sleepwalking into a huge blunder"
Links I found interesting for 03-06-2013
- Why do we have to trawl for the facts about Britain and the EU?
"a great example of an increasingly democratic EU beginning to work rather well."
- Istanbul’s demonstrators celebrate victory in Istiklal and Taksim Square
Hugh reports. #fb
- For Obama’s ex-aides, it’s time to profit from experience
Azerbaijan buying US expertise.
- Geld aus Aserbaidschan für deutschen Abgeordneten Michael Fuchs
Azerbaijan buying German expertise.
- What is Happenning in Istanbul?
Another eyewitness account.
2013 Hugos: Best Short Story
There are only three nominees in this category. I think that is a problem, but I don't have any bright ideas about what to do about it. Anyway, I found it pretty easy to rank them:
2) “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard. Nice style but didn’t engage me.
1) “Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu. Superb stuff, updating “The Cold Equations” with a huge dollop of cultural awareness. No doubt experts will whine that the engineering in the story is unsound, but it convinces me enough for the emotional impact.
I feel much more strongly about this ranking than any of the other three fiction categories.
See also: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
The giants of Leuven
I picked up an interesting story in the news yesterday morning: a group of enthusiasts in Leuven had decided to revive / invent an old (or new) tradition, of constructing giants to parade through the streets of the city. Belgium is a place where ancient civic traditions and pagan ceremonies are often rather weirdly linked, and this seemed worth checking out, so young F and I ventured into town to see what was going on.
As the sound of drumming from behind them intensified, I wondered if this was goiing to be something like the drumming exercises prescribed in Iron John, especially since the basis for the event was a group of men born in the same year (1973). Also the banners combined with the drumming were vaguely reminiscent of Orangemen marching, back home.
But any such impression was dispelled when the percussionists themselves came into sight.
Definitely not orange, and mostly not men either.
The next group of marchers were again mostly women in costume, holding up garlanded arches and occasionally pausing to have their pictures taken.
And after them came the actual giants.
The tall chap with the hat is Jan Van den Graetmolen, a fifteenth-century mill owner, or at least a personification of him.
Next up is amateur rifleman Kobe Koeienschieter, who commemorates a military adventure of the 16th century when the Leuven militia attacked a herd of cows instead of the French, though tradition is a bit hazy on the details.
And finally the new giant, Fiere Margriet (Proud Margaret), whose story is actually rather a grisly 13th-century legend (here, potentially triggering), but who remains popular in tradition without people worrying very much about what actually happened to her.
The parade ended at the town hall with Fiere Margriet being registered as an inhabitant of Leuven, the other two giants looking on.
Stalls were set up all round the square with our best known local product widely available (I don't like it that much myself). I think we also narrowly missed meeting up with
It's interesting that this is billed very much as a Flemish, rather than Belgian, tradition. Of course this sort of thing goes on all over this corner of Europe, not only in Belgium but in nearer bits of the Netherlands and Germany. But I'm getting to sense a particular local twist to it, where for instance the festivals I knew as Beltane, Lughnasa and Samhaim continue to be celebrated in their own special way. Maybe these traditions go back a hundred years; maybe two thousand. Who knows?
Links I found interesting for 02-06-2013
- GeoGuessr – Let’s explore the world!
Another images/maps game – cool.
- Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers
Headline of the month!
- 6 lines of JavaScript that write Doctor Who plots indistinguishable from the current series…
Waiting for the Big News…
- Matt Smith to leave Doctor Who
Official BBC story.
Links I found interesting for 01-06-2013
- NMBS ontbindt contract met constructeur Fyra
The awful story of the Brussels-Amsterdam high speed trains.
- Gunkanjima Island
Once the most densely populated place on Earth, now abandoned.
May Books
The Crocodile by the Door, by Selina Guinness
“I have an Idea for a Book …”: The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg
A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor
Miracles of Life, by J.G. Ballard
Fiction (not sf) 2 (YTD 9)
Doors Open, by Ian Rankin
The Judas Pair, by Jonathan Gash
SF (not Who) 6 (YTD 33)
Redshirts, by John Scalzi
The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Peoples of Middle-earth, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
Toward the End of Time, by John Updike
Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone
Doctor Who 5 (YTD 27)
Deadly Reunion, by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts
Toy Soldiers, by Paul Leonard
Escape Velocity, by Colin Brake
Magic of the Angels, by Jacqueline Rayner
Tip of the Tongue, by Patrick Ness
Comics 5 (YTD 13)
Final Sacrifice, by Tony Lee and others
Vincent van Gogh: De Worsteling van een Kunstenaar, by Marc Verhaegen and Jan Kragt
Vincent, by Barbara Stok
Grandville: Bête Noire, by Bryan Talbot
Aldébaran 4: La Groupe, by Leo
~5,800 pages (YTD 24,800)
3/22 (YTD 23/95) by women (Guinness, Rayner, Stok)
2/22 (YTD 2/95) by PoC (Ahmed, de Bodard)
Rereads: Escape Velocity – 1 (YTD 5), though I'd also listened to an audio expansion of A History of the World in 100 Objects.
Acquired 2011 or before: 7 (YTD 32) – Escape Velocity, Toy Soldiers, Toward the End of Time, Doors Open, Deadly Reunion, A History of the World in 100 Objects, The Quantum Thief
Acquired 2012: 1 (YTD 15) – The Peoples of Middle-earth
Acquired 2013: 14 (YTD 48) – The Name of the Wind, Final Sacrifice, Redshirts, The Crocodile by the Door, Le Groupe, Vincent, Vincent Van Gogh: de worsteling van een kunstenaar, The Judas Pair, Miracles of Life, Magic of the Angels, “I have an Idea for a Book …”, Grandville Bete Noire, Three Parts Dead, Tip Of The Tongue
Reading now:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
The Gondola Scam by Jonathan Gash
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature ed. Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn
Coming Next (perhaps):
Miradal: erfgoed in Heverleebos en Meerdaalwoud by Hans Baeté et al
Locke & Key vol 5: Clockworks, by Joe Hill
The Irish Constitutional Revolution of the Sixteenth Century, by Brendan Bradshaw
Starship Fall, by Eric Brown
The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl
Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol
The Jagged Orbit, by John Brunner
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, by Jeanette Winterson
Desert, by J. M. G. Le Clezio
Confessions of Zeno, by Italo Svevo
The Last Empress, by Anchee Min
The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens
Fantastic Voyage, by Isaac Asimov
Kraken, by China Mieville
The Flood, by Ian Rankin
TheMonsters and the Critics, by J R R Tolkien
The History of the Hobbit vol 1: Mr Baggins, by John D. Rateliff
Rebus's Scotland: A Personal Journey, by Ian Rankin
Royal Assassin, by Robin Hobb
Rags, by Mick Lewis
Head Games, by Steve Lyons
EarthWorld, by Jacqueline Rayner
Hunter's Moon, by Paul Finch