Monthly Archives: January 2016

Non-fiction: 6 Lois McMaster Bujold, by Edward James Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien, eds. Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan Baptism of Fire: The Birth of the Modern British Fantastic … Continue reading →

Naomi Long: ‘When I got the first death threat I wasn’t worried for myself, I was scared for mum, who was very sick’ Life in politics.(tags: northernireland ) The End of Twitter It may all be over soon…(tags: twitter )

I'm on the road this weekend, so no time to finalise my write-up of Happy Haunting, I'm afraid. Instead, please enjoy these extracts from No Official Umbrella, the 700-page autobiography of Glyn Jones, who was the script editor of Here … Continue reading →

Quality of life in European cities Best: Oslo & Zurich, followed by Aalborg, Vilnius and – Belfast!(tags: eu Life ) The 2016 Hugo Awards: A Few Thoughts as Nominations Open Abigail reflects.(tags: sf hugos )

Current Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week) No Official Umbrella, by Glyn Jones Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson Last books finished Touch, by Claire North Streetlethal, by Steven Barnes Sorcerer to … Continue reading →

If not ‘ever closer union’, what next for Europe? @AndrewDuffEU looks at future options.(tags: eu ukpolitics ) The Horror Dawned Slowly Challenger, as reported at the time.(tags: space ) How Trump Bungled the Deal of a Lifetime – Bloomberg View … Continue reading →

Encouraged by here and here, I bit the bullet and forked out €15 (the first time I’ve bought a music album for myself for over a decade) for the Broadway cast recording of Hamilton, the musical about the life of … Continue reading →

A Map of Every City Yep.(tags: maps ) Man saves money on train fare by flying from Sheffield to Stansted via Berlin @telegraph clickbait but interesting.(tags: travel ) Look Homeward, Democracy Promoter Tom Carothers casts a cold eye.(tags: uspolitics elections … Continue reading →

A book set in a magical nineteenth-century England, with strong shades of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and also Mary Robinette Kowal, and of course pastiche of Jane Austen if she had been interested in scientific magic; but by bringing … Continue reading →

How Iowa Hijacked Our Democracy POLITICO on one of the worst features of the awful quadrennial cycle.(tags: uspolitics elections ) Luxembourg: Europe’s Bellwether What’s up with the Grand Duchy.(tags: luxembourg ) Proxima Centauri and the Imagination Fiction about our nearest … Continue reading →

I’d read several of Barnes’ collaborations with Larry Niven, but this was my first time reading a solo novel by him – also I think his own first solo novel, published in 1983. It’s a decent techno thriller set in … Continue reading →

The Pope’s digital guru His Holiness online.(tags: religion ) Don’t call this Government pro-European A Moldovan speaks out.(tags: moldova ) Cameron on Muslim women: shoddy and shameful Good on @RobinLustig.(tags: ukpolitics migration islam ) Toxic Workers Great paper by @MichaelHousman … Continue reading →

I greatly enjoyed last year’s The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. Harry August has an unusual experience of consciousness: every time he dies, he is reborn again and has the chance to re-live his life from the beginning. It … Continue reading →

As posted on Twitter, by several people who were there: #TeamBristol caught up with the cast of the Double Deckers at @wshed for the @SlapstickFest for #Clueless pic.twitter.com/PZPdc9vMGd — BBC Radio Bristol (@bbcrb) January 24, 2016 @SlapstickFest @DrMatthewSweet A quite … Continue reading →

Affiches d’un autre Âge Posters for and against Swiss women getting the vote.(tags: switzerland sexandgenderandsexuality elections ) Toxic Workers Great paper by @MichaelHousman and Dylan Minor on the cost of hiring assholes.(tags: work ) Don’t call this Government pro-European A … Continue reading →

In 2014 for the 1939 Retro Hugos, we did not have a Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) category because there were not enough nominations to make the category viable. (I confess I had not heard of most of the possible … Continue reading →

Possibly the last Twelfth Doctor / Clara novel, or at least the last we’ll have for a while, this has the TARDIS arriving in a medieval-style society where knights have lasers. It’s good fun, particularly the invocation of the Holy … Continue reading →

File 770 Destroys Poetry Pastiche by pixel.(tags: sf poetry ) Texas Gun Lovers Start to Think Open Carry not such a Great Idea Ohdearwhatapity.(tags: guns uspolitics ) Affiches d’un autre Âge Posters for and against Swiss women getting the vote.(tags: … Continue reading →

As seems somehow appropriate, there are several different lists in circulating, each claiming to be the authentic tally of David Bowie’s 100 favourite books. I’m using the one from www.davidbowie.com which seems most likely to be canonical. (One of the … Continue reading →

This has been widely tipped as a potential Hugo finalist, and among the BSFA long list was second on both Goodreads and LibraryThing by number of owners, topping my statistics overall. I am not sure that it will go all … Continue reading →

Before I start: A reminder to friends in the Bristol area that Billie and Tiger are appearing tomorrow at the Watershed, 1 Canon’s Road, Harbourside at 11.15 am. Episode 4: Starstruck (variously also referred to as Star-Struck and Star Struck) … Continue reading →

Cameron on Muslim women: shoddy and shameful Good on @RobinLustig.(tags: ukpolitics migration islam ) Moldova Needs Us to Support Reforms, Not Governments GMFUS comments.(tags: moldova ) Andy Duncan on his last conversation with David Hartwell Very moving.(tags: sf deaths )

Current Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week) Touch, by Claire North Streetlethal, by Steven Barnes Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho Last books finished Dry Pilgrimage, by Paul Leonard and Nick Walters Uprooted, by Naomi Novik … Continue reading →

2015 was warmest year on record. Official.(tags: climatechange ) Confessions of a politics lecturer The truth about StatesmanorSkatesman.com(tags: ukpolitics funny ) After Empire: An Era of British Decline @petemartin7 on the past, present and future.(tags: ukpolitics eu uspolitics ) Everything … Continue reading →

The Illegitimacy of Aragorn’s Claim to the Throne Fair points.(tags: tolkien ) Disarmament is key Kazakh foreign minister wants to get rid of nukes. (Rightly.)(tags: kazakhstan nuclear ) How the UK’s housing crisis builds a case for Brexit Everything is … Continue reading →

Referendum madness Direct democracy's attractive flaws. (tags: netherlands eu democracy voting ) Carswell wrong on snooper rights Quelle surprise. (tags: ukpolitics eu humanrights internet ) Headline on Malheur occupation is inaccurate, irresponsible Ursula Le Guin writes to the Oregonian. (tags: … Continue reading →

The tube at a standstill – why TfL stopped people walking up the escalators Clearing bottlenecks by standing still(tags: london ) Fifty years ago today, the United States of America dropped four nuclear bombs on Spain. *gulp*(tags: usa spain war … Continue reading →

Next in sequence of the Virgin Bernice Summerfield novels, this time featuring a voyage by sea with an alien species whose life cycle and religious beliefs are worked out in interesting detail, of course largely driving the plot. I thought … Continue reading →

The Most-Edited Wikipedia Pages Over The Last 15 Years An odd corner of the Zeitgeist.(tags: wikipedia ) Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee I’m going to have to find a way of going to this.(tags: magic historyofscience … Continue reading →

This is what makes Republicans and Democrats so different Repubs believe in (wrong!) ideas, Dems in people.(tags: uspolitics ) Why are Pluto and Charon so different? Pluto stole Charon’s atmosphere!(tags: astronomy ) When Video-Game Worlds End Experiencing online apocalypse.(tags: internet … Continue reading →