Second paragraph of third chapter: One of the more plausible interpretations of The Shining covered in the documentary movie, Room 237 (2012), is that the movie is a reworking of the Theseus and the Minotaur myth. At the end of … Continue reading
These are the four books that won the Tiptree, BSFA and Clarke Awards in 2004. (The Tiptree Award was shared.) I had already read three of them, and I found I didn't really want to reread one of those three. … Continue reading
The Godfather won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1972, and picked up another two – Best Actor, which was declined by Marlon Brando in protest at the treatment of Native Americans at Wounded Knee (and elsewhere); and Best Screenplay … Continue reading
Big Finish produced a very strong trio of Seventh Doctor plays earlier this year, featuring Sophie Aldred as Ace, Philip Olivier as Hex and a little bit of Sylvester McCoy (his availability has been limited due to filming The Hobbit … Continue reading
I rate this about average of the Black Archives, but with significant bonus points for the discussion of disability. Continue reading
This is a bit different in format from the other extracts from my grandmother’s memoirs that I have published here, because I first posted it to my website in 2001. I have made a couple of update tweaks to that … Continue reading
Photos and thoughts from last weekend in Ljubljana and Bled. Continue reading
When I first listened to the audio of this lost story, with linking dialogue read by Peter Purves, in 2007, I wrote: The Myth Makers was the four-part story between the single-episode, Doctor-less Mission to the Unknown and the twelve-part … Continue reading
Marshall unpacks not only the story’s portrayal of the Vikings but also our understanding of them, veering into the political side of the topic without losing touch with Doctor Who. Continue reading
Generally a satisfactory and sympathetic piece of work, looking at a flawed but fondly remembered story and explaining where it came from. Continue reading
Completists will want this, but I felt that it stretched rather further than the material warranted. Continue reading
The 49th and 50th Black Archive monographs on Doctor Who, on The Night of the Doctor and Day of the Doctor, are both very good and enhanced my appreciation still further for two stories that I already liked a lot. Continue reading
I’m afraid it’s a rare “Meh” from me in this sequence of reading. I don’t like cute anthropomorphic androids anyway, and I didn’t quite have the energy to get into the layers of writing. Continue reading
Only one trip outside Belgium at the start of this year, to London where unexpectedly I saw Noises Off. Within Belgium, F and I had a great excursion to the Cubes of Herne: I blogged about my cousins the Seavers, … Continue reading
Next in my sequence of joint winners of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, these two shorter pieces were published in 1990 and awarded in 1991. They also mark the beginning and end of my previous project of writing up the … Continue reading
On 27 January 2002 I turned 20,000 days old (54 years, nine months and a day). We were still in the uneasy post-COVID restrictions, so I had no special commemoration apart from a blog post. Another month when I did … Continue reading
Alas, after several months of relaxation, COVID restrictions were re-imposed in the middle of the month and working from home started again. This meant that I also re-started my ten-day updates on the COVID situation, which continued until early 2022. … Continue reading
When I first watched Battlefield in 2007 I was not at all impressed. Battlefield must have been the killer blow which led to the cancellation. It is simply awful. The story is incomprehensible, the direction (particularly of the all-important action … Continue reading
I have logged 45 books this month, my second highest ever monthly total since I started keeping track in November 2003. A lot of them were very short; a lot were Clarke submissions that I have put aside after fifty … Continue reading
CurrentMetamorphoses, by OvidTales from Ovid, by Ted Hughesγ2Fugue for a Darkening Island, by Christopher PriestAll the Names They Used for God, by Anjali Sachdeva Last books finishedThe Free Lunch, by Spider RobinsonA Ship is Dying, by Brian CallisonWhat If? by Randall … Continue reading
Non-fiction 9 (YTD 92)The First World War Diary of Noël Drury, 6th Royal Dublin Fusiliers: Gallipoli, Salonika, The Middle East and the Western Front, ed. Richard GraysonAn Eloquent Soldier: The Peninsular War Journals of Lieutenant Charles Crowe of the Inniskillings, … Continue reading
Trailer: As previously noted, I’ve been increasingly enjoying the Big Finish audio adventures with Christopher Eccleston reprising his role as the Ninth Doctor, and this was another good set installment. Unusually the three stories are a singleton and a two-parter, … Continue reading
Next in the sequence of Black Archive books about individual Doctor Who stories, this time it’s the first Eleventh Doctor story and the first of Steven Moffat’s era as show-runner. When The Eleventh Hour was first broadcast in 2010, I … Continue reading
Stardust won the 2008 Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, beating the first season of Heroes, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Enchanted and The Golden Compass. It was way ahead at nominations stage and while it … Continue reading
Mon, 12:04: Am not going to link to the article in question, but I am very amused by the notion that the EU was all set to cave to Unionist demands on the Protocol until the non-Unionist political parties went … Continue reading
28 – good start to the year. Non-fiction 11 A Radical Romance, by Alison Light Where Was the Room Where It Happened?: The Unofficial Hamilton – An American Musical Location Guide by BdotBarr [Bryan Barreras] Calvin, by F. Bruce Gordon … Continue reading
Current The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu Scream of the Shalka, by Paul Cornell Breasts and Eggs, by Mieko Kawakami Neuromancer, by William Gibson Last books finished The Wandering Scholars, by Helen Waddell The Doctor – his Life and Times, … Continue reading
Second paragraph of third section: Port, five gods be thanked. Maybe. Another of the great sequence of novellas featuring novice sorceror Penric and his possessing demons, this time kidnapped by pirates and thrown together with two young parentless girls. Bujold … Continue reading
In my two previous posts on this year's BSFA shortlists (here and here), I remarked that it was very difficult to select preferences between the various nominees. For Best Non-Fiction, unfortunately, there are a number of nominees which I feel … Continue reading
Non-fiction: 3 (YTD 44) Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England, by Steve Jones Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, by M. Mitchell Waldrop Helen Waddell, by Felicitas Corrigan Fiction (non-sf): 9 (YTD … Continue reading