tag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831lonemagpielonemagpielonemagpie2022-08-30T10:58:17Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3661262022 Book Log 10) THE BURLAR WHO LIKED TO QUOTE KIPLING2022-08-30T10:58:17Z2022-08-30T10:58:17Zpublic0by Lawrence Block.<br />An early one from Block, a Bernie Rhodenbarr story from 1979, in which Bernie is hired to steal a unique Kipling volume, only to end up drugged and waking with a gun in his hand next to a corpse. Obviously, not being a murderer or gangster type character, Berni sets about finding out who hired him, who did the murder, and what’s going on, before the cops get him.<br /> It’s one of those things that feels a bit weird because it’s set in what’s the modern day within my lifetime, but before the internet or cellphones. That always feels weird. Bernie’s an engaging character, as is his lesbian sidekick, and overall was light snappy fun.<br /><br />10A) I should also mention I’m in the middle of FROM HELL by Alan Moore, but that’ll take for ages cos the font in the dialogue bubbles is small and strange even though the book’s the size of a paving slab. So I can only really read it in broad sunny daylight, and can’t shove it in a pocket..<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=366126" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3660302022 Book Log 9 BLAMELESS by Gail Carriger2022-07-11T14:38:36Z2022-07-11T14:38:36Zpublic09) BLAMELESS by Gail Carriger<br />The third in the Parasol Protectorate series (and the one in which the regular characters get that group appellation. As with the previous ones, an amusing and exciting tale of vampires, werewolves, and assorted others (Knights Templar in this case) in a steampunk Victorian London. <br /> Following on from the end of the previous book, Alexia is on her own, with pretty much everyobody trying to kill her or experiment upon her because she’s expecting. A chase across Europe ensures, with some obvious and inevitable changes of heart among the characters, and some surprise developments too.<br /> As with the series as a whole, good light-hearted adventure fun.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=366030" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3655982022 Book Log 8 - FIREBALLS, SKYQUAKES, AND HUMS by Antony Milne2022-06-02T23:38:46Z2022-06-02T23:38:46Zpublic08) FIREBALLS, SKYQUAKES AND HUMS, by Antony Milne.<br />Here we have a promise that no list will be unexamined (according to the blurb) in pursuit of the exploration and investigation of a variety of visual and aural phenomena, from exploding fireballs, to falls of stones, to ghost armies, to weird hums, to ghostly voices recorded on tape. The author clearly and admittedly has a pet theory on the nature of discarnate intelligences being responsible for such phenomena to propose….<br /> But somehow doesn’t. At least the promise of no unexamined lists is, unfortunately, accurate- each chapter is basically “here are some occurences of this chapter’s type, science makes me think this phenomenon could be caused by this interpretation of that science, so here are some more examples of it, and not here’s a separate table list of yet more examples.” Analysis and promulgation of a hypothesis, of any kind? Nah, that seems to have been forgotten. There isn’t even a conclusion(s) chapter; the chapters just end and go to a set of references for the footnotes, and in index. Despite having stated “I’ll show this in chapter whatever” he either forgot or the publishers cut it.<br /> In fact it does kind of feel like Milne pitched a couple of booksand then had to do them all in one, hence the wide range of sometimes unrelated subjects. Or else it’s an attempt to cover all with a grand theory of everything, and then just didn’t. Instead it ends up being a list of odd events possibly useful for SF writers looking for examples to have characters mention, and bugger all else. <br /> As a limited four-part set of Fortean Times articles it’d be great. As a book, it’s a waste of time I skimmed through, flipping to the end early. If I was still writing Dr Who, I’d have UNIT check out a couple of listed events, but I’m not so it’s destined for the charity shop.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=365598" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3653332022 Book Log 7- JAGANNATH STORIES, by Karin Tidbeck2022-05-22T13:01:42Z2022-05-22T13:01:42Zpublic07) .JAGANNATH: STORIES by Karin Tidbeck<br />An anthology of weird tales (some previously published in the magazine of that title) and short fantasies by Swedish writer Tidbeck, who has translated them into English herself.<br /> Being very short stories – most little more than vignettes – they often end abruptly with more subtext than text, but they’re a good mixture of spooky, funny, folkloric, steampunk, etc. At a total of 130 pages, with such a wide range of tales coming at you in a nice and bouncy fashion, there’s no danger of the book outstaying its welcome.<br /> Variety and brevity for the win.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=365333" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3652812022 Book Log 6- THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman2022-05-16T13:23:51Z2022-05-16T13:23:51Zpublic06) THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman<br />OK… Obviously you can ignore all the enthusiastic endorsements printed in the book bay assorted other celebs and tabloids- they print that stuff to persuade you to buy something written by somebody famous for something else. (And I have a long-standing problem with the industry now only giving decent book contracts to people already famous for something else instead to actual writers.) Does this mean the people who said to me that they hated it and gave up cos it was rubbish and boring are right? Well, no. What it is is… mild and harmlessly OK. Among other things.<br /> I’d expected snarky wit from him, but really just got the occasional faint smile. There’s also the occasional deep line, but they’re few and far between, and the padding doesn’t help. The actual plot is fair enough, and the main characters are fun enough that you can tell which of Osman’s mates is meant to play them. Everybody has a secret, though some of them are just tagged on as afterthoughts.<br /> There’s something lacking though, and that’s focus and pacing. The book mostly flows along nicely when reading it, but when you’ve put it down there’s no real urge to pick up again in a hurry. The main reason is because it’s about 150 pages too long, and there’s so much drifting along. The worst thing is that every time there’s about to a revelation it has a character going “there’s a revelation”, then switches to another, and another, each in a separate chapter, before getting round to actually giving whatever the revelation is. This is incredibly frustrating- it didn’t make want to find out what’s on the next page, it made me yell “get fucking on with it you cunt!” repeatedly. Especially in the “Joyce” first-person chapters, which seem to be less a viewpoint character and more a device for treading watcr while getting paid by the word.<br /> One of the glowing endorsements says Osman’s done a proper Agatha Christie- bullshit, Agatha would have done the whole damn thing in under 200 pages.<br /> Yeah, so… Not actually bad, Elizabeth’s a good (oviously Judi Dench) character, and the plot works, but far too long and too artificially slow. Basically, the ideal book for a long flight or train ride, where you won’t have to stop and therefore take days to get motivated to pick it up again. And disappointing on the snarky wit front.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=365281" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3648292022 Book Log 4- WARRIOR SCARLET by Rosemary Sutcliffe2022-04-16T21:27:29Z2022-04-16T21:27:29Zpublic04) WARRIOR SCARLET by Rosemary Sutcliffe<br />This is a tricky one to judge. It’s flowing and poetic in its descriptions, and utterly Engrossing in its events and actions as you Drem grows from boyhood to warrior on the South Downs in the Bronze Age. On the other hand its pacing is all over the place (We’re led to prepare, like Drem, for the rigours of his three years training in the Boys’ House, only to be conned with a “two and a half years later” next chapter opening), and there’s odd fantastical elements in the form of the three races- the Golden People, the Dark People, and the Half People.<br /> Is this meant to indicate neanderthals, Picts, Celts, Nordics…? Or a modern view of a more diverse set of visitors? If the latter, it’s only so Drem can be racist towards them anyway, so it doesn’t help much. Drem’s a bit of a dick, actually, even if having a disabled protagonist is a nice change.<br /> From the outset it annoyed me with unexpected uses of Scots words that were out of place, but the biggest problem it has is the unavoidable one that so much more has been discovered about Bronze Age Britain in the past 60 years or so since it was written. Since there was less known at the time, Sutcliffe has brought in all sorts of bits from Bronze Age civilisations around Europe. She might sell this to us as being about the South Downs, but the whole Boys House thing with the requirement to slay a wolf in order to earn a warrior’s scarlet robe has me going “THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!”<br /> Shame, really, cos much of it is really good. It does actually deserve a proper screen adaptation taking more recent archaeological discoveries into account. Oh, there are distinctive illustrations here and there too.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=364829" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3647092022 Book Log 3 - Polaris by Jack McDevitt2022-03-23T23:39:41Z2022-03-23T23:39:41Zpublic0POLARIS by Jack McDevitt<br /><br />Took a while for various reasons. It’s a fun bit of SF, and a good detective mystery set thousands of years in the future, with a personable narrator and a colourful set of worlds and locations, and generally realistic science with the obvious exception of a vague McGuffin drive to allow for FTL travel. It feels like a jet-setting mystery thriller, and is just that, except on a bigger scale, being world-hopping.<br /><br /> It’s filled with examples of that Trek trope of references to fictional otherworld celebrities and whatnot, which are to give local colour rather than continuity to other books. This works well to start with but just goes on so often that I swear you could cut about a hundred pages just by removing them. Padding of people biting, chewing, and swallowing their sandwiches is also OTT and reminds me of one time somebody parodied my DW stuff by such a paragraph- except that I never wen this far or frequent with it. I don’t remember this level of these irrelevances in other McDevitt books I’ve read (such as Eternity Road and Chindi) so either they had the right amount and this one was one too many, or the fact that it’s part of a series about a future antiquities dealer means there’s more of it. Very non-diverse too, which is kind of odd for something with so many characters flitting past through such a wide cosmos.<br /><br /> Still, it was fun, solid mystery and solution, some exciting bits, and really just needed some trimming on those fronts.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=364709" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3642922022 Book Log 2- The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie2022-01-27T15:15:44Z2022-03-23T23:37:50Zpublic0THE ABC MURDERS by Agatha Christie<br /><br />Back to a favourite Poirot. It’s interesting to note that about six pages in, Hastings describes his ideal choice of murder case, which covers several elements from Poirot stories, and indeed (as Poirot retorts) most of then-current detective fiction. Poirot then goes on to describe the case he’s order if he could, and gives the setup for Cards On The Table, which would be published 11 months after this book (Murder In Mesopotamia came in between- that’s prolific!). Which makes me wonder whether she was already writing that one and decided to tease it ahead of time, or just thought “hey actually that’s not a bad idea, I’ll just fucking do it”<br /> Otherwise, yeah classic Poirot, though the larger scope and number of chracters doesn’t quite fit with Agatha’s writing style, so there are a number of instances where you’re left to wonder exactly where a scene is taking place, some underwritten cyphers as characters (but, ah, we’ve all done that), and Poirot’s new handy valet who makes such a vital moment isbasically glossed over. Still a favourite, though, with the complicated plot hanging together well, and Poirot being on top form.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=364292" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3641972022 Book Log 1- Later by Stephen King2022-01-10T21:48:16Z2022-01-10T21:48:16Zpublic0Oh, I see I didn't post beyond 8 here last year - was mostly on the other computer that doesn't have the password saved...<br /><br />I intended to try starting 2022’s recreational books with Dickens’s The Cricket On The Hearth, but it’s more a Xmas book, which was past already, and it was tiny print that was also repro to Victorian paper, so somewhat broken up, and also I just couldn’t get into it. So one we hit 12th night, I gave up and went with...<br />1) LATER by Stephen King<br />This is one of his Hard Case Crime books, but very definitely a horror/supernatural story that echoes a lot of his earlier stuff- notably the kid seeing dead people as in The Shining (he references The Sixth Sense, as to reclaim the concept), deadlights, and (a different version of) the Ritual of Chud from It.<br /> With the narrator being the sone of a literary agent, there’s a wealth on in-references to the publishing businiess and King’s experiences in it (the fact that this is a 250-page book coupled with a line about authors reaching a stage where they refuse copyediting or any editing). The main plot concerns what happens when the narrator who can see dead people gets involved with a bombing case because his mum’s girlfriend is a (dirty) cop, and finds that some things are worse than the merely dead.<br /> On the crime front, we have a dirty cop story told from an unusual aspect, which is a great change, even if some of the developments are a bit sudden and shaky – but then they would be, being from a 9-13 year-old’s memories, who isn’t an omnipotent narrator. On the horror front, we have something that starts off as King reclaiming his themes from the likes of The Sixth Sense, adding to the Kingverse mythos, and – best of all – takes a lovely orbit around MR Jamesian territory, in particular Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You. Interestingly the text refers to the “title of a famous ghost story” but not to the Burns poem that MRJ got it from, which is definitely an element in the story, so that side is nicely held as subtext for the MRJ fans.<br /> In a lot of ways it feels like what the Odd Thomas series would be if it was written by Kin rather than Koontz – not in the sese of King doing a version of that, but just my feeling of how they play. If the book has a downside, it’s that the one last twist is kind of irrelevant and unnecessary, and comes out of nowhere, though with that said, it does tie into the background of the Oh Whistle title, just in an an out of the blue tag scene way.<br /> Overall it’s a hugely enjoyable page-turner, and being shorter than the average King doorstop means it flows that much faster and fresher. Good characteriation and… You know it might just be the most enjoyable and accessible King, unburdened by hundreds of pages, in years. Highly recommended- it only came out last summer and has been a great start to the reading year for me.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=364197" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:363915Book Log 2021 #8- STONEHENGE by Rosemary Hill2021-06-26T11:10:40Z2021-06-26T11:10:40Zpublic0#8) STONEHENGE by Rosemary Hill.<br /><br />A book about a subject that’s under constant study is always at risk of being superseded by new discoveries, and, having come out in 2008, this one was before the latest revelation a year or so back that a version of the monument had been set up in Wales first and was physically brought with its builders to the site in Wiltshire and remade…. And that doesn’t matter, where this book is concerned.<br /><br /> This book, you see, isn’t a history of the monument and how it developed. No, this is a book about the history of how it has been viewed and studied since its discovery- by Medieval chroniclers, 17th Century Antiquarians, Victorians, artists, archaeologists, architects, governments, and (of course) wannabe Druids. <br /><br /> It’s a highly readable and fascinating tour through history, taking in why people in different eras thought it was built by Romans; how the different focus of architects, antiquarians, and archaeologists gave them different views; just how the various Druid wannabes got so intertwined with it and their internicine feuding, and sidesteps into intriguing and often amusing bits of the lives and works famous people in the abovementioned fields away from Stonehenge. (To pick a random example, how Frederick Bligh-Bond impressed the Church by discovering lost wings of Glastonbury Cathedral very quickly, then got fired for revealing he had been told where to look by one of the original builders in a séance). <br /><br />The chapter on more recent decades is also a good brisk eye-opener as to how it became a counterculture icon and the location for protests and violence in the 80s, and where English Heritage really spawned much of that.<br /><br />And of course there’s a great round up of the physical facts of Stonehenge to start with, and some tips on visiting and further reading to end with. <br /><br /> Engaging, fascinating, good fun, educational, highly readable… Lovely bit of popular history. Very recommended.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=363915" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:363652Book Log 2021 whoops2021-04-09T06:11:31Z2021-04-09T06:11:31Zpublic0I came in to post #5 and saw I hadn't posted #3 or #4. <br /><br />I guess I'll have to do a combination post later in the day...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=363652" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:363448Book Log 2021 #22 - BETWEEN TWO THORNS ny Emma Newman2021-02-08T22:47:39Z2021-04-09T06:09:06Zpublic02021 booklog #2 BETWEEN TWO THORNS by Emma Newman<br /><br />A light entertaining mixture of fae fantasy and mystery. Starts off with two magic-themed mysteries, gives us two great characters in the forms of Cathy, a woman with a very strange past that gets her into present trouble, and a detective with a gargoyle sidekick, who I’d love to see done in a TV series.<br /><br />From there on in it splits in style, between the mystery element with magic and characters dealing weirdness, and of course a gargoyle sidekick, and the machinations of posh families that feels like Pride And Prejudice And Fae. Newman’s style is pleasant and accessible throughout, but the two plot strands are sufficiently different that I enjoyed the one side way more than the other.<br /><br />It’s thankfully not the typical fae/human story I’d half expected, and so I did enjoy it a fair bit – there’s some good dialogue – and I like the lead characters too. The other downside, however, is that there comes a point where you realise only one of the two main mysteries is solved and there isn’t enough book left for the other one, so it ends of a somewhat artificial cliffhanger for a sequel, and actually forgets in that cliffhanger all about a giveaway from early on that ties in. That makes it feel like it’s been written as one volume and been retroactively split as an editorial decision. I’ve no idea if that’s what happened, but that’s what if feels like.<br /><br />Nice, fun, but annoyingly incomplete.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=363448" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:363053Book Log 2021 #01 THE CHIMES by Charles Dickens2021-01-23T22:38:40Z2021-01-23T22:38:40Zpublic0THE CHIMES by Charles Dickens<br /><br />You can tell A Christmas Carol went well for Dickens, cos he tried to repeat the effect a few more times, in his Christmas Books. The Chimes is the second one, published only a year later, but definitely suffers from what we’d now call sequelitis. This follows a similar path of a lead character – albeit one far more sympathetic from the outset than Scrooge – shown visions of the future to make him change his ways. The main differences being that this time it’s about New Year’s Day rather than Christmas, and about the virtues in looking forward instead of back. And also the quality has dropped from genuine classic to all over the map, like a studio-demanded instant sequel to a surprise hit. Which basically is what it is.<br /><br />Anyway, it starts off well, with vibrant and spooky descriptions of a church and belltower that M.R. James must have found very inspirational, then turns into a tour of fat cat landlords, justices and capitalists stamping down on poor Trotty and his friends, and Trotty getting a big dream sequence of how awful they’ll end up if they believe what the scumbags say of decent poor folks, and look towards a past golden age that never was (Jeez, that sounded familiar, doesn’t it?) instead of raising the poor workers to better lives in future. In this sense it still rings totally true – all the fat cat scumbags could be writing in the papers today from their Cabinet offices.<br /><br />However, Dickens has probably hit the gig here where he gets paid by the word, and sentences run on for whole pages, making them confusing as hell – there’s also a character death where he forgets to confirm who it actually is! - and it’s all topped off with an appalling “it was all a dream, now lets all sing and dance with all the good characters, who have miraculously turned up at home like in a Muppet version finale”. And the “goblins”, the voices of the Chimes themselves don’t have a memorable or even notable character the way that all the Xmas Spirits in the previous one did.<br /><br />So, there are good bits, like the opening descriptions, the early fart gag, and the chilling speeches of the – well it’s hard not to say Tories, franjkly, they haven’t improved since. The message is fine and correct, but the delivery is also confusing, long-winded, and despite being two-thirds the length of A Christmas Carol, took three times as long to get through, and has no deep or interesting characters<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=363053" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:3629762020 soundtrack2021-01-03T13:38:47Z2021-01-03T13:38:47Zpublic0I did manage to compile a 66 track score for 2020, and here it is. As always, the tracks do reflect specific events or moods, but only I know what they are...<br /><br /><br />1)Exercise at Gibraltar [John Barry, The Living Daylights]<br /><br />2) Don’t Lose Your Head (Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head)<br /><br />3)Persistence (Jeff Russo, Discovery season 1) <br /><br />4)The Woman He Loves (Murray Gold, the Husbands Of River Song)<br /><br />5)And Somewhere Else The Tea Is Getting Cold [Dominic Glynn, Survival]<br /><br />6)The Dead Are Already Here [Ramin Djawadi, Game Of Thrones season 8]<br /><br />07)Impossible Choice [Murray Gold, Dr Who Series 5]<br /><br />08)Contemplations – [Ron Jones, ST TNG Best Of Both Worlds]<br /><br />09)Ghosts Of A Future Lost, [Clint Mansell, Requiem For A Dream]<br /><br />10] One Word[Murray Gold DW series 9]<br /><br />11] Palpatine’s Theme Epic Medieval version [John Williams, Samuel Kim].<br /><br />12] What Must A King Do –[Tyler Bates, 300]<br /><br />13] Anakin’s Betrayal/Dark Deeds [Samuel Kim mix]<br /><br />14] Data Awakes In Engineering [Jerry Goldsmith, First Contact]<br /><br />15] Rebirth, [Bear McReary, Godzilla King Of The Monsters]<br /><br />16] Order 66 Sad Cinematic Version, [Samuel Kim]<br /><br />17 ] Dumpling Warrior [Hans Zimmer, Kung Fu Panda 2]<br /><br />18] Soul Battles – [Ryan Taubert]<br /><br />19] Contamination – [Ennio Morricone, The Thing]<br /><br />20] He’s A PirateMedieval Style[Hans Zimmer/Samuel Kim POTC]<br /><br />21] Tell Me Who You Are [Murray Gold, Dr Who Series 6]<br /><br />22] Not Today [Ramin Djawadi, Game Of Thrones season 8]<br /><br />23] Kylo Ren/Imperial March [JohnWilliams/Samuel Kim]<br /><br />24] They Are Everywhere [Murray Gold Dr Who series 7]<br /><br />25] You Win Or You Die [Ramin Djawadi Game Of Thrones season 1]<br /><br />26] Legend Of The Scorpion King [Alan Silvestri, The Mummy Returns]<br /><br />27] Definitely Not Swedish [Jerry Goldsmith, First Contact]<br /><br />28] The Law [Alan Silvestri, Judge Dredd]<br /><br />29] Leaving Drydock [Jerry Goldsmith, Star Trek The Motion Picture]<br /><br />30] Obi Wan Kenobi Theme [Samuel Kim]<br /><br />31] Dredd And Fargo [Alan Silvestri, Judge Dredd]<br /><br />32] Matrix Main Title [Don Davis, The Matrix]<br /><br />33] God Of Gamblers Theme [unknown composer, God Of Gamlers]<br /><br />34] A New Home/Rey [John Williams/Samuel Kim, Rise Of Skywalker]<br /><br />35] Police Station [Brad Feidel, The Terminator]<br /><br />36] A Grand Day Out [Julian Nott, A Grand Day Out]<br /><br />37] The Man [Ennio Morricone, Once Upon A Time In The West]<br /><br />38] Sitting Ducks/ Borg Reach Saturn[Ron Jones, Best Of Both Worlds]<br /><br />39] Connor’s Life [Lorne Bailfe, Assassins Creed 3]<br /><br />40] The Friends Song [ Mark Knopfler, The Princess Bride]<br /><br />41] Hoist The Colours Davy Jones Mix [samuel kim, POTC]<br /><br />42] Something I Can Never Have [Ramin Djawadi, Westworld season 1]<br /><br />43] Matrix Breaks In [James Horner, Commando]<br /><br />44] Musketeers Piano Arrangement [Murray Gold, The Musketeers]<br /><br />45] Floating Office [Jerry Goldsmith, ST TMP]<br /><br />46] The Lab [Jerry Goldsmith, Alien]<br /><br />47] Reveries [Ramin Djawadi, Westworld season 1]<br /><br />48] The Course Of My Life [Murray Gold, Dr Who A Christmas Carol]<br /><br />49] It’s The End [Paddy Kingsland, Logopolis]<br /><br />50] The Hunt Builds [Wojciech Kilar, Bram Stoker’s Dracula]<br /><br />51] Remember Remember [Dario Marianelli, V For Vendetta]<br /><br />52] This World [Ramin Djawadi, Westworld season 1]<br /><br />53] Everything Has To End Sometime [Murray Gold, Dr Who A Christmas Carol]<br /><br />54] Through The Flames [John Williams Return Of The Jedi]<br /><br />55] L3 And Millennium Falcon [John Powell, Solo]<br /><br />56] Hanging On [Jerry Goldsmith, Alien]<br /><br />57] Training Begins [Don Davis, Matrix ]<br /><br />58] The Penitent Man Will Pass [John Williams, Last Crusade]<br /><br />59] Imperial March Sad Prowse Tribute Mix [John Williams, Samuel Kim]<br /><br />60] Assault On The Tower [Michael Kamen, Die Hard]<br /><br />61] Temporal Wake [Jerry Goldsmith, First Contact]<br /><br />62 ]Imperial March Carol Of The Bells Epic Mix [John Williams, Samuel Kim]<br /><br />63] You’re Fired [Murray Gold, The Doctor The Widow And The Wardrobe]<br /><br />64] Rise Of Skywalker final trailer music [John Williams. Rise Of Skywalker]<br /><br />65] Captain Borg[Ron Jones, TNG Best Of Both Worlds]<br /><br />66] Blue Skies [Isa Briones/Jeff Russo, Star Trek Picard]<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=362976" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:362499Happy March 397th 2020 everybody2021-01-01T12:00:29Z2021-01-01T12:39:00Zpublic0So what did I manage in 2020, my 52nd year? Um... earned not one penny, finished not one writing project [these are probably connected, but Lesley needed to do her writing to stay sane while keyworking, and I can't write when there's typing going on], fought no tournaments, got no auths, nor got my students any auths of prize plays... in fact moved my SCA path from 18 months behind to two and a half years behind. Took on one new novel project, which got canned halfway through when rights issues changed, and one short story project which I'll turn in next week. <br /><br />Started or announced intentions to start more craft projects than ever. Did finish a couple, like Eowyn's shield, etc [seriously, is it wrong that I made leather vambraces for fencing to hold down a shirt cuff that a button had come off, rather than sew a button on cos it wouldn't match the other cuff?] and new flexible articulated armour carapace is 70% there...<br /><br />Don't feel I did the looking after people [other than Lesley] thing or did 'my bit' even though I know I did give shelter at the start of the year, and a new duvet in a bag to someone who needed it on Boxing Day... But all the endless, eternal, propaganda of 'do your bit by staying home and keeping away from people' doesn't do it for me, as I always lived like that anyway. Saw they got proof that a mild or asymptomatic case of covid does give some resistance/immunity and wish I could have given some blood plasma to help with that, but I'm not allowed cos mine's.... unusual.<br /><br />Did read more books, but at the cost of less activity and higher blood glucose. Did build some models, teach Zoom classes, make videos on fencing tips [nothing sparks the impostor syndrome quite like those]... won a prize for cooked stuff the week before Lockdown 1.0 started. Dunno that stuff crammed into te first two months of the year counts for the lack of anything in the other 10. Oh, and did become Principality Rapier Champion, which is nice.<br /><br />Thought I was doing mentally well for most of it cos it was closer to my normal life, but probably not, in the end.<br /><br />So what for this year? I usually like to start Jan 1st with new things; write a paragrah at least of something totally new, start a new model, a new game...<br /><br />Workwise it's impossible to tell. Keep pitching, keep at the stuff I'm already doing, hopefully things in retail will ease in such a way that I can tell Lesley tolet me do my work, if any. Who knows, it all depends too much on other people agreeing to things.<br /><br />Event wise... nobody can plan anything more than about ten days in advance, so effectively it's still 2020. [Looking at when legislation expires, what platitudes and lies the government are saying, and running the numbers of vaccines actually likely to be rolled out, I suspect we'll see Tiers 3 and 4 solid through Jan/Feb, go random and politicised in March before dropping off and being replaced by something new in a Coronavirus Act 2021 at Easter, such as no tiers but caps on gathering sizes, and even if they get the vaccine rollout up to the quoted aim of 2 million a month by Feb or March, you won't hit effective herd immunity coverage level until... October. And they only have half a million doses, enough for a quarter million people, for January. I'd be confident of having Yule Ball and Xmas Markets next year, and proper Remembrance Day and Strictly Blackpool Week, but everything in summer I'd call 50/50 at this point, and the likes of Eastercon is still buggered.<br /><br />Healthwise... I'd planned to not take the new tablets until after a Feb/March blood test to see if increasing activity levels would bring the numbers down, because if they came down I wouldn't know whether tablets or activity did it, but they have the pharmacy call to see whether there are any side effects, so I'm going to have to take some anyway to keep them off my back... Bleh.<br /><br />But for today, write something new, glue something new, play the first level of something new, try to sieze power somewhere.... And finish off and post up the playlist for 2020's musical score.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=362499" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:362291Book Log 2020 #22 Twelve Angels Weeping2020-12-31T18:38:13Z2020-12-31T18:38:13Zpublic022 – TWELVE ANGELS WEEPING by David RuddenAn anthology of Dr Who stories ostensibly themed around Xmas, but actually most of the stories mention a festive season barely or not at all. As you might expect from an anthology there’s quite a range styles and also of quality. Some of the stories get the characters and monsters spot on, such as Twelve in the first story [though not the Angels who at one point move while watched], or Vastra and Strax, while others… don’t. [Hello Leela who speaks with normal contractions, and Four who just talks like a normal bloke, in the Sycorax/Ice Warrior story]. <br /><br />Most of the stories have a less than subtle, but well phrased theme, and a thoroughly predictable, usually downbeat, end twist. However, totally worth it for some of the POVs such as the Cyberman and Vastra, and some of the narrations, such as the tradtitional noir private eye, and the Sontaran eduation machine which is so totally written in Dan Starkey’s voice… <br /><br />Nothing amazing, nothing awful, light and generally pleasant entertainment in easily digestible bursts.<br /><br />Sadly didn’t quite make a full 24 as I’d hoped,though I did read more than 22 books overall, but the others were more work related and research, so don’t count in this recreational reading annual log. For example, 22 would have been A Christmas Carol, which I often read in December, until I remembered it was for work reference this time, and so Twelve Angels Weeping moved from 23 to 22. Oh well, it’s better than the 8 or so that I ended up with last year. The cancellations and lockdowns helped with that, but the sitting around raised my HBA1C number so I hope there’s a happy medium to be found somewhere in 2021..<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=362291" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:362011Book Log 2020 #21 Murder On The Orient Express2020-12-24T10:41:18Z2020-12-24T10:41:18Zpublic021 – MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS by Agatha Christie.Yeah, I’m familiar enough with the story to remember who did it, but not why or how it plays out, cos my set of the Suchet Poirots doesn’t go up to this one, and I’m planning to watch the Branagh version which is over Xmas, so…<br /><br />It’s another classic Poirot plot, from 1934, and written most in the form of interview dialogues, with very little description, which actually works to its favour; it reads as if Christie was thinking of turning it into either a play or a radio drama. Poirot’s dialogue does more than enough to give him character - the other characters less so, none are particularly dimensional – and it’s definitely Suchet’s voice I hear, rather than Finney or Ustinov, in the books. If ever I read one that I think sounds like Malkovich, I’ll take that as a viable diagnosis of dementia…<br /><br />Poirot in it does make up one thing out whole cloth rather tan from clues we’re presented with, which is unusual for Christie. Fortunately for him, it turns out to be true, and to be fair he does admit later to guessing at stuff based on the sort of household he expects an American one to be like. I still thank she was pushing it there though. <br /><br />The ending is very sudden, and is open to different interpretations of Poirot’s attitude. In the Suchet version ISTR him being angry or annoyed at the decision, but I read the printed version as being perfectly OK with it…<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=362011" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:361967Book Log 2020 #20 BLITZCAT with spoilers2020-12-16T11:32:01Z2020-12-16T11:32:01Zpublic020 – BLITZCAT by Robert Westall<br /><br />This is a really good one, mostly. The titular cat is essentially the framing device for a portmanteau of affecting stories of people’s lives in 1940 and ’41. Her journey to find her one true person brings her into the lives of various people from wartime widows to carters to a bomber crew… They’re all really good, with just the right balance of threat, thrills, adventure, tragedy, humour, and feline frolics.<br /><br />I’m going to spoiler it a bit now, in two ways. First, if you’re anything like me, you might want to know in advance whether the cat lives or dies at the end, as is often the case with animal themed human interest stories, before really deciding whether to read it. So, spoiler, she survives for a happy ending. Secondly, between pages 181 and 220 or so, cat and book totally jump the shark, when the cat gets to go on raids over Germany, shoot down enemy planes, get shot down, and make her way home by means of resistance guides into Portugal. Seriously.<br /><br />Now, cats have made long journeys home, bomber crews did illicitly take mascots with them, etc, but this whole sequence is much more rushed than the other stories, and feels tonally more like something the author was either pressured into doing, or that he got to it when a hard wordcount limit was getting close.<br /><br />Overall, though, it’s a great read, just so well pitched and affecting, and I’m totally amazed there hasn’t been a movie or TV series. In fact I think this now becomes the one story that I’d more than anything love to find a way to become a film/TV maker to script and direct. But I’d have to either drop or extend, and certainly tweak, that pp181-220 section.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=361967" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:361495Book Log 2020 #19 THHE CAT LOVER'S COFFEE TABLE BOOK2020-11-23T14:01:31Z2020-11-23T14:02:01Zpublic019 – THE CAT LOVER’S COFFEE TABLE BOOK. By Nanette Newman, Graham Tarrant, and Edward McGlachlan.<br /> A small, thin, far from coffee table book sized, 1983 novelty of amusing cat anecdotes accompanied by some great cartoons from McGlachlan that are somewhat of a highlight. Brief but amusing half hour timewaste, basically. A bog book, as it were.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=361495" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:361233Book Log 2020 #18 - BEDLAM, LONDON AND ITS MAD by Catharine Arnold2020-11-15T10:19:35Z2020-11-15T10:19:35Zpublic018 – BEDLAM; LONDON AND ITS MAD by Catharine Arnold<br />Much better than the Amazons book by Lyn Webster Wild last time; this one’s written by someone who knows their subject, is in the same field, and catches the mix of accurate detail and cheerful readability. A history of London’s Bethlem Hospital from its founding to its influence on every haunted asylum movie ever made, this is engaging and takes in the history of healthcare, mental healthcare, London, popular press, and even amusing diversions into witchcraft laws and jocular anecdotes.<br /> Very readable, knowledgable, written by a historian who is also a psychologist and engaging writer… Yeah, this should be a TV series as well. Get to it, BBC Two. Since I’ve been alternating male and female writers but had had to give up on the Amazons one I wasn’t sure whether to go for another female-written nonfiction book or just switch over to something else written by a bloke, but choosing this one definitely made up for the previous one.<br /> On a more general note, I notice my rate of reading has slowed now that we’re into winter, as it’s no longer the weather to catch some rays on the verandah with a book… I do love to read in bed, but then Lesley’s like ‘my eyes need the light off’ when I’ve gone about half a paragraph, even though I found two of her sleep masks, so I don’t really get to do that unless I want to go to bed about 9pm. Which I don’t.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=361233" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:361116Book Log 2020 #16 - A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AMAZONS by Lyn Webster Wild2020-10-12T12:35:19Z2020-10-12T12:35:19Zpublic017 – A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AMAZONS, Women Warriors In Myth And History, by Lyn Webster Wild.<br /> I dunno if I should even count this, considering how little I got into it before skimming to the end. <br /> Nah, there are immediate problems with it. First she says it’s not going to be this sort of book, but another sort of book, then mostly writes it as the sort she said she wouldn’t, suggesting she couldn’t decide or was unable to make her intention work. Then almost immediately she displays a total misunderstanding of Ancient Greek symbology and art. Which is a problem when that’s actually what you’re basing your thoughts on. Skimming to the end, after she’d spent the beginning telling us how everything anybody said about the Amazons was conjecture and just bloody-mindedness, she ends up coming the same obvious conclusion as literally everybody else [i.e. lots of different cultures had empowered women and the Greek name just stuck as a general descriptor], as if it was amazingly new.<br /> She also uses ‘I’ too much in the factual bits instead or [or as well as, rather] in the personal experience bits, which is iffy.<br /> I probably will go back to it at some point, but for whatever reason it’s not doing it for me right now. Maybe I was just not quite in the mood for how this turned out, or maybe I was just oddly annoyed that the only pop culture Amazon she mentioned was Xena instead of Wonder Woman, or maybe it’s just too slow a slog when I’m trying to reach a total of at least 24 entries by the end of the year and don’t want to spend another month on number 17, [and it’s only 191 pages, BTW], but…<br /> This is the recreational reading log, and if I’m not enjoying it and relaxing then it isn’t recreation, especially with a second go with covid right now, so I don’t have to go through it. Which leaves me with a bit of a problem; as I’ve been alternating male and female writers, and trying to vary the genre each time, do I now just go with a male writer. or find a female one, and if the latter it has to not be crime or an SF tie-in...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=361116" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:360768Book Log 2020 #16 - THE WANTED by Robert Crais2020-10-02T09:59:29Z2020-10-02T09:59:29Zpublic016 – THE WANTED by Robert Crais<br /><br />Private eye Elvis Cole is hired by a woman to find out where her teenage son got a forty grand Rolex, and soon finds himself racing a couple of sociopathic hitmen. <br /> It’s a fast, mostly tense read, very enjoyable, and nice to be reacquainted with Cole and Joe Pike. In fact Pike doesnt appear until a third of the way in, and I had been beginning to think he wasn’t going to feature.<br /> You can really tell that Crais, unlike, say, Michael Connelly, who turned to fiction from being a crime reporter, started as a TV staff writer, because you’ll get a line of dialogue from a character, then a line of description or action taken by that person in a new one line paragraph, then aother line from the same person in a new paragraph…. Because that’s the way scripts are laid out. Never really noticed that before in his books, but it’s there.<br /> This does kind of lead to a higher page count with a lower word count, and the pacing stumbles a bit in the last quarter as we suddenly get a couple of padded but entertaining in and of themselves Tarantinoesque flashbacks to flesh out the hitmen, which really halt the dive towards the climax to do something that should have been done earlier. Speaking of the hitmen, they seem to be coded as vaguely queer, echoing Wint and Kidd in Diamonds Are Forever, but at least one of them also hints at an interest in underage girls, making me wonder if Crais is trying to conflate queerness with paedophilia…. Or whether he just couldn’t quite decide which way they should swing but wanted them to seem sufficiently evil, as if the tortures and murders didn’t tell us that. Hm.<br /> Anyway, for the most part, thrills, tension, two good leads, and proper MacGuffin handled just the way they traditionally should be. But that disappointing niggling coding too.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=360768" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:360678Book Log 2020 #15 – SEVEN OF NINE by Christie Golden2020-09-27T21:12:09Z2020-09-28T09:20:57Zpublic015 – SEVEN OF NINE by Christie Golden.<br />Only her third Trek book, a Voyager one, and not bad,though I confess I prefer her Assassin's Creed books, which are way better than the Oliver Bowden ones, being written by an actual storyteller and not a tame historian. The plotline is rather obvious, and tells us too much of what the guest characters are really up to far too early, rather than letting us find out as Seven finds out, but moves along at a nice clip, makes great use of Seven as a lead character, and did a good job of making me want to see how things would turn out. But, you know, my 1998 stuff isn’t my best either.<br /> Characterisation of Seven is really good, the other characters passable, and it’s nice to see a good range of nonhuman[oid] aliens in a Trek story, to a greater extent than the show, which was still running when this came out, could have ever afforded. Use of the Raven motif builds well on the season 4 episode too, and there’s a bonus laugh for page 195 having a line of unintentional Yoda grammar…<br /> Nice nostalgic familiar comfort-reading, that.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=360678" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:360344Book Log 2020 #14 SIN CITY HELL AND BACK by Frank Miller2020-09-19T16:13:03Z2020-09-19T16:13:03Zpublic014 – SIN CITY 7: HELL AND BACK by Frank Miller<br />Yeah, Miller’s a git who hasn’t written anything not offensive propaganda since about 2005, but this is from 1999, and from a charity shop anyway, so what the hell. Solid neo-noir in his stark and occasionally confusing but usually striking solid black and white art style.<br /> The plot is pretty simple, with a guy who looks astonishingly like John Wick saving a girl from suicide and then finding himself framed by people/organ traffickers. Hilarity ensues, and really I’m not sure John Wick isn’t actually literally inspired by this one, even if he ends up being Solid Snake. I’m also not sure that one of the villains isn’t meant to be The Cheetah from Wonder Woman, especially since there’s one colour chapter filled with cameos as the main character has been drugged and hallucinates.<br /> So, striking, a fast read despite the size of the trade paperback, not too demanding, would fit nicely in a movie in the franchise.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=360344" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-05-12:513831:359977Book Log 2020 #13 CHANGELESS by Gail Carriger2020-09-18T11:16:48Z2020-09-18T11:16:48Zpublic013 – CHANGELESS by Gail Carriger<br />I actually intended to read the first in the Parasol Protectorate series, which turns out to be Soulless, while this is the second book. I have the first four, but the first one seems to have been moved somewhere separate to the others, so…<br /> Basically, it’s tongue in cheek steampunk with a Lady who acts as a secret agent in a Victorian era filled with vampires and werewolves, as well as aether and dirigibles. I was a shade worried that the vampire/werewolf thing might be that kind of sub-Twilight fashion, but that concern was very quickly dispelled. It’s more readable than that, with a nice worldbuild setup, and I was sold on it with the comparison between Scottish big and English big.<br /> The plot gets into gear nice and gently but picking up pace and all makes sense at the end. Well, apart from one loose end which is very minor. The characters are engaging, especially the lead, Lady Alexia Maccon, and it’s all quite amusing. The blurb compares it to Austen and Wodehouse, but it’s actually more mild echo of Pratchett and genteel Blackadder, though of course those in turn were influenced by Austen and Wodehouse.<br /> The humour works, the action works, and plot and characters work, and the worldbuilding works. There’s also an unexpected bi ethos through it, which seems coincidentally appropriate for this being Bi Visibility week. And it’s a bonus that this is caused by a good character who seems to be just introduced in this sequel. <br /> It does end on a fairly obvious and predictable cliffhanger, which is somewhat undercut by outright stating the cause, but I didn’t feel like I’d missed anything by coming in on the second book without having read the first, and that’s a definite plus point. Overall, highly recommended, and I loved it. That said, if Gail Carriger ever reads this, I do have to mention that ‘pollock’ and ‘bollix’ should be ‘pillock’ and ‘bollocks.’<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=lonemagpie&ditemid=359977" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments