threemonkeys | Recent Entries

It was the Phoenix quiz tonight. As usual when I set a quiz, I worried that my questions would be too easy. As usual, things were a bit on the hard side. One of the harder questions was the following - I suspect my flist might do a bit better with it:

Name the Australian magazine which espouses the following reasons for existing:
• Because not enough humorous SF & Fantasy gets into print
• Because SF can be printed AND entertaining at the same time
• Because it's not the size of the sword, it's where you stick it
• Because too many 'light-hearted, un-serious' stories are rejected
• Because first-time authors have a hell of a time getting into print

Afterwards, there was a bit of discussion about the way a quiz can be used as a way of informing people as well as testing them. I got "that sounds interesting" comments about this question and I know some people took note of the url that I gave them with the answer. More interest than I have ever got from telling people about ASIM actually. So who wants to be in next year's quiz?

I had to google Justina Robson just to make sure that she was one person and not a collaboration. The reason is that I just read Keeping it Real, the first in her Quantum Gravity series. The wasn't any need to do such an investigation for her previous books, all of which I enjoyed, but this one felt like it was written by two different people.

The first part was wonderful. Robson attempted one of those genre fusion deals. Taking cyberpunk, high fantasy, contemporary fantasy and rock 'n' roll and mixing them together into a high paced story. The fusion itself gives extra energy. It is fun but with a real story and characters developing. Since the energy from the setting cannot sustain a whole novel, it is important that an author makes sure that those essential elements are still brought along. This seemed to be the case here - it was all coming along nicely.

Then the scene changed. It moved from a more or less contemporary Earth to an elf realm. All big trees and magic. What is more, most of the supporting characters that were being built up disappear. The main character now has new companions and a new mission. Instead of action, the book becomes all convoluted talk. What action there is is arbitrary. From fun and engaging it is tedious.

What makes an author do this? I'm sure there was a reason but it isn't obvious to me. One thought is that this is presumably the first volume of a trilogy and this world is set over six realms. That is half a book per realm. Perhaps the idea is to have a different style in each realm. If that is the reason, I just wish that the two parts had been integrated better. So, should I read the next book in the series? At this point I'm saying "no - wait for another standalone book".

I have just finished The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It is an entertaining and reasoned polemic on the subject of religion with the odd bit of a rant cropping up from time to time. I like a good rant. I was going to qualify that by saying that I like a good rant that I agree with, but the more I think about it, the more that I find counter examples. The important thing is that they are "good" - by which in this context I mean articulate and funny.

There is just one isolated thing which annoyed me though. Over the years Dawkins had a long running rivalry with Stephen Jay Gould over their approach to evolutionary biology. In this book, even though it is not primarily about evolutionary biology, Dawkins still takes the time to put the boot into Gould. He just didn't need to do that. The guy is dead. Give it a rest.

My TV has been repaired so I am doing more reading. It is quite straightforward. While I didn't have a TV, if I wanted to, say, follow the cricket I had to sit at the computer. I could do a bit of web surfing or play games while doing that but not read. But with the TV on, I can kick back and read. The TV can provide audio visual wallpaper while I read and if something interesting comes on I can shift attention for a minute.

I read Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan. It is a very polished piece of writing. The story is coherent. The world building is consistent, fairly detailed and works well according to its own internal logic. The many characters all have distinct identities and plenty of emotional complexity. The multiple POV style is executed well - each character building the overall story. The writing is in an easy to read manner that allows the reader to just keep turning the pages. There really isn't anything bad I can say about this book.

Well maybe one thing. You see, I have no desire to read another one in the series. It was nice, but I had no real engagement with it. There isn't really anything obvious reason that I can see. Sometime it just happens that way I guess.

I have just finished watching season 2 of Weeds. I love this show. I love the funny scary characters and the way the plot has more twists than a snake on acid. Given the theme of the show it seems trite to wonder what the writers are on, but I wonder anyway. Except that right now I am pissed off at the writers. The last episode has a really huge cliffhanger ending. Apart from the intrinsic annoyance that such an ending invokes, don't they know the rule that the bigger the cliff the greater the chance that you will not be picked up for another season. Grrr.

I find the implications of the technology described in this article very disturbing. The development of an effective non-lethal crowd control device would lead to the effective ending of public political protest. This paragraph from the article sums up my misgivings:

The development of a truly safe and highly effective nonlethal crowd-control system could raise enormous ethical questions about the state's use of coercive force. If a method such as ADS leads to no lasting injury or harm, authorities may find easier justifications for employing them.

I had plans. I had plans for my time away from work. Many have been achieved, but one goal has not been. I had planned to see a lot more films. The idea was to get into a regular habit of checking out the latest releases and get back into the big screen habit. This has just not happened. This morning, I thought I would try again. The idea was to go see Children of Men at the new cinema complex at Queensgate. It was as much a trial of the cinema as an attempt to see the movie. It didn't happen. I read The Children of the Company by Kage Baker instead. You get a hint there of why my cinema ambitions have come to nothing.
( Only one minor problem with the Baker novel )

I broke a tooth yesterday - knocked a corner off a molar. Actually, knocked a repair of a previous breakage off. So no new damage, just old damage to be repaired again. The thing about broken teeth is that while it does not hurt, my tongue is constantly seeking it out. Almost by reflex I keep probing to check on the damage. Its a kind of fascination.

Reading Neil Gaiman is a different kind of fascination. The kind that is generated by genius. Fragile Things, his latest collection is not his best work however. It appears to be all the various short pieces he has written over the last couple of years thrown into one volume. Many of the stories are every bit as good as you might expect, but others are less so. Some have the appearance of something jotted down in and idle moment - a good idea that hasn't really been fully worked up into a story. Others fall into that category of being too clever. They author having so much fun with the style and tricks that he forgets about entertaining the audience.

But in the final analysis, it is still Gaiman and therefore still genius. Just a bit flawed this time. A bit like my teeth.

My world has just become a little bit better place.

I have been a regular shopper at Unity Books ever since I moved to Wellington. It is an independent store that really feels dedicated to books. I just like the atmosphere of the place. But the thing is, I do a significant portion of my shopping at the "SciFi/Fantasy" sections of bookshops. In the early days, Unity did this very well indeed. It was only a small section but it was stocked creatively by a buyer who was a real fan of the genre. Despite it being a small section I knew I could go there and find books that were not on sale at any of the competition around town. Once that buyer left though, things changed. The stock in the section reverted to the same stuff that the other places stocked. Titles that the local reps pushed basically. Once Dymocks and Artie Bees got their acts together locally, Unity offered no point of difference and significantly less than those places.

But I still go into Unity fairly often. Their NZ, history and pop science sections are of interest to me and are still very good and as mentioned above, I like the atmosphere there. I went in there today and thought I'd have a quick look at the SF section just in case they had accidentally scored something I hadn't yet seen. But it was rather more than a quick look. There was lots of good stuff there. A whole bunch of stuff that I was interested in. I showed great restraint in just grabbing two books including a Kage Baker title that I had been meaning to order from the states.

I asked the person serving me if they had got a new buyer for the SF section. She confirmed that they had got a new person for that section recently and seemed quite impressed that I had noticed. She introduced me to him and we had a bit of a chat. He is a fan from a family of SF fans and is determined to change the Unity SF section into something distinctive again. He is also interested in the local goings on in the fan scene.

Now isn't that a good way to brighten up your day.

I actually finished a book today. It seems like forever since the last one. Lets hope this reading drought is coming to an end. The problem wasn't particularly with the book - Transcendent by Stephen Baxter. It is the third in a series and although Baxter's series don't really connect as one story in the way other writers usually have them, it was still going to be a known quantity. There is one trick you have to know when reading Baxter though. Sometimes he writes his story in the exposition. What seems to be the primary story is just a thin thread to hold the descriptive bits together. In that exposition he weaves a puzzle on a big scale. This was such a book. I guess if readers don't catch on to that then shouts of "boring" will come from them. Having said that, it isn't one of Baxter's great puzzles. The setting up was fine, but the resolution was pretty thin. "Wishy washy" was the term that came to mind.

Ah well, I'm off to find another book.

Well the repair guy came and took my TV away today. I may not watch as much TV as I used to, but it still gave me instant withdrawal symptoms. I did what any used-to-be geek would do, I went out and bought a tuner card to enable my computer to act as a TV. After the first one I got proved to be broken, I was able to make its replacement work with minimal technical hassle. I now have my satellite TV picture playing in the corner f my screen as I type this. New toy joy.

It isn't exactly an ideal arrangement from a purely physical point of view. To make this work, a lot of moving around of stuff had to take place. If I want to make this arrangement permanent, there is a lot of furniture to be moved about - I will have to change the whole way my living area is arranged. But did I mention new toy joy.

My television has taken to turning itself off after 20 minutes of operation. If I turn it back on, it gives me another 10 minutes then it won't come back on again for about half an hour. Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something? Do I really watch too much? Or does it just not like me watching Stargate:Atlantis which was the only thing I tried to watch last night.

Robert Altman has died. Another one of the greats is gone. I remember back in my more active film going days that the release of a new Altman piece would be the highlight of the year. His contribution will be much missed.

All this wind and rain is getting me down. People are saying this this is the worst winter ever - heck it is almost summer. It is something to do with the southern oscillation - all the wet weather slid to the south of Australia and hit us. Sigh - it seems to sap my spirit for doing stuff - update lj, read, watch all my accumulated downloads etc.

One answer - have a party. My place, Saturday 25th November. Go on, I know you want to be there. Drop me a line if you want directions.

What do you mean it's too far?! Nowhere on the planet is more than 20 thousand kilometres from anywhere else. That's nothing I tell you. ;-)

I really like that New Zealand has been producing some significant film and television work on the world stage recently. I also really like that this is centred around Wellington and I like the benefits that it has brought to the city. But I am wary of the "Wellywood" hype that abounds. If you listen to some people, you would think that we have become the world capital of movie making. Yes, things have been pretty hot recently but it is still pretty small beans on a world scale really. That is a fairly natural thing though - what is more worrying is the assumption that the film industry is firmly entrenched here. The industry is notoriously fickle..All it would take for us to lose most of what we have is a Peter Jackson film to bomb really badly. Similarly, if we are to lose cost competitiveness on the technical side of things, then we will find all the effects work disappearing elsewhere. I really don't want the film industry to leave here - all I'm saying is that it is not a given that it will continue to stay.

The above was prompted by the fact that a television series is doing location work at a house not far from my place. It isn't all that long ago, such an event would have huge novelty value and would attract onlookers from all around. It would be the main topic of conversations in the shops. But now it is just being ignored apart from the minor disruption that it causes to traffic. Not that getting out and gawping at this particular set would do anything to address the above thoughts - I'm just noting a train of association.

The process of choosing a book to read can be a good indicator of mood for me. When things are good, then any book will do, but when I'm feeling blah about things then it becomes harder. I don't even want to contemplate the "I don't want to read anything" scenario. Anyway, it would seem that blah covers my mood at the moment because I looked at my to read shelf and despite any number of books that I was keen to read at the time of purchase there wasn't really much that said "pick me". In the end I chose Kalimantan by Lucius Shepard. It might seem an odd choice. Shepard leans toward writing hardish military science fiction in jungle settings with the sensibility of a horror writer. In this case this book, more novella than novel, is more like the setting of a Clark Ashton Smith story with drugs opening a doorway into a fantastic world. But the reason for choosing Shepard is simple - he has this lovely smooth, almost liquid, prose style. The words just flow into my mind without fuss or difficulty. Yet the writing isn't the simplistic thing that you might imagine - the description, action, plot structure all have enough complexity to make it interesting.

So what should I read next...

It seems to me my day for coincidence. Over the last couple of weeks my previously reliable ISP has been causing me all sorts of annoyance. From the minor - the same invoice sent five times, to the pretty significant - slow speeds. Today I was grinding my teeth over a really slow download which by all indications should have been a fast one. In frustration I thought I'd see what the alternatives were over at a rival ISP. I looked at a few pages detailing their plans. As I closed the tab, the download which had been running for ages suddenly sped up by an order of magnitude. Instead of hours, the download was done in a few minutes. Monitoring software for possible moves to the competition?

Nah they couldn't.

Could they???

I talked to a telemarketer today and actually accepted their offer to come around to quote. *pauses while

gillpolack recovers from shock*

There was a reason. She got the name of the company out in the first few words and I realised that it was somebody that I have been planning to talk to anyway - I had got as far as finding their street address to call on them. That gave me pause and so while I was gathering the mental resources to say "I was interested until you invaded my home with your call" she continued with the spiel. She screwed it up - making mistakes and stumbling over her words and cheerfully apologising. So I felt a bit of sympathy for her and because I was interested in the product anyway I continued the conversation.

But I am suspicious. Is this a new tactic? By being incompetent was she making a deliberate attempt to gain my sympathy and so give her a hearing? Has anybody noticed this - is cheery muddling replacing "how are you today sir"?

I have finished John Peel's autobiography Margrave of the Marshes and it gave me a huge sense of incompleteness. Incomplete in the way that the world is incomplete now John Peel is no longer there to be the best DJ in the world. Incomplete in the way that I wished I had been able to hear more of his show. Incomplete in that less than half of the book was written by John before he died - the rest was (very well) written by his wife Sheila. The final incompleteness is that not enough people will read this book. If you have ever admired this man and his ethos of "I play what I want to play" then you should read this book. It is incomplete, but it is funny and enlightening and revealing and sad and just plain good.

I came to a bit of a grinding halt with my reading. Partly the distraction of a larger than usual amount of video to watch and partly because I tried to read Vellum. It is a book that I found very difficult to get into. Impossibly so at this time. I am informed by people who have read it that it gets moving after a while and is very much worth the reading. I will take them at their word and try again some other time.

In response my non-reading state I read Thud by Terry Pratchett. Lets face it, I was looking for a laugh as well as something light and easy to read. The first couple of chapters delivers quite a few laughs. Good thing too because there really aren't any more after that. It is one of those books where Pratchett gets in a serious socially conscious mood. Not too preachy though this time. I guess it was fairly well done as a "straight" novel in the Diskworld setting. The plot was strong through the middle but faded at the end. But without the humour it just seems all too ordinary. I shall have to go elsewhere for my laughs.

To follow on from Tuesdays post, I have also now watched a couple of episodes of Eureka. I am a complete sucker for shows where a big city guy moves to a small town where lots of strange shit happens. It probably goes all the way back to Green Acres. Now I *must* have more episodes.

...joy joy joy. The Hubble is going to get an upgrade. Nice to get a good news science related story.

It is an ongoing search. The hunt for the next great TV series. The one which is going to grab my attention and suck me in, turning me into an obsessive fan. Often a show will start with promise but after a few episodes will fail to follow through. Other times it has real quality from the beginning but gets cancelled way before its time. Rarely a series will start with a little promise but turn out to have something more. Actually that latter case may not be quite so rare but I don't stick around to find out. It isn't easy. Over the last few days I have trialled a couple of episodes each of two new series. They have promise so my hopes are starting to raise. Perhaps this time it will be the rarest of all circumstances - very good and a long run.

Torchwood was the first one I watched. This Doctor Who spin-off has has the fans holding their breaths. Is it possible to have a series in the DW universe without The Doctor? First impressions are that it might be a struggle. It isn't bad but it just feels a bit flat. There isn't the extra spark of quirky personality and humour that the Doctor provides. There is promise though. The show has good production values and the Cardiff based production team has shown that it has the skill to build characters and stories. So, good enough to keep watching with a little hope attached.

The thing about Heroes is that there is an obvious similarity to The 4400. People who have acquired special abilities are around in our world. But Heroes is better written, better directed and better acted. Apart from a bit of hokey science as the Mcguffin and an annoying voiceover leading into the second episode it looks very good indeed. If you look deep enough into the credits you will even find Bryan Fuller's (Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me) name as co-executive produce. That I have to say is a good sign for quality but probably means it won't last more than one season. *crosses fingers* *uncrosses fingers because it doesn't help*

It is the celebration of halloween today. I went outside to do some clean-up work. Something very strange was happening. It was in the very air - this feeling like things were just different to normal. I talked to my neighbour and she had also noticed how eerie it was. The very air showed no apparent movement. I have heard of this before. I think the outlanders call it something that sounds like Karm. I didn't like it - it just wasn't natural.

Things have returned to normal now and the air is flowing the way it is supposed to. It would be a shame if the strangeness stopped the children from carrying out their sacred duties of saving the adults from their burden of sugar treats. I would hate to think of the consequences if the toffees I have in the house were not taken away.

Kate Di Goldi on Kim Hill's programme raves about Shaun Tan's The Arrival (audio link).

The volume count software at my ISP is broken. It is not keeping track of how much I am downloading and therefore does not know whether I have hit the monthly volume allocation for my account type or not.
Should I:
a) Just keep downloading as much as I can.
or
b) Tell everybody I know who uses the ISP.

In other, related news, the new version of Firefox has a built in spell checker. No excuses for dumb typos in lj replies now.

I was talking to somebody I hadn't seen in many years. As part of the catching up, he asked me the question "so what is your favourite book?" I was at a loss. In the past I have got the favourite author question and that one is hard enough to answer but to try to single out a single book just seems impossible. I have toyed with the desert island volume notion and tried to name 5. It starts ok, but then you get into "but what about...". No sooner do you have a candidate than another "better" one comes to mind. It is the same way with music - I could never pick a favourite song.

But for some people, it is quite easy. They can name a favourite and probably even rank a top 10. It always amazed me that John Peel could pick a favourite song from the many many thousand he must have been exposed to over the years. So why can they do it? Are they more decisive? Is it a more linear, single variable, view of the world? Is it because of a much more narrow definition of favourite? I tried to test that last one. I tried to find a book or song that just gave me the best "feel good" feeling without worrying about notions of quality or influence. I still couldn't do it.

Context must have something to do with this inability to find a favourite. Where am I? What is my mood? What has gone immediately before? It makes sense that I cannot have a favourite because I am not always the same. Which raises another question. How much truly great stuff have I missed out on simply because I wasn't in the right mood at the time?

Current Music: John Peel - A Tribute

My sister has been visiting. It was great to see her. Living on opposite sides of the planet means we don't get together all that often. So how does the city welcome her? It rains. We got all sorts: light rain, heavy rain, windy rain, vertical rain, horizontal rain, cold rain, flooding rain, slip causing rain. Not all bad though. When so many typical tourist activities were out of the question, it meant that we just spent a lot more time hanging out and catching up. Just a nice time talking and watching Wonderfalls. Yes I converted her too. It's a disease I tell you.

A note to

cat_i_th_adage. Cowboy Bebop is very cool. Thanks for the heads up. Now I just need to get more episodes.

Paul McAuley has certainly been ranting a bit lately but in a well reasoned passionate kind of way. Have a look at this on the not very healthy state of affairs in sf at the moment. Given that writers are leaving the genre I can see his point - I note that with his latest book, Greg Bear has well and truly joined the list of authors moving into thriller/crime stories.

This from the end of McAuley's piece is rather nice though in a rabble rousing kind of way:

So if you’re a writer, write from the heart as well as from the mind. Aim for an audience if you like, but know this: at best you’re going to hit nothing more than a temporary, here-and-gone demographic. Wouldn’t it be better to try to write the book that means more to you than any other book? You’ll probably fail. But you can always try again, and fail better. And, dear reader: buy books. Tell people about the books you like. Spread the word. Behave like you have found the best and finest secret in the world. And who knows? Perhaps you have.

Profile

threemonkeys

Navigation

June 2015

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Night Sea for Tranquility III by branchandroot

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Feb. 28th, 2026 03:19 am

Three Monkeys, Ten Minutes

Recent Entries

Navigation

Links

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags