I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).
So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.
So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.
I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.
On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.
Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.
Enjoy
The End of Meat
Great new film putting out the truth about animal agriculture.
Please watch wherever you can, and then have a good long think before buying supporting animal agriculture ever again.
#5t4n5 #vegan #film
Scales — Alastair Reynolds
This is in Lightspeed: Year One.
Another brilliant little short story from the master of sci-fi shorts.
So the Earth has been attacked by a reptilian enemy, and the young are marshalled to go and fight, but where does it take them and what is the true form of that enemy.
Next story in Alastair’s chronology is Cardiff Afterlife.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
The Receivers — Alastair Reynolds
Available in Deep Navigation.
I’d never thought Alastair would write something none sci-fi, but he has and this is it.
While it contains a fair bit of artistic license about Vaughan Williams, it’s not a bad read all in all. I quite enjoyed it.
So, next up in Alastair publishings will be Scales.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Soirée — Alastair Reynolds
Available in Deep Navigation.
Another of Alastair’s superb short stories.
Plenty of food for thought for those who wish to outrun the singularity. 
Next on the Alastair list is The Receivers
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Ringworld — Larry Niven
Being one of the sci-fi classics with “SF Masterworks” status, this has been in my too-read pile for ages, and now i’ve finally got around to reading it.
It’s a little bizarre, giant cat people and three legged, two headed aliens as well. It all seems like Larry felt that to make it more sci-fi-ish he had to make the strangest aliens he could imagine: very Seventies kitch stylee. And the ending is woeful. We go through all this adventure with our group of four with so much detail and depth and when we get to the ending and the leaving of the Ringworld we are left with nothing but vagueness.
But . . .
. . . other than the weird Seventies kitsch aliens and the woeful ending, it’s very good. One can’t help but be blown away by the concept of the Ringworld and it’s size and complexity: is this what the future may hold for us?
One thing’s for certain, i’m diving straight into The Ringworld Engineers, which is the much needed sequel to this book.
Larry’s Page
#scifi #larryniven
Belladonna Nights — Alastair Reynolds
You can find this in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories
Sadly, i lost the review of this book when my old website died. But rest assured it’s great, as is the rest of the trilogy.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
House of Suns — Alastair Reynolds
This follows Thousandth Night and is before Belladonna Nights in the trilogy.
One word: genius.
This book is superb from beginning to end, and it also leaves it open for a good follow on at some time in the future if Alastair feels like continuing the series at some point. I certainly hope he does.
Not only does this book demonstrate Alastair’s knowledge as a physicist, but it also demonstrates his incredible imagination and writing skills.
If you want a taster of Alastair at his best and you don’t want to go through all of Revelation Space just yet, then i suggest reading the House of Suns trilogy, sci-fi fans won’t be disappointed.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Thousandth Night — Alastair Reynolds
Originally published in One Million A.D., and also available in the collection, Beyond the Aquila Rift.
It soooo good to be back from all that multi-universe nonsense and into some real sci-fi from Alastair once again.
This story is superb. Essentially, it’s fracture yourself into one thousand clones, known collectively as a “line”, and send them off on a trip around the galaxy to see what they can discover. At the end of the trip all the clones meet up a pre-determined place and time and download each other’s holiday journal, known as a “thread”, into their own minds. Whoever is determined the best thread gets to decide on the location and setting of the next reunion after the next trip around the galaxy.
There’s quite a few rules and a fair bit of etiquette to all this to keep things interesting and sensible, but when some people don’t appear to be playing by the rules and conforming to the etiquette, others start to have suspicions.
I really like the idea of this and if you do too you’ll be happy to know that House of Suns is next in the trilogy with Belladonna Nights straight afterwards, so there’s plenty more still to come.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Return to Pleasure Island — Cory Doctorow
Available in the collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More.
This story is a bit hit and miss for me. A lot more miss than hit. A bit of background and context might have made things a lot better.
After i finished reading it, i discovered that, apparently, it’s a Pinocchio spin off. Which is a bit late to find out. And maybe that’s the background and context that is utterly absent from this story. If a writer is going to use another book as background and context to a story then it might be a really, really good idea to at least mention in a fore-word to the story.
I’ve never read Pinocchio, so maybe i’ll go and read it sometime and then give this
Cory’s Page
#corydoctorow
Craphound — Cory Doctorow
Available in the collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More.
Cory’s first story from way back in 1998. Definitely a story for those of us who love thrift shops, junk shops, auctions, yard sales, charity shops, etc.. The extees remind me of the groks who come to Devon on holiday and deplete all our wonderful charity shops, only difference between extees and groks is that extees actually bring something decent to the table whereas groks only bring their rubbish, noise and pollution. Groks don’t follow the craphound code.
Cory’s Page
#corydoctorow
Fiction
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
