Olympic Flame…

The Olympic Flame has arrived in the UK and is touring the country before the opening ceremony. It has its own entourage of security with the police wearing strange looking ‘sporty’ uniforms and bustling out anyone who strays into the security envelope. So different from when it last came through the country in 1948 - I heard a tale of how when it came through our village then a local woman stepped up to the torch carrier and lit her cigarette on the flame.

The spy who made me laugh…

Archer

This is the animated adult TV series about a man-child super spy Sterling Archer who works for his mother at the ISIS (International Secret Intelligence Service). Somewhere between James Bond, and Maxwell Smart (Get Smart for you youngsters out there), Sterling Archer is a complex man with serious issues who likes to self medicate on whiskey and resolve his problems at the point of a gun or in the bedroom. He is a self centred and emotionally immature yet highly skilled and feared secret agent. Set deliberately ambiguously in a timeline that mixes 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s visual references it harks back to a period where the spy genre was most popular while ensuring that there are enough contemporary tweaks and sensibilities to add to the unique feel of the show.

More of wot I have read…

Gridlinked by Neal Asher

I have got the feeling that I have read this before, it all seems quite familiar. It is a somewhat formulaic story with a few interesting and original ideas in it. The action is well paced that keeps the narrative ticking over. There are the occasional background details that show that the author has spent a lot of time developing his wider world setting to give more depth to this and future stories in the same environment. Might be interesting enough to want to see how the character develops in the later stories.

‘Not only humans who know the meaning of hate.

A technician comes through the runcible on Samarkand at a fraction below light speed. His arrival has killed thousands and wrecked a terraforming project. The immortal Horace Blegg sends agent Cormac to investigate, but Cormac must resolve things without the support of the AI grid, for his thirty years of being gridlinked has left him without humanity. He does have Shuriken, a throwing star with a mind of its own, the ambivalent dracomen, and Golem combat androids at his side. But Pelter, with his mercenaries and something out of nightmare, is on his trail.

Samarkand has descended into frigid cold and sabotage is uncovered. The prime suspect is unfortunately an alien called ‘Dragon’, which had apparently destroyed itself twenty-seven years before the event. An alien artifact is uncovered and its monstrous guardian is a killer. How did both of these get where they were? Why was the runcible destroyed? Cormac must resolve all questions and decide who is lying. He must do this while hunted by Pelter and avoiding the ungentle attentions of the killing machine, Mr. Crane. And in the end someone must be punished.’

More of wot I have read…

The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures by Louis Theroux

I remember seeing some of the TV series a few years back and found them interesting if not a little disturbing (though I am sure that was what was expected due to the interviewing style of Louis). This book revisits some of the stories and catches up with them a few years later to see what has happened to them. It is a good read and shows a reasonable journalistic balance without sensationalising events or people much at all, though this in turn does mean the book somewhat lacks the tension or drama that makes you want to read on avidly.

‘For over ten years Louis Theroux has been making programmes about offbeat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he returns to America and attempts to track down some of the people who have most fascinated him over the years, trying to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and what has happened to the assorted dreamers, outlaws, and eccentrics since he last saw them.

On a journey that takes him to the porn sets of Los Angeles, among the UFO contactees of Arizona, and up to far Northern Idaho for a festival get-together of leading neo-Nazis, he asks what ‘weird people’ have to tell us about our own secret natures. Has he learned anything about himself by being among them? Do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?

Louis Theroux’s first book is a hilarious, thought-provoking and at times surreal voyage into the heart of weirdness.’

More of wot I have read…

The Leviathan Series by Scott Westerfeld

This is an entertaining series of books aimed at the young adult reader. It is in a steampunk style and takes place in an alternative universe at the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In this world two factions have developed, those that have embraced genetic manipulation to create wondrous and formidable ‘beasties’ who take their name from the great naturalist of the time, Darwin, and the second faction are the ‘Clankers’ who have shunned what they refer to as the ungodly manipulation of animals for a technical solution that allows them to create great metal vehicles and weapons of war.

The story pitches two young people of opposites together (one a young girl from a poor Dawinist culture, and the other a young royal Clanker, both of whom are hiding something).

They engage in a series of adventures that through the series takes them across the globe and brings them to the brink of disaster and to the beginnings of love.

Leviathan

Previously reviewed here

‘It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.


Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure….One that will change both their lives forever.’


Behemoth

‘The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker Powers.


Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.


Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.’


Goliath

‘Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren’t technically enemies.


The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is at it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld’s brilliant trilogy.’

An Inspiration...

While we were out and about with friends on the weekend gently walking through the Reigate Hills we saw a man running towards us carying a sign. When he saw my camera he stopped and told me that he was running to Switzerland for charity...

This man was Gerard Varin and this is what he is up to...

'I am running from my house in Duffield to my home village of Seleute, in the North West of Switzerland. The distance is just over 739 miles, and will take a month to complete on foot. The route covers approximately 291 miles through England, 448 miles in France and 17 miles in Switzerland. I will be running a marathon a day! ‘WHY do such a mad thing?’ I hear you ask! (as many have asked before!) In recent years there have been six ladies in Duffield diagnosed with Breast Cancer; which given the population of 5000 is astounding! To make matters worse they have all been in their 40’s with young families, some of whom are still at primary school. The last person touched by this devastating disease counts amongst my closest friends. I have seen, first hand, the harshness both the disease and the gruelling treatment can have. Treatment which lasts about a year, involves chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. Whilst this gives hope of a cure, it comes with the cost of hair-loss, general fitness and loss of self-esteem. Apart from feeling unable to help, except through moral support, I felt I had to do something. My epic run to Switzerland is it!

This adventure is a big physical and moral effort for me. I will be leaving my family alone for a month for a cause to which I would like to make a big difference. I would like to raise £20,000 for the Breast Cancer Campaign, a charity set up with the aim of finding a cure for Breast Cancer. My expedition is possible thanks to help from the Round Table team and friends who will provide food and lodging for the night as I run through their region. I am doing this fundraising to help to detect cancers earlier, because nobody is immune to this dreadful disease. I lost both of my parents to Cancer at the age of 59.

I am looking for sponsorship for this very worthwhile cause, and your donation, however big or small really will make a difference. Facebook and Twitter will be my voice and friend throughout my trip. With the help of a GPS tracker, everybody will be able to follow my journey live.

I’m looking forward to my expedition with a little trepidation, but that is nothing compared to the struggle these ladies have had to face.'

You can donate and support Gerard at his Just Giving website .

Getting away from it all…

We took a short break at the beginning of Easter by using a hotel voucher gifted to us by my family at Christmas on accommodation in Lyndhurst in the heart of the New Forest. We stopped at the large LyndhurstPark Hotel (which looks better from park than it does from the road) which is centrally located next to the open land where ponies, donkeys and cattle roam. We ate out the first night at the lovely, quaint, chocolate box ThatchedCottage in Brokenhurst the first night and at the mad and busy La Pergola the next, enjoying both in different ways. It was a holiday of food as we also sampled fish and chips at Lymington followed by ice-cream as we strolled around the old town and cream tea before returning to the hotel. We did get out and about too, with walks on the heath land the villages and towns and an interesting exploration of Bucklers Hard (a maritime museum at the little ship building village that has a wonderful history).

We were also very fortunate with the weather as it turned grey and wet for the rest of the holiday weekend as we returned, visited Jamie and then we all went on to Sue’s sister’s where we helped her out with a few jobs before having a meal and staying over. The next day we went on to visit more friends where more eating and drinking was involved before finally returning home and collapsing in front of the TV. The last day of the Easter break was spent indoors clearing out old junk and tidying up before we could relax and put our feet up.