Big Dumb Object

My story Non-Stop Party published in Cosmos Magazine

2013-05-17T20:17:59Z

My story Non-Stop Party is now online at Cosmos magazine.

What would you do if you could live your whole life as one non-stop party? Utopia right?

"60 SECONDS!"

The Non-Stop Party roared into a moving countdown, the crowds loud and boisterous and ecstatic, the music frenetic and infused with energy.

"What?" said Lenah, she couldn't hear the words that Karl spoke so stepped closer to him, her hands on his upper arms, her ear to his mouth.

"I'm leaving," said Karl.

...

Avengers / Iron Man 3

2013-05-12T15:18:19Z

Having recently seen Iron Man 3 I realised that I never got around to reviewing Avengers either, so here's a review of both.

(The) Avengers (Assemble)

I watched the Avengers on DVD, so maybe the spectacle was diminished on a smaller screen with smaller sound? Maybe. Overall though, I was disappointed. It's difficult seeing something a month or more after all the hype of a cinema release, it definitely affects how you feel about a film. Maybe it was because, as I've said many times here, I've never been the biggest Marvel fan, but for most of the film I just didn't care. Thor is irritating as a hero, alien god whatever. Black Widow and Hawkeye are just soldiers / special agents. Captain America is made of jingoism. Which only leaves Iron Man and Hulk to care about. I can't help feeling that a film with just those two would have been better. Hulk was funny, Iron Man had some witty lines but Joss Whedon's much vaunted dialogue didn't really materialise and the entire film turned into one big SFX fight with some aliens. It left me feeling the opposite of when I saw Dredd. After Dredd I wanted more, more, more. After Avengers the thought of more made me groan.

Iron Man 3

Which brings me to Iron Man 3. I quite liked the first one. Can't remember the second (but I have seen it). And now really enjoyed the third. I liked Tony Stark wrestling with his celebrity status, fighting demons after saving the world, hiding away by letting himself be consumed by his geeky technology obsessions. On top of that there's a great over the top performance by Guy Pearce, Gywneth Paltrow coping with being elevated to Stark's other half and Ben Kingsley being amazing. Unfortunately as seems to be the case with Marvel films the nice character stuff devolves into people hitting each other. Which left me with a bit of an empty feeling, like all the good work was undone by endless fighting. The highly amusing end credits picked me back up again but ultimately the film left me as I left the cinema, another empty but fun superhero film. It's only now, thinking about the film again, that I realise how much I liked the three quarters of the film and how much, for me, the finale tainted that. Yes there was, ultimately a point, a moment where Stark had to let go, but it was just too much, it

Judge Dredd Day Of Chaos : The Fourth Faction

2013-04-13T16:13:09Z

It's been a good few years since I read any Judge Dredd, but like I've said here many times before, I grew up reading 2000AD and the recent (and excellent) Dredd film nudged me to get back to stories in the Big Meg. So, where better to start I thought, than the most recent epic storyline Chaos Day and the first part collected as a graphic novel.

Right from the start it looks great, from the cover onwards. I really enjoyed spending my time looking at the artwork, looking in the background and generally soaking in the feel of Mega City One. It's something I've missed from not reading comics, the way you can linger over a story whilst still taking it in.

The second thing that struck me was how "grown up" the stories were. And here, by "grown up" I mean: violent, gruesome, intelligent, witty, biting, satirical. Great writing throughout with Dredd now being a grizzled veteran, not at all past it and fighting to stay out of Judge meetings.

The stories in the collection build up to form a picture of what's going on, mosaic like at times. That's always been the strength of Dredd, stories that seem unrelated suddenly become drawn into a major arc and become key. There's a psycho lone killer, PJ Maybe (also a psycho killer), a female rookie Psi Judge, the return of East Meg, fatties and plenty of Dredd hitting the streets. With such a big canvas to play with there's so much scope for invention and yet even when returning to classic themes and characters it never feels clichéd It has respect for its own past. It never dismisses it with a reboot, it builds and builds and builds, layers and layers, like Mega City One itself.

I lingered whilst reading it, and yet when finished still felt like it was too fast and wanted to read it again. And wanted to know what happened next too, but for that I'm waiting until Endgame is published in summer (well more accurately July as I don't think summer is ever going to arrive).

A great place to jump back into Dredd, or if you liked the film but have never read any, start.

Oz The Great And Powerful

2013-03-30T12:18:47Z

Oz The Great And Powerful feels like a film of two halves in more than one way (well, more probably more accurately a film of 1/8th and 7/8ths). The fist section which is black and white and 4:3 ratio concerns Oz himself, a magician at a travelling circus, dreaming of being Houdini or Edison, dreams of greatness, but instead living out the life of a serial womaniser and cheap conman. It feels like a film from the forties not a modern Disney film aimed at kids. If this section was any longer then I expect it would lose the interest of it's younger audience but I enjoyed it and could have seen more.

Then into Oz, widescreen and full colour. I believe the depth changes too if you're watching in 3D but I saw it in glorious 2D. And the story shifts to become overtly fantasy with more child friendly comedy and characters. I found the comedy sidekick flying monkey tedious, but the kids in the audience seemed to like him. The story in Oz is not subtle, it has the wicked witches and their origins, it has the good witch, it has flying baboons. In many ways it's very predictable but it looks nice and for younger audiences the wonder and spectacle is probably enough.

James Franco is great as the conman struggling to live a good life. He's just the right level of manic and sleezy with that core of good inside that I was rooting for. Everyone else is okay, as you would expect really, wicked witches, good witches, munchkins.

There are moments that are clearly just there as 3D gimmicks, and in 2D it is really obvious, they grate. They look out of place. They don't benefit the story. Cheap tricks. Which is 3D all over.

All in all it was a fun kids film (eventually) but won't be remembered as a classic.

Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2

2013-03-25T21:58:24Z

Finally I got to watch the "epic conclusion" to the Twilight Saga. And well, just about everything I said before is true but this time with more fighting and silliness.

More than ever the fast moving vampires look ridiculous. Really silly. I think we're supposed to be happy that Bella isn't dead and that she's a vampire, but I wasn't, she's undead, why be happy? The vampires all seem to love it, she's strong and fast and craving blood. I just kept thinking about her poor father and how extremely selfish she had been. Even the werewolves seemed to be happy, Jacob placated by the promise of falling in love with their baby. Which is weird.

There is of course a big fight, the one on the trailer, but first everyone has to travel around the world collecting Pokemon, sorry, vampires with strange powers: He can control water! She can emanate electricity! She wears a bikini in the snow! It's all a bit tedious. But then there is Michael Sheen and some fighting. Heads are ripped off, bodies are burnt. FIGHT! The ending is silly though.

The end sequences reinforced my opinion that Bella is selfish and stupid and really needs to get over herself. Like, really.

So, it's fun I suppose, but a far distance from the lower key, student in a strange land of the start of the tale, which I liked. I'm too far out of the target demographic for the story to mean anything to me but it made me laugh and entertained me, which I suppose is what it's meant to do.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

2013-03-16T10:46:03Z

Somehow I managed to miss the first waves of adoration that The Hunger Games induced on its release. I said that about Twilight too, I think this once and for all indicates that I am old and that I have no idea what's cool with "the kids". So, when the film adaptation arrived I was keen to see it and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, unlike many adaptations, watching it left me with a strong desire to read the novel, easily satisfied by the box set of the trilogy with the lovely "grown up" cover art.

As I'm talking about the entire trilogy here there will be spoilers, so if you haven't read all three please go and do that now. If you're anything like me an entire weekend will be consumed by the stories of Panem and you'll be back here in no time.

On with my ramblings.

The consequence of the novel being told entirely in first person from Katniss's viewpoint, unlike the film, is that it engulfed me rapidly in the world of District 12 but took a bit longer to discover its full nature. As I knew this world already I can't comment on what the effect would be like if you didn't know, but the emphasis on the character is effective and well done. Despite knowing the plot the book was a joy to read, I instantly began to care for Katniss and her family. Like the film I think the best part of The Hunger Games is the first half, when the world is still to be discovered, when we learn what the games are, when we are repulsed at the show and glamour in the Capitol for the slaughter of children. The games themselves I found less interesting, however in the novel the timespan is at least increased which makes more sense. It's a game of survival against the elements as much as the other competitors, something that was hard to convey in a two hour film. I also enjoyed the chance the novel offered to more fully explore the important relationships between Katniss and Peeta and Gale.

One of the key scenes in the film that I thought set it apart from a standard adventure film was the scene of uprising in District 11, hinting that there was more to this world than we had seen. In the novel, due to the first person nature, we don't see that, instead though we get the feelings of Katniss, her hate of the Capitol, the hints that the oppressed are ready for a change. And then we get two books to see the consequences.

I devoured Catching Fire and Mockingjay in a weekend. I literally could not put them down. I find it hard to separate the two now, in my mind they're the full story of Panem. The first book stands apart because I had seen the film, but I'm sure if I hadn't all three books would be merged in my mind as the big arc of Panem.

As a story it continually surprised me, switching from a story of oppressed people and their control, to the story of a revolution, to a wide-screen war adventure and back to the small, tight focus of a tragic story of love and family. I loved these gear changes. I loved the focus on the damage that the games had inflicted on the winners, it wasn't dismissed or ignored, it was dealt with. Maybe condensed, yes, but I felt the novels attempted to deal with the mental damage caused by war and conflict.

The second games I found to be perhaps the weakest part of the story. I know it's the hook, but it felt like the most ideas driven part of the novels and wasn't executed s well as I'd wanted, like I would expect from a top class SF novel. Instead the novels are best when they are focusing on the characters. Sure there is plenty of adventure but it's there to show us the people.

I've heard some people complain that The Hunger Games is unrealistic and that a game which involves the slaughter of children is an ineffective way to oppress the masses. I have never seen the games as part of that tool, I see the games as a cruel punishment, a taunt, the people are already oppressed and helpless and the Capitol kills their children to make them angry and unhappy. The idea that the districts could even attempt to rise up against the Capitol is never even considered. Why should it be? They are all powerful, they are all controlling, they are arrogant. Only when the uprising begins do they even consider it possible. Katniss and Peeta were indeed the catalyst, they were the ones who out of all those children stood up to the Capitol and were prepared to sacrifice themselves to prove a point, to fight against the oppressors. Before them no one thought it was possible. They really were the spark.

Finally to the ending. It can be hard to end a trilogy. Very few have endings that I remember, perhaps only Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy left as a permanent memory. The Hunger Games trilogy has joined this, indelibly imprinted in my mind. Heartbreaking yet offering us all hope. Life carries on. We can carry on. We can love and live and we can, if we are lucky, be happy. We can make a better world for a children, it may be hard, it may cost, but it will be worth it.

Wonderful.

The Twilight Saga (minus the last one)

2013-02-03T16:23:27Z

Somehow I not only managed to avoid discovering anything but superficial details about the Twilight series of books when they were released, but I also managed to retain my ignorance during the release of all the films. All I knew was that they were about vampires, there was some teenage romance and a lot of people argued very heatedly about them. Very recently however I had the opportunity to watch the first four of the films within a week of each other and so I took it. You can't judge what you haven't seen after all.

It's interesting to come into something with such a following in a single leap of 8 hours viewing, it's like suddenly lots of foreign conversation around you have been translated in your head. "Oh now I understand what they meant by sparkly vampires" etc.

I will assume knowledge of the series and there will be spoilers. (But if you are here reading this blog you probably have seen/read everything of these stories that you want to by now.)

I did wonder what on earth there was left to say about Vampires that hadn't already been said in Salem's Lot or the Lost Boys or Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Clearly there's a lot when you completely redefine what vampires are. This caused me much irritation.

Things that are wrong with the vampires in Twilight:

They can enter your house without asking. ARGGGH! How terrifying. It was one of their key weaknesses. Now they can just stroll into your bedroom and kill you. This does not seem to be a big deal in Twilight because there is always a good Vampire or a good Werewolf to guard you. Well lucky for you Bella, everyone else is getting killed in their sleep.
They sparkle. WTF?! That's the weakest excuse I've ever heard for not appearing in sunlight. Oooh, can't go into the sun because I'm a bit sparkly. Once again a prime weakness of vampires taken away and it's made out to be a real drag... they have to live in the cloudy Pacific Northwest, dude that sucks.
They all have superpowers. Because being an undead, superfast, superstrong killing machine isn't enough. Obviously.
They have rules and the only reason to obey the rules is because otherwise Michael Sheen will get a bit stroppy with you and do that crazy laugh.

Anyway, enough of the easy targets.

I actually, mostly, enjoyed the films, however I think I laughed a bit more than I was supposed to. In particular I liked the first half of Twilight which did a great job of that "newcomer in a new school" trope, with slo-mo and overblown angst and falling in love with a bad boy. It had a bit of a Twin Peaks, something slightly odd feel about it.

I also enjoyed the love triangle and rooting for the werewolf, because you can never trust a vampire. Whereas with a big wolf you know where you stand. The relationship between Bella and Jacob was nice, well until he became a werewolf and she became all annoying. Another highlight was Billy Burke as Bella's father, doing the parent confused with their teenage daughter thing really well.

However the core message of the stories annoyed me intensely. The message is that if you're a teenage girl, who feels like a bit of outsider, the solution is to turn your back on everyone, your friends, your family, everyone, and run off with the first boy that you fall in love with. Really?! To make it worse it's not just falling in love with but actively wanting to convert herself to an undead monster, just to be with a boy. Talk about selfish. Stop moping about, stop being selfish and get real. I know you're a teenager but listen, you don't want to do that. You want to marry him? Oh, well that's okay. Seriously? Romeo and Juliet isn't a template it's a warning. Please, if you feel like an outsider do not follow this path, instead I suggest you become a writer, or learn to play guitar and make music, or paint, or read a million books, or start running, or start a blog, anything to realise that you're not really an outsider. In this day and age with the internet you don't have to be alone. Bella was a fool, self indulgent and selfish.

Haven't seen the last one yet, but I've heard there's some good fights and more Michael Sheen.

Jack Glass - Adam Roberts

2013-01-13T15:32:04Z

I once described Ian McDonald's three books River Of Gods, Brasyl and The Dervish House as someone tapping directly into my head and writing exactly the sort of Science Fiction I wanted to read. Well Adam Roberts' last three books New Model Army, By Light Alone and Jack Glass feel like someone has tapped directly into my head and written exactly the sort of Science Fiction that I need. Sometimes challenging, sometimes uncomfortable but always great Science Fiction.

If you're just looking for a quick recommendation, go and read Jack Glass, don't bother finding out any more or reading the blurb, just go and read it.

Jack Glass is set up as three whodunnits, but of course it's much more than that. It's a story that gets bigger as it progresses, transitioning from a study of imprisonment, to the future and destiny of mankind and then reminding us that at the core of everything are human beings who live and love.

In common with By Light Alone the story takes a technological solution that should free mankind and then looks at the reasons it could all go wrong. I find this fascinating, it has always been my opinion that the human race is capable of a radical mindset shift, I do not believe in human nature, and it is my opinion that technological revolution of a drastic kind could very well be the catalyst for this mindset change. Adam Roberts however posits that the technological change will reinforce the old ways and that revolution will be needed afterwards to force the evolution or mindset shift. In By Light Alone it is being able to subsist on sunlight alone. In Jack Glass it is the ability to create endless living space using spheres in space, along with food that can grow simply using water. Now you can solve two of the major problems facing Earth, where are people going to live and what are they going to eat. Now humanity can spread throughout the solar system. But will everything change? Will anything change?

Jack Glass is a multi-dimensional novel. It contains mystery, it contains lots of ideas about the future of the human race, it contains politics and action and a coming of age story. I constantly found myself thinking,"wow I need to think about that for a bit", not because it was hard to follow, or technically or intellectually difficult, but because it sparked me thinking about stuff.

Satisfyingly it is also wrapped up with a lovely, real, resolution that adds a further thread to think about, that in fact sheds new light on the entire story gone before.

Great stuff. Loved it.

Arc 1.4

2013-01-02T20:25:05Z

In four issues Arc Magazine has established an ethic of not only providing great, thought provoking fiction but also interesting, forward looking non-fiction. Usually the non-fiction in magazine of fiction consists of reviews, of commentary on media and random columns, Arc instead retains a focus and provides non-fiction that stimulates the mind, not just fills out the issue. In issue 1.4 the non-fiction (or Fact as it's labelled in the contents) comes from Frank Swain, Madeline Ashby, Sumit Paul-Choudhury, Kim Stanley Robinson, Simon Ings and Smári McCarthy and covers topics such as the ultralite back-packing movement and what it means for other aspects of our life, the future of drones, border security in the modern world and the plans for Iceland to become a free data state.

The fiction comes from Robert Reed, Liz Jensen, Nancy Kress, Romie Stott, Bruce Sterling and Jack Womack. It's difficult to type that list without adding an exclamation mark to the end of it. They're good stories too: visions of a future post-oil city where the citizens are part of the city, an alternate future (with snatches of the history) in a post nuclear networked world, a story dealing with altering the last thoughts before death, a story about cheating death and dealing with the consequences in the future, a story about falling in love with a robot and a story about hoarding 20th Century junk. All of them are good, but of course it's a particular delight to read anything new by Bruce Sterling, pushing the boundaries as usual.

There's plenty to read at 185 pages, which includes some nice artwork, it definitely feels like a substantial magazine. My only moan is that I'd love it in print, but the print edition is a bit pricey at $30. Instead you can buy a selection of digital editions (Kindle, Zinio, Google Play, Nook) for £4.31 (last time I checked) which feels like pretty good value.

Recommended if you like intelligent Science Fiction and Science Fact.

Happy New Year!

2013-01-01T00:00:01Z

Happy arbitrary date at which we celebrate getting round the sun again.

(We didn't get hit by an asteroid! The sun didn't explode! Gravity didn't fail and fling us out into the solar system!)

The Future?

2012-12-31T14:22:31Z

Merry Christmas!

2012-12-25T05:27:15Z

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas with much peace and happiness.

Looking Back On The Year 2012

2012-12-23T11:20:16Z

Another year has flown by. You know you're getting old when you say that every year. So it's time for me to look back over the last twelve months and think about what I read and watched and played and listened to and wrote.

Books

Here's the list of books that I read this year:

My favourite novels from this list were The Islanders, Ship Breaker, In The Mouth Of The Whale, New Model Army and By Light Alone. My absolute favourite was By Light Alone, closely followed by New Model Army. Adam Roberts is currently writing the best Science Fiction of anyone at the moment. His books are unsettling, thought provoking, often uncomfortable but truly brilliant. Exactly the sort of SF I want to read. I can't wait to read his newest novel Jack Glass.

Short Fiction and Non-Fiction

Arc Magazine launched this year and provided issues full of fascinating non-fiction and great short fiction, some of which by really big names in the SF field. It was a thoroughly refreshing mix and I hope the magazine continues to thrive. Also I finally read Shine. When the anthology was launched I added it to my Christmas list (my traditional way to acquire books) but it sold out, so there was a lag in me getting it, then the usual lag due to the to-read pile. Anyway, finally read it, liked it, near-future optimistic Science fiction as promised. The stand out stories for me were Summer Ice by Holly Phillips and Ishin by Madeleine Ashby.

Films

As usual I didn't get to go to the cinema that often, however it's definitely feels like an upwards trend on last year which has to be good. The films I saw showed the best and worst of Hollywood film making. Christopher Nolan showed us exactly how to create a film of a comic book superhero with the conclusion to his wonderful Batman trilogy The Dark Knight Rises, including epic narrative arc not only within that film but also across the trilogy. It was spectacular and fun. Also a success was the conversion of Judge Dredd to film with Dredd. Finally the film every Judge Dredd has been waiting for, a true example of what that character is all about, I hope they make more. On the other end of the scale The Amazing Spider-Man started well but fell into cliché and the end result was lacklustre and then Ridley Scott showed us exactly how not to start a trilogy with the fan pandering, confused and weak Prometheus. As did Peter Jackson, turning a slim volume into three films, The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey being the first. It's not too much to ask for SF films of the quality that Nolan makes is it? Also converted from another media, this time novel, was the excellent The Hunger Games. I haven't read the books but loved the film. I have a feeling that the source material is so strong it would have taken a huge error to mess it up, but still they pulled it off with a great sense of dread and style. Looper was I suppose at least an attempt to do something a bit different with a SF film, but only half of it was good and the time travel didn't work for me. Everything time travel still lies in the shadow of Primer. I also enjoyed Liberal Arts, about as far from the blockbuster SFX laden films as you could get, indie sensibility, thoughtful, touching and made me think.

I started the year catching up on Fringe. Unfortunately season four wasn't really that great with a seemingly pointless reboot. When Lost did this it always worked, but after the amazing highs of season two and three, Fringe seemed to lose its way. It's recovered slightly with a leap into the future with season five but it's past its best. Doctor Who was missed at Easter, appeared briefly in September and then left again. Five episodes wasn't anywhere near enough and none of them linger as stand out stories, in fact without checking I can't even remember three of them. Revolution started with a promising idea, electricity stops working, appeared to be cliché ridden and cheesy but still managed to become fantastically entertaining, and with a back story that is quite intriguing and character driven. Plus it has lots of sword fighting. The television of the year however had to be The Walking Dead which at times was simply stunning. I don't really like horror but the series has, presumably like the comic which I haven't read, started to focus on how society is rebuilt after the apocalypse and that's something I really like. Each of the characters has changed and grown and been on a real journey. No one is safe. The tension is at times unbearable. Brilliant, can't wait for more.

Music

I've, as usual, listened to a lot of music this year, whether it's on Spotify or BBC 6 Music but there is one stand out song of the year for me: We Are Young by Fun, forever welded to memories of hot, sunny days in Croatia. Here's an incomplete list of music I listened to.

Video Games

Nothing serious played, just a few games on the XBox of Fifa 12 and Portal 2, which I never got around to finishing, but absolutely loved. Never had a video game give me vertigo before.

Writing

My story Extended Periods Of Absence was published in Kaleidotrope. And that was it from the publishing point of view. I did however write just over a handful of stories, quite a few of them set in a novel that I wrote and am thinking of returning to. I quite like some of them, now I just need to find an editor who likes them too.

The Hobbit

2012-12-21T07:15:23Z

The film of the Hobbit. Finally. After much production nonsense. It's three films, it's by Peter Jackson and you can see it in not only 3D but 3D and 48fps. I saw it in 2D. Why give yourself a headache?

I know it's been thirty years since I read the Hobbit but I didn't actually remember most of what happened in the film, so I can't comment on how accurate the film is to the book. I think in my head The Hobbit blurs with The Fellowship Of The Ring.

It looks, well, like The Lord Of The Rings films. It has more aerial shots than a Brian Cox documentary. Bizzarely it has songs too. I mean really, songs! I always skipped the poems in Tolkien's work, TLDR;

The long, ponderous beginning to the film is saved from being walk-out-slow by a teasing glimpse of Smaug the dragon and a wonderful comic performance from Martin Freeman, in conjunction with Ian McKellan as Gandalf it's quite witty. But a bit slow. Then when the action starts it looks like a video-game. I wish I could say that CGI has improved in the last ten years but the moments when the characters were CGI stood out like a sore thumb and didn't look real. Even Gollum, although the acting by Andy Serkis was brilliant and his interaction with Mart Freeman impressive. Also worth a mention was the guy from Spooks, Richard Armitage, as Thorin the Dwarf Prince (all hard and Scottish), Hugo Weaving who I still keep waiting to say "Mr. Anderson" and James Nesbitt who appears to be dressed up as Dave Grohl.

Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Hobbits, Goblins, Wizards. You know Tolkien stuff. It reminds me that Tolkien was extremely tedious at times. I just don't care about the world building or the history of the swords or that thingy was born from the line of you know who, or whatever. The golden age of Tolkien was when I was nine and ten and read his stuff, nowadays it leaves me cold.

The Hobbit isn't terrible, but it's not amazing either. If you're a Tolkien fan you'll probably love it. To me it was just another big budget fantasy film.

Inverted World by Christopher Priest

2012-12-18T06:49:37Z

Inverted World by Christopher Priest was first published in 1974 and for a good chunk of the story it feels like an old fashioned (relative to now) Science Fiction story. Where by old fashioned I mean in the sense of comparing an early seventies intelligent film to the a modern fast cut noisy blockbuster. There's extended flashes of the sort of fiction that Christopher Priest would go on to write, particularly the last third of the story, but the first half is a fairly slow paced investigation of a wild speculative idea.

I don't actually want to talk too much about the details of the plot because much of the story is a mystery, that's the hook that pulls you along. Just what is really happening? Seen through the eyes of the protagonist, the reader discovers the world and environs at the same time, although we're in the position to guess a bit more than the closeted hero.

Of course, being Christopher Priest, there's evocative, yet economical, writing. Maybe not as poetic as his recent work but far, far from a story which cares nothing about its language. And also, being Christopher Priest there are layers around the core concept. The story tackles the issue of a more developed society interacting with a less developed one, it looks at how much the state should control the populace for the good of the populace and it looks at the burning hot heat that is the will to survive at all costs.

By the end of the story the feeling of being an old fashioned story has slipped away and suddenly, although its been coming for half the book, the story is bang up to date and relevant to now. Timeless speculation. And all the crazy Science Fictional thought experiment is suddenly placed in context and makes perfect sense.

Again, like many of Christopher Priest's novels, it's the sort of story that lingers and asks to be read again. Initially my reaction was: interesting, but not in the same league as (his most recent novel) The Islanders, but the more I reflect on the novel, the more I like it, and the more I realise how good it is.

If you like Christopher Priest then I'm sure you'll like it. If you haven't read any of his work before (why not?!) it's probably a decent entry point if you're coming from "standard science fiction"(!).