[ Note for regular readers and other webizens - this is the first in a string of what I hope will be fairly regular entries wherein I write my thoughts about books and stories I have recently read.

They're not going to be reviews - indeed, in some cases (like this one) they will be books which I cannot review without justifiable claims of bias, but more often they'll be titles I don't have the time or will to review fully. Furthermore, they'll contain a certain amount of discussion about the mechanics of the writing or plotting; think of it as me workshopping the pieces in a group of one in a glass box on the interwebs. With SP01l3RZ!!!!1OMG.

This being the interwebs, you are of course more than welcome to join in the conversation. ]

TEMPLATE by Matthew Hughes

PS Publishing, Aug 2008 – ISBN: 978-1905834617

First things first: I loved Template to bits. I’d read one Hughes title before (Black Brillion) which I remember liking, but I didn’t fall for it in the same way… maybe a revisit is required.

Every reviewer of Hughes seems to say that he writes like Jack Vance; it’s such a common claim I have to give it credence. I can’t speak with authority because (to my shame) Vance is among that ever-growing list of Writers I Really Need To Discover Properly; for me Hughes writes like Iain M Banks trying on a Michael Moorcock mask, or maybe the other way round. If that’s a bit like like Vance, then score one for genre fiction consensus.

The pseudo-archaic language is well chosen and perfectly controlled, never once strained, never becoming a chore (or a calculated obstruction, viz. Wolfe’s New Sun books). Also notable is Hughes’ handling of detail; rather than deploy a Gormenghastian mass of description Hughes sets the mood, provides a few pointed (and frequently baroque) close details, and then lets your brain do the set dressing all on its own. It certainly worked for me; I was struck by how vividly I had visualised the characters, which never seems to happen as much with writers who describe at length. Less really is more, eh? Even as Conn’s heritage was in the process of being revealed, I was so caught up in the telling-of-the-tale that I felt exactly the same shocked comprehension as the character himself. That’s good engagement, right there.

Template is also a very philosophical novel, and very of-its-time. Laced in with the classic sf theme of the clone/gen-eng’d being and its place as a free agent in the universe (throw in some transcendence of creator’s purpose and the redemption of said creator for good measure) Hughes takes a long deep look at the cultural assumptions that underlie our economic systems… and I’m not talking Blue or Red here so much as completely different cultural shapes for the terms ‘price’, ‘trade’, ‘value’ and ‘worth’. Oh, and ‘good’, of course.

Careful choices make for a good balance of sympathy and that essential lead-character ignorance-of-the-world in Conn Labro, an iteration of the ‘orphan outsider in a society of outsiders’. His games-trained analytical mind suits his his home-world, but makes him prone to question the very different systems he encounters beyond it, not to mention his reactions to such. (It has literally just occurred to me that in that respect he’s like an echo bounced from Banks’ Gurgeh, the Player of Games.) In some respects Conn is also an amplified version of our (economic and cultural) selves as 21st Century humans; this metaphor could be seen as being made a little more concrete in the revelations about his origins late in the novel.

And to close with a reiteration – what a great read! It might be partly due to not having sat down and read a book that I wasn’t on a deadline for, but I’ve not enjoyed a book viscerally quite so much in some time, as both reader-for-pleasure and student-of-craft. It’s a template for a great story, you might even say…

Yeah, OK, I’ll get my coat.

The first of a mere three authors among the twenty is Neal Stephenson. He comes in six places after Will Smith. And two after Kanye West.

I suppose I should be grateful he ranks two slots above Stephanie Meyer. Your thoughts?

Once a sorry marker of the division of East and West, the restored Brandenburg Gate is once again a focal centre for Berlin… especially tourists.

You may be able to notice the huge swarm of bikers between the gate and the point-of-view; I have no idea what the occasion was, but it obviously had something to do with blatting off through Tiergarten in a big cheerful gang with a police escort. ‘Twas a nice day for it, too.^[1]

Writing about music

The music industry is slowing down for the Allegedly Festive Season (or at least the bits of it that release music I’m actually interested in), so things are winding down a bit at TDP – which is fine by me, and I doubt will cause any great complaints from my writers, either. That said, still plenty of interesting titles to get through before the year is done.

Album of the week

Not strictly an album but more an EP (and I’m slightly biased because they’re a local outfit) but I wholeheartedly recommend You Are Goldmouth by Munroe Effect. Because that’s how progressive post-hardcore is supposed to sound: sharp and pacey and powerful, full of light and shade, never overstaying its welcome. Go check ‘em out, and go see ‘em if they play near you. Tell them I sent you. Buy them a beer. Nice lads, good band.

Writing about books

THE STEAMPUNK REVIEW IS FINISHED. Well, it needs a final polish and error-check, but the thing is actually fully compiled.

It is also nearly three thousand words long, which may explain why I didn’t just rattle it off in an afternoon… though it also demonstrates one of the phenomena of procrastination when applied to large tasks done piecemeal, namely: “the longer you leave it, the larger it will seem to look^[2]“.

Now, which of my leviathan queue of reviews should I write next?

Freelance

Nothing special to report here, really. Nearing the end of The Pretty Big Project (indeed, hoping to have it nailed by Monday, or at least the bulk of it), and the long-awaited artwork for The Other Project has been chopped into a header bar (with some decorative bits) and raided for a colour scheme. It’s going to be a very interesting pallet to work with, too – quite different from the others, with the potential to be very striking^[3].

Futurismic

The good ship Futurismic sails on much as ever. Monday sees a new piece of fiction go live, of course; it’s from a writer who has published at Futurismic more than once before, and it’s definitely an example of the Positive SF manifesto in action. But it’s also a neat little story, and I’m sure it will get a reaction.

Advanced warning for those of you who read here – we’ll be shutting submissions over December, because poor Chris needs a holiday away from other people’s writing and a bit more time with his own. Plus he might want to, I dunno, see his loved ones or something. I know, I know, a bit selfish… but as I don’t pay the guy anything I guess I have to cut him a bit of slack, right^[4]?

Books and magazines seen

I’m not going to mention any names, but it appears Orbit aren’t the only publisher who send me wildly inappropriate books; this week saw the arrival of – among other things – a ‘romance thriller’ involving werewolves with a very tacky cover indeed. Seriously, I think if I never see another undead/lycanthropy novel during the next decade, I’ll be a happier man for it.

However, my delightful clients at PS Publishing have sent me over a bunch of our latest titles, and the latest issue of Talebones has arrived – a pleasant surprise, as I’d completely forgotten it existed, let alone that I had a subscription to it. Huzzah!

Not only that, but it has a story by James Van Pelt, who is one of my very favourite internet-based avuncular dispensers of writerly wisdom. Go check him out, if you don’t already.

London calling

Wednesday was nice – a day of culture-vulturing up in the Big Smoke. Myself and Justin Pickard met up at the Tate Modern and hoovered up some surrealism, impressionism and Viennese actionism (the latter of which is, erm, a trifle severe). We then (well, it was actually me) decided we could probably walk from there to Gower Street for the Battlespaces lecture. I was quite correct, but it took us the best part of two hours… still, we had a good natter and soaked up the hustle and bustle.

The Battlespaces lecture itself was excellent; I’ve commended Geoff Manaugh‘s BLDGBLOG to you many times before (so if you’re not subscribed to it already, I want a good reason why), and I shall now be looking out for the arrival of Antoine J Bousquet‘s forthcoming book, The Scientific Way of Warfare^[5]. This was the sort of brain-food event that makes you remember why you wanted to write science fiction in the first place… and that makes you despair of ever doing anything as weird and complicated as reality.

Then it was off to the BSFA shindig; it had peaked before we arrived, I think, but there were still a fair few people around and it was nice to catch up with some of the figures of fandom who I don’t get to see often enough. Then I had to make my way from Holborn to Seven Sisters to find my crash-spot for the night… thankfully I had help from a local, otherwise I might not be typing this now. All in all, a great day out – thanks to everyone who helped make it so.

Coda

And that’s about it, really – a busy week, but not an astonishingly interesting one from an outsider’s perspective, I’d imagine. But then I imagine they must all be like that, but the statistics show that you weirdos still read my blather every week, so I feel obliged to continue the ritual. That’s the kind of giving, caring guy I am, you see.

But I am also a hungry guy, so I shall now go fetch myself a Friday Curry. Yeah, I know, I had one last week. But I’m cold – that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Enjoy your weekend, happy Thanksgiving for you American types, and take care of yourselves – auf weidersehn!

[ ¹ - No prizes for guessing that yours truly spent most of today wishing he were somewhere (and somewhen) else. ]

[ ⁵ - If Mr Bousquet's publishers are reading, a review copy would be very gratefully received. ]

A cheery title, no? The Wall’s destruction brought as many contradictions to Berlin as it removed, if not more, and they grow in sharpness over time. This is one of the last remaining sections of the “death-strip” that was caught between the two layers of the wall, in this particular case just next to the River Spree, a few minutes walk from the Ostbahnhof:

This area is best known as “The East Side Gallery“. The side of the wall facing the road (to the left of this shot) was painted by many famous graffiti and mural artists just after the Wall fell; their art is now scabbed over by the felt-tip scribblings of tourists. Here in the former death-strip, however, the other side of the wall is where the more hardcore painters would come to work without the legitimacy that the post-Wende hysteria leant to the Gallery.

Looking in the opposite direction to this shot, you would now see tent-town beach-bars bristling with brand names. Then, further still, the crowning irony: a section of the Wall that has been fenced off completely from public access, pending the arrival of more entertainment and retail venues. This is prime land for development, and commerce will have its way, despite the (arguably justifiable) resentment of those with long enough memories. Selah.

Writing about music

This week has been a bit of a screwed one for The Dreaded Press, largely due to me dropping a few balls in favour of other priorities. But that’s just the way I’m currently doing things; businesses with incomes come first, which puts TDP way down the list.

Album of the week

Still got some writing done though, and without any doubt the greatest pleasure was derived from reviewing Tail Swallower And Dove by These Arms Are Snakes. Fantastic and nigh-unclassifiable heavy music with rich inscrutable symbolism and brooding malice… something to watch stock tickers to.

Writing about books

To my shame, I’ve made no inroads over the last week on the reviews I have waiting to be written. That said, it’s probably be better to be in a position where I have four books that I’ve finished and just need to write about rather than four books waiting to be read and clamouring for a review as well. Silver linings, silver linings.

Freelance

Ah, now this is where all this week’s effort and energy has gone! Should have a new author site to launch early next week, and have been doing some design preliminaries on a new project that promises to be a lot more visually ambitious (and hence tricky and lengthy) than anything I’ve done as of yet. But hey, guy’s gotta raise his game, right? It’s a challenge, and I’m feeling confident about nailing it, too.

Futurismic

Nothing out of the ordinary to report at Futurismic, except an exceptionally persistent spammer who seems to bear a rather nasty grudge against a certain New-Yorican singer-songstress. The weird and omnidirectional obsessions these people possess never cease to amaze and appal^[1].

Books and magazines seen

It’s been another week of high volume and low interest on the books front, with yet more care packages from both Orbit and Tor/Macmillan packed full of stuff that drew nothing more than a resounding “meh”^[2].

But there’s one title that does look quite appealing, namely Lou Anders‘ Fast Forward 2 anthology from Pyr, which as some interesting contributors on its contents page as well as a garish but undeniably eye-catching Picacio cover:

Another brick for the to-be-read wall. Life’s such a chore, isn’t it?

Coda

Well, that was the first no-gig week in what feels like months^[3]. And as them what follows me on Twitter will already know, this week I got my lazy arse out of the house and down to the swimming pool – twice! The end results are a much clearer knowledge of just how horrifically unfit I’ve become^[4], and calf muscles that feel like someone’s clamped them onto my legs with an immense bulldog clip. But hey, you gotta start somewhere.

And the weekend starts right here; most of it will involve the ceaseless battering of CSS and PHP into this very keyboard, but there’s band practice to look forward to on Sunday as well as beers with friends this evening. And as I’ve been a good boy this week – staying in in the evenings, eating cheaply, getting work done and exercising, no less – I’m going to indulge in The Friday Curry. Biweekly is better than weekly, after all…

So have a good weekend, and do yourselves a favour – don’t watch the news, because worrying won’t make any difference. Auf weidersehn!

[ ¹ - Although, now I come to think about it, they're amazing simply by merit of being as banal, bigoted and stupid as the ones you encounter in real life. Go figure. ]

[ ² - Especially since the postman got me out of bed half an hour early for them both this morning. Grumble grumble. ]

[ ³ - Looking at my calendar, I think it actually is months. Blimey. ]

[ ⁴ - When I was nine or thereabouts, I could swim for literally hours at a time - if you lived in an ex-pat compound in Saudi Arabia, there was little else to do for kids. Currently, twenty lengths of a definitely-not-Olympic-size pool has me stiff-limbed and breathing like a nylon fetishist at an Ann Summers evening. ]

If you think London’s graffiti is ubiquitous, then you’ve probably never been to Berlin – or indeed Germany in general^[1].

In addition to the visual noise of tags and scribblings, punctuated by everything from swift throw-ups to full-blown burner pieces, there’s a strong current of stencil and poster graffiti, all resonating with Berlin’s understandably unique take on politics and ideology:

“No revolution today”… There was a lengthy spraycan scrawl elsewhere (that I forgot to take a picture of) which read “run – the old world is right behind you”. *sigh*

Writing about music

The Dreaded Press rolls on neatly, with Duncan well settled and a few new writers in the pipeline. Unfortunately I have eleven CDs with a release date of 6th October waiting in the pile; with the best will in the world, they’re not all going to be reviewed before release date. I do wish the labels wouldn’t cluster releases like that. Bloody inconsiderate of them.

Album of the week

With absolutely no hesitation at all, the thirteen-minute seven-track fun-splurge of Think by Lovvers gets the crown this week. A joyous crazy racket; this is what the word pop should really refer to. They’re playing with a friend’s band in a local pub next week…

Writing about books

Last week’s head-cold (now mostly shifted, thankfully) put me on the back foot schedule-wise, so little concrete book reviewing work was accomplished. Plus I’ve been trying my best to rattle my way though my current script-review assignment… which is, to be diplomatic, a tough and slow read^[2].

Freelance

Mostly administrivia and final bits of catch-up this week, although Tuesday evening was totally consumed by the server migration of a couple of client sites. Or, more accurately, one of them…

A bit of advice for you, if you ever have to migrate a MySQL database for a PHPbb installation, be sure to backup the data *without* including the search result tables^[3], and to install a search table re-builder plugin as soon as you get the files moved. That little tip should save you about three hours of trial and error (and panic)… I’d provide links, but the software version in question is quite dated; just search the PHPbb community docs, they’re pretty comprehensive.

Futurismic

All seems pretty well over at Futurismic, though it’s getting very close to the next new fiction date and we still don’t have a definite story to run with next month. Chris (F’mic Fiction Ed) is being more picky these days – by his own admission, and rightly so – but that means we don’t have a pile of pre-bought material ready to roll out at the moment. It’ll all work out, I’m sure… but I can’t help getting a little nervous.

Aeroplane Attack

Some of you may remember me joining a band a while back; those of you who remember and are curious about what’s happening in that department may be intrigued to hear we’ve booked our first session in a proper rehearsal space, which we’re considering a first landmark on the route to gigworthiness. Really looking forward to being able to crank out the songs at high decibel levels… because that’s how they’re supposed to be played^[4].

Books and magazines seen

No books of note this week; however, one of the Little Brown subsidiaries sent out a huge showy package for what, to judge by the blurb, is the opener to yet another YA horror series. Talk about an anticlimax…

However, the latest Interzone turned up, with what is probably my favourite cover art of recent times:

Plus it’s a Chris Beckett special. If you don’t know why that’s a good thing, I recommend you buy this copy of Interzone and find out. Beckett is one of my favourite British short sf writers, and I’m not alone in that assessment; his work deserves your attention.

Coda

So, yeah, remember how I said last week that I’d be going to gigs less in future? Well, changing my life is like pulling a U-turn in an oil tanker – there’s a lot of planning involved, current momentum has to be taken into account, and the changes take a long time to express themselves in a tangible manner.

Which is why tonight I’ll be reviewing Swedish punk stalwarts Millencolin at The Wedgewood Rooms, and why I’ll be hopping on a on train Saturday morning to King’s College, London to attend this weekend’s This Ain’t No Picnic mini-festival^[5]… because they’ve both been booked for ages, basically.

And looking ahead at the next few months, there’s a fair few more such advanced bookings in the pipeline, too. So maybe I’d best stop saying “yes” every time news of a tempting show passes through, hmmm^[6]?

Anyway, a weekend away means I have stuff that needs to be done before I depart, so I’d best get my arse in gear and go fetch The Friday Curry, hadn’t I? Have yourselves the best weekend mathematically possible, and try not to watch the news – no point in getting depressed about stuff we can’t do anything to change, after all. Take care, folks – auf weidersehn!

[ ¹ - On the Deutsche Bahn train network, the approach seems to be "leave it there, it'll just come back if you paint it over, so why waste time and money?", a stark contrast to the UK attitude of fastidiously covering over these terrible social blasphemies on a monthly basis. Funnily enough, the trains in Germany are affordable, comfortable and run on time. I can't help but feel there's a connection between these things. ]

[ ⁶ - Like that's gonna happen. ]

When looking for somewhere to stay for my trip to Berlin, I decided to go with the place I did for two reasons. Firstly, the single rooms were very affordable (twenty Euros a night, which is comparable to most dormitory slots); secondly, it advertised itself as being very gay-friendly, which struck me as a great way to minimise the risk of ending up sharing space with a lot of beered-up laddish backpackers.

The actual gay-friendliness is not something I can adequately assess, obviously, but it manifested itself in certain small ways beyond the lifestyle and outlook of the staff. As an example, this is what I found in the toilet next to my room:

That’s Berlin for ya^[1]! Awesome town, and I had tons of fun. I did not at any juncture wear a lacy thong, however.

Writing about music

There was quite a binge of reviewing before I left, and there’s been quite a bit since I got back – isn’t that always the way with holidays? Still, Duncan Harris seems to be settling in as a reviewer^[2], and I have a few more victims volunteers about to come on board, so The Dreaded Press is rolling along pretty well, despite my temporary absence.

Album(s) of the fortnight

Well, it’s a mini-album, but close enough. The cumbersomely-titled Seven Months and a Fire Blanket by Proceed by is everything that young British post-hardcore bands usually fail to produce, and marks them out as one worth keeping an eye out for.

Close second goes to Lost in the Sound of Separation by Underoath - Christian metalcore that isn’t a load of unlistenable shouty bollocks. Hoodathunkit?

Writing about books

Surprise surprise, I was far too busy enjoying myself to do much formal writing while I was away, and I’ve been far too busy playing catch-up since I got back. However, I did read all of Paul McAuley‘s forthcoming novel The Quiet War and the VanderMeers’ Steampunk anthology, and took plenty of notes on both. So, another two titles to add to the ever-growing list of “books I should have reviewed months ago”.

Speaking of my doings in lit-crit, though: in case it passed you by, my long-anticipated long-awaited essay on Snow Crash was published at SF Site while I was away^[3], and I cropped up in an SF Signal Mind Meld on media tie-in novels. Go, me!

Freelance

This week’s catch-up has mostly been freelance stuff, taking full advantage of the time off from the day-job. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be launching a new author website early next week – watch this space for an announcement! But a week of XHTML and CSS has been pretty hard on my brain, to be honest. I think I need a holiday…

Futurismic

My great team of blogging types kept Futurismic ticking over nicely while I was away, and the new story from David McGillveray – “The Plastic Elf of Extrusion Valley“ – appeared right on schedule. Hurrah for post-dated publishing in WordPress!

Books and magazines seen

Arriving just before I left for Berlin, the latest Electric Velocipede plonked into the letterbox, which has stepped up from stapled A4 to proper digest format and looks very pretty (though I rather liked the cod-steampunkisms of the old black’n'white covers, too).

I actually took it with me, but never got round to attacking it.

I got a second copy of Foundation #102 (my contributor copy, don’tcha know), which I think I might send to my mum. She seems inexplicably proud of my ability to pontificate about books at great length without saying anything original, which I guess is what mothers are for.

And finally the nice people at Tor (the Stateside branch, no less) have sent me a hardback version of Tobias Buckell‘s third novel, Sly Mongoose.

I’m very fond of Tobias, as Futurismic readers will be aware, and I’m glad to see him doing so well for himself. I should really read the second in the series before this one, though…

Coda

So, between all the catch-up work and a hefty handful of gigs, this last week of my holiday has been anything but relaxed. I saw Swedish punk’n'rollers Backyard Babies on Wednesday night, judged at the local BOTB play-offs last night, and tonight I’m off to see the quirky musical legend that is Bob Log III.

Tomorrow afternoon sees me reading some of my poetry at people as part of the Southsea Fest^[4], as well, so it’s not over yet. In some ways it’ll be a relief to get back to a regular schedule… though I imagine the relief will fade after about 2pm on Monday.

Anyway, enough of my yakkin’ – I have things to do, and I expect you have as well, so I’ll bid you farewell and roll out for The Friday Curry before preparing myself for a train trip to Southampton. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend! Hasta luego, amigos!

[ 2 - He calls it how he sees it, though, which has led to some rather heated responses from fans of the bands in question. Heh. ]

[ 3 - Even without being near a computer I knew when it went live; there was a disturbance in the Force, as if a billion sf fans cried out in boredom, and then suddenly fell silent. Presumed asleep. ]

[ 4 - The irritating frames-based website means I can't link directly, but if you look under 'Venues' and scroll down to The Wine Vaults, you'll see yours truly amid a roster of far superior poets and musos. As I'm vastly outgunned on talent in this instance, I'm going to just aim for leftfield and try out the 'potted space opera' I wrote last year. Six sections, six different poetic forms, one story of an orbital habitat after the environmental collapse of Earth, one accidental and ham-fisted tribute to science fiction as possibly written by Gilbert and Sullivan. Erm, yes. ]

Ah, there’s nothing to compare to seeing a much-loved band you missed the first time around… especially when you blag in for free and get to stand beyond the barrier and take photos. Ladies and gentlemen, Cormac Battle of Kerbdog:

The new lens makes sharp colour shots a much more realistic proposition, as you can see. Problem is, being very wide aperture, there’s virtually no zoom whatsoever… and the autofocus doesn’t work in conjunction with my D40^[1], so it’s all seat-of-the-pants positioning gambles, manual focus and a lot of luck.

That said, I got a few good shots – and practice will improve matters, I expect. Check out my review of the show if you’re in the mood.

Writing about music

A full five-article week, but still leaving the news posts aside for the sake of productivity. Unsurprisingly, I’m a lot less subconsciously resentful of TDP when I’m not working so flat out on it…

Album of the week

Without the slightest shred of doubt, Send Flowers by Black Lungs, which is everything that earnest folk-tinged punk rock should be, and makes Rancid sound like the tired cash-in clichés they have been for years.

Seriously – if you’ve found yourself becoming allergic to the very word ‘punk’ (and I know I have), Black Lungs may restore your faith in the genre’s potential to communicate authentically. Great stuff.

Writing about books

Thanks to other tasks, very little lit-crit work completed this week; my weekend activities chewed up what little spare time I had. However, big deck-clearing session ahead.

Freelance

Technically, I have been writing about books, or rather a book – around midnight last night I sent off a fifteen page report on the mammoth manuscript I was sent for critique, and writing that beast was not merely a long job but a tough one. Many parts of it will be reusable in future, though, so it’s a time investment. Sending off a fairly beefy invoice this morning felt pretty good, also!

Other freelance stuff is ticking over, but – as with the lit-crit – there’s some serious deck-clearing on the horizon.

Futurismic

The next Futurismic story is bought and paid for, and ready to post automatically in my absence on 1st September. Always feels good to be ahead of the game.

In related news, I appear to have upset someone by criticising Orson Scott Card’s homophobia.^[2] wh00t!

Books and magazines seen

The first {$postbox = null} week for a long time. Feels weird in some ways, but I’m not complaining.

Holiday!

Oh, it’s so close! Exactly seven days from the time this post goes live, I’ll be rolling across Germany in a big fast train, about an hour away from arriving in Berlin^[3]! Accommodation is confirmed, I’ve got my Rough Guide dog-eared, and I’m really looking forward to my first proper holiday in a good few years. A whole glorious week of copious reading time, plus high culture by day and loud music by night – woohoo!

Coda

And not only am I off to Berlin next week, but as of today I’m off from the day-job for three weeks – which means plenty of time to blitz at my freelance work and get those decks cleared down, while still having enough time in the day to, I dunno, sit on my arse and read or play guitar if I feel like it. Isn’t it funny how our definitions of decadence change as we get older?

And on that note, I’m gonna sign off on FPB for this week and roll on out for The Friday Curry Of Legendary Repute. I believe this is one of those rare occasions where the US and the UK have a long weekend at the same time, so it gives me great pleasure to wish you all a doubtless well-deserved break. Enjoy yourselves! Hasta luego, amigos.

[ 1 - No AF drive on the camera body, y'know. That'll school me not to buy from the bottom rung of the tech ladder, wot? ]

[ 2 - It's Card's right as a free American to hate gay people, you see, but not mine to speak out against it. Riiiight. ]

[ 3 - I'll also have been up and about from 5am the same day, so coherence will probably be somewhat lacking by that point. ]

Whatever happens, I want you to know that I didn’t just hop outside the library and take this picture this afternoon so I’d have something to post. Honestly^[1].

The crane moves along the dockside, so it’s not always so perfectly central as that; I liked the contrast between the dark and light sides, too. The Dockyard’s an interesting place to work, y’know. It would be even more so if I didn’t spend almost all my time stuck in one building. Selah.

Writing about music

I’ve been experimenting with reigning back the output on The Dreaded Press this week, and I like the way it has freed up more of my time for other things, so it may well become an ongoing change – at least until I find some more reviewers. And in that respect, I have a nefarious plan… mwah-ha-hah!

Album of the week

Hard to choose, really, as I’ve only reviewed two this week, and neither of them was astonishingly up my alley, so to speak.

But purely on the basis of full-bore weirdness I’m going to give it to the bizarrely- (yet appropriately-) named Turtle Nipple And The Toxic Shock by Heavy Heavy Low Low. Put it this way, they don’t call it “spazzcore” for nothing.

Writing about books

Cranked out the long-awaited Nightmare in Silicon review over the weekend, as you may have noticed. Got a couple of half-done pieces on the boil as well, at least one of which should be polished off this weekend, time allowing.

Oooh – on the subject of book reviews, remember the long agonising completion of the Brasyl review^[2]? Well, it’s finally out in the wild: see the books and mags section further down.

Freelance

I’ve been doing lots of behind-the-scenes stuff this week, including such exciting pastimes as triple-checking and printing off last year’s accounts, setting up SSH accounts on my websites and miscellaneous other administrivia.

It’s a case of paying things forward, though – for example, the SSH accounts should reduce my current Sunday backups routine from two hours to two clicks of a mouse. Well, once I’ve sussed out how to script all the processes automatically, that is… but even so, rsync is a lot more efficient than buggering about with FTP. Command line bash for the win!

I finally finished wading through the first monster manuscript – now all I have to do is think of a bunch of honest but encouraging things to say about it. And I thought the reading part was difficult going… still, there’s worse ways to earn money, and it’s teaching me a lot about how not to write. Silver linings ahoy!

Futurismic

Everything still ticking over nicely at Futurismic. Need to start planning for my absence at the end of the month, though.

Books and magazines seen

My first ever issue of Foundation (#102) arrived this morning, complete with my sprawling review of Ian McDonald‘s Brasyl^[3]. w00t!

Orbit sent through a bunch more vampire-shagger paperbacks (seriously – how does anyone keep up with that genre’s output? Talk about making hay while the sun moon shines… ).

Under separate cover travelled the new K J Parker novel, The Company – complete with jacket blurb that plays on the “yes, it’s a pseudonym but no, we’re not telling you who it is” line. Way to dangle the carrot, guys… I may have to ask some of my insider contacts (hi, Darren!) for some clues^[4].

And naturally, having attended a rather superb book launch last week, I came back with autographed copies of Gareth L Powell‘s short story collection The Last Reef and Chris Beckett‘s The Turing Test^[5]. Great artwork for both, I think:

And bargains at £6 each. Go buy one – support talented authors and receive good fiction in return. How can you argue with that?

Coda

Another busy weekend beckons, so we’ll keep it brief here in the Coda. I’m off to see recently-reformed nineties alt-rock trio Kerbdog in Camden tomorrow night, and then on Sunday I’m spinning some tunes^[6] at the fifth anniversary bash for the pompeymusic.co.uk forum^[7], so masses of stuff to get done in a smaller space than usual. I may even forego a trip to the pub this evening, depending on how things pan out…

But I’ll not be forgoing The Hallowed Friday Curry Of Truth And Justice, however – because some things just can’t be skipped, no matter how busy you are. Have a great weekend, ladies and gents – hasta luego!

[ 1 - This is a blatant lie. But then you already knew that. ]

[ 2 - How could you forget? After all, I whined on about it for months. Which is, y'know, so out-of-character for me. ]

[ 3 - It's nowhere as bad as I remember it being, either. I can still see a number of glaring errata and bad paragraphs, though, which is a bit shoddy for one's début in a proper academic journal. Selah. ]

[ 4 - Anyone read any of the K J Parker novels, by the way? I seem to remember Farah speaking well of them, and they get a few mentions in her Rhetorics Of Fantasy , which - to my shame - I've still yet to finish... ]

[ 5 - The Turing Test blurb quotes a certain website with which you are doubtless somewhat familiar. Consider this a muffled grace note from my dusty trumpet. ]

[ 6 - Heh - time to deploy the Monster Magnet back catalogue, methinks! ]

[ 7 - Old time-sucks die hard. It's a den of foul humour and other iniquities, but I've made some great friends through it over the years, including my band-mates. ]

We’re going a little bit meta on FPB this week, thanks to this morning’s arrival of this little fellow:

That – in case you were wondering – is a wide-aperture fast lens for my camera, which should alleviate the “one usable shot in every hundred blurry smears” syndrome that dogs my gig photography.

It should also make it possible to shoot fast non-blurred images in low-light conditions without the use of the built-in flash, which should come in handy very soon indeed…

Writing about music

It’s been a very slow week for releases, so I’ve only posted three reviews at TDP this week. This is a good thing, as it has enabled me to get on with some other unrelated gubbins, but I need to start ramping up to give myself a week’s worth of material before I head off on holiday.

That said, I’m quite happy with the results of the last seven months of near-daily reviews, in that TDP has a decent page-rank. I think it may be time to scale back and focus on quality rather than quantity in times to come… not to mention get the damned site redesigned.

Album of the week

It’s a close call, so I’ll give the honourable mention to the new Levellers album, Letters From the Underground^[1], but the real stand-out stonker was definitely Funeral Mixtape by The Pack A.D. – a two-girl band playing ragged, powerful and authentic blues with a little hint of hipster cool. Well worth hearing, if only for Becky Black’s incredible voice.

Writing about books

Hey, I got the Snow Crash essay finished and submitted last weekend! Huzzah! I got an acknowledgement from Rodger at SF Site for the submission, but I’ve not heard back since so I guess it must be OK^[2].

I have a number of potential things to write about this weekend (Snake Agent? The Night Sessions? The long-overdue Nightmare in Silicon? something else?) but given I’m out of town for most of Saturday, hell only knows whether anything will actually get done. Maybe I’ll surprise myself!

Freelance

With the exception of some PS Publishing newsletters and blogging, this week’s freelance work has largely been administrivia, which always takes more time than you expect it to. However, I got my tax return finished last night, which is an albatross I’m pleased to see the back of. Now all I need to do is catch up with this year’s accounts so far and then keep on top of them^[3].

Futurismic

I’m still eagerly anticipating your comments on “Dry Frugal With Death Rays“. I mean, you’ve obviously all read it already, and you’re just thinking of the right way to respond. This is not a question or a suggestion. Read that damned story, or there’ll be trouble.

Anyway, Bruce Sterling reads Futurismic. So should you.

Books and magazines seen

You’re not going to believe this – I certainly don’t. But I’m still receiving F&SF. Perhaps Gordon Van Gelder is a big fan of FPB and likes seeing it mentioned every time? Or he’s using my postbox as a very small supplementary warehouse? I dunno… September issue, anyways:

Hell only knows when I’ll get round to reading it (or any of the last half dozen or so, for that matter, which is the main reason I didn’t renew the sub).

Just retrieved from the Post Office depot this morning (along with the lens in the picture) were two Mike Resnick titles from Pyr – namely the classic Stalking the Unicorn and its recent sequel Stalking the Vampire – as well as Robert Silverberg‘s Son of Man:

I bought some non-fiction titles from Amazon this week, too. The Linux command line guide and WordPress theming textbook are not exactly entertainment reading^[4], but I’m looking forward to tucking into the Rough Guide to Berlin^[5]…

And a box of limited edition rarities from my benevolent employers at PS Publishing, too – an embarrassment of literary riches, forsooth!

Elastic Press book launch

As mentioned above, it’s a trip beyond Velcro City’s borders for me tomorrow. Elastic Press are launching books by Gareth L Powell and Chris Beckett – two lovely blokes and super sf authors to boot – at the bizarrely named Citte Of Yorke pub on High Holborn on Saturday afternoon – details and maps on the Facebook event page. Maybe see you there?

Coda

With that in mind, there’s stuff I need to be getting on with, so we’ll make the coda into more of a James Brown-esque hit-it-’n'-quit this week. It’s time for The Friday Curry, of course, and probably time for you to start doing weekend type stuff as well – so have a good one! Hasta luego…

[ 1 - Y'know, it's a Levellers album, basically - though somewhat of a return to form as far as songwriting is concerned. They don't have the fire they had in the old days... but then nor do I, so I can't complain too much. ]

[ 2 - Or, just as plausibly, the sheer density of my pontification caused the poor fellow's head to pop, which means I'll have to bear the burden of being the first person to commit manslaughter with a piece of science fiction criticism. Which, come to think of it, would be quite an accolade... though probably not the sort that gets people asking you to write for them more often. ]

[ 3 - This will be much easier now I've finalised and tested my "Mammoth Freelance Accounting Spreadsheet (for Persons Who Deal Both Through Paypal and Their Bank Account and Occasionally in Other Currencies) of Justice". All it needs now is a snappier title. ]

[ 4 - That said, bash commands are conveniently bite-sized; the Linux Toolbox might sit on the cistern for a few weeks. ]

[ 5 - Three weeks to go! ]

OK, for the record: although I thought some of his reasons and criticisms were wrong, I largely agreed when Jonathan said that Tor.com was late to the party and unnecessary[1] to the online genre scene.

And now there’s another one: Stephen Hunt’s SF Crowsnest is the latest to board the bandwagon with Hivemind.

Considering how long the Tor site has been in the pipeline – and the original-content-producing clout they have behind them – how could launching this now possibly be a sane option by comparison to just reskinning PHPbb and chucking it in a subdomain so your regular readers can beef without cluttering the comment threads?

Coming as it does from a site that hasn’t had a properly functional RSS feed since I started reading that way in late 2005[2], I hope you’ll all forgive me for not rushing over there to add you as a friend.

I follow a fair few PR and social media commentators via blogs and Twitter, and it’s interesting how social network saturation is finally starting to set warning flags a-waving among those who were first to praise their potential. Too much of a good thing, perhaps… but as has been pointed out, there’s no need to do anything. The web’s always been pretty Darwinian; many are born, few survive to thrive. [image by wafdaros]

[ 1 - Unnecessary does not equate to useless or unenjoyable, in case that isn't obvious. ]

[ 2 - Unless something has changed since last time I tried it around December last year, of course. ]