Conrunner, Writer, Pengineer, Equaliser Millionwordman

In a world where light is available at the touch of a switch, meaning that we have no more reason to fear the darkness, we can do anything, at any time, surely that’s a good thing, right?   You may be surprised.   From the cover of the book, I’d imagined that this would have been something more to do with nature and how animals and plants rely on the natural cycle of sunlight and darkness, but it turned out to be something more interesting.    To be sure, some of the book doe

Lido’s are a particular feature of UK culture that many know comparatively little about, but when I was young, as a working class kid, they were a place where you could go and be amongst not just your people, but all people.  They weren’t just seen as something for rich or poor, but for everyone.   This book covers many (but not all) of the different Lido’s across the UK, their history, when they were built, in many cases why they were built, and the struggles to keep them ar

I haven't studied Zen before now, but I do study hoplology, the art of human combative behaviour, and finding a new perspective upon which to contemplate fighting with swords was the reason I asked for this book, and while there was some aspects of learning how to use a sword, the majority of the book was in the teaching of how to think and act in the discipline of Zen. Throughout, there were few mentions of the sword itself and how that would tie into the nature of Zen thin

A world not far removed from the cyberpunk universe, a detective with a complex life who works with an cybernetically enhanced talking cat to solve crimes…   With me so far?   This is how the book starts, no explanation to anything else, just straight in with the story, Detective Lynx is the protagonist, brought in to work on a murder case that turns out to be far more than it started out as.  Her cat, Skua, is her constant companion throughout adventure and provides interest

Language is a thing that I’ve always found most interesting, from writing and the construction of stories, to the differences and similarities between all the dialects of the world.  Some time ago, I found a book called Lost in Translation, a book of words that could not be translated from their own language without a significant explanation, and I’d hoped to find something similar here.   While this book is interesting, it’s not the sort of book that brings that nuance, the

In advance, I love cats, and I love travel stories, so on the surface of it, this book should have been everything I was after.  This is the story of Archie, the streetwise east end cat who finds himself in distant lands through no fault of his own, looking to find a way to get home.   Archie’s a cockney, there’s no two ways about that, but one who’s got the memories of a human at least in their forties, as they make reference to the Krays and the old ways of the east end, al

Sometimes books are clever…   Sometimes books want you to think they are clever…   Sometimes they’re both…   I loved the idea of this book, of the notion of considering the past and the future at the same time, of holding the key to realities before and after the fact and of the challenge of time travel without the invariable chronological entropy. That and I’ve always enjoyed Neil Jordans other work, it’s always thought provoking and that’s always appreciated.   Take this b

Oyster is a small time thief in a small time part of London, there’s little to look forwards to, and that which you can, you’ll find that you won’t like it when you eventually get it.  He’s in with gangs and trying not to get further in, whilst realising that being further in is the only way that he’ll ever make the money he needs to get a better life. This is the London that Oyster is trying to make a life for himself in.    Until one day it isn’t…   Oyster finds himself in

Review of The Night Ship   A story should go somewhere, that’s the central tenet for anything that’s been put on paper, if you haven’t got to a different place, found different people, different perspectives, what was the point of the story in the first place.   The Night Ship is a story where things change and do not change, told in the claustrophobia of a vehicle as it journeys onwards to destinations unclear. There’s the danger outside the vehicle, the danger of what they

So what’s with all the reviews? Last year was a grinder, no two ways about it, for me and many people that I know, it was just relentless misery, like a slavering beast, unbound and hungry to consume others. I finished the year on cheerful results from a colonoscopy (Little C, not Big C) and vowed that the new year would not hit me as hard as the previous one had. If you want to make god laugh… But actually, on this, I found myself thinking, not this year, not this time, not

Content Warning: Mention of Personal Regrets (Even though I shouldn't) Some books are entertaining, some books are informative, on very rare occasions, some books are both.   This book, is both.   Ignorance is not purely negative, this was the line upon which I decided to read the book, and I was not disappointed in what I found within.  Split into four different types of ignorance, each one very different, but thereby pointing out eloquently that there are reasons whereby ig

It begins, as these things often do, with a heist to retrieve a relic from a place that no one knew about, returning it, not for the greater good or because it should be in a museum, but for the fat reward.  Only it turns out that the relic is an instrument of mass destruction and the recovery team barely get away before everything goes boom.   That alone would have been enough to get the attention, but the story quickly matures into the possibility of Armageddon writ large a

There are artists that are good, and there are artists that are great.   Lewis Larosa is Great, no question about it, his artwork has redefined the nature of comics and visual storytelling for many years, and I was more than interested to find out more about how he came up with the distinctive styles that he’s known for.   The book is split into several different comics, each one with notes on where the ideas and art direction came from and how it influenced the end result. 

And so, the intrepid author decided to go from Pennsylvania to South Africa, because of Hans Zimmer…   Don’t believe it?   By the end of the book, you just might.   This isn’t a coherent tale of one mans journey from Inspiration to salvation, topped off by the inevitable revelation that we are all the same under the skin.  This is a madcap romp through south Africa, back to America, back to South Africa, rinse (with unclean water) and repeat.   The style of storytelling is en

“One advantage of having your mind uploaded into an ecosystem should have been that you didn’t end up in stupid meetings…”   An impossibility and a down to earth observation, delivered in the same sentence.   If you haven’t read Adrian Tchaikovsky before, this is what you should expect, the impossible married to the ordinary, presented in a way that doesn’t require you to read a dictionary to comprehend it.   There’s a useful primer at the beginning of the book that explains

Book One   Those two words carry a heavy weight upon them, the promise that the story does not end here, that what you have in your hands will not be the end of what you start reading here, and that what you read here will be enough that you will want to read on, when the next piece arrives.   In many cases, Book One drives the inevitable fear of not wanting to read it, in case book two isn’t as good, or worse, doesn’t arrive.   Do not make that mistake here.   The Book of Fa

Yes Officer, that is the man wot stole it... The feeling you get when something is stolen from you is a strange one to be sure, that...

Most people who know me, know that I like fountain pens, and I like letting other people try them out and get ideas about how to write,...

Yesterday, Jude and I were down at the Birmingham Hiton Metropole, but this time not to run a convention.   This time was something else...

Don’t get to the cinema as often as I used to, in some respects that’s because I don’t have the time I used to have, and in recent...