| The Book Launch! |
[May. 23rd, 2012|09:29 pm] |
Last night I attended the launch of a book of poetry. Poetry is not my favourite form of written art, but I do like good poetry when I find it.
Why was I at the launch?
The publisher, a small press stating it only publishes the best, produced a book of poems some years ago that I found to be amazing, which for a non-poetry loving person means the poems were pretty damned great. This being the case I thought the book launch, which was only a few minutes walk from my home, could be interesting and may introduce me to a new poet of worth.
Things started going askew after I bought a copy of the book and started reading some of the poems. Then I noticed the local authority's coat of arms on the back.
"Oh! Oh!", I thought, "blind arts funding."
Yes, the local authority funded the production of the book and the publisher did not put a penny towards it.
The poetry is the biggest load of crap, self indulgent drivel, pathetic self-indulgence I have come across to date.
The problem appears to be the lack of quality control. Funding by the local authority was well intentioned but who in the local authority would think of critcising the work. The publisher was quite happy to add another volume to his stable at no cost to himself.
The people I feel sorry for are the other poets of worth who have been published by this publisher. Their work has now been devalued by the publisher who states his aim as, "...to publish the best of literary works by Irish or Irish resident writers."
This is as close to vanity puplishing as I have come across.
I'm mentioning no names as the person who asked me to go to this launch was the poet whose work I thought was great. He couldn't make it himself and was asking if others could go to support the publisher. I want to tell him about this in person. I would believe he has not read this work or he wouldn't have been prompting people to attend.
At least I got a glass of wine for my trouble. |
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| Stonemouth by Iain Banks |
[May. 13th, 2012|04:20 pm] |
I enjoyed Stonemouth for many reasons. To begin with, while the location in the book was made up it came across as very real, as did the characters.
In addition, as someone who moved away from my hometown I could relate to Stewart (Stu) Gilmore’s feelings about returning home. (Not that I was run out of my hometown by gangsters.) Iain Banks caught the sense of returning home and finding oneself in familiar surroundings where things appear to have never changed, time never to have moved on, and yet you feel different.
I liked the way facts about Stu’s life in Stonemouth were revealed and Iain’s treatment of Stu’s interaction with old friends and companions wrung true. His treatment of Stu’s conflicting thoughts and internal reasoning about how his former girlfriend would react to him felt realistic.
The first half of the novel moved relatively slowly and I did wonder if I would have read it had it not been an Iain Banks novel. However, about halfway through it picked up the pace and I found myself not wanting to put it down. In fact, I had to force myself to put the book down at 1am on a midweek night so that I could get some sleep. (I only had twenty pages left at the time and so I finished it in Starbucks the following morning before going into work.)
Iain Banks always likes to take a shot at the establishment. The scene at the golf course presents him with this opportunity and his description of the gathering reminded me of all the recent coverage in the UK press about the “Chipping Norton Set” and the environment of collusion between politicians, agents of law and order, and those with a predilection for pursuits beyond those considered strictly legal, but all for the “better good”, of course. This scene could also be taken as a “hats off” salute to the film, “Hot Fuzz”, in which Bill Bailey’s two characters (Sergeants Turner) are seen to be reading Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks novels, and in which a similar approach to peace keeping can be observed.
It is the first book I’ve read in a long time in which the ending was not a foregone conclusion. Right up until the end it could have gone any number of ways and Iain Banks did a great job of laying any number of false trails that the reader could follow. As I approached the end of the book I had at least four possible endings in mind and I was kept guessing to the last few pages.
Many reviewers have considered this book to be a disappointment for a Banks novel. I do not agree with them. While “Stonemouth” is not “The Bridge”, “Walking on Glass”, “The Crow Road”, “Espedair Street”, “Complicity”, or “The Was Factory”, it is still a good read with a lot to offer and a novel that would have been acclaimed had it been written by someone else.
Thank you, Iain, for another enjoyable story. |
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| Popco by Scarlett Thomas |
[Apr. 25th, 2012|09:27 pm] |
Popco started off on a high and maintained an element of fun for about the first third of the book. At that point it levelled off with a degree of monotony, introspection by the main character, and clunky info-dumps reminiscent of some Science Fiction pulps of the mid twentieth century.
The overall theme of the book is about the main character, Alice Butler, making sense of her life and reviewing her day-to-day actions against the principles of right and wrong that her grandparents taught her. In addition, she has a family secret of great material value, and works for a large corporation which she believes is amoral and that uses manipulation through marketing to sell its products, and which uses what is basically slave labour to minimise its production costs.
Thomas uses this book as a platform for preaching the message of resistance to corporate power and the exploration of resistance to corporate power and the exploitation of people and animals for profit.
Where she fails is in the creation of a group of realistic characters who will have anything relevant to offer to society in general.
The people involved in the story would be aptly described as smoked salmon socialists (despite the fact that many of them are vegan). These people are all working in an environment where the corporate culture and their upper middle-class lifestyles mean they are divorced from the day-to-day life of the majority of people.
One of the worrying things about this book is the message that many children growing up are not aware of where their food comes from, i.e. that beefburgers contain dead cow, pork is dead pig and that chicken is dead chicken. Perhaps education is different in England.
Interesting information on code breaking is provided and some story relevant codes and puzzles are included for the reader to ponder, if he/she so desires. This, however, while providing some very interesting detail, was the main source of the clunk info-dumping.
Relationships in the story were rather weak. Alice’s relationship with her grandparents was too fairytale like and tame to be credible. In addition, the relationships she built up with her work colleagues while at a work retreat centre were shallow, naive and school-childish.
The whole “resistance movement” element was very childish. It made me think of the book as an adult Enid Blyton. I can see the description now: “The Famous Five have Sex!”
All in all, a book with many interesting elements, but flaws in structure, characters and tone.
To add credibility to the book, Thomas has used the ploy of having the main character write a book and one is not dissuaded from the view that perhaps this is the book the main character wrote. In addition, she identifies the fictional book as the type of book wrong thinking people would ignore and right-minded people would love.
As I’ve said, there are many interesting things in the book and so I decided I would try to send a message to Ms. Thomas to say so. I found her website and went to the contact page where I found the message, “I am incredibly busy with my writing and my students and find it very difficult to reply quickly to readers, which is why there is not a link here to contact me direct.” The rest of the contact page provided details of her publishers, the MA in creative writing which she directs, and her publicists.
Apart from the poor grammar the message is in total contrast to the message she was giving in Popco. It appears she is falling back on the corporate organisation to save herself from dealing directly with her readers, an approach that many authors are realising does not work in today’s changing world of publishing.
I think the next Scarlett Thomas book I buy will be sourced in a second-hand shop. |
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| Blueshifting |
[Mar. 30th, 2012|09:36 pm] |
Heather Kamins’ collection of poems, “Blueshifting”, is an interesting mixture of art and science. Her poems are beautifully crafted and filled my mind with flawless images.
Technically perfect the pieces contain references to scientific topics, as hinted in the title of the anthology. She toys with the topics and uses the scientific theories and elements to sketch parallels in life, and loss, and love.
Apart from the wonderful content, the cover is amazing. The picture is eye-catching and is really a work of art in itself.
This is a collection well worth reading and pondering. I know I will be drawn back to Blueshifting many times. |
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| 1Q84 Book One, Book Two & Book Three by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker, London) |
[Mar. 18th, 2012|07:33 pm] |
OK! So I’m in trouble. I’ve found another author who has a long list of books to his credit and I am now inclined to read them all. Bottom line, I enjoyed 1Q84 Book One, Book Two and Book Three. How I got to that bottom line is a meandering tale of inverted snobbery, ignorance, misconceptions, clever marketing, revulsion, and susceptibility to beautifully designed book covers.
( more ) |
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| 1Q84 |
[Mar. 11th, 2012|12:08 am] |
1Q84 Books One & Two are really a single book. The subtlety of the dividing line between one book and the next escaped me. It just appeared to be an abitrary delineation of the end of one book and the beginning of another; perhaps I'm just not sensitive enough.
Regardless, I enjoyed the book. Its structure worked well; chapters alternated between the viewpoint of one primary character and that of the other.
Having finished the book (or "books" if you prefer) I can say it (they) constitute a good, enjoyable novel. I have not started Book 3 but will do so soon. If Book 3 had never come into existence I would be happy that Books 1 & 2 were sufficient in themselves to be regarded as a good work of fiction.
The primary theme in the book is violence against women. However, here are many themes worked into the story; namely, love, family (in particular parent/child relationships), religious sects, justice, helplessnes, isolation, etc... There is also a strong "coming of age" element. In addition, there are many episodes of sexual gymnastics. I hasten to add that I was enjoying the book before I reached Chapter 3, and I didn't enjoyed it any less having read the hot lesbian encounter in that chapter.
Another message from the book is that the bad guy may not necessarily be the bad guy; he/she could be a victim too.
The translation by Jay Rubin was excellent. I say this based on the easy flow of the book's English rather than from any knowledge of how well the English reflected the original Japanese meaning. One piece had me puzzled though, and I don't know if it was due to literal translation, differences in Japanese language structure, an error or whatever; it was where one of the characters asks about the difference between lunatic and insane, and the words are both described as being adjectives. Not a major issue, but it has me curious about the Japanese language.
Also, this book is the first instance where I came across a record player pick-up arm being referred to as a tone arm. Having grown up in the vinyl age and used turntables all my life I tripped up on this term. One lives and learns.
This book encouraged me to look at the geography of Japan and to finally go an look at a map to see were all the places I.ve heard of in the past are actually located.
In summary, an enjoyable read with some thought provoking elements. |
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| Past Guests of Honour at P-Con |
[Mar. 1st, 2012|08:57 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | c.e. murphy, ian mcdonald, juliet e. mckenna, ken macleod, kim newman, nick harkaway, p-con, paul cornell, pcon, phoenix convention, susanna clarke | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
P-Con I, 27th & 28th September, 2003
Ken MacLeod whose new book, Intrusion, is out today, 1st March, 2012.
P-Con II, 13th & 14th November, 2004
Juliet E. McKenna who will be signing her new book, Darkening Skies, in the Writers Centre on Parnell Square, Dublin, at 7pm on Friday, March 2nd, 2012.
P-Con III, 11th & 12th March, 2006
Susanna Clarke whose novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell portrayed British magic and politics in a totally new light.
P-Con IV, 10th & 11th March, 2007
Kim Newman whose Anno Dracula The Bloody Red Baron, will have a new look in June.
P-Con V, 28th, 29th & 30th March, 2008
C.E. Murphy who will be signing her new book, Raven Calls, in the Writers Centre on Parnell Square, Dublin, at 7pm on Friday, March 2nd, 2012.
P-Con VI, 27th, 28th & 29th March, 2009
Paul Cornellwhose Demon Knights is released on March 14th.
P-Con 7, 5th, 6th & 7th March, 2010
Nick Harkaway’s new novel, Angelmaker, was released on February 2nd, and is just excellent. The promotional video for the book is probably the best I have seen for any book. It is going to do for book videos what Queen’s video for Bohemian Rhapsody did for music videos.
P-Con VIII, 4th, 5th & 6th March, 2011
Ian McDonald. I really enjoyed Ian’s The Dervish House. His latest book, Planesrunner, the first in a new YA series, is now available. |
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| The Dervish House by Ian McDonald |
[Mar. 1st, 2012|08:10 pm] |
While the core story of The Dervish House spans only a few days in the year 2027 the tale incorporates legend, myth, history, politics and religion spanning centuries, if not millennia. Its themes include unrequited love, betrayal, revolution, cultural sexism, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, prejudice, fraudulent commodity trading, clashing cultures, the isolation of the individual, and the day-to-day reality facing people on the streets of Istanbul.
Ian McDonald tells his intricate story through the lives of six individuals who are linked in various ways to an ancient wooden tekke (a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood) located in Istanbul, the Dervish house of the title. This building has survived centuries and in 2027 contains several dwellings and an antique dealership.
The action starts on the third page with a suicide bomber detonating her explosive device on a tram. We are then treated to how this terrorist act affects each of the six characters; the teenager on the tram who survives the explosion but is traumatised by his experience; a young marketing graduate whose journey to her important job interview is disrupted by the ensuing traffic chaos; the nine-year-old boy, confined to his apartment and a world of silence by a rare heart condition; the retired Greek economist whose past has brought him into conflict with the authorities; a dealer in ancient artefacts who receives an offer she cannot refuse; the yuppie commodity dealer with plans for a killing that will set him up for life.
The Istanbul of McDonald’s novel is in a Turkey that has become part of the European Union, and is experiencing an economic boom based on great advances in nanotechnology and its applications. Turkey’s strategic location at the meeting point of Europe and Asia plays a big part in the economic success of the area, and also in the potential targeting of its ancient capital city by terrorist groups wishing to make their mark.
Does Ian McDonald succeed in producing a good book with so many diverse strands and elements?
In my opinion, yes, he does.
His characters are full and rounded. Their actions are rational and coherent in the context of the story and the situations in which they find themselves. Family backgrounds and personal experiences are presented and prove consistent with how the individuals are portrayed.
The Science Fiction elements in the story, nanotechnology and robotics, are critical to this near-future tale, but they have not been allowed to push character development or plot into the shade. This novel is an excellent political techno-thriller with some heart-touching romance, and is populated with characters who have everyday lives and real concerns. It deals with a wide range of issues pertinent to today’s global reality, and deals with them in a historically accurate context.
I learned a lot about Turkey’s history from this book, and have been prompted to read more about this fascinating and turbulent part of the world.
This was a book that I enjoyed immensely. |
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| Honoured Friends of the Phoenix Convention |
[Feb. 29th, 2012|09:14 pm] |
At P-Con VI Peter McClean introduced the concept of “Honoured Friends of the Phoenix Convention” to acknowledge the support and services rendered to the Convention by individuals. Below is the list of “Honoured Friends of the Phoenix Convention”:
Pádraig Ó Méalóid Founder of P-Con and Chair for P-Cons I, II, III & IX
Frank Darcy Chair for P-Cons IV & V
Ken MacLeod Guest of Honour P-Con I
Juliet E. McKenna Guest of Honour P-Con II
David Lally Long term supporter and promoter of P-Con
Susanna Clarke Guest of Honour P-Con III
Kim Newman Guest of Honour P-Con IV
Catie E. Murphy Guest of Honour P-Con V
Paul Cornell Guest of Honour P-Con VI
Charles Stross Loyal Guest and supporter of P-Con
Fèorag Nic Bridhe Designer of the Phoenix Convention Logo
Nick Harkaway Guest of Honour P-Con VII
Cheryl Morgan Strong supporter and promoter of P-Con (and rescuer from a disaster)
Ian McDonald Guest of Honour P-Con VIII
What a wonderful bunch of friends P-Con has.
P-Con IX is on next weekend - 3rd & 4th March, 2012. |
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| Phoenix Convention - The story so far. |
[Feb. 28th, 2012|11:00 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | books, central hotel, city of literature, fantasy, horror, library bar, p-con, pcon, phoenix, phoenix convention, science fiction, writers centre | ] |
On Saturday and Sunday, 3rd and 4th March, 2012, Phoenix Convention IX will be held in the Writers Centre on Parnell Square, Dublin. This annual event, better known as “P-Con”, was the brainchild of long-term fandom aficionado, Pádraig Ó Méalóid.
Pádraig had always thought the Ashling Hotel would be a wonderful venue for a convention, and given its proximity to the Phoenix Park he named the event, “The Phoenix Convention”.
P-Cons I, II & III were held in the Ashling, but due to impending renovations the convention had to seek a new home for P-Con IV. Wynn’s Hotel in Abbey Street, just off O’Connell Street, and right in the heart of Dublin, was the base for P-Con IV which took place in March 2007. The Central Hotel, with its appropriately atmospheric Library Bar, across the river and closer to the eateries and watering holes of Dublin’s nightlife, became the home for P-Cons V, VI, 7(the Chairman liked the figure, “7”), and VIII.
Ken MacLeod was the first P-Con Guest of Honour, and he was followed, in sequence, by Juliet E. McKenna, Susanna Clarke, Kim Newman, C.E. Murphy, Paul Cornell, and Nick Harkaway, with Ian McDonald appearing as Guest of Honour in 2011 at P-Con VIII.
The Phoenix logo used by the convention was designed by Feòrag NicBhrìde, and it has proved to be an enduring symbol, for which the organisers are eternally grateful to Feòrag.
According to the people who return to the convention year after year, its success stems from its intimacy and welcoming ethos. Not just members, but many of the guests also return. Juliet E. McKenna holds the record for being the only person to be a guest at every P-Con. She won this accolade when her rival for the title, Charles Stross, was unable to attend P-Con 7 in 2010.
P-Con III saw the first charity auction held at the convention. The Oesophageal Cancer Fund was the beneficiary, selected because a close friend of Pádraig Ó Méalóid, and of Irish fandom in general, Dave Stewart, was suffering from this ailment at the time. Dave managed attended the auction for a while. Sadly, Dave passed away in October of 2006.
It was also at P-Con III that Pádraig approached Frank Darcy with a view to Frank’s taking over the reigns as chairman. Frank agreed to take on the task with the support of Peter McClean, and consequently he was convention chairman for P-Con IV and V. During the summer following P-Con IV, Frank was diagnosed as having cancer. He put up a strong fight against his illness and by P-Con V, in March, 2008 he had been informed that his treatment appeared to be working. The cancer, however, did not surrender so easily and Frank died in July of that year.
P-Con VI was co-chaired by the triumvirate of Niamh and Aidan Darcy (Frank’s daughter and son), and Peter McClean. Michael Carroll, a longstanding friend to Frank, James Shields, webmaster extraordinaire, and the rest of the Darcy family, helped ensure that P-Con VI happened.
Peter McClean, with the support of James Shields, and the other McCleans (Caitríona, Deirdre, Éadaoin, Dónal & Andrew), chaired P-Con 7 and P-Con VIII.
P-Con 7 was the first Phoenix Convention at which the face of Irish convention registration tables, Brian Nisbet, was not taking memberships and handing out badges. Caitríona McClean took on this role and found it a great way of getting to know people and of having very interesting conversations.
The Darcy Award was introduced at P-Con VI. This was a “less-than-drabble” writing competition held during the weekend of the convention. Paul Cornell, as Guest of Honour, judged the entries and Jennifer Delaney became the first every winner of a, “Darcy”.
In 2010, at P-Con 7, Nick Harkaway judged the competition and Julian West took the honours, as well as the beautiful phoenix statuette that is the physical symbol of “The Darcy Award”.
Finn Murphy won “The Darcy Award” in 2011 with her intriguing story featuring a clockwork polar bear. Ian McDonald, the Guest of Honour and Darcy Award judge was very enamoured with this story.
P-Con VIII saw Peter McClean step down from the Chair having served five years on the committee, and hand the reigns back to Pádraig Ó Méalóid who is organising P-Con IX, to be held in The Writers Centre on the weekend of 3rd & 4th March, 2012. |
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