Monthly archives: November 2015

The Three-Body Problem (Three-Body, #1)

This entry was posted in Review sci-fi on by

ThreebodyThe Three-Body Problem

This year’s Hugo award winner. All the shenanigans around the awards has, at least, got me reading some more sci-fi.

Starting with China’s Cultural Revolution, the story initially follows a woman’s progress as she sees her father killed for failing to renounce his scientific discipline. She is also a theoretical scientist, a career now barred to her through association. Through a series of political missteps, she ends up finding herself assigned to a secret radio telescope project at Red Coast Base, where they want to use her knowledge, even though they don’t trust her. As the story unfolds, we find out what happened to her at the base, and how her actions there affect Earth’s place in the universe.

The story unfolds as a mystery in the present day, with flashbacks to events at Red Coast Base until just what happened, and the danger it has put the world in, is revealed.

There’s a lot of telling, rather than showing, going on, and many of the conversations feel stilted. I don’t know if this is a fair representation of the structuring of Chinese novels, or if the translation couldn’t do the original justice. Having said which, the story drew me in and pulled me along with it. At no point did the drawbacks of the language put me off.

From:: Ian Pattinson Goodreads reviews

Frankie Boyle on empty words and bad ideas after the Paris attacks

This entry was posted in Frankie Boyle Paris Terrorism on by

Frankie Boyle the political commentator uses a lot of the skills that made him a hilarious and shocking comedian to good effect. There are a lot of stabs at hypocrisy, inversions of received wisdom and bad taste, but pointed, punchlines. He also comes across as better informed than the people he’s attacking- which isn’t hard in some case, obviously- and presents a more humane assessment of the situation as a result.

There are too many perfectly quotable lines in his piece on reactions to the Paris attacks. I’m so spoilt for choice that I’m not going to pull a quote, you really need to go and read the whole thing.

Learn some more about Daesh

This entry was posted in Daesh on by

Daesh publish their own magazine, and a journalist with a very strong stomach read all eleven issues to see what insight they gave into the workings of the terrorists.

Apparently, they couldn’t care less about being called Daesh. Not that that’s going to stop me. The most important points are probably numbers 3 and 4- they really, really want the violent reprisals they inspire, and they’re most worried about losing ‘subjects’ they can ‘tax’ or who could provide vitally important services. So, our leaders are playing right into their hands with all the bombing.

Really, our bomb happy leaders- and the politicians, papers and plain old racists calling for an end to taking in refugees- should be ashamed that a website that’s basically full of listicles has provided more insight than they’re capable of.

Boomtown

This entry was posted in Boomtown video games on by

Boomtown

Fallout 4 came out this month. I’m not buying it yet, for the sake of my bank balance and productivity, but the release has inspired me to get back to a project I started a while ago.

Boomtown is inspired by, but not based upon, the Megaton location in Fallout 3*. The gallery above shows progress so far. The basic form of the diorama, including the tunnel and vault, was made from stacking and gluing packing polystyrene. And then it sat for an age. Until last week, when I found the ideal picture frame for a base and started on building it up with air drying modelling clay. It’s a learning process. There are a few cracks in the clay, where it’s contracted as it dried, but those have been filled in with Woodland Scenics Flex Paste. It may not look like much in the pictures in the gallery, but it’s come on a long way since this time last week.

I’m going to use the project to try out some techniques I haven’t tried before, and I’ll be posting updates as it proceeds.

*Mostly, I’ve played Fallout:New Vegas, but I did spend an afternoon on Fallout 3 on someone else’s XBox, and got as far as Megaton, which, obviously, stuck with me.

We are governed by incompetent morons

This entry was posted in George Osborne Iain Duncan Smith on by

The deficit has risen. The temptation is to say ‘despite George Osborne’s austerity policies’, but the truth is more that the deficit refuses to go down because of them. George Osborne is an economically illiterate incompetent, but at least the damage he’s doing to the country won’t affect him. Even if austerity was working, it would still be the wrong policy, because its lasting effect will be to destroy everything useful and decent that the Government does.

Still, at least Osborne’s uselessness isn’t driving a drastic increase in suicides, like Iain Duncan-Smith’s is.

Daesh

This entry was posted in comedy Daesh on by

There’s an alternative name for ISIS/ISIL that is just as valid as the one they’d prefer, but they don’t like it being used- Daesh.

I’ve known for a while that they hate this name, but I hadn’t seen a decent explanation of why until I read this- Decoding Daesh: Why Is the New Name for ISIS so Hard to Understand?

As a writer, it’s always nice to discover the power that words can have, particularly when it comes to bursting the egos of groups like Daesh.

(Comedian Adam Hills, who presents The Last Leg on Channel 4- a programme I should watch more often- is using language in a different way to cut Daesh down to size.)

New owner for Manchester landmark London Road Fire Station

This entry was posted in London Road fire station on by

Some, potentially, good news. London Road Fire Station has been sold to developerswho actually appear able to get things done with their properties.

The building has been sitting there, waiting for a new lease of life, since before I arrived in Manchester an unmentionable number of years ago. I’d really like to see something done with it.

I’d really like to see inside it before any work begins, as well. I wonder who I have to ask about that?

Grade II*-listed central Manchester landmark London Road Fire Station is to be sold to Spinningfields developer Allied London and be renamed Manchester Firehouse. Originally opened in 1906 as a fire, police and ambulance station as well as a coroner’s court, the building had lain empty under its previous owner since 1986 – although it did have planning permission to be redeveloped into a hotel.

Source: New owner for Manchester landmark London Road Fire Station

George Osborne really wants to take money from the people who can least afford to lose it

This entry was posted in George Osborne on by

George Osborne is said to be plotting cuts to target housing benefit to pay for his climb down on tax credits.

The Chancellor is desperately looking for welfare cuts elsewhere after being forced to rethink the £4.4billion cuts to working tax credits.

Cuts to Housing Benefits will probably put people out of their homes and on the streets, because you can bet private landlords aren’t going to be nice enough to drop their rents in line with any changes.

Osborne is an economically illiterate, ignorant incompetent. At least, that’s the charitable version. If he really understands the damage his party’s policies, and particularly his budgest, are doing then he’s a callous, sadistic little bully.

Source: George Osborne ‘targets housing benefit’ to pay for tax credits retreat – Mirror Online

Christmas is coming!

This entry was posted in 3d printing art Deviantart Handmade Products Prints Shapeways Products Spinneyworld zibbet on by

Gift-giving time is almost upon us, so, I would like to point you to the places you can buy Spinneyhead stuff.

Obviously, you can buy my books, or Garth’s, but they’re exclusively digital. Buy them as a treat for yourself.

If you want physical presents to give away, there are a few places you can go.

I have a store hosted by Zibbet, where you can buy cards, buttons, badges and cufflinks made from coins, odd, naughty boxes, and vintage items.

I’m selling antique postcards on Delcampe, as well as stamps, slides and other interesting stuff.

A selection of my photos are available as prints from DeviantArt or Redbubble.

You can get 3D prints of stuff I’ve designed from Shapeways. It’s mostly model rail related stuff, but I’m going to be adding new designs as soon as possible.

I may have forgotten some of the places you can get my stuff, I have tried out all sorts over the years, but these are the main ones I use at the moment.

Thirst

This entry was posted in horror Review on by

ThirstcvrThirst

Another slice of 70s/80s horror, though it might be better described as a disaster story with gruesome bits.

Racing to make a delivery, the driver of a lorry hauling a tanker of weedkiller goes off the road and into a reservoir. Weedspray, as it’s imaginatively named, is the strongest, most horrible concoction imaginable. Painfully and incurably toxic- whether drunk or just through skin contact- it’s also, somehow, highly flammable, even when watered down. This stuff is so ridiculously deadly that it’s impossible to believe in. I know the story’s set in the late 70s/early 80s, but surely even then they weren’t this lax on health and safety.

Anyway, thanks to criminal incompetence and industrial cowardice, the poison enters the water supply of Birmingham, condemning most of the city to horrible deaths.

Ron Blythe is the main viewpoint character- though there are cuts away to others occasionally- and he’s a long way from sympathetic. A serial adulterer and snob, who created Weedspray seemingly by mixing every other weedkiller together, he ends up trapped in Birmingham as part of the ineffectual disaster committee. As the city descends into chaos and carnage, he somehow gains a girlfriend whilst avoiding contact with poisoned water but being otherwise useless.

Sadly, from somewhere around the mid-point, the story’s something of an extended, gruesome anticlimax. Timelines and logic get garbled. Somehow, in the midst of the ongoing disaster and social breakdown, one of the sub plots manages to include a full formal funeral. Even with suggestions that various events overlap each other, it still feels like they unfold over a month when I’m sure it’s supposed to be less than a fortnight.

Not as much fun as Night of the Crabs, I’m afraid. However, I recently found a bunch of Guy N Smith, and similar vintage, books, so the trip through 70s/80s horror shall continue.

From:: Ian Pattinson Goodreads reviews

Only Forward

This entry was posted in Review on by

onlyforwardOnly Forward

In an unspecified future, Britain has become The City, a coast to coast sprawl of enclaves known as Neighbourhoods. Generally, Neighbourhoods are insular places, keeping to themselves so they can nurture their own eccentricities.

Stark is one of the rare individuals who can fit in in any enclave, one of the many skills he utilises in his role as a troubleshooter for hire. Contracted to track down an executive from Action Centre- a neighbourhood dedicated to Getting Things Done- and starts a trip through the strangeness of the city.

A reticent narrator, as much as an unreliable one, Stark spends the first half of the story alluding to back story and refusing to divulge details unless they become relevant. Unsurprisingly, they become increasingly relevant as the story goes on.

Stark finds the missing Actioneer, but decides there’s more going on than he’s been told. He just needs to work out what. The story goes off in a completely different direction, as the secrets of what makes Stark so good at his job are revealed. It feels like an odd tangent at first, as events become even more surreal, but, bit by bit, provides all the answers Stark refused to give earlier in the book.

The change of tack halfway through was jarring, but it does- in the very last pages, admittedly- wrap the tale up neatly and coherently.

From:: Ian Pattinson Goodreads reviews

RIP George Barris

This entry was posted in custom car RIP on by

george-barris-vla

George Barris was the custom car builder who created the original Batmobile, and many other vehicles you may be familiar with from old TV shows. (But not the Monkee mobile.)

Oddly, I went off on one of my little internet wanders earlier today, looking for replica Mercury bodyshells, thinking how cool it would be to put Tesla running gear under something that looked like the Hirohata Merc, one of Barris’ most famous cars.

Source: George Barris, LA’s king of car customizers, was 89 – LA Observed