Finished The Dead. Much as I predicted except the set up for the third book in the trilogy suggests it is going to turn into Stephen King's mammoth post-apocalyptic novel The Stand.
However, respect to Charlie Higson for the clever introductory video on his web-site. Nice author interview!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Walking Dead
I forgot to mention in my last post that the eternal Zombie cycle was neatly summed up in this one page parody of Robert Kirkman's popular Walking Dead comic.
http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/120-jeff-mccomsey
http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/120-jeff-mccomsey
Sunday, June 12, 2011
They're coming to get you, Barbara!
Currently reading The Dead by Charlie Higson which is a young adult novel targeted at teenage readers. It's yet another addition to the ever popular Zombie genre. The twist in Higson's book is that everyone over the age of 14 has developed an illness that turns them into rampaging, cannibalistic "Sickos". The young protagonists have to fight for survival as the adults come after them again and again.
I haven't read any of Charlie Higson's other books. I might get to his young James Bond series at some point, I'm quite interested in the various Bond books written by other authors (I'll probably read the new Jeffery Deaver when the price drops). I've heard Higson talk with great affection for the Bond mythos. His description of the Casino Royale re-boot as being an extended pre-credits sequence during which 007 acquires his gun, suit, drink, theme tune and signature introductory name line seemed very apt.
Anyway, back to The Dead and its breathless non-stop sequences of Zombie attack, escape, re-grouping, a brief period of respite and existential angst followed by Zombie attack and rinse and repeat. I admit I'm partial to Zombie movies, comics and TV shows, but they do all share this same pattern. And, of course, they all have an inbuilt pessimistic outcome. You know it's all going to end badly. In recent years the only example that managed to pull off a vaguely happy ending was the rom-zom-com Shaun of the Dead.
I may be wrong but The Dead seems set for a more traditionally gloomy ending that will probably set up the third book in the series. There is a sort of Lord of the Flies feel to it with the main characters being boys from a private boarding school (their leader is even called Jack), but I suspect there won't be a rescue plane and a reassuring adult at the end of this book. However there is the usual grim fascination in reading on to find out who survives and who gets chomped on.
I'll tweet when I'm finished and let you know if my opinion has changed.
I haven't read any of Charlie Higson's other books. I might get to his young James Bond series at some point, I'm quite interested in the various Bond books written by other authors (I'll probably read the new Jeffery Deaver when the price drops). I've heard Higson talk with great affection for the Bond mythos. His description of the Casino Royale re-boot as being an extended pre-credits sequence during which 007 acquires his gun, suit, drink, theme tune and signature introductory name line seemed very apt.
Anyway, back to The Dead and its breathless non-stop sequences of Zombie attack, escape, re-grouping, a brief period of respite and existential angst followed by Zombie attack and rinse and repeat. I admit I'm partial to Zombie movies, comics and TV shows, but they do all share this same pattern. And, of course, they all have an inbuilt pessimistic outcome. You know it's all going to end badly. In recent years the only example that managed to pull off a vaguely happy ending was the rom-zom-com Shaun of the Dead.
I may be wrong but The Dead seems set for a more traditionally gloomy ending that will probably set up the third book in the series. There is a sort of Lord of the Flies feel to it with the main characters being boys from a private boarding school (their leader is even called Jack), but I suspect there won't be a rescue plane and a reassuring adult at the end of this book. However there is the usual grim fascination in reading on to find out who survives and who gets chomped on.
I'll tweet when I'm finished and let you know if my opinion has changed.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Doomed, All Doomed!
Coming up on our British Invaders schedule is the 1970s BBC show Doomwatch about a group of scientists who act as environmental watchdogs and have to deal with a variety of "science gone wrong" disasters. It's an interesting show and one of the Beeb's biggies from that era and I'm looking forward to our discussion. But I'm going to break one of our unwritten rules (sorry, Brian) and mention something in advance of our recording.
Of the original 38 original episodes 26 survive, thanks largely to the Canadian TV network who returned their copies after the BBC had wiped the master tapes. A couple of episodes were released on VHS tapes and a single DVD release which has since been deleted. It's an important show with a message that seems just as relevant today as when it was first broadcast. So why doesn't the BBC release all the surviving episodes on DVD? I'm sure it would sell and the absence of a complete box set mystifies me. Maybe there is a copyright issue or something like that.
For more on this subject subscribe to our iTunes feed and listen out for our Doomwatch episodes in a couple of months. And for more information on Doomwatch itself check out the excellent doomwatch.org.
Of the original 38 original episodes 26 survive, thanks largely to the Canadian TV network who returned their copies after the BBC had wiped the master tapes. A couple of episodes were released on VHS tapes and a single DVD release which has since been deleted. It's an important show with a message that seems just as relevant today as when it was first broadcast. So why doesn't the BBC release all the surviving episodes on DVD? I'm sure it would sell and the absence of a complete box set mystifies me. Maybe there is a copyright issue or something like that.
For more on this subject subscribe to our iTunes feed and listen out for our Doomwatch episodes in a couple of months. And for more information on Doomwatch itself check out the excellent doomwatch.org.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The Pod People are here
A quick listing of some podcasts I listen to.
Fighting Talk and the Mayo & Kermode film reviews, both from Radio 5 live were my gateway drug to podcasting. Fighting Talk continues to be hilarious, especially since Colin Murray took over the presenting. Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode are starting to bore me a bit with their endless bickering.
The Slice of SciFi podcast got me into British Invaders although I don't listen to Slice any more. I do listen to and enjoy The Time Vault's continuing journey through all of Doctor Who plus Hammer horror and The Avengers.
Comic Geek Speak and Waiting for the Trade cover my comic book needs. And the ladies at the Little Finish podcast keep me up to date with the Big Finish audio dramas that I don't listen to.
Radiolab defies categorisation other than to say it's a great science based podcast with terrific production and a huge audience.
I've recently started listening to the Science Fiction Book Review podcast where one guy basically rants about the books he reads. I've just cherry picked his reviews for books I have actually read myself and usually enjoy his rantings.
Alan Davies and pals are just as hilarious as Fighting Talk on the subject of their beloved Arsenal ( a sort of side interest for me)
Dave Gorman and Adam and Joe are the two best radio comedy shows that I regularly listen to.
And that's about it, although that's plenty. I would of course say that the best of the bunch is British Invaders!
Plus that you should check out our fine friends at the Geek Culture Network.
And those Pod people? Well of course they are from Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers which has been made into at least 4 different films all with different cultural interpretations of what the invaders represent.
Fighting Talk and the Mayo & Kermode film reviews, both from Radio 5 live were my gateway drug to podcasting. Fighting Talk continues to be hilarious, especially since Colin Murray took over the presenting. Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode are starting to bore me a bit with their endless bickering.
The Slice of SciFi podcast got me into British Invaders although I don't listen to Slice any more. I do listen to and enjoy The Time Vault's continuing journey through all of Doctor Who plus Hammer horror and The Avengers.
Comic Geek Speak and Waiting for the Trade cover my comic book needs. And the ladies at the Little Finish podcast keep me up to date with the Big Finish audio dramas that I don't listen to.
Radiolab defies categorisation other than to say it's a great science based podcast with terrific production and a huge audience.
I've recently started listening to the Science Fiction Book Review podcast where one guy basically rants about the books he reads. I've just cherry picked his reviews for books I have actually read myself and usually enjoy his rantings.
Alan Davies and pals are just as hilarious as Fighting Talk on the subject of their beloved Arsenal ( a sort of side interest for me)
Dave Gorman and Adam and Joe are the two best radio comedy shows that I regularly listen to.
And that's about it, although that's plenty. I would of course say that the best of the bunch is British Invaders!
Plus that you should check out our fine friends at the Geek Culture Network.
And those Pod people? Well of course they are from Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers which has been made into at least 4 different films all with different cultural interpretations of what the invaders represent.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
A guide to the Doctors
Just a quickie to note that my brother Michael sent me a useful guide to our latter day saints or, in this case, Doctors.
http://bit.ly/hETB5d
http://bit.ly/hETB5d
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Punked
I have a pretty wide selection of books on my Kindle, some of which are science fiction. There are six of the Ian M Banks Culture novels. I haven't got the latest one - Surface detail - yet but will do when the price comes down a bit (presumably when the paperback is published).
I've got some Stephen King but that's more horror than SF. There's Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman who probably lean more towards the fantasy genre. I've also got some of the classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde because they were free and it's nice to have them.
Then I have three books by William Gibson. They are Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History which make up a trilogy although I don't think they have acquired a group name yet. His original cyberpunk books are now grouped as the Sprawl trilogy, and they were followed by his Bridge trilogy. The series that began with Pattern Recognition has been described as post-modern science fiction (whatever that means). They take place in a world that feels just like ours but maybe just a few years in the future. The technology in the books feels like the stuff we use now but just a little better. Characters from the novels recur throughout the series, in particular a media tycoon with the impressive name Hubertus Bigend.
The three novels are fantastic and are favourites of mine. Gibson's cyberpunk ethic seems to have evolved into a more familiar but somehow stranger world where he tells stories about industrial espionage that manage not to feel like spy stories or as science fiction. Although you could classify them in to both genres. I've read them all twice now and highly recommend them.
I've got some Stephen King but that's more horror than SF. There's Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman who probably lean more towards the fantasy genre. I've also got some of the classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde because they were free and it's nice to have them.
Then I have three books by William Gibson. They are Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History which make up a trilogy although I don't think they have acquired a group name yet. His original cyberpunk books are now grouped as the Sprawl trilogy, and they were followed by his Bridge trilogy. The series that began with Pattern Recognition has been described as post-modern science fiction (whatever that means). They take place in a world that feels just like ours but maybe just a few years in the future. The technology in the books feels like the stuff we use now but just a little better. Characters from the novels recur throughout the series, in particular a media tycoon with the impressive name Hubertus Bigend.
The three novels are fantastic and are favourites of mine. Gibson's cyberpunk ethic seems to have evolved into a more familiar but somehow stranger world where he tells stories about industrial espionage that manage not to feel like spy stories or as science fiction. Although you could classify them in to both genres. I've read them all twice now and highly recommend them.
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