The Gabble / Neal Asher

The Gabble
by Neal Asher

science fiction, short stories

published 2008 (previously published stories)
read in May 2013

rated 7/10: well worth reading

Who could not like the gabbleduck ?!

Asher's universe is really quite amazing. Complex. Coherent (as far as I cared to look). Very, very violent. But positive.

Positive ? I mean, it's mostly the bad guys who suffer the violence. And there's usually a happy -- or at least satisfying -- ending.

It's also nice to have a universe where humanity rules... Well, humanity and AIs... though I have to admit... humanity is no longer constrained by the original model. Made in *whose* image ?!

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Problems ? Solved

The World Inside / Robert Silverberg

The World Inside
by Robert Silverberg

science fiction, collection
copyright 1971
read in January 2013

rated 7 /10: well worth reading

In the introduction to this book the author points out that this is a collection of short stories. It is not a novel. This is both interesting -- and a weakness.

Interesting, because it allows Silverberg to tackle the human hive topic from several different directions. Also interesting for an insight into the writer's approach to his task...

I think I'll write a story on over-population, he thinks. I think I'll be different and see over-population as a good thing. Now, what story shall I wrap around the over-population theme...

The first story is almost a cliche for its style.

A happy drone introduces a visitor -- today's Everyman -- to the hive. The visitor has reservations, the drone explains the benefits. One incident shows that all is not perfect. The visitor -- and the reader -- are given an understanding of how the hive works / would work, successfully.

No real plot. Just an explanation of a solution where the what-if is, what if over-population problems were solved by crowding lots of people into one very large building...

Subsequent stories have a bit more plot, with individuals being followed through good times and bad. Many of the individuals interact, to give a sense of continuity to the stories.

Yet as a whole, there is no coherent plot. And this is the weakness of the book -- of the book if considered as a novel called The World Inside.

We don't have a novel. We have seven short stories by one author, exploring various aspects of a human hive.

Bearing all this in mind, the book is still worth reading. Feel free to take a break between stories, you won't lose the thread of the overall story. And don't hope for a conclusion in the final story... it's just one more story in the common world.

A world where happiness is maintained at the cost of individuality. Where those in charge are as debased as anywhere else. And where the non-conformist is sacrificed to support the status quo of unthinking mass happiness.

It's a *good* day.

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Problems ? Solved

Astrotruckers / Mikael Niemi

Astrotruckers
by Mikael Niemi
translated from Swedish by Laurie Thompson

written in 2004
translated in 2007
read in December 2012

science fiction, collection
rated as 6 / 10: read to pass the time

A lot of interesting science fiction type ideas. Some social satire presented with a dash of sometimes rough humour. A Scandinavian view of the world. What's not to like?

Well, it's not a novel. It's not even a collection of short stories. It's a collection of ideas.

Some of the ideas are presented as stories. Those stories add very little to the core idea. The occasional comment by the author that this is not a story... well... honest but adds very little to the enjoyment of reading.

Niemi -- the author -- has a heap of interesting ideas. He has taken a lazy approach to these ideas: here they are, I'm not going to wrap them up in the fancy framework of a story...

All very nice. An idea for its own sake.

Unfortunately it leaves me not asking for more.

The ideas are mixed, so there is no theme which makes me think, I'd like to read more. There are no regular characters, so I am not left wondering, what will they do next.

So okay, read this book to pass the time. And to open your mind to some interesting and possibly new ideas.

I'm hoping to find the interesting ideas in a book with a plot and characters. With a beginning a middle and an end. That is, in a story.

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Problems ? Solved

The Year's Best Science Fiction #20 / Gardner Dozois

The Year's Best Science Fiction: twentieth annual collection

category: science fiction, editor:

Gardner Dozois

book 20 of The Year's Best Science Fiction
original copyright 2002

read in February 2012

Agamedes' opinion: 3 out of 10: so bad it's embarrassing

I grew up on science fiction. For years I read only science fiction. (Okay, and various myths and legends.)

Then I drifted to fantasy. Read less and less science fiction.

A collection of "the year's best science fiction" seemed like a good book to refresh my enjoyment of SF.

Wrong.

The first story was sort of interesting. A girl growing up in a strange -- to us -- culture. All seems to be sweetness and light, except that it's not. But that is not the point of this overlong story. Girl grows up to be a space pilot. No surprise, hardly worth wondering if this is the point of the story. Through the magic of unexplained time travel, girl's friend seems to have killed girl's pilot mentor, who seems to be the girl as an old woman. So what? A pointless story complexity. The story is sort of interesting, but overlong and ultimately pointless.

Another story -- a novella -- begins with the protagonist attending a night-club. The main act is a man who talks to his penis. Or perhaps it's a woman who pretends to talk to her penis; we never see the penis. Whatever, I gave up reading before the end of the act.

One story followed an interesting idea: humans can't reach the universe so they go small... Shrink themselves, adapt in various ways, live in microscopic "universes", all within a very small physical area. It's possible that the three or four sets of characters all live as bodily bacteria on one man... That's just my best guess. It seems a reasonable explanation of the role of the "narrator" who dances naked and jerks off between the mini-chapters of the story.

Then there's the story of the woman who herds sheep. She sees a flying saucer and its dog-like occupant. Most of the story tells us about the techniques of sheep-herding... Boring and pointless. The woman sees the space dog a few times, briefly. When the space dog crashes its saucer -- for no apparent reason -- the woman comforts it as it lies, dying. "Good doggie," she says, as she pats its head. Nice, but so what?!

I know that there is at least one good story in the book... but it is lost amongst the dross. So what has gone wrong? The clue is in the introduction to each story.

Each introduction mentions previous stories by this author. "So-and-so has had a story in The Year's Best numbers 2 through 7, 9, 11 and 13 through 19..." Get the picture? Dozois (the editor) likes certain authors. He has not changed his opinions in the last twenty years. He keeps on selecting stories from the same, select group of his favourite authors...

And if you don't like Dozois' favourite authors, this book is not for you.

I don't like Dozois' favourite authors. I think this book is rubbish.

---

btw: I originally rated this book as "4: bad but could be read". Then I changed my mind.

Nearly every story -- as far into the book as I could bear to read -- is overlong and boring. Some are also stupid. I could not finish this book. I did not want to finish this book.

And some of the stories are embarrassing: So bad -- when categorised as "science fiction" -- so bad that they give science fiction a bad name.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

PissWeakly: the Index

The Badgy Book / Diane West et al

The Badgy Book

category: collection, travel, author:

Diane West et al

original copyright 1998

Agamedes' opinion: valuable!

Not much that I can really say about this book... since I didn't read it.

We were driving north from Perth and stopped for a break at Badgingarra. Nothing much there but all we wanted was a break from driving. All I knew about Badgingarra was, that my brother lived and worked on a farm in the area, many years ago.

We stopped in the shop. Only one shop in town, as far as we could see. So we stopped there. Ordered coffees and cake...

... And saw, The Badgy Book.

That, I said, looks interesting... Well, interesting to my brother, anyway. The book is a collection of stories and anecdotes. Stories of the development and growth and people of the Badgingarra area. It's been perhaps thirty years since my brother lived here, he does keep in touch with friends from the area, he may know some of the people writing and being written about.

Diane West... the first of several authors... Surely my brother knows Diane West?! I'm sure I've heard the name.

Diane West? I say to the woman in the shop. I think that my brother knows her...

Diane died, a few years ago, replies the woman.

Oh.

We bought the book, we drank, snacked and relaxed. Walked through the nearby Vern Westbrook Walk -- very interesting -- and carried on driving.

This is the sort of book that every town, village, association, interest group... should write.

The Golf Omnibus / P.G. Wodehouse

The Golf Omnibus

category: humour, collection, author:

P.G. Wodehouse

original copyright 1916 on,
read in January 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

A most enjoyable book: Light, funny, guaranteed happy endings...

Who would have thought there could be so many angles on the game of golf? Who would have thought there is any humour at all, in the game of golf!

Peggy Guggenheim Collection / Art Gallery of WA

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

category: a Collection of ... Art?, author:

Abstract Expressionist Artists ... ?

from the Peggy Guggenheim Venice collection,
visited in January 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10 -- good for a laugh.

I just wish that I had met Peggy Guggenheim. I bet she would have been a sure-fire purchaser of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I'm only selling the bridge because my dear friend the Manager of the Stateless Bank of Nigeria is recently deceased. He left me a bequest and specifically requested that I give $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars) to my dear friend Pegggie Gaagenherm. Just send $10,000 transfer fee, details of your bank account and a sample signature. Your $500,000,000 (five hundred million dollars) will be on its way as soon as we can clear customs, which will require you to pay a further minor deposit of $17,000...

You get the idea: Guggenheim was a sucker with too much money and no sense of when she was being had.

The Vicomte in the Kitchen: Brown Snaps

Brown Snaps aka Ginger Nuts

category: recipe, from The Vicomte in the Kitchen, a cookbook by:

Vicomte de Mauduit

published by James Clarke & Co, original copyright 1933

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10... simple & tasty

This cookbook is one of my favourites. Recipes with simple -- obscure -- directions. For meals which, quite often, I have never heard of. Some... I can't even imagine what the finished meal should look like!

Brown snaps, though... are ginger nuts. I know what the packet version looks like. I have successfully cooked the Vicomte's brown snaps. Here's what you need:

• 1 1/2 lb flour, 1/2 lb butter, 3/4 lb treacle, 3/4 lb sugar, 1 oz cinnamon, 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls ground ginger.

Some of the world has now converted to metric... I tried to do the conversions in my head. Then I realised, I only want to make a small number of these biscuits.

Did I mention, brown snaps are biscuits?

First, though, I spread butter over a baking tray and turned the oven on. 180 degrees C, fan forced.

I put a mixing bowl on the electronic scales and reset the display to zero. Added enough flour to look about right, for the quantity of biscuits I was after. Added a fraction more, up to 180 grams... Other ingredients would go in, in proportion to the flour. So:

• One and a half pounds of flour. That's three half pounds... Call that, "3" of flour. Plain flour or self-raising? I think it was plain, the label has fallen off our container. I had weighed out 180 grams.
  
• "1" of butter. That is, if flour is 3, butter is just 1, or one third the weight. 60 grams. Straight from the fridge, so I softened it in the microwave.
  
• Three quarters of a pound is half of one and a half pounds. "1.5" of treacle -- 90 grams -- surprisingly heavy for its volume. By the way, if you think that treacle is just like golden syrup -- you'll get a nasty surprise if you lick up the excess treacle!
  
• 3/4 lb sugar. "1.5", 90 grams of sugar. White sugar? Some ginger nut recipes use syrup and brown sugar -- which would probably average out to the same flavour as treacle and white sugar.
  
• 1 oz -- one ounce -- cinnamon? My proportion method failed, I added a scoop, plus a bit...
  
• ... and the same rough quantity, more or less, of ground ginger. All very inexact.
  

Cooking involves some science -- and a lot of art. If the quantities are wrong -- adjust for the next time!

I put everything in the one bowl -- and mixed.

After a while, I mixed by hand. So much more effective!

The instructions from the Vicomte read, "Bake lightly, and take out of the oven while still soft." That's it, that's all. No mix instructions, no shaping, no temperature, no time. Typical of the Vicomte!

I rolled up balls of biscuit mix, perhaps the size of a walnut. Possible lesson from another recipe: put the mix in the fridge to cool, before shaping into biscuits. I'll try that, next time. I may also try to make the biscuit mix balls into a more standard size...

Roll, flatten, place on greased tray. Roll, flatten, place. Roll, flatten... you get the idea...

Our oven has a light which is permanently on. I could see the biscuits. They did seem to be cooking.

After about twelve minutes -- after taking in some washing and picking some fruit -- I decided that the biscuits were cooked. Took them out, tasted, decided -- cooked.

A nice simple recipe. Quick and easy (if you already have the treacle and other ingredients!). The biscuits are nice. And I think they could be even nicer, with a bit of practice.

A successful recipe from The Vicomte in the Kitchen

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Stories / Washington Irving

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Stories

(category: collection)
by

Washington Irving

published by Dover Publications in 2008
(stories were written between 1820 and 1824)
Nick read a library book, in March 2010

Nick's rating: 7 out of 10

Nick's opinion:

When I spotted this book in the library I thought, it's about time to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The name and basic concept were familiar -- from the Disney cartoon. I had never seen more than excerpts from the cartoon but neither had I read anything of the original story. I prefer to read; here was my chance to catch up with a classic.

Sleepy Hollow is quite fun: a view into life in a particular part of early America, characters exaggerated but with some sympathy, humour that may have faded with age. Several of the other stories are written in a similar style (though mostly with less humour). Slow reading due to the somewhat convoluted writing style of the time. A nice appreciation of the beauties of Nature.

Some of the stories are, in fact, essays: descriptions and opinions rather than plot and character. The Mutability of Literature, written in 1820, is fascinating -- for its relevance to today.

In Mutability, Irving has a conversation with an old book. They discuss the way in which books -- ideas and literature -- fade with time, as people stop reading those older books. Why do these old books get forgotten? Because they are replaced -- in the reader's attention -- by new books. Irving points out that this process has sped up since the invention of the fast-printing, movable type, printing press. And what is happening today? Instant "publishing" via the Internet, causing yesterday's ideas to be overwritten, faster than ever. An interesting insight into today, from almost 200 years ago!

I enjoyed each story but could only read them slowly. The wordy style combined with the difference from my usual fare, slowed me down. There are still five stories unread but I have reached the limit of allowed library borrowing. It's disappointing -- I really would like to find out what is in the final stories -- but this good book will now return back to the library.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes & documents, email nick leth at gmail dot com.