The Lies of Locke Lamora

 Ive heard this book described as a 'heist story', and while there certainly is an element of that within its pages, this is so much more than that simple description. We're introduced to the protagonist Locke as a child thief, a ward of the 'Thiefmaker', and very soon discover that Locke is a bit of a handful, to say the least. What follows is his transfer to the stewardship of Father Chains, under whom Locke and his new friends develop skills to enhance their particular brand of thievery. Very soon they begin what is a very intricate heist, one which would leave Danny Ocean and Thomas Crown scratching their heads.
 We're also introduced to a complex criminal hierarchical system, and a threat to its leadership. Locke's skill set brings him to the attention of one of the parties, and his unwilling involvement in this power struggle soon sees the heist almost abandoned as lives are risked and allegiances tested.
 Flashbacks in the form of 'Interludes' give us glimpses into the bonds formed between Locke and his gang of Gentlemen Bastards.
 The world created by Lynch is brilliantly realised, and with only the briefest of backgrounds given to explain its construction, I look forward to revelations in the subsequent books of the series.
 The dialogue is also fantastic in that the vulgarity of the streets juxtaposed with the eloquence of the nobility meshes almost seamlessly and adds to the sense that there is so much more than meets the eye to this story.
 What I really liked was that although this is the first book in a series, it was a self-contained story with a clear beginning and ending, leaving us with just our heroes, and a sense of what might be an over-arcing scheme on a much grander scale to continue the adventures.

The Dresden Files: Storm Front

I have been aware of these books for quite a while, partly through the short lived tv series (of which I remember very little, to be honest), but had been put off reading them simply because I had heard that the first few were not very good. And to me, there is no point in reading a series of, to date, 15 books, if you're not going to start at the beginning. So I put Dresden off, and off, and off.
Really wish I hadn't.
This book was great. A great 'hero' and a really great magic system which is so important in carrying a series through so many novels.
There are flaws, but these are small enough to not impact too negatively on the reading, which is quick as the plot really flies along, as well as introducing us to various characters and settings.
I really liked this book, and if it is considered one of the weakest of the lot, then I really can't wait to pick up the rest.

The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker

A difficult book to review. A book within a book. A crime novel about people, about relationships, about books. A love story, a bromance. All these things and more make up The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair.
A book with a compelling core which had me hooked from the opening pages, its relentless twists and turns kept me guessing right to the end. A truly disturbing revelation about one of the main characters (don't worry, you'll find no spoilers here!) genuinely left my jaw on the floor and that doesn't happen often.
While the central characters were deftly written and nuanced, some of the background players were little more than caricatures, Marcus' publisher and mother for example. These niggles stop the book being a classic and that is a shame as it was an entirely enjoyable and satisfying read.

*A free e-ARC was provided by the publisher via netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Published by Quercus Books with a release date of 01/05/14

The Boy With The Porcelain Blade by Den Patrick

Sometimes reading a book by a new author is a difficult experience. It's like meeting someone for the first time, a little awkward, not quite at ease with each other. Other times, though, it's an entirely different situation where you immediately feel like you've known them forever. This was how I felt when I met, sorry, read Den Patrick's debut novel. The titular boy, Lucien, an Orfano, in the world of nobles is less than, and at the same time more than that. Amongst political intrigue and deception, Lucien struggles to find his place in the world while also trying to simply stay alive.
A beautifully written novel, with a greatly sympathetic protagonist set in a world you really feel we've only scratched the surface of.
I look forward to spending more time with new friends
 in Demense throughout the rest of this trilogy.
Very highly recommended.

The Girl Who Would Be King by Kelly Thompson

A superhero story with a difference. Two girls blessed with super powers,  one good one bad. Not the most original of set-ups, but done very well nonetheless. The good girl was perhaps a little bland and predictable,  but this book really came to life when focusing on the evil character.  The descent into madness was drawn out exceptionally well and made for a fuller character than the good version.  While the ending was a little obvious, its hard to criticise as things are rarely wrapped up neatly, and this proves that fact.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

As a (massive) Star Trek fan, I'd put off reading this book for a while as I was worried it would be a little condescending towards it. It was actually quite the opposite. A really good story oozing with affection for the obvious inspirational source material. Really inventive in parts with enough nods to trends and tropes inherent in scifi space operas to give it a really familiar feel. The only real criticism I have is that the characters themselves were pretty one-dimensional. This may have been because they were extras within their own show, and as such didn't have too much personality, but I found myself, towards the end of the book caring more about how clever the resolution would be rather than if the main players would all make it to the finish line. That said, a good story that was an easy read and ultimately very enjoyable.

Not Fit For Purpose

In recent weeks the FA has become more and more shambolic.  The organisation has shown time and time again that they are not fit to be in charge of the game.  I accuse them here of being both incompetent and negligent in their duties of care towards the players.

The number one role of the FA has to be to govern the game, and to ensure, through that governance, the safety of the players who compete in their competitions. I believe, in this respect, that they are not fit for purpose.

Two recent incidents which grabbed the headlines are the tackles of Wigan’s Callum McManaman on Newcastle’s Massaido Haidara, and Sergio Aguero of Manchester City on Chelsea’s Davis Luiz.  Neither player, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing, was punished by the FA.  This shows complete disregard for the injured players, and sends out a message that such tackles are acceptable.  The fact that the FA didn’t act because they said at least one official had seen the offence, is hiding behind their own rules.  Agureo got off because McManaman did, and a precendent was set. In this respect the FA, and their disciplinary process are not fit for purpose.

Following England’s World Cup qualifier in San Marino, reports were rife with accounts of the travelling support singing racist songs aimed at Rio and Anton Ferdinand.  Despite at least one radio station being forced to apologise live on air because the singing was clearly audible on the broadcast, the FA could find ‘no evidence’ that racist songs were sung by any England supporters.  Countless fans and journalists, if approached, would have been able to provide said evidence.  Yet, the FA buried its head, proving to the world that all its rhetoric on tackling racism within the game, is no more than lip-service.  In this respect, and in the matter of investigating misdemeanours by its own, the FA is clearly not fit for purpose.

On of the mandates the FA set itself was to establish and develop football at grass roots level across the length and breadth of England. Despite over £200 million being spent, football is, according to the Sports Minister, “the worst run sport in the country”.  The gulf in wealth between the clubs at the lower end of the game, and those in the upper echelons is gigantic, and getting bigger season after season.  The FA has a duty to care for, and help ensure, the financial stability of all clubs, and not just those who are the global face of brand ‘FA’.  In this aspect, the are also not fit for purpose.

All this brings me to the events of this week.  No-one with a modicum of intelligence could defend the actions of Liverpool striker Luis Suarez in the game against Chelsea.  To bite a fellow professional is reprehensible, heinous, and utterly bizarre.  But the FA’s immediate declaration that the charge of violent conduct and three match suspension that would normally accompany it, was ‘clearly insufficient’, is another example of their disciplinary process being deeply flawed.

While a bite is all those things, and more, it is much less an offence that racially abusing someone, or endangering an opponent’s safety with a reckless challenge.  Yet the FA deem it worse than both, issuing the Uruguayan with a ten match ban.  What is even more perplexing is the way they dealt with, or rather didn’t, deal with Jermaine Defoe in 2006. Defoe bit Javier Mascherano, then at West Ham, and received, on the field, a yellow card.  A precedent had been set.  Earlier in the same season, Ben Thatcher was booked for a challenge that left Pedro Mendes in hospital being treated for brain trauma.  The FA rightly decided that a yellow card was insufficient and slapped an 8 game ban on the Man City player.  They used an ‘extraordinary circumstances’ clause to retrospectively act in this instance.  By neglecting to take action against Defoe, the FA suggested that biting did not fall under  ‘extraordinary circumstances’.  Yet now biting is worth a ten game ban.  Seems pretty extraordinary to me.  The FA hides behind precedent when it suits them, and violates it when it doesn’t.  Precedent is used to ensure parity, and that each offence is treated the same.  In violating those basic principles of governance, the FA prove once again they are not fit for purpose.

None of this actually matters, because the FA is, and always been a law unto itself, changing its own rules when it sees fit, and woe betide anyone who challenges their all encompassing authority.  Until the clubs all get together and act as one, the FA will remain NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

Adaptations

Recently my TV viewing has been dominated by so-called ‘genre’ shows. Game of Thrones, Arrow, The Walking Dead, among others.

One thing about these and many other programmes, and films, is that they are not entirely original pieces of work. Arrow is based on DC comic Green Arrow, Game of Thrones on George RR Martin’s best-selling ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series of fantasy novels.  The Walking Dead is based on the series of graphic novels of the same name.

Being as they are though, based upon existing works, they exist in pre-conceived worlds, with carefully created characters, and deviation from these tenets is usually ill-advised.  In Game of Thrones for example, the main characters, the main events, are set in stone, and only those on the periphery can be altered, and only slightly.  Martin has created an entire world, and any adaptation for the screen has to be faithful to this. The main bones of the original work must be adhered to, and the fact that the original work in this instance is unrelentingly good is in its favour.

Arrow, on the other hand is based upon one of the DC universe’s less popular characters. Green Arrow began life as a Robin Hood type figure dispensing his own version of justice in Star City.  He went through several changes, from Bruce Wayne-esque billionaire playboy to, after losing his fortune, a champion for the poor and disadvantaged. He was even killed off at one point! The character made a comeback a few years later, but with the original comics still largely unknown, the writers and producers of this adaptation, find themselves with a great deal of relative freedom to ‘tweak’ certain things.

The Walking Dead, meanwhile is burdened with the fact that the original material, like Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire‘, is immensely popular, and its fans incredibly loyal. Any change made for the television show is immediately jumped on and dissected.  The show has, in terms of general story, direction, and tone, stuck largely to the template set out in the graphic novels.

There are, therefore, two groups of people who watch these shows; those who are familiar with the source material, and those who are not. There are benefits to being in either camp. Dramatic moments on screen are often such, simply because we don’t know what is coming. If, like me, you have read all of ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ (at least all GRRM has written to date, but that’s for another day!) then very little in Game of Thrones is going to come as much of a surprise. However, knowing the original material sometimes allows for a deeper understanding of what is happening on screen, knowing a little more about a character, a little more about what made him the man he is, or why he does the things he does, can often enhance a viewing experience.

Its a double edged sword and I believe there is room for both ideals, a re-telling of the same stories we have read before, and a new fresh perspective on tired old characters. In most things, if the stories or the characters were not interesting first time round, there would be no call to re-visit them, in any form.

The Power of the Internet

This past week two issues came to my attention.  One was a global issue and grabbed the attention of newscasters, bloggers, and generally the world’s media.  The other however was just as important yet by Monday had received almost no coverage or indeed support.

Saturday 15th April 1989 ninety-six football fans lost their lives at the Lepping Lane end of Hillsborough football stadium.  One of these fans was 15 year old Kevin Williams.  He went to a football match and never came home.  His mother Anne was told he had died at 3.15pm but eye-witnesses have him asking for his mum at 3.55pm.  More than forty ambulances were held outside locked gates at the stadium for more than an hour and denied access to the scores of people who were dying just yards from them.

Basic medical assistance would have saved Kevin’s life.

The cover-up in this case reaches beyond Kevin’s death but the facts remain that had police let the ambulances into the ground some of the 96 would not have died.  The police also made witnesses lie on record cover up their mistakes.

Anne set up an online petition to ask the Attorney General to grant her request for a new inquest into her son’s death.  The petition required 100,000 signatures by 4.00pm Thursday 19th January.  By Monday 16th the e-petition had slightly more than 8,000 signatures.  A campaign began on Twitter to bring attention to it, and the need for lots of signatures in a very short space of time.  Liverpool fans and indeed football fans of all clubs took the issue in hand and tweeted links to both background articles and the petition itself.  Celebrities as diverse as Joey Barton and Piers Morgan tweeted and re-tweeted pleas for signatures and the petition had the required number of names by early Thursday morning. At the cut-off time the number had swelled to 117,420.

This is a testament to the power of the internet and what can be done when enough people get behind a cause that goes beyond tribal and partisan lines.  It is the first step in a long journey for Anne which began twenty-two years ago, and hopefully will end with Justice for a mother who lost her son.

Anne Williams, You’ll Never Walk Alone.

The second issue was one of a global nature and centred on the Internet itself.  The US government wanted to push through Congress two pieces of legislature,  the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), which would forever change how the internet was to be used and controlled.   The Bills were created to prevent piracy but as they are financed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to the tune of $94million, they smack of being firmly in the interest of corporate America, and this is not what the Internet was created for.

A campaign, more aggressive than Anne’s has been underway for quite sometime to prevent these acts being made law.  The internet is not the property of the US or any other government and should not be policed as it is.  The campaign is with this in mind.  Websites like Wikipedia and Reddit went dark for twenty-four hours, Google and Yahoo replaced adverts on their sites with links to information on the bills, and almost every site with upload facilities (such as YouTube and Facebook) are opposed to the bill.

These bills are more than an attempt to clamp down on online piracy, it is a blatant coup d’etat by America on the international governance of a free an open internet.  It will do little or nothing to prevent online piracy but will, for millions of ordinary users, destroy the internet forever.  The only winners will be the massive media corporations whose interests are, despite what they would have us believe, not as much about the ownership of ideas as the ownership of the revenue generated by these ideas.

Sites used by millions on a daily basis by almost every internet user will be changed forever.  You will no longer be able to post photos on your facebook status, or share YouTube videos on Twitter unless you have express permission from the creator.  Every post will be regulated and controlled and the internet will become a police state at the control of the federal US government.

The massive protests and responses forced the two Republicans who created the bills to pull their support effectively ending them as an immediate threat.  It is a testament to how strong the feeling was about this issue, and like Anne Williams cause was carried through on a tide of public opinion.  Perhaps more important for Anne, because had these acts been passed the twitter campaign would never have been.

The internet is the most powerful tool many of us have at our disposal and we must protect it.  My blog is still in its infancy but I believe in it and I hope it grows and grows.  It is not lost on me that I am using the internet to put across my ideas and I hope whoever is reading this feels free to share this blog with as many people as they can.  After all the sharing of ideas is what the internet was created for and it is not up to anyone to decide how that should be done.

Once again thanks for reading.

My Wife Called Me a GeekNerd

I admit it freely; I am a geek, I am a nerd.

Star Trek, Star Wars and StarGate.  Doctor Who, Transformers, and Buffy.  You name it I've watched it and probably loved it.  There is something about the entirely improbable that compels me, from aliens to vampires, from time travel to big giant robots, and everything in between.  These elements are part of my staple TV diet and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Similarly, my love of books reflects this.  My bookcase is dominated by authors such as Raymond E. Feist, Terry Brooks, George RR Martin and of course Tolkien.  Worlds that don't exist, Midkemia, MiddleEarth and Westeros, are as real to me as this one. Imagination is a wonderful and beautiful thing, and kids (and big kids!) have been enjoying theirs for ever.

Fantasy, Sci-Fi, geekdom and nerdism, this is what I am.

I am proud of this, but I wasn't always.

It is never easy to be the butt of jokes, but it is something you can get used to.  You develop a thick skin, an outer veneer of protection.  But it is not completely impenetrable, nothing really is when you're a kid in a big world.  You start to believe the jibes, that you are somehow less important than those taunting you.  I took solace in the crew of the USS Enterprise, in the fact that the TARDIS could go anywhere it liked, anytime it liked.  I still do, but now I just enjoy the shows, then I needed them.

So when my wife called me a 'geeknerd' I blinked only at the two terms being thrust together like some kind of alien-predator hybrid.  It was a term of endearment, and only slightly motivated by the fact that she believes me to still be a child:-)

Like all things, it will take time to catch on, to become a term we can all be comfortable with.  Like Arsenal fans taking the (initially) derogatory term 'Gooner' to their hearts, being called a geek at one time would have brought a vehement denial, but not now.  Likewise nerd was not a term I would have loved, now though I embrace it.

I have accepted being a geeknerd, and will wear the term like a badge of honour.  It doesn't matter in what way your imagination flourishes, in what worlds you take comfort, or in what terms you are seen by others.  Be comfortable in yourself and those around will be comfortable in your company.

I am proud to be a geek, and i am proud to be a nerd.
I am a geeknerd.

media learn

Right here goes.....
I came very late to the social media party, and have learned very slowly about its uses and applications.  Let me start at the beginning for you.

Less than two years ago I bought my first computer(well second but the first disappeared on a train somewhere between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, more on that in a later blog) without really knowing why or what I was going to do with it.
Shortly after that my girlfriend (now wife *smileyface*) came to me and said she had got herself a Facebook.
I laughed, oh how I laughed.

Two weeks later I had a Facebook too.
My next purchase was an iPhone, and with it a Facebook app.  I could now keep up with all my friends on the go!! How awesome is that!!! However, it wasn't enough, I knew these people, I knew what they were up to anyway because I could talk to them in real life, I needed more.

So..Twitter.
Now I could keep tabs on famous people too. None of Facebook's need for accepting or requesting Friendships that potentially hamper my nosiness. All you have to do is click a little "follow" icon, and as long as you (to a certain extent) minded your Ps and Qs you could stalk your favourite twittarati to your heart's content.

Now I need to explain at this point that while I enjoyed looking at Facebook and Twitter I rarely posted anything on either site, I was an observer rather than a participant.  This has changed recently and I will go into the reasons for this in another post, but for now I am a Tweeter or whatever term is appropriate.

Thus this blog, 140 characters just sometimes isn't enough.  I will try to use this blog to talk about football, TV, books, or whatever comes into my mind at any point.  I hope it will improve my writing and allow me to articulate more clearly, and hey maybe my tweets will make more sense.

 Thanks for reading.