Book 23 Between Planets, between ..... taps ...

Short one tonight cos I'm behind on these book posts again !

Book 23 was Between Planets by Robert Heinlein, not one of his best. Not quite as bad as what Farnham's Freehold turned out to be (a great premise but went in a really bad and highly racist direction). But nowhere near the standard of some of his other books like Starship Troopers, Time Enough For Love and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Oh and Friday too. Friday is an exceptional roller coaster of a book, may have to read that one again.

This one follows young Don Harvey as he escapes Earth just at the .... spoilers redacted ... Ok. Less spoilers. The story is about attempting to get between Earth and Mars, to reach his parents .... while ending up in other areas of the solar system.

The books dates somewhat, as a book written in 1951 is missing much of the innovation that followed. That rarely matters in a Heinlein book though, he writes exceptional scifi about characters, political systems and the somewhat shady arms of enforcement (not necessary legal enforcement) that back up what the political systems are attempting to achieve.

One consistent factor in Heinlein books is that his characters have to survive by either application of force or they have to evade force being applied to them. And often his characters are on the wrong end of Who Has The Bigger Stick.

That's definitely the case in this one where our Don has to escape Earth mostly on his own resources and across the solar system definitely by his own initiative.

A bit of a slog this one, even for a 170 page story. I wouldn't recommend it but do check out the books above, plus a few more in the Lazarus Long sequences and the multiverse sequence. The Cat Who Walked Through Walls may well find itself in my reading list soon.

Oh ... the reason why I'm somewhat squeezing out this post is because I've already read Book 24. But that's one for another day.

Taps ?

Not that kind of tap.

I've been doing the plumbing again ... I think the mains water pressure has gone up over the weekend as a consequence to them fixing something and I believe that's too much for one of my old taps. It has been dripping ...

I have the replacement tap and know how to fix it but. The new pipes are the wrong size ! And I can't use the old pipes because they're brazed into the old tap !

Grr.

It has defeated me tonight but I shall return anew. With different pipes. I've left things in a state where there are no drips so the old taps will be good for a few more days. Water pressure is a bit low though.

And it's still too warm ! Also humid. Hopefully it'll cool down soon but after doing a little walk to Arnos Vale cemetary on Friday for another Gromit viewing :

That's number 6 for me, Dias De Las Perros. Oh ... after realising that my jeans are a little too heavy a material to go walking long distance in. Will have to investigate options before embarking on the very long walks.

Film was good too. I saw Skyscraper as the only person in the showing (Avonmeads is like that and it's why I keep going back there). I'd sum it up as enjoyable garbage. Dwayne Johnson does have a habit of making highly enjoyable films to watch. Sure, the plotline and background is complete garbage ... but they're fun to sit through and they cheer you up.

Mindless fun if you will and it set me up well for the weekend.

Zombie Stories

I just finished reading John Christopher's The Death Of Grass, plus I've started watching Z Nation that's come to us on Pick.

The Death of Grass is set in the 50s, where a virus has originated in the Far East that destroys grass. That'd be the green stuff but also rice, wheat, rye, barley and the other grassoids. You know, the stuff that makes beer, whiskey and ... bread. It's a true End of the World book, although not quite annihilation for everyone because we can survive on a diet of potatoes.

The book starts with the rumours coming out of the Far East and there is the steady inexorable progress of the virus towards where the book is set, good old Blighty. The central character is John Custance, who is a civil engineer working in London and he hears the increasing hysteria from a civil servant mate who is party to the true story happening behind the scenes, that all attempts to fight the virus are only making it worse. So they escape, heading across country towards John Custance's brother's farm in the Lake District.

The book is a description of the steady erosion of civility in his party and is all the more terrifying for the sense of "People could really do this" as the need for survival drives them to do terrible things. It's another old book but the truth is in there. It's another that's aged very well. Move it to our modern world and the message we hear is also tightly controlled and civilisation could collapse just as quickly. Possibly quicker as our armed services get continually drawn down. We also depend on our communications much more, although there should be fewer guns available now than in a Britain 10 years after World War 2.

Yep. Enjoyed this one, thanks to Kim for the recommendation. (There's a bit more for you Kim after the Z Nation bit !) The pointer to Death Of Grass comes in her Everyone's Gone To The Rapture playthrough which is a beautiful game? (not sure if it counts as a game!) with Proper English characters struggling through their own end of the world, with enchanting narration from our Kim. I'm curious as to how it will end but it's one I may re-watch down the line later, as I'm rewatching her Last Of Us playthrough as well.

I watched the first 3 episodes of Z Nation as well yesterday. That was nearly just part of 1 episode ... Low production values and lots of very dodgy zombies. Yep. Even dodgier zombies than on the awful BBC programme a few months ago. But I've stuck with it for now in the hope that the ongoing story running through it turns out good.

A book I may read again soon is Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven. This is a classic disaster movie book. It opens with the discovery of a comet which is due to make a close fly by of Earth. As the first Act unfolds and the comet drawns nearer, the chances of an impact steadily increase ... Our central character is a science reporter covering the comet story and he is steadily getting more and more worried.

And then, disaster worsens as the comet fractures, calves into many fragments that will cover the Earth. When it's about to hit, panic erupts as people attempt to escape population centres, places close to coasts and Run to the Hills ! There's more here than in Death Of Grass which is a strength as well as a weakness. The shorter book is much more focused, it's all about the central character and his party. Lucifer's Hammer splits its focus across multiple central characters. There's more going on but many threads to keep up with.

But enough about what other people do, how about me ?

I contemplate this as I take another easy day while the sun shines, looking for my outsides to recover more. My fear is that if I head out too soon, the healing that has been happening will get set back and I'll be back to square one. So I've been chilling out at home with lots of music (Cardigans excellent Gran Turismo at the moment), cricket on the telly, scifi and fiction on the telly, Lord of the Rings, attempting to sleep (yey), failing to sleep (grr), Elite piloting on the pooter, books being read, enjoyable videos being watched.

Yep. Lots of chill out. But my mind has been wandering ... Planning ... And thinking ... how come I don't take this writing into a new domain ? I've thought this before but my mind descended back into coping with Ill. But those thoughts are coming back again. Could I do novels from the writer's side ?

The disaster scenario is one I think I could write about. Also fantasy fiction too, although there are different rules in magic fantasy worlds. Perhaps easier to imagine a disaster that eliminates maybe 99% of the population, leaving a ragtag band of people looking to survive.

One scenario I have involves those barges ... The barge would be as much a part of the group as the people. Bit like the spaceship Firefly or Enterprise, or Voyager. The Liberator even. The Blakes 7 universe was a legendary scenario in space fiction.

The start I envisage has the barge and the group as a well oiled machine, able to get into the dangerous centre of towns, do a raid, achieve an objective and then get out without the denizens noticing. The barge would be upgraded (ceramic armour ? i.e. plexiglass sheets!), the group would know all their roles and depend on each others skills. Who would we have ?

I suspect the characters would turn out to be analogues of people I know already.

I'd turn into that strong, quiet leader type who would have a Plan but fully expecting that Plan to fail and have several Back Up Plans ready to keep the people alive and unharmed. I'd also be the engineer.
You have the Den Mom who isn't too mobile so she stays on the boat keeping it ready for us when we get back. She's also a crack shot with great awareness so an awesome sentry.
You have small and chuckly, she who keeps us healthy both mentally and physically. She doesn't like harming people but you wouldn't know that when she's (pretending to?) covering you with that rifle.
There's the military type who picked us up and beat us into shape. We'd not be alive if she hadn't got us out of some tight corners.
We have the philosopher and his mate. These are the ones who remembered to bring all the books that remind us that we're human. My engineer brought the How To books, these guys brought in the sciences.
The small fierce red haired one who got us past our scruples and into full on zombie mercy killing mode. Keep the fizzy drinks away from that one.
The guard dogs who may be our first alert for incoming threats.

And then there's the people back at base too or on other boats. The Little Queen who patiently runs the show. Everyone wants her approval, even the ones giving the orders. The best societies tend to be run by women standing behind the leaders telling them what to do. Why boats ? Because push them away from the side and you have a natural barrier to Zombies who forgot how to swim.

That base would be another huge aspect. To live out a Zompoc, you'd need to have a properly secure place for farming ... A large, green, growing island to support your ragtag population of survivors. Isle of Wight ? Isle of Man ? Yep. Supports the arguments for using boats more doesn't it ...

Yep. The book would start with a well oiled machine, a trained group. Heinlein's Starship Troopers starts like this and it gets you into the book straight away. It then catches you up with the How They Got There.

But there are a few questions that I'd need to answer before diving into it :

Where are the arm extensions ?
Ok. Maybe not that question.
But there are a few more and I'm looking at the shortening scroll bar which is telling me this post is getting past its welcome. That's the danger, Death Of Grass works well because it's short. I stopped reading the Honor Harrington books by David Weber because they got mired in unreadability as they got further into politics and away from action.

Perhaps in November ? It's NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month and is one of those challenges that has caught my eye. And there's a couple of months to gather ideas ...

Books everywhere ?

I'm a Culture fan.

They're the centrepiece of a series of books by Iain M. Banks, starting with the outstanding Consider Phlebas where the benevolent Culture dominate the galaxy. There's 3 distinct type of being that inhabit this universe, humans, drones and Minds. The Minds run the universe for the benefit of the humans and are the ones firmly In Charge. I'll not say too much more there as Consider Phlebas gives an excellent introduction to the Culture. Excession is the next best.

I've just bought the newest ... Surface Detail. I'm amazed it took me this long to find a copy, it's been out in paperback for just about a fortnight now and I've literally only seen the paperback in one shop ... (Waterstones at Bristol's Cribbs Causeway). Got it now and in a 3 for 2 offer where I found 2 easily and then took half an hour to choose a third.

New books :
Iain M Banks - Surface Detail - 3 for 2
Chris Wraight - Battle of the Fang - 3 for 2
Charles Yu - How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe - 3 for 2
(yes - I was really struggling to find a 3rd!)
E.E. Doc Smith - Triplanetary - Hay
R.A. Heinlein - Between Planets - Hay
R.A. Heinlein - Beyond This Horizon - Hay
Larry Niven - Convergent Series - Hay

While away for the week I managed to read :

Ben Bova - Exiles Trilogy

This one continues Ben Bova's favourite theme of near future scifi. The basic premise is that scientists in fields including genetic engineering have been identified as a disruptive influence and the world government has decided to get rid of them.


The trilogy weighs in at about 480 pages (shorter than a lot of single books) and tells the tale of the originals escaping from Earth, the machinations of the second generation and finally the arrival of the last generation. They're ok as books go but they don't develop as deeply as other authors. That's good and bad, some authors can flog the dead horse and drag out a story for far too long. With these, there's not really enough meat on the bones.

Dan Abnett - Ghostmaker


This is the second novel in the Warhammer 40k Gaunt's Ghosts series. It's a bit disjointed because the narrative jumps from short segments on Monthax to what amount to flashbacks focusing on one of the Ghosts at a time.

It works after a fashion but the focus is not as tight as in the first book in the series. Hoping for better from the third in the series (Necropolis) which I'll read after gapping to different authors for a couple. It kept me reading because the characters are interesting enough for you to want to know what happens with them. The Warhammer 40k universe is brutal enough such that anything can happen, no character is safe.

There's a contrast here between Ghostmaker and Exiles. Ghostmaker gives a good look at individual characters during their flashbacks but the narrative suffers for it. Exiles keeps a reasonable narrative going but at the cost of limited characters.

Alistair McLean - HMS Ulysses

Last book I managed to read while away is set in World War Two and is centred around the fictional ship HMS Ulysses, an advanced heavy cruiser charged with defending the convoys of war materiel being shipped to Russia.

This book is quite possibly more brutal than the Warhammer 40k books. At least in WH40K the characters get some respite, here there is none. Everything is against the crew of the Ulysses, including the elements, the naval hierarchy and not least, the Germans.

We should never forget what we ask of our Servicemen and women. Books like HMS Ulysses bring home the fact that conditions they face can be every bit as bad (or worse!) than what we read in books or see on the screen. And they don't have the option of putting the book down when they've had enough.

If you can find a copy of this one, it's well worth a read. Very instructive.

What's next ? I had started Triplanetary by E.E. Doc Smith but with the arrival of Surface Detail, I'm swapping to that because it fits the A to Z that I'm a bit too close to schedule on, having read 11 of 26 in 5 months.

Last note - I've reawakened the techie blog with a post about that Easytether app. Managed to avoid using too much GeekSpeak too :-)

On being social

I've been reading a lot of Heinlein lately and one of the most striking things about Heinlein's writing are the off the wall sayings that make total sense. One of them and you'll have to bear with me here is :

Masturbation is cheap, clean, convenient, and free of any possibility of wrongdoing — and you don't have to go home in the cold. But it's lonely.

Wow - that's a little out in left field. But it was reasonably fresh in my mind when I was pondering why I wasn't particularly interested in playing a couple of classics on the weekend. I've sunk a lot of time into World of Warcraft lately but needed a bit of variation, so I had a peek at Settlers IV and Civ 4. Only a quick peek because I really couldn't be bothered with them. I have a few other games too that I've not got my money's worth out of. And then the quote above sprung up in my mind. Hmm - let's take it to bits and have a look.

Cheap - single player games don't have a monthly fee like Eve & WoW do.
Clean - there's no chance of having a fight with someone in the guild. It happens. There's also no idiots infesting your single player game.
Convenient - pause button, able to save the state without leaving other people in the lurch.
Free from wrongdoing - can't upset people when there isn't enough room for them in your gang.
Going home in cold - probably more appropriate to cricket or Re-enactment people, a single player game means you're safe from the rain.

The pause button thing is not to be underestimated. It's actually kinda dangerous leaving a character out in the wilds in an online game, although it's a bit safer on the server I'm on now because it's a "Normal" one. Means there's a general state of peace instead of the Kill Or Be Killed state that makes a "Player Vs Player" server rather tense. Eve is even worse, because the pattern of play tends to have you alert at the keyboard for ages waiting for something to happen. Having a pause button is rather nice, it lets you break at your convenience or if you get called away. You can put the game to one side knowing it'll be in the same state when you get back.

So, single player games are cheaper, cleaner, far more convenient cos of that pause button, you can't annoy someone by leaving them off the team and you don't get drenched when the heavens open with 5 overs to go.

But they're lonely.

Lol - there you go, that's me comparing computer games to masturbation and sex.

I don't think I really noticed this before because World of Warcraft is pretty much the first big multiplayer game I've played, plus I'd always had the cricket to keep me in social gaming. I've always lived in fairly social housing too, ever since university when I was 18. That's 15 years ago now. When I moved out of the social housing, I was living with someone. So there was a little voice on the other side of the sofa telling me to keep the noise down. Plus other whinging :-) (You'd have to have known her ;-)

Pretty much since the WoW became the main game, I've been single, although the timing there is totally coincidental. After the breakup, WoW became a surrogate for the relationship I'd had. Which probably kept me sane in the months after, I had a group of Mercs to keep an eye on. That couldn't last though - issues with some of the personalities (being ignored for a couple of months does this to you) meant I couldn't continue torturing myself with the guild leadership thing and the relationships with Guildlink in particular, so I gave the job up to the best candidate we had at the time.

Bah ! I be digressing again. Closing note - Playing with Other People is far better than Playing With Yourself. I think that's something that everybody can agree on :-) Oh - time for another Heinlein quote before I really close this entry :

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of — but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

I must assure you that this entry was composed totally in private (ok, I had Dexter and Stargate Atlantis on in the background) and I promise that I'll be washing my hands in the very near future.

PS More classic Heinlein quotes here : WikiQuote. G'wan - have a peek :-)

Just finished reading ... Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

Just finished reading the above book, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein.

This is a cracking book, it's actually the first one of Heinlein's books I read and it got me comprehensively hooked. It's written from the point of view of one Manuel O'Kelly Davis (Manny for short), who is a humble computerman looking after the Lunar Authority's main computer. A computer that's had so much hooked into it that it has woken up and become sentient.

It's name is Mike, short for Mycroft, a name that extends from its model type : HOLMES. Holmes being short for High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor. What Mike has trouble understanding is jokes and the opening sequences of the book have him getting a bit of attention from Manny due to playing one of those jokes. It then breaks into 3 phases :

Setting up the revolution
Calm before the storm
Interplanetary war

It's not a long book at 288 pages but packs a decent amount into those 288 pages. Even reading it now, at 42 years after it was written, this is one book that is most certainly Not Dated. Ok, it's maybe a little behind the times when it comes to the effort needed for Mike to put a moving picture on a screen for him talking but that's about the only place where the age of the book shows.

It's a standalone book, although the sequel (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls) hooks into the Lazarus Long universe. The sequel is The Next Book. It's not all about revolution on the moon, there's bits in here about living up there plus Heinlein's usual intelligent observations on society.

Excellent book, very well worth a read. The central character, Manny, keeps a level head running through it with the tone always being one of good humour. It keeps a good pace up and the ending chapter or two will definitely have you remembering this book.