I'm a Geek - yes it is official!

I've got a T-shirt to prove it...

Like my T-shirts from races it's only been worn after the hard work has been done.

Gollancz publishing is one of those companies I've grown up with, as my enjoyment of SF & Fantsay books has waxed and waned over the years it's been these guy's publications more often than not that have dragged me back from a self-imposed diet of popular science and random diversions into historical fiction, crime and war novels.

So when I heard about Gollancz Geeks, through Mitch Benn (buy the albums, but definitely if you like SF with a gentle humorous twist buy Terra!!!!), I signed up - expecting to get spam... Not expecting the second or third time I volunteered to review a book to be sent it within a couple of days...

Path of Anger - Antione Rouaud was the book, and so I read it... and enjoyed it... a lot...

My review was short, as I tried desperately not to give away any of the plot:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This book shouldn’t work, it should be yet another by the numbers fantasy book of the type that almost drove me from the genre in the 90s. It’s a sword quest, with knights with ‘force’ like powers… Good hides in the bosom of evil, and finds its not evil, just a bit cranky. The real evil doers are those who use politics for their own gain, whichever (or both) sides they’re on.  Revenge, a girl, mysterious strangers, hooded assassins… It really shouldn’t work.

But it does.

The non-linear story telling makes sense, most of the emotions feel real, the action scenes roll through well and you care about the characters.  It also manages to gently insert sections on the importance of tolerance, literacy, gender and sexuality equality; without making it heavy, but making its points well. That’s good storytelling and is something that comes through the translation from the French, and makes me want to know about the adventures of Sir Frog, the sword and the book.

In summary, all the classics are there, even dragons, but in a coherent world that feels like it should work with characters that have more depths than you think they will. I ended up reading it in 2 days, always a sign of a good book for me😊
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 


So thank you Gollanzc, the t-shirt can now officially be worn...

(12 mile LSR tomorrow... Pasta tonight:-) )

TTFN

Paul

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little bit political...

Well the legs still don't want to run, walk and climb is fine, run makes them feel a bit leary ... Probably the two most contentious words in the congenital heart world (UK branch) are "safe and sustainable", a quick trawl of the support websites or facebook will show many a group being set up to save a hospital or a ward. I won't be joining any of them. Not because I don't care, but because I care too much. The origins of Safe and Sustainable go back to the Bristol Hospital Enquiry, and quite simply this is designed to ensure that the surgery that heart kids get is the the most appropriate, done by well trained and supported surgeons who are used to doing the operations and are in a surgical setting which are designed around the needs of the child going through the surgery and their family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. I want every heart kid to get the best surgery available to them, I want their parents to be given the best advice, support...
Read more

12% of a plan…

  It’s been a month.     A month since the new heart valve was inserted… the chaffing has died down, I’ve been sensible and built my walking up, restarted my apple fitness plus bits and bobs (boy has it been a long time since I bent like that, or cycled/spun like that) and I’ve been for two runs – a gentle 3k which worked as a prelude to my return to my local parkrun… I finished, my tally went up 1, and I remembered just how tough it is to run the first mile on so soft, dry sand… In hindsight I would’ve been better to walk the first third and conserve my energy (and pool of fitness) to the prom and the grass thirds…   Relive 'Return to Parkrun!' Yes, it does look the first bit is out to sea…  Monday was a random day off work to get out and do something, so with a bit of head scratch and some nifty plotting on the OS Mapping app I wandered along the canal, and then down the Transpennine Trail & “loop line”… Almost pancake flat, I know...
Read more

It’s a kind of magic (the science kind)…

  Well, operation done – I have a funky new valve and a bit of a sore groin.     I was in hospital for 28, sleepless, hot, hours and unconscious for about 4 of them.     While the insertion points for the three catheters I had in me in at the same time heal it’s a case of taking it easy, let my body get over the various manipulations (sore throat, the impact of the still there frozen shoulder) and the simple lack of sleep from stress and some noisy neighbours on the day ward I was on.  There’s really not a lot else to say… I went in, did the usual pre-op checks, had a chat with the interventionist, had a chat with the anaesthetist, signed the all-important consent forms (kids – that’s when you know you’re an adult; parents, that’s when you know your kid is in charge), was wheeled across to a hybrid cath lab… laid down, bit of banter with the team and the next thing I knew I was waking up, sore and not actually knowing whether the funky valve had fitted me…...
Read more