The Early Days of a Better Nation

Friday, March 04, 2005


Heartwarming

A copy of the Tor paperback edition of Newton's Wake arrived today. It carries snippets of reviews, and one surprised me so much that I've just looked it up online. Yup, there it is - a review in Romantic Times:
This is an exciting stand-alone space opera that takes familiar SF tropes - sentient machines and galactic exploration - and gives them a fresh perspective. MacLeod incorporates humorous touches, including a jab at the ubiquitous Microsoft, that humanize the futuristic characters. The writing flows and is surprisingly light and easy to read and, despite its episodic style, accessible to the average reader as well as the hardcore SF fan. With its unexpected twists and turns, this is a work sure to keep the reader on the edge of her seat.
In fact Romantic Times reviews SF and fantasy more often than most mainstream publications: their list of authors reviewed includes James D. Macdonald, L. E. Modesitt, Elizabeth Moon and Ian R. MacLeod, and that's just from a first glance at the M's. Now, how many preconceptions does that shatter?



Joe Blogs

The story of Joe Gordon, the world-famous blogging bookseller, has had a happy ending.


Votes

Several kind readers have pointed out that my statement about any non-Tory vote being objectively a Tory vote is, to put it mildly, an over-statement. They are of course right. One of them, Meaders has given the entire post a vigorous talking to. But it's the week's events that really give me pause: if New Labour can over-ride Magna Carta, what won't they do?

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