The Early Days of a Better Nation

Friday, June 13, 2008



In other news ...



I see (via - no one's told me) that The Execution Channel has been been shortlisted for the 2008 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Given the strength of the shortlist, 'It's an honour just to be nominated' is the sensible reaction. Still, fingers crossed ...

11 Comments:

Had you remarked previously that The Execution Channel is a Prometheus Award finalist also? See the March 2008 news release at http://www.lfs.org/releases.htm for the full list.

thanks William - yes, I did mention it in a blog post.

Friday 13th, unlucky for some ... though obviously not for you. It deserves to be as well. You created a world that still-could-be, though not sure about that ending!

Thanks, avps.

The ending - let's not give it away - was described by Graham Joyce (at the Not the Clarke Awards panel at Eastercon) as 'the Marmite(*) ending - you either love it or hate it.'

When I outlined the then-unwritten ending to Mike Harrison at a previous Eastercon, he said: 'It's a very Ken MacLeod ending.' Can't say fairer than that.

(* Marmite is a British yeast-based substance for spreading on toast.)

Let me just say the ending caught me more than a little off-guard. It wasn't even anywhere near the realm of what I expected; that you managed to make it fit and flow coherently is worthy of commendation and award all on its own.

I picked this up in my favourite SF bookstore last week. Looking forward to reading it.

Thanks - hope you enjoy it, and in any case please do drop me a line when you've finished.

Holiday reading: The Execution Channel and "The Catapult" by Tracey Rihll, as recommended downblog; both rather good. I agree about the Marmite ending, though... suddenly TEC went from being a near-future conspiracy thriller (albeit with the Macleodian faith in the persistence and righteousness of the far Left) to being something rather different and less interesting. Bit too deus ex machina, I'm afraid.

I don't like Marmite either.

But what about the glass flower? I am inclined to think that the Marmite is just one more layer of misdirection. Like the ladyb said, "Life is elsewhere"

Peter - Jim Henley, I think, read that the same way. It wasn't how I'd meant it to be taken: the way I meant it, the message of the glass flowers was that the reality looked like a fake, but wasn't.

Not the most unambiguous of hints, I must admit.

I have to say that I love your stuff but found this book to be a dreadful mismash of about six monographs. How is the deconstruction of the Scottish left supposed to fit with the "fast-paced" thriller format?

Plus there were far too many characters who I just did not give a shit about.

Stick with the SF.

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