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Frozen Hell by John W Campbell Jr. Written in the 30s and never released in it’s full, unedited form until recently. A cutback version saw publication as Who Goes There which was the inspiration for movies The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter’s The Thing. I’ve been on a serious early/mid 20th century sci fi kick for some time and I’m a massive fan of The Thing so this should hopefully be right up my street.
I’m currently reading The Invention Of Tradition, which is a collection of essays from the 80s (I think – possibly the 60s). After an incredibly dry and academic introduction that had me doubting I was going to manage the whole book (various uses of “inculcate” and “promulgate”) it livens up a bit. The first chapter basically tore down the Scots (deconstructing the myths of highland culture, kilts, tartan), the second went for the Welsh (the fabrication of Druidic culture in the 18th century or so, mostly) and I’m just at the third, which is going for the royal family and their pageantry. It’s like an academic version of an insult comedian or roast.
That’s a pretty cool topic! And it does make a lot of sense that most traditions would’ve been invented later than their supposed origin.
(And I say that as someone living in a city whose famous “gothic” cathedral was actually mostly built in the late 19th century.)
Yeah, the romantic movement did that in a lot of regions in the 1800s. Same in Germany (the middle ages were basically invented in the romantic period here), and this was also a time of a massive nationalist movement (there was no Germany at the time, mind you, just several dukedoms that spoke the same language). That national sentiment was also tied to a democratic movement, interestingly, so quite different from the re-invention of Germanic paganism by the nazis.
That’s a pretty cool topic! And it does make a lot of sense that most traditions would’ve been invented later than their supposed origin.
(And I say that as someone living in a city whose famous “gothic” cathedral was actually mostly built in the late 19th century.)
Yeah, a lot of it is perfectly reasonable, like the Welsh eisteddfod. Do they bear any relation to what the old bards actually did? Probably not. But they’re as much about promoting what the country wants itself to be now as anything and that’s perfectly reasonable.
The clan tartan thing is much funnier though, because it is all pure bollocks made up by a combination of royal-wannabes and clothing manufacturers.
Is Grant the one that has been involved with the Dave revival or the one that hasn’t?
The one that hasn’t. Doug Naylor is the one that has stuck with the show since they both split up in 1993.
There was a legal dispute a few years ago that was eventually settled, allowing them to both pursue Red Dwarf projects, and I think that under that deal Grant is restricted to prequel stuff outside of the TV series timeline, which explains the premise for this book. It’ll be interesting to see if he can make it work given that restriction.
I loved the original pair of RD novels by Grant Naylor, and it was Grant who was primarily responsible for the “voice” of those (as you can tell from the two separate solo sequel novels that followed) so I’m hopeful this new book can recapture that, even with a different co-writer.
Synopsis:
RED DWARF: TITAN
Before the beginning.
Before the accident that wipes out the crew, the mining ship Red Dwarf is in orbit around Saturnian moon Titan, and the bulk of the ship’s complement is heading down for shore leave, all with different intentions…
A strangely reluctant hen party; a relaxing cheaty golfing break; a terminally-boring cultural Odyssey; a marathon drinking and fighting binge; a stomach-challenging culinary beanfeast and an invigoratingly violent tour of Shore Patrol…
But menial chicken soup machine repairmen Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer have slightly less noble ambitions.
Rimmer is in search of some illicit exam-cheating tech, to land a much-lusted-for promotion, and Lister plans to acquire a cat to smuggle back on board as part of a nefarious scheme to return to Earth. But mainly they just want to get as far away from each other as possible.
However, their objectives are scuppered somewhat unexpectedly when they receive a cryptic message.
A message from the future.
The two feuding crewmen are catapulted into a breakneck race to save not only this, but every other Reality.
Along the way, they’ll find themselves united again, for the first time, with some new, but somehow old friends, as they embark on a labyrinthian quest through the seediest, most dangerous underbelly of humankind’s furthest outpost, where lurk bizarre off-worldly dangers and one mysterious hidden nemesis with an obscure, yet clearly lethal agenda.
So strap yourself into your Holly Hop Drive, and set your bazookoids to “thrill” – the Dwarfers are taking on TITAN.
It occurs to me that now is the time for me to return to The Laundry Files / New Managrment books, as whatever goes on in them will likely be less screwed up than the real world in 2026.
It occurs to me that now is the time for me to return to The Laundry Files / New Managrment books, as whatever goes on in them will likely be less screwed up than the real world in 2026.
The Mad Max movies are more positive and optimistic than what we’re living through now.
I listened to the audiobooks of the Narnia series. I read the first two (in the author’s preferred order) as a child, but never got through The Horse and His Boy, and re-reading it 25-30 years later, it’s definitely because that book is incredibly boring and a complete slog. Putting it right after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe does it no favours.
I did like Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair quite a bit, and most of The Magician’s Nephew is really good, up until Lewis decides he was being too subtle with all the religious stuff and just has Aslan as God preaching for the last third of the book. No idea how the Gerwig movie will handle that.
The Last Battle has some cool battle scenes, but is otherwise awful. I’d heard about how misogynistic it was, but was completely unprepared for how racist it was. And the entire post-battle stuff with the characters going to heaven because they died in a train crash in the real world at the start of the novel is just trash.
