From Russia with Love

 

I wrote this piece for the retro chronicles of Galactic Journey. It didn't get used, but rather than letting it go to waste I present it now.

The sequel to Dr. No has arrived with much fanfare. Highly anticipated by the general public and James Bond fans alike. Aficionados of the books will not be disappointed by the film, which raises the bar for the film franchise.

The opening sequence that follows the United Artists logo is the same as Dr. No. A series of white circles resolves into a scene of James Bond walking along, as seen through the barrel of a gun. The tempo of the music rises with the twang of the guitar acting as a counterpoint to the main rhythm. The audience is captivated, and a hush descends over the auditorium as we cut to a night scene.

Here we're shown Sean Connery stalking through the grounds of a mansion, while in turn being shadowed by a tall blond thug who gets the drop on our hero, killing him with a garrotte: a wicked-looking wire that the villain draws from his wristwatch. And for a moment the film teases us with Bond's death.

However, all is not what it seems.

Lights from the mansion reveal this to be a SPECTRE training ground, and the dead Sean Connery, a man wearing a convincing rubber mask. The music by John Barry then plays the theme tune as the opening credits are presented, the words moving over scantily clad women dancing to the theme tune.

It is mesmerizing. Everybody in the auditorium is silent with anticipation of what comes next. The sheer audacity and inventiveness of the opening having overridden the usual rustling and coughs that accompany most films. I've never experienced anything like it before.

With this film, James Bond has become a phenomenon that transcends the limitations of its genre, turning into a spectacle that sweeps the viewer into the exotic world of espionage.

Then the audience is introduced to the plot via the introduction of the villains discussing their plans.
We meet three of SPECTRE's leaders: Number One, the chief executive who remains unnamed during the film; Number Three, Rosa Klebb a former Russian SMERSH agent who has defected to SPECTRE; and Number Five, Kronsteen who is SPECTRE's chief planner.

During this exposition we only see Klebb and Kronsteen, with the camera cutting between their faces and the hands of their leader who strokes a white cat as he listens to the details of the complex plot of From Russia with Love.

Kronsteen has devised a scheme that involves luring the British with the opportunity to get their hands on a Russian cryptographic machine, called a Lektor, which is used to decode orders sent by Moscow. The operation will take place in Turkey, which lies between Russia and the West. The plan involves playing the British intelligence station against the Russian consulate, and in the confusion steal the Lektor from the British, who will get the blame for stealing it from the Russians.

Klebb's assesses Donald "Red" Grant, the male agent who we saw in the opening sequence garrotting Sean Connery, who is tasked with killing Bond for real this time. But ordered to wait until after 007 retrieves the Lektor. Klebb then dupes a beautiful woman from the Russian consulate into believing she's working for Russian intelligence, to lure Bond to retrieve the Lektor.

Interestingly, there is a sexual frisson in both these scenes, revealing Klebb as a sexual predator, when she displays undue interest in both the male and female agents she recruits.

From here the film switches to London where M informs James Bond that the cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova has fallen in love with him, and wants to defect to the West, bringing with her the top secret Lektor device. Both Bond and M understand this is a "Honey Trap," but the chance to get hold of the Lektor is too good to turn down.

The audience knows SPECTREs plans, and the sudden excitement this produces when watching the film is physical. One really fears for what will happen next.

Before setting off to Istanbul, Bond is supplied with a special attaché case with a tear gas booby trap containing a folding AR-7 Armalite sniper rifle. The case also comes equipped with a throwing knife. All will be used during the film.

Bond travels to Istanbul and meets up with Kerim Bey, the British intelligence station chief, who will help 007 retrieve the Lektor. Bey describes to Bond the situation in Turkey where the British and Russians have a truce of sorts. Both sides routinely spy on each other, but use proxies for plausible deniability when taking action against each other. The British have in their employ gypsies and the Russians use their Bulgarians allies.

Then the SPECTRE plans kicks into action as Red Grant kills a Bulgarian secret agent tailing Bond and Bey to provoke the Russians into attacking the British. Their response is to bomb the British intelligence station.

This forces Bond to leave Istanbul until things cool down. Bey takes him to a gypsy camp, but soon after they arrive the Bulgarians attack, and everyone is as each other's throats. The action comes thick and fast demonstrating how effective Red Grant is in shadowing Bond.

The plot twists and turns, luring us deeper into the world, until Bond meets Romanova who is waiting for him in his bed. Unknown to them both, SPECTRE has set up a camera to film their love making, which they plan to use this to discredit Bond and British intelligence.

The plot then focuses on Bond and Bey's plan on how to steal the Lektor. Afterwards Bond escapes with the Romanova, and Bey aboard the Orient Express. However, they are being tailed by a Russian security officer who has to be dealt with.

This results in the death of Kerim Bey, Bond's ally at the hands of Red Grant, who has proved himself to be a formidable adversary. Unlike Bond, the audience is aware that Red Grant has been shadowing the hero throughout the film. So the viewer is left wondering when the villain will strike next.

When Red Grant appears, pretending to be an agent sent by M to help Bond, it raises the tension further. When the confrontation kicks off, the fight between them is fast, furious, and brutal in its intensity. Arguably, one of the most realistic fight scenes ever choreographed on film. The booby trapped attaché case and hidden knife helps Bond secure his triumph over his adversary.

In any other film this would probably mark the end of the story, but here it serves as the starting point for a series of three encounters, the plans for which are introduced through a scene where we return to SPECTRE HQ.

In a tense scene, Klebb and Kronsteen are brought to account over the failure of the plan with Red Grant's death. Number One has his henchman stab Kronsteen with a poisoned dagger concealed within the soul of a boot. Then Klebb is ordered to retrieve the Lektor, and as can be imagined, she's highly motivated to want to succeed in this task.

The first attempt to intercept Bond sees him being chased by SPECTRE henchmen in a helicopter. Bond defeats them using the sniper rifle. We then move to the final chase in a boat where he and Romanova are being pursued. To escape Bond releases the boat's fuel canisters, which he detonates with a flare gun. The scene is frighteningly realistic in its portrayal of the fear and confusion as the crews of the boats are engulfed in flames.

Bond and Romanova reach Venice, and the safety of being back in the West. But, Klebb appears in their hotel room disguised as a maid when she tries to kill Bond with a dagger hidden in her shoe. But the audience knows it's poisoned. This ups the tension to what, after Red Grant, would be a scene otherwise lacking in threat. Before he can be stabbed, Bond's life is saved by Romanova who shoots Klebb.

It may not sound it, but the relief was palpable. Bond is triumphant and gets the girl. It may be hackneyed, but the film never lets off the pressure, and the denouement is satisfying. The end credits reveal that Bond will be back in Goldfinger, and that's all we need to know.

Mark my words, James Bond 007 will be at the forefront of popular culture for years to come.

Easter & Stuff

I missed posting last week because we were away in Cambridge with friends and partying, and I felt rather unwell all weekend and most of this last week.  Not quite coming down with something but fighting off whatever ailed me: coughing and stuff, including feeling really cold.  Today the sun is shining and I feel a lot better.

This week there was the horrible event in Belgium, a place that has wonderful people, nice restaurants and great museums.  I missed most of the reaction because I was at work and I don't have time during my clinics to be browsing the news.  All I can say I will not let this action make me fearful, because fear leads to hate and anger, and these are strong emotions that should not be unleashed otherwise one is pulled along rather than being in control of how you behave.

So another week has passed by in a flash, and I have writing to do, including an article for a new editor who asked me if I'd like to write a non-fiction article for him, which I will tell you about closer to the time.

In the evenings we've been chilling by re-watching Elementary, the American Sherlock Holmes series with Lucy Liu, which we've really enjoyed.  We've just received season three, hence the re-watch as it has been quite some time since we saw the series.  Paul Cornell talked about working for the show but his episode is in season four, so it's going to be a while before we get around to seeing his episode.

We've also re-watched some old movies.

Dante's Peak, a favourite of mine because it has James Bond and Sarah Conner in it; sorry I mean Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton but more importantly, as far as Hollywood films goes, the science behind the story is not the usual egregious nonsense one has come to expect.

We then watched The Omen, mostly because I had fond memories of David Warner using a Nikon F2 with a photonic head and Patrick Troughton, the second Dr. Who, and still one of my favourite actors who played the role over the history of the show.  The film has not aged well or perhaps I should say I've aged and my expectations of a movie are different now than when I first saw it back in the cinema circa 1976.

I also bought Contact, the Jodie Foster movie based on Carl Sagan's book as we both enjoyed it the last time we watched it.  It has aged remarkably well considering what they could do with CGI.

Finally, we watched a new movie, The Last Witch Hunter starring Riddick, Ygritte and Frodo with someone called Michael Caine who may or may not be Alfred the butler or whoever.  Vin Diesel played himself as did Michael Caine, so they were well matched.  Rose Leslie held her own, and Elijah Wood proved again he could really act by playing a part against type.  Though having seen him do that twice now in movies perhaps this is his new type?  I have to say that though the film was a confection of fantasy tropes, Vin Diesel with a beard, waving a flaming sword, and slaying witches worked for me.

This weekend is going to be chock-a-block with archery, eating chocolate, drinking wine, and rewriting the article I mentioned, just to reassure the editor who I knows reads this blog that I am working on his commission.  Have a good one whatever you choose to do.  Catch you all again next week.

Snow Gone in a Flash

We slept in late this morning having stayed up way past our usual bedtime watching the film Spy.  So we missed the snow in London this morning.  However, I can attest to how cold it is outside because we've just got back from shopping and I wish I'd worn a scarf.

During the last couple of weeks we've watched a bunch of  TV shows.  First Flash and then Grimm, followed by catching up with the last series of Warehouse 13.

Flash is by the same company that produces Arrow but if Arrow is a hamburger then Flash is Candy Floss.  That's not a condemnation, as Arrow's last season was over the top melodrama and Flash was a refreshing change of pace.  There's a very nice call back to the 90s Flash with Mark Hamil reprising his role as the Trickster that made us laugh out loud.  Also, I must mention Cisco, the team science/engineering genius/geek, who gets to be the genre savvy character on the show.  However, the standout performance comes from the actor playing Dr. Harrison Wells, Barry Allan's mentor and the series protagonist.  He is a magnificent bastard and he makes the show more than just the sum of its parts.
Grimm remains a police procedural that rolls out the Wessen (monster) of the week and yet manages to remain eminently watchable because of its characters.  In particular Monroe and Rosalie who are the supporting couple.  Season four also mixes the format's formula and brings in some big changes, including, at last, adding Sergeant Wu to Team Grimm.

Warehouse 13 is a lightweight, don't think about what's going on too closely, magical artifact of the week formula melodrama.  It makes the Flash look grimdark by comparison.  But the characters are engaging and we're addicted to it like some people are addicted to crack cocaine.  Season five is a super short six episode mini-series that ties off most of the hanging plot-lines from the previous seasons.  It feels a bit rushed but it made me cry at the end.  I wish there could have been more.

Anyway, back to Spy.  The film had a lot of good press and stars Melissa McCarthy a CIA 'agent' who supports field operatives.  Like the Austin Powers series by Mike Myer's ' movies it sends up the James Bond spy genre but from a female perspective.  It has an interesting cast and a good story.  But there's a s lot of swearing, and in the extended cut nudity, so not for those who find swearing or sexual content offensive.  It made us laugh even though the plot is implausible to say the least because Fridge logic rules;  everything is in service of the gag.

Reading wise, I'm still working through Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style which is messing with my head.  I shall come back to this and review it in full later.

I've started on the first revision of Ghost Dog.  The first step in the process of turning shit into gold or maybe shit into manure which can fertilize crops.  I've managed to do 22,043 words this week and have about 73,000 more words to wade through.

I've just gotten back the first of my three Beta readers feedback who made me realize that when I cut 6,000 words of stuff not directly related to the main story arc that I also managed to remove some exposition that explained stuff important to the plot.  Not withstanding the fact that said explanations are repeated later the information was needed earlier in the story.  Sigh!

BSFA, SFF & ICSF Mini-Convention

Last Saturday my partner suggest that we attended Mini-Convention, which was a one day event run by The British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation, and the Imperial College Science Fiction Society.  The attraction for Susan being the chance to hear Brian Aldiss speak.  We'd seen him at LonCon 3 the world SF convention, but missed any of the panels he was on, and given that he's not getting any younger (none of us are) it seemed like an opportunity we should take.

He gave a set of rather charming answers to his interviewer's interesting questions.  A genuine grand old man of SF.  One thing I learned and liked was the fact that he keeps journals that he draws in.  He has a shed load of them it seems, and we got to see some of his collages later on.  It made me feel good about my own book of doodles, and my other blogging where I show off the models I make of things I'm thinking about.  In particular my recent attempts to make models of the combat armour suits that appear in my first three novels.

We also got to hear Pat Cadigan talk, and as a result of listening to her we're buying a collection with her short stories in, which only goes to to show that authors talking about their work gets people interested in reading their works.  Besides seeing the two authors talk there were other discussions too, and while Mini-Convention was very low key (they asked people not to mention it on social media during the day) it was an enjoyable day out that mostly avoided the Hugo controversy, which quite frankly I've had enough of.

We also got and have finished watching season one of 12 Monkeys, and I'm impressed.  It's a very clever, retelling of the Terry Gilliam movie, because while the story still has all those elements of the original the style no longer treats them as a nightmare that comes over as totally bat shit crazy insane.  Also, Barbara Sukowa is stunningly good as the slightly obsessed to the point of being crazy doctor, especially so when playing the younger version of herself.  I can recommend the series if you've not yet seen it.

Also this week we finally caught up with Man of Steel and Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Starting with Superman first; the Man of Steel manages to reinvigorate the franchise, assuming that one doesn't mind the violence, which is the antithesis of the much loved versions starring Christopher Reeve.  I would say that the fight scenes in Metropolis were on reflection a tad over long, but the whole ruins things worked for me, because it very much reminded me of the Alan Moore Miracleman fight – two god like beings slugging it out while mere mortals try not to be noticed.

However, it was Kingsman: The Secret Service that really impressed me.  More violence than you could shake a big stick at, but it had a sensibility that just lifted it up beyond it's source material: James Bond, which is referenced within Kingsman.  There are a couple of scenes between Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson that set up and deliver a punchline that was quite frankly breathtaking.  I've just read that the director is working on a sequel, which is most unlike him, but he says if he can write a good script it will go ahead.

With regards to my writing this week I've been distracted, dismayed and distressed by a number of events throughout the week, which due to a wide range of other factors have rather derailed my progress.  Still, I managed to finish another chapter, but I feel I really must do better.  Words written 851, edited 1,760, running total 100,349.

Bright hope in darkness.  Managed to deconstruct my seven book series arc, and plan out everything I want to do.  I can add side stories and diversions to the series core, but I now have a much better handle on the themes, and overall structure of the series arc from the beginning, through to the middle and how it ends (five pages of penciled notes in the notebook I keep).  So that's it for another week, see you all on the bounce.

The Dresden Files: Storm Front

I'm running two days late this week in posting something on my blog.  I've been ensconced in my writing.  Well maybe not exactly ensconced, as it hasn't been totally comfortable, but there's the satisfaction of finishing something that I found hard to do; and for once being relatively happy with what I've written.  So I finished the first draft of the new chapter one of Strike Dog, having managed to write 1,146 words yesterday afternoon.  When added to my running total for the week this makes 3,382 words written in total.

So I'm pleased to have gotten this done.  It has been difficult for me, because I still have my head in the re-writes of Bad Dog, where I'm in a holding pattern while my new Beta readers do their stuff.  My plans for the long late May Bank Holiday weekend is do some model making, and read some books.

Talking about reading I've have finished Storm Front (Book 1 of The Dresden files) by Jim Butcher, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Given that it's urban fantasy, which is usually not my thing, this says a lot about the writing and story telling.  It's definitely a story that makes one want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next, and I like his writing style, it's easy to read.  The main character is interesting, and there are a lot of promises of other stuff going on in the background that makes me want to read more.  Next time we're in town and can drop into Forbidden Planet we'll pick up the next book in the series.

I've also read Andromeda's Fall by William C. Dietz, which is a novel I've had sitting around on my to be read pile for quite some time.  Probably over a year in fact.  It was bought on one of our visits to Forbidden Planet when we were looking for novels with a female protagonist.  My partner read it, and then it got put in a pile to be read and forgotten about.  I enjoyed it, and it certainly rollicked along, but I have to wonder at some assumptions American authors have about the nobility and class.  Still it was nice to see the French Foreign Legion in action in space!  Again I shall also be looking out for the sequel in due course.

I've also just started reading Max Tegmark's book Our Mathematical Universe.  This is a big hardback that basically expands upon the ideas found in his articles on cosmology written for magazines like the New Scientist.  This book allows Dr. Tegmark to lay out his ideas on the nature of reality, and expand upon the idea that we live in a Platonic multiverse.  It's written in a simple to understand and straightforward manner, for what is rather mind blowing stuff.

Anyway, that's all I have time for this week.

Coming Home

Looking back across my diary it's fairly obvious I really didn't do an awful lot of writing last week; checking I see it amounts to 623 words, which comes from having written a couple of blogs, and doing some minor revisions to Bad Dog.  

It rather looks like I didn't get out of bed.  

But it should be said I've been working on a couple of short story ideas using secondary character's from Strike Dog.  I've even seen a way through the block I had with my other novel The Bureau, which only goes to show that there's a lot of thinking involved when writing.

The minor revisions I made to Bad Dog resulted from a conversation I had with my partner over Peter Watts Firefall; the omnibus edition of Blindsight and Echopraxia that I reviewed here.

Susan found Blindsight's lead protagonist rather off putting, for various reasons that I won't go into here, but enjoyed reading Echopraxia.  She especially thought the zombies were an interesting idea, and scarily plausible.  We then had a rather intense discussion about both books, with me being rather more forgiving about some of the the foibles my partner saw in Peter's writing.

However, I learnt a lot from reflecting on the discussion.

And as I said it provoked me to go back and add a couple of things to Bad Dog.  

Mostly to clarify the point that my novel is not a time-travel story per se – it just looks like one, because I chose to tell the story in a linear fashion.  The alternative would be to write it as a multiple stream of consciousness novel, which is realistically a non-starter – even if I was brilliant enough to be able to pull it off, which I'm not.  

The pitch line would be a cross between Finnegans Wake and Dhalgren, neither of which I've been able to finish reading (this says more about me as a reader & writer than it does about either of the books), and I would imagine that the story would have a very limited appeal, and be a hard novel to sell.

What I have been doing with my time is reading, as I've started to enjoy reading fiction again.  This is a bit of a relief, because if one wants to be a fiction writer it's kind of important to read fiction.

So I started off by finishing reading the other two books in Rachel Bach's Parodox trilogy, the first of which I mentioned here.  

The sequels rollicked along, the characters were likeable enough, and there were enough twists and turns to keep one interested.  I do think that the romance sub-plot had a tendency to derail the main plot, taking me out of the big picture, but Rachel seems to be on a mission to bring more romance to SF.  

My only slight criticism is that the ending was a bit schmaltzy, and while that's OK, in this case I asked myself was there a third option for ending the book? (I'm referring to the concept of having one of two obvious endings, and then trying to find a better third ending that surprises the reader).

After finishing and enjoying those two novels I started reading Coming Home.  

This is the latest novel in the Alex Benedict/Chase Kolpath series by Jack McDevitt, which I had been saving for the right time to read it.  Jack McDevitt is one of my favourite go to authors; as in I buy his novels in hardback, rather than waiting for the paperback to come out.  

I will say that his previous Priscilla Hutchins series novel Starhawk was a tad disappointing.  It was a nice enough tale of her early life, acting as a prequel to the series, but it really didn't add anything to the story arc of the previous six novels about the clouds that destroy technological civilizations.

So let me start by saying that the first Alex Benedict novel, A Talent for War, was a hugely influential novel for me.  

 It's one of those books that stands out in my life as as having blown me away, and it would be one of my choices to take with me for a desert island stay.  The sequels have all been told through the eyes of Alex Benedict's assistant Chase Kolpath, and this may be down to the fact that the lead character generally knows more than the reader, and to maintain the novels sense of suspense one has to write through the eyes of another character who doesn't know what's going on.  

The alternative I imagine would be a set of short stories.

In the book set prior to Coming Home, called Firebird, Alex Benedict discovers what's causing starships to disappear in space.  Mentioned because the plot of A Talent for War hinges on the starship with his Uncle disappearing.  

Therefore this book forms a sort of trilogy with these two other novels, and in some sense it ties up the series for the reader.  Whether this means the end of the Alex Benedict series I do not know.  Jack has just finished a sequel to Ancient Shores, which up to now was a stand alone novel, to be called Thunderbird.  This probably means I will have to go back and re-read Ancient Shores when the sequel comes out, because it's been nearly twenty years since that was written, and I can't remember the last time I read it.

So what am I saying here?

He's eighty years old, and still going strong as a writer, which is awesome; but he's eighty years old, and the number of novels he will write is time limited.  So I'm grateful that Coming Home didn't disappoint me like Starhawk did.  

For anyone who was undecided whether or not to read Coming Home, I would say that it hit all the right points for me; but it's a novel whose themes deal with loss and disappointment at the end of one's life, and therefore may not be everyone's cup of tea.  I still recommend reading it.

Then as a bit of light fun I read Larry Correia's Monster Hunter Nemesis, a series whose pitch line might be the NRA meets Cthulhu.

I'm not going to comment here about the furore around Larry, because enough has been written that the noise to signal ratio is such that it's pointless to add anything more.  I will say I like his Monster Hunter series.  They make me laugh, and I get most of the gun related jokes too, which probably helps.  

For me they're page turners that I find hard to put down, and Monster Hunter Nemesis certainly delivers.  It adds to the mythos, expands some plot points, but I have two things to say against it.  The first is that I feel that Agent Franks and Earl Harbinger really didn't need to have the fight to work out who was the better fighter - for me too much like fan service, because it added nothing to the plot; apart from some kick ass action of course, but that goes without saying, because this is Larry Correia we're talking about.  

Secondly Agent Franks was just being a jerk not to mention the meaning of the tattoo on Julie Shackleford nee Mrs Pitt's neck.  There said it.

Besides all the reading I've been watching a heap of stuff over the long Bank Holiday weekend.  

I will talk another time about Lucy and Interstellar, because I want to do a longish compare and contrast of my reactions to watching both.  What I want to mention now is Continuum, and ask why oh why is this not getting a full fourth season?  That's a rhetorical question just in case it wasn't obvious.  

Clearly it's not getting enough viewers, which makes me wonder are my tastes in TV SF so far off the norm that anything I like will be cancelled?  Another rhetorical question, because yes is the answer.

Continuum is a time travel series set in Vancouver that I did wonder whether or not it would be cancelled because of it's subject matter?  

The story concerns a cop from the future coming back into the past, and pursuing members of a future terrorist group called Liber8 (pronounced liberate).  What makes the story interesting that the more it went on, the greyer the main protagonist became.  

She starts as a staunch upholder of the law, which is run by corporations after the governments of the world collapsed, into a sympathizer of Liber8, who in turn have become understandable (or understandable as much as any group of fanatics can be whose modus operandi is killing people for the greater good).

It sometimes makes for quite uncomfortable viewing, which I think is a good thing, because it makes one question and think about what one is told is happening.  So really not that surprised it is getting a short fourth season before going the way of all the good shows that I like.

So that's it for another week.  Have a good one.

Work in Progress: 25th Feb 2015

Well here I am again writing a log of another weeks worth of writing and the progress I'm making in completing a publishable novel.  Yesterday I sent my Alpha reader the first absolutely brand spanking new chapter full of words she has never read before.  There's a bit of a standing joke in the flat that not only is the hero of my novel stuck reliving the same day over-and-over again, but that my Alpha reader is re-reading the same novel over-and-over again.

Oh how the long winter nights just fly by when you're having fun.

Looking at my running total for the week I see I've written a total of 4,361 words, just shy of double the number I wrote last week, and this brings the current running total for the novel to 87,266.  I note that yesterday I wrote 1,038 words to finish the new chapter.  I might well have written more this week if I hadn't felt so ghastly on Monday, having had some problems with my pain management over the weekend.  Still I had a great weekend in Brighton and got to go with my Godson and his sister to Brighton Modelworld.

It doesn't get much better than that.

Oh I forgot we also saw The LEGO Movie with the kids.  So yes it does get better than that, even if I thought the movie wasn't quite as good as it thought it was,  and did I mention we also played a game of Star Wars:X-Wing with the kids too?  Therefore we got to spend quality time with them.  So everything is awesome (warning dangerous earworm tune).

Catch you all on the bounce.

RoboCop

We rewatched RoboCop over the Xmas holidays and decided to take a chance on the reboot and compare the films.  I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good the RoboCop reboot was.  The original Paul Verhoeven RoboCop is one of those iconic films that people still talk about nearly thirty years after its release.  The themes of the story still resonate today, and the new film had a lot to measure up to.

The new RoboCop is billed both as a remake and reboot of the original, and of all the sequels I will say it's the best.  It's a remake because it essentially retells the same story, and a reboot because it takes a different slant on the themes.  For me the changes were welcome, because they made the story feel fresh; as in looking at things the original didn't really address.  Also the ED209 scenes, both in Tehran and Detroit, were stunningly good.

However, the original is still the best, because the execution of the ideas were original.

The new RoboCop has some wonderful scenes, and it does talk more about what it means to be human.  Michael Keaton is chillingly good, Gary Oldman plays an interestingly conflicted good guy, and Samuel L Jackson is the man, which I think sums up the weakness of the new movie.  Peter Weller owned the role in the original film, whereas Joel Kinnaman is outshone by his supporting cast, because at best he's riffing off Peter Weller's performance, and at worse is rather bland with none of the nice touches Peter Weller brought to his relationship to his son's interests.

Moving on.

This week has been a bit of a mixed bag of stuff.  Still not really into the groove, but I'm getting there.  I added another 3,168 words to The Bureau, but then found a scene in the wrong place (as in moved to the wrong chapter during my last round of edits, which was a bit of an oops moment).  Banged head on table a few times.  Wrote a new chapter that went places I wasn't expecting it to go when I started, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  Good in that it expands the story, bad as in I have to think about the character's story arc and retrofit stuff in.  So the current novel stands at 50,996 words.

The weekend was a fun filled trip to the Natural History Museum to see Sophie the stegosaurus with our godchildren.  Got home to find a pipe was leaking in the flat, and managed to sprain my wrist moving all the stuff in the cupboard out of the way to be able to get at it.  Been in a lot of pain and was worried I might have triggered my rheumatoid arthritis, but it seems I'm OK.

One final note.  I have, as is my wont, gone back through all my posts and revised titles and tags of my posts.  I had one of those moments when one realizes that if I kept the Writer Log title for those posts that only talk about what I've been working on, it would make it easier to keep track of those posts – well at least for me.  As for tags, I have the habit of revising them as and when needed to keep the labels functional so that when one is searching for something one can find it. No point having a tag if it doesn't do that.  Of course one can always use Google to search my blog if you want, but not everyone wants to cut and paste URLs to do so.

So thank you for reading.  That's it for another week.

Maplecroft

It's always a real pleasure to read a book by an author one has not read before, and be blown away by the story.  Cherie Priest's Maplecroft hits all the right notes with its re-framing of the Lizzie Borden murder case as a Cthulhu mythos tales of Deep Ones in the town of Fall River.  I started it last week and was entranced, and finished it in two sessions.  I really enjoyed the mix of history, and the creepy atmosphere of the story.  A joy to read.  I shall be looking out for more novels from her next time I'm in Forbidden Planet.

Well this week we managed to watch the last season of True Blood.  We've been fans from the start, but I confess I've only read the first of the Charlaine Harris books that inspired the show.  From reading that I've been holding back on getting the rest of the books, because I've enjoyed the TV series so much.  The final season wrapped up almost all of the plots, apart from the Were-panther's, and there was much sadness and joy.

We also re-watched the Wachowski's adaptation of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.  A film that divides people.  I must admit, the first time I watched it, Hugo Weaving's performance wearing the mask was a bit disturbing.  But the thing is that the film has lots of powerful scenes and performances, and the music is profoundly moving.  I shall have to sit down and reread the graphic novel now.

Work wise I spent three days working on Bad Dog, using Scrivener to compile a PDF that I read, which allowed me to see the text afresh, and pick up errors or things I wanted to change.  I've now sent the current 81,869 word draft off to my editor for a report on the things that remain problematical.  As much an exercise in communication – as in seeing whether or not we understand each other, or more like have I understood her comments and done the right things?

Magnificent Maleficent

This has been definitely a week of watching lots of stuff.  In no particular order: Maleficent, Grimm, and all three The Thing films.

Maleficent was bought by my partner, and I had no particular expectations when we sat down to watch it.  The reviews I'd read had been a bit mixed, but I really enjoyed the film.  The writer is to be commended on how she re-framed the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty into a heart warming story of true love.  So yes it's a bit of a chick flick, but it has a dragon, and some weird and rather cool tree like warriors that guard the magic land called the Moors where Maleficent lives.  So highly recommended.

Grimm season three was fun, but not as good as season two, in that the cliff-hanger finale was less interesting.  Though to be fair having had the hero drugged lying in a coffin surrounded by zombies at the end of last season was going to be a bit tricky to top.  The show is still a monster of the week police procedural, and it is rather formulaic, but the relationship between Monroe and Rosalee makes me want to keep watching.  Also Sergeant Wu is being developed, though I think far too slowly, as it's about time he was a full member of Team Grimm.

We finished the week by starting to watch the three Thing movies, spurred on by listening to a series of podcasts.  We both enjoyed the Howard Hawkes version for the snappy dialogue, which really felt like real people speaking to each other.  We then watched the 2011 Norwegian prequel next, which is OK, but doesn't quite nail it - though it's a very loving homage to the John Carpenter version, which we have lined up to watch tonight.

Reading wise, I finished Max Brooks' World War Z.  I enjoyed it, but a couple of things annoyed me.  For example a soldier calling a magazine a clip, and I wasn't totally convinced by the big zombie take down scene where the descriptions of the details about the battle stretched my credulity.

The soldier recounts that he was firing one round a second, and while he had breaks, the battle lasted for 15 hours.  One round a seconds is 60 rounds a minute, which is 300 rounds every five minutes, which is 3,600 rounds/zombies per hour - the ammo weighs 3lbs per 100 rounds, so 1,770lbs of ammunition for each soldier.  Seems reasonable, but the numbers don't make any sense.

Accounting for dramatic license, and assuming the zombies came shuffling in at a steady pace and peaked somewhere around the seven and a half hour mark, this equals 27,000 zombies per soldier for the battle.  Say 1,000 soldiers (number not specified, but unit described as forming a British square, which has to be large enough to contain the lorries carrying the ammo sitting in the centre, so my best guess), then that's 27 million zombies.  I calculated from the description of the size of the piled up bodies - about 1.8 million zombies - based on a ring of dead zombies at 500 yards out from the firing line).

While I may be being pedantic, I do think it shows that one needs to do one's research, and understand the implications for one's logistics.  Also, please can we not have a rehash of Napoleonic tactics - modern battles are based on fire and manoeuvre for a reason, and just don't get me started on why being surrounded is not a good plan.  It's like the military forgot every lesson they've ever learnt from history!

Still mustn't quibble too much over the little niggling details, because the story was enjoyable enough.

Finally, another weeks worth of editing on Bad Dog.  Twelve chapters revisited for a total of 34,749 words.  Just under half way through the second edit.

Touch: Book 2 of The Queen of the Dead

I have just finished reading Touch: Book 2 of The Queen of the Dead by Michelle Sagara.  You may remember that I counted Silence, the first book in the series, as one of the stand out reads of last year.  I would like to say this was as good, and it has many fine qualities, but it felt rough by comparison.  What I mean by that is there were phrases that threw me out of the text.  Another was a passage on page 218 where I can only assume a piece of text was eliminated when editing the book.  The story is also clearly the middle part of a trilogy, which ends with our heroes left with having to take down the big bad.

This is a problem lots of middle books in trilogies have.

However, all these criticisms aside, this was a book I'm glad I've read, because I like the way the characters are developed through the story.  All of the main protagonists feel like real people, and the formation of the gang who will go on into the next book to face down the Queen of the dead was nicely done.  From reading Michelle's blog I know that she had a lot of problems writing this book, but besides my minor copy-edit quibbles she delivers the story.  What more can you ask for than that?

Work wise this week has seen me restart writing my novel The Bureau.  Scrivener says I wrote 2,934 words, bringing the running total up to 40,049.  Looking back to February I see I had reached 38,957, which by my calculation makes 1,092.  This means that Scrivener is doing something very clever in tracking my word count when I rewrite things.  Anyway, in the break between then and now, I figured out what I needed to add to Act 2 to make it work, or at least make it suck less.

Susan, my Alpha reader, is in the process of re-reading Bad Dog and marking up errors in the text.  So yesterday I was editing Act 1, and today I will be editing Act 2, and when I've finished doing that I imagine I will be doing the edits for Act 3.  And so it goes on.  One of the things that is troubling me though is how long this all this takes.

Changing tack, this week we obviously watched the latest Dr Who episode called Listen.  I really liked it, but I liked all the previous episodes.  Even Robot of Sherwood, which was an over-the-top farce.  What can I say?  I'm a fan.

We also rewatched both the Marvel Captain America films this week prior to watching Winter Soldier.  Really enjoyed the series, and one can see that the writers were skillful in executing the foreshadowing and call-backs through the trilogy; though Avengers Assemble is not strictly the middle film of the Captain America trilogy,  it serves to connect the first film to the second.  The way the stories were told really show how to write the middle part of a series without falling into the usual trap of having an ending that is just the set-up for the next story.

In short make all your stories self-contained; complete in their own right.

TV wise we've started watching Xena: Warrior Princess - Ultimate Collection.  Yes all six seasons for a total of 132 episodes.  We may be some time.

Fortune's Pawn

My partner decided to pick up Fortune's Pawn, book one of the Paradox series by Rachel Bach, because it had a female protagonist, was written in the first person, and it featured power armour.  I decided to read it too, as one does.  

It's what I would describe as military space opera, because the science of the power armour is more akin to Marvel's Iron Man than anything based in hard science.  

It's no worse for being so, in fact it's a rather good read.  The story romps along with plenty of action.  Just don't expect the tech to stand up to any real scrutiny.  There is also a romantic sub-plot that some readers may not like, but there is lots of kick-ass action, too.  So a book of two parts, which may be a problem for some readers.  For all its soft SF handwaves I still enjoyed this book enough to want to read the sequels.

We've been watching a lot of stuff recently.   

As I'm still thinking about what to say about Continuum, and we are still watching Orphan Black, I shall briefly discuss Idiocracy.  

This is an older film that came out in 2006, which often gets mentioned in passing when discussing the future of humanity.  It's a comedy, and as a long time reader of SF I can't help but be reminded of The Marching Morons by Cyril M. Kornbluth, or for that matter Woody Allen's The Sleeper.  

In fact the plot of Idiocracy is one that will be familiar to all long time SF fans.  The premise is actually ludicrous, because the effects of fertility and intelligence are correlated, but not causally linked.  In short the science sucks.  On the other hand, while the science sucks big time, using the setting to lampoon contemporary mores and values works.  While Idiocracy didn't get a proper release, it has gained a well deserved cult status.  It's a pity the plot isn't stronger.

With regard to my work this week, it has been one of two halves.  

The first half of the week saw nothing useful done.  The second half I managed to edit 30,000 words of The Bureau, and edit five chapters of act two of Bad Dog, adding a 1,096 words to the story in the process (which was not my intent).  So it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride for me, as I struggle to get to grips with what I need to turn my writing into a polished end product.

Ghost Spin

Well I've been rather unwell for the last two weeks, after the cough that started at PicoCon fully engaged me, and made me feel like death; as in death would be a blessed relief from trying to eject my lungs from my body.  

By Tuesday of last week my rib cage was protesting about being in the ring with Mike Tyson, and while I am now much better, for definitions of better that I no longer think I'm going to die, it's not what I can call a productive couple of weeks.

So no work done on my fourth novel, but I did manage to write 1,600 words to finish a review for a magazine.  

So I don't feel like the last two weeks has been a complete waste, but I do feel like I'm going up the wall from the frustration of being so ill.  My partner has been most supportive.  Last Sunday week I spent listening to podcasts, and falling asleep while enjoying them, which may sound perverse, but really wasn't, as I was feeling so ill.

Anyway, I finished reading Chris Moriarty's Ghost Spin, which ended in much the same way as the TV show Quantum Leap did, with our heroine and AI companion jumping off into the Cosmos to do whatever had to be done, and be part of the whole of existence.  

The novel in turn enthralled me, fascinated me, and confused me.  Not sure I'm clever enough to understand all the things that Chris was discussing.  Still, a good read, even if I felt the ending didn't quite deliver on the promise of the story.

Moving on, we have now finished re-watching Game of Thrones season one and two, and have now worked our way through season three, which is stonkingly good, but I have some reservations about the world of Westeros, and the story in general.  

First off Westeros seems to be stagnant, as in nothing is progressing; It seems that all the inhabitants can look forward to is another thousand years of slavery, bad dentistry, and a lack of soft toilet paper.  

In some ways I find the world of Westeros less convincing than that of Marvel's Asgard in that regard, and to be honest the Thor movies are not really about convincing world building, though I did enjoy watching Thor: The Dark World this week, we missed it while it was at the cinemas, so, but as we have a big screen and an excellent surround sound system we still got to see it as intended.  

Just to say that I'll continue watching the GoT TV series, but I am not going to read the second volume of the series.  Too depressing for one thing, and too long for another.

Merry Xmas

Run away, hide or look busy.  Oh no that's when Jesus is coming.  I've been a bit busy over the last week doing stuff so I'm just catching up with posting something to my blogs.

Friday our friend Clive came around bearing a Xmas gift of a bottle of a very fine Lebanese wine, and we added to it by opening something from our wine rack, as one bottle between three is not quite enough.  Saturday morning was spent recovering from the excess intake of alcohol while Saturday afternoon was spent eating to excess with Roger and Chris and other friends.  We were celebrating the shortest day of the year by eating cooked meat products, and various other sundries.  We both drank Ginger Beer, because one of us was driving and I still felt rather fragile from Friday night.  Spending the afternoon generally shooting the breeze and catching up with people made for a nice end to the week for us.

So it really feels like we have had a bit of a social life this December, what with parties and entertaining.  Tonight we had Bill around for a meal with wine and port and watched one of my favourite Xmas movies, Die Hard.  So we are now all ready for the big day tomorrow when we get to watch the Dr. Who Xmas special.

I've also finished the first pass edit of my novel, removing two thousand words in the process.  Most of those were redundant "I said, she said" tags.  Now to blow through the cobwebs and shine up the prose ready for my beta readers.

On that note I shall end this entry and I hope everyone has a good Xmas holiday and manages to enjoy themselves.

Creative Madness

I was a bit ill yesterday after my beloved gave me an early Xmas present in the shape of some lurg that is going around Imperial College.  At least I can't complain that I never get given anything.  So I have spent extra time in bed and generally taking it easy.  This meant I missed going to the writers group meeting, but I'm sure they are all glad I didn't come along and give them all an unwanted Xmas present.  We also missed the Xmas Jomsviking readers group that we go along to, for the same reason; we like our friends too much to make them ill.

However, while I quite enjoy lying around being busy doing nothing, it has one side-effect.  I get terribly hyper with ideas running around my head.

So this morning I was drinking coffee, thinking about reading something, but my head was just full of ideas.  Crazy ideas that were a melange of things from my dreams, playing my favourite board game, and thinking about the film Surrogates that I watched a few of years ago.  I review it en passant here.  So this afternoon, rather than being spent reading a book, chillaxing on the sofa has instead seen me busy writing notes and laying out two novels in Scrivener.  One is about AI developments being used by the military that will not end well for the world.  The other book deals with living one's life in a world where everything you see is augmented and nothing you see is truly real anymore.

Then I decided in a moment of manic frenzy to compile my Bad Dog universe bible and twiddle with my Professionals meets Cthulhu novel.  My shoulders ache now.

Game of Thrones

Well this has been a week where Real Life (TM) has gotten in the way of writing.  

Monday it was take the car to Aldershot for its annual service and MOT and like a new lieutenant with a compass I managed to get myself lost.  

The cause; transposing two digits when inputting the postcode for the directions.  

So a simple hour an a half journey took three hours.  To add insult to injury the train back took two hours. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time I got home.  All my American friends will be sniggering about now, but trust me forty miles in Britain is not like travelling forty miles in the States.

Writing wise this week was a disappointing 3549 words, as effectively I only manage two days of sitting my butt in a chair and typing.  Still this means another chapter written and I'm very close to starting act four.  Running total now stands at 63,041 words.  

Hopefully next week will be better, but next week I have to get myself back down to Aldershot to pick up my car.

Finished watching Stargate SG1 hurrah!  

Season ten ended with a time travelling story that was actually very good as it had real consequences for one of the characters.  Stargate: The Ark of Truth the first movie was a neat wrap up of the Ori storyline that would have been told in a longer form had there been a season eleven.  

Unfortunately, Stargate: Continuum the second movie was another time travelling story that felt a bit like old rope to me as everything is neatly tied up with a paradox  that loops back on itself.  The performances were all well and good, but the story just felt like it was going through the motions.

Reading wise I've just picked up George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.  I didn't have three dragons to pose with the books, so you get two plush kittens and Norbert the dragon instead.  

I'm not an avid reader of epic fantasy, but I really like the HBO series, so promised myself I would read the original story it was based on.  I like the writing style, very engaging.  By the way it may take me some time to read all of this series.

Person of Interest

This week we've been watching Person of Interest, which was recommended to us by my friend John Medany.  It has sucked us both in and we've been watching three episodes a night.  The cast is excellent too and Michael Emerson who plays Mr. Finch is incredibly good.  I also like the female Detective Carter played by Taraji P. Henson who looks and feels to me like a real woman.  Great writing that both inspires me to do better and makes me feel totally inadequate to the task at the same time.  My recommendation is that you just throw your money at the computer screen and buy it now.  Come back and finish reading this blog later.

Went to see Pacific Rim, and you can read my perspective on the film here.

Reading wise I started Charlaine Harris's the first book in the True Blood series; Dead Until Dark.  Enjoying it, and it certainly makes a change from what I usually read; it's light and fluff and doesn't require anything deep from the reader.

I'm also reading a non-fiction book recommended to me by my friend Alex Stewart of Ciaphas Cain fame, on plot structure.  Called Into the Woods by John Yorke it has so far proved to be an excellent read, but I find myself reacting quite strongly to the outdated Freudian psychology used to talk about character motivation.  I will probably do a fuller overview when I've finished and given it some more thought.

Well after fifteen weeks I have finished the first draft of Strike Dog, the second of three novels I plan to write.  I found myself going through a steeper learning curve than during my first novel Bad Dog, because the structure and plot were more complicated this time round.  I now feel a bit empty as I write this, and need some time to recharge the creative juices.  So my plan is to catch up on some reading and then start the third novel, Ghost Dog, in a couple of weeks time.

So this week I wrote 4.648 words, running total for the month was 18,513, and the grand total for the first draft stands at 95,285.  Permission to cheer loudly granted!

Cloud Atlas

Friday night I finally got to watch Cloud Atlas.  What can I say?  I tell you what I said; I want to watch this again.  It really engaged me and moved me to tears.  I was crying for the characters and for the exquisite writing, which made me wish I could write like that.  There have been complaints over white actors made up to look like Chinese people, but in my opinion these complaints miss the point, because they have black actor made up to look white, and a Chinese actor presenting as a white person.  To complain about this is miss the point of the movies, which is to have the actors play multiple rolls to provide the narrative connection between the six stories.

One of the films watched during the last week include, Tin Tin, where the opening credits bored me, and I initially had an uncanny valley reaction to the CGI motion capture characters.  However, after the introduction of Snowy the dog I was swept away in a joyous world of comedy and adventure like no other.   I also rewatched Kick Ass, which I saw in the cinema and finally bought to watch again.  The first time round I was less than impressed with the movie, as I didn't think it was as good as the hype.  Having watched it for the second time I can say I enjoyed it more.  Nicholas Cage's standout performance is one of the best things I've seen from him.

Other films watched included Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which are perennial favourites in my household, which we rewatched again because of the new Pegg & Frost movie that is due out soon.  Last, but not least rewatched Scott Pilgrim, which was a hoot.

As for my writing this week, I managed end up doing 9,242 words, which given that by the of Monday's work day I had only written 63* words, was a bit of a comeback.  Running total for the first draft now stands at 66,208

* This was all down to having to take a sleeping tablet after a series of very disturbed nights of sleep from to a combination of pain, and the noise of London Underground working on the tube line that runs past our flat.  My head was just empty on Monday, even though I had slept like a log from taking the tablet, which only goes to show what the side-effects of medication can have on one.

Films I've Been Watching

I had a mad moment when thinking to myself that I should rename my diary and call it my log, for the reason that it is a nod to Star Trek.  I can then delude myself into thinking I'm the Captain of the starship USS Writing a Novel NCC2013 and have those voice overs so beloved of the TV series.  Though of course a ship called Writing a Novel is more of shout out to the late Iain M. Banks Culture series than Gene Roddenberry's work.

I said all that I can think of saying about Iain here, but my friend Jaine Fenn wrote a nice tribute here.  As a result the beginning of the week I was on a bit of a downer, which affected my writing.  I chose to cheer myself up by watching some films.  Dredd, which was excellent, and Southland Tales where we decided to eject the disc at 45 minutes and watch MegaMind instead.  That was a good choice.  It had witty dialogue, good characterization and was funny too.  Last night we watched V for Vendetta again, which in my opinion only gets better each time I watch it.

Over the last few weeks we have also watched season five of True Blood, which sagged a little just before the end, but pulled out all the stops for the finale.  Continuum season one that showed a lot of promise.  Finally, watched the fifth and final season of Fringe, which has been one of my favorite shows, and it hit all the emotional nails on the head with the resolution of story arc.

Now if only I could write dialogue as good as in my favourite shows.

Well wishing ain't going to make it so, only blood, sweat and tears will do that.  So this week I managed to write 7,255 words, which brings the first draft of my second novel up to 56,970 words. I'm just about to enter what can be called the third act, where the shit hits the fan, things get serious, and really bad things happen to the characters.