The above titled book by John Scalzi will be my latest review for Interzone, issue 245. (Or may be. It’s first reserve. Whatever, 500 words by the end of January.)

Despite his having published innumerable novels I have not yet read anything by Mr Scalzi. (There are only so many days in a year sadly.) Time to remedy that.

The back cover blurb mentions the following strange goings on on board the spaceship which is the book’s setting:-

– Every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien force.

– The ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations.

– At least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

All this sounds familiar somehow; but intriguing.

Not their first hit, which was The Letter, but I bought this.

The Box Tops: Cry Like A Baby

I also enjoyed the B-side, The Door You Closed To Me.

There’s more than a hint of gospel in the Box Tops’ œuvre.

The Box Tops: The Door You Closed To Me

faber and faber, 2012, 334p. Translated from the Turkish, Sessiv Ev, by Robert Finn

Silent House is Pamuk’s second novel (from 1983) but not published in English till 2012. The book centres round the visit from Istanbul to her home at Cennethisar of the grandchildren of Fatma Darvinoğlu. Fatma’s husband, Selahattin, was a doctor who, long before World War 2, frightened off his patients with his atheism and consequently squandered her inheritance of jewellery as a result of his lack of income. Their unusual surname was taken at the time when Atatürk forced though the adoption of the practice for Muslims in 1934 and Selahattin opted for “Son of Darwin.” Fatma recollects her husband’s catalogue of unacceptable behaviours in interior monologues while present day life goes on around her. Other viewpoint characters are Fatma’s grandson Faruk, an historian with a failed marriage; his brother Metin, who thinks he’s in love with a girl called Ceylan; her servant, the dwarf Recep, who is her husband’s illegitimate child; and Hasan, son of Recep’s likewise bastard brother Ismail, who has become involved with right wing petty agitators and is smitten by Nilgün, sister of Faruk and Metin.

As in The Museum of Innocence the tensions between Turkey and “the West,” tradition and modernism, religion and the secular, loom large. The political situation in 1980s Turkey is also important here. While I was not familiar with that background enough was conveyed for that lack of knowledge not to matter.

The translation is into USian which is fine for the most part but occasionally led to me being hauled away from Turkey by the intrusion of a particularly USian usage (eg “not a cent” – would a Turkish coin denomination not have sufficed here?)

The five narrative viewpoints do not provide as sustained a focus as the all-but single one of The Museum of Innocence but do give a broader picture of Turkish society.

In one of the newspaper reviews of books of the year I saw Silent House described as a comic satire. I must say I did not find it particularly comic; the tone certainly isn’t light and there is a dark tinge to proceedings. There are also hints of why Pamuk would win the Nobel prize.

On the way back from seeing Eric Brown in Dunbar we stopped off at Tranent. The main reason is my mother was born there – or at least it was her first home. Her family later moved to Eyemouth before coming to Dumbarton.

I found it a typical Scottish small (post)industrial town with all that implies. But it has Art Deco.

The above is Homezone – on Edinburgh Road just after it branches off from High Street. This is a close-up on the detail:-

At the other end of High Street is this solicitor’s. The stepping on the roof line is good – and the triangular effect on the upper stone blocks.

To its left (on the right in the above photo) the deco feel continues. The pillars on the stone work are nicely detailed. The premises were to let, as you can see.

Reindeer, yes. Lappland, where Father Christmas is said to live, is famous for them.

Polar bears, yes. Also Arctic creatures.

I’d give you elves at a pinch, as they’re as mythic (oops, spoiler) as Santa Claus himself.

But penguins?

No. They are generally southern hemisphere animals; most often associated with the Antarctic.

So why are there illuminated penguins for sale as Christmas decorations and cluttering up the gardens of those who like that sort of thing at this time of year?

Just because they’re normally found in a cold climate doesn’t mean they’re anything to do with others who live in similar conditions. (Not to mention anything that might have happened about 2,000 years ago.) In fact they’re a whole world away.

Penguins at Christmas?

Bah humbug!

Prominently situated on the junction of High Street, Church Street and Edinburgh Road.

So sad to hear the news of the death of Patrick Moore.

I watched the latest episode of The Sky At Night only a week or so ago and he did look frail. It has been obvious for many years now that Chris Lintott was being lined up to take over the presentation duties but Patrick will be sorely missed.

He was one of Britsh TV’s glorious eccentrics – who else in the modern world wore a monocle? – and as well as his scientific credentials he could play a mean xylophone.

His long and productive life was overshadowed by sadness as his fiancée was killed during WW2 by a German bomb and he didn’t wish to settle for what he would have considered “second best.”

As a child I may have been aware of him as a late-night TV presenter (his record for continuously hosting a show will surely never be surpassed) but I certainly remember reading his Science Fiction – from that Children’s Section at Dumbarton Library accessed down the external stairs – where, along with the SF of Captain W E Johns (yes, the author of Biggles; whose WW1 adventures led me to other books coming from the same hands) I gained my introduction to the genre. Blame the pair of them.

Patrick must almost single-handedly have contributed to several generations of British astronomers taking up their trade and won a new set of admirers when he appeared on GamesMaster which is where my own sons came to know him well.

I have a particular debt to him myself as I drew on one of his astronomy books, which contained a reasonably detailed map of Mars that I found fascinating and invaluable, for the background of my first published story, The Face of the Waters.

Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS: 4/3/1923-9/12/2012. So it goes.

It was a few weeks ago now I last visited Eric Brown in Dunbar.

While there I saw and photographed this shop front: the gates are brilliant.

If you take a look at this (apparently non-embeddable*) video of BBC 1’s Last Tango In Halifax (broadcast on 4/12/12) from just before 45 minutes in – the really approprate bit is from 46:40 to 47:00 – you’ll hear a laugh out loud summation of Mr Irresponsible, aka David Cameron.

It was all the more surprising to see and hear this sort of thing in an otherwise uncontroversial piece of cosy prime time TV.

* Edited to add:- I’ve found the embed code now, so here it is.

I’m not much of a jazz fan – not at all in fact; my favorite quote about it is, “There are three types of jazz, ‘Cool,’ ‘Hot’ and ‘When does the tune start?'” from the ITV drama The Beiderbecke Affair, but even I had heard of Dave Brubeck – and he was most definitely ‘Cool.’

Take Five is the tune that most people associate with him so here, instead, is Blue Rondo à la Turk from the signature album, Time Out.

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Blue Rondo à la Turk

Dave Brubeck: 6/12/1920 – 5/12/2012. So it goes.