Moloko’s first hit (from 1999.) This song only made no. 45 on first release but after a remix it reached the dizzy heights of no. 4. Not as high as the follow up The Time Is Now; but that was in 2000.

Moloko: Sing it Back

Recently arrived from ParSec magazine and now on my sidebar, a new book to read and review; to wit City of All Seasons by Oliver K Langmead and Aliya Whiteley.

I haven’t read any Langmead up till now but have read a couple of Whiteley’s books. She writes well.

The deadline for ParSec 14 is probably a bit too imminent for the review to make that issue but there will be ParSec 15 to come.

While in Meigle we had a wander round and found the kirkyard had some interesting features.

Vanora’s Mound:-

This is supposedly the burial mound of Vanora, the legendary King Arthur’s Queen, otherwise known as Guinevere:-

A stone on the Church wall commemorates the burial place of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Sarah Charlotte Campbell-Bannerman. Henry Campbell-Bannerman was once Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first to formally hold that title apparently, and also the only PM to die in No 10 Downing Street though he had been succeeded as PM by Herbert Asquith ten days previously.

This gravestone mentions a James Bruce who died at the wonderfully named Pocahontas, Illinois:-

Meigle is a village in Strathmore, Perth and Kinross.

We went there to see the Pictish Sculptured Stone Museum but unfortunately it was shut. We’ll get there another time.

I did manage to find the village War Memorial, a pair of gates at the entrance to the local Park:-

Great War Names:-

Second World War Names. These include the recipient of a Victoria Cross, Lieutenant Commander M D Wanklyn:-

Gollancz, 2024, proof copy unpaginated. £22.99. Reviewed for ParSec 13.

AT THE REQUEST OF THE BOOK’S PUBLISHER MY REVIEW OF THIS NOVEL WAS WITHDRAWN FROM ParSec 13. I felt under no obligation to refrain from publishing my review here.  As a result of that request, though, I have made an amendment to the original withdrawn review; the two words highlighted in bold below.

We meet Edie (Edith, but she doesn’t like it) Morikawa as she is about to be released on unexpectedly early parole after eight years in prison. The last person she imagined would meet her is Angel Huang, her former associate whom she assumes grassed on her to ensure her own freedom. On the way up to Kepler Space Station, which orbits the Rock, the planet where the prison is located and seems to be otherwise uninhabited, Angel offers her a place on a team to carry out a robbery with a potentially stupendous pay-off. Edie refuses since she desires to go straight in order to help her sister Andrea, who has two children, Casey and Paige, and another on the way, courtesy of useless partner Tyler. Paige has cancer and needs gene therapy, but there is no money to pay for that.

(I note here a failure in imagination. Perhaps that’s the way the world will go, but even in a supposedly distant future, light years from Earth, a more equitable health care system, or indeed social system, than that which exists in the USA of the present day seems to be inconceivable to the author. But I suppose it gives the author a lever to manipulate their heroine.)

Staying on the straight and narrow will require Edie to find a job, helping Andie out at the shop where she works won’t do. But Edie has been blacklisted by Atlas Industries, which seems to control everything on Kepler. Its head and founder, Joyce Atlas, (a man despite the forename) was the intended target of Angel’s planned sting. Angel’s offer is the one thing that promises anything hopeful. When the reader finds out Angel is Atlas’s chief of security s/he is well ahead of the narrative in knowing exactly who did the blacklisting.

A curiosity of this novel is that most of the main characters are of Hawaiian heritage and occasionally speak in Hawaiian patois. (The blurb describes the book as a love letter to Hawai’i.) No matter. SF readers are used to the odd unfamiliar word or phrase, such as the one used in the title. Hammajang is a Hawaiian pidgin word meaning in a disorderly or chaotic state; messed up. Mention is also made of a Korean heritage area of Kepler. Oddly, there seems to be little attempt to assimilate there.

We are shown as much of Kepler as is needed for the plot, which runs along the lines expected from its set up. The space station must be quite large what with Atlas Industries and the different environmental and maintenance levels described. SF elements to the book are fairly incidental though; not much has gone into fleshing out this future scenario. While Kepler has an artificial sun and a simulated night sky, there is the usual layering of habitats, the lower levels grimy and dim, the upper airy and bright. In Angel’s gang Cy has a cybernetic arm and Tatiana has mods. Atlas Industries is developing a method of accessing people’s memories, provided they have a mod. However, Joyce Atlas does not come over as the sort of person to accrue a fortune as a business head – and, if he was, he would surely not succumb to the sting as presented.

Parts of this scenario strike as being very old-fashioned. There is a railway station (and presumably others) on Kepler, plus buses and a monorail. It has the feel of a city on Earth in the late twentieth century rather than a future space habitat light-years away. People – well, Edie – smoke cigarettes.

It’s easy enough reading, and totally undemanding, but there is no particular reason why this novel has to be SF. It’s a crime novel with a few SF trappings.

Pedant’s corner:- I read an ARC (proof,) so some or all of these may have been altered for final publication. The spelling ‘jewellery’, though the text was in USian, “florescent lights” (fluorescent; used later,) “under Joyce Atlas’ watch” (lots of instances of Atlas’ for Atlas’s, of which latter there was one example,) “as a I left” (that ‘a’ is superfluous,) “savouring our respective vises” (I know vise is USian for the clamping device. Do they also use it for character flaws?) “no one would risk cross risking Atlas” (no one would risk crossing Atlas,) “grew into hotspot” (into a hotspot,) “Morris’ deal” (Morris’s,) “part of tWard 2” (of Ward 2.) “I creeped back” (I crept back.) “I was surprised by Tatiana’s alas to go after Solstice” (desire makes more sense,) “an empty k3rb” (kerb, though curb for kerb was on the previous page, so why the shift?) “of thieve’s self-esteem” (either thief’s or thieves’,) “from the keb” (from the kerb.) “‘Every one of his devices have backdoor accessibility’” (every one … has … accessibility,) “the hotel staff was clearing the breakfast table” (was there only one of them?) “Even professionals had their soft spots” (as a generalisation this surely requires present tense; have their soft spots,) “lined with dim white lights that lead to” (that led to.) “It’s jaws were closing” (Its jaws,) jerry-rigged (it’s jury-rigged,) “a conversation pitwhile Cy went to” (pit while.) “She took to naturally” (She took to it naturally,) “‘but that time will eventually.’” (will eventually what? [run out, presumably but the sentence just stopped],) “and made groaned” (and groaned,) “each of us were in…” (each of us was in,) “‘you weren’t going to come with, I didn’t want you to feel left out’” (to come with us, I didn’t,) “cold yet still – crunchy katsu” (cold – yet still crunchy – katsu.) “I       watched         her      go.       ‘Shoots.’” (why the spacing? And the ‘Shoots’ seems extraneous.) “I wish it didn’t. I wish I could have let her go” (the narrative is in past tense; therefore: wished, x 2,) “while Andie and Tyler talking” (while Andie and Tyler were talking,) “I grit my teeth” (I know USians use fit for fitted but grit for gritted?) “‘To no end’ Duke growled” (to no end does not mean – as was implied here –  without end [that is just ‘no end,’] but instead it means ‘without purpose’,) “now he was surroundedone of the guards” (surrounded. One of the guards,) ‘incentive payments‘ (‘incentive payments’.) “I felt my heart’s quicken” (heartbeat quicken?)

I posted about the new external dedication plaque on the 252 Memorial Hall in Markinch here.

Such was the interest its appearance caused – despite there having been an internal dedication plaque (below) since at least 1993 – that it was thought a new plaque recording the names of the fallen ought to be installed as well.

Internal Dedication:-

The dedication of the new plaque required lots of paperwork and permissions but it wa s unveile din June last year:-

Ceremony:-

Name plaque to right:-

Band playing at dedication playing The Last Post:-

The only Beach Boys single I actually bought was Darlin’ from 1967. God Only Knows and Good Vibrations were before my singles-buying days.

The Beach Boys: Darlin’

Their Wiki singles discography page says its B-side was a song called Here Today from Pet Sounds.  Well not in the UK it wasn’t, as I remember it very well. That was instead Country Air from the later album Wild Honey. As this video displaying the record label shows. (The murky sound quality was apparently due to a problem with the master tape.)

The Beach Boys: Country Air

Still brilliant as always.

Brian Douglas Wilson: 20/6/1942 – 11/6/2025. So it goes.

I was very much saddened by the news of Brian Wilson’s death. As the musical driving force behind the Beach Boys he was one of the most influential figures in popular music of the mid to late twentieth century: right up there with Lennon and McCartney.

I have already featured his masterpiece God Only Knows. Also Wild Honey and Do it Again.

But there are so many more. Too many to be confined to one post.

This track was the main follow up to Good Vibrations (the release of Then I Kissed Her was a stopgap.) Many people were disappointed with it but it has all the Wilson hallmarks.

The Beach Boys: Heroes and Villains

Then there’s this track, striking a more melancholy note. The title song from the Surf’s Up album.

The Beach Boys: Surf’s Up

Brian Wilson’s star continues to shine long after his heyday. His songs leave a legacy  to be revered.

Brian Douglas Wilson: 20/6/1942 – 11/6/2025. So it goes.

I know it’s not Friday but tomorrow’s post will be taken up by another sad loss.

But Sly Stone left us earlier this week. Sly’s influence was more felt in the US than the UK but his 1960s and 1970s work with Sly and the Family Stone was memorable.

Sly and the Family Stone’s first UK hit – out of four – was their biggest.

Sly and the Family Stone: Dance to the Music

Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone): 15/31943 – 9/6/2025. So it goes.

Tow Law is a town in County Durham. Tow rhymes with cow (and Law with law.)

Its War Memorial depicts a soldier advancing with rifle extended and was erected by the inhabitants of Tow Law, Thornley, Sunniside, Hedley Hope, East Hedley Hope and Satley. It stands by the A 68 which runs through the town at its confluence with the B 6297 to Wolsingham.

East aspect, Great War Names on column, Second World War on plinth below:-

Reverse (south) aspect:-

West aspect:-