The Children of Men - P.D. James

Nothing like the movie, that's for sure. It's a lot better by virtue of having the whole backstory to give the tale some context, which I really appreciated. In the movie, I could identify (besides the general idea of the movie) only 3 of the characters (the rest were tweaked, I suppose under artistic licence), and a couple of discrete points in the plot.

It certainly wasn't as descriptively gory and brutal as the movie, and the ending was far more interesting - there's no escape in a boat in the book.

I suppose a movie that slavishly adhered to the storyline in the book would have been rather boring - it would have been all about the main character's (Theo) path through dystopic future Britain. The movie needed to have all the stuff getting blown up and people being shot and references to terrorism and whatever else in order to keep in topical and interesting so enough people would go see it. The book, on the other hand, is free to wander a little more philosophically.

Chalk up another point for the books in the old books vs. movie version tally.

Monsieur Ibrahim

Saw a promo for this movie a while ago, and we just rented the DVD and watched it.

It's pretty understated and cerebral; the humour is the same way. It's a bit of a thinker, what with the Sufi storekeeper befriending the young Jewish boy and passing on all sorts of bits of wisdom about life and happiness and so on.

Vellum - Hal Duncan

Whoa... either Hal's really freaking brilliant or he's on an extended disassociative experience. Basic premise: underlying the 'real' world is the Vellum, which is a sort of meta-history/time/place/map/everything. There's good guys and bad guys. There's this weird mystical thang and nano-thingys that sort of complement it in a scientific wonderland remake of old legends and stories. People seem to exist in a multipley-instantiated way... the experiences of one instance kind of meld and distort the those of the other instances. Myths and stories and histories from all over the world roll around with each other like spaghetti on a toddler's high chair tray...

Basically there are a handful of key characters whose stories live in multiple times, multiple places, and in multiple aspects. So just try and keep up with 3 time periods for 3 people in a couple of different locations, all in a page or two.

This book hurt to read. It's fascinatingly intricate, and really, it's kind of fun to have a book that so terribly convoluted that it requires careful attention.

Moving Mars - Greg Bear

Pretty good bit of science fiction here - the Moon and Mars have both been colonised, globalisation is reaching its logical conclusion back on Earth, and whaddaya know, there is economic and political tension between the three chunks of rock.

It's not a particularly rollicking tale, and just sort of proceeds steadily through the plot... beginning, middle, end, close book. However, it's got that good mix of the familiar and the fantastical which keeps it pretty engaging.

The CRSC Marathon to the Gladesville Bridge

Instead of sailing a normal race course around our normal sailing patch of the Parra, we had a marathon, sailing from near the Concord Bridge right down to the Gladesville Bridge (with a loop into Hen and Chicken Bay), and back. Way too cool, sailing in new waters. Arrr, we be explorers.

I didn't place too proudly, so in addition to my lack of experience and/or skill, I claim the following handicaps:
1) Different boat from usual, so every quirk I was used to wasn't there, and the quirks that were there were inscrutable to me.
1a) This boat seemed to absorb water into the hull. Seemed like about fifty litres over the course of the race, so ... it got slower (even slower than at the start!)
2) The Mortlake ferry got in my way. It's on cables, so I was rather cautious about trying to slip past. In the end I circled around a couple of times to avoid running into the ferry and the cables. I suppose a better sailor would have avoided the situation altogether, or handled it more effectively, but hey.
3) No telltales or leech pennants on the sail. As long as it wasn't flapping, it was set right.
4) ... er, no, that's about it.

On the upside, coming in last does mean I got to sail for longer than anyone else. Again.

Lee Kernaghan in Concert

Great crowd, good venue, good music.

My favourite part was when Lee remarked on the "No photography/video/audio recording allowed" sign at the entrance, noted that "They don't realise this is a Lee Kernahan concert!" and proceeded to invite the audience to fire up whatever recording devices they had. A little later on, he noticed one of the fans near the stage with a video camera, reached down and took it... and made an impromptu video of the band on stage, the crowd, and so on for a few minutes, and then handed the camera back to the fan.

Classy.

Oh, and the concert was great too.

Pathway to Treason - Ken Harris

A cautionary tale against taking Australia recklessly down the republic route by an erstwhile public servant (or some such function). Set in 2021 or thereabouts, 'Straylya's adopted the republican model by essentially doing a find-and-replace on the Constitution, replacing "Governor General" with "President," without due consideration to the bounds of authority between the Prez and Parliament. She'll not be right. Imagine the hijinks when the President decides that hey! the Constitution doesn't say anything about me being a figurehead, and in fact... yep, there it is, I'm the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. No worries... but what's this about the Government (with the Prime Minister in charge) having authority too... hm. What potential for conflicting ideologies and subsequent orders.

In order to bring this all to a head, the book's plot relies on trusty terrorists to assassinate the Australian and American ambassadors to ... some place in Asia. And off we go!

In the end, this is more of a policy paper masquerading as a novel. Even the effusive praise on the cover is from generals and political types.

Chameleon - Mark Burnell

Just another thriller for the 21st century. No one is who they seem; ideology and emotion collide, but rather straightforward afterall.

Not a bad book by any stretch, and with a few interesting twists and turns, but... not a standout. I've already forgotten the main character's name, though the 'bad guy' was Boba, or Bola... or something like that.

In your dreams - Tim Holt

Hurray, this one was funny and reminded me of Terry Pratchett, with a fun melding of the fantastical and the mundane - a building that knows when it's hallways should be shorter or longer between two points, depending on whether it is the chairman of the bank or a lowly intern making the trek.

Plus one of the most reluctant heroes, as well as a greatly humourous debunking of the hero archetype, AND a solid story, this was a great book.

It was worth the sunburn

Spent close on 7 hours on the water on Saturday, as the remaining scraps of sunburn peel will attest to. All those seemingly fruitless circuits around the marks are paying dividends: I no longer swirl at the dreary depths of the results form. Even better, I made it around the course before the timekeeper ladies went off for tea. Granted, I came last, but it was within the time allowed by the sailing rules. I might have been second last had I made the last tack properly and not nearly capsized. So:
September 2, didn't finish (on time).
September 9, didn't race 'cos of work.
September 16, didn't finish on time.
September 23rd, didn't finish (but I am listed first among the didn't finishers!).
September 30, didn't race.
October 7, first finish! Hurray!
October 14, sailed a different boat, so that confused the racecounter a bit, finished second last!
21 October, last of the non-finishers.
28 October, didn't finish, but made it into the first lot of non-finishers.
4 Nov wasn't so good, dead last.
Remembrance Day we did some short races, and I placed 21st out of what looks like 27 active boats, but if we count everyone, it's 21st out of 40 or so.
18 November, dead last, but only by 13 seconds.

Aye, these be promising results.