Ultima.

He thinks big does Stephen Baxter. Toying with massive concepts like thought exercises, bench pressing the impossible and the implausible and pushing past previously recognisable full stops into virgin territory of thought. Ultima is the second part of a duology begun in the book Proxima. A multinarrative and ambitiously vast science fiction epic which is on one level thrillingly detailed enforced colonization of a distant world. On another it explored the discovery of mysterious alien built hatches whose use entails the straddling of vast distances and even space and time. Reality shifts, worlds and empires rise and fall, planets fairly rattle with their impact. The destiny of man is shaped and then reshaped by minds hugely superior to ours playing for agendas we can barely comprehend. If you ever had the feeling that there was some vast controlling intelligence out there with little empathy for our little struggles and corrupting our natural linear development you will understand where this is going.
             Proxima and Ultima are two planets seperated by more than just space and time, they are also two volumes separated by a year in publishing. Although little impetus is lost in this follow on. Feels much like one book split in two. Vast distances and stretches of time are covered in the story. With such ideas an author can run the risk of losing the humanity in the scientific expression. One without the other is like a maths problem that leads to one abandoning figures forever. Not so with Stephen Baxter. Millions of years may pass and whole worlds age and die but there is always an interesting witness to these events.
              He might well think big but when a planet reaches an extinction level event he makes sure there is someone there to be affected by it. After all, special effects are only special if there is someone to witness them and be..er,affected by them.
              Really enjoyed these two books. Took me back to happy days of reading Dan Simmons and his Hyperion Cantos. I mean traveling through a universe created by a benign and brilliant  but terrifying mind.
              We might well all be living in such a universe...

A Gentle Companion.

This is not just any dog, you know. This is a dog in training to become a life companion to a blind or partially sighted person. This noble animal is a working dog and one day it will bring such quality of life to someone who needs it in a way that it is hard to underestimate. That kind and patient face(The dog's face and not the utter fop standing next to it) masks a noble nature, gentle yet strong enough to be supportive. It is no accident that Labradors make the best trainee guide-dogs, they are smart with a goodly temperament and they learn and they remember.
             Please, if you can, give generously any time you see one of the wee charity boxes, the little plastic dog on the store counter. Anything you can give is I am sure appreciated. It takes a long time and a lot of work to prepare a dog to become a life companion and I am proud to have met this one. As one who was raised by a partially sighted person I know how hard this world can be for some one to get about unaided.
              Ah to be the guiding eyes for some one who cannot see for themselves.
              No wonder they call them Man's Best Friend.

Timey Whimy Love.

My sister gave me a copy of this book at Christmas not so much as a present or anything more a failed read on her part. She had attempted to read it but abandoned it because it had "all that time travelly stuff" in it. She perhaps misunderstood the title which more than hints at the presence of "time travelly stuff". It is indeed a book about a woman married to a man who travels through time.
            Not unlike yer woman with the big hair.
            River Song.
            Although she has done quite a bit of time traveling herself. River Song not my sister. Within a capsule mostly. A Tardis to be exact. The lady in the novel does not however travel in time. Her husband does. She does not. Well, no more than all of us,which is to say in one direction one second at a time.
            I did not abandon it. I stuck with it right to the end. And enjoyed almost every page which I turned with some rapidity. Thought it was a fantastic read. Very emotionally engaging and even giving the little grey cells a run for their money.It was witty and insightful and although possessed of a lightness of touch it never shied from the notion that even the best we strive to be can fall short of the mark. Showing that time passes and takes its toll on even those who pass through time.
              No spoilers; to quote yer woman Song.
              Take a break from all yer worries and read it.
              I did notice in the Doctor Who episode Dark Waters that the Doctor had secreted one of his seven Tardis keys inside a copy of the book( When Clara went on her Tardis key destroying rampage at her grief over the death of Danny Pink.Speaking of that..
              Do you think it was The Mistress driving the car that ran him over?)
              Any book good enough to be in The Tardis library is surely worth a space on your bookshelf.
           

December Will Be Magic Again.

Well The Doctor was right again when he said that every Christmas is last Christmas. There goes another one just disappearing out of view. Whilst we are on the subject though and before we move past it for another year I would like to share some details of a December ritual one likes to indulge in(OH-ER!). I realise of course that such a statement is little more than a bloated conceit from one who is little more than a partially evolved ape-descendant but here goes. Anyway, every December just before Christmas, some times even a little after it, I reread Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol and this is my favorite edition of that incredible wee book. A lovely hardback, one of the oldest books I possess, with the most stunning composed plates by the very talented Peter Fluck and Roger Law. I picked it up many years ago in Willis Bookshop in Calendar Street in Belfast. Another bookstore now long gone. It was one of those stores I used to haunt in search of Doctor Who Target Novelizations. Which was not an easy task as it sounds as I never had much money so if an item was not cheap I just had to do without it. Oh yes I had the freedom from possessions that comes with no income. I must have really, really wanted this volume because it was a whole four ninety five back in 1979. Mind you, A Christmas Carol is a story for the ages and it is nice to think one has a favorite version.
                  It was first published in 1843 which makes it exactly..er,well..it makes it pretty old.
                  But a tale that remains young at heart.
                  And what a heart. A big old dusty Victorian heart that still beats with all the vigor of a musical hall romp from the good old days...
                 My Old Man Said Follow The Van And Do'nt Dilly Dally On The Way!

A Season Of Myths.

Capaldi Who 2014.
One of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite stories of the last season. Heck of  the best stories in years. Like so many things this year it felt new and bold and fresh and just worked on so many different levels. Another surprise from this hugely creative and ground breaking television show whose presence on the television we must never ever ever take for granted. In a world where generic mac plain wrap television programming is the norm and the next big broadest demographic format is the holy grail Who remains the John Lydon of the Block and never conforms.
The Big Fifty and the departure of Matt Smith were so huge and mythic it required a bit of gravity, of gravitas to bring it all down back to Earth and a footing we could all dander behind together, From the stunning clock works and time pieces of the opening credits and reworked musical theme to the changed dynamic of the Doctor and Clara it was as though a new and yet familiar mission statement had been embraced by the creative team. A desire to truly push the boundaries of what you think you know about The Last Of The Time Lords. A fresh start rooted in the past.
So much will be written about this series. It will be dissected and laid bare, its innards exposed for all to see. To the point where it will never feel as fresh and new as it does at this moment. Last Christmas beautifully book-ended  this season and even gave us the title of the next opening chapter. 2015 begins with the release of some amazing Big Finish Audio Adventures which will keep the flame of classic Who burning through the first half of that year with a new season of telly Who to follow in August...probably. Everyone will say it much better than I can. I enjoy the show so much I am probably too forgiving off its flaws or mis-steps. I am quite prepared to let others get on with that and if affords them some small comfort I am sure the Doctor would not mind.Witty insights and reviews will rub shoulders with Who forums which take on a Dante like quality detailing a spiraling downward painful descent into an inferno of neurotic critique.
SSSSSSSH.Listen.

Noe Room on The Shelf.

One of the very best things that I saw this December. My own work sitting on a comic book store shelf with Daryl S' 1945 and Stephen Downey's Noe and Flash Gordon Christmas Special. It was the first time I ever saw a shelf in a comic book store filled with the work of people from Belfast. Yes, it is a small shelf I know but it is still something to see sitting amid a forest of titles mostly grown in America.
             It is not a starry alignment or a heavenly portent..
             Just a beautiful sight for these tired old eyes of mine.
             If you bought any of these and made it happen you made my Christmas.
             Thank you.

Where Monsters Dwell.

Tyrannosaurus Fop from the land before Timey-Whimey. Thanks to young Connor Barbour for this lovely..er,sketch of me.
            But do I really look so old to young eyes?