Just Finished Reading: Persians – The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (FP: 2022) [397pp] 

Up until comparatively recently, our knowledge of the Persian world and especially the Greek-Persian War had been almost exclusively from the Greek side. Unsurprisingly, those who write the histories tend to portray themselves in the best of lights and their enemies – well all too often they are seen as decadent aggressive barbarians unworthy of the name civilised. Our views changed with the discovery of thousands of clay tablets which, in the preceding years, have been painstakingly translated and compiled into a history of the region and the Persian empire in their own words. Needless to say, this is VERY different from the Greek accounts so well known in the West. 

Starting in what is now Iran, the Achaemenids eventually founded an empire spanning the whole region and claimed parts of what is now northern Greece and north Africa including most of Egypt. They were mighty and a force to be reckoned with for centuries. They built great cities, produced epic iconic art and waged war with an equally epoch-making intensity. They did not suffer their enemies to remain rivals for long, crushing all opposition, burning cities to the ground and enslaving the survivors. They were most certainly NOT to be messed with. This, of course, did not stop the Greek city states on the coast of what is now Turkey from doing so – much to their regret. It also didn’t stop internal rivalry, most especially at times of power transition. The King of Kings, in order to secure the continuity of the Achaemenids made sure to produce enough sons to pick from to be the designated heir. Unfortunately, with SO many sons to choose from – often in the tens if not more – those who were passed over either had to be placated, exiled FAR away from the centres of power or simply executed/assassinated to ensure a ‘peaceful’ transfer of power. It was, to say the least, messy. If that wasn’t bad enough, even before the next King had been designated (or assumed) there was a constant jostling for position and power in the attempt to ensure that the favoured son in fact ended up as the heir-designate. Poison or simple assassination played their parts here. 

If that wasn’t complicated enough – and to be honest getting my head around some of the family trees in this book is a REAL mind twister – the Achaemenids most definitely kept it in the family in order to maintain a ‘pure’ bloodline. This involved Kings marrying their cousins, sisters, daughters and whoever was ‘best suited’ to maintain the dynasty. My particular ‘favourite’ example was a King (I can’t remember which one as they often had the same names) who married his daughter who was, herself, continuing her affair with her brother throughout. They could certainly give the later Egyptian dynasties a run for their money in that department. 

It was nice to start to rectify my DEEP ignorance of this region and period covered in this excellent book. As you’ll have guessed by now, seeing my reading on Ancient Times, I do tend to concentrate on the Greeks and the Romans probably at least partially due to the fact that there’s just SO much out there on them. I have been trying – OK, mostly by accumulating unread books – to move my knowledge Eastwards and this is an early foray towards that. It was a very good start. If, like me, you’ve often wondered what it was like beyond the edges of the Greek and Roman worlds in Ancient Times I recommend that you give this tome a read. You can thank me later. MUCH more to come from this region. 

[Highest page count of the year so far: 397pp][+14pp]

Just Finished Reading: That Option No Longer Exists – Britain 1974-76 by John Medhurst (FP: 2014) [155pp] 

For those who lived through them, the 1970’s were memorably turbulent times in the UK. Not only were we in the midst of an IRA bombing campaign, but the ongoing oil crisis was helping to push inflation ever higher peaking at an AMAZING and quite eye-watering 26.87% in August of 1975. The year 1974 was also when we had a rare double election – both won by Harold Wilson’s Labour Party – the first such event since 1910 and the last to date (so far). During this era Britain was also wracked by strikes and I vividly remember doing homework (I was in my early/mid-teens at the time) by candlelight because of rolling blackouts caused by power station failures due to lack of coal. Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time – being both young and uninformed/stupid - I think that my parents were quite worried about the whole thing.  

Despite Wilson’s government (something I SO need to read up about further) being at least technically Labour – and MUCH further to the Left than more modern Labour governments – the author does go to town a bit on their lack of Socialist ‘chops’ and the lost opportunities to turn the country leftwards for decades to come (remember that Thatcher came to power in 1979 – in part because I voted for her). I can kind of understand this having seen far too often how timid Labour governments are even after been given a mandate to govern by gaining a LARGE majority. [Sidebar: It’ll be interesting to see how the next Labour government actually govern IF their majority is as high as predicted following the election on 4th July]. But, with things as they were the UK economy was in the process of being well and truly flushed down the toilet and needed a quick injection of cash to tide it over the bad bit. Going cap in hand to the IMF got the predicted response: You can have the money on the understanding that you ditch all of this ridiculous Socialist crap and go FULL austerity. Having little to no wriggle room the Labour government acquiesced, and any idea of Socialist Britain died with it. Simply that option no longer existed. 

Interestingly, especially after watching the 1988 TV adaptation of the book and (much) later reading ‘A Very British Coup’ by Chris Mullin, it transpired that the conspiracy to overthrow a hard Left Labour government wasn’t as far-fetched as you might think. There were actual high-level discussions with senior Civil Servants, businesspeople and ex-military about possible intervention if the Labour government went “too far” and the country needed a ‘course correction’. OBVIOUSLY, I’ll be reading further about THAT little detail. This was an interesting look into a turbulent political period from a distinctly left-wing (or “radical hard Left” for my American readers [lol]) viewpoint. Recommended. 

Smiling.... Crying... in Awe..... 

This raises the question, naturally, of exactly *why* they're prohibited. Presumably because Atheists don't have any "morality"? I was thinking both how essentially nonsensical this was, plus the fact that it would never exist in the UK or the rest of Europe - for the simple fact that it would never occur to do this plus our Anti-Discrimination wouldn't allow it - then I remembered that this is how we, in England at least, used to treat the Catholic minority. Until recently, around the middle of the 19th century, Catholics were not allowed to run for office nor head any of the branches of the Civil Service or the Military - nor indeed VOTE in General Elections. I also remembered reading about an elected MP who refused to swear his oath of office on a Bible sometime around the end of the 19th century. That caused problems for some years, if memory serves, until MPs changed the rules and were allowed to affirm rather than swear. I'm guessing that this had a knock on effect in legal trials were the witness used to have to swear on a Bible but now swear on multiple Holy books or affirm.    

Life is Hard(back), then you Read... 

As you may have picked up previously, I’m not a huge fan of hardback books. For one thing they tend to be rather expensive – around double the cost of a paperback or more – unless you pick them up in sales or in shops dedicated to selling on hardbacks at discount prices (like my favourite Indie bookshop in ‘town’). For another thing they tend to be both huge and heavy in comparison to paperbacks so are more of a hassle getting home, lugging around or simply holding in your hand. They also take up significantly more space on shelves (or on the floor) and so on. Of course, there are a few advantages too – otherwise they wouldn’t exist – including the fact that they’re often published a year or so before the paperback (IF they come out in paperback at all) and are significantly more robust, thereby ‘keeping’ in a decent condition for much longer that their paperback version which is always in danger of falling apart after a few years. So, it won’t come as too much of a surprise to know that I don’t own many hardbacks – but I do have some... 

Having a significant number of unread books in my house (I have no idea HOW many exactly but it wouldn’t surprise me too much if it exceeded 1000) it's always a problem of choosing what to read next. I don’t really want to read books at random or be a *complete* slave to my butterfly mind so I need some sort of rational to what I’m going to read next. This is why I’ve been inventing schemes and themes to focus on particular books or areas of interest, in part to stop me picking something up just because it's a recent arrival or the topic is front and centre in my head. So, to cut a long, rambling and probably boring story short, I’ve added yet another criteria to my ‘what shall I read next’ filter: Hardbacks. 

Over the last few weeks I’ve been going through the stacks of books around my house picking out some of the chunkier hardbacks I own and giving them their own stack(s) - presently 3 – for a grand total of around 50 books. Some of these date back to the 1970’s - although I haven’t had them THAT long – whilst others herald from 2022 or 2023. They’re in a wide variety of topics – The War of 1812, the technology of vaccine production, the Vietnam War, Evolutionary genetics etc – and a variety of thicknesses up to pretty substantial chunksters (in excess of 700 pages). My intention is to filter these into my ‘read next’ stack during the next few years so I can create a bit more room for more, and smaller, paperbacks. The first few have already started to edge into my 'pre-read next' stack, but they’ll take a while to work through into my actual review pile. I imagine the first hardbacks should be reviewed here from the end of the year or possibly early next. It’ll be good to actually get to *read* them, rather than using them as very solid foundations to paperback stacks. I may have to start strengthening my wrists though...!      

Happy Birthday: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia. Grieg is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, with numerous statues that depict his image and many cultural entities named after him: the city's largest concert building (Grieg Hall), its most advanced music school (Grieg Academy) and its professional choir (Edvard Grieg Kor). The Edvard Grieg Museum at Grieg's former home, Troldhaugen, is dedicated to his legacy.

Just Finished Reading: Speculative Los Angeles edited by Denise Hamilton (FP: 2021) [301pp] 

Los Angeles may be the City of Angels, but it's also the City of Dreams and the City of Illusions. Here we are presented with 14 of those illusions, dreams and nightmares from all across the city. 

This volume certainly started well with ‘Antonia and the Stranger Who Came to Rancho Los Feliz’ by Lisa Morton. This was a tale of alternate worlds and desperate people and certainly set the tone – often dark – for the subsequent stories. Continuing with the dark side of things was ‘Detainment’ by Alex Espinoza where a recent immigrant mother is overjoyed to be reunited with her child only to find him ‘changed’ by the separation. Inevitably Cyberpunk gets a look-in with stories like ‘Where There are Cities, These Dissolve Too’ by S Qiouyi Lu where homemade robots fight each other in vast city dumps, or in ‘If Memory Serves’ by Lynell where some try to retain memories of the city as it was before rising sea levels or slash and burn development destroys everything around them. One I found particulary interesting was ‘Love, Rocket Science and the Mother of Abominations’ by Stephen Blackmore where a group of hackers search for a lost relic that is MUCH more esoteric than it seems with disastrous consequences. I was intrigued enough to wonder exactly how much of the background story was real. 

Speaking of reality (or otherwise), a shift to the more horror side of things – in Part 3 – kicked off with ‘Purple Panic’ by Francesca Lia Block which was decidedly creepy. ‘Walk of Fame’ by Duane Swierczynski was an interesting spin on the arrival of human mutants in the guise of psychics with an axe to grind with celebrity culture. Finally, I’ll mention a racial, cyberpunk, rebellion story ‘Jaguar’s Breath’ by Luis J Rodrigez which got me thinking (at least a bit) of Terminator. 

Overall, this was an above average collection of stories based around an individual city. Apparently, it was supposed to be the first of a series of such books (yeah!) but nothing has been produced since. I am hoping though that something further might be in the pipeline. I’ll certainly be looking out for them. Definitely recommended for all SF nerds.  

Absolutely BLOODY brilliant!

It does make me wonder how the parents of the first blue-eyed baby reacted when s/he was born... Joy, surprise, confusion, fear, horror? Plus, how was that child treated? As a gift from the Gods or something worse? Obviously blue-eyes prospered, but did they do so from the very beginning or were the first blue-eyed babes treated badly? I guess we'll never know, but I do like thinking about stuff like that. 

Just Finished Reading: L. A. Noir – The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City by John Buntin (FP: 2014) [343pp] 

Los Angeles was growing – FAST. On the back of it something else was growing too, just as fast if not faster – Crime. What wasn’t growing, much to the frustration of the Police Commissioner and much to the delight of certain elements, was the size of the Los Angeles Police Department. Compared to places like New York the ratio of police to citizen was starting to look pitiful. But what made it worse was the budget – something else not growing nearly as fast as required. Not only was the LAPD understaffed it was underpaid with new officers earning less than refuse collectors. It came as no surprise that a significant number of the LAPD was ‘on the take’ and not just the guys on the street. Something needed to be done and someone with the power and the balls to do it needed appointing to the role. That man was William H Parker. Seen by some as a self-obsessed bully and by others as the city’s saviour he was determined to root out corruption and clamp down on the growing crime epidemic sweeping the city. Opposing him was the city’s underground, Organised Crime and the politicians in City Hall. The fight for the soul of the City of Angels was about to begin. 

Like most everyone else, I’ve grown up with images of LA from movies and cop shows (some of which are mentioned in this often-fascinating book) but knew little if anything about the reality of the situation. No more! Unsurprisingly, quite a few of what I’d picked up from Noir cinema and shows like Dragnet actually had a reasonably firm basis in reality – most especially when they focused on corruption, police violence and racism and, probably most importantly, political interference. I know it shouldn’t have confused me as much as it did, but I found myself constantly shaking my head over the poor funding the police department received – no matter the real or perceived demands – as well as the demands from the commercial sector that ‘too much policing’ was ‘bad for business’, by which they normally meant gambling of course. With the in-roads made by Organised Crime the amount of money sloshing around – especially in City Hall – was astounding and, no doubt, contributed to the Police Departments underfunding and the slow-walking of modernisation efforts. Again, it was surprising just how long proper training – in Police College rather than ‘on the job’ - took to bed in properly as well as obvious improvements such as radios in patrol cars.  

Although not exactly an ‘eye-opener’ this was an interesting and often fascinating look at the inside of the LAPD in its formative years from the 1930’s and into the early 1990’s. I was certainly much more aware of some of the later events talked about here, but I still recognised a scattering of names from the 1940’s and 50’s too. Apparently made into the TV Series ‘Mob City’ (which I don’t think I’ve ever heard of) this is a recommended read for anyone interested in US Organised Crime or the City of Angels herself. More to come on both subjects.        

Happy Birthday: Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas. While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is known today for his instrumental music, especially his concertos. He is best remembered today for a work called "Adagio in G minor", attributed to him but largely written by Remo Giazotto, a 20th century musicologist and composer, who was a cataloguer of the works of Albinoni.

Just Finished Reading: Peter Pan by J M Barrie (FP: 1911) [207pp] 

It was a story, or was it? When Peter arrived that night when their parents were at a nearby neighbour's house the children could hardly believe it. But belief took a back seat when Peter flew across the room and promised to teach them all to do likewise. Wendy, the more grown up and more sceptical one, took her time about it but was soon floating across the beds like a gas-filled balloon. The boys, John and Michael, soon joined in the fun and almost before they knew it, they had flown out of the open window. Where next, they asked? Peter smiled and said: Neverland. So, they flew throughout the night to the legendary isle of fun and adventure, an island of deadly Pirates and sly Indians, the place where the Lost Boys lived, and the dread Captain Hook plotted the demise of Peter Pan. It was going to be quite the adventure as long as they remembered the way home... 

This was probably the most childish of the children's books I’ve read to date (not having read very much as a child, nor – as far as I can remember – having much read to me). Naturally throughout I was picturing scenes from the 1953 Disney classic and was a little surprised that much I thought of as probable Disneyesque additions were actually in the original text – like the children's ‘nurse’ ‘Nana’ being a large Newfoundland dog (a St Bernard in the movie I think) and the crocodile nemesis of Captain Hook ticking from a swallowed clock. I think what surprised me most was that the supposed ‘hero’ Peter really wasn’t a very pleasant character. Not only was he completely self-obsessed, rude and aggressive he actually spent a great deal of effort manipulating the Lost Boys by disparaging their families – and MOST especially Mothers – in order to keep them in Neverland and under his power. I think part of it was the Peter, being eternally young, couldn’t focus on or remember much about the past (actively avoiding such memories when they did pop up) and because of that simply didn’t (and couldn’t) care about anyone else but himself – because he couldn’t remember any relationship he was part of. Children, and even adults, remember HIM for years or decades after they encountered him, but Peter would forget THEM almost as soon as they were out of his sight. I’m sure that a full psychological profile of Peter Pan would bring up a whole host of syndromes all going back to a DEEP childhood trauma. Not doubt more than a few essays and dissertations have been produced on just such a theme! 

Overall, this was a worthwhile read. There is the usual unthinking racism of the age – involving the ‘red’ Indians – and it was surprisingly violent in places (and rather callously so) but I’m going to put that down to the Imperial age it was written in and the target audience of middle-class children it was aimed at. Only Wendy and Peter were the only even partially developed characters with most of the others (although a few did have their moments) and it would’ve been nice to understand more of the Hook/Pan dynamic – over and above the fact that the hook that gave Hook his name was the result of Peter cutting off his hand during a fight. At least two more children’s classics to come later this year.  

I *think* there's some Grey squirrels living in a neighbours tree. You see them sometimes running along the fence tops. Not sure if I've *ever* seen a Red squirrel in the wild. They're VERY rare beasts! 

Just Finished Reading: Wonderland – How Play Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson (FP: 2016) [262pp] 

This was, yet again, not what I was expecting – I'm getting REALLY good at that sort of thing! I was expecting a history of games with talk of why we actually play as adults, how important play is in learning and the cultural impact of how and why we play. Although there was some of that salted throughout this often-fascinating book that wasn’t what it was about. No, it went MUCH further than that. 

The main thing I discovered very early on was that the authors definition of ‘play’ was very broad indeed. Sure, it covered games like chess, but it also covered things like shopping, fashion, food spices, music and much more. Each chapter looked at a different aspect of play and each, to be honest, could have easily been expanded into a book of its own. The author had some very interesting ideas about the position of play (as he defined it) and the impact it had on larger society and, in so many words, put it forwards as at least one of the major drivers of human history and culture. Just a few examples will suffice, I think. 

Take food. We have evolved an interesting pallet that likes spice, which is kind of odd as some sought after ingredients like hot peppers have evolved as a way for plants to poison creatures that try to eat them. We, contra-wise, seek out such things and enjoy the ‘kick’ of hot sauces. Apparently, the Roman Empire spent a significant amount of its treasure procuring pepper from India and this alone may have contributed to its downfall! Later, during the Crusades and following, the Spice Routes became increasingly problematical and expensive. Looking for easier (and more profitable) ways of importing pepper and other flavoursome spices encouraged the Age of Exploration and the modern connected world we know today. 

Take Fashion. As shopping became a more popular pastime it encouraged businesses to both demand more product from their suppliers but also more variety. As standards increased and demand for quality consistent products did likewise the suppliers struggled to maintain output because of a lack of skilled (therefore expensive) workers. To produce a consistent high quality – and fashionable – stock manufacturers resorted to using looms that they could ‘program’ using punch cards which, as we know eventually led to the computer revolution we’re still living through. 

Take Music. Humans have played and listened to music from our very earliest days. Some of the oldest human artifacts ever found – in amongst the stone tools – have been musical instruments. But playing music requires talent and such talent is regrettably in limited supply. Today we take access to music – available in an instant – as a given, but this wasn’t always so. Before the phonograph (that’s a record player) and before radio there was something called a ‘player-piano’ which allowed its owner to load a pre-programmed piece on a paper roll and the piano would ‘play’ itself for the entertainment of anyone assembled. This was another route to the computer age. 

This comparatively slim volume was chocked full of these interesting links between play and the modern world, and I really liked ‘discovering’ the many pathways and interconnections between apparently pointless or wasteful activities and the much larger and definitely consequential results often decades or centuries later. So, when you’re accused of wasting time at the Mall (and that’s a WHOLE other thread to pull on!), or learning to play a musical instrument, or that you like your food too spicy give them this book to leaf through and explain to them that you’re building the future – just one pair of shoes, one guitar lesson or one jalapeno at a time. A recommended fun, eye-opening read.

I'm usually the Navigator....

Just Finished Reading: Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (FP: 2013) [272pp] 

Sometimes he didn’t know why he did it. It was easy to blame the alcohol in his system, but that wasn’t the real reason, and he knew it. It was part protest against the uncaring authorities and part homage to the dead – at least that’s what he told himself to justify the grisly tasks. The product of those tasks, the recovery of unclaimed body parts from the explosions across the city, was laying in nearby room almost ‘complete’. It was, he thought, almost ready to deliver as a rebuke to the new regime and their American backers. Then, almost as if it had never existed, the body, the patchwork corpse, vanished one stormy night. Had someone claimed it? Had it been stolen by someone for some purpose? Clearly the authorities hadn’t taken it, or he’d be in prison or worse. So where was it? It wasn’t long before he and his neighbours started hearing the rumours – of dead agents of the previous regime, of fruitless police chases and a man that bullets couldn’t kill. He dismissed the idea that it involved him or his ‘project’. Things like that didn’t happen in the modern world, right.....? 

I’d been hearing about this for a while – mostly on BookTube – so when I saw it in my fave Indie bookstore, I snapped it up. It certainly lived up to its hype and I really liked it. It’s a strange tale though! I don’t think that you needed to have read Shelly’s original, but I think knowing that story fairly well enhanced my enjoyment as I saw parallels and concordances with the 1818 classic. The writing/translation was excellent with a sprinkle of horror/fantasy and magical realism salted through a tale of down-on-the-streets survival in an ultra-violent city balanced on the edge of chaos and destruction. The ‘monster’ - a fascinating construct/character in its own right – was obviously a metaphor for the violence and seemingly endless cycle of revenge killings going on in Baghdad after the events of Gulf War II, but the author didn’t constantly hit you over the head with that obvious fact. The writing was a LOT more subtle than that. One of the, many, things I loved about the book was the number of fully fleshed out characters involved in the events as they evolved – from the ‘creature’ builder himself to the lonely grandmother awaiting the return of her son from the long-ago Iraq/Iran War, to the opportunist real-estate man trying to make a FAST buck and the reporter misled by his boss and harassed by the authorities and finally the military man trying to make a name for himself in a wild-west environment aided by his fractious team of astrologers. It was quite a ride!  

If you want to read something very much out of the ordinary that’s both well written and thought provoking, then this is definitely the book for you. I’m not in the least surprised that it was nominated for literary prizes and won some too. A little violent at times and a little gory at others – but probably not much more that Mary Shelly’s version – this is a highly recommended read that will stay with you long after the distant sound of car bombs have faded. 

Translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright.  

Happy Birthday: Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2023) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a pop culture icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her as the sixth-greatest female screen legend from the Golden Age of Hollywood.