Filmknitter

Nation: Terry Pratchett

'Nation' is the newest book from Terry Pratchett and is his first non-Discworld novel since 'Johnny and the Bomb' back in 1996.  It is set in a world much more like our own, but some things are very different.  The story opens with the news that a terrible plague has killed a large percentage of the British population, including the Royal Family and a large proportion of the heirs to the throne.  The new King is currently out of the country, oblivious to his sudden rise in status, and his daughter, Daphne, has been shipwrecked on a small Pacific island after a massive wave hit the ship.  Daphne soon meets Mau, the only survivor left on the island after the wave hit.  Mau is unofficially Chief of the Nation, as the island is known, and may or may not be a demon.  He's not quite sure what he is and when he meets Daphne the two of them navigate the tricky landscape of social interaction, made all the more complicated by a lack of common language, experience, and fashion.  As more lost islanders turn up they are forced to take responsibility and begin to build a new Nation.

Like many Discworld fans I was slightly perplexed to hear that Terry was writing a non-Discworld novel, why would he need to when we're all so desperate for the next installment in the stories of the Watch, the Witches, Death, or Rincewind?  Having read this I'm still not sure why he felt the need to write it, but I'm very glad he did.  The Discworld books have their own distinctive style and could be said to be mired in the fans' expectations and the universe that has been built around them.  It is incredibly refreshing to read something different, still very recognisable as flowing from the pen of Pratchett (or keyboard, whatever), but set in a completely new world, with new characters and slightly different intentions.  Here he has no need to satisfy his readers' clamour for the latest developments in the lives of their favourite characters. The story is fairly simplistic, as it's aimed at a younger readership, but the ideas and humour contained within it are just as clever and thought-provoking as in the Discworld series. Some reviewers have also commented on the practical and realistic way that death is dealt with in the book, and it's true that Pratchett does not talk down to his younger readers - the sequence where Mau must dispose of the bodies of his friends and family is affecting without being gruesome.

I enjoyed Nation tremendously and I'm sure it will become one of the more well-thumbed books on my 'Pratchett shelf', but nonetheless I look forward with glee to his return to the Discworld in 'Unseen Academicals'.

Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

"Breaking Dawn" is the final (we think) book in the series that has rocketed previously unknown author Stephenie Meyer to global recognition, resulting in a new film adaptation of the first book "Twilight", and international anticipation for the concluding novel. For me, and many other fans, this was on a par with the final book in the Harry Potter series. Finally we were to find out whether Bella and Edward's story would have a happy ending. And will it... you'll have to read to find out.

There are many surprises in this book, it starts out with a description of the most beautiful wedding I've seen in fiction. I'm not the sort of person who goes gooey at weddings but even I felt a little emotional as Alice's ambitions for the couple's big day are utterly fulfilled. Only the other day I was agreeing with my housemate's appraisal that this was the most romantic book she'd ever read, and the wedding scene, and what comes after, is the pinnacle of this love story. It's utterly gorgeously written and like a giant sap I was completely overjoyed for the pair of them. However, Stephenie doesn't let us wallow in this romantic fantasy for long before she unleashes the first mind blowing surprise of the story. I'd idly wondered whether there was any possibility of what happened happening, but never would I have imagined what she would do to her characters, and her readers. The middle volume of the book is written from Jacob's point of view and is incredibly emotional, as with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" I felt utterly drained after reading it, to the point where I had to have a little break from reading to deal with what was happening. I suspect that writing The Host gave Ms Meyer more of a taste for the macabre as this book is much more of a horror story in many ways than the first three. However, I thought the switch in point of view from Bella to Jacob, then back to Bella again worked really well. After three books written in Bella's voice it was refreshing to see her character from the outside and also to get to know Jacob a little better. For me he completely departed from the annoying teenager I'd seen him as previously.

For me this was a satisfying end to the series, though some fans have voiced complaints about the ending I disagree. I wouldn't have wanted it to finish any other way. There were a couple of things I was surprised and shocked by but ultimately I can see why the story went the way it did and I would say that Stephenie has done a fantastic job of rounding off the story without breaking any of the promises made in the earlier books. I can't wait to see what she writes next and this has made me yet more eager to see the film version of Twilight when it's released in the New Year.

Poison Study

I realise this is a rare occurrence on this blog, a book review, but this little beauty found its way into my grubby little paws by accident and it seemed only fair to review it.  It was sent to Kitty by the publishers (Mira Books) but, fantasy not being her thing, she passed it on to me as I have a proven taste for anything involving wizards and alternate universes and such.

I was dubious at first, I like fantasy but I don't like fantasy that takes itself too seriously and I suspected this might be one such book.  However, there isn't actually too much magic and mystery as the military state where the book is set doesn't allow magic and executes any-one who displays any inclination to the art.  The story begins with Yelena, a young woman who has been sentenced to death for killing her benefactor's only son.  We sense that all is not as it seems when it comes to Yelena and her crime.  However, before she is executed she is dragged in front of Valek, one of the Commander's (the ruler of the state) closest advisers.  Valek offers her a choice between the hangman's noose or a new job - as the Commander's food taster.  Yelena is no fool and takes the job.  Thus begins a whirlwind training in poisons, and a new familiarity with the ruler of Ixia and the inhabitants of the castle which serves as the seat of his power.  As Yelena grows more confident in her new role she discovers that an old adversary, the General whose son she killed, is plotting to avenge his son's death by taking her life. In addition to that there are other foes she hadn't bargained for as well as a new talent to discover, and in the castle no-one is quite what they seem.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The story caught my interest immediately as I often enjoy fantasy novels with a heroine battling against the odds.  Yelena is an interesting and likable character and the rest of the cast of characters are equally intriguing.  It reminded me a little of the first book in the Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan in terms of the downtrodden female character discovering her powers.  But in some ways I prefer this to Canavan's books, which can be long-winded.  Poison Study is a very readable book and the plot rattles along at a fair pace.  There's more than one mystery to be worked out, which is great fun.  I especially enjoyed the 'Criollo' storyline and it took me longer than it should have to figure out what the mysterious substance was.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the love story, which I didn't expect but very much enjoyed when it became clear what was going to happen.  It's a very modern fantasy, there's no stuffiness or aged wizards here.  There were a couple of predictable moments but on the whole there are plenty of twists, turns, and adventure to be had and it's a very easy book to get sucked into.  I powered through it and can't wait to read the next in the series: Magic Study, due for release on 16th May.

Philip Pullman at the Oxford Literary Festival

So my second 'literary event' of the year was seeing Philip Pullman speaking at the Town Hall in Oxford and launching his new book 'Once Upon a Time in the North' at the same time.  I've never seen him speak before despite having been a fan of his books for a good long time.  I love both His Dark Materials and the Sally Lockhart books, though I'm less familiar with his books for younger readers, understandably. 

After the new book was introduced Philip read the first few pages, accompanied by powerpoint slides of the beautiful engravings from the book.  It was great to hear him doing the accents for Lee and Hester, and he read very well.  He then talked a little about the book and the engravings, and explained that it had had to be a very particular shade of blue for the cloth binding.  He talked a lot about Westerns and how the book is really a story in that tradition (the title is obviously inspired by Sergio Leone's film) and how he based it on films such as The Magnificent Seven.  He also explained the extract at the back of the book, which is based on extracts from a shipping manual from 1910 that he found in Oxfam, but with the additional fictional entry for 'Novy Odense' - the town where the story is set.

He also talked about how he writes, explaining that he tries to put down 1000 words a day, good or bad, and that he won't allow himself to go much past that even if it's going really well, because he said that it makes it easier to pick it up again the next day.  He writes his initial draft on paper (narrow-lined, with two holes) in ball-point pen, which involves a lot of crossings out and re-writing, before typing it up for working on the next draft.  He talked about how he feels that as a writer he has a responsibility to use language and grammar correctly, and that he tries to write as originally as possible, not just using the first words that come to mind.  He spoke very straightforwardly about his writing and it was obvious that he enjoys it, but he's also very practical about it.  He was rather dismissive of 'post-modern' writing and said that he tries to 'state the obvious' and not miss things out, in terms of description and settings.  He explained that when he begins to write that he tends to start with the 'particulars' - the smell of oil, the muddy slush in the streets of the town of Novy Odense - and then as he begins to write a theme will occur.  He said that he didn't understand writers who start with a theme when writing as this is something he can't do.

After the first half hour of conversation the floor was opened up to questions from the audience.  There was quite a variety of ages at the talk so the questions also ranged from the complex (a question about ideas of 'nationality' in his books) to the simple (one little voice from the back of the hall asking 'do you ever wake up in the middle of the night with an idea?').  He answered all of them with something interesting, though some of his answers were more direct than others.  There were a couple of questions about daemons which got interesting answers: firstly what his daemon is, he said it was a raven but he didn't know what her name was, and secondly how daemons get their names, to which he replied that it is the parents' daemons that choose the name, though he said not to ask him how daemons are born because he didn't know.  I hadn't heard this before and thought it was a lovely idea, and it really got me thinking about how daemons are born (my theory is that they slowly come into existence, I don't think that they would just be there as soon as the child is born).

Naturally the subject of the recent film came up, he was very diplomatic and said that he thought the film "looked very beautiful" and said that he thought the casting was excellent (he had mentioned Sam Elliot as Lee as a highlight earlier in the session).  However, he implied agreement when his interviewer said that he thought the story wasn't up to the standard of the books.  He also said that he would like to see the second and third books made into films, if only so that he could see more of Sam Elliot.  It sounded like he didn't think the film was too much of a crashing failure, which is good, and he explained that the trouble is that a book is the product of one mind and a film is a product of many, usually with conflicting views, which is fair enough.

He also did a signing at the end of the talk, which meant the usual scrum of people, though fortunately I'd acquired a pre-signed copy so for once I didn't have to join in!  I was very impressed by Pullman overall though, he's incredibly eloquent and obviously very strong-minded, I wouldn't necessarily agree with all of his points but I could understand where he was coming from.  I also enjoyed his banter with his interviewer, who unfortunately I can't find the name of, but they obviously knew each other so the conversation flowed very well and there were a couple of very entertaining interludes.  I would definitely go to hear him speak again, and I can recommend 'Once Upon a Time in the North' to any fans of HDM because it is a very good story and a beautifully put-together book.  If only it were longer!

Terry Pratchett at the Bath Literature Festival

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of seeing Terry Pratchett speaking at The Forum in Bath.  He was "in conversation" with Sarah LeFanu (Art Director of the Festival) and the subject of the evening was '25 years of Discworld'.   This was only the second time I had seen him in the flesh, the first being  at a book signing at Ottakers in Walsall about 7 years ago.  I was surprised, as I was then, at how unassuming a character he is in real-life.  Small, balding, with a neatly trimmed beard, and customary black hat, he talks in a slightly high-pitched voice and seemed a little nervous when he first walked on-stage.  However, his ready wit immediately came to the fore as he began answering LeFanu's questions.  Their chat meandered through a variety of subjects, beginning with how he first came to the world of Fantasy/SF (via a Saturday job in a library) and moving through subjects such as his fillings, tarletane dresses, his new book 'Nation', and ended by touching on his recent diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

It was fantastic to hear him speak about so many subjects, both related directly to Discworld and also about his own life, which he is generally pretty reticent about.  He talked about his house and how he had his own library built, with shelves high enough to require a ladder, and a magnificent open fireplace with stone lintel, which he regularly bangs his head on and led to him wearing an Edwardian velvet smoking cap when sitting in there of an evening.  It's details such as these which remind me why I identify with Terry so much, he is a lover of reading books as well as writing them.  I also dream of being able to afford to have my own library, ideally two-stories with a spiral staircase leading up to a balcony running round the top shelves...  Though I don't know what the Librarian would have to say about having an open fire near all of those books (actually, I do, he'd say Oook!). 

Terry also read us an extract from his new book 'Nation', due to be released in September.  This will be another stand-alone book, without the usual suspects (though I assume Death will make an appearance).  It is set on a small Pelargic island, known as 'Mothering Sunday Island', which near the start of the book is hit by a massive tsunami, killing all but one of the inhabitants.  The boy who is left is shortly joined by another survivor, a girl who has been shipwrecked on the island by the wave.  So far that's all we know, though Terry then proceeded to read the extract, taken from the beginning of the book it described the wrecking of the ship from the captain's perspective.  A religious man, he has lashed himself to the wheel, and proceeds to sing 'For those in peril on the sea', adding his own alternative final verse as the ship is swept inland on the crest of the wave.  The reading also involved Terry singing the verses as the captain heads toward his doom, which was highly entertaining.  It was a tantalising glimpse into the new novel and has certainly whetted my appetite, it sounds like it will include Terry's usual insightful wit and unusual characters.  At the end of the talk Terry signed the paper which held the extract and proceeded to auction it off there and then, with the proceeds dedicated to the Alzheimer's Foundation.  It was finally won by a lady sitting a few rows behind me, with a winning sum of £425!

After the conversation part of the evening then Terry answered questions from the audience, sadly no-one asked any terribly insightful ones but he answered with good humour and told a couple of anecdotes.  We learnt of the inspiration for the Luggage, as most people know the inception of this character occurred when Terry saw a rather large American woman struggling with a massive suitcase on wheels, apparently with a life of its own.  However he went on to say that the Luggage then started life as a character in his next door neighbour's sons' RPG games.  It was a walking inventory, which was liable to wander off and turn up later, but without your carefully secured weapons and items of value.  He also talked a little about Sam Vimes, possibly his most well-loved character, and drew an interesting parallel between Sam's discomfort with his elevation to the landed gentry, and how this reflects Terry's own journey from his working class origins to his current status as one of the wealthiest authors in the world.

After his talk Terry came down to the front of the auditorium to sit and sign books.  Unfortunately a result of his illness is that he is no longer able to sign dedications, and indeed he did seem to be tiring as we in the queue were encouraged to be as quick as we could when having our books signed.  Fortunately I had done the restrained thing anyway, taking only one book to be signed: 'Guards Guards', which was the first Discworld novel I ever read.  However, the queue stretched from the front all the way around the stalls and out of the door at the back, so I suspect he was there for quite a while.

It was a highly enjoyable evening all in all, it was the first time I had heard Terry speak at length and he was as brilliant and funny as you would expect him to be.  I also very much enjoyed being amongst such a large gathering of Discworld fans.  I don't usually attend fan events, more by accident than design, but in future I may try to get to some.  The atmosphere was great, everyone was chatting about things that I usually only hear of through the e-fanzines and websites, and I immediately felt that I was amongst kindred spirits (even if some of them did smell a bit strange).

For any fans who may be reading this Terry also mentioned that 'Night Watch' is to be broadcast on Radio 4, beginning on Wednesday 27th February at 11pm.  He also confirmed that he has a small cameo in the forthcoming adaptation of The Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic, though he was unable to give us any further detail of the date of its premiere on Sky. 

Stardust - the book this time

I finished reading Stardust last night and the verdict is - excellent, on a par with the film.  I enjoyed them both equally though the book is, as I expected, slightly more quirky and the story isn't quite so 'Hollywood'.  It also highlighed the characters in the film that had been created purely to get an A-list star poncing about in stockings and a corset *cough coughRobertDeNiro*, or to create more exposure for Ricky Gervais (the only low spot of the film).  Anyway, the characters of Yvaine and Tristan are the same in the book as the film, which I was pleased about, I loved Yvaine so much in the film and worried that she might not be as funny in the book, but she was.  The story is also pretty much the same, the only difference is the plot line with the witch.  In the book they don't kill her at the end, she just gives up and accepts that Yvaine and Tristan are in love, and leaves them with her blessing.  Which works just fine in literature, but in the simpler world of the blockbuster movie the evil old witch has to be defeated by the dashing young hero, otherwise we'd all feel cheated, right?

The only thing I liked in the film that's missing from the book is the banter between the ghostly princes, in the book they're just ghosts who occasionally comment on the story, no humorous banter here.  Other than that I enjoyed the book very much, and it is still very funny.  Neil Gaiman's writing is fantastic, his description of Tristan's journey through the land of Faerie is suitably enchanting and evocative, and I loved the section where Tristan travels with a small hairy companion, who cooks him a meal of fried 'mushrumps' in a sunlight-dappled glade.  The only experience I've had of Mr Gaiman's work previously was reading 'Good Omens' (which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett) and watching 'MirrorMask' at the cinema, one of the most random films I've ever had the pleasure to watch.  But this is the first of his own books that I've read and I very much enjoyed the experience.  I'll definitely be drifting over to the library at some point to seek out some of his other books.

What I'm reading (don't worry, it's film related)

Excellent news, I found a copy of 'Stardust' by Neil Gaiman in the second-hand book section of Blackwells.  I am almost halfway through it already and enjoying it immensely.  I shall provide a full report, comparing and contrasting it to the film, in due course.  I don't usually buy second hand books but the only alternative was to buy the new version, with the film poster as the cover, I hate it when they do that.  No matter how much I like a film I don't want the book to look like it's just another marketing ploy, I like my original covers.  You never find them changing film posters to look like the book do you?  *grumble grumble*

Also, a knitting update.  I have had further success with blocking and have blocked a fuzzy green scarf I knitted for my mum last year, it was also very curly and is now looking distinctly flatter.  Photos below, including some of the blocking process itself.  Contain your excitement, please.  My other project at the moment is an 'Alpine Shrug', to be found on page 8 of the most recent Rowan magazine.  It's knitted in four quarters and I've done three of them, so as soon as it's completed it will be displayed here in all its glory.

Other than that, I will be seeing Death at a Funeral tomorrow so expect a review on Thursday.  This film seems to have crept up out of nowhere but I've seen the trailer and been mildly amused by it so I expect to enjoy it.  Plus, it has Alan Tudyk in it, and I love him in A Knight's Tale.

Scarf photos (knitted in Rowan Kid Classic)

Scarf being soaked

Scarf pinned out, stretched as tightly as possible without doing it an injury.

Scarf after blocking, sadly this photo doesn't do it justice.