Book of the Month: The Mountain in the Sea

This was an impulse purchase in a TK Maxx earlier this year, because, well, octopuses.

It's a slice of speculative fiction set in the near future. Political entities and alliances have shifted, big tech companies run the world, and the boundary between human and machine intelligence has broken down. In the middle of all that a scientist fascinated by octopuses is invited to study a mysterious new species that may be sapient.

The scientist is aided by the first true android who may, or may not, be a conscious being. It is the subject of fearful hate and has been banned from most territories on Earth, so is working on the octopus project on a remote island atoll to keep it out of harm's way. Other forces are seeking to access the islands - one for the mysterious octopuses, and one just to harvest the fish that live in the protected zone.

As a 'first contact' story between two species that think very differently, this works pretty well. But there are some other story threads interwoven which are distracting.  I felt the storyline about a human crew enslaved on a fishing boat captained by an AI was horribly feasible but was superfluous to the overall plot. 

There are several conversations that act as exposition. Mini-monologues that explain certain things that, in-world, probably wouldn't need explaining. But generally that's my only real gripe and the exposition moves the story along rather than holding it up.

This is a very grounded science-fiction book, based on what we currently know about octopuses and the fascinating way their brains work. I felt like I already knew some of that from reading Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaiskovsky, but this went into it in more detail. In the acknowledgements, the author, Ray Naylor, outlines his impressive background reading. He successfully weaves this into the story without showing off about his research.

To conclude, then, as far as speculative fiction goes, this was reasonably believable. Society is changing unpredictable and technology is changing quickly, making the wider human world in this book feel realistic. And octopuses are wonderful clever creatures. If we ever did find ones that could communicate, our inter-species conversations might look a lot like this. 

Book of the Month: Kraken

Kraken was sort of a Christmas gift. At Christmas I was given a book I already had so I went to a bookshop and exchanged it. I had seen China Mieville's books recommended on Reddit so thought I would give one of his books a go. And the dedication page made me laugh.

Who wouldn't want a comrade-in-tentacles?

This was written in 2010 so I'm a bit late to review it but I will try to limit plot spoilers to anything you would read in the blurb anyway.

The story centres on the disappearance of a preserved giant squid, from a display in the Natural History Museum in London. A curator in the museum gets drawn into a shadowy magical underworld of sects and prophecies where everyone is predicting an apocalypse, somehow linked to the vanished kraken. But everyone is looking for it, either to stop the end of the world or to control the destruction for their own ends.

It's clear that China had fun making up different cults and churches and then pitting them against each other. He also develops London itself as a character, a gestalt entity that is both a location and a source of information, if a person knows where to look and how to scry the future from it. 

China wears his influences boldly. This book strongly reminds me of the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collaboration Good Omens, and also the alternative London Below in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I suspect if I saw China Mieville's bookshelves, I would see Douglas Adams alongside Pratchett and Gaiman (although he might, like me, have taken Gaiman off the shelves since the accusations against him were made).

There are throwaway puns aplenty and almost too much wordplay. Beyond that, though, China writes in an arresting style with a barrage of metaphors, neologisms and portmanteaus. This section describing a bit of the city is typical of his style:

"A space between two concrete flyovers. Where the world might end was turpe-industrial. Scree of rejectimenta. Workshops writing car epitaphs in rust; warehouses staffed in the day by tired teenagers; superstores and self-storage depots of bright colours and cartoon fonts amid bleaching trash. London is an endless skirmish between angles and emptiness. Here was an arena of scrubland, overlooked by suspended roads." (p.357)

China is happy to reference TV and other cultural elements throughout the book. I was delighted to see Farscape included in a list of science-fiction shows. (I blogged about rewatching Farscape a couple of years back.) At one point one of the characters has a dream where he is TinTin being attacked by Captain Haddock. 

But it's not all pop culture. There are descriptions of magical practices that show some research. A reference to 'tekel upharsin' as a prediction of doom shows some niche knowledge of the Old Testament. The real-life grounding of the fantastical story elements in established media and myths makes them more believable.

There are also a lot of swearwords. Characters swear casually in their conversations, which felt realistic, and there is plenty of 'creative swearing', which is a very British thing, and was often very funny. For example, one character coins "munching wanktoasters" to describe members of an occult fascist sect.

If the warning about language doesn't put you off, I would add a warning that there are a couple of gruesome murders and almost murders. They are quite vivid so I felt it worth flagging up because overall I'd recommend people read the book. 

However, London as the best city evvah, gets a bit annoying. There are too many claims made about its uniqueness and special nature, as a locus for magic and the historic depth to its streets. That started to grate after a while. 

And in an ironic twist, I ended up reading a large chunk of the book on train journeys to and from London as I was working down there. On the return journey a man sitting opposite me asked if he could take a photo of the book cover because he thought it looked interesting. I'd never been asked that before. It was a slightly weird encounter befitting a slightly weird book.

Album of the Month: Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light

I have tickets to see Garbage at Cardiff Castle this summer, which has prompted me to give a serious listen to another CD I got for Christmas, the album they released last year.

All being well, the castle gig will be my fourth time seeing Garbage after their debut album tour in 1996, and tours celebrating 20 years of their debut album in 2015, and 20 years of their second album in 2018. I blogged about the 2015 gig when I was clearly underwhelmed, judging by my gig review. I didn't blog about the 2017 gig, which was in the cavernous concourse beneath one of the stands in Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol.

More recently I "rediscovered" them when I got their 2-disc Anthology and then went on a buying spree of special edition re-releases. After I posted about the Anthology I even bought the 2-disc version of their first 'best of' that I had decided not to buy way back in 2007 (and blogged about not buying it!) It was cheap on eBay, so why not?

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light was a gift from my sister-in-law, Abby. It's got a striking cover, with a glowing octopus. The lettering is on a plastic sleeve that slips off the digipak, leaving just the octopus in all its cephalapod glory.

There are some recent pictures of the band inside the album sleeve. Shirley's got a blonde look now.

It's kind of fitting that Abby bought me this album because she was there when I first heard the band. I remember hearing my first Garbage song playing on a car radio. It was a sunny day and Abby was driving us somewhere around Newport Road in Cardiff. The band were brand new and were being profiled on a radio station and the track they played was Stupid Girl. I was instantly struck by their sound, went out and bought Only Happy When it Rains on a cassette single and that was the start of my fandom.

30 years later, listening to this album made less of an impact. There aren't many of the gut-punching power riffs that drove their debut album forward, and barely any of the catchy melodies that featured on their second or third album. The songs all run into each other and are a bit samey, both in tempo and style. 

Looking ahead to the summer, I'm sure some of these songs will be on the setlist in the castle. I'd guess they'll play the opening track, There's No Future in Optimism, the liveliest track, Chinese Fire Horse (Shirley's astronomical sign and a sweary angry warning not to disrespect her), the slightly bouncy Love to Give, and the closing track, The Day That I Met God. (That final track feels like such a Shirley song I would be amazed if they didn't play it.) 

I also wouldn't mind hearing them play the biting R U Happy Now. It seems increasingly relevant singing about the liars in power given how out of control the American president, and by extension, America, seems right now. However, there are four tracks in a row starting at track 3 that feel like filler tracks and that section of the album drags.

Overall, despite repeated listens, I don't feel many of the tracks have stuck in my head. I'll find out in the summer whether the new tracks will have enough live oomph to hold their own against the classic songs. 

Details

Year of release: 2025

Tracks: 10

Favourite track: Love to Give 

Track to skip: Have We Met (The Void) - the fourth track and the most filler of the filler tracks.

Mega Saturday

Saturday was a busy one. It started with a Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick that produced its usual haul of rubbish but this time had an unexpected sad inclusion.

Yes sadly the smiling octopus is on its way to landfill. These big soft toys are a staple of the Cardiff Bay Beach or city centre Winter Wonderland fairs and I've often seen parents carrying them away from such events; usually the parents look a lot grumpier than the octopuses do. 

My collecting partner for the day was Claire.

And we had another decent turn out, with lots of new people.

I don't know who found the octopus. I found a toy on the other end of the size scale - one of the pups from Paw Patrol.

He had been well played with before being thrown or lost in a hedge and now he's also on his way to landfill. Such is the fate of lost toys. 

After cleaning up the streets, I picked up Steve and we headed to Merthyr Tydfil to watch Merthyr Town play Poole Town. Steve has been a fan of Poole since he was a lad and I've been to see them a few times with him. The last game we went to, Poole won 7-2. However we were expecting a possible heavy defeat this time, with Merthyr sitting top of the table. 

When I checked in on Futbology I got a badge for my 600th football match. 

There is a caveat to this milestone. I don't have any of the matches that I went to before 1992 listed. (1992-93 was the season I started logging the matches I went to.) So it's the 600th game logged on the app. 

Contrary to our prior expectations, Poole won 2-1. Merthyr were very good in the first half but only scored one and Poole got a flukey equaliser direct from a corner. The Merthyr team were sent out early for the second half but something had sapped all their confidence and Poole scored an excellent team goal that proved to be the winner. Cue 'absolute limbs' among the Poole Ultras behind the goal.

But the sporting excitement wasn't over for the day as I had a Blood Bowl battle booked with Bryan.

On my week's holiday I had done some painting, and since coming home I had managed to paint my team of wood elves. I decided to give them purple hair and was quite happy with the result. I already a mostly painted treeman figure and he joined the elves for this match.

I've called the treeman Mosstyn, and it wasn't long before he was in the thick of the brawling.

The elves are very agile, meaning players can break through the other team lines. This led to a high scoring game with the elves winning 4-1.

However, they aren't so good defensively. They ended the game with four serious injuries and a casualty box full of maimed elves. In return they barely won any blocks and didn't inflict a single meaningful injury. 

Bryan seemed happy with maiming so many players despite the loss. And I enjoyed playing with a new team that had been sitting unused for so long.

And that was my mega Saturday. Looking forward to a quieter Sunday now!

My favourite moments of the World Cup

The World Cup 2010 is over and gone, with a final that will be remembered more for its brutality than anything else. Referee Howard Webb described it as two hours of hell after he had to dish out 14 yellow cards. He could have given more, and really its amazing only one person got sent off.

But as the dust settles on Spain's triumph, what will I remember from this world cup? Well, here are a few...

1) Calamitous England

Rob Green's despairing flap after he spilled the ball to let the USA equalise in England's first game, followed by his faceplant into the grass in shame, was only equalled by John Terry's fish impression as he dived and contorted his body against Slovenia. See if you can find a slow-mo replay on YouTube somewhere and prepare to laugh.

He didn't even get the ball.

2) Great finishing from Germany.

Miroslav Klose's side-foot for their fourth goal against Argentina was truly world-class. And they demolished England with a powerful running game. Spain had to sacrifice their creativity to smother the Germans in the semi-final to scrape a win.

3) Ghana's last minute penalty miss

Drama by the bucketload after Suarez's handball, which will no doubt be played repeatedly on World Cup clipshows in future.

4) Giovanni Von Bronckhorst's long-distance goal against Uruguay

I simple couldn't believe that went in. An amazing goal.

5) Paul the psychic octopus

When national news networks interrupt their programming to bring you the predictions of a cephalopod, you know the human race is starting to lose it slowly. Apparently he now has his own trophy...