SERIOUSLY people..................! [rotflmao]

Just Finished Reading: Computer Crimes and Capers edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H Greenberg and Charles G Waugh (FP: 1983) [250pp]

Continuing with my intermittent theme of Man(kind) Vs Machines this was a collection of crime(ish) related short stories involving robots or computers. As with most such collections the quality was a little hit and miss despite a plethora of top flight authors including Gordon R Dickson, Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg and, naturally, Isaac Asimov.

Amongst the most interesting examples was Darl I Luv U by Joe Gores (1962) where a Defence Department computer hunts through the lost and the lonely for victims, Spanner in the Works by J T McIntosh (1963) where a hacked computer is outsmarted in time to prevent an enemy takeover and While U Wait by Edward Wellen (1978) where a Private Detective uses his computer background to outwit a hit-man during an ‘skype’ type interview. My favourite of the bunch was Sam Hill by Poul Anderson (1953) which told the story of a Totalitarian future America and the fictitious creation of a super Resistance operative within the Government computer network that takes on a life of its own and brings the Revolution quite a few steps forward.

So, a mixed bag but generally pretty good although, unfortunately, the longest tale is also the weakest by far. As always with these things the stories are much more about the present than any future they’re set it – in this case mostly the Cold War paranoia of the time(s). Plus one of the fun parts is seeing how various authors ‘predict’ the future so badly. One in particular struck me with the idea of nuclear powered cruise ships, rockets lifting off from the local city spaceport but hard-wired phones, only the rich owning personal computer terminals (complete with punch cards!), the NYSE handling ’50 million shares a DAY “without flinching”’ and only men doing the important stuff – this all being based in February 2016….. Funny……. Reasonable over all if only for the nostalgic elements.  

"The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself - and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results."

Agatha Christie, The Moving Finger (1943), p83

 

 

 One of my all-time favourite Simpsons scenes........

 

 

 

 

Just Finished Reading: Arachne by Lisa Mason (FP: 1990) [263pp]

Her creation had cost a small fortune. Her body was sculptured in the latest style, her cybernetic implants were top shelf and her training at the best schools decades long. She was ready, ready to take her place in the world, ready to start earning the big bucks and ready to pay back her enormous debts. When Carly Nolan got her placement at one of the most prestigious law firms in post-quake San Francisco she knew that she had it made. But then, like a buddle bursting, everything went wrong. Just as she started her opening remarks on her very first case the nightmare happened – her link into ‘telespace’ failed and refused to re-connect. When she finally reappeared multiple seconds later the AI judge was less than impressed with her excuses. For wasting its valuable time the judge decreed that Carly needed to undergo an immediate therapy probe to determine the issue behind her problems and suspended her law licence until it was all sorted out. From potential golden girl to office pariah on her first day – how the mightily in debt have fallen. Seeing no option to comply Carly makes her appointment with an AI known as Prober Spinner to find out what happened to her Link. But the AI Prober has other ideas of what it can achieve with Carly under its probe. Spinner is part of an underground illegal AI racket bidding for parts of human souls they leave in ‘telespace’ every time they use the Link. Carly Nolan might be Prober Spinners ticket to the big time if only it can find a way of extracting her soul without being discovered.

This was, as you can imagine, a bit of an odd one. Clearly Cyberpunk in nature (or at least background) it was advertised as ‘LA Law scripted by William Gibson’. Sadly it wasn’t quite that good but it certainly had a few moments. The environment of a shattered and, as yet, unrecovered San Francisco was well handled complete with weird gangs, lots of homeless people and the great mass of urban poor/precariat. The legal firm is suitably cut-throat and is full of highly unlikable go-getters on various mood enhancing and skills enhancing pharmaceuticals which are suitably and nastily addictive. So the Cyberpunk vibe is definitely there. Most of the characters are pretty disposable (and often disposed of!) and, apart from Ms Nolan herself, there are few that you end up actually caring about. Prober Spinner is an interesting character as an AI on tracks – I saw ‘him’ as an almost analogue of ‘Number 5’ from Short Circuit – but even it/him along with Carly Nolan didn’t really have enough heft to carry the whole novel. I think the thing I liked most about Cyberpunk in general was missing here. Cyberpunk is, in my mind, the essence of high-tech low-life. Here we had some fairly high-tech but the low life aspects were very much in the background where they stayed. Although the main character was using her (largely artificial) skillset to escape from the lower strata of that world we don’t see very much of it from her point of view. I think it would have been more interesting if somehow she’d ended up back at the shallow end but with her enhanced skills now put to more nefarious ‘street’ uses. Saying all that this was, generally, a pretty reasonable read and I certainly enjoyed it enough to finish it. But saying THAT I won’t be spending any time looking out for the sequel. Reasonable.   

 

 

 Hot Tin?

 

 

 

Just Finished Reading: The Wolf Within – The Astonishing Evolution of Man’s Best Friend by Bryan Sykes (FP: 2018) [259pp]

I’ve always thought, despite being at heart a cat person, that dogs are something special. I don’t remember our first dog, a German Shepard, but my sister had a dog growing up who was a lot of fun. Not only was he bat-shit crazy at times (and therefore hilariously entertaining at times) he was incredibly loyal both to my sister and her kids and I honestly think he would have died for them if he saw a need to. That kind of loyalty is rare in people but all too common in dogs. So, where do dogs come from and why do they have such a special place in the lives of humans – even cat lovers like me.

It seems obvious on first glance that dogs must be descended from wolves but such a link was only confirmed comparatively recently. Charles Darwin, much interested in dog breeding, thought that we might never know for certain where the ancestors of dogs came from, but that was long before the discovery of DNA and investigations into the canine genome. That, genetics and the compilation of the canine family tree, is the focus of this interesting book. Starting with a rather (admitted by the author) romantic musing of the origins of how man and wolf met and ended up co-operating with each other the author moves onto discussing the sparse but fascinating evidence for the incorporation of the dog into human society to the mutual advantage of both. I particularly liked the speculation around two sets of footprints in the rear of a cave in France. Side by side, in what must have been a darkened part of a cave complex are imprints of a child’s footprints next to those of what is obviously a dog or dog-like creature. Although dating both prints to exactly the same time is difficult if not impossible it appears to be clear that the dog/wolf was not actually hunting the child. It’s easy to imagine a parent watching the child wander off and telling a nearby resting dog to ‘go with’ the child to keep a watchful eye on them. After all it’s what it would do for one of its own pack mate’s cubs.

Wolves and humans have broadly similar social structures and comparable hunting styles so it’s understandable that a wolf/dog would have an easier time of fitting into a ‘pack’ hierarchy than many other creatures. You really couldn’t see this happening with lions for example. Of course once they started being integrated you’d get specialisation – hunting dogs, guard dogs and war dogs. From there the diversity exploded across the world as wherever we went our dogs would go with us. It’s a fascinating story which is at least touched on here, from evolution to breeding and from owner’s relationships with their animals (both pets and working dogs) to the idea of cloning dogs for a kind of immortality. Being the person I am I enjoyed owner stories somewhat less than the studies of canine genetics and evolutionary family trees but there’s something for everyone here. It has certainly given me some interesting insights into my second favourite ‘pet’ and I think any dog owner will find it at least as interesting. Recommended. More on wolves to come!       

 

 

 Looking Backwards: An Onion by Any Other Name

I have a ‘thing’ about names. To me some names just ‘go’ or ‘sing’. They make sense, they have a ‘ring’ to them, or they ‘work’. Other times they most certainly don’t. At best they might be clunky or difficult to pronounce, as if the words fall over each other or end up ignoring each other at opposite ends of a signature. Some names are just bad. I’ve heard of babies being named and my first thought was “You should really teach that kid to fight as soon as possible because they are SO going to be picked on in school’. The last time I thought this was when someone named their new baby boy ‘Huckleberry’. They probably thought this was a pretty cool name, a heroes name, and that his school friends would naturally shorten it to the even cooler name of ‘Huck’ but, kids being kids, I’m guessing he’ll go through his school life being called various kinds of ‘Berry’. I feel sorry for him already. But anyway, back to my ancestors (where I should be) and, of course, Onions.

One of the first names that jumped out at me during the delve into my past was Emma Onions (1857-1909) who was the wife of an early favourite named relation Simeon Doughty (1854-1916) who’s name does ‘go’ in my opinion. However, following Emma’s line backwards in time we eventually get to Paul Onions (1708-1786) who was my 7^th great-grandfather. As mentioned in a previous comment he married Sarah Cheese (1711-1797). I did wonder if this caused any amusement at the time with comments about it being less of a marriage and more of a ploughman’s lunch. But I digress…. With 722 ancestors at least minimally ‘discovered’ so far there’s bound to be a handful of what I consider to be great names and here’s a few of them I have a weird fondness for…

Mary Vanstan (1717-1789)

Mary Barfoot (1624-1708) and her mother Elizabeth Madgwick (1598-????)

Bridget Maloney (1856-1913) which is a CLASSIC Irish name – LOVE it!

John Harper Lockier (1637-1668)

Maudlyn Beffield (1612-1684)

Joyce Wynstons Whiston (1597-????)

Prudence Evans (1664-1742) as I do so love the name Prudence!

Elizabeth Felicia Elwell (1682-1737)

Cassandra Nevison (1682-????)

Mary Gilson Pomfrett (1630-1653)

Sampson Cotton (1584-1635)

Benjamin Gibbons (1595-1664)

Martha Smout (1648-1741)

Prudence Torr (1665-1720) and another Prudence!

Silvester Grubb (1783-1858) and like something out of a Dickens novel!

Susannah Sukie Newell (1741-1768) and I must find out where ‘Sukie’ came from!

Jane Harriet Staunton Stanton (1537-1640) and I think I’m going to have to confirm her 103 years!

Bartholomew Pee (1674-1759) and lastly my all-time favourite ancestor name yet

Druscilla Husslebury (1820-1900) the wife of my 4^th great-granduncle Enoch Onions (1823-????) and another possible Dickens character. I can just imagine her, always late for an appointment, always moving at top speed complaining that there’s not enough hours in the day……

Obviously I’m still digging and still, slowly, scraping away at centuries of detritus surrounding my ever expanding family history. I’ve essentially stopped going as far back as I could and am now investigating sideways and along family names – like the Onions clan! – for a bit more meat on the (so far) bare bones. It’s amazing what I’ve discovered in less than 3 months. No doubt there will be MUCH more to come. 

 

 

 

 Ready for your close-up?

Just Finished Reading: Dominion – The Making of the Western Mind by Tom Holland (FP: 2019) [525pp]

I honestly bought this (OK, almost) by accident. I do have a few of his other books in various piles – largely about Ancient Rome – so kind of latched onto the name. I had thought that it was going to be about the development of Enlightenment thinking and how it permeates Western thought but I was wrong. It’s my fault, I freely admit, for not even glancing at the blurb on the back cover until I got home later that day. After reading the blurb I almost took it back to the bookshop and would have asked for a possible refund – but I didn’t.

So, there it was, in danger of collecting dust or turning into coal at the base of a stack of books when I read the previous book of the same name (minus sub-title naturally) and thought that here was an opportunity to get it out of the way. The bonus was, of course, its size as a way to boost my page average towards the target of 350 (still some way to go yet). Anyway – to the book itself…. When I finally read the blurb I found that, rather than being a history of Enlightenment thought, this was a history of Western Christian thought from its inception to the present day. So, not exactly a topic I’m hugely interested in to begin with. After around 50 pages I started occasionally skim reading over early Church history and by 100 pages I was giving thought to simply DNFing it. But I persevered. It did actually get better from the Middle Ages onwards and became readable again so I stopped skimming. I think part of that was the fact that I actually disagreed with a lot of what he was saying – not so much the facts, which I couldn’t really argue with being very much a novice in this area of history, but his implications he was drawing from Christian history. Now, I’d be the first to admit that Atheism wouldn’t exist without Theism. If you have light you’re bound to get shadow and all that. Likewise it’s obvious that Secular society would be meaningless without the idea of Religion. But…. The author’s proposition was that everything in Western culture has a Christian foundation and, therefore, by definition Western culture IS Christian culture. Naturally I disagreed.

The metaphor that immediately sprang to mind – though I’m not exactly sure why – was cooking a bird for Christmas (or Thanksgiving for my American readers). The tough old bird of Western culture has been around for quite a while now and has been slowly simmering under a low light. It has also, for most of the last 2000 years been marinating in a Christian sauce which has, over the last few centuries, been leaking out of a whole in the baking pan until almost all of the sauce has dripped away. Despite the fact that most of the sauce has now disappeared the old bird still tastes of marinade because it’s been basting in it for a long time. But this does not mean that the marinade IS the foundation to the bird. Given another 500 or 1000 years future partakers of the bird might not even be able to discern any flavour of sauce or even detect it with scientific instruments. At that stage is the bird still, fundamentally, a Christian bird?

I am a great believer in antecedents. Christianity did not just ‘pop’ into existence from nowhere. Even the author admits that Greek philosophy had a significant impact on some of the ideas which made it into the final cannon of the Bible. Likewise ideas from Hebrew texts and ideas from further East influenced the thoughts and ideas of the original scribes. So, clearly, the foundations had themselves foundations beneath them and so on – all the way down. Christianity clearly had a significant (even huge) impact on Wester culture due to its pervasiveness and the sheer amount of time it’s been around. But at the same time the idea that our culture is a Christian culture is at the very least debatable if not disputable. Naturally I do not believe that the author made his case here. However, if you do (unlike me!) have an interest in the early Christian church or how Christian ideas affected Western culture that you’ll probably get much more out of this book than I did.

[Side Note: This is only the 7th reviewed book to date published in 2019. So far I have still to review anything published in 2020 or 2021.] 

New High Score (since records began 22nd October 2020)

Average Page Count: 338pp (+2pp)

 

 Who cares indeed.................?

 

 

 

 

Just Finished Reading: Dominion by C J Sansom (FP: 2012) [690pp]

England, the Dark Days of 1940. With the situation deteriorating by the day Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has only one choice to make – resignation. He bites the bullet and calls for his arch rival Winston Churchill. There, in the PM’s office, he is offered a job he cannot easily refuse – Minister of War in Lord Halifax’s new administration. For a moment, disappointed, he hesitates and then decides for the good of the country and accepts.

England, 1952. The long drift since those dark days towards an ever more authoritarian regime is speeding up. Political parties, other than the existing ruling Party of National Unity, have been banned. Churchill, the ailing leader of the Resistance, is a hunted man with a price on his head. Despite an increasing severe crackdown strikes, passive resistance and acts of terrorism increase daily. America has just reported the detonation of a weapon that has shocked the world and horrified the Nazi regime still bogged down in their fight with the Soviet Union. Only similar nuclear weapons held by the Germans can save them from a seemingly forever war. But progress is slow and a useable weapon as far away as ever…. Until the Abwehr, German military intelligence, hear a rumour. There has been an inadvertent security breach by the Americans. Secrets have been shouted in anger and a man barely holding onto his sanity may hold the key inside his fevered brain that could give the Nazi’s the ‘Bomb’. Imperial Office Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, an old Oxford friend of Frank Muncaster, the man now horrified that he simply knows too much, is approached by the Resistance to help them spirit Frank away before Abwehr agents can grab him. Thrown into a world he can barely comprehend, David finds himself as the epicentre of events that could determine the future of the world for centuries to come. Meanwhile, in Germany, Adolf Hitler is dying and his possible successors are beginning to vie with each other for the coveted role of Leader.

As much as I love Alternate History books this particular example has been sitting unloved for years before I dragged it out of obscurity. The author is well known for another genre though with his long running Shardlake mystery series based in the 16^th century. So this is QUITE the departure! To be honest I was hooked pretty quickly. The ascendency of Churchill to Prime Minister in May 1940 is one of THE pivotal moments in British and, arguably, world history. What would have happened if he had not assumed that role? The author makes a VERY good stab at answering that question. Essentially an armistice with a slow creeping ‘nazification’ care of sympathises and collaborationists in the existing British government and larger structure – followed inevitably by various forms of resistance. The situation in Britain seems very believable as do the main characters who, mostly on the British side, had hoped to ‘keep their heads down’ and wait for it to pass but it never does, which means that difficult choices have to be made by quite ordinary people. The international situation is also pretty fascinating – not only the ongoing war raging in Russia but the US starting to come out of isolation and the Japanese equally bogged down in China (having followed the ‘Northern Strategy’ rather than the one they followed in our timeline so never attacking Pearl Harbor). The way these, and other, changes play out over the decade since 1940 is both delicious to watch and makes for a very credible backdrop to this gripping novel. Certainly one of the best reads of the year and most definitely highly recommended.

[Side Note: I did debate whether or not classifying this as 'Science-Fiction' as, apart from it being alt-history in the sense that it speculates on a 'What If' scenario, there are no other Sci-Fi elements in the story. After some internal discussion I decided to go with SF in a more generic sense as I'd say that most (if not all) alt-histories are fundamentally Science Fiction(ish) in their core nature. What do you think?]

New High Score(s) (since records began 22nd October 2020)

Page Count: 690pp [+129pp] – I think this will last for a while yet….!

Average page count: 336pp [+1p]   

 

 

 

The Legends of Western Cinema Tag

I saw this over @ Marian’s Blog ‘Classics Considered’ and thought I’d respond here. Although (so far at least) I’ve only read a single Western novel [Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey] I’m a HUGE fan of the genre in the movies – thanks Dad! – and have enjoyed them from an early age. So, here we go!

Western movies or western TV shows?

Generally movies although I did grow up with the classic western series like ‘Bonanza’, ‘The Virginian’, ‘Wagon Train’ (mostly in re-runs probably), ‘Rawhide’ (ditto), ‘The Big Valley’, ‘The High Chaparral’, ‘Alias Smith and Jones’ and ‘Branded’.

Funny westerns or dramatic westerns?

Dramatic. I’m not a huge fan of comedy in any genre (I’m difficult to please on a regular basis) so I’m far more engaged in drama than humour.

Westerns that focus on loners or westerns that focus on families?

As a loner myself it’s good to have a central character to identify with whether it be ‘Shane’ or ‘The Man with No Name’ played so ably by Clint Eastwood.  

Male-centric westerns or female-centric westerns?

There’s honestly not that many female centric westerns so I’d have to go with male centric here.

1930s to 1960s westerns or 1970s to 2020s westerns?

Definitely both. I enjoy classic westerns (most seemingly with John Wayne in them) as well as fully modern westerns. I actually liked both versions of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ 1960/2016 for different reasons although the 1960 version is one of my all-time favourite films. I enjoy ‘High Noon’ but I also enjoy ‘3:10 to Yuma’ again for very different reasons.

Westerns that take place in America or westerns that take place internationally?

Well, as the Western is THE archetypical American genre I’d have to say America.

Family-friendly Westerns or edgier Westerns?

Edgy. Family friendly movies are OK from time to time for a bit of light relief but I prefer my entertainment to be more realistic, gritty and visceral.

Straightforward good guy or conflicted hero?

As there are no ‘straightforward good-guys’ I’d take a more realistic, more nuanced and more interesting conflicted hero every time – as long as the ‘conflicts’ aren’t too contrived and actually meld with the plot and character development (if any) in the movie.

Historically accurate Westerns or Westerns that aren’t afraid to take some creative liberties?

Historical accuracy is OK but you need to remember that these are movies and not documentaries. Something like ‘Pale Rider’ is likely to be highly inaccurate but it’s also highly entertaining. A later movie ‘Hell or High Water’ is another variation of the Western that works really well in a very modern setting. Going a little further out there you have things like the original 1973 ‘Westworld’ which very knowingly plays with the genre complete with Yul Brynner playing the archetypical ‘black hat’ gunslinger essentially the opposite of his role in ‘The Magnificent Seven’. Going further still we have ‘Outland’ starring Sean Connery in 1981 which is essentially High Noon on an asteroid being mined in the future. Going out on a limb a bit further and then cutting off the branch behind them in the 2011 ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford where a New Mexican town in 1873 is attacked by aliens looking for gold. Despite the fact that such a mashup really shouldn’t work it actually turned into a highly entertaining movie.   

Bittersweet or happily-ever-after endings?

Again, as happily-ever-after endings only really make sense in fantasy I’d go for the more realistic bittersweet.

 

 

Links & Connections (2)

I’m enjoying this idea of linking sometimes very different books due to titles or close title matches. So here’s a few more from the last few months…

 

Our Man in Charleston – Britain’s Secret Agent in the Civil War South by Christopher Dickey

Our Man in New York – The British Plot to Bring America into the Second World War by Henry Hemming

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

[Our Man certainly gets around…]

The Technocrats by Forest W Horton, Jr

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

[Close, but definitely no cigar…]

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach & Jud Newborn

The Last White Rose – The Secret Wars of the Tudors by Desmond Seward

[A white rose by any other name…….]

Many more to come……. [grin]

 

 

Just Finished Reading: The Summit – The Biggest Battle of the Second World War – fought behind closed doors by Ed Conway (FP: 2014) [408pp]

As the Second World War entered its final year a conference took place at the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire. Known forever for the name section of the nearby town of Carroll – Bretton Woods – this conference was set to determine the economic foundations of the post-war world. Attended by delegates, economic, finance and trade experts including luminaries such as John Maynard Keynes, the plan was to prevent future wars, regulate trade and ensure global prosperity after the Axis Powers had been defeated. With news of the recent D-Day landings mixing with haggling over currency regulations and the Gold Standard (along with copious amounts of alcohol much to the delight of the Russian delegation) for 3 weeks hundreds of functionaries hammered out agreements, policy positions and charters the world (mostly) lived with until the 1970’s. Along with the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund the final document produced just as the conference came to a close – thanks to the Russian reluctance to get fully involved at the last minute – arguably led directly to the economic ‘long boom’ from the 1940’s until the economic upheavals 30 years later. To understand the foundations of the modern post-war world you cannot ignore Bretton Woods.

Thinking about it dispassionately it’s difficult to imagine an interesting book about an economics conference – even if you have an interest in economics. However, the author manages to do so – and more. Not only is there the chaos of the hotel itself which was far too small and in a state of disrepair even when the conference started but the attendee’s themselves, with their various axes to grind, provided a great deal of heat with only very occasional light. The arguments over the very existence of both the World Bank and the IMF to say nothing of how they would operate, who would run them and the very contentious issue of where they would be based soured relations between the US and UK for years afterwards (as well as giving political ammunition to the Soviets in the upcoming Cold War propaganda sphere). Post-war debt repayment from Britain, European recovery (later known as The Marshall Plan), Soviet access to loans at preferential rates of interest and much more were discussed, argued about, almost fought over and finally, for the most part, agreed – although not to everyone’s satisfaction. Then, of course, there was the eventual fallout, with Soviet retreat into the Cold War, the growth of the European and especially the American economy, the burgeoning of world trade and the stirrings of what we now recognise as Globalisation. It all really started as Bretton Woods.

Even if you’re not an Economics nerd (I’m not though I am enjoying my forays into this sometimes bewildering subject) this is a very interesting insight to how the framework of the modern world was created over a space of 3 weeks in a cramped hotel in New Hampshire. If you have ever wondered why such things as the IMF exist or what it was created to do then this book puts you in on the ground floor. Surprisingly entertaining (and not just for nerds – honest!) this is a fascinating look at an often overlooked aspect of WW2 when rather than carving out territorial spoils following victory the Allies, Neutrals and Occupied powers carved out a new world order that many of us were born into and many more are living with its echoes. Definitely recommended if you want to understand the world of today a little bit more.        

 

 

 Dream BIG.......

 

 

 

Just Finished Reading: Allegiant by Veronica Roth (FP: 2013) [526pp]

They had to leave. It wasn’t as if Evelyn was giving them much of a choice. With the city locked down and the factions being broken up what was there to stay for? Plus there was the ‘message’ that asked for their help. That couldn’t be ignored but that meant leaving the city, which meant defying Evelyn. Tobias would help, of course, at least Tris expected him to help – despite being Evelyn’s son. So they planned and they escaped – although not without more loss and more tragedy. They were now in uncharted territory – literally. No one from the city had ever been out this far. They had no idea what to expect. But what they really didn’t expect, what didn’t even get on the (very short) list of possibilities was to be met – and called by name. Within a matter of days everything they knew, everything they suspected and everything they had speculated upon had been blown sky-high. Their very existence, their very history and the history of the Factions, had not only been called into question but the very foundations of their world had been shown to be a set of fabrications to hide the fact of what was really going on. Their lives up to that point had been an experiment, a method of fixing a problem generations in the making, they were nothing more than lab rats – important lab rats, but still. It was a lot to process but they had the time to think things out – or so they thought. But bigger forces were at work here. The government, or what remained of it after the ‘Purity Wars’, had deemed their experiment a failure and was going to shut everything down – leaving behind no one who knew anything about it…..

I enjoyed both the first two movies in this series as well as the first two books they closely followed. Like the rest of the world I was greatly disappointed with the third film. It bombed so badly that the second part never made it to the big screen. It was SO poorly received that even the talked about mini-TV series to round everything off also never got made. So you can imagine the level of trepidation as I picked up this book and started reading. I read ‘Divergent’ in early 2015 (and Insurgent in 2017) so it’s only taken me a mere 6 years to finish the trilogy but I’m finally here. Overall I thought the book was better than the movie – but as the movie was REALLY bad this isn’t exactly saying much. Despite its 500+ pages not exactly a lot happens. There’s much mopping and soul searching and teen angst between Tobias and Tris – in other words more of the same but MORE of the same. The larger background to the first two books is kind of explained but the whole ‘Purity War’ thing really didn’t make a lot of sense. Essentially it was supposedly about a widespread programme of genetic ‘enhancements’ that went wrong which produced the ‘genetically damaged’ GD whilst the ‘unenhanced’ still regarded themselves as ‘genetically pure’ (GP) [laughable in itself!]. Conflict ensued and the world went to rats….. There are SO many problems with this scenario I hardly know where to start. The experiment – in the city of Chicago – was an attempt to heal the GD population through the Faction system in the hope of producing GP people, AKA ‘Divergent’. I’m not sure if the author’s subconscious had a hand in writing this book but there’s a conversation between too characters where one clearly says to the other that the whole GD-GP Purity War idea makes ZERO sense….. and he was RIGHT on the money. About the best thing you can say for the third book in the trilogy was that at least the author TRIED to pull everything together at the end. If, like me a week before I started this, you have read the first two books and wondered if the series was worth finishing ‘just cuz’…. I’d save time and skip it. It won’t add anything to your enjoyment of the series and might just leave a bad taste in your mouth. Not recommended.      

 Just a (COVID) Numbers Game

More than 68% of 18 to 29-year-olds in England have had a first jab, while 88.6% of all UK adults have had one.

In total, over 85 million doses have now been administered across the UK.

More than 72.5% of UK adults have received two doses so far.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid described delivering 85 million doses as a "phenomenal achievement", while vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi urged people to get both jabs "so we can carry on doing the things we've missed".

On Sunday the UK reported 24,470 new Covid cases as well as a further 65 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

From the BBC (1st Aug 2021).