It’s a really thick accent. I hate talking on the phone, especially to people who have very thick accents. There is only so many times you can ask people to repeat themselves before it seems rude and you just have to start calling them Selma even though there name is probably Thelma. This guy sounds Eastern European; probably Polish given the amount of Polish people in Southampton. I’m assuming the call is from somebody local. Either way he is definitely telling me somebody has died.
‘Who?’ I’m asking, trying to clarify whether this is actually someone I know or just an unfortunate wrong number. After some back and forth I think I piece it together. It’s the instructor. The Clay Pigeon Instructor, the guy who showed us how to use the gun. He’s been shot. In the throat with a 12 gauge, his 12 gauge it turns out. That doesn’t sound pleasant. At first I can’t see how this relates to me, I only met the guy once after all, but it transpires that he was shot on the same day we were there, probably not so long after our session. Of course my fingerprints are on the gun because I used it to shoot clays.
‘So I’m a suspect?’ They want to see our whole group for questioning. I guess I can see the sense in that. I’m trying to remember now whether anyone disappeared for a bit. Which is weird; it’s not like I think one of my mates killed the guy. Even if one of them was that way inclined, why would they want to kill a guy they’d just met?
Later on I’m sat answering questions for a police officer. Not the same one as before, this one’s English. I’d had a mental picture of what this might be like, probably based on a thousand and one Hollywood movies. Actually it is nothing like that. There isn’t any one-way glass, there is no ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine; the desk I’m sat at could be any desk in any office and the guy I’m talking to could be someone you’d see down the local pub. Minus the uniform of course. I’m being asked to give a breakdown of exactly what happened on the morning of the murder, which is quite surreal. They are trying to ascertain where I was at what time and who I was with. It transpires that I have an alibi at the time of the murder, which comes as relief even though I’m pretty sure I didn’t kill the guy. I was with my brother at the time; we’d gone to find somewhere that sold bottled drinks. It was a hot day after all and everyone was parched from standing out in the sun hefting a shotgun for the previous two hours. I got the feeling that the lady we’d bought the drinks from had confirmed we were there, so we were in the clear. The other feeling I got, one that made me feel less than comfortable, was that they were convinced it was someone in our group that committed the crime. I provided character references for them all, telling the officer that I’ve known them for ages and each one was a stand up guy. He didn’t look entirely convinced.
At home that evening I had a strange sense of being disconnected from reality. This isn’t the kind of thing that normally happens to me. I’m sure everyone thinks that, until something like this does happen to them. It doesn’t seem real. My wife isn’t sure how to react either. The elephant in the room here is the notion that someone we know, one of our friends, could actually be a cold blooded killer. I think that made us both feel slightly sick. We snuggled up on the sofa and watched a movie, as we do most nights, but I couldn’t concentrate at all and I was glad when it finished and I was able to take my thoughts to bed. Physically I felt exhausted but my mind was racing. I began to mentally paint a picture of each of the friends I went Clay Pigeon Shooting with to decide if I thought any were capable of the crime that had been committed.
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Monday, 5 July 2010
The Dune Saga
I read an interesting article recently about the Hugo Award winning novel Dune, by Frank Herbert. It was a reassessment of the book and rightly praised the novel for being a science fiction classic.
Amongst the many comments written in response to the article were people asking about the sequels, prequels and extensions to the Dune saga, whether they were any good or not, and an equal amount of people offering up their opinion on them.
Dune remains one of my favourite books and I thought I would offer some advice on those looking to read it and the rest of the Dune books.
The original is rightly acclaimed as a classic and is an immensely complex and enjoyable read. Herbert’s writing style is difficult to imitate effectively, he combines a very humanistic tale with a very cerebral setting and outlook.
The first two follow up novels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune form part of a trilogy of books which fit together well and tell an enclosed story – the story of Paul Artredies and his time on Dune. These books I would recommend to anybody and everybody.
The 4th book written by Herbert, God Emperor of Dune, exists in a time period of its own, many years after the original trilogy. Although it provides an interesting bridge in the series it isn’t the best book to read and changes the focus of the series to the character Duncan Idaho.
The 5th and 6th books written, Herectics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, pick up the story long after the 4th book and exist as a pair. While not quite up to the standard of the original trilogy, they are well worth reading and tell an interesting story. Chapterhouse finishes on a cliffhanger of sorts and when Herbert died the Dune legacy was continued by his son Brian, a science fiction author in his own write, and Kevin Anderson.
The books they wrote are often universally derided, but the original trilogy of prequels, set just before the events of the original Dune, are actually worth reading. House Corrino, House Artredies and House Harkonnen follow the fortunes of the three great houses whose fates were linked to the event sin Dune and Herbert and Anderson are quite comfortable writing about characters that have direct relation to the original books and manage to imitate the original style quite effectively.
Following that success, another three books (The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, the Battle of Corrin) were written set many years before the Dune events, recounting the wars with the machines that was spoken about as ancient history by the characters in the Dune books. This particular trilogy was to prove an epic failure in the eyes of the Dune fans and I am no exception. The writing style is botched and the characters we are introduced to, often great relations to the ones we know and love, are flat and not easy to like. These books I would avoid.
Brian and Kevin then turned their attention to finishing the series by providing a continuation to Chapterhouse and an answer to the cliffhanger. Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune were again heavily criticised by many fans but, while not being up to the standard of the ‘House’ prequels (let alone the original books) they are a passable read and do at least provide a satisfactory ending to the saga. The major criticism was that they brought in elements from their own machine wars prequels that were not felt to be congruent with the way the original books would have ended. This is partially true, but I would recommend a fan of the series read them all the same.
This would have been a good place to stop but already three more books are coming; Paul of Dune is a wholly unnecessary telling of the story between Dune and Dune Messiah, an area that Frank Herbert must have felt was unnecessary in the first place otherwise he would have written about it in these two books. The Winds of Dune and the Throne of Dune I have yet to read so I cannot comment, suffice to say that even many fans of the Dune world have stopped reading the newly produced books now and I can’t say I blame them!
Amongst the many comments written in response to the article were people asking about the sequels, prequels and extensions to the Dune saga, whether they were any good or not, and an equal amount of people offering up their opinion on them.
Dune remains one of my favourite books and I thought I would offer some advice on those looking to read it and the rest of the Dune books.
The original is rightly acclaimed as a classic and is an immensely complex and enjoyable read. Herbert’s writing style is difficult to imitate effectively, he combines a very humanistic tale with a very cerebral setting and outlook.
The first two follow up novels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune form part of a trilogy of books which fit together well and tell an enclosed story – the story of Paul Artredies and his time on Dune. These books I would recommend to anybody and everybody.
The 4th book written by Herbert, God Emperor of Dune, exists in a time period of its own, many years after the original trilogy. Although it provides an interesting bridge in the series it isn’t the best book to read and changes the focus of the series to the character Duncan Idaho.
The 5th and 6th books written, Herectics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, pick up the story long after the 4th book and exist as a pair. While not quite up to the standard of the original trilogy, they are well worth reading and tell an interesting story. Chapterhouse finishes on a cliffhanger of sorts and when Herbert died the Dune legacy was continued by his son Brian, a science fiction author in his own write, and Kevin Anderson.
The books they wrote are often universally derided, but the original trilogy of prequels, set just before the events of the original Dune, are actually worth reading. House Corrino, House Artredies and House Harkonnen follow the fortunes of the three great houses whose fates were linked to the event sin Dune and Herbert and Anderson are quite comfortable writing about characters that have direct relation to the original books and manage to imitate the original style quite effectively.
Following that success, another three books (The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, the Battle of Corrin) were written set many years before the Dune events, recounting the wars with the machines that was spoken about as ancient history by the characters in the Dune books. This particular trilogy was to prove an epic failure in the eyes of the Dune fans and I am no exception. The writing style is botched and the characters we are introduced to, often great relations to the ones we know and love, are flat and not easy to like. These books I would avoid.
Brian and Kevin then turned their attention to finishing the series by providing a continuation to Chapterhouse and an answer to the cliffhanger. Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune were again heavily criticised by many fans but, while not being up to the standard of the ‘House’ prequels (let alone the original books) they are a passable read and do at least provide a satisfactory ending to the saga. The major criticism was that they brought in elements from their own machine wars prequels that were not felt to be congruent with the way the original books would have ended. This is partially true, but I would recommend a fan of the series read them all the same.
This would have been a good place to stop but already three more books are coming; Paul of Dune is a wholly unnecessary telling of the story between Dune and Dune Messiah, an area that Frank Herbert must have felt was unnecessary in the first place otherwise he would have written about it in these two books. The Winds of Dune and the Throne of Dune I have yet to read so I cannot comment, suffice to say that even many fans of the Dune world have stopped reading the newly produced books now and I can’t say I blame them!
Saturday, 3 July 2010
England's failings
Thought I would have my say on this as I have been reading a lot about it lately, as you'd expect. Here is what I think went wrong with England's World Cup campaign.
1. Fabio Capello. His inflexibility when it came to the way he handled the players obviously led to some disharmony in the camp. This stretched to the system England played on the pitch as the rigid 4-4-2 wasn't changed throughout even to get the best out of players who are used to other systems. Equally, his subs were, at times, just wrong. His faith in Heskey is as misplaced as it is wavering. That said I'm not surprised he remains in post.
2. The players. Despite not being happy with the system the big players didn't perform well at all. Given that most played together during qualifying, the fact they looked like they didn't even know each other was unforgiveable. The excuse of being tired is rubbish, other nations seem fine and their players have played the same amount of games. Same goes for the ball.
3. The squad. I guess this combines both of the above but the squad was wrong from the start. Adam Johnson should have been there. Dawson and Crouch both should have been used more. Carragher shouldn't have been there. Hart should have started in goal etc
4. The Germans. They just thrashed Argentina 4-0. They only beat us 4-1. Basically they made us look bad because they are playing so well.
5. The Ref/Linesman. Despite point number 4, we might have held up a lot better had we gone in 2-2 at half time. They certainly wouldn't have been able to catch us on the break so badly because we wouldn't have been chasing the game so much.
6. The press. I get that the media have a right to have a go at the team a bit if they do not perform. But the over the top attacks on the team, certainly after the USA game where we played ok, are unnecessary and don't help at all. Anyone is bound to be affected by that much criticism and if our players looked nervous on the pitch it is probably because in the back of their mind they were thinking about the kicking they'd get in the media for not performing.
There is a bunch of other minor stuff but these are the major things that led to us crashing out.
I hope that, regardless of whether Capello stays or not, we start to use younger players and develop more of a team attitude rather than a bunch of stars mentality.
And try something other than 4-4-2 is that doesn't suit!
1. Fabio Capello. His inflexibility when it came to the way he handled the players obviously led to some disharmony in the camp. This stretched to the system England played on the pitch as the rigid 4-4-2 wasn't changed throughout even to get the best out of players who are used to other systems. Equally, his subs were, at times, just wrong. His faith in Heskey is as misplaced as it is wavering. That said I'm not surprised he remains in post.
2. The players. Despite not being happy with the system the big players didn't perform well at all. Given that most played together during qualifying, the fact they looked like they didn't even know each other was unforgiveable. The excuse of being tired is rubbish, other nations seem fine and their players have played the same amount of games. Same goes for the ball.
3. The squad. I guess this combines both of the above but the squad was wrong from the start. Adam Johnson should have been there. Dawson and Crouch both should have been used more. Carragher shouldn't have been there. Hart should have started in goal etc
4. The Germans. They just thrashed Argentina 4-0. They only beat us 4-1. Basically they made us look bad because they are playing so well.
5. The Ref/Linesman. Despite point number 4, we might have held up a lot better had we gone in 2-2 at half time. They certainly wouldn't have been able to catch us on the break so badly because we wouldn't have been chasing the game so much.
6. The press. I get that the media have a right to have a go at the team a bit if they do not perform. But the over the top attacks on the team, certainly after the USA game where we played ok, are unnecessary and don't help at all. Anyone is bound to be affected by that much criticism and if our players looked nervous on the pitch it is probably because in the back of their mind they were thinking about the kicking they'd get in the media for not performing.
There is a bunch of other minor stuff but these are the major things that led to us crashing out.
I hope that, regardless of whether Capello stays or not, we start to use younger players and develop more of a team attitude rather than a bunch of stars mentality.
And try something other than 4-4-2 is that doesn't suit!
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