Revelation Space

So Revelation Space is a book that establishes the universe in which the similarly titled anthology is set.  I bought a digital copy of the collection which is well worth the asking price (if you can find it anywhere!) - I would guess it contains around a million words (no counting was done to verify this), most of which are worth reading.

The universe is well realised, which isn't surprising considering the breadth of work available in the collection, but it establishes itself with authority, it feels obvious that there is a plan in action and you are welcome to join in despite the obvious lack of a stated direction at the beginning.

The singular style ensures that once you've read and enjoyed the first, you are almost guaranteed to like the subsequent additions.  This also helps when jumping between time zones within the fiction itself as any character vagaries or lack of environmental definition are intentional, and importantly, known to be intentional by all involved.  Trust between author and reader is important in all work, doubly so in science fiction because both parties work together with the express aim of building into an unknown space; more so again in hard sci-fi because everything is set within the realms of current human understanding.  There are no warp engines with which story can be progressed, nor are there magical powers with which the day can be saved.  Any incongruity is a potentially insurmountable hurdle.

The pure 'future,' science is interesting enough, but the applications of current thinking are the most intriguing parts.  The melding (that's a pun, for those who might have read it) of the human and technological is well conceived, especially the use of the animal kingdom.  Other topics such as immortality and epidemic are less well handled, purely because these particular tropes are somewhat tired.  That isn't to say they're not interesting as applied to this universe, more that they take longer to reach virgin territory than, for example, the characterisation of the ships.

The plots within the collection stand alone despite sharing familiar characters and locations.  They are interwoven in interesting and unexpected ways, tending to shy from direct character sequels and taking a much longer term view of the universe than books in other genres.  While this approach is fairly standard for science fiction due to the mind boggling distances and time-spans space encompasses, it is still pleasing enough to see a nod and wink to former books and characters.  They are, however, somewhat blunt.  Instead of writing around interactions the author has chosen to outright include these ties without any allusion or mystery.  This is a bonus if you're not looking to add your own flavour, less so if you don't require everything spelled out.

Loss of humanity or the evolution of humanity is another well worn road that is tackled in particular detail within this compilation.  All the books think about the nature of a humanity capable of self modification with an interesting mix of interpretations in the manifold forms this might take.  This is one of the draws of this series, and I won't say much, except that the outcomes are fairly standard if you have read any genre books in the past - but the characters and characterisations are superb despite the obviousness of their foundations.

There are precious few books that truly innovate, that bring new ideas into the mainstream.  This is not one of those innovators, but what it does show is that tropes handled by less skilled writers are still valid in the hands of the more adept, and this author is most certainly among the adept.

The Revelation Space collection is not a transformative work, it is an excellent evolution of worn ideas.

Can't Sleep, Won't Sleep

So I'm told that being physically tired is a good way of ensuring you sleep.  Not necessarily sleep well, but sleep nonetheless.

I've inadvertently spent my entire life disproving this theory, and today is another example of this as I've just started going to the gym again after a months hiatus (off-season) and yet find myself with less than a normal persons amount of sleep.  How much less?  Well, exactly none.  After getting a couple of hours last night I've given up today, hoping that tomorrow will be better.  

Fingers crossed I can get to work alright tomorrow (what is actually today in real terms), get that shit done, then come home and just fall asleep on the sofa or something.

But, I hear exactly one of your cry, if you sleep during the day you'll mess up your sleep cycle!

Yes I reply, but if I don't sleep I'll die of headaches and/or total brain shutdown.  Also, my sleep is already messed up hence why I'm in this predicament in the first place.  I'd rather try and tackle this problem from a place of actually having slept at some point in the past, rather than where I currently stand.  Have you ever desperately kept yourself awake until 9pm only to find that your brain turns around and says "actually no, fuck you, no sleep tonight."

That's not fun, and it happens.

So basically it's another insomnia post.  Yay!

On the positive side when I was on holiday I didn't have many issues, it turns out that just getting up whenever your body says to and going to bed whenever you're tired is a really good way of getting enough sleep.

Who would have thought it.

Green Fingers

So I'm horrible at plants.  I am also horrible at animals.  I bought a spider plant a few months ago because I think it would be impossible to kill one of those - low and behold I was right.  Unfortunately I picked a really good place for it to go and it grew really big, outgrowing the pot I bought it in and sprouting roots and whatnot everywhere.

Obviously I had to buy a bigger pot, so I did, and now I have this:

They actually gave me 2 spider plants, so I split them up and put some mossy stuff between them.  I've not forgotten to water it yet, so I think they should be fine.  I bought the wrong kind of soil so I've got to change that; put a big wodge of real soil underneath the stuff that's currently in there.

Because there were so many roots wedged into the old pot (there was no soil left) I couldn't get it out.  I resorted to taking out my pen knife and cutting the damned things out, nearly chopping my fingers off in the process.  The knife came in handy for cutting the plants apart though, so I was going to need to risk life and limb at some point in order to get the desired effect.

Regardless of how long it takes to kill these things it turns out that you can grow something for a short time even if you are terrible at that kind of thing.

I Think I'm Done With Chocolate Forever

I have officially become fed up with chocolate.

I have eaten so much lately that I fear my arteries are forever hardened, my veins forever clogged and my brain forever dulled.  Well moreso than before, at any rate.

I do this every year and honestly it seems to work pretty well for me.  Now is my current off-season and I can afford to get really fat and stupid, so that's what I do.  I'm not an angel when it comes to food during the season, but I don't overindulge and I certainly don't drink heavily - the upshot is that I consider myself fairly healthy (I even eat vegetables, to the shocked gasps in the peanut gallery).  The problem is that I eventually build up a resistance to this behavior and I crave the experience of eating far, far too much unhealthy stuff; which is what I do around this time of year as my own personal Christmas ritual.

So I did it again this year.

The result is my current big fat bloated belly and the aches I now harbor.

My training regimen starts for real next week, with a few light sessions building up to the real grunt work of trying to put on weight and get more explosive.  Luckily the fitness doesn't come into it for another month or so (but there's no way I'm going to neglect it completely, can you imagine how much it would suck to be forced into pre-season off the back of zero running?).

So that's about it for me currently.  Back at work.  The holiday was long but still too short.  Still have intentions of writing a million selling novel, after I invent a perpetual motion machine and earn infinite money from that, of course.

Hot News Flash:  Scientists are REALLY BAD at naming things.  CERN should have a specialist come in and talk to those fools, Jesus.

In other news, Happy New Year and all that.