Smashbomb

"Field Music are the kind of band that don't inspire me, in as much as they don't inspire me to pick up a guitar again - they make me realise there's no point. No matter how much time I put in, I'll never be able to get anywhere near their inventiveness and dexterity. David and Peter Brewis are not only two of the best guitarists in Britain - they're also two of the best drummers, songwriters and producers as well. I got into them around their Tones Of Town album which is like their Beatles album, with perhaps a bit of Genesis thrown in for good measure. 'She Can Do What She Wants' is perfect pop music and 'A Gap Has Appeared' is two minutes of unbridled prog-pop genius. After this, they weren't even sure if there would be another album, but thankfully there was Measure, their most accomplished work to date. It's a masterpiece. It sounds like it was recorded on a huge budget with Todd Rundgren producing. It wasn't, however - it was just Pete and David in their own studio in Sunderland. From start to finish, this is a flawless modern band showing their talents and influences. They're on hiatus now, and I don't know exactly what that means. I know Peter and his missus Jen are expecting a baby in March, and when I teamed Matt Friedberger and David up for a recent session for my programme there was talk of them forming a band together. That'll be mind-blowing. I told David I'd want to be their roadie if they get the band together and tour. He said, 'Well, we will be needing a bass player…' Ha… No chance. Not in a million years will I put myself between two musicians I reckon are absolutely worthy of the title genius. I'll be happy carrying their amps."

Source

Kudos

ClareR (5849 KP) rated Shield of the Rising Sun (Path of Nemesis #3) in Books

Sep 8, 2020

Shield of the Rising Sun (Path of Nemesis #3)

Adam Lofthouse | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

This is the third book in a series of historical fiction novels set in the Roman era. Even though I haven’t read the first two books, I had no problem at all in understanding what was going on in the Shield of the Rising Sun. Although that now doesn’t stop me from wanting to read the first two books!

The story is told by three characters: Albinus, his son Faustus, and Faustus’ uncle, Calvus. The battle scenes, mainly from Albinus’ point of view, were gory (I like this - I know, probably a bit odd!) and the politics with all the infighting and back-stabbing was fascinating. How did anyone ever feel safe at this time? I’ll answer that: if they were clever, they NEVER felt safe!

This story shows the true reach of the Roman Empire - there are scenes in Britain, Germany and Egypt, as well as in Rome. It frankly amazed me how quickly Roman soldiers seemed to be able to travel - and mostly (if not solely) on foot!

The main characters were all three very likeable men, who had me rooting for them throughout - even though it was pretty obvious what would happen to one of them from the start )I’m giving nothing away here!).

I enjoy reading a lot of historical fiction, and it’s not often that I read books set in the Roman period. I don’t know why, there’s no reason I can think of, and this makes me realise that I really should read more! If, like me, you’re a fan of historical fiction, then you’ll enjoy the rich descriptions and history packed story within the pages of this book.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book, and to Adam Lofthouse for joining in and commenting in the margins!

Kudos

Ross (3284 KP) rated The Constant Rabbit in Books

Aug 20, 2020

The Constant Rabbit

Jasper Fforde | 2020 | Contemporary, Humor & Comedy

8.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Great absurd book

Fforde's kay strength as an author is coming up with a premise and turning a surface-level idea into a wonderfully worked piece of fiction. My past reading of his have been more absurd crime-style investigatory books, where a character in an unusual world investigate a crime in that world. The world can unfold itself gradually over time and the story is fairly well structured.
In The Constant Rabbit, Fforde has taken the topic of racism and put it in a different setting. Due to an unexplained event, a number of animals were anthropomorphised, including a few rabbits, foxes, bears and elephants. True to their nature, that small population of rabbits has exploded and they now represent a large proportion of the population. Britain being what it is, there is a lot of ill-feeling toward these rabbits and this has made it's way into politics and societal changes. The government themselves are the UK Anti Rabbit Party, and there are a great number of restrictions on the rabbits' freedom of movement.
The book serves as a great analogy for historic racism and xenophobia that still remains in the UK and the western world as a whole.
The story itself only reveals itself gradually, it takes a long time to be set up and generally just unfolds. There is no real underlying plot from the off, it is the unfolding of a scenario.
To that end, I felt this book was a little more about the idea, and the effort put in to fleshing that out, and the story itself has suffered slightly. There are long sections of exposition throughout the book, and at times it does get a little boring.
Far from Fforde at his best, it is still a great funny book and a wonderful thought experiment and demonstration of the ludicrousness of xenophobia.