Outside of a Dog

Deborah Pickett started reading JPod by Douglas Coupland

I know Doug Coupland from his earlier nonfiction work such as Souvenir of Canada. Guess I’m about to find out what his fiction is like.

Deborah Pickett reviewed Thank You, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

It’s classic Jeeves but marred by racism of the time

2 stars

Content warning Plot elements

I’ll come right out and say it: blackface is a central part of this story. This novel is from 1934 when white people didn’t blink at blacking up and performing music as “n****r minstrels”. There’s simply no way to edit this story to exclude this fact without greatly changing the story.

I’ve only read Jeeves short stories to now; this is the first novel (and Wodehouse’s first Jeeves novel too). It hangs together, the plot is clever and of course Jeeves saves the day. Satisfying, but hold your nose.

Deborah Pickett commented on Thank You, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Oh my, this appears to be an edition with the n-word in it intact; wasn’t expecting that at all.

Deborah Pickett stopped reading Debatable Space by Philip Palmer

No rating

It’s not grabbing me. The Lena character is insufferable and shallow and irritating. The diary excerpts are especially cringeworthy.

I don’t know if it’s Palmer trying to write women or something else, because there’s only one other woman in the book and she is a very minor character.

Putting it down.

Deborah Pickett started reading Debatable Space by Philip Palmer

No rating

Only got five pages in before bad light stopped play. Reading by candlelight is not recommended.

Deborah Pickett reviewed Next of Kin by Eric Frank Russell

So much nope

1 star

Some sf from the 1950s holds up today. This ... does not. It's from a time when women were inconsequential and invisible, that being gay was a character flaw, that rugged male individuals were the solution to any bureaucracy. I did not finish this book and I will make a note to never touch or recommend anything by this author again.

Deborah Pickett stopped reading Next of Kin by Eric Frank Russell

Content warning Homophobia in a 1959 book

Ok I'm done with Next of Kin. I got about halfway through, managed to grit my teeth that every single character in it (even the aliens) is male, but once the protagonist started using his gaydar on other characters, I knew I couldn't finish it. Disposing of this book in the recycling.

Deborah Pickett started reading Next of Kin by Eric Frank Russell

“Hasn’t aged a bit” says the endorsement on the cover by Jack Chalker, 1944–2005. Au contraire, Jack, upon finishing the first chapter, which contains no women at all, this novella from 1959 has aged a fuckton. I will probably need to hateread it in order to finish this supposed comic horror story.

Deborah Pickett finished reading Patch and Tweak with KORG by Kim Bjørn

Patch and Tweak with KORG (Hardcover, Bjooks)

No rating

I’ve only dipped my toe into modular synths, lest I unleash another hobby I don’t have time for. This book has a ton of concrete examples for three of Korg’s modular synths: the ARP 2600 M, the MS-20 Mini, and the Volca modular. Of those, I’ve only got a software version of the MS-20, so I haven’t done much actual patching.

The book is divided into sections about oscillators, filters, modulation, envelopes, etc. with lots of explanatory diagrams and lots of examples. Every few pages there is a long-form interview with a musician who uses one of the modular synths covered in the book. They’ve done a pretty good job getting a diversity of musicians, but of course it’s a mite biased towards featuring people who can afford to buy synths.

This would be a good introductory book, but for more advanced users it’s going to tread a lot of …

I’ve only dipped my toe into modular synths, lest I unleash another hobby I don’t have time for. This book has a ton of concrete examples for three of Korg’s modular synths: the ARP 2600 M, the MS-20 Mini, and the Volca modular. Of those, I’ve only got a software version of the MS-20, so I haven’t done much actual patching.

The book is divided into sections about oscillators, filters, modulation, envelopes, etc. with lots of explanatory diagrams and lots of examples. Every few pages there is a long-form interview with a musician who uses one of the modular synths covered in the book. They’ve done a pretty good job getting a diversity of musicians, but of course it’s a mite biased towards featuring people who can afford to buy synths.

This would be a good introductory book, but for more advanced users it’s going to tread a lot of familiar ground. Either way, it’s very pretty, and it’s quite well produced.

Deborah Pickett rated Stealing Light: 3 stars

Stealing Light (Paperback, 2008, Pan Macmillan)

Stealing Light by Gary Gibson

Deborah Pickett finished reading Stealing Light by Gary Gibson

Not bad at all. I might track down the sequels. Gibson’s worldbuilding reminds me a bit of Alastair Reynolds.

Deborah Pickett started reading Patch and Tweak with KORG by Kim Bjørn

No rating

A beautiful pictorial coffee-table book about analogue and modular synthesis. It uses the Volca Modular, ARP 2600 M, and MS-20 Mini as examples throughout but the concepts are applicable to all synths.