Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

A series of bizarre murders is shaking the gypsy community and baffling the police. The gypsies give the
murderer the name Mulengro and though the police are searching for a purely human killer, the gypsies
know that he is a supernatural being; their wise women have dukkerin, (the sight).
The strength of the book lies in the contrast between the world views of the gaje and the gypsies and
the interpretations they put on the events that they share.
Jack Faust is probably Michael Swanwick's weakest book. It is hard to call it a failure (it is beautifully
written) but somehow it just doesn't work. It re-tells the standard Faust story. Faust uses his knowledge
to institute a scientific revolution (to that extent you could regard the book as a parallel world story) and
Swanwick uses the framework to tell (or re-tell) the history of Western scientific thought. Unfortunately
that begins to turn the book into more of a lecture than a story and as a result the characters fail to
come alive -- they are simply puppets dancing on the strings of the larger, more overt purpose that
Swanwick has for the book. And therein lies the book's great weakness. It is, perhaps, too clever by half.
The lady with the keys and the walkie-talkie thumped the door hard. The walkie-talkie said "shhhhhh -crrrrrr
aaaaaaccccckkkkkklllleeeee -- hhhiiiisssss", but she ignored it and thumped the door again. A
surprised looking man opened it and they engaged in a serious discussion that involved much arm
waving and staring at computer printouts. Eventually, with bad grace, he gave in and we strode through
into the domestic terminal.
"Awwwwww, mate! Here it is mate!"
Kevin J. Anderson's anthology has one of the best thematic ideas I have ever seen. War of the
Worlds: Global Dispatches presents the H. G. Well's Martian invasion of Earth as witnessed by Mark
Twain, Pablo Picasso, Jack London etc. (Obviously the invasion was world wide and Wells gave us only
his view of it in England -- what happened in other countries?). The stories range from a straight forward
ERB pastiche by George Alec Effinger to a hilarious scholarly paper by Connie Willis on the effects of the
invasion on Emily Dickinson. The anthology has its strengths and weaknesses, but by and large it is an
outstanding success.
The new Christopher Fowler novel Disturbia will teach you more about London than you ever wanted to
know. Vincent Reynolds has fallen foul of the League of Prometheus, a secret society with a lot of power
to manipulate the wheelers and dealers. The League sets him ten challenges, cryptic clues that can only
be solved by those with an encyclopaedic knowledge of London. If he fails to solve the challenges he will
be killed. At first it seems a game -- crossword puzzle clues to take him across the city. But the League
has more at stake than simply tormenting Vincent. It gradually becomes clear that there many ulterior
and sinister motives behind the game.
Disturbia is a paranoid's wet dream, but at the same time it is an elegiac paean of praise to London.
That vision haunts the book and raises it from a simple chase story to something almost mystical in its
outlook. It is a hauntingly beautiful story as a result.
I hastened to the baggage claim area. All the adverts for Ansett claim that the priority baggage arrives
on the conveyor simultaneously with the passengers (if not before). After the huge delay in the toileted
expanse of the International Terminal I expected to find the bags circulating forlornly, waiting for their
owners. I was wrong.
Despite the sense of isolation, the passing of geological aeons and the strident cries of "Awww, mate",
we had obviously been under close surveillance all the time.
As I arrived in the baggage claim area, the conveyor whirred into life and three seconds later my
suitcase rolled into view. Adverts never lie.
Robert Rankin The Brentford Chainstore Massacre Doubleday
Larry McMurtry Commanche Moon Simon & Schuster