Category: News

Reviewed by Jamie Marriage

The latest novel in the decades-long Discworld series is a beast of a truly different species. While having many familiar characters, the story is one of seemingly random complexity and guile.

Set, of course, on a disc of a world balancing on the back of four giant elephants who ride on the back of a star turtle, Raising Steam is situated across a vast landscape with an almost equally vast cast of characters.

The invention of the steam engine has caused great intrigue and possibility across the Discworld. Heads of government and merchants alike speak of the possibilities and risk, every sentient species dreams of the chance to ride on the magnificent Iron Girder, and a sub-sect of dwarf culture is out to stop the future at the cost of a fragile peace with the rest of the world.

Raising Steam is the third of the Moist Von Lipwig sub-series. Once again tired of success, this time after completely reforming the banking system in the earlier novel Making Money, Moist is first pressured, and then drawn, into the promise of the steam engine. Lord Vetinari, benevolent tyrant of the largest city on the Disc, insists on pushing the new railway as far as it can go for diplomatic reasons. And Harry King, also known as King of the Golden River (for various reasons), is seeking to be remembered for something more than the person responsible for creating a functional sanitation industry.

What could easily be considered his most complex novel to date, Raising Steam is a tale of rapidly shifting tides. Perspective seldom remains the same for more than a few paragraphs, often encouraging back-tracking to try and discover links that only become obvious later in the story. Dialogue is rarely not funny and is often quite thought provoking; encouraging readers to consider the nature of change and sentient behaviour.

Chaotic to the extreme, but with the undertone of order so characteristic of Pratchett’s work, and with plenty of references to earlier novels throwing in for good measure, Raising Steam is engaging and unstoppable. The greatest challenge is trying to put it down once you start.

As many of you will know, I write across genres and age groups. But publishing a picture book has always been a secret wish. Thanks to Adrianne Fitzpatrick and Books To Treasure Publishing, that dream has finally been realised. I’m delighted to share with you the full cover of my picture book entitled, SERIOUS SAS AND MESSY MAGDA. Below that are some of the internal ullustrations. Rachel Brigden has created such fun pictures for the book!

You can buy the book online through the usual outlets; including FISHPOND, BOOK DEPOSITORY, AMAZON UK, AMAZON, and the publisher themselves. It’s a perfect gift for any young family.

click to enlarge both

Person of Interest was rating so high in popularity on my TV and Movie app, I grabbed a copy of season one. To be perfectly honest, I laboured through the first three episodes. There were not enough female actors and I had trouble connecting with the characters of John Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Harold Finch (Michael Emerson). Finch seemed to be a stereotypically nerdy genius and Reese was … well he was Reese (if you watch the show you’ll know what I mean). The premise – a super computer/artificial intelligence that can predict crimes against ordinary people (read: they are about to die), was also not an idea that intrigued me. I perservered because I had nothing else to watch at the time, and as the through-story began to grow, so did my interest.

The introduction of Root (Amy Aker) in S1 and then Samantha Shaw (Sarah Shahi) in S2 added new layers and tensions, and I began to feel the familiar tug of engagement as the series evolved into more of a complex thriller, than a predictable episodic.

Both the Reese and Finch characters gain nuance and depth as their back stories are revealed. Their relationship builds from what begins as something based on mutual but mistrustful need, into a rather sweet friendship. A quaint bromance between a one man wrecking ball with no respect for the law, and a morally questionable genius.

As for the secondary characters. Well, I fell instantly in love with Agent Shaw (what’s not to love about a kick ass operative with a self-proclaimed personality disorder?), and Sarah Shahi does a wonderful job of being obsessive and indefatigable. Detective Fusco (Kevin Chapman) is perfectly cast as the corrupt but ulitmately good-hearted cop who’s got himself in too deep, and Amy Aker’s portrayal of brilliant hacker Root is pretty convincing. I still feel a little ambivalent about Taraji P. Henson as Detective Carter. Some episodes I’m totally on board with her, and other times, I feel irritated with the dialogue she’s been given. It’s like the writers want her to be smart but don’t always give her smart things to say (and then stuff happens with her in S3 – but I haven’t seen that yet, so no spoilers please!). By S2 episode episode 10, I experienced one of those rare goosebump WOW! moments as Gimme Shelter plays in the background as Reese is arrested by the FBI (see below).

Corrupt police, shady CIA, interfering FBI, shadow government organisations and powerful criminals all play their part in the POI tapestry. As the series grows, the ideas are fleshed out and the plot begins to show signs of some clever basket weaving, all the while tickling our palates with a taste of a possible future.

Fans of the series call themselves Irrelevants, which is a reference to the ordinary people who are about to become victims. And they can surely count me as one of them.

S2 ep 10. One of my favourite scenes in a TV series, which probably needs full context to be appreciated.