Torchwood radio plays

Asylum: A young girl with a strange way of speaking is arrested for shoplifting; and promptly picked up by Torchwood for carrying what looks like a lasergun.

I really enjoyed this: I thought Frieda's speech was fascinating, with its mix of Scandinavian and slang words.

I was interested in all the techniques the writer used to wind up the tension. Because Frieda is underage, the police get involved and stay involved; and their agenda for her is different to Torchwood's. Because she's a teenager (and she's frightened) she sometimes acted irratically, or illogically. She had lost her memory -- it returned gradually over the course of the show, but each fragment was more horrifying than the last.

Golden Age: Thousands of people have been disappearing in Delhi, and rift energy is apparently responsible. The team discovers that it centres on the Indian Torchwood -- which Jack thought he closed down 80 years ago.

Of the three, I enjoyed this the least -- I found it hard to sympathise with the illusive Duchess; and I found all the 'Have you got anything weird here?' 'Let me show you the kitchen' building search a bit tedious. It pulled no punches where British Empire views on women were concerned (Gissing's patronising treatement of Gwen) and on India and Indians. I wasn't emotionally engaged by the team's efforts; I felt as if they were going after the Duchess, not trying to save the vanished people.

The Dead Line: Answering the phone puts people in a coma-like trance. Torchwood's investigation becomes personal when Jack picks up his phone.

This was very exciting -- I loved Gwen's efforts to protect Rhys; and the confusion this causes. It's interesting how a plot can hinge around a phone call (or not being able to make a phone call). A phone ringing is the ultimate aural cue, as well. It dominates everything -- you can't ignore it -- and to have it induce fear in people is very effective.

I liked how the scene in the abandoned Cardiff and West office was set using a foul smell -- not visual, but it gets the characters talking.

You can catch the three Torchwood plays on BBC Radio 4.

And Tim over at Heropress has reviewed them in his post Torchwood for the Ears.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases

The human body is strange; and when it goes wrong, it gets stranger. These encyclopedia entries tell sad stories of case studies, rivalries between scientists and doomed expeditions.

I particularly liked Printer's Evil, which has infected its own page; and Delusions of Universal Grandeur (apparently invented to snipe at people who hold a theory with which the contributor disagrees).

There are entries by some of my favourite writers: Neil Gaiman (Disease-maker's Croup), China Mieville (Buscard's Murrain) and Alan Moore (Fuseli's Disease). I'm also a fan of Jeff Vandermeer's anthologies.

I read this from cover-to-cover, but it's the sort of book that you can dip into again and find something wholly new.

Interzone 222

Johnny and Emmie-Lou get Married by Kim Lakin-Smith

Greaserpunk gang love story. This is a small and perfect story set in an original universe. Read it and tell others.

Unexpected Outcomes by Tim Pratt

Mellow apocolypse story that questions the nature of reality. I liked the slackerish main character who responds other people, rather than acting for himself.

Lady of the White-Spired City by Sarah L. Edwards

An emissary visits a primative colony to find the family she left behind. This had a really good mountainy feel to it -- it had a fresh air and bright cold sun and splintery grey wood atmosphere reminded me of Alpine holidays. It explores the effects of extending life spans by deep sleep space travel.

Microcosmos by Nina Allan

A child puzzles out adult relationships in a resource-starved landscape. This is beautifully written, so atmospheric. I felt the heat; I thirsted with Melodie. I was fascinated by the view down the microscope. I stood with her looking over the shore of the lake and wondered: 'What happened here?'

But the end of this story had me rearing up Godzilla-like 20 storeys high, breathing fire, head in the sky.

It stopped. Short. With a hint at foul experiments and a lost love; with no explanation of why Melodie's parents are so angry with the scientist, and yet so keen to help him.

I'm guessing that this feeling of deprivation mirrors the helplessness and water-starvation felt by the characters. I've been well and truly manipulated. Nina Allan, I hope you're satisfied. Now please get back to work and write some more stories to tell me more about this landscape.

Ys by Aliette de Bodard

Unwillingly impregnated woman goes head-to-head with cruel goddess. Aliette de Bodard always comes up with the goods as far as I'm concerned, and I'm always excited to see her stories in Interzone. This is a tense salty tale, stinking of ozone and seaweed, of a woman -- or maybe two women -- who refuse to walk the set paths. I liked it very much.

Mother of Champions by Sean McMullen

Conservation thriller that explores non-human intelligence. I was intrigued by the narrative voice, so I kept reading despite the clunky dialogue. I'm thinking now, having finished the story, that the dialogue clunked along for a good reason -- the narrator thinks the speakers are morons; and she was hearing the talk, but not seeing any actions that could be used as dialogue tags.

It's very cleverly written, and has a lot to give on a second read: once you know the ending, you can see all the clues that point to it.

Read more about Interzone on the TTA Press website.

Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

I read it pretty quickly -- it was light and funny.

I sent this one off to bookcrossing.

Holy Fools -- Joanne Harris

Holy Fools -- really enjoyed this. I picked it up while I was on holiday in Turkey (I left a couple of my own books in return). I like the way Joanne Harris builds up the atmosphere using the weather. And I love how previously harmless characters suddenly become threatening. And how do you set an unreliable person up as a reliable narrator? LaMerle tells the truth because he is so proud of his scheme and is a showman.

Troll Mill -- Katherine Langrish

Another brilliant installment set three years after the first.

Kersten thrusts her baby into Peer's arms and throws herself into the sea, leaving Peer with doubts about her husband, his friend Bjorn. Worse is to come -- there are rumours that the Grimmerson's mill is running again by night. But the millers who so badly mistreated Peer in the first book are trolls, so who is operating the mill, and what is the strange gritty flour that they are milling?

Nothing much has changed from the first book -- Peer is still worried about everything; and wishes Hilde would take more notice of him, while Hilde is determined to keep him at arm's-length in case her feelings for him result in a family and no more adventures.

I'm going to pass this and the first book on to my cousins.

Troll Mill (Troll, book 2) at Fantastic Fiction

Spinsters Abroad -- Dea Birkett

An examination of what drove Victorian lady explorers -- and many of them were driven, trying to escape from their own illness, or that of their families.

Most of them seem to have died wretched deaths -- alone and frustrated by their infirmity.