kierandelaney.net

Plugins/Getting Married - An Update

Posted by Kieran - 28/05/08 at 12:05:24 pm

Ok, so the plugins have hit the ground for like 5 months. Fear not - they are back on track as of now. I’m looking for someone with subversion experience to keep the official repository up to date with latest releases. If you’re interested let me know.

Anyway the reason its all gone quiet is its all been less than quiet in the real world. Not only did I start a new job (very well thankyou) but I got engaged.

We’ve now booked the venue (Smugglers Wheel), found the dress (I think?!) and set the date (June 14th 2009). And thats the three biggest things done. Obviously as a male, and a pragmatist, I’m twitchy until the deposit for the dress is laid down because anything could change but theres a mental commitment in place I suspect.

Now all we need to do is settle on a song for Shelley to walk down to the aisle to, which isn’t easy considering our taste in music (I’m still pushing for Get Mad You Son Of A Bitch by A Wilhelm Scream

Broken Angels

Posted by Kieran - 28/05/08 at 12:05:30 pm

Started On: - 15th May 2008
Finished On: - 25th May 2008

There’s two things wrong with Sci Fi. Ridiculous oneupmanship permeates the genre, with each new author and each new book daring to create bigger better universes with more aliens and more technology and more fear and more intrigue and more confusion. And thats the other thing - confusion reigns when the author fails to employ subtlety.

Altered Carbon suffered from neither of these and as such it was perfect. This follow up, Broken Angels isn’t quite as succsseful. For a start it tries too hard. As a sequel it just isn’t as effortless as its predecessor, the technology gets in the way, the characters are too brash and the story is too convoluted.

And that ties up into quite a confusing little package - in a valient attempt at keeping the reader guessing Morgan has chucked more twists in than a bucket of twisty twister twists. And its just hoplessly confusing. At one point I was flicking back by 100 pages trying to work out what I’d read the day before and if that guy with the thing was actually that guy who did the thing with the other thing, but its not its ok its a different guy but they might be the same guy, and it might actually be a man and for fucks sake its all irrelevent.

What the novel does deliver in large doses is a downbeat look at corporate society (however unsubtle) and some fantastic action.

A case of trying too hard, this isn’t a bad novel but its not any better than the sum of its parts which is a shame because Takeshi Kovacs is an excellent character who deserves more.

The Zombie Survival Guide

Posted by Kieran - 07/05/08 at 11:05:40 am

Started On: - 26th April 2008
Finished On: - 7th May 2008

This book should be amazing. Its about Zombies. Its a survival guide for the end of the world. Surely, it shouldn’t fail?!

Unfortunately it just doesn’t hit the spot. Its not funny. Its not clever. Its not even that accurate when regarding actual facts (like desert survival and plastic guns!).

The thing is, I was expecting a humourous book about how to best despatch a zombie and how to live like a bear. Instead I got some half arsed attempt at cleverness (they are zombies because they have the zombie virus, its called sonamblahblahblahium because, get this, they look like they sleep walk hahahaha) and a load of stuff I already knew.

For example - did you know that buses are not that good at driving through muddy fields?! Did you know that guns fire bullets?!

Also, and perhaps I missed the point because the whole thing seems quite american, where the fuck am i to get AK47’s from at the end of the world? Essential kit apparently.

Poor.