Sherlock

It’s not science, it’s not science fiction, so technically it doesn’t belong on this blog, but, damn… if you haven’t seen the BBC TV production Sherlock, you’ve missed out on some brilliant entertainment. Forget such pretenders as CSI: {Insert name of major US city here} or even Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, this is the real story of Sherlock Holmes.

Although the movie, A Game of Shadows, comes in at a respectable 7.7 within the International Movie Data Base, the TV series eclipses this with a sublime 9.1 rating, and I’d say 9.1 was a bit harsh

With great restraint, I will avoid any spoilers and simply say that episodes like A Scandal in Belgravia will go down historically as being better than some of the original stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

One of the nice things about the BBC is they’re not afraid to take a gamble on proven writers, and so Steven Moffatt, one of the principle writers for Dr Who, and Mark Gatiss, a Dr Who contributor, were given free hand to craft a TV series that is going to be one of the classics in years to come. With only three episodes in a season, and each episode being 90 minutes long, they’ve thrown out the formulaic rule-book that governs so much television, particularly in the US, and come up with a format that allows them to craft some brilliant stories. As tormenting as it is to be limited to only three shows a season, the quality of the writing is superb. Moffatt and Gatiss have avoided the temptation to exploit the name and commercialize the series, staying true to form they have delivered a TV show worthy of representing the works of Doyle, and lending credit to the Sherlock Holmes franchise.

Bravo. Ten stars from me on the IMDB.

PS. Among others, Moffatt wrote the Dr Who episodes The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink.

 

Climbing Everest

At 29,000 feet above sea level, Mt Everest is the highest mountain on Earth. Assaults on the summit began in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until 1954 that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzeng Norgay climbed up and stood on top of the world. Their’s was the second attempt of the ninth British expedition in thirty five years.

Hillary’s memoirs reveal the final ascent as a somewhat whimsical moment. As the two explorers climbed, Hillary all of a sudden became aware that every direction he moved in was down. It was only then he realised they’d conquered the mountain and were standing on the summit. Hillary and Tenzeng enjoyed the view for a few minutes, buried some sweets, along with a small wooden cross, and then headed back down the mountain, knowing the descent was equally treacherous.

Since 1954, over a thousand people have climbed Everest. Although the mountain has a fierce reputation for fatalities, with around 120 corpses still littering the frozen wasteland, it is possible to climb Everest. If you have the right training, the right frame of mine and a proper expedition, it can be done. Although, it must be said, a friend of ours tracked to Base Camp and lost 25kg in the arduous, month-long process, so moving on from there to the summit is no trivial task.

Finding a cure for cancer is very much like climbing Everest. There are assaults on the summit coming from every direction. Cancer will never be trivial, but it will be conquered, and the conquest has already begun with the cervical cancer vaccine.

My wife and I have a special interest in these medical expeditions, as she survived breast cancer in 2009. Having had surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, she is doing wonderfully. I am so very thankful for the medical assistance she has received. Cancer, though, has robbed the world of so many brilliant minds, Carl Sagan, Douglas Adams, Steve Jobs, Michael Crichton and, today, Christopher Hitchens, to name but a few.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I invested a significant amount in Ecobiotics and its subsidiary QBiotics, two related medical research companies here in Queensland, Australia. Using a holistic approach to drug discovery in the Australian rainforest, they’ve isolated a compound known as EBC-46 that has had some spectacular results in breaking down solid tumours. With stage I/II human trials due to start in 2012, the drug holds significant promise. It is a good assault on the summit of Mount Cancer.

Every couple of months, though, an article appears where other researchers are pushing for the summit. This week, the results of a vaccine trial showed significant results in mice, breaking down breast cancer tumours in triple negative cases, where all other current therapies would fail. If these results with mice translate into humans, this vaccine will save tens of thousands of lives.

For me, it’s tempting to worry about our investment in QBiotics, but then I remind myself why we invested in the first place. We invested to go on the offensive against cancer, to be an active part of the campaign regardless. For me, it matters not who plants the first flag on the summit of Mount Cancer. What matters is that the mountain is conquered. And, like Everest, once it is, it will be conquered again and again, from different routes, by different means, and each of these will enrich our world for the better.

Fifteen years ago, someone invested in the development of Herceptin and that, along with so many other incremental steps, saved the life of my wife. So it is nice to be an active part of further medical research that will help stem the tide of this insidious disease for others.

I’m proud to support cancer research.

 

One Star

Every writer wants five stars reviews of their novel, and understandably so, but those one stars can be quite insightful and are well worth playing close attention to as a novelist.

I recently finished reading Max Brooks World War Z and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, it’s not Shakespeare, it’s not Hemingway, but it’s a bloody good read (if you’ll pardon the pun). Max has an astounding 971 reviews, 597 of which are five stars, and then there’s the 46 one star reviews.

The one stars are quite varied. Some people were clearly hoping for more blood and guts, others felt the characters were one dimensional, while others felt it was a good idea, poorly executed (did they read the same book I did?). One astute reviewer labelled it “Yawn of the Dead,” which I think would have brought a smile to Max’s face, whether he agreed with it or not. But the common theme through all these reviews is that he needed a more convincing change of narrative when switching between characters. I’ve been criticised for a similar lack of depth in characterisation so there’s something in that both Max and I can learn from.

Another classic example of this is Ender’s Game, a science fiction novel I thoroughly enjoyed, and the twist got me hook, line and sinker. With well over 2900 reviews and a phenomenal 2300 five star reviews, you’d wonder how anyone could find fault with the book, and yet there are 79 one star reviews. And there’s a lot Orson Scott Card and I and anyone else who’d cares to look can learn from these reviews. Particularly, the review by Arteminism.

Very disturbed by central themes
I find it hard to understand how people cannot notice the deep themes of child abuse that run through this novel. From the struggle within Ender (the abused) to avoid becoming Peter (his first abuser), to “Uncle Graf” isolating Ender by removing him first from the protection of his family and then from friendships with his peers…

Graff… plans to convince Ender that no matter what, no adult will ever come to his rescue. Interestingly, Graff is later prosecuted for his treatment of these boys; he is fully acquitted and offered a promotion.

There are a bunch of comments associated with this review that suggest the reviewer “doesn’t get it.” Oh, he/she gets it all right, better than we do, as he/she is able to clearly separate the appeal of fiction and the suspension of disbelief from reality.

Graf’s comment, that no adult will ever come to Ender’s aid, is chillingly similar to the ploy invoked by paedophiles to control and contain their victims in a state of helplessness. And as for fully acquitted and promoted, well, that too is (unfortunately) all too true of child abusers in our world. I don’t think the author realised quite what he was unveiling.

The reviewer finds it hard to understand how people cannot notice the deep themes of abuse in this novel. And that is a valid point. I find it hard to understand how I could overlook something so obvious until it was pointed out to me in this particular review. In hindsight, I was aware of a sense of distaste at what unfolded, but I suspended that for the sake of the story.

The term for this is selective attention (or it’s counterpoint, selective blindness). We tend to become so engrossed in something we enjoy that we drop our guard mentally and morally, and so we’ll watch the movie Die Hard or Saving Private Ryan or Lord of the Rings without batting an eyelid at the horrific waste of life that occurs in these appalling battles, so long as the heroes are safe.

In Ender’s case, we see all that he endures as his rite of passage and we lose sight of the reality of how brutal and abusive the novel actually is, making this review an astute observation.

So far, my novel Anomaly has dodged one star reviews, although you wouldn’t know it from the tone of some of the comments.

Not just juvenile: actually puerile
…paper-thin and sickeningly sweet… it was so mercifully short

Science fiction or political, moral and religious lecture
…the story line as a science fiction work is weak, unfulfilled, and lacking depth… The writing was a bit too simplistic also; it felt pedestrian. Relationships were rushed and unnatural… I would rate it “Pleasurable-not memorable”

Ouch!

But, as a writer, these comments help to temper the natural enthusiasm and excitement there is in receiving positive reviews. They give me some direction, areas to work upon and address in future novels.

One star reviews… they’re not all that bad as there’s always more to learn

Update 15/11 – Opps.., there it is… one star to lighten my day. BTW, I’ve update the book with US English and US terminology.

Update 21/11 – And the floodgates have opened with ones and twos coming in droves. I once read an autobiography of a special forces soldier who, on parachuting into a combat zone in the dark, crashed into a tree. He noted that the sting of a branch, lashing against his face, gave him a sense of being alive. I know what he means.

 

Dr. Evil Hijacks Martian Satellite

At first, it sounds like a plot from Austin Powers, with Dr. Evil surreptitiously plotting to take control of a satellite in orbit around Mars, but, that’s exactly what you can do with NASA’s HiRise satellite.

HiRise is currently in orbit around the red planet and has a resolution or 1/3 of a metre, or roughly the length of your forearm, which is significantly better than you currently get when you look at your house with Google Maps (1 metre resolution).

Now, here’s the clincher. The folks at NASA have decided to enlist us civilian scientists in a crowd-sourcing experiment, allowing us to propose targets for HiRise to photograph in detail. How cool is that? Yep, that’s right. You really can (kinda) take control of a satellite in orbit around a planet some 250 million miles away. Dr Evil would be proud.

HiWish is the crowd-sourcing site where you can review maps of Mars, look for curiosities, check out the sites others have proposed and review footage from previous runs. And if your proposed site is selected for photography, you’ll get an email with a link to the results.

I proposed looking at the edge of the Hellas impact crater in the southern regions of the planet and, in particular, focusing on the burst edge of what looks like a lake (that has now dried up). The “lake” has irregular walls rather than crater walls and there’s a broad run-off stretching down to the left, eroding the land as it falls away inside the Hellas basin. It seems to me that the lake wall appears to have burst and that might reveal some clues about Mars’ water past.

I must confess, I’m a bit skeptical about vast amounts of water existing for any length of time on Mars, simply because Martian gravity is so weak (it’s closer to the Moon’s than the Earth’s), and without an active molten core, Mars lacks a protective magnetosphere, which allows the Sun’s radiation to strip away its thin atmosphere, leaving the planet with such a low pressure atmosphere that water can barely exist in liquid form. But, that’s in the here and now, perhaps things were radically different in the past. Certainly the recent discoveries of ice water on Mars and the appearance of subterranean run off gives hope that there’s still some kind of watery brine below the surface.

If you pick out a spot on Mars for the HiRes to photograph, please tell me about what you chose and why (paste the link in your comment)

Update: Time Magazine has an interesting gallery of photos showing the evidence for water on Mars

 

Proud as Peaches

My novel, Anomaly, has held #3 position on the Amazon Hot New Releases in High Tech Science Fiction for a couple of days now, and I’m as proud as peaches.

Anomaly briefly sat at #2 for a couple of hours at its high water mark, but by the time you read this it will probably have dropped out of the new releases altogether. For an independent author, though, with no agent and no publisher, it’s quite something to make Amazon’s top ten (in a very narrow field), although it speaks more for the mechanism of Amazon than it does for my writing.

Amazon is more than a commercial enterprise, it is a disruptive and revolutionary democratic/economic force. I love the way those that rate a story are themselves rated by those that have also read that particular story. The reviews are often blunt, which is never easy to take, but is generally balanced and good natured. I’m yet to have any real depth of comments against either Anomaly or Out of Time, but criticism, though never easy to take, is always good, always something that can be learnt from.

Looking back, I’m critical of both stories. I probably shouldn’t say this aloud, but I suspect I’m guilty of preaching from a soap box. I need to relax a little more with dialogue and let it be more natural. So, there, that’s my critical Amazon review.

Anyway, if you’re up for a roller-coaster ride in science fiction, give these novels a whirl. Hopefully, you won’t be disappointed. If you are, though, I’m sure I’ll hear about it through your review

 

Farewell Steve

The first computer I ever laid eyes on was an Apple II while at Remuera Intermediate school in Auckland, New Zealand back in the early 80s. I still remember the sense of wonder and awe at how you could interact with a machine, push a button and watch a response on the small green screen. When the lid was opened, I remember being fascinated by how a bunch of black chips with spindly legs set into a green circuit board with thin copper tracks could generate such a marvel. It seemed incredible that a bunch of inanimate components could be assembled into something that, to my young mind, imitated life and intelligence. And so, like millions of others, Steve Jobs captured my imagination.

Over the next couple of decades, Steve Jobs pioneered each major innovation in personal computing. If you haven’t heard Stephen Fry discussing the resignation of Steve Jobs a couple of months ago, it is worth listening to. Fry makes the point that these innovations may not have originated with Steve Jobs but he understood the human element of computing, that we need a sense of emotional attachment not a sterile device. Now, that might sound a bit wishy-washy at first, but think about it. If all we needed in life was something functional, we’d all drive the cheapest cars, wear the cheapest clothing, be content to live in a hovel, etc. The reality is, aesthetics count and, as business has long recognised, aesthetics increase productivity.  Jobs made computers sexy.

I remember the first time I saw a colour computer screen on one of the first Macs. “Ha,” I cried, “It’s a gimmick, it’ll never last. Who’s going to pay just to see some pretty colours on a screen?” The answer, of course, is all of us, because aesthetics make the world go around. We’re going to pay for it for the same reason we pay for a nice pair of jeans, or buy a house with a nice façade, because we need to feel good about things before they’re of any real, practical use to us.

And it’s not just about looking pretty, like all good building architects, Steve Jobs realised aesthetics had to lead to usability. Although neither Steve Jobs nor Apple invented concepts like the mouse, a graphical display, laptops, a smart phone or a tablet computer, they understood how to make them aesthetically pleasing and  easy to use. And that sparked a revolution in computing, an arms race in putting the customer first, something that Microsoft, Amazon, Google and so many others have also exploited to the consumer’s benefit.

And I love my iPad. Although I’ve got a perfectly good HP laptop running Ubuntu Linux, I write all my books on the iPad. Sure, Pages for the iPad is low on functionality, but I can carry it everywhere, pump out a couple of paragraphs on the train, listen to it being read back to me while walking home, read a book while waiting for someone to arrive at the airport, surf the internet while the wife goes shopping, respond to emails or play a game and all during times that would otherwise be wasted.

Farewell Steve. Thanks for inspiring a generation.