Another overloaded day at work - far too much to do for the new month’s campaign and not enough booksellers. For this I got out of bed at 6.30 am on a wet and windy morning?



On the plus side however, Matthew came past (hiding from his exams? Er, I mean studying outside?) and we are making a fair bit of headway on the important matter of what cartoon alter-ego each member of staff has. I was hoping for Bugs Bunny (childhood role model) but fear secretly I have more in common with Sylvester the Cat (suffering succatash!). So far we have a Pink Panther, Chucky from Rug Rats, Penelope Pitstop, the Ant Hill Mob, a Power puff Girl, Elmer Food, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin the Martian and Pepe le Peu. Surrounded by the finest of world literature and the collected sum of all human knowledge, we discuss important matters, we booksellers.



We also had a visit from Iain Banks who is making a brave attempt to read all of the SF prize shortlist entries I had on display. I asked if he is working on a new SF novel and it transpires Iain is working on something even more important - a book on whisky. Normally he isn’t overly keen on research but he seems to be enjoying his research into uisge betha. Heading off to the Western Isles (home of the finest single malts in the history of humanity) he enlisted the willing aid of fellow local scribe Ken MacLeod as a native guide. We can only hope Iain is successful in persuading the publishers the book should be launched here in Edinburgh and not London - and that they remember to invite the local bookselling fraternity, naturally.

Caught Spike Lee’s new movie - or ‘joint’ as he insists on calling them (a word that has rather different connotations to me). 25th Hour was pretty damned fine - Edward Norton is a drug pusher who is going to jail the next day and spending his last 24 hours with his friends - or supposed friends - his girlfriend (or did she betray him to the Feds?), his father and exploring post 9-11 New York. A haunting opening is beautifully filmed - an opening sequence of the sort we’ve seen so many times before. A montage of the most filmed city on Earth which slowly and cleverly segues and shades from close-ups to panoramic shots… Except shining up from the skyline of Manhattan are the two ghostly pillars of light from Ground Zero; architectural phantoms linking earth to sky. Ground Zero itself is brought into Norton’s final tour of his home city in the most understated and subtle manner. Instead of hitting us with this gaping wound directly it is brought in from the side in a very simple sequence which resonated with power; it was hard not to feel very emotional. 25th Hour was as much a homage to his home city by Lee as it was a beautifully shot tale of life, trust, hope and the taking of responsibility for one’s actions. Excellent.



The lovely Kate at Titan sent me a copy of the latest Mike Mignola’s Hellboy title (thanks, Kate, you‘re lovely). This collection, BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence, Hellboy’s old employers) has some fine short stories which, in the big red guy’s absence, let the other characters have a chance to expand, such as the excellent Abe Sapien and Roger the Homunculus. How can you not love this stuff??? Check out the wonderful, mythical, Gothic world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy before Ron Perlman struts his stuff in the movie adaptation. I’ve posted reviews of most of the collected editions on the Alien Online and the new BPRD review will be up once Uncle Ariel calms down from the (well-earned) high of his success in mortal combat with antiquated plumbing (well done that man, now settle down on your repaired throne with some good reading) - see his blog for the full, epic struggle.

After a few days of being unable to post on the Gazette I’m back and it feels good - thanks for sorting it out, Ariel.



Just reading this month’s issue of Stephen Hunt’s SF Crowsnest - an excellent online resource I’d recommend to anyone interested in SF&F (comes as a monthly digest with links to articles, so you can read what appeals to you only if you wish). Anyway, what is in there but Stephen discussing the same point I had made in a news article on the Alien Online last week: when is SF not SF? Answer: when the broadsheet newspapers review a novel set in a dystopian future where humans may become extinct by their own actions, but it is written by a Booker Prize winning ‘literary’ author.



For those who haven’t read either article, Stephen was talking about a lengthy review in the weekend papers of the excellent Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s new novel, Oryx and Crake, from Bloomsbury (publisher of Harry Potter and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and forthcoming Wolves in the Walls, so people who do well from SF&F sales). As Stephen observed, the reviewer took great pains to ensure the readers of their august newspaper were not reading about one of those disreputable SF authors - and obviously the Handmaid’s Tale wasn’t SF either… Nice to see the mainstream press are still convinced if it is ’literary’ it can’t be genre fiction. I hate seeing my predictions coming right sometimes…



Reminds me of a very posh old geezer who came into our bookstore on Princes Street and asked for a copy of an author he arrogantly said I'd probably not have heard of - Mervyn Peake (duhh - I work in a bookstore, numpty-heid, it's a fair bet I know alot more about authors than you ever will). He was looking for Gormenghast and was utterly (Gormeng)aghast when I showed him to the Science Fiction and Fantasy section that I run. No, no, no he muttered - fantasy? I don't think so... So obviously Gormenghast is a real place, presumably next to the rabbit hole that takes you to the Red Queen's realm... Bollocks to them all - I am an SF nerd and I'm proud of it! I read challenging fiction, concepts that challenge my intellect and characters that explore the human condition, just as all good fiction does but SF is far more free in it's interpretation.

On the note of disreputable SF authors I met up with Richard Morgan, author of the stunning Altered Carbon. Richard was signing copies of his Most Excellent new novel, Broken Angels, for the bookstore on Saturday(check the Alien for the double-header review Ariel and I recently wrote). He’d nicely timed his visit with my finishing time so that I could canter off with him and Matthew afterwards for a few chilled refreshments in Harvey’s in the New Town. Deep-chilled Hoegaarden, good company and some good craic - what more does anyone need? Plus another signed book for my collection (thanks, Richard). Matthew getting his colleague Juliet to bring their bookstore’s stock to the pub for a signing was a touch of class. Signings with authors are often fuelled by wine in-store and end in the pub afterwards, but it’s a tad unusual to do the signing there too. Perhaps I should suggest the Oxford Bar to Ian Rankin for the next author event we do with him?





Just finished reading Robert Reed’s new novel, Sister Alice. I first came across him when Tim Holman at Orbit sent me a copy of Marrow a couple of years ago. I went form looking at the cover and thinking it looked like an Iain M Banks wannabe to being utterly hooked within a few pages. So I have eagerly been waiting for this new novel, which Jessica at Orbit kindly sent to me as a loose-leaf manuscript (very easy to read in bed). Huge concept SF spanning millions of years of advanced human evolution - absorbing and gripping stuff. Check out the review on the Alien the do yourself a favour and read the book.

Rhythm song





Age?



Age matters not,



Whispered the sage:



Only the heart,



And the person,



The special person,



The one person,



Who can hear



Its rhythm song,



And joins in



Glorious chorus.

Hurray - Adam Lyal (deceased) is running once more for the regional list section of the Scottish parliamentary elections. For those who don’t know, the Holyrood ballot has two votes on it - one is the traditional constituency representative, counted in the old fashioned first-past-the-post system. The second is a list for each region, whereby the allocation is according to the actual percentage of votes cast. Both types of MSP make up the parliament and the proportional representational aspect means the parliament has more than the usual parcel of rogues from the big parties, having also independents like Green MSP Robin Harper.



Adam Lyal was hanged 192 years ago in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. This has been no bar on his career however and he can be seen pretty much nightly in his white-skinned face make-up and long cloak, showing folk around his favourite haunts of the Old Town on the Witchery Tour. If elected he promises to stand for more open government, devolve more powers to local level for the voluntary sector and to attend the parliament in his full tour outfit to lighten the atmosphere a bit. I don’t actually want to vote for any of the main parties - if only I could swap my main vote for another list vote, then I could vote for Adam Lyal (deceased) and Robin Harper’s Green Party.



It is one of the good things in UK democracy that we don’t take even the parliamentary elections too seriously, hence the Monster Raving Loony Party, Adam Lyal (deceased) and other joke candidates such as the Liberal Democrats and wonderfully entertaining buffoons like Jack McConnell. Lyal has his own website here.

A report by the Environmental News Network digest about UN scientists who want to go in to Iraq if the US/UK junta will allow them. Not to look for weapons of mass destruction fromt he Saddam regime, but the ones we littered the desert with yet again (not to mention the Balkans). Interesting reading - are we sure we're the good guys? You can opt to have a daily digest emailed to you by ENN.