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Archives for May, 2016
Attacked by a Zombie Baby (Story)
English: A participant of a Zombie walk, Asbury Park NJ, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This week I have been attacked by a story about a zombie baby. After spending too much time thinking about what was wrong with some contemporary zombie stories I ended up writing a bit of one to get it out of my head. Zombie Baby Patient zero in my story is a zombie baby. I had an interesting Twitter conversation with some doctors about how an Accident and Emergency might approach it. On the face of it we have a baby that is alive, it reacts to sight and sound and tries to grab people and bite them. So it's alive. However, no discernible pulse or respiration. Here are just some of the tweets I've been writing my zombie baby story in the wattpad app because…
Up Against It by M.J. Locke [Book Review]
Up Against It by Locke My rating: 5 of 5 stars I spent a long time getting into this book. It spent time on the shelf between each of the first few chapters and the time when I make it my main read. I persevered because it was recommended via Charles Stross's blog. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed it immensely. Up Against It - the review Up Against It is a relatively long book, not quite up with some of the fantasy genre, but over 450 dense pages. There are three interwoven plots, which is why it has a slow burn start. There is quite a bit of setup to be done. Once it gets going though it is fantastically good. There is a well defined world for it all to happen in which is internally consistent.…
Zombie Stories Breaking my Suspension of Disbelief
I've been reading zombie stories recently and enjoying them, Max Brooks World War Z for a second time and Frank Tayell's Surviving the Evacuation series (1-3 so far). However, there are a number of things though that I find it hard to keep my disbelief suspended in. Zombie Stories So I completely understand that zombie stories aren't about the hard science, or even about zombies. They're underlying tales of the human struggle with death. We also like the post apocalyptic survival thing. Who doesn't think they could break the rules and survive when society breaks down? It's a cool escapist fantasy, and there are hordes of zombie movies and books out there that pander to it. Zombie Pandemic English: The Spanish Influenza. Chart showing mortality from the 1918 influenza pandemic in the US and Europe. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Pandemics happen.…
MJX X300C Quadcopter Drone [Product Review]
I was sent a free drone for review earlier this year, an MJX X300C Quadcopter Drone. It was a pretty cool toy, and I was looking forward to having fun with it. MJX X300C Quadcopter Drone While the battery was charging, which took about forty minutes, I read the instruction manual. There were a lot of pictures in it, which was just as well. The manual was clearly written in another language and then translated into English by a non-native speaker. It was rather unreadable, although I persevered. In the end I found some better instructions on the internet. I started off testing it a little indoors. I got it paired with my mobile phone. I had to download a version of the app from the manufacturer website as the version in the android store didn't work. I was a little nervous…
Chieftans by Bob Forrest-Webb [Book Review]
Chieftains by Bob Forrest-Webb My rating: 3 of 5 stars Chieftans is a speculative fiction piece on the Cold War going hot in 1985. It was written in the early 1980s and hasn't dated well. Like Game of Thrones everyone dies, but in less interesting and more predictable ways. Chieftans - review There are good points to Chieftans. For the most part the characters are believable and likeable. Bob Forrest-Webb clearly has done his research, and understands British Army soldiers and officers. That aspect of the book was excellent. One of things that didn't quite work for me though was that the book was clearly researched/written about four or five years before it was set (it was first published in 1982). This means that some of the kit wasn't deployed, or had its name/designation changed on deployment. There was also…