2007 books

61) Joseph Roth, The Spider's Web, 1923
I began reading Joseph Roth with his last novel The Legend of the Holy Drinker, concluded that he was worth exploring more, and his first novel The Spider's Web absolutely confirms that reckoning. He paints a disturbing picture of post-WW1 Germany, and shows how the seeds of its unfinished war with itself fractured the country still further with the conspiracies of the radical right undermining the Weimar Republic. The writing is often urgent and relentlessly assertive, but with it you get the inside track on what drives Roth's cunning, duplicitous and feral characters to survive in a dangerous time of national schism. Also worth remembering is that it was written long before the rise of Hitler and National Socialism, which makes the conclusion all the more prophetic and chilling. Excellent.

Life imitates SF

Can we use our mobile phones now? Self-driving cars.

We can rebuild him, we really do have the technology: the world's first fully articulating bionic hand.

Contrast and compare: The Doctor Who Human Nature trailer, and the same as done by kids. Excellent!   (via kateorman)

2007 books

62) Maxence Fermine, The Beekeeper, 2000
The Acorn Book Company produces beautifully bound and illustrated short novels, but the stories themselves are often insufficiently substantial to hold my attention much (apart, that is, from this one). The Beekeeper is the third in Fermine's 'Colours' trilogy, all relatively light stories themed on white, black and, here, gold, looking at how colours can define people's life stories. Aurélien Rochefer is a young beekeeper in 19th century France who is pulled by subconscious motives to seek out 'gold' in various gratifying forms, and his journey takes him to Africa and back. Unfortunately it feels too much like The Alchemist but taken in a different direction – life-affirming fables such as this are well and good but they only make any real impact when communicated with the imagination of a uniquely gifted writer, which Fermine unfortunately isn't, the result here being nothing more than a pretty, bland tale.