The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian - 4 of 5 stars (My Goodreads Review)

The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O'Brian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the usual period dialogue, we are transported back through time to stand upon the decks of HMS Surprise. Jack Aubrey's personally owned ship. It is not Royal Navy any more but a privateer with a crew of various types of seamen. The Royal Navy has a sort of secondment over the vessel and Jack Aubrey still hold his re-instated Royal Navy rank. The war with the fledgeling USA of 1812 - 1814 is still in process.

Midway through this story, there is a gripping naval action. The whole drama is bought alive before the reader's imaginative eye. Patrick O'Brian's method of drip-feeding the reader's story development via the dialogue between his superb characters is wonderfully subtle and I think this is what brings this ongoing saga to life. Splendid reading and, of course, I can't wait for the next story. Smashing stuff!

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Aboard HMS Thunder Child from H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.

THE ALIEN FIGHTING MACHINE WAS TORN APART BY THUNDER CHILD'S FURIOUS GUNS.
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1. Did you enjoy the dreadful thought of the War of the Worlds Tripod Fighting Machines from Mars?

2. What About the War of the Worlds 1953 Radio Broadcast?

3. Or the Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds Musical?

4. Do you like War of the Worlds 2005 movie?

5. Do you like War of the Worlds 1953 movie?

From Mars, the meteorites shot through space-bound for Earth and conquest over all life forms that live there. The Martians were unfeeling towards mankind as humans are to sheep or other lesser creatures.

The meteorites land in fields and woodland. After a time, there emerges the terror of mankind. Colossal tripods, before which, humanity flees as the onslaught of the fighting machines begins. People are destroyed by heat rays and black toxic gas. Those that survive are forced to flee the pursuing devastation.

Aboard H.M.S. Thunder Child, the crew are blissfully unaware of the savage terror. Only the new Captain knows and only upon the journey, at sea, do the crew begin to learn the unbelievable news from semaphore stations.

War of the Worlds Pastiche.

Have you ever enjoyed H.G. Wells War of the Worlds, an all-time classic Science Fiction story written in 1898? It tells of a Martian invasion that begins in Britain in the County of Surrey just South West of London. Close to a town called Woking. In fact, if you ever visit the town there is a statue of a Martian tripod in the shopping centre. If you have read this story, you will know of the ironclad H.M.S. Thunder Child that is forced to defend the paddle steamer full of refugees. Do you wonder what it would be like to join the crew a few days before the event? You could follow the brave men on their terrible journey around the coastline and up the River Blackwater to Maldon and the final confrontation with three Martian tripods?

Has Anyone read the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O' Brian?

I have resumed reading the Patrick O'Brian Naval stories of the Aubrey-Maturin series. I am on novel 15 at the moment. It is called Clarissa Oakes in the UK. It is known as The Truelove in the USA. Many of the stories are set during the Napoleonic war, but a huge section of the this Aubrey-Maturin series takes place during the US/British and Canadian War of 1812 to 1814.

The stories unfold as a continuing saga. A little like Poldark at sea, The dialogue, of which there is a superb and rich amount, makes the reader feel they are there in the time of early 19th-century sail. The descriptions of ship, sea and tide are very compelling. The two main characters of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin show us everything we need to know as these dynamic stories sail on.

At sea, Jack Aubrey is a man of great substance. He has a knack of telling how a ship is upon sight. He can tell if the crew are seasoned by the way the enemy or a friend goes about the rigging. He can note an experienced group of seamen who have not worked together before. He notices every little blemish of vessel or crew. He is a Royal Navy officer who knows his trade.

Stephen Maturin is Aubrey's physician and is also a British government secret agent. He knows nothing of seamanship but is excellent friends with Jack Aubrey because of their shared interests in music. As a physician, he also makes for a competent ship's surgeon.

By contrast, Aubrey is a complete duck out of the water upon land. A bit of an idiot who seems to get himself into all sorts of financial problems when back home. Here, his trusted friend Stephen Maturin often comes to the rescue.

These Aubrey-Maturin naval tales are a complete delight. I think there are about twenty stories in the saga. Therefore, after this serious is finished, I'm thinking of the Alexander Kent, Richard Bolitho stories. What does anyone else think? I would like to hear from any person who enjoys a good naval yarn. 

Chatterton by Peter Ackroyd (My Goodreads Review)

Chatterton by Peter Ackroyd

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A very interesting story. I read it a long time ago. I had a fascination with Thomas Chatterton and had seen a documentary about the young man. Therefore, I bought this. The story jumps from Thomas Chatterton's final days and then forward in time to Henry Wallis, the English Pre-Raphaelite painter who is painting the famous The Death of Chatterton painting. The young man lying dead on his bed.

This painting was done in 1856 and the model was an up and coming novelist and poet named George Meredith. The young model's wife would run off with the painter, Henry Wallis. Debauchery and vagabond people of the world of writers, poets and painters. Worth reading.

I felt the story concentrated more on Henry Wallis and other people out of time than it did Chatterton. But it was still an entertaining story of Pre-Raphalites with Chatterton's story as more of a support role. Worth reading if you are interested in Henry Wallis the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite painter. The parts with Chatterton needed a little more in my humble opinion.

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How Many of Us Would Like One of These?

These flying contraptions look like great fun. Where I live in the Fenlands, our neighbouring little Hamlets are miles away. One could fly just a little way over the hedgerows and travel directly to the neighbouring town. No winding roads no worry about bridge river crossings. Just straight as the crow flies.

Then a dreadful thought. What if they replaced mobility scooters? Oh dear, the sky would be congested with doddering old folk scaring all the cows and sheep as they raced across the meadows at three miles an hour. :D 

John Carter and the Vicious Plant Men of the Valley Dor.

                                                                   

John Carter goes on a further adventure to Barsoom. This time he arrives in the mysterious world of the plant men and the great white apes. He has materialised in the Valley Dor. The place where Barsoom people believe the afterlife live on. It is the land at the end of the River Iss where Barsoom people go to die. A sort of Elephant's graveyard. A place from which no one returns. Land of the dead. A world Barsoom people believe the afterlife continues with renewed splendour. It all sounds wonderful and fine. When the people of Barsoom decide they are too old, the pilgrimage along the River Iss begins. They will never be seen again once entering the Valley Dor.

Except when anyone makes the religious pilgrimage of death, they are unaware of the horrors that face them. John Carter appears on the plain where he observes the herds of plant men. Then he sees a group of green Tharks come upon the land via the river. Old people making the journey to what they believe is, Heaven. The Tharks are set about by the plant men. One of the Tharks is none other than John Carter's old friend, Tars Tarkas. From here on we go on an adventure of fighting

If any of the new arrivals escape the vicious plant men or the white apes, they find themselves in the land of the Therns. The survivors are enslaved and often eaten by the Therns. In this terrible land of the Therns,  we are introduced to the slave girl Thuvia. There are daring escapes and new dangers among the Black Pirates and the vile self-proclaimed Issus Goddess of Barsoom's underworld. Here, John Carter and the Thern Princess Phaildor find new dangers.

There are splendid battles as John Carter dreams of escape to the nation of Helium where his wife and love Dajah Thoris is. Also, his child who was in an unhatched egg prior to his ten-year exile back on Earth. On this note, there are other splendid and delightful surprises. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs novels are pulp fantasy adventure stories. But pulp adventure done right is breathtakingly addictive and wonderful escapism. This second John Carter of Mars story is a real roller coaster adventure of damsels in distress, noble heroes and colourful villains. It is glorious to be John Carter with his black and white simplistic rules of honour. Plus his superhuman strength on Mars. This enables him to be a warrior of distinction. It is all wonderful escapism. 

Have Any of You People Watched...? D

Torchwood – Children of Earth

I have only just discovered Torchwood. It is a science fiction show that I meant to watch and put off due to doing other things. My eldest son said he had enjoyed the show. Obviously, years went by and then I decided to by the first season on eBay. I watched and enjoyed.

Instead of going for the season two next, I decided upon the third season of Children of Earth. It was a continuous story in many episodes. The whole set up grabbed my imagination straight away. The use of children, throughout the entire planet, to alert the powers that be, of alien visitation.

1. The Slow Realisation of Horror that is Revolting

This is done very well as all the children just stop and stare up into the sky. Every child in a trance for a minute or two. In shopping centres, at school, walking along the street. They just stop and stare upwards. It is all very creepy. Then they snap out of their trance and carry on playing as though nothing has happened. When the next communication comes the children stare into the sky again and after a time they all break into a high pitched scream with their mouths wide open. Then they begin to chant, “We are coming, we are coming.” It is all very disturbing and the trepidation of what is coming begins to get very powerful indeed.

The British government seems to have some prior knowledge of the alien coming as this type of thing has happened on a smaller scale many decades back in a remote part of Scotland. All the introductory groundwork is laid out and the audience is drip-fed this potential alien coming. It is something ominous and terrible. As the plot begins to unfold the politics of the dreadful situation begins to take over. The horror of what is coming is outweighed by the horror of what the government must do in secret.

The story is very clever in that we do not need too much of the alien presence. Just to know of the eventual arrival and the diabolical preparations that world governments must undertake to preserve the human race is where the crux of the science fiction story lies. The mere suggestion of our elected politicians collaborating in such a dreadful expectation is what becomes most chilling. The sight of the nauseating alien is almost unnecessary. The visitor’s demands are sheer horror. What it has done before is hideous and very disturbing. The government’s collaboration is even more appalling and sickening. Stomach-turning selfishness begins to take root.

2. The One Bad Point

Then there is the population mass panic part as realisation and the Torchwood team battle to salvage and limit the inexcusable effects of the dreadful situation the planet is in. This part of the story went a little wobbly for me. For a time, this aspect of the story was not so believable or presented that well. The round-up as the armed forces went out trying to gather. It was not credible or convincing.

Then the notion and idea of battling the vicious impasse that the human race was in, brings the story back to some form of credibility. Everything apart from the snippets of mass panic were done well. The population alarm was a little corny in my opinion. It took a little integrity away from this rather good science fiction story.

So much of this tale was carried by the mere suggestion of something inexcusable. Something that would need to happen. Yet something we could never let happen. The whole situation was spine-chilling.