Halfman, Halfbook

4.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Humanity has always been on the move. We came out of Africa and have swirled about the planet until we will have filled it. Modern migration has gone from a humanitarian need to a political hot potato. It doesn’t mean that it has gone away, though…

Crossing borders is always a focus of nerves, at the beginning of this journey. Moving from Turkey to Syria has its moments, but a new country has its delights too; learning about the people and the country are two of Watson’s favourite things to do.

One of the best places to do this is to go to a market in a town. It isn’t long before they are accosted and persuaded to visit the stall run by Mahoud. He then invites them to the family home, which, according to him, is only a 20-minute bus ride away.

Another day, another town and a new market to explore. Watson’s descriptions of the produce and goods piled up on the stalls is very evocative. There is a rich mix of people and cultures in Syria, but finding an individual with red hair in this melting pot was most unexpected.
They wander around Roman remains in Apamea, absorbing just how good the Romans were and designing and building things.

Cycling into Damascus is somewhat problematic as they have to battle against a sandstorm. It is really tough going, and they end up pushing against the wind for some of the ride. Leaving a city is much harder, not just navigation-wise; the clear route in is often very complicated going the other way, but also leaving behind some of the creature comforts that city life brings. Their next leg would be doubly hard as they would be crossing a desert with precious few places to get water.

One aspect that comes across in this book is that we share a common humanity, even though the cultural differences are huge between Watson and the people of Syria that she meets. They are constantly reminded of the geopolitical conflicts that have affected this country and its place on the world stage.

Next up is Turkey. It is different in lots of ways, but also very familiar. The culture and foods are very similar in both countries, probably because the way that people farm in a region is broadly similar, regardless of what side of the border you are on. Looking at the map, lots of the places that they were considering cycling through were marks as red. Bandit country! It was both worrying and slightly exciting at the same time. They decide to go for it. Spoiler alert. They survive. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be reading this book.

They spend a short while contemplating their next route. Cycling through Iran had made one member of Watson’s family worried and unhappy. However, all of the people that they met in their first days cycling through had been warm and welcoming. There were delays in getting their next visas, so they knew they would have to change their route.

Tehran is a crowded and busy metropolis. Because of things that have happened and being pragmatic, they decide to take a bus for the next leg of the journey, and then cycle from that place onto the next border. Being back on the bikes was good, but their deadline to reach the next border was fast approaching, and they still had to obtain the next visa for Turkmenistan, which led to a surreal moment before they got to that. The message from the people of Iran was: tell the world what we’re actually like.
They pass through Turkmenistan in a handful of days, battling against the headwinds through the desert. They found the people to be warm and generous all the way through the country.

Uzbekistan beckoned. They didn’t have the best start there, but they warmed to the people after a while. It took a while, but they did find them to be as welcoming and warm as the other countries that they had passed through.

As they passed through the border into Tajikistan, the fatigue from the physical endurance began to show. The upside was that as they cycled through the mountains, the views were spectacular. The grinding relentlessness of the ride was evident, though.

They cycle past minefields and end up camping alongside a Swiss organisation that is helping clear the mines. They endure a two-day uphill ride (!!) along the Wakhan, but are assisted by numerous children who help push them up the steepest bends. They are in border country now, where Tajikistan meets Afghanistan, Pakistan and China, with India nearby. The people have lived in the region for years and are not really concerned about the swirl of geopolitical posturing around them. Every pedal stroke takes them closer to their final destination, China.

I found this to be a really enjoyable travel book. Watson is an engaging writer with a keen eye for the human story in all of the countries that they pass through. She and her partner, Ed, go through all the elation and trauma that cycle touring can throw at them on this journey and yet they still keep smiling and pedalling. Either they were very lucky with their bikes, or she didn’t write much about the wear and tear that the bikes would have inevitably suffered from. I have read a lot of travel books over the years, and I can confidently say that this is one of the good ones. Well worth reading.

5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

One of my favourite words is susurrations. This is the word that describes the sound that the wind makes as it rustles the leaves in a tree. The sound is as wonderful as the word.

When we go into a landscape, we need to use all our senses, including our hearing. This book is an exploration of the sound in the landscape. And wind is one of those strange elements. We can hear it and see its effects, but you cannot see the wind itself.

Sounds have been with us since big bang (can you imagine how loud that was?). Though there was nothing living around to hear it back then, the sounds can still be detected as a background white noise. This was discovered by accident by two astronomers in New Jersey.

Humans have made instruments for thousands of years for ritual and (we assume) entertainment purposes, but can a building be an instrument too? In the Vittala Temple in Hampi, India, the pillars holding the structure up are musical. When tapped, they resonate and oscillate, giving off different notes. I would love to hear it one day.

Before that, humans, have used the acoustic properties of caves. Probably for ritual purposes, but we can’t be certain, though. Ancient instruments that have been played in caves in Spain have an extra depth and almost an ethereal element to the sound. It is also speculated that stone circles have the ability to reflect sounds back into the centre of the circle too.
Animals can make a fair amount of noise too. The chirp of cicadas whilst sitting in the balmy heat of a Mediterranean summer is a happy memory. I remember hearing the roar of a lion at Dublin Zoo, and that sound triggered something deep inside my brain; no doubt the fight or flight response left over from an ancestor long gone. Even the pets we still have at home can be noisy in their own way.

Water is capable of making a whole range of sounds. The relaxing sound of a stream in a woodland has a similar effect to the gentle lapping waves by the beach. Add high winds and low pressure to the ocean, though, and the roar of the waves then is a very different sound. Take a walk outside when it has snowed, and you’ll notice how quiet it is. Partly that is because there are fewer cars moving about, but the snow absorbs sounds very well indeed. However, the crack of ice as you are traversing a crevasse is a very different sound, and not really one that you’d want to hear at that moment.

Most of the noise we hear every day is the din that we humans make. And we make a lot of noise; road and other transport noise, sounds from factories and other industry and so on. However, some of the sounds we can make are just beautiful, singing, and the sounds of instruments played by a very talented individual. Other sounds can be more distressing, though, the keening sounds made by mourners, someone in a lot of pain. One of the sounds of my childhood has long gone now, the long base note of a foghorn; it was powerful enough to be heard through fog over a distance of many miles.

One of the loudest noises ever heard on this planet was the volcano of Krakatoa, which was heard around 3000 miles away. Humans have made some of the next loudest noises when they exploded atomic bombs in various parts of the world. Years later these bombs are still making a sound as they trigger the Geiger counters.

In this world of sound there are some people that seek silence. The closest most people can get to total silence is the inside of an anechoic chamber. It is so quiet in there that you will be able to hear the noises that your body makes. It has been known t drive some people to distraction.

You might think that you’d get some peace at the bottom of the ocean too; however, you’d be disappointed. Even 11km down in the Mariana Trench, you’d hear noises from whales, subterranean earthquakes and even the noise from a surface storm will penetrate that far down. Plus, there is the din that we make in the oceans from propellers, undersea explosions and submarine sonars. This noise is incredibly damaging to cetaceans

I thought this was a wonderful book. It is full of fascinating facts about the ocean of sound that surrounds us. If you were to pick one popular science book to read this year then I can highly recommend this one.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The majority of people, do not think about insects most of the time, or if at all. However, there are two moments when you become very aware of these six-legged creatures that we share the planet with. The first is that moment that you are just dozing off to sleep. and you can hear the tiny whine of a mosquito in the bedroom. The second is when you unfurl a picnic blanket and unpack food on a fine summers day and from nowhere the wasps arrive.

These are just two of the one million known insect species. And one million is around 10% of the total number of species that is thought to number around 10 million in total. And we are utterly dependent on them. They clear up the dead, pollinate countless plants, a lot of which we eat and are key to the immense amount of life on the planet.

I am not sure how you even begin to distil the one million known species down to the 366 different type that the authors have chosen for this book, but somehow they have managed to do it. There are insects in the book that are big, bold and beautiful. There are the weird and the wonderful, the mundane and common and a fair number that are a bit disgusting! They have chosen species that have very specific role and that fill a particular niche

The pictures of the selected insects in the book are amazing. My favourites are the butterflies and moths, but I do have a liking for the bigger beetles, such as the stag beetle, rhino beetle and the iridescent beetles. And who doesn’t love a bee, the range and colours of these insects is staggering.

I found this book endlessly fascinating. Couzens and Ashton have compiled and interesting set of facts, figures and information for each of the chosen insects as well as how they fit into the wider context of ecosystems. If you like insects then this book would be right up your street, and even if you’re not a fan then I would still recommend this book as I am sure you would learn an awful lot.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The boundary between land and sea is constantly changing. Twice a day, the tides ebb and flo,w bringing water up and down the shoreline, and the weather can give us millpond stillness on the ocean or the full wrath of a winter storm, plus everything in between.

Moving between land and sea can be as easy as launching from a shallow sandy beach or almost impossible when you mix vertical cliffs and pounding waves. A harbour makes that transition between land and sea so much easier, regardless of the size of the vessel.

Banning makes the 320-mile journey from Morecambe Bay to the Sussex coast to visit his mother on a regular basis. He sometimes will use this as a stepping stone, taking the ferry to Dieppe to holiday in France. A route that I have done myself a number of times when we have holidayed there in the past. It turns out that this route was the same one that Ho Chi Minh was also on back in the early 19th century. Who knew?

This region is also on the ‘front line’. That is, if you believe the nonsense pedalled out by the right-wing press and amplified by populist far-right-wing politicians who thrive on lies and misdirection.

The truth is much more nuanced than that (read We Came by Sea for a more balanced view). Whilst there will always be the occasional troublemaker arriving in the country, they are few and far between. In fact, probably even less so than in the ranks that support the populists.

The great artist, Eric Ravilious, famous for his pastiches of the rolling Sussex downlands, is also linked to Morecambe. There he was involved in decorating the tea room in the Midland Railway Hotel on the promenade. Banning also talks about another artist that I have never come across before, Harold Mockford. Iam aware of Ravilious’ work, but not yet discovered Mockford. He writes about the decisions that we take, which shape the direction of our lives and the inherent strangeness of our lives.

We have the famous Old Harry Rocks here in Dorset, but in Sussex, that probably an even more famous set of chalk cliffs called the Seven Sisters. These are quite imposing and close to Beachy Head that I have been to the top of a few times. Banning describes them as ‘hung like white curtains’ and like Old Harry Rocks, they are a big draw for tourists, and they are both being eroded by the relentless power of the sea.

I did like this book; however, I did find it a very difficult book to categorise. It is part memoir, part art book, along with a dusting of travel writing. Along with that, it is an observation of the state of our nation through the prism of Newhaven harbour. Banning gets to see it through an outsider’s eyes, as well as noting how the artists Mockford and Ravilious interpreted it in their own  way. I really liked the art of Ian Sharp and the photos that Banning has taken. However, If I were to have one criticism of this book, I found it too short, and it left me wanting more.

3.5 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Lieutenant Lucinda Hardy is on another commission. Her previous commission had left her with a Star of Valor award, but as it was a black op and covered under Top Secret Absolute rules. But people on her new ship knew about it, and she had no idea why it had been declassified.

Professor Frazer McLennan is investigating the inside of a Voortrekker, a ship that had crashed in the southern wastelands of Van Maartensland. He has visitors arriving soon and for someone who doesn’t like people, that is the last thing that he really wants…

Sephina L’Trel was considering her life choices. It wasn’t the most ideal moment to do so, though. She has just decapitated a mob boss, and there were lots of people trying to shoot her. On reflection, she had had better days.

A princess had been hiding in the garden playing a game with two friends. But now she has been caught and has to go and practice her scales. It was an obligation that she really didn’t want to meet, but pushing back against their will would have no effect.

A man in a cell is facing condemnation, and a priest is trying to convert him to Christianity. He doesn’t want to be converted, but relents, knowing that the outcome is, for him at least, irrelevant.

These five individuals would be there when the invasion started. They would face their greatest fears as the enemy is one that want to obliterate the human race. It is going to be messy and brutal, and their paths are inextricably linked. This story is an account of their time in the conflict.
Each of these five individuals tell the story of the invasion from their perspective, the ebb and flow as they come up against the Sturm. We learn of the alliances made between the factions, too, as the intensity of the fight back against the invaders continues after the initial surprise, but there are many losses on both sides. It builds to a high tension and fast paced ending; and that is all I will say about the plot!

It has been quite a while since I have read any military sci-fi, and I thought that this was pretty good overall. The tech feels plausible, though I can’t say I’d want to meet one of these machines that the Marines use! I thought that the plot was fairly good, thoug,h as with any series book, some of the outcomes can be guessed; it is the route there that makes the story. The characters didn’t have much depth to them, but then, this isn’t a novel for character development. I will definitely seek out the subsequent books in the series to read at some point.

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

Stefan Advani is on a boat heading towards an island. He has been banished from the city of Shadrapar, the last of all cities on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. The island is a place where criminals are sent. His crime is agitation, subversion, and attempting to pervert the course of justice. It is a brutal place and almost no one leaves there alive…

It is bleak there. The prison is organic and is in the middle of a swamp. It is somehow kept afloat by ancient pumps that are somehow kept going by an equally ancient engineer. As well as surviving the sadistic prison warders, he has to kowtow to the prison hierarchy which is equally brutal. He doesn’t think he is going to last a week in this hellhole.

The second part of the book takes us back to the city of Shadrapar and is about the events that led up to his incarceration. He has come from a moderately privileged position, though not the upper echelons of the society there. He and some friends decide to write and publish a book. They print 50 copies of it, and no one shows any interest in it at all. Until one day they authorities decide that the book is actually very dangerous as it threatens their status quo, and if there is one thing that the people in power don’t like, it is the possibility of losing it.

His adventures take him underground, to a place that he thought only lived in the darker recesses of his imagination. To find it actually exists comes as a bit of a shock, and what he finds there makes his imagination seem quite tame in comparison. The narrative returns to the island again. Things are afoot there now, and he knows that as the tension builds, he is going to be caught up in the maelstrom.

This is quite some book. It is the first of Tchaikovsky’s that I have read, and I thought it was astonishing. Where he has imagined this world from is a complete mystery. That said, there are elements of it that do feel familiar. There are hints of Venice and the lagoon in which it is located in. The remote prison where criminals and other prisoners that the authorities want to have removed for their convenience is a common happening in societies, even today. Then he has layered that world with all sorts of things that will shock and possibly scare you in equal measure. There are two books that it reminded me of were Paradox by John Meaney and Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. If you have read and liked those books, then I can wholeheartedly recommend this too.