Mark Reece's Blog, page 2

Review- The marriage of Figaro

The reliably excellent Welsh National Opera (WNO) recently performed The marriage of Figaro at the Birmingham Hippodrome, to their usual standard. As someone who had not previously seen the opera, I found the story a little difficult to follow, but it was nevertheless hugely enjoyable.

The sets and costumes were of very high quality, contributing to the farcical tone. I hope the WNO continue to tour in Birmingham in the future.

Short story longlisted

My short story 'Where danger lies' has been longlisted for the Henshaw Press short story competition.

The full results are listed here:

https://www.henshawpress.co.uk/march-...

Short story accepted

I've recently had a short story accepted by 'Southlight' magazine.

'The Game' will appear sometime in May.

Review- Derren Brown at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

I recently saw Derren Brown's 'Only Human' performance at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre. Like many of his shows, this comprised a series of tricks with a common theme, in this case prophecy, leading to a crescendo.

This was the second time I've seen him live, and the tricks all seemed fresh and very well choreographed, involving startling visual effects and, in one instance, a costume change. Brown is a highly energetic and charismatic performer, regularly making the audience laugh.

I don't think the live performances are quite as thematically coherent as Brown's TV series, although that is a high bar; I'd certainly like to see him again during his next tour.

Review- 'Sourcery'.

Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was one of the weaker Terry Pratchett books I've read, although it was often still enjoyable. The wizards depicted in the book are isolated and conservative hedonists and occasional scholars, spending their time in their tower. However, when a sorcerer is born, he wants to introduce much stronger magic into Discworld and make the wizards the new ruling class.

Pratchett's jaunty humour grated a little at times, as I felt there was too little plot or characterization, meaning that every scene felt like the setup to a pun. This made the novel seem forced in places, and I never cared much about what was going to happen. That being said, there were enough vivid descriptions and witty turns of phrases to prevent the book from becoming dull.



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Review- 'Dragons' ballet at the Birmingham Hippodrome

I recent saw 'Dragons' at the Birmingham Hippodrome, which was performed by South Korean ballet group 'Eun-Me Ahn Company'. It was a short ballet at around an hour and fifteen minutes, with a number of rapid scene and costume changes.

The performance utilised holograms of the performers dancing, sometimes alongside live dancing, enabling a range of scenes to be depicted, including an underwater sequence.

The performance was very fast paced and elaborate, images and sounds flashing before the audience. There wasn't obviously an overarching story, although some of the sequences might be said to reflect growth, or joy in life in general.

By contrast, the dancing itself was curiously minimalist, with none of the pirouettes or pas et deux associated with classical ballet.

Although I didn't find the performance as engaging as a narrative ballet, I'd be interesting in seeing this company again, should they return to the UK.

Review- 'This inevitable ruin'.

This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Although I like this series, I think that it has gone on for too long, and this book in particular has too little plot to justify its length. At various points throughout, I had little understanding of what was going on, and several chapters were told from the perspective of characters that had never featured before, meaning that it wasn't clear why the reader should care about them. The overall story was extremely muddled.

Also, the longer length of the book made deficiencies in the writing more glaring than with earlier entries in the series. For example, there was some unintentional humour in the amount of times, and circumstances, that the word 'atop' was used, often in a way that was incongruous to the general tone.

I may now be committed to finishing this series, but on the evidence of this book, I hope it won't go on for much longer.



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Review- 'She's always hungry'.

She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed these short stories, many of which were based around bodily discomfort in some way, including eating disorders, illness, or injury. Stories with a grotesque quality are often satirical in nature, although I didn't get a strong sense of that in this book; instead, there was a stilted innocence in many of the characters, which led them to act in unusual ways.

'The king' was an intriguing story, with the antagonist being an alien that believed itself superior to humans, leading it to wait until a nuclear war, after which, it took the opportunity to establish itself as a god-king, forcing humans to sacrifice themselves to feed it. However, the alien was peculiarly dedicated to certain aspects of human culture, enjoying fizzy drinks, for example, and was offended when accidentally described as a Nazi. I wondered whether the implication was that the creature was immature, despite its age, or simply stupid.

I thought that many of the stories ended too abruptly, making them less satisfying than they could be. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this collection overall.



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Review- 'The shock of the old'.

The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900 by David Edgerton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book argues that many histories of technology are too focused on the point of invention. Instead, the author suggests that the use of technology is more important, especially given that older forms of technology are often used in surprising ways long after innovations supposedly made them archaic. Several interesting examples of given of this, such as that much modern ship breaking is carried out on beaches using primitive methods.

As a corollary of this, the author cautions against a teleological understanding of technology and 'globalization', pointing out, for example, that in recent history, autarkic policies were pursued by many states, and also the vitally important role of state agencies in developing technology, particularly militaries. This is noteworthy in light of recent political developments, where the world might be once again divided into regional trading blocs protected by tariffs.

Furthermore, the book invites the reader to think of 'technology' in a wider sense, including, for example, animal husbandry, contraception, and devices designed to kill, which is liable to change one's view of history. His description of the holocaust is particularly interesting, in which he points out that much of the killing was carried out by small arms, melee weapons, and starvation, although popular depictions of the genocide are often focused on the more innovative method of poison gas.

I thought a weakness of the book was that it was too short to cover that huge amount of material across its chapters, meaning that some sections comprised lists of interesting or surprising facts that were not fully analyzed or ordered into a coherent narrative. Nevertheless, the book gives an excellent critique of teleological ways of conceiving of technological development, and of how to provide a more fully materialist view of social change.



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Review- 'Keys from the golden vault'

Keys From the Golden Vault by Wizards of the Coast

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another good quality anthology of mini-adventures. I found this similar to other Wizards of the Coast books, in that it provided a good framework to weave into other stories, although there were often too many empty rooms, and too many characters from the amount of plot in the stories.

Overall, a useful resource for DMs.



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