LightWorks 2012

British Fantasy Society short story competition 2012

The British Fantasy Society 2012 short story competition is now open for entries, which should be no more than 5,000 words. Any form of speculative/fantastic fiction may be entered. The competition closing date is 30th June 2012. First prize is publication in the BFS journal plus £100. You can find more details here.   

Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize 2012

The Wellcome Trust in association with The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, is running a second annual science writing competition. Articles (which should be suitable for publication in The Guardian and/or The Observer) of 800 words are sought on any science topic. The competition isn't open to professional writers; students are particularly encouraged to submit an article. There's a £1000 cash prize for the overall winner, plus publication and training opportunities for the winner and thirty shortlisted entrants. The competition closes on 25th April 2012. You can find full details and examples here as well as here also. 

Karen Maitland: The Gallows Curse

Norfolk, 1210. England is under interdict: the churches are closed and priests are outlaw. Elena, a young servant to the local manor house, is secretly pregnant with her first child, but is plagued with visions of killing the infant. She seeks aid from a cunning-woman, who gives her a mandrake root and strict instructions. A murder, and Elena is suspected. She escapes, helped by the manor’s steward, who is besotted with her. As she hides out, it becomes apparent that Elena is privy to the details of a conspiracy against King John, and that she is being hunted so she may be silenced.

Karen Maitland’s third medieval England novel (after Company of Liars and The Owl Killers) is a very accomplished thriller; there’s a central murder-mystery, a whodunit in effect, and also slow-burning conspiracy narrative that develops at the novel continues. Though these elements are foregrounded, in a manner similar to the earlier books, Maitland explores the roles and places of women in medieval society, the functions of supernatural authority (both Christian and pagan) as well as more temporal forms of control.

Along the way we learn something of herbalists’ lore (the novel is part-narrated by the mandrake root itself) as well as experience this world from the perspectives of a range of marginalised characters (sex workers, eunuchs, cunning women, a spectacularly realised brothel madam). There’s huge amounts here to enjoy, appreciate and to wonder at: The Gallows Curse is a bleak and splendid read, as well as being rather more accessible than her earlier works and particularly The Owl Killers.

Maitland, Karen. 2012. The Gallows Curse (London: Penguin), 564 pages, 978-0141047447

Jo Powell Memorial Student Writing Competition

From the Creative Crime Student competition website:  "The competition is open to all current students (undergraduate and masters) of creative writing in UK universities. To be eligible students must be a full degree course at a UK university leading to a named award in writing/creative writing comprising at least 25% writing. 


"Entries must be the entrant’s own original work, must not have been previously published, and must not exceed 3,000 words.  Entrants may submit their story to other competitions and/or publications, but must notify the competition organisers if their work is successful elsewhere."

The competition  - which is for short crime fiction - closes on 30th April 2012. There's a first prize of £1000. There are further details here (the closing date has been extended from its original March date). 

Sue Healy, plagiarism, slight return

Another little twist in the ongoing Sue Healy plagiarism saga. Check out her blog post from 21st March 2012:  http://suehealy.org/2012/03/21/the-temptations-of-tea/ where she discusses displacement activity. Not my ickle blog/website; here she's passing on some observations about putting off working. 

Some cynics (and shame on you, you glass-half-empty folk) have commented to me that this might be a shameless attempt to optimise search engine results so that "sue healy" and "displacement activity" don't lead back to my site and the identification of her nicking stuff without permission from here and passing it off as her own (see here: http://www.displacementactivity.co.uk/2012/03/open-letter-to-sue-healy.html and here: http://www.displacementactivity.co.uk/2012/03/reply-from-sue-healy.html).

As of this moment, my material is still on her website (where it's been since last July), under her byline, despite a) her being rumbled and b) her replying to me via her comments page (though she stops short of an apology). That beggars belief, particularly if one were to compare her online biography on her website against her professed understanding of what plagiarism might be reasonably defined as. In short, you don't teach for fifteen years and you don't get an MA without understanding the concept.

So, for the record, Sue Healy, please remove my material from your website and apologise. Thanks.  

Guardian International Development Journalism competition 2012

This journalism competition, now in its fifth year aims to highlight "crucial issues facing the developing world are often overlooked or under-represented by the media".  The competition's challenge "is to write a feature of 650 to 1,000 words on an aspect of global poverty that deserves greater media exposure."  The competition closing date is 3rd May 2012. Finalists and other shortlisted entrants will have their work featured on the Guardian's site. Sixteen finalists will then travel on assignment to a developing country. More details are available here.  Follow-up material on previous winners can be found here.   

The Yellow Room short story competition spring 2012

The Yellow Room is running a short story competition. Stories of up to 2,500 words (on any theme) may be entered. There's an £80 first prize and runners-up awards too. The competition closing date is 31st March 2012. You can find more details here. 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011, directed by David Fincher)

Sweden, present day. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to investigate the 40-year old family guilty secret: the disappearance of a young woman, Harriet. As Blomkvist works to uncover the mystery, he teams up with Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a disassociated ward of the state with tenacity and honed computing skills, to together uncover who in the Vanger clan may be not just be behind Harriet's vanishing, but also a series of Bible-related serial murders.


To be upfront: I've not read either Stieg Larrson's source novel nor seen the 2009 original film version. An odd and discordant title sequence, a gothic spin on a Maurice Binder/Daniel Kleinman James Bond opening, begins the film. We start with Blomkvist; only slowly and as a supporting character is Salander introduced. 


What works is the central ninety minutes, a tremendously-well sustained second act of library and internet searches, moody smoking and the building of those family tree wall-charts beloved by movie sleuths. We're not quite in the same terrain of Fincher's superior Zodiac, but we're not far off. The performances are good throughout. Rooney Mara is something of a dead-eyed revelation and Daniel Craig holds his own in what amounts to a supporting, though central, role.


There are issues with the first and third acts.  With Salander being introduced late, we don't connect with her, nor are given cues by Fincher that she's supposed to be our focus for empathy. She's hideously ill-treated by at least one character, but that comes across as crassly manipulative rather than affecting. The third act doesn't work as, the central, and as it turns out both uninvolving (they're all rich fascists, so who cares?) and easily guessable (hint - look at the cast list and see if you can't spot the villain from the actors on display) mystery is resolved, we're left with half an hour of wrapping up an awkward and oddly-explained revenge story concerning Blomkvist's original fall from grace and Salander's attempt to reach out to him by providing redress. None of this works, dragging the movie off into sub-Ocean's 11 territory where it has no right being.


Not having read the original, I'm not in a position to comment as to these are issues with the source material or with this version. The film looks great throughout (though there's no reason whatsoever for this not to have been relocated to American locations) and the middle hour and a half is very solid.  Fincher is restrained throughout (there's a sense this is work for hire rather than a passion project) and though he's worked this kind of material rather better already in the aforementioned Zodiac, the movie's been a respectable hit, so may well engender remakes/revisions of the second and third Millenium novels.           

National Flash Fiction Day 2012

National Flash Fiction Day is almost upon us.  To mark this, there's an anthology being prepared of flash fiction of between 150 and 500 words.  The pieces should have a single-word title and the title should be the impetus for the piece.  You can find more information here. The anthology closing date is 10th April 2012.

Rory Clements: Prince

London, 1593. Crown intelligencer John Shakespeare is instructed to investigate the murder of playwright Kit Marlowe. The enquiry dovetails with other missions; uncovering the author of a series of seditious pamphlets, anti-Dutch attacks including a series of terrorist explosions (one of which kills Shakespeare’s wife), and the gradual uncovering of a conspiracy to place a previously unknown son of Mary Queen of Scots on the throne of England.  

Rory Clement’s third John Shakespeare novel (after Revenger and Martyr) is a very busy beast indeed.  A maelstrom of elements (the threat of plague, dissident patriots, scheming foreign diplomats, a long-lost love, the death of the protagonist’s wife, plenty of torture, stolen gunpowder, pretenders to the throne, Scottish witches) keep the reader hurtling through the book and there’s plenty of thrills and fun to be had on a page-by-page basis, though the ultimate effect is rather wearying. 

The multiple (and sometimes overlapping) plot elements are well-handled, but the cumulative feeling is one of being impressed at the organisation of the plot mechanics rather than feeling anything about Shakespeare, his sidekick Boltfoot Cooper, and their many predicaments. Some great moments are there, though some others with potential are given short shrift. We never dwell on anything: momentum is key here and while that certainly gets the pages read, what we never feel is any close attachment to what’s going on.  A shame, because there’s much that’s enjoyable and Clements’ orchestration of the narrative is skilful, but there’s no heart to be had in Prince.  

Clements provides a useful bibliography, some historical notes which underline the plot elements that have some basis in history, and short glossary of key figures in Elizabethan theatre, many of whom have walk-on parts in the novel. 

Clements, Rory. 2012. Prince (London: John Murray), 420 pages, 978-1848544284 

David Pirie: A New Heritage of Horror

The first edition of David Pirie's A Heritage of Horror was a landmark book, and one much sought after while it was out of print, being the first serious study of the British horror film.  This 2007 update (hence the "New" in the title), greatly expands on that version, adds in huge amounts of detail, and make hopeful predictions for the future. 


The story, essentially though not exclusively, is that of Hammer Films.  The company's fortunes are traced from its beginnings as a B-movie provider of film adaptations of UK radio properties (Dick Barton, PC 49 and so on) in the 1940s and early 1950s, moving on into the then new medium of television with versions of the first two Quatermass serials.  Pirie's central hypothesis is that the English Gothic horror movie, beginning with 1956's The Curse of Frankenstein, represents a distinctly national genre of film narrative; as English as the Western is the the United States.  This is detailed through examination of Hammer product from the mid 1950s through to the its disintegration in the mid 1970s, through case studies of director Terrence Fisher, screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, and through an ongoing reference to the political economy of horror film production and in particular Hammer's relationship with the censorship authorities. 


Throughout, Pirie's writing is enthusiastic, personal, and quirky.  The approach is idiosyncratic at times and it's not a complete survey (fan favourite Kronos/Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter and its writer/director Brian Clemens is all but ignored; there's no consideration of the precise spoofing of Carry On Screaming as indicative of Hammer's cultural impact by the early 1960s), but it's an enjoyable journey which also offers a potted history of the through-line of UK horror films to the late 2000s.  Pirie finishes at the time which Hammer's revival was still a long-running rumour, though with the brand revived (Let Me In, Wake Wood and the 2012 success of The Woman in Black) there's perhaps  both scope and a market for a further revision.           


A New Heritage of Horror is a must-read for all fans of the genre, of British cinema in general, and for anyone who's read/seen Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies and Mark Gatiss's recent BBC horror documentaries, both of which owe debts to this landmark work, and develop its ideas in different ways.


Pirie, David.  2007.  A New Heritage of Horror (London: I B Tauris), 256 pages, 978-1845114824

Writers Reign "One Moment In Time" competition

This year's Writers Reign short story competition is based around the theme "one moment in time" (which shouldn't be used as an entry title).  Stories should be upbeat, pivotal around the protagonist and have a word-count between 1,000 and 1,500 words.  There's a £100 first prize, plus runners-up awards, and website publication on offer.  The competition closes on 30th July 2012.  You can find out more here. 

The Big Bad anthology submissions call

The Big Bad is an upcoming anthology of bad-guy fiction: the badder the better.  Bad gals are as welcome as bad men, but the focus should be on the nemesis figure, male or female.  Submissions should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words, and be received by 31st July 2012. There's more details here.  

Clive Bloom: Bestsellers

This second edition of Bestsellers provides both a first section encompassing an overview of British leisure reading and its contexts (literacy levels, libraries, censorship, the publishing industry, book formats), popular genres of fiction, plus a new section on children’s literature and a second section which gives chronological career overviews and selective bibliographies of a range of authors of popular fiction from the early 1900s to the present day. 

Throughout, Bloom’s writing is passionate, articulate and at times opinionated and necessarily selective (there are moments which recall something of the grumpiness towards the modern expressed in Leslie Halliwell’s annual Film Guide), though as part of the enterprise is to provoke debate as much as to give an objective assessment of the popular, this is very welcome.  Bestsellers also has the effect of reminding us of the ephemeral nature of much popular culture, and of re-drawing attention to authors like AEW Mason, Charles Garvice and Marie Corelli, who have all but faded from the popular consciousness. 

Bloom, Clive.  2008.  Bestsellers: Popular Fiction Since 1900 (London: Palgrave Macmillan), 425 pages, 978-0230536890

Stephen Porter: Pepys' London

An overview of the London of the second half of the seventeenth century.  Porter’s book on the 1666 Great Fire is a splendid account, and this volume adds to reputation as a popular historian of the Restoration era.  Here, rather than offer the kind of detailed social history you might find in, say, Liza Picard’s Restoration London, we get both a potted history of the pivotal events of the time (plague, fire, the Popish Plot, the Glorious Revolution) and their effects on London.  There’s plenty of useful input on the reconstruction after 1666, on the economics of the city, on pollution, building regulations, leisure and the like. 

Porter’s approach is to tell the story of the city through quotations; we get supporting first-hand evidence from an impressive selection of contemporary sources and figures; there’s no restriction to Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn here.  The book is very well accompanied by pages of relevant illustrations and an excellent bibliography and detailed notes.  Overall, it’s a fine addition to any bookshelf on the seventeenth century.     

Porter, Stephen.  2011.  Pepys’ London: Everyday Life in London 1650-1705 (Stroud, Amberley Publishing), 256 pages, 978-1848688698

SJ Parris: Prophecy

London, 1583.  Six months after the events documented in Heresy, crown intelligencer and philosopher Giordano Bruno is directed by spymaster Francis Walsingham to investigate a spectacular murder in Queen Elizabeth’s court, a killing which seems to indicate both an assassination conspiracy and its prophecy.  Bruno’s enquiries take him to Elizabeth’s mage John Dee and into the intrigues of Catholic sympathisers and plotters.  More bodies accumulate, each relating to dark astrological portents, occult forces and once more, to the secret book that Bruno is searching for, so that he can complete his own masterwork.  

The second Bruno adventure is similar to the first in both its pleasures and its discontents.  The downside first; the solution is guessable, if not obvious.  The upside; that’s not too important in the wider scheme, though any novel with a whodunit element is compromised if this isn’t wholly successful.  As in Heresy, Prophecy is well-written, has some intriguing supporting characters (Dee’s household is well-portrayed) and there is a well-judged depiction of Francis Walsingham.  Bruno as before is lots of fun to spend time with and the conspiracy elements to end Elizabeth’s reign and bring a Catholic monarch to the throne are done with verve.

Parris, S J.  2011.  Prophecy (London: Harper Collins), 425 pages, 978-0007317738

SJ Parris: Heresy

Oxford, 1583.  Giordano Bruno has latterly arrived in England as part of the French ambassador’s retinue. An ex-monk, excommunicated for heretical reading, he’s established himself as a controversial philosopher at the French court, though has been removed from there, though he retains the French king’s favour, for his own safety.  In England, he’s recruited by spymaster Francis Walsingham as a paid informant.  Bruno travels to Oxford as part of an ambassadorial delegation and to take part in an academic debate.  On arrival he’s thrust into investigating a series of murders seemingly linked to a book documenting martyrs’ deaths.  Bruno has a secret obsession he’s pursuing also; locating a copy of a sacred text believed to be held in an Oxford library, which will assist him in completing his own philosophical masterwork.

SJ Parris’s (the pen-name of journalist Stephanie Merritt) first Bruno novel is a rollicking yarn, a pacy and well-written piece of historical serial-murder detection.  Bruno is an attractive protagonist, with his air of mystery, his progressive views on the cosmos and his utter dedication to following his goals, complicated by his ability to attract enemies, awkward female admirers and unwanted attention (for an intelligencer).  Not quite as classy an entertainment as, say, CJ Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake novels, this is nevertheless superior genre fare with lots to recommend it (not least the way it plays around with genre-appropriate tropes familiar with anyone who’s read The Name of the Rose), including some plausible history, colourful supporting characters and a very neat locked-room mystery. Only the resolution lets matters down a little; the solution/villainy being straightforwardly guessable.  That said, there’s lots to take from Heresy and plenty to make further adventures for Giordano Bruno a pleasing prospect. 

Parris, S J.  2011.  Heresy (London: Harper Collins), 475 pages, 978-0007317707

A reply from Sue Healy

Sue Healy commented on the blog post on her website as below.  She didn't reply to me directly via Twitter, and there's no apology for plagiarism as such, nor did she take down the plagiarised blog postings immediately.  


The idea that this is an adequate response from a professional writer is open for discussion, I think.  Her words:


"Hi Eamonn,

Sorry to have upset you there, I understand how you feel. As it happens, I was just setting up my blog when I pasted some stuff from your site – I’m afraid i was not really aware back then of how this all works (ie re-writing, attributing etc…). I do now, and have since learned to spend the same several hours each month putting together my own lists (as you’ll see on my most recent lists).

I appreciate that I should have contacted you once I realised the convention etc… My apologies for that. Your blog is great and your generosity with your time is commendable. Keep up the good work!

Best

Sue."

Some early thoughts.  


One, as someone who deals with words on a daily basis, the notion of plagiarism surely isn't an alien one.  It's hardly going to come as a massive surprise if some one else is "upset" if their material's been copied.  


Second, the idea of "not being really aware of" this is open to question, bearing in mind the above.


Third, if one was in such a state of naive bliss then maybe if you had, unprompted, become "aware ... of how this all works" then you might have corrected it automatically at the time awareness manifested itself, perhaps with an apology, perhaps not, rather than having the copied content remain on the website until such time as one were confronted by the person who actually put those words in the order in which one had claimed for themselves.       


Fourth, the idea that my blog is "great" or otherwise is subjective (though, thanks).  It is however mine.  For good or ill, I write this stuff.  More than that, I research it.  This means that when I post a book review, they're my observations on having actually read that book.  If I've reviewed a movie, I've actually seen that film and I've recorded what I've felt.  


If I've collated some information about a writing competition, (which I do as I teach creative writing from time to time and I've got mailing lists of students that I send the information onto because I want to provoke / cajole / invite / encourage them to get involved and to get their work out there) then I do so in my own words as far as I am able having found that information for myself and I always provide links to the ultimate information source.  


In short, if it's got my name on it, it's because I wrote it.    


Over to you.  Please use the comments box below.

An open letter to Sue Healy

What follows is a message left this evening on author and artist Sue Healy's website by me, and communicated to her via Twitter (we follow each other).  It's fairly self-explanatory, I think.


"Hi Sue

Thanks for re-posting these competition listings ( http://suehealy.org/2011/07/11/current-comps-for-yall-to-chew-on/ ) originally from my website http://www.displacementactivity.co.uk – the wording of all these is mine, though the competition details are, naturally, those of the respective competition organisers. All you’ve done is copy and paste the material and passed it off as your own.

Perhaps next time you’d be so kind as to rewrite the competition details in your own words, or at least have the consideration to not attribute your byline to words which are not yours.

I spend several hours each month gathering and filtering from multiple sources (writing magazines, NAWE, independent web searches, so on and so forth) the competition details I put up on my little site, which I do largely for the benefit of students I work with. It’s a tad disappointing to find this work recycled without permission under someone else’s name.

Yours.

Eamonn Griffin"

Seven On Laughter anthology call for submissions

Seven On's next anthology is on the theme of laughter.  They're after stories of up to 2,500 words on that theme, and they'll publish the best seven of them.  Simple as that!  The closing date is 7th April 2012.  You can find more details here.

Fading Light anthology

Fading Light, a new e-anthology of fiction concerning monsters, is seeking submissions of between 3,000 and 5,000 words.  Submissions are open until 15th May, with the anthology being published by Damnation Books in September 2012. For more information, and specifics about what the editor is looking for, see here. 

Ifakara Bakery Project writing competitions

Park Publications is supporting prose and poetry competitions raising funds for the Ifakara Bakery Project, a Tanzanian charity.  Prose of up to 1,500 words and poems of up to 40 lines are called for, each working on the theme of "hopes and dreams".  Both competitions offer prizes from £150 downwards and anthology publication in the Spring of 2013.  The joint competition closing date is 30th November 2012.  Full details on all Park Publication competitions can be found here.  The Ifakara Bakery Project is online here.   

She's The One writing competition for International Women's Day

March 8th 2012 (isn't that today - if you're reading this on the day of posting anyway) is International Women's Day.  She's The One is an open writing competition (prose fiction, poetry, non-fiction may all be entered) is on the lookout for entries up to 350 (three hundred and fifty) words which celebrate achievements of and by women in history; famous, family, unheralded - your choice. The competition closes on 30th June 2012. Selected entries will be edited into a collection for publication later this year. You can find more competition details here and there's more information about International Women's Day here.  

Momaya Press 2012 short story competition

Momaya Press's annual short story competition is now open for entries.  Stories should be up to 3,000 words in length and should be based on this year's theme, which is "heat".  Prizes run up to $200 and the top ten entries will be published in the Momaya Press Annual Review 2012.  Entries close 30th April 2012.  You can find more information here.

JournalStone horror novel competition 2012

JournalStone's second annual horror novel competition is now open for submissions.  Novels of at least 75,000 words are sought, with a range of prizes of in the form of advances against royalties ranging from $2,000 to $200.  Entrants should send their completed horror novel to the organisers no later that 1st April 2012.  You can find full details about the competition here.   

New Tricks With Matches writing competitions

New Tricks With Matches has announced details of short story and poetry competitions, both with closing dates of 30th April 2012.  Short fiction should be up to 2,000 words, poetry up to 40 lines.  There's no restriction on theme.  Prizes include publication and free anthology copies.  You can find more details here. 

James Forrester: The Roots of Betrayal

England, 1564.  William Harley, instructed by Queen Elizabeth’s minister Lord Cecil to guard a document which would destroy her legitimacy, goes on the run when the document is stolen from his care. Harley battles Catholic rebels, his former friends, Crown enforcer Walsingham and revenge-driven pirate ‘Raw’ Carew in attempting to restore his good name by finding and quashing the document before it can be used to incite either rebellion or a pogrom against Catholics in England.

A direct continuation of the first Hawley novel Sacred Treason, The Roots of Betrayal is a linear chase in book form, with the at times surprisingly hardy hero enduring multiple running skirmishes, a sea battle, several escapes, tortures and standoffs, being as able with his fists and as determined in his character as he is useful with a quill.  Forrester’s (historian James Mortimer) aim here is rip-roaring entertainment rather than strict plausibility and on that level The Roots of Betrayal delivers, with plenty of action, colourful supporting characters and a proper old-school moustache-twirling villain in Walsingham.  The writing is brisk enough to power the reader along with the storyline; some details might get lost in the journey (Carew’s motivation is a bit awkward and the final reveals are ultimately disappointing as they’re easily reversed) but for the most part this is huge amounts of fun.

There’s a useful postscript where the author underlines his stance on historical fiction and his attitude towards historical ‘accuracy’; he’s clear that his obligation is to the story and nothing else, and points of concordance with historical record should not be taken to infer that some kind of theory is being propounded.  As Mortimer/Forrester says here “[t]his is a work of fiction – pure fiction”.    

Forrester, James.  2012.  The Roots of Betrayal (London: Headline Review), 440 pages, 978-0755356065

Stylist / Faber & Faber Crime Fiction Competition

The Stylist magazine, in association with publishers Faber & Faber, has announced a crime fiction competition for thriller/crime novelists.  Submissions should feature a female protagonist.  Entries should include the first 6,000 words of the novel, a synopsis and a brief biography of the lead character.  Entries should be with the competition organisers no later than 12 July 2012.  Prizes include publication of the winning novel and an advance of £5,000. You can find more details here. 

China Mieville: Embassytown

The edge of the universe, an unspecified future.  Avice is a simile in a universe where Hosts, godlike creatures of pure language, can only utter truth, and whose words are mediated by twin Ambassadors.  The Hosts gather to try to tell lies, their failure to do so is a source of much wonder.  Stability is threatened when a new Ambassador introduces the Hosts to the possibility of fiction; they begin to learn to dissemble.  Language becomes a drug and both Embassytown and the worlds beyond are threatened as chaos spreads.

Embassytown is ambitious, ideas-driven SF, both old-school and modern at the same time.  I’m not sure that all of it stuck with me on a first reading (I have a mild aversion to SF names) but we’re driven along by a straightforward central plot (everything tends to entropy), some passages of fantastic writing, great throwaway gags and notions, and a sense of continuity with themes explored in Mieville’s earlier novels.  Perhaps it’s a little self-consciously clever in places, but that may well be part of the point.  A cult book in the making; the kind of sci-fi you could imagine Roland Barthes writing.        

Mieville, China.  2012.  Embassytown (London: Pan), 405 pages, 978-0330533072