Dead Air

[damerell]

It's a newish Banksie non-SF novel. Beyond the fact that, like most of that stuff, it's not a patch on the SF, a supposedly attractive girl has just been described as having a jawline "like David Coulthard".

What the hell?

Even on a large muscular man, DC's jaw looks unnaturally huge and square. The man could out-chin Judge Dredd. If I were a girl and had to choose a jawline from the set of Formula 1 drivers, he would be about bottom of my list...

Comments

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I'm currently filled with anticipation for his forthcoming SF one, The Algebraist (excerpt in the Guardian recently, incidentally).

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Oh, jolly good. I am now gradually filling with anticipation - which will replace the roughly 2 gallons of water I appear to have sweated last night. I am not well. :-(

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Hope you get better soon. BTW, have you tried out Doom III yet? If so, what do you think? (G's playing it atm; it scares me just to watch :-)

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I am fine now.

Doom 3; no. rei won't run it, and I have a nasty feeling that, like I, Robot, it resembles the original only in name. Also I hear it is too dark.

I _am_ still playing Doom.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

The CEO of my new work is dating David Coulthard's ex-girlfriend, and used to date his current one.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise you could get girlfriend swaps. This must be some new F1 merchandising thing.

Anyway I bet she's not a patch on Mrs Hakkinen (this needs some explanation. It's not that I harbour a secret or public crush on Mrs H. but when Mikka was driving she was always in the McLaren garage, and bored race directors would cut to her looking pensive - so we'd see her two or three or four (or in one case something like twenty-seven) times every race...)

[senji.livejournal.com]

I know someone whose parents were part of a real-life wife swap...

[sleepy-morrigan.livejournal.com]

Speaking of books...

Last time I was at Anime night, I tottered off to your bedroom to talk to wedsand noticed that one of you had "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time"

Any good? Poor Puppy...

[atreic.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/cartesiandaemon/11657.html (for lots of people you don't know narging about the book :-) )

[sleepy-morrigan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I have not read it. I don't think W has yet either...

not a patch on the SF

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a distinct improvement on the last two or three non-SF tho...

Re: not a patch on the SF

[damerell.livejournal.com]

The last one I read was The Business; it's certainly an improvement on that, but seems thus far to consist mainly of the thing a lot of the later non-SF does where the protagonist bimbles about doing lifestyle stuff and has sex.

I don't read many of the non-SF, but I was stuck at Leicester station in a WHS full of bad thrillers, "true crime", and bodice-rippers, having unexpectedly finished all but one of my books for the weekend and wanting to hold the Poppy in reserve for a child-repellent on the train (also it was too thin to last the journey).

I admit that things have just picked up with the introduction of this square-jawed girl but a quick check reveals that I am damn near halfway through the book - this is reminiscent of being told that one only has to watch eight/sixteen/thirty-four episodes of Saiyuki/Escaflowne/Initial D before the show really gets going. Life's too short and maybe it's still lousy after that!

[totkat.livejournal.com]

Please God let David Coulthard and Minnie Driver never decide to get it on and breed. Just think of the children!

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this fictional girl is the offspring of such an unholy union. No wonder she's pissed off.

[lusercop.livejournal.com]

In 20 years how many people will remember what David Coulthard looks like?
In 50?

It seems an odd description to make in a novel.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

It'll be better if people forget what he looks like.

Then it'll just be a strange 20th-century Scottish cultural reference, rather than leaving the reader thinking "My God, this woman is some sort of deformed chin-beast!"

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

It was my impatience for a new Culture novel that led me to discover that Alastair Reynolds, Richard Morgan and Neal Asher are actually better authors than Iaiaiaian M Banks anyway.