Ironic? You decide...

An anti-abortion activist has been executed for murdering a doctor and his bodyguard. I'm thoroughly opposed to the death penalty, but I can't help feeling there's a certain amount of delicious irony to this story. That could just be my fucked-up Thursday state of mind, though.

Tomorrow Anne and Jess are stopping over. This is to a certain extent a delayed "come and say 'Happy Birthday' to the birthday girl" since last weekend wasn't free, but is also because we haven't seen them for, like, ever. Well, for two months, which is a long time when you've had two months like I've just had. It'll be good to see them both. It seems that Anne and I don't get as many opportunities to chat as we used to, so we'll be getting in a good catch-up sesh.

Anne has been saying that owing to her difficulties with bikinis I should perhaps consider bikini designer as an alternative career. I pointed out that my obsession with DOA:XBV might make this a Very Bad Idea(TM), and she countered saying that surely it made me the best man for the job instead. I'll have to show her some of the swimsuits this weekend, and then we'll see if she still thinks the same...

MUWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I'm chuffed about some of my latest googles. I had a feeling my entries about the weekend would attract that sort of attention but I didn't really expect it so soon. I wonder how long it'll be until you get people who are professional Google Catchers. Not sure how good I'd be at the job but I could certainly submit my googles page as a resum�.

I promised that I'd enthuse about Alastair Reynolds once I'd finished reading Redemption Ark. Well, I've finished reading it, so brace yourself for incoming enthusiasm and ass-kissing.

Alastair Reynolds rocks. He totally owns the 26th Century. And the 27th now too. Revelation Space and Redemption Ark are both examples of Space Opera at its most grandiose. Chasm City is more of a noir thriller, which while no less excellent I didn't enjoy quite so much purely because I'm more of a sucker for grandiose space opera. Indeed, grandiose space opera is the sort of writing I'm aiming for myself. What gives Reynolds the extra edge is that he is also a working astrophysicist, and hence is able to incorporate real theories into his work. He also has a knack for explaining the necessary concepts in something that approximates to laymen's terms. I know I'd never be able to pin down the science quite so well, so my space opera will always tend towards the fantasy end of scifi, where the how of the science is less important.

I used to think that Greg Bear was unique in his grasp of scale and his ability to portray world-shaking or even galaxy-shaking events and make them utterly convincing (and so also terrifying). It would seem now that he is not alone. And Alastair Reynolds is Welsh too. Always helps.

And it's only 8 months now until Absolution Gap is out in paperback. *sigh*