Terminal World (8/10)

Alastair Reynolds
Science Fiction


It begins with a fallen angel and ends with one rising. It begins and ends on Spearpoint, a vast tower that rises high into the atmosphere, and one of the last centres of civilisation on this world.

This novel travels far from this heart of the story and the world, and then returns all the way back. In fact this theme is the heart of the story, and touches every plotline...

This is what SF is all about, touches of Steampunk / Cyberpunk, scenes of wonder and realistic, gritty  characters who do not care about how the world came to be, only their own place in it. This novel does not seek to answer every question, or fully explain every character, like a impressionist painting, it suggests, and the readers fill in the blanks on their own...

Some reviewers have complained about the lack of sequels and additional books set in this world. But I fail to see why we need to keep revisiting the same creation time and time again. This is the mentality that lead to Raymond Feist pillaging his Magician reputation to the last atom. Rejoice in what you see, and then move on.

I really enjoyed this book, it created a wonderful world that you think might just have a chance...

Quality 4/5
Readibility 4/5

A few tweaks for the Games (Final)

Part of my essay on reforming the Olympics, earlier parts below...
(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

Team Sports

Team Sports and the Olympics have always been an awkward fit. The basic aims of “Higher, faster, stronger” really only partially appear here. In addition to that, every team sport can hinge on the decision of an umpire or judge, which is the very thing we are striving to avoid at these new Olympics. So happily that means that I can get rid of Handball & Water Polo which really are rather amusing (and similar) sports. Have you ever noticed that if you drained the pool in Water Polo you pretty much get Handball?

We will also get rid of the ‘bouncy’ team sports of Volleyball and Basketball, so the US can say goodbye to two certain golds every Olympics, and volley-ballers can go back to doing whatever it was before they found a use for their height…

The Final Format

You may be wondering what the format for these Olympics would be, as there is such a reduced number of events. 

The answer is simple: One Day.

In a single day the athletes will participate in heats, semis and finals. They are athletes; it should not be that hard. It would be nice if we can put a pool in the middle of an athletics track and do it all in the one place as well! We can have the Jumping, Shot Put and Weightlifting on the side!

Opening and Closing Ceremonies will also be removed, although I did like Rowan Atkinson's effort for London.

So these would be the remaining events:

Athletics events

 100m 

 200m

 400m

 800m

 110m Hurdles

 3000m Steeplechase

 400m Hurdles

 Shot Put

 Long Jump

 High Jump

 Marathon

 4 x 100m Relay

 4 x 400m Relay

 Men's Decathlon

 Women's Heptathlon

 Weightlifting

Swimming events

 50m Freestyle

 100m Freestyle

 200m Freestyle

 400m Freestyle

 1500m Freestyle

4 x 100m Freestyle Relay

 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay

(The long distance swimming events have also been scratched because that seems to have some sort of judgement system to determine if you impeded other swimmers)

There we are, a better, simpler, more pure Olympics; celebrated over a full day, a carnival of athletic prowess. If only we could get rid of the drugs . 

Conclusion.

This was primarily a place for me to lay down a reference for my ideas around the Olympics, but I have also enjoyed the conversations and arguments it has started as well. The Olympics has become a large bloated beast, reducing its' size will go a long way to putting everything that is silly about these two weeks back into proportion.

A few tweaks for the Games (Part 5)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Final)

So there is one major rule that I wish to impose left, and that is around… equipment.

Rule Number 5: No fancy equipment.

Equipment in the Olympics has always lead to a basic inequality between athletes. Every medal in the track cycling in 1984 was decided by the new disc wheels, and cycling continues with ever changing technologies to this day.

Some sports are more susceptible to the performance of their equipment than others (cycling, shooting, rowing) but the fact remains that even such simple things as the javelin is affected by technological development.

So farewell Track Cycling, Archery, Badminton, Rowing, Shooting, Hockey, Table Tennis, Triathlon (don’t start me on domestiques), Pole Vault, Discus, Hammer and Javelin, you have been thrown out of the party.

I have decided everyone can share a metal ball (nice and simple), and so Shot Put can stay. Similarly Weightlifting, where everyone uses the same weights.

Other changes I would propose…

Weightlifting.

Weight lifting is a great concept, but we need to get rid of weight classes (who cares how much small people can lift?!?) and also this idea about ‘snatches’ and ‘jerks’, very odd. One event, the person that can lift the heaviest weight wins.

Swimming

Freestyle is the only stroke, in other words you can swim any way you like, but the first person to the end wins.

Athletics

Triple Jump is gone, as it is just strange, and clearly the product of a deranged mind.

Middle distance events (1,500 – 10,000) are also eliminated as they are just people trying to run as slow as possible until the last lap. The intent was to see who could run the distance the fastest, not who had the best 'kick'. The Steeplechase does not have these issues, so it can be the middle distance event that is left.

The Decathlon  and Heptathlon

The Decathlon will have to be reduced to seven events (as Discus throw, Pole vault and Javelin throw have to go) we will leave in the 1500 metres, as the points come from the time and not from how well you ‘kick’.  We should also make it over just one day, because, really.

The Heptathalon will be reduced to six events (no Javelin), and also will require only one day.

Once I have recovered from this rant fully, we shall view what remains...

A few tweaks for the Games (Part 4)

Rule Number 4: No events involving judgement.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5)

It always ends in tears, someone seems to bribe someone, it can’t be objectively measured, there are ‘unwritten’ rules, and most of us can’t tell what is going on. This could be Grecco-roman wrestling, fencing or gymnastics, but they all rely on scoring systems that cause nothing but problems.

I must admit I have a soft spot for martial arts, there is a certain purity to “last man standing” (or woman) but I have seen incredibly controversial decisions in Boxing and Judo already in these games, and this has leads to a large amount of acting in the Martial Arts generally. Tae-Kwon-Do is a fantastic sport and my son loves it. What do we get in the Olympics? Two people both attempt low kicks and then both throw their hands up in triumph to convince the judges that they hit first, this is not martial arts... It is theatre sports.

Diving was never a sport, just a way to kill time at the pool, and my opinions on it are aligned with Gymnastics.

...which is an incredibly difficult sport to master I am sure, but really it appears to be invented by a race of people who never wanted to go outside and didn’t realise that their whole gym smells of socks (Hello Russia!). I am sure it is hard to do, but ultimately it is like ballet, an art form, not an athletic event. To admit Gymnastics into the Olympics is to admit the possibility that Ballroom Dancing is an Olympic event in the future. They both require artistic moves and get judged, the difference is minimal. (Oh crap, they are trying to get in!).

And then there are the sword fighters... This should be so cool! I mean a bunch of people with weapons trying to hit each other (why don’t they add THAT to archery)! How can this possibly fail? The sad fact is, it is utterly unwatchable, and despite the fact that everyone is (literally) wired into a computer, it still manages to generate controversy. Two people face each other, lunge, and one celebrates. In real sword fighting, stabbing a person one hundredth of a second before they stab you would be considered a draw, at best...

So farewell to Martial Arts (Boxing, Judo & Taekwondo), Wrestling (Freestyle and Grecco-Roman, not that anyone understands the difference), Gymnastics (Artistic, Rhythmic, and yes, even Trampoline!), Diving (Synchronised diving has already been rejected, and now, happily, can be rejected twice) and Fencing. Your passing will doubtless bring tears, but not as many as you cause right now...

This feels good doesn't it? 

The Olympics is getting better by the minute, but what about all those other team sports, Badminton is clearly been working extra hard to get itself excluded this week, but that must wait for the next post...

A few tweaks for the Games (Part 3)

Feeling happier as you watch the Olympics, merrily telling people that in a 'proper Olympics' these  sports would not be there? Well we have many more to go...

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 4)

Rule Number 3: We already have a great event for that!

Football (soccer) - The Olympic version has always been a strange beast, the whole “everyone but three people need to be under 23” is random beyond measre... The world cup should be enough (although well done team GB for managing not to pick Becks, nice).

Cycling (Road) - Le tour determines the greatest complete road racer of the year. All the Olympics does is produce an event where the trade teams can have an unhealthy influence on the overall result (e.g. the Sydney Olympics where Team Telekom won all the medals in a pre-planned move, or this year when Bernie Eisel slotted into the ‘Sky’ train to ride for Cavendish.)

Tennis - AAARRGGH, we already have four tennis majors, why add anything else? Especially when it just becomes a poor man’s Wimbledon (at Wimbledon!). I just realised today there are mixed doubles in as well!

Golf & Rugby – I know, I know, they are not in right now, but they will be in 2016 and the same applies to them as well. Four majors for Golf, and the World Cup for Rugby. The fact that these sports are being added only adds to my frustration here. While I would like to strip the Olympics down to a simple elegant event, the organisers appear to want every sport in the planet involved. Stay tuned for racing boats, oh wait, they tried that already, and didn't it work well...

Part 4