Science with added fiction

I've recently made an executive decision to add science fiction to the Popular Science book review site. For some time now I've been doing SF reviews on this blog, but it seemed more sensible to move them over to the science book review site.

In part, this is because there was already some fiction on there. I'd featured a number of SF (and maths fiction) books which claimed to concentrate on serious science, using fiction as a way to get it across. So, the borderline was already a little fuzzy.

It's also the case that many popular science readers (and scientists) enjoy reading science fiction too - so why not put them together? The Popular Science site will still carry just as many reviews of popular science books - but with a little added SF to spice things up.

To kickstart it, I've duplicated all the SF reviews from this site, and will be going live with the first all-new fiction review this week.

I'll still continue to review other fiction (e.g. fantasy or crime) here that doesn't fit with the science remit. I hope you agree this is a sensible move - do take a look and feel free to let me know either way!

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Why I hate opera

If I'm honest, the title of this post is an exaggeration to make a point. I don't really hate opera. There are a couple of operas - notably Monteverdi's Incoranazione di Poppea and Purcell's Dido & Aeneas - that I quite like. But what I do find truly sickening is the reverence with which opera is treated, as if it were some particularly great art form. Nowhere was this more obvious than in ITV's 2010 gut-wrenchingly awful series Pop Star to Opera Star , where the likes of Alan Tichmarsh treated the real opera singers as if they were fragile pieces on Antiques Roadshow, and the music as if it were a gift of the gods. In my opinion - and I know not everyone agrees - opera is: Mediocre music Melodramatic plots Amateurishly hammy acting A forced and unpleasant singing style Ridiculously over-supported by public funds I won't even bother to go into any detail on the plots and the acting - this is just self-evident. But the other aspects need some exp...

Murder by Candlelight - Ed. Cecily Gayford ***

Nothing seems to suit Christmas reading better than either ghost stories or Christmas-set novels. For some this means a fluffy romance in the snow, but for those of us with darker preferences, it's hard to beat a good Christmas murder. An annual event for me over the last few years has been getting the excellent series of classic murderous Christmas short stories pulled together by Cecily Gayford, starting with the 2016 Murder under the Christmas Tree . This featured seasonal output from the likes of Margery Allingham, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ellis Peters and Dorothy L. Sayers, laced with a few more modern authors such as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, in some shiny Christmassy twisty tales. I actually thought while purchasing this year's addition 'Surely she is going to run out of classic stories soon' - and sadly, to a degree, Gayford has. The first half of Murder by Candlelight is up to the usual standard with some good seasonal tales from the likes of Catherine Aird, Car...

Is 5x3 the same as 3x5?

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