Geekgasm as well as London Fog

[jesse_the_k]

I was delighted by the remarkable story in the NYTimes today about modular/prefab bridge building. A steel-concrete bridge that customarily required two years of road and rail closures was fixed in a weekend.

Civil Engineering Geekgasm!

There's a clickable (silent) time-lapse showing the bridge going up, as well as details on the equipment used. We could do a space program, yes we could.

Our lovely Madison-based book group, beer_marmalade, recently read China Miéville's YA book, Un Lun Dun. I was disappointed. The best part of his New Weird detective story, The City and the City was his detailed and lively evocation if the metropolis itself. I was eager to read what an urban enthusiast would do to a doubled London where the fog is the sentient and nasty servant of an exceptional evildoer. Unfortunately, the city seemed generic and flat. There's a nice twist on the hero(ine)'s journey, but the ending just peters out. I assume the YA crowd would enchanted by the ubiquitous puns, which did little for me.

Luckily for me, kestrell recommended a perfect palate cleanser: Boris Starling's VISIBILITY. It's set during the historical 1952 fog which functionally froze London for a week. It celebrates the useful skills former soldiers bring to their societies. It features a truly wonderful character whose blindness enables her to lead when most Londoners feel powerless. (Plus she gets to make ALL the snarky blindness jokes.) The big finale is much better than the muddled fight which ended the first Richey/Downey/Law Sherlock movie. I'm ready to go to London now that I can navigate the cityscape Starling carefully crafted in my brain. Highly recommended!

Comments

[libskrat]

I guess that's an improvement over Mieville-for-adults, which is IME gorgeously written but so bleak and horrible that one feels the lovely language has been utterly wasted?

I made it through two of the Bas Lag books before deciding I didn't need any more hopelessness and pointless horror in my life, thanks.

[bibliofile]

I know, right? Un Lun Dun is fun and lighthearted, and not just compared with his Bas Lag novels. If you ever decide to try reading another of his books, pick ULD. (Yes, that may be a big if.)

[wired]

I added Visibility to my list, thank you. I was also underwhelmed by Un Lun dun.

[jesse_the_k]

I hope it gives you the thrills and grins!

[owlectomy]

Hm -- I feel like the sort of YA with a lot of puns and wordplay (Un Lun Dun, but we could lump Ysabeau Wilce and Frances Hardinge in there, maybe) are actually do better with YA-reading adults than with teens. Un Lun Dun definitely doesn't seem to have been that popular with the YAs around here.

[jesse_the_k]

I believe you speak with certain authority! While there have been some YA books that I adored, I don't think it was the YA-ness of them that delighted.

[trouble]

I was so confused about why this post had nothing to do with tea.

In far-distant America, do you have London Fog teas?

(I'm very tired.)

[jesse_the_k]

Hmm, no. Raincoats, yes.

[sasha_feather]

That bridge thing is neat. I sent it to my brother N. and he replied,

"We do a lot of that type of stuff as a company but ours never seems to make the news. Here is a page on our website the does a poor job describing the different things we do. Use the left and right arrows to pan left and right over the picture. There is also a lot of big stuff not even listed on the page too.

http://www.hydratight.com/en/asset-management"