Infamous Banned Episode of Bod

This will only make sense to you if you are familiar with both Bod (old kids' TV show in the UK) and Judge Dredd (old comic character from the UK). As this is MY readership, I expect most of you will get it ;)

Fulfilling a promise to @stealthmunchkin

I can't sleep, so I downloaded a book to my kindle app and read it. I did this by searching for free kindle books with high ratings and picking ones that looked vaguely interesting. Then I remembered that I promised Andrew that if I got a new book, I would review it. So I did. This is the book, and here is my review:

I'm not going to say that this is the best book I have ever read, but it's better than many. The present tense narrative grated at first, but you soon get used to it, and the story drags you in pretty quickly. There are a couple of scenes in the book that some people might find upsetting, and the language and concepts are definitely not for the faint-hearted. It's also mildly disappointing to discover that even a couple of hundred years into a dystopian future the gender roles are still fairly intact, and all the powerful characters (chief of police, president, etc. etc.) are male, even while the protagonist is female.

All that said, the world-building is competent, the characters are engaging, the story rattles along at a fair pace, and there are a couple of neat narrative touches subverting the genre (the cliche of violet eyes among them).

There are certainly worse ways to spend a couple of hours than reading this book, and I'll probably pick the next in the series up at some point, if only to find out what happens to Alice.

The Blood is The Life 02-03-2012

• The Controversial Case of Typhoid Mary
  Fascinating stuff
  (tags: history )
  
  
• DeConnick and Noto Resurrect Dark Horse's "Ghost"
  YAY! I'm really excited about this.
  (tags: comics )
  
  
• SIGNAL BOOST: Fancy working in comics?
  Here's a chance to get published.
  (tags: comics )
  
  
• Gender and comics: "No more nut-smuggling zeppelins" - Graphic Scotland
  Interesting stuff on gender panels at comics cons.
  (tags: comics )
  
  
• SIGNAL BOOST: Hypatia Special Issue on Feminist Disability Studies
  ... is looking for submissions, with an 8000 word limit and very high academic standards.
  (tags: )
  
  
• Xena and Seven of Nine together in pictures
  (tags: awesome )
  
• Sexism In Fighting Game Culture Says Nothing About Gamers, But It Says Everything About Bullies | The Mary Sue
  Very interesting article
  (tags: feminism )
  
  
• Gender Guidance Group – Be Very Afraid | Sarah Brown's Blog
  I don't consider myself to be the most trans-aware person in the world; I just treat my trans and genderqueer friends as people, and respect that what they choose to do with their bodies is up to them, and use the personal pronouns and descriptions they would like me to use. Apparently, this makes me something of a radical, and certainly streets ahead of the medical professionals who are designated to help trans folk... Seriously, how hard is it to respect other people's needs if they have no conflict whatsoever with your own? I don't get why so many people have difficulty with this. Just because somebody is doing something you would not choose to do does not give you the right to condemn them or denigrate them or treat them as anything less than the full human beings they are. Tossbags.
  (tags: trans )
  
  
• Ahmadiyya Muslim Community - muslim sect differentiation
  A handy guide to what differentiates each of the various muslim sects from each other.
  (tags: )
  
  
• Englebert Humperdink to be the official UK Eurovision entry this year
  ... What? Sorry, WHAT? LMAO!
  (tags: eurovision )
  
  
• Yellow rebels take on Clegg over NHS 'betrayal'
  If this is not a misquote, if Clegg really IS ready to piss all over the democracy of our party, who's for a vote of no confidence?
  (tags: libdemmery )