The Wold Newton Universe is another World!

I live in the Wold Newton Universe. Not the Philip Jose Farmer fictional creation (just referenced by author Rod Rees in his blog about his novel The Demi-Monde), but the real-life county of East Yorkshire, just a meteorite's throw from Wold Newton itself (yes, Jose Farmer fans - it is real!).

Just up the road from Cardigan Hall is a little place called Langtoft, just after Langtoft is a little place called The Old Mill Hotel and Restaurant and just at the end of their road are a couple of signs that the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (Eryc, for short) have asked them to take down.

The Old Mill Signs - A danger to road users, or an indication of somewhere you might get a tasty meal

Just as well, you might say, that might distract me, preventing me from driving safely and navigating that corner, but you would find yourself in something of a minority if you did. I can't recall ever hearing any stories about anyone ever having an accident on or near this corner. Not ever.

The signs have been there for 17 years. The current owners, Gary and Kathie, bought the place with the signs in exactly this location. But now, apparently, it's a real and present danger.

Bollocks.

Just goes to show that every Council is staffed with its compliment of barmy jobsworths. Barely a day goes by when you don't hear about some place insisting on applying the letter of the law on an issue that no-ones's ever thought worth implementing before. Shame really, it usually overshadows the good work they do (the road to Langtoft is looking quite smart now, thanks for asking).

The BBC Radio Humberside and BBCLook North have both done pieces on it today (including a rather unsavoury reference to Peter Levy's lunchbox!). Peter Levy, for those of you who don't know, is the Roddy McDowall of BBC local news.

If you live anywhere near this place, go there. They serve fresh, locally sourced food, cooked to order and it's great. In fact, don't just go for a meal have a party. Get married and hold your reception there - no, get married there AND hold your reception there! Not getting married? Book yourself in for the Murder Mystery on May 7th!

If you don't live anywhere near The Old Mill, you could stay in one of their cosy rooms and, if you are partial to a little Philip Jose Farmer, use it as a base for your pilgrimage to Wold Newton. A sort of Wold Newton Family Holiday, if you will.

Honestly, it'll take you less than 15 mins to drive from The Old Mill Hotel to the meteor impact site and when you get back you can tuck into Breast of pheasant filled with a partridge and wild mushroom mousse and I'm not even kidding. The rest of the menu is just as cool.

Then you can relax and read your copy of The Demi-Monde. Like I'm going to read mine. I am. In fact, I will make a special trip up to the Old Mill for lunch this week and take my Demi-Monde with me for a quiet relaxing read.

Better watch that corner though, eh.

PS: You can find out more about the sign-saga in the Hull Daily Mail (AKA the East Riding Mail). I will, or course, report on further developments (eg what my braised steak in a red wine & onion sauce tastes like after my read-trip).

Half a World Away

Managed to get my hands on a copy of Rod Rees's new novel The Demi Monde: Winter. Read it, loved it, told my mates and went hunting for more - it'll be a year until the next volume is out and my hunger must be sated.

There's the website (natch) and the author's blog and a couple of other 'can't-wait' ers who've also been trawling, so if you're one of them (...no... one of 'us'... no... "...one of the Kept..." geddit?) post me a comment and/or we can follow each other's progress blog-to-blog.

There's loads of, what look like, clues to the overarching universe it's set in, but I've lately taken to keeping tabs on the reviews (particularly over at Amazon - oh, oh just spotted some new ones while I was grabbing that link! Now if I can just... finish... this blog...). Here are some of my faves:

"Part Matrix, part Escape from New York, with a dash of Film Noir and a whole host of imagination."

Falcata Times Blog

"Despite the contrived concept, Rees makes the book work: the world he's created is a psychopathic nightmare, while Ella, by contrast, is a touchingly vulnerable heroine whose quest is fraught with both physical and psychological dangers."

Eric Brown of The Guardian

"Complete nonsense, of course, but incredibly entertaining."

Kate Saunders The Times Saturday Review (can only find this on the Demi-Monde's own blog)

"What a fabulous book… The Demi-Monde is an unstoppable, deadly serious computer game, a replica of the real world where players experience lethal role-playing and war-gaming… An outsider is thrown into this mix and somehow has to stop the evil escaping from the confines of the game... Devote some quality time to reading `Winter' and you'll be rewarded with a captivating new world, one of smoke and mirrors which closely resembles our own - but don't expect things to turn out quite as you know them."

Rowena Hoseason (Via Amazon)

"Occult Stalinist Nazi Vampires.... ... plan war against Lesbian Supremacists."

P.G. Harris (Via Amazon)

"It is the first book in a series of four which I did find a little irritating."

a hopeful reader (Via Amazon)

My favourite is "Occult Stalinist Nazi Vampires.... ... plan war against Lesbian Supremacists." - if that doesn't make you want to read the book it's reviewing I don't know what will!

On balance though, taking every review into account, the general consensus is… undecided (albeit with a healthy 4-5 stars average over at Amazon). No one's taking it lying down though. It's Marmite for the soul, is this one.

There are the evangelists (of whom I am one) and the detractors (of whom there are some), but I can't think of anyone who's not bothered either way (although "a hopeful reader" does seem to think it'll all turn out to be as big a waste of time as "The Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter" or one of those other tiresome stories that just can't seem to limit themselves to one volume).

On Team Boo I've read at least one review by someone who could just possibly be the biggest arse since Keyra Agustina, while on Team Yay there's only really Tex who's cottoned on to the depth of Rees's concept. Having mooched about on the web I've found a short story set in the same universe and loads of extra stuff on the demi-monde website (also the DC universe stuff, but that seems to have been removed).

Note: I've not included a link to the short story or the DC website. Can't do everything for you.

As soon as I can get a minute I'm going to give it a second read, I suspect it''ll yield a bit more every time, so I'll post anything I notice this time that I didn't notice last time and see if you got there first. 

Let me know how you get on.