Actual Reality

Hullo each,

Sorry about the complete lack of postings. I've had the most ghastly time, all sorts of things cropping up at the last moment.

I will start with regular* posts again soon, for those of you who like that sort of thing, but I just had to put this out there:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100607_8168.php

It's up on Rees' Facebook page which is, thankfully, visible to all without having to become part of their system (man!)

Anyway, as you will probably already know (having clicked on the link before reading the rest of this post) the US military have decided to build their own Demi-Monde and Mr Rees doesn't even appear to have received a production credit!

Since this article looks to have been posted after Rees wrote The Demi-Monde: Winter, but before it was published, we can only assume that the security services have been monitoring him for some time. Like most copies, however, it's really not as good as the original.

With characters like "Gen. William Loomey III" telling us that initiatives like "MyBase", a virtual airbase inside Second Life (honestly, read the article!), will appeal to online gamers...

"...who have been living in a digital world their entire lives and are better prepared than any other generation to operate in this environment. It is imperative that we understand their needs and expectations, and develop an enterprisewide system that fosters learning and captures their most critical asset -- knowledge."

... I'm inclined to the old saw, "you couldn't make it up".

Except Rees already has.

Mind you, even Rees' sternest critics would have to admit that his version is altogether more credible. I mean, who's going to believe there's really a person called "Gen. William Loomey III"?

*"Regular" is used here in it's British English sense of, "at intervals with the same time between instances", rather than it's American English counterpart meaning, "slightly more than you actually want, but still not available in any smaller measures". Although you may feel that both apply.

EasterCon interrupts coverage of Meteor Strike in Wold Newton

At Precipitation With Insight we have a predilection for casting and re-casting, so that was foremost in my mind as I read through Rod Rees' prequel to the Wold Newton meteor strike (punctuated as it is with a trip to EasterCon). I'm having a think about the best way to present my choice of cast, but there are a couple of things I can't wait to put out there.

There's not much to add regarding the story itself, it's pretty self contained and pretty cool, but what I will say, with regard to The Demi-Monde, is this - The Demi-Monde: Winter is set in a virtual world peopled with genuine historical figures, while this is, true to the Wold Newton Universe, set in the real world (Wold Newton) and peopled with fictional historical characters, albeit ancestors of the characters we know. 

I'm assuming that there is no Wold Newton within the Demi-Monde, with it all being overpopulated cities, and what action there is taking place in the real world doesn't seem to have much of a connection - except one.

Bole.

This reminded me of something I forgot to mention in my synopsis of the prologue, which is that Norma mentions "The Professor" as she is being chased, but he denies any knowledge (as far as I can remember) of how she got into the Demi-Monde in the first place. I'm assuming "The Professor" is Bole and that "The Professor" at the end of the book is also Bole. Of course, it could be that there is another professor character that we don't get to find out about until a later volume. Either way Bole is key, since he is the only character to have a direct connection with the Wold Newton stuff on Rees' blog and The Demi-Monde: Winter.

There. That's that said.

One last thing. Loved the inclusion of Heathcliff.

Wuthering Heights can't be that far from Wold Newton.

A Private Eye for the 1700's

OK...

Blog to follow, but I have to let you know that, not only has Rod Rees, author of The Demi-Monde: Winter, which I am actually reading at the moment, posted a comment and started following my blog, but Win Scott Eckert, God of The Wold Newton Universe and co-writer WITH PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER of The Evil in Pemberley House has also posted a comment AND started following. As if that's not enough to be chuffed about, it appears, thanks to a local news story about The Old Mill Hotel and Restaurant (fresh local food cooked to order!) being near Wold Newton, I've prompted Mr Rees into pre-volume 2 action!

Now, normally I have to wait until the next book before I get the answer I need from a series. There was a time when I didn't think I could wait a week to find out whether Tom Baker's Doctor would survive being drowned by Chancellor Goth in The Matrix, let alone a year for an author to write another volume.

Tom Baker's Doctor uncensored by Mary Whitehouse

Of course, reading the books of Douglas Adams taught me to develop a surprising amount of patience over the years.

I also seem to have picked up a few things from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency if Rod Rees' latest Demi-Monde blog post is anything to go by. Have I magically picked up on a vibe in the Demi-Monde: Winter and deduced that there is a Wold Newton Connection? Looking back at the posts, though, he mentioned it first, but I did pick up on it because I live near there and now - TA DA! - he treats us to a pre-second book piece of Rees. Roll on more Rees' Pieces I say.

Reese's Pieces

Have I discovered a secret that has lain hidden these past 200 years? Have my deductive powers of reasoning lead me to become a detective capable of unravelling a plot from the 1700's by piecing fragments of fiction together to form a coherent whole. Or did I just dangle a bait too tempting in front of  Mr Rees?

I'm not saying I goaded him into it. That is for other to say. But none the less, it looks like Mr Scott Eckert got here just in time. We may need a mediator. Why? Well, I've read The Demi-Monde: Winter once and am embarking on my second go round imminently (yes, really, this time) and it is, as you may know, set in a virtual world peopled with real characters from history. If it is anything to do with the Wold Newton Universe, or indeed the Wold Newton Family themselves, it would surely be set in the real world and peopled with fictional character from history? Maybe I'm jumping the gun on book two ("The Demi-Monde: Spring" one imagines), but I'm going to have to look damned hard at Winter this time round if I'm going to find the Wold Newton connection.

During the summer holidays, as a kid, I remember watching Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers Saturday Morning Cinema shorts. The repeats on TV of course - I'm not that old. Being part of the summer schedule they showed them every day instead of weekly as would have originally been the case. This meant that, having seen them fall over a balcony to their certain deaths at the end of one episode, you were painfully aware that you'd been cheated when, at the beginning of the next episode, they didn't  fall over the balcony at all! I'm pretty sure that was more Rogers than Gordon (in the picture below they do fall into the moat - you can probably rely on Flash not to cheat so much as Buck).

Flash Gordon Space Soldiers Conquer The Universe Chapter 10

I may have an increased reading list now, courtesy of Win Scott Eckert's recommendations  –  The Evil in Pemberley House (Philip José Farmer with Win Scott Eckert) and The Peerless Peer (Philip José Farmer) lined up after the second reading of The Demi-Monde: Winter  –  but when I get around to The Demi-Monde: Spring, having waited a whole year, I'll be watching out for a smooth, cheat-free next episode.

I'm making notes Mr Rees.