Just Read: Mappa Mundi, Justina Robson

Jude Westhorpe, an FBI officer, takes a break from the case he's been working on for years to try to discover why a previously friendly neighbour tried to kill his sister. Meanwhile, in the UK, Dr Natalie Armstrong is getting frustrated with her work. Despite the obvious virtues of her research, she keeps being refused funding.

This is a fairly straightforward SF technothriller, set at the point where medical nanomachines and study of the mind collide. It's well written, with twists aplenty and a firm grasp of some of the implications of the technology. Good fun.

[Amazon.co.uk - ignore the "review" from a USAian who spends all their time ranting about the things the (British) author got wrong about the US political system, and no time mentioning anything else whatsoever about the book]

Art Of The Saber

A friend dropped this link my way (caution: 45MB download for the film itself).

There are one or two things I could nit-pick in this film, but it would be rather unsporting, since the makers acheived their objective in style. Niggles aside, three amateurs choreographed and filmed a three-minute fight scene that puts much of Hollywood's output to shame.

[Thanks to: Dave, WINOLJ]

Copenhagen Diary

The first instalment is now online