By Russel D McLean
minor updates were made to this article on 20 Nov 2012
This evening I should have been stuffing myself silly. Instead, what I’m doing is digging some groovy painkillers and generally tripping out thanks to a wonky back muscle.
But if I wasn’t doing that I would be in the company of trained Osteopath (and crime writer) Caro Ramsay for the west coast launch of The Killer Cookbook, a fantastic new book that combines two of my favourite things in the world: cookery and crime fiction.
The cookbook finally reveals the recipe for Stuart MacBride’s infamous mushroom soup, alongside Craig Robertson’s Human Blood Pudding, and more tantalising recipes from the likes of Ian Rankin, John Gordon Sinclair, Val McDermid and so, so many more. Oh, and me and Michael Malone have a garlicky face off mid way through the book as we argue over the best recipe involving chicken and increasing cloves of garlic (Of course mine is a traditional peasant dish and therefore very very authentic, being as I look like a peasant).
But what kind of crazy fool, I hear you ask, would create a book of crime writer’s recipes? What possible reason could there be for such a thing to happen?
The answer is that the crazy fool is the aforementioned Caro Ramsay who started on the book as a way to help the brilliant Million for a Morgue Campaign; a fund raising exercise that is very close to my heart. For those who don’t know, Dundee (where I write about) is trying to raise a million quid for a centre for forensic excellence. Why Dundee? Well, Professor Sue Black works here, and she is one of those remarkably smart and dedicated at the forefront of forensic research. She has identified victims in mass graves from war torn countries, she has assisted in some amazing and terrifying investigations and between all that has found time to advise the brilliant Val McDermid on the best ways to add an air of forensic authority to those already terrifying Tony Hill thrillers.
The CAHID (Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification) is at the very heart of the morgue and has done some remarkable things including help identify victims through facial reconstruction and identifying peadophiles through images of their hands grabbed from obscene video and images.
But what does all this have to do with the Killer Cookbook? Well, every penny from the cookbook when sold direct from the website* is going towards raising this million for the new centre for excellence. Yes, the printers and (more importantly) the contributors don’t get a penny. Everyone involved is doing this for a greater cause. And also because we really want to share these recipes with you. These are the foodstuffs that have either influenced our plots or characters or else have helped us through the sheer hard work involved in crime writing. So I urge you, please, go out and buy a copy. Help contribute to a brilliant cause and widen your taste palate at the same with fiendishly good recipes from some of the most criminal cooks on the face of the planet (and me).
*An earlier version of this post implied that copies sold from booksellers also give 100% of the cost to the cause. This is not true, but I believe a good percentage will still go to the morgue so you will still be helping the campaign - and helping your local bookseller at the same time!
Showing posts with label stuart macbride. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stuart macbride. Show all posts
Friday, November 16, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
"...a way of logic that bypasses a lot of nonsense"*
By Russel D McLean
Its come up more than once this week in various situations and conversations. But I’m still amazed by the “ghettoization” of Science Fiction as a genre.
One of Stuart MacBride’s most unashamedly fun novels was the brilliant HALFHEAD – a near future fantasy where the weapons all had onomatopoeic names and where he mocked the establishment quite thoroughly with even more ludicrous beauracracy and a horrific sense of social justice that proved just how savage “human” punishments could be. If I may be so bold, I found it even more fun than his Logan McRae books and was hoping that there would be more. But that, apparently, is not likely to happen because sales were less than for his crime novels.
Why?
Well, he was a debut author all over again. Because SF readers had yet to discover him and crime readers acted in a strangely conservative manner. They missed out on the fact that HALFHEAD did everything they loved in his crime novels and more. Just because the synopsis had the word “future” in it. Of course, this assumption is based on mostly anecdotal experience, but that was what I tended to hear when asking people why they hadn’t bought that one book of MacBride’s.
Is this fair?
Hardly.
It’s the same with Iain (M) Banks to a degree. Now, he’s established as an SF author, but so many of his mainstream fans stay away from the SF stuff as though its toxic. Why? As I heard Banks once say at an event its because it has the word “space” in it, and people are scared. They hear the word SF or space and they get weird clichéd ideas about geeky social misfits and probably odd looking aliens in rubber masks (a-la classic Trek). Or perhaps they see the endlessly complex worlds of computer games like HALO that appear incomprehensible if you’re not on the inside.
What they’re missing, of course, is that SF is a literature of ideas. Yes, it has its clichés, the same as any genre, but move past those and some genuinely philosophical and inventive fiction can be found within the genre. Philip K Dick, of course, is a prime example of an author who uses the form to do something deeper and explore philosophical and metaphysical ideas that mainstream fiction can only dream of. China Mieville** takes this to an extreme and loads his fantastical imaginings with allegory and symbolism that would make most literary writers weep with jealousy. And if that’s all getting a bit heavy for you, Alistair Reynolds writes amazingly accessible and fun adventure stories that still contain real smarts and some very witty undercurrents.
I also find it very interesting that many people who claim not to like SF often adore SF movies without realising it. BLADE RUNNER, ALIEN, ALIENS, GATTACA, THE MATRIX, these are all examples of mainstream SF movies that people don’t seem to realise are actually SF. Why is it so different for movies? And let’s not start on THE X FILES…
Earlier this year I did a library event with Ken McLeod. This was a reader’s day where readers came along and signed up to hear writers talk about one book they loved and one book of their own. Interestingly, there were no SF fans on the day. I was a little worried for Ken who is, after all, an SF writer. And yes, even people in his group had SF reservations. But by the end of the day, many of them were willing and excited to try a whole genre they had ignored due to their preconceptions of it.
I accept – nay, willingly agree – that there’s a lot of lazy, clichéd writing in the SF genre. I mean, seriously, I’ve stopped reading the genre for years at a time due to a slew of novels that just don’t “get” what makes SF special, that spend too much paying homage to other writers ideas and forget to make their own, or concentrate so hard on world building that they ignore the human element that often marks great SF. But when the genre gets it right, its more than a force to be reckoned with.
I guess we’re back to the old argument – the simple one. A good book is a good book regardless of genre. And you shouldn’t be put off just because you see the word “space” or because you expect to somehow “not understand” the conventions at play. Good SF is accessible (with a bit of work; you have to adjust yourself to the terms, in the same a reader of crime fic has to adjust themselves to the conventions and technical language of that genre) and capable of supreme and brilliant storytelling with brains and heart at the centre. Its not just for geeks. Its not just for insiders.
And it very rarely uses the phrase “warp factor 10”.
*Gene Roddenberry, talking about SF
**Who, with multiple PhD’s is as smart as a chap with three heads
Its come up more than once this week in various situations and conversations. But I’m still amazed by the “ghettoization” of Science Fiction as a genre.
One of Stuart MacBride’s most unashamedly fun novels was the brilliant HALFHEAD – a near future fantasy where the weapons all had onomatopoeic names and where he mocked the establishment quite thoroughly with even more ludicrous beauracracy and a horrific sense of social justice that proved just how savage “human” punishments could be. If I may be so bold, I found it even more fun than his Logan McRae books and was hoping that there would be more. But that, apparently, is not likely to happen because sales were less than for his crime novels.
Why?
Well, he was a debut author all over again. Because SF readers had yet to discover him and crime readers acted in a strangely conservative manner. They missed out on the fact that HALFHEAD did everything they loved in his crime novels and more. Just because the synopsis had the word “future” in it. Of course, this assumption is based on mostly anecdotal experience, but that was what I tended to hear when asking people why they hadn’t bought that one book of MacBride’s.
Is this fair?
Hardly.
It’s the same with Iain (M) Banks to a degree. Now, he’s established as an SF author, but so many of his mainstream fans stay away from the SF stuff as though its toxic. Why? As I heard Banks once say at an event its because it has the word “space” in it, and people are scared. They hear the word SF or space and they get weird clichéd ideas about geeky social misfits and probably odd looking aliens in rubber masks (a-la classic Trek). Or perhaps they see the endlessly complex worlds of computer games like HALO that appear incomprehensible if you’re not on the inside.
What they’re missing, of course, is that SF is a literature of ideas. Yes, it has its clichés, the same as any genre, but move past those and some genuinely philosophical and inventive fiction can be found within the genre. Philip K Dick, of course, is a prime example of an author who uses the form to do something deeper and explore philosophical and metaphysical ideas that mainstream fiction can only dream of. China Mieville** takes this to an extreme and loads his fantastical imaginings with allegory and symbolism that would make most literary writers weep with jealousy. And if that’s all getting a bit heavy for you, Alistair Reynolds writes amazingly accessible and fun adventure stories that still contain real smarts and some very witty undercurrents.
I also find it very interesting that many people who claim not to like SF often adore SF movies without realising it. BLADE RUNNER, ALIEN, ALIENS, GATTACA, THE MATRIX, these are all examples of mainstream SF movies that people don’t seem to realise are actually SF. Why is it so different for movies? And let’s not start on THE X FILES…
Earlier this year I did a library event with Ken McLeod. This was a reader’s day where readers came along and signed up to hear writers talk about one book they loved and one book of their own. Interestingly, there were no SF fans on the day. I was a little worried for Ken who is, after all, an SF writer. And yes, even people in his group had SF reservations. But by the end of the day, many of them were willing and excited to try a whole genre they had ignored due to their preconceptions of it.
I accept – nay, willingly agree – that there’s a lot of lazy, clichéd writing in the SF genre. I mean, seriously, I’ve stopped reading the genre for years at a time due to a slew of novels that just don’t “get” what makes SF special, that spend too much paying homage to other writers ideas and forget to make their own, or concentrate so hard on world building that they ignore the human element that often marks great SF. But when the genre gets it right, its more than a force to be reckoned with.
I guess we’re back to the old argument – the simple one. A good book is a good book regardless of genre. And you shouldn’t be put off just because you see the word “space” or because you expect to somehow “not understand” the conventions at play. Good SF is accessible (with a bit of work; you have to adjust yourself to the terms, in the same a reader of crime fic has to adjust themselves to the conventions and technical language of that genre) and capable of supreme and brilliant storytelling with brains and heart at the centre. Its not just for geeks. Its not just for insiders.
And it very rarely uses the phrase “warp factor 10”.
*Gene Roddenberry, talking about SF
**Who, with multiple PhD’s is as smart as a chap with three heads
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