Danny Banks

Interests

• Professional profile
• Personal
  • books
  • films
  • music
  • sport
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Personal

These are, of course, only my personal views. Other people may well differ. That's life!

Books

Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle

A "must read". Set in a somewhat gothic, slightly surreal world. Very magical and mysterious. It is not run-of-the-mill stuff, and I strongly recommend it. Gentle has written other books and short stories set in the same / paralell world, but they are not as good. Left to his own devices is interesting as it places the same characters into a "modern" (actually slightly in the future) setting, and I've always wondered how one would translate "magic" into technology; however the story is not a patch on Rats. I understand that there are two editions of Rats - and I think I read the earlier edition. I have heard that the later edition is not as good.

The Black Company by Glen Cook

An excellent series of books, starting with The Black Company. So far it has not become stale, as many book series do. It tells the story of a company of mercenary soldiers, again set in a magical world. It is good because it depicts "Good" and "Evil" on a sliding / grey scale: more like what you normally experience. There is no ultimate Evil as in Lord of the Rings (below), for example. Ingenuity and grit are used to overcome powerful sorcery. The characters and situations are very down-to-earth compared to most fantasy; the main characters tend not to be superhuman heroes, and battles are dirty and unpleasant.

Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

Very funny and light hearted. Yet more fantasy books, however it draws inspiration from the "real" world. In fact I would say it pretty much paralells the real world, and depicts it how it really sould be. I have often suspected that you have to be a particular type of person to enjoy the books, and also that the humour is somewhat English. However, the books appear to have a very broad appeal - which just shows you that my gut instincts can be wrong sometimes! The latest in the series was not as good as some of the proceeding books in my opinion, but is still within the range of the series as a whole: so I would not say it is going stale yet. The first book was The Colour of Magic, but most of the books can be read out of sequence.

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

This is the original great quest to bring down the Evil Lord. Some "originals" are not particularly good, however this is as good as anything else I've come across in terms of "high fantasy&qout; (i.e. magic, dwarves, elves, goblins, etc). In that light, I find that most high fantasy seems like an immitation. I admit that I am not a big fan of high fantasy, preferring the sort of stuff above. However, you really should read Lord of the Rings. I suggest reading The Hobbit first. This is a shorter book and easier to read. The story is essentially a prologue to LotR. Tolkein really does a good job of providing a history and setting for his story.

Bad Voltage by Jonathan Littell

Do not read Neuromancer by William Gibson as your first "cyberpunk" genre story - read Bad Voltage instead! It really is a much better tale, with more emphasis on the story and less on the technology - I normally find science fiction with too much emphasis on technology to be unpalatable as the technology is treated so badly. The technology is treated a little differently from Gibson's treatment (no AI's, no real "jacking in"). This book does get somewhat gruesome and visceral in places - so you have been warned. It is, in fact, set in Paris, which is a nice change from the usual settings.

"Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is a cyberpunk novel with all the computers and virtual reality you'd expect. However it has a really good sense of humour, which is very much in evidence at the start of the book. As you read further the whackyness gets less evident (or you get used to it), and an element of mysticism takes over. An excellent tale. The Diamond Age is set in Eric Drexler's dream world! Well, maybe not quite, but the setting is in a future where molecular nanotechnology rules. Once again, the story outweighs any qualms I may have about the technology, although it gets a bit too much towards the end. A fascinating world is depicted - very different from anything else. Both books have very refreshing and original settings / feel.

The Eden trilogy by Harry Harrison

Three books (naturally): West of Eden, Winter in Eden, and Return to Eden. Once again, an original setting. In this trilogy the dionsaurs never became extinct and an intelligent species became the dominant life-form, with only a small part of the world occupied by man. The real interesting aspect is that the dinosaurs effectively developed biotechnology as opposed to the technologies you see around you, and live much more harmoniously with their enviroment (supposedly). No matter what problems you have with the science, the world depicted certainly gives you pause to think. I feel that Harrison's early works were generally the best, and many more recent works tend to get published because of the name he made for himself in the early days; this does not mean that all his recent works are bad, but careful selection is advised.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? by Philip K Dick

The book that the film Bladerunner (below) was based on. The book and the film are not the same (just similar)! I guess that the message is similar, and the setting is definately very familiar. If you have seen the film, it is still worth reading the book.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Subtitled: A fable about following your dream, which pretty much describes the book. This book has been massively over-hyped. I've included it for several reasons. Firstly to show that I read something other then fantasy and science fiction. But also because it is a nice little story, very heart-warming, and I enjoyed it. Just do not expect it to live up to the hype.

Candide by Voltaire

I've been reading some "classics" recently, because they are cheap and because I feel I should try and get some culture! Candide surprised me: it is very tongue-in-cheek, and absolutely hilarious. Apparently, Voltaire wote it to destroy the idea that this is "the best of all possible worlds" - which he does in an exceedingly amusing manner!

Films

Bladerunner

Probably the original cyberpunk film ? (What about Metropolis ?). Set in a future where everyone who can lives off Earth, and the only real way to tell humans from androids is by a bone-marrow test (or maybe the empathy tests still work). The world depicted is fascinating, and the story beats out the bad science (there is more technology in the book, above, but the story still carries it for me). The basic question (message) of both the film and the book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ?) is how to draw the dividing line between human and non-human: one of those nice grey questions that I like to watch people struggle with. This combines with the setting, the story, and the effects to make an excellent film.

BRAZIL (Terry Gilliam's film)

More cyberpunk. To me this is 1984 with a little Dilbert (see the cartoon below) thrown in. It conveys the oppression and hopelessness you would associate with 1984, along with the humour you'd expect from Gilliam: you just know that the burocratic world will always remain chaotic! I feel that the ending is a bit out of place, but it does appeal to me. I very much like Gilliam's style. Time Bandits is another favourite of mine.

Star Wars

(The trilogy). I am old enough to remember seeing this when it was first in the cinema. I also went specially to see the re-release. To date, I have found the prequels to be disappointing inb comparison (I have read the books of the last three stories in the series, and they seem to be better than the prequels if my memory holds up). I guess it was inevitable that I would like Star Wars: science & technology with magic and mysticism thrown in. I find it very easy to get absorbed into the universe depicted, and the new effects definately make it worth seeing again (and maybe again...).

Hawk the Slayer

This is a fantasy film with all the ingredients you need: a dwarf, an elf, an ogre, a prince and his evil brother, etc, even a blind old woman! It does take itself too seriously, either, which makes it very enjoyable. See it because it is what a fantasy film should be.

Soylent Green

Based on the short story Make Room, Make Room! by Harry Harrison. Yet another set in a future where the planet's resources are about to run out. I suspect it has lost much of its original impact over the years, but still a film you should see at least once.

Lord of The Rings (the Film trilogy)

Huge amounts of hype! Well, they did a good job of this, generally speaking. It does diverge from the book, but mainly for good film making reasons. (For instance, at the start of the book Gandalf just vanishes and we don't know what's happened, which adds greatly to the tension; the film shows this in parallel with the hobbits' adventures to avoid a long flashback sequence). What really annoys me is that they messed up the ending. There is no point in having such a long ending if you do not show what the book shows: that the shire has been harmed and industry has arrived (the coming age of men is now here!). I would also have liked to see Saruman's last stand in the tower, which was cut from the film.

Music

The collection is mainly what is classified as "new age" music, but I would consider that label to be misleading. It has a lot of "Tangerine Dream", and also includes "Jean Michel Jarre", "Mike Oldfield", "Enya", and "Yanni". I also have tapes with other types of music in there, but generally only one or two of each.

Generally, I cannot get enthusiastic enough about music to recommend anything particular to anyone. If I was going to do so, it would have to be the work of Mark Shreeve. Since no one seems to have heard of Mark Shreeve, and his music is hard to get hold of, try this link:

Redshreeve: Mark Shreeve, Redshift, Arc

which has some MP3 samples. The material I really like, and possibly Mark's lasting legacy to the EM scene, can be found on the Legion and Crash Head albums. Nocturne is more recent and similar in terms of material, and Collide is an excellent live album. (As usual, I have no idea how long that link is likely to be active). Embryo (his first album) is very much like early Tangerine Dream, and Assassin is similar to later TD. It's with Legion that Mark really comes into his own. His other projects, Redshift and Arc, are more ambient and use a lot of analogue synths. I may start collecting these because I really like the way he layers the music.

Sport

I do archery. I my main bow is a 60lb+ English longbow, which I shoot regularly (I also have two spares; a longbow is nine tenths broken, as they say). I have managed to find a field archery club on a bus route. Assuming most people don't know what field archery is: it is like golf, but with bows and arrows in woods / rough terrain. You shoot at cardboard cut-outs, or rubber models (if you're lucky). Unlike target archery, you are not told the distance, and every arrow you shoot is almost always at a different distance from the previous arrow. Archery is probably more of a mental sport than a physical sport, requiring considerable concentration and practice to become good; it is also very relaxing in this respect.

I also have a 30lb recurve which I may shoot from time-to-time with sight: just to show people that I can sometimes hit gold!

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