The Website of Karl Wilcox

The Explorers Club

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Plate Class GSV in flight

A Plate class GSV at 20 kilometres long, even with 10 million inhabitants, isn’t really lacking in interior space. Over the centuries as modifications are made, fads and architectural fashions come and go and a population ever eager for new experiences demands change, gaps and spaces get left behind, areas fall into disuse. Not that a culture starship would ever be so crude as to discard things, or have “waste” products - there would, eventually be a time when these spaces and the materials within them would be re-used; but that time might be a considerable distance in the future. So they lie, not forgotten exactly but, let us say, presently unneeded. And, while the interior is primarily for the use of the inhabitants, of necessity there will be much need of service spaces, access corridors and infrastructural bits and pieces whose purpose may only be known to the minds controlling the vessel- never intended for use or occupation they may still be entered. After all, nothing is ever really “off-limits” in the Culture, other than the self imposed respect of individual privacy. Areas downright hazardous to health, might not be so with suitable protective clothing or other precautions and providing there is no active (or passive) interference with ship board operations these spaces too might be accessed.

It is these “liminal” spaces, on the threshold between past and future use, between living space and operational necessity that the “Liminal Spaces Explorers Club” exists aboard this, any many similar craft. Their purpose, to discover, investigate and perhaps even care for these unloved areas.

Now, this being a Club, its members choose to impose on themselves a set of rules.

First and foremost, to be included in the catalog of liminal spaces it must be discovered by actual, physical, exploration. Whilst it is true that the inhabitants assume (or at the very least, hope) that the minds who operate the vessel have deep in their mysterious and almost limitless data banks a complete, accurate and up to date understanding of every minute aspect of the vessel it is not acceptable within the club just to ask the minds where “unused” spaces are. For a start, it is too easy, and furthermore you can’t really trust these minds, devious to a fault as they are. They might choose to give incorrect information, or for example, reveal the existence of a old broom closet without mentioning the magnificent darkened cathedral like space beside it - either for their own amusement, or to pass on to the many gossip sources that infest Culture ships.

Likewise, inhabitants tend to assume that the minds would not let them wander into a space that is flooded with hard radiation every tend minutes; and that, should one get into unexpected difficulty (say, falling from a vast height within that darkened cathedral space) then a simple call into one’s terminal would have a drone, or possibly a trampoline depending on the mind’s mood, displaced below them. So the general assumption is that such exploration isn’t really dangerous, but there is always that tiny element of doubt about whether that is really the case, that frisson of excitement that behind the next door is a hostile alien life form successfully hiding from the mind’s senses that makes being an active member of the Liminal Spaces Explorers Club that little bit more exciting, and lifts its members, at least in their own eyes, above the general hoi-polloi.

It is to maintain this general air of mystique that the second rule exists - that the “Catalog of Liminal Spaces” - for there is such a thing, should indeed be a physical “thing” and hence maintained on paper (or species equivalent) and kept solely for members use in the club premises. Again, whilst it is generally assumed that nothing can truly be hidden from a determined (and deeply unethical) mind; that the deeply ingrained respect of personal privacy means that the club would like to think that they hold secrets unbeknownst to all others, reinforcing that air of being just a little bit special.

Over the last decades, on this particular vessel, there has been a tendency to not merely discover and explore such spaces but to “improve” them in some respect. A very simple example exists in the upper reaches of the starboard forward outrigger. The outriggers are a now, rather dated but once popular way to combine vast open spaces with city like densities. Create an area of parkland, forest, sports fields, lakes and whatever, perhaps 1km x 4km, with another kilometre of airspace. Enclose it with walls, perhaps leaving the ends open but make the walls hollow, say, 200m of interior space within the walls. Fill this space with 20 levels (thus levels are 50 meters apart), link levels by splitting the floor at each end, one part rising up gently to link to up to the higher level and the other falling down to the lower. Build road and tramways along the shallow double helix you have created and line the roadways with whatever buildings you require, usually up to no more than 5 or 6 stories. Intersperse with smaller parks, add vertical funiculars at each end if desired, project skies on to the “ceiling” of each floor and you 4 square kilometres of open space and up to 150 kilometres of pleasant city streets. Those buildings which back onto the open air above the parkland can have windows, balconies, or indeed small parks hanging out into the air space, although these tend to reduce significantly in number at the higher levels as the sky projection looks strange from sideways on.

Now if you go to the very top level of the starboard outrigger, and down one of the narrow gaps between the buildings on the parkland side you will find a little used alleyway. At various points access hatches appear in the outer wall, behind which is a series of gantry and walkways giving access to the weather production system embedded in the “ceiling”, above the projection screen. This consists of piping, header tanks, refrigeration equipment and vortex generators capable of producing a variety of (albeit mild) weather effects, including a dusting of light snow.

There is however one particular hatchway, now marked with a subtle, but obvious if you know what you looking for, symbol. In addition to gantry access above the “sky” this hatch has a metal stairway that leads down to a small platform just below the sky. The cloud projection looks very strange from this angle so don’t look that way. Instead look down, through those thousand meters of clear air (or mist, rain, or snow depending on the weather settings) down to the parkland below. No-one knows you are here, you have complete privacy and a god-like (insert deity of your choosing) view over your fellow inhabitants.

Why was the platform built? We assume that the ship’s minds know - but remember that simply asking them for the answer is both beneath us and a breach of another club rule. We can speculate - there is evidence of mounting points, perhaps for a winch or catapult, a section of handrail looks like it can be folded away, so maybe it was some sort of jumping off point? Who knows?

But the point is that you know of its existence, because you are a member of the club, and those that have been here before you have prepared the way. Incongruously, the platform has been equipped with a round table, through which a jaunty coloured parasol rustles in the breeze and there are four chairs just fitting around the remaining space, their backs almost touching the handrails. Wonder how long those have been in place? All that mist and drizzle can’t have been good for them can it…?

Nevertheless, it is a regular event for a quartet of club members to make the trek to the uppermost floor (using the long and winding tram, not the shortcut funicular), carrying foodstuffs, beverages and appropriate utensils about their persons and consuming them on the windy platform. A new member, somewhat naive in the ways of the club once asked why they could not ask the assistance of a suitable accommodating drone to fly the comestibles, or indeed the whole party, up to the platform and save all the trouble. It was gently pointed out by the longer established members that this really wasn’t in the spirit of things at all, and murmured amongst themselves whether he who had raised the question was really a suitable candidate for the club at all, and to ask pointedly who had recommended them? Once the picnic is underway it is assumed that someone (I.e. a ship mind) would prevent any serious harm befalling anyone unlucky enough to be directly under the path of, say, a falling wine bottle (discussion question - would it reach terminal velocity before hitting the ground?) but are revellers are expected to be cautious and considerate and prevent such an occurrence in the first place. Of course throwing the naive questioner over the edge would have been perfectly reasonable…

Our intrepid club members thus knowingly place themselves at risk - perhaps they will trip and fall? Perhaps the platform itself, never intended for such weights collapses? Perhaps a malfunctioning vortex generators blows them all off? (Do these things ever malfunction?) And just at that very moment all the ship minds are engaged on some vital task crucial to the safety of the ship, and not a single drone or flight capable inhabitant notices their plight and they fall to their doom. Even so, they accept this risk, all while realising that in the grand scheme of things, aboard a closely surveilled star ship they probably have a much greater risk of injury from a jealous lover with a kitchen knife, and that such an event would get them a better write up in the gossip columns anyway. Whatever, those are the risks, and only the members of the Liminal Spaces Explorer Club dare to take them.

Or take a different example, not too far away, at least in linear distance from our first. The current craze for the sport of team freestyle bodyballing requires an 8 sided court. Somewhat unimaginatively, the designers of the main spectator arena simply provided eight tall stands around the court, enclosing the whole in cladding adorned with the various team and league logos. The space for this venue was found adjacent to the third starboard side main bay, with the back of the rear stand on the outside wall of the main bay. Rather than leave an awkward triangular space that lead nowhere, the cladding had been placed such that it met the main bay wall neatly, at a right angle. Little noticed to all but a sharp eyed LSEC member was a hatchway giving access to the empty, triangular space should any maintenance be required, even though such a thing was highly unlikely given the build quality of Culture machinery and the fact that the space didn’t contain any machinery, just the supporting structure for the arena seating.

An occasional member of the club, let us call him Alannarion suffered a broken heart over a failed love affair, the pain of which he thought he might never get over. A counselling drone (perhaps in jest, you never know with AIs) suggested he take up a hobby and randomly selected glass blowing from Association of Therapists Approved List of Activities to Mend a Broken Heart (yes, there is such a thing in the Culture, in a society of hundreds of billions of highly educated and connected individuals you can find a list of pretty much anything).

Alannarion obtained the necessary equipment and set to work. As it turned out he didn’t really have much aptitude for glass blowing, barely getting beyond the basic tear drop shape, but producing a considerable quantity of them. And it wasn’t mending his broken heart either. What he realised he actually needed was a grand but futile romantic gesture. Recognising that this would put him danger of somewhat becoming a laughing stock he resolved to carry out the grand gesture in secret, revealing it to the world only if it seemed like a good idea at the time.

He had visited the hidden space behind the bodyball court with a friend from the club and was pretty sure he could find it again without alerting any other club member to his actions. He did indeed find the hatchway and set his plan in motion. First he obtained some climbing ropes, karabiners and so forth, and a considerable length of wire. For almost a year he went each night (for he didn’t want to seen) to the hatchway carrying in his backpack half a dozen or so carefully wrapped glass tear drops. He would shimmy up his network of ropes, remembering a safety line at all times (he didn’t want his gesture to be that romantic) and proceeded to carefully hang almost two thousand glass tear drops in strings on wires from the arena supports. He then spent considerable time working on fixing tiny lights to each tear drop and programming them in sequence to appear as an endlessly falling shower of tears.

While he worked he planned out scenarios for revealing his creation to his lost love. Considered viewing angles, time of day, ruses for getting her to the this liminal space, how she would react. How he would react even (would he fall back in to her arms, or simply spurn her affections now he had grown so much?) Eventually he was ready.

Sadly, his beloved had met someone else and they had left the vessel some months previously, taking passage on another GSV heading anti-spin ward into the Lowenbern star cluster to visit a popular stellar nursery and then seeing where their fate would take them next. Alannarion had been rather too wrapped up in his project to notice.

Well, if she could flounce off like that then so could he! He would show her. His true grand gesture (even more futile, truth be told) would be seek passage too, but in the opposite direction, spin ward, and not in the luxury of a GSV, but slumming it in a miserable little GCU. Obviously he’d have to join Contact first but that proved to be surprisingly straightforward as they were impressed with his romantic ideas and were sure they could find a use for him. Who knew, perhaps he would cross paths with his beloved on the far side of the galaxy, him a highly respected hero with a string of contact successes behind him.

Alannarion never told anyone about his project, not even updating the hand-written records in the LSEC clubroom. It wasn’t until some years later that a rather dull but persistent completist club member was trying to visit every location in the Catalog opened the hatch to the space behind the stand and found, still falling, the endless rain of tear drops.

Ironically, as is often the case with faddish sports, freestyle bodyballing fell out of favour and a few years afterwards the arena itself was left unused, joining the Catalog as item JQ/40/615.

(Membership of the Liminal Spaces Explorers Club is by invitation only but a small exhibition of club activities can be viewed on application (in PERSON only) at the club room, 2015, Jefissa Buildings, 3rd Street, College District, Forward Upper 40).

Small Prophets

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Another show from the talented pen of Mackenzie Crook. Inevitably this will be compared to Detectorists so I’ll jump on the bandwagon here too. We’ve had a bit of a family split here, with me preferring Detectorists and everyone else for Small Prophets. This might be because I’m a history/archaeology buff while the rest of the household are a bit more spiritual.

That’s not to say anything bad about Small Prophets, every character was clearly drawn, even if some were a bit caricatured. I just personally felt I had more in common with the DMDC than the workforce of Tods etc.

Pearce Quigley was the stand out star here, ably abetted by Lauren Patel and Michael Palin (a relative newcomer and an old hand that it was a real pleasure to see acting again).

There were some really funny moments, and some surprisingly moving ones, all held together by the deadpan seriousness of Quigley, but backed with real warmth and caring.

A neat ending that brings everything to a head and resolves much but leaves enough for that “To be continued” tease to be a gem to look forward to.

Although it does seem Mackenzie wants to get some air miles since there is a clear set up for the next season to visit both Canada and Australia!

Good luck with season two for everyone…

Private Eye Post Mortem

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A useful update to The Great Post Office Scandal bringing the story up to date following both the public enquiry and the results of the “Mr. Bates Vs the Post Office” TV show.

This doesn’t concentrate over-much on the individual stories, this is better done in the book above, so it does allow a broader brush to be used looking at all aspects of the scandal. That’s not to demean or belittle the human stories, which are indeed terrible, but they have been well covered elsewhere and it means that this book can give a wider perspective. In particular I liked the final chapter which considered the scandal with the broader context of what happened and how individuals, our democratic system, courts, journalism and TV did eventually combine to see at least some justice done, albeit after a very long battle.

I was also interested to hear more about the role of the Fujitsu IT specialist, Gareth Jenkins, a passing acquaintance (the Bracknell Office Block that we both worked in for a time is illustrated on the back cover). His eagerness in defending the Horizon system (and his employers) made him an easy target for manipulation, and once on that slippery slope became a key witness - right up to the point where his blanket denials of any problems (even though they weren’t neccessarily his own words) became a liabilty and the revelation of bugs and failures compromised him as a witness, making prosecutions that relied on his testimony unsafe. No wonder the Post Office tried to sweep him (and much else) under the carpet.

Quite a rage-inducing read but that excellent final chapter does at least give you some hope for a better future and that lessons can genuinely be learned. Worth a read, even if you have already read the previously published book.

Blindsighted

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Trying out some more Karin Slaughter I thought I should do this methodically and read them in publication order.

This one is now more than 20 years old but still holds up fairly well. We meet Sara, paediatrician and coroner and her ex Jeffrey, Chief of Police of Grant County in Georgia. A series of very nasty rapes and assaults seems to hint at something in Sara’s past, which is gradually revealed to us as Sara and Jeffrey work to identify the killer.

There’s a slightly unlikely coincidence that happened in Sara’s past which is the ultimate cause of the current crimes, but if you accept that then the story moves along quite well and the rest is well constructed. I particularly liked that once the antagonist is revealed things are brought to a fairly quick conclusion – we are not left hanging or wading through a drawn out ending.

There was a lot of very graphic description of the crimes which I didn’t really like reading; it made me quite uncomfortable. I suspect the author was trying to make a mark with her first novel but this was a bit much in places.

Character development was mostly through the reveal of backstory rather than their actions and interactions but this is (and clearly was always intended to be) a series so I would hope to see this improve as we move along.

Overall, not a great work, a bit too gruesome but with the seeds of her later (and arguably better) work clearly visible here. I will continue with the series.

Detectorists

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every season of this show starts out very low-key, almost dull but then builds to a compelling climax (and the later special was a microcosm of the same).

There’s actually quite a bit happening over the six episodes – Lance is having difficulties in his relationship with Toni; there is rivalry (again!) with Simon and Garfunkel; and Andy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with his archaeological job.

There are the usual conflicts and misunderstandings caused by failures to communicate for the most part. There are also “obvious” story lines that Mackenzie Crook (brilliant again as both actor and writer) sets up but chooses not to take. Opposition to the solar farm, and blowing the whistle on the dodgy work practices of Andy’s employers are both left hanging, and entire other stories are merely hinted at (like the proposal of the two lady detectorists that happens in the background).

The special truly is a tour-de-force of writing skills, so cleverly put together and understated but still powerful, moving and funny. I loved the cameo by Professor Alice Roberts – just a couple of seconds of screen time but such a sweet moment. And this is just one of many examples of the attention to detail. I’ll need to re-watch to check but I feel sure that there will be a reference to the Saturday Morning club on the noticeboards of the community Hall!

Well acted, brilliantly written and some of the most pleasurable TV viewing this century!

Hyperion

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I thought it would be good to provide a retrospective review of the first of the “Hyperion Cantos” by Dan Simmons as a tribute following his recent passing.

I had a paperback copy of Hyperion in my early twenties and was blown away by the sheer imaginative power of this novel. As Eric Berger said in his own tribute we both knew little of the novel before starting it and I too cried at the story of Sol and his daughter. Indeed on my first re-read I actually skipped that particular tale as it was just too painful to read.

I hope that I don’t need to explain too much of the story – in fact the frame narrative doesn’t really get too far, just takes our travellers across some interesting landscapes towards the time tombs.

It is the stories that the travellers tell each other, Canterbury Tales style that are the real meat. And each story is in its own right a tremendous example of creative imagination, differing in style and very much differing in content but overall a staggering achievement.

It is only by reading the rest of the Cantos that these very disparate tales are threaded together, again with huge feats of imagination and descriptive power. And it is for this reason that I’m not awarding this a ‘recommended’ tag - although the story telling is great nothign is actually resolved or explained, and some of the later volumes do drag a little. So it is indeed of great interest but it isn’t something I would recommend unless you are really prepared to work through the whole set.

If you are looking for the ultimate “unfilmable” work of science fiction this might be a good candidate. There is so much back story, so many different experiences packed into this work that even a film trilogy would be hard pressed to do it justice.

How about a new special edition of the cantos (with matching covers, maybe even hardback?) with a foreword and evaluation by someone like Adam Roberts? Take my money for the pre-order now!

Mickey 17

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I really did want to be very sparing with the use of my special tags, particularly the “Avoid” one but then along comes Mickey 17 and seldom has something deserved it more! There is almost nothing about this movie that I like, and it suffers badly in comparison with book.

In Edward Ashton’s original novel we start from the premise that it is possible to reprint a person and asks how that technology might be used. Fair enough it is intensely divisive on crowded Earth but on a distant planet where the cost of sending out a replacement for someone is literally astronomical then it could be useful. It is not a pleasant process so only volunteers accept the role.

Given that we then have a fairly straightforward adventure story – A small team trying to terraform an icy planet. There are typical team tensions – friendships, rivalry, an obviously over-promoted team chief and lots of witty banter back and forth. Mickey the expendable is indeed “expendable” but never frivolously – he is a genuine, well-liked member of the team, who, through no fault of his own ends up as a multiple.

As the colony is threatened by indigenous life forms Mickey and his colleagues work against the wishes of the chief to find a non-violent solution.

The film takes the initial premise and the alien threat and throws out everything else. Instead of genuine camaraderie and funny lines we get empty sex and bickering. Instead of an adventure story we get parody so heavy handed it is like being repeatedly pounded by a rubber mallet with the words “This is a parody” embossed in the head. There’s barely a hint of subtlety or nuance, nothing to frame the parody which is right in your face all the time and isn’t even funny.

Crew members are cruel to Mickey, but this isn’t unusual, they are mean to each other all the time as well. No one has any personality or character development, everyone is a caricature. The only “subtle” moment allows the director to pull his parodic punches – when Marshall talks about settling this “White” planet does he mean racially or because it is covered in ice? Ooo, marvel at the innuendo…

The only thing I did like were the Creepers, and they were the only beings I had any sympathy for. The combination of CGI and physical effects gave them a real solidity and physicality and did an excellent job of making a truly alien creature look appealing.

I can see ratings for this film falling into two clear camps – those that haven’t read the book and like Robert Pattinson might well enjoy it. There’s plenty of him in shot, often only partly clothed and I can understand the appeal. That same group might well like the parody and think it has something profound to say.

The rest of us who have read the books will likely find a deeply disappointing travesty and actively hate it. Whichever camp you are in I don’t think this a good use of two hours of your time. Avoid!

Ballad of Wallis Island

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We only came across this film as it appeared in the list of candidates for Best Film in the 2026 BAFTA awards but not in any other category so you had to quick to spot it!

The actual premise sounds potentially mawkish, or even cringey – a growing lottery winner takes the two estranged members of a folk band to perform a private concert for him on a remote island where now lives alone, and literally, does not know when to shut up or what personal boundaries are.

In execution however this turns out to be a sweet, contemplative and even fun movie. The reason for his wife’s death, which could have been milked for extra pathos is all the more powerful for never being explained and the characters all learn something, even if it is just that they are happy as things are (the female half of the duo), while her male counterpart learns that the commercial pop he is now turning out isn’t what he wants at all, and the host learns that five years is enough time to allow yourself to move on.

There are some genuinely funny moments, visually and in dialogue and the whole thing is handled with a lightness and deftness of touch that is a credit to the director. In less sure hands it could have been a cringe-fest but it turned out to be a triumph and well worth 100 minutes of your time.

Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I love the idea that this book comes with a playlist of songs! Added it to my library and enjoying it too. The book itself I think I need to read again.

At first I thought this was trying really hard to be the next “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” – a strict set of rules or conditions that have to be met before some tangentially related characters get a chance to redeem themselves or try to correct past wrongs. It does start like this but there is (at least at first) no explanation or rationale for the existence of the shop, it just appears when the plot needs it so can seem a bit facile.

The redemption stories are interesting enough but without the cast of regular characters that holds the “Coffee” series together the story lacked a firm foundation.

Fortunately it more than redeems itself in the very final part and becomes very meta and self referential, but in a sweet and acceptable way that does make sense and provides that missing framework for the existence and appearance of the shop.

The writing (and translation) were both good, and the translator’s note at the end was really helpful and would have been better as a foreword (one of the reasons I would like to re-read it, having read what the note has told me).

Definitely a different take on the genre, with an engaging story, beautiful cover art, a neat link between the first story and final chapter and a cool playlist – should be provided in more books!

We Are All Guilty Here

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This was gripping! Listened to as an audiobook and the quality of the narration really added to the atmosphere with convincing voices and excellent pacing.

Our heroine, Emmy-Lou is guilt-ridden by a case 12 years ago in which two young girls were abducted and murdered. Both were known to Emmy, a police officer and she blames herself for not responding when one of the girls had asked to speak to her just minutes before she disappears.

In the present day the man found guilty of the murders and currently waiting on death row appears to be exonerated by some new DNA evidence and is released. Shortly afterwards another young girl goes missing.

The pace never slackens and the author takes us right inside Emmy’s head and we share every moment and every emotion with her.

The location, North Falls, Georgia has an outsize influence – the town was founded by Emmy’s family, her dad is Sheriff and other members of the family fill virtually every other post of importance.

There’s great family drama and dynamics here, Emmy’s relationship with her son, now a deputy and her long estranged Aunt Jude, now a recently retired FBI agent specialising in child abduction – that coincidence might seem like a stretch but by the end of the book we get to understand her career choices.

I did not see either of the massive twists that come at the end and greatly enjoyed the whole thing. I’ve pre ordered the sequel and bought a bumper pack of 12 previous novels (a bargain at around £25). Expect to see more reviews of this author soon.