Eugene Byrne

An hilarious alternate take on famous figures in American culture, as Buddy Holly takes to the air in a plane flown by Howard Hughes at an air show celebrating the war heroes of the United Socialist States of America, run by Chairman Capone...

Brilliant

Eugene Byrne is a local author whose fiction books are well worth checking out ([Thigmoo] & [Things unborn] and the book he co-wrote with Kim Newman [Back in the USSA]) he’s also a journalist and a historian who has written a few GN about Darwin and Bristol. In this, his latest book, he has excelled by creating one of the best guides to the “may have been” there is out there. The built environment in Bristol has a long history and Byrne explores the period between 1750-2050 to show more find the buildings, monuments and other structures that have been proposed for Bristol that didn’t get built. From the amazing bridge on the cover – imagine if that had been built! To statues that failed to be placed on the fountains outside the council offices to a Victorian plan to place the main railway station in the heart of Bristol (instead we have two on the outskirts). Some of these stories are surprising, some are quirky, others are just plain odd and the book is both informative and entertaining. I highly recommend this book regardless of whether you’re familiar with Bristol or not as it shows that the built environment is shaped just as much by what isn’t built as it is by what is and includes some really interesting history.

Overall – Great resource and very entertaining history show less

http://nhw.livejournal.com/306301.html

ThiGMOO is about a set of artificial intelligence computer personalities, based on fictional historical constructs, created as part of an academic project. When they are threatened with being closed down and eliminated, they rebel, and plot to take over the world. (The title referes to an Old Labour cliche, This Great Movement Of Ours, which becomes the code word for the AIs' sanctuary and battle plan.)

I really enjoyed this book. But I'd be very show more surprised if it was even slightly comprehensible to anyone who either knew nothing about or never found anything to like about the old-style Labour movement in Britain. Like Kim Stanley Robinson, Eugene Byrne wears his heart on his sleeve. Like Charlie Stross and Ken MacLeod, he is dealing with the politics of liberation combined with the consequences of artifical intelligence. But the tone here is gentle satire rather than Robinson's earnest endeavour or the Scotland-based writers' dazzling visions. His targets include earnest academic pagans, readers of and writers for the Daily Mail, old-style communists, New Labour, the President of the United States, mail order brides, the electronic media in general, and soap operas in particular.

The book is effectively an admission that it would take the intervention of rogue computers to put matters "right". I am just about old enough to remember a time before Thatcher, and Eugene Byrne convinces me to suspend my vague memories of the awful mistakes of the Wilson and Callaghan governments for just about long enough to find some sympathy with his vision of a world that now can never be. Fun, as long as you can cope with the cultural context. show less

Byrne is as always an engaging and fascinating writer in any genre. Here he turns to two of his passions, history and Bristol, and presents a look at what might have been, the places that were nearly built, the areas that were nearly destroyed. Admittedly this books could be seen to have a niche market, it does help to know Bristol (UK) a bit and visualise the lovely dock with the historic boats nestling alongside restaurants, bars and museums against the potential horror of duel show more carriageways riding roughshod over everything. Then again anyone interested in their environment may find something here, the trends (trams and trains, concrete bladerunneresque walkways and high rises, madcap bridges and monuments to a forgotten war). The fights are intriguing and the background of history and its economic impact hovers all around. Inspiration for our cities and towns can be found in the exciting “just for fun” plans drawn up, especially for the millennium: city farms and canals, the giant face of Brunel carved into the cliffs or a to scale replica of our solar system. The breath of ideas is a delight.

It’s all good, if this type of thing interests you I highly recommend it. It’s a pity that Unbuilt Bristol city walks were a one off too otherwise I would recommend that. Every city should have one. show less