Random Play by Graham Reid

Actually Richie has a stress fracture of the foot (?) - but it's ok, that was top story a few days ago :)

One of the things I have appreciated since late childhood is, the real life things happen in cribs (the family has several, all self-built, and -no, not appreciating in value since they’re on tribal land and they’re apt to get hammered by the sea-): you dont go there to escape the world, you go there sometimes to recuperate from personal life disasters, but the rest of the world is lying in wait, right on your seaward doorstep-

as with so many things, there’s little I resonate with, in C. K. Stead’s writing…I havent yet read “Genesis” but will do so. I think the premise you outline is flawed in both works __because__we are an archipelago – and archipelagos are always sea-affected.

And fencing out the sea is risible-

Egyptian president Mubarak (do he and Berlusconi share the same plastic surgeon you reckon?)

Nah... they just use the same hair dye.

Bernard Beckett was my son's year 9 form teacher. He taught a range of subjects from maths to drama, and could explain something scientific in a way that could captivate an adult audience. Don't know where he found the time for writing but he's written several, mostly for young adults. Genesis is worth reading. Lester, his first, is good too.

International news clips come expensive but I don't understand why they don't feel it's worth investing in. Fortress Aotearoa, indeed.

By the way, Liberation Square has had that name for decades.

Is the fence from the seabed to above the waves, or does it sit below the surface waiting to foot-trip navies? I'll read Genesis to find out. I hope it's a five wire post and batten fence, with the top wire barbed and the second electrified to make a synchronised swimming attack difficult. If it's suburban paling, that's a vast canvas for aquatic taggers which could be a nice addition to the horizon; but please, no trellis!

Not having read the book, I'm guessing too, but mind's eye said it was a floating barricade - a bit like the "wall of death" driftnets we used to see on the news, complete with dead whales and the like - only one that sat up from sea level and extended down.

But yes, news....hmmm. I don't watch the stuff on TV any more. I see more up-to-date news on this blog, with links to other info points.

It is set in what is the now standard world for science fiction writers, that post-apocalypse future

A trend I'm impatient to end. I much prefer thorough world-building as long as an author doesn't indulge in details for details sake.

I'm sure many couldn't give a toss about what is happening in Egypt

Thankfully I've found the opposite to be the case.

... as people were gathering in what is now known as “Liberation Square” in Cairo – ...

It's Tahrir Square, but Tahrir is Arabic for "liberation", so it has been known as Liberation Square since they kicked the Poms out in the 1920s.