The Great Morass
Nov. 3rd, 2025 01:02 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
monbiot_feedThere’s an urgent need to replace our total mess with a codified constitution.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd October 2025
After two years in Brazil, I felt I understood its political system better than I understand the UK’s. The reason is a short book in simple language that almost everyone owned: the constitution, published in 1988. Admittedly, I discovered the document’s limitations while trying to explain its principles to a furious captain of the military police with a pump-action shotgun. But at least I knew exactly which of my rights he was infringing.
To achieve a similar grasp of rights and powers in the UK, you’d need to be a professor of constitutional law. They are contained in a vast and contradictory morass of legal statutes, court precedents, codes of conduct, scholarly opinions, treaties, traditions, gentlemen’s agreements and unwritten rules. They are rendered still less intelligible by arcane parliamentary procedures and language so opaque that we need a translation app.
This mess allows great scope for interpretation, which ruthless operators readily exploit. Think of Boris Johnson’s use of Henry VIII powers and his prorogation of parliament, or Tony Blair’s attempt to stop parliament debating his attack on Iraq, by invoking royal prerogative. These “gentlemen” are no gentlemen. Unwritten rules are for suckers.
It’s not that the UK has no constitution. We have one, but its thread is as easy to follow as a fishing line washed ashore after months at sea, bundled and ravelled in weed and tar. In that horrific legal tangle, our citizenship is encoded. If democracy is not clear and intelligible, it’s not democracy.
The issue has been pressing since the Brexit vote. But it becomes still more urgent today, as we may now be threatened with a blatantly authoritarian government. To give one example, Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, has expressed admiration for the autocratic United Arab Emirates, agreeing with the article his partner Isabel Oakeshott wrote about moving to Dubai in the Telegraph. She lauded the absence of protests, the fact that there is “no safety net” and that people who “can’t look after themselves are simply imprisoned or deported”, and minimised the poor working conditions of migrant labourers (they are getting paid!). She might have added that homosexuality is illegal, there are no significant environmental protections and modern-day slavery is rife. Dubai is a paradise for the rich and hell for everyone else. Tice claims that the UK, by contrast, has become “decadent”: a word that should ring any historian’s alarm bells.
In a country without a clearly resolved (“codified”) constitution, there is nothing to stop a government with a safe majority from making the UK more like the UAE, or any other dictatorship.
As the chaos after the EU referendum reminded us, at nearly all times, parliament is sovereign. The referendum was a rare act of popular sovereignty, whose result sent parliament into a flat spin. What parliamentary sovereignty means is that parliament can do whatever the hell it likes to us, as long as a majority is achieved. There are no effective limits on its actions. In a true democracy, by contrast, the people are sovereign, with fundamental rights that cannot be cancelled.
The problem is compounded by the fact that we have no codified separation of powers. Through the use of whips and threats, any executive (prime minister, cabinet and advisers) commanding a significant majority of MPs can force parliament to do its will. In other words, parliament has seized the powers that should be vested in the people, and the prime minister has seized the powers that should be vested in parliament. This is what “elective dictatorship” means.
We’ve been lucky that no government has yet explored the full scope of such powers. Johnson and Liz Truss were thwarted by their own chaotic failure to prepare, just as Donald Trump was in his first term. His supporters in US junktanks, led by the Heritage Foundation, ensured that no such mistake would be made again. Its Project 2025 probed the weaknesses of the US constitution and discovered that many of its safeguards are illusory when the president has majorities in Congress, and the supreme court seemingly in his back pocket.
I would be surprised if the Westminster junktanks were not preparing a Project 2029 for Reform UK, to make full use of our much greater vulnerabilities. Well-funded organisations such as the Atlas Network exist to reproduce successful strategies in one country after another.
It is not hard to picture a government in this country using statutory instruments to extend its executive authority, enabling it to impose further statutory instruments, and so on, until the feeble thing we call democracy vanishes altogether. And if we want to protest against such strategies? Sorry, too late. Without constitutional safeguards, Labour and the Conservatives have already deleted almost all those rights. Democratic implosion could happen almost overnight.
If Keir Starmer had sought to hold the door open for Nigel Farage, he couldn’t have done a better job. He has manufactured disillusionment and alienation on an industrial scale. By adopting Farage-like positions on asylum and immigration, he legitimises Reform while delegitimising Labour. The very least he now owes us is some protection against the worst that could happen. A constitution, in other words.
Ideally, it would be done slowly, and on the back of a manifesto commitment. But our situation is beginning to look like a political emergency. It’s also an opportunity we may not see again in our lifetimes. Thanks to the absurd results of our first-past-the-post system, Labour has 62% of seats in the Commons. It could easily muster a two-thirds majority, necessary in most countries for constitutional change.
The shift could begin with a citizens’ constitutional convention, like Iceland’s perhaps, and participatory events all over the country. Imagine: a thoughtful, deliberative process that treats us as active and intelligent citizens, rather than political consumers! That alone would be a major break from the way power now operates in this country. This would feed into a parliamentary process huge in ambition and scope, which in itself could revitalise faith in politics. It would help us to decide collectively what we want and who we are. It would leave us with a clear, transparent, intelligible set of rights and powers. Who but a tyrant and his consiglieri would oppose it?
Of course, a constitution is no guarantee against autocracy, as the US is discovering. But it makes the would-be despot’s job much harder, and equips us with the tools to push back. Maintaining our tangled, opaque settlement is an elite project. Replacing it with a codified version is democracy’s work.
www.monbiot.com
Greedy by Callie Kazumi
Nov. 3rd, 2025 09:57 amfantasy_book_critic_feedBook review: Greedy by Callie Kazumi
Book links: Publisher website, Goodreads
Publisher: Bantam (February 2026) Formats: Hardcover and kindle
Synopsis: Ed is in trouble with the yakuza. He's gambled away all his money and his family is at risk.
But just as he’s about to lose everything, he receives an offer he can’t refuse.
A reclusive billionaire is looking for a private chef. The only she has some. . . unusual tastes.
As he prepares delicious dishes – fresh crab salad with a panko crumb, lamb shank dripping in red wine juice, sweet, fluffy soufflé pancakes – he realizes that each meal is a test, a challenge to satisfy an insatiable appetite.
Caught up in a world more sinister than he could ever have imagined, Ed finds himself entangled in another debt.
As the stakes grow, he must make a choice.
Will he stay hungry? Or will he be greedy?
Dinner is served.
Eat Up.
REVIEW
Greedy is a short fast and easy read. Let's get one thing out of the way - the marketing set the wrong expectation. We know exactly what queasy twist is showing up, the only question is how the story handles it and exactly what happens for things to get there.
The build up to the moment is done well, and yes, this is not unsuitable for vegetarians alone, but also for anyone with a queasy stomach. I would classify this as horror, there's really no mystery/thriller element here. I first thought that the treatment of the main "spoiler" would have it read as such, but it has nothing to do with it.
I love how the real horror in the story is the protagonists desperation to do anything to put food on the table after he loses his job and gambles away all his money, down to his daughter's college fund, as well as his last-ditch attempt to keep his wife from finding out just how bad things are. That, coupled with the rising dread that accompanied his lack of options and the consequences of owing shady people, it offers the kind of horror of a good kind - that which lurks around the corner waiting for you to make a big enough bad decision.
You don't have to, but pay attention and you just may see the actual twist at the end coming. That was a good turn, but could've been worked into the story better.
Good for one of those pacy reads with a story that does not demand focus, Greedy by Callie Kazumi might just win you over with it's easygoing approach to narration. If you're a bit picker about things like an infodumpy reveal, be wary.
Tessa Wegert
Nov. 3rd, 2025 12:05 amwriters_read_feedTessa Wegert is the critically acclaimed author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, as well as the North Country series, beginning with In the Bones. Her books have received numerous starred reviews and have been featured on PBS and NPR Radio. A former journalist and copywriter, Tessa grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime
R.T. Ester
Oct. 31st, 2025 12:05 pmwriters_read_feedOriginally from Nigeria, R.T. Ester moved to the United States in 1998 and, catching the creative bug early on, studied art with a focus on design. While working full time as a graphic designer, he began to write speculative fiction in his spare time and, since then, has had stories published in Interzone and Clarkesworld.
Ester's new novel is The Ganymedan.
Recently I asked the author about
Ester's new novel is The Ganymedan.
Recently I asked the author about
Book review: The Feeding by Anthony Ryan
Oct. 30th, 2025 03:35 amfantasy_book_critic_feed
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anthony Ryan is the New York Times best selling author of the Raven's Shadow epic fantasy novels as well as the Slab City Blues science fiction series. He was born in Scotland in 1970 but spent much of his adult life living and working in London. After a long career in the British Civil Service he took up writing full time after the success of his first novel Blood Song, Book One of the Raven's Shadow trilogy. He has a degree in history, and his interests include art, science and the unending quest for the perfect pint of real ale. For news and general wittering about stuff he likes, check out Anthony's blog at: anthonyryan.net.
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing, Inc (August 12, 2025) Page count: 288 pages, Paperback
Anthony Ryan’s The Feeding is a competent, fast-moving post-apocalyptic thriller packed with familiar beats. It’s an entertaining read, briskly paced, competently written, and built around a protagonist who’s easy to root for. But it’s also derivative.
A new breed of vampires has decimated people after an event called The Feeding. The creatures are divided into three groups - the mindless gamma, the semi-sentient beta, and the dangerously intelligent alpha. The survivors, meanwhile, cling to life in walled redoubts, rationing food, ammunition, and medicine. Communities need the Crossers to survive -these hardened couriers risk the wilderness to trade and scavenge for what’s left of civilization.
Our protagonist, Layla, joins them to find medicine for her sick father figure. Expect danger, betrayal, and plenty of teeth. Ryan wastes little time getting to the point. The pacing is tight, and the prose is refreshingly lean. The Feeding reads like a movie script in the best sense. The action is crisp, the tension steady, and the worldbuilding sketched in with enough detail to feel tangible without dragging down the story. The vision of the Outside is bleak. We get ruined cities, gutted buildings, and shadows that might be watching.
Layla herself is easy to root for. She’s pragmatic, loyal, and often in over her head, which makes her struggles feel grounded. Her drive to save Strang makes her push through adversities and the chaos around her. She's also a part of the small, loyal band of survivors, and there's a lot of tension between trust and betrayal, good found family dynamics that works.
And that’s the book’s biggest weakness: everything here has been done before, and often better. The walled settlement, the tough-but-kind hero, the grizzled mentor, the ominous Outside, it’s all paint-by-numbers apocalypse. Even the big twists feel like déjà vu, like Ryan’s checking boxes rather than breaking new ground. There’s nothing wrong with using tropes, but Ryan rarely subverts or deepens them; he simply executes them efficiently. The result is a story that’s solid but predictable.
The horror, too, plays it safe. The vampires are frightening in concept but don't bring much existential dread. They function mostly as set dressing for action scenes, and a backdrop for human drama. The final chapters hint at larger ideas (hierarchy among the creatures, possible sentience, and long-buried secrets), but these threads are underdeveloped, and the ending rushes toward a resolution.
Still, I had a good time listening to it. Ryan knows how to write a clean, readable story. His sense of pacing and tension keeps the pages turning, and even when the plot hits familiar beats, it does so with professional polish. It’s not hard to imagine this as a streaming-series adaptation. A few sharp jump scares, some good set design, and a charismatic lead could make The Feeding a great TV series.
In the end, The Feeding is satisfying, easy to digest, and unsurprising. It’s enjoyable in the moment, thanks to its speed and clarity. It does everything right but nothing new.
Martin Edwards
Oct. 29th, 2025 10:05 amwriters_read_feedMartin Edwards has been described by Richard Osman as "a true master of British crime writing." His novels include the eight Lake District Mysteries and four books featuring Rachel Savernake, including the Dagger-nominated The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge. He is also the author of two multi-award-winning histories of crime fiction, The Life of Crime and The Golden Age of Murder. He has received
SPFBO Champions' League: Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang
Oct. 27th, 2025 04:00 amfantasy_book_critic_feed
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Stang lives in the humid part of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA. By day he works in accounting and by night he sleeps, and sometime in between he writes in a wide variety of fantasy genres, ranging from dark fantasy (The Bartram's Maw series) to gaslamp murder mystery (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries) to cozy fantasy (The Bookshop and the Barbarian). He is a fan of all things nerdy, and lives with an immortal ball python.
ŁUKASZ
I never suspected I needed a humorous gaslamp fantasy horror murder mystery in my life, but here we are. Murder at Spindle Manor was a delight. I devoured it in two sittings and immediately delved into the sequel upon finishing. What made it so immersive? I’ll try to answer this question.
Huntress Isabeau Agarwal lives to slay monsters. She serves Nobles (inhuman giants with dope powers) and in some ways is above the law. Her mission is simple - track down Doppelvyrm, a shape-shifting creature able to pose as a human, before it gets to the city of Lamplight. She ends up in a spooky haunted mansion, where someone is murdered, which makes her life more complicated. More work, two cases to solve.
Outside the mansion, there’s a tumultuous thunderstorm. Inside the mansion, all hell breaks loose. The story weaves together elements of comedy, horror, fantasy, and murder mystery, and it works on every level. Everyone gathered in the mansion has a motive for murder. Being trapped between a murderer and a skin-wearing monster isn’t exactly fun. Especially since Isabeau has until morning to unveil the true identity of the creature, or no one, including herself, will make it out alive. Why? That’s a spoiler.
I loved how well-crafted and well-timed comedic interludes were and how they balanced darker moments and broke the tension when needed. The sense of danger and suspense never goes away, and horror elements, while chilling, never fall into poor taste. The story kept me on the edge of my seat, but it also offered humorous relief and a hopeful tone amid its darker moments.
The narrative may seem pretty straightforward, but both mysteries (Who killed? Where’s the monster? Who's the monster?) turn surprisingly complex, and I doubt anyone will guess the truth early on. The characters are vibrant and multi-dimensional, each with their own secrets and motives. And if you crave excitement, you’ll get lots of it, complete with seances, specters, mesmers, and monsters.
The review is already long, but I need to say a few words about the characters. Isabeau Agarwal is a great protagonist. She’s focused and excellent with guns and logic. Turns out she’s also good at solving murders and dealing with ghosts. She gives the impression of someone stern and cold, but when you get to know her, you realize she’s good people. Her sidekick, Evie, is incredibly fun. And then, there’s Penny: a young woman who recently passed away and was revived through the fusion of mesmer and medium magic, now existing as a “living doll person.” She cannot speak as her mouth is perpetually sewn shut - if it were ever unsealed, her soul would leave her body, and she’d die for good this time. You’ll come to love her.
Murder at Spindle Manor will keep you guessing until the very last page. I loved the book and highly recommend it to others.
MIHIR
Murder At Spindle Manor is a book that isn’t Morgan Stang’s debut but might seem like it for many a reader who are reading his works with this one. I’m not disparaging Morgan’s writing but would like to highlight its freshness. Murder At Spindle Manor is a fascinating mix of locked room mystery set within in a fantasy world.
It begins with our main mysterious protagonist Isabeau Agarwal who’s hunting a specific type of creature called Doppelvyrm. It’s scary as it can inhabit the skin and adopt its mannerisms thereby making it very hard to discern. Isabeau or Izzie is hot on its trial, however weird weather circumstances force her and a few others in an inn called Spindle Manor. Things are dire enough as it is with a doppelvyrm but then the inn residents start getting murdered and Izzie has to take action before all of them end up dead and the doppelvyrm is loose upon the world.
For fantasy readers who haven’t read outside the genre, this might be a very novel concept but for any previous mystery reader, this trope of locked room and murder has been highlighted quite ebulliently by Agatha Christie and since then has been taken forward by many others. In the fantasy genre, it was previously highlighted by Mark Charan Newton in his roman-inspired world called Drakenfield. That book also dealt with a locked room mystery but the world settings were very, very low fantasy. Herein however the magic is very much evidient as it the Victorian era-level of technology.
It is however never quite clear whether this is Victorian-esque secondary fantasy world that is akin to ours or an alternate historical one and the author purposefully keeps this distinction vague and I believe the future sequels do make this distinction a bit more clear. Speaking of characters while we do get a POV thorough Isabeau, another character is also introduced who become vital and is absolutely crucial to the our main character and the plot as well. I very much enjoyed this unique story that combines mystery and fantasy in such a cracking manner and it is absolutely meant to thrill.
For new readers, this might be a fantastic story to dive into, for older & experienced readers, they might find some things that jar them such as the prose which isn’t the purple kind. The twists and plot pace are absolutely jam packed and the story never quite settles down as it just keeps racing towards its climax. The main character is a cipher and we never got to experience why she is the way she is. This isn’t usually an issue but ideally needs to explained via the plot and mannerisms as to the mystery of the character. An excellent example of such a character is Agent Pendergast from the tales by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. He’s very much a cipher similar to Isabeau but is presented in such a fabulous manner that the reader can’t help but be enamoured. This isn’t the case over here and while we are intrigued by Isabeau but never quite a clear picture as to why. Another oddity about her is her surname which is very Indian but it isn’t quite explained within the aspect of this world. Is there an India? Is she bi-racial? Does this mean that this is an alternate history? Such questions remain but we aren’t provided with any clues. This let me a bit stymied.
Overall Murder At Spindle Manor is a wonderful start to a new Fantasy-mystery series that needs to be read more widely for all the amazing twists that the author is planning as well as the fascinating worldbuilding done within. Morgan Stang has written a fantastic opener, dive in and find out what really happened at Spindle Manor, trust me you will be left with mysteries and then wanting to read more about Isabeau Agarwal and the strange world she inhabits.
Our order:
- The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
- Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike
- Murder at Spindle manor by Morgan Stang
- Grey Bastards by Jonathan French
- Where Loyalties Lie by Rob J. Hayes
- The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson
- The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids by Michael McClung
- Reign & Ruin by J.D. Evans
- By Blood, By Salt by J.L. Odom
Database maintenance
Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
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dw_maintenanceGood morning, afternoon, and evening!
We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)
I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.
Ta for now!
Finley Turner
Oct. 24th, 2025 01:05 pmwriters_read_feedFinley Turner is a thriller writer. Initially convinced she wanted to be a professor, she got her master's in religious studies at Wake Forest University, focusing on new religious movements, cults, and religious violence. During her program, she applied for a student position in the university library and quickly realized she would rather be an academic librarian than be at the front of a
fantasy_book_critic_feed
Today we are thrilled to be able to present the cover for The Book Of Spores anthology edited by Frasier Armitage, Eleni Argyró, Adrian M. Gibson & Ed Crocker.
Here's the blurb for this fascinating project:
Across dimensions, it creeps and consumes.
Hidden in the vaults of a world-spanning library lie the records of a mysterious book, one made of mold and magic. Varied accounts of its existence remain scattered throughout the multiverse, but when an archivist attempts to bring its pages together, she will learn how dangerous a book—and her own ambitions—can be . . .
Collecting fungal tales from across countless universes, this FanFiAddict anthology spotlights the best of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, ready to spread across the multiverse like spores. Delve into sixteen strange stories by authors from the FanFiAddict book blog and SFF Addicts Podcast, and prepare for your imagination to be colonized by The Book of Spores.
Here's the cover for this brilliant anthology and the art by Jeff Brown, and cover typography/design by Jeff and Adrian M. Gibson.
Here are the list of authors who will be contributing their talents to this collection:
- M. J. Kuhn,
- Greta Kelly,
- Krystle Matar,
- C.M. Caplan,
- Kaden Love,
- Emma L. Adams,
- A.J. Calvin,
- Adam Bassett,
- DB Rook,
- Tom Bookbeard,
- Ryan Kirk,
- Harry Chilcott,
- Tori Gross,
- Will Swardstrom,
- C. J. Daley,
- Eleni Argyró,
- Frasier Armitage,
- Introduction by Adrian M. Gibson
You can back the anthology when it goes live on Kickstarter and you can track it over on its pre-launch page.