The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent (part 2)

Blake & Mortimer books usually have sumptuous covers but they have really gone to town on this one, it is a classic of comic art. The ligne claire artwork inside is pretty good too, being to the usual B&M standard. The artwork is very well drawn and accurate depicting an idealised view of the world of the 1950s, beautifully coloured... and of course (as it is a B&M story) with plenty of words!

The story continues the one begun in part 1, which involved a mysterious Indian living god launching an electrical attack on the Brussels Universal Exposition. In part 2 our heroes travel to Antarctica to track down the source of the attacks. If you like secret bases at the South Pole and mysterious retro-future technology then you will be sure to love this. It is packed full of action and weird science...

The best part of the story though, to me, is the backstory these two volumes have provided to Professor Mortimer. Part 1 showed us some of his adventures in India as a young man and this all comes to a conclusion here where his past and present collide.

Skeleton in search of a cupboard

Another enjoyable crime novel by Elizabeth Ferrars, who has fast become one of my favourite authors. This is not a book in one of her series with recurring characters though, it is a stand alone story involving a young couple and their rather large family. The family have gathered for their step-mother's 80th birthday but thats when things start to go wrong.

The step-mother's house catches fire, a couple of her valuable paintings go missing, but worst of all: in the smouldering debris of the house a hidden cupboard is revealed which contains a female skeleton! The investigation into crimes in the past and the present day (a number of murders) begins.

A good story that, once it got going, was very easy to read however, i did not think this was Ferrars' best book. A lot of the story, especially at the end, seems rather overly convenient and the actions of the characters are often a bit strange. For example, one of the characters - a young pregnant woman - implies she has gone off to kill herself and no one seems bothered to try and stop her.

The concept - the discovered skeleton - is great but the story itself did not quite live up to it.

A trip to Liverpool

At the weekend i made my first trip of the year to Merseyside. I wanted to cross off three more stations in the Liverpool area so travelled first to West Allerton, then Mossley Hill and finally Halewood. My uncle and auntie lives in Halewood and when we came up to Liverpool when i was a kid we always used to visit them. I never came to the station though, until now!

You can see my photos here.

Prime target

Prime target by Martin Russell is an intriguing tale of crime, psychology and terrorism. Our main character Pitt starts to get confused when people begin mistaking him for someone else. This continues for some time and he starts to question his own sanity and his reality.

Finally, it is revealed that it is all a trick (a somewhat elaborate one to honest) to unnerve and ultimately control him, and he is the captive of terrorists who want him to plant a bomb in Downing Street!

The story has many twists and turns though some are a bit obvious in the end, such as Karen. However, a dog saves the day and that always makes a good story even better.

A trip to two new stations

There are five new railway stations opening in the West Midlands this year. Two in fact have already opened, last week (Darlaston and Willenhall). Three more will open after Easter. Last Friday i visited the two new stations, the day after they opened. There were still quite a few enthusiasts around, checking the new stations out. I met a YouTuber who was doing a video on them and we had a chat. A really nice guy.

You can see my photos here.

The London Underground Electric Train

There are many books on the development of the rolling stock of London Underground, quite a few of them are really good too and this is another one to add to that list. Maybe even the best, certainly one of the most technical.

This excellent book by Piers Connor approaches the subject from a novel direction: instead of a standard history of the London Underground network and its rolling stock, this book instead describes the development of the many technologies that went into the London Underground train as we know it and how the technologies all fitted together. So, starting with the earliest electric traction in the first Underground trains we see how electric motors and control systems, bogies, bodywork, brakes et cetera developed over the decades.

The book is well illustrated throughout, with a number of diagrams that explain how the various systems work. The London Underground was the first deep-level underground system in the world but it owes so much to early developments in the United States as well as decades of evolution and different paths (not all of which worked). Much development work is ongoing and the book is very up-to-date with the latest details of the future tube trains which will finally replace my beloved 1972 Stock in the late 2020s (perhaps).