Showstoppers and Ironclads

I took myself to Showstoppers again on Monday and was not disappointed. The trials and tribulations (and West Side Story style feuding) on the Texan guinea pig farm in Everything's Pigger In Texas had me laughing hard enough to disturb the whole dress circle, I think. Improv shows are weird creatures - if what I saw on Monday night had been a fully scripted, West End show, I would have been demanding my money back. But the fact that it was all being made up on the spot somehow turned it into absolute genius from start to finish. Plus, it was the first time I've seen the Showstoppers cast try to do a Hamilton-style number (it comes up pretty much every time these days) and actually do it really well. The second half was massively improved by a chance reference in an interval tweet to 'the little man', which became a strong and hilarious theme, greatly helped by said cast member's ability to make fun of himself. Showstoppers is pretty much always good value for money, but this was one of the best I've seen.


Continuing with my Adrian Tchaikovsky binge, I read his recent novella, Ironclads yesterday and today. It's military sci-fi (with a depressing Brexit reference near the start), following three hapless grunts on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Sweden, on the hunt for a missing soldier. It's all about the little guy being lied to by the higher-ups and gradually discovering how screwed up everything is, and it's a bit too war-focused for my tastes. Still, I liked some of the characters and the setting was very evocative. Plus, it was only 150 pages of pretty large type, so it didn't take long to get through. Not one of his best, in my opinion, but it's good to see a genre novella being accepted for publication, since the current draft of my second novel is coming up a bit short at the moment...