Nailing your political colours to your business is bad business

One of my passions is reading. As documented elsewhere on this site, I read more than most and have a minor obsession with collecting first editions of modern novels, ideally signed by the author. I frequently attend author events organised by bookshops across East Anglia and even schlepped to Hull and back recently just so I could meet Charlotte Philby. I'm someone that booksellers like.

This morning was one of those "what shall I read next?" moments. I know it sounds odd but I get a real pleasure from going through my shelves and choosing the next one to dive into. I want something unlike the previous one. Am I travelling while I'll be reading this one? If so, avoid big heavy books (yes, that's a consideration). When is the next book club meeting and do I have time to read this first? There are always factors to bear in mind.

This morning, the choice was Dark Diamond by Neal Asher. I bought it not long ago, I think from Waterstone's. I've not read any of his work before although I've long been aware that I probably should. Dark Diamond is the first in a new trology so this looks like a good place to start. On opening the book, opposite the publisher's front matter, I read this:

Five years ago, I watched the two Falcon Heavy side boosters come into land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base. Honestly, it was like something in a game animation and seemingly too perfect to be believable. Others, I've seen landing on drone ships with names taken from Iain M Banks' Culture books. Just recently, I saw a huge booster for the Starship come down to be caught between two metal arms - y'know, they caught something the size of a skyscraper like a dropping stick - and that was an astounding feat of engineering. But these are not in isolation, since SpaceX, as of last month, has launched over a hundred rockets in 2024.

Meanwhile, the guy who brought this about, the guy who is aiming to make humanity multi-planetary by putting us on Mars, has a few other projects on the go, like building electric cars, burrowing tunnels under cities, putting up a satellite internet system and, perhaps the most important of them all, preventing the totalitarians of our world from killing free speech.

So thank you, Elon Musk, for bringing to reality, right before my eyes, those things I read and dreamed about as a teenager.

When I got to the end I felt as if I were holding a scorpion or something smelly and unpleasant. I immediately felt I needed to wash my hands.

It would be politically neutral if the text ended at … and that was an astounding feat of engineering. It would still reference the same events, the same technological brilliance (and catching a returning booster rocket is brilliant) but without the praise for one of the most reprehensible, amoral people on the planet. That booster capture took place in January 2025 by which time Musk's political antics with the Tangerine Toddler were well known.

I will not be reading Dark Diamond, or anything else by Neal Asher. If you want my copy, which is a first edition in mint condition, complete with added cellophane wrapper, it'll soon be in my local Oxfam book shop.