Something I Read

I recently read The Girl With All the Gifts, (2014) by Mike Carey, an author that I know better from their comics work. In particular, Lucifer, which follows the titular character after they quit their day job as Hell’s boss in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, is a series I’ve come back to time and time again. Here we have Carey’s take on the zombie apocalypse which they attack with characteristic technical flair, producing something that is erudite and melancholy, horrifying and yet strangely sometimes hopeful, in an unsettling way. Getting inside the heads of potential monsters, and showing the usual suspects aren’t the only ones on that list, is a repeating theme. I’ll even forgive it the the evil neuroscientist – because of the research that’s evident in the high quality neurobabble.

A quote I particularly liked:

And then like Pandora, opening the great big box of the world and not being afraid, not even caring whether what’s inside is good or bad. Because it’s both. Everything is always both. But you have to open it to find that out.

The Girl With All the Gifts, Mike Carey

A solid 3.5-4 star read, especailly if the genre is up your alley.

See the book review page for more…

Something (I helped) publish

A piece of work I’m proud to have contributed to (and plan to write more about asap) has recently been published at The Cochrane Library:

  • Gonzalez-Lorenzo M, Ridley B, Minozzi S, Del Giovane C, Peryer G, Piggott T, Foschi M, Filippini G, Tramacere I, Baldin E, Nonino F. Immunomodulators and immunosuppressants for relapsing‐remitting multiple sclerosis: a network meta‐analysis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2024, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD011381. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011381.pub3.

It’s open access for anyone that wants to read it, but there’s an accessible explanation of this systematic review, and a short podcast explainer at What are the benefits and risks of drugs acting on the immune system to treat relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis ?

Cochrane, systematic reviews, and the people that contribute to them have come up a few times before:

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