From time to time I think that we should all remember to thank those who add something to our lives. If you like speculative fiction, I hope that like me you look forward each month to Lisa Tuttle’s book recommendations in the Guardian. Short, well-written, non-spoilerish, and with an authority not possessed by book influencers […]
I enjoyed the film Moneyball but nowhere near as much as Michael Hann. Funny thing is though, I would describe the book by Michael Lewis in much the same way as Hann as described the film. I maybe have some vague vestigial interest in sport, having been brought up in a Rugby League loving family […]
I have been known to overthink, however I wonder if Alastair Reynolds has presented us with some Philip K Dick easter eggs in his fun-filled Halcyon Years. I am not spoiling anything that the blurb does not give away in saying we start with a well-worn SF trope of a generation ship travelling between the […]
qntm is seriously good. I had There Is No Antimemetics Division on my Kindle for ages, I can’t remember now where I found the recommendation, but I had some notion in my head that it was this thing, so I did not read it, and then I did and it turned out to be this […]
I am a sucker for anything decent post-apocalypsish and endish of the world, and this liminal time as we approach two-faced Janus, looking forwards and back, is as good a time (as good an excuse) to recommend entertainment in this line. I have just finished watching Earth Abides, based on the novel by George R […]
I first came across Laird Barron a dozen or so years ago when I was working my way through Ellen Datlow’s yearly horror collections. Since then he has become one of “my” authors, those whose next book I eagerly await. One of the best things that I ever read on Twitter was what I think […]
I’ve had to pack up my library for reasons, so downstairs I have nearly 70 x 40 litre cartons of books accumulated over 50 years. I don’t have TBR piles, I have TBR book cases. I wonder if there are enough years left to read them, plus all the others out there that I don’t […]
I have just finished “Devolution” by Max Brooks. It was fine, although I was disappointed by the lack of easter eggs regarding a certain band from Akron, Ohio. I’ll just have to assume that the blurb on the cover reading “one of the greatest horror novels I’ve ever read,” is a reference to that writer […]
I don’t think this piece by Tony Milligan in The Conversation regarding Fermi’s paradox, Cixin Liu’s 3 Body Problem, and the universe being a dark forest where everyone hides, is quite right. I have no difficulty with people finding problems with the book. I did not enjoy it, and so did not go on to […]
“An adult is in charge,” I thought while reading ‘The Separation’ by Christopher Priest. On the news of his recent death, I moved a few of his novels towards the top of my unread pile, and ‘The Separation’ was the first that I hit. On starting, I wondered why I had not read it earlier […]
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