Monthly Archives: February 2012

Outfoxed – Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox

Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox works itself around fairy tales and the club story, drawing sustenance from two of the re-discovered ways of telling the fantastic tale. When Mary Foxe contacts St John Fox to get him to read her stories, … Continue reading

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One small step – Blue Earth Remembered by Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds’ Blue Remembered Earth is a novel which asks some deep questions about itself. Rather than reflecting on the deeps of space or identity, Blue Earth Remembered is about questioning whether we are ready to go forwards though with … Continue reading

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Waking Sleeping Beauty – Lauren DeStefano’s Wither

Lauren DeStefano‘s debut novel, Wither: Book One of the Chemical Garden, is one that nearly becomes something quite different but not quite. In a post-apocalyptic future, men only survive to 25 and women to 20 before dying. There is a … Continue reading

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A cosy blanket – Helen Dunmore’s The Greatcoat

The Greatcoat is Helen Dunmore’s first ghost story and I find myself in two minds about it. In part, I find I want ghost stories to unsettle me in the vein of Henry James or Susan Hill and this did … Continue reading

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Episodic narratives – Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude

Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude shows that the fantastic can be a way of not escaping the world, but exploring it in a very different way. Instead of relying on verisimilitude to allow the reader to escape the world. … Continue reading

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Revisiting old friends with Bill Willingham’s Bad Doings and Big Ideas

I’ve been reading Bill Willingham‘s Bad Doings and Big Ideas which collects his non-Fables Vertigo books in one. I have a fair few of these books but it is always good to have one place to go for a good … Continue reading

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