Author Archives: Iain

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

Posted in Graphica and Art | Tagged | Leave a comment

Remembering the World – Jonathan Lethem’s Amnesia Moon

Jonathan Lethem’s Amnesia Moon is a novel which plays with the reader. It is a tapestry of genres in a series of dreams and journeys. Lethem enjoys his ecstasy of influences, in this case from Searchers to Philip K Dick … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Leave a comment

Notes on reading Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) is a book about escape, or trying to escape. Like Jonathan Lethem, Chabon’s work enjoys its influences and finds an joy in its escape from genre and creating its own … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Leave a comment

A night to remember – musing on Where the Wild Things Are

The remixing of the film, through adaptation, shows how the fantastic can be found in realist culture, living cheek by jowl. The novelisation and the film turned toward placing the fantastic firmly within the framework of the mundane. This does … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Leave a comment

Tapestry of histories – John R Fultz’s Seven Princes

John R. Fultz‘s debut novel, Seven Princes: Books of the Shaper: Volume 1, is a slightly strange fantasy. It is a tapestry of fantasies, each thread of influence enhancing and possibly celebrating the others as they are woven together. The … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Wings in the snow – Rebecca Guay’s A Flight of Angels

I recently came across A Flight of Angels created by Rebecca Guay. It is a club story which  explores and shows differing sides to the angelic host, quite apart from just being messengers. It seems to follow in the wake … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Graphica and Art | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Not a number – Philip Palmer’s Hell Ship

Philip Palmer’s Hell Ship is another fast paced pulp novel which turns into something quite exhilarating.What starts out as a space opera with pirates, aliens and lots of fighting becomes an exploration of the reaction to being the last being … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Breaking bonds and coils – Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker

Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker continues his exploration of post-scarcity economics which underpins part of The Windup Girl. Published as a young adult novel, this a rip roaring escapade which is exhilarating and frightening, and a subtle tale. Nailer is growing … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Leave a comment

Leaving the House of Mystery

Matthew Sturges‘s run on House of Mystery has come to a sad end after 42 issues, although perhaps this was not an entire suprise. I have to say that at times the series has felt slightly loose but seems to … Continue reading

Posted in Graphica and Art | Tagged | 2 Comments

A night at the circus – Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus

The Night Circus sat on the table in Waterstone’s; its starkly designed cover shouting for attention.There is somethign rather strange and terrifying on the novel and it reminds me a little of Gordon Dahlquist’s The Glass Books of the Dream … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | 1 Comment