Category Archives: Books

Pratchett talks about Aching

Just a short note. Aida Emariam in the Guardian has an interview with Terry Pratchett. He talks about I Shall Wear Midnight and the right to die. In a  way I’m happy that this is the last in the Aching … Continue reading

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Catching up – Guy Gavriel Kay and Terry Pratchett

Having a bit of a catch up. I’ve been reading Guy Gavriel Kay‘s Ysabel which I’ve had on my shelf since publication. I’m not sure why I’ve waited so long as I’ve pretty much gulped down previous novels. It is … Continue reading

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Writing in the Margins – Ian McDonald’s Dervish House

I’ve just finished the Dervish House by Ian McDonald which is set in Istanbul and brings the current series to an end. After a bomb goes off in Istanbul, near to a house which belonged to a dervish, various lives … Continue reading

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Two faces of Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl is happy. Very happy. Unnervingly so. His latest scheme is to reverse global warming and save the world. He’s being heroic. Its unnerving. He keeps taking and counting in multiples of five as well. Holly Short notices the … Continue reading

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Jeepers, Blyton’s jolly japes to be updated

Alison Flood in the Guardian has a piece on the reworking of the language in the Famous Five books which Hodder, their current publisher, are publishing in August. They will still publish the originals but the contemporary range will modernise … Continue reading

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A reader responds to Bath and Mayne

The news that the children’s author, KP Bath, had been sentenced for the possession of child pornography has (rightly) sparked a debate on children’s mailing lists.  It has reminded me of William Mayne whose writing career was ended by his … Continue reading

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The neverending death of fiction

Lee Siegel has been stirring the minor storm in a tea cup which raised its head above the parapet again in genre recently: is fiction dead?   (It was enough for the Observer to get excited about.) In an article entitled … Continue reading

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Going through the wash – Charles Stross’s Fuller Memorandum

It has been a while since I followed Charles Stross‘s Laundry Novels but I recently read The Fuller Memorandum which has made me want to re-read the Jennifer Morgue and Atrocity Archives. It is a slightly less madcap romp through … Continue reading

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Restoring the World – Ken Macleod’s The Restoration Game

I’ve just finished Ken Macleod‘s The Restoration Game (Orbit, £18.99) and I’m still slightly agog. Lucy Stone is asked by an unknown agency to go back to Krassnia, a small Russian republic in the Caucasus. Her mother, Anna, created the … Continue reading

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Filtered perceptions of now – Jeff Vandermeer’s Finch

I’ve only managed to read one book this week and that is Jeff Vandermeer‘s Finch published in the UK by Corvus Books. Before you go further, this review does contain spoilers. Just a friendly warning. Alongside New Crobuzon, Ambergris is … Continue reading

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