The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, Orbit books, 2015 (Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award) Yes, I’m now at the point where I have actually started to read the books given to me for Christmas by my DDD (Dearest Darling Daughter). DDD is an admirer of fantasy fiction and I’ve had many enjoyable hours reading …
Category: Books
INSPECTOR GAMACHE RIDES AGAIN
Louise Penny – All the Devils are Here – St. Martin’s Press, 2020 (An Inspector Gamache story) It used to be that movies and television shows relied on books for their inspiration. These days I’m beginning to suspect that crime/mystery novels are borrowing the techniques of popular television series. There is the first novel where …
You Must Remember This
Collecting something for a hobby is a path to a number of undoubted pleasures. Whether it’s baseball cards, books or tea cozies, there’s the thrill of the chase and the satisfaction of acquiring a unique item. On the other hand, there’s the feeling that you never have enough money to fuel your habit and the …
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2021 - ‘The Imitation Game’ is the movie that introduced many people to the story of Bletchley Park during WWII. The group of ‘boffins’ and assorted geniuses at Bletchley included Alan Turing, who developed a computer that broke the Nazi military codes and likely helped shorten the …
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
The Outlander by Gil Adamson, House of Anansi Press, 2007 - It begins in the frontier west - the age of horse and buggy with a widow in flight. She’s young and on the run after having killed her husband. She’s barely keeping ahead of two armed and dangerous looking men – her brothers-in-law. We …
Barbarians of the Beyond
Barbarians of the Beyond by Matthew Hughes, Spatterlight Press, 2021 – available through Amazon Matthew Hughes has had forty-two stories published in science fiction’s premier platform, the ‘Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction’. In addition he’s published over thirty books, he’s won or been nominated for every fantasy and science fiction award you can think …
FIREFLIES AND CHOCOLATE
Fireflies and Chocolate, Ailish Sinclair, GWL Publishing 2021 (available through Amazon) In 1607 Jamestown was established and the early settlers soon began importing indentured European servants/laborers into the new world. The system of indentures in that period was similar to slavery, differing only in that those sold under indentures gained their freedom when they had …
Old Children’s Classic – Pinocchio
Pinocchio by Carol Collodi (my copy published by Simply Read Books, 2002, illustrated by Iasssen Ghiuselev) 1807 saw the first publication of Thomas Bowdler’s ‘Family Shakespeare’, an edition of the Bard’s works where all the parts deemed racy, blasphemous or otherwise unsuitable for the young or female readers were removed. ‘Cleaning up’ tales for children …
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Has anyone had the experience of reading a book that is touted by critics as a masterpiece, got to the end and wondered why you bothered? Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita in 1955 and the book was so successful that he was able to give up a teaching career at Harvard and devote himself exclusively to …
The Odin Incident – Excerpt
In last week’s blog, I promised (or threatened, depending on how the message was received) to give you an excerpt of the latest draft of my fantasy book ‘The Odin Incident’ (One prophecy, Two destinies – Nine worlds in peril). This latest draft was inspired by Les Edgerton’s book on how to write entitled ‘Hooked’. …
Richard's Left Bank 