Books

  All of come to the realisation, at one point or another, that the business of living is not for the fainthearted. What looks from the relatively uncluttered vantage point of childhood to be a straightforward undertaking, soon proves itself to be wildly unpredictable, immensely complicated and prone to as Continue Reading

  Barney Conroy is the literary Frank Spencer of our time. For those too young to remember the classic British sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Frank Spencer was the hapless but well-meaning protagonist who despite his best intentions, and there was no doubting the goodness of his heart, always Continue Reading

  Depending on which side of the aging fence you stand, there is one of two axioms that will guide your approach to life. The first, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” presupposes that you reach a certain point in life after which all new experiences and skills Continue Reading

  There is something inordinately comforting about rejoining the company of book characters you have grown to know and love. If an author is doing their job properly, and Hilary Spiers mostly certainly is, it is akin to meeting up again with old friends, people you wish you could have Continue Reading

  When we’re growing up, time and and distance can seem like the greatest of tyrannies. Neither seems particularly predisposed to granting us any favours, and any sense that they might eventually give us perspective or understanding can feel as fanciful as the idea that there are problems in life Continue Reading

*SOME MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD* In general, sequels do not get much loving, be they movies, TV shows or books. It makes sense – the novelty has worn off, it’s been there, done that and gone and got the whole T-shirt factory, the very idea of the world has lost its initial Continue Reading

There’s an admirable Utopian tendency among some science fiction to advance the idea that once humanity takes to the stars that all its problems will be solved, that we will join together in a spirit of selfless sacrifice and devotion to noble ideals, not only among ourselves but with many Continue Reading

[caption id= (image courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) One of the delights of diving deeply into a Peter F Hamilton novel – and dive deeply you will with many of his expansive efforts reaching the 700-plus page mark with ease – is being reminded once again that pretty much anything is Continue Reading

  SNAPSHOT “Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy. The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world. To where the monsters lived.” (source: Sci-Fi Now) You could be forgiven Continue Reading

  Humanity is, in many ways, an army of conformist clones. Look the right way, talk the right way, act the right the way and acceptance as a fully-fledged member of the human race will be conferred upon you, no questions asked. But dare to look even a skerrick different Continue Reading