Books

One of the more noticeable aspects of any authoritarian regime, propaganda extolling its innate, inspiring virtue notwithstanding, is the starkly evident, almost palpable lack of humanity. There is power and control in abundance, toxic micro-managing and surveillance in abundance and a foreboding sense of loss any kind of freedom or Continue Reading

Love in our modern age has been reduced in many ways to an almosy infantile, fey semblance of its former vigorous self. Where once love compelled great Shakespearian sonnets or set in motions the events that led to the Trojan War, it is now imprisoned in cutesy greeting card rhyming Continue Reading

Figuring out who you are, where you belong and what you want to be is tough enough in the teenage years without a whole lot of other, somewhat weird and emotionally taxing stuff being thrown into the chaotic mix. One fifteen-year-old who can attest to the robust truth of that Continue Reading

It’s not often you come across a space opera, the authors of which thank readers in the acknowledgements for “following the Seven Devils Smash the Patriarchy In Space”. But that is precisely what Elizabeth May and Laura Lam do in Seven Devils, a sci-fi extravaganza with a very serious intent. Continue Reading

Linear time occupying a single, rather crowded universe can feel constricting at times. Everything we do, from catching a certain bus to repairing a relationship with an estranged friend or relative is a one-shot deal, condemned to a single moment in time, whether successful or not, from which there is Continue Reading

One of the most delightful parts of reading a book is discovering the characters who, if written well, play a key role in the story of which you are now, as a reader, a part. While you are not part of the story per se, it can often feel like Continue Reading

When it comes to the end of the world, a subject with which humanity, especially in pandemic-plagued 2020, seems to have an endless fascination, the assumption almost always is that nothing good can come of it. That’s fair enough – on the surface, and even deep down among the zombies, Continue Reading

If there is one thing at which Jasper Fforde excels, and let’s face there are many (have you read his books? Read and learn the breadth of this writer’s extensive talents), it is the ability to wrap hard, made-of-steel truths inside an outer wrapping of appealing wit, whimsy and quirk. Continue Reading

Is there hope at the slow end of a dying world? You could be forgiven for thinking not in Charlotte McConaghy’s The Last Migration where the climate changed-induced creeping apocalypse at its heart has ushered in the demise of moose and elephants, wolves and bees and the big cats, and Continue Reading

The alternate history genre of storytelling is often dismissed as a fanciful game of “what ifs”, a moving around of real world people and events to create an altogether different perspective on a particularly transformative moment in time. But the really good alternate histories perform an altogether more important role Continue Reading