Author v Reader

When you’re a musician you learn very quickly to listen differently. You break a track down, listen to individual instruments, how they’re balanced, how they’re played, what production techniques have been used. The song? It has to be really strong to allow you to glimpse it at others hear it, a complete entity instead of […]

August’s books

Fully expected this month’s reading to be curtailed by other activities, but as it turns out I managed a couple of enjoyable (albeit with a slightly higher than usual incidence of author/reader nark) novels and the usual interesting array of shorts. Rule 34 by Charles Stross (Orbit) You know you’ve read a good thriller […]

July’s reading

It seems I liked a lot of what I read this month, so without further ado: popCULT! by David Barnett (Pendragon Press) – It’s very rare that I’m completely sold on a book by a glance at the blurb, but the second my eyes slid over the words “lost Carry-On movie”, I was reaching for […]

June’s reading

Two novels this month: Infernal Devices by KW Jeter – okay so this was meant to be the start of my attempt to take on Steampunk fiction. As a result of my earlier post I had a few suggestions about what I should be reading and I thought I’d start with one of the classics. […]

More good things for Mr Duncan

Hot on the heels of the news of his Spectrum award, Hal Duncan has announced a new book. His A to Z of the Fantastic City features Hal’s unique take on the what makes a city fantastica, focusing on some truly eclectic examples, including: Ambergris, Dublin and Sodom, along with 23 others. If that weren’t […]

April’s reading

This month’s report feels a bit on the paltry side, but that’s mainly down to struggling through one long book. Ah well. More diversity next time, promise. Novels Kraken by China Mieville – I don’t seem to engage well with Mieville’s prose. There was lots to enjoy in this novel – the love of the […]

Book delivered

Completed the work on the new edition of The Ephemera yesterday and delivered it to Keith Brooke at Infinity Plus. With a favouring wind it will be available to buy in various ebook formats very soon. I’ll post more details about it next week, but for now I can tell you that it contains all […]

Polish fiction : recommendations please

One of the great things about hanging out in the Paradox Cafe in Warsaw over the weekend, was being surrounded by books in an entirely – and I mean ENTIRELY – differently language. I loved the look of Polish on the page (and the sound of it to the ear too, although most folks were […]

Moments of readable goodness from March

No shorts this time, mostly because I was on a novel binge, but also because not many of the shorts I did manage to read made much of an impression. Disappointed not to get to the new Interzone, but delighted to be 3/5 of the way through the BSFA shortlist and all are worth a […]

Help me out here: Steampunk leaves me cold

So, I have this admission to make. I don’t get Steampunk. I have nothing particularly against it, and I don’t believe I’ve gone out of my way to avoid it. It’s simply that the aesthetic, the approach to science and story, do nothing to attract me. And yet, it seems to be very popular. Certainly […]