The Cosmic World of CS Lewis, the other Inkling CS Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy comprises three science fiction novels for adults, Out of the Silent Planet, Voyage to Venus (Perelandra) and That Hideous Strength, written and published between 1938 and 1945. Its hero - if the Cosmic Trilogy can be said to have a hero at …
Category: Book Review
It's all in the DNA!
The Seven Daughters of Eve Bryan Sykes's book is one that bears reading a second and even a third time. It is the story of mitochondrial DNA. I first read it shortly after its publication in 2001. Science has moved on. There has been much new research and while scientists do not always agree on …
We are not alone … yet!
"How would you feel if a Martian vomited stale liquor on the White House floor?" Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a novel that should be read at least twice. Read it first as the quaint, inventive work of fantasy that it is. The Red Planet of Bradbury's imagination is peopled with small, light brown, …
Not all universes are the same (part two)
The Subtle Knife A Review The Subtle Knife is the second book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. At the end of Northern Lights, we left Lyra on the bridge from her universe to another. Now the author leaves us in suspense to introduce a new protagonist. Will Parry is a twelve-year-old boy who …
Species!
On the Natural Selection of Charles Darwin A Review of The Origin of Species Around the middle of the nineteenth century, an Augustinian friar, physicist and mathematician called Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants and, without realising it, founded a whole new field of scientific endeavour. Mendel's valuable contribution to science became known and recognised …
Not all universes are the same
A Review of Northern Lights The first book in Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy for young adults The main protagonist in Northern Lights is Lyra, a twelve-year-old girl who lives in one of Oxford University's many colleges. Only Lyra's Oxford is a different Oxford. It lies in an alternate universe, an upside-down world with zeppelins, witches …
Shall we eat the cabin boy?
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch A Review Long-listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, Jamrach's Menagerie is an absorbing story of the sea, a sort of cross between The Life of Pi and The Ancient Mariner; at any rate it has a tiger and a cursed ship. Jaffy Brown is eight years old. He runs …
Magda Green Books 