[WARNING! Any apparent similarity between this post and my previous one (Dreaming the Impossible) is pure coincidence.] Amazons by John Man A Review 'As always with superheroes, the plot involves saving the world, which suggests that the film is nothing but fun, at best, and utterly lacking in significance. Not at all. Wonder Woman is …
Category: Books
Dreaming the Impossible
We live in a universe of wonders and possibilities. The ancients looked up into the night sky and saw bright lights formed into the shapes of fish, dogs, human figures and other familiar objects. When they reached out to touch the lights, they may have been surprised to discover they could not. They may have …
Space Detectives
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov 'And at the very moment he felt Daneel's hand clamping down upon his shoulders ..... But surely a robot would not dare use violence on a man. That thought was dominant. Daneel could not prevent him forcibly, and yet Baley felt the robot's hands forcing him down.' Written sixty …
Artemis
Artemis by Andy Weir A Review 'Dude, I don't know where you're getting info about girls but you're WRONG. Girls like boys who are nice and make us laugh. We DON'T like boys who get in fights and we don't like boys who are stupid. Trust me on this. I'm a girl.' The problem with …
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Wolff The British Library describes Wolff as 'one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century. Judged on To the Lighthouse, it isn't a description I would deny. Innovative she certainly was, but having read the novel - recommended to me as one of her best, and typical of her style, I …
E=mc2 and all that jazz
Relativity by Albert Einstein Considering the number of books I've read about Einstein's theories of Relativity, and about Einstein himself, it's surprising I didn't acquire this one until quite recently. As so often happens, I was probably browsing the shelves for something else. In case anyone doubts, this is THE book about Relativity, the original, …
Strangers
異人たちとの夏 by Taichi Yamada 'With lips locked, we fell to the tatami and quickly forgot the arietta. Later that same evening, everything came to an end.' Strangers is a teasing, creepy ghost story from Japan. I think the original title means something like 'the summer of the strange people' - I do hope I've got …
All About Dust
Browsing in the local Waterstone's bookstore today [which I often do on Friday afternoons], I was delighted to see they are already promoting Philip Pullman's new work, to be published on October 19th. Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, was a sensation when it was originally published in the late nineties. Its controversial subject matter raised …
The Politics of Hate
The Unknown Soldier by Gerald Seymour I don't usually do politics on this site. However, in writing about this book, politics are bound to come into the article somewhere. Though I have never read any of Gerald Seymour's books until now, I do remember him as a roving journalist for Independent Television. He often reported …
Nadia's Dream
Since I haven't posted any extracts from my own fiction for a while, I decided today it was time I did so again. This chapter is a taster (hopefully) from my story The Tiger and the Cauldron, set in the late 13th century in Italy and the Mongol Empire: Nadia supposed at first it was …
Magda Green Books 