A look back at the life of a famous child - I haven't done any blogging for a week or two because I've been on holiday, first in the New Forest, then in Belgium and the Netherlands. Wherever I go, I can't help looking for literary connections. A few years ago, at Winchester, it was …
Category: Science fiction and fantasy
Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman 'The highest and the oldest of all the gods is Odin.' 'Thor, Odin's son, is the thunderer.' 'Loki drinks too much, and he cannot guard his words or his thoughts or his deeds when he drinks.' I came late to Neil Gaiman's fiction and have not read many of his books - …
Cut Off
Unchosen Love by Ursula K LeGuin This, the third story in the collection The Birthday of the World, is set on a planet called O, where ideas of sex and family are even more bizarre than on Gethen or Seggri. [See my two previous posts, here and here.] 'When I explained our concept of incest …
Sixteen To One
The Matter of Seggri by Ursula K LeGuin 'Their gender inbalance has produced a society in which .... the men have all the privilege and the women have all the power.' The Matter of Seggri is the second story in LeGuin's collection The Birthday of the World. It depicts a planet where the ratio of …
Sex Without Gender
Coming of Age in Karhide by Ursula K LeGuin 'Until we come of age we have no gender and no sexuality, our hormones don't give us any trouble at all. And in a city Hearth we never see adults in kemmer. They kiss and go. Where's Maba? In the kemmerhouse, love, now eat your porridge.' …
In Other Worlds
(SF and the Human Imagination) by Margaret Atwood A review In this non-fiction work, dedicated to her fellow sci-fi and fantasy writer, the late Ursula Le Guin, Margaret Atwood talks about the literary influences of her childhood. A series of essays and book reviews of works that have inspired her, In Other Worlds takes the …
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman A Review Neverwhere is the third Gaiman novel I have read and the most outrageous. How to describe it? A fusion of the everyday with the world of nightmares, it features a large cast of impossible characters in matter-of-fantasy surroundings. The place is London. The landmarks are still there - the tube …
