by Andrew G Lockhart ‘The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.’ [HG Wells] The movie industry occasionally trivialises and mangles great works of literature in order to bring them to the screen. We might cite, for example, various adaptations …
Category: Science fiction and fantasy
Gems of Fantasy
The Illustrated Man By Ray Bradbury ‘Sixteen illustrations, sixteen tales. I counted them one by one. Primarily my eyes focussed upon a scene, a large house with two people in it. I saw a flight of vultures on a blazing flesh sky, I saw yellow lions, and I heard voices.’ Ray Bradbury was one of …
Hogwarts #7#
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling Harry Potter Hogwarts House Editions I think I may have written previously that I am collecting these special editions of the Harry Potter novels for my two granddaughters. Although they are still too young to read them, I am happy to announce that the collection of …
Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir 'I think my job is to solve the Petrova problem . . . . in a small lab, wearing a bedsheet toga, with no idea who I am, and no help other than a mindless computer and two mummified roommates.' In Project Hail Mary, Dr Ryland Grace is a thirty-something high school …
Hogwarts #6#
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling Harry Potter Hogwarts House Editions The sixth Harry Potter novel introduces some new characters and some new - and very dark - magical concepts. It also immerses us in the teen world of romantic attachments, jealousies and rebellion. The Ministry of Magic now knows that Lord …
The Midnight Palace
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (translated by Lucia Graves) Re-post of original review Secret Societies and Ghostly Terror by Bookheathen) ‘Never mind the number of candles on your birthday cake,’ writes Zafon in his introduction to The Midnight Palace, ‘for those in the know, it’s what lies beneath them that matters’. Zafon’s first four published novels were …
Hogwarts #5#
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix By JK Rowling Harry Potter Special Hogwarts Editions Following the encounter with Voldermort in which Cedric Diggory lost his life, Harry Potter is back in Muggleland with his aunt and uncle. Now, forced to use magic to save himself and his cousin Dudley from the Dementors, he …
Hogwarts #4#
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire By JK Rowling Harry Potter Special Hogwarts Editions Readers who have progressed thus far in the series know that Harry Potter is a wizard. When he isn't attending Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, he lives with his unpleasant aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, and their bullying spoiled …
Carry On Dreaming
Tolkien and the Future of Epic Fantasy 'Then what are You, having no Chaos found To make a World, or any such least Ground? But your Creating Fancy, thought it fit To make your World of Nothing, but pure Wit. Your Blazing-World, beyond the Stars mounts higher, Enlightens all with a Cœlestial Fier. [William, 1st …
Undiscovered Territory
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle A Review 'Challenger smiled with weary and tolerant contempt, as a kindly man would meet the yapping of a litter of puppies.' 'Beyond was an open glade, and in this were five of the most extraordinary creatures that I had ever seen .... Even the babies were as …
Bookheathen Scribblings 