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“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins (2010)
“I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather.” Trilogies are funny things. You have to try and get the balance right and have every story be equally weighted...
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“The Circle” by Dave Eggers (2013)
The circle must be completed. “My God, Mae thought. It’s heaven.” The Internet has changed the way we live in ways and to degrees that no one could ever have predicted. With a few clicks and taps, we...
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“Shades Of Grey” by Jasper Fforde (2010)
Not everything is black and white. “It began with my father not wanting to see the Last Rabbit, and ended up with me being eaten by a carnivorous plant.” I often get asked, as you might imagine, what...
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Podcasts: Part Two
Last month I reviewed four of my favourite podcasts, and now I’m back with another four. Let’s get going! Podcast: Flash Forward Number of Episodes: 15+ Release: Every other Tuesday As humans, we seem...
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“News From The Squares” by Robert Llewellyn (2013)
“What do you think you’re doing you silly little man?” It seems fitting to this week read a book like this. Set in a future where women are in dominant gender, this sequel to News From Gardenia (be...
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“Time Salvager” by Wesley Chu (2015)
“A sliver of light cut through the void, shooting toward the center of the battle display.” An ongoing theme of 2016 has been a fear for the future. Humans have always worried, but this year, with the...
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“Progress” by Johan Norberg (2016)
“Terrorism. ISIS. War in Syria and Ukraine. Crime, murder, mass shootings.” I’ve said enough along these lines on this blog already, but 2016 was a big pile of crap. All around us the news is full of...
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“Ape And Essence” by Aldous Huxley (1948)
“It was the day of Gandhi’s assassination; but on Calvary the sightseers were more interested in the contents of their picnic baskets than in the possible significance of the, after all, rather...
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“A Planet For Rent” by Yoss (2001)
“Step on up, ladies and gents, right this way!” As we sit and watch the world slide further and further into an irreparable state of being (the only thing 2017 has on 2016 so far is the lack of deaths...
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“Of Men And Monsters” by William Tenn (1968)
“Mankind consisted of 128 people.” Earth has been invaded by aliens so many times in fiction. On most of those occasions, whether first contact is friendly or not, we are equals of a sort, in size,...
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“After Man” by Dougal Dixon (1981)
“During the period immediately before and during the Age of Man the principal large-scale grazers and browsers were the ungulates, the hoofed mammals.” I’ve always had a soft spot for prehistoric...
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“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens (1843)
“Marley was dead: to begin with.” I have been asked before how I can consider myself such an avid student of literature when I have (until now) entirely bypassed Dickens. Alright, not entirely. Great...
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“The Word Exchange” by Alena Graedon (2014)
“On a very cold and lonely Friday last November, my father disappeared from the Dictionary.” Genuinely, I can’t remember the last time I used a paper dictionary. I’m just about old enough to recall...
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“Electric Dreams” by Philip K. Dick (2017)
“Commute ships roared on all sides, as Ed Morris made his way wearily home to Earth at the end of a long hard day at the office.” I’ve always quite enjoyed Philip K. Dick’s work, but I tend to find it...
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“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood (1986)
“We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.” Three dystopian books in a row are enough for anyone, it seems, especially when I was meant to be cutting back on the genre. Nonetheless, some books just...
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“The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047” by Lionel Shriver (2016)
“Don’t use clean water to wash your hands!” Many people have long lived by the notion that money makes the world go round. I’m not sure that’s true, but there’s no denying that if you have money it...
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“Galapagos” by Kurt Vonnegut (1985)
“The thing was: One million years ago, back in A.D. 1986, Guayaquil was the chief seaport of the little South American democracy of Ecuador, whose capital was Quito, high in the Andes Mountains.”...
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“Scythe” by Neal Shusterman (2016)
“The scythe arrived late on a cold November afternoon.” Death is the ultimate certainty. While some scientists believe that the first person who will live to be over 150 is already alive right now, the...
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“Bit Rot” by Douglas Coupland (2016)
“I am Private Donald R. Garland from Bakersfield, California, as nice a place to grow up in as you can imagine – good folk, and California was booming.” It’s been years since I read through all Douglas...
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“The Real-Town Murders” by Adam Roberts (2017)
“Where we are, and where we aren’t.” Last time I met Adam Roberts’ writing, we were sinking fast towards to an ocean floor that never seemed to arrive. I didn’t even register this was the same author...
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