I had a personal stake in this book for two reasons: it's a memoir of childhood in Exeter, which is where I grew up, and it's written by the guy who taught me French at GCSE and A level and who was probably my favourite teacher. Which me...
tagged:
non-fiction
I'm really just rushing through these now because I bought them all in one go and I want to be done with them, but this is easily the worst so far. Even longer and more rambling than usual, with the now obligatory fawning introduction as...
tagged:
sf-and-fantasy
The good points: well-researched yet easy to read, sensible basic points clearly made.
The bad points: the basic points made are pretty simple and are puffed and padded to 250 pages through a lot of repetition and irritating smirky humou...
tagged:
non-fiction
Despite the cover blurb and artwork this is less a story about life on an orbiting space station than a story of population explosion, revolution, and conflict between corporations and the World Government. As such it's more of a novel o...
tagged:
sf-and-fantasy
Another collection of random tales, many of them not going anywhere in particular, but the way they nest inside one another is intriguing, and a couple are very involving (the first, about a dreaming city, is my favourite).
tagged:
sf-and-fantasy
A real struggle. It starts well, with an atmospheric setting and well-drawn characters, but once all that's been established, pretty much nothing happens for 200-300 pages, apart from a lot of repetition and digression. And the rushed cl...
tagged:
fiction
If it weren't for the fact that I bought the whole series in one go I'd probably have given up on this by now. This time we get the comic's most boring (Dream) and most irritating (Delirium) characters wandering around in search of their...
tagged:
sf-and-fantasy
Full disclosure: I know the author.
A satisfyingly spooky and blackly comic tale. Quite leisurely paced, so don't expect a page-turning thriller or jump-out-of-your-seat scares, but it compensates with in-depth and convincing characteris...
tagged:
sf-and-fantasy
Don't read this expecting a book about Japanese ceramics. Obviously the the netsuke are central to the story, and they're lovingly described, but they're also essentially a McGuffin, a small and decorative excuse for De Waal to explore h...
tagged:
non-fiction
After Dream Country I wasn't really looking forward to another collection of random tales, rather than a full story told over several issues, but this time it worked due to the thematic links between the tales. All are set in different h...
tagged:
sf-and-fantasy
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