Scott Pilgrim #1 Many years ago, seven in fact, I watched the film that this series of books were adapted into. I did not enjoy the film. So I never pursued the books. But a friend really enjoyed them and recommended them so I said, what the hey, I’ll give it a go. It isn’t […]
If you want to read a book that’ll really show how horrific people can be to one another then this is it. It tells the story of the murders of Mollie Burkhart’s family. They were all members of the Osage tribe; in the 1920s they were among the richest people in the world. And yet […]
I don’t think I would have picked this book up at all if it hadn’t been nominated for a Hugo this year. The trilogy The Divine Cities is nominated in the Best Series category, and I am attempting to read at least one book in each series before voting.1 I am so glad that this […]
First published by Uncanny A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy in May 2017. Finley has just been bitten by a vampire. Now he has to deal with becoming a vampire himself, and an unregistered one at that. He certainly didn’t ask to be turned, and most definitely never filled out the proper paperwork. Plus […]
The Machinaries of Empire Although this novelette is part of the larger Machinaries ‘verse, you can read it without any knowledge of that wider world as it is a prequel. So it also contains no spoilers, unless you count getting to know a character before they appeared in Ninefox Gambit a spoiler… It features Shuos […]
A collection of five short stories by the classic western author Louis L’Amour. And by classic I mean the idealised version where men were men1 and sometimes a man had to do what a man had to do. And usually that would end in the death of other men. But they weren’t good, manly men. […]
Old Man’s War ; 1.5 This is a short read, a question and answer session between John Perry from Old Man’s War and a some citizens of New Goa, one of the colonies that Perry visits as part of a goodwill tour. Talking about where he came from and what it is to be a […]
The Drenai Saga ; 2 David Gemmell is a big name in epic fantasy, and over the years I’ve read one or two by him. The most memorable being his version of Alexander the Great where he was possessed by a demon. At least I’m pretty sure he was the author of that book I […]
I added this book to my TBR pile way back in 2016 when the author talked about pitting his character against Rand from the Wheel of Time series. Usually I’m not really a fan of those “who would win if they fought” debates. Mainly because why would they fight seems to me the more interesting […]
Sherlock Holmes ; 4 or 7, depending on how you are counting. This is the fourth and final of the novels by Doyle. In it Holmes and Watson head to Birlstone Manor to investigate a murder, having been first warned that Moriarty may be involved. There is much deducing and eventually Holmes has the case […]
In this book Robert Macfarlane sets out to find the wild places of Britain and Ireland, if there are any left. He believes that somewhere on these islands there must be places far from the reach of humanity where the wilderness still exists, and he sets out to discover them, to create a word map […]
A really entertaining book that explains all the work that goes into creating a picture book, and all things that went wrong when Ahlberg tried to create his book about crocodiles attacking. The illustrations are perfect, and really help the story. Really lovely book.