God’s War by Kameron Hurley
Bel Dame Apocrypha #1 Originally read August 2011 – Reread August 2014 Okay, this book seriously rewards a reread. I can’t believe it has only been 3 years since I read...
13 August 2014
The Unfortunate Fursey by Mervyn Wall
Fursey is a lay brother in Clonmacnoise. The only monastery in Ireland to be unafflicted by demons and other such occult presences. The power of its bells have kept all those...
2 June 2014
Year of wonders by Geraldine Brooks
The year is 1665 and Anna Frith is a widow at only 18 years of age. She has two young sons to support and she works hard. Life in a small...
15 March 2014
The Ransom of Dond by Siobhan Dowd
Illustrated by Pam Smy Darra lives on the island of Inniscaul is a small island off the coast of Eriu, or Ireland. And it is her fate to be sacrificed to...
10 February 2014
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
Part of my Sci-Fi 2014 Experience When a book opens with a death by farting, two deaths by farting actually, you know this isn’t your usual run of the mill science...
17 January 2014
Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper
Little Hawk is about to leave his family and village to go into the woods and live alone for three months, a ritual that will see him in his way to...
9 October 2013
Light in August by William Falkner
Lena Grove is looking for her man. The father of her unborn child. He told her that he’d go ahead, find a job and set up home, then he’d send for...
24 August 2013
The light heart of stone by Tor Roxburgh
Book one in the Promise of Stones series. Fox is a young girl growing up on the Stone Body, a land ruled over by the Compionarii. She is a member of...
31 July 2012
The Black Opera by Mary Gentle
Conrad Scalese’s latest opera was a great success. Unfortunately the theatre in which it was performed has just been stuck by lightening. And since the composer and many of the performers...
23 June 2012
Dune (round iii) by Frank Herbert
The final questions for the Dune group read are:
- What is your reaction to finally learning the identity of Princess Irulan? Do you think that her convention added to the story?
- Were you satisfied with the ending? For those reading for the first time, was it what you expected?
- On both Arrakis and Salusa Secundus, ecology plays a major role in shaping both characters and the story itself. Was this convincing? Do you think that Paul would have gone through with his threat to destroy the spice, knowing what it would mean for Arrakis?
- Both Leto and Paul made their decisions on marriage for political reasons. Do you agree with their choices?
- What was your favorite part in this section of the book?
- One of the things I noticed in the discussions last week was Herbert’s use of the word “jihad.” What do you think of Herbert’s message about religion and politics?
25 July 2011
Bishops move diagonally. That’s why they often turn up where the kings don’t expect them to be
I’ve just been watching RTE’s Apparitions and to be honest, it just made me sad[1] I mean, I don’t know Joe Coleman, and I really don’t know what he thinks, if...
19 July 2010
The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
by Philip Pullman
The back of the edition of this that I read has only the words: This is a story. Interesting. Is that because the publisher’s don’t want to offend the ultra religious in the Christian world. Or is it a message from the author that the life of Jesus is a story. That the bible is a story.
Pullman, of course, is known for his ever so slightly controversial views on religion, he has used them in his fiction before. In that case it involved a worn-out god, and power-hungry angels. Here he revisits the myth:”(is a myth a religion we dont believe in?)”: of Jesus Christ and weaves a new story out of it.
7 May 2010
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