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Not content to rest on his laurels between the second and third volumes of his Revelation Space series, Alastair Reynolds felt compelled to provide us with a couple of novellas set in the same universe, but outside that story arc. If he’s happy to keep churning this stuff out, we’re more than happy to read it! Read the rest of this entry »
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has to hold the record as my most avoided book ever. A friend lent it to me twelve years ago and it’s been sitting on my shelf ever since. He probably wonders where the hell it went. The problem is, I know my friend’s penchant for esoteric works of much vaunted philosophical richness, and at heart I’m a lazy bastard who doesn’t like to think much. Well, it’s not that I don’t like to think, but I hate being bored, and boring was what this book looked to be. But let me tell you, this amazing piece of work is anything but boring.
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I often wonder how Tim Powers concocts the base premise for each of his books. Does it strike him in a blinding flash of insight, or does he slowly tease it together from a sustained mental effort of conceptualisation? Because it seems to me that, for him, devising the central concept to underpin the story almost gets him halfway there. Of course, it would only be the tip of the iceberg as far as the hard work of writing a book goes. But the story premise contains the underpinning appeal of all Powers’ work, and I think it is where his true genius resides.
Hardly a stranger to controversy, DH Lawrence really went to town on some of society’s more sensitive aspects with his largely unheralded later work, The Plumed Serpent. Mixing blasphemy, violence, sensuality and issues of race and gender with a sneering contempt for both developed and third world contemporary cultures, it’s an explosive work even for today’s readers. For the folks back in 1926, it must have seemed an utterly alien piece of literature, which probably helps explain why it was considered a critical failure at the time. Read the rest of this entry »
By those in the know, Tim Powers is often cited as one of the most original and influential fantasy writers of all time. A close friend of Philip K. Dick (who went on to dedicate his most celebrated book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, to Powers), he has gone on to influence such modern fantasy luminaries as Neil Gaiman and China Mieville. So it’s a fascinating experience indeed to delve into his very first novel and get a glimpse of his first (faltering) steps towards greatness. Read the rest of this entry »
Another book about the Holocaust? Is there really anything more to say on the subject? Surely we’ve explored that particular episode of human history as far as we need? In truth, the subject matter caused me to leave this one sitting on the shelf for a year or more before deciding finally to pick it up and give it a go. But it turns out I was cheating myself, because Marcus Zusak does indeed have something new to say, and the voice he uses to say it is truly breathtaking. Read the rest of this entry »
As volume six of The Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah, rolls toward us, we are beset by one burning question. Can Stephen King rescue the plot of his magnum opus from the wayward excess of self-indulgence that dominated the last two instalments in the series, Wizard and Glass and The Wolves of the Calla? Read the rest of this entry »
