69. Die Trying by Lee Child (3 stars) I’m not entirely sure why I keep returning to these kinds of books. I don’t know what “kind” of book it is, other than “airport fiction”. You know the kind; the mass market vaguely defined fiction that goes down easy without leaving much of an aftertaste. Easily digested and forgettable, these books cover the literary landscape without leaving any kind of quantifiable mark. They exist to sell books, and they sell books because they exist. I don’t […]
destruction, decimation, desolation, devastation….. Annihilation.
So, I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – but, just look at how beautiful its cover is. . . . The artwork is utterly stunning. I found this spectacular edition staring up at me from a display table in Hatchards London at St Pancras. It is not what I would normally read but I could not resist the cover – odd really. Annihilation should open up Vandermeer’s writing to a much larger audience, he’s fast paced, unsettling and compelling, he’ll have […]
An Earworm of an Anthology
When You’re Strange edited by Sarah Vestal and Danne Boyd (2017) – I’m not sure what’s going on with the cover, but the stories in this themed anthology dramatically bring out the differences and similarities in all of us. Whether you’re an Alice tasked with tracking escapees in the real world, a young collector of souls who foolishly believes wars will be over soon, a young water witch marrying a fire warlock, or a trio of friends trapped in a video game, this collection of […]
In the Land of Memory the time is always Now.
“I think telling stories is like pushing something. Pushing against uncreation itself, maybe. And one day while you were doing that, you felt something pushing back.” I can’t believe I only have one book left in this series! It feels like I’ve been reading it forever, but also no time at all. (I read The Gunslinger last fall, and The Drawing of Three in December, which is when I really fell into Sai King’s world.) What it really feels like being inside this story, I […]



