I’m a bit of an accidental war tourist. I never plan these things but somehow, I’ve been to the trenches of Verdun, the reconstructed city centre of Ypres, the Passchendaele memorial museum, the D-day beaches and their immense cemeteries, the former sites of concentration camps, the battlegrounds of Malmedy. It seems important somehow, especially for someone my age, several generations comfortably removed from any world war. Yet the sheer scale of these immense cemeteries and their endless lines of identical headstones alone makes it paradoxically […]
A Time Traveler’s Homage to Jerome K. Jerome
If you are a fan of Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) or PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels, this novel is sure to please. Willis is a well known and “decorated” sci-fi author, having won multiple Nebula and Hugo Awards. She discovered JKJ through reading Robert Heinlein and gives him a tip of the hat in an amusing, clever and thoughtful work that combines time travel, mystery, and comedy of manners. It’s 2057 London and Ned Henry, an […]
ElCicco #CBR6 Review #1: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells: an Homage to P.G. Wodehouse by Sebastian Faulks
PG Wodehouse fans should be delighted by this novel. Faulks revives our favorite duo, Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, for a fun summertime romp at Lord Henry’s country estate. At stake is the happiness of Bertie Wooster’s friend Woody. His engagement to Lord Henry’s daughter Amelia is in jeopardy due to a combination of misunderstanding and financial crisis. Complicating the situation are Amelia’s beautiful and lively cousin Georgiana and a hilarious plot contrivance that requires Bertie to play the valet Wilberforce to Jeeves’ Lord Etringham. If […]