Shift: A Review of Hugh Howey’s Apocalyptic Novel
Shift is great apocalyptic science-fiction. It is a prequel to the also excellent Wool. I reviewed Wool earlier this year. To fully appreciate Shift, you need to first read Wool. Anyone who reads Shift without first reading Wool risks missing out on the fun of discovering answers in Shift to questions posed in Wool. Perhaps […]
Anonymous Reviews
A new Australian newspaper called Saturday is set to come onto the market next year. I hope it does well, we need a lot more diversity in the Australian market. The newspaper will review books, nothing unusual there. What is unusual is the book reviewers will be anonymous, with the by-line for each review just […]
Ender’s Game, a review.
I have not read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, or any other book he has written. But I am aware that Ender’s Game is one of the iconic science fiction books. I am also aware the Card has controversial views on homosexuality. But if I was going to boycott a film or book because I […]
What Should I be Reading?
A newspaper article, along with a couple of list challenges and a television show have me thinking about what I read. To Read People Better, Read More Literature. It started with an article in The Age with the intriguing title: If You Want to Read People Better, Read More Literature. The article was about a […]
Doctor Who – 50th Anniversary.
I could not let the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who go by without writing a blog post about the greatest science fiction show of all time. I grew up watching the original series and I remember watching Partrick Troughton, who was the second doctor. I had nightmares about an episode where that Doctor was investigating […]
ebook Subscription Services.
Two new subscription services for ebooks have recently started: Oyster and Scribd. What is an ebook Subscription Service? A subscriber to Oyster or Scribd is allowed to read, for free, as many ebooks as they like from the selection of ebooks on each site. Oyster claims to have over 100,000 ebooks, and Smashwords is giving […]
Writing Update
Like many writers, I keep track of the number of words I write each day. I have a chart blue-tacked to the wall, with columns for each day and weekly totals. Today I finished filling in the details on yet another page of that chart. When I looked back over the chart, the last four […]
Price Survey of Top 100 ebooks and ibooks.
It’s time for another survey of the prices of the top 100 ebooks and ibooks. Kindle Top 100 prices. Twenty-three ebooks in the top 100 were priced at 99 cents, which is very similar to my last survey in June when 22 ebooks were 99 cents. In January only 14 were priced at 99 cents, […]
Review of True Path, by Graham Storrs.
True Path is either a techno-thriller or a science-fiction thriller, depending on the reader. Whatever label chosen, technology, in the form of time-travel, is a big part of the story. True Path is a sequel to the very good Timesplash, which showed the awesome destructive powers of time-travel. In Timesplash, author Graham Storrs, came up […]
Gravity – a review.
I finally saw Gravity – in 3D too – and I was impressed. The movie is set in orbit around the Earth where a group of astronauts are updating the Hubble Telescope. Unfortunately for them, those irresponsible Russians decide to destroy one of their own satellites and its debris cause havoc. From there on we […]