My NaNoWriMo week.
Hi all, I have just finished the first week of National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. This is how I faired: Day one: I started a brand new novel. The ideas for the novel had only been pulled together over the […]
Review of Stephen King’s science fiction epic, Under the Dome
Under the Dome by Stephen King My rating: 4 of 5 stars I finally finished Under the Dome’s 880 pages. What an epic, so much death and destruction, so many arseholes – King certainly enjoys writing about corrupt fools and the fools that follow them. The novel starts with an invisible force field suddenly enclosing […]
Review of Turing Evolved by David Kitson
Turing Evolved by David Kitson My rating: 4 of 5 stars A really good read. Full of fresh ideas about artificial intelligence. The central theme is about attempts to create an artificial entity that has free will and makes its own decisions to the benefit of humanity. The plot revolves around a man who is […]
Review Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol 4
Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction And Fantasy 4 by Bill Congreve My rating: 3 of 5 stars I had read all three of the previous volumes of The Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Like the previous volumes, volume 4 is an uneven collection with some good stories and some just so so. Unlike […]
Review of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow My rating: 3 of 5 stars Cory Doctorow was a very enthusiastic panelist at Aussiecon4 last year. He tended to appear on panels about the future of writing and publishing, a subject that interested me, so I found myself attending many of the panel discussions he appeared on. As a […]
Review of The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood My rating: 5 of 5 stars A brilliant book which is perfect for the times we live in. It’s message is that humanity through action or inaction will destroy itself. The book mainly concentrates on genetic engineering but has society slowly decaying from lack of resources in […]
Review of Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson
Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Set in Brisbane (where I lived for five years so I was familiar with much of the settings), it’s a horror novel with some wit. The reluctant hero Steve is a “pomp”. The souls of the recently departed must pass through a pomp […]
Review of Datura Highway
Datura Highway by Daniel King My rating: 5 of 5 stars Daniel King has written an exciting fantasy/psychological thriller that kept me guessing – and hoping – until the very end. It’s a novel with an original plot, which is hard to do these days. It begins with the main character, Daniel, finding himself in […]
Review of Years Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy Volume 2
Hi all, This is the best of the three volumes I have read in the Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy. I had thought volume one (2005) was good, but that was mostly based on the stunning first story, Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan. I felt a bit let down by volume […]
Review of Cat’s Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut certainly has his own quirky writing style, a really warped view of reality. I would say Cat’s Cradle is less in touch with reality than Slaughterhouse Five. Cat’s Cradle is written in a tone amused at the strangeness of human beings and the way they interact with the world. Unfortunately, I was never […]