Belters

LitStack Review: Babylon’s Ashes by James S. A. Corey

Babylon’s Ashes James S. A. Corey Orbit Books Release Date: December 6, 2016 ISBN 978-0-3163-3474-7 NOTE: Babylon’s Ashes is the sixth book of James S. A. Corey’s superlative The Expanse series (out of a planned nine volumes). Before reading any further, realize that it’s virtually impossible to review book #6 […]

LitStack Review: Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey

Nemesis Games James S. A. Corey Orbit Books Release Date: June 2, 2015 ISBN 978-0-316-21758-3 Warning: This review contains spoilers for the first four books in The Expanse series. If you are a novice to The Expanse experience – and wish to remain so – you may not want to […]

Birthdays

On this day, May 14, in 1965, writer Eoin Colfer was born in Wexford, Leinster, Ireland. This former primary school teacher is best known for his young adult fantasy books (eight so far, with 10 spin-off and companion novels) based on the character Artemis Fowl, a young criminal mastermind. (He himself calls the original Artemis Fowl book, “Die Hard with fairies.”) In 2008 he was picked by Douglas Adams’ widow to write a sixth book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, an honor that he wrote was “a gift from the gods”; And Another Thing… was published in 2009. He served as Laureate na nÓg (Ireland’s Children’s Laureate) between 2014 and 2016. Still living and writing in Wexford, Ireland, today he turns 56.

Birthdays

On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.