Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie Orbit Books Publication Date: October 1, 2013 ISBN 978-0-316-24662-0 It’s a brilliant way to keep the reader slightly off kilter right from the start, reminding us that we are reading a science fiction novel without resorting to tentacled aliens or phasers set to stun. In Ann […]
Alliance: The Paladin Prophecy Book 2 Mark Frost Random House Release Date: January 7, 2014 ISBN 978-0-375-87046-7 Adventure/fantasy lit for young readers is really hot right now. Really hot. I’m not talking the young adult supernatural vampires and werewolves or zombies material – I mean stories where kids, sometimes barely […]
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.