Brother’s Ruin Industrial Magic, Book #1 Emma Newman Tor.com Release Date: March 14, 2017 ISBN 978-0-7653-9396-8 It’s probably not politically correct to illustrate something literary by using a television reference, but I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful TV pilot Emma Newman’s first book in her Industrial Magic series, […]
Exit West Mohsin Hamid Riverhead Books Release Date: March 7, 2017 ISBN 978-0-7352-1217-6 Immigration is a hot burner issue right now – who to welcome, who to keep out, if to welcome at all. What gets lost in the discussion, often, is the individual element of those fleeing war, fleeing […]
The Stargazer’s Sister Carrie Brown Anchor Books Release Date: January 19, 2016 (trade paperback release: December 13, 2016) ISBN 978-0-8041-7213-4 The Stargazer’s Sister is a beautifully written historical novel about Caroline Herschel, the German astronomer who lived from 1750 to 1848, sister of acclaimed astronomer William Herschel. She was the […]
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? Paul Cornell Pan Books Release Date: May 19, 2016 ISBN 978-1-4472-7326-4 London detectives James Quill, Tony Costain and Kevin Sefton, and analyst Lisa Ross form a unique team; they have been “gifted” with the Sight – the ability to see the hidden, supernatural side of London. […]
Saturday is the 452nd anniversary of what we believe was the birth date of William Shakespeare, and the 400th anniversary of what we know was the date of his death. The assumption is that he was born on April 23, 1564, not because there is a definitive record of his […]
A Gathering of Shadows V. E. Schwab Tor Books Release Date: February 23, 2016 ISBN 978-0-7653-7647-3 In the nine books that Victoria Schwab has written thus far (six as YA author Victoria Schwab, three books under the name V. E. Schwab), A Gathering of Shadows – which is the second […]
Did you like the weird and provocative British television series Black Mirror? (Of course you did!) Do you adore Neil Gaiman? (Of course you do!) Then you are going to be totally stoked to learn that four of Neil Gaiman’s stories are going to adapted for television, for real! (The […]
After “sitting on the news for over six months”, author Victoria Schwab excitedly announced on Facebook on Tuesday that the rights to her critically acclaimed fantasy novel A Darker Shade of Magic have been picked up by G-BASE, an entertainment development company partially owned by actor Gerard Butler. “And I […]
Career of Evil Robert Galbraith Mulholland Books Release Date: October 20, 2015 ISBN 978-0-316-34993-2 Career of Evil, the third book in the crime thriller series starring private detective Cormoran Strike, is the grittiest one yet. It’s no wonder that author J.K. Rowling stuck to her non de plume of Robert […]
Europe in Autumn Dave Hutchinson Solaris Release Date: January 28, 2014 ISBN 978-1-78108-194-5 Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Europe in Autumn is a sharp, zig-zagging espionage thriller set in an alternate near-future where economic instabilities have splintered Europe […]
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.