Welcome to the big competition that went alongside the launch of the novel 2089. The competition is now closed and …
Standard Irving
Book review – Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving I have a mixed relationship with the works of John Irving. …
The Disappeared
Book review Amy Lord’s debut strikes a grey chord envisaging a possible future London, nay, an alternate, current London, governed …
Is it possible to bug someone’s brain?
In the novel 2089, the Orwellian features of the surveillance society are made possible by bugging the brain of everyone …
The future of smartphones?
A few years ago, I toured a factory in Darlington in the north of England, where they are developing mini …
How will climate change affect the changing social order?
Thinking about how a new society may develop after a globally apocalyptic catastrophe, how will the changing climate influence how …
Time’s Fool
This modern day gothic vampire lark, set in an (imagined) English university town, is brilliant. All the tropes play out, …
How many civil wars make an apocalypse?
As I write, there are out-and-out civil wars in umpteen countries, violent conflicts of other descriptions (violent independence or insurgency …
How can we improve on the current political systems?
In the last edition of this blog I suggested that small sized communities are the way forward for creating happy …
What should the new social order be?
In the first few editions of this blog, I’ve painted a pretty bleak picture of the difficulties facing people in …