I finished reading On the Beach, just as Britain went into Covid-19 lockdown. Nevil Shute’s 1950s tale of Australians waiting …
None so blind
Review of Blindness by Jose Saramago This story starts out really well, with the basic premise of the whole population …
Ringworld
Proper, old school sci-fi. Encased in a second-hand bookstore pulp fiction paperback from 1970, ooh, tingles. After a few chapters, …
Shouting at my kindle
I bought The Taken by Alice Clark-Platts because it’s a murder mystery set in Durham, where I’ve lived for 30 …
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 …
Time’s Fool
This modern day gothic vampire lark, set in an (imagined) English university town, is brilliant. All the tropes play out, …
Bone Lines
Stephanie Bretherton’s novel, Bone Lines, follows twin narratives of two strong female characters. Eloise is a successful archaeological anthropologist. She’s …
Sour Fruit
Dystopian Hull. That may sound like a tautology, but the imagined future in Sour Fruit is more real than many …
Twice the Speed of Dark
If I only read the blurb for Lulu Allison’s, Twice the Speed of Dark, I almost certainly wouldn’t buy it. …