This may be my new favourite book. No, it IS my new favourite book. I had previously read McDonald’s Luna: New Moon and enjoyed it, but there was something simplistic, almost juvenile about that book, especially when compared to the mature, meticulously researched masterpiece that is The Dervish House. The novel is set in a…
Logically, I shouldn’t have liked this book as much as I did. It’s fairly standard military science fiction of the hard boiled variety, focused on one Lt. James Shelley: squad leader of an exoskeleton wearing, perpetually video conferenced, grenade chucking bunch of yahoos. Nothing too unusual there, right? And yet somehow, the damn thing hooked…
I have now read the Traitor Baru Cormorant twice in the past year, and may do so again when the sequel comes out. That in itself should give you an idea of how I feel about this novel. But in case it doesn’t, here is a full review to clear things up. To be honest,…
In the name of transparency, I should divulge that I read this book solely because it was nominated for a (2017) Hugo. Ninefox is a military science fiction novel that, in my opinion, desperately wants to have the word Ancillary in its title but narrowly misses all the key notes that Anne Leckie hit so…
I wanted my first fantasy review novel to be a heavy hitter, so I went with K.J. Parker’s The Folding Knife. Now, I don’t usually go in for play-by-plays in my reviews. (either you’ve already read the book, thus making a recap unnecessary, or you haven’t and an overview would just be a spoilerfest) But…
First, an admission: I read this book a long time ago. But it stuck in my mind as probably the strangest thing I’ve ever picked up, so I think it makes a good opening salvo for the proper weirdness section of the site. Trying to describe this novel is next to impossible. There are a…
For my first review in the category of odd literary fiction, I chose Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1986 novel set in post World War 2 Japan. With efforts like The Remains of the Day (a Man Booker prize winner) under his belt, Ishiguro’s body of work sits firmly within the realm of the high brow – and…
No, this is not the tale of an unwanted threesome, but rather a hard SF novel that also happens to be fairly bonkers. Imagine an alien invasion movie, but substitute probe-wielding green men for a race with the societal persona of a dried up and somewhat dickish university math professor. I mean, these guys literally dehydrate themselves…
