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A Million Words
I’m following in David’s footsteps from over at Forking Mad, when he asks: What things are easy for you to write about? What things are hard? As someone who has written literally millions of words and curated just as many since moving into print and publishing, it’s a mute point as to what’s hard and…
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Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds
This incredibly short novella by Alastair Reynolds—all 176 pages of it—offers so much promise but, for me at least, it failed to deliver. I think if the author had bothered to write a full-length novel and added better depth to both the story itself never mind the characters, it might have been an over-all better…
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Be Authentic
You don’t have to become an expert on a subject to write about it, but you do have to do research and due diligence in order to write with authority and make your work sound plausible. Authenticity is key, that’s why I love authors who do their research like Steph Broadribb, author of the Lori…
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The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
THE ASHES OF LONDON by Andrew Taylor is a well plotted murder-mystery set amid the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, in 1666, and the political turmoil following the Civil War. Wherein a number of the ‘Fifth Monarchists’ continue to fan the flames of sedition long after the failed Commonwealth in the belief they…
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Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire by Dan Hanks
From the minute I saw the cover for Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire by Dan Hanks, I fell in love with it and knew I had to get my hands on a copy. Well, the cover conveyed everything this brilliant piece of escapist fun promised, and then some. A blisteringly fast-paced archaeological…
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Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
It doesn’t get any better than this! Steve Cavanagh has done it again, pulling out all the stops to bring another fast-paced, thrilling, rollercoaster read. A thoroughly compelling story in which the devil truly is in the details. Eddie Flynn is back in the arena, the courtroom that is, playing the ‘fall’ guy and sitting…
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Scythe by Neal Shusterman
The premise for SCYTHE by Neal Shusterman is a really good one. It comes across as being unusual—here we have people who train to deal death as a means of culling the growing population in a world were everyone is, technically, immortal. This is a story that should have everything going for it. Sadly, however,…
dandelion
a prolific weed