Another Space in Time

  This intellectual, prose-cartoon, that might have grown out of some confusion between MAD magazine, speculative science fiction and Bellotto's weird mental contemplations about a near future North America, has spilled in a sort of semi-organised chaos into a very entertaining book. Medicated Yellow Glad Days are just around a future corner. This is a book for the college folks who never quite grow up, or never intend to grow up, to be really really serious people, well, except on work days of course. This is a romp through a futuristic politicised landscape, in the City of Bigapolis, which definitely isn't in Alabama. The would be hero, in a world that is content to be left alone, doesn't really know where he is going except that he wants to get there. What Astin does know is that he is against being tranquillised; probably! Isn't persuading everyone to get a fix, wrong or something? It could be, and anyway isn't a journalist meant to be a bit of a rebel. This b...

This is not the easiest Forster to get into, not that that will deter her fans. Don't let it deter you in the unlikely event that this is the first one you have sampled. When you do catch up with the characters, a problem we share with the local police, one will be rewarded in as least as big a way as is customary with a Forster. The parallel story telling requires a little effort, a temporary requirement to multi-task. I found it necessary to be relaxed about remembering the early flood of characters, and corpses. Soon enough we get to know all the characters we need very well. There is always a lot going on, plenty of energy to keep the mind's light-bulb lit. The mix of cultural expectation, and the deeply engrained private pasts that we all carry with us are the keys to this powerful read. Our own histories have complex emotional affects, just as do those of Forster's characters. The parallel storytelling, the sub-story that starts the chapters will provide ...

     Lily’s Daughter is a well written, deeply engaging memoir of, as she was known then, Zsuzsa Osvath’s childhood in Hungary. The period is 1940 to 1957, a period overshadowed by two European disasters, and one failed revolution. The first disaster was WWII and the second Stalin. The revolution was the crushing of an all too brief Hungarian enlightenment by Soviet tanks.      The domestic detail draws the reader in deep and holds attention with a simply drawn picture of survival in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. The writing is almost too matter of fact at times, avoiding excess emotion, exaggeration, or any sense of self-pity. The facts, the observations of a family, school and social life during that period of Hungary’s history, don’t need embellishment. The drama is automatically there, dancing between the words. I found myself saying, shouldn’t you be crying longer, or describing your hunger, or be really shouting at the system. ...

I feel I have to start with Pitcairn Island rather than the book. This island is one of four lumps of rock and/or coral sticking out of the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Only Pitcairn itself is inhabited, being one of the most isolated communities on Earth. The population of under a hundred is predominantly descended from the Mutineers of the Bounty and a few Tahitians, who voluntarily, or not, joined the group. In 1790 just nine individuals 6 men 11 women and a baby found the then deserted island and settled. Since that date the permanent population has never been greater than 240, and is now only a quarter of that number. In recent times the young have tended to leave, firstly for education and secondly for the benefits of the wider world. This problem is now shared by nearly all isolated communities. The life blood is constantly drained, and often faster than it can be transfused. So what has all this got to do with this fiction novel? Everything! Nadine Christian is the writer in...

This first part of an epic Star Wars type of production is very entertaining, often gripping, and well written. It is also easy reading, which isn’t necessarily the same thing. The characters are strong, and the main ones are easily identifiable and very memorable. There is only one thing wrong, and that is my reason for only giving the book four stars. In the mix are a couple of chapters of unnecessarily graphic sexual and sadistic activity. This may be considered a rather starchy view, but it is more than that. I am all for mixing genres, but not in this particular case SF adventure and “adult” material. Willén writes very well in both genres, the problem is in the mix. Indeed, I could include horror when considering one or two of the very descriptive violent actions. The modern use of the term Space Opera, as used to describe this book by another reviewer, Blagent Jr., is, I think, highly appropriate. This book really is on a big production, dramatic, scale. The themes are familia...

I loved reading this book. Some parts of it held my attention like a vice. I can still hear the roar of roller blades, the shatter of glass, the cawing of circling crows. Some passages needed a touch more editing. However, the little stutters in the flow, the very occasional clumsy phrase, certainly didn't spoil the book. I guess it might if you happen to be the sort of grammarian that suffers pain from every linguistic deviation, but then you must often be short of reading. I had the constant nag at the back of my mind that the electricity supply for Geneva should have died, along with 99.9% of the population. Though this continuing availability was never explicitly explained the implicit assumption I eventually made tied the threads together satisfactorily. Another strand that I felt needed earlier enforcement was the childhood experience of Dan, which led to his life of chronic tinnitus. The early avoidance of these issues was I'm sure in part due to a determination to hol...

This long novella or short novel is gripping reading. It is the sort of book that can hold one spellbound until rather too long past one's accustomed bedtime. The subject matter is very dystopian with a less than everything turns out okay ending. I felt that there was just enough hope left that civilization would recover and that madness could be worked through, but the last pages don't exactly leave a cuddly warm feeling. My opinion is that Grixti could have taken the book further. Most certainly the ending still leaves much potential, so quite possibly there is an intention to revisit the characters. The few editing errors were of no hindrance to my reading. The whole story was well written with very well maintained tension. As in many films, every so often the lack of accurate shooting from the bad guys stretched to implausible. This was also true of their occasional lack of eyesight. Overall the storyline was so powerful that I was quickly able to overlook these details...