One of the unexpected delights of writing for Big Other has been the occasional book that has come my way…
Re-reading
Novels you reread have a different role in your personal pantheon than novels you simply admire or revere. There is…
Blogging the Hugos: Decline, Part 4
[At last, after laying out my wares, turning in turn to Boneshaker by Cherie Priest and Julian Comstock by Robert…
Blogging the Hugos: Decline, Part 3
[And so it goes on. Having set out my stall and considered Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, I now give a…
Blogging the Hugos: Decline, Part 2
[Yesterday I started this mammoth post on Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson and The Windup…
Blogging the Hugos: Decline, Part 1
When I set out to blog this year’s Hugo shortlisted novels, I imagined something conventional like a separate post on…
HG
Around 15 years ago I went to an art installation in London called ‘HG’. It was located in what had…
Read this: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
A few years ago, in Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell produced a startling and often beautiful meditation on human predation. Now,…
In memory of Big Al, Little Norm and Average-sized Mrs Swinburne
Alan Plater has died. I don’t know how many outside the UK will even recognise the name, but he has…
Language and science fiction
In a comment to me on this post, John said: “I’d love to see a survey from you of novels…