‘Tis the season for best-of lists! Because I, too, am human and have opinions about things, this is mine. Follow the jump for my favourite media of 2015.
REVIEW: The Magicians, Lev Grossman
THE MAGICIANS, LEV GROSSMAN Arrow Books, 2009 Paperback, 488pp Quentin Coldwater, Grossman’s young Brooklynite protagonist, is at the beginning of The Magicians a classically unlikeable teen. He is sulky, self-centred, and almost sociopathic. This vein of unpleasantness in Quentin’s character runs through the novel, reminding the reader that, while this book is a wainscot fantasy […]
The Health of our Libraries
When I was small, every week my grandmother would take me with her into town. We would go to the greengrocer’s and the butcher’s, the baker’s for an iced bun and maybe the Post Office. Then we’d go to the library. The library was a magical place. It may have only been a couple of […]
REVIEW: Farthing, Jo Walton
FARTHING, JO WALTON Tor, 2006 At the very top of the front cover of Farthing, above the author’s name, we read that this book is by the author of the Hugo and Nebula award-winning Among Others. Among Others is Walton’s most recent and arguably most well-known book to date, and, while I haven’t read it, […]
This Week in Words – 21/09-27/09/2013
Hello and welcome once again to the weekly feature in which I round up all the interesting or notable things I’ve read this week and pin them to a board like butterflies for inspection at your convenience. This week, I’ve been reading… Patrick Ness’s top 10 ‘unsuitable’ books for teenagers – The Guardian. Although this […]
REVIEWS: Runemarks; Runelight, Joanne Harris
RUNEMARKS, JOANNE HARRIS Doubleday, 2007 At first glance, Runemarks, the first book in what author Joanne Harris has stated she intends to become her Rune series, seems a departure from Harris’ norm. Despite her impressive back catalogue (twelve books before Runemarks’ original publication in 2007) this is her first fantasy novel*. However as I read, […]