My new book – the one I’m writing after Unwrapped Sky‘s sequel The Stars Askew – is a steampunk novel set in Australia. The world is an 1890s version of my noir 1950s steampunk story ‘Int. Morgue. Night.’ Here’s a bit from the synopsis I’ve written. The 1890s in an Australia both strange and familiar: […]
Read more +Recently I received a third review, which was fairly devastating, and I may yet share it. In the meantime, there’s been a fourth, lengthy review by bookaneer (Carly) over here. Here are a couple of sections from it. My favourite aspect of the book was the worldbuilding. The sheer breadth of imagination is staggering; the […]
Read more +Over on Pop mythology, Matt Hlinak has done an astute review of Unwrapped Sky. There are a lot of things to like about the review. The part that interested me was this: If the city of Caeli-Amur existed in Earth, it would have to be placed in Europe in 1789, 1848 or 1918. The work […]
Read more +The first review of Unwrapped Sky is up over at the Grimdark Fantasy Blog. He says some very nice things, which makes all the work put in seem worthwhile. Here’s a bit of what he said. Highest possible recommendation for all fantasy readers. If you love to read refreshing and unique fantasy this is a […]
Read more +50 People Who Stuffed Up Australia. by Guy Rundle & Dexter Rightwad by Guy Rundle My rating: 4 of 5 stars Guy’s a friend, so I should state this up front, but for me he’s the single most original, creative left-winger in Australia. Rundle consistently comes up with interesting takes on things, even if I […]
Read more +Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy My rating: 4 of 5 stars The truth is, I didn’t read this book, but I listened to the audiobook book on and off for months. My memory – from years before – was that this was the most ‘perfect’ of realist novels, a wonderfully composed picture of psychological narrative, […]
Read more +I watched the documentary The Summit today, which details the fatal events which saw 11 people die on the second highest mountain in the world, known as K2. The documentary is very similar to events chronicled by John Krakauer in his book, Into Thin Air. Essentially, a group (or groups) of mountaineers scale a deadly […]
Read more +The Best of Robert Silverberg by Robert Silverberg My rating: 4 of 5 stars Silverberg is a phenomenon. In many ways he mirrors the SF world as it moved through its permutations of the last 50 years. In the 50s, his stories were mostly pulp-oriented action tales. In the 60s, he reinvented his career with […]
Read more +Tricks Of The Mind by Derren Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars For fans for Derren Brown’s television shows – fascinating combinations of magic, psychology and hypnosis – this book is bound to be of interest. Brown outlines quite a bit of the background to his work: the structures of magic, hypnosis (and its […]
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