I have yet to be disappointed by a recommendation from the NPR best books concierge, and Three Moments of an Explosion may be my favorite so far. A collection of sometimes sci-fi, sometimes fantasy, sometimes horror short stories, Three Moments starts with a base of a very realistic world, and adds in each of its stories an element of something beyond, something more magical or sinister. The stories in the collection typically start with or are based in a real object, or a regular person, that has become corrupted […]
The Phantom of the Slaughterhouse doesn’t sing, but he does build creepy mechanical spiders
3.5 stars Wen, a young woman, whose family were clearly of a higher social status before her mother got sick and died, now works as a doctor’s apprentice for her father. Wen and her father are Itanyai. They both live in a large factory complex, Gochan One, treating to the workers of a large slaughterhouse. In the same larger compound, there is a factory producing textiles and one making advanced war machines, to further the military might of their country. Most of the workers at […]
Might Does Not Make Right
Greetings from a first-time Cannonballer! How fitting that my first dive into this challenge coincided with my every 3 years or so re-readings of one of my favorite books: T.H. White’s Arthurian masterpiece, The Once and Future King (which is also one of Professor X’s favorite books, so I am in good company). What makes this book so wonderful is that it is perfect for both those who love Arthurian legends and who are well versed in Thomas Malory’s and others’ versions and for those […]
I have had enough of this kind of logic. I am tired and I don’t want to play this game anymore.
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Apparently there is no longer a German-language text for this novel. There’s something interesting about an anti-Communist German language book published in 1941 that doesn’t make you cringe at what it must contain. But there have been a lot of really good anti-Communist texts, along with some good pro-Communist texts. This book is part of the faction of books written by former party insiders. Calling them disillusioned seems a little weak tea, because they are often reacting to deep fissures, the deaths of many thousands, […]
When Darkness Yawns
It’s been a stressful few weeks (months?) and I’ve been trying to escape into audiobooks. This time there was no escape. It was a slog. Why did I finish it? I’m not really sure. Probably I didn’t feel like looking for something else to listen to. This is a garbage-y vampire novel and lives up to all its stereotypes. There’s a woman, small and so beautiful it hurts. There’s a vampire, manly and muscly and so beautiful it hurts. There’s a curse, a spirit of […]
Death Doesn’t Discriminate
Life is cruel and life is kind; sometimes it gives and other times it takes. Life is one side of the coin and death is the other. There are the living and there are the dead and then there are the ones trapped in between.