Bessie Head was born in 1937 in South-Africa, a daughter of a wealthy white man and his black servant. She exiled to Botswana in the 60’s, and died in 1986, aged only 48. Maru is the only one of her 12 published works that’s easily available for Finnish readers. And it’s a beautiful piece of fiction. In the center of the book we find Margaret Cadmore, and orphaned daughter of the despised and oppressed Masarwa tribe, which is one group belonging to people that have […]
We’ll see how brave you are
Catherynne M. Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
On Virtual Perdition, Horrible Bastards, and Millions of Warships
William Gibson didn’t invent virtual reality, but he was arguably the first to introduce the concept to a mass audience. A generation later, the Wachowskis took the concept to the next level with The Matrix. And now, roughly a generation removed from The Matrix (and if that doesn’t make you feel old, then I’m not sure what will), science fiction has become so suffused with the concept that virtual reality has taken its place alongside rayguns and spaceships and bug-eyes monsters as a venerable trope-verging-on-cliche […]
Coraline – Review #6 for AamilTheCamel
Sixth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Also my 50th blog post! Yahoo! Let me tell you first that I read this entire book in a British accent, and might I add, it was a delightful experience! I suggest that you try it too. Coraline is a delightfully creepy (oxymoron?) and surprisingly witty story about a girl who is not particularly fond of her surroundings and the people that inhabit them. Her parents don’t really pay much attention to her. The weather, being […]
Meeting Nathaniel P.: get thee to a nunnery
Nate is a 30-ish writer from Brooklyn. He is what you would expect: part of a tribe of hipster-mildly pretentious-recovering nerdy underemployed writers. He
Dream a Little Dream (A Robert CBR6 Review)
Succubus Dreams is the third book in Richelle Mead’s Georgina Kincaid series. Georgina Kincaid is an immortal succubus who chooses to live a rather mundane life as the manager of a bookstore in Seattle. She’s dating her favorite modern author but cannot even dream of taking their relationship to a more intimate level. Even a kiss that lingers too long can take years off of Seth’s life. Out of nowhere, the energy stash Georgina gets from her conquests is disappearing by morning, leaving an impossible […]