You know the floating lady trick. You’ve probably seen it on TV and watched how the stage magician gets his assistant to appear to float in thin air; but generally under a light weight cloth. The premise of this investigation is that the Floating Lady trick goes wrong. Harry Kellar invented the trick and in […]
A review of Spartacus: Morituri
Spartacus: Morituri is a novel that is not just set in the world created by Starz but involves Spartacus and the other gladiators. It is set after Spartacus becomes the Champion of Capua and while Crixus is wounded. In summary; Morituri is everything you would expect from the Spartacus franchise; violence, sex, politics and human […]
A review of Firefly – A Celebration (Anniversary Edition)
This is a beautiful beast of a book. It’s huge. There are 544 pages, in colour, in a hardback that just oozes quality. Right now, Amazon is accepting pre-orders and the book is due out at the end of September in the UK and the beginning of October in the US. That timing is important […]
Alien – The Illustrated Story review
Frank Miller said of this book; “Alien – The Illustrated Story might just be the only successful movie adaptation ever done in comics. It’s an amazing graphic novel.” You may disagree with Miller but the comment shows just how good this graphic novel is. Alien – The Illustrated Story is an old one; the original […]
Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling review
It’s quite hard to describe Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling. It reminded me of a cross-over of an H.P. Lovecraft and an Euphemia Martins mystery. The latter being a quirky historical mystery featuring a plucky and curious maid who, due to family death, is working for a rich family even though her own […]
Review of The Long Earth
The Long Earth is a book by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. It’ll start with an admission. Although I was familiar with Pratchett and the Discworld series I wasn’t familiar with British sci-fi writer Stephen Baxter. Baxter is firmly established, a multi-award winner and responsible for the likes of Xeelee, A Time Odyssey (which was […]
Superhero Week: A review of Turbulence by Samit Basu
Turbulence is a new breed of superhero novel and likely to appeal to both classic hero fans as well as fans of contemporary fiction. It starts as an episode of Fringe, Grimm, Alphas or one of the other TV programs that have made science-geek thinking acceptable. It starts with the premises that a BA flight full […]
A review of Plague Town by Dana Fredsti
Dana Fredsti has something of a movie background. She’s worked on Army of Darkness as, I think, a swordsmanship advisor. Her website won me over with a single sentence of humility; Welcome to the website of Dana Fredsti: novelist and screenwriter, B-movie actress (okay, C movie actress), zombie aficionado, exotic and domestic feline advocate, swordfighter, […]
A review of The Bloody Red Baron
The Bloody Red Baron is the sequel to Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula. It is set in 1918 and Graf von Dracula has surfaced as the commander-in-chief of the combined military might of Germany and Austria-Hungary. There are some familiar faces in The Bloody Red Baron. There is Charles Beauregard, from Anno Dracula, but this hero […]
A review of The Games by Ted Kosmatka
Could the Olympics destroy civilisation as we know it? Okay, perhaps not the Olympics by themselves but the dread combination of the Olympics and decision by committee? The Games by Ted Kosmatka is a dark thriller set against the backdrop of an alternative Olympics in a world almost the same as ours. Imagine a world […]
