I mentioned in my review of Horns last year that if I had Stephen King for a father, I wouldn’t have been a writer for love nor money. The shadow he casts is impressive, to say the least (and Mr Mercedes is imminent, about which I am very excited). So if it were me, the prospect would have been too daunting to undertake. But Hill dropped his family name and tried for as long as possible to keep his origins out of the press. It wasn’t that long, since […]
Art, life and a long journey
Target: Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life. Translated by Taro Nettleton. English design and lettering by Adrian Tomine. Profile: Autobiography, Manga, Graphic Novel A Drifting Life is a wonderfully thick tome of a graphic novel. Equal parts autobiography, national history and understated drama; the book chronicles the story of one of the founding fathers of Japanese Manga. The style pioneered by Yoshihiro Tatsumi was one of the first attempts to turn cartoons into a medium for serious works. Appropriately, his story is a serious one, touching on the themes […]
Sex, Sexuality, and the Stunted Journalist
When I was about thirteen or fourteen, I told my much older sister that she could look forward to holding in her hands my own published book. I spoke with such confidence that she said she believed that I would achieve that goal. Nearly twenty years later, I am no closer to attaining that goal than when I first boldly made my claim. It isn’t because I lost the desire to. No, my lack of progress is more of a result of self-realization. To write–realistic fiction, in […]
Caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea…
Target: Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1) Profile: Speculative Fiction, Young Adult There is a gritty reality to Paolo Bacigalupi’s work. A grim straightforwardness that crushes the optimism older SF styles. On its own, this same honesty produces brilliantly brutal speculative fiction, like Windup Girl. But there is a necessary optimism to Young Adult literature that is at odds with Bacigalupi’s tone. Ship Breaker lives in artificial space between two styles, carving out its own literary niche, but at the same time feeling discordant and incomplete. And yet, it […]
Burn it all down!
Target: L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s Antiagon Fire (Imager Portfolio #7) Profile: Fantasy, Political Fiction, Military Two things struck me as I was preparing for this review: First, I somehow managed to skip Imager’s Battalion during my utter failure of a Cannonball Read 5. I read the book, but I never got a review up. Second, I think I ran out of useful things to say about the series back at book five. The things that I liked are still good, and the elements that are weaker don’t seem to […]
Another Historical Romance, But with a Bit of a Tirade on My Part
It’s 1858, Mercy Dawson and her bastard son have been brought to the family home of Stephen Lyons. Appalled by her conduct, her father abandons her there. Thinking Stephen dead, Mercy is hoping that in bringing his son to his aristocratic family, they will let her stay on as nanny. She just wants to be with her child, but quickly learns that Stephen is very much alive and in rough shape. Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman follows the development of their relationship and the marriage […]
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