Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Common Ground and other stories by Mackey Chandler, and Xeelee Vengeance, by Stephen Baxter. Both selected as Books of the Month sometime this year in the Goodreads Space Opera Group. Both good reads. One short and funny, one long and
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro was one of the few books on the audio range of my library that I fancied ‘reading’. It was also on my TBR from last year, which is a bonus. I got it
The Penderwicks was the Great Middle Grade Reads group’s September Book of the Month. I’ve had it on my list since 2013, possibly not from being a BOTM runner-up, as I thought, but because MG King cited it in a
Z2134 is not the type of book I usually read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to complete my Alphabet Soup list with a Z title. Apologies if my review is not as enthusiastic as it
The Darkness Manifesto caught by eye in the netgalley listings, as it was an examination of darkness and its scarcity. It seemed to fit well with the other non-fiction books I’ve taken this year. It takes me to just one
Nocturne and A Quick Death are two books suitable for YA readers by indie authors I’ve been following for a long time, namely Cheryl Mahoney and Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine. I didn’t read them just because of the Alphabet
Silver and Iron completes the SAGE Trilogy. I reviewed the first, The Fall of Onagros in April 2020 and the second, Bargain with Fate in January. I think I commented about the need to keep track of this amazingly complex
The Empire came up on NetGalley’s list, and I liked the sound of it. With other celebrity authors, though, I’ve had trouble getting rid of their voice. Would Michael Ball be different? The only way to find out is to
Flavia Albia is the daughter (adopted) of Falco, Lindsey Davis’s original serial Ancient Rome informer. Flavia Albia is a chip off the old block. Having worked through 20 Falco books, reviewing the later ones (I started in the 1990s probably),
He Knew He was Right is subtitled ‘the irrepressible life of James Lovelock’. I discovered James Lovelock’s theory of Gaia over 20 years ago, and although I acquired several of his books, never actually got around to reading them. I
Bleeding Heart Yard is the third Harbinder Kaur crime thriller from Elly Griffiths. Thank you, NetGalley and Quercus Books for the ARC. I’m delighted this series is extending – read my reviews of The Stranger Diaries and the Postscript Murders
This is How You Lose the Time War. It sounds so intriguing, and I’d heard great things of it. And of course, I had to add it to my list for the Spacetime reading challenge! This is How You Lose
Twelve New Stories involving Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple? Purists will be up in arms. Me, I’m delighted my favourite crime authors took part. Thank you,NetGalley and the publishers, HarperCollinsUK, for a chance to read this book. It came out on
Dining Out on Planet Mercury is the fourth, and probably last of the Dining Out around the Solar System series. A futuristic London is the setting for our intrepid journalists as they fight for the underdogs of the solar system
Voyage of the Lanternfish captured my imagination a while ago. Thank you Sally Cronin; her review prompted me to pull it out of the lower levels of my TBR. And now I have yet another first in series under my