Monthly Archives: January 2010
if they had fooled the green huntsman once…
The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Black Spider is a Swiss-German novella first published in 1842. Today, it’s published by Oneworld Classics and effectively translated by H.M. Waidson, who also writes a useful (and spoiler free) introduction. It was, … Continue reading
Problems with Childe Harold
I started Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage over the weekend, the version currently on sale online. It’s a print on demand copy, but I figured that would be fine. Physically, it was. However, there was an interesting article in the Guardian today … Continue reading
Filed under Byron, Lord, Personal posts, Romantic Literature
We are the fucked generation
A common piece of advice given to new writers, is to write what they know. It’s terrible advice. All too many writers don’t know anything much except attending writers’ workshops and struggling to make it as a writer, frequently in … Continue reading
Filed under Lin, Tao, New York, Novellas, US Literature
Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy The Road is probably now Cormac McCarthy’s best known novel. It won the 2007 Pulitzer prize for literature, it’s had almost uniformly good reviews, it’s been made into a film starring Viggo Mortensen – it’s … Continue reading
Filed under McCarthy, Cormac, Post-Apocalypse Fiction, Science Fiction
Jean-Euphèle Milcé alive and well
Pushkin Press posted this on facebook, and I thought I’d repeat it here in case it was of interest: Pushkin Press is relieved to announce that Jean-Euphele MILCE has survived the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. We do not know what his … Continue reading
Filed under Administrative posts, Milcé, Jean-Euphèle
For years now, we’ve treated the land as though it were a piggy-bank, to be raided.
The Death of Grass, by John Christopher I’ve long been something of a fan of John Wyndham, criticised on occasion for his “cosy catastrophes” in which civilisation falls but people remain generally polite about it. It’s not a criticism I … Continue reading
Deaths crayfishing are comparatively rare
Hearing Secret Harmonies, by Anthony Powell Hearing Secret Harmonies is the twelfth, and final, volume of Anthony Powell’s 3,000 page epic sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. It’s taken me over a year and a half to read … Continue reading
Considering the coming year
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions (though I did like one mentioned on Kerry’s blog here, I will to try to stay alive in 2010 if at all possible, that’s a resolution I can get behind), but with A … Continue reading
Filed under Personal posts
Combat Archaeology
Newton’s Wake, by Ken Macleod Ken Macleod is one of Britain’s leading science fiction writers. He has written two well received SF trilogies (arguably one was a tetratology), and at his best writes tales that combine the sweep of centuries … Continue reading
Filed under Macleod, Ken, Science Fiction
