In his own words
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A Little History of Science
Review: What a superb little book. Science and its history explained in a clear and entertaining way. All the way from the Babylonian astronomers to the world wide web. Not a book of trivia, this was a clear and concise journey through the trials, errors, leaps forward, and disastrous steps backward that have created the…
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Rebecca
Review: I was enchanted for the first 30 pages but then it just went on and on. An influential novel, an important novel. A tiresome novel. Rebecca, or, Proust-writes-a-thriller. There was no need for this to be 428 pages. Even if you just cut out every description of scones you could trim a hundred pages.…
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The Red and The Black
Review: This was one of the selections from my Lifetime Reading Plan book. It was loooooong. Fairly difficult prose as it was translated from 19th century French. But. It was good, very good. Way ahead of its time (1830). A novel that challenged conventions and showed the inside machinations of church and state in post…
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The English Patient
Review: I was reluctant to read this as I had heard that it was a women’s book. Meaning one of those odious volumes that fat chicks in yoga pants gush to one another about in trendy coffee shops. Well I had no cause to fear, this was outstanding. From beginning to end this novel was…
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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1
Review: Before the Hugo and Nebula Awards came into being there was the Hall of Fame. The Science Fiction Writers of America Association decided to pick the 25 best short stories from 1929 to the current year of 1964. Thus, all these stories were picked by the writers of the best SF at the time…
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G, A Novel
Review: It didn’t take long to figure out why this one won the Booker Prize. Elusive to define. Partly historical, partly imagined. One reviewer described portions of it as a sexual meditation. Like Proust, the protagonist is unnamed through most of the novel. And even then he is known simply as “G”. Also like the…
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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Review: You can’t speed read Bede, indeed, no need. I have always wanted to read the Venerable Bede, if for no other reason than to find out what was so venerable about the chap. Now I know. Bede was a scholarly monk who lived from around 673-735 AD in what we now call the United…
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Cox’s Navy
Review: This book was sent to me from my old mate that lives on the Orkney Islands, where all the action takes place. It’s interesting to read about places that you are already familiar with: Stromness, Kirkwall, Lyness and so on. In 1919 the German imperial fleet was interned at Scapa Flow in Scotland as…
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An Alien Heat
Review: If they are brief, I usually read the acknowledgements at the front of a book. This one was to some dudes, and the members of Hawkwind, and a chap named Lemmy. Yes. That. Lemmy! Turns out before forming Motörhead Lemmy was in a psychedelic band called Hawkwind. With Michael Moorcock! He was a musician…
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The Last Spike and Other Railroad Stories
Review: Found this book for free on Kindle, a public domain book, and it was surprisingly good! Back in the steam engine railroading days the men working on the rails pursued a dangerous and frequently deadly occupation. As a result of this, stories about life on the iron road became very popular and pulp magazines…