In his own words
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The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
Review: What a neat little volume! A book of verse. Published in 1962 at the request of his publisher (Allen & Unwin). The poems were almost all adapted from Tolkien’s much earlier poems published in university journals, most having nothing to do with Tom Bombadil or even the LOTR franchise. Thanks to an editorial conceit…
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Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account
Review: If you want an adventure in anxiety, do the job these people did to land a rover on Mars! Good grief! Sooo much that could (and nearly did) go wrong. Even reading it was a little nail-biting. OMG. But they did land and operate Curiosity on Mars. And it is still doing science 10…
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Mash Up: Stories Inspired by Famous First Lines
Review: What a great, unique concept. Take a famous first line from a classic novel and base an SF story on it. Some great authors and some great submissions. Some. Not all. Gardner Dozois is one of the finest editors of anthologies ever, but in any collection you’re going to get a range of material.…
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O Pioneers!
Review: Absolutely magnificent. The more of Willa Cather I read, the more she speaks to me. And not just speaking like to someone waiting for the bus, but speaking at a primal emotional level. Like the rich prairie soil she so beautifully describes. “The gold flecks in her irises were like the color of sunflower…
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Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead
Review: A ripping yarn! What a great book. Nothing too cerebral, but nothing too puerile, either. The author, Steve Perry, is a NYT bestselling one and it shows by his writing that he is no dummy. He, like many of us, grew up with the Indiana Jones franchise and came to love it. And (likely…
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Germinal
Review: 5 stars. Let’s get that out of the way. 5 stars. Needed to be said again. J.K. Huysmans described Germinal as ‘a lament rising from the darkness of hell.’ And he described it perfectly. This is my first Zola experience, and it will be my last, a masterpiece beyond any doubt but so depressing…
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The Flight of the Horse
Review: A collection of time travel themed short stories. I don’t really dig time travel stories and yet… these were no exception. It’s all been done, the paradoxes explored and presented in more ways than an obi clue in a crossword. But. The last two novellas were not time travel and were excellent. “Flash Crowd”…
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The Key to Rebecca
Review: A thrilling thriller! A lusty romp through 1942 Cairo, fez wearing baddies chasing or being chased by sturdy British soldiers and all either spies or being spied upon. A page turner for sure, some of it far-fetched, some of it fairly accurate, tales of high adventure tend to be that way. A good author,…
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Greek Tragedies Volume 3
Review: Very good. Very, very good. 5 plays that are by the famous playwrights but are not the most popular and well known ones. Aeschylus – The Eumenides: Orestes on trial for matricide, 12 jurors of citizens, Athena as judge, Apollo for the defense. Sophocles – Philoctetes: Odysseus being a smartypants asshole like he was…
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The Dead Zone
Review: Well that was the first Stephen King book I have read. Not that I was avoiding it, but when you read as much as I do, coupled with a 25 year beer break, some books and authors get missed. This was brilliant, amazing, beautifully crafted. Scary, sure. But more importantly it makes you feel…