Reviews and Links for October 2012

Skios by Michael Frayn

Skios by Michael Frayn

4/5

Perfectly well oiled comedy of errors.

 

More...

Reviews and Links for November 2011

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

5/5

Intelligent and humorous if highly contrived thriller set loosely around an MMORPG. Loved it.

 

More...

Reviews and links for January 2011

My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big City Backyard into a Farm by Manny Howard

My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big City Backyard into a Farm by Manny Howard

4/5

Alternatively funny and painful. Manny Howard is clearly not cut out to be a farmer but he battles through problems that seem to be mostly of his creation and manages to feed himself briefly from his back garden. Given he's doing this with a largish plot of land and an expense account it's a warning to anyone with urban agriculture ambitions. The death toll on the farm is pretty extreme - not the necessary slaughter of chickens for food but the number of avoidable accidents that border on abuse. Am now even more inspired to leave farming to the professionals...

 

More...

Reviews and links for July 2010

Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis

Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis

4/5

Returns to the characters of Less Than Zero twenty five years later. I don't think it's a plot spoiler to say that they're not happy and well adjusted people. I found Glamorama to be pretty tedious and Lunar Park only marginally better. It was a huge relief that Imperial Bedrooms just flows. It's a welcome return to his earlier narrative style. Dread and paranoia are visceral presences from the start and then layers of fear and horror build until it can't get any worse and then somehow does. Brilliant.

 

More...

I Thought He Came With You
Robert Ellison's blog.

Farallon Islands

Blog Archives