First published 2024. Profile Books paperback, 2024, pp 368, c.90,000 words. This is a very accessible analysis of how likely the world is to get to net zero (increase in CO2 in the atmosphere from human related sources) by 2050. On the whole it presents an optimistic picture, making a convincing case that plausible routes […]
Possible — Chris Goodall Read More »
First published 1860. Wordsworth paperback, 1995, pp 459, c.215,000 words. Very much a Victorian novel, this is full of authorial moralising and has a ridiculously melodramatic ending. The authorial voice slows the narrative pace, something that would be unacceptable to today’s publishers. Victorian society had its strict codes of writing that seeped in from the
Mill on the Floss, The — George Eliot Read More »
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr First published 1980. Penguin paperback, 2016, pp104, c.36,000 words. Although short, this is a superb novel. The protagonist, Tom Birkin, looks back at a brief episode of his life when he was a young man from London and had spent a summer in a small, remote
Month in the Country, A — J. L. Carr Read More »
First published 2020. Atlantic Books paperback, 2021, pp313, c.70,000 words. This is a Scott of the Antarctic or a Titanic of a book: a magnificent try in so many ways, but ultimately a failure. I had high hope for it as the predecessor of MacInnes’s superb In Ascension, but the later coheres where this does
Gathering Evidence — Martin MacInnes Read More »
First published 1989 (USA title Buying Time). New English Library paperback, 1990, pp300, c.90,000 words. This is an exploration of one of science fiction’s common themes – life extension. What changes would such an invention bring about? In this case, the life-extension treatment requires very extensive surgical intervention and is therefore necessarily expensive. The process
Long Habit of Living, The — Joe Haldeman Read More »
First published 1956. Vintage paperback, 2013, pp272, c.85,000 words. This is a cracking thriller, and right in the mainstream of Innes’ work. As the title suggests, it’s a thriller focused on the sea, and few are as good as Innes in describing all its moods. Innes makes few concessions to those unfamiliar with boat jargon.
Wreck of the Mary Deare, The — Hammond Innes Read More »
First published 1990. Translated by Edith Grossman. Penguin paperback, 1991, pp285, c.75,000 words. This is a fictional account of the last days of Simón Bolívar, the man who did much to drive the Spanish out of South America. For those of us who know little of the history of that part of the world it
General in His Labyrinth, The — Gabriel Garcia Marquez Read More »
First published 1969. Hamlyn paperback, 1978, pp176, c.62,000 words. At first glance this is a straightforward science fiction ripping yarn, but underneath there is an exploration of the impact of a planet very like Earth but with very little accessible metal resources. How would technology develop under such circumstances? The development of Earth’s civilisation is
Grimm’s World — Vernor Vinge Read More »
First published 2020. Amazon paperback, 2020, pp 282, c.84,000 words. There is a cracking modern thriller here, but it is let down by the lack of editing. Did Ennew not bother to read it over, or get anyone else to, before uploading it to Amazon? Firstly there are the numerous typos, often glaringly obvious like
Good Morning Girl, The — Craig Ennew Read More »
First published 2023. Atlantic paperback, 2024, pp 496, c.100,000 words. This is one of the very best modern books that I have read. The beauty and subtlety of the language shines out from first to last, and so much contains what Hilary Mantel called ‘a wobble in every sentence’: the true nature of human communication.
In Ascension — Martin MacInnes Read More »