First published 1968. Sphere paperback, 1983, pp 192, c.60,000 words. This story is set in Earth’s Third Cycle – sometime in the far future when the high-technological achievements of the Second Cycle have been lost owing to catastrophic hubris. It is a highly inventive world where a reduced human population has become split into specialist […]
Nightwings — Robert Silverberg Read More »
First published 1926. Pan paperback, 1982, pp 224, c.85,000 words. This was Shute’s first published book, and it shows him as an already accomplished story-teller and descriptive writer. Themes that reoccur in many of his novels appear here, notably the sea but also aircraft, both of which he knew a lot about. The woman in
Marazan — Nevil Shute Read More »
First published 1971. Translated by Michael Kandel, Penguin paperback, 2016, pp 338, c.108,000 words. This is a collection of twelve stories featuring Ijon Tichy, a space explorer. They are inventive genius, often very amusing, and all exploring the nature (and absurdity) of humanity and existence. The philosophy is lightened by the frequent need to outwit
Star Diaries, The — Stanislaw Lem Read More »
First published c.1603. Wordsworth Classics paperback, 1992, pp 138, c.27,600 words. Coming at Shakespeare’s writing, cold on the page, for the first time can seem impenetrable. Not only are their many archaic words used but also the speech patterns are far from those of the present age. Here it is hard to grasp some of
Hamlet — William Shakespeare Read More »
First published 1996. Bantam Press hardback, 1996, pp 447, c.160,000 words. Want a dose of conspiracy-plus-high-thrills entertainment? Suspend your nit-picker and enjoy. This is a fast-paced yarn with a large cast of characters, set in close to the real world of the post-cold-war period, where there are plenty who would like the conflict to go
Icon — Frederick Forsyth Read More »
First published 1962. Translated by Stephen Dodd 2022, Penguin paperback, 2023, pp 270, c.87,000 words. What an odd book this is. It isn’t science fiction – there is no science in it, and it is not even set in the future. It is a meditation on humanity. There is almost no plot, and very little
Beautiful Star — Yukio Mishima Read More »
First published 1999. Bantam paperback, 2000, pp 272, c.72,000 words. The Scotsman John Law was an extraordinary character who, three hundred years ago, after being exiled from Britain for murder, made a huge impact on the financing of government, most notably in France. Over a decade he created a financial bubble, which eventually, inevitably, imploded.
Moneymaker, The — Janet Gleeson Read More »
(Book also known as The Daleth Effect.) First published 1970. Arrow paperback, 1981, pp 217, c.64,000 words. At the superficial level this is a story of a man who discovers a wrinkle in Einstein’s equations that allows for the development of a means of eliminating the mass of objects, and therefore gravity has no effect
In Our Hands the Stars — Harry Harrison Read More »
First published 2000. Copernicus hardback, 2000, pp 361 (pp 287 main text), c.90,000 words (main text). I was planning to write a book about why humans have not yet encountered any evidence for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. My thesis was to be that the conditions that led to life here on Earth are
Rare Earth — Peter D Ward and Donald Brownlee Read More »
First published 2023. Bygone Age Press paperback, 2023, pp 240, c.66,000 words. This novel is based on what very little is known about the Viking, Ulf of Borresta. Or as we are told, the Norseman: apparently ‘viking’ is an activity, and the Norsemen, as they called themselves, went ‘a viking’, i.e. on raids into other’s
For the Want of Silver — Michael Wills Read More »