This week I’m recommending something suitably scary for Halloween – a collection of old-fashioned but far from cosy ghost stories. When I was student at King’s College, Cambridge it was a privilege to eat in the splendid Gothick hall but there was one portrait hanging in the hall that I didn’t like. If I sat… Continue reading
This week’s recommendation – `The Goddess Chronicle’ by Natsuo Kirino – is a challenging read. Rebecca Copeland’s English translation came out at the beginning of 2013. Originally, I decided not to feature `The Goddess Chronicle’ in this blog. I felt it was too downbeat, too obscure, perhaps just too Japanese. I’m choosing it now because… Continue reading
This week I’m recommending a novel by Holly Black, a writer who excels at creating tough Urban Fantasy based on Fairy Tale motifs. `White Cat’ came out in 2010 and it’s the first in her `Curse Workers’ series. Although the leading characters are teenagers, the tone and content of `White Cat’ make it too dark… Continue reading
This week I’m recommending a recently published Young Adult novel – Soman Chainani’s `The School for Good and Evil’, which is announced as the first volume of a trilogy. In some countries it is only available in hardback or as a rather expensive audio download. In others, such as Britain, you can already get it… Continue reading
This week, back to the classics. One of my all time favourite Fantasy films is `Jason and the Argonauts’ which came out in 1963. Ray Harryhausen’s famous stopmotion animation sequences – such as the fighting skeletons or the bronze giant – thrilled me as a child and they’re still pretty impressive. If you’ve never seen… Continue reading
This week I’m recommending Urban Fantasy Russian style. The recent appearance of a fifth volume in Sergei Lukyanenko’s `Night Watch’ series has reminded me of just how fascinating these books are. Volume One was first published in English in 1988 and shouldn’t be confused with Sarah Waters’ more recent historical novel, `The Night Watch’. You… Continue reading
This week another watery book – `The Ocean At The End Of The Lane’ by Neil Gaiman. According to the author, he intended to write a short story based on an incident from his childhood but it expanded into an `unexpected’ novel. `The Ocean At The End Of The Lane’ has just come out in… Continue reading
This week I’m recommending a novel set in a city I thought I hated – Venice. `The Undrowned Child’ by Michelle Lovric was published in 2009 and it’s easy to find in paperback. You can also get the text on most e-readers but that wouldn’t seem quite right for a novel which starts in `an… Continue reading
This week’s recommendation is a tribute to Jack Vance, who died last month at the age of 96. `The Dying Earth’ , which came out in 1950, was his first book. Vance is a writer who makes the distinction between Fantasy and Science Fiction meaningless. This book is set very far in the future when… Continue reading
This week I’m recommending a book which was published as Horror but contains enough magic (and dragons) to interest Fantasy readers. `An Agreement With Hell’ by Dru Pagliasotti came out in 2011 and is available in paperback and as an ebook. You have probably noticed that there are a lot of angels about in Fantasy… Continue reading