Review and analysis of stories I’m reading (or watching), good and bad.
Since Syzygy turned just turned five, let’s keep celebrating eco-apocalypse science fiction with another story anniversary: Horizon: Forbidden West, (HFW) which came out a year ago this month. Why has it taken me so long to review this video game? Living overseas with an old American Playstation, I had to wait months for a copy … More Video Game Review: “Horizon: Forbidden West”
*NO SPOILERS* Back in 2019, I wrote a science fiction mystery novel set in near-future Baltimore. Fusing cyberpunk with classic noir, I fancied myself quite literary for weaving in allusions to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. But I ultimately shelved the project because beneath the flooded streets and flickering neon, the story lacked … More Movie Review: Reminiscence
Plenty of nerdy couples read in bed at night. Really nerdy couples might even exchange comments on their respective books. But in a sci-fi writer’s house, such nerdiness achieves whole new dimensions: “This is a flawed discussion of quantum computing,” I announced to the dark room. “It’s bedtime,” my Laddie mumbled from the pillow beside … More The Literary Turing Test: A Book Review of Rob Reid’s “After On”
I recently came down with a touch of that pernicious malady sweeping the globe. Not COVID-19, thank goodness, but Lockdown Languor. It’s not the social distancing that bothers me: for a disciplined moonlight novelist with a deeply introverted partner, the normal pattern is to avoid people and stay home. The problem is that we don’t … More Book Review: “The Ear, The Eye and the Arm” by Nancy Farmer
My father and I call and text like typical 21st century family, but we also maintain written correspondence like 19th century intellectuals. (Occasionally we even write like them: planning a holiday visit might be phrased as “Cherished father, I propose myself the pleasure of waiting upon you and my mother this Michelmas…”). We’re both English … More Recent Reads: “No Time To Spare”, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Despite his popularity as a science fiction writer, the late author Douglas Adams championed the value of planet Earth. In the late 1980s, he teamed up with zoologist Mark Cawardine for a BBC radio series called Last Chance to See, in which the pair tracks endangered species around the globe. Adams’ 1990 book chronicling the … More Last Chance To See Our Planet: 30 Years, 2 Reviews, 1 Earth
Wild Type 