Monthly Archives: February 2018

Odd John, by Olaf Stapledon

Posted on February 23, 2018 by pete

Frequently, tragic novels feature a main character who makes selfish or impractical decisions, leading to a personal disaster of some sort. Along the way, readers are often challenged to decide between their feelings of compassion or contempt toward that character … Continue reading →

Posted in books, science fiction | Tagged | 15 Comments

Neanderthal Planet, by Brian Aldiss

Posted on February 16, 2018 by pete

The short story collections of Brian Aldiss have been hit-and-miss for me over the years; Who Can Replace a Man? was filled with thought-provoking entries, but Supertoys Last All Summer Long felt like a collection of weak material propped up … Continue reading →

Posted in books, science fiction, short fiction | Tagged | 18 Comments

The Girl With the Long Green Heart, by Lawrence Block

Posted on February 13, 2018 by pete

Discovering the Hard Case Crime imprint has led me toward the early work of a few widely-known crime authors, including those of Lawrence Block. I’ve found the early Block novels variable in quality, but usually interesting for the characters and … Continue reading →

Posted in books, crime fiction | Tagged , | 7 Comments

a preview

Posted on February 12, 2018 by pete

I’ve been hampered by a virus for the last several days, creating a backlog at work as well as this site. Work comes first, obviously, but soon enough I’ll start catching up on the books shown in the pile here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 29 Comments

Bust, by Ken Bruen & Jason Starr

Posted on February 5, 2018 by pete

The catalogue of the Hard Case Crime imprint features many titles by famous crime authors, but is also a good source for new and interesting names. This was the case when I picked up Bust, a 2006 title by Ken … Continue reading →

Posted in books, crime fiction | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

The Trikon Deception, by Ben Bova and Bill Pogue

Posted on February 4, 2018 by pete

Ben Bova books are all over the place: second-hand bookstores, libraries, Goodwill among other locations. I haven’t read any Bova titles until now, out of my general avoidance of hard-SF books, or post-1980 books that look they would be hard … Continue reading →

Posted in books, science fiction | Tagged | 5 Comments

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, by H.G. Wells

Posted on February 1, 2018 by pete

A lot of good, even classic, science fiction stories are currently available for free as HTML, PDF or some e-reader format. I decided to feature some of these “freebee” pieces on a semi-regular basis this year. This is the second … Continue reading →

Posted in books, science fiction | Tagged , | 4 Comments