February 2012
13 posts
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe...
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
From the way this book was marketed I was expecting something along the Douglas Adams axis, in reality the book has more of a Kurt Vonnegut flavour.
The science fictional universe and the time travel therein are metaphors for nostalgia and regret, the ultimate message being how it is best to get on with...
Dystopian SF
You only need to look back to the 1984 Doctor Who story The Caves of Androzani to see the inspiration for the current government’s unpaid “work experience” scheme:
MORGUS:
The stews of the city are full of such unemployed riff-raff.
PRESIDENT:
Most of them unemployed, Trau Morgus, because you have closed so many plants. It’s caused great unrest.
MORGUS:
Easily...
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A dark tale set fifteen minutes into the future and yet a world that is so well described and characters so vital that it leaves you bereft when its all over.
Comparisons are lazy but if William Gibson had written Trainspotting and set it in South Africa… well it wouldn’t be Moxyland, but might deserve to sit on the same shelf. This...
The Coincidence Engine - Sam Leith
The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There is a certain self conscious humour to be to be found in a particular type of genre novel. Often the novel is apocalyptic, containing demons, angels and/or the afterlife and usually it contains up to the minute cultural references. You get the distinct impression that the author was so impressed by Gaiman and Pratchett’s Good...
