![]() ![]() (I know this is supposed to be light and fun, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be believable too.) I liked the idea of a hero who is less than physically spectacular. ![]() ![]() Even worse is the game of disguise that Rafe plays with Imogen, who thinks she's embarking on an affair with Gabe (when it's really Rafe in a mustache.) Rafe's transformation from pickled duke (he's an alcoholic, or the 19th century equivalent of one) to virile hero seemed too swift and easy for me. ![]() Sounds a bit convoluted/contrived? Well, it is. Rafe discovers and embraces his long lost, illegitimate half-brother Gabe, who brings with him his own illegitimate daughter and a request to help out his baby's mama, an actress, by putting on a play in which she, Loretta Hawes, will star and thus be launched into her brilliant acting career. Unfortunately, when they're brought together for their romance in this third installment of the Essex Sisters series, things didn't work out so well for me. They had such personality, with their flaws and their foibles that could be equally endearing and frustrating. I was really looking forward to The Taming of the Duke because Imogen and Rafe are some of my favorite characters of the series. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Here, the two Carolines (Morris & Symcox) combine to give the Doctor a very real headache: for perhaps the first time I can remember, a Tardis companion openly refuses to do what the Doctor wants, choosing instead to affect the course of history for the sake of fairness and justice. This is a straight-ahead time-travel-changes-the-course-of-history play, and it is all the more effective in that the major problem is caused by Erimem’s refusal to let things lie. That makes the peril within this story all the more believable. Once again we’re in ancient history (not that The Church & the Crown was that ancient), and once again there is no alien baddie to fight. He believes he will just be doing some sightseeing, but as he and Peri and Erimem get caught up in popular riots in the city’s streets, so they stand in danger of unravelling the whole history of Christianity itself – and the biggest danger comes from Erimem herself… The Doctor arrives in Nicaea to witness the infamous Council of 325AD at which the Roman Emperor Constantine oversaw the creation of the first uniform Christian creed. The Council of Nicaea, by Caroline Symcox ![]() ![]() If you’ve already read this book, you know nothing I can say is as good as what waits for you ahead. You know it is beautiful and deep and wry and wondrous. If you’ve already read Sandman, what can I tell you that you don’t already know deep in the secret corners of your heart? You know this story is lovely and brilliant and sweet and strange. ![]() I’ll admit, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do here. **(What follows is an excerpt from the intro)** ![]() But rather than just my usual messy gush about how I love some story, I got permission from the publisher to re-print part of my introduction I wrote. To celebrate, I thought I'd write a review here. ![]() It's been half a year since I got the invitation, and months since I actually finished writing the introduction, but I still can't believe it. I wrote the introduction to the 30th anniversary edition of The Sandman. ![]() ![]() ![]() Of course I have got in the pivot on which the story will turn too - and which indeed, as you remember, was the grotesque tragicomic conception that first encouraged me. I have put a child and a good-natured foolish man, in relations that seem to me very funny. I have made the opening, I hope, in its general effect exceedingly droll. ![]() You will not have to complain of the want of humour as in the Tale of Two Cities. " The book will be written in the first person throughout, and during these first three weekly numbers you will find the hero to be a boy-child, like David. Story ForetoldĬharles Dickens wrote to his friend and advisor, John Forster, telling his plan for Great Expectations: Many of the locations in Great Expectations are featured on my map of Charles Dickens' Rochester/Chatham. ![]() ![]() But, just as disciples of other religious leaders do not at first understand their master's teachings, Zarathustra's disciples do not understand what he is trying to teach them. To become the overman, one must have envy, be a warrior, and not take pity on the world. Zarathustra teaches them the key points of his knowledge. He teaches them in private, grooming them to attain the state of overman so that they may eventually carry on his teaching to the rest of the world. ![]() Zarathustra then finds disciples who are willing to listen to his teachings. The people reject him as a madman, however, and Zarathustra realizes that his teachings must take a different route. He goes on to say that the overman is the true state of being for which mankind should strive. ![]() Zarathustra first comes to a village where he makes his pronouncement that God is dead. Because of this love, he desires to leave the solitude of his mountain home to teach others the great truth he has discovered: the truth of the overman. Zarathustra is a sage and a prophet who has a great love of humanity. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The glamorous Orient Express stops during the night, blocked by snowdrifts. Of its type, perfection this is how the classic detective story should be written. Which of the other guests is a murderer? Perfectly paced, with subtle and ingenious clueing, and an unexpected but totally logical solution. ![]() The impoverished owner of End House hosts a party where fireworks camouflage the shot that kills her cousin. An unmissable, and still controversial, milestone of detective fiction. This title would still be discussed today even if Christie had never written another book. A typical village murder mystery or so it seems until the last chapter with its stunning revelation. But when wealthy Roger Ackroyd is found stabbed in his study, he agrees to investigate. Hercule Poirot has retired to the village of King’s Abbot to cultivate marrows. ![]() ![]() And a patient in a mental institution is convinced that he’s made up a city called Ambergris, imagined its every last detail, and that he’s really from a place called Chicago. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading-and finds himself enchanted. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers that a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. ![]() And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In this reinvention of the literature of the fantastic, you hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited-an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians.Ĭity of elegance and squalor. ![]() From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Borne and Annihilation, comes the paperback reissue of his cult classic City of Saints and Madmen. ![]() ![]() ![]() this narration of Coming Home by Helen Johns is like nails on a chaulk board, sadly there is an actual under lying whinning to this poor women’s voice.I have looked at her acting reel on line - and she has far more depth of being and aliveness. ![]() While I was eventually able to adjust to Jilly Bond reading Winter Solstice, and a few more of these newly released recordings. I listened to these stories once a year and was transported completely to the two places of my childhood Scotland and Cornwall. Full of Life, Deeply Heartfelt, Nuanced with an exquisite well trained and beautiful voice. ![]() The 1995 recording of Home Coming and the 2000 recording of Winter Solstice, were brillantly narrated by Lynn Redgrave. If you could sum up Coming Home in three words, what would they be?Ĭoming Home and Winter Solstice are two beloved stories by Rosamund Pilcher. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In a world where Stephen King books are as ubiquitous as water, Rage is the rare exception to the rule.Īnd there’s good reason for that. Today, the only way to even read the novel is getting your hands on an old copy of The Bachman Books (which is what I did), or finding one of the relatively rare standalone copies. Stephen King (er, I mean Richard Bachman) himself has barred publishers from reprinting Rage because over time he’s become upset by the book’s content, and the disturbing number of copycat events that occurred through the 1980’s and 1990’s. I’d heard it was an alright novel (especially for the first non-horror foray of a relatively young author), but three decades of school violence have passed since the publishing of the book, and that’s made for a lot of water under the proverbial bridge. In this current climate, the last thing I wanted to read was a book about a school shooting. ![]() When I saw Rage was next on the list, my spirits sank a bit. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, Charlie Decker explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence. Synopsis: A disturbed high-school student with authority problems kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. ![]() ![]() Interested in seeing if his comedy could translate well to the written word, I picked up a copy of his second book, a piece of apocalyptic, speculative fiction: “Jam.”ĭespite my worries of whether or not Croshaw’s style of comedy would be able to stick, I was relieved to see that not only is the book very funny, but it is also surprisingly disturbing to boot. His self-chosen nickname might be more familiar to avid gamers, as Yahtzee himself is the author behind the popular web-series “Zero Punctuation,” which offers acerbic criticism of the most recent video game releases delivered in a very witty and sarcastic tone every episode. ![]() ![]() Despite this, British-born Australian writer Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw has made a go of writing comedy books. ![]() However, it is the opinion of this writer that comedy in the printed word is sometimes even more challenging than simply telling a funny story with the spoken word. Almost every comedian from past or present can attest to this, in more or less flattering words. Let it never be said that comedy is easy, and if anyone says otherwise, they are, unequivocally, a cretin. ![]() |