Western stories are horror stories. Desolation. Solitude. The Unknown. Monsters. That’s what they’re always about. I think that’s why I like them so much – they strip civilization down to a skeleton and then they ask the most basic questions….
Tag: fiction
This book delighted me. All Systems Red provides thought-provoking characters and ideas without sacrificing a single bit of fun. It’s both enjoyable and insightful, especially about personhood. This series came highly recommended to me by fellow sci-fi enthusiasts. For this first…
“All life is dangerous. We forget that, we who have been reared in one of the small pockets of civilization. For that is all that civilization really is…small pockets of men here and there for who have gathered together for…
Trevanian’s Shibumi is an international-man-of-mystery-spy-thriller. I think it’s also a sendup of the genre, capitalism, Orientalism, etc. But in a fun way. Like a Shaun of the Dead way. Here’s the back cover blurb form the 1983 printing of the 1979 book:…
Family and friends recently took a trip down to the coast. I’ve always heard of beach reads, but I’ve never actually read anything while sitting on the beach. This was my chance! I loaded up my waterproof Kobo with some…
I mentioned to a friend that I was entering the Dad Books/Daddington Island* phase of my reading life (thrillers, history, etc.). A few days later, that friend handed me a stack of Jack Carr books. You may be remember the…
My summer of cozy mysteries continues! Grounds for Murder is the first book in a four-part cozy mystery series set in Devil’s Beach, Florida. Our hero is Lana Lewis, a journalist-turned-barista. (Tara Lush is a journalist, as well!) Lewis was doing…
This is the fourth book in the nine-book Vanguard series. This story arc, written in the 2000s-2010s, is set concurrently with Star Trek: The Original Series television show. In fact, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise show up from time to…
Robert J. Harris’ A Study in Crimson was inspired by the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. It moves the famous detective from Victorian England to World War II-era England. The time shift of Holmes, Watson, et al. provides a nice…
It’s been more than a decade since I first read Old Man’s War. While I have enjoyed every book in the Old Man’s War series leading up to this aptly-named ultimate novel, I have been hesitant to start this one….
