Reviews

'Damascus' by Joshua Mohr

October 11th, 2011

In 2009, O magazine named Joshua Mohr's debut, Some Things That Meant The World To Me, one of their 10 Terrific reads, saying: "Bukowski fans will dig the grit in this seedy novel." That's right. Oprah and Bukowski. Together at last. You couldn't wish for a better demographic crossover.

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'The Visible Man' by Chuck Klosterman

October 10th, 2011

Who are you when you’re alone? Are you someone else in a crowd? Is the reality of you fundamentally diminished by the perception of others? Journalist, essayist and pop culture anthropologist Chuck Klosterman’s second novel, The Visible Man, pulls a pretty slick con on the reader. The book presents itself as a dark sci-fi thriller, riveting and fun, while asking profound questions about the fallacy of scientific observation and the perpetually fleeting nature of reality.

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"Snuff" by Terry Pratchett

October 6th, 2011

In the UK, you can’t board a train without seeing someone reading a Discworld novel.  For twenty five years now, people have been reading about the activities of a world that sits on the back of four elephants who stand on the turtle the Great A’tuin as it swims through space. Once a light parody of sword and sorcery fantasy, the Discworld [series] grew in depth and complexity and emerged as a vehicle for some rather profound political thinking and a lot of humour.

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'In Other Worlds' by Margaret Atwood

October 4th, 2011

In 2009, Ursula K. Le Guin called out Margaret Atwood over comments perceived as disparaging to writers of science fiction. Le Guin proposed that Atwood was attempting to relegate the persecuted genre to the outskirts of the literary ghetto. Turns out, Atwood wasn't being condescending when she said she didn't consider her speculative novels to fall under the nerdiest of banners- the two authors just had differing opinions over what constituted science fiction.

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