Category Archives: Books

A Diamond Age Lexicon

Posted on March 21, 2017 by thewaxenpith

I recently reread The Diamond Age (here is a link to a post on my previous reading). First: I really really like that novel. Second: I was struck by the particular delight in words that Stephenson takes here.  He always … Continue reading →

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Cyteen

Posted on January 20, 2016 by thewaxenpith

So, it’s about a teenage cyborg, right?…   Unbelievably, this is not the case.  Instead, Cyteen (by CJ Cherryh) is about a few individuals at the heart of a community of exceptional scientists (located on the eponymous planet). Foremost amongst these … Continue reading →

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This Magnificent Desolation

Posted on November 14, 2014 by thewaxenpith

Thomas O’Malley is an Irish writer living and working in America.  It’s hard to say how much my perception of his writing is coloured by his name and Irishness, but the book, it has to be said, does seem to … Continue reading →

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The Furies of Calderon

Posted on October 17, 2014 by thewaxenpith

I read Jim Butcher’s first Dresden Files novel, Stormfront, some time ago.  It wasn’t to my taste.  It was urban fantasy cum hard-boiled detective story, but didn’t have the mythological power of the best urban fantasy.  Nor, to my mind, … Continue reading →

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Shards of Honour

Posted on August 21, 2014 by thewaxenpith

…or, if you like, Shards of Honor, is the first novel published in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I’d come across her name several times on the Science Fiction Mistressworks blog, and seen that she’s won a Hugo … Continue reading →

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A Madness of Angels

Posted on June 25, 2014 by thewaxenpith

When someone in my book group mooted Kate Griffin’s A Madness of Angels, my immediate reaction was skepticism. “Didn’t we already read something by her?” I thought, “and wasn’t it terrible?”. It turned out that, no, what we’d read was … Continue reading →

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Viriconium

Posted on May 12, 2014 by thewaxenpith

I read M. John Harrison’s Light a while ago. It was a bit overwhelming in various ways, but, by and large, I enjoyed it. More recently, I picked up a copy of the Fantasy Masterworks edition of Viriconium. This volume … Continue reading →

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The Windup Girl

Posted on April 17, 2014 by thewaxenpith

Every now and again, it’s my turn to suggest something for my book group (which tends to alternate between fantasy and sci-fi reads). How do I choose? Simple — I just look at Hugo and Nebula award winners (well, I … Continue reading →

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Fatherland

Posted on April 14, 2014 by thewaxenpith

I read Robert Harris’s Fatherland on my return from Germany. I spent the entirety of my stay there in Berlin, just south of the Reichstag, with a view over the Tiergarten and the Holocaust Memorial. Over the few days I … Continue reading →

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Minipost! Code Name Verity

Posted on March 29, 2014 by thewaxenpith

I was in Berlin recently. I preceded my trip by reading Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and on my return read Robert Harris’s Fatherland.  Yes, I could have read some Goethe or Hesse, but these were what I had … Continue reading →

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