Book Reviews – Page 3 – Damien Walter

Return of the Book Pile

I’ve been lazily avoiding updating my book pile posts lately. I’d like to claim that was because I was too busy reading the books to writet about them, but in truth its more because of my obsessive interest in Macbook’s and the soon to be ubiquitous iPhone from Apple. I want one! In between boutsContinue reading “Return of the Book Pile”

Interference

I think I’m going to have to develop some policy on what I read when I’m writing. I find reading essential for writing. I usually sit and read for half an hour or so before starting to write to kick-start my linguistic imagination. But sometimes reading the wrong thing can cause a kind of literaryContinue reading “Interference”

The 43 Antarean Dynasties

I just listened to this really fun story on Escape Pod. Mike Resnick might be making it onto my list of favourite authors for his sense of humour and deft chracterisation. The 43 Anterean Dynasties

Feast of Fantasy

I’ve been on an epic fantasy read over the last month. Not just epic in content, but epic in size! First up a collection of short fiction by Kelly Link. Miss Link is at the head of a number of new (at least to me) fantasy writers who are melding fantasy / horror writing withContinue reading “Feast of Fantasy”

Children of Men

I’m not going to make a habit of posting film reviews on the Don’t Look Down blog. This is afterall for notes from the fiction front. And yes, film is fiction. And yes, I do like films but they just are not the thing this blog is about. But I really want to shout aboutContinue reading “Children of Men”

Finches

A fascinating extract of writing from the man I’m tipping as the next Michael Moorcock, Jeff Vandermeer.

Anita Blake – Vampire Hunter

Guilty Pleasures & The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K Hamilton I’m a virulent defender of genre fiction and the trash aesthetic. I’ve literally risked life and limb to advocate the cause of all things pulp against the literary establishment. Only last week I stood in a classroom full of A-Level English teachers and proclaimed AlanContinue reading “Anita Blake – Vampire Hunter”

Ender’s Game

Orson Scott Card is a writer that for many years existed in my mind as part of an amorphous mass of ‘Hard SF’ writers, most of them American, that I had not read and did not have any great interest in reading. Not due to any particular dislike for Hard SF, or for Americans, but because they were onContinue reading “Ender’s Game”

Gardens of the Moon

I had to have a long hard think before deciding whether to post a review this book. Not so much because of the book, more because I really can’t decide whether I like it or not. I have multi-farious faults but lack of an opinion isn’t generaly one of them, so finding myself so indecisiveContinue reading “Gardens of the Moon”

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett

Under the benevolent leadership of the Emperor the Imperium has stretched across the galaxy in a golden age… Whoa there – Golden age? Benevolent leadership? Isn’t this Warhammer 40K, the most brutal SF franchise known to man and home of the universes toughest homosexual icons, the Space Marines? The new series from the BlackContinue reading “Horus Rising by Dan Abnett”

Light – M John Harrison

Light – M John Harrison Spaceships, magicians, anorexics, London, deep space, virtual worlds, gritty realities. If Harrison were a chef he’d have just invented the first dish known to man to contain every majour ingredient. And within this riotous cocktail are the strange shapes of the quantumn world as it intersects with theContinue reading “Light – M John Harrison”