Category Archives: Books

Neverwhere at the Lifeline Theatre

In considering the works of Neil Gaiman, it is difficult to think of a contemporary writer whose stories have so completely exploited the full range of multi-media possibilities of current media technologies. From comics to film and television , Gaiman’s … Continue reading

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Sharyn McCrumb’s Highland Laddie Gone

Have you ever been to a bonnie Highland Games in the States? One of me bands, Dead Heroes of Culloden, played a few well-payin’ gigs at some a ways back. Several of our lads being of Scottish heritage were both … Continue reading

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Patricia A. McKillip’s The Riddle-Master of Hed; Heir of Sea and Fire; Harpist in the Wind

I was surprised some while back to discover that Patricia A. McKillip’s Riddle-Master Trilogy was marketed as young-adult fantasy when it was first published. I don’t think I’m particularly backward in terms of understanding what I read, and I was … Continue reading

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Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey

I’ve been reading Joseph Campbell’s books for decades, beginning with the massive, four volume The Masks of God in the late 1960s or 1970s. (I’m not sure what it says about me that I would jump right into a 2,000 … Continue reading

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Leona R. Wisoker’s Fallen City

Leona Wisoker’s Fallen City is described as “a supplement to Children of the Desert“. It’s the story of the origin of the Desert and the Desert Families, and to a certain extent, the story of the early years of Deiq, … Continue reading

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Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House

Having recently published two books set in near-future India — the novel River of Gods and the story collection Cyberabad Days — Ian McDonald turns to near-future Turkey. The Dervish House follows seven characters over seven days in 2027, as … Continue reading

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Ian McDonald’s Brasyl

Elizabeth Vail penned this review.  Following his previous work, River of Gods, which depicted a near future India, Ian McDonald launches into a new country, a new culture, and a new mindset for his most recent novel, Brasyl, a dazzling, if somewhat warped, … Continue reading

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Ian McDonald’s  River of Gods

As I write this, one of the givens is that the next country that will arise to challenge the United States’ role as the world’s sole superpower will be China. This attitude has crossed the boundary from news to popular … Continue reading

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Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet

The world is groping for a new mythology, one that makes sense in a world that has seen nuclear devastation and sent humans to the moon; a world that encompasses both communications satellites and children starving to death in the … Continue reading

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Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson, eds.: The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales

The first thing one notices looking through the table of contents of The Poets’ Grimm is the overwhelming number of women contributors, a fact that editors Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Claudia Carlson acknowledge in their introduction. They allude to several … Continue reading

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