Category Archives: Books

Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants

This slim, whimsical YA novel is Neil Gaiman’s contribution to World Book Day 2008, one of nine £1.00 children’s books made available for this event. Though written for a younger audience, Odd and the Frost Giants is an entertaining read … Continue reading

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Hugh Kennedy’s When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, and Justin Marozzi’s Tamerlane

Da Capo Press has been a member of the Perseus Book Group since 1999. World history is one of its specialty lines and probably the category in which I would place both of these titles. At least in my experience … Continue reading

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Steven Brust’s Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Taltos, Phoenix, Athyra, Orca, Dragon, Issola, and Jhereg: The Graphic Novel

Vlad Taltos is a very dangerous man. He has to be, in his line of work. He’s an assassin. He’s an Easterner (what we’d call human) in an empire full of near-immortal, very powerful beings known collectively as the Dragaerians. … Continue reading

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Kevin Courrier’s Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa

There have been many books written about Frank Zappa. Perhaps the most disappointing, and yet most enlightening, was his own The Real Frank Zappa Book. A bizarre but strangely readable book was Ben Watson’s Frank Zappa’s Negative Dialectics of Poodle … Continue reading

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Marija Gimbutas’s The Living Goddesses

This text, published posthumously (four years after Gimbutas’ death), is the culmination of decades of research into the “civilization of the goddess,” in the author’s own words. A Lithuanian native, Gimbutas moved to the United States in the 1940s, and … Continue reading

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Jean-Luc Bannalec’s The King Arthur Case

Jean-Luc Bannalec’s The King Arthur Case represents a new entry in the author’s Commissaire Georges Dupin series. It also sports a connection to one of the western world’s most well-known schools of folklore and mythology. Georges Dupin is an entertaining … Continue reading

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Andrea Hairston’s Redwood and Wildfire

Andrea Hairston’s Redwood and Wildfire is a fascinating and strange piece of historical fantasy. While the concept of a fantasy relating to the early twentieth century entertainment world is not unusual, nor is the portrayal of the situations of marginalized … Continue reading

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Peter Benchley’s Jaws

Peter Benchley’s Jaws is well remembered as a bestselling novel, and even more so as a film directed by Stephen Spielberg. In the past few years this book has gained a new significance for many people, making it more than … Continue reading

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Dervla McTiernan’s The Murder Rule

Dervla McTiernan’s The Murder Rule is a dark, disturbing and twisting thriller. Touching upon real life organizations such as the Innocence Project, this volume deals with the difficulties of investigation in an unusual manner and quickly draws in the reader. … Continue reading

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John M. Ford’s Aspects

John M. Ford was a well respected author among the speculative fiction set of his time. He also died young at the age of 49 years, and the legal oddities surrounding much of his work meant that for over a … Continue reading

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