Category Archives: Books

Sam Cutler’s You Can’t Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates

Oh, and a storm is threatening my very life today … Once upon a time, back when Marin County, California, was still the home of the Grateful Dead, I helped manage a bookstore, Mandrake Books, in San Rafael. It was … Continue reading

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Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge’s Shades of Gray

The superhuman revolution has begun. With the disruption of the system that was secretly brainwashing the extrahumans of Corp-Co and turning them into obedient superheroes, the superhumans who once protected the Americas of the future have turned to terrorizing it. … Continue reading

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Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge’s Black and White

Once they were the best of friends. Now they’re implacable enemies. Joannie “Jet” Greene is a certified hero who uses her powers over shadow and darkness to protect New Chicago. Callie “Iridium” Bradford has used her powers over light to … Continue reading

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Neal Stephenson’s The System Of The World

… I think it’s clear why science fiction offers scope for people who want to explore the … great dramas of ancient history but don’t want to write historical fiction. Because if you have an enormous galactic empire, you can … Continue reading

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Daithi Ó hÓgáin’s The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Romance

“The Lore of Ireland” is a magical phrase, calling up images of heroic deeds and fey enchantments, bloody treachery and shining honor, great warriors, cold queens of the Sidhe, leprechauns, cattle raids, enchanted groves, bards, prophecies — it’s sobering to … Continue reading

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Amy M. Clarke’s Ursula K. Le Guin’s Journey to Post-Feminism

Joseph Thompson wrote this review. Learning about an artist is risky business. Near the end of my college career, I lost all respect for a musician I greatly admired after taking a senior seminar about that musician. The course confirmed … Continue reading

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Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Lenora Rose wrote this review. “Yes, I tried reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell…. After three hundred pages and far too many cups of Turkish coffee to keep from nodding off while reading it, I gave up. It’s dry, it’s … Continue reading

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Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

A storm is coming. One strong enough to sweep away all that has gone before, and open up the world to a new age. The age of media, the Internet, drugs, Hollywood scandals, sports stars, politics, and more. An age … Continue reading

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Scott Mebus’s Gods of Manhattan

In this post-Potter world, more authors than ever seem attracted to writing for adolescents. And given the acclaim and success J.K. Rowling has achieved — including the great wealth now enjoyed by the previously struggling author — why wouldn’t more … Continue reading

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Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s Baltimore: or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire

In the darkest days of World War I, Lord Henry Baltimore, then a Captain in the English Army, watches his men fall in battle. Himself injured, he barely fights off a nocturnal predator, and in doing so, unleashes the unholy … Continue reading

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