Incendio!
I just ran into a Slashdot post pointing to Orson Scott Card’s commentary on J.K. Rowling’s attempt to ban an unauthorised encyclopaedia of the Harry Potter books. I won’t summarise either of the...
View ArticleAnother reflection on FMA
A while ago, I wrote about the Fullmetal Alchemist anime series. I mentioned that I found it much more fulfilling than traditional anime fare because it touched on social issues, and presented very...
View ArticleReview: Ender’s Shadow
Few things in literature are as ambitious as recounting the same events told in a previous book from the point of view of another character. The narratorial and character voices can easily slip into...
View ArticleCongratulations to Studio Foglio
Their work on Girl Genius has been awarded with the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. I generally don’t follow literary awards of any kind, not even ones for sci-fi and fantasy, which is...
View Article“New Moon”– Amongst Illustrious Peers
I’m a big believer in the notion that literature reflects the values of the society that produces it. Just because I don’t like something, doesn’t mean it has no intrinsic cultural value. But every so...
View ArticleHyperion
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion are two intricately designed novels that reach backwards to draw inspiration from poetry and philosophy of centuries gone by to inform on a dark war between mankind, our...
View ArticleA Game of Thrones teaser
Those of us who don’t get HBO (eg, Australians) probably missed this recent teaser for the commencement of George Martin’s A Game of Thrones series. It doesn’t give away much, but I definitely heard...
View ArticleIn brief: The Rise of Endymion
At once too ambitious and poorly executed. There are some big ideas which, even though Simmons may have planned from the first pages of “Hyperion”, don’t really fit the feel of the first half of the...
View ArticleReview: Kobo mini
I was recently at my local JB Hi-Fi browsing around (as most gadget geeks do) and noticed that the Kobo Mini had reached the impulse-buy price of $50. As part of her due diligence on a similar...
View ArticleGNU Terry Pratchett
The news is a little old now, but I wanted to acknowledge Terry Pratchett’s passing. Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. —...
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