A Couple of Pages

Welcome

John Birmingham’s THE CRUEL STARS

June 24, 2019

This is the best book John Birmingham has ever written! Think Firefly meets Game of Thrones and then some. It reminded me a lot of John Scalzi but with John Birmingham’s own unique sense of humour, sense of technology and sense of violence. It has everything a rollicking space opera needs; a crazy scientist, a smart-mouthed AI, a captured princess, a band of genetically diverse space pirates, a Navy almost crippled to its knees and Space Nazis. John Birmingham builds his world, almost tears it down and then sends everyone against each other. Wonderfully entertaining. Totally absorbing. I wanted to read the next book in the series the moment I finished. … More John Birmingham’s THE CRUEL STARS

Colson Whitehead’s THE NICKEL BOYS

June 5, 2019

This is a searing and deeply moving portrait of two boys trying to survive in a world where the cards are stacked against them but do everything in their power to hold their heads high or keep their heads down. It is powerful and inspiring and it is poignant and bitter. Whitehead keeps the violence and brutality just off stage. You know it is there. You know it is vicious and cruel. You know it is depraved. But this novel is not about how graphic the treatment of these boys is but how systemic hope, dreams and the chance at a good and normal life can be taken away from so many. How future possibilities can be hobbled or simply buried and forgotten about.
… More Colson Whitehead’s THE NICKEL BOYS

Téa Obreht’s INLAND

May 29, 2019

Téa Obreht’s debut, The Tiger’s Wife, was simply stunning. It heralded a truly extraordinary writer and remarkable storyteller so when I learned there was a new novel coming this year I was very excited. What I didn’t expect was a Western but of course in the hands of Téa Obreht that means a Western unlike anything I’ve read before.
… More Téa Obreht’s INLAND