Reviews: Spiders and Dreams and Rocket Ships

Medusa's WebMedusa’s Web by Tim Powers
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Okay, so I’m a Tim Powers fan. I will read everything the man writes and eagerly anticipate the next one. That said, this isn’t the book to start with. The plot, as Powersian as ever, involves a brother and sister who stand to inherit the home which belonged to a relative who raised them after their parents passed away some years earlier. The house has connections (literal and figurative) to the golden years of Hollywood and, like all of Powers’ books of the last couple of decades, involves real life figures and events weaved into an intricately plotted web of fantasy and magic.
Continue reading “Reviews: Spiders and Dreams and Rocket Ships”

London 2014: Day Three & Four – LonCon3

2014-08-15 21.30.37Ostensibly, the reason we were in London in the first place was to attend LonCon3, the World Science Fiction Convention for 2014. As reasons go, it’s not a bad one. Especially since I’m a dues paying active member of the Science Fiction Writer’s of America (SFWA) and make such little use of that it barely registers as more than a line on my CV. So, knowing I was going to the con (that’s what we in the “know” call conventions) I volunteered to be on a panel when they had an opening and got an invite to the SFWA reception and had decided to attend the SFWA informational meeting. I figure if I’m gonna get back into this writing thing, I need to start hanging out with people again.  Continue reading “London 2014: Day Three & Four – LonCon3”

Review: The Bible Repairman and Other Stories

The Bible Repairman and Other Stories
The Bible Repairman and Other Stories by Tim Powers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There’s something wonderfully unique and strange about the imagination of Tim Powers. This collection of stories is not the best introduction to it, however good they might be. Th final story of the book is a companion piece to Powers’ novels The Stress of Her Regard and Hide Me Among the Graves dealing with the Nephilim, romantic poets and non-traditional vampires. It was originally written as a bonus for a limited edition of Regard and really needs a working knowledge of that book to be fully appreciated. Continue reading “Review: The Bible Repairman and Other Stories”

Review: Foucault’s Pendulum

Foucault's Pendulum
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eco is having the last laugh.

In Foucault’s Pendulum Umberto Eco is writing a huge joke with the whole world as the punchline. He takes everything you know about history (and quite a few things you don’t) and wraps them all up in such a way that they make sense. Or better yet, in a brilliant act of post modernism, he has his characters do it. Continue reading “Review: Foucault’s Pendulum”