Book Review: Rejoice, A Knife to the Heart by Steven Erikson

The arrival of an alien intelligence to intervene in Earth’s affairs signals an end to violence, illness and environmental degradation. You would think this would be good news, but a lot of the rich and powerful, as well as the violent and sadistic, are not very happy at all. As force fields spread across the Earth to protect wildlife habitats and weapons become obsolete, the book cycles between numerous characters to see how their lives are affected.





Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Gondolier in Yoruba

It's been quite a while since I had a new translation of The Gondolier, so to start 2019 here is the Gondolier in Yoruba, its 41st language.

Awako oju Omi 

Enu oko oju omi mi la inu ibu omi to dake roro ja. Oko yii ti wulo fun mi fun opo odun, o gbe awon ero yi ilu ka ni abe itoni awon baba nla mi.

Orun n wo ni awon ilu atijo, eyi ti o n yi ibu omi naa si dudu, o wa laarin awon ile alapata ti o dara. Mo min ategun irole sinu.

Nje ibomiran wa wa ti o dara ju ilu iyanu ti onibuomi yi lo bi? Bi oko naa ye wo inu ile ipamo re lo, mo duro lați gbe oju mi soke pelu itelorun lati wo oju orun ti o ti n su.


Ipari

Reviews of 2018

This year I've written 28 book reviews on SF Crowsnest, including a lot of fantastic books by newly discovered authors. This has only been a part of the 85 books I've read altogether this year though.

Of course this means that yet again I've managed so much reading and reviewing because I've hardly written any fiction. I co-wrote one short story during the summer, and that's it for new fiction. I had 2 long stories published though: the Parsec Award finalist The Long Afternoon of Sir Rupert Moncrief on Gallery of Curiosities and the novelette Quivira, co-written with Jonathan C. Gillespie. My article 'Waste Management in Science Fiction' was also published in Putting the Science in Fiction.

More recently, I've been doing some work on editing my very first novel which has yet to see the light of day. That will keep me busy for a while...

Book Review: Nebula Awards Showcase 2018

This is my second ‘Nebula Award Showcase’ in quick succession, a volume that presents a mixture of excerpts from and complete winning and shortlisted stories, novelettes, novellas and novels from the prestigious award voted for by members of the SFWA. I generally read only Science Fiction but, of course, there’s a second, silent ‘F’ in SFWA, which means that fantasy is included, as well as horror and associated speculative genres. 

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Englebert in Hungarian

In slightly late news, my story Englebert, first published in Daily Science Fiction, was published in Hungarian last April in the magazine Galaktika.

My name is even on the cover!


This is my second story in the magazine, following on from A Few Good Men back in 2009. I knew they'd accepted the story last year, but they forgot to tell me it was published. It's not my firts surprise translation though!

Book Review: Nebula Awards Showcase 2017

I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of the Nebula Awards winning novels over the past few years, so it seems like the members of the SFWA who vote for the awards have pretty good taste. The annual ‘Nebula Awards Showcase’ volumes contain the winning novellas, novelettes and short-listed short stories, as well as excerpts from the nominated novels.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

Last year’s book, The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, was a riotous, no-holds-barred imperial space opera that was a lot of fun and introduced us to the intriguing setting of the Interdependancy. The sequel is The Consuming Fire, which follows on with the same set of characters as they face up to the imminent collapse of the inter-dimensional flows that link the worlds of the Interdependancy together.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Magazine Review: Brick Journal #53

A review copy of Brick Journal # 53 arrived in good time to coincide with the return to TV of ‘Lego Masters’, which I enjoyed watching last year. ‘Brick Journal’ is packed with articles about and interviews with Lego model designers, instructions for various models and other Lego-related articles of interest to AFOLs (Adult Fans of Lego).

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson

“That was fantastically, amazingly brilliant,” I said as he closed the cover on ‘Legion: The Many Lives Of Stephen Leeds’ by Brandon Sanderson.

“Really?” Bartholomew sneered from his position by the window. Bartholomew wasn’t real – none of the other people in the room were – but that didn’t stop him having an opinion. “That’s your considered opinion is it?”

Read the rest of my review, written in the style of Legion: The Many Lives Of Stephen Leeds’ by Brandon Sanderson on SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Moons of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen

I thoroughly enjoyed Lawrence M. Schoen’s debut novel Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard a couple of years back and became enchanted with his tale of arboreal elephants on the planet Barsk and their limited relationship with the multi-special Alliance of Worlds.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.