John Perkins – Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Although it was originally released in 2004, and I bought it in 2005, it was only this year that I finally read this book – which courted some controversy when it originally shot up the bestseller lists. The short summary is that this purports to be an autobiography which focuses on some of the most [...]
Rebecca Levene – Tomes of the Dead: Anno Mortis
It’s a while since I reviewed anything from British genre publisher Abaddon Books (see here), and indeed since I read anything from them. I’ve got a certain measure of admiration for what they’re trying to accomplish but the fiction I’d read from them to date had not exactly blown me away. However, I didn’t count [...]
Steven Blush – American Hardcore: A Tribal History
It’s difficult to approach this book, originally released in 2001, without bringing a certain amount of baggage with you. It’s probably among the most well-known collected histories of the early American hardcore punk movement, particularly after it was adapted into the notorious film of the same name. It’s widely regarded as an essential resource in [...]
Joseph Patrick Larkin – The Arcade of Cruelty
I’ve reviewed a fair mix of self-published books in my time. They included a few gems but quite often they were frankly fucking awful genre novels, written by people who evidently didn’t read widely. As such I stopped accepting them for review. For some reason, in 2008, I accepted for review The Arcade of Cruelty, [...]
Eric Grubbs – Post: A Look at the Influences of Post-Hardcore 1985-2007
Books on music can be a funny thing. The old saying that writing about music is like dancing about architecture holds as true with the long form as it ever does (by which I mean, shut up, I will write about music as much as I like). This leaves authors a few options: to focus [...]
Ray Bradbury – Something Wicked This Way Comes
Originally published in Vector at the beginning of the year. October, and a storm is coming. A travelling lightning rod salesman arrives and alerts two young friends to what he senses on the horizon. Throughout the town, others feel the tension in the air. Something is coming. And that night, 3 am, that something is [...]
Stephen Grant & Scott Bieser – Odysseus the Rebel
I’ve written about the independent comics publisher Big Head Press once before, indirectly, when I wrote about their excellent story La Muse. Their tagline is “thoughtful stories” and this was certainly true of La Muse, a comic in which a young woman with superpowers set about to change the world to something better. They have [...]
Book Review: The Quiet War (Paul McAuley)
My review of Paul McAuley’s space opera The Quiet War is in the latest issue of Vector to hit doormats around the world (but mostly the UK). Vector is the critical journal of the BSFA and this is my second review to be published. I continue to be stoked about writing for Vector. The journal’s [...]
The Chattering Masses