needs more demons?

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Entries Tagged as 'm-title'

Jedediah Berry, The Manual of Detection

13 Oct 2009 · No Comments

I loved this book despite a few quibbles. It relates what happens to Charles Unwin when he is unexpectedly promoted from clerk to detective of a mysterious agency, and finds himself rather unwillingly investigating the disappearance of Travis T. Sivart, the operative for whom he served as the clerk. In typical noir fashion, it’s [...]

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Tags: b-author · fantasy · m-title · mystery

Charlie Huston: The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

05 Jul 2009 · No Comments

I didn’t read any of the jacket copy before starting The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, so all I knew about it to start was second-hand information that it had received a lukewarm response from Huston’s fans. And admittedly it was the first of the Huston novels I’ve read that didn’t snag [...]

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Tags: h-author · m-title · suspense

Steven Johnson: Mind Wide Open

29 Jun 2009 · No Comments

Steven Johnson opens his whirlwind tour of modern brain science asserting his intent to deliver a “long-decay” idea in each chapter: the sort of thought that will resonate with you after you finish the book, even possibly altering your behavior.
And he delivers at least a few that stick for me. I learned things about the [...]

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Tags: autobiography · j-author · m-title · science

Linda Berdoll: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife

27 Jan 2009 · No Comments

In case anyone wonders, here are the limits of my obsession with Jane Austen’s fiction, and my morbid curiosity about the recent swell of Austen-related publishing. Even though I know Austen herself would disapprove, I’m not intrinsically opposed to a novel depicting Austen’s characters in physical intimacies which her social mores, upbringing, and (most [...]

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Tags: b-author · historical · m-title

Charles Stross: Missile Gap

04 Aug 2008 · No Comments

Good golly, I love libraries. I was delighted to have a chance to read Stross’s Missile Gap, a novella published in a small print run without coughing up its hefty price tag. I enjoyed Missle Gap, but truth to tell, if I’d paid the asking price, I would have been kinda bummed.
Missile Gap shares [...]

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Tags: fantasy · historical · horror · m-title · s-author · science fiction

Justine Larbalestier: Magic’s Child

05 Jul 2008 · No Comments

My expectations for Magic’s Child were very high, and they weren’t quite met. The first novel in the series, Magic or Madness, introduced a remarkably fresh conception of magic in the modern-day world, (as well as exploring the author’s own experiences with transcontinental transitions in a fantastic context). The sequel Magic Lessons deepened and extended [...]

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Tags: fantasy · l-author · m-title · young adult

Justine Larbalestier: Magic Lessons

16 Oct 2006 · 1 Comment

I think it would probably occur to me to compare and contrast the first two volumes of Larbalestier’s “Magic or Madness” trilogy with the first two books of Scott Westerfeld’s “Midnighters” trilogy even if I didn’t know the two authors were partners. Many novels feature teenage protagonists simultaneously blessed and cursed with special powers, but [...]

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Tags: fantasy · l-author · m-title · young adult

Stanislaw Lem: Mortal Engines

30 Sep 2006 · No Comments

Stanislaw Lem is one of the many authors I’ve always meant to read something by. I’ve even picked up a handful of his books over the years with noble intentions of follow-through which have, to-date, gone unfufilled. So picking Lem’s Mortal Engine from the freebie box I’d commited to availing myself of only if I [...]

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Tags: l-author · m-title · satire · science fiction