Gigi Ganguly’s One Arm Shorter Than The Other begins quietly enough in 1986 as a grandfather, Maurice, a resident of Delhi, like all the characters of this beautiful debut novella, wanders in the past of his memory. That habit worries his son James, who thinks dwelling in memories is unhealthy. James feels that his father […]
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds is a masterful surprise in this author’s work, and I found myself reading it straight through. Instead of opening in one of Reynolds’ future worlds, the action starts on a sailing vessel, the Demeter, in a stormy sea off the coast of Norway in either the late 18th or early 19th […]
Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett – A Review
Jennifer Marie Brissett has written a beautifully crafted time puzzle mystery wrapped in a new version of the Greek myth of Demeter’s search for her daughter Persephone (or Koré) in the underworld. Destroyer of Light gradually builds its world as told from multiple points of view at different times. The pieces of this puzzle deftly […]
The Pastel City, a Novel of Viriconium by M. John Harrison – A Review
The Pastel City (1971) is the first story by M. John Harrison in his Viriconium fantasy sequence. This short novel drew me in immediately with its luminous prose and its ability to depict a world in ruins and a world of hope with just a few brilliant visual strokes. Though it begins with a prologue […]
The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar – A Review
Lavie Tidhar’s The Escapement starts quietly enough: A man who has been sitting with his very ill son in a hospital room steps out for some fresh air and notices a small red flower by the sidewalk. Then we see that flower through the eyes of the Stranger in a surreal, barren landscape. We are […]
Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
Olga Tokarczuk’s Primeval and Other Times, finely translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, is a uniquely fantastical search through the multiple worlds and forms of time found in the life of a fictional village in Poland during the 20th century. I’ve never read anything like it. On one level, it depicts the lives of a group of […]
