Rating: 4/5 Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect (Gollancz, 2008). Well I’m on a bit of an Alastair Reynolds kick at the moment. Like music, when I find something I like, I tend to try to listen to/read everything that person did to get the whole picture. Sometimes I am disappointed and stay focused on a few specific works,...

Rating: 4/5 Alastair Reynolds, The Six Directions of Space (Subterranean Press, 2008). There is a special art to writing a short story, a particular balance you have to maintain between giving the reader too much information about topics you’ll never have room to fully explore, and making sure they have enough to get...

Rating: 4/5 Alastair Reynolds, House of Suns (Gollancz, 2009). I just finished the book House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds over the weekend. If you enjoy sci-fi, then I heartily recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found I just could not put it down. It’s a mildly dense read (I dunno, 12 hours if you went...

Rating: 1/5 Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol (Random House, 2009). After reading Digital Fortress (which I thought was an awful book) I swore I’d never read any more Dan Brown. That said, his latest book, The Lost Symbol, ended up on my desk, and I was more than a little tired of looking at my thesis. Since it didn’t cost me...

Rating: 3/5 Max Barry, Jennifer Government (Vintage, 2004). This is a futuristic look at a fully capitalistic world where citizens are truly defined by what they do. It’s part political commentary and part crime thriller. It’s well written with well defined characters and some interesting ideas. I will warn you,...

Rating: 5/5 I have just finished 2 courses in Italian literature and theatre and wanted to share my most recent discoveries. Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) was born in Sicily and wrote short stories, novels and plays. His works are very available in translation and I was truly surprised that I had never encountered his...