Archive for 'Book Review' Category
Review: ‘The Dark Portal’ by Robin Jarvis
In the sewers of Deptford there lurks a dark presence which fills the tunnels with fear. The rats worship it in the blackness and name it jupiter, lord of All. Into this twilight realm wanders a small and frightened mouse. Far from family and friends he perishes, and is the unwitting trigger of a chain [...]
Review: ‘The Swan Thieves’ by Elizabeth Kostova
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life–solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and [...]
Review: ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Millennium publisher Mikael Blomkvist has made his reputation exposing corrupt establishment figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with an investigation into sex trafficking, Blomkvist cannot resist waging war on the powerful figures who control this lucrative industry. When a young couple are found dead in their Stockholm apartment, it’s a straightforward job for [...]
Review: ‘Prince Caspian’ by C. S. Lewis
Troubled times have come to the magical land of Narnia. Gone are the days of peace and freedom when the animals, dwarfs, trees and flowers could live in absolute peace and harmony. Civil war is dividing the kingdom and final destruction is close at hand. Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne, resolves to [...]
Review: ‘The Horse and His Boy’ by C. S. Lewis
After Shasta learnt from the mysterious stranger that he was not Arsheesh’s son, he decides to escape from the cruel land of Calormen, and with the help and persuasion of the talking horse Bree, he goes north towards Narnia where the air is sweet and freedon reigns. As they set out on their journey across [...]
Review: ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C. S. Lewis
What begins as a simple game if hide-and-seek quickly turns into the adventure of a lifetime when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy walk through the wardrobe and into the land of Narnia. There they find a cold, snow-covered land frozen into eternal winter by the evil White Witch. All who challenge her rule are turned [...]
Review: ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ by C. S. Lewis
When Digory and Polly are tricked by Digory’s peculiar Uncle Andrew into becoming part of an experiment, they set off on the adventure of a lifetime. What happens to the children when they touch Uncle Andrew’s magic rings is far beyond anything even the old magician could have imagined. Hurtled into the Wood between the [...]
Review: ‘The Trespass’ by Barbara Ewing
London 1849. The capital city is living in fear. Cholera is everywhere. Eminent MP Sir Charles Cooper decides it is too risky for his younger daughter, the strangely beautiful and troubled Harriet, and sends her-but not her beloved sister Mary-to the countryside. Rusholme is a world away from London, full of extraordinary relations: Harriet’s cousin [...]
Review: ‘Wayward Girls and Wicked Women’ ed. Angela Carter
This collection of stories, about bad girls and wicked women, extols the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners. The authors featured include Ama Ata Aidoo, Djuna Barnes, Jane Bowles, Colette, Bessie Head, Katherine Mansfield and Jamaica Kincaid. (Goodreads Summary) Although I really enjoy Angela Carter’s own short stories, evidently I’m not as [...]
Review: ‘The Forge in the Forest’ by Michael Scott Rohan
The siege of Kerbryhaine had been raised, the Ekwesh hordes vanquished, the Mastersmith slain. But for Alv — now Elof the Smith — the war was not yet won: Kerbryhaine was still a divided city; the Ekwesh, bloodily defeated, would look for revenge; and the Ice, implacably malevolent, continued its inexorable march southward. So from [...]