Archive for August, 2007

Friday Random Ten CXXVI

The “hell broken loose” edition

Estradasphere • A Very Intense Battle
Calexico • Yours and Mine
Pain of Salvation • Inside
Fiona Apple • Sleep to Dream
These Arms Are Snakes • Lady North
Van der Graaf Generator • Pilgrims
Ben Folds Five • Smoke
Jethro Tull • Cross-Eyed Mary
Wilco • What Light
Venetian Snares • Szerencsétlen

My land is my home:

The Smedley Log (Are [...]

Read the article

The High-Tech Knight

See the rest of this year’s listings • What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№38
Title: The High-Tech Knight [$]
Author: Leo Frankowski
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 1989
Pages: 247

It may be of interest to you to read my review of the first book, The Cross-Time Engineer

The High-Tech Knight picks up seamlessly where its predecessor left off. One new [...]

Read the article

The Cross-Time Engineer

See the rest of this year’s listings • What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№37
Title: The Cross-Time Engineer [$]
Author: Leo Frankowski
Publisher: Del Ray
Year: 1986
Pages: 272
Although I’ve reviewed various (newer) books by Frankowski since I began this meme in 2004, I don’t believe I’ve ever re-read the entire Adventures of Conrad Stargard series. I needed [...]

Read the article

The God Delusion

See the rest of this year’s listings • What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№36
Title: The God Delusion [$]
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Year: 2006
Pages: 406
Few people, with the notable exception of perhaps Christopher Hitchens (who is perhaps better known as a warhawk than an atheist), are as outspokenly critical of religion as Oxford biologist Richard [...]

Read the article

Platypodes

depending on the state of reference,
the duck-billed platypus is either—
the last evidence of God’s great sense of humour
- or -
an ikon of general Antipodal alienness
- or -
an egg-laying emblem of Wonder
- but -
regardless of opinion,
the duck-billed platypus is neither
concerned
- nor -
remote.

Read the article

The Raw Shark Texts

See the rest of this year’s listings • What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№35
Title: The Raw Shark Texts [$]
Author: Steven Hall
Publisher: Canongate U.S.
Year: 2007
Pages: 448
The Raw Shark Texts, when you think about it, seems right up my alley: full of word games, puns, a plot based to great degree on the mechanics of [...]

Read the article

Friday Random Ten CXXV

The “New Computer” edition

Anathema • Violence
A Hawk and a Hacksaw • Romceasca
Contemporary Noise Quintet • Invisible Train
Paolo Fedreghini and Marco Bianchi • Circus in C Minor
Nine Inch Nails • Something I Can Never Have
Darkest Hour • Cold Kiss
Borknagar • Cynosure
Devin Townsend • Material
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer • Blues Variations
Boy Hits Car • Lovecore

Echoing your voice [...]

Read the article

The Beautiful Miscellaneous

See the rest of this year’s listings • What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
№34
Title: The Beautiful Miscellaneous [$]
Author: Dominic Smith
Publisher: Atria
Year: 2007
Pages: 336
Initially, I thought The Beautiful Miscellaneous would actually be about some sort of savant: a Rain Man for our times, perhaps. I like such books: I thought Mark Haddon’s [...]

Read the article