What you’d expect, really. A fiendishly difficult puzzle which has a deceptively simple reveal at the end, leaving one to think, “Ah, of course, well it was obvious really.” I formulated several hypotheses as to what had happened on Soldier Island, and all were spectacularly wrong. It’s easy to deride Christie for her characters beingContinue reading “Book Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie”
Author Archives: Dan Jones
Book Review: The Magician’s Nephew
As with my review of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (LWW), I’ll be reviewing this tale with the feedback of my five year-old daughter in mind, to whom I read the story over several bedtimes during the past few weeks, as well as my own. The first thing to mind is that thereContinue reading “Book Review: The Magician’s Nephew”
Book Review: The Empyreus Proof by Bryan Wigmore
It’s pretty well known that middle books in series are tricky customers, providing neither a beginning nor an end to a story in which one is already invested. It’s admirable indeed, then, that The Empyreus Proof is a remarkable book. It’s a book that adds not only depth and profundity to its characters but also its world.Continue reading “Book Review: The Empyreus Proof by Bryan Wigmore”
The Warm September of This Year
After a glorious summer, things have been returning to normality; there’s a rather wistful irony in that I usually find that I experience a spike in writing activity at the moment that my professional, day-job work becomes extremely busy. It always seems thus: at this time of year everyone gets back into the groove after the long andContinue reading “The Warm September of This Year”
Book Review: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
Over the last few weeks I’ve read LWW to my five-year-old daughter at bedtime, so I’ll be reviewing the book not only through my eyes and understanding of it, but also her reaction to it, seeing as she’s more the book’s target audience than I. And it is, thoroughly predictably, fabulous. Much has been writtenContinue reading “Book Review: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis”
Bullshit to Bullseye – Being The Writing Bull
One of the occupational hazards of writing is occasionally submitting / subjecting your work to a public critique during the drafting process. And even though this is usually done in a trustworthy space (I hesitate to use the term “safe space” with all its loaded connotations), it still can be a trial by fire. IContinue reading “Bullshit to Bullseye – Being The Writing Bull”
Book Review: Seoul Survivors by Naomi Foyle
In a sea of dystopian, post-apocalyptic SF and speculative fiction, Seoul Survivors bucks the trend by being a pre-apocalyptic novel. SS focuses on the different reactions people have to the news that a massive meteor, dubbed Lucifer’s Hammer, is going to hit Earth imminently. We follow a gaggle of morally ambiguous characters, primarily based inContinue reading “Book Review: Seoul Survivors by Naomi Foyle”
I’m A Seoul Man
With the World Cup only a couple of days away I’ll be clearing my schedule for, ooh, six days while I follow England’s, er, progress through the tournament. The advantage of supporting a country whose international footballing prowess lies somewhere between that of South Ossetia and the Larsen Ice Shelf is that I won’t be distracted from my writing scheduleContinue reading “I’m A Seoul Man”
Book Review: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
It’s no exaggeration to say that Crime and Punishment is one of the most staggering achievements in all of literature. I don’t think I can possibly say anything new about C&P which hasn’t been said before, but I will try and express my own thoughts about the book. What I found particularly fascinating was theContinue reading “Book Review: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky”
Building Empires In The Sky
March 28, 2018 And like that – [clicks fingers] – March was gone. Time flies when you’re busy, regardless of whether you’re having fun. But busy can be fun, too. It makes you feel like you’re heading in the right direction. Since I last updated these pages a few things have been going on. Man O’War has smashed through,Continue reading “Building Empires In The Sky”
This Literature Life 