Author Archive: NealeMonks
Brave New World: A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation by Aldous Huxley (audio book review).
If there’s one thing the BBC does well, it’s radio drama. ‘Brave New World’ is no exception, carefully adapted to bring the themes up-to-date without detracting from the original qualities of the book that have ensured its consistent popularity over the last 90 odd years. The basic premise is a dystopian future world that divides […]
The Magic Of Terry Pratchett by Marc Burrows (book review).
Few authors are held in such affection as Terry Pratchett, but in some ways his image of trimmed beard, black hat and almost hippy-like dress sense is rather better known than the man himself. ‘The Magic Of Terry Pratchett’ aims to put that right, but in an appropriately affectionate sort of way. After all, while […]
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (book review).
While the idea of likeable personifications of death aren’t new, American author Christopher Moore has a knack of turning simple ideas into witting and sophisticated novels. ‘A Dirty Job’ takes place in the shared universe Moore has created in such comic novels as ‘Bloodsucking Fiends’ and ‘Bite Me’. As such, it’s our world, but with […]
Little Victories: Autism Through A Father’s Eyes by Yvon Roy (graphic novel review).
‘Little Victories: Autism Through A Father’s Eyes’ is a didactic graphic novel of sorts, intended to explain the affect an autistic child has on their parents. perhaps, put more positively, how parenting an autistic child can be challenging, but still rewarding and loving. It is heavy-going, though, and not something played for laughs, despite the […]
The Mystic Lamb: Admired And Stolen by Harry De Paepe and Jan Van Der Veken (graphic novel).
The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is a large, multi-panel altar display measuring well over 3 metres in height and 4 metres in width. Over the centuries it has been stolen, taken apart, even sold in pieces to different collectors. It was confiscated by Nazis and only narrowly escaped […]
Birding Without Borders by Noah Strycker (book review).
Here’s a book about a hobby taken to an extreme. Casual birdwatching is common enough, and some people take it a bit seriously, planning daytrips or summer holidays to places with particularly interesting variety of birdlife. But Noah Strycker aimed even higher, taking himself around the world with the aim to ‘spot’ at least half […]
Star Wars: Dawn Of The Jedi: Into The Void by Tim Lebbon (book review).
Set thousands of years before the ‘Star Wars’ films, the ‘Dawn Of The Jedi’ series of novels focuses on the Je’daii order, a group of Force-sensitive individuals dedicated to keeping the balance within the Force. So, while somewhat analogous to the Jedi Knights of the ‘Star Wars’ universe featured in the films, they rejected the […]
FBP: Federal Bureau Of Physics #3 by Simon Oliver and Robbi Rodriguez (comic review).
Trying to assess the merits of a comic book series from a single issue part-way through the storyline isn’t easy at the best of times and the complex world of ‘FBP’ doesn’t help. But the overall gist is this: randomly occurring ‘bubbleverses’ pop up in our world and, within these, the normal rules of physics […]
Alien Bones by Chris Wyatt and Chris Green (graphic novel review).
Spaceships! Aliens! Dinosaurs! Pirates! Mix ’em together and what do you get? Well, in the hands of writer Chris Wyatt and artist Chris Green, a competently presented thriller aimed at young adults but with enough pizzazz to engage older readers as well. When schoolboy Liam loses his palaeontologist father in what appears to be an […]
Inferno Revealed: From Dante To Dan Brown by Deborah Parker and Mark Parker (book review).
Bridging the gap between literary criticism aimed at scholars and the readers of mass market fiction of the sort Dan Brown produces isn’t easy. Virtually nothing about Danté’s ‘Inferno’ is accessible by modern standards, not least of all because very few people read epic poetry of any sort, much less those written in medieval Italian. […]
