Where to begin with Kraken, in just 100 words? This is a book about religion, about getting it right instead of getting it wrong. A police procedural that’s been turned inside out about the world just ’round the corner that you know is there but pass by. A book about London, gods, trade unions, ghosts […]
The second in Ian Sales’ Apollo Quartet, four novellas set in a shared universe. The second, like the first, shows meticulous research into Apollo spaceflight, giving us a picture of what might have been had it not died. General Bradley Emerson, the only man to have ever gone to Mars, is now being pulled out […]
Department 19 is the code-name for the UK government’s secret vampire, werewolf, and other monster squad. Mostly focusing on vampires, but these are vampires as you’ve never seen them. This YA book delivers action and blood rather than a love story, and certainly no sparkles. Will Hill rides somewhere between the A-Team, the Bourne Whatever-ity, […]
Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg return to Downside, this time exploring the more medical aspects of weird. Farrell, a wealthy, successful designer, wakes up in – horror of horrors – a public hospital, blind, with a gap in his memory. Less stable Lisa is in the same hospital to provide an infusion of much-needed cash […]
A shopping mall is terrifying enough without the dark imaginations of Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg. It only gets worse when you go through the wrong door and end up Downside, a place which plays by different rules. It’s difficult to speak too much about these books without giving much away, but The Mall brings […]
Among Others is an homage to growing up believing in magic, faeries, and the power of books to change your life, no matter how bad your circumstances are. The story is presented in lush prose as a coming-of-age in the form of a diary of a young girl discovering life, sex, and independence, Among Others […]
As a part of my job running the Social Innovation Camp, I’ve been going up and back to Scotland, meeting people, drinking approximately 600 cups of coffee a day (it seems, at times), and getting people to submit ideas for our upcoming Camp in Edinburgh. I made it to Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Edinburgh. […]
Social Capital Markets 2009 The SoCap conference is on, on my final few days in San Francisco. I’m here with an as-usual probably unusual perspective, as a for-profit worker in innovation but with a passion for development and social media. There’s been, so far, a few interesting themes coming out, the first of which is […]
GhanziAfter crossing into Botswana, we made our way to Ghanzi, where we camped in a gorgeous dustbowl. This place seriously looked like a luxury resort, except that only us and a group of Afrikaaner tourists were there, and we were all camping. We did get in a good swim. San/Bushmen dance & walkThat night, we […]
Exams start tomorrow. I’m feeling… I don’t know if I’m really ready or not for them as the scoring system here is… odd, to say the least. And on my first exam we don’t get the results of our work back until February, but one way or another it’s all (well, the first quarter) going […]