A series of bright flashes on the planet Mars catch the attention of Sherlock Holmes, the world’s great consulting detective, and with Dr. Watson at his side, Holmes attempts to alert the authorities that an invasion by the Red Planet is imminent. His warnings go unheeded, and when cylinders fall on Horsell Common and MartianContinue reading “You Have Been on Mars, I Perceive”
Category Archives: Reading
Leadoff Hit
A review of Jason Zemcik’s Leadoff Hit, a book about the 2015 season of the Holly Springs Salamanders of the Coastal Plain League, a wooden bat summer collegiate baseball league.
Holy Father
The trouble with being a writer is that sometimes I can see exactly where a story is going. Listening to a radio drama, and ten minutes in I've already figured out the third act twist :-/ — Allyn Gibson (@allyngibson) April 22, 2016 The story in question is “Holy Father,” a drama broadcast on BBCContinue reading “Holy Father”
Sherlock Holmes Vs. Frankenstein: The Novelization
Autumn, 1898. Sherlock Holmes receives a letter from the Burgomeister of Darmstadt, Germany. The town’s gravedigger was brutally murdered and one of his legs was surgically amputated. A little girl was the only witness, and she reported seeing a giant, hulking monster carry away the gravedigger. The Burgomeister’s concern is as much for the reputationContinue reading “Sherlock Holmes Vs. Frankenstein: The Novelization”
The World of The Man in the High Castle
The first time I read The Man in the High Castle, I was disappointed in it. It was only the second Philip K. Dick novel I had read (the first was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), and I closed the book thinking, “Is that all there is? It just ends there? Really?” I hadContinue reading “The World of The Man in the High Castle”
The Peanuts Movie Novelization
Yesterday evening I went to the BAM! (formerly Books a Million) near York Galleria, not for any particular reason, just to get away from the gloom and the muck that had been all day Saturday thanks to the rain brought by Hurricane Joaquin. There I found a most unexpected book — The Peanuts Movie MovieContinue reading “The Peanuts Movie Novelization”
Francis Scott Key and the War of 1812: Diane Carey’s novel Banners
Over the past few days, I read Diane Carey’s Banners, a novel about the War of 1812, published last year by Koehlerbooks, presumably to commemorate the 200th-anniversary of the attack on Fort McHenry and the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Last night I finished the book. Carey was a prolific Star Trek novelist, publishing twoContinue reading “Francis Scott Key and the War of 1812: Diane Carey’s novel Banners”
Meet the Peanuts Gang
This October marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, and the following month we’ve see the release of the first Peanuts movie in thirty years. I’ve noticed this year that there’s a concerted effort at releasing Peanuts books and collections, probably to both tie in with the anniversary and the upcoming film. One suchContinue reading “Meet the Peanuts Gang”
The History of Titus Groan
In recent weeks I’ve been listening to audio dramas on BBC Radio 4. Besides The Once and Future King (which I blogged about at length), there was also Good Omens, based on the Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel about the childhood of the Antichrist, and War and Peace, based on the Tolstoy novel. (MyContinue reading “The History of Titus Groan”
War and Peace
I have finished War and Peace. The BBC audio drama, that is, not the novel. Which I have read; I read it in high school a long time ago. It was a bit flat. No, more than a bit. It was a lot flat. A decade after Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, the Rostov family andContinue reading “War and Peace”