“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is a story that asks: what would your life be like if you kept on travelling in time, not with a machine, not with intent, but accidentally and randomly. Henry experiences random journeys into his past and future since his childhood, and as part of this process, meets his (eventual wife)…
“The Word for World is Forest” is a science-fiction novella by Ursula Le Guin. It was written during the Vietnam War, and clearly shows the author’s views of that situation, and the harm it was doing, to the natives and the invaders alike. This story discussed colonialism, the environment, imperialism, racism. It holds up a…
“Galapagos” tells the story of the end of civilization and the evolution (or devolution) of humanity into a form more in keeping with the environment. The general premise is that it is humans and their big brains that are the root cause of what’s wrong with the world. The plot of this novel is fairly…
“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is a fantasy novel dealing with a strange adventure of a young boy meeting a slightly older girl, her mother and grandmother, who live in a farm just down the road from him. The farm contains a pond which the girl, Lettie Hempstock, insists is an ocean.…
“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” cannot be said to be a murder mystery, as its title tells us what it is about, and the murderer is the protagonist. It has a unique hook, as in the motive of the murderer, a man with a hyperacute sent of smell, being to find and harness the…
Most people know “Frankenstein” through its basic premise and its many adaptations. Man creates human creature from parts of dead bodies, and, in true horror fashion, everything goes wrong. But not so many people are familiar with the actual original story. In a format that was not unusual for the nineteenth century, this story is…
“The Martian Chronicles” is what is known as a ‘fixup’ novel ie a novel comprised of a series of short stories that were originally written and published separately. (Apparently Bradbury was surprised when it was suggested to him that he had, in fact, already written a novel, he just had to put it together.) The…
“Smoke and Mirrors” is a collection of short stories by the author of “American Gods” (and other great novels) Neil Gaiman. Some of these short works are poems, others the more regular prose, some are creepy, some are quirky, all of them make great reading. I am going to review four of the stories that…
“Death Masks” is the fifth in the Dresden Files, a series of books written by Jim Butcher that follow the character Harry Dresden, a wizard living in modern-day Chicago. The books follow a fantastical world that exists alongside the normal world, with magic, a wizard council, vampires, werewolves, demons and all the usual magical creatures.…
“Come Along with me” includes Shirley Jackson’s final story as well as sixteen other short stories and three lectures. The stories range from humour to the gothic horror for which Jackson is best known. I will touch on a selection of stories. “Come Along with Me” was Shirley Jackson’s last story, and unfinished. This is…
Eclectic Assemblage 