news, views & reviews
Posted in Action/Adventure, Fantasy on Apr 2nd, 2008
by Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere is an entertaining dark fantasy from celebrated writer, Neil Gaiman. The wild and whirling world he creates from the material of urban London — where unsuspecting folks can fall “between the cracks” and end up in the surreal London Below — owes a debt to GK Chesterton’s delightful and outlandish The Man […]
Posted in Action/Adventure, Classics on Mar 5th, 2008
by Anthony Hope
Anthony Hope’s Prisoner of Zenda is a classic swashbuckler in the fun-loving tradition of Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood, Scaramouche). The book’s enduring success has led to several stage and screen adaptations, including a popular version from 1937 starring Ronald Colman.
It’s easy to see why Prisoner has captured so many imaginations. Hope, in highly […]
Posted in Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller on Jan 29th, 2008
By Brian Moore
reviewed by John Murphy
The Colour of Blood is a tight, page-turning Catholic thriller in the Graham Greene tradition. The opening sequence hits the ground running: Cardinal Bem, head of the Church in an unnamed Soviet bloc country, is being chauffered back to his residence when
“He saw, peripherally, a black car racing very close […]
Posted in Action/Adventure, Children, Fantasy, Young Adult on Dec 7th, 2007
By J.K. Rowling
reviewed by John Murphy
I was a pimply teenager when Star Wars: the Phantom Menace came out in the summer of 1999. Two of my siblings and I skipped class on a Monday morning to attend the first showing. After the movie was over, as we walked out of the theater into the mid-afternoon […]