Without wanting to 'spoil' the surprise, this book is about the ability to inhabit other people's consciousness. This is an exciting prospect, and is one I look forward to every time I pick up a story with a first person narrative. It is, after all, the very essence of what novels are about.
The plot of Mr Y runs a rather convoluted gambit of Alice in Wonderland meets the Matrix in order to get the characters (and us) inside each other's heads. So far, so fine. What was really disappointing for me thereafter was that how little I felt part of any of the inhabitants of this metaphysical merry-go-round. They all seem to think in the same sub-GenX speak, whether they're young, old,… Read more
A big, biblical vison of apocalypse visited on our green and pleasant land, The War of the Worlds aces its latest film adaptation. There's still no match for the alternately eerie and explosive effects unleashed from H.G. Well's inkwell. From the three puffs of 'luminous greenish smoke' rising from the landing crater to the hundred-foot high 'boilers on stilts' floating in distant mist, the author has an uncanny sense of just how much to withhold to let our imaginations loose. And there's much pleasure to be had in imagining it all in its original Victorian dress, as Wells cleverly splices together the real (newspapers such as The Times, contemporary discoveries) with the invented (a… Read more
Evolution is all very well, but it can't account for something as mind-boggingly useful and complex as the human eye, can it? In answer, Richard Dawkins takes us through the various eyes in Nature from the molluscs upward, showing just how the metaphorical Mount Improbable was scaled. You can forgive Dawkins his occasional bouts of smugness for the wonderful insights he provides. For instance, I never knew why dogs' and cats' eyes shine in the dark - and the simple answer is very well explained here. On the strength of this, I've already ordered Dawkin's latest 'The Ancestor's Tale' so look out for a review soon. Meanwhile, if you like fiction, pick up H.G. Well's Country of the Blind… Read more
