Earth Abides - George R Stewart

Why I had not heard of this author prior to reading this novel amazes me.  When I googled it and checked out the forums it seems a lot of people did it at school in their English Literature Classes.  Why could I have not gone to one of those schools!  I had to do Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare!!

The godfather of the modern disaster movie, George R Stewart is famous for his novels such as Fire and Flood where the disaster is the central character.  However with Earth Abides, written in 1949, he has written an enduring post apocolyptic tale of survival and hope for mankind.

The inspiration for Stephen King’s The Stand I could see many parallels but rather than a supernatural tale what we have here is a matter of fact chronicle of what will happen when man loses his footprint on the Earth. The central character Isherwood Williams is a post graduate Geography student, recovering from a snake bite he obtained whilst taking a break in the mountains, when a plague decimates most of the world’s population. 

The novel spans through Ish’s lifetime as he comes to terms with the loss of his family, civilization and learning.  As nature recovers from Man’s dominance, those that are left find that rather than trying to reclaim civilization they slip back to a simple laid back existence, scavenging from the supermarkets and clothes stores. Relationships are formed and children are born and Ish becomes more of a tribal leader, much revered due to his learning but also a figure of awe who is rarely seen without the hammer that he had found in the mountains (and which becomes a symbol of superstition for the younger members of the tribe).

The University Library is taboo, and Ish’s last link to his life as a student, but as he grows older he realises that studious learning is no longer important. Practical knowledge of  how to hunt without bullets and how to make fire without matches are the only way to survival as the last links of civilization rust away or are burned to the ground.  Ish was lucky in a way that he still had his books, as you have to wonder with the advent of electronic resources and with book stores now closing their doors what would there be left if such a plague took place is our distant future?

Jake: Thank you so much for recommending this novel to me, I enjoyed every word.

The End of Mr Y ~ Scarlett Thomas

The End of Mr Y is a Victorian novel written by Thomas Lumas.  It contains a recipe for an elixir which transports the drinker to the “Troposphere” (or ‘mindspace’ as termed by the mysterious Project Starlight).  In the Troposhere you can jump into other people’s minds and delve into their memories and secrets.  There are, however, dangers and these come in the form of two blonde American agents from the defunct Project Starlight who want the recipe.

Ariel is a fan of Lumas’  work and finds a copy of this rare book in a second hand book store.  The page containing the recipe to the elixir has been torn out but when packing up her mentor’s office (he has disappeared) the page floats from a book that he had said to forget about when doing her thesis.  Ariel takes this as being a sign.  She makes up the elixir and travels to the Troposphere, but over time she is pursued by the two agents who will stop at nothing to obtain what they want.

I found the first half interesting and exciting but then it just started to ‘blither’ on and I began to lose interest.  Ariel’s narrative voice is that of a whinger and she swears way too  much.  I don’t like her!

The ideas throughout the novel are not all original.  ‘Mindspace’ is like ‘Cyberspace’ and the two agents are reminiscent of Mr Smith and his cronies from The Matrix.

The End of Mr Y had the potential to be a pretty good read, but it became a fizzer. 

Solaris ~ Stanilaw Lem

Although Solaris is science fiction, and mainly psychological, it is a beautifully written love story.


Kris Kelvin has gone to station Solaris to find out why there has been no communication from the three scientists working there. When he arrives, one scientist is dead, one won’t leave his room and the other is a paranoid mess.

The ocean of Solaris has created near perfected images from the subconscious of the sleeping scientists and these ‘visitors’ won’t leave them alone.

Kelvin’s visitor is his dead wife Rheya, who had committed suicide a few years before, but as Rheya begins to question her own existence, Kelvin finds himself falling in love with her.

The landscape of Solaris which Lem has created is fascinating, with Symmetriods and Assymetriods, Mimoids etc it’s all very believable and you almost wish it all really did exist.

Translated from the original Polish, I really enjoyed it. I just wish there could be a faithful translation to the screen. One that would focus on the science fiction as well as the love story.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

A dark story about a Father and Son’s fight for survival in a post apocalyptic America. Sparse dialogue, deeply moving in places, will haunt you long after reading it.

The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury

Each illustration on a wandering man comes to life to bring you a story of the future, which ultimately bring fear and despair. It seems that mankind really hasn’t learned a thing. Destruction, greed, discrimination… some things never change.

There is one patch of clear skin on the man that will tell you your own future if you care to stare at it long enough……

A wonderful collection of bizarre futuristic stories set on Mars and Earth

Dr Bloodmoney - Phillip K Dick

I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms from lack of reading Science Fiction, and this was definitely a good hit to sustain me.


Survivors of a nuclear event are trying to rebuild their lives and their society, with some measure of success. There is no longer radio or television but the residents of West Marin are able to pick up a transmission from a lonely satellite orbiting in space after it’s failed attempt to reach Mars. Dangerfield, the sole occupant, is spending his time reading the classics to his earthbound audience whilst hoping for a rescue. The classic that he reads throughout this novel is (believe it or not) Of Human Bondage. As I was reading Of Human Bondage at the same time, there were a few plot spoilers in there for me!

The residents of West Marin are unknowingly harbouring Dr. Bloodmoney the main instigator of ‘the event’ that they have just survived and who seems to have attained higher magical powers. However, a phocomelus and a young girl’s twin brother Bill (who is a sentient fetus living inside his sister) must battle the Dr and each other for supremacy.

Not for everyone, but I really enjoyed this.

The First Men on the Moon - H G Wells

A fanciful tale about a bankrupt playwright and his adventures with Cavor an obscure scientist.


Flying to the moon in a sphere, they encounter ‘moon calves’, and strange humanoid ant like beings who live and work underground with their great machines.

Extremely dated, but well written and fun.  (I don’t think I’ll look at the moon the same way again.)

Blasphemy ~ Douglas Preston

Below ‘Red Mesa’ on a Navaho Indian Reservation, a particle accelerator named ’Isabella’ is brought on line. However, the test run takes a turn when a “greetings” message is received from the centre of co-ordinate zero. The stunned scientists power the machine down to trace a possible hacker, but have the scientists, headed by the brilliant and disarmingly charming Gregory North Hazelius, actually been contacted by God?


Preston introduces a mix of interesting characters from the disgruntled Navaho Indians who feel the scientists are not giving back to their community in exchange for the use of their land, a TV evangelist lobbying against the justification of spending $40 billion on a machine that may disprove God as the creator, to a wild card hick minister convinced that the countdown to Armageddon has begun.

Wyman Ford, an undercover operative, is sent in to infiltrate the team and get some answers as to why the scientists have cut themselves off from the rest of the world and won’t release the results of their test run. Ford soon learns that God moves in mysterious ways.

This was an exciting novel that asked plenty of questions with an ending that was very satisfactory. I really enjoyed it.

Crime & Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

A Russian novel written in 1866, Crime & Punishmentt tells the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished arrogant Russian student, who plans and executes a murder.


Confessing his despicable act to a prostitute, Raskolnikov rationalises his crime by calling his victim a ‘louse’ because she was a pawnbroker, believing he has rid the world of a parasite.

Raskolnikov spends the first half of the book in a delirium, absolutely terrified that he will be found out. He begins to act irrationally going to the police and telling them that he knows that they know he is guilty of the murder. The police laugh at him, blaming his behaviour on his recent delirium. Believing this to be a trap, Raskolnikov waits for them to tighten the net…...

Crime & Punishment was originally serialised in 12 monthly instalments, which does make the full novel a little long winded. However, despite struggling with the Russian names, I must admit that I enjoyed reading this much more than I expected.

In a Glass Darkly - J Sheridan Le Fanu

Although the tales in this collection are dated, they do comprise the definitive origins of unsettling fiction.


The stories are listed as case studies of a Dr Hesselsius who was in fact the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing.

My favourite story was the Novella The Room at the Dragon Volant. It isn’t a horror story but it is a suffocating descent into a trap that the protagonist blindly wanders into for the love of a mysterious woman. Probably one of the original ‘con’ stories and quite a clever mystery.

Carmilla, the final story in the collection was a little contrived—the protagonist lives in a castle in the woods, but it is however quite creepy and being one of the earliest Vampire stories, it was an inspiration, again, to Bram Stoker.

If you enjoy the Gothic style of horror then this is definitely worth a read.

Abarat - Clive Barker

A.K.A. Candy’s Adventures in the Abarat, where a dazzling array of the weird and the wonderful is paraded before our eyes.


Candy Quackenbush lives in Chickentown, Minnesota when a chance meeting with John Mischief and the assassin Mendelson Shape send her swimming in the sea of Izabella that comes rolling in across the plains. She arrives at the Abarat Archipelego which is made up of 25 islands, 24 of them represent each hour of the day with the 25th representing the past present and future.

To Candy’s surprise and to those that she meets she is not overwhelmed by what she sees and this leads to the question has she been here before?

The evil Christopher Carrion believes that she has. He lives on the Island of Midnight which is also known as Gorgossium and hires The Criss-Cross Man to find Candy, but she manages to elude him with the help of the creature Malingo.

However, there is war on the horizon, Mater Motley, Christopher Carrion’s grandmother is busily sewing her stitchlings, creating the vast souless army that will march on the islands of daylight.

Where wizards are evil, dragons roam the seas and snakes sing the longest word in the world, this is the first book of what will be an epic series.

A mix of Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter but much darker and far wackier. I read the paper back version but will most certainly be buying the hardback which includes original paintings of the Abaratian Archipelago and it’s characters by Clive Barker.

The second book of the Abarat is ‘Days of Magic, Nights of War’; I can’t wait to read it.

Starship Troopers - Robert A Heinlein

This early and apparently controversial science fiction novel bares little resemblance to the movie of the same name, which for me was very disappointing. The novel concentrate’s on Juan Rico’s journey through a tough boot camp and eventually to Klendathu and the bug wars, but the emphasis is on his training and we are shown very little action until the end.


Some important questions were asked and discussed about the futility of war. But, if you enjoyed the movie then I wouldn’t recommend the book.

Fairyland - Paul J. McAuley

Paul J McAuley puts his scientific background to good use in this disturbing journey across a wasted Europe.


In a futuristic world ‘dolls’ (small soulless lifeforms) are used as workers, servants, pets and even (when genetically modified) for entertainment. In a world where no human now has to work and is entitled to the Universal Unearned Wage there are more demands for retroactive viruses used for recreational drug use which ex con and gene hacker Alex Sharkey is at the forefront of creating and supplying.

Alex is contacted by a mysterious young girl and is unwittingly involved in the kidnap and modification of a doll. When both the doll and Milena disappear, Alex realizes that he has just been a pawn in a much bigger game planned by Milena that will affect the human race.

Jump a few years into the future and Alex has been looking for Milena since her disappearance. Female children are murdered and their ovaries taken, and male children disappear into The Magic Kingdom, a derelict Parisian Theme Park. A psychological plague has infected humans, and ‘fairies’ (modified dolls) are becoming the master race. The result is a psychoactive war and a race against time to save the human species from annihilation.

Written in three parts, this is a truly original and fantastical vision of the future. Part One screamed William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer”, but the introduction of a new characters in Part Two and Three made the story flow disjointed, but apparently this is McAuley’s style.

Born in 1955, a British botanist, McAuley won the Aurthur C. Clarke award for Fairyland.

The Miracle Strain ~ Michael Cordy

What would you do if you came into possession of the DNA of Christ and had the ability to alter your genes so that you could cure all of the world’s sick?


Tom Carter is faced with this dilemma. The nobel prize winning scientist finds himself the target of a religious serial killer Nemesis trained by a secretive religious brotherhood who are cleansing the world of all blasphemers. Researching into DNA and genes makes Tom Carter the worst of them all. The brotherhood are also preparing for the return of the new Messiah as the sacred flame they have guarded for two thousand years is burning white as per the prophesy.

After a failed attempt to assassinate Tom, an uneasy alliance is formed when the brotherhood realise that Tom holds the key to finding the Messiah, and they in turn have the artificacts that Tom needs to extract Christ’s DNA so that he might save the life of his terminally ill daughter.

The directive to kill him is suspended, but Nemesis decides to take matters into her own hands and stop him before he can complete his quest.

Billed as ‘Jurassic Park meets the quest for the Holy Grail meets Raiders of The Lost Ark’ and since re-released under the title of “The Messiah Code” (off the back of The Da Vinci Code??), this book asks plenty of moral and ethical questions.

So, what would you do?

Neuromancer ~ William Gibson

Although written over 20 years ago, this can still be considered a futuristic novel. A tale about cyberspace written before the internet even existed.


Case, a minor criminal who used to be an elite hacker (“Cowboy”), is approached by the mysterious Armitage and employee Molly to steal data from a major corporation. Case’s abilities were destroyed by a virus after betraying a previous employer but Armitage has the means to reverse this damage, if only temporarily. If Case does not complete the job then poison sacs subsequently implanted into his system will take effect.

On Armitage’s instruction they steal the personality datafile of infamous cowboy Dixie Flatline and enlist the help of a mad ‘holo’ projector Peter Riviera, immersing themselves into a job they barely know why they are doing for an employer they know nothing about, while all the time the strings are being pulled in the background by the corporation Tessier-Ashpool’s Artificial Intelligences – Wintermute and Neuromancer.

Told matter of factly with great clarity, it is a most unusual read and surely the major inspiration for the movie The Matrix. I loved every word of it.

Virtual Light ~ William Gibson

One paragraph in and you know you are reading William Gibson.


Berry Rydell an ex cop (who almost starred in the show Cops in Trouble) and now recently ex security patrolman is hired by Mr Warbaby who himself has been hired to retrieve a pair of very expensive ‘sunglasses’ that have been stolen by a young courier and bridge dweller Chevette Washington.

The virtual light of this story are the ‘glasses’ which stimulate the optic nerve directly without the need for natural light to transmit the data and images stored within them, in this case the secret plans to turn San Francisco into a computer-based dictatorship modeled on Tokyo.

To stop the plans from going ahead Rydell who, realising he has been double crossed by his new employer, goes on the run with Chevette who has been framed for the murder of her victim. They enlist the help of the Republic of Desire (computer hackers) and Sublett (a religious, highly allergic movie buff and ex security colleague of Rydell’s) to break into the Death Star - the police departments riot control Big Brother and turn it against Mr Warbaby and his cronies.

They save the day, spill their story to Cops in Trouble and find themselves optioned for a new episode.

I liked the sub story of J. D. Shapely. The history of this AIDS legend slowly unravels through the story line with off the cuff references via comments, graffiti images, parades and a planned Mardi Gras.

At times quite hilarious, but an ending that was a little contrived (it doesn’t have to be a happy ending ~ Sammy Sal), and I think I missed the point of Mr Yamazaki’s character, though I guess he must have been the Tokyo link?

The idea of a whole society living within the construct of the Golden Gate Bridge was fascinating and was apparently adapted from ‘Skinner’s Room’ a story part of a 1990 art exhibit called Visionary San Francisco.

Whilst not as futuristic as Neuromancer, Virtual Light still captivates you with the language of tomorrow, amusing situations and bizarre characters.

Pattern Recognition ~ William Gibson

Cayce Pollard is a young marketing consultant with exceptional talent when it comes to deciding which new trade marks or logos will work in the market place. The downside to this talent is her allergy to excessive branding such as Bibendum (Michelin Man) and Tommy Hilfiger.

In her private life, Cayce is a ‘Footage Head”, posting regularly on the F:F:F site dedicated to discussing the random movie images that have appeared on the net. Mystery surrounds these intriguing images and thanks to Cayce’s latest consulting contract she has the means to fund her quest, which takes her from London to Tokyo to Moscow, to find ‘The Maker’.

Cayce is subject to soul delay (jet lag) throughout this story and is followed by a backstabbing Dorotea who knows the effect the image of Bibendum will have on her, and is also followed by fellow employee Boone Chu as their mutual employer would like to find the Maker too for the marketing possibilities. Cayce finds that she can only really trust Parkaboy a fellow footage head whom she only knows via e-mail and doesn’t even know his real name, and Voytek a young polish man who introduces Cayce to the Curta Calculator.

As with other Gibson novels there is a sub story, this one being that of Win Pollard, Cayce’s father who is so ‘quietly missing that it might be impossible to prove him dead’, which actually puts you on the wrong track.

The Curta Calculator is not, as I have found out, a science fiction creation but a real product. A perfect mechanical calculating device which looks similar to a pepper mill. Designed by an Austrian whilst in a concentration camp. Fascinating.

It takes a few chapters to grasp a William Gibson novel but by then he has really sucked you in. Read it slowly so you don’t miss a thing!

Count Zero - William Gibson

Bobby “Count Zero” Newmark is a ‘wannabe’ Cowboy, new to the game and easy prey for the testing of new software, which almost costs him his life. Fearing for his safety Bobby flees to Two-a-Day who rented him the software, who in turn introduces him to the ‘loa’ Lucas who obtained the software from ‘The Wig’, who is currently in orbit on the spindle that belonged to Tessier Ashpool (introduced to us in Neuromancer). Bobby is taken to The Sprawl for his safety and to find out about the voodoo and angels now emerging and creating a change in the matrix.


Maas Biolabs head designer is planning to defect to Hosaka and Turner is engaged to make the extraction, but when the plane lands, it contains the designer’s daughter Angela Mitchell, who can enter the matrix without ‘jacking in’. The extraction team is vaporourised so Turner takes Angela Mitchell to the safety of The Sprawl where she meets with Bobby and the realization that it was she who was the angel in the software that saved him.

Marly, a disgraced art director is hired by the very wealthy but dying Virek, to find the creator of rare and curious boxes, the purchase of a forgery of one of these boxes had instigated her downfall. Marly’s ex Husband Alain blackmails her in exchange for a clue to who this person is but Alain is murdered. Her search takes her to The Wig and the surprise revelation of who/what the Box Maker really is.

Three very intriguing storylines that eventually intertwine, however I felt that the Marly storyline was really a short story that had just been slotted in to expand the novel.

This is the second book in the Sprawl Series.

Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson

The third in the Sprawl Trilogy. Angela Mitchell is now a famous Stim star but Bobby Newmark her constant companion has gone missing. She can find him in the matrix, but doesn’t know where his body is.


Mona is a prostitute with an uncanny resemblance to Angela. Her pimp sells her to a plastic surgeon to complete the transformation. Somebody wants to give the impression that the real Angie is dead, but needs to provide a body.

Sally Shears is in London where she meets Kumiko Yanaka, daughter of a Yakuza boss who has been sent there for her protection. Sally has been hired to abduct Angela and murder Mona.

Gentry a console cowboy who’s sole purpose in life is to find ‘the shape’ of the matrix and Slick Henry, an ex con who can built amazing robots, live at The Factory. Slick owes Kid Africa a favour and when he turns up at ‘The Factory’ he agrees to hide a body that is wired up to a grey box, a body referred to as “The Count”. Slick is forced to jack into the grey box to find out who The Count is. Count Zero, Bobby Newmark, has stolen the Aleph (grey box) that he is wired up to in his bid to find out what started ‘The Change’ in the matrix, but it is a construct that is separate to the matrix, and also houses the personality file of 3Jane who killed her own father, destroyed Tessier Ashpool and holds the secrets of Sally’s past and wants her dead.

The storyline builds up to the final showdown at The Factory where it turns out that Sally Shears is Neuromancer’s razor girl Molly, who decides to save Mona and Angela and makes a deal to have her shameful past erased.

Immensely enjoyable and a great finale to the trilogy, but yet again there was a thread of storyline which I felt was pointless in achieving the overall result (Kumiko).

The Prestige ~ Christopher Priest

Andrew Westley has believed all his life that he has a twin brother, but with no proof that one ever existed.


Kate Angier saw a dreadful event in the basement of her family home when she a little girl. To rid herself of the torment of what she witnessed all those years ago she traces and contacts Andrew.

Andrew is adopted, his birth name was Nicholas and his natural great grandfather was the illusionist Alfred Borden, Kate’s great grandfather was the aristocrat Lord Caldlow also known as Danton, the illusionist Rupert Angier.

What did happen the night when a young Nicholas visited the Angier family home only to be murdered in front of Kate and his natural father?

And so begins the story of two feuding magicians, the after effects still being felt by their descendants almost 100 years later.

The main story is told via journals by the two illusionists, therefore you are reading the outcome of some events twice from different perspectives. Alfred Borden writes that he is bound by the Pact of Acquiescence even when writing ‘the truth’ in his journal, therefore we are not be entirely sure that what we are reading is actually what happened. Certain events can only be confirmed by the subsequent reading of Angier’s journal.

Not quite horror, a science fiction novel of sorts with Tesla as a mad scientist. I didn’t want to put it down as I had to know the outcome of Andrew’s search for his ‘twin’, however the ending which was very eerily constructed failed to deliver.

Born in 1943 Christopher Priest is heavily influenced by the works of HG Wells and in 2006 was appointed as Vice-President of the international HG Wells Society. Many of his novels explore the themes of unrealiable narrators and the nature of memory and reality.

The Prestige has recently been released as a movie with a screenplay by Jonathon and Christopher Nolan, but is very different from the Novel, and a ‘tie-in’ book is yet to be released.