The latest issue of the FREE Morpheus Tales Supplement is out now! It’s got an exclusive interview with Dan Abnett (Horus Heresy and 40K Legend!) and Nik Vincent, loads of articles and columns from the usual crew (marvellous!), and a load of book and film reviews including some from me (which are fabulous, obviously!).
Archive for non-fiction
Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement Out Now!
Posted in Morpheus Tales Magazine, Reviews with tags action, articles, biopunk, book, books, characters, christmas, columbs, download, entertaining, exciting, fantasy, fiction, free, free download, free magazine, free preview, horror, horror novel, interview, magazine, massive, morpheus tales, new year, non-fiction, novel, novels, pages, pdf, plot, preview, read, reading, review, reviewed, reviewer, reviews, ripped genes, SF, special issue, Stephen King, story, supplement, thriller, view, website, write, writer, writers, writing on January 15, 2013 by stanleyriiksHope you had a nice Christmas and New Year! I’m still recovering!
If you’re still in the mood for some Christmas Spirit (the snow’s in London is certainly helping me!) go read the Morpheus Tales Christmas Horror Special:
http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/christmashorrorspecial
It’s free, and it’s bloody good, and it’s got one of my stories in it!
BTW, have you got it yet? The Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement is out now, filled with reviews, interviews, articles and loads more! It also includes a massive preview of Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special Issue!
You can view and download is here:
http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mt19reviews
Or get the pdf version from the Morpheus Tales website: www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm
More reviews coming soon, just as soon as I
DOWN UNDER By Bill Bryson – Reviewed
Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized with tags adventures, amazing, anecdotes, australia, bill bryson, book, bryson's, conclusions, country, difficult, discover more, discovery, down under, empty, excel, exciting, explore, fascinating, funny, guidebook, histories, insight, interesting, massive failure, massive success, melbourne, middle of the road, mild excitement, new, non-fiction, off book, outback, perth, places, research, review, reviewed, reviews, sense, sydney, travel, travel writing, traveller on January 25, 2011 by stanleyriiksI bought this book just before going to Australia myself and never got round to reading it. I have to say that although it’s an interesting account of Bryson’s travels around Oz, and his amusing anecdotes offer a little insight into the country, I didn’t really miss much.
It’s an interesting book rather than fascinating. Amusing rather than funny.
The problem is exactly what drives people to read Bryson’s books, their very ordinariness. His adventures (using the term loosely) around Australia were almost as exciting as mine. The places he visited similarly to mine, although I didn’t get to the outback or Perth, I definitely saw more of Melbourne than he did, and my brief trip to Sydney seemed to encompass more than his.
The insights aren’t anything special either. You only have to talk to a couple of Australian and visit their cities to see the issues they have with the Aborigines.
Australia is an interesting and very new and empty country, and you get that idea from Bryson’s book. His travels around the country offer an insight if you haven’t ever been, but it’s much more fun to explore yourself. You’ll likely come to similar conclusions.
Where Bryson’s book does excel is his research. There are some fascinating histories in here amidst the middle-of-the-road traveller’s adventures. He seems to spend every evening in a bar having a beer, a traditional Aussie past-time perhaps, but hardly exciting for the reader.
Down Under isn’t a massive success, nor is it a massive failure. It’s difficult to get excited about the book either way. I neither feel compelled to read another of his book, nor bothered to remember not to.
Unlike a guidebook you don’t feel the sense of exciting of discovery, and Bryson’s mild excitement isn’t really enough to make you want to discover more.
May be this is one of his off books, and may be they’re all like this. I just can’t be bothered to find out.