The most shocking thing about Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is how pleasantly it presents its dystopian setting. The World State as it exists in AF 632 (or the year 2540 as we know it) is a paragon of monolithic stability where nearly every aspect of life is manipulated by the government. Human beings are … Continue reading (Review) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Category: Novels
(Review) The Shame Locked Away in Giovanni’s Room
The Paris in James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room is a kind of hell in which desperate men step on each other to climb out of the hole they're in, never realizing it's possible to help lift one another out of their predicament. Fear motivates everyone; they're afraid of anyone finding out who they really are … Continue reading (Review) The Shame Locked Away in Giovanni’s Room
My Writing Guide to November 2015
October was a pretty intense month. I went in for full training on changing my position at work, which means there are a LOT of holes in my technical knowledge that need to be filled. The shift also means that I'm down in the trenches with coworkers a bit more, and that means an opportunity … Continue reading My Writing Guide to November 2015
Book Review: The End is Nigh
The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych, Book 1) Edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey Self-Published My love of all things apocalyptic doesn't know many bounds; chances are, if there's the whiff of the end of days surrounding a project, I'll at least have to give it a look. This has lead me … Continue reading Book Review: The End is Nigh
The Light Shines in a Trenchcoat
I've recently come to appreciate the singular pleasure of a good detective story. I've been on a bit of a run with them of late, and I think it started with the broken-down post-millennial duo of True Detective's Hart and Cohle. It took Nic Pizzolatto's spitshine of the detective story to really get me to … Continue reading The Light Shines in a Trenchcoat
Book Review: Forests of the Night by S. Andrew Swann
S.A. Swann's first novel -- the beginning of a thematic trilogy -- is set in a (by now) near-future America. It's a 1990s cyberpunk-ish future, actually, where future-tech is still wired and location-based, the nation's cities are in decline, and a world war involving nuclear weapons don't necessarily mean the end of civilization as we … Continue reading Book Review: Forests of the Night by S. Andrew Swann
The Unity Novels
I remembered reading this pulpy sci-fi novel out of the 70s when I was a kid, where some guy was abducted out in the middle of the ocean and put in some sort of intergalactic jail. One of his fellow inmates was this ten-foot-tall philosopher lizard, and it was this big, imprinting experience to meet … Continue reading The Unity Novels
Coming Back From the Point of No Return
Ryan and I saw Dream House over the weekend, and it was interesting for reasons that ultimately didn't have anything to do with its actual story. I'll try to briefly describe what happens without spoiling it, just in case any of you are interested in watching a psychological thriller from last year starring James Bond … Continue reading Coming Back From the Point of No Return
From the Desk of Jakebe T. Rabbit 