Quantum widgets and tarot-reading pilots: a ‘fantabulosa bona’ start to Ian McDonald’s Everness series. Can an author who made his name writing intelligent, near-future sci-fi for adults write a novel that will appeal to children? If the author is Ian McDonald, and the book is Planesrunner – the first in McDonald’s Everness series – the answer is a
If 2012 keeps going at the current rate, it is going to be a literary lion of the year. There’s Incarnate by Jodi Meadows, the enjoyable ebook release of Patricia Wrede’s Caught in Crystal and Northern Ireland’s own Ian McDonald’s ferociously enjoyable foray into children’s literature, Planesrunner. (Review coming soon.) With Royal Street, the first
Caught in Crystal is the fourth book in Patricia Wrede’s Lyra series, the first chronologically and was originally published in 1987. The rights to the series have been purchased by Open Road books and re-released in ebook form. And about time too. With over a decade under its belt, Caught in Crystal could be forgiven
As a child Abigail Sharp was encouraged to be independent and free-thinking by her governess mother. It was anything but a conventional childhood and, as a result, Abbie is anything but a conventional Victorian young lady. Unfortunately, since Lady Charlotte Westfield took in her newly orphaned grand-daughter, that is exactly what Abbie has to pretend
‘Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!’ Let’s be honest, casting Russell Tovey, best known as George, everyone’s favourite werewolf on Being Human, in the Sherlock episode ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ was either going to be a stroke of genius or an act of utter madness. Aside from the occasional snicker as
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I am sick as a dog this week, so I am eschewing my usual sharp edged witticisms and incisive commentary (look, leave me my illusions) for a quick review of the first week of 2012. Eternal Law, UTV. This isn’t going to be a new Being Human, unless it develops a lot more … meat
The secret to Irene Adler’s success is that she ‘knows what they like’. The fragrant, poised Adler, played by sweet-faced, sly-eyed Lara Pulver, is a dominatrix with a list of influential clients and an understanding of the importance of leverage – in more than just using a whip. Unfortunately, some information burns even the @whiphand
The BBC get in the first volley in the upcoming Dicken’s bicentenary adaptations (it is also the anniversary of the Titanic sinking, Dr Who episode on the Titanic with Dickens anyone?) with Great Expectations. Written by Sarah Phelps and directed by Brian Kirk it is all very atmospheric, with lingering shots of endless, grey-green glasses and
For a hundred lifetimes, a million souls have been born and reborn in Range. For them death is merely an interruption to the conversation, since identity is retained through each rebirth. Immortality is a given, as common as noses. Until Ciana died, and Ana was born. A million, minus one. The paradigm of an entire
Whizz! Bang! Crash! Wallop! Whee! That sums up the Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows experience pretty succinctly. Admittedly, it could have done with a bit more ‘whizz’ and the gentleman next to me in the cinema who kept checking his iPad throughout the movie didn’t seem to be feeling much ‘whee’. (Also? Bad cinema etiquette.
Last week, expectations for National Anthem were high and the delivered quality disappointing. This week I wasn’t expecting as much and I was pleasantly surprised – until it all went a bit wrong. 15 Million Merits is a world ruled by the entertainment. You don’t pay to watch TV, you pay for the right to
A flight of fancy on a paper airplane, but they haven’t got all the rough edges off yet. Nicholas Lloyd-Webber and James D Reid’s musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince arrives at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast with a paper airplane, a light show and a score full of toe-tapping musical numbers. ‘Why are
