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MORTAL ENGINES - Stanisław Lem (1977)

Yet another book by an author that made my best reads of the past decade, and one tightly connected to the title that made that happen: The Cyberiad. Mortal Engines is a collection of Stanisław Lem short stories that also feature robots, often in a similar setting that resembles fantasy – think mechanic kings, dragons & knights. It came to be after Seabury Press asked translator Michael Kandel to…

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THE FORCE - Don Winslow (2017)

Two years ago I read The Power of the Dog, Don Winslow’s 2005 drug war epic. I included that in my best reads of the decade, as it was an absolute tour de force: informative, chilling, thrilling and emotional, in a prose that was something to behold. I knew I would read more of Winslow, and I decided to read The Force – a novel about a dirty New York cop – before I’d continue with his more recent…

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OVERGAVE OP COMMANDO - Nadia De Vries (2025)

After being stuck in the dystopic The Sheep Look Up for months, I needed a palate cleanser, so I decided to read this new Dutch book of 160 pages, drawn in by the cover and the title. Overgave op commando is the second novel of Nadia de Vries. Her debut has been translated in English as Thistle, and she has written 3 collections of poetry in English: Dark Hour (2018), I Failed to Swoon (2021) en…

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THE SHEEP LOOK UP - John Brunner (1972)

I recently included John Brunner’s 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar as one of the 22 books that made a lasting impression on me since I started reviewing over a decade ago. It was due time to read one of his other books. Brunner is considered a prophet of some sorts: one of the first to predict both the internet and computer viruses – even coining the term ‘worm’. Wikipedia adds that he prefigured…

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NOT DEAD YET

Just a quick note: atm workload is way higher than normal, and so reading has taken a backseat. A review about The Sheep Look Up should be up within a couple of weeks. After that, reading & posting should resume my regular schedule.

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A DECADE IN REVIEW

Some time ago I realized I’ve passed the 10-year mark of writing about books. In August 2014 I started reviewing every book I read, and in October 2015 I started posting those reviews on this here blog. Time for a recap.  I went through all my year-end lists, and also glanced over my review index. Below are the books that have made a lasting impression. Books that I would have no trouble reading…

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THE COSMIC RAPE - Theodore Sturgeon (1958)

Nine years ago – in what seems like another era – I read Theodore Sturgeon’s best known novel, More Than Human. It’s a great book, but I don’t remember a lot about it. Luckily I’ve outsourced the hosting of my reading memory to WordPress, and after checking my clunky review I now recall it resonated with my conception of life & ethics. Because it resonated, I went out and bought The Cosmic Rape,…

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BOEK 1 - Martin Rombouts (2025)

Another post in Dutch, about the debut of Martin Rombouts, a 32-year-old poet from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He’s somewhat of a celebrity there because he won a popular TV quiz. Boek 1 translates as – you guessed it – Book 1. Rombouts has managed to write his first novel in a somewhat singular manner, and I think it would work well in translation too. Next post should be about Theodore…

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DISTRESS - Greg Egan (1995)

Reality is a miracle, and my bet is we will never find out how & why it originated. Despite our efforts, we still don’t grasp what matter actually is. Fundamental physics is one of Greg Egan’s main themes, and this novel is no exception. Centered around the discovery of a Theory of Everything in 2055, Distress packs quite an intellectual punch. The wealth of Egan’s ideas is astounding: other…

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THE KRAKEN WAKES - John Wyndham (1953)

Here are open doors: experience is subjective, and truth is elusive. I had that opening for this review in my mind a long time before I finished The Kraken Wakes. It is only upon typing it, I realized those words work in two ways: as an introduction to my critique of Wyndham’s book, like I intended, but also as a summary of one of the book’s main themes. When I read it over 4 years ago, I was a…

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HET ZOMERT IN BARAKSTAD - J.M.H. Berckmans (1993)

This is a post in Dutch, about the 5th book of Jean-Marie Berckmans, a Flemish cult author who died at the age of 54, poor and emaciated. From an early age on, Berckmans suffered from psychiatric problems.  I’m slowly reading through his oeuvre: my last review about a short story collection of his dates back over two years. Het zomert in Barakstad could be translated as It’s summer in Shantytown,…

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THE COMMITTED MEN - M. John Harrison (1971)

Ever since the excellent short story and flash fiction collection You Should Come with Me Now, I have been a fan of M. John Harrison. In 2023, he published some kind of memoir, Wish I Was Here – one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’ve reviewed most of the work he wrote this century, but I hadn’t read any of his 20th century output. I needed to remedy that, and so I picked his first novel from…

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EVEN MORE TV-SERIES MINI REVIEWS

I have the feeling the reading slump I experienced in 2024 is more or less over. Still, the last couple of months I have seen some more TV-series I haven’t reviewed yet. Putain (2024) – Social realism with a groovy beat. Set in contemporary Brussels, Belgium, the show follows a few youngsters coming to terms with the delta between their dreams, their social environments and their temperaments.…

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JUICE - Tim Winton (2024)

Jesse over at Speculiction put this book on my radar, naming it one of the best books he read last year, as well as the best book published in 2024. He compared Juice to Kim Stanley Robinson’s early Three Californias trilogy, with an added dash of anger – like the excellent The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. Other, more surface level reviewers, have drawn comparisons to Mad Max and The Road…

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THE STAND & OUTLINE - Stephen King (1978) & Rachel Cusk (2014)

Two fairly short, fairly superficial reviews, even though Outline deserves way better. Luckily that book was a huge success, and has tons of reviews already. I’m in the very early stages of Red Mars for the moment, but might switch to Tim Walton’s Juice because of mood. THE STAND – Stephen King (1978, uncut edition 1990) I read a Dutch translation of The Stand when I was 14, and I absolutely…

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2024 FAVORITES

I started 21 titles in 2024, about half of what I read in 2023. We’ll see how it goes in 2025, but I do want to get back to reading and writing about it on a bit more regular basis. I wrote a bit more on music & television this year, scroll down for that if you’re interested. Before I’ll get to 2024’s favorites, some blog stats for those of you who are interested in such a thing. Traffic has way…

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ORBITAL - Samantha Harvey (2023)

I’m nearly halfway through The Stand by Stephen King, a book I’ve read over 30 years ago as a young teenager, and was prompted to read again by the ominous The Deluge. Still unsure whether King’s magnum opus had drawn me in already, I felt in need of a break. A day after Samantha Harvey won the 2024 Booker Prize with Orbital, a novel of only 136 pages, I read a review about it on Calmgrove. It…