Tag Archives: books

There is a certain organic quality to the way this tale is progressing; it's like watching the development of an exceptional plant from a green and tender shoot to the point that it bears fruit.

Ashok K. Banker's adaptation of the 3,000 year old epic of the Indian sub continent Ramayana could appear to be too exotic and unapproachable for a Western reader who knows little or nothing about that history or culture. But the author has ensured that no ones enjoyment be diminished by their background

Originally, Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask, An Insider’s Story of the King of Pop, by 30-year Jackson PR man Bob Jones (who was fired unceremoniously last year by Michael’s brother Rand) and journalist Stacy Brown, was scheduled to be published in April. It now appears that the King …

Floyd Abrams earned his reputation as one of this country’s leading First Amendment lawyers in the trenches as a trial lawyer. That’s what makes his Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment a welcome addition to the history of First Amendment law. Abrams takes us inside his involvement with seven …

Philip K. Dick never achieved the recognition he deserved in his lifetime and even his induction this year into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame was long overdue. Unfortunately, Lies, Inc. has value only in allowing a reader to see in one “story” both some of Dick’s standard fare and …

What do you do behind closed doors? How do you feel? How do you really feel? We all have two lives&#8212a public life, which we have with friends and family, and a private life, which we have only to ourselves. Why do we close off our real selves from the …

Umberto Eco is one of those authors who frustrates me. I truly enjoyed The Name of the Rose. I liked Foucault’s Pendulum as much, if not more. On the other hand, I gave up on Baudolino after about 100 pages. I did not give up on Eco’s new work, The …

Advanced particle physics may not seem the vehicle for popular fiction to address the conflict between science and religion. Yet Richard Cox uses the subject successfully in The God Particle. On the surface, The God Particle tells the stories of two men. Steve Keely is a California businessman who suffers …

It appears a brushfire is heating up amidst science fiction writers over the direction of the genre. Disputes between and among SF fans as to what types of stories and novels fit within the genre and/or deserve recognition are nothing new. Take, for example, the debate over whether J. K. …

For a superb collection of science fiction and fantasy suitable especially, but by no means exclusively, for teens, you need look no further than this wonderful new anthology. The first in what I hope will be an annual series, the book was compiled by veteran anthologist Patrick Nielsen Hayden and …