Edmund Lester

I just noticed I haven't blogged since the 5th. Wow. Where have the last three weeks gone? Okay I think I can put some of it down to being on holiday in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France and Germany for ten days in there somewhere (I will add some blog entries about the trips at some point). But it doesn't account for all the gap. To be truthful I haven't written all that much in that time either - half a dozen reviews for Murky Depths is all. Well the fact is I have had nine new book cases delivered and have spent a good deal of the time since getting back from mainland Europe sorting out the various boxes of books and getting books onto shelves. And it's been great fun. That may sound sad but it's true. I love books and a lot of these books haven't been out of boxes in years. Good times.

I enjoyed reading. Okay a number of people may read much more than me but I do manage to get through two or three books in a week so I don't think I do too badly. And I will admit this is largely due to a liking for shorter books. I read a lot of novellas so I guess I get a bit of assistance from the books I choose to read. Anyway I recently discovered a new way of adding to my reading tally. I take a book with me to work. Before you start accusing me of not actually doing anything for the day job, I want to say I restrict my reading to lunch hours only. But it does mean I can add an extra book into the reading schedule each fortnight. As long as I stick clear of fiction that is. I don't think I could ever read a novel in the middle of a crowded canteen. But non-fiction. I can do that. So recently I've read a book about the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Dava Sobel's Longtitude, a couple of travelogues and am currently reading a book on Fermat's Last Theore...

UK sf/horror site Murky Depths have posted another ten of my reviews Book Reviews Ray Garton's Scissors Stephen King's Blockade Billy Lavie Tidhar's The Bookman Film Reviews Alice in Wonderland Bikini Girls on Ice Daybreakers Resurrecting the Street Walker Vampire The Wolfman You can find all of these at - http://www.murkydepths.com/

Much as I have been a lifelong sf fan and the majority of my past reading being sf I have always had a soft spot for decent horror. And of late with the fact most of my writing seems aimed at horror zines I've read more horror than not (unless you can call a history of English cricket horror in which case it's been exclusively horror). And I have to say I've been thoroughly enjoying doing so. I've read a number of damn fine novels of late and just wanted to let you know some thoughts on them and on just how many sf themes are running through these stories (okay if you read any of my reviews some of this might be familair but hey... Nate Kenyon's Sparrow Rock is the first I'll mention. At it's core it has a classic 1950s sf theme - nuclear war - and the action takes place in or around a nuclear bunker. Okay a lot of the actual action and detail is horror flavoured but the concept of an atomic explosion leading to mutated creatures is pure old school sf. But f...

My article "Ten Science Fiction Books to Give Your Father-in-Law" has been posted on sf website New Myths as part of their issue 11. Just click on the link below if you want to give it a read. http://www.newmyths.com/

Saturday is book hunting day. It's my release. I've been a collector since I was a kid and I know there's always a chance that I'll find that next book out there. Today was one fot hose days. I found an old sf book that really appealed to me - a 1965 paperback of Milton Lesser's Secret of the Black Planet. It has a very typical 1960s cover - man in tight fitting space suit with ray gun looking all Buck Rogers, a woman in a short skirt with the image completed by a typicaly of the period cigar shaped rocket ship. Yeah, I know that image could also describe a typical 1930s sf magazine cover (for anyone who wants to go look at some there's a lot of them on a UK sf call The Eternal Night - http://www.eternalnight.co.uk/magazine/magazinea.html ) But I like these things as objects and I like finding them. Fortunately for me it's not an expensive hobby - these books aren't worth much, I picked this one up for two pounds. I just like finding them. And you never ...

I received word today that my review of Jeff Strand's book Dweller has been accepted by Dark Scibe Magazine. I'm definitely going to have to get some more writing done this weekend.

Two of my reviews went live at Dark Scribe Magazine (a horror ezine) recently. You can find their site (specifically their reviews section) at http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/ I have another review submitted to them - so fingers crossed

I picked up a book at the weekend - Simon Hughes' "And God Created Cricket". I have a number of books on my reading pile that I really should read first but it sat there, calling to me. I was helpless, it knew all my weaknesses. Well it's as good as I had hoped it would be. Simon Hughes has an obvious love of cricket. When combined with his wonderfully acerbic wit it makes for a highly entertaining, if somewhat rambling and irreverent, history of the game. I recommend it to everyone - well everyone who likes cricket at any rate.

The greatest thing imaginable to a book lovers is the arrival of new books. There's something quite magical about getting new books - and when they are as wonderful as objects as PS Publishing release it really brings a smile to your face. Well it does to mine anyway. PS Publishing had a sale on throughout January. A buy two get one free sort of sale. So I took advantage a little and today reaped the reward. For when I returned home from work a package containing six PS Publishing titles was there ready to be opened. So now I have six new books to read  - Richard Bowes' Streetcar Dreams  - Garry Kilworth's Moby Jack  - Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine*  - Quentin S. Crisp's Shrike  - Nicholas Royle's The Enigma of Departure  - Zoran Zivkovic's Impossible Stories II So I have five new books to read - I've already read the Ray Bradbury book; I just wanted a really top quality copy of such a wonderful book. Only problem is where to start. My reading pile alrea...

I just heard about a book that will be published by PS Publishing in 2011. (Okay maybe I am harping on about PS Publishing today - live with it, I like them.) Mike Resnick (one of my favourite authors) will be gathering together the four Jake Masters novellas he's written, adding in a new story and the resulting collection will be called "Masters of the Galaxy". Now there's a geek-boy ultimate book title. I can't wait to have it on my book shelf.

I admit it. I am the King of Procrastination. I wandered up stairs from my lounge to my office with the intention of doing some writing. And then I noticed an email about PS Publishing. They have an offer on where you buy two and get a third book free. Now I have many, many PS Publishing titles on my bookshelves and I am rather fond of them. So I thought as the offer ends today I would check it out. Which of course means I had to go sort out the books. Now normally I have my books in alphabetical order by type (and one of the types just happens to be PS Publishing) which means it would simply be walk up to the shelf and check which ones I'd already got. But with the building work going on I have had to box up most of my books and move the ones I decided to keep. When I did this I didn't put them on the shelves in order. So to be able to check which books I already had (I'd read a number of them from pdf review copies so I couldn't rely on knowing I'd read it) I had ...

I've read the latest Stephen King novel "Under the Dome". It's nearly 900 pages long and I finished it. This might not seem unusual until I mention I think the perfect length for fiction is the novella. About a hundred pages is as much as you need to write the perfect story. And yet I finished a book that is more than eight times that length. That should be enough to tell you I thought it was superb. I really did. The story's not original in the slightest (a small American town being cut of by an impenetrable dome being lowered over it - Simpsons Movie anyone?) but it doesn't matter one jot. Used car dealer and Chester Mill's Second Selectman, Big Jim Rennie, views the dome as a chance to exert some real power in the town - and show the people how great a man he really is. Unfortunately for the town the one man who could possibly stop him, the police chief, is killed by the dome and now Rennie and his lackeys move to take control. Against him is a short or...

Ever horror fan on the planet should read Wrath James White. It's that simple. And by that I mean every horror fan, not you if you enjoyed Twilight and thought the vampire's were cute. I'm talking about your out and out horror fan - the one who enjoyes reading about eyeballs popping and limbs being ripped away from torsos. I've read White novels now, the first Succulent Prey was highly disturbing (in a good way, honest), and now this The Resurrectionist. He actually manages to write original fiction. Here, his lead big-bad has the power to bring people back to life. Sounds like a wonderful gift doesn't it and not something you'd associate with the villain in a horror book. But just you see what use White has him put this power to. It's really creepy. Simon Clark's Ghost Monster suffers straight from the off from that title. The story is a pretty basic ghost / possession tale where the main problem is that the ghosts are those of absolute psychopaths - li...

Well okay, there's no simple answer to that. But I know one thing. Frankie Boyle is certainly having a go to see if he can set some kind of record. I've been a fan of the TV show Mock the Week since it first started and its irreverent approach to the news. It runs for about a dozen weeks each summer and takes the mickey out of anyone unfortunate enough to be famous at times in a really cruel way. I know that it might not be the most considerate thing to do - finding humour at the expense of others but I find a lot of what is on this show extremely funny. I know my desire to be fair and even handed should preclude my finding cruel humour amusing but I just do. Well on the show possible the most cutting of all the comedians is Glaswegian Frankie Boyle (who unfortunately has recently announced he will not be returning). But he has brought out a book. In theory its a biography and I am normally appalled by the concept of reading celebrity biographies. But in truth there is not all ...

I haven't been neglecting my reading. I've worked my way through a few novels of late - as well as journals and various non-fiction tomes, sites etc. I'd thought it about time I posted something about the fiction - let you know about some good reads out there - and maybe one or two not so good. First off the pile is Jeff Strand's Pressure - a non-supernatural horror. Now this is a book I enjoyed immensely. Strand's protagonist starts as a young man in trouble, sent to a boarding school to sort him out. In one way it works, he ends up at University, but it also instroduces him to our friendly neighbourhood psychopath Darren Rust. The book is told in segments, each some years apart from the next about times when our lead encounters Rust. This results in a series of climaxes growing in intensity as the book reaches its end. Great stuff. Can't really say the same about Richard Satterlie's Imola. It's another non-supernatural horror - telling the tale of a me...

I visited Melton Mowbray yesterday, a pleasant market town in the East Midlands famous for pork pies and stilton cheese. Being a vegetarian I didn't try any of the former, but I have to admit to a liking for the cheese. Whilst there I wandered into a book shop or two - as well as some of the charity shops. Book collectors should never be embarassed about going into charity shops - some of the best out-of-print books can be found in them. In one of them yesterday I came across a copy of the fifth Far Side Gallery. Now I've been a fan of Gary Larson since the 80s and was only to happy to pick this up. Book 12 is going to be the latest of my car books. I keep books in my car, so I can dip in and read a few pages whenever I am waiting. On Friday I finished Tony Hawks' wonderful travelog "Roudn Ireland with a Fridge", the story of him hitchhiking around the coast of Ireland towing a small refrigerator. Totally insane and wonderful. An absolute delight to read

Book ten is a book of photographs of the most beautiful place on Earth - Venice. Three years ago - back in the days of money being easier to get - I treated my wife (and me but extension) to a long weekend in Venice coming back three days before Christmas. Well I'd been paid for some overtime at work and couldn't think of a better way spending the money - we'd not counted on it so why not? It was cold, it snowed and was very windy. Even flooded a couple of times whilst we were there, but it was magnificent. Walking through the city's streets when they are deserted is incredible. Standing on Rialto Bridge looking down upon a canal which had no boats on it at all. Standing at the far end of Piazza San Marco looking at the Basilica with no one else in the square at all (okay it was past midnight but it was still a first). A wonderful way of ending the year. So when a book came out last year containing many photographs of Venice in the winter I simply had to buy it. The boo...

Okay - next in this ever delayed list is a field guide - David Pegler's Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe. It;s part of the Kingfisher Field Guides series. That probably needs a little explanation. Well I am writing a story with a friend of mine that means I need to find out about toadstools so we can get the plot right. And so I went out to track down such a book and came across this wonderful book.

I kind of lost focus on this blog there. And to be honest on most of my writing. I wrote a few things, a review here or there, a couple of articles, some short stories (the reviews sold, one of the articles but none of the stories - at least not yet). Hopefully I'll manage to get back into it more. Anyway, back to books of the week - and yes I know I'm about 16 behind but here goes catching up. And this next choice is... Uncle River's Camp Desolation and the Escahtology of Salt. Odd title I know. Odd book too, to be honest about it. It's a University lecture in a book really, telling the build up to a terrorist act in a post-Total Economic Collapse America. It's another PS Publishing novella, and yes I read an awful lot of these things being a dedicated fan of both the novella form and the publisher but this one really appealed.