Mark Charan Newton

Some thoughts on a book I read late last year. The Alexandria Quartet comprises of four novels, Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea. The first two are the most tightly linked, for everything you know in Justine is looked at from another angle, although still from the same narrator. Mountolive is more distant, and Clea certainly [...]

[Read more →]

I think I love her. Yes, I really think I do.
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

And this piece in the Guardian, where some dude is discussing his hatred of second-hand books. You have to admit, he might have a point on one or two of the matters.
It’s all [...]

[Read more →]

One of my favourite reference books is The Book Of Imaginary Beings, by Jorge Luis Borges.
If I have a problem with the fantasy genre at the minute, it is that, on occasion, it does not embrace… erm… fantasy. It can be quite conservative in the imagination department, and I wonder where the fantasy has [...]

[Read more →]

Now, I came across Kiva Microfunds and thought the whole thing pretty damn interesting. Apparently, Bill Clinton thought it a good idea too.
Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
The [...]

[Read more →]

Nice little interview with J.G. Ballard at the Guardian website. There really is no one quite like him. A couple of years ago I read a few of his books in the usual author flings I have, where I buy up lots of their books and proclaim them the best thing that ever happened to [...]

[Read more →]

Or at least the fiction market. Here are some things to consider:
1 ) The majority of people who read a lot of fiction love books, the physical thing. Period. They are unlikely to stop buying books because of this physical love. They like them on their shelves. They like walking up to them. Perhaps lending [...]

[Read more →]

I was intrigued to read about this bit of news from star editor and all-round Top Bloke, Lou Anders. It got me thinking about the differences between Swords and Sorcery Fantasy, and Epic Fantasy. I think there’s a distinction to make.
Epic Fantasy for me has multi-stranded plots, huge amounts of movement, deep worldbuilding, and [...]

[Read more →]

I read this post on SF Signal, a top genre blog. Basically, some dude has had it with the bickering etc that goes on in the genre.
This isn’t just about the blog comments, e-mails and forum posts of the last week. This is about the blog posts and comments, emails and forum posts, editorials and [...]

[Read more →]

The Guardian reports on the rise of the virtual bookshelf on social networking sites.
For anyone with even a moderate interest in books, snooping at other people’s bookshelves is one of life’s great pleasures. Like music collections, personal libraries offer tantalising encapsulations of character; a quick glance at an acquaintance’s bookshelves or a scroll through their [...]

[Read more →]

Just a few thoughts on symbolism. I’m currently re-reading Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun series, and I’m really fascinated by the use of symbolism. I won’t go into detail here, but there are good essays here and here if you’re interested. Now, is it me, or are symbols totally out of vogue [...]

[Read more →]