Erin Britton
Erin Britton is a full-time PhD student and a part-time bookseller. Luckily, these two occupations have proved mutually beneficial – Erin has amassed an impressive library of Romani history books and could engage in a lengthy and detailed conversation on the matter should any customers ever actually ask her. While Erin’s first love is cult fiction, she also enjoys science fiction, graphic novels, children’s fantasy and adventure, and Tudor history books.
Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones
Reviewed on March 3, 2010
Probably best known for her Chrestomanci series and for the novel Howl’s Moving Castle (which was adapted into an excellent film by Japan’s Studio Ghibli), Diana Wynne Jones is truly a titan amongst British fantasy authors, having published more than forty books and influenced hugely successful fellow authors such as JK Rowling and Philip Pullman. [...]
Fool, by Christopher Moore
Reviewed on February 22, 2010
Even if the mere thought of a new offering from Christopher Moore, author of such hilariously satirical novels as Bloodsucking Fiends and Island of the Sequined Love Nun, isn’t enough to set readers’ imaginations whirling, the brilliant blurb on the back of Fool is sure to do the trick:
This is a bawdy tale. Herein you [...]
The Affair of the Necklace, by Edgar P. Jacobs
Reviewed on February 15, 2010
Edgar P. Jacobs was a friend and collaborator of the famous Belgian writer and artist Herge and the adventures of Blake and Mortimer were in fact serialised in the first issue of Tintin magazine in 1946. Although surprising at the time, that first story, The Secret of the Swordfish, proved more popular than the Tintin [...]
The Saga of Swamp Thing Bk. 2, by Alan Moore, John Totleben and Steve Bissette
Reviewed on February 10, 2010
When Alan Moore took over DC’s then failing Swamp Thing series in 1984 he swept aside the mythology that had been built up since Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson had begun the first regular Swamp Thing series back in 1972 and instead firmly rooted the character into the circumstances and environment envisioned in House of [...]
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Veiled Detective, by David Stuart Davies
Reviewed on January 26, 2010
David Stuart Davies is certainly a very brave man, for with The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Veiled Detective he has produced a radical re-imagining of the Sherlockian world of Arthur Conan Doyle that is sure to polarize fans of the world’s greatest consulting detective. Sherlock Holmes, as created by Conan Doyle, has inspired [...]
Walking the Dog, by David Hughes
Reviewed on January 22, 2010
When illustrator David Hughes approached his fiftieth birthday, he turned himself in at his local surgery for a mid-life MOT and was not overwhelmingly surprised to be told by his GP that he was drinking far too much and exercising far too little. Although both of these slothful habits suited Hughes down to the ground, [...]
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life: Volume 1, by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Reviewed on January 19, 2010
With Bryan Lee O’Malley’s pop culture venerating Scott Pilgrim saga coming to an end in July with the release of the sixth volume and a film version starring everyman du jour Michael Cera out sometime this summer, the first five volumes in the series are each being given a much deserved reprint over the next [...]
An Elegy for Easterly, by Petina Gappah
Reviewed on January 15, 2010
Taken individually as well as when assembled collectively, the short stories that comprise Petina Gappah’s debut collection, An Elegy for Easterly, offer a powerful lament for the Zimbabwe of Gappah’s childhood, a Zimbabwe that has all but disappeared behind the tragedies of totalitarianism, hyperinflation, corruption, crippling poverty, misogyny and an unchecked AIDS epidemic. Although, perhaps [...]
Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco
Reviewed on January 13, 2010
In the spring of 2001 war-reportage comics pioneer Joe Sacco was in the Gaza Strip with journalist Chris Hedges working on an assignment for Harper’s magazine. The pair were working on chronicling how the Palestinians in the town of Khan Younis were coping during the early months of the Second Intifada against the Israeli occupation [...]
B Is for Beer, by Tom Robbins
Reviewed on January 5, 2010
Apparently, B Is for Beer got its start in life from a bet. Not an actual bet per se, but rather a bet featured in a cartoon featured in a newspaper that featured in Tom Robbins’ reading pile. The cartoon involved a publisher and a writer walking into a bar with the publisher remarking, “No, [...]
The Toymaker, by Jeremy De Quidt
Reviewed on December 22, 2009
It’s fairly common knowledge that Frankenstein didn’t end well for the Monster. In fact, tinkering about with nature is rarely seen as a force for good in literature. It’s no surprise then that the brooding, gothic atmosphere that haunts the pages from the very beginning of Jeremy De Quidt’s debut novel The Toymaker is an [...]
Sandman: The Dream Hunters, by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell
Reviewed on December 17, 2009
Along with Alan Moore’s Watchman and Frank Miller’s Sin City, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is one of the most popular, as well as the most critically acclaimed, comic book series of all time. With a distinct lack of burly men in tights and voluptuous women in neon spandex jumpsuits, The Sandman was in the vanguard [...]
Monster Republic, by Ben Horton
Reviewed on December 15, 2009
Monster Republic by Ben Horton is the first book in a new science-fiction/techno-thriller action series for young adults. Full of explosions, weaponry, gadgets, battles, fury and outsider kids fighting to save the world, Monster Republic is bound to be a big hit in the difficult Boys 12+ market and in particular with fans of Anthony [...]
The Passport, by Herta Muller
Reviewed on November 30, 2009
Although Nadirs and The Land of Green Plums have now been reissued in English, when Herta Muller won the Nobel Prize for Literature in October this year, only The Passport was available for monoglots wishing to gain a flavour of her work. Fortunately, it seems to be a fine example of her recurring themes and [...]
The Day of the Jack Russell, by Bateman
Reviewed on November 19, 2009
The Bookseller With No Name is back. Since he put his own first name to rest, Bateman’s quirky, black comedy crime novels, featuring often unwilling protagonists who, much to their indignation, found themselves thrust into all manner of peculiar situations, enjoyed a strong cult following and earned him a great deal of critical praise (the [...]
The Wisdom of Dead Men, by Oisin McGann
Reviewed on November 16, 2009
Set in an alternative Victorian Steampunk world, Oisin McGann’s The Wisdom of Dead Men is the second thrilling instalment in his Wildenstern family saga. The first Wildenstern novel, Ancient Appetites, introduced a world where Queen Victoria is still present and correct and reigning over Britain and Ireland, but powerful business empires, one of the most [...]
Generation A, by Douglas Coupland
Reviewed on November 9, 2009
Generation X, a tale of youth in revolt against an increasingly consumerist society, was Douglas Coupland’s hugely successful first novel and he has returned, with moderate success, to the same style of framed narrative for his most recent offering, Generation A. Generation X had such a massive cultural impact that its title became a much [...]
Notwithstanding, by Louis de Bernieres
Reviewed on November 5, 2009
Miss Marple always maintained that her phenomenal capacity for solving complex crimes was down to the fact that she lived in a village; being in close proximity to a fairly small group of people in an insular community apparently having provided her with seemingly infinite examples of the negative side of human nature. No matter [...]
2666, by Roberto Bolano
Reviewed on November 2, 2009
What’s in a name? While a rose by any other name may well smell as sweet, the title of a book is most frequently inextricably linked to the nature and quality of the story contained within. Not necessary so with 2666. As the final novel written by one time poetic enfant terrible and literary supremo [...]
Oscar’s Books, by Thomas Wright
Reviewed on September 2, 2009
Ever since being overwhelmed by his first reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray at the age of sixteen, Thomas Wright has been a self-confessed Wildean. Wright’s appreciation for the life and works of Oscar Wilde was so great that he applied to study at Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde’s alma mater, and while most students [...]
The Devil’s Ladder, by Graham Joyce
Reviewed on August 29, 2009
The worlds created by Graham Joyce can be fairly hard to categorise. His work is often described as speculative fiction due to the way in which he mixes the contemporary world with myth, legend, horror and the fantastic. The Devil’s Ladder, Joyce’s latest novel for children, is also something of an interesting mix of genres [...]
Interzone, by William S. Burroughs
Reviewed on August 27, 2009
The Interzone is the International Zone in Tangier, Morocco where William Burroughs lived for a time after his accidental shooting of his wife while stupendously high caused him to leave Mexico in something of a hurry. The time that Burroughs spent living in Tangier was greatly influential in the development of his writing style and [...]
The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory
Reviewed on August 17, 2009
UK readers – be sure to check out the great new Philippa Gregory competition on our sister site Bookhugger
Philippa Gregory is one of the most popular as well as prolific writers of historical fiction working today and with The White Queen she begins a fascinating new series which is sure to be a hit with [...]
The Sorceress, by Michael Scott
Reviewed on August 13, 2009
Nicholas Flamel has been an extremely popular alchemist of late. Although perhaps most famously featuring as the eponymous philosopher in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, it is in Michael Scott’s excellent The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series that the man himself takes centre stage. The Nicholas Flamel of Scott’s imagining began life [...]
The Gentlemen’s Hour, by Don Winslow
Reviewed on July 17, 2009
Boone Daniels, a laid-back ex-cop turned private investigator with a talent for detection and a passion for surfing, was first introduced in Don Winslow’s previous novel The Dawn Patrol and, in The Gentlemen’s Hour, once again finds his personal and professional lives clashing together with deadly consequences. With available work for a private investigator at [...]
Sunnyside, by Glen David Gold
Reviewed on June 22, 2009
Probably the most frustrating thing about Glen David Gold’s writing is the length of time that he has taken between publishing his novels. Following the massive success of Gold’s debut novel, Carter Beats the Devil, fans have had to wait eight years for Sunnyside, his latest book. His first novel having been a fictionalised biography [...]
Inkdeath, by Cornelia Funke
Reviewed on June 19, 2009
Inkdeath is the final book in Cornelia Funke’s hugely popular Inkworld trilogy and it proves to be a great, action-packed if rather sprawling conclusion to the story. Following the adventures of Meggie Folchart and her bookbinder father Mortimer across two worlds, our own “real” world and the fantastical Inkworld, the events of the previous books [...]
August Heat, by Andrea Camilleri
Reviewed on June 7, 2009
The Inspector Montalbano of August Heat displays a far more ponderous, sombre and perhaps even melancholy character than he has in the previous nine novels in Andrea Camilleri’s wonderfully atmospheric Sicilian detective series. The reasons for Montalbano’s change in attitude seem threefold: first, he has become increasingly fixated on his own aging and fears greatly [...]
Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher
Reviewed on June 2, 2009
Please welcome another new voice to Bookgeeks – Erin Britton kicks off with the latest adventures of a well-known wizard called Harry. No, not that Harry…
Turn Coat is the eleventh book in Jim Butcher’s hard-boiled fantasy series following Harry Dresden, the only professional wizard to be listed in the Chicago phonebook, as he attempts to [...]
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