Journey to the Centre of the Earth is the kind of story…
Tag: fantasy (page 2)
From the Dusty Mental Archive: My First Convention (as a Writer)
I enjoy conventions, though I don’t go to them often, and unfortunately…
#291 – The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Everyone knows the name of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because of Sherlock…
My Cartooning Journey: Revisiting the Past
My original webcomic of Fuzzy Knights ran for several years. It started…
#290 – Dune by Frank Herbert
I feel like I should hand in my nerd card for not…
#289 – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
It seems only fair that if I dealt with Ernest Cline last…
#288 – Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
I don’t often deal with sequels because, well, I only get to…
#286 – Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer by J. Michael Straczynski
Way back in issue #206, I reviewed Stephen King’s book On Writing.…
#285 – We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
In anime, one of the prevalent genres right now is isekai, which…
#284 – Will Save the Galaxy for Food by “Yahtzee” Croshaw
“Yahtzee” Croshaw is best known for his video game reviews series Zero…
#283 – The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
If you woke up in the body of a robot, having died…
#282 – Wotakoi (Love is Hard for Otaku)
We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the nerd who can’t find…
#281 – Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
More than once I’ve reviewed books that have been adapted to the…
#279 – Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer
While I still dream about making big it as a writer someday,…
#277 – Shadeward: Emanation by Drew Wagar
A while back, I reviewed one of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern…
#276 Doctor Aphra by Kieron Gillen
There are two ways one can look at Star Wars: as a…
#275 – Machine Man by Max Barry
It wasn’t until I was halfway through this book that I realized…
Issue #274 – Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrasse Tyson
He’s this generation’s Carl Sagan, trying to make the greater mysteries of…
Battletech Override
Next Level House Rules and a Look Back at a Classic of…
Issue #273 – Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
Mystery novels are a tricky thing to innovate. More often than not,…
Issue #272 – Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
I didn’t expect to do another romance so soon, but in my…
Issue #271 – A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur’s Court by Mari Mancusi
“All things strive.” – Terry Pratchett It’s easy to dismiss stories that…
Issue #270 – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
This was a book I avoided as a kid for yet another…
Issue #269 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
Going to say this right up front: This was a hard book…
Issue #268 – The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
While it’s always a disservice to play the “it’s like BLANK meets…
Issue #267 – Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
I started Dragonsong under a misapprehension. I found a used copy from…
Issue #266 – Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin
Everyone knows George R.R. Martin because of Game of Thrones (aka A…
Issue #265 – Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
And you may ask yourselfHow do I work this?And you may ask…
Issue #264 – The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
I don’t often do non-fiction because I’m a storyteller at heart. Of…
Issue #263 – The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
This is Neil’s third time on Off The Shelf, but it’s for…
Issue #262 – Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Long time readers of KODT might remember Mur Lafferty’s column Geek Fu…
Issue #261 – Amazing Stories Magazine
The history of science fiction is a history of firsts. Samuel Madden…
Remember Me?
Well, it’s been a long time–a damn long time–since I published anything…
Issue #260 – The Foundation Trilogy
Isaac Asimov is unquestionably a genius, but it sure as heck isn’t…
Issue #259 – Eaters of the Dead
If I review an author twice, it’s probably with good reason, and…
Issue #258 – The Man of Bronze (Doc Savage)
What do you get when you cross Superman with The Hardy Boys…
Issue #257 – Mission of Gravity
So, you’ve probably encountered your fair share of unusual protagonists in books…
Issue #256 – One Must Kill Another
(Full discretion, I acted as editor on this book) Good horror doesn’t…
Issue #255 – The Disaster Artist
“Oh, hi Mark…” Sometimes something becomes so famous (or infamous) that people…
Issue #254 – Artemis
Recently, I compared Earnest Cline’s Ready Player One to his follow-up novel…
Issue #253 – The Jane Austen Project
Travelling back in time is a tricky little thing. The fact it…
Issue #252 – A Wizard of Earthsea
I may have mentioned this in an earlier review: Every once in…
Issue #251 – Ready Player One
Last month I reviewed Armada, by Earnest Cline. Though I liked it,…
Issue #250 – Armada
Meta, in case you’re not familiar with the term, refers to being…
Issue #249 – The Moonshine War
“People around here have built their stills and drunk whiskey for more…
Issue #248 – Valérian
I grew up with comics, but they were American comics. Back then,…
Issue #247 – Jane Austen Graphic Novels
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a novel in possession of…
Issue #246 – William Shakespeare’s Star Wars
It is a period of civil war. The spaceships of the rebels,…
Issue #245 – The Road to Mars
“I laughed, I cried, and then I read the book.” – Steve…
Issue #244 – Norse Mythology
While I am somewhat familiar with the Norse pantheon, I must admit…