reviews

Civilization verses Survival Author: James Dickey A story mostly held famous due to the movie, specifically the “squeal like a pig” rape scene, Deliverance the novel provides the same examination of civilization and wilderness clashing, survival requiring a transformation from the docility of easy life to the ferocity of kill-or-be-killed choices in the middle of a peaceful natural terrain that morphs and devours as the characters lose themselves. James Dickey lulls the reader in like the sound of a gentle river, the language painting a picture of boredom, of three city men who worship Lewis, the tough-talker, outdoors’ man armed [...]

Magical Realism and Linguistic Experimentation Author: Kojo Laing An inventive and sprawling story, Search Sweet Country is a piece of magical realism set in the dusty metropolis of Accra Ghana, following a loose set of characters as it depicts a nation shifting from colonialism and trying to define its own way while dealing with the powers of petty corruption and the erosion of the tradition for something perhaps more terrifying, and definitely more mysterious. Kojo Laing’s roughly defined “novel” has a polarizing effect on readers, especially if you are expecting a traditional epic that is either plot centered, character centered, [...]

MacGyver on Mars... Author:  Andy Weir I’m confident that someday – maybe in the next couple of decades – humans will set foot on Mars.  The red planet is just too tantalizing a target for a manned mission to be passed over for too much longer.  But until that day, science fiction will have to be the only source of interplanetary adventure; and after reading Andy Weir’s remarkably entertaining novel, The Martian, I’m afraid that the real thing may turn out to be pretty dull. Astronaut Mark Watney is the loneliest person in the solar system.  Maybe also the unluckiest.  [...]