Fison’s writing is fresh, tight and easily absorbed. Action and humour abound, and are the reasons this series works so well. While the message in these books is clear, it isn’t in any way preachy—nor is the humour forced. The child characters are all well-developed, each with a distinct personality, which is something all too often glazed over in such short fiction.
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A review of Gamers’ Challenge by George Ivanoff
After reading the above, one might be forgiven for thinking this is nothing more than an entertaining story aimed at an electronic game-mad audience. But don’t be fooled, Gamers’ Challenge is far more than that. What this story does is challenge our notions of reality. It raises all the big existential questions, offers some answers and then turns everything on its head.
A review of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
This leads to what really made the book work for me: a sense of tremendous conviction and strength in back of everything. Dreiser makes me feel, in no uncertain terms, that this is a tale worth telling — even though the writing of it might not come easily to him.
A review of Land’s Edge by Tim Winton
Throughout the book, and deftly woven into the narrative structure, Winton poses a number of serious questions. Why are we drawn to the sea, and what is its importance to us? How, in Australia, is the psychological importance of the sea shaped by the predominance of desert? What is our responsibility towards the sea as it changes? How is the sea’s danger to humans—its wild untameability, part of the way we relate to it?
A review of A Family Matter by Will Eisner
Will Eisner was still working very much at the top of his game when he wrote and drew this comic, which was originally published in 1998, when he had just turned 80. With a deft, masterly touch he conveys character and compels the story forward too; all at once.
A review of Phoebe Nash Detective by Justin D’Ath
Above all though, this is a book about courage, and Phoebe’s courage is present throughout the book, in her refusal to allow injustice, and her instinctual responses to danger and discord. Once again, Justin D’Ath has created an inspiring and engaging book that young readers will enjoy and parents will welcome (a combination that doesn’t always happen in sync!).
A review of At the Beach With Bucket and Spade by J.R. Poulter
Author of the award-winning Mending Lucille, Poulter has constructed a pacy tale with an uplifting twist at the end—a story that young children will have no trouble relating to. Told in rhyme, which, of course, kids love, this is a story that at its heart is about family, highlighting such concepts as co-operation and cause and effect.
A review of Brain Cuttings by Carl Zimmer
Zimmer conducts us through a world that possesses many of the qualities of fantasy. For example, we keep track of time, more or less through the medium spiny neurons eavesdropping on the cortex. This could easily be the subject of a ballet by Merce Cunningham and John Cage.
A review of The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
If Hawking and Mlodinow are proved to be utterly wrong within the next decade, then I’m sure that, being the consummate scientists that they are, they will thrill to the answer and accede to those that will have used their theories to step up to the next level. In the meantime, I’m all for cracking the champers and toasting the multiverse. There’s so much more to love.
A review of Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Winter Garden is a novel with many layers. Hannah uses a fanciful fairy tale as the link between a mother and her daughters—this is the key that will unlock the secrets that have been hiding in Nina and Meredith’s mother’s past for decades.