I get sucked in very easily by books that are smooth on the surface. If a book has glossy enough writing and a well-paced storyline, then I’m almost always a sucker for it. But when a book also has something intriguing going on underneath the surface, then I […]
The dinosaur craze seems to be over, sorry to say. One last hurrah: Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, the latest entry in the Dinotopia series, is out now. James Gurney wrote and illustrated the original 3 books in the 90s, and returns to the scene of his triumph just […]
From a purely critical standpoint, Louis L’Amour’s The Walking Drum is a gruesome mess. It’s a historical novel that constantly hits the reader on the head with blocks of exposition. The hero, Kerbouchard, is not only a nigh-invulnerable fighter, he’s one of the finest scholars of the twelfth […]
Here’s a mission: write a series for young adults that is six books long, competes with all the digital distractions of current life, and keeps the kids coming back for each new entry. Sounds hard! A lot of series break down just on the issue of writing sequels […]
I have a tendency to overdose on authors once I discover their books. I get really excited, read way too many of their books in a row, and then gradually lose interest once I realize that my idol has feet of clay. And since no author is perfect, […]
Robots! They are some of the most durable figures in pop culture — action movies have used everything from the robots who terminate to the robots who are in disguise, but not all robots show up in big budget Hollywood cheesefests. Some thoughtful stuff goes on here too. […]
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The Cultural Gutter 