Books, Issue 594

Alan Grant

We’ve passed several science fiction milestones in the last 25 years with George Orwell’s 1984, Arthur C Clarke’s 2001 and the speculative 1997 proposed in Predator 2. And, while the exact facts within these fictions may not have come to pass, there are…

Andrew O’Hagan (Ed) - A Night Out with Robert Burns: The Greatest Poems

POETRY COLLECTION (Canongate) Robert Burns has been ‘sainted, painted, tormented and toasted’, as the book blurb playfully informs us. He is also a source of boredom for schoolchildren, linguistic perplexity for non-Scots and undiluted pleasure for…

One Book – One Edinburgh

The Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust launches its second One Book – One Edinburgh citywide reading campaign next month, which this year is based around Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The initiative aims to…

Damian Thompson - Counterknowledge

HISTORY (Atlantic) Conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, creationism and the like are all notions consigned largely to the outer reaches of societal thinking, right? Wrong, according to Damian Thompson. Having spread – largely care of the…

Mike Dash - Satan’s Circus

TRUE CRIME (Granta) ‘Nearly five million men and women have served the United States as police officers. Only one has been executed for murder.’ There is little doubt that Charles Becker was more than just a bad apple, in an early 20th century New…

Stephen King - Duma Key

SUPERNATURAL DRAMA (Hodder & Stoughton) Pseudonyms and non-fiction works all-in, Stephen King raises his bat for the half-century with this long-winded Florida ghost story. He is, of course, infamous for the filmic adaptations of his sinister novels…

Mark Wernham - Martin Martin’s on the Other Side

FUTURISTIC DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) Comparing a book to A Clockwork Orange and 1984 in the press release is a risky tactic, and one which backfires on this underwhelming debut. In the near future, we’re in the company of Jensen Interceptor, a…

Rick Veitch & Gary Erskine - Army@Love: The Hot Zone Club

WAR/SATIRE (DC/Titan) Given the irreverent nature, speedy production and counterculture placement of the medium, it’s unsurprising that comics should come in under the radar with a satirical first strike at the bogus war in the Middle East. American…

Warren Ellis, Cary Nord & Dave Stewart - Ultimate Human No.1

SUPERHERO (Marvel) Marvel’s Ultimate line was intended to reinvent the company’s main characters for the 21st century, to drag them out of the hands of continuity-obsessed fanboys for a while and show off how well superhero stories could function as a…

Jeff Smith - Shazam!: Monster Society of Evil

SUPER HERO (DC) Jeff Smith will forever be known for his wonderful, self-published, multi-award-winning Bone series, a whimsical fantasy tale that got the balance of childish wonder and compelling storytelling just right. Here he takes on Captain…

Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele - The Surrogates

SCI-FI (Top Shelf) In the near-future cybernetic surrogates will live our lives for us, reducing humanity to a race of reclusive couch potatoes. That’s the intriguing premise of this cleverly conceived and smartly executed science fiction/crime…

Fleming centenary

Details of 007 creator Ian Fleming’s centenary year celebrations have been announced. As part of the festivities, acclaimed Birdsong writer, Sebastian Faulks, has written new James Bond tome, Devil May Care, due for publication this Spring. Penguin will…