For many years, scholars regarded Kipling as one of the great writers in the English-language canon. Political correctness has damaged his reputation, due to post-modernist interpretations of his novels and poetry as an apologia for British Imperialism. Being familiar with leftist over-sensitivity, I had my doubts. After reading his 1901 young-adult novel Kim, I’ve concluded […]
Ever since I read his 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson has been one of my favorite authors. He writes in a broad variety of genres, including the “Baroque Cycle” historical fiction series. His 2017 novel The Rise And Fall of D.O.D.O., co-authored with Nicole Galland, is an interesting twist on the theme of […]
If the Japanese are the world’s masters at producing intelligent, mature animation, the French are surely runners-up. Recently we discovered another unusual, quirky French animated film: The Rabbi’s Cat. Released in 2011, it was directed by Joanne Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux. The movie is based on the comic series by artist/writer Sfar. We watched it […]
I encountered this book entirely by accident. I was doing a web search for images to serve as inspiration for the cover design for one of our “Ione D.” steampunk novels. This cover appeared, an illustration of a young woman in a long dress and high boots running through a Chinese street scene. It looks […]
I love Halloween! I have more spooky home décor for both inside and out than I do all the other holidays combined. Curious about how Victorians celebrated Halloween, I did a little digging… pun intended. After a bit of research, I discovered I come by my love of All Hallows’ Eve honestly. Halloween made its […]
At the height of the genre’s boom around 2010, lots of folks were getting on the Steampunk Bandwagon. One happy side effect was a renewed interest in science fiction from the Victorian Era. The book Steampunk Prime is a collection of tales from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, collected by editor Mike Ashley. A […]
It seemed like forever, but Arlys and I finally got through both seasons of the Frankenstein Chronicles on Netflix. Re-imagining the Frankenstein mythos in 1820’s Britain sounded like a wonderful idea. The series also featured historical characters such as Ada Lovelace, William Blake, Sir Robert Peel, and Mary Shelley herself. This fictionalization of history plus […]
