My past two weeks.



 

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Analysis of the science fiction novels listed in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2013.

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In my last post I analysed 13 science fiction books published in the US in January 2014. In this post I analyse the Goodreads Choice Awards for science fiction in 2013. I am interested to see what similarities there are between what is currently being published and what people are enjoying reading. To create the Choice Awards, the Goodreads operators nominated 15 novels, based on the amount of positive reviews for those books on Goodreads. They also allowed Goodreads readers to add a further five novels to that list. Goodreads members then voted for their favourite from the 20 novels. This is how they voted, with a quick analysis by me of the book after its title. 1. MaddAddam , Margaret Atwood (16,481 votes) Concept: Survivors of a human made plague fight off each other and genetically engineered creatures. Sub-genre: Dystopian Market: Adult Series: Yes, this is the third book in a trilogy Debut novel: No Nationality of Author: Canadian. 2. Dust...
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Review of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

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Kindred is a harrowing time-travel novel that is rightly acknowledged as a science-fiction classic. It is the story of a black American writer, Dana, living in 1976 with her white writer husband Kevin. They are moving into a new house when she collapses and is transported back to the America of 1815. There she meets one of her ancestors, Rufus, the white child of a slave owner. A boy who she will encounter many times over his life. She saves Rufus’ life but is still treated like a slave by the boy’s father. A special slave with medical knowledge that is useful to them, but she is still beaten and whipped when they deem that she has misbehaved. The novel very much explores what it was like to be a slave, a possession that can be used as the owner likes. It could be worked until it collapsed, beaten when it disobeyed, raped, bred and its children sold. It was not human, just a farm animal. The slaves don’t behave like farm animals as they create their own community. They look after each ...
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Melbourne Writers Festival

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  I went to the Melbourne Writers Festival last weekend. I wanted to revel in writing and books. I wanted to learn more about writing and publishing, and I wanted to be reassured that I was on the right track with my writing. I also went to two sessions specifically to use them as sources for articles to write for Divine .   I saw some authors soar and some perform aerobatics, but some just engaged the autopilot, while others failed to take off, and one smacked into the ground. The first session I went to had me thinking I was intellectually out of my depth, but the other sessions reassured me that I am not that ignorant after all.   The Sessions The sessions I went to were: ·          The Future of the Novel ·          On The Spectrum ·          Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard ·        ...
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