Jared Shurin's Blog, page 13

1Q84: A Very Bad Book

1Q84, a no longer new novel by beloved Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, is the story of Aomame, a feminist vigilante assassin who uses her seductive wiles to kill deserving if unsuspecting men in service of an aging widow with an ex Japanese special forces soldier as her bodyguard. Along with her childhood love, Tengo, Aomame is pulled into a parallel universe in which she must oppose a secretive cult in service of a strange race of alien fae. Aomame becomes embroiled in an attempt to stop...

Ban Fiction: 'Then Somebody Bends' by Mazin Saleem

She talked to her pet in pet-voice, smushing its cheeks and speaking close enough that her breath made its nose twitch, the high-pitched ���Ello!, the very rhetorical questions asked in a voice made ogreish by coming from her kiss-shaped mouth, with affirming reflexive declarations, ���Yes you are!��� and so on. In a handheld mirror she was showing the pet images it couldn���t understand, first among them itself. Then she showed one of the young women who���d once approached the castle. In c...

The Absolute and Definitive Ranking of Every Marvel Movie

This is final and inarguable.

Black Panther

Guardians of the Galaxy

Thor: Ragnarok

Deadpool

Spider-Man 2: The Alfred Molina Parts Are Really Amazing

Blade

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Avengers

X-Men: loved it more 20 years ago; now find its shame about being a comic book film deeply unsatisfying

Iron Man 3: I mean, really, Iron Man has PTSD in this film; it's quietly revolutionary

Captain America 2: Slash Soldier

Captain America 3: Top Trumps

Ant Man: presence of Paul Rudd doesn't quite make up f...

The [End] State of the Kitsch

Our (slightly belated) annual summary of what happened and what's happening. Or, in our case, what won't be. Please read on.

First, our annual mantra:

There are a lot of reasons we do a thing like this - a website, a blog, a thingazine, whatever you call it. The best of those reasons is that we enjoy doing it. So, as always, when we sit back and reflect upon the previous 365 days, the first question is, "did we have fun?".

...and we did.

But also: not enough.

So we're calling it a day, and we...

Carnegie & Greenaway Medal Longlists [with Links!]

There's something interesting about how awards interact with the world of retail. See, for example, this morning's CILIP Carnegie & Greenaway Medal longlists. 

More on this below, but also - all 40 longlisted books, with Amazon Smile links.

2018 CILIP Carnegie Medal longlist

1. The Tale of Angelino Brown by David Almond ��� illustrated by Alex T. Smith (Walker Books)

2. The Hypnotist by Laurence Anholt (Penguin Random House)

3. Overheard in a Tower Block by Joseph Coelho ��� illustrated by Ka...

Radio Drama: 'The Green Thing' (1950)

'The Green Thing' originally aired September 28, 1950 on 2000 Plus. You can listen along here.

Thoughts Before Listening

There are so many green things in our world today. That in itself makes this radio drama potentially very exciting. Does it really tho? Obviously it doesn���t. Actually I just went for the one with the most boring title. So here we go.

Thoughts While Listening

We are apparently listening to a voice that no man on earth has ever heard before wow

So this story is about a hor...

'Things flowing and melding together': An interview with EJ Swift and Joey Hi-Fi

We've gone large on Paris Adrift, but, well - it deserves it. The smart, twisty, beautiful and inspiring science fiction novel that kicks off 2018 with a bang.

The words are pretty great, and they're accompanied by a cover by one of our all time-favourites (and former resident contributor!): Joey Hi-Fi. Taking advantage of the situation (as one does), we asked both the author and the artist a few questions...

We've kept this spoiler free, but you may want to check out the first chapter. And i...

Fiction: 'Paris Adrift' (Extract) by E.J. Swift

Prague, 2318

The explosions have stopped, and in their absence  a  raw  quiet unfolds. The bunker feels empty and cold, as if the people it harbours are already dead and have been for some time. Outside, what looks like snow is falling. It is not snow. Figures lurch past the cameras, sudden ghosts, there then gone. Inga breathes out. Breathes mist. In the confinement of the underground space, she listens to her thoughts detonating one by one.

This is the calm before the storm.

This time���thi...

Paris Adrift, One of Us Is Lying, All the Crooked Saints and More

Six recent reads across time, space, and genres: Maggie Stiefvater's All The Crooked Saints, E.J. Swift's Paris Adrift, Georgette Heyer's The Talisman Ring, Jason Rekulak's The Impossible Fortress, Eva Ibbotson's The Dragonfly Pool, and Karen McManus' One of Us is Lying.

I'd say I loved them all unequivocally, but, well, then I'd be lying too.

A slightly grown-up revelation: even when I like an author's work, I don't have to like all their work. (If only I had learned this a long time ago, it...

'What Men Read in Hospitals' (1918)

What a man reads in a hospital depends on two things: the man himself and the supply of books

To put a man to bed does not change him fundamentally. His education, tastes and habits remain unaltered when he lays aside his uniform and dons pajamas and a bathrobe. His reading will be influenced by all his personal endowments and qualities.

The character and degree of his illness will also have much to do with what he reads. If his is a surgical case he will have time and strength to read more...