Weiging A Pig: MIRROR

There is a history to be written about the idea of man-made societal collapse. In literature it seems to arise after we invented the tool to actually eradicate society: the nuke. Last year I reviewed Leigh Brackett’s 1955 The Long Tomorrow, one of the very first books that built an entire story on the possibility. Another road to collapse is overpopulation, and already in 1798 Malthus speculated…

This is a post in Dutch, about the 7th novel of Flemish cult author Jean-Marie Berckmans, who succumbed to the hardships of anxiety, addiction and bipolar depression in 2008, at 54. Over the years, I’ve been slowly working my way through his oeuvre. I have 3 of his books left, and 3 to reread for a review here.  The title translates as Message from Little Constantinople – Berckmans had moved to a…

In 2019 I read Bloodchild and Other Stories, a short story collection by Octavia Butler. It was my first encounter with Butler – probably one of speculative fiction’s best-known authors, the first to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. While the collection contained a few rough gems, something held me back from reading more of her work – possibly a whiff of a lecturing tone in some of the stories.…

Mary Gentle’s magnum opus has been on my pile of books to read since at least October 2015. I know because I took a photograph of that pile back in the early days of this blog. Ash: A Secret History first came to my attention via a 2014 review on Val’s Random Comments, a blog that meant a lot to me back then. Over the years, I read other glowing reviews by fellow readers whose tastes at times…

For an introduction to American philosopher Richard Rorty, check out my review of What Can We Hope For?, a collection of essays on politics. In the introduction of that review, I write a bit about how Rorty – the philosopher that most resonates with me – is still relevant to today’s polarized politics, and to the ineptness of the Left. Aside from trying to provide a summary of some of the book’s…

Something different this time. I’ve been wanting to do this for years and years, and as it will be probably three more weeks before I finish Mary Gentle’s epic Ash, it seemed like the perfect time to finally write this post. Emily is one of my all-time favorite songs, both musically and lyrically. The lyrics are quite rococo – some have said mannerist – and are autobiographical. There is a good…

I started 28 titles in 2025, seven more than in 2024 – still not up to the level of 2023, but slowly and steadily my reading slump is over. I did see significantly more music, art, theater and dance this year, and that results in more words on those matters. Scroll down for that if you’re interested. Before I get to 2025’s favorites, some blog stats for those of you who are interested in such a…

As I’m starting the 1113 pages of Mary Gentle’s Ash: A Secret History, there will not be a new review for quite some time – 5 weeks? – that is, if I like the book and finish it. It’s not just 1113 pages, but 1113 pages densely packed with small print. In the meantime, I’ve written a very short review of Aliss at the Fire, a curious novella by Norwegian Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse. Check it out…

It took me some time to warm up to PKD. Not sure if that has to do with the fact that at first I checked out the wrong books in his vast oeuvre – 45 novels – or with the fact that I’m slowly traveling through time, and my older self has changed. Could be both. I’m not going to reread any of his titles, so I’m never going to find out. The first couple of titles I wasn’t really impressed, but then…

A post in Dutch, on the 11th novel of Louis Paul Boon, one of the giants of literature in Dutch. Boon died in 1979, days before he was to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. De paradijsvogel – Relaas van een amorele tijd translates as The Bird of Paradise – Account of an amoral time. It is a strange roman à clef that combines different things: two main characters are based on Marilyn Monroe…

I should finally start Red Mars – the infamous Mars trilogy the only thing I haven’t read from Kim Stanley Robinson, aside from his short stories and the novella collection Escape from Kathmandu. But as I had a very positive experience with Carter Scholz’s title in PM Press’s Outspoken Authors series, I decided to first read Robinson’s. I guess I want to postpone the inevitable: no more novels by…

Stéphanie, de Burundese bezielster van het Werelddocentenproject alhier, wilde ons vanmorgen meenemen naar de kerk van Mutara, een deelgemeente van Kirundo. De mis daar is immers bekend om z’n kwaliteitskoor, en haast iedereen van de groep van Leerkrachten Zonder Grenzen wilde het cliché van de vrolijke, levendige en muzikale Afrikaanse eredienst best eens tegen het licht van de realiteit…

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August blipped on my radar because of a glowing review on A Sky of Books and Movies. When I checked Goodreads, 28 people of those I’ve friended there had read the book, and they were almost universally positive: twelve people gave it 5 stars, eight people 4 stars and five people 3 stars. Only two readers were outright negative: one person gave it 1 star, and the…

4 novels in Glen Cook’s The Black Company series, I’m pretty sure I will ride it out till the end. Cook is a powerhouse, and so far manages to keep things fresh and interesting with each iteration. Technically, The Silver Spike isn’t fully a Black Company story, as the mercenary band isn’t directly involved – but it is set right after the events of 1985’s The White Rose, the series’ third book.…

The fact that I started reading this short 92 page book a few days before the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai won the 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature would play right into the paranoia of its main character, a mentally disturbed librarian in New York’s Public Library who secretly plans to establish a Permanently Closed Library – an archive of all things related to human knowledge only “to…

Jesse Hudson over at Speculiction drew my attention to this title, naming it one of the absolute best scifi books of the 1950s – maybe the best. The Long Tomorrow is one of the very first books in English set after a nuclear apocalypse. The first novel seems to be Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley, published in 1948. 1950 saw the publication of Ray Bradbury‘s The Martian Chronicles – yet only the…

A bit mislead by some early reviews, I went into this expecting some form of uncanny literary horror, but actually this excellent collection by Samanta Schweblin doesn’t have any speculative elements at all – unlike some of her earlier work. Psychological horror does fit as a moniker though, and fans of Shirley Jackson better read on. Schweblin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentia, and currently…