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Pulping Your PC or Publishing Posthumously – Future Options for Authors
Icelandic writer Sjøn has spent the first half of this year in Lillehammer, Norway, where, on June 2, 2017, heContinue Reading
Detective fiction detective novel Discussion of writing style Modern fiction Mysteries and Thrillers Review of modern fiction Review of Thriller
Straight to the jugular – Blood on Snow, by Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbø does not write like someone who enjoys playing with language and indulging in a bit of purple prose.Continue Reading
Current events Discussion of current events Discussion of genre Discussion of writing style Review of new book Review of science fiction Reviews of short stories
Reality from a different perspective – Giants at the End of the World, Finnish Weird anthology
At the 75th World Science Fiction Conference (Worldcon 75) held in August 2017 in Helsinki, Finland, the bag of goodiesContinue Reading
Current events Discussion of current events Discussion of film/TV series Discussion of writing style Humor Humour Reviews of Screenplays and Dramas
When the film is better than the book – A Man Called Ove
I think people fall into three categories: 1) those who read the book first, then go see the film ofContinue Reading
Backstories Current events Discussion of author’s portfolio Discussion of current events Discussion of film/TV series Discussion of writing style Review of Autobiography Review of memoir
Goodbye, Sir Roger – My Word Is My Bond, by Roger Moore
You could be tempted to dismiss Roger Moore’s autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, as a bit of a joke,Continue Reading
Six rules for writing about AI set out at Worldcon 75
AI, Artificial Intelligence, is the one element that many SF writers like to work into their stories, particularly robot-human interactions.Continue Reading
Backstories Current events Discussion of author’s portfolio Literary analysis Review of science fiction
Readers set the critics right at Worldcon 75
On day 2 of Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, I finally got to have a word with one of the “insider”Continue Reading
How Chinese SF writers deal with “the invisible” – Worldcon 75
Day 2 of Worldcon 75 delivered an Academic Track session that was on par, at least in terms of content,Continue Reading
Poor presentations detract from the messages at Worldcon 75
The first Academic Track session on the first day of Worldcon 75 (the 75th World Science Fiction Conference), on theContinue Reading
Splashes in a suikinkutsu – Experiential content on the Internet
See me, hear me and walk with me – that’s what many websites try to achieve; in other words, connectContinue Reading
Discussion of writing style Fairytales Review of new book Review of new science fiction Review of science fiction
Mental-floss on a grand scale – Death’s End by Cixin Liu
It has been said that many authors seems to be unable to grasp or describe how big outer space is.Continue Reading
Weird and funny – The Rapture of the Nerds by Doctorow & Stross
Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers often present original concepts in their novels, but Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross not only inventedContinue Reading
Depicted like a painting – The One-Eyed Man by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
You know the colour “octarine”? It’s the colour of magic, visible only to magicians and cats, a sparkly, glowing combinationContinue Reading
The magic didn’t work for me – All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders
If I can use one term to describe All the Birds in the Sky it would be “uneven”: uneven inContinue Reading
Why we think that fictional characters are real
The reboot of the TV series Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: The Return premiered on the 21st of May, to a hugeContinue Reading
Backstories Discussion of author’s portfolio Discussion of current events Discussion of writing style Review of new book Review of new science fiction
What makes an AI human? – A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
This novel is on the shortlist for the 2017 Hugo Awards which will be handed out at Worldcon 75 inContinue Reading
The trolls Ūgh and Bõögâr are getting their own perfume
In the previous post I discussed Ūgh and Bõögâr, the creations of Berlin-based Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson. The two trolls areContinue Reading
Mythology Meets Art in Venice – Trolls and Gods
Sometimes artists use themes or characters from Mythology, and currently, two artists have done this in Venice, Italy, in exhibitionsContinue Reading
Poetry that mixes mother tongues – and my poem about my Grandma
It is very hard to make two different languages rhyme. This struck me again when I was researching the phoneticContinue Reading
Discussion of current events Discussion of writing style Review of modern fiction Review of new novel Review of new science fiction
Flummoxed by a “J” – J – A Novel, by Howard Jacobson
Sometimes a novel just flummoxes me. I have tried my best to get to grips with “J” by Howard Jacobson, whichContinue Reading
Not much of a mirror – You Don’t Look Your Age, by Sheila Nevins
With reference to the title of her new biography, Sheila Nevins does not look her age, which is 78 years.Continue Reading
Twists on famous opening lines
(Above: Spot the possum details on these re-imagined book covers. Graphics by M. Bijman) I wondered what would happen ifContinue Reading
Book reviews in published magazines, vs review aggregator sites
Dum-dah-dah…Another one bites the dust…♬ (Sorry, Queen.) A few months ago I announced that my reviews will be published inContinue Reading
Discussion of writing style Modern fiction Review of modern fiction Review of new book Review of novel
A questionable method of child-rearing – Perfect Little World, by Kevin Wilson
I imagine a woman must’ve sat Kevin Wilson down and explained to him in excruciating detail what pregnancy, childbirth, breast-feeding andContinue Reading
This guy knows food – Appetites, by Anthony Bourdain
Sometimes you have to admit you don’t know enough to give an opinion. For Appetites – A Cookbook, I askedContinue Reading
Discussion of author’s portfolio Discussion of writing style Review of modern fiction Review of new book Review of new novel
Nice but Light-Weight – Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
I did not like Backman’s previous novel, A Man Called Ove, but was spurred on to buy book no.3, Britt-MarieContinue Reading
Discussion of writing style Review of literary fiction Review of novel Review of previously published novel
A masterful depiction of boredom – The Evenings by Gerard Reve
This is the first English translation, published in January 2017, of the famous Dutch novel. It is a novel about boredomContinue Reading
Current events Detective fiction Discussion of writing style Modern fiction Review of new book Review of new science fiction
Hard-hitting Alt-history novel – Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
Ben H. Winters wrote the acclaimed, award-winning Science Fiction series, The Last Policeman. I called the hero of the series,Continue Reading
Backstories Discussion of writing style Published books Review of literary fiction Review of previously published novel Review of science fiction Video
Finnish Weird at its best – Troll, by Johanna Sinisalo
Madam, I’m afraid he’s come down with a bad case of Trolls If you’ve never imagined that trolls are anContinue Reading
Backstories Children’s Literature Current events Discussion of writing style Published books Review of previously published novel
“The Little Prince” – The tricky business of fan fiction versus copyright, Part 4 of 4
Here is the last part in a series of four posts on the subject of fan fiction versus copyright rules.Continue Reading
Backstories Comic books Current events Discussion of author’s portfolio Discussion of current events Published books
The Unfinished “Tintin” – The tricky business of fan fiction versus copyright, Part 3 of 4
On the subject of fan fiction versus copyright rules, I am discussing examples of three cases of what seems toContinue Reading
Current events Discussion of author’s portfolio Discussion of current events List of similar books Published books
“The Aleph” – The tricky business of fan fiction versus copyright, Part 2 of 4
To continue the discussion on fan fiction versus copyright, here follows the case of the two “Alephs”, one by Jorge Luis BorgesContinue Reading
The tricky business of fan fiction versus copyright, Part 1 of 4
The Era of the Reboot and Sequel Whenever an author adds a new book on to a successful novel orContinue Reading
Printed books are not only for old fogeys like me
Comic artist and illustrator Lucas Levitan’s particular talent is to superimpose his bulbous-nosed cartoon figures onto actual photos he has found, mostlyContinue Reading
Discussion of genre Discussion of writing style Modern fiction Review of literary fiction Review of new book Review of new novel
From the inside looking out – A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
This is a stylized, studied novel, about a stylish gentleman, written in elegant style. It has a fin-de-siècle feel to it,Continue Reading
GoodReads 2016 – A Year in Books
This is the report of my year on GoodReads.com, where I repost short versions of my reviews. Goodreads still hasContinue Reading
2016 Review – A Year in Books, by the numbers
Another year has passed on the Seven Circumstances book blog. Here are the site stats, courtesy of WordPress’s StatsMonkeys whoContinue Reading
Discussion of writing style Modern fiction Review of literary fiction Review of new book Review of new novel
“Kǔ lé”, a state of both joy and sorrow in Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien
This important novel about two families of brilliant musicians in China during the “Great Leap Forward” (1958 – 1961), the “Cultural Revolution” (1966 –Continue Reading
Doesn’t work, bestseller or not – 300 Days Of Sun, by Deborah Lawrenson
Some magazines don’t publish negative reviews because they want to review books that people will buy. The problem with that argument isContinue Reading
Who’s up for some Surrealist warfare? The Last Days of New Paris, by China Miéville
To give some background on this peculiar novella, The Last Days of New Paris, consider this: No adult, dedicated ScienceContinue Reading
Into the mind of a dead composer: The Noise of Time, by Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes is a writer who does not waste words. While his subjects are often difficult and his novels contain references to specializedContinue Reading
Avoiding the reviewer’s fate of “praising trash”
As of this month, I’m going to be contributing book reviews to Fairlady magazine. For those who don’t know, it’s anContinue Reading
Suffering and sublime beauty – The Famished Road, by Ben Okri
This novel, first published 1991, won Ben Okri the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. You might wonder what relevance aContinue Reading
A perfect world you’d kill to escape from – The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood
The Heart Goes Last held no surprises for me. Dystopia set somewhere in the future? Check. All doomed to implode due toContinue Reading
With love and fatigue from writer and reader – Report from the interior, by Paul Auster
Paul Auster has been one of my favourite authors for many years, but not one whose name would come directly toContinue Reading
Read to your children – they will thank you for it
This is the Information Age and the Social Age. Whether on a tablet, PC, ipad or smart phone, people wadeContinue Reading
Current events Discussion of author’s portfolio Discussion of writing style Review of historical fiction Review of new book Review of new novel Review of previously published novel
“Moonstone” and other books, by Sjón – Prepare to have your head messed with, brilliantly
Sjón: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Reader of Sjón. Her current mission: to explore strange new worlds,Continue Reading
Marthe Bijman (left) reads for pleasure and in order to produce reviews for this website, and certain publishers. She likes Literary Fiction and Science Fiction and finds the translated work of Chinese and Scandinavian authors particularly interesting. She is a Star Trek and James Bond fan – but her taste in literature is eclectic. She lives on the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada, with a big old iMac and various other PCs and Apple gadgets to work on, and, behind her house, a small forest which is home to a black bear. 
