It’s time to delve into strange new worlds, and new civilisations again as I boldly go venturing into the next novel in the Pocket Book Star Trek series. Set between the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the novel has a bit of an ecological theme,…
Category: The Book Shelf
Children of Dune (1976) – Frank Herbert
Thus week, I returned to the desert planet of Arrakis, also known as Dune. The third book in the series picks up some nine to ten years after the last novel, Dune Messiah. The last novel ended with Paul Atreides, Maud’Dib, wandering into the deep desert in the Fremen tradition of discarding the old and…
Seven Fallen Feathers (2017) – Tanya Talaga
Seven Fallen Feathers is a defining book. It is a haunting, distressing and angering discourse on racism and loss in Northern Ontario, and across Canada. Talaga, a dedicated and insightful journalist turns her investigative eye, shining it like a spotlight onto a piece of Canadian life that many of us are loathe to discuss, accept,…
The Maltese Falcon (1929) – Dashiell Hammett
Sam Spade. Almost some ninety years on, the name still conjures images. One can see Bogart, fedora atop his head, overcoat hanging on his frame, cigarette dangling from his lips while he has a heater in one hand, and a dame on the other. No matter your experience with Spade, brought to life incredibly in…
At The Mountains of Madness (1931) – H.P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft’s unnerving novella, At the Mountains of Madness was my next read, and I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. It’s dark, frightening, and immensely enjoyable. An Antarctic expedition finds something they don’t expect, and from there the tale descends into horror and madness. I feel that the story influenced the short story of…
The Daylight War (2013) – Peter V. Brett
Digging into the third book of The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett has been long overdue, but it was very much worth the wait. After the climactic conclusion of the previous instalment, not to mention some of the revelations, the characters are left in some strange places. The novel picks up shortly after the…
Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) – Stephen King
Reading like a cross between Our Town and The Wolfman, Stephen King’s too short novella, Cycle of the Werewolf is on the Book Shelf this week. Serving as the basis of the 1985 film, Silver Bullet, Werewolf reads as a not fleshed out enough short story. That’s not to say it doesn’t work. It does….
The Jaws Log: Expanded Edition (1975/2005) – Carl Gottlieb
Anyone who has even visited the blog knows what my favourite movie is. I mean, it’s right there in the banner. Jaws has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I have very few memories that would have occurred before I saw it, I mean I was three going…
Marvel: Black Panther – The Ultimate Guide (2018) – Stephen Wiacek
On February 16, 2018, Marvel will launch the next film in it’s cinematic universe, Black Panther, starring Chadwick Boseman, first seen in the role in Captain America: Civil War. And as always, DK Canada has me covered in learning everything I need to about the character before I travel to the mythical African country of…
The Black Hole (1979) – Alan Dean Foster
I remember having this novel as a child. In fact, the soundtrack, the first recorded digitally, was one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money as a child. The film has been a favourite of mine for some time, flaws and all, so when I came cross the novel at a…
The Mind Reels 