General Fiction Books

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Illustration ©2018 Chris Samnee from The Folio Society edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

It is 1939. Forced to live together in a small New York apartment, two young men, Samuel Clay and Joseph Kavalier bond over their shared interest in comic books and cartoon art. Together, they create ‘The Escapist’, a Nazi fighting Superhero who journeys across the world to fight for the oppressed.

Right from the title, Michael Chabon’s episodic story of these...

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

I've been trying to expand my range of reading for a while now, crime fiction especially. I hadn't realised that the talented Warren Ellis had written a crime novel.

For those who haven't heard of Ellis he's a renown British writer best known for his comic book writing. He's won seven Eagle awards and has had his work adapted into films on a number of occasions - perhaps his most famous being the film Red featuring Bruce Willis, Karl Urban, Morgan Freeman and Hel...

Rhyming Rings by David Gemmell

David Gemmell died eleven years ago, he was one of the most popular fantasy authors in the UK, a regular Sunday Times bestseller. His legacy lives on not just in the annual David Gemmel Legend Award but more importantly in the influence his writing had on the fantasy genre.

I first encountered his books in the early 90's and was hooked from the start. He was one of the few authors who I'd eagerly await the next story and one who's work I would read and re-read many times...

Dust and Desire by Conrad Williams

I don't often get the chancce to read a crime novel and so when Titan Books let slip that the third novel in the Joel Sorrell series was about to be released I couldn't resist giving the series a try. Dust and Desire is the first book featuring the PI and sets the scene prefectly.

The prologue describes a killer freshly arrived on the streets of London, finding a victim almost straight away. Meanwhile Joel reluctantly agrees to help Kara Geenan find her lost brother who she ...

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

Every so often I like to lift my head above the science fiction and fantasy world and read something unconnected. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen was the choice this time, a classic novel of discovery.

Matthiessen was a literary giant, the only writer to win the National Book Award for both fiction and non-fiction. Winning the 1979 Contemporary Thought Award and 1980 General Non-Fiction award for this very book. He also won the 2008 Fiction Award and the 2010 William Dean Howe...

Roseanna by Maj Sjowall

This review is written for the Killer Reads website, a fantastic resource for anything crime and thriller related. Originally written in the 1960's by the Swedish author Maj Sjowall and her partner Per Wahlöö, Roseanna is a defining point in the genre of crime fiction, not only founding the award winning ten book series that feature Martin Beck - all of which have been made into films - but influencing many authors including Stieg Larsson (author of the Girl with the Dragon tattoo), ...