Author: Anne McCaffrey & Richard Woods Genre: Fantasy When I first started reading this book, I truly thought that it was a work of non-fiction. Anne McCaffrey tells the story of the result of a phonecall she receives one day at her home. A man asks her to impart her knowledge about dragons. After agreeing [...]

Genre: Comedy / Loathly Lady Motif Plot Outline: This is a story narrated by one of the Pilgrims from Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. The story itself comes after a long prologue by the narrator, in which she describes her various husbands and her own sensibilities (or arguable lack thereof). The tale itself is about a knight [...]

We all remember book reports from school. Most of us remember the 6 questions we were taught to use to write these reports – who, what, when, where, how and why. And most of us hurried through these boring and sometimes painful reports just to get them done. One page, hand written, scratched out on [...]

Genre: Bildungsroman Plot Outline: The orphan Jane Eyre has none to call family except the cold Reeds, her cousins and her mothers’ sister-in-law. Later, she fares no better at the charity school of Lowood. After eight years at the institution, six as a pupil and to as a teacher, she takes up a position as [...]

Genre: Sci-Fi Plot Outline: Music student Killashandra Ree had been told that she could never play an operatic lead. In protest, she walked away from ten gruelling years of tuition…straight into the Hepitite guild of Ballybran, the home of Crystal Singers. For the few who managed to pass the test, being a Crystal Singer brought [...]

It’s Shining in the Dark. Most of the time it’s easy not to read a book because of the genre or its writer, and in many ways this is the cancer of literary world. It’s the point where we divide the camp of literature into good and bad or classic and popular. Most readers like [...]

Having viewed the recent 2009 film, I find it necessary to review the original graphic novel, written by Alan Moore with art work by Dave Gibbons. The critically lauded novel follows a group of mostly retired superheroes circa 1985 whose lives are seemingly threatened by the deaths of one of their comrades, the Comedian, a [...]

Summer time has officially gone, the days are darker, and winter is soon to be on us. Even more reason to stay inside and read, rather than go outside and freeze. Some great books are coming to the shelf this November, including some fantastic crime thrillers from our favourite authors, a new Stephen King novel [...]

Genre: Epic / Romance Plot Outline: Two Knights, Arcite and Palamon, are captured by Duke Theseus of Athens. Whilst in prison, Palamon looks out of the window to see Emily in the garden below him and falls instantly in love. His moan of love is heard by Arcite, who then looks out of the window [...]

Genre: Science Fiction Basic Plot: Sara is walking home through Central park one evening when the stench of dead sea creatures hits her and she falls into an unconscious nightmare of phantom limbs and horrific pain. When she awakes, she finds that she has become a Restoree, and is now on an alien planet. She [...]