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Oliver Arditi

Writing all the things.

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Category: Fiction

Entertaining contrivance

What little I’ve read of Neal Stephenson’s work has made me want to read more of it, but I don’t … More

Neal Stephenson, REAMDE

A warm voice in a cold world

When I wrote down my thoughts in response to La Belle Sauvage, which is the first volume of Philip Pullman’s … More

His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, The Book of Dust, The Secret Commonwealth

Expert hand-holding

Worldbuilder, storyteller—these are Philip Pullman’s great strengths for me. As a ‘novel-maker’ he’s stuck in a rather old-fashioned, comfortable mode … More

His Dark Materials, La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman, The Book of Dust

Thresholds

We cross thresholds, we readers. Each book we read is entered through a portal, and marking those portals—projected onto the … More

A Musical Offering, Charco Press, Fionn Petch, Luis Sagasti

A game of madness

I’ve never paid particular attention to Nicholas Hawksmoor’s famous London churches, although I am familiar with some of them. I … More

Hawksmoor, Iain Sinclair, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd

One face in a thousand

In Rhetorics of Fantasy, her important structural taxonomy of fantasy literature, Farah Mendlesohn identifies four key types of fantasy, defined … More

Corum, Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Farah Mendlesohn, Joseph Campbell, Michael Moorcock, Rhetorics of Fantasy, The Eternal Champion, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, The King of the Swords, The Knight of the Swords, The Queen of the Swords, The Swords Trilogy, The Tale of the Eternal Champion

Worlds and authorities

I was spurred by the recent BBC TV adaptation of Northern Lights to re-read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, … More

His Dark Materials, Northern Lights, Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife

The magic of the real

My introduction to fantasy fiction was The Lord of the Rings, which I encountered surprisingly early, while visiting a friend … More

A Wizard of Earthsea, Earthsea, Tales From Earthsea, Tehanu, The Books of Earthsea, The Farthest Shore, The Other Wind, The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

Energy and entertainment

My long-interrupted project to read or re-read all of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books has at last been resumed, after … More

Hawkmoon, Michael Moorcock, The History of the Runestaff, The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, The Runestaff, The Sword of the Dawn

A trajectory

General relativity tells us something enticing about time. It doesn’t tell us what many would like it to tell us, … More

A Study in Scarlet, Charles Howard Hinton, dérive, Iain Sinclair, Jack the Ripper, James Hinton, psychogeography, Sherlock Holmes, White Chappell Scarlet Tracings, William Gull

For the readers

There’s something wonderful about being immersed in the world of a book, something which for me is even more pronounced … More

Booker Prize, Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments

Veils of allusion

Iain Sinclair walks London’s sacred geometries, pursuing a dérive that moves obliquely across the familiar, prosaic territories of the city. … More

dérive, Iain Sinclair, Lud Heat, sacred geometry, Suicide Bridge

Ruthlessly imagined

It’s very unusual for me to read a recently published novel, much less a prize-winning one. This is mainly because … More

Anna Burns, Booker Prize, Booker winner, Milkman

Impossible speech

I have a pet theory. I would like to articulate it eventually through a scholarly monograph, but for the moment … More

A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, epic fantasy, fantasy, Fire and Blood, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, Targaryen, Westeros, world building

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