Where Pirate Cinema — the first of Cory Doctorow’s books I read — was part novel, part copyright-reform-manifesto, Little Brother, is part novel, part (online) privacy primer. It’s the story of a teenage boy who takes on the Department of Homeland Security (who have turned his hometown, and perhaps the entire nation into a complete… Read more »
Posts Categorized: First Lines
First Lines: Lud-in-the-Mist
If Neil Gaiman didn’t champion Hope Mirrlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist as much as he does, I would not have read it. He calls it one of the finest fantasy novels in the English language, and he is right. It’s utterly enjoyable. It has also proven to be well beyond my ability to say something coherent about it…. Read more »
First Lines: Het Sixtijnse geheim
When Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code took The Netherlands by storm, publishers were looking for similar books to exploit. A translation of Philipp Vandenberg’s 1988 thriller Sixtinische Verschwörung — in which a mysterious inscription is discovered in Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, and it’s true meaning might (!) destroy (!!) the Holy Catholic Church… Read more »
First Lines: De eerste maandag van de maand
Peter Zanting’s second novel De eerste maandag van de maand was released on September 1st, 2014. And since that was the first Monday of the month, you could download it for free on that day. Don’t ask me how that link came to me, but it did, and something triggered me enough to download it,… Read more »
First Lines: Stephen King Short Story Collaborations
In 2012, Stephen King released two collaborative short stories. So far, they remain uncollected in an anthology. The first of the two, In the Tall Grass was written with Joe Hill (their second collaboration, after Throttle). It’s a lot like King’s own Children of the Corn, but then really sick. Loads of fun. A Face… Read more »