novels

I was running out of passports, ones I could use. --Mr Nice, Howard Marks

I've been reading a bit of sci-fi again recently. Any recommendations for really good and relatively recent (10 years) sci-fi novels that really hold together well as a work of fiction and don't start with a good idea but tale off like many seem to. I've been reading lots of good short stories...

I just finished reading A State of Denmark by Derek Raymond. It's told in the first person, and at the end the hero Richard Watt (who narrates the story) dies. That always seems like a cop out to me, as it shouldn't (can't?) happen. It's happened to me before when reading a novel and always...

Can anyone recommend a good historical novel set in the European Renaissance (around 15th and 16th centuries)? Here is my criterion for "good": 1. Historically accurate - uses historical events and people as a backdrop for the plot. Does not idealize the period, but gives every effort to...

Over the last few years, I have read two excellent novels about magicians/escape artists. They are The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon, which also won the Pulitzer and is being made into a movie; and Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold. I never previously had...

I've talked to a few Australian authors who have sold in the US and the UK. Now, while European and UK countries usually aren't too bad, distributors in the US demand that literature written with Australian terms must be translated. Doonas must be 'quilts', utes 'pickups' etc. In writing...