Monthly Archives: August 2009

Churchill’s Wizards – Nicholas Rankin

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Ela

Subtitled ‘The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945’, this is a history of those men (and they were nearly all men) who began and continued the arts of wartime deception: propaganda, camouflage, ruses, misdirection, rumour-mongering, double-agents, false suggestion, and so on. … Continue reading →

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Matter – Iain M. Banks

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Ela

One of Banks’ ‘Culture’ novels, Matter is set primarily on a spendidly-realised Shellworld – a gigantic constructed planet with several levels, each of which is connected to the others by means of Towers, but each of which is lit by … Continue reading →

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Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Ela

‘Cloud Atlas’ comes garlanded with superlatives, being David Mitchell’s third novel, after ‘Ghostwritten’ and ‘number9dream’. It has an interesting structure: ABCDEFEDCBA: where each letter represents one strand of story. The tales are each slightly connected through allusions in the others. … Continue reading →

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