Chris Carrel

I fell in love with Arsenal FC, in 2004, as they began an incredible run of 50 unbeaten games. They were a team that was easy to appreciate. Hornsby tells the backstory of a team that wasn't so lovable, the “boring, boring Arsenal” of the 1970s and how as a boy, Hornsby came to love the unfashionable Arsenal FC.
A great football book, and an intriguing bio and period piece.

Robert Charles Wilson is one of my favorite sci-fi writers, and while I enjoyed Spin, the sequel Axis, left me a little flat.

It's a decent read, but the characters are just not that engaging and ultimately, the story of the Hypotheticals - the mysterious alien force that enclosed the Earth in a time bubble in Spin - is pretty pedestrian.

There appear to be two authors named Dan Simmons. One, who wrote The Terror, one of the better works of fiction I've read in recent memory and the other who wrote this piece of tripe, a pastiche of far right-wing paranoia - America destroyed by “entitlements,” invaded by Mexicans, a “global caliphate” ascendant, Israel nuked by Iran (of said caliphate), global climate change a myth, etc. The only thing missing was the main characters extolling the virtue of investing in gold.

It could've worked, though, if only the author had stitched those hare-brained ideas together with solid characters, good dialogue, and believable plotting.

Child murders are grim enough, but when set against a very stark, very real Stalinist Russia where even spouses can denounce (and send to their death) each other, it makes for a novel that is not for the faint of heart. Yet, the story of Leo Dimidev, one of Stalin's secret policemen, as he tries to find the truth about a serial killer in a society that doesn't want to acknowledge such crimes, is a story of redemption. The characters are full-fledged and nuanced, the narrative tautly paced. This is a thriller with its share of surprises, not the least of which is how redemption and some level of optimism is found in such a grim, dangerous place.