Kindred by Octavia Butler – Galley Beggar Critical Reading Class #2

It was our second session at the Galley Beggars Critical Reading Class moving from contemporary Belfast in Wendy Erskine’s The Benefactors to a modern classic of timeslip fiction, Kindred by Octavia Butler. We started off with Chief Galley Beggar Sam Jordison giving us some biographical background on Butler and about the drafting of the novel Read More

Vampire novels I have read – Ranked!

When I was writing my recent review of Vlad by Carlos Fuentes, a literary relocation of Dracula to modern Mexico, I was struck by the large number of vampire novels that I’ve read over the years, especially since I began blogging – probably more vampires than zombies, fallen angels, demons and perhaps even ghosts added Read More

More modern vampires

Fledgling by Octavia E Butler Fledgling was the last choice for the season of the ‘Not the TV Book Group’, and the lively discussion was hosted by Kim at Reading Matters. Published shortly before the author died, Fledgling is another different and slightly SF take on the vampire novel. Shori looks like a twelve year old black girl, but is actually Read More