Author Archives: Barbara Howe

Why does fantasy have to be so long?

Posted on 24 November 2018 by Barbara Howe

Why is so much speculative fiction so long? In the past year I have read several stories that were more than 500 pages: Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (782 pages), Brandon Sanderson’s Well of Ascension (763 pages), Eric … Continue reading →

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Armistice Day

Posted on 10 November 2018 by Barbara Howe

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns stopped. That was one hundred years ago today. Out of a population of one million, New Zealand sent nearly one hundred thousand (100,000) men—and a few … Continue reading →

Posted in New Zealand | Leave a comment

Uprooted

Posted on 4 November 2018 by Barbara Howe

Uprooted, the Nebula-award-winning novel by Naomi Novik, is one of the most captivating fantasy novels I have read in several years. I was hooked within the first page, from the fairytale-like opening paragraphs, and although there are a few things … Continue reading →

Posted in Epic Fantasy | Leave a comment

Spindle

Posted on 27 October 2018 by Barbara Howe

Although I love fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty, with its passive princess, is not usually one of my favourites. But in Spindle, Polyhymnia is no princess, Luck, the man who kisses her awake, is no prince, and being dragged kicking awake … Continue reading →

Posted in Noblebright Fantasy | Leave a comment

Fingersmith

Posted on 14 October 2018 by Barbara Howe

Fingersmith, Sarah Water’s neo-Victorian crime novel, is the lesbian daughter of Oliver Twist and The Woman in White, fostered by Jane Eyre. Got your attention? There is a romance, between two people who happen to be women, but ‘lesbian’ is … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical Mysteries | Leave a comment

Pay Dirt

Posted on 5 October 2018 by Barbara Howe

The ghoul claims he’s cursed. Ozzy Turner tells him he isn’t, and Ozzy ought to know. He makes a living breaking curses and finding lost items, and every test he knows has come up empty. He’s right; when the ghoul … Continue reading →

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George

Posted on 22 September 2018 by Barbara Howe

In most ways, Melissa is a typical fourth-grade girl: she likes to wear pink, she cries when upset, she has a BFF, and she loves Charlotte’s Web. She loves the character of Charlotte so much that she’s devastated when she … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Fiction | Leave a comment

Resurrection in Progress

Posted on 15 September 2018 by Barbara Howe

You would think, wouldn’t you, that a computer science professional who’s been in the business for decades would know the value of backups? I do, and I have most of the content of my blog backed up on my home … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writer's Life | Leave a comment

Rendezvous with Rama

Posted on 27 July 2018 by Barbara Howe

The year is 2131. Aboard the Solar Survey ship Endeavour, Commander Bill Norton and a team of scientists are on a mission to intercept and glean what information they can from an alien spacecraft as it hurtles through our solar … Continue reading →

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Thirteen Orphans

Posted on 15 July 2018 by Barbara Howe

Years ago in the Land Born of Smoke and Sacrifice, a China-like alternate reality, the winners in a war exiled the losers into our reality. The exiles—the young emperor and his twelve advisors, each personifying an animal in the Chinese … Continue reading →

Posted in Noblebright Fantasy, Urban Fantasy | Leave a comment