And … you’re back in the room

So, I’ve been away for a while. It wasn’t really intentional, but I’ve been completely overwhelmed by work and family commitments since about March, and this site is one of the many, many things that have fallen by the wayside. Things have eased off a little lately, but since I’m now working hard on a new book I’m not going to make any rash promises about how much I can manage on top of that.

I’m hoping I’ll get a few things up in the next week or two, but in the meantime I thought I’d link to my reviews Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312, a book that seems to be getting fairly polarised reactions from readers and critics (for what it’s worth I thought it had extraordinary bits but was less good than I wanted it to be overall) and of G. Willow Wilson’s Arabian Nights/Arab Spring/tech thriller Alif the Unseen, a book that’s generating a huge amount of buzz overseas.

And I’ve plugged the Alabama Shakes before, but if you haven’t heard them, you might want to take a moment to check out this live recording of the title track from their new album, Boys and Girls. It’s a great song, and Britanny Howard’s voice is even more jaw-dropping live than in the studio.