Life with a dash of zing
Alex Vella Gera: Is-Sriep Reġgħu Saru Velenużi. Merlin Publishers. 2012. 526 pp. On an island like Malta, one particular X-factor is likely to turn any book into an immediate object of discussion, hype and desire. That X factor, particularly mere months after his passing, is former premier Dom Mintoff. Add an assassination conspiracy to the [...]
Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl, Crown, 2012. 432 pp. This review appeared on the Sunday Times. Despite the blurb describing this book as a psychological thriller, the actual summary of the plotline made me start reading it fully expecting an easy-going, summer chick-lit. Just the thing to while away some lazy hours at the beach, I [...]
E.L. JAMES: Fifty Shades Freed, Vintage Books, 2012. 456 pp. €7.73 It’s the trilogy that is enjoying as much hype as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, although of course the genres couldn’t be more different from each other. The first Fifty Shades instalment was released less than a year ago, while the final volume – [...]
As I’m writing this, I just came back from a session of exasperated eye-rolling at one of Valletta’s coffee-shops. The reason? The girl sitting at the table next to mine just couldn’t stop waxing lyrical about a particular movie that’s really raking in the cash right now: The Hunger Games. I realise that I’m totally [...]
The fact that this Young Adult novel comes without sparkly vampires made it an immediate winner in my book (sorry). But after spending an evening in the company of the characters that Ivan Bugeja created in Ġimgħa, Sibt u Ħadd , the verdict was simple to reach: this is a story that anyone who spent [...]
The last instalment in John A Bonello’s Il-Logħba tal-Allat trilogy was recently released to the delight of fantasy fans in Malta. Fantasy epics set across multiple worlds are not exactly common genres with Maltese writers. You could say that the only other bona fide fantasy trilogy written in our native language was Simon Bartolo’s and [...]
So I have finally (about a week ago, to be precise) started reading John A Bonello’s famed Il-Logħba tal-Allat trilogy. I confess to an unreasonable frustration with trilogies. Go ahead, stone me. It’s just that whenever an author comes up with the “this is the first book of a trilogy” statement, I know perfectly well [...]
Judging by the amount of people who have “invaded” St James Cavalier, this is set to be another uber successful edition for Malta Comic Con. The vibe this morning was already at a high. Amongst the things that impressed me most: The sheer amount of international artists: when you get names like Gary Erskine, David [...]
“Steampunk: a retro-futuristic neo-Victorian sensibility that is being embraced by fiction, music, games, and fashion.” theclockworkcentury.com Welcome to a world of weird and wonderful gadgets operating against a totally fictional Victorian setting as a group of Maltese student artists get together to create Pilot, Malta’s first sequential art anthology. As the anthology is being launched [...]
Geeks and nerds all across Malta are getting ready for the third edition of MaltaComicCon, which – if last year’s response is anything to go by – is no longer the purview of a niche market but is getting anyone with a smidgen of imagination all excited. I met up with artist Chris Le Galle, [...]
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