In this relatively short sci-fi novel the reader will find everything: interstellar jumps and unknown planets, friendship and treachery, love and hate. Brave rebels will fight ruthless dictators, a brilliant mind will solve complicated mysteries and friends will turn into enemies. What will never be found in this book is a single mention of three Laws of Robotics or a single robot, even the simplest of them. This book is not about robotics.
Read the rest of this entry »

Another one of those great Hercule Poirot mysteries. A young, beautiful lady hires the famous detective to do, in her own words, something fantastic.
Read the rest of this entry »

J.J.Connington (Alfred Walter Stewart) wrote, as I read in Wikipedia, 17 detective novels, but only one of them ever came my way. I bought it from another lover of the English language, here, in Saratov, ages ago – and have no idea how many other owners the book had before it fell into my hands, but it looks very old and its paper cover is falling apart.
Read the rest of this entry »

“The Weirdstone of Brisingamen” was sent to us as a gift to my daughter who is studying English. Well, she is 11 and might indeed like the book, but she needs more lessons before she can deal with it. The hardest part for her would be dealing with Gowther Mossock’s Cheshire accent. I thought of trying to read the book out loud to her, but first decided to get acquainted with it myself.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I know, this book was originially written in French, but I don’t read in French. It so happens that when I was a kid and read Jules Verne’s other books in Russian, this particular book never came my way either. But now as I was sorting that huge pile of book I’d received as a gift from a friend (it filled a huge suitcase), the English translation of “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” attracted my attention, and I read it. The translation is done by Robert Baldick, and it’s quite good.
Read the rest of this entry »

Back to classical and well-known literature of the nineteenth century – truly the Golden Age of literature. Oscar Wilde’s only novel, into which he put all his genius, keeps fascinating generations of readers, because love and hate, moral and immoral deeds, purity and depravity, and good and bad influences are topics that don’t belong to any particular time – they will exist for as long as human beings trample on the surface of the Earth.
Read the rest of this entry »

“From Doon with Death” is the first novel ever written by Ruth Rendell, the one with which she earned recognition as a new master of the genre. Probably its being the first is the reason why it reads so easily without putting any strain on the reader. In fact, it’s not much shorter than “Shake Hands For Ever” by the same author, but, unlike the other one, gives no feeling of being unnecessarily stretched. There’s nothing depressive about it, either.
Read the rest of this entry »

This book is relatively young – written in 1998 – and somewhat unusual. I’d say it’s like any other detective story in some way – and yet unlike in many other ways. It’s written in gorgeous British English, but the events take place far away from England – in Botswana, so all the characters are supposed to talk to each other in Setswana most of the time, and the readers receive a “translated” version.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a Chief Inspector Wexford mystery and my first ever acquaintance with the character. I’ve read a book by Barbara Vine – and Barbara Vine and Ruth Rendell are the same person – but my dear friend Ann once recommended that I read the Chief Inspector Wexford series. She thought I’d like it. What’s more, she sent me a gift – an parcel in which several of those books were neatly placed.
Read the rest of this entry »

“Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” is just one book from the series about Lucky Starr’s adventures and, from my point of view, the best of them all. I have read the whole series, but never had the desire to re-read the rest of them. “Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” was one of my first books in English; I have re-read it multiple times through the years and know parts of it by heart.
Read the rest of this entry »