Gary Dalkin
…is a freelance editor, writing consultant and story structure expert. To find out more, including hiring me to work on your writing project, read my profile or visit my website, To The Last Word.
Review: City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Gary Dalkin rounds up novels that feature cities at the end of time.
Review: The Space Opera Renaissance edited by Kathryn Cramer & David...
An updated review of a seminal and influential anthology - The Space Opera Renaissance
Review: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Prisoner of Heaven is actually what you get when a stand-alone novel sells 15 million copies and the author decides to write sequels without a worthwhile new story to tell.
The Thirteenth Tale (BBC TV film) – Review
A review of the BBC production of Diane Setterfield's novel of the same name
The Time of the Doctor / Death Comes to Pemberley –...
Gary Dalkin reviews an unusual Jenna Louise Coleman set of performances - The Time of the Doctor back-to-back (ion the BBC) with Death Comes To Pemberley
Cloud Atlas, Skyfall and the McDonaldization of Hollywood
Gary Dalkin reviews Cloud Atlas and Skyfall and talks about the homogenization of American cinema.
Quatermass II – revisited
Quatermass II is a rare sequel that is an improvement over the original in every respect.
The Quatermass Xperiment – Revisited
In this post I'll look at The Quatermass Xperiment, and next week consider the follow-up, Quatermass 2.
Review – Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Gary Dalkin reviews a novel that wants to be - ought to be - a movie
The Week of the Doctor
Just in case you've missed out on all the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary happenings....
Too Long After – A Time Limit On Sequels & Prequels?
How long after is too long? Returning to a great original is fraught with difficulties at any time, but the more time goes by, the more the problems compound.
Review – The Man Who Haunted Himself (Blu-Ray/DVD)
The Man Who Haunted Himself is, as the title suggests, both a ghost and a doppelgänger story
Book Review – Feast and Famine by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Imaginings Volume: 6 - Feast and Famine is a collection of ten short stories by the British writer Adrian Tchaikovsky, best known for the nine-volume (and counting) fantasy series, Shadows of the Apt, published by Tor.
Movie Review: Grabbers (Blu-Ray)
Grabbers has been dismissed in some quarters for not doing anything original. Well most films don’t do anything original, and Grabbers does achieve a couple of things I’ve never seen before.
Review – Mr Nobody (the best film you’ve never heard of)
The full 158 minute director’s cut is simply one of the best films I have ever seen.
Review – Searching for Ray Bradbury by Steven Paul Leiva
A loving tribute to the memory of one of the most important figures both in the history of our genres and in American popular culture and the literature of the 20th century.
Saving Doctor Who – Episode 2: Arcs, Horror and Screwdrivers
Every generation of children has the right to be scared senseless and feel a powerful urge to watch from behind the sofa.
Review – Anime by Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc
Anime is not intended as a definitive guide, but as wide ranging introduction to the field. Even so, seasoned anime watchers will find the book valuable for the opinions expressed
It’s All My Fault – An Apology
Another summer of cinematic wilderness is drawing to a close and I owe you all a big apology. Why? Because I am responsible for the terrible state of mainstream American cinema today.
Review – Falling Over by James Everington
Falling Over is a book about perception, about characters who come to doubt their sense of the reality of the world, whose perceptions are doubled, who extrapolate alternative realities or timelines or encounter, or imagine they encounter, doppelgängers.
The Name of the Doctor is… Peter
So the excellent actor Peter Capaldi is to play the 12th incarnation of the Doctor. Perhaps with the 50th anniversary of the programme approaching...
Revisiting Richard C. Meredith’s Timeliner Trilogy
I recently came across an announcement that writer-director Robert H. Gwinn is planning to film his own three part adaptation of Richard C. Meredith’s...
Jurassic Park is 20 – What Went Wrong?
Jurassic Park opened in the UK 20 years ago this month. A 3D conversion was foisted upon an indifferent a few months ago. Universal...
Ender’s Game Over
I have a personal rule not to get involved in online discussions which have the potential to turn fractious. Yesterday I made the mistake...
Stardust: The Ruby Castle Stories, by Nina Allan
Stardust is one of three books by Nina Allan published so far this year. First was the story collection Microcosmos. Next came the novella,...
Joyland by Stephen King – review
In Stephen King’s best novel in years, 11.22.63 (2011), the veteran author revisited the period of his youth, the 1950s and ‘60s. A character...
Spin by Nina Allan – review
Nina Allan’s Spin is the second in a new series of novellas published by the Third Alternative Press, home of leading UK genre magazines...