Smallworld by Dominic Green
Posted in My Interzone Reviews, Reading Reviewed, Science Fiction at 14:00 on 24 March 2011
Fingerpress, 2010. 282p.
My review of this book has been delivered to Interzone. I’ll let you know when the issue is imminent.
The biographical stuff at the end says Green graduated in English from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
Despite this we had a span count of 3. Also there were three instances of miniscule (sic.)
That last one doesn’t say much for standards at one of Britain’s so-called “best Universities.”
Tags: Dominic Green, Science Fiction, Smallworld
Harsha
3 June 2013 at 13:51
I’m sorry – but your reasons for disliking this book are not clear. A writer is a writer, regardless of the university he studied in
jackdeighton
7 June 2013 at 17:51
Hi Harsha,
Thanks for contributing.
My comment was not about the writing as such. It was to the effect that a supposed good education in English at a so-called “top” University clearly hadn’t taught the writer accepted spellings for relatively common words. Or else he hadn’t bothered to listen to, or read, corrections. This betrays a lack of engagement with, an unthinking misuse of, the tools of his craft.
My full review of Smallworld is at http://jackdeighton.co.uk/2012/03/19/smallworld-by-dominic-green-fingerpress-2010/.
Harsha
8 June 2013 at 14:27
I read the full review, it’s good 🙂
As for the spellings, it happens. Its all about preference, some writers are really good with them, while others take spellings lightly and focus on the other aspects. I’ve noticed this novel is offered for free, which may be a reason for these mistakes.
His vocabulary is rather good, through – there were a lot of words in the book which i didn’t know. All-in all, this book can be a shade compared to the hitch-hiker’s guide
I read the next novel – littlestar. There, the author makes up in a lot of departments 🙂
jackdeighton
8 June 2013 at 22:19
Hi again Harsha,
The edition I read was priced at £12.99 when it came out.
As a review copy I got it free of course but I felt I had to point out to potential readers what I considered to be lack of craft. In my opinion, to spell minuscule as if it derives from mini betrays insufficient knowledge of the writer’s toolkit and undermines the trust a reader must have in the writer. Plus it makes me much less likely to read another work by the same author.