Nicholas King profile

Place of birth: Azores, Portugal

Nicholas King's 7 reviews

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick

When one reads any story written by Philip K. Dick, one expects certain themes and situations to appear. An example would be the question: What constitutes reality? In A Scanner Darkly, Dick uses drug culture and the often-debilitating effects of drug abuse to take the reader through a journey into a fracturing mind. It is an honest portrayal of...

9.0/10

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Death Angel's Shadow by Karl Edward Wagner

Karl Edward Wagner’s work can be described as brutally nihilistic in both tone and scope. In a trio of short stories, Wagner sends Kane, the Mystic Swordsman, hurtling from one blood-soaked adventure to another. Each story that makes up Death Angel’s Shadow surrounds itself with death like a hedonistic lover’s arms. And while t...

8.8/10

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The First Days: As the World Dies by Rhiannon Frater

Of all the monsters humans have created, zombies stand out as among the most terrifying. While vampires (representing unbridled sexuality and the lure of immortality) and werewolves (representing the animalistic id of human nature) are arguably the most popular, zombies have become the metaphor for our greatest fear: our own consumer nature run ...

8.0/10

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Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Religion and sexuality are two of the most difficult subjects to engage as a writer. Regardless of the writer’s intentions, someone is going to be deeply offended or challenged, probably both. Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land seeks to both offend and challenge. Heinlein uses the eponymous stranger to stand on a soap box a...

8.0/10

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The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolf (Book of the New Sun)

To say that Gene Wolfe is a difficult author is both a compliment and a knock. In Shadow of the Torturer, the first in a four book series known as The Book of the New Sun, Wolfe’s strongly allusive language is on full display. From character names to descriptions to articles of clothing, Wolfe uses language in the most deliberate fashion. ...

8.5/10

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Dune by Frank Herbert

To borrow a line from a film adaptation of this novel: “When politics and religion ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows.” Frank Herbert’s Dune is easily one of the most layered works of fiction produced during the twentieth century. From examining Byzantine political gambits to the human penchant for hero worship, Herbe...

9.4/10

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Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner

As I read Karl Edward Wagner’s Darkness Weaves, I was struck by the familiarity of the setting. The pre-industrial (and possibly post-apocalyptic) world of Kane, the Mystic Swordsman, is classic sword and sorcery with malevolent witches, blood-soaked battles, and a plethora anti-heroes. This is not “high fantasy” of the Tolkien...

8.5/10

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