Reviews
Now reviewed in Kirkus Review Magazine
Although I received an online Kirkus Review (starred!) a few months ago, the review is now appearing in the official Jan 2025 edition of Kirkus Reviews.
Shortlisted! (UPDATED)
The novel has been shortlisted for the Reedsy Discovery Editor's choice award! (UPDATE: But did not win.)
Elemental Marie Curie
A Review of Reviews
You can’t just launch a novel and assume the world will find its way to your door, or even to your cash register. You have to advertise, and part of advertising is giving readers a good reason to plunk down their money to read your story.
Review by Self-Publishing Review
Another positive review
"Brilliant, Funny, Nostalgic, Scientific - A Perfect Blend of Philosophy, 'Dead Poets Society,' and 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'"
Starred review on Kirkus!
"Heartbreaking and hilarious" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
First review, on BookLife
"Alive with mad inventions, scientific breakthroughs, a wicked sense of play....Lovers of thoughtful, humane science fiction steeped in weird science will feast..
[A] thrillingly inventive novel of growing up the son of a mad scientist."
Deconstructing the Iliad
I only recently read Homer’s Iliad in full. Like many people, as a child I became fascinated by Greek and Roman stories of gods, heroes, and monsters. But the translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey I picked up were so awkward and off-putting I quickly lost patience and put them aside.
A few years ago, my wife and I bought the new translation by Emily Wilson of the Odyssey, and over the course of many nights read it aloud to each other. (Early in our marriage we picked up the habit of reaching aloud to each other in the evenings, and keep an eye out for suitable texts.) More recently Wilson has translated the Iliad, and I decided to finally read it—though silently, to myself.