by Niamh O’Brien The Woodchipper is a collection of five stand alone, character-driven short stories that explore the messy, often unglamorous realities of contemporary life. Across all five stories, Ollmann portrays flawed, believable characters whose problems reflect broader issues: underpaid labour, economic instability, burnout, and the false promises of modern capitalism. The afterword ties these themes together, offering a gentle critique of the systems that contribute to the misery and occasional joy of everyday life. For the purpose of clarity, the short stories will be identified throughout this review using “Story Title.” After a deliberately vague workplace incident, Charlie, “The… Read More
Breadcrumbs – Coming of Age in Post-Soviet Poland
awaiting review
Transhuman
I can’t really recommend this as having anything profound to say about medicine. I saw it in a comics shop in Philladelphia and the theme interested me but its a fairly lightweight “mockumentary” about the future of human improvement through genetic engineering and cybernetics. Its about greed and the ruthless ways that rival companies war with each other in an attempt to make money for venture capitalists. Chimeracorp is making modified monkeys which break out and start killing people so, partly to catch them, they start trying to create super-heroes by genetic modification, with predictably variable results. Meanwhile rival splinter… Read More