Latest news with #GraceChan
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Battles and betrayals star in the best Sci-Fi and Fantasy books out now: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, Every Version of You by Grace Chan
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Hodderscape £22, 656pp) There's an island, a palace, a soon-to-be-vacated throne and a competition where the great houses put up a champion to succeed the emperor. Naturally, we find intrigue, treachery and fighting, but best of all, right in the thick of things, is the unlikely, spikey figure of Neema Kraa, junior archivist. And if being made the Raven's champion is not enough, she also has to solve a murder. The Raven Scholar is that rare book that stays with you whether you're reading it or not. More than gripping, it's deeply involving as wheels turn, secrets are revealed and fierce, beautiful, brilliant Neema battles through to the end. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz £25, 576pp) It's The Wild Bunch on steroids as a gang of blasphemous monsters escort a guttersnipe princess across a continent for her enthronement – while everyone else tries to kill them on the way. Meet an appallingly pompous magician, an existential vampire who seduces with descriptions of dumplings, a useless priest and, outstandingly, a monstrously gorgeous, tattooed, Viking lady werewolf whose tremendous lusts are almost as strong as her love of meat. No one does journeys like Abercrombie. It's the perfect medium for his deliciously unfair plot twists and violent – very violent – reversals of fortune. See his characters stripped bare, desperate and lovable: the real trademark that sets this bestselling author apart. Every Version of You by Grace Chan (Verve Books £10.99, 320pp) Every Version of You is available now from the Mail Bookshop Draw two timelines: the relentless degradation of the planet along one; a seamless interface with utopian digital space along the other. This disturbing, unflinching and emotionally-charged story explores the point of convergence. Tao-Yi loves Navin but he is ill – Navin's never fully recovered from an operation she recommended. They find themselves spending increasing time in their dreamy online world while Tao-Yi's ageing mother sticks stubbornly to her offline ways. So when Navin wants Tao-Yi to ditch her body to join him forever in cyberspace, she's left with massive questions. Is digital heaven desirable? And in the face of limitless potential, might it be our limitations that make us human?
South China Morning Post
12-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
S+ Summit cum Expo 2025 calls for integration of social impact into business strategy
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Advertisement ESG reporting should not be seen as just a compliance exercise. For businesses seeking resilience, relevance and long-term value, it's time to make social impact part of the core strategy. That's the key message of the S+ Summit cum Expo 2025, where Hong Kong's business leaders, social innovators, and community builders will converge to reimagine how cross-sector collaboration can drive both profit and purpose. Taking place on 20-21 May at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the S+ Summit cum Expo is Hong Kong's largest cross-sector platform dedicated to sustainable development and social service innovation. Grace Chan, chief executive of HKCSS, says the key to lasting impact lies in collective effort: 'Only through shared effort can we go further, like a relay. It's the collective energy that moves society forward.' 'The S+ Summit cum Expo is a key platform for the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) to promote cross-sector collaboration, using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) as a shared framework for exploring innovative social solutions,' said Grace Chan Man-yee, chief executive of 32 seminars and workshops, 130+ speakers from France, Japan, Singapore, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), mainland China, and across Hong Kong, the event aims to foster collaboration on a wide range of issues from AI ethics and youth mental health, to corporate-social partnerships, diversity, the silver economy and caregiver support. Advertisement This year's theme, centred on the "Three S's" – Synergy, Social Impact and Sustainability, seeks to shift the narrative from traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) to genuine co-creation and systemic change.
