An anthology of authentic and realistic hard science fiction
The first programme item I was on at Illustrious, the 2010 Eastercon last weekend, was “Read This Book”. It was, however, cancelled, perhaps because it was scheduled against the BSFA Awards. I can’t say I’m too upset about the cancellation – and the Award Ceremony is one of the few Eastercon programme items I make [...]
Filed under: books, colin greenland, paul park, science fiction | Leave a Comment »
So that was the 2011 Eastercon, Illustrious. It might very well have been a train-wreck – hotel in the middle of nowhere, military sf theme, disorganised programme… – but it actually turned out to be a blast. In a good way, of course. The train journey there took me less time than I’d expected, so [...]
Filed under: conventions | 6 Comments »
As promised, here is a list of science fiction novels by women sf writers whose careers have been active chiefly during the past decade. The sharper-eyed among you will spot two authors who were also on the previous sf mistressworks list. I felt both books deserved to be on this list, and so they are. [...]
Filed under: book list, meme, science fiction, women in sf | 8 Comments »
Yet more culture – or its complete opposite – devoured by Yours Truly in the past four weeks or so. Someone, incidentally, needs to invent a way to upload books directly to the brain. Reading them is too low-bandwidth. I’m never going to be able to get the TBR down to manageable levels if it [...]
Filed under: books, films, jan kempenaers, readings & watchings 2011 | Tagged: éric rohmer, carol reed, chris marker, david herter, david mitchell, frank capra, frédéric chaubin, hannu rajaniemi, john harvey, lewis shiner, marie darrieussecq, peter watts, reginald hill, terry dowling | Leave a Comment »
Today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight. Half a century ago, Gagarin was the first human being to leave this planet – albeit for only one hour and forty-eight minutes. Thirty years ago today was also the launch of the first Space Shuttle to reach orbit, Columbia. Which was sadly lost eight years [...]
Filed under: rocket science, science fiction, writing | 4 Comments »
There is a branch of science fiction – some would say it’s the branch which actually defines the genre – known as “hard science fiction”. Like all the terms associated with sf, its meaning is confused, confusing, disputed and not always useful. Wikipedia, for instance, defines hard sf as science fiction which is “characterized by [...]
Filed under: science fiction, writing | 10 Comments »
The author tells us that he’d had the title in his head for years, but no real plot to go with it. “Later the idea of setting the story on a generation starship occurred to me,” he says. “And then I decided it should be about terrorism, which fit perfectly with the setting – the [...]
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Over on Pornokitsch they’re doing V Days of Rome, and some excellent content has been posted so far. I was invited to contribute and wrote one of my customary rants on the over-use, and mis-use, of the Roman Empire as inspiration in space operas. It’s all Isaac Asimov’s fault, of course. See my piece here.
Filed under: science fiction, world-building, writing | Leave a Comment »
April’s VideoVista is now up, containing my reviews of turgid fantasy reworking of Moby Dick, Age of the Dragons (review here), clumsy dream-world thriller Ink (review here), and Irish people smuggling drama Trafficked (review here).
Filed under: film review, videovista | Leave a Comment »
