An anthology of authentic and realistic hard science fiction
SF Mistressworks has now been up for a month. During that time, 38 reviews of 35 books have been posted. Some authors have received more reviews than others – Ursula K Le Guin has had four separate titles reviewed, and both Joanna Russ and Doris Piserchia two apiece. Maureen F McHugh’s China Mountain Zhang has [...]
Filed under: science fiction, women in sf | 3 Comments »
We’re halfway through the year, and it’s time to pick out the top five books, films and albums consumed over the previous six months. Not eaten, obviously – but read, watched and listened to, for the first time. Books Last year, three out of the five books I picked at the halfway-mark made it through [...]
Filed under: 2011 roundup, books, films, music | 1 Comment »
I suspect Ian Watson himself would probably scoff at being described as a national treasure of British science fiction, but in four decades he has written twenty-nine novels and a dozen collections and every single one of them is worth reading. As Adam Roberts can attest, as he’s been on something of a Watson kick [...]
Filed under: book porn, ian watson | 4 Comments »
I always come home from conventions feeling mentally refreshed but physically drained. It’s the near-constant input of ideas in conversations and programme items. And so too – in part – for alt.fiction in Derby this weekend just gone. This year’s was the fifth alt.fiction, but the first time it has stretched over two days. It [...]
Filed under: conventions | 8 Comments »
Got this from Nicholas Whyte, who got it from James Nicoll. Italicize the authors you’ve heard of before reading this list of authors, bold the ones you’ve read at least one work by, underline the ones of whose work you own at least one example of. Lynn Abbey Eleanor Arnason Octavia Butler Moyra Caldecott Jaygee [...]
Filed under: meme, women in sf | 9 Comments »
Being the next in an ongoing and irregular series of posts featuring cool pictures from around and about the tinterweb of cool modernist and futurist vehicles, buildings, and suchlike. Some are real, some never got off the drawingboard. aircraft spacecraft cars and trucks buildings cities
Filed under: jetpunk | Tagged: avro 730, buick 1956 concept, chrysler 1961 concept, convair sea dart, gm futurama 1964, gm futureliner, julius shulman, le corbusier, le corbusier museum, lunar korabl, mars mission, vickers type 559, world fair 1939 | 1 Comment »
After all the arguments over the results of the Guardian poll of best/favourite sf novels, it seems the US’s NPR has decided to have a bash here: “Best Science Fiction, Fantasy Books? You Tell Us”. Sigh. I’m not going to bother trawling through the 1700+ comments (as of the time of writing of this post) [...]
Filed under: science fiction, women in sf | 29 Comments »
So I’ve been working on a new novel, and that got me thinking about the way I approach writing. Which is basically write, edit, write, edit… and so on until I’m happy with it. But there are some rules I try to stick to. And, since everyone likes list, I thought I’d share them. Make [...]
Filed under: writing | 14 Comments »
Yesterday’s post, Home truths, was something of an experiment. As one commenter pointed out, my opinion of Asimov and Foundation are well-documented, and there’s little need to repeat it. But that fact, and the responses to Fabio Fernandes’ Mind Meld on the Russ Pledge on SF Signal yesterday and Cheryl Morgan’s post on the SFWA [...]
Filed under: science fiction, women in sf | 7 Comments »
Truth #1 Isaac Asimov was a rubbish writer, and his Foundation is a rubbish book. It has cardboard characters who act as though they belong in 1940s middle America and not a galactic empire. The invention is minimal, the prose is bland and uninspired, the plot doesan’t make sense, and how the book has come [...]
Filed under: science fiction, women in sf | 22 Comments »
