I’ve just read Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman which is an interesting read. In the future, death has pretty much been banished but what replaces it?
Whilst travelling through space, Jacob, a virtual reality engineer, is involved with an emergent AI which effects its presence through the scenarios of the twentieth century. In the philosophical discussions [...]
Oxford University Press are not a publisher that one expects in the sf field (apart from the fine fantasy and sf anthologies) but the recently published Brave New Words is an odd book. Its a dictionary of science fiction terms with their derivations put together by an ex-Locus editor with an introduction by Gene Wolfe.
It [...]
Solaris have published the Infinity Plus anthology, a bind up of the two PS publishing collections, and its another gem.
I’m not going to go into detail in to each story as it has been a while since I read them but this a worthwhile snapshot of some great writers from Stephen Baxter and Michael Moorcock [...]
In an interview in the Independent, Marcus Sedgwick discusses his forthcoming novel, Blood Red, Snow White and his fascination with Arthur Ransom, of Swallows and Amazons fame.
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The Guardian have just announced the Pullman has won the Carnegie of Carnegie vote ahead of Phillipa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. He joked that the initials were right but perhaps it was the wrong book.
Will Northern Lights last another 60 years though and still be influential? I suspect so, and rather more than Harry Potter. [...]
I’ve just read Anne Sudworth’s new book, Gothic Fantasies
Having seen a few of these works on jacket covers - particularly Storm Constantine - or hanging on walls, it is a pleasure to see how the works are so finely reproduced. There is a scattering of text but the bulk of the book is her art and [...]
Cory Doctorow over on BoingBoing has a new link to Henry Jenkins’s awesome blog about his recent comics talk. This is being posted in four parts and part one is fairly heavy on Gibson and Sterling. It’s one of those rare posts that is both academic and illuminated.
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Charlies Stross has a great essay on the impossibility of one of sf’s great dreams - colonising space. Whilst Stephen Hawking has said that this is fundamental to the survival of the race, the practicalities make it impossible.
As ever Stross is clear and persuasive.
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As per the title, Ain’t It Cool News has an intriguing interview about Stardust, Beowulf, Death and so on.
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Damn the Australian courts for patronising critics. A judge has just said that a bad review of a restaurant (now deceased) is defamatory. As Liz Hand says on the Inferior 4+1 blog, “time to start that legal defense fund“! This is not the first judgement, I believe, as a (if I recall correctly from yesterday’s [...]