Sometimes things come from chance. I was looking for an article on Joel Chandler Harris and came across this one about Octavia Butler, “Do I look like someone you can come home to from where you may be going?”: re-mapping interracial anxiety in Octavia Butler’s Kindred from the Spring 2007 issue of the African American [...]
Simon Morden holds degrees in geology and planetary geophysics but that didn’t stop him from writing fiction. His first novel was Heart (2002), a contemporary fantasy with Arthurian undertones. His latest book, The Lost Art (2007), is an sf novel with strong fantasy undertones which I rated highly as a really good, thoughtful read when [...]
Margaret Atwood wrote an appreciation of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in the Guardian book review qestioning which particular totalitarian vision would win out. It’s an intriguing piece that made me question uptopias and dystopias afresh and how they are set up, often it seems laying the foundations for a totalitarian society quickly and [...]
I’ve just got back from seeing Beowulf and I’m really glad I saw it. Avary and Gaiman’s screenplay takes the Old English poem and remakes it for the screen in an engaging fashion whilst keeping the text alive. There is a beautiful symmetry to the narrative which transliterates the poetic style and techniques to the [...]
A Neal Stephenson thing from the BBC news site really but the Colossus machine (one of the first ever programmable computers) has been rebuilt and will be pitted against a modern PC to break codes sent from a 1942 Lorenz SZ42 machine. Originally Colossus could do the task in hours but it’ll be interesting to [...]
SF Scope has a short piece saying the Tim Powers will be chatting live at this website as part of the Writers of the Future series of talks. He’s scheduled for 5 pm to 7pm Pacific time (about eight hours behind GMT) or perhaps one for the nightowls or fun to checkout afterwards.
Technorati Tags: Authors, [...]
Ray Winstone is interviewed by the Times today about his role in Beowulf which opens tomorrow and gently points out that skin tight body suits do not become a man in his fifties with a one pack. I’d never go to see a film with him in it to see him but everytime I’ve either [...]
Ira Levin - of “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Boys from Brazil”, “Stepford Wives fame” - died at his home in New York on November 12th. The Washington Post carries this obituary and career overview and the New York Times this overview.
Technorati Tags: Authors, ira levin
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Linda Buckley-Archer spoke to the Guardian regarding her timeslip books in which two children get sent back to 1753 and an eighteenth century thief sent to the 21st century.
Technorati Tags: Books, Interviews, linda buckley archer, time slip
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J.K. Rowling has really done it now. Dumbledore gay? Meh only news and comment for sadly deluded individuals who see somebody’s sexuality as shocking. However her recent lawsuit against RDR Books and Steve VanderArk’s print edition of the Harry Potter Lexicon is truly astounding.
Steve VanderArk who runs the incomparable Harry Potter Lexicon and who spoke [...]