If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden has been garnering many accolades. Having been the 2012 Sunday Times SF novel of the year, it was then shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA award, and now has won the Clarke Award. It tells the [...]
The Daylight War is the third in Peter V Brett’s Demon Cycle, detailing humanity’s struggle against demons that rise in the night to prey on them. Two powerful protagonists have been named as the Deliverer – the one who will unite the whole world in war against the demons – and Arlen Bales, the Painted [...]
(Note, this is a review of the “Authors Preferred Text” edition) I enjoyed reading the Sandman comics in the 1990′s. So when I picked up American Gods, and found it started like an extension of the Sandman universe through its use of mythical themes, I was happy. The first few pages were delivered with panache, [...]
The winner of our quarterly writing challenge for January is writer E.J. Tett, known on these forums as Mouse. Each quarter, the Challenge is to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image chosen by our moderators. The prize is a £10 voucher to be spent at Amazon. The photograph above [...]
Writer Dan McQuain, (known on these forums as Grinnel) is the winner of our October 300 Word Challenge. He wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As always, participants were challenged to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image that our moderators [...]
Writer Anna Dickinson, (known to members of these forums as Hex) has won our July 300 Word Challenge. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As always, the challenge that participants faced was to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image [...]
At first it seems extremely odd to have a reboot of the Spider Man franchise. After all, it’s barely five years since the third in Sam Raimi’s series, featuring Tobey Maguire. And now, a completely new retelling of the Spider Man story with a new actor? None of it makes sense – until you watch [...]
If you’re sick of comic-book adaptations and film remakes, the last thing you might expect to get excited about is a new Superman film. That’s right: there’s a new Superman film scheduled for release in 2013. However, before you run off groaning at the idea of yet another mediocre cash-in, this one comes with caveats. [...]
If you’re a Doctor Who fan – and one of the true variety who has all the old black and white episodes on DVD, still watching them regularly – then some exciting news has emerged. Two episodes from the sixties which were thought to be lost have been discovered and returned to the BBC, meaning [...]
At the weekend, All Zombies Must Die was unleashed on Xbox Live. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a rather tongue in cheek game developed by Doublesix with a focus on multiplayer zombie slaying. Set in the town of Deadhill, All Zombies Must Die offers a huge variety of weapons (such [...]
Gears of War fans should be sprinting to their Xbox, MS points in hand, because a new batch of DLC has been released for the game. Raam’s Shadow is, in fact, the biggest add-on ever to be released in the history of the Gears of War franchise. The new mini-campaign is around three hours in [...]
Focus Home Interactive has announced that it has bagged another game which is being developed that’s based on the Game of Thrones books and hit TV series. The franchise, which has suddenly got hotter than an orc torturer’s poking stick since it was aired on Sky earlier this year, has had several computer games developed [...]
Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden has been garnering many accolades. Having been the 2012 Sunday Times SF novel of the year, it was then shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA award, and now has won the Clarke Award. It tells the story of the Family, over five hundred descendants of Tommy and Angela, two people who were [...]
The Daylight War is the third in Peter V Brett’s Demon Cycle, detailing humanity’s struggle against demons that rise in the night to prey on them. Two powerful protagonists have been named as the Deliverer – the one who will unite the whole world in war against the demons – and Arlen Bales, the Painted [...]
At first it seems extremely odd to have a reboot of the Spider Man franchise. After all, it’s barely five years since the third in Sam Raimi’s series, featuring Tobey Maguire. And now, a completely new retelling of the Spider Man story with a new actor? None of it makes sense – until you watch [...]
THE OBJECT OF DESIRE — AN INTERVIEW WITH TANITH LEE In a remarkable career, spanning four decades, Tanith Lee has written stories in practically every genre or subgenre of speculative fiction one could imagine: dark fantasy, children’s fantasy, gothic horror, steampunk, science fiction, mythic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, fairy tales, contemporary fantasy … and the list goes [...]
I recently had the opportunity to interview award-winning author, Elizabeth Bear. It was a remarkably challenging and candid interview — much, one imagines, like the writer herself, who displayed a marked disinclination to whitewash the truth or tell comforting lies. She is the author of more than twenty published novels and a long list of [...]
VEGETABLE COMPUTERS, NARCOLEPTIC SNOW, AND THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Palmer: writer, space-rock musician, and artist. One of the most intriguing and eccentric writers on the Science Fiction scene ever since his debut novel Memory Seed first appeared in 1996, Stephen has released several albums with his [...]
Intrusion, Ken MacLeod 2012, Orbit, 387pp, £18.99 Hope Morrison has refused – for reasons she can’t herself articulate – to take the Fix, a magic bullet taken by pregnant women to improve disease resistance, repair any genetic conditions, and generally make more healthy babies before they are born. She is not the only one to [...]
According to the BBC, Pearson, which owns Penguin books among other things, has bought Author Solutions Inc in a £74 million deal. The deal means that Pearson now has control of a self-publishing interest. The news has raised concerns among some writers that intellectual property (IP) rights for new writers may be at risk, especially [...]
The War of the Roses is cited as a main inspiration for George R R Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, and as Sharon Penman’s novel is a highly regarded historical fiction of this period, I decided to tackle it. The novel covers the life of Richard III, from boyhood to death, and [...]
In a marvellously envisioned alternate Elizabethan England, Queen Elizabeth mourns the death of her husband Robert Dudley, having retreated into seclusion in her old age. Elsewhere in the world, the explorers of America and Canada (as we know them – Vinland to the Norse) have been followed home by skraylings, the non-human beings of Norse [...]
The Winner of our April 300 Word Writing Challenge is writer John J Brady, (known on these forums as alchemist). He wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired [...]
Joe Abercrombie’s “Best Served Cold” is a standalone novel set in the same world established in his “First Law” trilogy. Therefore if you’ve read that, some of the references and characters may be familiar. If not, you’re in for a treat anyway. The whole story is based on a plot of vengeance, which is established [...]
Embassytown, China Miéville 2011, Pan, 405pp, £7.99 There can be little doubt that China Miéville’s is currently the poster boy for British genre writing. His novels routinely appear on award shortlists – he has won the Arthur C Clarke Award three times, a feat so far unmatched. He’s one of the few genre writers to [...]
Forum member Teresa Edgerton is the winner of our January 300 Word Writing Challenge. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired by an image selected by our moderators. For [...]
Leviathan Wakes, James SA Corey Orbit, 561pp, £12.99 Leviathan Wakes, the first book of the Expanse series, landed with a substantial thud during the summer of 2011. According to George RR Martin, it is a “kickass space opera”, a quote prominently displayed on the front cover. There is another approving quote by Charles Stross on [...]
Solaris Rising, edited by Ian Whates Solaris, 325pp, £7.99 Subtitled “The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction”, Solaris Rising is precisely that – a reboot of the George Mann edited The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction under a new editor, and an anthology of nineteen stories by well-known contemporary science fiction writers. And like [...]
Man of Steel teaser trailer released
If you’re sick of comic-book adaptations and film remakes, the last thing you might expect to get excited about is a new Superman film. That’s right: there’s a new Superman film scheduled for release in 2013. However, before you run off groaning at the idea of yet another mediocre cash-in, this one comes with caveats. [...]
Penguin owner buys ASI self-publishing company
According to the BBC, Pearson, which owns Penguin books among other things, has bought Author Solutions Inc in a £74 million deal. The deal means that Pearson now has control of a self-publishing interest. The news has raised concerns among some writers that intellectual property (IP) rights for new writers may be at risk, especially [...]
The Winner of our April 300 Word Writing Challenge is writer John J Brady, (known on these forums as alchemist). He wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired [...]
Forum member Teresa Edgerton is the winner of our January 300 Word Writing Challenge. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired by an image selected by our moderators. For [...]
All Zombies Must Die hits the Xbox
At the weekend, All Zombies Must Die was unleashed on Xbox Live. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a rather tongue in cheek game developed by Doublesix with a focus on multiplayer zombie slaying. Set in the town of Deadhill, All Zombies Must Die offers a huge variety of weapons (such [...]
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