Oh and – after last week’s Arvon happiness, and the weekend’s Infinity Plus thrills, even more excitement at Allumination Central! Heather Lindsley‘s rather excellent short story ‘Just Do It’ is now out in ‘Year’s Best SF 12’, where she joins luminaries including Liz Williams, Alastair Reynolds, Cory Doctorow and Michael Swanwick. It’s in the shopsContinue reading “Year’s Best Excitement”
Category Archives: Science Fiction
Mirroring the Fifth Head
An image from Gene Wolfe’s ‘The Fifth Head of Cerberus’ popped into my head this morning. Number Five, the protagonist of the first section of the book, catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror and for a second doesn’t recognise himself. The book is very concerned with people seeing and describing themselves when theyContinue reading “Mirroring the Fifth Head”
Virtually published, really knackered…
Much excitement on my return from Yorkshire to discover that my short story ‘Golden’ (first published a couple of years back in The Third Alternative) is now up on Infinity Plus, here. And of course the course in Yorkshire was just fantastic, more on that when I have reactivated my brain…
‘Cities are slow computers’
…is today’s thought from the day from Matt Jones, talking very interestingly at the Interesting Conference on Saturday – suspect much online content will be going up about it over the next week or so, starting with Charlie Frith here (with links to other attendees) – and thanks to Russell for sorting it out! NotContinue reading “‘Cities are slow computers’”
Dystopia IS utopia
Flicking through the Ballard entry on Wikipedia just now, and I was interested to see that they describe him as a dystopian writer. On the surface, a not unreasonable judgement, but for me there’s something a little more complex going on there. Ballard’s always explored – in a very engaged and fertile way – theContinue reading “Dystopia IS utopia”
Ballard helps restore normal service
Good grief, what happened yesterday? Everything seems so much more relaxed today. Very strange. Anyway, a thought to help get things back to normal from J. G. Ballard, who reminds us that: ‘Most people do not even grasp the fact that they need information to keep their imagination up to par.’ A need for jumpingContinue reading “Ballard helps restore normal service”
Radio Lovecraft
Interesting looking Radio 3 documentary on H.P. Lovecraft here. Can be listened to until the 17th June, includes comments from Neil Gaiman, ST Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub and China Mieville.
‘I cannot make it cohere’ – or, utopia
Been pondering utopia, largely because I’ve just been reading ‘Utopia’. Like Heaven, Utopia is a post dramatic place; drama being conflict, the only drama that can happen in a utopia is a fall from perfection, because that’s the only way of inducing conflict. That fall’s either going to be the fall of the individual, orContinue reading “‘I cannot make it cohere’ – or, utopia”
Lathes, heavens
‘The Lathe of Heaven’ as a reflection on writing; the writer breaking down and remaking the world, maintaining the familiar but balancing it with the novel… fading memories of the real world as you dive into the book. George Orr is the point of contact between different worlds – is he author or reader? Author,Continue reading “Lathes, heavens”