Taken from Project Gutenberg, cleaned up a little and the punctuation fixed ( Read more... )

It's time for my every-few-years reread of Stan Robinson's masterwork, and lo, there is a Reddit thread about it. It's full of people whining that it's too long and they couldn't finish it ( Read more... )

On being asked this, here's what I came up with.

It occurs to me that half way through the year, everything I'd immediately recommend has already been and gone. What have I missed? Any good upcoming events for a first-timer to not send them running away screaming?

Well, you've missed most of this year's already. :¬) Already been-and-gone for ( Read more... )

This is not one of my lists, I promise!

A friend of mine, Iain Thompson, co-wrote this piece for the American arm of what used to be VNU:
V3's top 10 science fiction writers (Handy single-long-page printable link hereI have no real argument with the list, myself. I am not sure Roddenbery should be on there, no matter how influential, as he wasn't ( Read more... )

OK, so, not very popular request... Count 'em on the fingers of one foot, probably. But wotthehell, archie, wotthehell. I have been asked what was worth reading recently, so here are my favourites of the new SF I've read in the two-thousand-and-noughties ( Read more... )

(This is floating around as an image file on Facebook but I thought I'd knock up a text version...)
Star Wars: A New Hope Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - synopsis

Luke Skywalker Harry Potter is an orphan living with his uncle and aunt on the remote wilderness of Tattooine suburbia.

He is rescued from aliens muggles by wise, bearded Ben ( Read more... )

A really quite decent review of Iain M Banks' newest, Matter, from a somewhat unexpected source...

http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/19/1344250

"The British are sniffy about sci-fi, but there is nothing artificial in its ability to convey apprehension about the universe and ourselves ( Read more... )

A collection of mostly Russian images of the spacefaring future. Beautiful stuff.