FFANZ 2012 ( Read more... )

Yesterday would have been H.P. Lovecrafts 120th birthday. He would have been astonished at the influence his horror stories have had. And even more astonished, and probably deeply disturbed, at the few people who take his work seriously (I'll be covering the influence of Lovecraft in the modern occult world in my 'Sorcerers and Storytellers' ( Read more... )

Lucius Shepherd trolls mixed martial art forums for kicks and also shows the District 9 trailer, which is interesting enough that there is finally an upcoming SF film this year that I'm looking forward to.

The Difference Engine, often claimed as an important early steampunk novel, is historical cyberpunk (written by the two arch-cyberpunks at the height of their cyberpunkiness), not steampunk as we know it ( Read more... )

( I just announced the Ditmar Ballot, for those interested )

SF/Fantasy books that I have read lately.

( The Last Argument of Kings, Crooked Little Vein, The Jennifer Morgue )

SF author and critic Tom Disch killed himself. He was a great author, and one of the smartest people in science fiction. But he was not someone who made himself easy to like, either as an author, or, I gather, as a person. Prickly, and too interested in highlighting harsh realities and weaknesses of human nature, pitilessly and without glamour. ( Read more... )