A lovely article on that neglected but important bit of background world-building detail in TV and film science fiction - the corridor.

Prompted by a post by daveon I found the list, as released by NASA after a Freedom of Information request, of books, films and TV programmes aboard the International Space Station (1.8MB PDF). Most of this stuff has accumulated by being brought up by individual astronauts, although I think some of the TV may have been uplinked ( Read more... )

If you're a BSFA member or are attending Eastercon, you're eligible to vote in the BSFA Awards. All four short story nominees are available online:

'Exhalation', Ted Chiang

'Crystal Nights', Greg Egan

'Little Lost Robot', Paul McAuley

'Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account', Mary Rickert

( Slightly spoilery comments )

The Unsilent Library: Adventures in new Doctor Who

Published by the Science Fiction Foundation
edited by Simon Bradshaw, Antony Keen, and Graham Sleight

The Science Fiction Foundation, which has published a number of books on sf (including The Parliament of Dreams: Conferring on Babylon 5 and Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature) is now seeking ( Read more... )

An expanded version of the second trailer, with additional commentary by director Zack Snyder.

( behind a cut as it auto-runs )

Several years ago the Science Fiction Foundation put out a book on Terry Pratchett's writing entitled Guilty of LiteratureI am delighted to see that Sir Terry has now, officially, been deemed Guilty As Charged ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago I picked up the 2-disc DVD set of the remastered and restored version of 2001. As well as improved quality and a host of extras, this is the 143-minute version (i.e. the 148-minute cut converted to TV frame rate), complete with intermission and lead-in and post-credits music. Yes, play this and you may wonder why the first chapter ( Read more... )

Has anyone ever written a serious study of characterisation in Fred Hoyle's sf? I've been re-reading The Black Cloud and something that's very striking is how the protagonist Prof Chris Kingsley is not just manipulative and arrogant but displays every trait of being an outright sociopath. Yet he is portrayed by Hoyle as an enlightened technocrat ( Read more... )

Patrick Barkham interviews Peter F Hamilton.

There's an audio interview here. I am amused to see that the Grauniad is living up to its reputation (at least, I am assuming that 'Triolgy' is a typo.)

The 2008 Hugo Awards have been announced; congratulations to matociquala and commiserations to autopope, ianmcdonald and paulcornell2.

Back in January I was pondering nominations and commented on the dramatic awards as follows:

"[Battlestar Galactica is] going to once again get its ass handed to it on a plate in the next category...

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. At the risk of ( Read more... )