my elves are different

2011-03-15T17:47:00.002+10:00

Books should be judged on their merits ... the right thing to do in this circumstance is NOT REVIEW THE BOOK.

2011-03-07T17:22:00.000+10:00

You know it won't be wound up in just three volumes.

2011-03-04T00:00:00.002+10:00

I only counted three!

Books Read in February

2011-02-28T00:00:00.006+10:00

Divided into star ratings:

*****
The Time Traveller's Wife (2003) by Audrey Niffenegger
Harbour (2010) by John Ajvide Lindqvist

****
Zima Blue and Other Stories (2006) by Alastair Reynolds
Distress (1995) by Greg Egan
Bamboo Horses (2005) by Hugh Cook
Why Should I Cut Your Throat? (2004) by Jeff Vandermeer
Best Served Cold (2009) by Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings (2008) by Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged (2007) by Joe Abercrombie
The Blade Itself (2006) by Joe Abercrombie

***
Engineering Infinity (2010) ed. Jonathan Strahan
Jasper Jones () by Craig Silvey
The Age of Ra (2009) by James Lovegrove
Arslan (1976) by M. J. Engh
The Magician's Nephew (1955) by C. S. Lewis
The Age of Zeus (2010) by James Lovegrove

**
The Inheritors (1901) by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford
Handling the Undead (2010) by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Terminal World (2010) by Alastair Reynolds

*
Against Gravity (2005) by Gary Gibson
The Age of Odin (2010) by James Lovegrove

2011-02-23T19:45:00.000+10:00

How can someone who writes for Breitbart complain about nihilism?

2011-02-16T19:09:00.000+10:00

2011-02-14T18:56:00.000+10:00

2011-02-11T08:25:00.001+10:00

I'm terrible for turning the passing of Brian Jacques into a joke about yiffing.

Books Read in January

2011-01-30T18:26:00.004+10:00

Divided into star ratings:

*****

The Caryatids (2009) by Bruce Sterling

Let the Right One In (2004) by John Ajvide Lindqvist

****

The Silent Land (2010) by Graham Joyce

Hull Zero Three (2010) by Greg Bear

***

Cowboy Angels (2007) by Paul McAuley

Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons

Foreigner (1994) by Robert J. Sawyer

Fossil Hunter (1993) by Robert J. Sawyer

Far-seer (1992) by Robert J. Sawyer

Empress of Eternity (2010) by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Mariposa (2009) by Greg Bear

Quantico (2005) by Greg Bear

2011-01-28T09:40:00.000+10:00

2011-01-26T00:00:00.000+10:00

Haven't done one of these in a while ...

2011-01-24T10:48:00.000+10:00

2011-01-21T17:40:00.000+10:00

2011-01-18T06:50:00.002+10:00

Based on a tweet by Martin Lewis!

2011-01-17T00:00:00.002+10:00

L. E. Modesitt, Jr's Empress of Eternity piqued my interest because it centered on the study of a mysterious artefact (the Big Dumb Object trope).

Unfortunately, I found the novel dragged for me a little. I didn't particularly care about the characters, and often found myself trying to straighten out who was who in my mind.

It's set over three points in time millennia apart, which reminded me a little of A Canticle for Leibowitz. I wouldn't recommend this novel unless you're a die-hard L. E. Modesitt, Jr. fan, or a fan of the BDO genre.

Lovecraft Number

2011-01-14T18:57:00.003+10:00

Following on from the Asimov Number post, this system measures the collaborative distance between authors and H. P. Lovecraft.

It's like a form of literary genealogy.

Thus Bruce Sterling wrote The Difference Engine (1990) with William Gibson who wrote Dogfight (1985) with Michael Swanwick who wrote Mickelrede (2000) with Avram Davidson who wrote Something Rich and Strange (1961) with Randall Garrett who wrote The Beast with Seven Tales (1956) with Robert Silverberg who wrote Nightfall (1990) with Isaac Asimov who wrote Legal Rites (1950) with Frederik Pohl who wrote Doomship (1973) with Jack Williamson who wrote Cigarette Characterizations (1934) with Frank Belknap Long who wrote The Challenge from Beyond (1935) with H. P. Lovecraft.

Once I got to Isaac Asimov it became simpler!

0. H. P. Lovecraft

1. R. H. Barlow (The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast)
Zealia Bishop (The Curse of Yig)
Adolphe de Castro (The Electric Executioner)
Sonia Greene (The Invisible Monster)
Harry Houdini (Imprisoned with the Pharaohs)
Robert E. Howard (The Challenge from Beyond)
Frank Belknap Long (The Challenge from Beyond)
William Lumley (The Diary of Alonzo Typer)
A. Merritt (The Challenge from Beyond)
Duane W. Rimel (The Tree on the Hill)
Henry S. Whitehead (The Trap)

2. Ambrose Bierce (de Castro)
Hannes Bok (Merritt)
Ramsey Campbell (Howard)
Lin Carter (Howard)
L. Sprague de Camp (Howard)
August Derleth (Howard)
Walter B. Gibson (Houdini)
Henry Kuttner (Moore)
Richard A. Lupoff (Howard)
C. L. Moore (Howard)
Emil Petaja (Rimel)
Tevis Clyde Smith (Howard)
Richard L. Tierney (Howard)
Donald Wandrei (Long)
Jack Williamson (Long)

3. Henry Hasse (Petaja - Rimel)
Frederik Pohl (Williamson - Long)
Donald A. Wollheim (Carter - Howard)

4. Forrest J. Ackerman (Wollheim - Carter - Howard)
Isaac Asimov (Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Ray Bradbury (Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
C. M. Cornbluth (Wollheim - Carter - Howard)
Lester Del Rey (Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Albert dePina (Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Robert A. W. Lowndes (Wollheim - Carter - Howard)
John B. Michel (Wollheim - Carter - Howard)
William Morrison (Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Thomas T. Thomas (Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Jack Williamson (Pohl - Williamson - Long)

5. Ben Bova (Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Leigh Brackett (Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
David Drake (Thomas - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Harlan Ellison (Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Albert B. Feldstein (Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Larry Niven (Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Robert Silverberg (Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

6. Steven Barnes (Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Edward Bryant (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Algis Budrys (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Samuel R. Delany (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Gordon R. Dickson (Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Randall Garrett (Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Edmond Hamilton (Brackett - Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Keith Laumer (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Jerry Pournelle (Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Robert Sheckley (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Theodore Sturgeon (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
A. E. Van Vogt (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Roger Zelazny (Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

7. Forrest J. Ackerman (Sturgeon - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Kevin J. Anderson (Van Vogt - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Poul Anderson (Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Alfred Bester (Zelazny - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Earl Binder (Hamilton - Brackett - Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Otto Binder (Hamilton - Brackett - Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Tobias S. Buckell (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Pat Cadigan (Sheckley -Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Avram Davidson (Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Michael F. Flynn (Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Harry Harrison (Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Brian Herbert (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Nancy Kress (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Michael Moorcock (Delany - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Jody Lynn Nye (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Mike Resnick (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Fred Saberhagen (Zelazny - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Dan Simmons (Bryant - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Charles Sheffield (Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
S. M. Stirling (Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Connie Willis (Bryant - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
John C. Wright (Van Vogt - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Jane Yolen (Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

8. Piers Anthony (Nye - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Robert Asprin (Nye - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Barrington J. Bailey (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Greg Bear (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Gregory Benford (K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Ilsa J. Bick (Buckell - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
David Bischoff (Harrison - Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Jack L. Chalker (Resnick - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Storm Constantine (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
James Doohan (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
David Drake (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
George Alec Effinger (Resnick - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Gordon Eklund (P. Anderson - Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Chris Fowler (Cadigan - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Neil Gaiman (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Raymond Z. Gallun (E. Binder - Hamilton - Brackett - Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Jack C. Haldeman, II (Harrison - Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Joe Haldeman (Yolen - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Robert J. Harris (Yolen - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
M. John Harrison (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Frank Herbert (K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Dean Ing (P. Anderson - Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
James Patrick Kelly (Cadigan - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Holly Lisle (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Anne McCaffery (Nye - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Barry N. Malzberg (Harrison - Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Richard Matheson (Bester - Zelazny - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Marvin Minsky (Harrison - Dickson - Bova - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Rebecca Moesta (K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Ward Moore (Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Karl Schroeder (Buckell - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Dean Wesley Smith (Rusch - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Michael Swanwick (Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Marion Zimmer Bradley (Bester- Sturgeon - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Craig Tennis (O. Binder - Hamilton - Brackett - Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)
Harry Turtledove (Resnick - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

9. David Brin (Benford - K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Jack Dann (Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Gardner Dozois (Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Philip Jose Farmer (Anthony - Nye - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
William Gibson (Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Clifford A. Pickover (Anthony - Nye - Sheckley - Ellison - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Robert S. McReady (Gallun - E. Binder - Hamilton - Brackett - Bradbury - Hasse - Petaja - Rimel)

10. John Shirley (Gibson -Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Bruce Sterling (Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

11. Paul di Filippo (Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Rudy Rucker (Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Howard Waldrop (Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

12. Terry Bisson (Rucker - Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)
Damien Broderick (di Filippo - Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg - Asimov - Pohl - Williamson - Long)

2011-01-12T18:44:00.000+10:00

2011-01-10T17:26:00.000+10:00

Asimov Number

2011-01-07T17:01:00.007+10:00

Everyone's heard of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon", or the Erdős number ... I haven't really heard of anything similar for science fiction so I thought I'd work out people's "Asimov number".

As with the Erdős number or Bacon number, the Asimov number measures the collaborative distance between an author and the starting individual - in this case, Isaac Asimov.

Asimov himself has an Asimov number of 0. Co-authors with him have an Asimov number of 1. Their co-authors have an Asimov number of 2 and so on.

Despite my choosing him because he was perhaps the most prolific author in science fiction, Asimov doesn't seem to have had many literary partnerships, according to the ISFDB.

The list below isn't exhaustive ... feel free to suggest corrections if someone is in the wrong place, or if you work out someone else's Asimov number to include!

0. Isaac Asimov

1. Ben Bova (Beyond Our Brain, 1977)
Harlan Ellison (I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, 1994)
Larry Niven (On the Marching Morons, 1981)
Frederik Pohl (Our Angry Earth, 1991)
Robert Silverberg (Nightfall, 1990)

2. Steven Barnes (Niven)
Edward Bryant (Ellison)
Algis Budrys (Ellison)
Samuel R. Delany (Ellison)
Gordon R. Dickson (Bova)
Randall Garrett (Silverberg)
Keith Laumer (Ellison)
Jerry Pournelle (Niven)
Robert Sheckley (Ellison)
Theodore Sturgeon (Ellison)
A. E. Van Vogt (Ellison)
Jack Williamson (Pohl)
Roger Zelazny (Ellison)

3. Forrest J. Ackerman (Sturgeon - Ellison)
Kevin J. Anderson (Van Vogt - Ellison)
Poul Anderson (Dickson -Bova)
Alfred Bester (Zelazny - Ellison)
Tobias S. Buckell (Sheckley - Ellison)
Pat Cadigan (Sheckley -Ellison)
Avram Davidson (Garrett - Silverberg)
Michael F. Flynn (Pournelle - Niven)
Harry Harrison (Dickson - Bova)
Brian Herbert (Sheckley - Ellison)
Nancy Kress (Sheckley - Ellison)
Michael Moorcock (Delany - Ellison)
Jody Lynn Nye (Sheckley - Ellison)
Mike Resnick (Sheckley - Ellison)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Sheckley - Ellison)
Fred Saberhagen (Zelazny - Ellison)
Charles Sheffield (Pournelle - Niven)
Dan Simmons (Bryant - Ellison)
S. M. Stirling (Pournelle - Niven)
Connie Willis (Bryant - Ellison)
John C. Wright (Van Vogt - Ellison)
Jane Yolen (Sheckley - Ellison)

4. Piers Anthony (Nye - Sheckley - Ellison)
Robert Asprin (Nye - Sheckley - Ellison)
Barrington J. Bailey (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison)
Greg Bear (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven)
Gregory Benford (K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison)
Ilsa J. Bick (Buckell - Sheckley - Ellison)
David Bischoff (Harrison - Dickson - Bova)
Ray Bradbury (Ackerman
Marion Zimmer Bradley (Bester- Sturgeon - Ellison)
Jack L. Chalker (Resnick - Sheckley - Ellison)
Storm Constantine (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison)
James Doohan (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven)
David Drake (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven)
George Alec Effinger (Resnick - Sheckley - Ellison)
Gordon Eklund (P. Anderson - Dickson - Bova)
Chris Fowler (Cadigan - Sheckley - Ellison)
Neil Gaiman (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison)
Jack C. Haldeman, II (Harrison - Dickson - Bova)
Joe Haldeman (Yolen - Sheckley - Ellison)
Robert J. Harris (Yolen - Sheckley - Ellison)
M. John Harrison (Moorcock - Delany - Ellison)
Frank Herbert (K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison)
Dean Ing (P. Anderson - Dickson - Bova)
James Patrick Kelly (Cadigan - Sheckley - Ellison)
Holly Lisle (Stirling - Pournelle - Niven)
Anne McCaffery (Nye - Sheckley - Ellison)
Barry N. Malzberg (Harrison - Dickson - Bova)
Richard Matheson (Bester - Zelazny - Ellison)
Marvin Minsky (Harrison - Dickson - Bova)
Rebecca Moesta (K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison)
Ward Moore (Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Karl Schroeder (Buckell - Sheckley - Ellison)
Dean Wesley Smith (Rusch - Sheckley - Ellison)
Michael Swanwick (Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Harry Turtledove (Resnick - Sheckley - Ellison)
Donald A. Wollheim (Ackerman - Sturgeon - Ellison)

5. David Brin (Benford - K. J. Anderson - Van Vogt - Ellison)
Jack Dann (Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Gardner Dozois (Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Philip Jose Farmer (Anthony - Nye - Sheckley - Ellison)
William Gibson (Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Clifford A. Pickover (Anthony - Nye - Sheckley - Ellison)

6. John Shirley (Gibson -Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Bruce Sterling (Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)

7. Rudy Rucker (Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Paul di Filippo (Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Howard Waldrop (Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)

8. Damien Broderick (di Filippo - Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)
Terry Bisson (Rucker - Sterling - Gibson - Swanwick - Davidson - Garrett - Silverberg)

2011-01-05T09:19:00.001+10:00

Separated at birth

2011-01-03T10:02:00.002+10:00

Christian Slater and Leon Trotsky

'Lamplighter' by D. M. Cornish

2010-12-31T00:00:00.003+10:00

The Foundling's Tale Book 2
2008, Omnibus Books, 717 pp, ISBN 978 1 86291 687 6

Sequel to Foundling.

Rossamünd is beginning his apprenticeship as a lamplighter, and it turns out to be a dangerous occupation. In D. M. Cornish's world, lamplighters tread the highways that thread the uncivilised outback of the Half-Continent.

These wilds are haunted by monsters, called "nickers" in Cornish's imaginative invented dialect, the implacable enemies of encroaching humankind. Although it seems that some monsters are friendly, and the bad ones may have legitimate grievances ...

Of course, the monsters are stand-ins for the indigenous people displaced by our world's colonial powers.*

Humans are slowly carving up the wilderness for farmland and an official policy of genocide against monsters is in place. Nevertheless, not all humans are unsympathetic to the monsters: our hero, Rossamünd, for example.

Rossamünd is slowly discovering some truths about himself, as well as about the sinister goings-on in the lamplighter organisation. Very slowly (for a lamplighter he doesn't seem to bright, haha).

It's pretty clear what's going on both with Rossamünd and an evident conspiracy around him, but it takes a long time for the boy to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and by then it seems that he's in checkmate.

It's great to revisit Cornish's world, which I maintain is very Australian in character, even if it is a world where Drs Frankenstein, Jekyll and Moreau were the ones who started the industrial revolution.

The book ends on something of a cliffhanger - Rossamünd's mysterious heritage is finally out in the open, after innumerable clues, but the real question is what happens next as he is saved by his patron, the wonderful monster-hunter Europe, and taken on as her factotum.

Lamplighter (Amazon.com)

*Which makes me worry about the term 'nickers'.

'Foundling' by D. M. Cornish

2010-12-29T13:17:00.004+10:00

The Foundling's Tale Book 1

May 2006, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 434 pp, ISBN 0-399-24638-X

It's really refreshing to see a young adult fantasy novel set in Australia, or an Australia-y setting. There may be scads of them out there but I've only read a handful so my refreshment is legitimate.

The first clue to the novel's antipodean setting comes with the glorious map of the Half-Continent (it really is the apotheosis of fantasy novel maps, and created by the author to boot).

If you squint at it you'll notice a passing resemblance to the south-east corner of Australia, with the focus on a city in a somewhat Adelaidean location (the author lives in Adelaide).

I'm willing to bet the Half-Continent is in the Southern Hemisphere, too.

The pattern of civilization on the landmass also resembles Australia, with towns and cities dotting the edges of a vast interior wilderness ... it makes me think of Phillip Drew's The Coast Dwellers: Australians Living on the Edge (1994) and poet A. D. Hope's Australia.

Drew theorized about the importance to Australian identity of (the majority of the population's) place at the fringes of an island-continent. Hope wrote:

... her five cities, like five teeming sores,
Each drains her: a vast parasite robber-state
Where second-hand Europeans pullulate
Timidly on the edge of alien shores.

And when you get into it, the world Cornish has built so vividly is a colonial one, with humans pullulating on the edge of the alien interior, a wild region infested with monsters. Human technology is at a steampunk level, but based on biological engineering ... more Mary Shelley than Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

More of that in later books, however ... the first book in the series is the familiar tale of an orphan going out into the world.

Rossamünd, bookish, raised in a foundlingery, dreams of a life of adventure but is the last-picked of his peers for an apprenticeship - being chosen for a lamplighter of all things. Leaving his bullying nemesis and kindly mentors behind to make his way to lamplighter HQ, he is immediately plunged into adventure.

Encountering villains, monsters, and monster-fighters, Rossamünd begins to have doubts about his society's insistence that the only good monster is a dead monster.

And that's exactly the kind of nuance fantasy novels should have (insert plug for Hugh Cook here) ... be suspicious of novels where there's a clear axis of evil.

Foundling is a real delight of worldbuilding, sprinkled with fun, deftly-defined neologisms and illustrations to create a vivid, immersive world.

Foundling (Amazon.com)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1

2010-11-20T16:31:00.002+10:00

This follows on from a tweet I made after seeing the movie.

Set design is one part of the Harry Potter films that I like a great deal. Production designer Stuart Craig has done a great job of bringing a world to life.

But I was rather annoyed to see Dumbledore's tomb (pictured above).

Is this the first time we've seen it? It looks like something you'd bury Mussolini in, not an eccentric old wizard!

What else in the quaint, gothic world of wizardry resembles this modernist monstrosity?

The only thing I can think of is the totalitarian statue erected in the Ministry of Magic during Deathly Hallows, and that is itself supposed to represent a sinister aesthetic break.

It seems as though the designer was completely ignorant of the look of Hogwarts, where Albus Dumbledore had happily spent much of his 115-year lifespan.

I'm too lazy to check the book to see how it is described, so maybe the tomb is true to Rowling's vision.

But either way I have no regrets that Lord Voldemort destroys it.

Kraken, by China Mieville

2010-11-01T19:19:00.003+10:00

So I'm a quarter of the way through Kraken and discover that the book includes, quoted in full, a poem by Hugh Cook! The poem is completely appropriate for the novel - almost as if written for it -but still it's wonderful to see.

After writing a glowing forward to the new edition of The Walrus and the Warwolf, it seems that Mieville really has become an ambassador for the late and criminally little-known Cook.

Here's a link to the full text of Hugh Cook's The Kraken Wakes, originally published in 1977.

2010-10-08T12:18:00.001+10:00

See Nick Mamatas' LiveJournal for an explanation of this chart.

2010-08-31T22:35:00.003+10:00

Jonathan McCalmont has an interesting review up of Adam Roberts' new novel.

Noting that my last comic was also about Adam Roberts, I should mention that I'm a big fan and think everyone should read his work :P

China Mieville's Introduction to Hugh Cook's 'The Walrus and the Warwolf'

2010-06-15T17:24:00.002+10:00

From Paizo.com:

Anyone who reads the tale of a boy-wizard to see how he turns out, why, and what happens to him on the way, or who recalls how a callow Tattooine moisture-farmer ends up, several adventures later, a self-possessed Jedi, understands that the Bildungsroman is alive and well—and particularly healthy in its incarnation as the "epic" that SF and fantasy readers love. It's in Fantasyland that kitchen boys tend to become kings, which as well as upgrading your wardrobe has got to mess with your preconceptions. The best stories show us precisely that messy, amazing dialectic of continuity and change—let us watch, in other words, the dynamic process of being human.

Got all that? Hugh Cook does.

You can tell by the brio with which he ignores it.

Like, totally fucking ignores it.

Theory About Dexter Season 5

2010-05-28T06:14:00.000+10:00

Trinity's interest in Dexter can be explained away without too much trouble next season.

Arthur was told by his daughter Christine Hill that Miami Metro homicide was investigating him. He knew that Detective Debra Morgan was involved in the case thanks to her. Christina had shot Frank Lundy and Debra and was interested in her as a journalist and from being Joey Quinn's girlfriend.

Thus it would seem that the Trinity Killer visited the homicide department to either learn what they knew about his case, or to track down Debra.

While there he was challenged by Dexter as if he was a visitor in the wrong part of the building. Someone, Angel Batista perhaps, would have noticed this and remember it later.

It would seem that Dexter Morgan had come to Arthur Mitchell's attention at this point in time, when his name tag was read. From here there are a few options for how events would be interpreted. Either Dexter was targetted simply for being part of the homicide department or the killer worked out that he was a relative of Debra Morgan (perhaps his daughter told him).

In fact there is another, very simple explanation ... perhaps the Trinity Killer was tracking down Debra Morgan, looked her up in the phone book, and came to Dexter and Rita Morgan's house from visiting the wrong D. Morgan.

He told Rita he was looking for Debra Morgan and on learning that she knew her, decided to strike out at Debra's sister-in-law.

For these reasons, I don't think it's necessary that Season 5 of Dexter will revolve around the investigation of Rita's death, although obviously its impacts will be a major element.

Dear makers of Fringe

2010-05-23T12:39:00.005+10:00

Dear makers of Fringe, specifically director Joe Chappelle and writers Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman.

In the episode "Northwest Passage", which you all had a hand in, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) is discussing shapeshifters with Sheriff Ann Mathis (Martha Plimpton). He says "It's a technology unlike anything you've seen before."

If the show is, as it appears, set in our universe, then the characters should be familiar with the film Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which won 4 Academy Awards and has grossed $519,843,345.

I'm pretty sure that you all, as residents of this universe, would also be familiar with it.

So when Peter says that the silver blooded shapeshifters who travelled from a more advanced version of our universe are "Unlike anything you've seen before," the obvious response from the paranormal enthusiast Sheriff is "They sound just like the living metal terminators from Terminator 2."

Not pointing this out is the same problem that some zombie or vampire movies have. People start having their brains eaten or blood sucked out and the heroes are all like, "What are these creatures?"

They're obviously zombies and vampires. In fiction set in our media-saturated universe in the 21st century everyone knows these things. It's implausible that they wouldn't and I wish writers would stop pussyfooting around these elephants in the room.

Look to, of all shows, Torchwood. By chance I just watched an episode of that where someone refers to the two main characters as "Mulder and Scully" in skeptical response to their paranormal theories. That's a sensible, real-world response. Please don't imitate any other aspect of Torchwood, by the way.

By comparison, everyone in Fringe ignores the obvious fact that their job is exactly the same as that portrayed on the fictional show The X-Files. Then you writers go and flash a shot of The X-Files on a television in the same episode where an inquiry into Fringe Division mentions the old "X designation."

It's all very meta but you're just highlighting your characters' implausible ignorance.

Frankly it's as bad as having William Bell played by Leonard Nimoy when you specifically mention Star Trek in an earlier episode.

It's always cool to see Leonard Nimoy, but now we're facing a backstory where for his entire life since September 8, 1966 when the original series of Star Trek debuted, people have been going up to William Bell and saying, "Oh my God - you're Spock from Star Trek aren't you? You are the spitting image of Leonard Nimoy I can't believe it!"

How can someone facing that seriously become the head of a giant company?

I suppose these problems are solved it we assume that the Fringe-verse is not our universe ... well, not the X-Files problem, but perhaps there was no sequel to the original Terminator, and Martin Landau ended up playing Spock. But where's the fun in that?

In short: in the real world people watch television and movies so television and movie characters should too.

End rant :P

Free euphemisms for all!

2010-05-02T14:22:00.003+10:00

"What the Frakes?"

Has anyone done a Wizard of Oz noir pastiche?

2010-05-02T14:17:00.001+10:00

"There are eight million stories in the Emerald City ..."

Secrets of the Science Fiction Masters!

2010-04-26T10:15:00.002+10:00

When you're writing a novel it's a good idea to avoid giving your characters similar-sounding names.

I read a tip somewhere which prescribed writing the letters of the alphabet in two columns, and as you create a character, pick a random letter from each column to begin their first and last name with.

I think I've spotted an example of this trick being used: in Sean Williams' Astropolis series. Consider the following names:

Alphin Freer
Chyro Kells
Emlee Copas
Gravine Sevaste
Helwise MacPhedron
Imre Bergamasc
Khalil Voda
Misha Zuccolo
Pam Anders
Zadiq Turin

These ten characters form the majority of the two-named people identified in the first two books (I haven't read last year's The Grand Conjunction yet).

There are a number of characters whose names don't fit this theory, the Jinq and Render don't have two names for example.

The abecedarian nomenclature technique seems to work pretty well for keeping characters distinguished in the reader's mind, but with some disadvantages: once you notice it, it tends to take you out of the novel when you keep spotting examples.

Furthermore, in a problem unique to science fiction, it requires that binomial personal names remain the norm in the eight hundred and seventy ninth millennium and beyond (Williams' postmortal milieu makes this less of an issue, I think).

File Under: Thoughts That Shouldn't Be Shared

2010-04-20T12:58:00.003+10:00

Who will they get to write Terry Pratchett's Discworld^TM novels next?

Cyberpunk Question

2010-04-14T07:35:00.000+10:00

Mirrorshades or Shirow maids?

Awesome!

2010-03-25T06:58:00.002+10:00

Here's the cover art for Paizo Books' new edition of Hugh Cook's 'The Walrus and the Warwolf'. They also quote more of China Mieville's introduction:

Of Hugh Cook's extraordinary, underrated, bizarre and hysterical decology, Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, The Walrus and the Warwolf has long been a, if not the, reader favourite. Let's be clear: the whole series urgently needs rediscovery—each book (all standalone) for its own specifics, as well as for the astonishing audacity with which Cook tangles them. Not only do they cross over and back and through each other book to book, but like a kind of pulp Rashomon-monger, he might repeat the exact same scene several books apart, described from two contradictory points of view, so only the most faithful readers will get the joke. The hope is that having been hooked by the following story of Drake Douay, readers will go on to The Wizards & the Warriors, The Women & the Warlords, and the later, more arcanely double-W-ing titles (from which paradigm Cook, with the torturous rigour of any Oulipian prankster—like Georges Perec, who wrote an entire novel without the letter "e"—admirably refused to budge. The Werewolf & the Wormlord? Really?).

But while every one is a must-read, it's easy to see why The Walrus and the Warwolf is perhaps the favourite. This epic picaresque of Drake's adventures is astoundingly full of stuff, precisely the stuff that gets our sweet spots. Pirates! Monsters! Wizards! Battles! Pirates! Sex! Pirates! Misunderstood robots from an ancient high-tech past! Really excellent monsters! Etc! Also pirates!

...On the question of monsters, Cook brilliantly has it both ways. On the one hand, what we want from our fantasy beasts is familiarity. We want to see what an author can do with the traditional figures we know well—the gryphons, the unicorns, the... alright, let's use the D-word... the dragons. On the other hand, especially in these post-Lovecraft days, we want monsters that are completely new, totally alien, without any remembered fabular cognates. These are quite contradictory ways of relating to fantastic bodies, and authors generally simply have to choose one or the other to indulge. Cook, however, refuses to. Instead, he draws a border—a physical border, at the bottom of his map. To the north of it live dragons and their familiar folkloroid compadres; to the south, the Swarm, incomprehensible insecto-alien monstrosities, like the Neversh, of terrifying, carefully described but almost impossible to visualise alien forms. So by a kind of Promethean arithmetic, Cook just adds the new-monstrous to the old...

And you thought the "sky people" were bad ...

2010-02-09T18:03:00.001+10:00

Obscure Crimes of our Forefathers

2009-08-18T09:22:00.000+10:00

SNUFFING: going into a shop on some pretence, watching an opportunity to throw a handful of snuff in the eyes of the shopkeeper, and then running off with any valuable article you can lay hands on.

- A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language, by James Hardy Vaux

2009-07-22T06:45:00.002+10:00

Read Adam Roberts' thoughts on the Hugo shortlist.

I actually do agree that shortlists often feature mediocre works.

2009-06-14T12:25:00.000+10:00

Happy BLITEOTW, everyone!

2009-06-13T17:10:00.002+10:00

Enjoy posting as if zombies were taking over the world! I wish I could do more for it!

At least we all can sleep easy tonight knowing that there's no such thing as real zombies.

Wait a moment - there's someone banging on the door.

[connection broken]

Good news, everyone!

2009-06-10T17:12:00.000+10:00

Futurama is coming back!

2009-06-08T00:55:00.000+10:00

This is the funniest thing I've read for a while. I had to share it.

BLITEOTW 2009

2009-05-27T11:49:00.002+10:00

If you're looking for some zombie mayhem on June 13 this year, don't look here at MEAD!

Instead, check out this cool Blog Like It's the End of the World signup form/feed aggregator!

2009-05-15T09:45:00.003+10:00

I thought they simply did a spellcheck before emailing it to be printed ... maybe that could be the fellow's alibi?

Controversation here.

New Trek: Good but not great!

2009-05-07T13:43:00.003+10:00

The new Star Trek was enjoyable! Go see it! J. J. Abrams did a good job in making an exciting and accessible preview. I won't say much more, but look out for a cameo appearance by the Rambaldi device!

Edit: I mean the Mueller Device.

China Mieville on Hugh Cook

2008-12-23T07:51:00.000+10:00

"2009 might be when Hugh Cook, who died tragically young this year, begins to get the credit he deserves, with the reissue of his The Walrus and the Warwolf (full disclosure -- I wrote the new introduction). Cook was a fantasy writer whose 1980s and early 90s decology Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, though hidden from the attentions of the middlebrow lit-snob by their wizards, dragons and high-kitsch covers, are intensely clever, humane, witty, meta-textually adventurous and pulp-avant-garde works. I read and loved several this year -- The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers and The Walrus and the Warwolf in particular."

Source: Ready Steady Book

Hugh Cook on eBay

2008-12-13T06:18:00.001+10:00

Volumes 1-8 of the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness for sale.

Hugh Cook 9 August 1956 - 8 November 2008

2008-11-12T10:20:00.002+10:00

Sad news.

Hugh Cook, my favourite fantasy/science fiction author, has died after a long struggle with cancer.

I re-read his 10-volume series The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness every year. I still can't get over the audacity of a 10-volume series in which each volume's action is concurrent, not consecutive.

His works are gritty, anarchic, and relentlessy true to his vision (and probably hence uncommercial).

The genre has lost a unique voice, and the shame of it is that it seems like few will note the fact.

Robert Rankin: Prophet

2008-07-24T11:10:00.002+10:00

Robert Rankin clearly was on to something (or on something) when he wrote his hilarious Armageddon series of humorous fantasy novels, featuring a time-travelling Elvis. Read this news story about an ancient Roman carving of Elvis.

Here's part of the cover blurb for Rankin's The Suburban Book of the Dead:

And verily in the midst of his labours did Rex's spade strike a buried object of not inconsiderable size. And lo. It were a marble statue of Elvis Presley.
Oh yes siree! For Elvis looms large here, much to Rex's discomfort. Which is further increased when he discovers that the walls of Jericho fell to the strains of 'It's Now or Never' and that David slew the dwarf Goliath wearing blue suede shoes.

2008-06-16T00:00:00.000+10:00

BLITEOTW 2008 is over

2008-06-14T20:00:00.003+10:00

According to my calculations, it's June 14 pretty much everywhere now. Thanks to all of the people who took part this year: it's been amazingly creative yet again! A shout out to the BLITEOTW livejournal community members (community maintained by chaoticasylum!).

Thanks in particular to BLITEOTW host Jeff Jones from Blue Moon Rising for posting his series of updates, and working to promote the event! As I said: I didn't really have time to do any promotion myself other than a few posts on MEAD.

If anyone has feedback about this year's event, please leave it in the comments section of this post. Here are some subjects:

What did you think of the Frappr map? I really would have preferred to use a Google map, but I couldn't find a way to create a map that could be posted on by anyone other than the creator. I didn't really like the format, but wanted to find a way to help people in particular cities coordinate their blogging.
Do you have any ideas for a particular apocalypse in 2009? I still have a desire to do Blog Like It's the War of the Worlds (BLITWOTW) ... but that's a more complicated subject to write about than zombies.
I've seen a few people suggest making the event longer than a single day: let me know what you think of the idea. Personally, I wouldn't want to mandate it for participants ... and there were livejournal communities, for instance, for people who wanted to continue after BLITEOTW last year. Also, I found a social network for zombies ... Lost Zombies.

A dispatch from the zombie wars

2008-06-14T05:51:00.002+10:00

I'm dead now, of course.

Here's some good information I found.

BLITEOTW

2008-06-13T21:55:00.002+10:00

Ok ... damn ... the island wasn't a good idea ... it was insane, boats everywhere trying to moor or anchor or whatever the damn expression is ... then the car ferry arrived, ran into the jetty and disgorged a horde of freaking zombies all over the crowds on shore.

We're putting out to sea for a few days, going to try and wait out the worst of whatever is happening.

The only problem is ...

I was bitten.

Should I tell them?

I have to say something.

Or maybe I'll do a Captain Oates .. step out for some time ...

BLITEOTW

Zombies

2008-06-13T18:10:00.003+10:00

Blogging from a yacht in Ross Creek ... this is crazy ... work was overrun by hordes of ... zombies. No really. I think this is happening all over the world. Phones are down, radio is down. Wireless internet seems to be working here on the boat.

A workmate has a yacht moored in the creek, so when the windows in the foyer were smashed, we jumped/fell from the balcony into the water and swam for it. It's probably better that we didn't try for the jetty, because there was a lot of fighting going on at the boat club.

We're thinking of heading for Magnetic Island ... surely an island will be safe?

Oh, and someone said something about a comet?

BLITEOTW

Townsville Riots

2008-06-13T13:20:00.003+10:00

Ok ... we've been told by management not to leave the building ... the rally in the mall has escalated to a RIOT I guess, and the police are using tear gas and guns.

I think they started trying to quell the riot, but when I go out onto the balcony it sounds like the police are just firing desperately into the crowd ... there are people running everywhere.

Every now and then someone leaves a building and gets mobbed by the rioters and beaten savagely. It might be a while before we can safely leave to get home. The radio is full of crazy rumours ... most of the stations have just switched over to callers, but some aren't on the air at all.

There's something terrible happening in WA as well ...

BLITEOTW

2008-06-13T11:05:00.002+10:00

There's some kind of rally going on in the mall. You can hear the noise from here.

BLITEOTW

2008-06-13T09:07:00.002+10:00

So I'm sitting at the bus stop reading a Matthew Reilly novel (that guy loves his italics - I think he should change his name to Matthew Reilly.

Anyway, I'm at the bus stop on Primrose Street, outside Seagulls Resort, and I notice this guy standing in the parking lot on the other side of the street. Staring at me.

He looked pretty ragged, and I tried not to make eye contact so he wouldn't come over to beg for change. I turned up my ipod - that Monster song that was on Torchwood.

The number 5 bus came along pretty quickly, so no worries after all.

BLITEOTW

"Congratulations" are in order

2008-06-13T06:23:00.002+10:00

Hey, Paul, we all "love" "your" "writing"! Congratulations on getting an "agent"! I hope to see your work in some "prestigious" "publications" "soon"! ;-)

Enough of that ... I finally got to sleep last night after the neighbours stopped fighting. I could hear their dogs gnawing on bones for a while, but not loudly. I didn't know they had dogs. That's some extra security for the neighbourhood.

Up while it's still dark, cup of Darjeeling, checked my blog feed and saw some good news about Paul Jessup. It's great that such a terrible author can get an agent :-)

I have to go in to work early to deal with issues arising from some inexplicable vandalism.

BLITEOTW

Minor suburban annoyances

2008-06-13T00:35:00.000+10:00

I'm really annoyed with this spotlight we have outside the house. It has a motion sensor, or something like that, which is supposed to turn it on when prowlers are around. That's the theory, anyway.

Unfortunately, it seems to play up whenever it detects a possum, faling leaf, passing cloud or gust of wind. Maybe there's some way to set it to be less sensitive? I mean, it shouldn't be able to detect the transit of exoplanets, right?

Anyway, I mention this because I've been trying to get some sleep, and it keeps going off and the glow through the window wakes me up.

I mean, it's bad enough that the neighbours are having a fight. Damn - I really hate domestic disturbances. They seem like such a nice couple, too.

Hey - it's Black Friday, Friday the 13th today! WoooOOoo! Scary!

BLITEOTW

Six Hours To Go

2008-06-12T18:34:00.002+10:00

Until BLITEOTW begins for me here in Australia ...

Zombies in Nottingham!

2008-06-12T07:04:00.002+10:00

The Zombies are playing at the Royal Concert Hall, in Nottingham, UK this Friday!

Also, someone in the comments for the BLITEOTW08 post below mentioned a zombie walk in St Paul (Minnesota?) on Friday - does anyone know anything about this?

Signs of the Times

2008-06-11T02:49:00.003+10:00

N.K. denies rumors on bird flu outbreak: report

혻 혻 SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has denied rumors that avian influenza or hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is spreading in the country, a radio report said Tuesday.

FDA Issues Tomato Warning

The FDA is warning people nationwide to avoid eating Roma, plum and red round tomatoes due to a salmonella outbreak. Food poisoning believed to be linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to at least 16 states, including Utah.

Bird flu outbreak 'highly pathogenic': officials

5 days ago

LONDON (AFP) — An outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central England is "highly pathogenic," officials said Wednesday.

All poultry in Seoul killed after bird flu outbreak

By HYUNG-JIN KIM – May 12, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials said Monday they have killed all poultry in Seoul, the capital, to curb the spread of bird flu following a new outbreak of the disease in the city.

The virus remains hard for people to catch, but scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads more easily between humans, with the potential to kill millions worldwide.

Vermont Hospitals Prepare for Pandemic

Montpelier, Vermont - June 9, 2008

This Wednesday, 11 Vermont hospitals and the state will test their ability to respond to a massive flu pandemic.

The exercise will mirror what some fear could happen-- an outbreak of a new flu strain that spreads easily from person to person.

Anthrax outbreak reported in south Kyrgyzstan
11:04 | 09/ 06/ 2008

BISHKEK, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - An anthrax outbreak has hit south Kyrgyzstan, where two people are reported to have died of the disease and six others hospitalized with similar symptoms, health officials in the Central Asian state said on Monday.

Anthrax has been confirmed in the two dead who were from the village of Beshinchi. Further tests are being carried out on the six people, who are currently being treated in isolation wards, officials said.

Health officials said the victims may have contracted the disease when they slaughtered a horse for its meat in late May.

Want to know what all this is about? See here. Also sign up here, if you're on livejournal. Or here if you're on facebook. Don't forget to tag your posts on Black Friday with BLITEOTW, which might help.

2008-06-07T12:06:00.002+10:00

Check out this awesome promo art for BLITEOTW08! Veronica V. Jones has done a great job!

I was alluded to in a poem*!!!!

2008-05-31T12:20:00.000+10:00

*A poem's footnote, anyway.

Blue Moon Rising to host BLITEOTW08

2008-05-28T11:02:00.003+10:00

Jeff from fantasy review site Blue Moon Rising will be hosting Blog Like It's The End Of The World 2008!

See his post here.

Also: there is now a facebook group, so you can alarm your facebook friends on June 13. Oh, and it seems there is another facebook group too.

2008-05-26T06:16:00.004+10:00

I've been in a new job for a while now, and along with other commitments, that has meant I'm not able to read for fun as much as I'd like. So I haven't got as much to say about the genre community as I once did.

I hope this explains why it's 'a long time between drinks' around here.

Now, this is important: for reasons outlined above, I really don't think I'll be able to give Blog Like It's The End Of The World 2008 the attention it deserves. If anyone would like to take ownership of the project, please get in touch with me at myelves at gmail.com.

There are still almost three weeks until the zombie uprising, so I hope whoever takes over would be able to coordinate and promote it imaginatively to make it more successful than last year, which was put together in a very short time.

I think a concurrent "Facebook Like It's The End Of The World" campaign would be fun, too. Or "Twitter Like It's The End Of The World" :-)

Anyway, if last year is anything to go by, you'll get about 100,000 visits in a few days, and enough links to match Neil Gaiman on Technorati.

Further news will be posted here.

2008-04-16T10:47:00.000+10:00

2008-04-14T23:08:00.001+10:00

John's Scalzi' bad news.

2008-04-11T20:29:00.003+10:00

I couldn't find pictures that really show the resemblance ... but until the closing credits, I thought the character was actually voiced by Hoskins too ...

Blog Like It's The End Of The World 2008 (BLITEOTW08)

2008-04-10T13:29:00.004+10:00

I've been receiving requests for information on a rerun of BLITEOTW ... there's still two months to go until the day (13 June), so I'm testing an idea I had for registration this year.

I've set up a Frappr map (above) for people to post their location, and the name and URL of their blog. This might help people coordinate their local zombie apocalypses.

If this system seems to be falling down, I'll think of something else at minus one month.

Stay tuned for further news of the end of the world.

UPDATE:

Blog Like It's the End of the World (BLITEOTW) will take place on 13 June. That's local time wherever you are, the whole 24 hours.
The idea is that your posting for that day is written as if a zombie uprising were taking place - around the world, and in your home town. That's pretty much it: there's no backstory. Forget that you did this last year, and write a fresh story for yourself.
You blog about how it's affecting you, what you might witness, rumours or news that you hear, and so on.
Because it's taking place worldwide almost simultaneously, it's a Romero-style zombiegeddon, where all the recently dead rise up, and are able to infect the living.
If you'd like to participate, add yourself to the Frappr map above, or add a comment below, or here.
On the day you can check technorati for posts tagged 'zombies' or bliteotw, or links to here to bluemoonrising.com. Oh, that reminds me: tag or label your blog posts 'zombies' or 'bliteotw' so people can find them. You might also try google blog search to find news.
It's a collaborative event, so the more you comment on other people's posts, link to them from your blog, spread rumours and riff on ideas, the better!

2008-04-09T06:50:00.003+10:00

I'm not sure that His Majesty's Dragon is a better title ...

2008-04-07T00:37:00.000+10:00

R.I.P. Charlton Heston

2008-04-04T20:24:00.000+10:00

Am I the only one who thinks it's wrong to compare apples and oranges and apples and pears?

2008-04-02T07:09:00.000+10:00

2008-03-31T04:47:00.003+10:00

The best part of St. Trinian's is the last half hour of the film. That's when I was driving home. I only got three laughs from the first hour:

Colin Firth has his leg humped by a dog.
"Emily Snottycow"
"It's like Hogwarts for pikeys!"

Everyone else in the theatre had left before I did.

10,000 B.C. and all that

2008-03-12T15:22:00.005+10:00

I went to see 10,000 B.C. last night, and was rather annoyed at the storyline, but found it somewhat entertaining to view the movie as if it were a game of Civilization.

The movie is full of Civ-esque elements, I thought that Sid Meier might have directed it.

The world of 10,000 B.C. is full of isolated cultures and neatly diverging terrains, dotted with picturesque features like rivers, villages, deserts and rivers. Friendly tribes share novel technology, and marauding barbarians use their different advances against you!

The movie might also be of interest if you want a prequel to Stargate, because kooky ancient-astronaut ideas get a brief mention in it.

In fact, I'd suggest that the movie is influenced by Robert Bauval's theories that a mysterious progenitor civilization (i.e. Atlantis) helped jump-start the Egyptians. This was supposed to have happened, tellingly, 12,500 years ago.

On top of that, Bauval has made much of the constellation Orion, which also plays a significant role in 10,000 B.C.

One subtle message that I could be imagining in the film is that the origins of monotheism lie in pharaoh-worship.

The ruler of the evil, enslaving, pyramid-building proto-Egyptians is a mysterious personage known as the Almighty, who is said to have come from the stars, or a sunken homeland.

Furthermore, there were previously three of his race - a trinity? The credulous slaves and slavers worship this Almighty, who is clearly conceptually derived from Xerxes in the film 300. Or the Goa'uld.

The Almighty-worship reminded me of Freud's Moses and Monotheism, which traces Jewish monotheism to Akhenaton's, and also of Anthony Flew's recent comment that the Abrahamic God is an oriental despot.

It's popular for Christians to find subtle (and not so subtle) anti-Christian messages in Hollywood features, so I expect someone to complain about this.

Actually, if the film had been called 4000 B.C. it could have been marketed to Creationists, because the history is mashed together so preposterously.

UPDATE: Amy asked about the plot: it's basically the same as Apocalypto. A stone-age tribe is raided by superior forces, and some of those who weren't caught have to rescue the ones who are, including the love-interest of the protagonist.

In fact, as with Apocalypto, there's a scene with someone trapped in a pit that is gradually filling with water ...

Greetings, Gentlebeings!

2008-02-19T10:05:00.002+10:00

Greetings, gentlebeings! by myelves Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

Does anyone know if Andrew Burt's nomination speech is online? If you buy this shirt and wear it, I take no responsibility for your getting your ass kicked.

Lost

2008-02-19T08:06:00.002+10:00

Watching The Empire Strikes Back on DVD on the weekend, I suddenly realised: Sawyer from Lost is Han Solo.

Now that I've realised it, I can't imagine why it never occurred to me before.

Exactly the same character, just played by a different actor.

That set me wondering: if Sawyer is Han, then who is Chewbacca?

Hayden Christensen in Jumper!

2008-02-16T11:46:00.002+10:00

Exclusive picture!

Ambience

2008-02-14T08:02:00.001+10:00

10 Interesting Syndromes

2008-02-11T13:50:00.000+10:00

Found at Wikipedia:

Dime Novels

2008-02-11T13:35:00.000+10:00

Fantastic article from the New York Times, 1906.

2008-02-06T14:24:00.000+10:00

Update: Note that you don't have to know Tolkien's Elvish language Tengwar to complete this Sudoku puzzle. All the characters for the numbers from one to nine are shown, so you simply have to make sure that they all appear in each row, column and subgrid.

Jeff from Blue Moon Rising has pointed out that a small fat T (a one) should go in the bottom left corner of the lower middle subgrid.

John C. Wright's preferred presidential candidate?

2008-02-01T11:03:00.000+10:00

Link

I am a genius!

2008-01-28T16:34:00.000+10:00

This is the next big thing in greeting cards! Here's one of several designs:

For Whom The Bell Tolls by myelves
Get this custom card
at Zazzle

I'm also happy with this for Valentine's Day:

I Heart You by myelves
Get this custom card
at Zazzle

Company of the Dead wins Aurealis Double!

2008-01-27T16:24:00.002+10:00

The Titanic alternate history novel picked up an award in the Best Science Fiction Novel and the Golden Aurealis (novel) categories!

I recommended it back in August and said to expect it in the rest of the world. Does anyone know if it's going to be published overseas?

If not, order a copy from Australia!

2008-01-26T18:15:00.000+10:00

Peter Watts stirs up some debate at Futurismic after posting In Praise of Slavery.

"Queer English Names"

2008-01-25T13:39:00.000+10:00

The other night a presenter on ABC radio introduced a broadcast of Dad's Army. She pronounced the name of Captain Mainwaring as "Main wearing", instead of "Mannering". Not only was this wrong, but somewhat egregious, considering that she'd spoken as if familiar with the show. Perhaps she was confused by former AFL player Chris Mainwaring, who did pronounce his name the wrong way ;-)

Here's a list of the correct pronunciation of various names, transcribed for public edification from an old New York Times:

Abergavenny: abergenny
Alcester: awlster
Allhusen: aal-hewsen
Anstruther: anster
Auchinleck: affleck
Baden Powell: bayden po'ell
Beauclerc: bo'clare
Bellingham: bellinjam
Belvoir: beever
Berkeley: barkly
Bethune: beeton
Breadalbane: breadawl'bane
Beauchamp: beecham
Brougham: broom
Caillard: ky'ar
Cadogan: cadug'gan
Chalmers: chah-mers
Crespigny: crepping
Chandos: shandus
Charteris: charters
Cheyne: chay'ney
Chisholm: chizzom
Cholmondely: chumley
Claverhouse: clayverse
Clowes: clooz
Cochrane: cock'ran
Colquhoun: cohoon
Compton: cumpton
Couch: cooch
Coventry: cuvv-entry
Crichton: cryton
De Bathe: de bahth
de Zoete: de zoot
Cromwell: crumwell
Elcho: elko
Falconer: faw-kaner
Farquharson: farkerson
Fenwick: fennick
Fildes: fyld
Froude: frood
Geoghegan: geegan
Iddesleigh: idds'ly
Iveagh: i'vah
Jeune: june
Knollys: noles
Leveson-Gower: looson-gore
MacIver: Maceever
McKay: McKy'
MacMahon: macmahn
Mainwaring: mannering
Marjoribanks: marchbanks
Marlborough: mawlboro
Menpes: mempes
Menzies: ming'ies
Meynell: mennel
Molyneux: mullineux
Monckton: munckton
Polly, of the Guards: Lieutenant General Pool Car'ey*
Pinero: pin-air'-o
Poulett: poul-et

Update:

Featherstonehaugh: fanshaw
Fotheringay: fungey

* Can anyone figure out who this refers to?

References:

New York Times, October 8, 1900, 'Queer English Names'

On Cloverfield (a spoilery poem)

2008-01-23T09:55:00.000+10:00

[Apologies to John McCrae.]

On Cloverfield the polyps grow
Between the spiders, row on row,
That stalk subways; and in the sky
The B-2s, carpet bombing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, and drank Slusho,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In the site formerly known as Central Park.

Now you must document the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The camcorder; do hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
Then you're a douche, and polyps grow
On Cloverfield.

Cloverfield

2008-01-17T23:07:00.000+10:00

Go see it!

Now!

2008-01-16T10:27:00.000+10:00

I noticed something strange in this recent photo of Steve Jobs:

I thought, "He looks like Arvin Sloane from Alias". See the photo below for comparison:

And seeing that Rambaldi mark on Jobs' hand clinched it. Is this the real Steve Jobs or an imposter? Or has he been living a double life as a spy?

Whatever sinister plans Jobs/Sloane has, his powerful position means he wields a terrible influence.

Furthermore, there's evidence that the iPod design was actually discovered on a manuscript hundreds of years old. Check out this prototype:

Is the iPod a sinister mind control device? Be warned - and keep watching the skies!

10 Interesting Reflexes

2008-01-13T11:13:00.000+10:00

Found at Wikipedia:

Photic sneeze reflex: I know someone who suffers from this!
Defensive vomiting: do any aliens from science fiction make use of this strategy? I can't think of any. John Scalzi isn't above fart jokes, so I can see him adding a vomiting alien. Free joke: "the best defense is a good offense."
Knismesis and gargalesis: useful terms to know. They should invent more specialised terms for this: where are our priorities as a society? This can be our thirty words for snow.
Anal wink: funny name, disturbing article.
Snatiation: awesome neologising on this one!
Hyperekplexia: now that's a fancy word.
Mammalian diving reflex: not as funny as the name.
Post-micturition convulsion syndrome: gives me shivers just thinking about it.
Horripilation: a good one for a nerdy kid.
Gag reflex: an old favourite.

2008-01-09T21:25:00.000+10:00

Ha! Doctors and their handwriting!

2008-01-06T21:24:00.000+10:00

2008-01-02T21:26:00.000+10:00

The episode where Arjuna travels into her own colon to learn about the importance of intestinal flora is ... unique.

Some thoughts ...

2007-12-28T07:26:00.000+10:00

A Shakespearean insult derived from an insect repellent: "thou low irritant!".
If Jeff Vandermeer were to open a restaurant, it should be called "Bistro Ambergris", which I think has a nice ring to it.
Does anyone else think that K. J. Parker's books are similar to Terry Pratchett's?
I think my favourite sound effect is the "record scratch". You know - in an ad or movie preview they play some serene classical music and show civilized scenes, then comes the record scratch, the music switches to something manic, and you find out that John Goodman has become king of England.

2007-12-25T21:05:00.000+10:00

Merry Christmas, everyone, and a very happy Boxing Day to you all! See you in 2008!

By the way, if you get a chance, check out The Fade, by Chris Wooding. It's an excellent contribution to the subterranean fantasy genre.

Awful news

2007-12-23T07:16:00.000+10:00

Hugh Cook writes on his blog (with typical bluntness):

Cancer back death certain
In New Zealand for last-ditch cancer treatment. no email reply, sorry. EYES TOO FUCKED TO SEE

This is utterly tragic news. My thoughts are with Hugh and his family - he has a wife and young daughter.

Hugh is my favourite genre author. I read his 10-volume Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series again each year and still delight in it. I mean, the events in each book occur concurrently, rather than consecutively, each from a different perspective. Who else has ever done that? Who would do it?

Paizo publishing is bringing out an edition of The Walrus and the Warwolf in 2008. It has never before been published in the USA in full, due to a series of mindboggling publishing blunders. That, plus the fact that he never really wrote for a commercial audience anyway, but for his twisted muse.

It was Hugh's misfortune that his books were published in the 80s, a time of epic pastoral fantasy knock-offs of Tolkien. His gritty, squalid, madcap series was as epic as anything published during that decade, but too confronting for the fantasy audience of the day (I believe).

I think a case could be made that Hugh wrote a kind of proto-New Weird series a decade too soon, and I think anyone interested in the New Weird genre should check them out if they can find copies.

His books are certainly weird anyway. The least weird thing is the names of the books in the series, which are all in the format "The W~ and the W~". Hugh had megalomaniacal plans sketched out for a series of 60 novels, which is insane, yet if he'd kept writing at the same pace, he'd have just about reached book 30 by now.

Anyway, just a brief rant. Growing up, I found and devoured Hugh's Chronicles before I had a chance to read Brooks or Eddings, and I think that saved me.

He has the full text of book nine of the Chronicles online here at his ugly web site. It's a fantastic military-SF/sword and sorcery novel. Check it out.

A percentage of people who read the series become raving fans. An equal percentage recoil in horror at what he does to their beloved genre. Hopefully you'll fall into the prior category.

2007-12-17T07:14:00.000+10:00

See SF Site's review of Golden Compass.