Science Fiction

I'm often labelled as a writer of hard science fiction, and frankly it's a label I don't much like, and think isn't of much use. Its strict sense defines a kind of fiction that takes the actual world seriously, tries not to violate known laws (and signals violently if it does), and builds convincing stories about actual discoveries, actual science, with as little fakery as possible.Trouble is, it's come to imply difficulty, something arid and arduous, something crabbed and restricted, and of limited appeal to anyone who isn't a stone science junkie who knows her muon from her pion, the difference between RNA and DNA coding, and the meaning of every acronym NASA has ever coined. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there can be too much emphasis on the science and not enough on the fiction, on the weight of cold fact rather than flights of imagination. Too often, so-called hard science fiction strives to be dully convincing, and forgets to be amazing.And in any case, the definition is mostly redundant. Any fiction about the world as it is, rather than the world we imagine it might be, sticks to the facts. Isn't much of the enterprise of modernist fiction about realism - about the accurate replication not only of the external world, but of the inner world, the world of the mind? And aren't we living in a world that's driven by science and technology? Isn't the present too often framed as being 'just like science fiction'? Which is to say, just like science fiction in the movies, which is rooted in science fiction from the 1950s.The world as we know it is one thing; science fiction should be about something more. Should use the known as a jump ramp into implied spaces and possibilities. Should respond to the weirdness of actual science rather than reusing received notions and used genre furniture. Should be irresponsible. Should stop arguing with itself. Should fly.

REVIEW SUMMARY: Provides an interesting look behind the scenes of video game development, not such a strong story. MY RATING: SYNOPSIS: After years of drifting through post-college life Russell joins Black Arts, a video game developer founded by friends of his from high school. He is unexpectedly thrust into a leadership role and forced to solve the mystery behind a bug that could ruin the new game and have more far-reaching consequences besides… MY REVIEW: PROS: Written by someone with experience in the field; gives a sense of appreciation for things largely taken for granted in video games. CONS: Nostalgia is expected to carry much of the book; very little conflict; uninteresting and shallow characters; confusing format and perspective shifts. BOTTOM LINE: There is probably enough decent material here to fill a movie, definitely not enough to float a 400 page novel. There’s too much nostalgia and not enough substance. You get a package in the mail from SF Signal. You rip it open, it’s Christmas in May! Inside is a hardbound copy of Austin Grossman’s latest novel, a fictional look inside the world of professional game makers. You’re excited to begin reading it. You haven’t read Austin’s Soon I Will Be Invincible but it sits on your overflowing shelf. You’ve seen some great review for Austin’s latest, comparing it to Ready Player One by Ernest Clines and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. You have read (and loved) The Magicians and The Magician King, books written by Austin’s brother Lev Grossman. You are anxious to begin and so you curl up on the hideous burnt orange couch in the living room and start reading… From early on you develop a personal connection with the book. The story is set in 1998 with flashbacks to the 80′s, and you were too young to actually own any of the nostalgia being hurled at you. Your generation cut its teeth on gaming consoles like the Play Station and the Nintendo 64. You’ve never even touched a Commodore 64, let alone played a game stored on a floppy disk. Still – you understand where Russell, the narrator, is coming from. In recent years your interest in video games has flagged considerably. The X-Box 360 spends more time running Netflix Instant Queue than generating gamescapes. It wasn’t always this way and so the rose-tinted glasses come on and you share in the magic of first discovery. Russell reminds you of the tension that comes with starting a job way over your head, the wandering that comes with post-adolescence, the desire to escape from tedium and build a world with endless possibilities. Russell isn’t the most compelling of protagonists but that’s okay (at first) because maybe, just maybe, he’s meant as a stand in – one of those voiceless heroes that game developers love to use because it “allows players to pour themselves into the mold.” For a time you are mesmerized by the dedication it takes to build a game. You always knew it had to be extensive work, you watched G4 frequently and you still visit IGN and Kotaku for gamer news, but you never imagined the sheer level of mind-numbing commitment. You begin to develop an appreciation for all the tiny details you never even considered as Russell simultaneously plays every Black Arts game and works to design his own addition the line. You marvel at the early technology and the things it could accomplish. You are absorbed by the section of the novel set at a computer camp for kids. It is easily the best part of the novel. But things begin to drag from there. You are confused by the perspective switches, from Russell’s first person to the video game’s second person. You understand the purpose behind them but it breaks up the flow. Much about the novel seems designed specifically to break the flow. The formatting is also awkward, switching perspectives at the drop of a hat, for long or short periods of tim

Another new podcast is live! As Simon is spending some time with his gran I was joined by Jared Shurin publisher, blogger, and campaigner for progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic for my first show without Simon. I had great fun and I think it’s inspired me to take the leap to do my own show, finally. More news of that soon. If you fancy a listen: ***Don’t forget you can find The Readers on Twitter, Good Reads and Facebook as well as subscribing on iTunes here.***

Let’s talk about the DOCTOR WHO Series 7 finale shall we? No, I’ve not been reviewing anything from the strangely titled Series 7b (THE BELLS OF ST. JOHN to NIGHTMARE IN SILVER), and that’s really (sadly) come down to an enjoyment level. When I used to watch RTD’s DW I was EXCITED to post about it, to talk about it with friends, and gush over what I liked. When Moffat took over in Series 5, I was excited-ish throughout (nothing reaching the levels of my RTD-era love, but excited enough)…My feelings on the entirety of Series 6 are pretty well known (Read: I loathed it more than any whole series since DW came back in 2005). Series 7 has been “meh”. The only truly standout eps for me were Neil Cross’ HIDE, and the Xmas special THE SNOWMEN…everything else could be easily swept under my WHO-rug and forgotten about. It should, therefore, speak volumes that the ONLY thing that’s been able to rouse me out of my review-malaise concerning this show is to pontificate on what I felt was a relatively disjointed and ultimately pointless Finale for Series 7. THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR, written by showrunner Steven Moffat (a man whom Chris and I used to look upon with wonder for his TV writing), is not a mess persay (at least not like 2011’s A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR), but it’s a straightforward thought essay on the Doctor. Again. For the 3rd Series finale in a row. History Check: Series 5 – The Doctor must solve the mystery of the Pandorica (a box designed by his enemies to keep him from his future), and stop the TARDIS from exploding in the future. Series 6: The Doctor has gotten to big for his britches, and his very “name” has caused an entire religion to be crafted around capturing him, and killing him…to keep him from his future. This time we get the mention of that future in Trenzalore, where the question cannot be asked “Doctor Who?” Series 7: We go to Trenzalore, and proceed to go through 45-odd minutes of that journey and what happens there. The issue? That for the third series running the show isn’t about the Doctor saving a planet, or people, or the universe…it’s instead all about the Doctor. Hell, it’s not even really about his companions. This inward looking Doctor Who is about as far from the original series and mythos as it gets…but it’s also about as far from the storytelling that RTD gave us that you could get. So we go to Trezalore. Does the “name” of the Doctor get said? Yep. But like all Moffat’s “This will happen, and it will change the Doctor forever!” proclamations…it’s all bullshit, a fake out. The name gets said, by River Song, off-screen. And there is no clever story (as was eluded by David Tennant in the Library when he said to River “there was only one time he COULD tell someone his name”) associated with her knowing of it. She literally found out “Because she badgered him about it”. You get that? She badgered him about it. A Time Lord…scratch that, the Runaway Time Lord who for over a thousand years has kept the secret of what his name really is…gave in because his (briefly) wife badgered him about it. Wow. Just wow. And that’s just for starters. So, “name” thing aside what happens on Trenzalore? Well, it’s a battlefield. “Sweet!” you say “Tell me more!” Err…well nope. It’s an old battlefield, and is “supposedly” where the Doctor died. His tomb is his TARDIS which is “leaking” it’s bigger onto the outside. So his tomb is a giant TARDIS. Cool. What’s inside? Well this kind of Swirly Light Tree thingie…and it’s basically the remnants of the Time Lord…a map of his life through time leftover as some kind of echo (I guess?). Enter our villain. The Great Intelligence (a creature from another universe trying to get into ours VIA proxies) in the form of THE SNOWMEN’s Doctor Simeon and his Whispermen (beings that ominously whisper, and who’s powers are the ability to become incorporeal enough to squeeze your heart so you die) has shown up at the Doctor’s Tomb, and wish entrance, and after threatening the Doctor by saying he’ll ki

Today’s figures: Planet-X Batman and Dark Knight Returns Batman Planet-X Batman Planet-X Batman is a very interesting character; originally he was a character named Tlano from the planet Zur-En-Arrh, who, after monitoring our Batman, became his own Planet’s equivalent of Batman and sought the assistance of our own Batman to stop an invading alien race. This was the bio the packaging opted for, however, a much more interesting, yet complicated version was introduced by legendary comics scribe Grant Morrison. Morrison’s version was a psychological construct Bruce had created and backed up in his own mind, which would come into play should he be mind-wiped or driven insane. This would enable Bruce to continue being Batman, albeit without the Bruce element, making him much more dangerous and bold (hence the bright costume). This version of Batman, also hallucinated that he was accompanied by Bat-Mite, who delightfully is included with this action figure! The sculpt seems more closely aligned with the more recent iteration of Planet-X Batman, the costume having sculpted elements of stitching and damage, as if cobbled together by a demented Bruce Wayne. I like the old-styled mobile phone/communicator attached to his retro looking utility belt too, it’s a really cool touch, He uses the same base body as most DC Universe Classics Batman figures with the additional shoulder detailing sculpted on. The articulation is a standard 21 points; ball-jointed shoulders and head, swivel joints at the ankles, knees, thighs, hips, upper legs, wrist and elbows. The pack-in Bat-Mite figure has 5 points of swivel articulation; neck, shoulders and slightly angled joints on his upper legs. He also comes complete with a worn-in baseball bat, implying he’s been busy with some criminals! The paint jobs are pretty standard, bold colours, the yellow and red particularly standing out. There is a slight misalignment on the figure I got of paint on the cowl too, meaning there was a line across the skin part of his face but otherwise the lines are pretty crisp, particularly on the bat logo on his chest. All in all, this is a pretty cool Batman figure; a little wacky and out there, but surely one to be slept on until it’s too late! Don’t miss your chance to get one now and complete your ever growing Batman collection! Haven’t got an ever growing Batman collection? Then why not start with this wave of excellent Batman Unlimited figures? Pros: First time this figure has been immortalised in plastic Comes with excellent accessories; particularly the Bat-Mite figure! Cons: Paint jobs not 100% crisp Bat-Mite difficult to pose in action situations Dark Knight Returns Batman The Dark Knight Returns is one of the all-time greatest Batman stories, written by a “little known” comic book writer known as Frank Miller. This is set in the future, but was originally written in 1986, so a lot of the imagery is very much dated, (as are all visual ideas of the future from the past) however, the story itself has stood the test of time (so much so that an excellent animated version has been recently released). Set in a future where Batman retired from crime fighting following the death of Jason Todd (the 2nd Robin), the cold war still rages on, and masked vigilantes have been forced into hiding due to the public’s untrusting nature towards them. Violent crime is rife, the police can’t stop it, and so a much older Bruce Wayne is forced to become the Dark Knight once more, looking to stop the dangerous street gang known as the mutants. This is the most imposing Batman figure we’ve had in the DC Universe Classics / DC Unlimited line, which is a perfect interpretation of the Dark Knight Returns version of Mr Wayne, who seems to have grew wider and more muscular in his time away from the cowl. The sculpt is fantastic and very accurate to the source material, from the detailing of his infamous utility belt, to the menacing scowl on his face! The body is actually a Ma

He likes his martini shaken not stirred and he frequents the casino at the Royale-Les-Eaux where he aims to bankrupt the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian Secret Service. Ian Fleming’s James Bond first made his debut in this stunning casino themed novel and the glamour and intrigue of the casino sets the tone for stylish and seductive sleuthing. Now an iconic work of fiction and a major motion picture, Casino Royale captures the glitz, glamour and intrigue of the casino where James Bond takes down his first conquest. A different, rather grittier tale based on casinos was the fictionalized account of Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi. Casino was written in the 1970s and is based on the rather warped memoirs of an actual Vegas casino operator who ran with the mob. The twisted tale of the Stardust casino is the backdrop for this book and it shows a different side to the glitz and glamour associated with gaming. The book is unputdownable and the story of skimmed cash, betrayals, robberies and government investigations gone awry is captivating. Oscar and Lucinda is possibly one of the best works of fiction that combines a sort of love affair with casino-style mystery and intrigue. For games of a similar calibre only top sites like www.bookofraspiel.de offer the same kind of entertainment as this great book. Written by Australian Peter Carey, the novel won the 1988 Booker Prize and it tells the story of two gamblers who meet on a ship and take a bet that will change their lives forever. It’s the diverse backgrounds of the gamblers that make the book so intriguing and show how a simple bet can change everything. Cindy Blake enters the gambling arena with a charming novel called It’s My Party that features a hard and fast look at the competitive worlds of gambling, love and business. The main character is a successful businesswoman by day, and a ruthless poker player at night, but her bets on love have always been a flop. The novel is a light-hearted, riotous look at gambling and how keeping your cards close to your chest isn’t always better. There are hundreds of great casino stories out there but these are definitely the best novels of all time. Classic or contemporary, they offer gripping reading and are unputdownable . * Sponsored Post

Wow. Just...wow.One of my biggest disappointments when the 2013 Hugo Award nominations were announced was the absence of Ian Tregillis' THE COLDEST WAR from the ballot. Don't get me wrong, I was absolutely thrilled that EBR was nominated, but not seeing Tregillis' name on the list for Best Novel was a huge bummer. His Milkweed Triptych is one of the most enjoyable and clever series on the market right now, and a Hugo Nomination would have made a huge and well-deserved impact on his exposure. Why am I bringing this up? Not out of bitterness, I assure you. I want all you readers to understand just how much I and everyone at EBR loved THE COLDEST WAR.NECESSARY EVIL absolutely crushes its predecessor. It is better in every way, and stands as one of the best novels I've read since founding Elitist Book Reviews. It will be on my Hugo ballot for 2014, and it should be on your ballot as well.Now it's time to get detailed, but I have to start with a warning. From this point on there will be spoilers of the prior two novels, BITTER SEEDS and THE COLDEST WAR. I hate including spoilers, but in order for me to point at what makes NECESSARY EVIL so awesome, I need to talk about the prior novels. If you haven't read the prior two novels you should follow these instructions:1) In a separate window, open Amazon.com.2) Add BITTER SEEDS, THE COLDEST WAR and NECESSARY EVIL to your cart.3) Buy the books.4) Bookmark this page, and return after you have read the series. Close this page without reading further.Upon return:5) WELCOME BACK!!! Awesome right? Now, tell all your friends how incredible Ian Tregillis is.6) Reread the series. Because why not?OK, the spoilers start here.So, THE COLDEST WAR ends with the Eidolons destroying everything. They hate humans, and Raybould Marsh gave them the key they needed to enter the world and end all human existence. Well, at least in THAT timeline. Marsh has been sent back in time to create an alternate timeline where the Eidolons don't break through.To me the brutal failure of the main characters, and how they caused their own destruction, is what made THE COLDEST WAR such an impressive novel.But with that success came a whole lot of worries. How could Tregillis possibly up the proverbial ante?NECESSARY EVIL starts with Gretel. We never got to be in her head. We never got to see her machinations from her own PoV. In this book we see how she tampers and manipulates. We really are shown just how obsessed she is with Marsh, and how not even her brother truly matters in this grand scheme she has. Her whole goal is to create a timeline where she doesn't die. It's a simple goal, yet completely believable. So often the goals of literary villains have no substance behind them. Not so here. Gretel's maniacal obsession with making sure she lives is written perfectly.Following this stunning introduction to the novel, we get one of two versions of Raybould Marsh. We get our Marsh--the one from the destroyed timeline--sent back in time to 12 May, 1940 when everything originally went insane. It is here that Tregillis does some clever writing. This Marsh is told using a First Person PoV. The other Marsh--the young one in this new timeline--is told in Third Person Limited. Wondering which Marsh we are seeing is never an issue for the reader. What is more, we see the major contrast between the two Marshes and just how different they actually are.All the other characters are back. Klaus. Will. Liv. All the other German super-humans. All the other Milkweed participants and warlocks. My only slight let-down came in terms of Klaus. He was my favorite character by the end of THE COLDEST WAR, so to see him so sparingly used in this novel made me a little sad. He got his ending in THE COLDEST WAR (and it was perfect), but still. He felt like a bit of an afterthought here.Remember all those times that Will and Marsh saw that old, scarred guy? We finally got the obvious payoff in NECESSARY EVIL. Having read a lot of novels in my day, I

"I didn't like calling plants by their Latin names. Yes, it was more appropriate in an academic setting, but it was so impersonal. Plants had personalities. Referring to happy, open sunflowers as "helianthus" was like calling them by the ugly middle names they only listed on their tax forms. If plants paid taxes, that is.""You know that pig Latin went out with scrunchies and Smurfs, right?""There were a lot of little myths that the humans had to let go once vampires came out of the coffin - crosses, holy water, guys with cute English accents who wandered around in long black coats being all adorably evil. Sigh. Oh, Spike.""Never trust a man who looks like Colonel Sanders."- The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires by Molly HarperContent Copyright © 2009-2013 Tales of Whimsy. All Rights Reserved.

The Human Division by John Scalzi The Human Division is a fast-paced roller coaster of a book. At the Nebula Awards this weekend in San Jose, California, John Scalzi politely informed me that this was the fifth book in a series, which starts with Old Man’s War. I haven’t read the other four (which I will be correcting soon) but I understood pretty well what was going on in this universe, although I may have missed some nuance. The Colonial Union left earth to colonize space about two hundred years ago. During that time, space-faring humans met several other races who didn’t like humans very much. They also met some who did, or were at least willing to trade with us. From Earth, the Colonial Union recruited people over the age of seventy to create soldiers, decanting them into younger bodies with enhanced features like “smart blood” and a BrainPal computer in their skulls. Earth is also the source of the colonists who venture out into space. The CU protected — or perhaps I should write “protected” — Earth from hostile extra-terrestrials and gave Earth some new tech, but they also kept the home world a backwater. This worked well when the alien races were not organized and Earth was ignorant. Now, though, an alien coalition called the Conclave has formed, and Earth has discovered they’ve been lied to. The” human division,” then, is the schism between Earth humans and colonial humans. Against this backdrop, various Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) staff; a former soldier who considers himself a “technical guy,” an ambassador, a starship captain and a sidekick who doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up, all struggle to have successful diplomatic missions with several alien cultures. This is difficult because someone, somewhere, is sabotaging every single mission. It’s a strength of Scalzi’s strong, transparent prose that by the end of Chapter One of The Human Division I had a pretty good understanding of the CDF soldiers, the technology in use, and the background political problems. Scalzi eschews the lengthy data-dump for a one-or-two-sentence passage that explains things. He also starts off with explosive action, literally, as a CU starship is fired upon and destroyed. “The Human Division” is also a nice play on words, since a division can be a sub-group within a department, branch or agency. I read most of the book interpreting the title this way; despite the nanobot blood, enhanced eyesight and hearing, green skin and an on-board computer, our main characters seem like regular guys trying to do their job, even though they can’t catch a single break. Scalzi’s choice of structure also speeds the book along. It is almost a series of linked short stories. Most of them follow Harry Wilson, Colonial Defense Forces Lieutenant, his friend and sidekick Hart Schmidt, Ambassador Abumwe and Captain Coloma as they careen from one narrow escape to the next. Two other characters, Rigney and Egan, direct the missions from the relative safety of offices and conference rooms. Egan calls the group her “fire team,” but without telling them they are a fire team. Harry’s friends don’t seem to get a lot of information as they are sent off on mission after mission; nor do they get a lot of say in how things will go. “Your crew is used to the ship by now,” Egan said. “And we do need another diplomatic ship in the fleet. Ambassador Abumwe and her staff had a list of assignments and no way to get to them. If you want the ship, it’s yours. If you don’t want the ship, it’s yours. Congratulations.” Other sections, however, follow characters only lightly connected to the team, or not at all. In one, a soldier we met previously is captured by colonial insurgents on a supposedly safe planet, and affects an ingenious escape. In another, a right-wing talk radio host, blinded by ambition, makes a choice with some unpleasant consequences. The most tragic section follows a young spacer who survives when his ship is overtaken, only to land on the most dange

i've a random questionjust want to know on the latest angel volume why does he in the sketches look younger has he been put under a spell that he's unaware of were only me and my can see it in the sketches?