Darwin's Radio

This month's book is Greg Bear's Nebula 2000 winning (and Hugo nominated) novel of human evolution

Amazon.co.uk Review

Greg Bear notoriously reworks traditional SF themes in his own special way. His first success, Blood Music (1985), features an intelligent plague which seems destructive but eventually recreates humanity in new, transcendent form-

The Stars My Destination analysis

Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
And death's my destination.

Outline

Gully Foyle is marooned 170 days in space on the wreck of the Nomad with thought or hope other than that of day-to-day survival. None, that is, until a passing ship, the Vorga, spurns his distress signals. In his despair Gully is changed into a driven man, one that will not stop until he has his vengeance on those that left him to die.

Over the course of the story, Gully changes. Initially on the outside from the facial tattoos given him by a lost tribe deep in the asteroid belt, then on the inside as he forces himself to change to achieve his goals. And the final change? Well you will just have to read the story for that one...

Heinlein's Guide to Successful Writing

1. You must *write*
2. You must *finish* what you write.
3. Having written, you must *submit* what you wrote to someone who might be interested in *buying* it.
4. You must *keep* submitting until it either sells or has been bounced by every possible market.
5. You must *not* change what you write, *unless* an editor commits to buying it if you make the requested changes.

An awful lot of folks never get past #2...

SURFACE DETAIL- Chapter One

The latest Iain M Banks' Culture novel is out next month. For those who cannot wait, you can read the first chapter of Surface Detail over at the Orbit Books website. It promises to be good.

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. It begins with a murder. And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.

Kate Wilhelm's Sweet Birds: How protecting a species can endanger it

"The musical, measured Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm — which won the Hugo in 1977 — is an artful admixture of clones and poetry, with a message that'll never get old... Anyway, let me tell you about the book."

You can read the full article by Josh Wimmer about this intriguing book at the io9 website. I've not read the book yet, but I shall now be on the lookout.

The Stars My Destination

The book for this month is Alfred Bester's classic 1956 novel of revenge. Set in the 25th century, it stars Gully Foyle, a worthless, talentless waster who yet somehow survives for more than six months marooned in space after his ship is destroyed. It needs a passing ship to ignore his cries for help to galvanise him into doing something about his situation: he must get back to Earth and wreak his vengeance on those who left him to die.

Originally published in Britain under the title Tiger! Tiger!, The Stars My Destination and Bester's 1953 Hugo winning The Demolished Man influenced both the New Wave SF of the 60s and the Cyberpunk revolution of the 70s.

There are not many SF books that can remain undated after more than 50 years, but The Stars My Destination is one.

Neal Stephenson on Anathem

Hugo Awards 2010 - A Review Of 2009

Mark Slater's review of science fiction and fantasy in 2009 and introduction to the Hugo Awards 2010

2010 Hugo Award Winners

Designed by/Photo: Nick Stathopoulos

The results are in from Aussiecon4, and they make interesting reading. It was predictable that the best novel was novel was going to be one of The City & The City, The Windup Girl, and Boneshaker, with the first winning the Arthur C Clark award, the second the Nebula and the third "only" a US steampunk zombie story, it was going to be between China Miéville and Paolo Bacigalupi.

Judge Minty: Taking Law to the Lawless

I have been a Judge Dredd fan for a long time (ie back to issue 3 of 2000AD) and was horribly disappointed by the Stallone / Hollywood treatment back in 1995. I am rather interested that there is a fan film in the making that looks to go back to the source material and beyond to the story concept itself: the police maintain the law through public consent, but if there is no consent then how do you maintain the law?

Dr Who in Springfield

It had to happen. OK, maybe it didn't, but I am glad that it did. Did that make any sense? Maybe sentences can be swirly wirly timy wimy as well. Maybe...

Yes, Dr Who has been Simpsonised thanks to Springfield Punx, and it is looking good.

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Dispatches from a Troubled City: Art Inspired by the Works of China Mieville

You can see a host of most excellent China Mieville inspired artwork collected together at the SuperPunch website:

http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2010/08/dispatches-from-troubled-city-art.html

Anathem reactions

The responses to Neal Stephenson's epic masterpiece are many and varied. Here are just a few.

Firefly: The Credits Sequence It Deserved!

The happy Geeks over at io9 have come up with a suggested title sequence for the greatest cancelled SF show of all time. The question is, would dropping the cowboys in space intro saved it from Fox?

What do you think?

Unseen Academicals – a book review

by Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry Pratchett’s 37th Discworld book is about football and the important thing about football is that it is not just about football. Yes, there is football in the book, whether the medieval violent scrum with optional ball, or the more modern game with compulsory ball and optional violence; but there is also love, passion (not always the same thing), pathos, and satire.

Theatre of Cruelty - A Discworld short story by Terry Pratchett

Copyright © Terry Pratchett 1993

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It was a fine summer morning, the kind to make a man happy to be alive. And probably the man would have been happier to be alive. He was, in fact, dead. It would be hard to be deader without special training.

"Well, now," said Sergeant Colon (Ankh-Morpork City Guard, Night Watch), consulting his notebook, "so far we have cause of death as a) being beaten with at least one blunt instrument b) being strangled with a string of sausages and c) being savaged by at least two animals with big sharp teeth. What do we do now, Nobby?"

Neil Gaiman wins Carnegie Medal

Following on from winning the Hugo award and Newbery Medal, Neil Gaiman's 'The Graveyard Book' has now won the Carnegie Medal, the UK's foremost award for children's literature.

Inspired by the sight of seeing his own two-year-old son riding his tricycle round gravestones, 'The Graveyard Book' is the story of a young boy brought up in the quiet and comfort of a cemetery, safe from the dangers of the outside world.

Gaiman once said that it was only because of his established reputation that publishers even considered a childrens' book opening with a serial killer at work. Only in a Gaiman story could the dead and undead be more human than the living. In the words of the Carnegie judges: "'The Graveyard Book ... manages to mix extreme creepiness with gentle humour. ... We felt the book was intriguing, it's very atmospheric and it has an extremely satisfying ending."

Doctor Who The Big Bang preview trailer plus Stephen Moffat interview

Apparently this professional looking trailer is fan-made, though it is hard to believe.  Enjoy

Terry Pratchett returning to SF with Stephen Baxter

(c) Terry Pratchett

After many decades of writing the extremely successful Discworld books, Terry Pratchett is collaborating with Stephen Baxter to write a new science fiction novel: The Long Earth.

"I thought to myself [Discworld] is fantasy, and I want to get back to my first love, which is science fiction" (Guardian Interview)

Guards! Guards!

While Terry Pratchett had already published ten books, Guards! Guards! the 8th Discworld book is the one where he first realises the art of art of “serious comedy”. His previous books had mostly been clever satires on fantasy clichés and popular culture, but with Guard! Guards! we see the flowering of his ability to write about dark subjects yet make laugh-out-loud jokes without belittling the seriousness of the subject. It is true that he more fully realises the technique in his later instalments of the Night Watch series, but it starts here.