Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic

My newest column at Diverse Nerd Association is now up.  If nothing else, I can probably claim the distinction of being the only person ever to write a column on video games with references to Nazis, The Wizard of Oz, late Republican Rome, and the movie Candyman within a few paragraphs of each other. Hey, I [...]

io9 has an article entitled “Charles Stross Explains Why UK Scif Is More Hopeful Than US Scifi.” The title left me baffled, as if I had seen an article entitled “Stephen Hawking Explains Why Siberia Is Hotter Than the Photosphere of the Sun.” My impression has long been that British science fiction is darker and more [...]

I became aware of Mark L. Van Name more or less by chance. I was browsing at the bookstore not long ago when I stumbled upon the newly released paperback version of Van Name’s debut novel from Baen Books, One Jump Ahead. Nothing else at the store was really grabbing my attention that [...]

OK, here’s something I’m pretty excited about.  Part one of my interview with Tobias Buckell is online at Crucial Taunt.  The interview was a good bit bigger longer than my regular Crucial taunt review column, so stay tuned for part two of the interview next week!

Facebook has a neat new feature called Blog Networks, and I’ve set one up for Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic.  Threes of people have already joined, so if you’re on Facebook I hope you’ll join us.

The Diverse Nerd Association is up and in full swing now, and my first weekly news column is now up.  It’s a great site site if you like video games, comics, or anime- and my column will probably throw in some science fiction here and there, too.  I hope you’ll have a look.

I’ve been tagged by Aidan Moher with the meme “Science Fiction Movies Based on a Novel.” The rules are as follows: Copy the list below. Mark in bold the movie titles for which you read the book. Italicize the ones that you’ve watched. 1. Jurassic Park 2. War of the Worlds (The old movie version, with hovering Martian [...]

Jake Seliger has an interesting post about remarks made about fantasy by Patrick Kurp, in which Kurp says: Fantasy feels like a cheat, an evasion, a con game for stunted children. I read to know the world, in particular the human world, even to celebrate it, not to slum in another. Ours feels sufficiently mysterious and [...]

Stuff I’ve been up to elsewhere: I’ve got a review of John Beachem’s debut novel Storms of Vengeance at Fantasybookspot.com, and an overview of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire at Crucial Taunt.

Aidan Moher asks an interesting question: what are books or authors you think you should like, but don’t? I suppose Kim Stanley Robinson should stand pretty high on my list. I love both hard science fiction and colonization stories, so by all rights I should have loved Red Mars, but I found it so dull didn’t [...]

At last week’s Mind Meld at SF Signal, the question asked was: What are the best examples of SF/F worldbuilding? This is a question I like to think about, since I think worldbuilding- and especially the process of extrapolating how this or that technology or social change would affect the world- is one of the core virtues [...]

My new column at Crucial Taunt is up, with a profile of my favorite SF author of all time, Poul Anderson.

Over at SF Crowsnest, there’s a new social network for SF fans called Hivemind.  It’s just starting, but I like how it looks so far.  I’ve got a profile here.

There’s been lots of discussion, started by Jonathon McCalmont and largely flowing out of Gabe Chouinard’s post here, about the idea of monetary compensation for SF review bloggers and sites from publishers. (See OF Blog of the Fallen, Antick Musings, A Dribble of Ink, Rob’s Blog o’Stuff, Walker of Worlds.) McCalmont originally said: In order to [...]

Tobias Buckell is an author I became aware of only a few months ago, when I read and greatly enjoyed his debut Crystal Rain. (See my review of that here) Ragamuffin takes place in the same universe, but offers a very different kind of story. Hundreds of years from now, the mysterious alien Satraps [...]

For anybody who likes video games, I’ve got an article about the recent E3 show up at the newly relaunched Diverse Nerd Association. If you only read one video game column that has a joke based on the poetry of Wilfred Owen this year, make it this one. The Association itself is a project I’m rather [...]

I completely forgot to post this: my review of Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep at Crucial Taunt.  That page may change soon, so you might need to scroll down to the list of archived articles.

I’m always taking notes- about things I’ve read, things I want to write, and just general ideas and thoughts. I mostly do this at my computer, but I have a notebook as well if I’m reading while away from home. When neither are at hand and I’m in a hurry, I’ll just use scrap paper [...]

I first got into Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series because I had heard it described as dark military fantasy in the vein of Glen Cook’s Black Company books. They do fit that description somewhat well. Odd as it sounds, I find the Malazan Book of the Fallen series to be fairly upbeat, in [...]

I virtually never buy new hardcover fiction books; I read too many books to pay $20+ for one very often. I have made exceptions, however, and Alastair Reynolds is a rare case where I’ve made an exception more than once. The Prefect makes me glad I did. The Prefect is a return to Reynolds’ [...]