Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Today is 42 Day. Don’t forget your towel.
Browsing Posts in Print
101010 it’s a binary number and it’s a date. And it’s 101010 days away.
That’s right, folks, 42 Day is 42 days away!
The important point, however, is that “literary fiction” is not defined by being well written, it is defined by the fact that it conforms to the expectations of the literary fiction genre.
- Cheryl Morgan on the Booker Prize.
It is certainly true that literary fiction is a genre, with its own tropes, in exactly the way that SF, Fantasy and Crime fiction are all distinct genres. It would be nice, therefore, if the rest of the media recognised this and gave the Booker Prize exactly the same amont of attention as they give to all of the other genre awards.
When one talks about books what we really mean is stories.
- Author, Michael Morpurgo welcoming the idea of children accessing stories through mobile devices instead of books.
I have subsribed to, and later unsubscribed from, several podcasts over the past few years. One that I have stuck with, however, is StarShipSofa.
One of the things that keeps this podcast fresh is the willingness of the host, Tony C. Smith, to remain flexible with the format. Whenever someone comes up with an idea, he’ll tend to give it a go and the net result is a constantly evolving show that is always both interesting and entertaining. And it’s evolved a lot.
To give new listeners a sense of just how far it has come, several members of the StarShipSofa community have transcribed some of the earliest shows and the result is StarShipSofa: The Captain’s Logs
These transcripts allow veteran fans and newcomers alike to revisit the wonderful early episodes of StarShipSofa. In these shows, Tony C. Smith and Ciaran O’Carroll paid tribute to the founding fathers and mothers of contemporary science fiction, and some of the big ideas explored in their works, with a delightful blend of humor and enthusiasm and insight that drew loyal listeners from across the globe, myself included.
It is fitting that, while Tony and Ciaran were celebrating the history of the genre, they also were making genre history themselves. Today, StarShipSofa has emerged as a vibrant voice in the world science fiction community. This volume is a testament to the podcast’s origins, as well as to the ongoing power and appeal of science fiction literature.
- Amy H. Sturgis, Ph.D.
Treat yourself. I know I will.
This is a bit of an odd confession to make about a fiction magazine, but I read Black Static mainly for the non-fiction articles. This is not a criticism of the fiction in the magazine, but an observation about my own preference. While I do read a fair bit of genre fiction, my tastes lean more towards SF than horror and when it comes to fantasy, I tend to prefer the epic variety to the dark.
That said, like its TTA Press stalemate, Interzone, Black Static does manage to regularly publish a consistently high standard of fiction and issue 16 is no exception. High points for me include The Overseer by Tim Casson, which is both dark and disturbing, and the shockingly powerful Extreme Latitude by M.G. Preston. This tale of isolation and insanity really does get under your skin in all sorts of uncomfortable ways.
At the start of last year I found myself having to recognise that various changes in my life had left me subscribing to significantly more magazines than I had time to read. Consequently, I started allowing most of my subscriptions lapse. One of the subscriptions I did renew, however, was Black Static and I renewed it not for the fiction, but for the non-fiction articles.
While columnists Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk and Mike O’Driscoll all write about distinct areas of genre fiction, what all three columnists have in common is the quality of their insight. What all three writers have to say is well-informed, interesting and provides an genuinely fascinating look at where genre fiction is going and what it is capable of.
The reviews and author interviews, on the other hand, always leave me with a reason to increase the height of my ever-growing pile of unread books. This time around book reviewer. Peter Tennant provides an in-depth look at Sarah Pinborough as well as an interview with the author. Sarah Pinborough is someone whose name I have seen mentioned several times but have never read. So now I shall head over to Amazon to rectify this.
Issue 227 of Interzone opens with a guest editorial from Chris Beckett, discussing his story Johnny’s New Job which was his response to the artificial outrage certain parts of the media were trying to whip up following the Baby P case.
Science fiction, as ever, offered a perfect set of tools for exploring these thoughts. I can’t imagine any other medium that would allow me so quickly and so easily to construct a world in which these rituals were manifest, and yet at the same time to place within it an ordinary human being – the hapless Johnny – who could live out its implications on our behalf.
The story itself is a savage (if predictable) satire on the sort of society that has abandoned any rational approach to apportioning blame, or to ensuring that outrages can be prevented, instead preferring the easy option of venting its anger against a convenient scapegoat.
Mercurio D. Rivera returns to the magazine with Dance of the Kawkawroons, a subtle and effective contact story which ends on a twist that had me going back and reading the story all over again.
The high point of the magazine, though, is Jim Hawkins’ Chimbwi, in which a physicist flees a collapsing Europe to try and find a better life in the newly resurgent Zambia. It’s a bit of a mcguffin driven plot, but one that manages to be both post-apocalyptic and positive and a story peopled with great characters. The bio notes that it’s forty years since Hawkins published his first SF story. Hopefully we won’t have to wait quite so long for the next one.
Spider Robinson is an American born SF writer, now living in Canada. He has a generous attitude and his writing can be described as being both humanistic and humorous and plenty of examples of it can be found in the archives of the StarShipSofa podcast.
Not is all good in the Robinson household, however, as Spider Robinson’s wife Jeanne is fighting cancer and they’re both struggling to pay the bills. You can help: 100% of any money used to purchase Larry Santoro’s excellent e-book, Lord Dickens’s Declaration, will go directly to the Robinsons. But you need to buy the book before December 31st, after which time it will become available.
In order to bring this fundraiser to an end with a bank, Matthew Sanborn Smith is calling on people to buy the book today. So click, click, click. The book is well worth a read and you have the additional bonus of having done some good for a fellow human being.
Today is October 1st, which means that it is Support Our ‘Zines Day when we remind ourselves of how much we all love our ‘zines. Magazines, fanzines, online publications, these are the places from which the best new fiction bubbles up and which need all the financial support they can muster.
So, what can you do to help support our ‘zines? Here are three simple suggestions for ways to support the ‘zines you love to read:
- List the ‘zines you have enjoyed this year, then subscribe / donate to as many as feel you can afford. You can be modest and keep your donations a secret, or you can show off and list your donations on your blog or elsewhere top help encourage others to show their support.
- Send a message to the editor(s) of the ‘zines you like thanking them for their work. Editors make ‘zines happen.
- Publicise your favourite ‘zines on your website, blog and elsewhere.
If you love reading good short fiction and you love good ‘zines, then take a few minutes out of your day and show your support.
I have already mentioned StarShipSofa Stories, the science fiction anthology released to celebrate the 100th transmission of the StarShipSofa podcast. I am mentioning it again because the book is now on sale.
StarShipSofa’s Aural Delights has offered exemplary readings of fiction by many of the luminaries of the SF field, from those whose works define the genre, to those newly recognized as ascending stars in its firmament. In so doing, StarShipSofa has raised the bar for other SF podcasting endeavors to come while introducing new audiences to fantastic poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and novellas. StarShipSofa now invites its listeners to celebrate its first 100 programs in the most traditional and classic of ways: by reading some of the excellent works it has been privileged to present in audio form. This exceptional collection offers a reminder of all that StarShipSofa and its contributing authors and narrators have accomplished in the field of SF; it also stands as a promise for the next 100 episodes of Aural Delights and all of the wonder they will share.
You can download it as a free ebook or, if you prefer reading without batteries, buy the book in either the standard or deluxe edition.
And on that note, I’m off to do a bit of shopping.
© 2005 - 2012 Paul Pritchard Original content licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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