books
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Due to issues with hosting I’ve decided to go cheap and just use the freely hosted version of WordPress over at wordpress.com.
Therefore this blog now lives at: http://mostlygeeknz.wordpress.com/
Please update your links.
The place of speculative fiction in literature
The Guardian has a very interesting article on the place of speculative fiction in the world of literary prizes such as the Man Booker Prize.
This quote from the article sums up a number of feelings I have on the matter quite well.
Over the same period, the fashion of literary fiction writers borrowing ideas from SF has continued. Putting aside concerns that novels such as Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go lag more than two decades behind in their treatment of cloning and genetics, for the Booker judges to consider SF ideas when recycled by literary authors, but to ignore the source of those ideas, only highlights the narrowness of the award’s perspective.
Well worth a read if you have a few minutes, not to mention that it has a very good list of forward thinking speculative fiction books that people should read.
Is speculative fiction poised to break into the literary canon? – The Guardian, Wednesday February 2nd 2011
Need something to read?
The great people over at i09.com have released a list of the 15 best speculative fiction books of 2010. While I admit that I haven’t actually read any of these yet I think I may try to make my way through the list.
Check out the list if you’re in need of something new to read.
New Mieville Extract
One of my favourite ‘speculative fiction’ authors from the last few years has to be China Mieville. Reading Perdido Street Station for the first time was a revelation. That’s still my favourite book of his and, to be honest, I haven’t enjoyd his last couple so much, but I still look forward to a new work with some anticipation. The combination of the grotesque, fantastical and political really appeals to me even when he’s not at his best.
Kraken is his upcoming book (out in the UK in May) and there’s an extract at the publisher’s website. It’s just a short one but it’s a great set up. It’s a return to the real real world – actual London (like in King Rat) rather than made up eastern Europe (like in The City & The City) so that will be interesting. Most people, including myself if I’m honest, would prefer a return to Bas-Lag, the world of Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, but a man’s gotta write what he’s gotta write – the worst possible thing would be a new Bas-Lag novel just for the hope of selling more copies!
I waited to buy The City & The City until I saw it on sale and I suspect I’ll wait for this in paperback too, unless it gets really seriously good reviews. Luckily Mieville is one of those guys who everyone has an opinion on so at least there will eb lots of reviews.
Linky linky linky linky LINKS
Sorry for last week’s lack of links and apologies in advance for the lack of links next week!
- Mark Charan Newton thinks sci-fi books are dying. I tend to agree.
- Why fandom owes even more to H.P. Lovecraft than we realised.
- A man has ‘beaten’ WoW. Sort of (via Boing Boing)
- Dollhouse battles were about sex. So says Whedon – Fox will never tell.
- Real life vampire killing kits!
- Using Microsoft’s Surface to play D&D – more footage.
Links? On a Thursday?
Who would have thunk it?
- Charles Stross writes on the issues to do with spaceships.
- Lev Grossman chooses his top 5 fantasy books of all time! (via i09.com)
- Something Awful dissects the art of Traveller.
- Paizo are having another of their RPG Superstar design competitions.
I think the internet is playing Dragon Age too…
It’s Thursday. Want some links?
- I personally don’t especially care about covers – I choose books based on reviews and previous work and I think most SFF covers are rubbish. But some people care a great deal. Here’s a post at A Dribble of Ink about the changes between editions of Mark Charan Newton’s Nights of Villjamur. The comments are pretty interesting if you like that sort of thing, with all sorts weighing in, including Newton’s editor.
- Filming of the Games of Thrones pilot has wrapped. Now we wait to see what the chances of a actual series are.
- Sex advice from D&D players. Actually serious advice, not a parody.
- The AV club’s best 15 video games of the noughties.
- Next time you’re at a loss for PC or NPC, try looking up this print of Characters for an Epic Tale. (via Boing Boing)
- The BBC discusses committing war crimes in video games. (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
- The Times covers ‘adult gamers’. Shock, horror!
- And, finally, Kotaku celebrates World of Warcraft’s 5th birthday by finding out from people why they’ve never played it. The intro where the writer discusses how it just doesn’t live up to tabletop gaming experiences is the most interesting one to me.
Yet another THURSDAY LINK DAY!!!
- More DMing advice from Penny Arcade
- The movie Gattaca is being made into a sci-fi, police procedural TV show. Sound pretty cool!
- How we’ll cope (or not) with the Dollhouse cancellation – the 5 Stages of Grief. But, maybe we’ll get more Buffy?
- Setting up your Mac to play PC games.
- Michael Chabon on breaking out of genre and the role of fan-fiction in popular culture.
- What Stormtroopers do on their day off.
- Some guy at the Guardian reads George R. R. Martin for the first time.
- Robin D. Laws does a great real world RPG inspiration. Maybe we should change the way we do ours?
- i09′s take on what SFF books you might like if you liked some recent movies. It’s a cool idea, done well and the recommend some great books!
- Finally, The Onion A.V. Club gives us more geek fun with their New Cult Canon write up on Army of Darkness, a movie I have never seen but now really want to!
Thursday LINK DAY!!!
- Does your barbarian or dwarf warrior need a more interesting weapon? Try this out.
- What war is really like.
- Rising star Mark Charan Newton interviews established tie-in writer Dan Abnett about writing tie-in fiction. I’ve you’ve never read Eisenhorn you should – it maybe a Warhammer 40k book but it’s also excellent! And very cheap now it’s in a omnibus format.
- How we write about the Apocalypse has changed in the last 20 years. And here’s an interesting piece about how Sci-Fi looked at the Cold War. (Both from io9.com which is now on my RSS reader)
- The Brainy Gamer get into why Dragon Age is filled with “RPG things”.
- Bioware on what they’ve learned from Bethesda.
- The AV Club keep up the good work with the latest Gateways to Geekery on Philip K. Dick.
- And, finally, The Times online has 70 facts you didn’t know about Marvel Comics in honour of Marvel’s 70th birthday. There’s a bunch of other articles there too.