I’ve just spent a few days in Latvia at a UNESCO conference on education. The delegates were mainly from Central Asia and Eastern Europe, so…
1 CommentOn and on I sped into futurity...
Month: March 2012
Right now I’m in the beautiful ski resort of Kransjka Gora in Slovenia. Out of my hotel window I can see the Julian Alps rising…
1 CommentThe cinema industry has a poor track record when it comes to films of H. P. Lovecraft’s stories. Despite his often turgid prose, the piling…
2 CommentsI admit that this review is going to be a bit biased. As I’ve said before, when I read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian series as…
4 CommentsTars Tarkas riding a Thoat on Barsoom, yesterday. OK – ticket’s booked for tomorrow at the Odeon in 3D IMAX. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian…
Leave a CommentOne of the most disturbing children’s stories ever published is “The New Mother” by Lucy Clifford. It appeared in the anthology of tales Anyhow Stories,…
Leave a CommentIn the 1970s two cover artists stood out among the piles of books in the little science fiction corner at W. H. Smiths Harrogate –…
3 CommentsThumb is set at the very end of the Universe when all the stars have vanished and we have entered the phase called the heat…
Leave a CommentI’m a huge fan of 3d animation, though like many I think that the cool visual factor can get in the way of the story.…
Leave a CommentWhen I was 12 my mother did something she would come to regret for the next 10 years. Her dad (my grandfather) was a…
Leave a CommentI recently came across an animated version of Edwin Abbott’s eccentric classic Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. In the original story the narrator, and inhabitant…
Leave a CommentIn the mid 1970s New English Library published the magazine Science Fiction Monthly, a huge format magazine which reprinted book covers by the likes of Chris Foss…
2 Comments
While we’re on the topic of software for writers I thought I’d have a look at Dramatica Pro (http://www.dramatica.com, $209 for the download version). Some…
46 CommentsScrivener is a fantastic piece of software for writers. The program was developed by a writer who was hunting for some software to help him…
2 Comments“The architect admired the way the way the building was crafted; it was all stone with curvy arches like an old church.” The shelves are…
Leave a CommentIf there is one book that should be banned as dangerous and subversive it’s The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook by Chris Jones and Genevieve Joliffe.…
Leave a CommentIt might seem a bit sad to rave about a book on style and grammar, but the third edition of Guardian Style is both hugely useful…
Leave a CommentAgora (2009) tells the story of the brilliant philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, who lived in Alexandria at the beginning of the 5th century. Renowned for…
Leave a CommentNot surprisingly over the past few years people’s ideas of British post-war fantasy have been been dominated by J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the…
1 CommentThe Night Land (1912) has to be one of the oddest books ever written. It was penned by William Hope Hodgson, an English author who produced…
2 Comments