Big Dumb Object

Riding In Mexico By Brenda Cooper

2010-03-11T22:00:24Z

Another optimistic Science Fiction story from DayBreak Magazine, Riding Mexico by Brenda Cooper is a great example of how optimism doesn't have to be simple or dull.

The story is set in a future where people can 'ride' other's thoughts. The people who allow the riding are often poor, living in second/third world countries, and they get paid to allow the ride. The riders are 'well off' people from the first world.

In the story the riders are students and the protaganist, Isa, wants to ultimately ride others as part of the diplomatic core, to aid poorer people.

Although swapping bodies isn't original the story feels fresh due to the emotional slant, the one sided nature of the riding and all the questions it raises. It's written in first person, making the narrative easy to read and flowing, with some nice descriptive passages of Mexico.

The story ends with some moral questions left open for discussion, not least of which whether to force help on others, or to leave them with little other choice than to accept help.

Interesting.

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Doctor Who Is Going On Tour

2010-03-10T06:28:03Z

The Doctor and his new companion are going on tour in the UK, not in the TARDIS but in a big bus.

The tour will visit Belfast, Inverness, Sunderland, Salford and Northampton (yes, rather random). Each location will also host a regional premiere of episode one, The Eleventh Hour, for local children, working alongside BBC Outreach to enable kids to get a first look at the new Doctor in action.

The tour starts on the 29th March.

Also there's some preview screenings:

Following the tour, from 1 to 3 April, the BBC will also hold events for three days at selected BBC Big Screens across the UK giving Doctor Who fans in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Swansea the chance to interact directly with the show in their home towns.

The events will feature exclusive footage - including the chance to see the Doctor Who trailer in 3D - and giveaways, and fans can also get their photo taken tumbling through the giant vortex.

Visitors will be able to meet some of the scariest monsters that have had viewers watching from behind their sofa for generations as well.

Looks like the Doctor PR machine is beginning to roll...

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A T-Shirt For Fans Of Dogs And Astronauts

2010-03-09T06:26:43Z

Astronaut Dog!

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My Story 'Build, Build, Build' Has Been Published

2010-03-08T07:40:48Z

My Flash Science Fiction story "Build, Build, Build" has been published online at Every Day Fiction.

It's a story of runaway nanobots and seems to divide people who've read it.

It starts like this:

Gerald stood on a hill, overlooking the valley that he had lived in for thirty years, and watched the nano-assemblers demolish his village. In its place they built a four hundred story tower block.

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Dalí's Clocks by Dave Hutchinson

2010-03-03T07:36:49Z

Dalí's Clocks by Dave Hutchinson was published in DayBreak Magazine at the end of January and I've just caught up and read it.

It's a story of an architect, who's friend introduces him to a new drug. Told in first person it's extremely readable, a lovely voice to the narrator, and a plot which kept me hooked and even when I thought I knew where it was going still added a little twist.

The story is very European in it's tone and locations, which is refreshing, and gave me the urge to get in the car and go on a mad European road-trip.

As has been the case with pretty much all of the stories published in DayBreak Magazine there's plenty to think about, the plot ends and there's a view of the aftermath, and being optimistic Science Fiction it's an enjoyable aftermath, one that encourages some thought.

There was even a joke about British Science Fiction that made me laugh out loud.

I liked it a lot. Recommended.

Now, there's more to talk about, and there will be spoilers, so read the story first then come back....

Spoilers...

The drug in the story unblocks the urge to be creative, which is a wonderful idea, and I'm happy to say that the story itself had a similar effect: I've been struggling to finish any new stories but after reading this I really want to write and create. Sometimes a good story can have the opposite effect and intimidate me, but not this one. Very enjoyable.

There seems to be a lot of discussion online at the moment about being creative, I've taken to thinking of this talk as Makers related: it's time we appreciated our free time and stopped being so passive, took back our creative urges and created and made and enjoyed. To do that we have to give up some modern distractions, cut back on the email, turn off the TV, turn off the Twitter client, go non-digital for a while maybe.

Make stuff.

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March's Ansible Is Online

2010-03-02T21:41:14Z

Ansible 272, March 2010 This post is from Big Dumb Object

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Being Human, Series 2

2010-03-01T07:41:03Z

Last night BBC3 aired the final episode of Being Human series two (and yes, we got eight episodes, not the average six). It was, all in all, very, very good.

A werewolf, a vampire and a ghost, living together could have been so wrong, but instead the "monsters" cling to their humanity, make tough decisions and live with the consequences. Meanwhile the normal humans become monsters, losing sight of their reason and giving in to fear.

It combined just the right amount of sadness, and wit and violence and scariness. By the end of every hour long episode I couldn't believe the hour was up, which has got to be the sign of good storytelling, completely submerged.

Even the finale succeeded, where often series cop out with a cliffhanger this delivered resolution and a cliffhanger, I couldn't see how it was going to finish to be honest but thought it was very well done: brave to spend the last half examining the aftermath.

I've deliberately kept this review a bit vague, because if you haven't seen it I don't want to spoil you (when is it being shown in the US?). If you haven't seen it, you really should. If you have I assume you've enjoyed it as much as me.

And the good news? They're making a third series.

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David Mitchell On Science Fiction And Breaking The Laws Of Physics

2010-02-28T17:13:25Z

There's a piece in The Guardian by David Mitchell (comedian) entitled So movies shouldn't break the laws of physics? Don't tell Captain Kirk which surprised me today. It's a great read and I also completely agree with it. Firstly:

Being realistic is a storytelling tool, like lighting, music and sexy actresses. If it's not helping, and you won't otherwise be denying the Holocaust or pushing drugs to kids, then you can lose it.

Then having a bit of a go at scientists:

How typical of a scientist to try to reduce film-making to a formula. He's noticed that enjoyable science fiction sometimes needs to include the impossible, but streams of implausible events don't make a compelling narrative. He's right but he should have left it at that. The happy medium is found by using judgment not maths.

And summing it up with comedy:

Apparently, if a ship blows up in space, it doesn't really make a noise. How silly much of Hollywood's sci-fi output must look to audience members with experience of inter-stellar warfare.

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Big And Dumb, Week 305

2010-02-26T19:00:42Z

Things that Big Dumb Object loved and hated this week:

Big

Lost, still mad and brilliant.
Survivors, the second series finishing. Not as good as the first series, but at least one decent episode looking at the aftermath and rebuilding.
Recording another episode of the Wordpunk podcast and the first episode hitting the web.
The Winter Olympics: snow, ice, speed, crashes.

Dumb

TalkTalk technical support. Don't go there. Ever.
The ever present problem of having too much Science Fiction to consume and not enough time to do it.

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Survivors, Series 2

2010-02-25T07:06:18Z

The second series of Survivors has finished and whilst it was entertaining only one episode really lived up to what I wanted from the programme: that being more than just survival, but looking at rebuilding society after the virus wiped everyone out.

The first few episodes were still tying up the plot from the end of the first series: Abby captured, the big conspiracy, the rest of the family searching for Abby. All action and cityscape apocalypse, bleak and depressing. The big conspiracy from the first series turns out to be a secret lab and Abby is the key to the vaccine, which was a bit cliched.

Episode four tried to be interesting: our heroes captured and used as slave labour in a coal mine, with some discussion of what they wanted the future to be, whether slave labour was necessary, the pit boss occupying a stately home and another bleak ending as the slaves escape and turn into a rampaging mob.

Episode five was my favourite episode of the series, as out heroes find a secret valley which looks beautiful and too good to be true. Sure enough the virus mutates and takes out Sarah, before her and Al can really enjoy their new found love. It was a touching episode, with a message that even after everything has gone wrong people will think about the greater good and take selfless acts.

And finally the series wrapped up with Abby finding her son and the conspiracy being revealed fully. There was a lot of action in the last episode, and even some fleeting discussions of what people want to become and how they want to behave. It wasn't a stunning conclusion, but it wrapped everything up perfectly satisfactorily.

All in all an perfectly enjoyable post-apocalyptic TV series with some moments of it being quite good.

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Oooh, New Who!

2010-02-25T07:03:33Z

The most recent trailer for the new Doctor Who series is embedded below. Unsure? You know you'll come round after a few episodes.

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Biting The Snake's Tail by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

2010-02-24T07:00:40Z

February's story in Futurismic is Biting The Snake's Tail by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It's the story of some murders in Mexico City and a cop who gets pulled onto their cases.

It's another foreign-to-me setting, which I seem to be reading a lot of at the moment, and the writing gave me an impression of Mexico City and the slummy parts in which the story takes place. The dialogue was nice, realistically abrupt in places, and pretty good at painting a picture of the characters quickly. I'm not a fan of gore but thankfully it wasn't too over the top in this story, just enough to convey the violence.

The plot left me wanting a bit, I was hooked in but then wanted more resolution, but (once again) the end is calculated to do just that: no happy endings. I could have done with more, it felt like a great setting for a novel.

Interesting.

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V Coming To UK Sci-Fi Channel In April

2010-02-23T07:13:29Z

A date has been announced for when the new re-imagined V is to be shown in the UK: Tuesdays at 10pm from April 13 on the UK Sci-Fi channel. That's cable and satellite only, no news on when it will make it to Freeview.

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BAFTAs 2010, SF Winners

2010-02-22T19:49:50Z

Well, thankfully Avatar didn't win all the awards at the BAFTAs last night, that was left to The Hurt Locker. However Duncan Jones did win the Outstanding Debut Award for directing Moon, hurrah! Avatar meanwhile won Production Design and Special Visual Effacts. This post is from Big Dumb Object

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2009 Nebula Awards Final Ballot

2010-02-22T07:48:19Z

As usual I've read absolutely nothing of this years Nebula Awards nominees, although The Windup Girl is top of my list to read next. So I can't really comment much.

I have however seen all of the nominated films except Coraline:

Star Trek
District 9
Avatar
Moon
Up
Coraline

If you swap Avatar for The Road I think that sums up the best films of last year pretty well.

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