Praeter Naturam

Using Google Alerts to Track Iain Banks’ Surface Detail

Mark — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:38:23 +0000

I set up a Google Alert (now an obsolete Google tech, but still working) to track any web news about Iain Banks’ new book Surface Detail. Very few uses of the phrase “surface detail” relate to his book though. I am either getting stuff about astronomy/photography like: Photo Tips for Shooting the Moon Or stuff [...]

Hitler’s War by Harry Turtledove: Book Review

Mark — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:27:40 +0000

Hitler’s War by Harry Turtledove. I haven’t read any of Mr Turtledove’s stuff before, so I picked this up with some excitement and trepidation – you never quite know if you are going to like a new author or not! I found it quite an unusual book in some ways. The story is told from [...]

Edinburgh Festival Profile of Iain Banks

Mark — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:33:32 +0000

A good summary of Iain Bank’s career at this site about the Edinburgh Festival. Unfortunately not many snippets about Surface Detail though. All we get is: His next book is Surface Detail, a Culture novel(released 7 October 2010). The utopian Culture, he tells us was created to reclaim the moral high ground of space opera where [...]

The Human Factor Uploaded to Scribd – by someone else!

Mark — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:58:53 +0000

Weird and unlikely things happen when you distribute your work for free over the internet. And it seems that my story The Human Factor has been downloaded from Feedbooks and uploaded to Scribd. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I guess the guy who did just liked the story, which is good and [...]

Alt Hist magazine submissions coming along nicely

Mark — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:23:06 +0000

A bit less blogging recently because I have been concentrating on managing the flow of submissions to Alt Hist. We’ve had quite a good number of submissions in and I am received to say that a lot of these are good enough to be published. Some have not quite made the grade, but so far [...]

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: Book Review

Mark — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:27:11 +0000

Fact is stranger than fiction, and fiction is nothing unless it tells the truth. Powerful and moving stories often tell us something true about life, about the world and about ourselves, even if the details have been manufactured inside the author’s brain. The Kite Runner, one of the most popular more high-brow novels of recent [...]

Cheltenham Literary Festival: British Science Fiction: Moorcock, Banks and Mieville

Mark — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:55:12 +0000

Sounds pretty top drawer to me – and I thought all Cheltenham was famous for was horse racing! Here’s details of the event: Iain M Banks, Gwyneth Jones, Michael Moorcock and China Miéville: British Science Fiction Sunday 17 October 2010 at 4:00 pm (60mins) Event 317 at The Inkpot Price: £6 (reserved seating) (member price: £4.80) more From [...]

“Midway along the journey of our life” – Great Medieval Verses

Mark — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:47:35 +0000

From Canto I of Dante’s Inferno: Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path. These are the opening lines to Dante’s great poem, and probably the most famous poem of the Middle Ages. What better way to start [...]

How to Read Science Fiction: M John Harrison. Toby Litt and Nalo Hopkinson

Mark — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:04:49 +0000

Interesting talk on Science Fiction being promoted at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday, 16th October. Some people you might have heard of are involved, see below for the organizer’s blurb: Are you open-minded about science fiction but don’t know where or how to start? For an introduction to some recommended reads and an expert [...]

The Call of Cthulhu in Under 2 Minutes: Valley Girl meets H. P. Lovecraft

Mark — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:59:26 +0000

Funny Video courtesy of brothersgrimandgrimy. All you need to know about Cthulhu! I like how New Zealand is now labelled Middle Earth! Originally spotted at SF Signal.