The world without us
Hi all, I’ve just finished reading the non-fiction book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It’s a book which posses the question: what would happen to the world if humanity suddenly disappeared? It seemed the world would do pretty well without us until I got to the chapter on nuclear power plants. The author […]
Australian Science Fiction
Hi all, I thought about how to do my comparison of Australian Science Fiction that I had read to that of the rest of the worlds. A list that ranked them all would be a bit too complicated so I have started with a ranking of the novels and anthologies by Australian authors. In the […]
good bye to self censorship
Hi all, I apologise for this post as it is probably going to wander all over the place, just like a rant usually does. For the past few years I have been trying to intergrate myself into the Australian speculative fiction writing scene. I have been doing this for a few reasons: most importantly to […]
My blogs.
Hi all, I have been running the same blog on Myspace (for over a year) Blogspot (for about six months and Livejournal (a few months), and I have decided that’s not working. At the moment I have two competing aims, one is to communicate with science-fiction readers, who have no ambitions to be writers, while […]
Technology’s gonna save us
Hi all, As I get around to making an appointment to get a wisdom tooth extracted, I wish I lived in an age where nano-dentistry existed. Where nano-machines mingled with the bacteria in my mouth to destroy any plaque and cleaned out and fill in any decaying teeth, molecule by molecule. I hope to be […]
Speculative fiction awards
Hi all, Do readers of speculative fiction care about the many awards that are given to speculative fiction books every year? When they hear a book has won a Ditmar or Nebula award do they rush out and buy it? Does Hugo or Aurealis award winner on the cover of a book make the casual […]
Science Fiction Terminology
Hi all, While critiquing a story I noticed the author use both nanite and nanobot which to me are the same thing: a nano sized machine. I personally prefer nanobot. It got me thinking about other science-fiction terminology for the same thing, so which do you prefer: NaniteNanobotNano-machine And which do you prefer from the […]
Books on writing
I mentioned “The Writer’s Journey” by Christopher Vogel in my last post so I thought I might mention a few books I have found useful for my writing. The Writer’s Journey is the script writer’s version of Vogel’s The Heroes’ Journey. It details the structure many film scripts and novels follow. Most open in the […]
Review of Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy
Hi all, The Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Third Annual Volume, Edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt was a bit of a disappointment. I couldn’t help thinking at the end: so this is the best that Australia had to offer in 2006. I must admit I have not been reading a lot […]
apocalypse all the time
Hi all, I have been reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It’s a non-fiction book which asks the question: what would happen to planet Earth if humanity suddenly disappeared? I am about halfway through and each chapter of the book begins by explaining how humans have affected some part of the natural environment […]