Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Cloud Monsters of the Oort is another interesting science fiction venture courtesy of my email box. For the record I’m happy to get these press releases and news items. If it relates to science fiction, then it’s not spam and if you use the Contact Me link (at the bottom of every page) I will read what you send me and chances are I’ll post something about it. Though it…

Author Jeff VanderMeer has a great post on his blog about how to build good fantasy worlds. As well as mentioning the usual basics about consistency and making up rules and sticking to them, Jeff also takes a different look at world building.

One great point he makes is that the fantasy world shouldn’t be too consistent. The real world is full of mysteries and inconsistencies. If the fantasy world is…

Locus has announced winners of the 2005 Locus Awards. A complete list of results will be published in the July issue of Locus, but the winners are listed below:

SF NOVEL
# The Baroque Cycle: The Confusion; The System of the World, Neal Stephenson

FANTASY NOVEL
# Iron Council, China Miéville

FIRST NOVEL
# Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
# A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett

NOVELLA
# “Golden City Far”, Gene Wolfe

NOVELETTE (tie)
#…

This particular opinion piece could equally easily have been titled:
Why I don’t Want To Know About Actor’s Personal Lives

The recent media blitz that has been Tom Cruise’s promotion of his new film War of the Worlds has had the exact opposite effect on me that I think it was supposed to have. I’ve gone from being disappointed that it didn’t look like a faithful version of War of the Worlds,…

There’s an interesting article in the LA Times, asking whether its possible for the next Harry Potter book to hold on to all the fans that have bought and read the previous books. The problem as presented in the article is that children who were pre-teen when the first couple of books came out are now are now entering their late teens and may no longer be interested in the…