Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Marion Zimmer Bradley was a popular fantasy and science fiction author, considered something of a pioneer in her field. Her books featured strong, independent female protagonists in a genre dominated by male “heroes”.

Born in Marion Zimmer in Albany, NY June 3rd 1930, she married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949 and received a BA in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University of Abilene, Texas before doing graduate work at the University of…

All right, its a science fiction and fantasy books meme courtesy of SFSignal. Get comfortable, this one’s going to be long.

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
Fantasy followed by Science Fiction, never been much of a Horror reader myself

Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Mass market 90% of the time. I own Lord of the Rings in hardback, and I bought A Storm of Swords in Trade because I just couldn’t…

Over at Big Dumb Object, James has been thinking about spoilers and how to handle them. Specifically he’s got a certain Star Wars film on his mind. Unfortunately the last two Star Wars films have dropped my rabid enthusiasm down to more of a “cross fingers and hope for the best” wishfullness on Star Wars.

However I do have strong feelings on the subject of spoilers. I think they spoil things.…

Its not like this was exactly unexpected. My wife had been pregnant for 38 weeks after all. But its still a little startling. Jamie and Iain were born on February 23rd and we just took them home from the hospital today. Now I just have to figure out what I’m supposed to do with twin sons.

My work was good enough to cover me with paid leave up til March 7th…

Over at SFSignal, John poses an interesting question. Are too many books being published? Apparently there were some 2,500 odd books published last year, which is quite a lot and it’s been suggested this may be flooding the market.

I’m inclined to think it probably is. Lets face it the book market is not a growth industry. There’s a limited number of book buyers and they all have a limited amount…