I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).
So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.
So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.
I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.
On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.
Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.
Enjoy
Ghost Marriage — P. Djèlí Clark
You can read this for free, or buy the issue, over at Apex Magazine.
So i’m continuing on my journey of Djèlí’s wonderfully refreshing fantasy. In this story, Ayen’s husband has died and he won’t leave her, and as a poltergeist he causes her to be driven out of her tribe. So off she goes in search of someone to help her exorcise his ghost from her mind.
But all is not as Ayen first believes it to be.
Really, really good.
Next up in the Djèlí timeline is A Tale of Woe, from 2018.
P. Djèlí Clark’s Page
#fantasy #pdjeliclark
Digital to Analogue — Alastair Reynolds
You’ll find this in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories, and the anthology In Dreams.
A rather different take on why the dance music craze spread like wildfire in the 90’s. As someone who was totally into the London acid techno scene in the 90’s this was right up my alley.
A fun little short with a nice touch of nostalgia for some of us.
Next up in the Alastair Reynolds timeline is Byrd Land Six.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Tokyo Ueno Station — Miri Yu
This is quite a strange story, in that our protagonist/narrator, Kazu, is dead. Before Kazu died, he was homeless and living in a cardboard and tarpaulin hut in Ueno Park, right next to Tokyo Ueno Station.
All too often we are shown the shiny-shiny capitalist face of Tokyo that those in power wish us to see, the Olympics, etc., but never do we see, or hear, those who are cast aside, unwanted and unneeded by a system that some just can’t keep up with. Tokyo Ueno Station is their story, told by a ghost of one of the many people that society has no place for any more.
I know it sounds all rather depressing, but i didn’t find it so because it’s a view of Tokyo that is told in such a unique and interesting way, keeping our attention when most writers would have lost it, making us realise, consider and re-revaluate. How many homeless people die on the streets every year and no one ever gets to hear their story, or realise the truth as to why they were homeless in the first place, this book makes you think about those things: they are important.
It’s certainly a fact in the UK, where i live, that the government deliberately maintains a homeless population in order to keep the threat in front of people of what will happen to them if they don’t comply with society’s demands. I presume this is the same in Japan: “Do you want to end up like them, Salaryman? Well you’d best work hard, do lots of overtime, and do as you’re told — or else you’ll be living in Ueno Park too!”
Yu’s Page
#japan #miriyu
Enola — Alastair Reynolds
You’ll find this in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.
A really enjoyable, short, post-apocalypse story. A bit confusing at first as it jumps back and forth between a human girl and an AI machine, but it all makes total sense at the end.
Next up from Alastair will be Digital to Analogue.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Nunivak Snowflakes — Alastair Reynolds
You’ll find this in the anthology, Deep Navigation.
Messages from the future found inside fish falling from the sky landing in front of the person the message was meant for.
Basically, someone from the future is being naughty and messing with the past in an indigenous community in Alaska.
Other than The Big Hello, of which i have no idea when published, this is Alastair’s first published story. So it’s very early Alastair Reynolds, so don’t be expecting Revelation Space or anything like it.
But it’s a reasonable, quirky, little read that’ll keep you happily ensconced in you favourite reading pit for a while.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect — Roger Williams
So what if we humans suddenly find ourselves immortal, with the ability to have anything whatsoever that we desire other than real death? That’s essentially the basis of this book.
A super computer AI, Prime Intellect, has taken over and zapped everything into a virtual reality that is ruled over by Prime Intellect. Prime Intellect has done this because of the three laws of robotics and it computes that the only way of preventing humans from dying, which it can’t allow, is to essentially upload everything into one galactic sized cyberspace and make all humans immortal. Within this new reality, as long as the humans don’t do anything, or ask for anything, that contravenes the three laws of robotics, they can do and have anything they want.
Sound good? Or does it sound like your worse nightmare?
Enter the realm of the death jockey. People who want to ratchet up the suffering and get as close to death as Prime Intellect will allow.
Yes folks, this book is really fucking twisted. If you’ve read the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy and thought some of the scenes in those books were extremely brutal and twisted, then you’ll be glad to know that you can put this book on the same bookshelf right next to them. If you haven’t read them and enjoyed this book then i really suggest you do give them a go: they’ll be right up your twisted alley.
I would say that, at its core, this book is a critique of the three laws of robotics, and how they may be interpreted by any AI governed by them. The critical pieces of the jigsaw being: what the AI decides it is going to label as human, what is therefore governed by the three laws of robotics and how, therefore, it then treats everything else.
I thought the ending was really good too.
So yeah, the future is bright my friends, rush out and buy your virtual reality gear today.
Me thinks i shall be looking forward to having a read of more of Roger’s books in the future if this is anything to go by.
Roger’s Page
#scifi #rogerwilliams
The Big Hello — Alastair Reynolds
It’s listed on Wikipedia without a date, but it’s first in the queue of Alastair’s uncollected short fiction, and it is The Big Hello, afterall, so you may as well read it first if you’re reading all of Alastair’s books: me thinks.
You’ll have to hunt around the internet for this, it was originally published in German translation in a convention program. But, like most rare things, it’s well worth a bit of a hunt around.
Basically, it’s a greeting from the rest of the galaxy informing us stupid Homo sapiens of a bit of etiquette, manners and how to go about things outside of out little insular bubble. But, let’s be honest, we all know people like Musk & Co. are going to ignore everything Alastair says and totally fuck it up for the rest of us.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Painted Love — Rob Thurman
In the anthology, Carniepunk.
An enjoyable little story where our narrator, Doodle, follows a sociopath around a travelling carnival.
But all is not as it seems with Doodle, and it’s a really good twist to the ending. I’d definitely be interested in reading more stories from Doodle if Rob ever gets around to writing a series.
Rob’s Page
#robthurman
Mummy and George Go to the Park — Gaie Sebold
In the anthology, Nice Day for a Picnic.
I only got this anthology for Gaie’s story, as i’m quite the fan boy.
An interesting short in that it just implies something rather than spoon feeding you it. I believe the whole anthology is about strange picnics and if Gaie’s story is anything to go by i think i might just have a go at a few more of them when i feel like a quick read.
So the whole thing is just Mummy’s voice speaking to George as they go to the park for a picnic, which seems quite normal at first, but as Mummy keeps on speaking to George as they go through their park visit we begin to realise that things aren’t quite normal.
It’s certainly different, but really enjoyable.
Gaie’s Page
#gaiesebold
The Girl who Leapt Through Time — Yasutaka Tsutsui
There’s two short stories in this book and i’ll review each of them separately below.
The Girl who Leapt Through Time
A short while ago i read The Maid, which was my first trip into the writing of Yasutaka, and i thoroughly enjoyed it: so much that i decided to collect every book of his i could find and read them in published order. And so i began with The Girl who Leapt Through Time from 1967.
What doesn’t get a mention when approaching this book is that it’s a children’s book, i would perhaps place it around 11-12 year old level, so that’s something to bear in mind if you do decide to read it.
So it’s very simple writing and a rather simple story about some children having a bit of a crazy time with time travel and teleportation. I felt the best thing about this was it’s simplicity in it’s writing because as an adult you don’t have to think about anything and can just breeze along with the story itself, and it’s quite a good little story.
So yeah, i’m more than happy to have come back to Yasutaka’s earliest book that’s so far been translated into English. Definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of his writing, or if you just want a quick and easy read of some temporal sci-fi.
The Stuff that Nightmares Are Made of
This is quite a different story to the previous one. Once again, it’s another children’s book, but this time dealing with the theme of repressed trauma manifesting as unexplained fears.
Although it’s a book for children, i do feel that there’s a few things for most adults to learn here as well, especially parents, whose words and actions can create all kinds of unintended consequences for children.
And that’s me done with this book. The Maid was next in the original publishing time line of Yasutaka’s translated books, but i already read that, so next up will be Paprika, which i hope to get around to reading some time soon as i’m really enjoying Yasutaka’s writing.
Yasutaka’s Page
#japan #scifi #yasutakatsutsui
Fiction
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
