Tag Archive | "science fiction"

Prometheus – win tickets to the London premiere!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

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Okay, peeps and fellow geeks, listen up, because we have a remarkable “money can’t buy it” type of prize up for grabs thanks to our friends arranging the screenings of Sir Ridley Scott’s much-anticipated ‘Alien sort-of prequel’ (Sir Ridley notes it started that way but ‘evolved into another universe’)  Prometheus, starring Girl With a Dragon [...]

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Jane Rogers wins Arthur C Clarke Award

Thursday, May 3, 2012

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The UK’s most prestigious literary award for science fiction writing, the Arthur C Clarke Award, was announced last night and among a shortlist that boasted some true heavyweights of the Brit-Lit SF world’s talent, including China Mieville and Charlie Stross, the winner was a relative unknown, Jane Rogers, with the Testament of Jessie Lamb, published [...]

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Science Fiction at the National Library of Scotland

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

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Ken MacLeod directs us to a science fiction exhibition currently being run until the end of June at the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh’s Old Town (a few minutes walk from our Edinburgh store in fact), where they have had some great exhibitions on Lewis Carroll and on Graphic Novels [...]

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Two seasons of Star Trek at the same time

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

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Okay, this is pretty mindblowing – 56 episodes, some two seasons’ worth, of the original Star Trek all running at the same time. What is a little alarming is just how many of them I can recognise from only a few seconds of video in those tiny little windows. This has nothing to do with [...]

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I’m an alien, I’m a legal alien…

Friday, April 20, 2012

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Resident Alien #0 Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse Dark Horse Comics Last year the Dark Horse Presents anthology comic series carried a pretty interesting strip from Paul Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, Resident Alien. Harry Vanderspiegle is the titular resident alien – not one of those who sneaked over the Tex-Mex border that get right wing [...]

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Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, A Princess of Mars: Burroughs’ heroes a century on

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

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An unexpected and rather lovely package arrived for me the other day from the Library of America, a pair of quite beautiful small hardback editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars. On May 14th, 1912, Burroughs recorded that he had finished writing Tarzan of the Apes; a century [...]

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Who at Comic-Con

Monday, April 16, 2012

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This is perhaps a bit out of date, as it was recorded at last summer’s Comic-Con, but on the other hand we’re happy to have any excuse to see Karen Gillan and Matt Smith talking, so here we go: BBC Doctor Who Comic-Con panel from Stacy Tiderington on Vimeo.

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The Silver Specter

Thursday, April 12, 2012

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When I was picking out some of my fave reading from 2011 for my annual Best of the Year selection I also included a few books and comics to watch for in 2012. One of those was a quite splendid science fiction novel from Adam Christopher, Empire State, which came out early this year – [...]

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Hugo nominations & BSFA Winners

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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The shortlist nominees for the prestigious science fiction and fantasy Hugo Awards have been announced, taking in novels, short stories, film, television and comics tales from the SF&F genre. Let’s have a look at the main longform prose contenders, which includes China Miéville’s fascinating Embassytown and Mira Grant’s excellent Deadline: Best Novel Among Others by [...]

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The Tricorder project

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

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Now here is something to make your inner Star Trek and your inner gadget geek both smile – yes, it is a real Next Generation style Tricorder, which runs on open source design with Linux, various sensors, the ability to be modded as you want, to add more sensors and apps for different uses. Inventor [...]

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The Arthur C Clarke Award

Thursday, March 29, 2012

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Yes, it is spring and that means more award shortlist appearing alongside the blossoming plants. In UK science fiction circles the most prestigious has to be the annual Arthur C Clarke Awards, which have recently posted up their final six shortlist nominees who will contend for this year’s gong: Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three (Gollancz) [...]

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New Who companion announced

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

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Well while we are still left with only teasing, small nuggets about the fate of Rory and Amy (sigh) in the next season of Doctor Who (will they simply leave or, as is hinted, will something bad happen to one or both of them?), the BBC has officially announced who the next Doctor Who companion [...]

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How to Build a Time Machine

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

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Indy film-maker Jay Cheel and his crew are raising funds via Ignite for their new project, science fiction meets documentary flick How To Build a Time Machine. I must admit to having a soft spot for time travel stories and this sounds like a different spin on that sub genre, a supposed ‘real’ incident of [...]

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Comédie du Livre

Monday, March 12, 2012

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This year’s Comédie du Livre book festival in Montpellier, France, is celebrating British literature, with a focus on an area where our writers enjoy a much-deserved global reputation: science fiction and fantasy. Among the Brit SF&F writers attending Montpellier this year are Iain M Banks, Christopher Priest, Dan Simmons, Jonathan Stroud and Christopher Delaney and [...]

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What’s the Point of the Arts and Humanities?

Friday, March 9, 2012

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What’s the Point of the Arts and Humanities? is the title of a discussion at the Oxford Literary Festival, which will include in the panel Josie Long, Stewart Lee and a certain Mr Alan Moore, on Monday 26th of March at 2pm (full details on the Festival site here). (cover to Alan Moore: Storyteller by [...]

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