You Are The Hero – A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks
A review of a history of You Are the Hero adventure game books.
Stop the (parallel) Worlds – I Want To Get Off!
They’re expanding everywhere: an infinite series of novels, an endless number of parallel stories, each one populated by people who seem similar to us but whose lives have changed in just one salient way
The Fourth Gwenevere by John James
A tale of forensic authorship, the discovery and completion of John Jame’s long lost final novel.
Review: Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown
Eric Brown takes us on steampunk adventure through India at the time of the Raj. The year is 1925, and history has taken an alternate course.
Review: New Life and New Civilizations (ed.) Joseph F. Berenato
The history of Star Trek comics. (We’ve got one coming that’s not in the book!)
The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey
The Road to Middle-Earth is a wonderful companion to any trip across Middle-earth and it is a welcome reminder of the huge craft that J.R.R. Tolkien brought to his work.
Self-Publishing Odyssey: Part 5 The Launch
Fraught with peril and nail-biting anticipation, launching a new book is always exciting.
Self-Publishing Odyssey: Part 4 Designing the Cover Image
Alastair Savage’s Self-Publishing Odyssey moves on to stage 4: Designing the cover.
Karel Čapek: SF Pioneer
Rediscovering Lovecraft’s “direct contemporary” – Karl Capek
Talus and the Frozen King by Graham Edwards
A murder mystery set in stone age Britian.
Self-publishing Competitions: Leave Your Elves At Home
The enormous media interest in self-publishing has been fired by the breakthrough success of Wool by Hugh Howey, so SF is leading the way in this field. It’s strange therefore to hear the Guardian’s flamboyant Books section editor Claire Armistead warning that “It’s all too easy to dismiss the self-publishing sector as a wilderness of elves, sex and high-school romcoms”.
Self-publishing Odyssey: Part 3 The Dirty Business Of Promotion
A look at self-publishing promotional strategies.
Interview With Gary Chalk, Fantasy Artist, Author and Games Designer
an interview with the unstoppable game designer, author and illustrator – Gary Chalk.
Self-Publishing Odyssey: Part 2 Agents and Editors
How do you get anyone to look at your book? When I was an in-house editor, I was very aware that it was difficult to get anyone to read a submission from a member of the public. The reality is that most editors are extremely busy and continually up against time pressure.
Review: Cemetery Girl by Charlaine Harris
Alastair reviews the new graphic novel by Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden and Don Kramer
Self-publishing Odyssey: Part 1 The Decision
Alastair Savage joins Achilles, Agamemnon, Helen, Paris and Menelaus before the walls of Troy as he embarks on a self-publishing odyssey.
Robophobia!
1977 Doctor Who predicted 2014 real life: Robophobia.
David Whitaker – Unsung Hero of Doctor Who
Every so often in life, a moment of serendipity occurs when everyone involved in a project creates something marvellous. The birth of Doctor Who, fifty years ago this week, is one of those moments.
Interview with Carl Critchlow, artist, illustrator and inventor of Thrud the Barbarian
Carl Critchlow has been an artist and author on the SF and fantasy scenes for almost thirty years, during which his work has appeared in DC Comics as well as 2000AD.
Interview with Peter F. Hamilton, author of Great North Road
Peter F. Hamilton is one of Britain’s best-selling SF authors. Hamilton’s novels hark back to the great days of science fiction, reveling in big ideas and unafraid to tackle hard science.
Website review: Doctor Who: the classic series
A survey of Doctor Who websites – official and fan.
Interview with Pat Mills, Founder of 2000AD
Over four decades Pat Mills has been a major force in keeping the British comics industry alive. I caught up with him to chat about the reappearance of one of his most enduringly popular characters, the Celtic barbarian, Sláine.
Interview with Steve Jackson, author of Fighting Fantasy and the Sorcery! Series
Steve Jackson is one of the biggest names in British fantasy fiction. Along with Ian Livingstone, he was one of the founders of Games Workshop, one of the first major stores selling role-playing games in the UK. In 1982, Jackson and Livingstone brought fantasy to the doorsteps of British schoolkids with the publication of their […]
Dirk Gently Revisited
Back in 1978, a young comedy sketch writer sent a script to the BBC’s flagship SF show, Doctor Who. Far from setting hearts fluttering with excitement, its demands for special effects such as time sinks, flying cars and planets that devoured other worlds caused frustrated executives to scream in horror. However, script editor Anthony Root […]
A Commissioning Editor Speaks: David Moore of Abaddon Books
Britain’s Abaddon Books is a seething brew of villainous steampunk, sleek spaceships, cruel sorcery, and blood-soaked horror. I tracked their commissioning editor David Moore down to his lair, where I forced him to unravel a cracked and crumbling papyrus to reveal an ancient secret: what does a commissioning editor do all day? Thanks for speaking to Amazing […]
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
If you’re looking for a glossy, full-colour account of Marvel Comics, featuring classic artwork and covers from the company’s long history, this book is not for you. Rather, Sean Howe sets out to give an insider’s view of the editorial and management world that lay behind the creation of such icons as Captain America, Iron […]
Eric Brown Interview
Eric Brown is the author of over forty books including Helix and Kethani. His latest novel, The Serene Invasion features an eerie conquest of earth that sweeps away the old order without a drop of bloodshed. Unseen and without warning, extraterrestrial visitors arrive to save the human race from its warlike and aggressive ways. The […]
Blake’s 7 returns!
Exciting news today from The Telegraph newspaper. The classic British SF series Blake’s 7 is to be remade by FremantleMedia and the SyFy network. Blake’s 7 was the brainchild of Terry Nation, inventor of the Daleks and one of the first writers on Doctor Who in 1963. In a moment of desperation in a meeting at […]
Flash Fiction
We are inundated by fiction. Every trip to the few remaining bookshops has more and more books marching along the shelves, magically procreating like the enchanted brooms in Disney’s Fantasia. There are so many books and so little time, especially when most of our reading now takes place online, in reading web articles and ever-shorter […]
The Monster Makers
The spotlight last month fell on the special effects wizards who make SF monsters come to life. The crowning glory was the award of the Best Picture Oscar for Argo. This spy drama focuses on the rescue of a group of American embassy workers from Iran, using the cover of a fake SF movie. To […]
