Spin by Nina Allan – review
Nina Allan’s Spin is the second in a new series of novellas published by the Third Alternative Press, home of leading UK genre magazines Interzone and Black Static. I should mention that the book was […]
Christopher Priest – The Adjacent Interview: Part 2
This is the second part of an interview with Christopher Priest, one of the leading authors in any genre. You can read Part 1 here. Priest’s first published story was ‘The Run’, in 1966. His first novel, Indoctrinaire, was […]
Christopher Priest – The Adjacent Interview: Part 1
Christopher Priest is one of the leading authors in any genre. His first published story was ‘The Run’, in 1966. His first novel, Indoctrinaire, was published in 1970. His second, Fugue for a Darkening Island, […]
The Peacock Cloak by Chris Beckett
Chris Beckett has been publishing short stories since 1990. His debut novel was The Holy Machine, followed by Marcher, and last year, Dark Eden, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the Best SF […]
Microcosmos (Imaginings Volume: 5) by Nina Allan
In the Forward to Microcosmos Nina Allan explains that, having forgotten the finer details of the requirements for the collection, with her stories tending to ‘run away with themselves’ and being rather long for short […]
Growing Pains by Ian Whates – book review
Growing Pains is a new collection from the highly talented British author and editor Ian Whates. Whates is the author of the Noise series of space operas and the urban fantasy trilogy City of 100 Rows. He […]
Interview – The Amazing Art of Anja Uhren
I met Anja Uhren recently at an Easter egg painting event. She was casually painting a face on an off-cut of card and I was immediately impressed by the effortlessness with which she produced a […]
DIY – American Mary and Excision
Whether you go to the cinema to see an 80 minute film which took a million dollars to make, or a film which runs over three hours and cost the equivalent of the GDP of […]
Enemy Mine – Blu-ray review
Enemy Mine is a science fiction film from 1985, now released in a limited edition Blu-ray by Twilight Time. The film is based on, though greatly distorted from, the novella of the same name by […]
Cosmopolis – film review
WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Cosmopolis is a dark mainstream drama with thriller elements which is just beyond the edge of the sort of film Amazing Stories would normally review. Except that it is […]
John Carpenter’s Christine – Blu-ray review
By the early 1980’s, following the success of Carrie and The Shining in the cinema and Salem’s Lot on TV, Hollywood was falling over itself to film anything from the typewriter of Stephen King. King’s […]
The Fury – Blu-ray and Expanded Soundtrack
Those difficult teen years. A time when you have no money, power or influence, and have to spend your day going to school without getting paid for the privilege. Have to do what adults say […]
Retrospective – La Puta y la Ballena
Almost entirely unknown in the English-speaking world, the Argentine-Spanish co-production, La Puta y la Ballena (2004) is one of the most hauntingly-beautiful, intelligent, and imaginative films of the last decade. From the trailer one might […]
American Gothic: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates
As I mentioned in my post Stephen King: A Beginner’s Guide I became interested in the work of Joyce Carol Oates because of her association with King. As early as Danse Macabre (1981) King was […]
War and Dreams – Two Novels by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Kathleen Ann Goonan’s In War Times, originally published in 2007, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel and the ALA’s Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year. A complex exploration of the […]
Cloud Atlas Shrugged – or let the Skyfall
On Monday Skyfall was released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK. Tomorrow Cloud Atlas will open in UK cinemas. Two films, poles apart. Skyfall, the 23th entry in probably the world’s longest running and […]
Stephen King – A Beginner’s Guide
For a long time I paid no attention to the writing of Joyce Carol Oates. But I kept seeing her mentioned in the context of modern American Gothic, being recommended by writers whose work I […]
The Rise of the Zombies
With zombie rom-com Warm Bodies opening to strong reviews and good box-office last week zombies have moved out of the horror ghetto into the PG13 friendly mainstream. This is a remarkable development, but what is […]
Objects in Dreams (Imaginings Volume 4) by Lisa Tuttle
Lisa Tuttle has long been one of the masters of the deeply unsettling tale. Last year her short story Objects in Dreams may be Closer than they Appear opened Jonathan Oliver’s excellent anthology, House of Fear, […]
Doctor Who and the Strange Victorians
Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction can exist in the real world, or create hermetic worlds of their own. Which is to say genre fiction can follow the rules of the real world, or make its […]
The Mirror of Our Dreams
There is a curious phenomenon not exclusive to science fiction fandom, it is prevalent in pop music worship and other places, by which those afflicted feel a need to establish rivalries. The Star Wars fan […]
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