CSFF Blog Tour: DragonLight

Apparently, Donita K Paul's DragonKnight was the first book to feature on this tour, two of your Earth years ago.

Staggeringly, Tour guru Becky Miller insists that this humble blog is one of five current Tour stops to feature way back then. Crikey.

Even more staggeringly, I reckon I've only dropped two or three tours in the intervening time, despite having no idea what was going on most of the time. A fact which is evidenced by my overview of DragonKnight, which sort of set the tone for all subsequent Tour posts...

But this isn't about me. It's not really about the CSFF Blog Tour. It's not even about retro computing. It is, in fact, about Donita K Paul, and the exciting climax to the DragonKeeper Chronicles, DragonLight (which is not a slimmed down, low-spec 8-bit computer, which is a shame, because I could probably write something relevant if that were the case).

Never mind though, it's Tuesday tomorrow... ;)

Also tapping away on their rubber keys* this week:
Brandon Barr Justin Boyer Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Beth Goddard Mark Goodyear Andrea Graham Todd Michael Greene Katie Hart Christopher Hopper Joleen Howell Jason Joyner Carol Keen Magma Terri Main Magma Margaret Shannon McNear Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller John W. Otte Deena Peterson Steve Rice Cheryl Russel Ashley Rutherford Chawna Schroeder James Somers Robert Treskillard Speculative Faith Laura Williams

*another waaay off target retro computing reference.

Have you seen the saucers?

It's not just me that's gone UFO mad lately. The Ministry of Defence recently released a bunch of files on UFO sightings in the 70s and 80s, and this news was followed by various TV shows about flying saucers and UFOs, and, apparently, British UFO sightings reached bizarre levels.

None more bizarre than this one, I suspect.

Of course, it could all be a really elaborate marketing ploy.

All of which serves little purpose other than to introduce the latest Sci-fi Song of the Week, a slab of early-70s psychadelic rock by Jefferson Airplane. Check it out on the mixtape.

Abducted by ramblers

So I spotted this post the other day, which sort of follows my own insane ramblings about UFOs, so I thought, why not revisit the idea of life on other worlds.

I don't expect the 'established' church has an official view on extra-terrestrial life, although I can well imagine the lengthy and controversial debates over whether Venusians should be allowed to become priests...

However, as respected a Christian scholar as Charles Haddon Spurgeon at least appeared to accept the possibility, and the Vatican's Chief Astronomer Father Gabriel Funes said recently:

...there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God. This does
not contrast with our faith because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom
of God. To say it with Saint Francis, if we consider earthly creatures as
“brother” and “sister,” why cannot we also speak of an “extraterrestrial
brother?”

On the other hand, when you have a director of SETI quoted (in Wired) as saying that ET is inconsistent with the existence of God, well, I wonder exactly where she's coming from. Presumably (and I apologise if she reads this and I've done her a total disservice!) a scientific worldview which holds that religion is bunkum and any alien life form we encounter will tell us how they out-evolved religious beliefs eons ago.

Personally I would approach first contact fully aware of the very real possibility of meeting the Martian Richard Dawkins.

Some would say that, given the huge number of variables which have to be just right in order for any life, never mind intelligent life, to exist, life on other planets is extremely unlikely. I wonder what the odds are of those variables falling into place just once in an infinite universe?

And besides, creative sci-fi writers have come up with intelligent races from all kinds of wierd and inhospitable worlds, so surely God just needs to settle down with some good sf, knock up a plastecine impression of the wierdest alien, and hey presto, we've got life on other planets.

Friday Review: The Personifid Project by R E Bartlett

As the sometime author of mediocre novels myself, I take little pleasure in making negative comments on a book. (Except if it’s so bad that it deserves everything coming, of course, but I don’t think I’ve even started anything that bad for a while.)

I am going to do so now, however, if for no other reason than to try and avoid similar mistakes myself.

So, on with the review. The Personifid Project takes place at some unspecified future time when the Pacific has started to dry up and the planet’s human population is joined by various robot and android companions. The Project concerns the transference of human souls into artificial bodies, thus prolonging life indefinitely. Which sounds like an interesting enough premise, and a plot dealing with the potential use and abuse of this technology could certainly provide plenty of food for thought, although I’m not sure soul transference really fits in the sci-fi setting.

More of an issue to me, however, was the logical inconsistency of a world where the existence of the human soul has been scientifically proven, yet religion has become redundant to the point that Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and indeed any one of the three, have been re-named ‘the Tri-une Soul’. I think there was one passing use of the word ‘Christian’ to assure the reader that our heroes aren’t members of some wacky cult, but really, it all seems very unlikely to say the least.

OK, let’s accept that it’s science-fantasy and suspend our disbelief accordingly. Now what? Well, I’m afraid I still have one more gripe: info-dumping. Now I’m prepared to accept a degree of this, because we’ve been transported to a distant future world and things are going to need a little explanation. Just where that explanation was used got a bit confused though: our heroine, Aphra Vessey, explains the the imprint system (which I had worked out, and got the 'Mark of the Beast' reference) like someone in a cheesy radio ad, but the we were left to figure out for ourselves what the luminire does. Having finished the book, I think it is what any self-respecting author of Trek fan-fic would refer to as a transporter, or a near approximation thereof.

And why, for no apparent reason, did Lev suddenly decide to read the testimony she prepared for her baptism? And to her husband, as it obviously hadn't come up any earlier in their marriage? Surely people don’t really talk like that, even in weird far-future religious cults?

OK, gripes over, I will have to admit that the author must have got something right, because, despite all the flaws, I kept reading. I actually wanted to know what happened next. On the level of a pacy action adventure story, it works. On the whole, the future was well imagined. And on top of that, Aphra's gradual acceptance of the Tri-une Cult was believable, and there were plenty of interesting ideas brought up by the story's basic premise.

Phursday Photos: little things

Earlier this week I took the opportunity to wander around our local country park, just a chance to chill out, and hopefully get some inspiration from being out in the wilds. I'm not sure I got what I was looking for straight away, but here's what I did get:

A stroll through a meadow

Some wild flowers

A little rain

and a dragonfly sitting still for just long enough... >

Tuesday Tunes: Mixwit

You may have gathered from my occasional Top Tens that I was, in my yoof, a fan of the mix tape. So it is with yooflike excitement that I present the 21st Century equivalent, courtesy of mixwit...

I will be rearranging things to accomodate this on the sidebar soon, and adding the sci-fi song of the week to it wherever possible. Speaking of which:

Sci-fi Song of the Week

Well, given the recent news that lost scenes from the 1927 film Metropolis were found in Argentina last week, a bit of Kraftwerk seems in order. It should be the first track on the mixtape...

Doctor Who: The Donna Noble Years

Readers with photographic memories will recall that I was always, shall we say, dubious about Catherine Tate returning to the TARDIS. At season's end though, I can pretty safely say that it wasn't her fault this year's Doctor Who wasn't as good as some.

So here's a quick recap of the year (may contain spoilers for those in other time zones):

Slimming pills that turn your beer belly into some kind of alien Furby. That's just silly.
Aliens were responsible for 'volcano day' in Pompeii. That's very Doctor Who.
SatNav is evil - not that we needed the Doctor to tell us that.

Best episodes of the season: probably Donna's first alien planet, the Ood-Sphere, where she discovers some pretty unpleasant things about the human race; and Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, by lead writer in waiting Steven Moffat.

And the finale? Well, Doctor-light episode Turn left serves as a sort of prelude to what is to come (and in itself is also a high point of the series), with the Doctor's former companions, Torchwood and UNIT together struggling to save the world without the Doctor's intervention.

Rose (presumably) manages to sprinkle the 'Bad Wolf' message all over alien Chinatown to warn the Doctor, and then he joins Torchwood and UNIT to save the world. The big cross-over with Torchwood and Sarah Jane makes the whole thing a bit crowded, and most of them don't do very much, but this is Donna's destiny. Rose Tyler striding between dimensions with a big gun like soem kind of inter-galactic Billie the Vampire Slayer was always going to be a welcome return, although Mickey and Jackie didn't do a lot other than follow her onto the set. Actually, K-9 would have been a more useful ally, I suspect, but even he had his bit part.

There's a few nods back to 'classic' Who, another blatant Hitch-hiker's moment (replacing aquatic mammals with honey-producing insects doesn't stop it being plagiarism!), and, of course, those supposedly extinct Daleks.

Sure, some of it was silly, but this is Doctor Who - it's entertainment, not hard sf. If you look past the end of term party RTD was obviously throwing for himself, dodge the obvious plot-holes, and just settle down to enjoy the ride, well, what's not to enjoy?

I could draw out plenty of spiritual lessons from it all, but it's entertainment, not Sunday School. Having said that, destiny, or God's plan, or whatever else you want to call it, is something I'm a great believer in. And that, for me, was the Big Theme of the finale, from Donna's alternate history through Dalek Caan's prophecies to the Doctor returning to his usual status as 'lonely god'.

Finale aside, not the best DW season, but still way ahead of anything else on telly. And, as it turned out, I was pretty sorry to see Donna go - not least because of the way she had to go. She deserved better.

Superhero pastors

Just stopping by with a quick semi-relevant link:

The superhero guide to famous pastors, courtesy of Stuff Christians Like. I think that may be a thing American Christians like more than us Brits, but superheroes have kind of become part of this blogs remit (albeit a little part).

Sci-fi Song of the Week

There are any number of ways I could have gone here to follow the UFO theme from the previous post. I suspect we'll get around to most of them in time, but really, UFO mythology has to start at Roswell...

The Tunguska Event at 100

It is 100 years since the Tunguska event, when a meteor/black hole/badly piloted spaceship crashed into Siberia, and exactly what happened remains a mystery.

Which is convenient for science fiction, because you can plausibly have a micro black hole floating around under the Earth's core, or the Death Ray experiments of a mad scientist. (Steampunk meets World War 1 on the Eastern Front, anybody?)

Most popularly, of course, Tunguska has become an integral part of UFO mythology, including being involved in the 'black oil' arc in the The X Files.

I have no idea where this is leading in terms of Christian sf, except that I kind of like the idea that when Lucifer fell from heaven, he landed in early 20th Century Siberia. (If I'd been a little more on the ball I would have actually written that story already, but I've been excercising my gift for procrastination instead.)

The whole UFO thing, though, has facinated me since I was a yoof, so I may explore that a bit. Or I may just sit and watch some X-Files. Yes, I think that's more likely.

Friday Review - British Summertime by Paul Cornell

I loved this book. I think we should get that out of the way so you don't have to sit through loads of tedious review in order to get to the point.

Paul Cornell, for those that don't know, has written several Doctor Who novels, one of which he adapted into the Human Nature/Family of Blood two parter in series 3. British Summertime is not a Doctor Who story - although, arguably it could have been, with it's young Earthbound heroine (with an uncanny sense of chipshopness) swept off her feet by the slightly eccentric Wing Commander Leyton and embroiled in an insanely complicated, entertaining and ultimately very satisfying time travel adventure. With a disembodied head called Jocelyn. And there is so much more to love in the densely-packed plot.

Leyton, to be fair, is more Dan Dare than Doctor Who, and that just tops off a story that's as quintessentially English as the word 'quintessential'. And he comes from the future, but the future of a different Earth, one where Sodom and Gomorrah got let off the hook and the Revelation was never Revealed. Oh yes, there is a wierd religious sub-plot, which could be seen as blasphemous or overtly Christian, depending, I suspect, on the reader's own viewpoint. The stuff with Judas Iscariot was a bit wierd, and to a degree superfluous, but it was just a minor diversion on a cracking ride.

Anyway: Dan Dare, Doctor Who, time travel, an alternate idealised Christian Earth, angels, pop stars, chipshopness, disembodied heads, interstellar war, and some icky bits with a hand drill. Something for everyone (at least, everyone likely to be reading this blog).

Go read it! (Loving that US cover by the way - very Eagle!)

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

In case you didn't get it from yesterday's post, this month's CSFF Blog Tour is focusing on Vanished, a Christian Chiller by Kathryn Mackel. It's about the adventures of a community which disappears under an impenetrable mist. And so, Tuesday Tunes brings you the top ten songs on the theme of disappearing-under-an-impenetrable-mist.

10. The Cure: Lost
It is possible that smiling Bob and the boys are an acquired taste, so you'll either like this or think it's wierd unlistenable nonsense. Ho hum.
9. Marc Bolan & T. Rex: Misty Mist
Because we haven't had any T.Rex on Tuesday Tunes for a while.
8. Lou Reed: Vanishing Act
From his 2003 solo album based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
7. Everything But The Girl: Missing
The song that made EBTG a big dance act.
6. Manic Street Preachers: Everything Must Go
You see what I've done there?
5. Apollo 440: Vanishing Point
Because every top ten needs at least 7 1/2 minutes of quality electronica.
4. Jars of Clay: Disappear
And, wherever possible, a Christian rock moment.
3. Brian Eno: Events in Dense Fog
The father of ambient music doing what he does best.
2. Primal Scream: Vanishing Dub
From Echo Dek, the experimental remix of Vanishing Point, named after the 1971 road movie.
1. U2: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Is this really 21 years old now?

Sci-fi Song of the Week

Sticking with the 'lost' theme, check out Lost in Space by Fountains of Wayne.

CSFF Blog Tour, May - sorry, June - 2008

Before we get into the blog tour thing, I should apologise for my recent absence.

I don’t wish to make any far-fetched excuses, but it turns out that my next-door neighbour was experimenting in the transperambulation of pseudo-cosmic antimatter, when he somehow cut the entire estate loose from the rest of reality. For a long time we thought the mist was keeping the rescue services out, but once the mist cleared, we found ourselves surrounded by a majestic wilderness, both primitive and primal, battling for survival against enemies we’d always known and forces we never imagined. And all without a reliable wi-fi connection.

Actually, now I come to relate the story, it sounds like it would make a great novel. One of my WIPs was starting to look like a Christian Lost, maybe I could use it there. Trouble is, me being so good at procrastinating and so poor at actually writing things, somebody’s probably already gone and done it...

Ask these people, they’ll know:

Brandon Barr Justin Boyer Jackie Castle CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Beth Goddard Andrea Graham Todd Michael Greene Katie Hart Christopher Hopper Joleen Howell Jason Joyner Carol Keen Mike Lynch Terri Main Margaret Shannon McNear Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller John W. Otte Deena Peterson Rachelle Steve Rice Ashley Rutherford Mirtika or Mir's Here Chawna Schroeder Stuart Stockton Steve Trower Speculative Faith Linda Wichman Laura Williams Timothy Wise

Tuesday Tunes in the Live Lounge

Anyone with a passing interest in the current music scene needs - I mean medically needs - a copy of Radio 1's Live Lounge - Volume 2. I actually think Volume 1 is better, but this way the review is slightly less out of date...

There are two reasons for listening to this CD - and the Live Lounge on Jo Whiley's show - the live versions of tracks you know: check the awesome acoustic version of Times Like These by Foo Fighters; The View's Same Jeans; and Snow Patrol's Run; and the cover versions.

The choices are often unusual, but always worth listening to. On the CD you get:

The Enemy do Madonna's Hung Up - wierd!
Keane doing Dirrtylicious - wierder!
30 Seconds to Mars doing Kanye West' Stronger - bizarrely, it works!
Corrine Bailey Rae does Sexyback - mellow!
Maximo Park do The Proclaimers - awesome!
Natasha Bedingfield does Snow Patrol - ooooh

Most of the current crop of indie rockers are in there, but the mix of artists is pretty eclectic: from the mellow songwriter types like Damien Rice and James Morrison, to the (very different) hip-hop stylings of Dizzee Rascal and The Streets, and the all out rock fabulousness of Foo Fighters and Gossip.

So in short, if you like music of any sort at all, buy this CD. Oh, and listen to Jo Whiley too. ;)

Sci-fi Song of the Week

Well, there aren't any on those CDs, and since I have no idea where the blog's going next, I can't offer a topical one, so...

The Ballad of Tom Jones it is then.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Begotten

Happy St George's Day!

I've been busy lately. (What do you mean you couldn't tell?)

Unfortunately, not entirely busy working on Project Seven, although the timeline has now fallen into place which opens a few more definite options for the setting and 'action' portion of the story.
But the combination of St George's Day and a passing blog tour seemed like a good reason to drag this little web page out of retirement.

So, on our tour this week, it's The Begotten by Lisa T Bergren, which appears to be a 'religious thriller', but, unlike The Da Da De Da Da Code, is part historical fiction too, being set in 1339.

Where that fits on the CSFF blog tour may not be apparent from that, but throw in the lost letters of St Paul, which contain prohecies of the Gifted - people with spiritual gifts on steroids - and you get the link.

Yes, this is part historical fiction, part religious thriller, part alternate history, and part medieval superhero story. All things to all people, you might say.

One thing strikes me as odd here, particularly about the Christian publishing universe. In a Christian novel, it seems, you're not allowed to swear, but rewriting the Bible as we know it is OK. The CBA must be a very odd place. I'd quite like to visit someday, but I don't think I could live there.

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Todd Michael Greene
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Pamela Morrisson
John W. Otte
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Goodbye Captain Jack, hello Doctor Who

First there was the Torchwood finale. I realise this may put me in a minority, but I have to say I've quite enjoyed season 2. There were even episodes I would probably watch again. Sadly the finale wasn't one of them; crammed full of excitement it may have been, but the actual story was pretty forgettable and I'm left with a vague sense that if I watch it again too soon I'll just notice a lot of plotholes.

So having killed Owen off half way throught the series (albeit he didn't stop moving) they should co-opt that nice Doctor Jones on a more permanent basis and try again. Oh, and would somebody please neuter Captain Jack before season three?

Putting all of that in the shade, however, is the return of Doctor Who. I may have been a bit sceptical about Donna Noble to start with, but she seemed less annoying than when she first met the Doctor, and after the rampant hormones of Torchwood it will probably make a nice change for there to be absolutely no romantic tension in Doctor Who. At least, not until Rose, Martha and Sarah Jane turn up.

I've been watching The Bionic Woman lately too, and it occurred to me last night: that Michelle Ryan does the unconvincing-Hollywood-British-accent, um, quite convincingly.

Phursday Photos: The RAF turns 90

The Royal Air Force turned 90 this week, so to celebrate that fact here's a few favourite photos of their hardware. It doesn't cover the whole 90 years. I'm holding some back for the centenary post...

Armstrong Whitworth Meteor

Gloster Javelin

Couldn't not have a Vulcan, could we?

I once had a Lightning hung from my ceiling too...

Achtung! Spitfire!

Achtung! Er, the other one...

No action shots of these guys to hand. Sorry.

Blog Tours to the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

This week the bloggers of the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour have been On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, courtesy of Andrew Peterson.

Now, this month's featured novel is the first book in the Wingfeather Saga - a fantasy series. And of course, I don't get fantasy, which would usually make this a pretty short stop on the tour. And in keeping with tradition, I haven't read On the Edge of the Dark Sea.... I have, however, read a few interesting comments on the tour so far.

For instance, Timothy Hicks and Christopher Hopper both commented on some Python-esque aspects of the book. CherryBlossomMJ, who has at least started the book, hears that the author has been connected with those Veggie Tales reprobates - and who doesn't love a bit of Veggie?

There are a few notable exceptions to my non-getting of fantasy, and given the aforementioned reasons to expect silliness, I am wondering whether On the Edge of the Dark... might in fact be one such exception. I may (gasp!) be forced to acquire a copy, just to check.

Based on the reviews, blurbs etc on this tour and elsewhere, I am given to think that, were I to write a review of On the Edge..., it would include somewhere within it words like 'Pratchett' and 'Discworld'. So, if anyone would like to compare On... to, say, The Light Fantastic, please let me know.

Some folks who may be interested in doing that include...
Sally Apokedak Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Jackie Castle Valerie Comer CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Todd Green Jill Hart Katie Hart Michael Heald Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Kait Carol Keen Mike Lynch Margaret Rachel Marks Shannon McNear Rebecca LuElla Miller Pamela Morrisson John W. Otte Deena Peterson Rachelle Steve Rice Cheryl Russel Ashley Rutherford Chawna Schroeder James Somers Donna Swanson Steve Trower Speculative Faith Robert Treskillard Jason Waguespac Laura Williams Timothy Wise

Sci-Fi Song of the Week

You can thank Mr Hopper for this. It is, of course:

Monty Python's Galaxy Song, from The Meaning of Life. Downloadable MP3 here!

Phursdsay Photos: Lindisfarne

Apparently today is St Cuthbert's Day, which seems like a good excuse to brighten up the blog with some pictures of his erstwile home, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

Lindisfarne Priory

Lindisfarne has one of the iconic castles of the Northumbrian coast, which is a recurring feature around our house for various reasons.

Sir Arthur C Clarke, 1917-2008

Sir Arthur C Clarke, one of science fiction's most visionary authors, has died at the age of 90.

Best known, of course, for the movie 2001: A Space Oddysey, he was an author who often included religious (or at least mystical) elements or themes in his stories (The Star, and The Nine Billion Names of God come to mind), and as such will probably crop up here again.

That he hasn't cropped up here more often is a poor reflection on the influence he has had on the science fiction genre, and no doubt will continue to have for some time yet.

In honour of St Patrick....

...I will dedicate this post to directing you to something that has been on my list of 'things to get round to looking at'.

It's Irish Christian science-fiction, of course! Brought to you by Rick Sutcliffe, all the way from, er, Canada. Naturally.

Even though these stories are readily available as handy e-books, I have yet to get round to trying one, so I can't offer a proper review. (But you don't come here for the reviews, do you?)

I can however, tell you that I find the whole idea of the Interregnum intriguing - but then, I'm a sucker for alternate histories, which is precisely what the Interregnum series is. In fact, it tells the story of several alternate earths, connected by the Timestream. One of the main 'Earths' is Hibernia, otherwise known as Greater Ireland, and has a detailed alternate history plotted out here, which starts with the non-crucifixion of Christ, and ends with the Three Worlds' War in 1939 (via space flight in 1735) , where the story begins.

If anyone out there has read any of the series, I'd be interested to know what you thought. For the rest of you, well, maybe I'll have a review ready by next St Patrick's Day...

Churched Batman

Since superheores have crept into the last few posts for one reason or another, today I will hand over to ASBO Jesus for his take on the subject....

Tuesday Tunes Goes Old Skool

Last year we inherited a second-hand sound system - quite a flashy looking one, but it was the 5-CD changer that turned my head, and made me decide to pension off our existing stereo. The stereo in question was about 12 years old, and the CD player has never been the same since it got some dust in it when we moved house, but it did date back to the days of 'records', which, for the iPod generation, are like bigger, more cumbersome versions of CDs. I know, how did we ever manage?

In light of all this I decided that I would transfer my vinyl onto cassette (I know, I know!) for posterity. Only I hadn't got far through the process when the tape deck exploded.

So (and this is the point of the story) I bought myself a new toy recently - an Ion USB Turntable. And a suitably impressive piece of kit it is too. I bought it with the intention of digitising my vinyl collection, but having hooked it up to the stereo and tried it out on a couple of tracks, I think it's likely to get a lot more use than that. There is something satisfying about the act of putting the needle on the record. Even the snap, crackle and pop of some of the lower quality vinyl I own adds to the experience rather than becoming annoying. And, of course, there is the adventure of rediscovering some of those wierd 12 inch singles I bought in the early 90s.

There is no doubt that the new turntable is far superior to the one I just threw out - after all, that was part of an all-in-one unit released at the time vinyl was being replaced and the CD was on the rise. At least one LP I had thought scratched beyond listenability has turned out, in fact, to skip only one or two spots.

It is, of course, probable that the novelty will wear off and getting up to turn the record over every 20 minutes will get a bit tedious, at which time I will get transfer them all to MP3 and go back to using the 5 disk changer from across the room. Until then, I shall continue to wallow in my nostalgia.

Sci-Fi Song of the Week

I've done enough self-indulgent wibbling today, so all that remains is to introduce this weeks Sci-Fi Song, which, in keeping with the superhero theme of recent posts, is (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman, by The Kinks.

Miscellaneous Podcastery

First, following on from Friday's review, if Robin Parrish's Dominion books, or Heroes, are the sort of thing you like, you may well have discovered Mur Lafferty's Playing for Keeps. It's a podcast novel along similar lines, the story of a bunch of, well, rubbish superheroes, I guess, who find themselves stuck in the middle of a titanic battle between superheroes and supervillains. The last podcast went out a couple of weeks ago, so I guess I owe Mur an apology for not plugging it earlier. My Third Wave power would be 'shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted'. There's PDFs too, for purists who prefer the written word. :)

Second, I believe Mir speaks quite highly of Carole McDonnel. So, for Mir's benefit if nothing else, she has a story on Escape Pod this week. EP is always worth checking out, so if you haven't got round to it yet, there's your reason - I could be wrong, but I think this was the first time I've heard Steve Eley use the word 'Christian' in his intro. It's a bit different from their usual fare - I like a good alternate history, but I didn't really get that much of a feel for the world in this story. And although the story centred on racial politics, it did hint at Christians getting a raw deal elsewhere in the reimagined USA, which would have had more relevance to me.

Finally, a couple of quickies to check out: Starship Sofa are podcasting the nominees for the BSFA Best Short Story Award 2007 this week, so that should be good; and I've been getting into the Daily Audio Bible just lately, for anyone interested in listening to the Bible over the course of a year.

Friday Review - Fearless by Robin Parrish

Regular visitors may recall that Fearless has already been featured on the CSFF Blog Tour, but I hadn't read it back then, so my contribution was a review of book one of the Dominion Trilogy, Relentless, which you can read here.

Fearless continues the story in a world in chaos, with apparently natural disasters happening in LA, Jerusalem, London... you name it. Personally I thought these bits got a bit Left Behind at times, but on the whole the story wasn't in that league (which is agood thing, btw!). Superhero 'Guardian', aka Grant Borrows, and his fellow Loci head to London, via the aforementioned disaster in Jerusalem, where Grant discovers more about his destiny. None of them seem the least bit bothered about why they had to switch bodies, which still bothers me a bit. And while we're talking minor niggles, exactly where is 'downtown London'? And (spoiler alert) how come the psychic barrier extends to the Underground, but allows the Loci to walk across the river bed? The Underground, to best of my knowledge, goes under the river. The author might as well have wrtten 'the Loci made their way through the barrier by locating a big enough plot-hole'.

OK, enough criticising. I enjoyed Relentless when I read it last year, and for the most part, I enjoyed Fearless just as much. The pace is just as fast as in the first volume, thanks in part to the short chapters, and in part due to the fact that this book is even more chock full of action than the previous volume. Cliffhangers lurk around every corner, right up to the final climactic scene.

There's plenty of suspense, a suitably varied cast of superheroes, some of whose back stories are touched on to add a little depth to the proceedings.

As I mentioned when reviewing Relentless, I like my Christian fiction to have a bit more Christianity in it, and so far it has only had passing mentions in this series. I will, however be looking out for Merciless to see how (if?) the Secretum, Loci and associated mythology relate to the Christian faith.

If by some fluke you haven't read any of the Dominion Trilogy books (and especially if you don't live in the UK), go read Relentless now. Fearless might work on its own, but I would recommend starting at the beginning.

Who is This God Person Anyway? (Fit the Sixth - The Total Perspective Vortex)

So we make a long-awaited return to the increasingly occasional series plucking at the spiritual threads of Douglas Adams' writings.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about the Total Perspective Vortex:

The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses.
To explain--since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation--every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition, and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.
The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.
Trin Tragula--for that was his name--was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.
And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectrographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake.
"Have some sense of proportion!" she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.
And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex--just to show her.
And into one end, he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other, he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.
To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain, but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.

I was sort of going somewhere with this, like to parallel the Vortex with the way getting too close to God would annihilate the brains of Old Testament Jews, but really I just wanted to let the universe speak for itself.

On Slacking

I have been a bit slack when it comes to writing lately, both in letting my thoughts loose here and in getting on with Project Seven.

That will be, at least in part, real life getting in the way. Oh, and the fact that there is a gaping hole at the beginning of the story - there is no reason for the events I wish to portray to actually happen - which bugs me every time I try to get on with the story.

I try to tell myself that a sucky first draft is allowable, and probably what I'll end up with whatever happens. But the lack of a concrete opening is leaving a lot of leaway for the whole thing to descend back into the realms of fantasy, which I've tried to keep it out of on the basis that a non-spec-fic version of the story might actually get published. I suppose I should be realistic, tell myself that's completely unlikely and make it as fantastic as it wants to be.

Or maybe I should write something else; I have a huge array of characters, settings, story ideas and themes which are, currently, largely unrelated. Maybe I should pick a random one from each list and see where the story goes - just as a change of creative scenery, if nothing else.

Above all, I think I need to constantly remind myself of the importance of writing, to me, as a way of spending time with God. When I wrote Countless as the Stars, I spent ages reading the Bible as research, and learnt a lot about God as a result. The whole process became an act of worship in many ways (and I hope that came through in the end result). This one is different; the story is much more personal, and I am having to learn a lot about myself as research. For various reasons, my protagonist and I find ourselves in similar positions. Writing about his journey is my way of reflecting on my own.

So I guess I have some writing to do. In the meantime, I will try not to let this become a blog about writing...

This week, I 'ave been mostly watching...

Primeval, the second series of which ended on Saturday. I was a bit disappointed with the resolution of last season's cliffhanger, but it did introduce the idea that someone able to travel through time can make small changes to the here and now. The full implications of that weren't revealed until this season's finale, so obviously next year I'll just skip to the end.

Actually, to be fair it had improved over the first series. Her out of S-Club managed to keep her clothes on most of the time (although for some reason she sold her Mini. Or maybe it was a parallel universe her, without any taste.) and there was even a story arc, which added a bit of depth to the running around after CGI, which got a bit tiresome last year.

So, it's no Doctor Who, but if the pace picks up season three might be worth watching.

Ashes to Ashes, the Life on Mars spin-off set in the early 80s. Now I liked Gene Hunt, and I liked the 80s, so I had high hopes for this. It has had it's moments - like Zippy and George from out of Rainbow making a cameo appearance - but there's something missing. Apart from there being a bird on the team in place of Sam Tyler, that is. And I don't know whether Gene's gone a bit soft, but he hasn't made me laugh as much as he did in LoM. But mainly, knowing what happened to Sam, the mystery has left the show, and for me that's spoilt it somewhat. The writers have dealt with that issue quite nicely though, so it's still good telly, if no Life on Mars.

Love the Quattro though!

Torchwood. The Doctor Who spin-off set in Cardiff. And may I say, good call to go back on the original plan not to do any cross-overs. The arrival of Martha Jones has mixed things up nicely, and the episodes she has been in have been about the best so far (although, I suspect they could overdo the story arc if it drags on too long).

It's no Doctor Who, but it is (dare I say it?) the Torchwood we were all hoping for. More please!

It's a Vulcan, Jim, but not as we know it...

Every so often you see something that makes you think 'I must go and write a Cold War alternate history, just so I can put one of these in it...'

I'm a big fan of the iconic delta wing of the actual Vulcan bomber, but the initial concept is so weirdly futuristic - and faintly reminiscent of the B-2 stealth bomber - that it deserves to see some action. Who knows, with the many false starts and constantly fluctuating back story of Project Seven, maybe that will have an early 80s Jericho twist to it before it's finished...

Tuesday Tunes: Pimp My Chips

We interrupt this weeks blog tour for something completely different...

I guess this may have a slightly limited appeal among my usual readership (and those innocent passers-by on the blog tour), but I recently stumbled across what can only be described as, um, 11 pop songs performed on the sound chip from a ZX Spectrum. Obviously I have no excuse for mentioning it here other than that as a Spec-chum of yore I think it's brilliant. Check out Pimp My Chips here.

Sci-Fi Song of the Week

Among the songs covered on Pimp My Chips is a little tune by Radiohead going by the name of Paranoid Android. And it turns out the coder (Matt Westcott) has made the Spectrum version available as a downloadable mp3. Yay him!

CSFF Blog Tour: Nemesis

Lawks, have I really not posted anything since the last blog tour?

Well, that's ok, because the subject of the current tour, Chris Walley, is 'away in the Midlands at the moment and somewhat technologically isolated'. Well now I live in the Midlands and must therefore be permanently technologically isolated, so you should consider yourselves lucky that anything ever gets posted here.

Anyway, this tour thing. It's all about The Shadow and Night, a repackaging of the first two volumes in the Lamb Among the Stars series, which has been around on these shores since 2002. Finally, the tour recognises British talent...

I reviewed the first (half) volume way back in September '06. So rather than repeat myself, here's the link, and that's me done for the tour. I'll see you next month!

Until then, entertain yourelves by visiting Chris Walley's website, his blog, and then buying the book.

Then visit these bloggers who have probably already done those things:

Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Jackie Castle Carol Bruce Collett Valerie Comer CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Janey DeMeo Jeff Draper April Erwin Marcus Goodyear Rebecca Grabill Jill Hart Katie Hart Michael Heald Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Heather R. Hunt Jason Joyner Kait Carol Keen Mike Lynch Margaret Rachel Marks Shannon McNear Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika or Mir's Here Pamela Morrisson Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Deena Peterson Rachelle Steve Rice Ashley Rutherford Chawna Schroeder James Somers Rachelle Sperling Donna Swanson Speculative Faith Robert Treskillard Jason Waguespac Laura Williams Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour - Auralia's Colors

There are a few things you need to do if you've just ambled onto the tour at this stage. First, you need to visit Christopher Hopper's blog, which got missed off the tour list and CH is probably too nice to complain. Which is a shame, cos he got a creative little competition thing going, which you've probably missed now, but do be sure to stop by there anyway.


You should also stop by a few of the other blogs on the tour (although, ironically, some of those on the list haven't posted...). Don't miss John Ottinger's offerings, which include both review and interview.

Then you should probably look at the book's website, the author's blog, and then check out Auralia's Colors at amazon.

Auralia's Colourful Tuesday Tunes

At this point in the month I am contractually obliged to write something which could be construed by some as ‘mildly amusing’ and which has a tenuous link to Jeffrey Overstreet’s Auralia’s Colors.

And, as it's Tuesday, I will be doing so through the medium of song. A rainbow medley of songs, going something like this:

Nena - 99 Red Balloons. Because you can't beat a bit of cheesily inoffensive 80s pop.

REM - Orange Crush. This was REM on the cusp of the greatness that followed Out of Time.

Yello - The Race. Swiss electronica. Who knew?

Kermit the Frog - It's Not Easy Being Green. Muppet.

New Order - Blue Monday. Over 7 minutes long, biggest selling 12 inch single of all time, remixed and reissued every year since 1983. Or so it seems.

Moloko - Indigo. You see that Róisín Murphy? No? Well, she was in Moloko anyway.

Prince - Purple Rain. Yeah, well you come up with a good tune for 'violet' then.

Sci-Fi Song of the Week

I was a bit hard pushed for a colourful sci-fi song, but I think this should do the trick.

Oh yes, nearly forgot - there's a blog tour or something going on. Go here:

Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Jackie Castle Carol Bruce Collett Valerie Comer CSFF Blog Tour D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Jeff Draper April Erwin Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Jill Hart Katie Hart Timothy Hicks Heather R. Hunt Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Kait Karen Carol Keen Mike Lynch Margaret Rachel Marks Shannon McNear Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika or Mir's Here Pamela Morrisson Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Deena Peterson Rachelle Steve Rice Cheryl Russel Ashley Rutherford Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Rachelle Sperling Donna Swanson Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Laura Williams Timothy Wise

Rubbish stories, saviour siblings and unlikely superheroes

I have spent my writing time over the last couple of days working on a short story which hasn't worked. The short story is still a genre which baffles me. I can do short-shorts, blast an idea out in 500 words, but most of the contests I’m considering ask for about three times that, which is way beyond what I can get to at the moment.

There again, I had the same problem when I started attempting novels – the first few chapters would be ok, an interesting story sprinkled with witty one-liners, but then I’d find I had used all my ideas, lose the plot, so to speak, and end up waffling until finally realising it was all crap and giving up.

A couple of those abandoned in a desk drawer somewhere and I finally managed to put something of novel length together that I thought was far enough from rubbish to release on the world.

Practice, as they say, makes slightly better.

It's kind of a shame I haven't got to grips with it yet, because there's plenty of real life material for sf stories at the moment: two UK universities have been given research licences to start work creating human-animal hybrid embryos; along similar lines, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill currently going though Parliament will also allow the creation of "saviour siblings", essentially genetically engineered kids created to provide healthy tissue for a sick sibling.

Both of these things have been opposed by some Christian groups, but I'm more interested in the fact that, well, if a saviour sibling isn't a cool short sf character, I don't know what is. If I was a better writer, maybe I could do a nice, thought-provoking piece about that. I may yet give it a try anyway.

I'm probably more likely to write about the hybrid embryo that accidentally developed into... HeiferMan! Part man, part cow, Britain's latest super hero has the amazing ability to stand in fields for a long time, know when it's going to rain, and be slightly inconvenient to ramblers.

Well, practice, as they say...

Have you seen a blowfish driving a sports car?

And so begins Season 2 of Torchwood. Hopefully this opening line is a precursor to a Torchwood that doesn't take itself too seriously, and concentrates on entertaining, like big bro Doctor Who.

That said, I am raising no expectations at this stage as to whether it has addressed the shortfalls of series one. I will almost certainly stay tuned, if only because it's on in Heroes' old slot, which, coming after Jericho finishes elsewhere, makes for a good evening's telly.

Anyway, the opening episode: a smidge predictable at times, but, yes, entertaining. I may have chuckled a couple of times. Jack is a bit less angsty having resolved his issues with the Doctor, and a bit more like the Captain Jack we first met. I liked Captain John, but I can't help wondering how long I can watch him before wanting to actually watch Spike. (I don't think there was any intention to hide his Spikey origins; unless the 'sewer chic' comment and his enquiry as to the whereabouts of the blonde were meaningless coincidences.)

Unfortunately, Captain John's soundbite from next week's trailer suggests that one of my gripes with the first series hasn't gone away:

"It's all sex, sex, sex with you people isn't it?"

Then again, maybe they'll just have a laugh about that too.

Dang, I said I wasn't going to do that...

The Pale Thin God

It's not really science fiction, but I like this story, by Mike Resnick, the world's most decorated short sf author.

I mention it today because the crew at The Sci Phi Show deserve a shout out for putting together an audio presentation of it. Personally I'm not sure the voice effects add anything to it, but there are versions available with and without the effects available for download here.

I definitely recommend checking it out. It'a a worthwhile way to spend 7 minutes 59 seconds anyway.

The obligatory New Years post...

...in which I pointlessly resolve to post on my blog more often...

No, of course, that would be silly. But there are one or two things I do intend to do this year:

Write more often. I'm not going to say every day, because that's asking for trouble. I will try to write a couple hundred words every day - mainly to flesh out the story of Project Seven - but sometimes there are just more important things to do. Like:

Read the Bible. I've been slacking on this too. I'm actually trying out a few Bible podcasts, so I can listen when stuck in traffic, but I need to find a reader whose voice and/or accent doesn't start to irritate me. (I know that's not a very good way to look at it, but there you go.)

I guess that will do as far as this blog is concerned. You don't really want to hear about the personal lifestyle changes I would like to make, do you?

Oh yes, it's Tuesday isn't it? Time for one of these then:

Sci-fi Song of the Week

I tried to find one that was New Year-related, but the closest I could think of was Year 3000 by Busted. Not my usual genre, but it is kinda fun.

Tuesday Tunes: Radio 1 Established 1967

I love a good cover version. Especially the fantastically bizarre cover versions that take a well known song off in a completely unexpected direction. It doesn't really matter whether they work or not most of the time, I just think they're great fun.

And so, when Radio 1 celebrated it's 40th anniversary a few months ago by inviting 40 of today's greatest artists to cover 40 years of hits, I was hoping for a CD compilation without even hearing most of the tracks.

Lucky then, that I got a copy for Christmas.

The compilation is a little heavy on trendy indie bands, including some with whom I have only a passing acquaintance; but there's also Robbie, Kylie, and the largely pointless Girls Aloud fighting pop's corner.

It starts off with the first track played on the station - The Move's Flowers in the Rain, performed by Kaiser Chiefs - and delivers a song from each year up to 2006.

For me the highlights are the more insane versions: Careless Whisper by Gossip; Madonna's Crazy for You given a Groove Armada makeover; Hard-Fi doing Britney's Toxic; The Streets' rendition of Elton's Your Song is so bad it's good; and the ultimate crazy cover must be Armand van Helden and Mika teaming up to destroy Can't Stand Losing You (originally by The Police).

Even the less out there covers are mainly good; Kylie doing Love is the Drug; Klaxons covering No Diggity and Foo Fighters rocking out Band On The Run make songs I wasn't previously bothered about, well, more enjoyable.

In fact, I think there are, at most, two dodgy tracks out of the 40. One is a song I don't know the original of and am pretty apathetic towards the cover; the other is by Girls Aloud. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Girls Aloud doing their own stuff; it's largely inoffensive pop music which I am happy to allow a place in my life. But they sapped the life out of The Pretenders' I'll Stand By You a few years ago, and pretty much do the same to Teenage Dirtbag here. These sort of things give cover versions a bad reputation - thankfully, the rest of the compilation more than makes amends.

That reminds me: The Pretenders' Don't Get Me Wrong is given the Lily Allen treatment - not a huge change like some, but the Lily Allen treatment is just too great not to mention. There are some other classic tunes given worthy renditions - Teenage Kicks; Bowie's Sound and Vision; and Stereophonics doing You Sexy Thing to name a few...

I am fairly sure there must be something for everyone in this compilation. Look:

Sci-Fi Song of the Week today is the only sci-fi related track on Established 1967. Covered by The Pigeon Detectives, it was originally by Huey Lewis and The News, and is the album's featured track for 1985. The year when it was, of course, the theme for one of the biggest time travel movies of all, er, time...