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...