Tuesday Tunes: Eowyn

Big hat-tip this week to Paeter Frandsen, a Christian sci-fi and fantasy geek whose blogs and podcast you really should check out if you don't already.

Anyway, the other day he pointed his blog toward some new music he was searching for, and found, well, a Christian rock chick, for want of a better description. Now, Paeter is musical, and says she's good. I'm not even slightly musical, but I know what I like, and I like loud guitars with a girly vocal, so we're all happy. :-)

I'm getting kind of an Evanescence vibe from Silent Screams, but with a much more overtly Christian lyric (and you know I like my Christian media to be overt!). I'm especially liking To My Surprise right now, for pretty much that reason.

I don't think I need say any more, as Eowyn has a perfectly serviceable website and myspace page where you can sample her wares for yourselves. Which you should do now. She's also on Spotify, which is a bonus for me until I can get my hands on some CDs, which I'm sure to be doing soon.

Sci-fi song of the week? Well, stretch a point and pick anything by Eowyn, since she was, apparently, named after a dwarf from Lord of the Rings or something. I don't know, it's fantasy, means nothing to me.

The Friday Review: And Another Thing...

This is something I should have posted about months ago, when I first heard that Eoin Colfer was writing an official Volume Six in the Hitch-Hiker Trilogy. Obviously I didn't get around to it, and the reason for this is that, having listened to it in audiobook format, I am distinctly underwhelmed.

It is, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a Hitch-hiker novel. In Mr Colfer's defence, he doesn't go out of his way to copy DNA's style, which would quite possibly have made a bad book worse. I also laughed once.

But my main problem with this book is that it just misses the point by a country light year. I can't even remember what Arthur Dent did in this book. I'm pretty sure he was there, but far from being the continuing misadventure of an everyday bloke from Earth, And Another Thing seemed to be more interested in the (now single-headed) Zaphod having a little jolly around the afterlife.

I got the impression (as I did with the film) that this was a bunch of DNA's previously discarded ideas retrieved from under his desk and thrown together by someone who probably didn't know exactly where his towel was at the time. There's even a recycling of some of DNA's good ideas, like naming a character Hillman Hunter.

Nope, for me, the Hitch-hiker story ended with the Quintessential Phase. And Another Thing... is, to paraphrase Ford Prefect, mostly pointless.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Come on, admit it, you all missed this!

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Knife by R J Anderson, and, as it's Tuesday, it's time to revive a time-honoured tour tradition - the Top Ten Songs, picked at random by a couple of suitably rebellious faery folk.

Now as it turns out, there are less knife-related songs than you might expect. Even after throwing in my favourite tracks by The Young Knives and Cutting Crew, I was struggling to find more than, well, two decent ones, really. So it seems I will have to rebel instead by presenting the Top Ten Rebel Songs....

10. Ozzy Osbourne: Rock 'n' Roll Rebel
Obviously Mr Osbourne needs no introduction. This is the token not-actually-that-good song that sneaks in because Top Nines sound a bit naff.
9. Bonnie Tyler: Rebel Without A Clue
It's a Bonnie Tyler song. That's really all you need to know....
8. The Corrs: Rebel Heart
You know, I don't think we've had any Celtic instrumentals in a top ten before. I guess we have now. Tin whistle and all. I must still have some Guiness in my system from St Patrick's Day.
7. Asian Dub Foundation: Rebel Warrior
Now we're back in familiar territory, with a bit of electronica of the shouty anti-colonialist rap variety. OK, so maybe not that familiar....
6.Public Enemy: Rebel Without A Pause
More shouty rappers... I can't tell you what I like about these guys, but I like something. Yeeeeaahhh Boyyyyy! OK, white guys shouldn't do that, even in text.
5. Wyclef Jean featuring Prodigy: Rebel Music
Rappers are a rebellious bunch aren't they?
4. Dropkick Murphys: You're A Rebel
Carrying on the Irish vibe here... Celtic punk rock all the way from, er, Quincy, Massachusetts.
3. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
According to Professor Wikipedia, there are more than 120 cover versions of this song. You know I love an obscure cover version, but, well, that wouldn't fit the theme would it? Plus, I love the original.
2. Billy Idol: Rebel Yell
The English new wave rocker who based his look on Spike from out of Buffy.
1. David Bowie: Rebel Rebel
We have to finish with a classic, and there is no better rebel song than this.

I don't believe Spotify works in the US, but for those in more civilised places who have access to Spotify, you can play the Rebel Top Ten there.

Now while you're listening to that little lot, it's time to continue the tour:
Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour - Knife

I'm rebelling.

I come back to the CSFF blog tour after a few months away, only to find that, not only are they still droning on a fantasy (yawn) but now they've started on general market fantasy to boot. (R. J. Anderson’s Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter, if you must know.) They really have lost the plot in my absence haven't they? So, until they return to good old-fashioned space-faring fundamentalists, I'm rebelling.

For this month's tour I will be featuring Knife, by R. J. Anderson. It's sort of a fairies at the bottom of the garden type story, with a rebellious teenage protagonist, and an underlying thread of self-sacrifice and being excellent to one another, which may or may not be conceived as a Christian theme.

And if that all seems a bit familiar, well, it's because I'm rebelling by featuring the British version of whatever everyone else has been calling it. Confused? Yes, that's the problem with having two completely different names for the exact same book, and I mention it mainly for the benefit of any UK based readers who happen through the tour... both versions are on sale at amazon UK, with no clear indication that they are one and the same (unless you read the reviews of the people who bought Spell Hunter having enjoyed Knife so much).

Given that these books are marketed at kids, and presumably parents who want to encourage them to read, is this an innocent mistake, a foolish error of judgment, or an evil marketing ploy? Discuss....

Discussing either Knife or Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter elsewhere are my tourmates:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Reading, writing, etc for 2010

So, assuming this here blog takes off again, we are at least going to have a few reviews in due course; currently in the holding pattern are most of the sci-fi books featured in the CSFF Blog Tour over the last year or so, among others - these might take a while to filter through the system though, as at my current pace I have enough of Neal Stephenson's Anathem to keep me going until some time in May. Thereafter, in no particular order, my reading list consists of:

Also, when my Sky+ box stops being full of Lost, Fringe, Heroes, Sanctuary, Stargate Universe, Caprica and (soon) Doctor Who, the Red Dwarf Bodysnatcher collection is waiting for a few nights when the DVD player is feeling co-operative.

As far as writing goes, well, I have a few interesting short story ideas to play with, and then I think I'm going to adopt the NaNoWriMo approach for my next big project, as that at least seems to get things finished for me. No time limit, no wordage goals, but the same gung-ho approach to writing, just dive in, and keep going forwards, no looking back, and absolutely no editing until a climax of sorts is on the page. Again, no particular order, but I'll probably start on one of my existing works in progress:

1. A cyberspace allegory, shelved because it seemed a bit cheesy, and extremely derivative as soon as The Matrix arrived;
2. An epic time travel story reaching back to Christ's life on Earth. If I have an 'opus magnum', I guess this would be it;
3. An alternate history of WW2, currently waiting until either (a) I come up with an unusual enough angle, or (b) I become famous enough ;) for this to stand out among the countless books already written in this genre/time period;
4. I have always wondered what happened after the end of The Italian Job (the real one, you know, the one in Italy) and have toyed with a novelisation of the movie and/or a sequel (not a remake, or an homage, or the flippin' Brazilian Job);
5. The repeatedly delayed non-sf 'Project Seven'
   

And alongside these I might find time to cut the excess wordage from my two completed Nanos, Children of the Stars (2008), the sequel to Countless as the Stars; and DragonQuest (2009), one of several comic fantasies that have at least been started.

Um, do I actually have time to blog?