We are moving!

I've been hinting at it for a while, but the time is here to officially retire this site and move my blog into an all-singing, all-dancing website which will also, eventually, house my e-book store.

There are some minor tweaks to the design of the site to be ironed out before I unveil it, but once that is done, all that effort will encourage me to post more often and keep things fresh.

Regular blogging will commence there during April, complete with a habit-forming bi-weekly schedule:

Monday reviews – books, movies, the latest Doctor Who episode, etc.  

Wednesday – because I’m all about the accountability, laugh and point at my shocking wordcount for the previous two weeks. Plus website updates as I continue to add more content.  

Friday – Re-Dwarf, the great Red Dwarf rewatch. Inspired by the fun I had watching and commenting on Red Dwarf X last year, I’m going to start from The End and pick out all the deep theological lessons the boys from the Dwarf can teach us.  

Tuesday Tunes – reviews of the music I write to, and of course the occasional Top Ten!

Thursday – Anything else that may have got my attention in the last couple of weeks that vaguely relates to the core subject matter of Christianity and speculative fiction. Failing that, photos of old cars.

That’s what you have to look forward to, look out for an official opening notice here in the next few days, and come along for the ride!

Soft porn sells more Lego

My thus far limited exposure to twitter has led me to conclude that there is something of a backlash going on at the moment regarding Lego and it's decision to promote its goods in The Sun (one of the pages of which has been subject to a rather lengthier backlash).

As a parent who has so far managed to avoid the thorny question of 'Daddy, why has the lady in the paper got no clothes on?', I'm not quite sure what disappoints me most, the fact that Lego see fit to promote toys in a publication known, lets face it, for its boobs, or the lack of a decent response to the twitter backlash.

Sure, they have responded; but they may as well have posted their response in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet marked 'Beware of the Leopard'. And even supposing you can find it, it pretty much says 'thanks for tweeting us, but we don't give a crap':

In order to catch the attention of children who may not be as well associated with boobs, one of the media we have chosen to address parents is The Sun as it’s one of the most popular sources of soft porn, with a daily readership of more than 6 million of which only 47% actually have boobs.

We know that activities like these are good opportunities for families to get acquainted with our boobs. Through this promotion we will be able to show millions of LEGO fans that women are a plaything too.

We listen very carefully to the opinions and input that people share. We will continue to do so as we develop our communication in the future. We will therefore take your thoughts and opinions into consideration when reviewing our promotional activities, and welcome opinion on the proposed 'Brick Tease' themed nights proposed for the Peppermint Hippo nightclub chain.

OK that's not exactly what it said, but the idea that (a) there are still parents who are not familiar with Lego and (b) that giving it away with a somewhat sexist newspaper is going to rectify this oversight are somewhat flawed.

Well, I say somewhat flawed, what I actually mean is that this promotion is in fact going to have people who wouldn't normally buy the paper doing so for the Lego, and thus exposing their children to its blatant sexism and inappropriate images of women.

Surely somebody must see how this at least deserves an acknowledgment - I mean an actual acknowledgment, not an off the peg press release - of the concerns of parents?

Anybody?

OK, I'm done with the soap-box for now. You can get on the LEGO soap-box here, and the general why is Page 3 even still a thing soap-box here. Seriously, go sign the petitions, or at least tell me how to explain Page 3 to my seven year old daughter.

Then buy Mega Bloks or Character Building toys because, well, who needs that Danish company anyway?

CSFF Blog Tour - Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm easing myself back into the internet by way of the CSFFBT, just in time for a Christmas break. Yes, there is a madness in my method, honest.

Anyway, Starflower. It's a fairy tale, which, if I'm not mistaken, is not a genre well known for its use of aliens and time travel. I'm not averse to an occasional episode of Grimm, but otherwise this is not something that would ordinarily show up on my reading list. Which begs the obvious question: why am I here?

Well, basically, to give yesterday's music post a context. But while I'm here, lets point you to some of the highlights of the tour, for any passing visitors with a little more interest in the featured book:

The chance to win a copy courtesy of Gillian Adams
Shannon McSomething looks at the importance of names
There's an interview with the author at Blooming with Books
A mixture of reviews, good and not quite so good, including one by a younger reader (interesting as Starflower is a young adult book)

And don't forget you can visit the author's own blog, or facebook her.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Telling by Mike Duran

Ok. Enough with the tangents. Let's actually get to the point of the tour shall we? The point, of course, being Mike Duran's supernatural thriller The Telling.

Until such time as I have read it (look out for a review next spring), here's the blurb:

A prophet never loses his calling, only his way.

Disfigured with a hideous scar from his stepmother, Zeph Walker lives his life in seclusion, cloistering himself in a ramshackle bookstore on the outskirts of town. But Zeph is also blessed with a gift—an uncanny ability to foresee the future,to know peoples’ deepest sins and secrets. He calls it the Telling, but he has abandoned this gift to a life of solitude, unbelief, and despair—until two detectives escort him to the county morgue where he finds his own body lying on the gurney.

On the northern fringes of Death Valley, the city of Endurance is home to llama ranches, abandoned mines, roadside attractions...and the mythical ninth gate of hell. Now, forced to investigate his own murder, Zeph discovers something even more insidious behind the urban legends and small-town eccentricities. Early miners unearthed a megalith—a sacred site where spiritual and physical forces converge and where an ancient subterranean presence broods. And only Zeph can stop it.

But the scar on Zeph’s face is nothing compared to the wound on his soul. For not only has he abandoned his gift and renounced heaven, but it was his own silence that spawned the evil. Can he overcome his own despair in time to seal the ninth gate of hell? 

His words unlocked something deadly,

 And now the silence is killing them.

I'm not quite sure where to start with all that, other than to say that this is going on my Christmas list. And I'm not sure if it's the llama ranches or the ninth gate of hell that swings it, but I think Endurance sounds worth a visit too.

Linky goodness:
Reviews of the book by Becky Jesse (who got missed off the list I posted yesterday), Nikole Hahn, and Kathleen Smith among others.
Bruce Hennigan reads a map
Jessica Thomas reviews it in three parts
Becky Miller talks demons and lost prophets
The author's website
My review of The Resurrection by Mike Duran

Spam and muppets

I always knew this. That's why I wrote Countless as the Stars. But now the nice science & sci-fi gurus at io9.com have said it too, so it's about as official as it's going to get (probably):

Adding 'in space' to anything makes it better!

A case in point:

+

=

So there you go. Um, not to say that Countless as the Stars is actually better than the original... oh dear, ever wish you'd never started down a train of thought?

Still, there's time to get part one of The Bible: In Space (at least, if you live in the UK) before Christmas and make up your own minds ;)

It makes a great gift too.

Called to write?

Look at that, you wait a week for a bandwagon to jump on, and then two come along at once. I thought about jumping on the Jacqueline Howett bandwagon, but I figure she's had enough publicity by now (is there such a thing as bad publicity? If there wasn't before, I think she just invented it.) so instead I'm running after Fred Warren's bandwagon about being called to write. Or not.

I am fairly clear in my own mind why I write: I'm wired that way, writing things down helps me to work through my own problems as well as learning stuff. The logical step from there is to say that God wired me that way; I believe, in my typically modest way, that He gave me a talent for writing, and it would be rude not to use it. And so, in some small way, I try to use it to give something back to Him.

Now obviously, a comic fantasy retro-cyberpunk road trip featuring Rod Serling from out of The Twilight Zone and a sentient ZX81 is unlikely to start a revival, but much of what I write does reflect something of God.

So am I called to write? Well, I struggled with that for a long time; whether I should be involved in some more tangible or constructive form of ministry instead of convincing myself that God wants me to write. In fact, I almost convinced myself that God didn't want me to write, and all but gave up. But then I realised: this is who I am. A writer - someone who thinks better with the written word at hand - is what God gave me. And if I want to rewrite the Old Testament as a space opera, well... maybe God gave me that desire too. Maybe God does want me doing this crazy thing called writing.

However, like many comentators on the subject, I don't feel suitably qualified to jump right in and say a definitive yes; but I certainly don't feel called to stop writing.

On the other hand, circumstances have led me to feel very strongly about certain issues in life, and, yes, I feel called to do something about those issues. And until I come up with a better idea, the thing I'm going to do is write. Sometimes a story can raise awareness of an issue far more effectively than any amount of placard waving or *ahem* peaceful protesting.

Linky Goodness:
Fred Warren: Call Writing
Sally Apokedak: Divine Calling
Bob Thune: A Theology of Work
Mike Duran: Where Do Writers Fit in the Church?

Me: Why I write
Me: Why I don't write

NaNoWriMo starting post

Hooray, it's finally November! And, almost 11 hours in, am I writing? Have I, in fact, written word one? No of course not, I'm procrastinating already by joining the NaNo blogchain. Fifty thousand words in a month just isn't challenging enough any more, so I have to make myself blog about the experience at the same time....

But seriously, I will be kicking off tonight, and although I still have no real idea of where the plot of my NaNo is going, I have my main protag in mind, and a few of the supporting characters ready to chip in when the story is ready, so I guess I'll just be following their lead for a while...

My plan for this evening, and indeed the next couple of days, is basically to get off to a flying start. I have a whole week at the end of the month to catch up and hopefully finish off, but I know that if I don't reach the daily target on the first couple of days I will get horribly demoralised and it will be tough to keep going. So, today I'm going for the protag's introductory chapter, which absolutely has to be at least 1,667 words long.

SpiritBlade Underground

Allow me to take this post to apologise for a terrible oversight on my part. I don't think I have made enough mentions of the work of SpiritBlade Productions here, which is really quite poor when you think that the purpose of this blog is to discuss Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

So I guess I'll mention them here: SpiritBlade Productions specialise in full cast audio dramas on CD and download. I've been a bit slack I must admit, and only listened to the first SpiritBlade so far, although I think I'm going to have to dip into Pilgrim's Progress soon...

Anyway, the reason I mention it now is that there is now a SpiritBlade forum... a cool place for Christian geeks to hang out! Yay! Oh yes, and you'll probably have noticed the podcast in the sidebar here, if you're in the habit of scrolling that far.

Was that enough of a plug? Go check it out anyway, and if you like what you see, maybe I'll see you on the forum. You'll recognise me, I'm sure.

Blog Quote of the Week

We interrupt your regular scheduled blogging because this quote just tickled me a lot:

The film could have easily made its point about a sexually driven culture without contributing to one.

From Paeter Frandsen's review of Gamer. It sounds even better on his podcast!

Accidental Legend

A few weeks ago I mentioned that it has been 10 years since I became a published writer, and made a vague threat to reproduce that first article here. I'm not going to do that, because it was very specialised and likely only to further alienate the fans of Christian spec-fic who are often disappointed by my coverage of the topic at the best of times...

Instead, here's another little piece I wrote, a potted history of the Mini, which is 50 today!

Accidental legend

When Leonard Lord, chairman of the British Motor Corporation, asked Alec Issigonis to come up with an alternative to the bubblecars that became popular after the 1956 Suez crisis, he expected a practical family car in as small and economical a package as possible.

What he got was a revolution.

Sketching on the backs of envelopes, paper napkins, and at one point a restaurant tablecloth, Issigonis designed the car we now know as the Mini. To keep the car within his target length of ten feet the engine had to be turned sideways, driving the front wheels directly, with the gearbox in the oil sump. This layout is common in modern cars, but was unheard of in the 1950s.

The engine was turned sideways

Everything about the new car was small, from the barely practical boot and tiny ten-inch wheels to the development budget. The developers couldn't even afford to have the cars built on jigs, giving rise to the characteristic external seams. To cut costs further, the 948cc A-series engine, used in the Morris Minor since 1956, was used as a stopgap, although Issigonis declared this too powerful and had the engine size reduced to 848cc before launch. He also had the car made two inches wider, the net result of which was a reduction in top speed from around 90mph to 72mph.

An early Austin Mini

In this form the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor were launched to the public on 26 August 1959. Internal space was maximised by fitting sliding front windows and a pull string door release, and the combined speedometer and fuel gauge sat in the centre of a full width parcel shelf. The seats were designed to keep the driver alert; for the same reason no provision was made for a radio - even later models had these slung under the parcel shelf by the passenger's knees. Such luxuries as carpets were only available on the De Luxe model.

By the 1970s the interior comforts had improved, but not by much...

As the first British small car launched after the Suez crisis, the Mini was expected to take the biggest slice of this new market. However, despite being priced at £496 - its nearest rival, the Ford Anglia, cost almost £100 more - the Mini was not an instant success. Much of the buying public considered it either too revolutionary or too cheap. Those who did try the early models found faults that had been missed in the rush to launch the car - the floor leaked, and because of the positioning of the distributor inside the grille, the engine would splutter to a halt in heavy rain.

However, the Mini was quick, and one of Issigonis' friends immediately saw the sporting potential of its low centre of gravity and wheel at each corner design. Had John Cooper not liked the car, the story of the Mini would have been entirely different.

Mini Cooper 35th Anniversary edition from 1996

Issigonis disapproved of the idea of a tuned Mini, so Cooper went straight to the new BMC chairman, George Harriman, and convinced him. A trial run of 997cc Mini Coopers began production in July 1961. At the time John Cooper was best known as Formula One World Champion racing car constructor of 1959 and 1960, but when the initial 1,000 cars sold within a week, Cooper's link with the Mini was cemented.

Minis had been rallied since the beginning, but with the Mini Cooper it gained enough competition successes to warrant further development, and when the Mini Cooper S was launched in 1963 even Issigonis was keen. The Cooper S quickly became the definitive Mini, and has remained so ever since. Between 1965 and 1967, having already earned a reputation as a giant killer, an army of works Coopers took twenty-two overall victories in European motorsport events.

The 1967 Monte Carlo winning Cooper S

Meanwhile, back in Swinging London, the Mini became an essential fashion accessory. Eighty public figures had been lent Minis by BMC to evaluate in the year following the launch, in an attempt to boost the slow initial sales. As a result the car was seen at major social and political events throughout that year - and the celebrities loved it.

Peter Sellers gave the trend for personalising the Mini a kick-start when he came up with the wickerwork side panels seen on his Mini in A Shot In The Dark. Later he took the concept a step further, when Rolls Royce coachbuilders Hooper fitted his Mini with a lifting tailgate - an idea later used by Ringo Starr to accommodate his drum kit. With coachbuilders specialising in luxurious Minis, and pop stars and royalty enthusiastic owners, the Mini had become the classless icon of the sixties.

A 1960's Mini hatchback

There was a Mini to suit all tastes and pockets - the Mini and Cooper were joined by van and pick-up variants, and the more practical Austin Countryman and Morris Traveller estate cars. The army rejected the Mini Moke, which went on to become a popular fun car, made famous in the TV series The Prisoner. There were also the up-market Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf, with extended boots, traditional style grilles and interior luxuries including leather seats and wood veneer dashboards.

The completely frill-free Mini Moke

Most of these Mini variants were discontinued in 1969, as British Leyland took over BMC. The Countryman and Traveller were superseded by the less charismatic Clubman Estate, and the Mini Cooper was replaced by the Clubman based 1275GT, although the Cooper S stayed in production until 1971. Its glory days were over, but more Minis were sold in the 1970s than any other decade.

Apologies to Yoda for the 'less charismatic' comment - it was 6 years before we met!

Nonetheless, the Mini's planned replacement, the Metro, was launched in 1980 - and although Mini sales halved that year, shared components between the two cars and the Metro's more efficient production line meant the Mini continued to be viable - even after Metro production ceased.

Forty-one years and 5½ million Minis later, though much refined, the classic Mini shape remained unchanged when the last one rolled out of Longbridge; the external seams were still present, as was the A-series engine, evolved into a 1275cc fuel injected version.

The official 'last of line' Mini

The late Sir Alec Issigonis once said: "My car will still be in fashion after I've gone." From the number and sheer variety of Minis at the recent Mini 50 celebration in Longbridge, it's easy to see how right he was.

This article is (C) Steve Trower, and first appeared in Best of British, some time in 1999. All photographs by Steve Trower.

Podcasserole

I'm still lagging behind a little in my podcast listening since my cheap and nasty mp3 player imploded a while back, but there's a few things out in the podosphere at the moment worth mentioning here.

First, Adventures in Scifi Publishing is back in production! Yaaay! The first post-hiatus episode features Greg van Eekhout, who having had short fiction published in all the big sf zines, narrated on Escape Pod, and nominated for a Nebula award, has just published his first novel. Norse Code - for that is what it's called - is the tale of Ragnarök happening in contemporary Los Angeles. Yep, that's right, a Viking Left Behind! A Mr van Eekhout hasn't taken it that seriously, it sounds like it could be fun. If you have three minutes to spare, check out his story Taco on Escape Pod too.

On the subject of Escape Pod: The Legend of St Ignatz. This is a nice, slightly dark, story of Catholicism spread across a universe populated not only by humanoids but insectoids, squidoids, and quite possibly super-intelligent shades of the colour blue. A universe which has birthed the Sirius Heresy, which holds that 'Homo Sapiens was too weak in body and corrupt in mind for its form to harbor the Son of God'. (Discuss.) Well worth a listen, or if you'd prefer, a read on ideomancer.

And finally, everybody's favourite Geekette Mur Lafferty is in the process of putting out Season Five of her contemporary fantasy audiobook series Heaven. I'm planning to dig in to the earlier seasons again first with a view to reviewing them all here some time. In the meantime, the whole sequence is available at podiobooks.com.

So what are you still doing here? Get clicking!

CSFF Blog Tour: More Marcher Lords

The other day I mentioned that nothing in the launch catalogue from Marcher Lord Press made me want to rush an order in. So, in the spirit of constructive criticism, I thought I should lend a few ideas about what I would rush to buy. Such as:

1. A sort of cyberpunk allegory (if cyberpunk isn't too 1990s for the Christian market) - like a Christian novel version of Tron or The Matrix.
2. An epic time travel story, reaching from the 21st Century to Christ's life on Earth, and rescuing Him from crucifixion...
3. A futuristic Jekyll and Hyde, where our hero meets his Doppelganger - a man with the same character flaws and weaknesses, but instead of choosing to resist the temptations they led to, chose the easy route and embraced his dark side. What happens when the two meet?
4. An urban fantasy in which our protagonist encounters a man with the ability to remove the darkness of his past. Presumably this man would, effectively, have lived through the darkest chapters of our hero's life, and be left with the emotional baggage that followed. In taking on the ills of the world, is he a kind of Christ-figure, or is he just removing the negative so that the positive results also disappear? For in deleting that one mistake, that one bad decision, our hero loses all the good that cam from it: all that he learnt, the ways he became a stronger person, the people he helped when they found themselves in the same situation.
5. A near future dystopian Earth, where the cult of celebrity and an increasingly hedonistic populace bestows power and influence on porn stars, and a lonely Christian voice rails against an increasingly powerful adult industry.
6. A classic science fiction tale, based on the raw and gritty stuff in the Old Testament, putting them in a sci-fi setting so the essential truths can be more easily grasped by a sci-fi reader. Sort of an Old Testament Space Opera, if you will...

By a staggering coincidence, I have stories along the lines of the above in various states of (in)completion, so if Jeff (or anyone else) has any thoughts about which I should finish first, well, you know where the comment button is. ;)

CSFF Blog Tour: The Marcher Lords Press on

This week your favourite Blog Tour and mine will be rolling round to Jeff Gerke's place, Marcher Lord Press. In 13th Century England there was no more noble calling than to be a Marcher Lord, defending England's borders against the Welsh.

Of course, things have moved on a bit since then, and nowadays Marcher Lords are out on the borderlands of fiction, setting up an outpost for Christian speculative fiction. Or, as Jeff Gerke puts it, 'weird' Christian fiction. Now that, as you might imagine, is an idea I can relate to.

And if you like the sound of that too, wander over to the site, where you can sign up for updates and the chance to win special launch day prizes. (Don't forget to tell them I sent you!)

There's also two bonus download books that you can get for nowt if you order something on October 1st. Hooray!

CSFF Blog Tour: Marcher Lord Press

This week your favourite Blog Tour and mine will be rolling round to Jeff Gerke's place, Marcher Lord Press. We've visited him before, way back when, to see his other place, Where The Map Ends. But now, all the excitement is at MLP which is about to launch its first books on October 1st.

So what can we expect on this great and hopefully enlightening day?

Well, there's Hero, Second Class, which at a (admittedly brief) glance at the first chapter, would appear to be a comic fantasy of sorts. Not normally my thing, with the notable exception of good Pratchett. Maybe I'll come back to the sample chapter later.

Then there's Summa Elvetica, about a sort of Catholic Church-esque establishment in a classical elf and troll infested fantasy world. Those sort of worlds make my head hurt.

Fighting sci-fi's corner is The Personifid Invasion, sequel to The Personifid Project, which I didn't like as much as I wanted to.

Oh dear. I'd have to say I'm a little bit disappointed there then. But - let's look on the bright side here - just because there's nothing I would rush straight out and order on the launch list, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop watching MLP. I like the spread of sub-genres on the launch list (which is obviously the idea!) and it gives me cause to think that there will probably be something for me coming soon.

Weird Christian fiction. We love it. And so to these bloggers:

Brandon Barr Justin Boyer Keanan Brand Kathy Brasby Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Courtney CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Kameron M. Franklin Andrea Graham Todd Michael Greene Katie Hart Timothy Hicks Joleen Howell Jason Joyner Kait Tina Kulesa Mike Lynch Terri Main Margaret Shannon McNear Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa John W. Otte Steve Rice Ashley Rutherford Hanna Sandvig Mirtika or Mir's Here Greg Slade James Somers Steve Trower Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Laura Williams Timothy Wise

DragonTour

OK, so the CSFF Blog Tour this month rolls back to Dragon territory and the conclusion of Donita K Paul's DragonKeeper Chronicles, DragonLight.

Most of the tour blogs on the list I posted on Monday (c'mon, you can scroll that far!) have posted something by now; for a more complete list of who's done what and how, check out Becky or Nissa's handy lists.

My recommended stops are Jason Joyner, who discusses the appropriateness (or otherwise) of dragons in Christian literature; Steve Rice, who starts with a humourous review and then goes off debating the appropriateness (or otherwise) of telepathy in Christian literature (that's a subject I may revisit, unfortunately I haven't had time to chip in on the debate yet); and Snuffles the Dragon, just to get the Dragon's eye view of things.

And when you're finished there, the author also has a blog, if you haven't read enough blogs about dragons.

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).

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...

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.

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.

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.