CSFF Blog tour: Vanish by Tom Pawlik

There was a lawyer, a mechanic and an ex-model, stranded on a deserted planet. The mechanic says to the lawyer, 'What is this, some kind of a joke?'

Actually, on the face of it that might not be such an unusual first reaction to Vanish... three people wake up one morning to find the world inexplicably depopulated, and suffer nightmarish flashbacks to certain 'end-times thrillers' which are in no need of further publicity.

As they struggle to survive in this strange new world, they find themselves taunted by unseen observers, grappling with the least pleasant aspects of their pasts, and... hang on, this is that Christian version of Lost that's been lurking in my desk drawer for years, isn't it? I really should get my unfinished projects edited and unleashed more quickly shouldn't I...

So, Vanish: is it as derivative as it has the potential to be, or does it take a new and original twist to the stranded strangers struggling against the elements premise? Well, as I mentioned I'm still in last week, which is my excuse for not having finished the book yet... you'll have to ask these people:

Brandon Barr Jim Black Keanan Brand Rachel Briard Grace Bridges Valerie Comer Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Alex Field Beth Goddard Todd Michael Greene Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Joleen Howell Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Kait Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Terri Main Margaret Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Caleb Newell Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte John Ottinger Epic Rat Steve Rice Crista Richey Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Robert Treskillard Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Speculative Faith Fred Warren Phyllis Wheeler Jill Williamson

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is featuring Vanish, a supernatural thriller by Tom Pawlik. By a curious coincidence, 12 months ago we featured Vanished by Kathryn Mackel, during which tour I used up the good Vanish songs.

Thankfully, Mr Pawlik and the nice people at Tyndale must have foreseen this dilemma, and released the sequel to Vanish, Valley of the Shadow, last month. So sit back now and enjoy the Top Ten Valley Songs....

10. Bob James: Valley of the Shadows
Part Bond soundtrack, part acid jazz, it's about 10 minutes long and completely bonkers, but gets in by virtue of the title.
9. Cage the Elephant: Drones in the Valley
An American indie rock band in London...
8. Low: Lost Valley
Loving the slowcore anti-grunge sound.
7. Manic Street Preachers: Valley Boy
Exactly what you expect from the Manics, really.
6. DragonForce: Valley Of The Damned
Proper old skool rock music! Turn it up to 11!
5. The Orb: Valley
Because every top ten needs at least 7 1/2 minutes of quality electronica.
4. 4Lyn: Shadow Valley
And, wherever possible, some German nu metal.
3. Queen: Lily of the Valley
Time for a change of pace....
2. Fountains of Wayne: Valley Winter Song
Just because Fountains of Wayne are fantastic.
1. Skids: Into the Valley
And you can't beat a classic piece of pop punk awesomeness to finish.

All that remains now is to wait for Matthew to drop by and tell us what Norwegian death metal version of Valley of the Shadow I missed. Oh, and to visit the rest of the CSFF blog tour - the links are on the previous post.

CSFF Blog Tour: Vanish by Tom Pawlik

You know things have gotten a bit desperate in the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy world when the tour gets down to this don't you. I mean, I've heard a rumour that there's going to be some actual bona fide science fiction in the next couple of months, but let's not get carried away yet, eh?

First we have to get through 200 pages about the Laundry Fairy going bad. 'Trust Pink, forget everyone you ever knew! Aaaaahahahahaaaa!'

There's obviously a good theological message behind it - something about the cleansing of our lives from the blemishes of sin, probably - but honestly, apart from a good bit where Crystal White and the Power Foam team up against a particularly nasty stain, it would have made a lot more sense if Tom Pawlik had written Vanish as a supernatural thriller, something in the vein of Kathryn Mackel, perhaps. Well, there's always the audiobook narrated by Tony Robinson to look forward to.

Incidentally, I am participating in this month's blog tour via time warp from some time last week. I'm telling you that so you know why I won't be responding immediately to the flood of comments from readers outside the UK who probably don't have a clue what Vanish is or what it has to do with Tony Robinson.

That's also why the following participant's list may not be 100% accurate:
Brandon Barr Jim Black Keanan Brand Rachel Briard Grace Bridges Valerie Comer Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Alex Field Beth Goddard Todd Michael Greene Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Joleen Howell Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Kait Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Terri Main Margaret Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Caleb Newell Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte John Ottinger Epic Rat Steve Rice Crista Richey Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Robert Treskillard Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Speculative Faith Fred Warren Phyllis Wheeler Jill Williamson

Phursday Photos: Cosford Airshow

I'll say this up front, because it's blinkin obvious now: I make a rubbish aviation photographer.

Hopefully on some of these snaps the fact that I only had one eye in the viewfinder, and that my camera - as decent spec as it was when new - isn't really up to the task of fast jets at a distance, won't matter as the subjects speak for themselves.

Like these guys:
Isn't this perfect airshow weather:
Photos don't do the Red Arrows justice. And Her Babyship was more excited by the fact that she was sat on the roof of the car than what she was up there to watch...
The trouble is, I don't want to be concentrating so hard on getting the perfect picture that I miss watching the excitement. Excitement like:
and, if you'll excuse the graininess:

If anyone's interested in my poor attempts to keep up with the Eurofighter Typhoon (which sounds even more awesome than it looks) or some third rate shots of Spitfires or a Lancaster, say the word. But frankly, as good as they (and indeed the Red Arrows) were, they paled into near insignificance when this happened:

And that really will speak for itself to anyone with a passing interest in aircraft. She was due to close the show, but was brought on second to last... I kinda feel for the guys who had to follow her.

Phursday Photos: split-screen camper vans

I thought I'd go for a small themed set from the car show last week; there would have been more if we'd gone on the Sunday, but foolishly we decided to go to church instead. By Monday the weather had turned and the turnout wasn't so good. Still, here's a handful of ageing VW campers, or, as Her Babyship would have it, 'Scooby-Doo Vans'.

Stupid movie idea of the year

Yes, you've all probably heard it already, but I just want to add my voice to those saying what an utterly bonkers idea it is trying to make a new Buffy movie.

The original movie was pants. The fact that it spawned one of the best TV shows of the 90s shows that while the idea was undoubtedly good (witness the amount of sub-Buffy pretenders to have appeared since), it was the way the cast worked together, and the brilliant writing (is Buffyism in the dictionary yet?) that made it the phenomenon it was. (When was the last time you saw the name Sarah Michelle Gellar in a tabloid article without being prefaced by the words 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer star'?)

If Fran Rubel Kuzui can get a cast, and writers, that good, there should be no need to bring Buffy back from the dead (again, poor girl!). If not, well, why drag Buffy's good name back to the Hollywood mediocrity from whence it rose?

And as for doing the whole thing without a link to the show, or involving Joss Whedon... I refer to my previous comment about mediocrity.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, they want to reinvent Ghostbusters too... but at least having the Pete, Ray and Egon there to hand over to Eliza Dushku (am I right in thinking Dollhouse is just a big Dusku fetishist's paradise?)

And isn't it annoying when bloggers who pretend they can write keep starting sentences with 'and'?

Ok, rant over. Thank you for your time.

Don't forget your towel!

Whatever you're doing today, make sure you know where your towel is, in celebration of perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor - more popular than The Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than 53 More Things to Do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?

Yoda and I will be taking our towels to a classic car show, so I should look suitably random.

Hoopy Towel Day banner by Travis Avery.

CSFF Blog Tour: Friar Tuck

This week we have been looking in the general direction of Stephen Lawhead's latest novel, Tuck, albeit without looking at the book in detail, or indeed at all.

Today I'm going to look straight past Tuck, at some of his more traditional forebears - specifically, the Curtal Friar of Fountains Abbey.

And I'm doing this for no other reason than that I've been to Fountains Abbey (I've also been to Wales, but I'm not sure of the specific locations of Lawhead's books) and that seems a good excuse for a photoblog.

So here is Fountains Abbey, traditional home of Friar Tuck.





And don't forget to continue your tour at these, possibly less tangential, blogs:
Brandon Barr Jim Black Keanan Brand Rachel Briard Grace Bridges Valerie Comer Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Alex Field Beth Goddard Todd Michael Greene Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Joleen Howell Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Kait Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Terri Main Margaret Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Caleb Newell Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte John Ottinger Epic Rat Steve Rice Crista Richey Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Robert Treskillard Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Speculative Faith Fred Warren Phyllis Wheeler Jill Williamson

Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: Robin Hood

It's that time again, pop-pickers, and since there is a shortage of Friar Tuck-themed pop in the world, today we present the Top Ten Tunes That Can Vaguely Be Considered To Have A Robin Hood Connection, as chosen by a fiendishly clever band of Merrie Men:

10. Van der Graaf Generator - Arrow
Mancunian prog-rockers named after the gismo your physics teacher used to make your hair stand on end, singing about Robin Hood's weapon of choice (I know, that was Fatboy Slim). What could be better?

9. The Corrs - Hideaway
I couldn't find a suitable Welsh folk pop tune, but this Irish one seemed like it might be appropriate.

8. Paul McCartney - Band on the Run
They were a band of merry men, see, and they were often on the run, being outlaws and all. This stuff's easy when you put your mind to it.

7. Pop Will Eat Itself - Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!
Well, it seemed to be the plot of Prince of Thieves, so why not?

6. Stiff Little Fingers - Love of the Common People
Surely the best reason for robbing the rich to give to the poor. This punk rock cover might be a bit sweary, readers of a nervous disposition may prefer the original by Paul Young.

5. The Fatima Mansions - Everything I Do (I Do It For You)
Yes, the tune from that film, but in wacky cover version format. As featured on obscure cover version compilation Ruby Trax, and as the B-side to the Manic Street Preachers' version of the theme from MASH. Which leads us nicely to...

4. Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against the Classes
Arguably a fairly tenuous link, but I don't think Mr Hood would have minded his Merry Men singing along.

3. Bob Marley - I Shot the Sheriff
of Nottingham, with an arrow. By a spooky coincidence, you can get this on the album, Legend.

2. Adam & the Ants - Stand and Deliver
OK, so Robin Hood wasn't really a dandy highwayman in any version of the legend, but frankly, I don't care. It's an excuse to listen to some pure 80s cheese and do one of Mr Ant's fabulously awful dances.

1. Ocean Colour Scene - Robin Hood
I could probably have produced a list of at least ten songs called Robin Hood, or at least Robin, given enough time and a sufficiently extensive record collection. However, in an attempt to stick with music I have at least heard of, we top the list with this little BritPop number from Brummie rockers Ocean Colour Scene.

So now you have your soundtrack sorted, follow the blog tour (fellow tourists listed on the previous post), visit Stephen Lawhead's webite, and check out his latest book, Tuck.

CSFF Blog Tour: Tuck

No, not sweets and sausage rolls, but the jolly fat friar after which snack food became named 'tuck'*. I speak, of course, of none other than Robin Hood's pal and spiritual advisor*, Friar Tuck. And more specifically, Stephen Lawhead's latest novel, Tuck, the concluding volume of his Robin Hood in Wales trilogy.

This particular variant on the legend has Rhi Bran y Hud hiding out on the Welsh Borders, hiding from the Normans (Wisdom and Bates). The King Raven Trilogy starts with Hood, continues with Scarlet (which was on the CSFF Blog Tour about 18 months ago) and concludes with Tuck, each volume concentrating on the title character's role in events (which sounds like a fun way to do Trilogy).

I guess Robin Hood stories are something you either enjoy or you don't, depending on various factors such as your proximity to Nottingham, and whether you watched that Costner movie. Robin Hood stories set in Wales could also go either way, depending particularly on that first variable. Personally, although I find English folklore and legend fascinating, I'm afraid I just can't get into this kind of novel. Life's too short, and there are too many books with spaceships in them... (Of course, if I'd been paying attention, I'd have prepared a review of Lawhead's Dream Thief, which I did get into, and I did enjoy. But I wasn't, sorry.)

So, as you wander through the primeval forest of the blogosphere, look out for these Merrie Men:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson

*Er, possibly.

Back to Earth

Depending on your point of view, it’s either about a month or several years past time this blog glanced in the direction of Red Dwarf. So that’s what I’m going to do now, starting with the 2009 mini-series Red Dwarf: Back to Earth.

In summary, it was a victim of it’s own hype (and, having blogged about it before the event, I guess I’m partly responsible for that). Had it met slipped quietly onto the Bank Holiday schedule of an obscure little digital channel, I have no doubt dwarfers the world over would have rejoiced. Obviously that would not have been possible, but the sheer volume of pre-event publicity it got made it a huge task for the show to live up to the expectations of fans. And, regrettably, it largely didn’t.

It was good to see the crew, and their bunk room banter, back just as we remember them. Holly was missed though, and the addition of second hologram Katerina Bartikovsky to provide scientific expertise and eye candy was a rubbish and largely pointless replacement.

It would be easy to criticise the plot – and many pundits have done so at length – but to be fair, there were some LOL moments. Not as many as I would have liked, but not every episode of Red Dwarf was a laugh riot. And I quite enjoyed the meta-fictional existentialism of the thing, although the self-references and the Blade Runner homage verged on being overdone.

What I really want to know, however – what happened after the end of series 8 – remains a mystery, explained in passing references to the successful series 9 and 10 of Red Dwarf…

The plot is basically lifted from the original episode Back to Reality, and given a bit of a twist. That’s not a bad thing, as Back to Reality was one of my favourite episodes, and the new twist was an interesting and amusing one, but still, a little more originality might not have gone amiss. I mean, I wouldn’t have been surprised to have read this story as a piece of fanfic, rather than the work of one of the show’s creators.

More thoughts on Back to Earth, and Red Dwarf in general, later...

I've gone off the idea of progress.

Specifically, I've gone off the idea of MP3 players. More specifically, I've gone off my Aigo A215 MP3 player, which died yesterday. Well actually, it didn't really die. It still shows signs of life, but it's definitely flapping about like a carp out of water. Until I try to upload anything onto it, because neither my XP nor Vista PCs recognise it.

Still, life goes on; there are still podcasts to be listened to, and lengthy drives on which to listen to them, so a replacement must be drafted in, bearing in mind the lessons to be learnt from this little experience. Those lessons being:
You gets what you pays for. 'Cheap and nasty' is not a cliche without good reason.
Professor Google has much to offer when buying stuff. Googling Aigo A215 will instantly bring up a long enough discussion among people who have found this piece of kit to be a bit rubbish to put me off getting one.
So, Messrs Aigo and Sons, welcome to my blacklist.


On a tangentially related note, one of the last things the aforementioned device allowed me to listen to was one of this year's Hugo nominees on Escape Pod. Readers of this blog might well get a kick out of Article of Faith by Mike Resnick.

Short sf readers/listeners will probably have come across Mr Resnick, the most awarded short sf writer in the world, apparently. I don't believe he professes any religious faith, but he has written some great stories about religion, or featuring religious themes, and we should probably look at some of his work in more detail here in future.

Meanwhile, Article of Faith is in part about robot religion, and in part about tolerance in general. And if your MP3 player has also gone to Silicon heaven, you can also read the story on Mike Resnick's website.

Tuesday Tunes @ Spring Harvest

I'm going to have a slightly self-indulgent YouTube moment here. And I'm not going to make a habit of posting worship songs here, because, like fantasy novels, I can see they have a place in the world, but they don't do anything for me, despite what anyone else might tell me.

Actually, that might be overstating it a little, I like music of most sorts, just don't ask me to sing. For all our sakes. I did like Vicky Beeching at Spring Harvest a couple of weeks ago. She has this whole self-deprecating humour thing that we Brits often do so well (although I'm not very good at it myself), especially when it came to her first attempt at writing a kids worship song. I would have posted a few of her other Springy songs here too, but I couldn't find The Wonder of the Cross or Yesterday, Today and Forever among the YouTube snippets. So here you go, enjoy Jesus is my Best Friend...

All I can say is that that song was all Her Babyship wanted to sing on the way home from Minehead. Job done I'd say, Vicky.

Excuses for not blogging #37: My face is the wrong shape

I’m not terrified of dentists or anything, but it must be universally recognised that there are more pleasant ways to spend an hour. It all starts off innocently enough, with the happy receptionist and the cute dental nurses showing their perfect smiles and clamouring to be your best friend, but as soon as you’re pinned in that chair and the almighty needle looms in front of your face, it’s pretty clear that anything resembling friendliness or even mere civility is left outside with the collectible issues of Take a Break.

The fact that the anaesthetic only kicked in about an hour after I needed it, and once it had worn off my mouth took a while to settle into its revised shape, left me somewhat discombobulated for a few days last week.

Thankfully I only needed the replacement of an errant filling which resigned its post just before Easter, and things have settled down now. I haven’t spat any metal filings for a few days or anything. Even so, I can’t help thinking: it’s a good job the dental nurses are cute.

Planet of the Dead

OK, so, as a nod towards science fiction, there's just time tonight for a quick look back at the Easter Doctor Who special, Planet of the Dead.

It's gonna be quick, because, well, it wasn't particularly deep. There won't be any big life issues commented on or spiritual truths dug out of this one. Not by me, at least.

That's not to say it wasn't good, because, well, ok, maybe I'm just a bit biased because it's Doctor Who, but it was a fun stuck-on-a-distant-planet-with-the-monster-of-the-week romp. It had Lee Evans as a UNIT scientist with a Doctor Who fetish (although the whole Unit-as-simpering-fanboys thing does run the risk of wearing thin if they overdo it). It had Michelle Ryan playing a sidekick who seemed vaguely familiar. It even had a London bus stuck on the far side of the galaxy, where the good Doctor borrowed a deus ex machina from some giant flies and flew the whole thing through a wormhole. I know, it all just sounds too mad to work, and I don't suppose it would outside of Doctor Who.

And that, simply, is why Doctor Who is the best thing on TV, ever. Well, it is today anyway.

Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: Blaggard's Top Ten Moon Tunes

Eagle-eyed readers will already have noted that the CSFF blog tour is this month featuring Blaggard's Moon, a pirate fantasy novel by George Bryan Polivka. And as is customary at this point in the tour, it's time for a Top Ten; a pirate top ten would no doubt be fun, I couldn't resist the excuse to do a lunar top ten (as opposed to the usual looney top ten).

So here it is, the Top Ten Moon Tunes, as selected by a hardy crew of musically inclined pirates:

10. Belinda Carlisle - La Luna
Inoffensive pop music, provided you're not the sort of person who finds 80s power pop offensive.

9. The Blue Aeroplanes - Bad Moon Rising
Obscure cover version ahoy! This one is featured on the obscure cover version compilation Ruby Trax, which, frankly, everyone should own.

8. Jean Michel Jarre - Moon Machine
This is not Jarre at his best, and features R2-D2 on guest vocals. True.

7. The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon
I spoke about wings; you just flew! Edinburgh folk rock rules, ok?

6. R.E.M. - Man on the Moon
Automatic for the People. Brilliant album. Odd songs about how the Apollo moon landings were faked...

5. Thin Lizzy - Dancin' in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me In Its Spotlight)
Nothing to do with Toploader or Jamie Oliver.

4. The Kinks - Full Moon
Sleepwalker. Also a brilliant album. Odd songs about madness and loss of identity.

3. Brian Eno - anything from the Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks album
Which, if anyone didn't know, was written as a soundtrack to Al Reinert's film of the Apollo moon missions, and is complete genius.

2. Porcupine Tree - The Moon Touches Your Shoulder
Epic Porcupines track, starts out like a quiet little acoustic number, but then someone plugs the amp in and they completely lose control... so awesome, it almost made number one.

1. The B-52s - There's a Moon in the Sky (Called The Moon)
There's a thin line between genius and insanity, and the B-52s eponymous debut album definitely had one foot either side. A mad, crazy genius tune from a mad, crazy genius band.

So now you have your soundtrack sorted, the blog tour awaits, with something more relevant to the subject... the treasure map is on the last post.

CSFF Blog Tour: Blaggard's Moon

Much as I would like to tell you how good the new Doctor Who and Red Dwarf eps were, my return from the Easter hols coincides nicely with a CSFF Blog Tour, so instead I have to write something about pirates, of all things. Somebody really ought to write some good Biblical science fiction, then maybe I can get the good ship Old Testament Space Opera sailing in the right direction again. Pirates, honestly, what do I know about pirates? (Rough, tough, little girl pirates excluded, at least.)

Oh well... this month the blog tour is featuring the adult pirate fantasy Blaggard’s Moon, by George Bryan Polivka.

That's all I've got on the subject... not even any of my trademark bonkers Brit humour on the subject... shall I just walk the plank now?

Well, while I do that, you all just set sail for these blogs. Matey.

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Melissa Carswell
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Marcus Goodyear
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Magma
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespack
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson

I look like a dog with a caramel toffee

Yes, I am feeling ambivalent about the imminent return of Red Dwarf. Yes, I'm excited; I mean, this is Red Dwarf we're talking about, and we haven't seen a new episode for 10 years, as hard as that is for me to believe. Lister, Kryten and the Cat are back; Rimmer has an 'H' on his head, and Kochanski is nowhere to be seen. All would seem to be good in the Dwarfiverse. Well, except for the absence of Holly, but we'll get along without him (or her), I'm sure.

At the same time though, I live in fear that sombody is going to ruin my fond memories. I mean, this is Red Dwarf we're talking about here. I remember rushing home the night it debuted, just to see if it was any good (comedy sf up to that time pretty much consisted of Hitchhiker's and Spaceballs, as I recall). That was a couple of weeks before I turned 14; the last season aired the year I got married, so Red Dwarf covers a pretty important and character defining part of my life. (That's not to say Dave Lister is any more important than Mrs UKSteve, oh, no!)

But messing with important stuff like that is bad. It's like reinventing a motoring icon and turning it into a ridiculous overweight parody of the original. Please, Dave, don't let that happen to the Dwarf!

And returning to Earth - this is a departure from everything the series was meant to be - one man, stuck at the far side of the galaxy with a senile computer and a hologram of his dead bunkmate...

On the other hand, Series 8 was about as far removed from that as it's possible to get, what with the entire crew coming back, Rimmer not being a hologram, and Holly still having the same IQ as 6000 PE teachers... it can't get much worse than that, surely?

And of course, Doctor Who turned out alright, didn't it? Even (especially?) after the all new Doc quit after one season. And if Red Dwarf goes pear-shaped, at least I know the good Doctor will be waiting on a desert planet with nothing but the Bionic Woman and a London bus for company.

Who knew Easter would turn out to be about sci-fi?

CSFF Blog Tour and the Secret of the Shadow...

I mentioned in passing the other day that you can read the whole of Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow at codebearers.com, should you feel that way inclined.

Since I don't own a copy, I spent a few minutes having a little mooch around the first few pages, and it certainly seems like a fun read.

But what's caught my attention, and deserves a little more exploration than I have time for right now, is the... myth? legend?... of the Author, the 'mysterious, unseen writer of worlds'. I probably didn't need to say that, there's enough writers on the tour that know exactly how cool it is that someone has actually put that into words (and simultaneously, how annoying it is that it wasn't them... sigh). But maybe I'll explore that later.

For now, I just have time to say, go and take a look at the book on the Miller Brothers website. What have you got to lose? And if you're unsure, go visit some fellow tourists (links in the previous post) and see what they think.

CSFF Blog Tour: Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow

Crumbs, doesn't time fly? It seems like only a couple of posts since the February tour...

Oh, right. My bad. Anyway, I made it back to reality in time to tell you all about this month's featured book, Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, by the Miller Brothers.

Unfortunately I didn't make it back to reality in time to read the book (surprise surprise), but that's ok, because instead I've spent most of today mooching around the brothers' expansive website, www.codebearers.com.

And now that I know what an author's website should look like - riddled with video trailers and images and forums and 3d animated live chats with the authors - you can expect another lengthy absence from blogging while I go away and learn all the skills I'll need to add those to my own website. Which, please don't visit after going to codebearers.com.

Oh, and not only can you buy an autographed copy from the website, which comes with a 'Good Read Guarantee', but you can actually read the entire thing in a rather nifty looking book-shaped interface.

In fact, forget learning to code, I'm just going to learn hacking and hijack their site for my own nefarious purposes...

And while I'm busy doing that, you should all hack into - er, I mean, visit, these nice blogs:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Marcus Goodyear
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Wade Ogletree
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson

About that hiatus...

I had intended to recommence bloggery three weeks ago, but my PC came down with something nasty and it's taken until now to have a fully functional and internet ready computer again, and to have cleared the backlog of stuff that needed to be done while I was between computers...

That does also mean that work on Project Seven has taken a bit of a slide, but hopefully I'll pick that up as well soon.

On the subject of Project Seven, it did hit a wall earlier on, at which point I reinvented it as 'Douglas Coupland wrote A Christmas Carol about my characters', which got the creative juices flowing and the original version took off again.

Over the last couple of weeks, while Project Seven has lain unloved on a flash drive somewhere, I've taken Coupland's Christmas Carol and started to fashion it into a short story... if I can finish it to something approaching my satisfaction, it may even see the light of day, if only in these here cyberpages.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is: there might be some more regular posting going on here now.

Or I might change my mind again....

Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: Cyndere's Top Ten Midnight Songs

If I had a little more time, I'd have found the Top Ten Cyndere Songs, but there are surprisingly few in my CD collection, so you'll have to make do with the hastily compiled Top Ten Midnight Songs:

10. Amy Winehouse - Round Midnight
I could quite happily live without the Winehouse, but I was stretching for ten as it was...

9. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen
A wedding disco staple for over 25 years.... but you could have any of their other songs. If you know any.

8. Abba - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
You've probably heard of Abba. There was a film about them, or something...

7. Billy Joel - River of Dreams

That's the one that goes 'In the middle of the night / I go walking in my sleep...' I told you I was stretching...

6. Marc Bolan & T-Rex - Midnight
Hooray! A welcome return to Tuesday Tunes for Marc and the boys!

5. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Midnight
Off the By The Way album. I liked them around that period.

4. Linkin park – Minutes to Midnight
While we're in the alt-rock ball park (or should that be skate park? I don't know, I'm not even going to pretend to be down with the kids...)

3. Brand New Heavies - Midnight at the Oasis
A song about an all-night party at a leisure centre in Swindon. True.

2. The Psychedelic Furs – Midnight to Midnight
Who doesn't love a bit of post-punk Brit rock, eh? On the subject of which:

1. The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
I've been in a tube station at midnight. It's only marginally less scary than a Swindon leisure centre.

This week's Top Ten was brought to you by Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. To find out more about the book, follow the CSFF Blog Tour, participants listed on yesterday's post.

CSFF Blog Tour: Cyndere's Midnight

I guess posting here has been a little lacking so far this year, but I guess a blog tour is as good a time as any to put that straight.

This week, my tourmates and I will be taking a look at Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. This is the second novel in the Auralia Thread, the first of which, Auralia's Colours, was toured in January 2008.

It's got a bloodthirsty beastman, a grieving heiress, and a mysterious well. It sounds, from a quick look at the reviews and publishers blurbs, a bit like Beauty and the Beast on steroids. And I can say that because, although I haven't read the book myself - it being fantasy and all - the author admits to 'hearing echoes from Beauty and the Beast' while he was writing it.

I'm not sure exactly where this fits on the spectrum of Christian fiction, so I'll be browsing a few of these blogs over the next couple of days to (possibly) find out:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Wade Ogletree
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Jill Williamson

On Demons...

Take a teenager who unexpectedly turns out to be the last in a long line of vampire hunters. Give them an eccentric foreign mentor called Rupert, who has access to a vast library of occult reference material, a vampire-turned-demon-hunter who the hero might take a fancy to, and a best friend who apparently has nowhere else to be. Then send them out to battle not only vampires, but all manner of demons and other nastiness.

The problem with any TV series about vampire hunters – and especially one about teenage vampire hunters – is that it’s going to be compared to the TV show about vampire hunters.

And you have to have something pretty special in order to stand up to that… hijacking the Van Helsing mythos and giving Gene Hunt a pointless American accent is not really going to cut it.

So Demons, ITV1’s latest attempt to tap into the Doctor Who fanbase has left me about as underwhelmed as Primeval did. It’s a decent enough way to waste an hour in front of the telly, and being a 6-parter, it doesn’t threaten to take over too much of life…

On the other hand, the series is nearly over and I’ve only just mentioned it because I’ve ended up stacking episodes up on my Sky+ box, just not caring enough to watch them.

Screw down my diodes and call me Frank...

....look who's coming back!

Yep, it's true... Red Dwarf is returning to Earth for two brand new specials on the improbably named digital channel, Dave, which has been showing re-runs for some time.

Rimmer, Lister, Kryten and the Cat have all signed up, Doug Naylor is writing and directing, and we get to see the finished article, along with a couple of new behind the scenes shows, this Easter. No mention of which, if any, version of Holly will be along for the ride yet though...

Am I excited? Well... hopeful, let's say. The last couple of seasons - first with the departure of Rimmer, and then with the resurrection of everyone else - kind of lost the plot, and while I have slight reservations about the Dwarf returning to Earth, nothing is as it seems in the Dwarfiverse (and anyway, Lister has already been back to Earth in the official novels)...

On the plus side, the only photo so far released by Dave is of Lister is his trademark leather jacket, so hopefully no more of that canaries nonsense.

But just in case, I'll close with these wise words from Holly:

He's dead, Dave. Everybody's dead. Everybody is dead, Dave!

Tuesday Tunes: Radio 1's Live Lounge Volume 3

It’s January, so it must be time for Tuesday Tunes to do the annual* Live Lounge CD review. Obviously everyone else did it in about November when it came out, but I was kinda busy that month.

Anyone who cares should already know the formula: 40 tracks of exclusive live performances (the clue is in the title), consisting in roughly equal parts of one-off cover versions and recent hits.

This is the third CD of Live Lounge sets from Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show, and I'd like to say the standard keeps getting higher, but unfortunately I think the reverse is true. Although that could be because I've not had the chance to listen to Jo Whiley much lately, so a lot of the acts on the latest compilation may as well be strange new life forms.

That said, it is still worth... well, whatever it's going for on amazon right now, and the mix of artists is as ecelctic as ever. In the 'songs you know' category, we have Duffy (Mercy), Adele (Chasing Pavements), Scouting for Girls (Elvis Ain’t Dead), The Streets (Blinded by the Lights), and Athlete's Wires, quite possibly the best song ever.

The cover versions are always more interesting, and this time round, among others, you can hear:

Dizzee Rascal’s reworking of The Ting Tings' That’s Not My Name;
REM doing Munich;
The Script doing Eninem's Lose Yourself;
Kate Nash doing an Arctic Monkeys cover, which rocks mainly because its Kate Nash;

Goldfrapp’s laid back version of It’s Not Over Yet;
and Bat for Lashes (no, me neither) throwing some 80s into the mix with a cover of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams.

*Volume 2 was reviewed in April 2008. Volume 1 wasn't reviewed.

CSFF Blog Tour: Post Script

I intended to post yesterday, on the final day of the tour proper, but got a bit caught up in filing my tax return online, a pointless task which involves me paying a chunk of extra tax which will returned to me at some later stage when the powers that be realise they've already taken account of it in my PAYE coding. By the time I had rooted out all the necessary paperwork and logged onto the website about 3 three times I was fresh out of time for blogging. Ho hum.

So here, a day late, but here nonetheless, is something possibly meaningful.

On the 'about the author' page of D Barkley Briggs' website, the story is told of how The Legends of Karac Tor came about, as a tale his four sons could relate to as they dealt with the loss of their mother. The Legends of Karac Tor tells the tale of four brothers who, 'while struggling to adjust to life without mom, become enmeshed in the crisis of another world. Along the way they must find their courage, face their pain, and never quit searching for home.'

The thing that struck me when I read that was how the author used his talent to help his kids, and by extension, others in the same situation - thus bringing something good out of a bad situation.

I've been following the Daily Audio Bible podcast almost on time this year, and this week we've been following the story of Joseph, he of the posh jacket, and the extreme example of God working all things together for good. And this all kind of comes together for me because, although you may not get it from this blog, I've been to some pretty dark places in life over the last 3 or 4 years, and my latest WIP, Project Seven is a kind of therapeutic attempt to work that out, and if at the same time I can help someone else out of the same situation - or stop someone getting into it - then that will have made it all... maybe not worthwhile, but it will make sense of it.

I think I've forgotten where I was going with this now, except that The Book of Names is an excellent example of how we as writers - even writers of speculative fiction - can make a difference.

Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: The Songs of Names

This isn't going to be as much fun without the mixtape, but, well, if you feel that way inclined you could hunt these down and make your own Top Ten Songs of Names:

10. Abba - The Name of the Game
What better way to kick off that with a slice of 70s cheese pop?

9. Terence Trent D'Arby - Sign Your Name
And what better way to follow that with some 80s cheese pop?

8. Destiny's Child - Say My Name
And 90s cheese pop? Anybody sensing a theme?

7. De La Soul - Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)
OK, bear with me here, because this is verging on the tenuous: Ring Ring Ring borrows quite heavily from 80s popsters Curiosity Killed the Cat's Name and Number, and somehow manages to make it cool.

6. The Kinks - You Don't Know My Name
Written by Dave Davies, who is a guitar genius but doesn't write songs as well has his bro. Sorry, Dave.

5. Eminem - My Name Is
What? Who? Slim Shady! Warning: Contains swears

4. Rage Against The Machine - Killing in the Name
While we're in 'Parental Advisory' territory, here's a teen anthem to rival that Nirvana song, largely on account of all that screaming (and swearing) 'I won't do what you tell me!'

3. Petra - What's in a NameAnd in true mixtape style, we segue easily from sweary shout-rock to (slightly cheesy) Christian Rock.

2. The Beautiful South - Song For Whoever
You remember the one.... Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue... etc.

1. The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
Probably not an indie rock response to Song for Whoever... They call me 'Stacey'/They call me 'her'/They call me 'Jane'/That's not my name...

Yeah, it's not really up to the standard of the vampire top ten a couple of tours ago, but it's the best list I could cobble together on the tube this morning. I'll try harder next time.

In the meantime, come back tomorrow and join me in the quest for a relevant and potentially interesting tour contribution on this blog. It will be a long and difficult journey, fraught with danger and mythical beings.

Bother, should have done a mythical beings top ten...

CSFF Blog Tour: The Book of Names by D Barkley Briggs

This week, the blog tour features The Book of Names by Biggs Darklighter, who I always thought was Red Three, but according to his website, he's some kind of author.

Which seems pretty obvious, since I just said the tour is about his new book. Am I rambling? Ok.

But seriously, The Book of Names is the first volume of the Legends of Karac Tor, and is so called because it's about names getting stolen. No, it doesn't make any sense to me either, but I haven't read it, as usual.

His website's pretty neat though (although, I'm not sure about the section about the Dark Side... have you turned, Biggs?), there's a section of links about myth & lore in our world, which is the kind of weird stuff that I find really interesting.

So, for meaningful comment on this month's featureed book, your quest leads into the Hidden Lands of these mythical beings:
Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise