CSFF Blog Tour: Offworld by Robin Parrish

This month, the CSFF Blog Tour will be featuring Offworld, by Robin Parrish.

Here's the blurb from the author's website:

Christopher Burke and his crew of NASA astronauts are the first human beings to walk on the surface of Mars. Their return to Earth was supposed to be a momentous day. But a surprise is waiting for them there that's beyond imagining.

Safe after a treacherous landing in Florida, the crew emerges to find the unthinkable: every man, woman, child, and animal has vanished without a trace.

It's not a dream.

It's not a trick.

It's real.

Alone now on their home planet, the crew sets out to discover the extraordinary secret behind the disappearance of mankind. And whether or not everyone can be brought back.

But they may not be as alone as they thought.

Now if I didn't know better, I'd say that astronauts on a mission to Mars in the year 2033 suggested that this may be a science fiction novel...

Lost meets the Rapture meets any number of sf tales in which a small band of people find everything they knew gone or changed beyond all recognition.

Robin Parrish appeared in the CSFF Blog Tour a couple of years ago, where I reviewed Relentless, the first volume of his surprisingly religion-free Christian superhero series the Dominion Trilogy. I will be interested to see, when I finish reading Offworld, if the same low-key approach to spiritual elements has been taken (early indications are that it has) and how that works for me, because, as I mentioned in previous Parrish reviews, I like a bit more Christ in my Christian fiction.

While I get on with reading that, please tour the deserted blogosphere with your band of wandering survivors:
Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Keanan Brand Gina Burgess Canadianladybug Melissa Carswell Valerie Comer Karri Compton Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Linda Gilmore Beth Goddard Todd Michael Greene Katie Hart Ryan Heart Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Lyn Perry Steve Rice Chawna Schroeder James Somers Speculative Faith Stephanie Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Fred Warren Dona Watson Elizabeth Williams

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!

Friday Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Meh.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is featuring The Enclave by Karen Hancock, a techno-thriller about cloning and genetic engineering, which can only mean one thing: the Top Ten Genetically Modified Tunes! Tell me when this starts getting old, won't you?

10. Alice Cooper: Clones (We're All)
Not one of Ms Cooper’s better efforts, but it was either this or Same Genes by The View…
9. Blur: Gene by Gene
Blur taking a step away from their Britpop roots here, from 2003's Think Tank.
8. Phonophani: Genetic Engineering
All together now: because every tour needs at least 7 1/2 minutes quality electronica...
7. X-Ray Spex: Genetic Engineering
And, wherever possible, some proper English punk rock!
6. Catatonia: My Selfish Gene
Nice chilled tune from my favourite Welsh band.
5. The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Socio-Genetic Experiment
You remember these guys from Television, the Drug of the Nation - no doubt more true now than back in '92...
4. Gene: Olympian
Britpop meets The Smiths, anybody?
3. A Flock of Seagulls: D.N.A.
This is a great piece of New Wave electro-pop. I'm gonna be listening to this stuff for a while now...
2. Ash: Clone
Seriously, turn this one all the way up to eleven!
1. Aardvark Spleen: Gonna Steal Your DNA
I'm not even going to attempt to describe this. No actually, folk-rock with humourour philosophical lyrics about covers it. Anyway, this track seemed appropriate, and beats Ash purely for the band's name.

So once you've finished your little wander through my eclectic offerings, don't forget the blog tour is actually about a book, and continues this way:
Brandon Barr Jennifer Bogart Keanan Brand Grace Bridges Canadianladybug Melissa Carswell Valerie Comer Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Karina Fabian Beth Goddard Todd Michael Greene Heather R. Hunt Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Mike Lynch Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Steve Rice Crista Richey James Somers Speculative Faith Stephanie Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Fred Warren Elizabeth Williams

CSFF Blog Tour - The Enclave

This week the CSFF Blog Tour features The Enclave by Karen Hancock. The Enclave is Karen's sixth (count 'em) novel, following the sci-fi allegory Arena, and the Legends of the Guardian-King fantasy quadrilogy.

Unfortunately (though understandably) the review copies were only available in the US, so I haven't read it yet. However, from what I have managed to glean from the posts on this tour so far and reviews elsewhere, and from the author's website, The Enclave sounds like a thriller novel with some science fiction elements thrown in.

For instance, rather than create a whole new world, the author created a world within a world like ours, having seen the Biosphere 2 project in the news. And where it could have gone really sf is with the theme of cloning, and it's effects on the human soul. There's plenty of real science happening in the field of genetics, waiting to be extrapolated and have spiritual discussion based on; not having read the book, I don't know whether this has been toned down a little so as not to scare off the CBA market, but I can't imagine it being a real hard-sf tome. Anyway, no-one wants to get bogged down in excessive info-dumps and 'As you know Bob' scenes, so I'm going to assume she got the balance right based on the fact that none of the non-sf readers on the tour (that I've read so far at least) have commented on it.

Well I think I've rambled on long enough without saying anything, all that remains is to point you in the direction of your fellow tourists this week:

Brandon Barr Jennifer Bogart Keanan Brand Grace Bridges Canadianladybug Melissa Carswell Valerie Comer Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Karina Fabian Beth Goddard Todd Michael Greene Heather R. Hunt Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Mike Lynch Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Steve Rice Crista Richey James Somers Speculative Faith Stephanie Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Fred Warren Elizabeth Williams

Decade

Right now, I'm probably somewhere on the M40, in the rain, on the way to celebrate 10 years of marriage with a weekend in London.

I don't know why I'm telling you that (except for the fact that Mrs UKSteve deserves a big well done for sticking it out), but it also means that it's been about that long since I got my first professional writing gig. That seemed to deserve a mention, especially in light of my last non-writing related post. On the plus side, it would appear that I put slightly more effort into my marriage than I did my career in journalism...

If I can dig out the original ms, I may post it up soon; it will still have topical relevance, albeit not for anyone tuning in to read about Christianity and sci-fi.

Until then though, I should be driving...

On Not Writing

Not Writing is something I have become spectacularly good at over the last few months. Pretty much since I lost heart with Project Seven, in fact. A more disciplined writer, I realise, would have just put it aside (if not actually destroyed it) and gone back to one of Projects 1-6. There are various reasons why I haven’t done just that, the main one being that I need a crash course in Time Management for Parents of Recalcitrant Three-Year-Olds, but I’ve no idea when I’d fit that in around the day job, the housework, the gardening, family time, and all the other constructive stuff that fills my time.

However, I don’t spend that much time procrastinating in a bad way; I’m more likely to hack down some rampaging brambles in the garden or clear out the recycling than spend hours on facebook. In fact, blogs, social networking, and various online forums where I should have a presence are also somewhat neglected at the moment. On the other hand, I have watched a couple of half-episodes of Knight Rider over the last few weeks, which in no way qualifies as time well spent; I haven’t even constructed a blog post about how bad it is to justify myself.

No, the problem is that I lack focus. I first need to get into a project, and then find the time to dedicate to it. Project Seven has, unfortunately, reverted to the planning stage again. I may put some more effort into that so that I can really get moving with it during NaNoWriMo. Last year’s NaNo may in fact have a salvageable plot, given sufficient editing time. And I have several short stories to either finish writing or to edit into something potentially publishable.

I seem to have talked myself out of novel writing, at least until the November frenzy hits… maybe, just maybe, with that psychological weight off my shoulders, I can get planning instead, maybe write a half-decent short story, and, who knows, maybe even blog about it…

What have they done to Torchwood?

Well, first, they promoted it to BBC1, which may or may not be a bad idea for a mediocre little Doctor Who spin-off that started out on digital TV a couple of years ago.

Second, they cut the series length from 13 episodes to 5, making up one big story (like they used to with Doctor Who - complete with cliffhangers!). It remains to be seen whether the story has the legs for a five-hour mini-series, but so far it's nice to have the cliffhangers back.

The they put the whole thing out on consecutive nights, because of course sci-fi fans don't go out of an evening. Interesting choice, but in these days of Sky+ boxes, largely irrelevant (provided you can avoid reading spoilers on twinternet).

And then, just to top it all off, they went and made it good. I mean, witty one-liners, fast paced action, intrigue, mad plot twists and even madder telehandler-based scenes... this isn't the Torchwood we all know and, um.. go 'meh' about, is it? Admittedly there has been some brief nudity and Ianto's wierdness about being a couple with Jack, but on the whole everybody's libido seems to have been turned down to a more sensible level. In such a world, almost anything can happen... although, I have to admit, the extent of Jack's immortality is beginning to stretch credibility somewhat.

I'm not going to go into more detail than that; there will be plenty of reviews online if you need one. All I'm saying is that on the whole, I was pleasantly surprised. If you'd written Torchwood off as a waste of valuable TV time, it might be time to give it another chance.

Tuesday Tunes: Windfarm Radio

Not just tunes today, but a whole internet radio station... Windfarm Radio is an extension of the Daily Audio Bible podcast, a kind of 24 hour virtual prayer room, and opened its doors for the first time today.

I don't know how the whole prayer room thing is going to work, but I tuned in for a while earlier and in between the prayers there was a nice mix of Christian tunes (which actually seemed to be the bulk of the main feed).

What I do know is that there's a lot that's bad about the internet, and it's nice to see someone making use of the technology for God's purposes.

I dare say I shall be tuning in quite a bit over the coming days and weeks and watching how it (and the rest of the DAB's online community) develops.

Both radio station and podcast are definitely worth checking out if you can.

Phursday Photos: What I did on my holidays

Has anyone else noticed I was much better at blogging regularly when I'm not actually at home? I blame, um, what's that thing called, the thing that prevents me from being a famous novelist, but also prevents me from starving, um... work. Pesky thing. Anyway, here's some random glimpses of where I went when I wasn't working:

Warkworth Castle

Lindisfarne


Souter Lighthouse


The Angel of the North

Unrealistic goals

So it's half way through the year, and it seems like a blog post would easily be filled by reflecting on how woefully I have performed in the unrealistic goals I set myself at the beginning of the year.

Let's take a deep breath and see what progress has been made then:

• Daily devotional time: I started out well actually, and kept pretty much up to date with the Daily Audio Bible until my mp3 player broke. I didn't really get into the flow again before we went away last week, so I'm starting this one again today.
• Cell group: I actually managed this one, with a lot of nudging from Mrs UKSteve.
• Professional development: haven't started yet, but put my name down to study for an NVQ as soon as my employer finds the money.
• Writing: er, well, er... ok, I started well here too, but the wheels fell off Project Seven as I was writing it, and I haven't really got back into it in any meaningful way for a while. I think I will have to reinvent it, possibly dust off that Christian version of Lost and use some of the good bits from that too.... I suppose it must be technically possible to get a 90k draft done in three months - it's only 1,000 words a day...

Gotta go - I should be writing!

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?