Mapping the Interior is a horror novel in the vein of Stephen King. In other words, it's disturbing, fantastical, psychological and compelling. Set somewhere in the American midwest, the story is told by Junior, a young, Native American boy who is trying to make sense of his dead father's nightly visits. Given that Junior is twelve-years … Continue reading Review: Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Graffiti by Banksy Great news! We’ve got more cutting-edge research from the fine folk at the County Durham College of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fine Arts. Researchers in the Department of Computational Psychology recently undertook an experiment in which an AI programme used social media to carry on conversations with sixth-form students across England. The … Continue reading Students Fail Turing Test. Parents Demand School Reforms.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I played mandolin on one of the tracks on this album. My part, however, was brutally cut from the final mix, so feel free to swamp the band with messages telling them how much you wish there had been a mandolin on the album. Just be polite about it!) … Continue reading Excellent Album, Excellent Charity
At last, a post that actually relates to the fantasy and science fiction theme of my blog! I picked up this book a short time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's fantasy-meets-steam-punk with free diving, surreal visions of a dream-world, child warriors who channel demons before going into battle, magicians who feed off their own … Continue reading Review: The Goddess Project by Bryan Wigmore
Who needs elves and aliens when you've got this? Economists at the County Durham College for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fine Art have discovered a new species of dog. Dubbed canis economicus, the new species looks almost identical to normal dogs and even comes in a variety of breeds that mimic our beloved household pets. … Continue reading New Species of Dog Discovered!
Rather than a review, this week I get to do a first for me, a preview. Author and fellow SFF Chronicles member Jane O'Reilly has a new book coming out this summer and she's been kind enough to give me a sneak peek at the cover. Deep Blue is the second book in Jane's Second … Continue reading Preview of Deep Blue
Once again, there’s neither science-fiction nor fantasy in this post. I make up for that, though, with a heaping helping of absolutely absurd reality. Image via randychiu / Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons 2.0 Generic license A Reason to Love Killer Robots I’m talking about real killer robots, people. Not the Hollywood, Terminator-style things … Continue reading A Reason to Love Killer Robots
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, trans. Into English by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. Detail of a manticore, available at The Public Domain Review This is a curious book. First, it is a non-fiction account of entirely fictional subjects. How do librarians and marketers even begin to deal with that? I mean, … Continue reading When does fiction become non-fiction? When it’s by Borges.
As with the first VSS, this was originally written for one of the monthly challenges at SFFChronicles. The theme was "return to earth" and the style, steampunk. Enjoy! Pride Goes Before On a weathered scrap of paper found caught in a hedgerow: Success! The new gas has sent the Ykerios twice as high as any … Continue reading A Very Short Story #2, Pride Goes Before
Considering my last blog-post, if I had a hat, I’d be eating it. A friend of mine at JPL in Pasadena let slip last night that they’ve found radiation coming from the asteroid ‘Oumuamua that almost certainly can’t be of natural occurrence. In other words, they are coming from alien technology. As a reminder, ‘Oumuamua … Continue reading Signs of Alien Technology Found on ‘Oumuamua
Christopher Randall 