I picked this little meme up from S F Signal today:

Q: What book are you currently reading? Is it good so far?

I’m currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

It’s a book in three parts (at least the version I’m reading is a three volume box set) and I’m currently approaching the end of book 2. It’s quite an achievement in world building, with Clarke setting up an entire history (with extensive footnotes) for an England where magic once existed in plain sight and is going through a process of revival. The book is set in this alternate England during the Napoleonic wars, the first part of the 19th century. It’s written in a style that fits the era, almost Dickensian in places, using old spellings such as shew for show, sopha for sofa, chuse for choose and so on to add authenticity to the narrative.

I have to admit that in places the book is very long-winded, with some parts going on for far too long. Even some of the footnotes that are used to flesh out the history are several pages long! But on the whole it’s extremely enjoyable so far and something slightly different. Well worth a look. There’s an official website here.

I won’t hit up anyone by name with the meme, but there’s my effort. Consider yourself tagged if you read this far.

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I was annoyed enough last week when I was talking about Will Smith planning a sequel to his godawful film version of I Am Legend. Now I hear, from slashfilm.com via Dogmatic, that talk of a sequel to Blade Runner is floating around.

Let me start by stating, as I’ve said here before, that I think of Blade Runner as the best film ever made. It’s really hard for me to name a top ten list of movies, but whatever films have moved me over the years, I still think that Blade Runner is the best of them all.

Rick Deckard - Blade Runner

It’s based on the book by Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep.

The book is excellent - some of Philip K Dick’s best writing in my opinion. But the film is very different. There are a lot of similarities, with characters and situations taken directly from Dick’s pages, but the movie does very different things with them. Director Ridley Scott took a great book and used the bones of it to make a really great film. This is often better than a direct adaptation. Often, direct adaptations fall well short of the high bench mark set by the books. When a film-maker uses a book purely as insiration to make a film in a similar vein, the results are often better. This is definitely the case with Blade Runner.

The book already has sequels. Author K W Jeter, with the approval of Dick’s estate, wrote Blade Runner 2 - The Edge of Human, which was really not very good. I tried to read it, but couldn’t get more than halfway through. Jeter has since written two more Blade Runner sequels, Replicant Night and Eye and Talon. I don’t know if they’re any good and I can’t be bothered to find out. If I couldn’t get through the first sequel, I doubt the others will hold my attention any better.

Regardless, Philip K Dick’s book stands tall as a great piece of science fiction. It doesn’t need sequels and Jeter’s attempts are best ignored. Blade Runner, the movie, is also fantastic and absolutely does not need any sequels. When you have stories that are as well made, as well written and realised, as these things are, then trying to make sequels just devalues them. It’s a cynical attempt to cash in. If you read the slashfilm.com article (linked above), you’ll see that the sequel appears to be a long way from ever being made. Let me just add my voice to the multitude here in saying that I never want to see it made. Blade Runner is a unique diamond that can’t be copied or improved upon, and certainly should never be cashed in on.

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The final episode of VFoS is up on the Serial Novella page now.

It all started back on February 24th and now it’s over - thirty four (almost) weekly episodes. Today sees a bumper double episode as I’ve posted the short Epilogue and Episode 34 together. What will I post on Mondays now? I’ll have to start writing more blog posts to keep you all interested.

I do hope to write more stuff to serialise here on The Word in the future, but right now I’m working very hard on getting my second novel out. The sequel to RealmShift, it should be available sometime during October if all goes well. I know I’ve promised it on a number of occasions, but this independent publishing game is harder to control than I originally thought! But I’m getting on top of everything now, so keep an eye on the blog here for news over the next few weeks.

Also, don’t be shy to drop comments on this post and let me know what you thought of A ‘Verse Full of Scum, or anything else you’ve read here for that matter. Or you can always send me an email, the address is in the yellow box at the top of the page.

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Today sees the penultimate episode of VFoS posted on the Serial Novella page. Things are drawing to a climax and Ghost is not really able to do much about it, even after all the effort he’s put in so far. But just what exactly is happening?

The last episode, along with a short epilogue will be posted next Monday. Well, the last episode for now anyway…

Enjoy.

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You may remember back in mid-August I was writing about my concerns with the new Watchmen movie that Zack Snyder is hatching in Hollywood.

As I mentioned in that post, Watchmen author Alan Moore has distanced himself from all his projects that have been adapted to film and often talks of his absolute hatred of all things Hollywood. Well, it seems that nothing’s changed. Talking to the L A Times, Moore has said, “I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying” and “It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination.” Hard words, but I can’t help agreeing with him for the most part.

Talking about the Watchmen movie, he also says, “Will the film even be coming out? There are these legal problems now, which I find wonderfully ironic. Perhaps it’s been cursed from afar, from England. And I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come.”

Not even pretending to mince his words. He never does. It’s one of the things that makes him the genius writer that he is.

It’s a great article that talks about things other than the movie. It discusses his new DVD, The Mindscape of Alan Moore, which is billed as “A psychadelic journey through one of the world’s most powerful minds”, and he talks about magic, comics and the 750,000 word novel that he’s working on. Yep, 750,000 words. That’s bloody massive.

You can read the whole article here and I heartily recommend that you do.

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(A bit of SF/F news shamelessly lifted directly from Horrorscope)

Dreaming

The Marque Hotel, October 3 to 6

www.conflux.org.au

The fifth Conflux science fiction convention is now just over three weeks away. This year, with a theme of Dreaming, the convention will be paying homage to Australia ’s indigenous heritage, as well as looking at the dreams that inevitably unfold the first time you read science fiction, fantasy or in the case of horror, nightmares.

The convention will run over four days and features six guests with great histories in the field of science fiction, fantasy and horror – Liz Gorinsky, Jack Dann, Mark Shireffs, Cat Sparks, Gillian Polack and Bruce Gillespie. A total of 13 workshops, covering aspects from superstition through blogging to using a longsword, and nearly 50 panels will provide a lot of information and inspiration for attendees.

Friday night is the Great Debate – this year’s topic “Is this a dream or is it reality?” and following that, a major event for anticipated anthology Dreaming Again, featuring editor Jack Dann and several of the writers. Saturday afternoon will see a mass book signing, with around 30 authors gathered in the one place. Saturday night is the now famous Conflux dinner, this year with the theme of Prohibition New York. The 1920s was when the term science fiction was coined, and the modern genre was born.

For anyone with an interest in science fiction, fantasy or horror, written or on the screen, Conflux 5 is the place to be. More information at www.conflux.org.au

WHAT: Conflux 5 – Dreaming

WHERE: The Marque Hotel, Northbourne Avenue , Canberra

WHEN: October 3 to 6 2008

COST: Memberships at the door – Adult $240, student $180 (cheaper if bought before hand), day memberships Friday and Monday $50, Saturday and Sunday $100

CONTACT: www.conflux.org.au, info@conflux.org.au

GUEST INFORMATION

Liz Gorinsky is an editor with Tor, one of the largest publishers of science fiction and fantasy in America . She edits a list that includes acclaimed speculative fiction authors Ben Bova, Dave Duncan, A.J. Hartley, George Mann, Cherie Priest, Brian Slattery, and Jeff VanderMeer. She also assists editors Ellen Datlow, Jim Frenkel, and Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.

Jack Dann is the editor of the only Australian book to win a World Fantasy Award – Dreaming Down Under. He himself is also one of the acknowledged experts in alternate history, with novels such as The Memory Cathedral and The Rebel. Jack has just launched the follow up to Dreaming Down Under – Dreaming Again, which will be a feature of Conflux 5.

Mark Shireffs is a screen writer whose short film The Mysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello was nominated for an AFI and BAFTA award. He is almost solely responsible for the strong showing of science fiction and fantasy in Australian children’s television, having written Spellbinder, The Girl from Tomorrow and Pig’s Breakfast.

Cat Sparks is a multi-award winning short story writer, editor and illustrator who was the official photographer for two NSW premiers. She has recently won her first Aurealis and Ditmar awards for her own writing, and is now working on her first novel.

Gillian Polack has a doctorate in medieval history, teaches extensively across Canberra and has one novel in print with a small new US press and another forthcoming. Twelve of her short stories have been published. One of these stories won a Victorian Ministry of the Arts award and three more have been listed as recommended reading in the international lists of world’s best fantasy and science fiction short stories.

Bruce Gillespie is one of the grand old gentlemen of Australian science fiction fandom, having started attending meetings and conventions in 1967. He has been publishing critical essays on the genre and the industry since 1969. He has won many awards for his work for fandom, including being the past president of the Fan Writers of America. He currently publishes Steam Engine Time, one of the few fanzines still in existence in Australia .

The Australian Horror Writers’ Association will be presenting a special program of panels at Conflux V - stay tuned to HorrorScope for all the details!

Source: Nicole R Murphy, Programmer, Conflux 5

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Well, it’s not really a new short story. It was published in Op-Ed Magazine back in March this year and I made a post about it then and directed you all to have a look if you were interested. However, I’ve just added it to the Dark Shorts page here on my site as well.

I’ve also updated all the shorts so that instead of each story being a seperate pdf file they’ve each got their own page right here. Obviously, now you can’t download pdf files any more, but the whole thing seems tidier, I think. If you’re really keen to download any of the stories for your own perusal, I suppose you can always copy and paste them into a Word document or something like that. However, please remember that they’re all Copyright. I’m more than happy for you to share my work around, in fact, I actively encourage it and thanks very much, but I would really prefer it if you directed people here when you recommend any stories rather than make copies.

So, enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think by way of comments or emails.

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Episode 32 of VFoS is online now. Only two more eps to go after this.

Head on over to the Serial Novella page as usual.

Enjoy.

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I apologise most profusely that this is late. I have no excuse whatsoever. I just forgot. I’m human, after all. Mostly.

So, the final volume of VFoS is now underway with Ghost and Gans coming face to face at last. There are just four more episodes (including today’s) and a short Epilogue left to go, so we’re really in the back straight now. I hope you’re enjoying it and look forward to any feedback once the story is done and dusted.

Head on over to the Serial Novella page to read.

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I know I was pretty slack about this last time. Harper Collins, way back in the mists of earlier this year (or was it last year? I can’t be bothered to check) released Gaiman’s novel American Gods for free online for a limited time. I happened to mention it here when it had about a week to go. Better than nothing, but no help to the slow readers among you.

Well, this time I’m on the case like a rash on a mangy dog. Gaiman has just announced on his Live Journal that his novel Neverwhere is now available to read for free. This time you can read it online like before or download it. It’s a time bomb download and will only last thirty days before it self-destructs, but, as Gaiman says, free is free. In fact, what he said was:

For those people who grumbled about reading American Gods online, here’s Neverwhere. You can read it online, and it’s also downloadable. That’s the good news.

The bad news is you don’t get to keep it forever. It’s yours for thirty days from download, and then the pdf file returns to its electrons. But if you’ve ever wondered about Neverwhere or wanted to read it for free, now is your chance. And free is free…

You can get the free book here. Bear in mind that when I tried it, the Read Online link worked, but the Download link needs fixing. Apparently they’re on the case. According to Gaiman’s people:

If, when you try to download it, it gives you an “ebx.edt” file then you may either (A) save the file as “neverwear.txt”, open it, find the “bookfileurl” line, paste that URL into your browser, and save that file as “Neverwear.pdf” OR (B) wait for HarperCollins to fix the problem.

I must say, I found the typo in that above quote quite amusing. Gaiman, not happy with being the most popular author on the planet, has started his own clothing line, perhaps? Enjoy.

EDIT - Check the comments for a very kind correction from Mr Gaiman’s Web Goblin (and also to see that I’m not nearly as funny as I think I am.) I’ve corrected the link above too, so that should work for everyone now.

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