“Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible."
- Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone).

Issue 170
January 2008
December 2007 circulation was: 701,831 readers, who read 2.29 million articles, generating 39.4 million hits.

January 2008 FEATURES

I Am Legend (Mark's take)
MOVIE REVIEW. Richard Matheson's classic horror novel I Am Legend comes to the screen with CGI and lots of guns, most of which - says Mark - work against rather than for the story. Will Smith plays Robert Neville robbed of most of his anguish and his advancing madness. Some of the visual images are nice, but this is a story that needs to be made on a low budget to really work.

Not quite human
COMMENT. With the release of Beowulf, says Mark, we got a chance to see how far the film industry has gotten in the realistic depiction of humans in animation. I thought it was just a little off of being realistic and they reminded me of the way humans looked in Shrek.

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Mark's take)
MOVIE REVIEW. Sweeny Razorhands. One of Broadway's best and most controversial musicals comes to the screen as a vehicle for the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team. This version glories in the gory, says Mark. Depp's singing limitations rob the character of Sweeney of his all-important contagious savage fury. Burton shows the audience a lot that could not be shown on stage, not all of which was a good idea to show.

The Orphanage (Mark's take)
MOVIE REVIEW. Juan Antonio Bayona's Spanish-language film The Orphanage is a very intense ghost story, says Mark, expertly filmed, but the writing lets down the rest of the film. There are bits from several successful horror films, especially Poltergeist, rehashed here. Guillermo del Toro's name is shown prominently as presenter and producer, but The Orphanage is really not in his class. The film is competently made, but it just does not have enough that will not be already familiar to the viewer.

The Shadow In The North
INTERVIEW. Philip Pullman and Billie Piper talk about the Sally Lockhart books and the BBC TV series based on them. In The Shadow In The North, an elderly lady loses her money on an investment, a conjuror is pursued by thugs, a clairvoyant sees a brutal murder in a forest, a glass coffin then whispers the name of the richest man in Europe. These seemingly unconnected events set Sally Lockhart on the trail of an evil far more awful than she could ever imagine – the Hopkinson Self-Regulator – a super-weapon in the hands of a Scandinavian madman Axel Bellmann.

Fantastic Women: Rachel Caine
INTERVIEW. Author Rachel Caine on why speculative fiction has always been her first love, the lousy hours and stress of being a writer, and her Weather Warden series of novels. Rachel is interviewed by fantasy writer Karen Miller, author of works such as Kingmaker and Kingbreaker.

Fantastic Women: Lois McMaster Bujold (Part I)
INTERVIEW. Author Lois McMaster Bujold on the universe and times of Miles Vorkosigan, her start as a writer, and how for her, making up the story and writing down the story are two separate activities. Lois is interviewed by fab fantasy writer Karen Miller.

Fantastic Women: Glenda Larke
INTERVIEW. Author Glenda Larke on her exotic life, the Random Rain Quartet, reading Guy Gavriel Kay for atmosphere and story skills, and having a slap-up feed before starting work. Glenda is interviewed by Karen Miller, herself a fantasy author of works such as Kingmaker and Kingbreaker.

Bloggers of the SFFphere Part II
ROUNDTABLE. The second part of the roundtable where Aidan Moher, the creator of A Dribble of Ink, goes ahead and gathers several his favourite bloggers, ties them up in a room, and picks their brains. SFF bloggers spend so much time putting the minds of authors under the knife that Aidan thought it would be interesting to take a look at another side of the industry that doesn’t get examined.

Science fiction: the other god that failed
FEATURE. Science fiction, it is often plausibly argued, is a literature about technology and what it does to humans. But what if this view of the genre is wrong? What if science fiction (SF) is not really about technology at all but something else. What if SF is at its core a religious genre, a literature about the search for transcendent meaning in a post-Christian world?

I am not Legend
COMMENT. I am Legend was a brilliant book says fantasy author Joe Abercrombie, but you really need to forget all about it if you watch the new Will Smith movie based on that novel. The studio seems intent on simplifying, schmaltzifying, and dumbing this film down more than ever.

Terry Goodkind interviewed
INTERVIEW. Why fantasy author Terry's earliest memories are of telling himself stories, why he will sometimes spend half a day on one paragraph, the tight schedule for his last book in the Sword of Truth series, and why the fantasy elements of his books are no more important than the romance, the intrigue, the political maneuvering and the historical fiction elements.

God of the Slushpile: John Joseph Adams interviewed
INTERVIEW. John Ottinger, best known for his great blog Grasping for the Wind, was fortunate enough to strike up a correspondence with John Joseph Adams slush editor with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF). Well known for his ability to find gems in piles of slush, Adams was recently guest editor of the Pirate Issue of Shimmer Magazine, and will be publishing his first anthology, Wastelands, with Night Shade Books in January 2008. In the following interview he discusses these two works as well as recommends some of his favorite short fiction authors.

Magic engines
FEATURE. Blogger and owner of The Shape of Days, Jeff Harrell, is not going to mince words here: this article is nerdy. It’s incredibly nerdy. You know all those web sites out there that are really, really nerdy? With the exception of the ones about Japanese cartoons, this post is nerdier than all of them combined. Jeff looks at the magic engines of the Battlestar Galactica and finds all sorts of implausibilities.

The Wright stuff
INTERVIEW. Science Fiction & Fantasy writer John C. Wright is well-known for his epic space opera trilogy, and more recently, for his fantasy adventure novels. Avi Abrams, ace blogger at Dark Roasted Blend, was curious about John's take on the state of fantastic adventure fiction today and asked him a few questions about his life, work and appearance in the original anthology of military science fiction Breach the Hull.

Libertine Rush - Domino Dynamo
SHORT FICTION. A new Psi-Kicks story introducing Libertine Rush – the lady from Haiti with the interesting dead brother. From the pen and twisted imagination of one G.F. Willmetts.

More articles ...

Got an article for us? Send your submissions to articles@sfcrowsnest.com

REVIEWS January 2008

A Brief History Of The Future by Oona Strathern

Beck Vol 1 Episodes 1-5

Books in different formats and countries

Doctor Who: Mother Russia by Marc Platt

Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

Dune by Frank Herbert

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

Heroes Volume One by Michael Turner, Phil Jiminez and Tim Sale

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Imaginistix by Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell

Inside Straight (A Wild Cards novel) edited by George R.R. Martin

Jack Of Fables 2: Jack Of Hearts by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Tony Atkins and Steve Leialoha

Modesty Blaise: Death Trap by Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero

Philosophy And Science Fiction edited by Michael Philips

Scar Night (Book One of The Deepgate Codex) by Alan Campbell

Shazam! The Monster Society Of Evil by Jeff Smith

Smallville Season 5 The Official Companion by Craig Byrne

Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul Book 3: Epiphany by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz

Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul: Exiles book 2 by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz

Stargate SG-1 Season 10 The Illustrated Companion by Natalie Barnes with Sharon Gosling

The Armies Of Memory by John Barnes

The Art Of Bryan Talbot by Bryan Talbot

The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke with J. Bone (inker) and Dave Stewart (colours)

Third Dimension: The Unofficial And Unauthorised Guide To Doctor Who 2007 by Stephen James Walker

Triquorum One: an anthology by John Grant, Allen Ashley and Lavie Tidhar

True Deception by Patricia Waddell

Wonder Woman: Love And Murder by Jodi Picoult, Terry Dodon, Drew Johnson and Paco Diaz

Stephen Hunt's
The Court of the Air
A fantastical tale of high adventure, low-life rogues and orphans on the run.

NEW - Tor's U.S. edition hardcover - Amazon USA

HARDBACK OUT NOW

Get your hardback copy from: Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Amazon Japan | Amazon USA

PAPERBACK OUT NOW

Get your paperback copy from:
Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Amazon Japan |

Hardback title

Paperback title

"An inventive, ambitious work, full of wonders and marvels."
The Times: April 7, 2007 (Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

"Hunt can take his place alongside such eminent Magratheans as JRR Tolkien, Mervyn Peake and China Mieville. Creating a fully-realised other-world which feels new and different, yet cohesive and believable is half the battle in a fantasy novel, and it is a battle Hunt wins with honours... Hunt's world is so rich and colourful it keeps you engrossed ... It's a confident audacious novel."
SFX: December 2007 (Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

"The book starts out as a fantasy but moves into the rollicking adventure stories in the fashion of Kipling. It reminds me a little of the joyousness of Perdido Street Station and the uncertainties of Pullman’s His Dark Material trilogy. Hunt moves the story along with verve and creates a believable underbelly which writhes and squirms. The devil is in the detail and here Hunt excels delivering a rattling yarn without ladening the reader with exceptional detail or ordure."
Iain Emsley - Yatterings.com (Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

"The characters are convincing and colourful, but the real achievement is the setting, a hellish take on Victorian London where grim, steam-driven machines work beside citizens with magical powers. The Court of the Air is aimed at young adults, but the depth and complexity of Hunt's vision makes it compulsive reading for all ages."
The Guardian: April 21st 2007 (Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

"Creatures of magic movie in an industrialised landscape; mechanical men with souls appear in Punch-style political cartoons. He creates a fantasy world that's low on cliché, splicing trad fantasy with steampunk and a touch of Philip Pullman...with pace, detail, and the pleasure of its sheer scale."
Death Ray: Issue 1. December 2007
(Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

"Hunt tells his full-blooded tale with lip-smacking relish, revealing a vivid, often gruesome imagination. The Court of the Air brims with originality and, from the first, its chase-filled plot never lets up."
Starburst: Issue 350. December 2007 (Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

'A crossover title in the vein of Philip Pullman … more straightforward and much easier to read than Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell … a genuinely engaging read, which has believable characters in a fantastic setting. The Dickensian references are a big selling point… It’s an intriguing and original idea which the author has managed to pull off rather well.’
The Bookseller: Bookseller’s Choice for April 2007
(Review: Hardback edition, The Court of the Air)

‘Hold on to your hat for a frenetic ride through a fantastic world that is a mind-boggling and hypnotic mixture of the familiar and the bizarre… The Court of the Air is a tour de force of the imagination. Fast paced with a cast of interesting and beguiling characters.’
The Newcastle Herald (Australia) (Review: Export edition, The Court of the Air)

‘Wonderfully assured … Hunt knows what his audience like and gives it to them with a sardonic wit and carefully developed tension’
Time Out: August 2007 (Review: Paperback edition, The Court of the Air)

'Fast-paced and accelerating all the way, the story rewards reading with close attention, to the intricacies of the plot, to the creativity in world-building and language which makes this world both readily comprehensible and yet enthrallingly strange.'
Albedo One: Ireland's magazine of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Issue 33. (Review: Paperback edition, The Court of the Air)

More reviews ...

Got a book review for us? Send your submissions to reviews@sfcrowsnest.com

The SF community & black kettles
Science fiction, says Uncle Geoff, is a genre to be proud to say you belong to and a measure of eccentricity to be healthy with than to be without. It doesn’t bite or scare or hurt anyone except in the content of what you watch or read and there are so many more of us today that it no longer a dirty word. Be proud.

Do you like curling up and reading a book?

Do you have a preference for fantasy, SF or horror? Do you find it the greatest pastime you have next to being on your computer?Are you very vocal about what you like and don’t like in what you read? Would you like to share your thoughts with others about books? Would you like an endless supply of books to do this with? Do you live in the UK?

If you’ve been nodding your head up to this point then link in below and see if you have what it takes to be a reviewer at SFCrowsnest. If you have that special knack to read and write or want to develop said skill then the only way you’re going to find out is to take the plunge yourself rather than wait for others to do it first. It’s got to be better than waiting for the sun to come out. Check out our recruitment procedures through the following link and let me decide if you have what it takes ... gfwillmetts@hotmail.com


January 2008 DAILY NEWS UPDATES

J Lawrence (Larry) Cassingham dies
Cassingham was the technical advisor on various scifi TV shows from the sixties and fifties such as the Atomic Kid and Magnetic Monster.

The Velvet Glove
There's a new episode of the downloadable Time Traveler Show which features SFF author Harry Harrison's The Velvet Glove.

Knight Rider
A short teaser trailer for the Knight Rider remake. And will sir be requiring cheese with that?

Richard Branson: King of the Muppets?
The honourees for the 2007 Jim Henson Honours were announced by the Jim Henson Company. The 2007 Jim Henson honourees include Richard Branson, British Entrepreneur, for conquering space, and Neil Gaiman, fantasy writer, for, umm, writing some fantasy.

Hancock
Sounds like a British 1950s comedian? Nope, a little more than a half-hour with this one ... it's a trailer for a new superhero comedy movie where Will Smith plays a vagrant down-and-out Superman-type being.

Coraline
Trailer for an animated movie based on Neil Gaimen's Coraline. One for the kids.

Hellboy II
The next online trailer for the movie Hellboy II the Golden Army. The big red demon thing that works for the US secret service returns to kick demonic butt again. Looks fun.

The Signal
Trailer for the film The Signal. Looks like a horror/scifi affair with a signal from a TV set creating monsters in the US. Like the film says in it's blurb, no one escapes The Signal.

Dark Charismatic
The latest client of the John Jarrold Literary Agency is UK fantasy and horror novelist Rod Rees. His novel Dark Charismatic is set in the London of 1878, this is a reworking of the Jekyll & Hyde story, told through the eyes of Henry Jekyll’s cold, aloof and religious wife, Margaret.

Torchwood season II
A new trailer for the second series of the Dr Who TV spin-off, Torchwood, hits the virtual streets.

The Tomorrow People run out of future
Season six of the Tomorrow People audio dramas has had to be cancelled by British audio publisher Big Finish. This was due to ongoing license negotiations. Seasons one to five will remain available at a discounted rate until 7th January 2008 at which point the entire series will be permanently removed from sale. Tomorrow People was one of the classic UK sci-fi TV series from the 1970s.

Happy-slapping the Earth
The incredible amount of forest devastation at Tunguska a century ago in Siberia may have been caused by an asteroid only a fraction as large as previously published estimates, suggests a new supercomputer simulation from the Sandia National Laboratories.

Snogger Who
The Doctor gets up close and personal with his Christmas companion, Astrid Peth, in the Doctor Who 2007 Christmas special, Voyage Of The Damned, on BBC One. Well, it's Kylie. I'd snog her, and I'm a girl. Who needs Dr Who SlashFic when you've got Russell T Davies on the job?

Double Hobbit movies to be made by PJ
Peter Jackson, MGM and New Line Cinema told the Nest that they are now to produce two films, The Hobbit and a sequel to The Hobbit (doh). New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally. Jackson and New Line told SFcrowsnest that they have settled their legal battle over the money from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

New Wall-E trailer
There's a new trailer for Pixar's animated movie about the last robot left on an ecologically ravaged Earth. Ah, sweet.

Cometh the Death Star
A powerful jet from a super massive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new findings from NASA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake.

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The second trailer for the next movie in the Narnia Trilogy. It might be Xmas humbug, but this one is strictly just for the kids.

10,000 BC
Trailer for a silly fantasy movie about the life and times of an ace mammoth hunter. The Flintstones was more accurate than this nonsense. Where's Raquel Welsh when you need her?

Dante 01
Nice-looking trailer for a new French science fiction movie. Mais nous ne parlons pas français. Pitié. Let's hope the DVD comes with subtitles.

Startrek.com given a photon torpedo through the heart
The web site www.StarTrek.com - once one of the most visited scifi sites in the world (when Trek was still running) is being closed down now there's no active TV franchise to support it's existence.

Batman II
The latest trailer for the new Batman movie with the return of the Joker. Why so glum? Ya-ha-ha.

Monsters in clover
A new trailer for the movie Cloverfield from that bloke wot did Lost. Aliens invade New York and cause trouble, with the movie being shot Blair Witch style from people's mobile phones and camcorders.

Tor-medous
Airlie Lawson and Tara Hiatt, Rights Directors at HarperCollins in London, have confirmed a major two-book deal with Claire Eddy of Tor Books in New York, to publish The Court Of The Air by Stephen Hunt, and his follow-up fantasy novel, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves.

Bengal Station
UK scifi publisher Solaris have bought three Bengal Station novels from science fiction author Eric Brown. Necropath, Xenopath and Cosmopath feature Jeff Vaughan, a telepath employed by the spaceport on Bengal Station, a vast twenty-level city-port that dominates the ocean between India and Burma.

Penelope
Details of a new fantasy movie called Penelope. Set in the modern day, the tale of Penelope (Christina Ricci) did not start well, her beauty transformed by an evil spell. To the world outside the news was big, a poor little girl, with the nose of a pig. How to break the curse? Well a handsome prince has to be made to propose.

Alethea is Hungry
Alethea Eason's debut young-adult science fiction novel, Hungry, has been published by HarperCollins under its US Eos imprint.

Aliens vs. Predator Requiem megatrailer
More than a trailer, this is the first actual five minutes of the new movie Aliens vs. Predator Requiem. Lots of action on board a crashing predator starship and a SOS being sent out. The bad news is that they're all heading for Earth.

Lost: Fourth Season
Online trailer for the new season of the TV series Lost. Just what the heck is going on out there on that island?

Terry Pratchett suffering from Alzheimers
Bestselling fantasy author Terry Pratchett, creator of the intelligent and greatly humanitarian Discworld series of novels, has sadly been diagnosed with a variant of the disease Alzheimers.

Spellcrackers.com
Science fiction agent to the stars John Jarrold has sold world rights in three supernatural thrillers by Suzanne MacLeod, a debut novelist, to Jo Fletcher at British publisher Gollancz for a decent five-figure sum in UK pounds.

Wenger is the new emperor of Dr Who
BBC Wales has said that Piers Wenger is to take over the reins as Executive Producer for Doctor Who's fifth series when Julie Gardner leaves that role in January 2009.

Tolkien for the wealthy
The Children of Hurin collector’s edition has just been launched, signed and numbered by both Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee. There are only 500 available, priced at £350 each.

Whip crack away
USA today reveals what the new Indiana Jones movie is going to contain. The basic plot of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is Indy going up against Stalin's agents in the 1950s to get an ancient crystal skull made by an advanced technology - either Atlantis or alien.

Wheel of Time to be finished by author Brandon Sanderson
US science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor Books has said that scifi novelist Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the final novel in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series. Jordan died September 16th 2007 after a battle with the blood disease amyloidosis. As RJ wrote himself, The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time?

Speed Racer
He's going to be the best... if they don't destroy him first. New trailer for the Speed Racer flick, courtesy of the Wachowski - a la Matrix - brothers. Looks fun and colorful, if a little light.

Inkheart
Trailer for a forthcoming fantasy movie that revolves around a father's ability to read a book and allow the people in it to cross into the real world. There's one book he really shouldn't have read. Gulp.

All change at Orbit
Lots of changes going on over at British science fiction imprint Orbit and the Little, Brown Book Group.

Fancy a finger?
Director Tim Burton is bringing Stephen Sondheim’s musical thriller to the big screen with Johnny Depp as the eponymous Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in Sweeney Todd.

Odyssey Writing Workshop 2008
The 2006 workshop for budding science fiction writers will be held from June 9th to July 18th at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. This year, Odyssey is hosting Nancy Kress as the writer-in-residence. Author of twenty-three books, including science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, short story collections, young adult novels, and three excellent books on writing fiction, she has won three Nebulas and a Hugo for her short fiction and the John W. Campbell Award for her novel Probability Space.

Shrek The Halls
The BBC brings Shrek to the small screen in his first Christmas special for BBC One. BBC One will host the UK premiere of the Shrek The Halls on Christmas Eve 2007. What's it about? Just when Shrek thought he could finally sit back, relax and enjoy his happily ever after with his new family, the most joyous of all holidays arrives. It's Christmas Eve, and everyone is filled with holiday cheer, except for Shrek. He isn't exactly the picture of yuletide joy, but for the sake of Fiona and the kids, he tries to get into the spirit of things as only an ogre can.

Blue War
In March 2008, Solaris will be releasing the new Punktown novel from Jeffrey Thomas. Blue War is a science fiction thriller set on a colony world in another dimension, with blue jungles and exotic cultures. Private investigator Jeremy Stake is brought in by military leaders to investigate cloned human remains found in an otherwise empty city, and it leads him into a plot that could re-ignite an old war between two alien races.

Gusts of the solar wind
Images from NASA-funded telescopes aboard a Japanese satellite have shed new light about the sun's magnetic field and the origins of solar wind, which disrupts power grids, satellites and communications on Earth.

The mouse that roared
The tiny Isle of Man rushes to reach the moon in a mad bid to claim the Lunar X-Prize. But does the scientist in charge of the project look like Peter Sellers?

Tor makes the manga move
US science fiction publisher Tor Books is getting together with manga house Seven Seas to form a new manga imprint.

Wanted (but later)
Universal Pictures has moved the release date of its fantasy-action-thriller Wanted from spring to summer. The film will now be released on Friday, June 27th 2008, rather than its former release date of March 28th 2008.

Prince Caspian
There's a new trailer for the second movie in the Narnia series, Prince Caspian.

Jane's dragon is grinning
Weta Productions’ debut television series, Jane and the Dragon, has been nominated for The Best Animated Television Production at the 35th Annual Annie Awards.

Who - the heck
Trevor Baxendale, Simon Guerrier and James Swallow. will be signing their new Doctor Who books at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2 H 8JR, on Saturday 12th January 2008, 1-2pm.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V S Redick, the debut novel by a client of the John Jarrold Literary Agency, has been confirmed as Waterstone’s Fantasy and SF Book of the Month for February 2008, when it is being published by Gollancz.

The Last Enemy
Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Carlyle head an cast in a near-future scifi thriller - shades of V for Vendetta - about a man whose search for the truth about his brother's death catapults him into an international conspiracy - and a passionate love affair.

Ashes To Ashes
Gene Hunt is back, bigger and brasher than ever before in the are they-aren't they cop time traveling TV series - but he's no longer the self-styled Sheriff of Manchester.

Death Star support
Ever wanted to know what life in the Death Star's IT department is like? Muse no more, SFcrowsnest readers, muse no more.

Comet-whipped
A NASA satellite has captured the first images of a collision between a comet and a solar hurricane.

Apparitions on the BBC
Martin Shaw (Judge John Deed, George Gently) heads the cast of a two-part supernatural thriller about an exorcist battling demons in what he discovers to be the beginning of the End of Days - the final battle of good against evil.

Big girls with big guns in Sister Time
The sequel to John Ringo's sci-fi novel Cally's War features the return of Michelle O'Neal, the first human-Sohon mentat. Sister Time (Baen Books-December 2007) is about life, love and covert operations amongst the universe's ultimate dysfunctional family.

Torchwood relegated
Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off by writer Russell T Davies, is due back on the UK's small screen mid-January 2008, this time relegated to BBC Two.

Extraordinary Engines
Airships, automatons and aether ... Extraordinary Engines is a new anthology of original stories featuring a range of Steampunk-inspired stories by authors including Daniel Abraham, Kage Baker, Stephen Baxter, Beth Bernobich, Eric Brown, Keith Brooke, Paul Di Filippo, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Jay Lake, Margo Lanagan, James Lovegrove, Ian R. MacLeod, Michael Moorcock, James Morrow, Kim Newman, Robert Reed, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, Lucius Shepard, Brian Stableford, Jeff VanderMeer and Marly Youman.

Xmas Ansible
The Christmas issue of British science fiction zine Ansible has just landed in our email tray. Harlan Ellison is angry. Plus ça change, Mr Langford. Also, the SFWA attempts to commit public suicide.

Xmas issue of Clarkesworld
The December issue of Clarkesworld looks good. SFF author Steven Erikson is
interviewed by Jeff VanderMeer.

Sarah Connor Chronicles
New trailer for the Terminator TV series - aka the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The Night Sessions
Science fiction author Ken MacCleod is working on his new novel, The Night Sessions, set in a future Scotland.

Got news for us? Send your press releases to pressreleases@sfcrowsnest.com

One of the nice things about being online is that SFcrowsnest can publish slightly off-the-wall material that would never find a home in a highly targeted advertising-ruled print magazine world. An article we always trot out as an example of this, is Uncle Geoff's piece about what the heck fuel & engine combination the Thunderbirds craft might have used in the classic 1960s TV series of the same name.

Let's face it, you're not going to read the likes of that in SFX, Starlog, Starburst, Interzone or the rest of the printed world! If there's an article inside you - could be continuity errors in Andromeda, your latest work of short fiction, or just why you think Iain Banks' novels are the greatest SF since a little man called Verne put pen to paper - do drop Geoff a line below.

Contact Uncle Geoff in the rainy English countryside at contributions@sfcrowsnest.com

We still fund this puppy's bandwidth and other miscellaneous expenses out of our own pocket, so the spirit of volunteerism is about the only thing that keeps our happy ship in hyperspace. Any time, articles, stories or reviews you can submit are always appreciated.

Current requirements: December 2007

- short fiction
- articles
- comment pieces
- convention reports
- book reviewers (see below)
- Television reviews ... Stargate, Andromeda, Trek etc
- Movie reviews
- Games reviews ... RPGs, scenarios, wargames etc
- SFF models and figures ... reviews, painting tips, scratchbuilds, conversions

BTW, if you're interested in becoming a book or DVD reviewer, we'd really, really (no, really) appreciate it if you were UK-based. Posting out the hundred of goodies we get every week is an expensive business, and extra airmail costs could lead to Geoff, Jessica, Mark and Steve eating dog food in a crazed economy-drive of death. Of course, if you're based in the US, Canada or Australia and you fancy reviewing your own drip-feed of goodies resulting from your science fiction and fantasy addiction, then that okay by us ... but we can't supply you ourselves! Sorry.

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