Offworld Report for April 2003
01/05/2003 . Source: Stephen Hunt 
Interviews with authors Larry Niven, Whitley Strieber, Christopher Priest, Ted Chiang, Robert Sheckley, Stephen Baxter, as well as the owners of Golden Gryphon Press, not to mention the cast of the movie Bulletproof Monk; plus Christopher Reeve guest stars on Smallville. Nice. Just time for a couple of news shorts, before we move onto the best SFF to be found offworld the 'Nest across the glorious month of April 2003. Ansible over E-asy
Chris Priest and David Langford have cunningly given the filthy world of commerce a wee group-hug by starting a new e-book imprint over at www.ansible-editions.co.uk. Their first titles will be the unpublished John Sladek novella Wholly Smokes and David I. Masson's 1968 collection The Caltraps of Time, somewhat expanded with three of his 1970s stories to comprise Masson's complete SF output. For those who prefer print editions to the ephemeral world of bits and bytes, they also have a co-publishing deal with Cosmos Books: Caltraps being scheduled for print-on-demand release later this year. There is also a new Langford title from Cosmos, Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002. Saddam the Slayer
In a comedic twist of fate, the Conan-like fantasy paintings found in Saddam Hussein's family love shack - dubbed 'Mistress World' by the amused fellows in the US Marine Core - which were, in short order, puriently splashed across most the world press as prima-facie example of Sad-Man's deranged self image, are now being said to be the work of award-winning fantasy illustrator, Rowena Merrill. More specifically, her paintings Guardian Serpent and King Dragon. Whether they are straight reproductions or knock-offs by some court illustrator is as yet unclear. It makes you wonder what the old supreme ruler slapped on the CD player when he brought his lovelies back to Saddam's House of Love ... the Clannad soundtrack for Lord of the Rings perhaps? Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr. Larry Niven
Ringworld author Larry Niven interviewed. The Monk and the Bullets
The stars of Bulletproof Monk interviewed about bringing a high octane kung-fu comic book to the cinema. Strieber Man
Author Whitley Strieber chats about communing with aliens, werewolves and his creative muse. Big Country gets a Big Database
The long lost ISFDB (Internet Speculative Fiction Database) finds a new home at a Texas university. Frequent Filers
Using the web as his tool of choice, JPK does a ‘where are they now’ feature, for the writers featured in the first issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (1977). 
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