The Weeks that Were
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Another busy few weeks with some great events, a popular competition and some big announcements.
Starting with the news:
- The Kitschies - our annual award - got bigger with Rebecca Levene and Lauren Beukes (2010 Red Tentacle & Arthur C. Clarke Award winner) joining this year's judging panel. We'll have more Kitschies-related announcements over the coming months, but, needless to say, we're pretty tickled right now.
- Lauren Beukes & Joey HiFi are hanging out in London on Saturday, 13 August. Why not come join them? (A huge thanks to the British Library and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for making this possible)
- We've also got one more big announcement that we've been saving for this week. A few all-seeing eyes on Twitter may have pieced it together already, but the full n' proper story will come out shortly.
After the jump, a recap of the reviews, features and events of the past two weeks.
The latest reviews:
- S.L. Grey's The Mall (2011) (and why dystopias are scarier when you like them)
- Kim Lakin-Smith's Cyber Circus (2011) (and fighting to become human)
- Simon Morden's The Equations of Life (2011) (and why hard SF isn't always hard to read)
- Shepard Rifkin's The Murderer Vine (1970) (and how a good murder is a timeless thing)
- Steven Savile's The Black Chalice (2011) (and the nobility of great pulp)
- Madison Smartt Bell's Straight Cut (1986) (and why angst alone doth not a noir make)
- A short story round-up with KJ Parker's "Amor Vincit Omnia" (2010), William Harrison's "The Runaway" (1952) and Stephen Arr's "Chain of Command" (1954) (and how to make something meaningful in a very small space)
- Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love (2010) (and why spinoffs need to forge their own paths)
- Brian Wood's Northlanders (and how "history" need not be bothered with the details)
- Monsters & Mullets looked at Gremlins (1984) (and how the Spielberg stole Christmas)
On the Features front, we said farewell to Harry Potter, admired some aliens, ranted about Dungeons & Dragons, watched the detectives, and, in her column, Bex surprised us all by confessing that maybe she's not a better person than David.
Last week we also hosted an exclusive extract from Grant Morrison's Supergods and also gave away several copies of the book in our "#supergodlike" competition. It is amazing how many people would write themselves into comics, purely to get killed off in horrific ways. Our readers...
Finally, out the mythical "real" world, there were a number of great events.
Sophia McDougall was the guest of honor at this month's BSFA meeting (the meetings are open, free and fun - we'll be returning this August for Kim Lakin-Smith). Orbit Books threw a great summer signing (we met Tim Lebbon and Simon Morden) and Simon Spurrier launched A Serpent Uncoiled at Forbidden Planet. Like the BSFA events, the Forbidden Planet signings are free, open to everyone and a lot of fun.