REVIEW OF STRANGE BODIES AT ARCFINITY

strange_bodiesMy review of Marcel Theroux’s new novel, Strange Bodies, is online now at Arcfinity.

When this arrived in the post I realised that I had actually read Theroux’s previous novel – the Clarke Award nominated Far North – but had absolutely no recollection of what it was about. I spotted it on the shelf, reread the first chapter and remembered none of it. It had made no impression on me whatsoever. That was worrying.

Further inspection of Strange Bodies revealed a blurb from John Gray, the philosopher-prince of miserablism, on the rear in which he claimed that this novel challenges “everything we believe about what it means to be human”. My heart sank further. How many terrible reviews of terrible novels have I read which praise the exploration of “what it means to be human”? What else are novels about? What would be the point of a novel that didn’t explore what it meant to be human?

So, bad first impressions. Did the novel live down to my expectations? There’s only one way to find out – read the review.

(I think I’ve started to write trailers for my own reviews… that’s worrying.)

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REVIEW OF CURVE OF THE EARTH ON ARCFINITY

curveoftheearthMy review of Simon Morden’s The Curve of the Earth is now online at Arcfinity.

I quite enjoyed the first three novels, but this was a bit disappointing – though I’m still hoping the later volumes could bring a return to form and I still want to find out what Morden has in store for Samuil Petrovich.

But, hey, don’t let me spoil your “fun”. Go on over and read the full thing, and maybe stay and read some of the other things on that lovely website.

 

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MY FAVOURITE SHORT STORY (SORT OF…)

solarisrising2So with Solaris Rising 2 being released tomorrow, the people at Solaris asked the anthology’s authors (you can read my effort, “The First Dance”, in those pages along with some stories that are really, really good) to write something about our favourite short stories.

I couldn’t pick one.

So instead I talked a bit about the first science fiction short story that lodged itself firmly in my memory and that had a huge effect on the way I thought about the world, “The Star” by Arthur C Clarke.

You can read what I wrote by clicking here. And, by poking around a bit, you can read what the other contributors picked.

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TALES FROM TURKEY CITY: PUSHBUTTON WORDS

From issue 59 of Focus the fourth of my pieces of flash fiction “inspired” by the common writing errors and bad habits catalogued in The Turkey City Lexicon. This time, it’s all about pressing buttons with clichés.

Words used to evoke a cheap emotional response without engaging the intellect or the critical faculties. Commonly found in story titles, they include such bits of bogus lyricism as “star,” “dance,” “dream,” “song,” “tears” and “poet,” clichés calculated to render the SF audience misty-eyed and tender-hearted.

A Song to the Sea of Tears

The tears were warm on Alicia’s silken cheek. The movement of the ocean stirred a susurration, sea against shingle, that seemed to grow more insistent as she listened. Seagulls screamed, wheeled beneath fast-moving clouds, and turned inland. Alicia saw none of this.

Her true love was lost.
Continue reading

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SPECULATIVE FICTION 2012

specyfiction72ppiAnother publication announcement – let’s us hope this doesn’t start happening too often, I’m sure we’d all get terribly bored. This time it’s for a piece of non-fiction, my review/rant on Stina Leicht’s first two Fey and the Fallen books has been selected for Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary

As is often the case, I find myself in the kind of company in which I have the vague sense that I’m the idiot boy in the corner that everyone is patting on the head and congratulating for only spilling a little of his weak lemon drink down the front of his shirt. I’m sure the Germans have a word for that…

Despite all this, I think this is book is a great idea and I’d have been buying it even if my essay wasn’t in there. I am, therefore, especially chuffed to have a piece included, and I’m looking forward to seeing which the other pieces that the editors, Jared Shurin and Justin Landon, have selected. And I’m already looking forward to the 2013 edition.

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WORDS OF ADVICE FOR GEORGE

So I was waiting for a work call and I picked up RH Tawney’s The Acquisitive Society off the top of a pile of books. Published in 1920, the introduction contained some good advice which, I fear – as I am now listening to George Osborne beat the UK’s head against a brick wall for another year – no one in government can hear.

There are times which are not ordinary, and in such times it is not enough to follow the road. It is necessary to know where it leads, and, if it leads nowhere, to follow another. The search for another involves reflection, which is uncongenial to the bustling people who describe themselves as practical, because they take things as they are and leave them as they are. But the practical thing for a traveller who is uncertain of his path is not to proceed with the utmost rapidity in the wrong direction: it is to consider how to find the right one. And the practical thing for a nation which has stumbled upon one of the turning points of history is not to behave as though nothing very important were involved, as if it did not matter whether it turned right or left, went up hill or down dale, provided that it continued doing with a little more energy what it has done hitherto; but to consider whether what it has done hitherto is wise and, if it is not wise, to alter it.

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SOLARIS RISING 2 AND ME

solarisrising2So busy with stuff I hadn’t noticed that the table of contents for Solaris Rising 2 had been announced. I’m chuffed to be in this book alongside a list of very fine writers.

I’m only slightly worried that I’m the one whose been stuck in to make everyone else look good.

Still, it’s a very good content list and Ian Whates has done an impressive job of putting it together. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Continue reading

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AS IF ANYONE CARED: 2012 BSFA NOMINATIONS AND STUFF

hawkeye_6_coverSo I was putting together my nominations for the BSFA Awards and it kind of morphed into a wider longer look back at the things I read and enjoyed in 2012. Of course everyone else has already done this and no one really cares, but here’s my list. Nominations in bold are for stuff I don’t think anyone else has yet nominated for the BSFA shortlists.

Overall, it was a pretty good year, sf-wise. In particular I think there’s a good range of interesting and engaging sf novels to choose from even if my list of preferences is very male and very white. Some of my favourite fiction books this year were single-author collections of short stories – it’s a shame I can’t nominate the Barry or Johnson for something or other. Continue reading

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DOING SOMETHING STUPID: RESPONDING TO A REVIEW

Dan Hartland has posted a review of Rocket Science, the anthology edited by Ian Sales, and he has commented on my story “Pathfinders”. [I’ve always loved Elvis Costello’s version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” – please hum along as you read this post.]

For instance, Martin McGrath’s “Pathfinders” returns us again to Mars, and again to an international team of scientists. As in “A Biosphere Ends,” a catastrophe leads to intense political fallings-out: “The Russians hugged one wall, the Americans the other. The Europeans sat at the table. No one spoke” (p. 101). Meanwhile, China is elsewhere, seeking to outdo the rest of the world. There’s something in McGrath’s admittedly tense and well-turned tale, however, which speaks to a weird lack of inclusivity in Rocket Science: not only is China’s emergence as a power in the space game routinely depicted as something to be feared, but space travel is still largely seen as the province of square-jawed men. McGrath attempts to allow space for queer voices—his main character, Chen, is conducting a homosexual affair with one of the Americans—but even this takes place in light of the fact that “Brad was married with children and neither of them had ever pretended that the relationship had a life beyond the mission” (p. 93). Needless to say, things do not end well for the lovers. There is a real clumsiness about McGrath’s efforts which are very much embedded in a broader set of assumptions evinced at almost every stage of Rocket Science, from its characters to its roster of writers, only five out of twenty-two of whom, for example, are women.

Dan Hartland
Strange Horizons

Never respond to reviews. That’s the rule isn’t it? Never respond to reviews. This is particularly difficult when the reviewer seems to miss the point of your story, even at the most basic level: in this case “Pathfinders” is not set on Mars, it is set on Earth – Antarctica, to be precise (to be fair, there is some deliberate misdirection in the early part of the story and Hartland isn’t the only reader whose missed the switch – so it must be partly my fault). More fundamentally, though, it is frustrating when the reviewer assigns attitudes or views to you or your story that are the opposite to those you hoped to get across.

So, sod the rule. I’m going to respond to the review. Or, at least, I want to reflect on it a bit. Continue reading

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ESKRAGH IN DARK FICTION MAGAZINE

Things have been quiet here for a few weeks and are likely to remain so for a while longer – apologies. However, I’d just like to draw your attention to the appearance of my story “Eskragh” in issue 12 (titled Night Legends) of Dark Fiction Magazine.Thanks to the editors for selecting it and transforming it so artfullly into a podcast.

It is a very strange thing to hear my words read by someone else – especially this story which is quite a personal tale. “Eskragh” first appeared in Albedo One.

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