A new year is upon us, which means in the happy lands of SF the first prize shortlists are peeking over the lip of their nests. Here’s the BSFA shortlist; Clarke, Nebula, Hugo and Phil Dick are all in the offing, sifting through 2008’s output to boil it down to a list of the best of the best.
Award shortlists are all rubbish.
Let me explain what I mean. Continue reading SF Awards – rubbish.
Either it’s a slow week over at New Scientist, or they decided to throw us science fictional types a bone… either way, we’ll point out their top ten list of science fiction gadgets and devices that are nearing reality*.
As such lists do, it includes the gloriously impractical (e.g. the long-fabled jetpack) alongside a couple of genuinely useful items (like a universal audio translator and an artificial gill for breathing under water).
It’s a shame there aren’t more things like reliable sources of drinkable water, effective renewable energy generators and cures for diseases… but that’s us science fiction geeks for you, always with our head in the clouds. If you could pick any sf-nal technology to make a reality, what would it be?
* It would appear, possibly unsurprisingly, that the New Scientist definition of ‘reality’ is one that includes you having a lot of money.
It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the coming week sees the first instalment of a new monthly column here at Futurismic!
Its creator is no stranger to the site – having been a regular commenter, as well as providing us a review of all of the Arthur C Clarke Award shortlist nominees for 2008 – and may well be no stranger to your bookshelves, whether in the form of his science fiction novels, criticism or histories.
Of whom do I speak? Well, let’s let The Adam Roberts Project explain it for [him/it]self, shall we?
The Adam Roberts Project is an algorithm for observing the world and generating text. It belongs to the future (hence ‘futurismic’) but more specifically to a 1970s future. The future promised us by Prog. The future we have been hitherto denied.
Among Adam Roberts Project’s previous productions are the concept albums Genesil, Land of Head-Yes, 21st Century Swiftly Man and Yellow Blue Tarkus.
Columns will be monthly and will be varied. No refunds will be offered.
The Adam Roberts Project also blogs at europrogovision.blogspot.com
Next Wednesday, we will be told why all genre fiction awards shortlists are rubbish.
Rest assured, I shall be pushing for a future column that explains the ongoing absence of our jetpacks…
Here we go again – it’s your weekly dose of free science fiction to read on the intertubes! Dive on in…
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Just the one from Feedbooks:
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SpaceWesterns presents “Semantica” by Fredrick Obermeyer
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Strange Horizons presents “The Shangri-La Affair” by Lavie Tidhar
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Subterranean Press Online presents “Three Fancies from the Infernal Garden” By C S E Cooney
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Here’s an untitled snippet from Paul McAuley
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A couple of stories from Interzone have made their way onto the BSFA Awards shortlist, and so TTA Press have set them free in PDF format so everyone can get a taste:
Escape Velocity celebrates similar nomination by going one further: you can download their first three issues in PDF format for a limited time.
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Here’s a week’s worth of Everyday Weirdness:
Rather than enter all of these manually each week, I’ll just recommend you grab the Everyday Weirdness RSS feed.
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As always, both you and we owe the inclusion of these little morsels to our vigilant buddies over at SF Signal:
Plus another huge batch from the Free Speculative Fiction site. Phew!
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Finally, here are a few bite-sized morsels of Friday Flash Fiction. The theme this week was ‘bad film title puns’…
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And that’s it for another week – don’t forget you can let us know about stuff that you or someone you know has published; if it’s free, science fictional and on the internet, we want to know about it!
In the meantime, have a great weekend, ladies and gents.
It’s Friday once again, and Friday is Free Fiction time here at Futurismic… a somewhat smaller batch this week, but still plenty to keep your eyeballs busy.
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A couple of novels at Manybooks:
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A lonesome short classic at Feedbooks:
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Polu Texni presents “Very Truly Yours, Part I” by Seth Gordon
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Strange Horizons presents “Greetings from Kampala” by Angela Ambroz
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Tor.com presents “Errata” by Jeff VanderMeer
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Jeff VanderMeer himself has a fictional snippet from his Ambergris world: “Zamilon in Waiting”
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Via Jim Steel:
Blood, Blade & Thruster is pulling the plug on itself on January 19. If you haven’t done so yet, go and download the pdfs of the magazines before it’s too late.
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Here’s Memory #31 by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
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And now for our regular collection of stuff that SF Signal‘s all-hearing ear caught the rumblings of. First off, they’ve got a round-up of the latest additions to the Free Speculative Fiction site , which is probably big enough to keep you reading until summer arrives.
Then there’s an assortment of stuff they linked to through the week just gone:
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And finally some Friday Flash Fiction:
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And that’s about all we’ve got this week. Keep your plugs, tip-offs and recommendations coming in; deadline is 1800 GMT every Friday. Have a great weekend!
