Category Archives: Science Fiction

Farewell, World SF

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Cheryl

Yesterday Lavie Tidhar announced that the World SF Blog that he and Charles Tan had run so successfully is closing down. There is a final post here. While I will definitely miss the blog, I know how much work these … Continue reading →

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That’s The Way To Do It!

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Cheryl

Mr. Punch dealt with people who annoyed him by whacking them over the head with his stick. These days, violence of that sort is frowned upon, but you can still whack annoying people over the head metaphorically by doing good … Continue reading →

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The SFWA Thing

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Cheryl

I’ve kept meaning to post about this, but it all blew up while I was in Canada and I’ve been in catch-up mode ever since. Today I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, and we have … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | 2 Comments

The Guardian Goes Down Under

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Cheryl

I’ve been noting a lot of Australian political news on the Guardian website of late, presumably heralding a big push into that market. And now they have made a play for that culture that David Gower jokingly suggested that they … Continue reading →

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ISF #4 Is Live

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Cheryl

Issue #4 of International Speculative Fiction is now available. Includes stories by Zoran Živković, Ken Liu and S.P. Somtow. There is also an interview with Zoran. Sean Wright reviews Filipina writer, Eliza Victoria, which is very useful as Small Blue … Continue reading →

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Åcon Meanders On

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Cheryl

What’s new since yesterday? Oh yes, there was sushi. There was also a room party. Someone brought a bottle of Jura Prophecy. I can’t imagine who that might have been. It seemed to go down very well. Otto revealed a … Continue reading →

Posted in Conventions, Food, Science Fiction | 1 Comment

Me Elsewhere – Feminist SF at For Books’ Sake

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Cheryl

I have a new article up at the For Books’ Sake blog. They originally asked me to list 10 top women SF writers. I rather stretched that, and even so all of the comments I’ve got are about (very fine) … Continue reading →

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Woman’s Hour on SF – A Train Wreck

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Cheryl

Well, that was dreadful: a self-fulfilling prophecy full of misinformation. I suspect that today’s Woman’s Hour feature on science fiction was doomed from the start, because the initial assumption of the piece appears to have been that SF is only … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, Radio, Science Fiction | 6 Comments

The Future of Gender

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Cheryl

A few weeks ago the feminist website, Autostraddle, announced that they were looking for trans women to write for them. I’m always happy to bring good science fiction to a new audience, so I pitched them an article about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender, Science Fiction | 2 Comments

Woman’s Hour Investigates SF

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Cheryl

Thanks to one of my readers, I can let you know about this coming Friday’s edition of the Radio 4 show, Woman’s Hour, in which they will be asking, “What’s happened to the tough women in science fiction?” Knowing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio, Science Fiction | 1 Comment

Small Blue Planet: France

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Cheryl

C’est animé? C’est vivant? Je ne sais pas. La traduction, elle est difficile. Especially when you are as bad at languages as I am. Thankfully my guests on Small Blue Planet are very good at English. Many thanks to Mélanie … Continue reading →

Posted in Awards, Conventions, Fandom, Podcasts, Science Fiction, Translations | 2 Comments

Adventure Rocketship is Agogo

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Cheryl

Many moons ago now I remember having lunch in Bristol with Jonathan Wright, a senior book reviewer for SFX. He was planning on launching a science fiction magazine, and wanted my advice. I’m not sure that my experiences with Salon … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Science Fiction | 2 Comments

Zambia’s Space Program Need’s You – RT

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Cheryl

Here’s some info on a Kickstarter project I have backed that is getting down to the wire: Afronauts is a short film that follows a group of ragtag Zambian exiles trying to beat America to the moon on the night … Continue reading →

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Introducing Aethernet

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Cheryl

Something else that was launched at Eastercon is Aethernet, a brand new fiction magazine edited by Barbara Ballantyne. It is somewhat different from the likes of Clarkesworld, Lightspeed et al in that it will contain only serial fiction, not stand … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | 3 Comments

Fairy Tale Retellings

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Cheryl

On Tuesday Patrick Ness will be reading from his new novel, The Crane Wife, at Mr. B’s in Bath. I’m reading the book at the moment and it is excellent thus far. I’m afraid the event is sold out, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Readings, Science Fiction | 11 Comments

Science Fiction and Innovation

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Cheryl

Jon Turney’s working paper on the impact of science fiction on technology is now available from the sponsors, NESTA. There is also a complimentary paper from some folks at Sussex University available here. Jon blogs about the paper here. Despite … Continue reading →

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Busy Week

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Cheryl

Sorry about the lack of bloggage recently. Yesterday and much of today are being taken up with an urgent piece of work for the day job. It makes me money, and nothing else I do does, so I have to … Continue reading →

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ISF Anthology 2012

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Cheryl

International Speculative Fiction has published an annual anthology for 2012. It has an impressive table of contents, including Lavie Tidhar, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro, Joyce Chng, Ken Liu & Aliette de Bodard. You may remember Gerson from the Brazil edition … Continue reading →

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More Visibility Numbers

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Cheryl

Over at Neth Space there’s a bit more information on the question of who gets reviewed. Neth gets sent books to review, and for the last 6 months those broke down as 70% books by men, 30% by women. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, Publishing, Reviewing, Science Fiction | Comments Off

Bumper Issue of Chinese SF

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Cheryl

Via Jonathan Clements I have discovered that the magazine Renditions, published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has produced a bumper issue of Chinese SF in translation. There are stories by Liu Cixin, Han Song, La La, Zhao Haihong, … Continue reading →

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