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The
Impatient Writer's Guide to Worldbuilding by Victoria Strauss
Another fab installment in the Writers Bloc series from artesix's
guest writers ...
(ARTICLES)
Why
I Write Military Science Fiction
Three things pushed me toward writing military SF. The first reason
is history. In the long history of humanity so far, war is almost
as constant as death and taxes. Since the best guide to future behavior
is past behavior, the constancy of intertribal conflict suggests
that there will be war for a very long time to come.
(ARTICLES)
Who
is Dr. Strangelove?
Stanley Kubrick's film, Dr.Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop
Worrying And Love the Bomb, begins with a rolling fog of rumors.
A foreign country is plotting weapons of mass destruction, a Doomsday
machine, against the United States. Then it segues to beautiful,
romantic music and two B-52s having sex...er, refueling midair.
Is this a good dream or a bad dream?
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
11/2004
Translating
Fantasy and Science Fiction : The Peak of Creativity
We all know that many of the most loved science fiction and fantasy
authors' work is admired worldwide, but little do we know about
the people who made it possible for them to become so well-known.
Apart from the people involved in publishing there are quite a lot
of other professionals without whom it wouldn't have been possible.
These are the translators.
10/2004
The
Weird Tale of 'Pulgasari'
Mark takes a look at the fantasy film Pulgasari; featuring a beast
which was a North Korean giant monster who ate iron and grew to
hundreds of feet high. It's director was kidnapped from South Korea,
taken to North Korea, imprisoned for four years with no explanation,
and then forced to make the only Marxist monster movie.
06/2004
Time
And The Terminator
Uncle Geoff ponders the paradox implicit in the statement: 'The
future is not set. 'There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.'
Time travel? Altering the past? What the heck is that all about.
04/2004
The
hitch-hiker's guide to French Science-Fiction
French SF has a glorious past - remember Jules Verne? - and, hopefully,
a bright future. But Jean-Claude finds the present situation a little
more difficult to decode. Especially when you try to evaluate it
on the same scale as Anglo-American SF.
04/2004
The
Man Who Sold the Moon
Scots SF author Ken Macleod reckons that watching George W. Bush's
recent speech at NASA felt like science fiction coming true. But
reservations ... well, he's got a few.
02/2004
Human
Stories of Mars
The successful landing of the NASA rover Spirit in Gusev Crater
on Mars has caught the world's imagination, but England's favourite
hard SF author, Stephen Baxter, thinks that our attention will soon
move on.
02/2004
Sixty-Two
And A Half Miles High
Scottish SF writer Rod MacDonald on the X Prize Foundation and the
strange British dreams of a privately funded space race.
02/2004
Enjoying
Jackson's Take On Tolkien
Now that Jackson's take on the Lord of the Rings trilogy has been
put to bed, Joseph asks just what has been achieved ... and will
history smile on this particular cinematic adaptation?
01/2003
Does
Science Fiction Have to be About the Present?
SF author Ken MacLeod has a theory that SF can be more illuminating
about the time of its writing than about that of its imagined future.
11/2003
The
Long and Wyndham Road
Sue looks at John Wyndham's recent centenary, and finds that thanks
in no small part to the additional medium of television and film,
the Triffids at least still haunt us.
09/2003
Martian
Opposition
Rod ponders the Red Planet's fascination for writers of science
fiction and fantasy and muses over the host of space probes which
will shortly be descending there from America, Europe and Japan.
08/2003
The
Slow Death of Science Fiction Art
The 'Nest's readers respond to Stephen Hunt's plea for decent cover
art on SFF novels. Bad covers get named and shamed.
05/2003
Who
Watches the Watchmen
Geoff Klock, the author of 'How to Read Superhero Comics and Why'
asks some fascinating literary questions of a genre whose main protagonists
wear their underwear on the outside.
04/2003
James
Bond Is An Alien
It's true, Uncle Geoff, our esteemed editor has definitive proof.
The British secret service's most deadly human weapon turns out
not to be so human after all.
01/2003
The
Jim Munroe Reviews
Jim Munroe is a Canadian author whose works are generally not marketed
as science fiction, even though all three of his books to date have
strong elements of the fantastic. In this appraisal of his works
by James Nicholl, the light side of anti-globalization ideology
comes under the microscope.
11/2002
The
November '02 Offworld Report
The chance of finding life on Jupiter's moon, Europa, goes up a
notch, the Washington-based editor of SciFi.com muses about living
life in the shadow of the sniper's crosshair, and author Jack Williamson
gets interviewed about his long brilliant life in the SF world.
All this and more in our round-up of the best SF offworld the 'Nest.
11/2002
The
October '02 Offworld Report
A bumper crop of offworld goodies, including an interview with Nancy
Kress, short fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, and the godfather of
US science fiction, Charles N. Brown, speaking out about a life
serving in the trenches of the fantastic.
10/2002
Lightning
Strikes Twice
Ben
Jeapes - owner of Big Engine - ruminates about the pain and joy
of setting up a new science fiction book publishing company.
07/2002
Flesh
Fair: What Went Wrong With A.I?
James L. Cambias puts Kubrick's last movie AI under
the microscope, and boy, he doesn't like what he finds. It makes
him angry.
06/2002
Script
Vs Special Effects In SF
Jane Palmer asks some
tough questions of the SF/F film industry. Like has plot taken one
CGI-generated laser blast through the heart too many?
06/2002
Never
Fear, Smith Is Here!
Gary Oldman might have played Dr Zachary Smith in
the Lost in Space remake flick, but for the real Dr Smith, you have
to go back to the classic black and white TV series, says our Rod.
04/2002
SF/F
E-Books Break Old Ground. Oh Dear.
E-books, long speculated to be a Colt-45 Equalizer for the trembling
palms of new authors, turns out to be just more of the same old
same old.
02/2002
The
Mysteron Menace
One for Captain Scarlet fans everywhere. Just how Mysteronised
was Captain Black in the TV series?
01/2002
Culture
In The Culture
Did writer Iain Banks create one of the most original SF societies
with his Culture universe? .
01/2002
The
New New Fan
Research just out reveals the face of the new Millenium's SF
fan. Pimply and ugly, it ain't.
12/2001
Oh
The Vanity
Vanity publishing in the world of science fiction and fantasy comes
under author Jane Palmer’s steely gaze. Hey, it was good enough
for Charles Dickens, right?
11/2001
Is
Buffy A Succubus? Possession: Nine Tenths Of The Body
Geoff has an interesting theory which he wants to share with you.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer … she's a demon for sure. Is Uncle Geoff
mad, or is Buffy very bad? You decide.
07/2001
The
Future In Science Fiction
Inspired by the results of last month's online poll about the collapse
of science fiction as a popular genre, here's an article where we
ask - is there really a future for science fiction? And if so, what
the frag is it?
08/2001
ET.
Real Visitors, Or Real Mad?
Are intelligences from the stars walking among us, kidnapping cattle
and flashing at Americans on dark back-roads in Texas? Or is it
all a load of hogwash? Uncle Geoff weighs up the evidence and comes
to some startling conclusions in his fine article.
03/2001
Do
Directors Dream Of Total Credit? A Further Appraisal Of The Film
Blade Runner
Was Deckard a replicant, or was he just a misunderstood human who
looked a lot like Harrison Ford? We look at the subject again after
Ridley Scott comes clean on national TV about what really happened
in that movie.
12/2000
The
Super-Human Concept In Science Fiction
A look at the history of the use of super humans in science fiction
- from the 1930s E.E. Doc Smith to the current DNA hacking delights
of cyberpunk.
12/2000
Thunderbird
Fuel
An article on a subject that's been really eating away at fans for
decades. How the hell did International Rescue fuel their Thunderbirds
to fly all the way across the globe? What were they pumping into
their tanks … liquid helium or Bud Light?
07/2000
Writing
Science Fiction: The Next Chapter
Our glorious editor, Geoff Willmetts, makes with the latest chapter
in
his series on how to write for science fiction. If there is a budding
author inside you, then Uncle Geoff is the man to make it flower
into a beautiful Vulcan Rose.
03/2000
Bladerunner
Battle
Our supreme editor, Geoff Willmetts, argues the toss with Bladerunner
guru Barry Purcell about the finer points of this classic movie.
Was Harrison Ford a replicant? Was that cop boss from Miami Vice
a replicant? If I shone a really bright light in your eyes and asked
you about dead turtles, would you turn out to be a replicant too?
Hmmm.
01/2000
Millennium
Madness: What Does The Future Really Hold In Store For You?
Will the somewhat imminent 21st century usher in a biotechnology
and nanofacturing paradise for the people of our little old globe?
Or will it be cyberwar, eco-disaster and universal unemployment?
12/1999
The
Flaws Of Bladerunner
Some say the movie Bladerunner was SF's finest & most intelligent
outing. Geoff says sod that - what about all the flipping flaws
in the movie!
11/1999
Futile
Resistance
Why do all landing parties wear nearly identical uniforms? This
and many other Star Trek mysteries examined.
06/1998
Is
SF A Literate Or Ideas Art-Form?
Good writing and SF seem to be poor bedfellows - or do they?
01/1997
So
You Really Want To Write SF?
Chapter 1: The guide for everybeing.
06/1995
To There And Back Again
Chapter 2: Using and Understanding Science Fiction Nomenclature
- space travel dilemmas in Science Fiction.
06/1995
Past And Pretense
Chapter 3: Using and Understanding Science Fiction Nomenclature
- time travel problems in Science Fiction.
06/1995
Something
In Mind
Chapter 4: Using and Understanding Science Fiction Nomenclature
- Psionics in Science Fiction.
06/1995
Science
Fiction Rules QX!
Using and understanding science fiction nomenclature, the rule structure
of Science Fiction by G.F.Willmetts.
06/1995
The
Pyramids Of Mars
God's camera angle and a trick of the light, or something more?
We interview The Mars Project Team.
03/1995
The
Grandmaster Of Sf Superhumans
A.E. Van Vogt, one of the classic SF authors is put under the microscope
by Uncle Geoff.
02/1995
Jack
Vance An Incomplete Annotated Bibliography
from goblins to dying suns, a look at one of our greatest writer's
works by C S Barlow.
02/1995
The
Physics Of Star Trek
G.F. critiques Lawrence Krauss's novel.
01/1995
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