Fantasycon
Any lovers of fantasy fiction looking for something to do this weekend? You could take a trip down to Fantasycon in sunny Brighton, where Guests of Honour will include John Ajvide Lindqvist, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Paolini, the great Brian Aldiss, and also that lovely Joe Abercrombie, all MCd by Sarah Pinborough, and with a veritable galaxy of other significant genre figures in attendance.
I’ll be around, probably haunting the bar mostly, from Friday afternoon through til Sunday afternoon, but specifically:
Friday 5-6pm: Welcome to Fantasycon Party
Friday 8-9.30pm, Russell Room: Mass Signing
Saturday 10-11am, Russell Room: Trends in Fantasy Fiction Panel
Saturday 8-9pm, Russell Room: Guest of Honour Interview by James Barclay
Sunday 1pm: Banquet and British Fantasy Awards where I will, as it happens, be presenting the award for Best Collection.
I shall look forward to maybe seeing some of you there…
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Near future dsytopian cyberpunk gruff-voiced first person shooter stylings with an emphasis on stealth and lateral thinking. Well, kinda. As with the first Deus Ex which came out some years ago on the PC and is one of those there classics of the genre, in theory the game offers you all kinds of ways to […]
Structure
Writing is a difficult job in some ways. Working as a TV editor you work to other people’s timescales, other people’s briefs. Sure, you can have quite a major contribution depending on the job and the director you’re working for, but ultimately you’ve got a set task to do in a given space of time. […]
Lies and Firsts
I note in passing that my dark masters at Gollancz have re-issued Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora with a retro yellow cover reminiscent of the early 60s in order to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the imprint: THE fantasy debut of 2006, other than mine. The book, of course, is a wretched tissue of […]
Conan the Barbarian
Yeah, not great, really. On the upside, the design was generally good, sets and costume and styling pretty convincing, it didn’t look like cheap crap as fantasy films can (and often) do, and aside from some of the villains’ spiky costuming it was nicely free of the ubiquitous influence of Lord of the Rings. Not […]
