I figure most of you have read Accelerando by Charles Stross*. Remember Spring-Heeled Jack and his rocket boots? Stross didn’t just make them up out of thin air, you know - they were a genuine invention, a product of Cold War Russia’s military technology industry that never made it into large-scale production. Pity, that - I’d quite like a pair.

*If you’ve not read Accelerando yet, what the hell are you waiting for? It’s not like you can’t download it for free with the author’s blessing or anything …

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to indulge in a brief spate of patting-my-own-back on a dark wet Friday evening:

Continue reading “Friday Photo Blogging! My finest hour (so far)”

The blogosphere debate about the causes and solutions to sf’s perceived demise shows little sign of dying down just yet, especially not now that a few more heavyweights have pitched in. Continue reading “Science fiction: back to basics or pitch for the geeks?”

Futuristic fiction sometimes raids the past for characters, instead of making up totally new ones. Continue reading “Spring-Heeled Jack”

Professor David Macmillan of the University of Melbourne has done a lot of research on crayfish (or ‘yabbies’, as they are known Down Under) and NASA has been applying some of his results to the design of autonomous space exploration robots. Continue reading “Crayfish Space-Robots Are Go!”

Charles Stross has sold more than a dozen novels to publishers, but has done so in such a short period of time that less than half of them are actually in print yet. He’s a hot property, a supernova of the notorious Scotland set whose grip on the leading edge of British (and arguably world) SF grows stronger season by season. Stross’ writings are a case study in the talent that exists in this clade, and ‘Accelerando’, his latest to be published, a prime example of how invention and skill can combine in a synergistic fashion. Continue reading “Book Review: ‘Accelerando’ by Charles Stross”