Bioshock – Thoughts On The Storyline

Many of the plaudits for Bioshock included praise for its involving storyline, in-depth narrative and rich background. But when you read what Ken Levine (the eminence gris behind the Bioshock concepts) has to say about the game story you start to realise some interesting home truths about game narratives. Levine said that the Bioshock story [...]

Seeds Of Earth Review: BBC Focus magazine

Wow, prestigious or what! Yep, got the headsup from teacher extraordinaire Dave McGilvray that me book had been reviewd in Focus, a BBC magazine that gives a pop overview of science, technology and the future. The reviewer gave it 3/5 stars, but the review felt a bit more like 4. Unfortunately, the BBC Focus website [...]

Eastercon Panels: A Writer’s Gotta Do What A Writer’s Gotta Do – Updated

As some of you might know, Eastercon is the UK national SF convention held yearly over the Easter weekend at a hotel/convention centre somewhere in Britain. Last year it was held at the Radisson hotel at Heathrow (dont get me started), but this year it is being held in Bradford, slap bang in the Midlands, [...]

Watchmen Movie Review

Yup, went to see it on opening night with SuperSusan and I’ve deliberately waited a while to let my memories of it sink in and my thoughts rise to the top.
Let’s face it, its an odd sensation seeing a much-loved work of book fiction (albeit a graphic novel)  transmogrified into a big screen visual feast. I [...]

Number Ten With A Bullet! – Seeds Of Earth Makes Glasgow Herald SF/Fantasy Top Ten

For LO! it was true – got the headsup from crafty Jim Steel, and laid hands on a copy of the Saturday edition of the Glasgow Herald and there, right THERE in the arts section, Seeds Of Earth at number 10, hot on the heels of Trudi Canavan’s Magician’s Apprentice. Interestingly, including your humble scribe, 6 [...]

George Galloway Barred From Entering…Canada! CANADA?

There times when you gotta wonder. It appears that the Canadian immigration service has banned George Galloway from entering Canada due to his being ‘a threat to national security’. Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for the immigraion minister, then described GG as an ”infandous street-corner Cromwell”. Infandous? It was a new one on me so I googled it, and the [...]

Seeds Of Earth Review: SFFWorld

I mentioned to WebDarren at Orbit that I was feeling…not overwhelmed but kinda astonished/pleased/eversoslightlyhumbled by the number of reviews and indeed good reviews I was getting for SOE, compared with the reception that the Shadowkings books got. And he pointed out to me that even in the last few years the online blogging and reviewing communities [...]

SciFi or SyFy – A Masterclass In Dumbing Down

I have to say that this one is a doozy, a diamond triple-A example of how the tasteless marketing mavens who run our mass media can rip off their own covers, revealing their dead-eyed souls, with just a few words.
The Sci-Fi Channel, well-known cable purveyor of media SF, has decided to rebrand itself in order [...]

Seeds Of Earth competition – Winners!

Yes, indeedy, the time has come to reveal the lucky members of the Human race (UK) who will be receiving a copy of my new book, Seeds Of Earth. And they are -
Darren Harmon, North Shields
Martin Barlow, Manchester
Maggie Mackenzie, Uckfield
Tim Goodson, Abingdon
S. French, Leeds.
As you see, there are in fact 5 book winners rather than [...]

Seeds Of Earth competition: Slight Hitch

Just to let you know that there`s been a slight glitch in proceedings but I hope to be back later with the names of the winners, accompanied with all due fanfaronades!