SF Tidbits for 9/6/08
By John DeNardo |
Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at
12:05 am
- Interviews and Profiles:
- @Concept Sci-fi: Neal Asher (The Engineer Reconditioned).
- @RevolutionSF: Patrice Sarath (Gordath Wood).
- @Eos: A recording of Neal Stephenson’s live interview from earlier this week.
- @YMB: Tobias Buckell (Sly Mongoose).
- Free Fiction [courtesy of QuasarDragon]
- Lilith Saintcrow is serializing her novel Selene. Here’s Part 8.
- @Manybooks: “The Good Neighbors” by Edgar Pangborn (1960).
- Audio Fiction:
- @Pseudopod: “Jihad over Innsmouth” by Edward Morris, read by Ben Phillips.
- @Well Told Tales: Part two of “I Killed Awesome Man” written and produced by Finn Colgan, performed by a full cast.
- @PodCastle: The Desires of Houses by Haddayr Copley-Woods, read by Rachel Swirsky.
- Excerpt: Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre.
- Beautify an orc and you could win a copy of Orbit’s Orcs omnibus!
- Check out this Star Wars influence chart at Kottke.
- Real science: Mars Water Mystery Surfaces: “A fork-like probe on the Phoenix Mars Lander has sensed changes in humidity in the Martian air, but finds the dirt below perplexingly dry.”
- Lists:
- Philip Pullman’s essential reading list.
- @Pop Vultures: 5 Creepiest, Scariest TV Monsters. [via Whedonesque]
- Ten Things Mike Brotherton Hates About Science Fiction.
- James Wallace Harris’ All-Time Favorite Time Travel Stories. “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein…good call. Ken Grimwood’s Replay…great book, but I’m not sure I’d classify it as time travel.
- Retrospace look up…I mean at…Short Skirts in the Sci-Fi Future. [Update: Crotchety Old Fan responds.]
Related posts:
- SF Tidbits for 11/22/06
- SF Tidbits for 7/4/07
- SF Tidbits for 11/27/06
- SF Tidbits for 4/14/06
- Has Science Ruined Science Fiction?
Filed under: Tidbits
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I consider Replay among the best time travel stories. Sure, it’s not traditional, but Grimwood explores time in ways no other writer has. In the first replay of Jeff Winston’s life he is thrown back to 1963, a pivotal year. Should he try and prevent the assasination of JFK? Grimwood explores the common themes of time travel in this first cycle. But then cycle two happens. Most time travel stories are about going somewhere in time and whether or not you should change the past. Grimwood says, lets toss out tradition, and examine what would you do next. Then he does it again, and again. The book is like a practice manual for time travelers, having them do the lesson over and over again.
If you were thrown into the past would you spend all your time worrying about changing future, or would you start making a life for yourself in the past? What Grimwood does with Replay is show us the effects of recursive time travel and what it means to character development.
…Right. Now I want to read Grimwood’s “Replay”
There is no better endorsement for a book than someone who’s excited about it and talking, if you ask me.
(I could SIN a copy of Orc Omnibus? Really, John? Is that LEGAL?)
Jim, maybe it’s the “conventional” part that throws me. It’s the same way I don’t usually consider the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day to be time travel. But, point taken, it does have lots of the elements of time travel, so why not? And in no way do I dispute the awesomeness of the book, as you can see by my linked review.
@Pete: Sigh. Error corrected. I swear, if I had a nickel for every mistake I made, I’d have more than enough to buy you a copy of Replay, which you should definitely read.