28 Days Later: Frank's Take
01/08/2004. Unconventional filmmaker Danny Boyle has the inherent knack for stomach-turning entertainment that's outright disturbing yet oddly poetic and polished in its gruesome suspended state of mind.

Bounty (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/08/2004. While Archer is taken prisoner by a bounty hunter, T'Pol is infected by a pathogen which unleashes her mating urges. Tim finds an episode which is one of the season's worst: appallingly bad in fact.

Cogenitor (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/08/2004. A first contact situation leads Trip to get overly involved with the life and rights of a new species. There's a few plot conveniences, but this proves fairly meaty stuff.

First Flight (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/08/2004. Archer gets word than an old colleague has died, prompting him to tell T'Pol about the early days of warp test flights. Goofy in spots, but fairly charming overall says our Tim.

Regeneration (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/08/2004. The discovery of a crashed ship in the Arctic leads to humanity's first ever encounter with the Borg. Mostly a collection of horror-movie cliches. Good moments, but that's all.

The Breach (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/08/2004. While Trip, Reed, and Mayweather must travel through treacherous caves in order to find some lost Denobulans, Phlox finds himself facing a patient with a long-standing grudge against Phlox's own race. The character material is good, the jeopardy sub-plot is not so great though.

The Expanse (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/08/2004. In the season finale, an attack on Earth by a new alien race brings a change of mission for the Enterprise. Tim discovers lots of setup, but not a lot of payoff.

Martian Opposition
01/08/2004. 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.

Kevin J. Anderson: An Impolite Interview
01/08/2004. Kevin J. Anderson on why he can't get enough of sprawling, multiple storyline books, on making characters grow, live and die, and why science fiction is the only genre with the entire universe as its canvas.

The Hulk: Frank's Take
01/08/2004. In revered filmmaker Ang Lee’s darkly jolting action-adventure The Hulk, the perversely spry comic-book film adaptation continues on as a booming genre flick.

28 Days Later: Mark's Take
01/08/2004. A modestly budgeted science fiction film has society being destroyed by a virus that turns people into violent killers. While some of the ideas and some of the story seem borrowed from The Day Of The Triffids, the film itself seems freshly nightmarish.

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (Frank's Take)
01/08/2004. The concept of throwaway entertainment comes in all forms, shapes and sizes. And as everybody and their grandmother already knows, an exceedingly high dosage of boisterous brain-dead eye candy is what usually satisfies the majority of giddy moviegoers during the summertime blues.

The Hulk: Mark's Take
01/08/2004. Ambitious but ultimately dissatisfying film version of the Marvel comic. A man periodically turns into a not-so-jolly green giant. Ang Lee does the adaptation with ill-calculated sensibility and not much sense.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (Mark's Take)
01/08/2004. This is almost certainly the most exciting pirate film ever made. This fast-paced confection of an adventure has wit, a good story and imaginative visuals. Johnny Depp gives what is probably his best performance as a grubby yet stylish pirate captain.

Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machine (Mark's Take)
01/08/2004. The new Terminator film has fewer ideas to slow the action. The film is in more ways than one just a machine demolition derby. The future sends back what is supposed to be the most advanced Terminator robot of the series but budget constraints and poor writing make it less intelligent and less capable than its predecessor was.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Mark's Take
01/08/2004. An interesting premise from a graphic novel makes about half an hour of interesting story, mostly for the introduction of the characters. But the film needed a good plot to make it more than just a comic book origin story. This one seems to have a plot that was patched together as it went along. The film has a nice look, but the viewer is never intrigued by the villain or his machinations.

Conjose Mails Membership Reimbursements
01/08/2004. ConJose, the 2002 World Science Fiction Convention, issued reimbursements to qualified volunteers, staff, committee, and program participants beginning in late May 2003.

Hewitt (NJ) Author's New Novel To Appear As Online Serial
01/08/2004. With about 60 titles already published on both sides of the Atlantic, award-winning NJ author John Grant thought he'd seen every way there was of his books being published ... but he was wrong!

Jon Courtenay Grimwood Interview
01/08/2004. Jon Courtenay Grimwood belongs to the special group of SFF novelists who write compelling Science Fiction that keeps the reader's interest without employing the short cuts of cliché, formulae or fantasy. Jane Palmer chats with one of the rapidly rising stars of Brit-Lit SF.

Touched by a Tentacle
01/08/2004. Scottish SF author Ken MacLeod comes across an intriguing article on the influence of right-wing think tanks, and via that, the even more revelatory Cursor's Media Transparency, which tells you who's paying which pipers (and why they all play the same tune).

The Subtracted Dimensions of Lisa Snellings
01/08/2004. The hugely admired kinetic 3D creations of fantasy sculptor Lisa Snellings are a constant source of fascination to those lucky enough to own them, or to visit the people who do. A new development - Snellings-as-fantasy-illustrator - has come about through the creation of an anthology of original stories.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: Frank's Take
01/08/2004. This juiced-up futuristic fable is delightfully on maximum overdrive and Arnold S. does what he does best ... deliver his brand of robotic ribaldry with the precision of an extremely well-oiled machine.

Tom Holt: Singing for Nero
01/12/2003. Author Tom Holt on his old life as a lawyer, choosing the right words, falling asleep during 'The Matrix', and why the Roman Emperor Nero may not have been such a bad egg after all.

Scary Movie 3
01/12/2003. It’s that dubious time once again to indulge in another spoof-starved Scary Movie installment. Sadly, Frank discovers more of the same.

Elf
01/12/2003. Frank discovers that Ferrell doesn’t disappoint when Jon Favreau helms a kooky comedy that proves an instant delight to moviegoers in the offbeat Christmas-themed flick Elf.

Series 7: The Contenders
01/12/2003. Six people hunt and kill each other in a futuristic satire of today's 'reality TV'. But Mark reckons this movie comes off a little phony, exploiting the violence it appears to condemn.

Mini-Reviews from the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival
01/12/2003. Mark comes back from Canada laden with reviews of the SFF movies Bright Future, Code 46, Cypher, A Problem With Fear, Nothing, and Le Temps Du Loup.

Shaun Jeffrey gets Evil(ution)
01/12/2003. Horror writer Shaun Jeffrey sits opposite our Donna in the interview chair ... and she discovers how hard it is to mix the usual trappings of a day job with novel writing.

Wheels within Wheels
01/12/2003. Fantasy author Robert Jordan interviewed about his Wheel of Time prequel, and why, if stranded on a desert island, he'd need an M-14 rifle with a good scope and as much ammunition as he could carry .

Seeing Sullivan
01/12/2003. Author Tricia Sullivan interviewed about her stunning new work of future-fiction, Maul, and why some may fine her imagined world extremely disturbing.

Conspiracy in the Shadow of Hierarchy
01/12/2003. Despite some recent indulgences, Scots SF author Ken MacLeod is not much of a one for conspiracy theories. In general they hinge on misapplications of the principle of cui bono. Who shot JFK? Well, Lee Harvey Oswald must surely top the list of suspects.

The Composite Man
01/12/2003. Editor Geoff slyly considers what ingredients you'd stir into the pot to make the ideal science fiction hero for a cinema audience.

The Matrix Revolutions
01/12/2003. Franks asks: 'is The Matrix Revolutions the ideal finishing touch to an awestruck sci-fi film trilogy that captivated moviegoers since its hedonistic conception back in 1999?' The succinct answer: Hardly.

Trek is Dead? Long Live the Gate.
01/12/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for December 2003.

The Great Science Fiction Writers Christmas Stuffing '03
01/12/2003. An all-star lineup of authors - including Tom Holt, Robert Jordan, Juliet E. McKenna, Laurell K. Hamilton, David Brin and Tad Williams - interviewed with a few seasonally pertinent questions. Ho ho ho.

Chris Moriarty: All in a Spin
01/11/2003. The science fiction author behind the amazing novel Spin State braves our interviewer's chair, while our own fantasy novelist Stephen Hunt shines the light in her eyes.

Does Science Fiction Have to be About the Present?
01/11/2003. 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.

Star Trek Enterprise: Anomaly
01/11/2003. Seeing the episode title "Anomaly" set off a few dozen alarms for our Evan. The title is reminiscent of the lowest form of storytelling we all saw so commonly on Voyager. Did it disappoint? Read on ...

Star Trek Enterprise: Exile
01/11/2003. This is the first episode of the season that is utterly devoid of any Trip/T'Pol scenes, at least in the romantic sense. Maybe that's one of the reasons our Evan loved it so much. What, no sensual T'Pol scenes? Forgetaboutit.

Star Trek Enterprise: Extinction
01/11/2003. In "Extinction," a sterile alien race, which is now extinct, creates a metagenic virus that has the effect of changing all other humanoid lifeforms into their own species. As far as originality goes, Evan reckons this episode gets a fairly average grade.

Star Trek Enterprise: Impulse
01/11/2003. Evan ponders whether this episode indicates that the show's reached a point where a continuing storyline can only go so far before involving the main characters in interesting and personal ways. Why? Well, poor old T'Pol is carted into sickbay, and she's obviously pushed way past the edge of sanity and into the realm of the truly psychotic.

Star Trek Enterprise: Rajiin
01/11/2003. This ep's premise appeared to be that the Enterprise was to take on a beautiful woman, who would use erotic and hypnotic powers to entice the crew. Evan thought we were in for another variation on "Precious Cargo," but he was pleasantly surprised.

Cold Creek Manor
01/11/2003. The creepy contrivance that takes the form of director Mike Figgis's haunted house hokum Cold Creek Manor definitely wants to develop the goose bump response for its anticipating audience. Unfortunately, this stillborn by-the-numbers movie of terror is reductive and just plods along.

Kill Bill (Volume One)
01/11/2003. In the intentionally overwrought and gloriously violent-drenched B-movie actioner Kill Bill Tarantino pours it on thick as he chaotically pays homage to the movie genres that he reveres so deeply - creating a concoction of ubiquitous escapist Asian kung-fu flicks along with a dash of redemptive foreign spaghetti westerns.

Underworld
01/11/2003. If a vampire loves a werewolf, where can they set up housekeeping together? Nowhere. At least not in a world where werewolves and vampires have fought for a thousand years. Mark discovers a film of non-stop action and non-start intelligence, with lots of gunplay and the look of The Matrix.

The Torrid Movies of Torcon
01/11/2003. Mark brings you his impressions of some interesting upcoming movies based on attending the various trailer shows at Torcon 3, aka 2003's World Science Fiction Convention in Canada.

The Deeper the Magic ...
01/11/2003. The 'Nest did a poll recently about whether Adobe PDF magazines were the wave of the future for SF&F zines in terms of your reading habits.

The Incredible Technical Science Fiction Fan?
01/11/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for November 2003.

The Horror of Hamilton
01/10/2003. Laurell K Hamilton on the eleven Anita Blake novels she has written to date, and why the series is a regular visitor into the upper reaches of the New York Times bestsellers list.

Jeepers Creepers 2
01/10/2003. Since useless sequels that no one was particularly clamoring for have bombarded the summertime, why break with tradition now? Frank finds himself exposed to the latest in a long line of unnecessary follow-ups with the release of Victor Salva's flavorless scarefest Jeepers Creepers 2.

The Xindi
01/10/2003. In the first episode of the third season Enterprise, Evan discovers 'The Xindi' is not only a decent payoff to the second season finale, but it has some wonderful setups for the future. Trek on.

Navigating the Aldabreshin Compass
01/10/2003. Fantasy author Juliet E. McKenna interviewed about her new series, The Aldabreshin Compass. Will fans enjoy a ripping yarn set in a tropical climate with its roots far from the northern European staples of the fantasy genre? You bet.

Seeing Mars from Uppsala
01/10/2003. Ken MacLeod ruminates on his trip to Sweden's national science fiction convention, Swecon 2003, and finds a home away from home at SF-Bokhandeln - the Swede's main SFF bookshop.

Spirited Away
01/10/2003. Frank finds Spirited Away an opulent and emotionally moving Japanese children's animated adventure that's sure to capture the intrigue and imagination of moviegoers of all ages.

Freddy vs. Jason
01/10/2003. In an interesting yet sordid way, the invention of wanting to put together a couple of the big screen's most prolific slayers and have them duke it out for warped fun definitely had its advantages. After all, who wouldn't want to see the morbid mayhem between Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger and Friday the 13's Jason Voorhees?

My Kind of Fantasy
01/10/2003. Every now and then a site comes along which - while it may not be the next Yahoo online - has a worthy off-site presence which merits the web site a mention.

Along Came A Spider ... (Robinson)
01/10/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for October 2003.

Argonaut by Stanley Schmidt
01/10/2003. pub: TOR. 333 page hardback. Price: $15.95 (US), $22.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-312-87727-7.

Blake's 7 Revival On Track For A Rebellion Reborn
01/09/2003. Paul Darrow inks a rights deal with the estate of the late Terry Nation to bring back Blake's 7 to the TV screens.

The Long and Wyndham Road
01/09/2003. 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.

Todd Lockwood: Wizard Of The Brush
01/09/2003. Wizards of the Coast's most talented fantasy artist is interviewed. His canvases can literally take your breath away. Typically large and imposing, beautifully composed and superbly painted, they bring to vivid life all the classic tropes of heroic fantasy ...

India's Hollywood Takeaway
01/09/2003. Billed (inaccurately) as the first Indian science fiction film, Koi ... Mil Gaya mixes elements of many films, especially E.T. and Charly. Mark finds a movie which, while groundbreaking as a Bollywood film, rarely transcends American cable fare.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
01/09/2003. The third installment of the immensely popular kiddie secret agent series. While the previous two editions were joyful enough to behold, our Frank reckons Game Over feels mightily labored and lean.

The Word from Readercon (Part 1 of 2)
01/09/2003. Evelyn reports back from the world's finest purely literary science fiction con, Readercon 15 and discovers the Golden Age of science fiction is .. well, now.

The Word from Readercon (Part 2 of 2)
01/09/2003. Evelyn reports back from the world's finest purely literary science fiction con, Readercon 15 and discovers the Golden Age of science fiction is .. well, now.

Stargate to Heaven
01/09/2003. I must admit, ever since the last season of Stargate finished on ITV1, I have been suffering a certain amount of SG-1 withdrawal.

Infinite Matrix: The Infinite Begging Bowl
01/09/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for September 2003.

Point-and-Sci-Fi
01/08/2003. If ever there was a site that worshipped at the altar of mindless point-N-click surfing, this is it.

Science Fiction & Fantasy ... In danger of becoming trendy?
01/08/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for August 2003.

Where there's a Wil
01/07/2003. Stephen Hunt interviews author Wil McCarthy on impostor syndrome, and why that while he likes the hard stuff - the Egan and Vinge and Linda Nagata - he also likes a lot of the softer stuff as well, the fantasy and slipstream ... if it's thoughtfully drawn.

Bruce Almighty (Frank's Take)
01/07/2003. In the Christian cut-up comedy Bruce Almighty, the conscientious Carrey is ready to embrace the wacky wonderment of his comedy roots once again by returning to the gawky goings-on that garnered him a cult following amongst the Ace Ventura crowd ages ago.

Star Wars Shattered
01/07/2003. Author Matthew Stover, author of Star Wars: Shatterpoint, on the first novel in a new series to be set during the Clone Wars, and why he really wanted a funny droid for comic relief.

Starring The Man With One Name
01/07/2003. As Fangorn, illustrator Chris Baker enjoys an enviable reputation as a fantasy artist: not only is his art highly respected but he works in a diversity of styles, so that one's never sure quite where his puckish muse is going to take him next.

Fowler and Fisher at FantasyCon
01/07/2003. Christopher Fowler and Catherine Fisher are guests of honour at this year's FantasyCon in November. Also attending this fine British con are Ramsey Campbell, Anne Gay, Stephen Jones, Tim Lebbon, Stan Nicholls, Telos Publishing, Alchemy Press, among others.

The Horror, The Horror
01/07/2003. The 2003 International Horror Guild awards recognizing outstanding achievements in the field of horror and dark fantasy from the year 2002 have been announced.

Waterworld Revisited
01/07/2003. If an asteroid crashes into the Earth, it is likely to splash down somewhere in the oceans that cover 70 percent of the planet's surface. The result? A massive tsunami sweeping the Atlantic Coast, says this new research.

The Scottish Revolution
01/07/2003. Scottish SF author Ken MacLeod ponders the twists and turns of fate that made capitalist development finally and fully possible in Scotland and irreversible in Britain as a whole.

Finding Nemo (Frank's Take)
01/07/2003. In the movie Finding Nemo, our Frank finds a vibrant stroke of color and candidness in a simple little story based in Australia's Great Barrier Reef regarding the emotional connection between a worried father and his free-spirited son ... who both happen to be clownfish.

World Domination Don't Come Easy
01/07/2003. I can't speak for the rest of you, but after a really hard day slaving in the corporate salt mines, my poor mind - tortured by the bullying bosses and the mad silly deadlines - often turns to thoughts of world domination.

SF - Dumb or Dumblier?
01/07/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for July 2003.

The Matrix Reloaded: Mark's Take
01/06/2003. The war to release humanity from computer-generated non-reality continues in a pretentious and violent film that nonetheless has a lot of style.

Canamar (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/06/2003. Archer and Trip, falsely accused of smuggling, find themselves on an Enolian prison ship headed for the dreaded penal colony of Canamar.

Future Tense (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/06/2003. The discovery of a wrecked ship, apparently from the future, thrusts Archer and the Enterprise right in the middle of the Temporal Cold War.

Horizon (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/06/2003. The discovery of a wrecked ship, apparently from the future, thrusts Archer and the Enterprise right in the middle of the Temporal Cold War.

Judgement (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/06/2003. Archer is accused of crimes against the Klingon Empire and brought before a tribunal.

X2: Frank's Thoughts
01/06/2003. Is everybody ready for a second helping of a particular mutant recipe known as the X-Men? Apparently so since the first taste of this action-packed delicacy mustered up an incredible $157 million at the U.S. box office.

X2: Mark's Thoughts
01/06/2003. This second film based on the X-Men comic book is a better story and a more atmospheric production. I am told it is a better adaptation of the comic book. One does not come to this sort of film for a deep statement of the human condition, but for a summer action film, it is not too bad.

2001 and All That (or, Life before and after the End of History)
01/06/2003. Scottish SF author Ken MacLeod argues that much history, including the End of it, has happened since 2001, and he thinks it is rather important that they should not be remembered.

Why Some Things Don't Need To Be Resurrected
01/06/2003. Geoff asks can, indeed should, Battlestar Galactica be revived in the same way Star Trek was resurrected with the Next Generation?

Going to Jael
01/06/2003. At last, the queen of SFF illustration, Jael, comes under the interviewer's spotlight. She explains how she put her personal and inner ambition on hold through most of her extremely busy child-rearing years, and why she just loves Batman, Green Hornet, Captain Marvel and Superman.

An Allen Key for Science Fiction?
01/06/2003. Why Microsoft's co-founder, Paul G. Allen, has announced plans for a new cultural project dedicated to science fiction and the ways it captures our imagination

Adamantium or cement? Shall I count the ways for the Hugo.
01/06/2003. The World SF con - Noreascon Four - would like your creative insights and other-worldly engineering proposals for the perfect base on which to mount their treasured silver rocket denoting excellence in SFF ... the Hugo awards. How about moon rock, guys?

Who will arrange my Separation from this troublesome Priest?
01/06/2003. Christopher Priest scoops the 2003 Arthur C Clarke Award for his novel 'The Separation', featuring a parallel reality where Britain made peace with Hitler in 1941. Pulp SF it ain't ... but it's a rather good read all the same.

A little Huth and Puff
01/06/2003. Interview with the author Joe Huth - co-editor of the non-fiction work the 'Knight Rider Legacy'. Joe talks about why, with society's ongoing love affair with the automobile, you can make that car indestructible, sentient and able to perform incredible feats and you've got every young boy's (and many man's) dream.

Riverworld: The TV Series
01/06/2003. A frank appraisal of the TV series of the Riverworld by Shelby Peck, who finds a hodgepodge of things that can and can't be found in the books.

The Matrix Reloaded: Frank's Take
01/06/2003. Frank finds the whimsical Wachowski tandem are at it again with the second installment of this frothy film series in the form of the visually vigorous and devoutly exhilarating The Matrix Reloaded.

Starship Dimensions
01/06/2003. One of the perennial favorites for flame wars in newsgroups is when fans of science fiction gather and the hoary topic crops up which we here at the 'Nest like to think of as ... starship top trumps.

Sequel Certainty
01/06/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for June 2003.

Do Bear's Write in The Woods?
01/05/2003. An interview with Greg Bear about some of the fascinating ideas contained in his SF novel, Darwin's Children. Human Endogenous Retrovirus anyone?

Big Engine is going down
01/05/2003. Sad news has reached us at the 'Nest that innovative British SFF publisher Big Engine is shutting up shop, taking the relatively new 3SF magazine with it.

Of Clockwork Men
01/05/2003. Artist Tom Abba on winning both the the Ken McIntyre Award and the Paper Tiger Art Award at the UK's Eastercon, plus how he has never considered himself to be a real science fiction artist. Crikes, how did we resist slipping some Nordic pop group jokes into this interview?

The Slow Death of Science Fiction Art
01/05/2003. The 'Nest's readers respond to Stephen Hunt's plea for decent cover art on SFF novels. Bad covers get named and shamed.

Making Merry SF in Melbourne
01/05/2003. Australian SFF came under the spotlight, with the recent close of the 2002 Aurealis Awards. Damien Broderick got best novel for 'Transcension' (Tor), which rather begs the question, why's the most popular Ozzie SF coming out of the USA?

The Core: Mark's Thoughts
01/05/2003. A spectacular set of disasters and a heroic expedition to save mankind. Some real science and some nonsense mix. If the film does not quite click, it is probably because we have higher standards than we had for science fiction films in their heyday of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Core: Frank's Thoughts
01/05/2003. The Core definitely had the making for fascinating sci-fi stimulation. The attempt to turn the scientific discipline of electromagnetism into a robust and cheeky mainstream entertainment seemed quite challenging in concept.

Teknolust (Mark's Take)
01/05/2003. This SF film plays like a throwback to 1960s mod film making. It is every bit as colorful as intended, but not nearly as intelligent. It plays like a college skit but for the digital special effects that allow four Tilda Swintons on the screen at one time.

Sold Down the Riverworld
01/05/2003. Philip Jose Farmer's interesting premise of adventures set on a strange life-after-death-world is squandered on a fairly commonplace barbarian-planet story that appears to be the pilot for a most uninteresting and humdrum TV series.

Agent Cody Banks
01/05/2003. So the likable Malcolm in the Middle pint-sized TV star Frankie Muniz is at it again on the big screen? This time, the movie handlers are trying to package him as a junior James Bond for the kiddie crowd.

Weird & Wonderful
01/05/2003. Every now and then we come across a rather odd yet delightful online presence here at the 'Nest ... the kind of thing that makes random surfing worthwhile.

SFF Adobe PDF Pleasure Poll?
01/05/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for May 2003.

Agents of Imagination (Part 1 of 2)
01/04/2003. They can make - or break - a writer's career, and every serious author needs to have one. The most powerful agents in the SFF business speak out about the genre publishing world in this roundtable. Fantasy author Stephen Hunt plays literary ringmaster to a panel that includes Andrew Zack, Lucienne Diver, Shawna McCarthy, Donald Maass, Joshua Bilmes, Jack Byrne, Eleanor Wood and Nanci McCloskey.

Agents of Imagination (Part 2 of 2)
01/04/2003. They can make - or break - a writer's career, and every serious author needs to have one. The most powerful agents in the SFF business speak out about the genre publishing world in this roundtable. Fantasy author Stephen Hunt plays literary ringmaster to a panel that includes Andrew Zack, Lucienne Diver, Shawna McCarthy, Donald Maass, Joshua Bilmes, Jack Byrne, Eleanor Wood and Nanci McCloskey.

The Second Coming
01/04/2003. Rod looks at the controversial BBC TV drama that posits the question, what would the world do if the Son of God returned as a video store assistant in the North of England?

Big Engine is going down
01/04/2003. Sad news has reached us at the 'Nest that innovative British SFF publisher Big Engine is shutting up shop, taking the relatively new 3SF magazine with it.

Star Wars and the Rise of Troy
01/04/2003. Author Troy Denning interviewed about his new Star Wars universe novel Tatooine Ghost. It's set before Chewbacca's death, so fans - just - might come to terms with their grief with this book.

Anne Sudworth Interviewed
01/04/2003. Pastels are an awkward, difficult to control medium, but from magic landscapes to fairies, fantasy illustrator Anne Sudworth has proven she has the technique well under control.

Paul Barnett to Leave SFF art publishing imprint Paper Tiger
01/04/2003. Paul Barnett, who has been Commissioning Editor of Paper Tiger since 1997, has decided to give up his role as of the end of March 2003.

Who Watches the Watchmen?
01/04/2003. Geoff Klock, the author of the insightful 'How to Read Superhero Comics and Why' asks some fascinating literary questions of a genre whose main protagonists wear their underwear on the outside. In this article, he looks at Alan Moore's revolutionary graphic novel, Watchmen.

Cease Fire (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/04/2003. Andorian commander Shran calls upon Archer to mediate a dispute between the Andorians and the Vulcans. Critic Timothy W. Lynch sits in judgment of this new episode of Star Trek Enterprise.

Stigma (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/04/2003. T'Pol becomes seriously ill with a disease condemned by most parts of Vulcan society. Timothy W. Lynch pulls his critic's pen out, but to stab or praise this episode of Star Trek Enterprise, you'll have to read on to discover ...

The Film Without Fear - or Shame.
01/04/2003. In Daredevil, Mark R Leeper finds an uninspired comic book superhero film that borrows everything, while inventing and contributing almost nothing. An uninspiring actor plays an uninspired idea for a superhero in a familiar setting … one that feels like it was stamped out at a factory.

Audible.com
01/04/2003. Hands up all those who have listened to audio books! Plenty, I presume and if you are listening, you'll be free to do just that - surrender and listen at the same time.

For War or Peace?
01/04/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for April 2003.

Interstellar Transmissions
01/03/2003. It's not often that we give a Wizard Site award out to a site more for what they do off-line than on, but Interstellar Transmissions probably falls into that category.

The Future of Space Exploration
01/03/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for March 2003.

Discworld Divinity
01/03/2003. An interview with the man with a trademark floppy hat. No, not Indiana Jones (or even Dr Who), but ... Terry Pratchett. He talks about his latest works, Discworld and, well, the art of being Terry.

McMullen'ing it Over
01/03/2003. One of the brightest new voices in science fiction writing to hit the genre for a long, long time. And struth cobber, he's Australian. Author Sean McMullen is most definitely interviewed by fellow SFF writer Stephen Hunt.

Hart to Hart
01/03/2003. Publishing guru David Hartwell, currently filling the hotseat as a senior editor at Tor, chats with Stephen Hunt about why only one per cent of the SFF slush pile is of publishable quality, the joys of running The New York Review of Science Fiction, and the contribution made by the Philip K. Dick Awards to the field.

Windy Miller
01/03/2003. Frankly, what science fiction and fantasy illustrator Ron Miller doesn't know about fine painting could be etched onto a pinhead using nanotechnology. And he's not really windy ... we made that bit up because it sounded good as a title. Paul Barnett of Paper Tiger interviews Ron for the Nest.

Noreascon Four News
01/03/2003. Next year's world science fiction convention is about to put up its prices before opening its doors, so jump in quick.

Fans Will Battle(star)
01/03/2003. Fans fed up with Farscape being cancelled are now up in arms about the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, they're calling for a boycott.

Darkness Falls
01/03/2003. Darkness Falls is the latest slight and extraneous scarefest to hit the big screen in dull, meaningless fashion. Director Jonathan Liebesman helms a ridiculously familiar and arbitrary cheesy horror tale that doesn't effectively challenge the simple conventions of the fright genre.

Daredevil (Frank's Take)
01/03/2003. There were elements of grandeur thrust upon writer-director Mark Steven Johnson's dark superhero flick Daredevil. Despite the anticipation of the famed stoic blind crime-fighter's arrival on the big screen, Johnson's sensationalistic fantasy is, surprisingly, another arbitrary stunt-infested movie that has plenty of kinetic movement yet never really goes anywhere with its energizing format.

Dawn
01/03/2003. After Trip's shuttlepod is attacked, he finds himself stranded on a rapidly heating moon with an already inflammatory enemy. More Star Trek Enterprise deconstructionalism from the pen of Timothy W. Lynch.

Eulogy for a Dream
01/03/2003. Marianne Plumridge asks, with the Columbia shuttle disaster, just what happened to our dreams of space? And will we ever dare dream them again?

Wooden Rocket update
01/03/2003. The 'Oscars' of the online science fiction world have opened with over 3,000 votes for 632 different web sites in the first month. Jessica takes a look at some of the early nominations in the Wooden Rocket Awards.

Arthur C Clarke Shortlist
01/03/2003. The Arthur C Clarke Awards shortlist has been announced and includes M. John Harrison's 'Light' and China Miéville's masterpiece 'The Scar'.

The Tao of Space
01/02/2003. When I was a child one of my fondest ambitions was to become a cartoon illustrator for the likes of Marvel, DC or 2000AD.

Ebooks - you like?
01/02/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for February 2003.

Online Science Fiction gets its own 'Oscars' ... but they're made of wood!
01/02/2003. Do you run a science fiction or fantasy web site? Then you could be a winner in the first Wooden Rocket awards. At long last it's an award like the Oscars, but only for online SFF!

The Anderson Tapes
01/02/2003. Science fiction Author Kevin J Anderson talks to Stephen Hunt about his Dune prequel novels, the Saga of Seven Suns, and why we've come a long way from bug-eyed monsters slavering over scantily clad women on the garish covers of old magazines.

Vanishing Point (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/02/2003. After using the transporter to beam down for the first time, Hoshi fears that she hasn't been put together quite properly.

Precious Cargo (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/02/2003. When a repair mission turns into a trap, Trip finds himself stuck protecting a high-and-mighty princess who was being held hostage.

The Catwalk (Star Trek Enterprise)
01/02/2003. With the approach of a neutronic storm, the Enterprise crew is forced to take refuge in a maintenance shaft running along one nacelle.

A Wolfe at the Door
01/02/2003. Odyssey, the summer creative writing workshop for science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors, will feature award winning SF author Gene Wolfe as the special writer-in-residence for its summer '03 session. How on Urth did they manage that?

For a Few Dollars Moore
01/02/2003. Science fiction illustrator Chris Moore, the master of hi-tech, hi-sheen SF illustration talks about the joy of the airbrush, as well as using a computer to paint starships like a madman.

The Tuxedo (Frank's Take)
01/02/2003. Frank reckons he would prefer a lobotomy to the punishing and mirthless antics of the new Jackie Chan lame chop-and-sock action-packed fantasy spy comedy The Tuxedo. That can't be good!

What Merry Jeapes we Played
01/02/2003. Ben Jeapes, founder of science fiction book publisher Big Engine and the great new 3SF magazine, interviewed by our Hunty on the tricky act of keeping the drool from running down his gibbering physiognomy while running a burgeoning SF empire.

HENGIE: by Jonathan Day
01/02/2003. A short story from the pen of Jonathan Day. What on - or off - Earth can happen when a robot artist shaped like a dragon starts collaborating with the space programme? Read on to find out.

Empty World
01/01/2003. As a sub-genre of science fiction, end of the world-style themes have always had a powerful - pileup at the side of the motorway - pull on our imaginations.

Two Towers ... getting better, or getting worse?
01/01/2003. The Galactic Senate: polls & voting for January 2003.

Here comes the 'Egg' man
01/01/2003. With four Hugos and a Chesley, Bob Eggleton is one of the most renowned SF and fantasy artists in the world. And he has a really amazing haircut too!

Star Trek Enterprise: The Seventh
01/01/2003. T'Pol asks Archer along on a classified mission which threatens to reveal an incident she has long hidden from herself.

Star Trek Enterprise: The Communicator
01/01/2003. When Lieutenant Reed loses his communicator on a landing mission, he and Archer return to retrieve it before it contaminates that planet's culture.

Star Trek Enterprise: Singularity
01/01/2003. Radiation from a nearby black hole affects the Trek crew's behaviour in some unexpected ways.

The Fist and the Stars
01/01/2003. Authors David Sherman and Dan Cragg interviewed about the art of writing high octane military science fiction and how their Starfist novels were informed by their own years in the services.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Frank's Take)
01/01/2003. Jackson proudly pounds his chest, and rightly so, as he ushers in the second instalment of Tolkien's universe in the masterful sequel The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Frank finds a film that is intriguingly breathtaking and sensually stimulating, The Two Towers is even more cinematically sound than the first outing.

Star Trek Nemesis: Frank's Take
01/01/2003. Frank asks will diehard and casual Trekkers come out the woodwork to check out the tenth Star Trek feature at the local box office? Does a Klingon need a facelift? Somehow there's a sense of urgency for trekkies to revel in the experience that is the legendary Star Trek franchise.

Solaris (Frank's Take)
01/01/2003. Franks plonks himself down for another movie, and discovers the Soderbergh-Clooney collaboration continues to roll along, as they serve up an ambitious but intermittently uneven science fiction love story in the visually stimulating space opera Solaris.