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News Archive
Current: August 2004
Elizabeth
Hand Interview
Sasha talks to SFF writer Elizabeth Hand about the art of developing
characters, drawing on real events and people, and why it now takes
Elizabeth at least two years to write a book.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
The
Dead Lines of Greg Bear
Author Greg Bear on his new novel, turning to horror after success
as a science fiction writer, and Greg's in-production SF work about
law enforcement on an international scale
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Marianne
de Pierres Interview
The author of Nylon Angel on the dark futures of cyberpunk, cutting
her teeth on A.C. Clarke, media manipulation, and how studying Film
and TV as an undergraduate has influenced her science fiction writing.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Why,
Robot?
Scots author Ken Macleod on why the idea of a tool, a machine, that
replicates our most distinctive features - a machine with a face,
a voice, a mind, a hand - is disturbing and uncanny.
(COMMENT)
Stones
Short story from Radi Todorov Radev, a 26-year old science fiction
author from Bulgaria. As well as his fiction, Radi usually writes
the Bulgarian SF news reports for Locus.
(FICTION)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy: August 2004
Interviews with Alan Moore, Geoffrey Landis, Steve Erikson and Robert
Silverberg, why elitism in the genre is good, and Kim Stanley Robinson
on the really dumb science of The Day After Tomorrow.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science: August 2004
Inflatable space stations, why we never went to the moon, the Project
Icarus study on deflecting asteroids with very large atomics, Stephen
Hawking on black holes, Cassini orbits Saturn, 'and Beagle 3' looks
for an American ride.
(NEWS)
Fantasy
Filmfest 2004
Sasha tells how starting out in Munich, and cutting a creepy swathe
through Stuttgart, Cologne and Frankfurt, to a final week-long blowout
in Berlin, the Fantasy Filmfest dishes everything from haute horreur
to gore-n-splatter.
(CON REPORTS)
I,
Robot - Mark's Take
In 2035 there is a murder at U.S. Robotics and a robophobic policeman,
played by Will Smith, believes robots are responsible. Mixing animation
and live action nearly seamlessly, I, Robot turns Isaac Asimov's
robot world into the backdrop for a prosaic summer action film.
It is not a film Asimov would have enjoyed much.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Spider-Man
2 - Frank's Take
In director Sam Raimi’s explosively action-packed superhero saga
Spider-Man 2, he picks up the pleasurable pace of the web-slinging
wizard. Tobey Maguire is back in full form as the angst-ridden crime-fighting
cobwebbed crawler. Lost in a perpetual haze of conflict and courageousness,
Maguire’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man is a harried hero with a tainted
blue-collar badge that he proudly dons.
(FILM REVIEWS)
The
Chronicles of Riddick - Frank's Take
Four years after Pitch Black, filmmaker David Twohy decides to follow
up his celebrated pet project with the disjointed and bloated sequel
The Chronicles of Riddick. Utterly ponderous and as clunky as a
crater rock, Riddick fails to capture the spontaneous spirit of
its predecessor.
(FILM REVIEWS)
The
Stepford Wives - Frank's Take
The writing is on the wall when a casual comedy that boasts a high-powered
cast doesn’t have a single clue as to what it wants to accomplish.
And that’s certainly not a vote of confidence for a dark SF movie
looking to make mincemeat commentary about the awakening of feminism
and the imprisoned role of domicile divas looking to grow beyond
their restricted boundaries.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Around
the World in 80 Days - Frank's Take
Poor Jules Verne must be spinning in his grave. Out of all the remakes
that had been done regarding Verne’s whimsical classical story,
director Frank 'The Wedding Singer' Coraci delivers a botched and
banal affair of lackluster lunacy in his updated version of Around
the World in 80 Days.
(FILM REVIEWS)
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