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Offworld report: February 2003
William Gibson makes a break from the world of science fiction
with his much lauded Pattern Recognition, Peter Jackson is interviewed
- about Lord of the Rings, what else - and Gary Westfahl stirs up
a storm over the space shuttle disaster.
 Another
fine crop of recent articles, interviews and commentaries found
offworld the 'Nest - during the month of February '03 - in various
dusty corners of the cyberspace universe.
Being
Boris
Artists Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell interviewed.
Crucified
to the Machine
An interesting article on the religious subtext in Fritz Lang's
classic movie Metropolis.
 Cyberpunk
goes Spy-Fi
The father of cyberpunk, William Gibson, leaves the world of SF
for a rather good cod espionage thriller, Pattern Recognition.
The
Real Red Planet
A look at China's entry into the space race
with their plans for a manned rocket in a year or so, plus their
much more ambitious scheme for a moon base and landing astronauts
on Mars.
Robotmaid
Here comes the Roomba, a cheap robot vacuum cleaner that actually
works!
The
Empathetic Killing Machine
Plans for a robot war droid able to read its human partner's
emotional state by processing data from sensors on the human warrior's
body.
James
P. Hogan Saves the World
An interview with the science fiction author who may have spared
the world from the cold war getting hot.
The
Science Fiction Hunter
Forrest J Ackerman, arguably science fiction's greatest collector,
keeps a dwindling trove of goodies open to the public.
The
Author Who Slipped Sideways
Harry Turtledove, the king of alternate-history fiction, comes under
the spotlight.
E-mail
From Gthulhu
Robert Silverberg regales us with a tale from an un-adventuresome
computer user.
Black
Hole Diet
It would appear that the supermassive black hole sitting in the
centre of the Milky Way is somewhat hungry. Guess who's coming to
dinner?
A
Faraway Place
The most distant world circling a star thousands of light-years
from Terra is found by a happy astronomer.
Lucky
Liz
Author Liz Williams interviewed about reading Jack Vance's unfortunately
named Servants of the Wankh from cover to cover at an early age.
Free
Doctorow with those Fries?
Science fiction author Cory Doctorow gives away his first novel
to anyone who wants it.
Moya
Power to You
New Zealand actor Lani John Tupu, Farscape's Bialar Crais and the
voice of Moya's 'Pilot', is interviewed.
Bam
Boom
NASA's plans to uncover what was going on in the universe seconds
after the Big Bang took place.
2002
Books Top Ten
Jeff VanderMeer's favourite picks for 2002.
Stopping
the Space Shuttle
Opinion piece on why the Space Shuttle must be stopped This (IMHO
misguided) article says it's costly, outmoded, impractical and deadly.
Columbia
Down
Gary Westfahl ponders if science fiction has helped contribute somewhat
to mankind's unrealistic expectations about the ease of conquering
space.
Who
Cares About Columbia?
Seven schoolchildren are swept to their deaths on a skiing trip
in Canada. Seven Africans are washed up dead on a beach in Spain.
Seven astronauts are lost when the space shuttle breaks up over
America. Only one story captures world attention. Why, asks Libby
Brooks.
NASA
to go Nuclear?
NASA moves ahead with plans to send a robot ship to Jupiter's moons,
propelled by an electric, nuclear-powered engine.
Elevator
to Space
Revisits the concept of getting to orbit by way of an elevator riding
a 62,000-mile carbon nanotube.
Action
Jackson
Peter Jackson takes readers behind the scenes of his film, The Lord
of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Reading
Resnick
Science fiction author Mike Resnick, creator of the brilliant SF-as-a-western
novel Santiago, is interviewed.
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OTHER CONTENT - March 2003
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Discworld
Divinity
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.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
McMullen'ing
it Over
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.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Hart
to Hart
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 owning The New York Review of Science
Fiction, and the contribution made by the Philip K. Dick Awards to the field.
(PUBLISHING SPOTLIGHT)
Windy
Miller
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.
(ARTIST INTERVIEWS)
Noreascon Four News
Next year's world science fiction convention is about to put up its prices before
opening its doors, so jump in quick.
(CONVENTIONS)
Fans Will Battle(star)
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.
(NEWS)
Darkness Falls
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.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Daredevil
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.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Dawn
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.
(TV REVIEWS)
Eulogy for a Dream
Marianne Plumridge asks, with the Columbia shuttle disaster, just what happened to our dreams of space? And will we ever dare dream them again?
(ARTICLES)
Offworld report: February 2003
William Gibson makes a break from the world of science fiction with his much lauded Pattern Recognition, Peter Jackson is interviewed - about Lord of the Rings, what else - and Gary Westfahl stirs up a storm over the space shuttle disaster.
(NEWS)
Wooden Rocket update
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.
(AWARDS)
Arthur
C Clarke Shortlist
The Arthur C Clarke Awards shortlist has been announced and includes M. John
Harrison's 'Light' and China Miéville's masterpiece 'The Scar'.
(AWARDS)
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