Tag archives for Science fiction - Page 3
Duke of Piraxis – SciFi draft on wattpad
working cover for Duke of Piraxis Over the last couple of weeks I outlined a science fiction story with the working title Duke of Piraxis. It's about a new colony in the early days of human deep space travel. Despite the name Duke of Piraxis doesn't feature nobility. The Chief Executive is called Duke. They decided to call the colony Piraxis. Hence Duke of Piraxis as he's the primary point of view in what I've written so far. Inspiration for Duke of Piraxis So what inspired me to write the story was a TV programme where Michael Portillo visited Romania. At the beginning of the 20th century the Romanians got themselves a King. They built railways all over the country and also a fantastic palace. It made me think of some of the fantasy steampunk stories. Then I thought, maybe…
Fiction Bookshelf – Bookshelves Abound = #Shelfie 01
Bookshelves abound in my home and this is my fiction bookshelf. Every room has some books in it. So inspired by this tweet from @helionbooks I thought that it might be interesting to take pictures of all the bookshelves in my house and post them one at a time over the next couple of months with a little tiny bit of commentary on where it is and what the books are. Here is the first #Shelfie Fiction Bookshelf Fiction Bookshelf on the upstairs landing I've called this the Fiction Bookshelf because it is majority fiction, and most of my books aren't fiction. So this one is unusual because it houses most of the fiction titles in my house (well at least most of my fiction, there's a lot of other fiction belonging to my wife and children). This is a…
Dominic Green – Science Fiction Writer [Author Interview]
Dominic Green The author interviews are making a return to Themself! First in the new series is Dominic Green, a Hugo nominee and science fiction author. I reviewed his book Warlords of Llantatis earlier this week, it's one of my top books of 2016. I have a feeling that I'll shortly be reading a lot more of Dominic Green's work. Interview - Dominic Green 1. How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I remember filling exercise books with ridiculous, poorly-spelt, derivative stories written in pencil. I was about 33 at the time. I don't remember ever making a decision that I wanted to write stuff. That would be like a fish making a decision that it wanted to breathe water. 2. Do you write for a living, or do you also do other work?…
Up Against It by M.J. Locke [Book Review]
Up Against It by Locke My rating: 5 of 5 stars I spent a long time getting into this book. It spent time on the shelf between each of the first few chapters and the time when I make it my main read. I persevered because it was recommended via Charles Stross's blog. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed it immensely. Up Against It - the review Up Against It is a relatively long book, not quite up with some of the fantasy genre, but over 450 dense pages. There are three interwoven plots, which is why it has a slow burn start. There is quite a bit of setup to be done. Once it gets going though it is fantastically good. There is a well defined world for it all to happen in which is internally consistent.…
Redshirts by John Scalzi [Book Review]
Redshirts by John Scalzi My rating: 3 of 5 stars Redshirts is a pastiche on the original Star Trek. As a premise it's interesting, and Scalzi executes it well. However it's not really enough for a full length book. I can see it working very well as a 90 minute movie though. Redshirts - Review All through Redshirts there are little chuckles and wry smiles. The plot is an observation of the sort of tricks series writers use to keep audience attention. So it is a meta story more than it is its own story. Redshirts is full of Scalzi's trademark snarkiness and cleverness, which I happen to like. Scalzi said in a recent blog post that he wrote Redshirts in five weeks. That makes Redshirts the fastest book he's written, and it sort of shows. I did like it, but only just.…