- Jeanette Winterson on sf: “I hate science fiction. But good writers about science, such as Jim Crace and Margaret Atwood, are great. They take on science because it’s crucial to our world, and they use language to give energy to ideas. Others just borrow from science and it ends up like the emperor’s new clothes, with no understanding of the material. But you shouldn’t fake it because science is too important, it’s the basis for our lives. I expect a lot more science in fiction because science is so rich.” Compare to the description of her new book, The Stone Gods
- New websites for the Hugo Awards and discussion of SF awards in general
- Adam Gopnik writes about Philip K. Dick in The New Yorker; Ed Champion and Jeff VanderMeer comment
- Graham Sleight on Robert Heinlein. Go and argue with him; it’ll make him happy
- Discussions of gender roles in Stardust: one, two, three (via)
- Jonathan McCalmont has reservations about Halting State
- Paul Kincaid has reservations about Map of Dreams
- Elizabeth Bear isn’t too keen on Doris Lessing’s The Cleft
- Kardagan looks at Elizabeth Hull’s remarks about Titan
- Micole on Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Fantasy, and in particular “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter”
- Sarah Monette has been watching Due South
- There’s been a bit of a debate about cover art at The Genre Files
- Guardian reviews: Ben Brown on Ben Okri’s Starbook; Steven Poole on William Gibson’s Spook Country; and Ian Beetlestone on the same in The Observer
- And some notes on Spook Country from Steven Shaviro
- Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist posts about the changing of the guard in epic fantasy; Andrew Wheeler provides a dose of reality
- The Bourne Ultimatum: fun or not?
- And finally: I know the Dozois year’s best is a bit predictable these days, but I can’t help thinking there’s something wrong when a review doesn’t mention a single story title or author.
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Worth noting that Maureen Speller has also started a discussion of the Winterson comment.
Hm, and I put that note up before realising you’d already linked through to the same place.
That is the Observer review of Spook Country, not the Guardian one.
Tricksy Guardian website. I’ve added the other review, thanks.