Found via BoingBoing, an article in The Boston Globe with a gallery of steampunk objects. An interesting observation is part of the article wherein it talks about the preservation of objects, taking modern day appliances and rendering them as steampunk items to increase the desire to save them, to make them museum pieces. Interesting. I have often noted to anyone that will listen that nobody will wait hours in a line to see a hundred-year-old Web site (ok ok, who knows, that’ll be in about 85 years?) — but people often wait in long, long lines to view texts like James Joyce’s Ulysses on Bloomsday. I got to see Ben Franklin’s folio of his hand written Autobiography at the Huntington last year….
Bionic Woman – First Lady of Cyberpunk
It seems like forever that I have been looking for the original Bionic Man series on DVD. I am hoping that the new TV series “Bionic Woman” will mean that a US release of the original series is forthcoming. Hope this series is good – I will TIVO it and let you know.
– Enoc
Shadowrun the series Part 3
I mentioned previously that the shadowrun books are my romance novels and perhaps I should explain myself a little here. First of all the plots are all some what similar. There is a “Johnson” – an anonymous individual usually from the corporate runner – who goes to a “Fixer” – who is the middle man – about a job that he or she wants done – usually against another corporation…
Top 15 Great Science Fiction Books
And the Shadowrunning tie-in … Neuromancer at No. 10! An interesting site all-in-all, but this specific post was a pretty good one for, as one commentor says, recognizing that scifi started before 1980. No Jules Verne, but some early stuff I hadn’t read. And then the comments are the real fun part! All the pleas for the personal favorties that have absolutely no business contending for spots with the canons present in this list. [Found via SF Signal]
BRBR Shout out!
Just a quick note that Ling has started his own blog – “Book Review Blog Review” or BRBR for short. I have added his site to the blog roll. I think you will find the visit well worth it.
Fora.tv William Gibson Interview…
Well I have been waiting for the Cody’s Broadcast of William Gibson’s Book Reading to be posted to their site and here it is.. Hear what we heard , see what we saw…
-Enoc
Gibson in New York Times..
Todays NY Times had an interesting Q&A session with William Gibson.
“Do you feel that you’ve transcended the science-fiction genre in your work? My roots are in a genre. That is the funny thing. Novels are called novels because, ideally, they provide a novel experience. But in genre, you’re sort of buying a guarantee that you are going to have essentially the same experience again and again. It’s a novel. It won’t be too novel. Don’t worry.”
See the full William Gibson Interview… (you will need to click an ad to see the interview)
thanks to Noemi for the heads up – Enoc
Series Review Round Up – Alec Effinger’s Marid Audran
| Well I finally finished Alec Effinger’s series about Marid Audran. Moving onto Spook Country but not before I give you all a quick review and my recommendations. I will try not to include any spoilers. First of all the series consists of 3 books. Make sure to read them in order: When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun and The Exile Kiss. A new book of Marid Audran Short Stories was just released called “Budayeen Nights”. It is important to note that Effinger passed away in 2002 so unless someone discovers more short stories or decides to takes up the mantle of writing about Marid Audran this most excellent “Shaykh” will reveal no more of his story.
Setting: The setting is all important here. Sometime in the future in an Islamic ruled city somewhere in North Africa in a quarter of the city called the Budayeen. The world’s countries have fractured into smaller nation states. Islam has a much larger hold on the world’s population. |
Another Punk… Steampunk
Out of the world of Cyberpunk came the concept of Steampunk… ” Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. ” (from wikipedia).
Of course I credit William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s book “The Difference Engine” (I think I need to re-read it) with mainstreaming the concept…
Anyway here is a great link to steampunk like items that people have created.
Enoc
A night with William Gibson in Spook Country
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As mentioned in my last post – Ling and I attended a signing and reading of William Gibson’s Spook Country last night. About 50 + people attended (full house) the event at Cody’s (last remaining) Bookstore on 4th St in Berkeley. Ling and I have attended these kind of events before ( for Neil Gaiman and William Gibson ) and it follows a usual pattern of the author reading a chapter, answering some questions from the crowd and then the book signing. This was indeed how the night went. Gibson read chapter 42 of the book ( perhaps an homage to Douglas Adams someone in line suggested ). |