SCI FI PI

Tor is one of the most respected names in the Si Fi and Fantasy publishing world, and they've managed to keep pace with changing times. Thus, when they launch a new website, fans of the written Sci Fi word should and will take notice. Especially when they keep up the good work of allowing free books to be downloaded!

On the 20th of July, their new website (tor.com - not too hard to remember) will go live. Here's what they official word says they'll have on the site:

"Original fiction from star authors. Galleries of images from the field’s best artists. News and commentary about not just Tor books, but the SF world overall. Topical coverage of major events like San Diego Comic Con (July 23-27) and the World Science Fiction Convention (August 6-10). Weblog posts and guest appearances by some of the most interesting personalities and thinkers around. And your own feedback and discussions, plus tools to enable you to track the subjects and conversations you care about the most."

Believe it or not, but there's an International Film School in Sydney, and they're launching a series of Master Classes for writers keen to hone their skill in the craft of screen writing.

We're always keen to foster talent, or at least promote it, or, well, encourage it, at the very least, so if you've got a hankering to be the world's next big Sci Fi movie or even TV writer, then this might be something for you to have a look at.

The 2008 season of master classes begins on July the 26th and goes through until the 21st of November.

STARSHIP TROOPERS (1959)
By Robert Heinlein

In many ways, Robert Heinlein is an enigma. Along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, he is considered a founding father of modern science fiction, a triumvirate of both intellect and talent that has shaped the way people read and think about Science Fiction. His works span the full gamut of political and social viewpoints, and he is possibly the only Science Fiction author to have two novels win the Hugo award that stand on either end of the socio-political spectrum. as well known as he is for authoring Stranger in A Strange Land, he is equally famous for creating Starship Troopers, a book that was controversial in its day, and still creates waves of conjecture even today.

THE SPACE MERCHANTS (1953) by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth

The Space Merchants is essentially a parable on modern life and on the invasive and pervasive effects of advertising on the modern mind, the way it creates wants and needs within us, and also the way it separates us into haves and have nots. Relevant and stinging (if not downright revolutionary) fifty years ago, it's stunning just how applicable its 'them and us' theme applies to today's society. It is perhaps even more damning that we as a society have come closer to the book's dystopian slavery that big businesses in The Space Merchants would like us to endure.

Neil Gaiman is coming to Australia!

The author of Stardust, Neverwhere and American Gods will be in Australia at the end of April and the beginning of May to meet with fans, sign books and generally make himself available and agreeable. If you've seen his graphic novels, the Sandman series made up of Punch, and Death: The High Cost of Living, or his children's books, you're aware of his vast spectrum of work, and should be suitably excited. Should be a fascinating Q&A for fans new and old alike.

FOUNDATION
By Isaac Asimov

When discussing the Golden Age of Science Fiction, there are three authors that you must always include - the recently deceased Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. When you think of Science Fiction, it owes something to these three. When Science Fiction is broken up into its various sub-genres, and across it's spectrum, from 'Hard' to 'Fantasy', one begins as 'scientist as author', the pipe-chomping bearded type with glasses who writes about what would happen if the latest advances in science were to become reality. Add mutton chops, and you have Isaac Asimov. His particular brand of Science Fiction eschewed aliens and focused on science, robots, and in the Foundation series, the concept of 'psychohistory'.

New Book New Author News!

In the Give Aussies A Go Department, SCI FI is always up front and centre. If you’re interested in deep and meaningful conspiracy theory thrillers, then we might just have found the right thing for you.

Australian Author Nathan Burrage will be instore at Sydney's Galaxy Books this Thursday the 17th of January at 6pm, to celebrate the release of his first book ‘Fivefold’ which asks the question - what if the first five chapters of the Bible weren't about good and evil at all? What if they contained a hidden meaning, evidence of a divine grand plan?

THE DEMOLISHED MAN
By Alfred Bester

This is the first ever Hugo Award winner, back in 1953. Named after groundbreaking editor and Author Hugo Gernsback, the Hugos, along with the Nebula Awards, are considered the highest recognition that a Science Fiction Author can achieve.

The Demolished Man is generally included in any top ten of Golden Age Sci Fi, and often of all time Sci Fi.

Alfred Bester’s writing is characterised by an energy and imagination that must have been astonishing in the 50’s, and is still eye-opening today. He wrote few novels in a genre packed with logorrhoea, but his The Stars My Destination (1956) is always considered when discussing the greatest Sci Fi novels of all time. We’ll read more about that one later.

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
By Philip K.Dick

With the release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut to the home entertainment market on December 19, the world will once again cast its eyes over Philip K.Dick’s Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep, the book that spawned an audiovisual phenomenon. However, let’s save that one for a rainy day and have a look at another of Dick’s novels, passed on from generation to generation as one of the coolest books ever written.

First, for the newbies, a little about Dick. The ‘K’ stands for Kindred. Astonishingly, he went to High School with another Sci Fi titan, Ursula K. Le Guin (more about her later) in Berkely, California. He sold his first story in 1952, first novel in 1955. Dick is generally regarded as a true genius, touched by madness, and his works blend psychological investigation with astonishingly adept forays into alternate (and often alternating) realities. Drug use is a theme that emerges in his later works. Later on in life Dick suffered from paranoia and schizophrenia, which is reflected in his final novels. He died in 1982.