“The Cuban Missile Crisis, Teddyboys, Rock N’ Roll, The Key To The End Of The World, Timetravel - There’s nothing quite like being a teenager in Liverpool during 1962…”

Laura Mann, 14, is The H-Bomb Girl and has just moved to Liverpool with her mum. Laura’s father is seperating from her mother, and he’s in the RAF, and very close to the rising angst between the US and Cuba.

This is a fictional account of history during the Cuban Missile Crisis, rise of the Beatles, threat of nuclear war and includes bit parts by the Beatles and Cilla Black. As I’ve spent quite a bit of time in and around Liverpool in the last few years, and the descriptions of 60s Liverpool, especially the Cavern and the feeling of the loud music rockets this story onto another parallel. I even looked around for footage of The Beatles playing early on in their career, and you can image The H-Bomb Girl and her friends somewhere in the crowd.

It’s worth pointing out that Baxter is well known for his harder SF, and this is quite a departure for him, don’t expect in your face SF, this is more subtle, and the way he introduces the SF elements are perfectly paced.

There is a big downside though, and that’s towards the end where the story collapses (as does the wall in The Cavern in an idiotic display of dangerousness of the British Military) and my suspension of belief was forced to vacate the area.

The descriptions of nuclear devestation, in diary form from a young girl’s point of view, is strong and sometimes terrifying. Following the story of how Laura tackles the threats laid before her, upto and including holding the key to stopping nuclear war. It shows, in an enlightened way, how there can be different perspectives on mundane things such as music, upto the reasons for allowing a nuclear war to happen.

Apart from the aforementioned story collapse towards the end, there is a lot of worthwhile reading, whether for pseudo historical reasons, or the story’s deeper meaning, it’s a worth borrowing from your sf mate to read.

H-Bomb Girl, listen to yourself. You are a fourteen-year-old girl, stuck in a hole in the ground, in Liverpool. How can you talk about causing wars or not? How can you talk about choosing futures? Who do you think you are, the Virgin Mary or Supergirl?

“A being known as TAU 4, the terrible and uncontrollable brain child of a brilliant, enigmatic and ruthless scientist.”

On a distant planet of the Homeworld Alliance, Dr. Stephen Weller, acclaimed expert in behaviour, is about to penetrate one of the greatest mysteries of his field. He spent months of planning and care to get access to Altair Base, a high security experimental research facility.

Dark work is afoot at this Base controlled by Dyle Carzon and his entourage, under the guise of its focus for the war efforts against the hostile planets of the Outworlds. Securely tucked away in Altair’s encrouching forest, the Base is a natural strong hold, both to enter, and to exit.

Weller meets the being known as TAU 4, a morph, spliced together from human and Altair animal, to learn of her ‘behavioural problems’.

Victoria J. Waks has sewn together an almost poetic narrative in her debut novel, TAU4.

The main characters are engaging enough that you want to learn more about them. TAU has her inner turmoil as she gets to grips with who and what she is.

The environments shone in the prose, and its not hard to believe they could be converted to the big screen (with minimal CGI). The characters’ feelings and their interaction and conflict was wholly realistic.

It’s not a typical scifi novel, as it doesn’t focus on technology (apart from the merging of two species), though technology is used as the background - by technology I mean lasers and spaceships and the typical stuff. I suppose it’s more of a space adventure, and to be honest I don’t normally find these engaging, but this is tight and ingenious with some of its plot twists and story arcs.

Above all though, I think it’s the writing, the way the author physically structure sentences, the words used to pull the story along, and the way there are bits of information introduced prior to them fully being realised in the narrative, which makes it a pleasure to read.

The only downside, which is a real personal thing, is that the font used in the book was a bit ‘ornate’, it took a while to settle down and get used to it (I trawled a few font sites but couldn’t find the name of it). But once that personal hurdle was overcome, it was plain sailing and a thought provoking read.

Yes, TAU4 is thought provoking, but so much more so because as I write, the hot topic in the UK news is the Embryo Bill - in part, it’s to vote on whether it should be allowed to create embryos with human DNA and animal cells.

So in summary, when I finally put the book down, I realised that certain images stayed with me, like the forest descriptions, The Phantom cruiser, TAU’s eyes; and this counts for a lot. It’s one of the best books of this sub genre I’ve read in the last twelve months, and saying that, I’m certainly looking forward to part two.

An added bonus is the relevant artwork on the front cover, which is The Sphinx And The Chimera, 1906 (Oil on canvas), by Louis Welden Hawkins (1849 - 1910).

“Murdered in 2009. Revived in 2373. Grafted to a vaccum cleaner. Enslaved as a domestic robot. It’s a hell of a time to be Rebodied.”

The main character in Clive Warner’s Rebody, Hugh, must be the luckiest and unluckiest run-of-the-mill professor to have lived. He is lucky in that he gets to mix with one of his students at poetry nights. Yolanda, five eight, french looking, makes a pair of jeans and baggy sweatshirt look Paris-chic, takes a liking to the professor. The professor is unlucky as Yolanda has a mean boyfriend who kind of manages to take him out with a size ten boot. He’s also unlucky (or you might say lucky I guess) because he managed to win a Cryo Freeze prize at a funfair, while out with Yolanda, earlier that same evening.

Satire and comedy in the genre have to be treated with the utmost care. Rebody tackles it well, never trying to be satirical for the sake of it. Even though the author himself has said its satirical, its reads very much tongue in cheek. From the internal dialogue of Hugh, to how he comes to terms with his environment, Hugh keeps his sense of humour. I mean, you’ve got to if the last thing you remember is getting beaten to a pulp and then waking up ’seconds later’ a few hundred years into the future, inside a vaccum cleaner.

Some of the subject matter is downright bordering on sexually explicit, but this is delivered in a genre-esque way. Having a human head grafted onto different bodies, each with its own pros and cons, but actually being gradually taken over by it. One example is Hugh having his head attached to an apes body, and talking about the size of its manhood, in human terms its quite small, in ape terms its apparently quite big. Even thinking about it now makes me guffaw. Clive delivers these tidbits in a fashion I’ve never quite seen before.

Clive’s use of sound effect is amusing too. ‘Suddenly my stomach rumbles and my mouth goes ‘borp'’ or ‘He presses the button. The wheel goes ‘pokpokpokpokpokitypok . pok . . pok . . . the light blurs through the slots, slower, slower, the screen flickers…’ Sometimes its hard to take the story seriously, though reading past this, you soon learn that it’s all part of the style of writing.

It’s full of funny bits, even if the funny is black comedy. There’s also some questions which arise from this, and any good SF. What would it be like to have your head attached to a vaccum cleaner or ape or any such foreign object? How would you handle it? It also covers racial equality and not to get involved in things you might regret.

There are also some suprising twists in the tale. It’s unusual for a book to do this to me, as I thought I could pre-empt any devilment an author might dream up.

Probably not one for younger readers. If you’ve ever fancied detaching your head and putting it onto something mechanical and/or biological then this is a story for you.

The publisher’s main site is Citiria Publishing.

Interestingly, Clive has put up some Rebody Outtakes to peruse. Yes, you read correctly!

A brand new voice in children’s literature offers an eerie contemporary tale on the fusion of man and machine. Hybrids was the winning entry in HarperCollins Nationwide search for an author competition with Saga Magazine, beating 882 other manuscripts to first place.

Johnny Online and Kestrella are hybrids - victims of Creep, a pandemic sweeping the country which causes suffers to merge with items of technology when over-exposed to their use. Kestrella persuades a wary Johnny to help her find her missing mother, but the sinister Gene Police have other plans for him.

The story is narrated alternately by Johnny and Kes, which is an interesting technique and works well, as it shows the same situation from both persons point of view. Meaning you can see the difference in their thoughts, especially how each sees the other. Hybrids questions our human dependence on technology, and our reactions in the face of nationwide panic. Based in a world which is current, but not quiet; which is real, but only just; which is horribly close to our fears of what is happening and may happen in the future.

A virus, Creep, has swept Britain, causing the merging of technology with people; bass guitars(!), monitors and computer innards, mobile phones, it’s all there. The people infected as deemed dirty and dangerous by the non-infected, and as such are rounded up and kept seperate. Those on the run feel isolated and live on the edge, mostly banding together to survive.

The writing is at a steady pace and as a children’s book, will easily be followed. There’s no ‘over your head technology’ to content with, it’s really just people who are different to ‘the norm’. I feel this is a nice introduction to cyberpunk. It has messages too, loving someone, not for their physical appearance, but for their ‘internal beauty’; public panic at the unknown; dependency on technology. The depenency on technology is, while reading, the message which struck me most.

Today we can switch off a computer, turn off a mobile phone or those irritating Blackberrys (if I see another person with a mobile phone in one hand, and a Blackberry in the other, switching between the two incessently…), but what if we couldn’t, what if they had to be on because we couldn’t turn them off, because they’re a part of ourselves?

I’m dissappointed, yet again, that the main crux of the story isn’t really explained. Creep is kind of skipped over as a virus which causes man and machine to meld. I guess the characters are maybe too busy getting on with their lives and surviving to bother with the history, but it seems to me its a bit of a cop out. Although, in all fairness, there could quite easily be a followup in which it is explained in more detail. As a side note, in thinking back over Hybrids, it occurred to me that there is no definition of ‘technology’ - all the mentioned hybridizations are with electronic technology - there’s no merging of, say, reading glasses or saucepans, surely these are technology too.

Ironically, David dictated the book using voice recognition software. Mild childhood cerebral palsy has progressed into painful carpel tunnel syndrome which makes extensive typing almost impossible. The author is forced to use technology as a tool, much like the characters in his book are forced to be part of their technology. This, I am contemplating, could be where the book’s idea first seeded from.

An enjoyable debut novel, a good introduction to SF which leans towards younger readers who haven’t read the genre in anger, if at all.

Notes On The Author:
David Thorpe lives in the mountains not far from the beaches of beautiful mid-Wales. He spends his time wondering. When he was smaller he noticed that most adults seemed to have forgotten what it was like to be a child and vowed to try not do the same himself. Previously he has worked on the sewers, written comics, published eco-books and been a journalist. If you want to make him happy you can help to save the tiger from extinction.

David’s sons, who conveniently feill into the intended age group for Hybrids while it was being written, helped their dad with editing the book - they took sections to school to see how their friends responded to it and were instantly the hub of the playground. Insistent request of “turn the page!” suggested that David was on to a winner from the start.

“An ancient book is lost. The modern world could be ripped apart at the seams.”

The Alchemyst: The Secrets Of Nicholas Flamel is the first in a brand new series starring The Immortal Nicholas Flamel (of Harry Potter fame). Released through Kids At Random House publishing, it’s aimed at the young adult market and, as seems to be the norm with this kind of age targetted book, has two fifteen year old siblings, Sophie and Josh Newman.

On their summer break in San Francisco, they take jobs and end up working across the street from one another, her in a coffee shop, him in a book shop which is owned by husband and wife, Perry and Nick (who is infact Nicholas). The action starts immediately, with some animated men made from mud attacking the bookshop, capturing Perry and stealing a rare book called the Codex. Luckily, Josh manages to grab the last two, and most important pages as it’s snatched away.

The Codex contains magical wisdom, and most disturbingly to Josh and Sophie, a prophecy about ‘twins’. They learn that Nicholas is a 14th century alchemist who has been hiding out and laying it low, with his wife Perry, since discovering the secret to immortality.

Attempting to recover the book and Nicholas’ wife, they encounter mythical beings, mythical places and some glowing characters: An Irish woman warrior, trained in martial arts, in the body of a young girl. A greek Hekate - The Morrigan and a poweful Egyptian cat-goddess Bastet to name but a few.

Reading The Alchemyst, at times, can be a bit daunting because you are faced with so many different cultures and myths that it gets a bit muddy. It’s a hot-pot of too many strong flavours to properly appreciate any single one.

What disappointed me was that there is no alchemy, no mixing of substances. The striking cover of ye olde manuscript paper, golden inked runes and an ancient test tube with a dubious green mist floating upward is not really a reflection of the contents of the book. Granted, there are occasions where magic is let loose, but this is emitted from hands and such like. No creating diamonds out of coal, or gold out of metal here. Talking of magic, the narration coungers up some impressive images of electricity let rip and alternate dimensions falling apart.

Throughout the book there are links to history in which Nicholas is said to have been a part of - the Great Fire Of London for example. It is only at the back of the book, in the author’s notes, that it is revealed Nicholas Flamel did actually exist in past times. There’s a picture of the Auberge Nicolas Flamel (the Nicholas Flamel Hostel) on Rue du Montmorency, Paris, where Michael drew his inspiration for the story.

Included after the author’s notes is chapter one of The Magician: Book Two Of The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel, and that, dear reader, is where the science fiction kicks in.

The good folk at Raw Dog Screaming Press have unleashed on the world, Vacation; without a doubt, one of the most bizzare, crazy (and I hate to use the phrase) far-out books I have ever had the pleasure of swapping photons with.

“It’s time for Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a year long corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world, Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn’t once miss his secure American Dream.” That’s the blurb on the back, and in no way does it do the story justice.

In my opinion, it should read something like, “It’s time for Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on a year long, corporate sponsored Vacation. Where he’s whip cracked into a world of hallucinations (maybe) and the crazy, dark side of the world today, as his brain breaks down, and he takes a tour of violence, beauty and surrealism within a challenging. violent nightmare. And not once missing his secure American Dream.”

Vacation is written in the first person, so the author tends to speak to the reader a lot - this adds to the unworldly, plain strange read it is. Adding the fact that some of the passages are written to Bernard’s parents, it mixes and matches techniques into a literary blender of truths about the world today.

You are whip lashed from one scene to another, trying hard to keep up with what is, or might be, or probably isn’t, sort of, happening. I felt there was a lot of anger in the story, anger with the world, anger with certain situations which the protagonist comes up against. It’s dark.

The book is a short read (158 odd pages), but it packs a lot into the space, and it packs a dizzyingly, stomach lurching, punch to the brain. I’ve not tried to describe what happens in the book, so as not to spoil it in any way whatsoever. I’ve described how it’s packaged and how it comes across. To find out what happens you’ll have to partake in this enjoyable rollercoaster ride for yourself.

It’s one of the rare books that once I finished it, I started to read it again pretty much straight away.

Jeremy C. Shipp is an author whose written creations inhabit various magazines, anthologies, and drawers. These include over 30 publications, the likes of ChiZine, Bare Bone, The Harrow, Flesh and Blood, Until Someone Loses an Eye, and Darkness Rising. While preparing for the forthcoming collapse of civilization, Jeremy enjoys living in Southern California in a moderately haunted Victorian farmhouse. He’s currently working on many stories and novels and is losing his hair, though not because of the ghosts. Vacation, his first published novel, debuted April 2007 from Raw Dog Screaming Press. You can visit his online home at Haunted House Dressing.

Hopefully, Jeremy is hunched over his writing equipment right now, scribbling away on his next book.

David Fickling Books / Random House Group

“The world has turned on its axis and a traveller has arrived from beyond the stars, but it’s a secret from earth’s past that could destroy all…”

Simon Morden’s The Lost Art is set in a post apocalyptic world, at a guess, a thousand years ahead of today. Earth has been turned, literally, on its axis and forced mankind back a few hundred years to the mid fifteenth century. The inversion of the world is not really explained, so whether technology itself, or some natural global catastrophe, caused it is unknown. The story is stubborn, it doesn’t even give a hint.

Our world has gone; the Users, who were the old, pre Inversion people, have gone, and has been replaced by population suspicious of technology. Nevertheless, certain people, including the Kenyans have started to use and develop technology once more.

The story starts brutally with the slaying of a monastery of monks in Siberia. Va is the sole survivor, having the fortune to be sent away at the time of the attack. He finds that six ancient, metal covered books were stolen during the attack and, being a mental monk, striving to cleanse himself of his previous sins, he immediately sets out to get them back. The books, whose contents are thought to be dangerous, as they contain the ‘knowledge of mankind’, would bring on the destruction of the World, were locked and hidden deep in the monastery for a reason. Va is continuously followed by a princess whose love has been ignored and thwarted (remember, he’s atoning his sins), but who never gives up helping him.

Benzamir Mahmood mysteriously appears out of the skies on a flying carpet. A descendant of a strange, old race, he returns in pursuit of his enemies. Solomon Akisi is a Kenyan, well versed in the Technology, of which he introduces to people to covertly induce their trust.

Although The Lost Art is, I believe, aimed at children, this is a satisfying adult book. Some of the content even harks at being only adult content, but are toned down and not too graphic. Va is a fascinating character. On the one hand he has sworn himself to the scriptures and God, to deprive himself of wordly pleasures (including women). His internal dialogue shows how he faces up to following God’s word, while being tempted by Princess Elenya. He is also haunted by his past life; the voices of murdered folk. Possibly a bit ‘overacted’, it is an insight into a very troubled mind.

The technology is used superbly, from simple windmills (used for such things as crushing wheat for bread), projectile weapons, to anti-grav tools for the flying carpet. It shows a broad spectrum of uses, including interstellar craft towards the end. This is probably unsuprising as the author is a genuine bona-fide rocket scientist.

Simon raises quite a few questions about the usage of technology in The Lost Art. Is censoring technology a good idea? It examines how technology can be abused, and yet how it can be put to good and useful use.

I found the most exciting part of this book was the inversion, which unfortunately isn’t actually explained, so for me, reading to the end of the novel, with no reason forthcoming, was a bit of an anti-climax. Don’t misunderstand, it is a good read, and if I wasn’t so preoccupied with the whole premise, maybe I would have enjoyed it more.

So, forget the reason for the inversion, and enjoy the great narrative in Simon Morden’s debut novel.

J. Robert Maze has, in Cassandra Peel Series, woven together contemporary life and technology, with classical Greek mythology.

In the first book, Cassandra Peel And The Wild Gods Of Cyberspace (WGOCS), Cassandra, working on her computer, accidentally accesses Greek goddess Athena in cyberspace. School friend Giorgio, an internet technobuff, develops a Virtual Reality helmet, and Hephaistos, craftsman god well advanced in electronics, secretly incorporates in it a mechanism which converts Virtual Reality into Bodily Reality.

Hephaistos and Aphrodite use this to spirit Cassandra bodily away into Greek cyberspace, allegedly to assist them to undo war-god Ares’ machinations. Ares is fomenting religious hatred between two tribes in a remote eastern European mountain village. Beneath this village is a vast reserve of oil, coveted by two opposed Axes of oil-consuming nations, who will seize any opportunity to intervene and take over. Our heroes, with the help of Hephaistos, his beautiful robot maid-servant Eliza, and the complex Indian goddess Durga who comes to the aid of another school friend Parvati, foil this plot.

Aphrodite is revealed as a secret devotee and accomplice of Ares, her former lover, whom she praises on Network Olympia as a Man of Peace through War.

The characters from Homer’s Iliad and from Indian mythology live riotously in cyberspace in present time, treasuring up loves and hates that began three thousand or so years ago. Each of the gods represents some universal human passion. These passions are alive still, operating in present day affairs. One of the premises of the novel series is that the ancient deities’ interactions offer an analogue for today’s social and international undercurrents. Since the deities possess mythical being, and the myths are extant in mass entertainment, it is imaginable those old gods still exist and follow their favourite amusement of interfering in mortal affairs.

The three novels can be appreciated by readers of different levels of maturity, and are especially for mature teenage and older readers, aged 15+ years. They can be read as adventure stories incorporating interesting characters from classical mythology, as parables of contemporary history and society, or as explorations of core psychological themes of conscious and unconscious origin.

Cassandra and her friends make great reading. I found myself immersed in the book following their antics and liking the interaction between the real world and the virtual worlds. It has a very strong message to give out which mirrors today’s society, with the oil and war.

I am not really into Greek Mythology and don’t really know a lot about it (apart from Xena The Princess Warrior), but that doesn’t affect the readability - seeing the ‘gods’ come to life on the page is enjoyable, seeing them interact, help each other, even crack a joke or two, is enjoyable. The logic being different bits of technology the kids use is spot on, and adds to its ’scifi realism’. Again, it’s a bunch of kids saving the world (from World War III), but it’s almost tongue in cheek, but with a serious message.

That said, I’d prefer to call Cassandra Peel And The Wild Gods Of Cyberspace predominantly ‘life-fi’, as you almost forget they’re teleporting in and out of virtual realiy, it just becomes ‘normal’ and you concentrate on the gods and people’s interaction.

For all you saturated Harry Potter fans to get your teeth into. And even if you’re not, it’s a great read, thoroughly recommended.

The fourth Cassandra Peel novel is due out by the middle of 2007.

Show All Review Of The Cassandra Series.

One thing that stands out, even only after reading the back cover is the number of fuzzzywuzzy, cutesey names which most of the characters are blessed with. The GeeZers are a group of teenage eco-warriors fighting to save the dying planet Earth. The King and The Prime Minister, on the other hand, create Stick Rock Cafes, developed by the Company Of Dekaydence, to take the GeeZers’ minds off the environmental stuggle. The Cafes are places where young people can go to drink cappuccinos and listen to (manufactured) rock songs. Will, the King’s nephew, secretly supports the GeeZers. Ruby Q Cooper is a want to be journalist, looking for her mother, who abandoned her as a child. Piccolo wants to be become a musician.

All three of them embark on an adventure which takes them through the mysterious, hi-tech world of Dekaydence, meeting Tartan Guards, wild haggoids, Eye-Spies, a composer knighted for his services to loud music, and missing decorators.

Being a fananatical tea-drinker, this book has to have one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read: ‘’I blame the teabag for the collapse of civilisation,'’.

The Sticky Rock Cafe has so much going for it, bright characters, weird creatures (which would do well to scare people into helping to save our planet today). Unfortunately, there is too much going on at any one time, with seperate stories and more than a handful of characters; it would have been better if it had been lengthened slightly to allow breathing space, as at time it’s claustrophobic. There is a Dramatis Personae at the beginning which lists the majority of the characters and their roles, which is a good idea.

The characters are believable, with Piccolo (the want to be musician) and Taylor (the just want to be famous, probably an actress) coming across as most realistic. It makes a refreshing change to see a group of teenagers help to save a close-to-home world, rather than a totally fantasy one. There are some truly funny scenes, but these are sparse, with the action seeming to revolve around a lot of running and ‘right place at the right time’ narrative. This works well for younger readers (which appears to be its audience).

The story also disturbed me in a way too; it seems to echo something which is quite plausable, an entity setup by the ‘powers that be’ to curtain people’s thinking and actions.

Definitely a fantasy for the younger readers amongst us.

Susie Cornfield was given a typewriter when she was seven years old and can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a writer. She trained as a journalist on a local newspaper before joining The Sunday Times. She went on to be a columnist on The Sunday Telegraph Magazine while working as a documentary writer for BBC TV. She has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines and was a TV presenter/producer for United Artists.

She works from a garret on a hill in south London, emerging sometimes to spend time with her family, friends and cat, BB Edwards, play tennis with a group of retrobates, The Racqueteers, listen to or play music, and read.

Read Chapter One
http://www.garretbooks.com/srctext1.html

Listen To Martin Jarvis Read Chapter One
http://www.garretbooks.com/srcmj.html

View Page Design
http://www.garretbooks.com/srcspread.html

The Sticky Rock Cafe by Susie Cornfield (Garret Books, £6.99) is available nationwide from all good bookshops including Waterstones and your local independent bookshop, as well as on-line.

ISBN: 0955227909 or 9 780955 227905

Published by Puffin Books in paperback 3rd May 2007.

Ten millennia ago, the fairy people were defeated in a great battle with mankind, forcing them to move underground. Only the 8th family of fairies remained undefeated: the demons. But now one demon has discovered the secrets of the fairy world, and if humans get hold of this information, the fairies are in BIG trouble. Only one person can prevent this disaster - teenage criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl.

Eoin Colfer’s world is one where fairies say ‘lock and load’ and the ancient magic of Eire is blended with weapons-grade hardware and high-level technology.

‘I love the old stories and I haven’t cheapened them,’ he says in an interview with the Times newspaper. ‘I was once taken to task at the Celtic Club in Australia, where an irate member turned on me and said: ‘Do you realise your books are ridiculous? There are no female leprechauns.’ But I quickly realised that if I wanted to write in this fairy genre I would have to bring something new to the table. What I brought was James Bond, Men in Black and Star Wars.’

Acclaim for the Artemis Fowl series:

‘Best described as Hans Christian Andersen meets Miami Vice’ - Anthony Horowitz, Independent

‘A hugely entertaining romp mixing folklore, fantasy and hi-tech wizardry’ - Observer

‘It reads like the fastest, punchiest comic strip you’ve ever come across’ – Daily Telegraph

In only five short years since Artemis Fowl, dubbed ‘Die Hard with fairies’, cast a spell on the book world, Eoin Colfer has become one of the UK’s best-selling children’s authors, with UK sales topping 1.7 million copies and over 7 million copies sold worldwide. His explosive blend of action, comedy and fast-paced adventure has won the former primary school teacher millions of adoring fans the world over. Eoin lives in Wexford, Ireland with his wife and two sons.

Rare videoed interview with Eoin Colfer.

Well here’s a neat idea. Rather than describing a novel in a few sentences, why not use an animated movie to set the scene?

HarperCollins UK’s sff division, Voyager Books, have done just that, and created a Flash-based promo movie for Stephen Hunt’s fantasy novel, The Court of the Air.

The book trailer somewhat resembles a comic book look (typical of flash animations) and introduces the viewer to the main characters in The Court Of Air: orphans Molly Templar and Oliver Brooks, and the dangers they find themselves in.

To quote: “battling a grave threat to civilization which draws on an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago.” (and that doesn’t mean Windows ‘95).

We have the book in the ‘to review’ pile, so there will be a review sometime soon.

It’s also worth clicking on the media window to go through to youtube, to see what other videos are ’similar’ to this.

Alex Alaniz, Ph.D.

Beyond Future Shock begins as a pre-WWII love story. When two German lovers, Heinrich and Lise, marry, their jealous, scientific peer and friend (Hans), who has become a fervent Nazi, exposes Lise and her Jewish family.

The plot starts off slowly with no hint of sci-fi, except for baffling, but intriguing, mentions of ‘hundreds of years in the future’ and scientific discoveries to do with DNA. This shouldn’t put you off reading it, as it is an enjoyable period read.

We follow Heinrich, Lise and Hans through their early years and education. To start with, their education is almost happy go lucky, they enjoy every moment of it - until war looms and Hitler take over their education and Nazism is shoved down their throats.

From then on, it follows the three through the war, sometimes in a graphic way. The general history of this period, including the Nazis, SS, Hitler, extermination camps and bombings seems to have been well researched and is an enjoyable read, as the author really describes the people and places, and their interactions. You can feel Heinrich’s love for flying, Lise’s love of Physics and Hans’ obsession with Nazism.

So for two third of the book it really is a WWII love story, including the almost cliched love triangle, in which the two lovers are split up and go in different directions, and don’t hear from each other for a long time, all the while not knowing if the other is alive.

As I read the narrative, I found that the story picked up pace with regards to the amount of time which passes with each set of pages. This helped to give the story depth into the future - the same number of pages read, but more time passes in those pages.

Towards the end, things get a little vague. They upload their minds into Mindspace Servers and gradually use their physical bodies less and less, until eventually they are redundant. It seems most humans are doing this, but the story doesn’t really explain what it is like. Everything seems to be pretty much ‘as was’.

As most humans upload their ’self’ into these Mindspace servers, the more server space the person has, the more processing power they have. So it goes without saying that people try and take over other people’s mindspace area. Thus begins the ‘Minspace Wars’.

The only downside of the story being that the fine narrative to start with gets a little flat as Heinrich and Lise emigrate to Mindspace. An enemy is described, but there is no motivation as to why this entity is attacking (you never see things from its point of view). It is still the ‘old’ Heinrich and Lise in there, but they don’t come across as the same. Some spark is lost. Maybe that was intentional, as they are now no longer human.

There are some neat parts though. The while first two-thirds of the book are a must read, as the author brings it to life with his styled prose. Also, in the scifi part of the book, Heinrich orders hundreds of spacecraft to be built and loads in the persona of a dead pilot friend into them all. He changes the logic in one of them to be more ‘human’ - i.e. it cracks jokes. After one outing with it, he returns and programs a few more with the same more human logic.

Overall, it’s a pretty mindblowing concept. The book flows well until the end (if you can use your imagination and fill in the blanks somewhat), and seems grounded in fact, only to explode into SF.

Alan Alaniz’s homepage.

Doesn’t say anywhere in the book and publishers no help at all! Any suggestions?

A) This is another of those questions which we wish we could answer, but after a some hefty searches, and asking some people ‘in the know’, we’ve come up blank.

Suprisingly, even when looking at image specific search engines. This is a shame, as I’m not sure what the 1970s cover of Sirens Of Titan looked like, and some of the older covers are a lot blander, and at the same time more effective, than today’s glossy, colourful cover artwork.

Anyone know the answer? Let us know!

If there’s any Scifi Question you’d like to ask us, then let us know and we’ll bust our brains to find the answer!

Monster Blood Tattoo, Book One: Foundling (MBT1), is the first of a trilogy and was published in February by Random House Children’s Books.

By the way, although MBT1 is published through a children’s publisher, this fantasy novel is by no means only for children or younger teens, so don’t stop reading if you’re over fifteen.

Rossamünd, a boy with a girl’s name (reminds me of Jayne is Serenity), seems destined to be stuck in Madame Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Raised as a Foundling (not knowing his mother or father), he hopes, and expects, to become a sailor. When he’s recruited by a Lamplighter, he agrees, even though the repetative life of looking after Lamps on a monster infested road, in monster infested territory, sounds boring and dangerous.

He sets out on his journey with some basic, though necessary, equipment.

The setting is in a small part of the Half Continent, following Rossamünd on his journey to start his life a Lamplighter. As the story progresses, the text brings the experience to life. So much so that there are times when the story slows down to describe the surroundings. On his path Rossamünd meets a Lahzar (Europe) (my favourite character in the book), Licurius, her helper, The Misbegotten Schrewd and The Rever-Man to name but a few.

The books is lavishly decorated with pages of hand drawn pencil sketches, which breathe life into the book. Everytime a main character is introduced and described, the following page or so has a picture of them - you really do see them for the first time. There are maps of the world, which show just how little of the land is explored within the first book, and shows just how much there is to explore in the following books.

This is by no means a complete story, but sets the scene nicely, introduces characters and brings the environment to life for the reader.

MBT1 is thoroughly recommended for readers who enjoy a good, solid fantasy, and as it includes an extensive explicarium, a place for the child in your to write your name at the front as a ‘Bookchild’, and lavish illustrations by the author, D M Cornish, it is great value for money.

Monster Blood Tattoo Official Site
Monster Blood Tattoo Blog

As previously mentioned, A Loop In Time, from author Rowena Wright, is an novel where art, science and timetravel combine in a smart and silly telling of the myth of Osiris set amid issues of post 9/11-New York.

The first thing I noticed when reading this book is added trinkets of artwork while adorn the first page of each chapter. They look like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. They’re a nice touch and help to set the scene of the book.

The story is about a single mum (Sophia) who has to deal with raising her child (Ericca) in a foreign land. Sophia hides her true heritage from Ericca, but Ericca realises as she gets older, that something is amiss.

She finds out that she is Ringgold, and has magical powers like time travelling and altering the past. Ultimately, she has to ‘grow up’ and seek out her father who died years before. She is assisted by various cool items, including her baby blanket which has Albert Einstein and Leonardo Fibonacci magically embedded. The bantering between them is quite surreal and I chuckled quite often when Albert went off on one about his discoveries and theories.

I’m a real time travel story lover, ask anyone who knows me how many time travel books I have, and it’s more than you can count on two hands. Some of the twists and turns had me scratching my head, and I had to re-read a couple of sections to make sure I knew what was going on. Although, if I’d carried on, it actually explains itself. A Loop In Time is a story I’d class as fun, yet realistic, and (of course?) science goes out the window.

It’s fun because a lot of aspects are light hearted and jovial; realistic because of the way Sophia protects her daughter and the growing up of Ericca, as she faces the world. As for the science - well, there really isn’t any. None of this is by no means negative. The way it all fits together makes it only once-removed from believable.

The associated website has a load more extra information on the world of Polis, and even one of the characters has a Myspace page.

There’s an excerpt of the first five chapters of A Loop In Time in PDF format here. Other downloads are available here, which include a 2007 calendar!

Find out more about the book, the characters, the life style and the games which can be played, at polisgames.com.

A while back we mentioned Skaters, Trekkies And Cool Dudes, which is the debut novel from Derek Lawrence.

The blurb on the back starts off… “When God and Lucifer go missing and Heaven and Hell start to descend into chaos, the Joint Darkness & Light Emergency Committee decides that urgent action is needed…”

This had me half smiling even before I’d started to read it. It mentions a punk rocker and a teenage skateboader arriving in the English Midlands, along with pop star and Star Trek look-alikes. Hmm..

I find fantasy comedy a bit tedious. Douglas Adams did it well (mostly) in Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett try a bit hard to be funny in Good Omens, and Prachett on his own is kind of fun in a ‘travelling on a train when you’re not on holiday’ kind of way. Mostly they got a good ‘heh’ and a half laugh, or a sigh when the jokes were a bit predictable.

So you can imagine what I felt like before starting Skaters, Trekkies And Cool Dudes. Anguish, a bit. Hopeful, a lot.

The way that God and Lucifer are described make them seem like down to earth, erm, human beings. Their interplay is amusing, as are the other key characters (the Head of a Cherbub, Archangel and a Three Headed Hell Hound). The humour ranges from plain hilarious to down right side splitting (as a few people will atest to sitting on train while I was reading it.)

This is a a nicely flowing story, which trekkies, cool dudes, geeks, nerds skatboarders, punk rockers, BMXers and trainspotters et al will find funny and be able to relate to it perfectly. The humour is in a natural comical, on the stage at Comedy Central, with three hours of floor time (including intervals), so not rushed, kind of way.

If you can get past the clichéd good vs evil in a biblical setting, and focus on it as a two overworked, important guys, who need a break from their job/career, and so persue their dreams, then you’ll probably like this. The narrative seems to ramble sometimes, but soon gets back on track, so it doesn’t really deter from the story, and as the jokes come left, right and centre, they’ll distract in a positive way.

Derek Lawrence certainly has a knack for comedy, and as this is the first novel in the Divine Cock Up Trilogy, I look forward to the next Divine Cock Up.

By Simon Hope

Forty-two.

It’s like a Freemason’s handshake to fans of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Forty-two. The answer to life, the universe and everything. Just one of a series of clever in-jokes that bind millions of Hitchhiker fans around the globe.

In 1979, soon after publication of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, author Douglas Adams was invited to a book signing at a small science fiction shop in Soho. As he drove he was held up by what he assumed to be a demonstration. It was only on arrival that he realised the massive crowds were there to meet him. Rarely has a book, particularly a sci-fi comedy novel, created a following of such scale. The Hitchhiker’s Guide had morphed from a cult radio series into a publishing success overnight. A phenomenon was born.

Life
Douglas Noel Adams was born in Cambridge on 11 March 1952 (one of his favourite gags being that he preceded Crick and Watson’s own discovery of DNA in Cambridge by some nine months). After a strange start to life – Adams claimed to have made a habit of walking into lamp-posts as a child – he quickly found his vocation. By the age of eleven his first piece of writing had been accepted into print – a short story for Eagle annual. Despite the many detours he would take along the way, it appears the writing bug was unshakeable from that early age.

An essay on the revival of religious poetry earned him a scholarship to study English at St John’s College, Cambridge, and the chance to join the infamous Footlights comedy revue that he had heard so much about. Finding Footlights members to be “aloof and rather pleased with themselves”, Douglas, in his own inimitable style, formed a guerrilla revue group – Adams-Smith-Adams. They hired a theatre for a week and with them, Douglas scored his first considerable hit.

It was during his time at University that the first idea for the Hitchhiker series began to emerge. There was no moment of epiphany, no blinding light to signal the arrival of a publishing phenomenon. No, it was a much more agreeable turn of events. Whilst hitchhiking through Europe Douglas found himself lying on his back in a field outside Innsbruck, drunk, gazing at the stars and pondering that somebody should write a hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. As ideas go it turned out to be a highly profitable one.

Post-Cambridge, Douglas threw himself into a writing career with mixed success. Not one to produce a thirty-second sketch when a thirty-minute version was available, Douglas found himself failing his first posting at The Weekending – a training ground for comedy writers. His uncompromising view of his work led to lean spells in his early professional career and he was reduced to living with his mother and taking jobs such as bodyguard to the ruling family of Qatar. It was around this time that Douglas began to suffer the first of recurring crises of confidence that would blight his later life. Despite subsequent global success and plenty of evidence to the contrary, Douglas suffered long periods of low confidence, believing that he just wasn’t capable of writing successfully.

Hitchhiker was effectively his last throw of the dice. Following nine months of solid work the Hitchhiker radio series aired in March 1978. The storyline involved a middle-class Englishman, Arthur Dent, escaping the planet Earth seconds before its destruction to make an intergalactic bypass. With his friend Ford Prefect – revealed to be an inhabitant of another planet – they travel through space with the aim of researching and updating the Hitchhiker’s Guide. Laced with humour, the timing was impeccable. Riding high on the back of the Star Wars-inspired science fiction revival, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a huge success. Having taken a producing job at the BBC to make ends meet Douglas suddenly found himself trying to simultaneously write the second radio series, the first novel, the television series and several episodes of Doctor Who. After only six months at the BBC, he quit. The world of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy became his full-time occupation.

The Universe
In September of 1979, some six months after the radio series had aired, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published as a novel. The response was instantaneous and immense. It appeared at number one in the Sunday Times best-seller list and didn’t bother moving.

It is difficult to discuss the work of Douglas Adams, however, without mentioning his legendary ability to not write. He took prevarication to a whole new galaxy, spawning the wonderful quote: “I love deadlines…I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

Unfortunately, his success only strengthened the ability to postpone writing. When faced with writing the second book, after passing numerous deadlines the publisher demanded a book within four weeks. Having failed to even start it, his then-girlfriend rented a house and locked him away to write the book. This became a common theme with every book from then on being written post-deadline in a state of panic, usually with Douglas locked away in secluded, rented accommodation.

The process of avoidance continued and worsened throughout his career. When deadlines loomed for the fourth book, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Douglas took the initiative to book himself into a tiny Devon hotel in order to get away from life’s distractions. Of course, being Douglas he then spent all of his time at the hotel drinking wine with the proprietors and eating fried breakfasts. With a final publication date looming the publisher booked him into a Hyde Park hotel and typed whilst Douglas glowered and angrily dictated to him.

With the fourth Hitchhiker book out of his system and the memory of producing it fresh in his mind, Douglas took a break and began writing the Dirk Gently series – the tale of a holistic private detective – to familiar popular acclaim. Branching out into new areas Douglas developed a passion for environmental issues and in 1990 he travelled to Madagascar in search of rare lemurs. It was a complete revelation to him and he subsequently wrote Last Chance to See, ironically his least successful book, but the thing he was most proud of in his professional life. His interest in wildlife conservation would also drive him to walk to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in a prosthetic Rhino costume…to raise money for Save the Rhino International, of course.

Refreshed and having ignored several deadlines, Douglas wrote the fifth and final book in the Hitchhiker series, Mostly Harmless. The book was written in three weeks whilst under house arrest…some three years past its original deadline. It was, of course, published to critical acclaim.

The Hitchhiker universe had exploded to include five books, three radio series, a television series, several stage plays, a CD-Rom and a massively popular website that brings together fans from across the globe. The books alone had sold 14 million copies globally. But unfortunately, despite his persistence and dogged determination, Douglas just couldn’t get the movie project off the ground. It was a hit waiting to happen, but inexplicably it just couldn’t get started. There were several false starts and a few moments when a cinematic appearance looked inevitable, however ultimately it came to nothing.

And Everything
In 1999 Douglas moved his family out to California in order to work on the long delayed Hitchhiker movie that had continued to languish in development hell. In the same year he launched the H2G2 website where fans of the series could come together in a cyber community and post articles on any subject they wished. It was his dream realised – an actual guide to the galaxy where one could find reference to topics as diverse as “how to make a purse from Sellotape” to “20th century politics”.
On the morning of 11 May 2001, Douglas Adams was visiting his gym where, after laying down on a weights bench, he suffered a massive heart attack and died. He was 49-years old. Douglas left his daughter, 6-year old Polly, his wife, Jane, and millions of fans globally in shock and mourning. In a bizarre twist of fate the Minor Planet Centre Space Agency had coincidentally named an asteroid ArthurDent on the very day Douglas died.

Almost four years after his death the movie adaptation of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy finally made it to the big screen (via many directorial appointments and script changes). Fans everywhere agreed that Douglas would have been immensely proud of the end product. The journey was finally complete.

On 11 March 2007, Douglas Adams would have been 55-years old. Who knows what more he would have achieved. The movie? It was only a matter of time. More books? Perhaps, but not until a good few deadlines had passed by unnoticed.

So long Douglas and thanks for all the fish.

“It is a new, and we believe unique novel, entitled ‘Skaters, Trekkies, & Cool Dudes’, a comedy fantasy, and the first book in the series, ‘The Divine Cock Up Trilogy’.

A laugh a minute tale of a heaven and hell now run by committees, God and Lucifer running away to open a cult TV memorabilia shop, and a search for them by a power hungry Archangel and his reluctant partner and Gargoyle, Embram Ferret Frightener.

It is the first novel by the author Derek Lawrence, a new face on the scene, who lives in Worcester UK.

The novel itself is published by FrontList Books, an imprint of Soft Editions, who are based in Gullane, East Lothian Scotland, a small but professional publishing house with a personal outlook when it comes to business.

Publishers Address: Soft Editions Ltd. 21 Muirfield Station. Gullane. East Lothian. Scotland. EH31 2HY.
Publishers Phone Number: +44 (0)131 208 1296

Book Information: ISBN:1-84350-098-1 / ISBN: 13:9781843500988
“

Author: D M Cornish

From the good people at Random House Children’s Books:

In February Random House Children’s Books is publishing the first novel in a brand new fantasy trilogy called Monster Blood Tattoo. The books feature an extensive explicarium - the perfect introduction to the new world plus beautiful illustrations by the author D M Cornish.

Synopsys
Monsters, rogues and wonder abound in this utterly original, fearsomely exciting and beautifully detailed fantasy tale of an orphaned boy’s journey to seek his destiny.

Rossamund has always dreamed of a career in the Navy, fighting tentacled monsters and rescuing damsels from hook-handed pirates. But fate has chosen him for a different path. He is being sent to train as a Lamplighter - to bring light to the inland roads of the Half-Continent, to shine the way for travellers through lands peopled by outcasts, monsters and worse. But for Rossamund to begin his education, he must first undertake a journey of his own: to the great city of High Vesting. Such a road is not for the faint of heart. Only monster-hunters, leers and the most desperate of brigands dare travel the inland ways unguarded. And al lRossamund carries with him is a battered almanac and a pocketful of cheap potions. It is unlikely to be enough. Stunning in scope and rich in detail, alive with memorable heroes and villains and brimming with new and original science and magics, D.M.Cornish’s tale of scolds, scourges, smugglers and shrewds will thrill and captivate, and leave the reader desperate for more.

Author Biography
D.M.Cornish is an acclaimed children’s illustrator. He began making notes and drawings for his debut novel FOUNDLING over thirteen years ago and had filled over 28 journals with sketches, ideas and character profiles before the first volume of the MONSTER BLOOD TATTOO trilogy took shape. The book has since sold worldwide. D.M.Cornish is thirty-three and lives in Australia.

Information
The first volume in a stunningly original fantasy trilogy that will delight readers of all ages.
A must-read for fans of The Edge Chronicles.
Stunning illustrations, charts and maps throughout.
Features wonderfully detailed Explicarium - a glossary of monsters, rogues and things dark and unknown!

Review Excerpts
‘I plunged instantly into a unique fantasy world just beyond the familiar,where no one is fully good, where the villains are real and terrifying, and I felt constantly at the edge of a gasp. I hope readers will love this as much as I do.’ - Tamora Pierc

‘Rossamünd’s action-packed road story serves chiefly to build and populate Cornish’s remarkable new world. From the pre-industrial English feel to the sprawling setting and backstory, this book feels every bit as substantial as its heft implies. Highly ambitious.’ - Publishers Weekly

‘A meticulously imagined place,full of echoes of literary luminaries from Dickens to Patrick O’Brian and bristling with joyous erudition. Here be not just monsters, but muskets and flintlocks, haubardiers and habilistics, florins and factotum sand “mighty vessels of war”. And they’re much more than a hodgepodge of stage props. Rossamünd is smart and likable enough to give the plot some serious emotional ballast. Here’s betting he will have a big following by the time he steps out in Book 2 as a full-fledged lamplighter’ - Washington Post

‘Adepth and intricacy reminiscent of the work of J.R.R.Tolkien or Robert Jordan. The unique and fascinating Half-Continent, where ships with organic engines sail caustic vinegar oceans and monster-hunters gain supernatural powers through dangerous surgeries, is a delightful, refreshing standout’ - School Library

It’s primarily aimed at 9 to 11 year olds, initially in hardback, a whopping 448 pages with black and white line artwork.

We’ll have a competition a bit nearer the publishing date, so have your pen and paper ready.

Kids At Random House Site.
Random House Site.
Monster Blood Tattoo Official Site.

Matt Stephens from Geek Fiction has put us onto this:

“I’ve just begun a series of edgy sci-fi stories titled “Geek Fiction“, a story arc in 10 parts.

The idea behind the series is to do something a bit like Pulp Fiction (with the same sort of random violence, interwoven storylines etc), but for geeks, with references to things like hacking, Ruby programming, Star Trek, Babylon 5, err politics, and so on — kind of tailor-made for the Slashdot crowd, I guess.

In the Geek Fiction universe, mostly “normal” things happen, but the technology, in the right hands, is virtually omnipotent — e.g. a hacker with a Perl script can harness a zombie network of PCs to resurrect famous people from history and plant their minds in doddering robots built out of kitchen appliances (in the story the main antagonist brings back Jack the Ripper and
General Custer).

Example line from an upcoming episode: “They stared blinkingly, as helpless and perplexed as a
Web 2.0 start-up experiencing its first server crash.”"

And so sayeth the geek’N'ess > go read!

Read the review.

Rowena Wright says, “I just wanted to tell you about my new book called A Loop In Time, book one of Polis fantasy/scifi series.

In my book, Einstein and Fibonacci live as companions in a baby blanket and lend credibility to the existence of time tunnels, Tunnel Wars, and Ringgolds, a society of ancient immortals who intervene to aid the mortals in the Tunnel Wars.

Dotsy Harland in the October 2006 VOYA, Voice of Youth Advocates characterizes the book as “descriptive and poetic.”

Harriett Klausner on Amazon recommends the book to those “looking for something different in their science fiction.”

Annie Haws of Euro-Reviews comments, “Time travel, historical scientific personages, and
mythology and ancient spirituality are themes tightly woven in this very readable story. I
highly recommend it…Rowena Wright is an author definitely to be watched!” She so gets the book!

John W. Weiss, of CICLOPS/Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, remarks, “Wright has clearly done her research well: as a scientist I was impressed at how accurate the science is.”

There’s an excerpt of the first five chapters of A Loop In Time here.

Find out more at polisgames.com.”

Gareth is a science fiction writer residing in the UK. He made his first professional fiction sale to Interzone in 2005 and in February 2006 he won the Firebrand Great Fiction Award from SFReader.com, for his story Sunsets And Hamburgers.

His work has been published in magazines in Europe and the USA, and translated into Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Hebrew.

He has recently has a story called The Last Reef in Interzone Issue 202, and there is another called Ack-Ack Macaque coming out in a forthcoming issue.

You see read three of his early stories online at Aphelion : The Kitten Box, Catch A Burning Star and Six Lights Off Green Scar.

Such was the pull of the game Civilisation, he lost about three months playing it. Eventually he had to smash the disks and delete the game files; and then ask for an extention from his publisher.

It makes me wonder what other ‘excuses’ (not that this is really an excuse) authors might come up with to get an extention to their writing deadlines.

Here are my favourite five:

5 : I haven’t worked on the manuscript at all, been playing a computer game instead.
4 : My dog ate it.
3 : I’ve finished all the words, it’s the order of them I’m working on.
2 : Can I have an extention, the manuscript is now longer than I originally thought.
1 : My gerbil is ill.

Anyone interested are free to use the above excuses.

Numerous writers will be there to sign books and generally wander around and chat.

So far, the attendence list (subject to change):

Neal Asher
Steve Cockayne
Mike Carey
Erin Hunter
Eoin McNamee
Matthew Skelton
Mark Robson
SF Said
Amanda Hemingway
Philip Reeve
John George
Paul Kearney
Sam Enthoven
Heulwen Jones
James Barclay
Justina Robson
Stan Nicholls
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Mark Chadbourne
Chaz Brenchley
Juliet McKenna

As per usual, it’s best to check with the shop beforehand; but it sounds like a good event!

Via: SFF World.

I’ve never been to that particular bookshop, but is it big enough to hold all these people?

Is this a story which you are aware of? Do you know how I could trace the title or author?

(It’s not Norman Spinrad, who was my first guess)

Any help gratefully received!

A) Well this sounds like a pretty cool story, but it doesn’t ring a bell with us. I’d imagine it’s from an anthology which has been lost in the mists of time - BUT if anyone knows of it, has read it and remembers it, or has an inkling of who/what/when, then let us know.