Tag: Science Fiction

Books in Foyles.

Posted on by Neal Asher

Caroline nipped off shopping to the huge new shopping centre Westfield in Stratford and, as is becoming traditional now, she found a book shop and took photos of my books. Oddly there was no Waterstones there and she found these in Foyles. I have to wonder what Christina Foyle would have thought of this. Many years ago I used to cut a field of grass beside Beeleigh Abbey where she lived. I even got invited in once for a cup of coffee and it was like stepping back a hundred years: manual worker invited into the big house to be inspected by the lord and lady, led through by a maid into an enormous room full of antiques and ancestor paintings. I managed to suppress the urge to tug my forelock, dip my head and clutch my cheesecutter hat against my chest.

Foreign Editions

Posted on by Neal Asher

An email from one of my German readers has reminded me that I’m being neglectful of my foreign readers. I do have numerous books that can be bought, signed, in German and French, and a smaller number of them in Russian, Czech, Portugese and Japanese. Here’s a selection:

Of course, perfectly demonstrating just how multilingual some nationalities are, an awful lot of my German readers don’t bother with the versions in their own language and read them in English.


Thanks!

Posted on by Neal Asher

It’s been quite surprising to read what those who have been buying books in the recent sale have been saying. Some of them read my books from the library and now want their own copies. Some bought them for kindle and now want the material thing. A few have thanked me for how open I am on my blog, and I am also ‘the man’ or ‘I rock’. And one of the killers is those who have worn out their copy of their favourite and now want a replacement. Also, actions speaking louder than words, I’m astounded how some American readers are quite happy to pay extraordinary postage.

It’s quite humbling to have become an indelible part of some people’s lives. I know what that means when I open up one of my collection and remember the reading pleasure. It is quite an honour to be in that position. Aw, I’m getting all soppy now. Thanks people!

Now, I need to have a rant about something…

Books For Sale

Posted on by Neal Asher

Here’s a reposting of my reply (slightly edited) to one Neil who asked in the comments on a previous post why so many books are sent to the author:

It’s in the contract, Neil: 10 hardbacks on first release and 20 paperbacks a year later when the mass-market paperback comes out. In my case the hardbacks go to family and friends but the paperbacks linger. I then get up to 10 of the foreign editions when I only really need 1. Tor US send me the 10 & 20 of my British contract on top.

If you’re a writer who writes one book every two or three years, then that’s probably okay. Since through Macmillan I’ve done about 15 books in 11 years (I think) I’ve built up a bit of a backlog.

Here are some pictures of that backlog, and why I fear the ceiling might collapse at some point.

So, it’s time I cleared a few of these out. If anyone wants to buy a signed copy of any of my books, well, my email is over on the right here at the bottom of my profile. I’m selling them at cover price (if $ then converted to £) plus postage and packing. Just detail what you want and I’ll check to see if I’ve got it – my aim in the end is to retain just two copies each of my English language books and one each of the foreign language ones.

Also, I’ve had requests for signed photos, so I can only assume someone wants something to scare their children with. I’ll be printing and laminating some of these shortly should anyone want to do likewise.

UPDATE
I’ve just checked on stuff in the loft and this is what remains available:

GRIDLINKED
6 copies USA Paperback £6
8 copies USA Bookclub Hardback £14
5 copies USA Hardback £17

SKINNER
3 Copies UK Trade Paperback 2nd Edition £12
4 Copies USA Bookclub Hardback £14

COWL
7 Copies UK Paperback £8
1 Copies UK Trade Paperback £12
8 Copies USA Paperback £6
10 Copies USA Trade Paperback £12

BRASS MAN
4 Copies UK Paperback £8
1 Copies UK Trade Paperback £12
13 Copies Sullivan paperback £8
20 Copies USA paperback £6
7 Copies USA Bookclub hardback £14
20 Copies USA Trade paperback £12

THE VOYAGE OF THE SABLE KEECH
9 Copies UK Paperback £8
10 Copies Sullivan Paperback £8

POLITY AGENT
7 Copies UK Paperback £8
13 Copies Sullivan paperback £8

LINE WAR
5 Copies UK Paperback £8

ORBUS
10 Copies Sullivan Paperback £8
9 Copies Limited Edition

PRADOR MOON
3 Copies UK Hardback £15
7 Copies UK Paperback £7
25 Copies Nightshade edition £10

SHADOW OF THE SCORPION
13 Copies Sullivan Paperback £8
4 Copies Trade Paperback £12

HILLDIGGERS
7 Copies UK Hardback £18
14 Copies UK Paperback £8

THE GABBLE
14 Copies UK Paperback £8

THE TECHNICIAN
20 Copies UK Paperback £8

Space Ships

Posted on by Neal Asher

There’s an interesting article over at the Register about the progression of the design of spaceships in science fiction. This comment struck me:

“The silliest thing about alien spacecraft, which are designed only to travel in space, is that they are made to look aerodynamic, which is of course unnecessary, since there is no air… remember the Apollo LEM? That is how aerodynamic a spacecraft needs to be…”

Well, no, actually. In fact that statement in and of itself shows a lack of imagination. Certainly, something that’s travelling slowly through vacuum doesn’t need to be aerodynamic, but if you’re nudging the speed of light it’s probably not a good idea to present a large flat profile to even disperse interstellar matter, in fact streamlining seems like a good idea. And who says ‘designed only to travel in space’? Why shouldn’t these ships also be designed to enter all sorts of atmospheres, penetrate dust clouds, even surf in the fire of a sun?

And let’s not forget that the statement above is all about utility, about what ‘needs to be’. If you are capable of building interstellar vessels I submit that you’ve probably moved a bit beyond that. Why shouldn’t you do the Klingon thing and make your vessel in the shape of a hawk or similar. Why shouldn’t you, if you want, build your starship in the shape of a sailing ship, a shark or even a Ford Fiesta?

There is a large gap between what you must do and what you can do. And, let’s face it, when it comes to interstellar flight, we’re a long way from knowing what needs to be incorporated.

Update

Nice interview here at the Register on the same (sort of) subject: Gavin Rothery was visual effects supervisor on the British sci-fi smash Moon, and has been a creative force on a welter of hit video games, and so has a lot to say on the subject of spacecraft design.

Mass-Market USA Brass Man

Posted on by Neal Asher

Blimey, it seems they are now printing or reprinting mass-market copies of Brass Man in the USA, which means I get my free books. This is great, I really love free books, but what the hell do I do with them? And how much longer before my loft collapses on top of us one evening? I guess I could try selling them as signed copies over the Internet. Mmm, perhaps it’s time to put up a list again of what I have available…

And here, of course, is a blog post demonstrating how I am trying to escape the mind-numbing tedium of editing. However, I should not complain! Because there’s a danger here of me turning into one of those effete writer pricks who complains about how he suffers for is art and how it is all such a terrible trial.

What I need to firmly plant in my mind is grafting all day digging a foundation hole in clay, for £30; strimming round trees and, because I was wearing goggles only and not a full-face visor, discovering what dog shit tastes like; pulling off a glove, after foolishly trying to reposition a running mower deck, and seeing the end of my finger split open and the bone frayed like a paint brush; never seeing the sunlight for most of the winter working in a machine shop, and perpetually stinking of coolant oil … I’ll stop there, you get the idea.

So, back to editing with joy in my heart!

Bubble Metal is Old News

Posted on by Neal Asher

I picked up on the idea of bubble metal maybe twenty years ago (possibly in Omni Magazine) in an article about space industries. The simple idea was of foaming molten metal with inert gas in zero gravity, which would allow for an even distribution of the bubbles (they wouldn’t float to the top), to produce a light and strong either closed or open cell metal. Great idea, and one I’ve used loads.

Now you’ve probably read about this already, but I feel it’s worth a mention here just to prove my aphorism that nothing dates faster than science fiction:

 “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometres, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler.

The resulting nickel matter has a density of just 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimetre.

Warp Factor One Million

Posted on by Neal Asher

So the guys at CERN did another test with their superluminal neutrinos:

By tweaking the experiment in an attempt to address a potential flaw in their original experiment, they again showed that the neutrons arrived at the Italian site some 60 billionths of a second faster than if they had been travelling at the speed of light.

I do have to wonder with measurements like this if they’re getting into some error bar, some tolerance limit on actually measuring the speed of light. It’s the kind of thing that rears its head quite often in science and is quite often ignored by the mainstream media. Anyone who has worked in engineering knows about tolerances and the impossibility of exact measurement.

Nevertheless it is all exciting stuff (for a nerd like me). The MINOS team at Fermilab are going to try and replicate the results, but it’s interesting that they had similar results before but which lay within a margin for error. So, what does this all mean? Some people are already speculating:

The new findings, available here, also further strengthen a particular scenario: The neutrinos do not travel with superluminal velocity all the way. They only ‘jump’ a small initial distance shorter than 20 meters, after which they settle back and travel as usual with speeds below that of the speed of light. This initial jump would occur at speeds that are more than ten times the speed of light, perhaps even millions of times the speed of light.

I don’t really have to elaborate on why I particularly like this speculation, do I?