Here’s some more from K J Mulder, the competition winner, and one from Xanares that didn’t quite make it in time.
Tag: Science Fiction
Audio Books
Many of you have been asking about the possibility of my books being turned into audio books. Now, I heard that this was going to happen and that negotiations were in progress. Recently getting another query from one of you I inquired about the progress of this and have been told that this is how things stand right now:
The Spatterjay books, The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech and Orbus are being turned into audio books at audible.co.uk. Production was completed around 1st December but there was a glitch with the audio file for The Voyage of the Sable Keech. That has now been sorted and the books are being processed for uploading to the Audible site. Processing takes approximately five days, so the titles should be live for download by Wednesday next week, 12 Jan.
Enjoy!
Line of Polity and The Technician Reviews
Nice review here of The Line of Polity from Mark Chitty over at The Walker of Worlds.
The Line of Polity is the second novel in Neal Asher’s Cormac series, following on from events in Gridlinked. I read Gridlinked quite a while back and enjoyed it and I’ve also read plenty of other works by Asher that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I picked up the complete series some time ago but, for some reason that eludes me at present, never got around to reading the sequels. Well, despite the long gap between reading the first and second I jumped straight in wondering what exactly I’d be getting here – and boy did it not disappoint!
Also another nice review here over at Temple Library Reviews of The Technician:
The Technician is about an intriguing alien mystery explored through the life of a few colorful characters. It is also a return to old familiar premises on the planet Masada for us old Asher fans.
Visiting Masada again for me was a bit like coming home and I got to enjoy some of the characters from previous books (You can read my review of them, links are below. The Line of the Polity is the one with most Masada in it).
Who Reads My Books: Spencer Van Schevensteen
My name’s Spencer, I’m 24 and live in Harold Hill, Essex. Grew up around Upminster and Romford, left school at 16 to work for Ford Motor Company. Did an apprenticeship, stayed there for 6 years doing fibreglass modelmaking, toolmaking, some CAD and CNC but nothing too complicated or involved!! After leaving there and drifting from job to job, I finally settled in Harold Hill with my girlfriend, and became a househusband… ish. She earns ten times more than I ever will, and with our baby girl nearly here it seemed only sensible that I take care of the ankle bitter!
I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. Started out on things like Goosebumps, Terry Pratchett, and the Hobbit. As I got older I discovered Science Fiction, among many other genres, and its basically taken off from there. I enjoy listening to music, anything from the thrashy, insane time signature metal, all the way down to jazz, country, some classical, all sorts. Just as long as its not a manufactured band or artist. Nothing is worse than emotionless, mass produced pop drivel! I watch a lot of films, television and stand-up comedy. Favourites include Deadwood, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, The Proposition, anything the Coen brothers have done, Bill Bailey and Doug Stanhope. I also waste a lot of time playing Xbox, far too much time if truth be told!
I enjoy walks, with and without the dogs, bike riding, a bit of skateboarding, and golf. I don’t drink, but occasionally indulge in other intoxicants. Moderation in all things.
Hope that’s not too long, I attached a few photos of myself and a part of our book collection. A lot of my comedy and WW II books are upstairs in boxes, as the 2nd floor is being re-done and there’s not enough space to get them all down yet. Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad is definitely one of the top ones not shown, as well as Stirling’s Men, a book about the birth of the SAS.
Anyway, enough of my rubbish!
Hope anyone reading this had a good break over Christmas and the New Year,
All the best,
Spencer & Rebecca.
Here’s Spencer’s book collection:
Samuel and the Scorpion
Bookmarks Competition Winners.
Righto, I’ve finally come to a decision on this. As I noted before, the winner was an easy choice, but second and third weren’t so easy. It’s also the case that I feel a bit miserable having to make the decision. This was why I mooted the idea of winners and runners-up being picked by poll – pure cowardice. My commiserations to those who put in a lot of work (probably, in some cases, making a dent in the profits of the companies they work for in the process) and thanks.
Here then are first, second and third:
Third prize goes to Mark Chitty basically because I like the look of these, the way the pictures were blended together in tune with the order of the books (two there for the Cormac series, one for the Spatterjay series and the one that blends The Technician with The Gabble, which works) and, to me, they just look right. The best of them I feel is the one with the Brass Man scene on it, because the blog address is clear.
Second prize goes to Rob Hartwell. It’s probably the most contentious because my name isn’t there, but it’s quirky and I like it, so there. It also works in the respect that POLITY is going to grab attention, maybe cause someone to investigate further.
First prize goes to K J Mulder. The bookmarks look great, my name is clear, my blog spot is clear – in fact ‘clarity’ is the best word to describe these – and he is the only one who thought to make each of his bookmarks book-specific, which is something that never occurred to me. After printing these were the ones that really stood out, simples.
Thanks again to everyone who took part in this!
Bookmarks Competition
Okay, I’ve just printed up all the bookmarks and am now in the process of judging the competition. I have to say that picking the winner was easy, but picking second and third is more difficult. Before I go on about that I have to say that just about every one of the entries is better than the bookmarks I produced!
Though many of them are great visually, I’ve had to apply certain criteria. Obviously these bookmarks serve a purpose beyond marking the page in a book someone is reading. I wanted them to advertize me and this blog (and of course my books), so all of these needed to be clear. Quite a few fell down in that respect: small blog address, name unclear, either not showing up too well because of a busy background. So, right now I have the winner and some on the shortlist for second and third.
I’ll be putting these up when I’ve finally made my choices. Thanks to everyone who put in an entry for this!
V is for Vance and Van Vogt.
Another load from my collection. There really should be more Vernor Vinge books here, since they’re bloody excellent.
JACK VANCE:
SERVANTS OF THE WANKH
CITY OF THE CHASCH
THE DIRDIR
THE PHNUME
THE ASUTRA
THE ANOME
SLAVES OF KLAU
EMPHYRIO
RHIALTO THE MARVELLOUS
THE HOUSES OF ISZM
THE BLUE WORLD
SON OF THE TREE
MARUNE ALASTOR 993
THE NARROW LAND
THE FACE
GALACTIC EFFECTUATOR
THE AUGMENTED AGENT
THE DYING EARTH
A. E. VAN VOGT:
AWAY AND BEYOND
EMPIRE OF THE ATOM
SUPERMIND
MORE THAN SUPERHUMAN
THE GRYB
THE FAR-OUT WORLDS OF …
ROGUE SHIP
CHILDREN OF TOMORROW
THE BOOK OF PTATH
THE MIND CAGE
THE WIZARD OF LINN
EARTH’S LAST FORTRESS
JOHN VARLEY:
MILLENIUM
STEEL BEACH
WIZARD
DEMON
TITAN
VERNOR VINGE:
ACROSS REALTIME
JOAN D VINGE:
WORLD’S END
PSION
PHOENIX IN ASHES
SNOW QUEEN
EYES OF AMBER
Underwater Oil Rigs
This seems like a good setting for near-future SF, something for Peter Watts I reckon:
Petrobras plans to turn science fiction into reality to extract oil from the vast pre-salt oil fields discovered off the south east coast of Brazil.
The plan is to construct ‘cities’ more than 2,000 metres under water, containing machines, giant pieces of equipment and robots that could inspect the systems being used to extract millions of barrels of oil. Many operations would be fully automated while others would be controlled by humans at a distance.
Warhammer Prador Codex
The Warhammer Prador Codex can be found here, and I’ve also stuck a permanent link in the sidebar. Have fun with it!
This is a not-for-profit, free-source expansion to the world of Warhammer 40k, written by TheCyben and The_Grin_Reaper using all kinds of intellectual property from other, perhaps more talented but certainly less inebriated people. We thank them all, and remind you, the Prador Codex user, to support them by purchasing their books, games, models, Christmas albums and signed commemorative plates where applicable.
This FanDex is dedicated to five very important groups, without whom it would never have been made a reality. In no particular order of importance, they are:
The Whangarei Wargamers Games Workshop and the 40K design and writing teams, the Unholy Legions of Heavy Metal Sci-fi geeks of the world (and the net – cheers Wikipedia) and (with a whole group to himself):
Mr Neal Asher, the man who first imagined the Prador and brought them to life through a series of books which will one day form the core of our new religion…
Well, maybe not! But if you enjoy this ‘dex, be sure to check out Neal’s writing, and if you love his writing and enjoyed seeing the Prador chew through some Orks and Tau and such, perhaps you should start an army and join your local Wargaming club. They’re not half as creepy as they look, I assure you!
One more time for the slow kids…
This is not an official GW or 40k product. It is not an official expansion of the Polity universe, or in any way endorsed by Neal Asher’s publishers. This information is designed to be freely used, distributed and copied – if someone tries to charge you for it, first kick them in the groin and then get an adult to sue them black and blue. What YOU or ANYONE does with this ‘dex is not the responsibility of TheCyben or The_Grin_Reaper, no matter what your mum says.
Enjoy responsibly, and kick arse!