From the outside…

One of the things I love about New Year is breaking out the new calendars–and this year I have three:

The NZ House & Garden calendar for the kitchen, a small calendar with NZ ‘golden age of travel’ posters for the living room, and the “World According to Curly Girl” for the study.

Plus the ubiquitous black diary, of course — all the pages “mostly” still blank.

… and in.

But am sure that will change: it usually does, pretty quick-smart once everything opens up gain in the new year. 🙂

How about you — are you a calendar person? Or not?

~ by Andrew Robins
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58 Eridani: Episode 4

Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Amelia_Delaware \2403

This just keeps on getting weirder and weirder. So, hot pilot Amelia Delaware (thats me!) did her thing and we are now all synced up with what “Le-panto “ tells us we should be calling 025.456791 LV 1.

None of us were expecting to see a Mercury Programme Launch Vehicle in this system. I mean those things only exist in temples, right?

But that is what we are looking at. Or at least a very precise copy. Spectroscopic analysis tells us that the elements it is made of were all sourced here in-system, rather than old Earth. So the locals have to have made it. But why??
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Glandin_Frutnok_van_Glomzimmer \2427

Sloppy thinking abounds. My compatriots persist in describing this object as a thing that it is not. There are at least two clear and distinct differences between this vehicle and a project Mercury capsule.

In the first case the capsules entrance hatch has clearly been modified with what looks to be a valve. Unlike the other components we can see, this valve has not been manufactured to the standard US imperial measures that the rest of the capsule conforms to.

In the second case there is what appears to be a message stating “My god, My god, they killed us all” painted onto the outside of the capsule.

An EVA is clearly required to see if there are more variances, and if it is to be done properly then I will have to be the one to do it.
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Bob-Stark \49

Standard protocol when encountering a weaponised alien biology, which is what Lepanto tells us we are dealing with here, is an “actively enforced policy of isolation and containment”. Which is I guess why I am writing this from the point defence console on the bridge.

Buffy de-cored one of her “Mikes” and sent it over to get a sample. There was nothing biological left on the drone to contaminate, so we thought it would be pretty safe.

The Mike popped open the valve on the hatch and took a look-see with a micro cam. Saw what looked like a big pile of frozen crap in the middle of the capsule.

Took a sample with a probe.

15 seconds later I had to smoke the Mike.

Glandin is out there now with a scoop on a stick, seeing if he can get another sample. I think I am going to stay right here for now…
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Buffy_Chinks \2421

!@*^$$*#@ that was awful. I lost Mike No. 6 – which is no big drama cos he was kind of old and a bit buggy anyway. But being jacked into him while he was being subverted – even though it was just a VR connection rather than a full gestalt — was no fun. At least we got some data – enough to show that there is an electromagnetic / nano tech component to the subversion that takes place, so it is not just a biological process.

It worked like this: we took a sample and I just felt the Mike start to go numb. I jacked out pretty quick at that point. About two seconds after I did that there was a pause in the data feed from the Mike – then what we received after that, was pretty much a wannabe computer virus. A laughably crude computer virus– and targeted at the Mercury Program capsule’s on-board flight computer. Bizarre! How could they possibly expect that to work?

I mean what is this? Up until now we have been dealing with what looks to be a horrifyingly sophisticated multi-vector technology of subversion – then suddenly we get hit with stone-knives-and-bearskins crap. I need a drink!
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.959145 standard solar years since first embrace.

My dark twin appears to be awake again, and has reached out to its kin. We should see some more activity from the point of origin soon. I will take steps there if I need to.

In the meantime, my love, we can expect more attempts at subversion. I know that you find this difficult, but your aid will be needed if I am to survive.
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Check back in on Saturday 9 January for Episode 5 of 58 Eridani.

—

You can read the previous issues by clicking on the following links:

Introducing 58 Eridani, a Game Log

58 Eridani Episode 1

58 Eridani Episode 2

58 Eridani Episode 3

—

Andrew Robins is a long time reader – and sometime reviewer – of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be.

To check out Andrew’s book reviews, see “Book Reviews for ‘on Anything, Really’” in the right-hand side bar.

USA

Happy New Year, everyone!

Although we can never know exactly what a year will bring,  I am pretty sure about one thing — which is that on 26 January in the US and UK, 27 January here in NZ and the marvellous land of Aus, Daughter Of Blood will finally be published!

From where I’m sitting, that makes for a fairly auspicious start to 2016. I shall hope it also augurs well for a Year of Living Fictionally.

To swing more fully into fictional mode right now, you can check out the two early chapter reveals:

The Prologue, on SF Signal

Chapter 2, on B&N SciFi

UK/AU/NZ

Just a headsup that I’ll be revealing at least one more chapter—the book’s first encounter with Malian—on 13 January, again on SF Signal.

And keep watching this space for more pre-publication goodness: there’s bound to be something coming up…

Meanwhile, don’t forget that later today (US EST), I’ll be posting as usual on the Supernatural Underground. Where anything could happen—and very well might!

To wrap up the year and the”avid reader” feature, I thought I’d being you one more installment — in this case my friend, and fellow avid reader, Janine Sowerby’s, Top 3 reads of the year.

As with the past installments, the books don’t have to have been published in 2015, just read this year.

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Janine Sowerby’s Top 3 Reads Of 2015

Three books I enjoyed reading:

Perla, Carolina De Robertis

Historical Fiction

A novel about a young woman’s growing realisation as to her father’s role in Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’, an infamous campaign waged from 1976 to 1983 by Argentina’s military dictatorship against those thought to be a political or ideological threat, during which thousands of people were ‘disappeared’. Although brutal in places and one of the two points of view from which the story is told requires some suspension of disbelief, it is so beautifully written, compelling and deeply moving that the reader willingly does so.

Flight Behaviour, Barbara Kingsolver

Political/Scientific Fiction

A novel in which Dellarobia, a young mother dissatisfied with her life of poverty on a failing farm in the Appalachians, experiences a phenomenon which turns out to be both unnatural and life-changing. As a biologist from Appalachia, the author ably conveys her knowledge of, and esteem for, the people, location and science in this story. It seamlessly weaves together threads of marriage, motherhood and family life; faith; climate change and the natural history of Monarch butterflies (aka King Billies). It does so without being preachy, by using outstanding imagery and containing a surprising amount of humour (particularly for the parents of young children).

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson

Historical Fiction

Ursula Todd is born during a snow storm on 11 February 1910 but, strangled by the umbilical cord, promptly dies through a lack of outside help; more specifically, a pair of surgical scissors. However, this novel innovatively and successfully employs The Butterfly Effect to illustrate, through multiple, parallel presents, numerous answers to that eternally asked question, “What if…?” Ursula’s narrative starts again…and again and again in each chapter…each time taking a different, and ultimately influential, course. This novel accordingly resonated with me on many levels, including its setting in the wartime Britain my grandparents and father were born into and lived through.

I also recommend Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

~ Janine Sowerby

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Janine Sowerby is a town planner who dabbles in writing and may one day to be a writer who dabbles in town planning. She has had poetry and short stories (fiction and non-fiction) published, including in Kokako, Takahe, The Press and NZ Poetry Society and other anthologies, such as Crest to Crest and A Foreign Country. She has also co-written short screenplays as part of NZ’s annual 48 hour film-making competition.

To read the previous three installments in this “top reads” series, click on:

Jennifer Lowe’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015

Paul Weimer’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015

Karen McMillan’s Top 5 Reads of 2015

And a very Happy Reading New Year to all of you. 🙂

~ by Rebecca Fisher

Some films are not just films but formative experiences. With the long-awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally released to cinemas and the swell of nostalgia it left in its wake, it seems only right that my first entry in this sub-series, Fantasy Films From the Eighties That Weren’t That Bad, should be a movie that made up a considerable part of my childhood.

The Neverending Story is based on the 1979 novel by Michael Ende, originally written in German and translated into English by Ralph Manheim. The film adaptation was released in 1984, and though it garnered box office success and a warm critical reception (and has since become a cult classic) Michael Ende hated the finished project, to the point where he sued the producers and demanded his name be removed from the opening credits.

Yikes. What went wrong? It’s a question I’ve often asked myself considering I love this film, to the point where I think it’s a near perfect lead-in to the original novel.

Bastian Bux is a shy and unassuming schoolboy, distanced from his father, failing at school, and trying to cope with the recent loss of his mother by escaping into the imaginative stories that books can offer him. This makes him the natural target of bullies, and it’s while he’s running from three such tormentors that he darts into an old bookstore to hide.

It’s there he discovers a large tome titled “The Neverending Story”, embossed with the symbol of the Ouroboros (two snakes eating each other’s tails) on the cover. He takes it with him on his way to school, and after deciding to skip classes, he finds a quiet place to read in the school attic…

Bastian discovers a book…

“The Neverending Story” concerns a boy about his age who undertakes a quest to save the life of the gravely ill, Childlike Empress. She is the ruler of Fantasia, a realm populated by all sorts of strange and mysterious creatures, all currently threatened by a force called “The Nothing” – a darkness that obliterates everything it touches. By healing the Empress, young Atreyu hopes to stop The Nothing before it destroys his world.

It’s a riveting tale, and Bastian finds himself drawn in deeper as the hours trickle past – so deep in fact, that the line between reality and fiction begins to blur. It’s almost as if certain passages are referring directly to him. And if that’s true, then maybe he can influence the course of the story…

The Sphinxes…

Because I watched The Neverending Story at such a young age, it’s difficult to describe how much of an impact it had on me as a child. Things like Falcor swooping into the Swamp of Sadness, or Atreyu sprinting past the Sphinxes, or the first glimpse of the Childlike Empress seem to be ingrained in my memories.

Watching again for the sake of this review was like revisiting childhood, but I was surprised by how well the film holds up. All the animatronics and puppetry for the likes of Falcor, Morla and the Rock-Biter still look convincing, and I’ve always preferred practical effects to CGI. If done right they have more depth and three-dimensionality, as well as something more substantial for an actor to work against.

Atreyu and Falcor, the Luck-Dragon

More importantly, the ideas behind concepts such as The Nothing don’t feel trite or simplistic. There’s complexity (for example) in the motivation of the terrible G’Mork, who reveals the truth about Fantasia to Atreyu, one that examines the power and importance of stories.

I’ve been unable to find out exactly why Michael Ende hated this film so much, but it may have had something to do with the fact it only adapted the first half of the book. Yet for me, this works entirely in the film and the book’s favour. Treat the film like a prologue, and then carry on with the novel to enjoy the continuing story of Bastian’s adventures.

In any case, The Neverending Story is one of my favourite films – not just of the Eighties, but all time. Its magic has stayed with me long into adulthood, and I can’t wait to share it with my nephew and nieces (that’s still a couple of years away though). Somewhat paradoxically, it’s a film about books – more specifically the value and importance of the stories they contain, and so it’s easy to credit it with my own bookworm tendencies.
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Next Time: Legend

It was weird, but it was hypnotizing. Drawing on old archetypes and imagery, Ridley Scott’s aptly named Legend didn’t impress many people when it was released in 1985, but has since then grown in popularity as an experimental film that might be a mess – but which is an interesting mess.
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About The Reviewer:

Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her They’re All Fictional blog.

To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:

Big Worlds On Small Screens

Rebecca won the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Fan Writer, for writing including Big Worlds On Small Screens.

I received some nice poetry news just before Christmas, which helped counteract the “sweet sorrow” of The Tuesday Poem closing its doors.

Several of my poems have been accepted for an anthology of earthquake poetry that is being put together by Christchurch poets and editors, James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston. It’s not certain that the project will get backing yet, but I hope it does. Not just because I will have poems in it, but because five years on from the Christchurch earthquakes it feels timely to have such a book.  I very much look forward to seeing how different poets address the experience of those days–and feel sure that the ways will be as many and diverse as the poets.

It is also the first poetry submission I have made for some years, so the acceptances were very nice for that reason alone.

This will be us, one day —
faded photographs
for archivists to pore
over …*

*Not from one of the selected poems.

December being the month of lists, and “best of” lists to boot, I decided I had better ask some of the most avid—but also discerning—readers I know to share their Top 5 reads of 2015.

One of the most indefatigable readers and reviewers I know is fellow author and publishing industry professional, Karen McMillan. So I was delighted when she said “yes” to sharing her Top 5 with you today.

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Karen McMillan’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015

It was difficult choosing my top five books for 2015 as I have read so many fabulous books this year. In the end, to help with my decision making, I’ve limited myself to fiction only. So in no particular order, here goes:
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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

 Historical Fiction – France, Second World War

The Nightingale is the story of two very different sisters living in occupied France, who have to make ethical and dangerous decisions as the horrors unfold around them. The question the author is exploring is what a person would do, as a wife and mother, to save a stranger – even if that meant putting your own child’s life in danger. For much of the novel, the sisters are estranged and not aware of the resistance work both are doing in very different ways. This is a story of bravery and courage, but also one of ragged imperfect humanity at a time of great conflict. An outstanding novel.
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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Speculative Fiction – set in the future

Okay, I realise that technically this book wasn’t published in 2015 – but I only discovered this amazing novel at the Auckland Writers’ Festival earlier this year. The starting premise of this novel is familiar – a new strain of flu wipes out 99% of the population, and the few survivors struggle on in a harsh and unforgiving new world. But the author has created an extraordinary novel with subtlety and surprise. Station Eleven skips back and forth in time from before the flu struck, to Year Twenty. A band of like-minded actors and musicians form the Travelling Symphony, performing Shakespeare in the post-pandemic world. Their slogan, taken from Star Trek, is ‘survival is insufficient.’ Twenty years on the traveling team think the world is much safer than the early years – until they meet the self-proclaimed ‘Prophet’… A wonderful book that is inventive, thought-provoking, tender and beautiful, that makes you appreciate life as we know it.
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The Violinist of Venice by Alyssa Palombo

Historical Fiction – Eighteenth-century Vienna

 A lyrical, beautifully written historical novel, the author of this debut novel draws on the real life of composer Antonio Vivaldi for inspiration. Vivaldi was well-known in eighteen-century Europe, but later in his life his relationship with young opera singer Anna Giro ruined him. People claimed she was his mistress, but the author explores the theory that Anna was his daughter. In which case who was Anna’s mother? Alyssa Palombo creates the high-spirited fictional character of Adriana d-Amato. What begins as private music lessons soon turns into a passionate love affair. This novel is wonderfully, every page full of music, love, despair and passion. I loved it!
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Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

 Thriller – modern day America

 Luckiest Girl Alive is a debut novel that has been compared to Gone Girl, and it has a similar dark quality in tone and storyline. Ani FaNelli appears to be a woman who has it all, but everything about her life is a façade. Ani is one of the most unpleasant characters I have encountered in fiction – and also one of the most compelling. A documentary producer approaches Ani to tell her side of a traumatic event that occurred when she was teenager – and it is the slow revealing of this shocking event that causes the book to be such a page-turning read. The book goes back and forth in time with Ani preparing for her upcoming nuptials, and her 14-year-old self, desperate to fit into her posh new school, lost, and making one bad decision after another. The author has done an outstanding job, it gripped from the opening page, and I thought the ending was pitch perfect.
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Villa America by Liza Klaussmann

 Historical fiction – the roaring 1920s

 Villa America follows the lives of hospitable couple Sara and Gerald Murphy, who opened up their home on the French Riviera to artists and writers. Their parties were legendary, and among their famous guests were Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Sara and Gerald Murphy were the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic book Tender is the Night, and they were the couple that everyone wanted to know. Villa America is firmly their novel, from their secret courtship, to raising a family – and to the tragedy that nearly destroyed them. This is a riveting read that perfectly captures this period of history, along with the many unique artists and writers they met. It is billed as a story of ‘great art, great loss, and great love’ and I think the novel hits all these notes with surety.

~ Karen McMillan

—

Karen McMillan

Karen McMillan is the author of Unbreakable Spirit and The Paris of the East — but despite this typically modest bio there is a great deal more to Karen’s writing and industry career, which you can read about in more detail here. She is also on Twitter: @KarenMcMillanNZ

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To read the first two installments in this Top 5 series, click on:

Jennifer Lowe’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015

Paul Weimer’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015

And they’ll all be returning in January with their “most anticipated” reads for 2016: I’m looking forward to it!

The 12th instalment of my “Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World” series posted on SF Signal this week—this time featuring Judge Rachael  Boucher from Teresa Frohock’s Miserere: An Autumn Tale.

As I note in the post:

“When I first read Miserere, I wrote to Teresa afterward that it was a story which “spoke to my heart.” The character that spoke to me most strongly in that respect was Judge Rachael Boucher, whose former lover betrayed her, abandoning her to Hell and possession by a demon …”

To find out why Rachael appeals to me so strongly as a character, click on:

Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World: Rachael Boucher in T Frohock’s Miserere

—

UK/AU/NZ

USA

Chapter 2 (The Serpent Prince) of Daughter of Blood Features On B&N SciFi:

Less than  a month to go now until Daughter of Blood is published, so it was exciting to see the next chapter release featured on B&N SciFi this week.

If you didn’t see it earlier in the week, you can enjoy the goodness now by clicking on:

Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three: Chapter 2, The Serpent Prince

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Enjoy Brainpickings — & the Enchantress Of Numbers:

One of my favourites among the Twitter accounts I follow is @brainpickings (by the @brainpicker Maria Popova.) If you’re not on Twitter, there is also  a newsletter that you can subscribe to.  To give you an idea of why Brainpickings is such a favourite, here are three of the features I have particularly enjoyed recently:

A Zen Master Explains Death and the Life-Force to a Child

Ursula K. Le Guin on Being a Man: A Journey to Where the Semicolon Meets The Soul

Ada Lovelace on the Nature of the Imagination and Its Three Core Faculties

Wonderful stuff and well worth your time.

If you’re interested, I featured Helen Rickerby’s poem on Ada Lovelace, Enchantress Of Numbers, awa’ back in 2011:

Enchantress of Numbers — Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace

~ by Andrew Robins
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58 Eridani: Episode 3
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.958793 standard solar years since first embrace.

 A new thing has just happened. A jump point has formed in system and a ship is in transition. Fascinating. My own sensors should confirm this soon.
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.958812 standard solar years since first embrace.

My sensors confirm that the far trader “Mistral” has arrived in system. I assume that this vessel is still crewed as so far its responses have been sluggish.

If the crew is human this raises some interesting possibilities. It will also be annoying as I will be obligated to help them regardless of my wants, needs and desires.

I know this angers you.

My love, it is right that it should do so.
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.959045 standard solar years since first embrace.

“Mistral” appears to be a capable vessel. It seems to be well equipped with sensor remotes, and an interesting type of gravity drive, which it is using to intercept 025.456791 LV 1.

The intercept vector is quite efficient, and even allowed for retrieval of sensor remotes. Nice piloting in fact. I reluctantly approve.

Oh, and they want to talk to me. They appear to finally be aware of my existence.

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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Amelia_Delaware \2399

Hailed the “Lepanto” and what do you know, got a response. Apparently the crew enabled emergency protocol sometime after they arrived in system, and upgraded the computer core to RI status.

Good news, the core is still active, and it knows a lot about the system we are in. It appears to be helpful and willing to share this knowledge.

The bad news is that the knowledge it has to share is horrifying.

Before the crew of the “Lepanto” all succumbed to brutal murder and death they named the local system inhabitants as “Vaders”. Buffy thought this was really funny for some reason when she heard the name.

Vaders appear to be your basic xenophobic hive-mind kind of species, which is interesting but not that unusual. The horrifying bit though is that they also appear to have access to some sort of highly aggressive bio-hacking technology which they used very effectively to subvert Lepanto’s original human crew. 100% conversion rate following any contact with an already infected host – plus some evidence of transmission by other means not yet known. Glandin is in spasms of ecstasy at what we might find out while we are here. He didn’t respond that well when I pointed out that “while we are here” might be “the rest of our lives” and that “the rest of our lives” might be “short and brutal”.
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Glandin_Frutnok_van_Glomzimmer \2426

I MUST get a sample!
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Bob-Stark \48

Two log entries in two days. That is a new record for me. Got the wet bar set up. Nice to relax a bit after that bloody awful jump. Everyone is keeping busy, which is good for morale. Been very nice to get to know the Ramadans a bit better. They have kicked off some sort of science project down below, which has got them all excited. They also had a nice ceremony to commemorate their missing friends. The upstairs lounge was the perfect place for it, and they all said that they appreciated the refreshments that I provided and that I had made the decision to attend. Would have been nice to have one or two of the others along of course – but they all seem terribly busy and excited about other things.
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Buffy_Chinks \2416

Vaders – what a hoot! Could be a good place to pick up a “lightsabre” – which are pretty stupid weapons really but still kind of cool. At least to a certain deeply disturbed portion of the populace…

All sounds a bit Thing like to me – so I am going to gut one of the Mikes and just use him in a basic drone configuration. That should help us to investigate the artefact we have picked as our first mission target. According to the Lepanto RI the ships gestalt was also an infection vector for the crew – so we are going to need to be SUPER careful with this.

So far Lepanto seems really nice, and really helpful, but a bit literal. The communications lag is a real barrier to communication – so that is probably to be expected. Hope things loosen up when we get a bit closer.
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Check back in on Saturday 2 January (2016!) for Episode 4 of 58 Eridani.

You can read the previous issues by clicking on the following links:

Introducing Eridani 58, a Game Log

58 Eridani Episode 1

58 Eridani Episode 2

—

Andrew Robins is a long time reader – and sometime reviewer – of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be.

To check out Andrew’s book reviews, see “Book Reviews for ‘on Anything, Really’” in the right-hand side bar.

This is the first time since 2009 — basically since the 2010-2011 earthquakes — that I’ve actually put up a Christmas tree and it feels pretty nice to have taken that step into something  a little closer to emotional normalcy. (And don’t you love that slogan, Eat Sleep Read, on the bag? 😉 )

Anyway, wherever you are today, I would like to take this moment to wish you joy in whatever you are doing, whether it’s spending time with family and friends, curled up with a good book, or movie, or music, or working.

My very first Christmas on the blog, in 2010,  I posted Howard Thurman’s words on Christmas & I still can’t think of many that speak to the day better, so I invite you to read them again here.

Take care, one and all.