Damien Walter

Stranger in a Strange Land

Sam Jordison delves into Heinlein’s accidental counter-cultural relic over at the Guardian book blog.

Need more intellectual roughage in your post Christamas cultural diet? Well John Klima may just have the answer. Not satisfied with reading an entre 53 books last year, Mr Klima has set himself the task of reading all 12 books of The Solar Cycle by Gene Wolfe. And you can join him in his endeavourContinue reading “Join the Gene Wolfe book club”

Hard Fantasy

Jane Lindskold talks about her penchant for Hard Fantasy over at Tor.com. Even with the slightly sleazy connotations, I like the term. I’m not sure I agree with Jane’s shot at defibing it however, which sounds a bot too much like obessesive world building for my liking. For me, the hard bit about about writingContinue reading “Hard Fantasy”

Steampunk: the future of the past

Forget spaceships and laser guns – steampunk says it’s the Industrial Revolution that shows us what we’ve got to look forward to. Dress code: polished brass. While fans of speculative fiction are not known for their adherence to high fashion, the genre produces no end of trends to follow. In recent years paranormal romance hasContinue reading “Steampunk: the future of the past”

TOC Year’s Best SF 26

Gardner Dozois has announced the table of contents for The Year’s Best Science Fiction, twenty sixth annual collection over at the Asimov’s forum. As IO9 observes, there are a very large number of original anthologies represented in the TOC. Are the digests dead? Did they fall or where they pushed? Interzone, Postscripts and Solaris holdContinue reading “TOC Year’s Best SF 26”

Best of the Strange

Strange Horizons have invited their reviewers to round-up the best speculative fiction of 2008 and the results are profoundly interesting. Gwyneth Jones regrets the ever growing polarisation of the genre (agreed), whilst Jonathan McCalmont suggests the British SF boom may be turning to bust (case not proved) and Nader Elhefnawy continues to claim science fictionContinue reading “Best of the Strange”

Dogs vs. Cats

I’ve always thought of myself as more of cat than a dog person. My understanding is that dogs are a major commitment akin to raising a child, whereas cats are independent creatures that look after themselves as long as you provide them the occaisional tin of food (opened, I assume). But my recent interactions withContinue reading “Dogs vs. Cats”

David Gemmell Legend Award

David Gemmell was one of my favourite writers as a teenager. His high octane fantasy novels such as Legend and A Wolf in Shadow really rocked my world. In memory of his fantastic stories the David Gemmell Legend Award has been established to celebrate the best in fantasy writing (with a focus on epic andContinue reading “David Gemmell Legend Award”

Damo’s best of 2008

With the new year upon us, I thought I would give all you lucky people a glimpse inside my head, or at least the parts of it that like things, and post a run down of all that was good about 2008 from my perspective. I don’t claim to be at the cutting edge ofContinue reading “Damo’s best of 2008”

Sandman, Angst and Change

I just stumbled into an excellent critique of Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’, here at Grand Hotel Abyss. My soft spot for teh Sandman stories is pretty well catalogued, but I found a whole bundle of insights i this essay that I now thinking through with fascination. What makes it a superb work of literature is theContinue reading “Sandman, Angst and Change”

Clarion Opens for Submissions

Fancy six weeks of science fiction and fantasy bootcamp? Clarion is open for applications. Get to it people! ** Announcing the 2009 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop @ UC San Diego

Mermaidification

I really enjoyed this story by Meredith Schwartz in this weeks Strange Horizons, except for the moment where the story makes it explicit that the narrator is a mermaid. I like the oblique mystery more than the revelation. But I love the word Mermaidification, so all is forgiven.