Swapna Kishore: Simple People Leading Difficult Lives
I see Younger Sister seething with raw energy that has not yet translated into destructive action. Despite her poor opinion of her sister, she does not want to do anything she considers wrong.
Archive for July 2010
Films of High Adventure: The NeverEnding Story
They look like good, strong hands, don’t they?
Ares Express by Ian McDonald
SF master Ian McDonald knows that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic realism. And, with humor, poetic grace, and an abundance of Big Ideas, he embodies that truth in Ares Express. Artificial intelligences manipulate mortals with the casual power of gods; prophecies come true; quantum realities erase railroad tracks with a slice of terrain from an alternate Mars—and that’s just for starters.
Perhaps this is Kushi’s Story
Excitement tingled in Kushi. She had always assumed the stories to be ways to cheer younger children. Was it true, then, that the gods sent feathers to select leaders whenever the tribe was in trouble?
Author Spotlight: Desirina Boskovich
Loaning a cup of sugar is one of those banal things that neighbors do for one another–or at least promise to do for one another. I wanted to find something prosaic to balance out the surreal events of the story.
Four New Australian Anthologies
Baggage, Belong, Legends of Australian Fantasy & Scary Kisses: four 2010 anthologies, three from small presses and one from a major publisher. Not all of the books are restricted to Australian authors by any means, but in the way of things the majority of stories here are from that continent. I’ll state upfront that not one of these books fully satisfies. Each is ambitious in its own way, and each has some nice work, but across the board I’d say there are two many minor stories, and indeed occasionally some very weak work. But for all that, there is, as I said, some nice work in each of these books: Let’s celebrate that.
Ten Cheesetastic Fantasy Flicks for Summer
The days might be getting shorter, but the mercury is rising (and rising, and rising…). Sometimes it’s just too hot to handle anything serious-minded; all you want is a fun fantasy flick. We’ll, we’re here to oblige! We’ve rounded up ten cheesy old favorites that go perfectly with a few good friends and a few gallons of iced tea.
Violets for Lee
Like all stories of loss and being lost, this one begins with something empty. Specifically, a glass canister. I ran out of sugar while baking a cake. I’d just finished making candied violets. It’s March, after all. (Or at least it was, out there. I don’t think time even exists in here.) You have to make candied violets with the first violets of March: that’s the rule. It was Lee’s rule. Preserved by egg white, super-fine sugar, and low heat, the violet petals live on, ossified versions of their former fragile selves.
Author Spotlight: Tracy Canfield
Many people today believe in the existence of the ifriit, so when I wrote “The Seal of Sulaymaan”, I tried to make the supernatural elements consistent with these beliefs—what djinn eat, where they live, what they can do.
Augmented Reality: Now You Can See Like a Cyborg
Augmented Reality (AR) is one of those science fiction technologies that is on the verge of becoming the hot new trend in reality. What is Augmented Reality? Imagine how the world looks to the Terminator or a robot – whatever object or person they look at gets highlighted and little info windows pop up about them. And environmental information, instructions, compass, guidance markers to their next destination, they all appear in the field of vision like a heads-up display in a video game. Well, now you can see the real world that way too, and without pesky cybernetic implants. There are apps for smartphones and forthcoming visor-like devices that allow you to see a virtual world overlaid on reality. But will Augmented Reality be a good thing or bad?
