Category Archive: Lit Crit
SpecFic 2012
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013Speculative Fiction was released last Thursday (25 April); You can find it in the US for $11.99 and in the UK for £8.99. In addition to my piece on Ayn Rand, it has a wealth of brilliant articles and critical readings. Proceeds from all sales go to Room to Read. So -- c'mon! What's keeping [...]
The Rees reading
Saturday, May 7th, 2011The last twelve months, like all the previous twelvemonths in my writing career, have not been lucky for me in terms of awards (of course you may think this has nothing to do with luck and everything with my many writerly demerits); but I have been lucky in a number of, I think, genuinely insightful [...]
My Elves Are Democratically Constituted Armies
Monday, January 10th, 2011I like this, from My Elves Are Different, very much.
Is SF Handwritten?
Monday, September 7th, 2009'Is SF Handwritten?' is the title of an article I wrote for the latest edition of the online academic journal Writing Technologies [2:2 2009] a 'special issue on Heidegger, writing and technology' edited by James Holden. It's a piece of Heideggerian/Derridean theoretical speculation about the genre, as you'll see if you click through. So, is [...]
Routledge 50 Key Figures Out Now
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009Spotted in the wild: Mark Bould, Andrew M Butler, Sheryl Vint and my Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction (Routledge Key Guides, 2009). Hurrah! £14.99 in paperback, but, well, clearly more valuable than that. How much more valuable? My esteemed co-editor Andrew M. spotted this (since rescinded, I think): Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction [...]
Routledge SF Companion: reviews
Saturday, July 18th, 2009Gary K Wolfe in Locus doesnae like it very much: 'occupies a hazily defined territory ... there seems to have been a limited attempt to avoid overlap between the essays ... the index reveals Donna Harraway is cited 17 times and the Star Wars trilogy 26 times, Gene Wolfe is mentioned on four pages'. My [...]
My review of Tolkien’s Sigurd & Gudrun posted on SH
Monday, July 6th, 2009It started out as a simple Strange Horizons review of "the latest title from the seemingly bottomless supply of posthumous Tolkieniana to be edited for publication by his son, Christopher". It turned into a mammoth, Lonesome Dove-style trek through the wastelands of criticism dragging the much-loved dead body of traditional-sequential characterisation after me. I dare [...]
Scotland on Sunday on YBT
Monday, February 9th, 2009Scotland on Sunday brackets my novel with David Ebershoff's excellent The 19th Wife (in itself a good sign) to joint-review them: HISTORY might be written by the victors, but historical novels tend to be the province of the losers. Although David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife and Adam Roberts' Yellow Blue Tibia are very different, but [...]
Another Routledge Forthcoming
Monday, December 22nd, 2008I rather like the cover to this one (for after all what is SF if not a giant spaceship bound for exotic planets that happens to have gone murderously insane upon the way?) Not so mammoth a project as the Companion, but pretty laborious for all that. Please to be advised: 'Andrew Butler' should be [...]
A Routledge Forthcoming
Monday, December 22nd, 2008And here is relevant the amazon page. What is it? It's nearly 600 large close-printed pages, and a mountain of sfnal scholarship on a wealth of sfnal topics, that's what it is. Plus it's the result of a great deal of work; for myself, but more so for my three estimable co-editors. Worthwhile, though. Due [...]
Swiftly discussion
Saturday, July 5th, 2008Well, this is very interesting indeed. Niall Harrison, that tall man, has hosted a detailed, in-depth, intelligent and (I think) very penetrating four-way discussion of Swiftly over at Torque Control: Niall H, Dan Hartland, Victoria Hoyle and Paul Kincaid take part. The first I knew of it was when Niall dropped me a line to [...]
BBC History Magazine on History of SF
Friday, January 4th, 2008Start a post title with an abbreviation + the-word-History, end it palindromically, with the-word-History + an abbreviation, that's my motto. This is courtesy of Stephen Baxter, a giant of contemporary sf (to my Lilliputianiarity) and a friend to boot: he is, I'm guessing, a subscriber to BBC History Magazine, and he spotted this in the [...]
The Guardian reviews the Palgrave History of SF
Saturday, November 10th, 2007P D Smith, in today's Saturday Guardian review: According to Margaret Atwood, science fiction is a pulp genre about "intelligent squids in space". Which is strange because, as Adam Roberts says, her best three novels are part of the SF genre. Oryx and Crake (2003) is "an unembarrassed entry into a dazzlingly realised dystopian imaginary [...]
Palgrave History of Science Fiction: paperback
Saturday, July 14th, 2007Here's the cover for the forthcoming paperback edition of my Palgrave History of Science of Fiction:
Blogging update
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006The Valve, where I am one of the authors, continues to publish excellent stuff, not least a presently-on-going symposium about the latest book by the excellent Walter Benn Michaels. Which really should grab your attention. Now, having read thoroughly through the 'WBM' event, and if you have the time, and inclination, to delve deeper into [...]
