Guest Post: Realism and Disability in the Apocalypse by Holly Kench

What is Defying Doomsday?

Apocalypse fiction rarely includes characters with disability, chronic illness and other impairments. When these characters do appear, they usually die early on, or are secondary characters undeveloped into anything more than a burden to the protagonist. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology showing that disabled characters have far more interesting stories to tell in post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction.

Defying Doomsday will be edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and published by Twelfth Planet Press in mid 2016. Defying Doomsday is currently crowdfunding via Pozible. To support the project visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

 

And now some words from Holly:

 

Realism and Disability in the Apocalypse

by Holly Kench

I’ve heard some people argue that having disabled characters in apocalypse fiction is unrealistic.

Apparently, in science fiction, the reanimation of the dead is possible. So is an alien invasion. But a disabled person surviving during an apocalypse? Now that’s just silly. We can only take suspension of disbelief so far, and that is the line.

I’m going to be honest. I don’t know that I’d survive long during an apocalypse. I have no idea how to fire a gun; I don’t know how to light a fire without matches; and I have no desire to live in a world without chocolate.

But I don’t really see my physical impairments as a particular problem. Of course, it depends on the apocalypse, and, sure, I’ll need to remember to loot the pharmacy before I head to the supermarket. But I’ve got a high pain tolerance, a solar charger for my iPad, and about as much chance as the next person of surviving a zombie hoard by covering myself in waste product.

So why aren’t there more people like me, more disabled people, in apocalypse fiction? You know, apart from the chocolate issue.

That’s a question Tsana Dolichva and I want to put to the test in an anthology dedicated to exploring tales of disabled characters in apocalypse fiction. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories, featuring disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill and/or neurodiverse protagonists. We are currently holding a crowdfunding campaign through Pozible to fund the anthology. To support the campaign or to preorder a copy of Defying Doomsday, visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

Your support is greatly appreciated! You can find out more about Defying Doomsday at our website or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The Expanse

I can’t remember if I knew this was happening and forgot or that its just slipped by.  But here is a preview of a new show from Syfy based on SA Corey’s Expanse series.  I reviewed Leviathan Wakes back in 2011 and remember being impressed.  But check out the trailer below":

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Book Releases - The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Vol. 8 edited by Jonathan Strahan

Just a heads up for those folks not hanging off every word of the Coode Street Podcast where Jonathan may have mentioned (though he’s modest about these things) he had sold The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 8 to the folk at Solaris.

The folks at Solaris are pretty excited too:

The celebrated The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year series comes to the UK – Solaris is proud to be the new home for the latest volume in Jonathan Strahan’s critically-acclaimed SFF anthology series!

and the table of contents is pretty impressive:

The best, most original, and brightest science fiction and fantasy stories from around the globe from the past twelve months are brought together in one collection by the multiple-award-winning editor. This highly popular series is released in the UK for the first time and includes stories from both the biggest names in the field and the most exciting new talents, including Neil Gaiman, Joe Abercrombie, Karin Tidbeck, An Owomoyela, Madeline Ashby, Lavie Tidhar, Charlie Jane Anders, Geoff Ryman, Caitlin R Kiernan and many more.

This is a monster of a collection some 620 pages of fiction from the best in the business.  It features new writers like Benjanun Sriduangkaew and Sofia Samatar and on a casual glance seems to be making a definite attempt at being gender and culturally diverse.

Note: Booktopia have the book available for pre-order (it’s released on the 10th of April) if Australians order before the 16th of this month (Sunday midnight) and enter the coupon code MARCH at checkout you can get free shipping.  Pre-order it here.

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Women Destroy Science Fiction - Kickstarter

John Joseph Adams has handed over the reins to a guest editor for the 40th edition of Lightspeed magazine.  It’s going to be an issue that’s edited and entirely written by women.  Quick get your tinned food and small arms the world is about to end…for the Science Fiction Fandom equivalent of camouflaged survivalists living in the backwoods.

But if you want to checkout what’s on offer you can go here or click the embedded window below:

You’ll note that it is fully funded, so get in now and guarantee yourself a bumper 40th edition.

Jupiter Ascending – SF’nal eye candy

Posited as a science fiction film I am not sure if this is anything other than SFnal eye candy.  But it’s nice Candy. And it has Sean Bean. . .who will probably die.

 

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Book Review – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

If I am truthful I tend more toward fantasy than science fiction in my own reading.  Sure, I have read a smattering of earlier science fiction works, like Childhood’s End by Clarke, Come Hunt An Earthman by Phillip E High and  I have tried reading and listening to PK Dick but find him not to my taste. 

My love of science fiction started, I think with Star Wars and probably deepened a little later with Frank Herbet’s Dune.  So recent Space Opera works like Leviathan Wakes have hit that sweet spot - space adventure on a more or less epic scale but obeying the laws of physics a little tighter.

Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice sits nicely in my comfort zone but is a little more epic in scope than SA Corey’s work.  We have a galaxy spanning empire, sentient ships with corpse soldiers on ice but it’s also refreshingly grounded in its description of other human cultures, of a humanity dispersed throughout the galaxies.  The blurb describes it aptly as “Inventive and intelligent space opera”.

Our protagonist is an AI, more specifically a sentient ship called the Justice of Torren, one of the many sentient ships of different sizes that the Empire of the Radch has used in its ever expanding annexations(read invasion and subjugation) of other human societies.  The Empire is thousands of years old, old enough for most humans to have forgotten that they originated on Earth, for other societies to have risen and fallen.

Like all good stories Ancillary Justice is set at a time of change, the very last Annexation has taken place.  Justice of Torren orbits the planet Shi's’urna and concurrently, serves through its capacity to operate as Ancillaries (corpse soldiers under the control of the central AI), as a security force and aide to the human Lieutenant who acts as a de facto governor on the planet’s surface.

Or at least that’s half the tale – because when we meet The Justice of Torren it is the last remaining Ancillary, Torren One Esk or Breq as she/it prefers.  Leckie switches between the scenario above and the arrival of a singular Ancillary on the planet Nilt.  The annexation of Shi's’urna has occurred twenty years previously and Leckie delightfully builds tension as she switches backwards and forwards in time.

From very early on the reader knows that The Justice of Torren, the ship that can see through the eyes of thousands of Ancillaries, has been reduced to only one in the present, some great calamity has befallen it.  How that happened and the implications unravelling that mystery reveals, is what drives this novel for much of its length. 
A character who narrates in the first person but that for a good portion of the novel is almost omniscient presented, I am sure, some challenges for Leckie.  How do you present a character that simultaneously observes from dozens of different points, who can measure the heart rate and temperature of everyone on the ship and a large number of people on the surface of a planet?  Although it felt a bit unusual at first (in a narrative sense), Leckie’s solution builds on itself and gives a sense of what it might be like to be Justice of Torren without bogging down the flow of the story. 

The approach to gender in Ancillary Justice was also clever.  Justice of Torren is an AI who can inhabit a ship, a body or bodies. It has experienced a number of cultures and annexations and frequently in the text it expresses a concern over whether or not it has used the right gender pronoun for the language/culture it is engaged with.  Consequently, sometimes the same character is referred to as he or she or designated male or female.  

I get the impression that the pronoun she was used far more than he, that most of the characters were female.  I even have to stop myself from referring to Justice of Torren as a she above because that’s what I feel though I don’t think that’s explicitly stated in the novel.
Have I made this assumption because culturally ships are female or because there is a preponderance of female pronouns in the text. If I were asked who the male characters were in the book I couldn’t name them with certainty.  Their are characters referred to as both male and female depending on who Torren is communicating with but this seems distanced from any biological markers. What I think Leckie was going for was a book where gender was largely irrelevant, where it was fluid dependant on culture and where it didn’t matter really to Torren or the story.  I would be interested to read reviews by female readers or even a gender queer response to it.

In terms of a reading experience the initial mystery and world building drew me in and by the time I was hooked the disparate timelines had coalesced into one and the story picked up speed toward its conclusion. I am left with a sense of depth in the world building and genuine desire to see where the story goes. If you like a bit of mystery and a fresh take on galaxy spanning empires I think its very much worth a look.

This book was a review copy provided by the publisher.

Australian readers can pre-order Ancillary Justice here.

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Jonathan Strahan’s - Infinity Project

Coming hot on the heels of the announcement that his Best of …series would be taken up by Solaris is Jonathan Strahan’s revelation of the cover of his next anthology in the Infinity project also from Solaris – Reach for Infinity.  The cover is by Adam Tredowski, and is confirmed as the final cover.  The names of authors may be subject to change.

Check out Jonathan’s post here.

The book is due out in the middle of next year.

 

If you are keen on Jonathan’s taste in authors (it’s impeccable) or if you are just looking for great Sci-fi short reads I note that Booktopia have the two earlier books in the series available and they have a free shipping deal running.

The two titles above can be picked up for $11.50 and $10.50 respectively.

Just add the code PARTY at the end of the checkout process.  Clicking the images above will take you directly to the book summary and purchase pages.

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Booktopia Free Shipping - Twilight Zone DVD’s, Frazetta Doco

Booktopia have another free shipping deal running until Friday midnight so I have trawled through some of the bargains in Science Fiction and Fantasy  DVD’s to save you the trouble, though the free shipping deal applies to everything including pre-orders.  You might for instance want to check out JK Rowling’s Crime novel for yourself.  You can read my review here.

But on to the deals:

DVD’s

 The New Twilight Zone Season One and Two are at 37% and 42% off respectfully.  If classic horror is more your thing The Haunted Palace ( a movie adaptation of a HP Lovecraft’s The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward) starring Vincent Price can be snapped up for under $10.  In a similar price range is A Vampire’s Kiss starring Nicholas Cage if you like a bit of romcom horror.

There’s also a documentary on the Fantasy Artist Frank Frazetta called Frazetta : Painting With Fire that looks interesting for those of us who discovered fantasy before Harry Potter.

For hardcore fans of science fiction the original Solaris – Solaris (Distinction Series : 2 Disc Set) starring Natalya Bondarchuk and  Donatas Banionis is good value at $13.95.

 

 

 

But by all means checkout their books as well.  The code you will need for free shipping is GIFTS.

 

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Book Review – Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre

In Bedlam we see Brookmyre diverge from his usual fare of Scottish crime novels and venture into science fiction.  That being said, Bedlam  is still at its heart mystery fiction, with our hapless protagonist required to unravel who he is, where he is and how to take down the bad guys.

Ross Baker is computer scientist working for a shady American firm in the charming surrounds of industrial Stirling.  He works hard but never seems to get ahead, he thinks his girlfriend is about to leave him and the office psychopath has just screwed him over again when he decides to help one of his colleagues, Solderburn, who is working on side project.

He consents to be scanned by Solderburn’s new cobbled together scanner and wakes up inside a 1990’s first person shooter called Starfire.  From this point on he’s on his own and has to figure out where he is, if he’s still Ross Baker and how to get home.

It’s not a new idea, being transported into a video game, but Brookmyre has reworked the idea and given us a story that will be a trip down nostalgia lane for anyone who grew up gaming from the late 80’s onward combined with some techno thriller trappings.  There’s some good in-jokes and some not so subtle social commentary – Brookmyre did win a laugh from me with a reference to Daily Mail readers.

I did, however, find it a bit slow going until the last quarter of the book where the pace picked up and both the reader and Ross had a better picture of where things were going. There’s also an info dump at the end of the book which is an info dump in both the literal and narrative sense.  Ross gets injected with updated information on what’s going on in the outside world bringing he and the reader up to date. It felt like Brookmyre was glossing over what might have been good techno-thriller material but I don’t know that I can suggest another way to have worked the information into the story without revealing some of the mystery.

If you are looking for a mystery novel with a difference, if you enjoy Brookmyre’s humour and you’re a fan of gaming you’ll enjoy Bedlam, as for the techno thiller aspects, it just doesn't move fast enough for me.

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Booktopia Clearance Sale–Science Fiction and Fantasy

No free postage on this sale - but then a flat $6.50 is alright when you can use it to ship as many books as you like.

There is actually free shipping until midnight of the 21st of October.  Just type the word SALE into the appropriate area on the order form.

There are some bargains to be had, especially if you are looking to fill out your collections. 

You can peruse the fantasy titles in total here (about125 books).  A large number of the titles are under $2.  Authors include: Sara Douglas, Karen Miller, Glenda Larke, KJ Taylor, Mary Victoria, Russell Kirkpatrick, Will Elliot, Juliet Marillier, Nicole Murphy, Gail Carriger, Clive Barker and Joe Abercrombie.

 

 

 

The Science Fiction titles are similarly packed with well known authors, although they are not discounted as heavily.  Go here to peruse for yourself.  Some of the names you will recognise are: Nancy Kress, Arthur C Clarke, Sean Williams, Dan Simmons, Tim Powers, Douglas Adams and Alistair Reynolds

 

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Book Review–Flight 404 / The Hunt for Red Leicester by Simon Petrie

Flight 404/ The Hunt for Red Leicester is a new release from Peggy Bright Books.  A science fiction novella double, it’s a curious mix that showcases the divergent talents of Simon Petrie.

Flight 404 is a serious and compelling tale of a transgender pilot, sent to lend help to a search and rescue mission.  Her ship’s trajectory takes her back to the home world she escaped.  She must solve a mystery, and face relationships long abandoned.

I am tempted to label it hard sci-fi with heart, but it does contain some hand-wavium around faster than light travel (for the purists out there). It gets “harder” around the limitations on communications and in system travel.

Sufficed to say, space is dangerous and big but the real danger always seems to have humanity involved.

I really enjoyed this story, felt that that the character was an honest and positive representation of a transgender person and I was captive to the mystery and story right until the end. 

More in this vein Mr Petrie please.

The Hunt for Red Leicester is cheese to Flight 404’s chalk. It’s science fiction comedy along the same lines as Douglas Adams or Simon Haynes. 

Our hero Gordon Mamon has awoken, bound and gagged in the ladies toilet on the Space Hotel/ Space Elevator Skyward 270. Oh and there’s a dead Cheese magnate, Lord Havmurthy in one of the cubicles.  It’s up to Mamon to solve the case as hotel police are preoccupied.  There’s a solid plot that the comedy hangs off and the puns are groan worthy. I loved it.  A perfect counterbalance to the heavier tale told in Flight 404.

You mileage may vary, but I felt that the length of this piece was spot on.  Short enough to appreciate the humour and not grow tired of it.  If more of this writing is your thing Simon also has a separate collection titled The Gordon Mamon Casebook.

These novellas were provided free of charge by the author.

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Book Review–2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Publishers Weekly labelled 2312 a ‘A challenging, compelling masterpiece'.  While I think ‘masterpiece’ may be pre-empting its on-going cultural and historical relevance, 2312 is both challenging and compelling.
As the title suggests the novel is set 300 years from the future of its publication date.  With 2312 Robinson gives us what many “hard science” science fiction fans consider to be “real” science fiction - an idea or ideas explained, a future imagining to be marveled at for its vision, its sense of hope and its scientific plausibility.

Historically, character and plot in this kind of work tended to be secondary, a feature which wouldn’t float with today’s audience who have come to expect more involved plots and well rounded characters.

Thankfully, Robinson gives us a little of everything; epic ideas(the future setting and cultures of our solar system), compelling characters and an intriguing mystery.

The Story

The nature of 2312 makes it difficult to sum up adequately in one or two enticing paragraphs.  Sketching the narrative for the reader will not give you a true glimpse of what Robinson has provided, for 2312 is as much about humanity and future history as it is about the central protagonist Swan Er Hong.

Swan is a long lived spacer of altered gender - by 2012 our concept of binary sex and gender has blossomed into a myriad of wonderful possibilities. Once a designer of Terrarium’s (a cross between a transport, culture capsule and bio-ark) she has settled on Mercury as a artist, with her mentor Alex.
Swan resides in the city of Terminator which is chased by the sunrise and pushed along on rails that swell and expand with the Sun’s rays.  Alex’s death is the first event in what grows to become solar system changing crisis - a mystery that Swan and former colleagues of her mentor must unravel before catastrophe strikes.

The Grand Tour

And so what proceeds is somewhat of a tour of the solar system as Swan and the others dig into this mystery.  From a failed Earth, with its flooded shorelines and billions of poor, to surfing in the rings of Saturn.

I was reminded very early on of a children's book called, The First Travel Guide to the Moon, in which the author outlines what the reader will be able to do when the moon is colonised. 
2312 manages to evoke a similar sense of wonder, albeit for an adult palate. The narrative is engaging and you come to love and be concerned for Swan and her friends. The mystery encourages the reader to postulate solutions themselves, to guess the perpetrator before the reveal.

All the while, however, Robison lays out the future for us to see and to be inspired by.  He does this through the narrative, by revealing aspects of characters, their histories and their work and by presenting Dos Passos-like ¹ extracts and lists from unidentified sources, that act to further inform the reader of the “world” of 2312. Indeed sometimes they read like snippets of data culled from the radio waves but the collage works to build a sense of a wider “world” outside of the narrative.

A fine wine

This is the first Robinson that I have read and other commentators have remarked that this is Robinson doing what he does best.  I liked it and I felt pulled along by both the story and the setting at different times. 

It’s not a book that will set your heart racing, though the narrative holds its own.  It is however, the sort of book that should fire synapses in your imagination. 

Enjoy this like a quality wine- enjoy the look, feel and taste of 2312 .

This book was provided to me by the publisher at no cost.

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^{1I am indebted to academic Gary K Wolfe for this term, which describes the interleaving of chapters of narrative, with fictional histories, extracts, artefacts, newspaper stories that act to generate a sense of a greater world separate but enclosing the narrative.  Brandon Sanderson used this to good effect in Alloy of Law.  For the origin of the term go here↩}

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Ridley Scott talking and the creative process

Hat Tip to Neil Lindley for this interview

It’s fascinating to hear Scott talk about his creative process, storyboarding the days shots, while he’s being driven to the set. He wanders off question a bit but still worth a watch.

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Cover Candy - Shine Light by Marianne de Pierres

The third in the Night Creatures series (Burn Bright, Angel Arias).  Its marketed as young adult, but having read Burn Bright I tend to think that it transcends marketing categorisation.

There’s interesting sci-fi, dystopic, social commentary elements to the series that should interest any fan of speculative fiction.

And of course its written by Marianne de Pierres who I find brings a special something to every genre she decides to explore.

 

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Heads Up–Hyperpulp Brazilian Specfic Magazine

Issues One & Two of this free speculative fiction magazine are out now.  It’s bilingual, with stories in both English and Portuguese. 

The plan is to release about 3 magazines a year - a number necessary for the editorial team, to read and translate submissions.

H/T World SF Blog

 

 

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A little bit of Outland before the climax this evening.

With just under 7 hours till Episode One airs,  I am almost giddy with excitement.  He is a snippet from the show and some questions Q and A with the actors.

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T minus 1 day to Outland

Yes that’s right screening tomorrow night at 9.30 on ABC 1 is Outland the ABC’s Gay Science Fiction Fan Comedy Drama. 

All I can think of is thank goodness my taxes are finally going toward a show that tickles my fancy. 

You see I’m a closet SciFi nerd, not on my blog of course but in my wider community. 

I am so sick of the white middle class ocker ozzie rubbish like Packed to the Rafters. Finally we get something that references the science fiction community in Australia.

So if you’re still undecided about what you should be doing tomorrow night check out this interview and then set your recorders for stun I mean 9.30pm

But I’m not gay.

Neither am I but I still enjoyed Queer as Folk.  Outland looks to be the kind of show that will have a broad appeal, besides there’s quite a few people still in the Sci-Fi closet that will be making excuses to slip away to watch.

It’s okay say it with me – I am a science fiction fan and I’m proud.

Here’s the run down on the show from the ABC.

Outland is a six-part comedy series about a gay science fiction fan club and the lives, loves and never-ending dramas of its five members. There’s Max (Toby Truslove), insecure and looking for love; the sexually-adventurous, muffin-baking Andy (Paul Ireland); Rae (Christine Anu), the moral centre and unofficial head of the group; the high-camp, high-maintenance Fab (Adam Richard); and the wealthy but socially-inept Toby (Ben Gerrard).

It’s an odd, and often precarious combination of personalities. Every week they meet in each other’s homes, but as the meetings become more untenable, a decision has to be made – are they willing to commit to the idea of the group or is it time they went their separate ways? Are the slender things that bind them enough? Can science fiction save them all? Outland is a series about belonging, no matter who you are, and how everyone searches to find a place to fit in.

So, I think, unless you don’t appreciate good writing, intelligent humour or you’re a member of the Margaret Court Fan club you're in for some chuckles.

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2112 Imagining the Future Exhibition via Future Tense Show

An interesting radio segment focussing on the 2112 Imagining the Future Exhibition.  The Exhibition asks the question:

Literature, film and television have been a strong force for imagining future scenarios. But why is it that there's been less focus on the future (science fiction) in contemporary art?

This question raises further questions from me about who you regard as artists.  Shaun Tan has been creating futuristic and fantasy works of art for years.  He’s even won an Oscar for short film. 

Or is this about artists not within the science fiction community dabbling in Imagining the future?

Care to find out?

You can download the segment here

The Exhibition Details can be found here for lucky Melbournians.

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Book Review–The Secret Signal (Hal Junior Book 1) by Simon Haynes

The Secret Signal is the first book in the Hal Junior series from Perth based Australian author Simon Haynes.
Simon’s more well known for his adult fiction, the Hal Spacejock science fiction comedy series that earned him a comparison to Terry Pratchett.

While reading The Secret Signal I was trying to think back to the sort of science fiction I read in my middle primary years, to find some a touchstone or point of reference for myself, to give the book a review from a straight reader point of view without my teacher or librarian hat on. 

That might have been a futile task considering how long ago that was.

In the distant past 
But I do have fond memories of The First Travel Guide to the Moon which seemed to me to be on the borderline between speculative fiction and futurist extrapolation. The connection between that and Hal Junior is the description of what it is/might be like living off planet. With the added benefit that Haynes gives us a little bit more high stakes adventure.

Real science plus space adventure
Simon Haynes has done a really good job of describing life living on a space station and including scientific facts as part of that description i.e. a spaceships manoeuvring jets firing but the viewer not being able to hear but rather feel the vibrations.

Being a children's book we don’t have complex relationships or down and dirty fight scenes, but we do have action aplenty.  Haynes gives us a proto-larakin (because Australian’s will live in space too) in Hal Junior, the kid that has the potential to get up to mischief and often does, & believably named nerdy sidekick in “Stinky” Binn.

The action scenes are all non violent to my recollection and prove that if you have sufficient skill as a writer you can write engaging, action packed children’s fiction that’s enjoyable by adults as well.

Are there girls in Space?
The story is a bit “girl” lite (there are no female child characters of consequence) but Hal’s mum is chief scientist, while his dad works in maintenance and another sympathetic adult is also a female trainee technician. I am hoping that in the next couple of Hal Junior books we might see the introduction of a female sidekick character alongside Hal.

Production values
Before I forget, the production of the Hal Junior paperback is top quality as well. The cover  is by Dion Hammill it’s age appropriate and conveys a sense of movement and action.

The interior artwork by the author himself, is naff (and deliberately so) and somewhat tongue in cheek(I really enjoyed the running joke).

What sets it out from the rest
What I think marks this out as top quality children's fiction is that it gives the child protagonist agency.  It manages suspense and pacey action without resort to cliche or violence and it has a firm basis in science (enough to fool this armchair science supporter anyway). Despite being a book intended for children I thoroughly enjoyed the read.

Adventure, science and entertainment in one nice little packet. I’ll be donating my review copy to my local library.

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