The Aural Times prompted me to misremember some Don Maclean lyrics, and I just caught myself before posting about having met a girl who sang the news...
As for Billington's critique... I think we need a sense of wonder in the world. I wish I could've got down to London to see The Sultan's Elephant - I'm sure half the problems in the modern world are caused by there being almost no magic any more. I say almost no magic because sometimes you can just stumble across a little, like when I used to work in a civil service office. Cue anecdote:
This is going back a few years, but I used to catch the train to the nearest city when I had a short-term contract doing civil service admin. One particularly foggy morning (notable purely because such thick fog in June is unusual where I am!), so foggy that although I could see the length of the platform, it was impossible to see anything beyond the end, I'd just got off the train and was walking along the platform to the exit, when I heard what I thought was a low rumble of thunder. Except, as I realised, it was rather too long to be thunder.
Suddenly, with a shrill whistle (and probably in contravention of regulations), an old-fashioned steam engine burst out of the fog, its burgundy paint gleaming. What caught my eye was the plaque on the front: "Hogwarts Express". Trailing some gorgeous wooden carriages (of the antique slamdoor variety, now no longer used on the railways), it vanished at the far end of the platform as suddenly as it had appeared.
Now, I'm not sure why the train from the Harry Potter movies would be passing through a city station during the rush hour, but it was one of those magic moments that sticks with you...
I seem to remember that even Doctor Who is referenced in Duane's Trek novels... my admittedly foggy memory dredges up something about a hologram of the TARDIS on the rec deck in "My Enemy, My Ally".
It's been a long time since I read that... I think my copy might still be up in the attic, along with "The Final Reflection". Maybe it's a good time to revisit them, I haven't opened a Trek novel in some years!
It seems like good contemporary sf writing is full of references and in-jokes. I've just noticed a building called Langford Towers in Peter F. Hamilton's "Judas Unchained" (and it's no coincidence I spotted that one!), and Alastair Reynolds made me laugh out loud by having a major faction descended from Slashdot users in "Century Rain".
I caught a clip of the Eurovision winners last night, but thought it was a trailer for next week's Doctor Who.
(Not that I read media tie-in novels, but I have to handle a lot of them at work. I feel so unclean...)
Hi, all. Short-time lurker, first-time commenter.
Pockets are indeed a good thing, but I've noticed that, in the last decade or so, it's become increasingly difficult to put a book in your back pocket - the only books that seem to fit are media tie-ins (mostly Star Trek, Doctor Who, or Buffy novels - Star Wars ones seem to be too thick). Pretty much anything is either too thick (I can't even force a Peter F. Hamilton into the thigh pocket of my cargo pants!) or too large (say, John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" - perfect thickness, but too wide).
Is that depressing, or just a sign of the times?
Oh well, at least I can roll up an Interzone; that fits quite nicely!
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