Ken MacLeod's Blog, page 31

Ghosts

Scenes from the Great Patriotic War superimposed on recent colour photos from the exact places where the original photographs were taken. Sometimes subtle, sometimes less so, always haunting. (Via.)

Onward and upward

My son Michael MacLeod (aka Young Master Early, but I'll have to stop calling him that) has a new job. Needless to say, I'm very proud of him. He's worked hard to get there: studying for his HND at Telford, slogging his guts out on the Wee County News, being a founding reporter on the Allanwater News, and then working two years with the Deadline Press and Picture Agency in Edinburgh - where his stories and photos have appeared in major UK dailies. Along the way he's seen a lot of life, includ...

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

What it says. Go look.

Thanks to Shawn Raiford for the pointer.

Plaster of Salt Lake City

In Iain Banks's difficult second album, the novel Walking on Glass, there's a passing reference to 'plaster of Salt Lake City' - like plaster of Paris, but less exciting. Samuel R Delany's review of the book was titled, if I remember right: 'Like science fiction, but less exciting'.

The most cutting review so far of The Restoration Game describes it as like 'Iain Banks, some of his older mainstream fiction, with one big downside, it wasn't as good.'

I think I can live with that.

Liviu Siciu at...

The SFX Book Club

I've just had an acceptance for my fourth contribution to this series of 700-word reviews of SF classics: this time, it's on James Blish's Cities in Flight. You can read PDFs of all 49 of the series so far here, and they're pretty addictive. And if you're looking for a reading list of classic SF, this is a good place to start - though it could do with a lot more of (and by) women writers.

Something to brighten your day

Eerie video animation of nuclear explosions from 1945 to 1998.

Implausible television series

Now that we're all stuck in the one with the Black president and the flying killer robots, there's a certain melancholy comfort in realising that earlier generations had to live through even more unbelievable story arcs. (Via.)

Two reviews of The Restoration Game

I'm very pleased to see that SFX , whose self-description as 'the Earth's greatest sci-fi and fantasy magazine' is far too modest, has a very nice review of The Restoration Game. (One small spoiler.) The Green Man Review is likewise enthusiastic.

And here's a better link to the Scotland on Sunday review by Stuart Kelly, who says:

Stornoway-born Ken MacLeod's The Restoration Game, like his previous novels The Execution Channel and The Night Sessions, are works of science fiction so worryingly...

Cat vacuuming? I don't even have a cat!

Last Thursday Mrs Early took a well-deserved long weekend away. I'm well within deadline on my next book, but well behind my unofficial target for it, so a few days on my own might seem to be a good time to go at the writing full tilt. The only other things I definitely had to do was fill in my author comp tickets form for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and pick up two pet gerbils to look after while young Master Early & his beloved swanned off to a Greek island for their well-des...

Reading in The Illicit Still

Yesterday's West Port Book Festival went well. I did a reading from The Restoration Game, followed by a brief Q&A and a signing session. About 15 people turned up, not bad for a sunny Thursday afternoon, the questions were well chosen and a good half dozen books were sold and signed. (Advance copies are still available at Edinburgh Books until Wednesday.)

Pictures can be found here and here (from which the above pic by chrisdonia is taken under Creative Commons Licence).

This is only the second...