Helen Lowe's Blog, page 215
July 17, 2013
SF Signal Mind Meld: The Fantastic “Road Trip”
I’m currently participating in a Mind Meld on SF Signal and the topic is:
“From Bilbo traveling to the Lonely Mountain and Frodo’s journey to Mordor, to Steven Erikson’s Malazan novels with armies crossing fantasy continent after continent, the “road trip”, as it were, has been a staple of science fiction and fantasy, particularly epic fantasy. See the scenery, meet interesting characters and explore the world! What could go wrong?
What are your favorite “road trips” in science fiction and fant...
July 16, 2013
Big Worlds On Small Screens: Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Warehouse 13″
By Rebecca Fisher
Introduction:
Remember the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc when the Arc of the Covenant was hidden in a massive warehouse, just one identical crate amongst thousands of others? Have you ever wondered what else was stored in there? Well, the creators of Warehouse 13 obviously did, for even though their show has no affiliation whatsoever with the Indiana Jones franchise, the concept at the heart of their story certainly gleaned its inspiration from that infa...
July 15, 2013
The Tuesday Poem: The Seafarer (Unknown Author, From The Anglo-Saxon)
May I of my own self
Truth’s song reckon,
Tell of my traverse,
How I oft endured
Days of hardship
Times of trouble,
Bitter the breast-care
That I suffered,
Known at my keel
Many a care’s hold,
Dread wave-fall
When wary night-watch
Found me often
There at the ship’s stem,
Wave-tossed, by cliff-wall.
Cold-fettered
My feet
Frost-bound
In cold clasp,
Where cares seethed then
Hot at the heart;
Hunger within tore
The sea-weary soul.
…
from the Anglo-Saxon original; an abridged version translated by A.S. Kline©...
July 14, 2013
What’s A-Happening On “…Anything, Really”: July 15 Round-Up
Hokey-dokey: dusts hands for some blog update time!
Coming up this week we have another epic-legendary poem for tomorrow’s Tuesday Poem — following on from last week’s taste of The Iliad I’ll be taking a look at the Anglo-Saxon The Seafarer. (I love this poem.)
On Wednesday, it’s back to our fortnightly feature in which Rebecca Fisher talks Big Worlds On Small Screens: this week she is looking at Warehouse 13.
Come Thursday, I should be crossing to SF Signal for a Mind Meld feature on the great...
July 13, 2013
Comment Of the Week: from Ben at ‘Raving Doomslayer’ Blog
“…The novel [The Heir Of Night] does deserve special mention, I feel, for the female characters within it … these women are in positions of authority, are key to the storyline and are more than capable of taking [names] and kicking [arse]. And as well as being tough, they manage to actually be feminine instead of the usual ‘strong female character’ shtick of basically being a macho guy with boobs and a girly name.”
–
This quote appears in the latest review for The Heir of Night, which appeared...
July 12, 2013
Another Of My “Most Disliked” Tropes Of SFF / Epic Fantasy
I know this one’s been done to death, but honestly: purportedly ‘warrior’ chicks in chainmail scanties!
Bets on their survival statistics, anyone?
Both they — and possibly those who deploy ‘em — should be ‘slain on principle’ imho. 
July 11, 2013
A Geography Of Haarth: Farelle
The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick
The A Geography of Haarth series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Today, after a quick traverse of “E”, we’re on to “F.”
—
Farelle: a city of the River
.
“Even so, it took the heralds the best part of a chill and dreary month to complete their journey. The rain continued, steady and unrelenting, and they slept in small wayside inns or camped in the leafless woods. Both heralds were s...
July 10, 2013
Supernatural Underground Giveaway For “The Gathering Of The Lost”: We Have A Winner!
July is “news update” month on the Supernatural Underground, so of course I posted on The Gathering Of The Lost having been nominated for the Gemmell Legend Award for my regular first of the month slot.
To celebrate I also did a giveaway and the result was posted on the Supernatural Underground yesterday, just check on the following link if you want to check it out:
The Gathering of The Lost giveaway result.
There’s also an excerpt from GATHERING for bonus goodness. 
July 9, 2013
One Of My “Most Disliked” Tropes Of SFF / Epic Fantasy
One of the great dangers of writing SFF is what the great Ursula Le Guin calls the “Expository Lump”, ie in lieu of a Vulcan Mind meld between author and reader, the author downloads details of worldbuilding, backstory, or other essential plot information in a giant lump of text.
Urrgh, I hear you all cry, quite rightly.
But there is an SFF trope ‘sometimes’ deployed to counteract this — or worse, simply to make the plot work — which drives me crazy as a reader.
This is when a character (often o...
July 8, 2013
Tuesday Poem: Featuring Legendary Poems — The Iliad by Homer
Book One: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles …
“Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.
And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the so...
