Stephen Hunt's Blog, page 10
October 29, 2014
Solar reaching price parity with conventional electricity.
Some interesting news in from Bloomberg concerning energy research – a new report by Deutsche Bank indicates that solar energy is about to reach price parity with conventional electricity – and keep on going down, getting cheaper with every year (hint: solar panels are mostly based on semiconductors – so share the PC chip’s ability of sliding tech costs over time).
Once expensive, now solar will, “soon undercut even the cheapest fossil fuels in many regions of the planet, including poorer nations where billion-dollar coal plants aren’t always practical.”
The sooner that North African super-grid gets going, the better.
Look at the falling price curve on this baby . . . (click to embiggen).
Solar reaching price parity with conventional electricity.
The Silicon Valley tech industry – good for more than just iPhones and Flappy Birds.
October 21, 2014
Embrace solar energy before global warming destroys the world . . . The Burning Answer.
I have just finished reading Keith Barnham’s excellent non-fiction tome, The Burning Answer: A User’s Guide to the Solar Revolution. This is a book that every climate change denier and big oil executive should be forced to read before they go on TV to spout off about fracking and nuclear power and all the other crazy ways we have developed to power modern civilization.
It starts off like a fascinating personal tutorial with Brian Cox, with author Keith Barnham explaining the physics of solar tech and the semiconductor revolution behind solar energy . . . explaining that Einstein’s E=MC2 might have kicked off the nuclear power race, but he developed another equation that we will need to embrace if humanity isn’t ultimately to end up boiling in its own industrial juices: E=hf.
Embrace solar energy before global warming destroys the world . . . The Burning Answer.
Moving on from the basis of the underlying physics, with the best definition of the difference between power and energy (and so many politicians’ muddled thinking) that I have ever read, he takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the current state of the renewables field, potential future developments, practical advice for householders wanting to install ground storage and solar panels, and why countries like Denmark have beaten us to the punch on exploiting the free energy that falls from the sun every day.
The Burning answer also covers the issues of energy storage, fuel-cell transport, making energy from CO2, blue-sky developments such as artificial photosynthesis, and what a Manhattan Project to lead a green energy step-change might look like.
My only criticism of Barnham’s book is that in his excitement about exploiting what the solar system is sending us free every day, he’s missed some of the amazing developments in clean fusion research that will hopefully end our dependence on dirty fossil fuels. Don’t believe me, a mere science fiction author? Very wise. Believe Professor Stephen Hawking, who picked up the same point the other day, saying, “High temperature superconductivity will provide cheap power transmission and rapid transport, and nuclear fusion would give us an unlimited supply of clean energy.”
Of course, much like Deng Xiaoping’s Dengism . . . “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice.” . . . I don’t care what frees us from planetcide. Just so long as something does!
September 30, 2014
Early cover concepts . . . Foul Tide’s Turning.
I have just got the early cover concepts in for Foul Tide’s Turning, the second in my Far-called sequence of fantasy books. There’s various options I need to select from and I need your help … let me know in the comments which cover jacket you’d go for?
The first edition of this book will be out May 2015 from Gollancz/Hachette and should – as the saying goes – be available in all good bookshops (maybe even Amazon, but let’s think positive).
Cover concept #1.
Cover concept #2.
Cover concept #3.
Cover concept #4.
Cover concept #5.
August 29, 2014
Shockwave, Darkside (film review).
I don’t often do film reviews, but I’ve got a new one posted over at http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/shockwave-darkside-movie-review/ for science fiction war movie (and meditation on religion/humanity) Shockwave, Darkside.
It’s in the same vein as Monsters from 2010 as far as being a small indie production, rather than a product of the Studio system (e.g. not soaked, or stewed in billions). It’s amazing that you can do so much with so little dosh and bypass all the gatekeepers.
I suspect we are looking at the future, here.
The future of film-making.
June 16, 2014
Just one word. Are you listening?
I want to say one word to you, Benjamin. Just one word. Are you listening? . . . HODOR!
Game of Thrones : Hodor in da House from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.
Just one word. Are you listening? Hodor.
June 8, 2014
The zombie fly – the fly that could not die!
Much kerfuffle in the home last night as the younger members of the tribe confused a fly with a wasp and started to sprint around the house, panicking as if an alien invasion was beginning. This was no normal fly, we faced, however. This was the Rambo of flies. This was the fly that has been waiting patiently for World War Three to break out just so it claim the prize of the last life-form on Earth to survive radioactive armageddon.
The fierce insect managed to shrug off multiple attacks . . . including direct hits with a swatter purchased from Pound Land, chemical warfare agents intended to massacre squadrons of wasps, rolled-up newspapers and even evaded capture with our handy patented Spider Catcher device. Finally, a bruising encounter with an edition of China Mieville’s Kraken sent it spinning dazed and dead into a bookshelf, where it was safely recovered and its corpse tossed into the toilet.
NOT the fly we faced that terrible night.
However, the winged warrior’s arrogance knew no bounds, and even dead, decided to give the one finger (claw?) salute to humanity by refusing to be flushed down the bog. Twice it resisted the floods of water trying to eject its noble dead form into the sewage system.
Finally, one young member of the tribe could resist the urge of nature no more and mounted the porcelain throne. That was when the fly, presumably infected with a similar disease to the virus last seen in The Walking Dead, decided to rise soggen from its watery/urine grave. Said clan member was then pursued screaming by the wet zombie fly into a bedroom, where the monster was decapitated – or possibly flattened – by a stalwart young defender wielding a heavy volume entitled DC Showcase: Legion of Super-Heroes 1 (reprints 1958-1964).
Faced with the combined compendium of our species’ mightest defenders – Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Boy etc., even the zombie fly finally had to admit defeat. Reader, we interred its body in a couple of sheets of pristine white toilet paper and laid its body out on the waters afresh. This time, placated by our honour to its last battle, it went off finally to the halls of its ancestors. We will never meet its like again.
THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted took place in London in 2014. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of the respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.
June 7, 2014
Just who was the real God of Chips?
An interesting dinner table debate raged last night at Chez Hunt. Who would be the God of Chips? (that’s French Fries, if you’re reading this in North America . . . USA-style chips are known as ‘Crisps’ on this side of the Big Pond).
My suggestion was McCain – invoking one of those Hyborian Age axe-swinging chip/fry-chopping Celtic-style deities. I, however, was swiftly outvoted by the rest of my clan, who seemed to think that the more Roman-style Chipus Maximus would surely qualify as the most powerful demigod of all things chip-related.
I’m really not sure we went with the right decision, though. What do you think?
Do you want fries with that, Chipus Maximus?
June 5, 2014
Time for a book poke in Stoke?
I’m one of the guest authors at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival and will be on a panel there at 13.00pm, this Sunday 8th June at the Abney Public Hall in London’s lovely Stoke Newington (the veritable Riviera of North London?).
Here’s the official blurb for the appearance …
When it comes to science fiction and fantasy, many of us blur the lines between the two. In fact, most authors do the same – a crossover of genres often occurs throughout their careers, sometimes even within the same book! We talk to four of the leading writers in this area – Stephen Hunt, Ben Aaronovitch, Radio 4′s Mitch Benn and Jon Wallace – about what it means to be a genre writer and how they manage to haggle with the boundaries. Hosted by Gollancz Associate Publisher, Simon Spanton.
You can get tickets over at http://www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com/snlf_events/sci-fi-vs-fantasy/
And here’s what the Edinburgh Book Festival looks like . . .
May 17, 2014
Fantasy novel ‘In Dark Service’ is 87% off!
‘In Dark Service’ is currently £1.99 rather than £14.99 (only for a couple of days, though). Thanks Auntie Gollancz.
Get yours while it’s hot at . . .
UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Service-Far-Called-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00IXTQ9QY/
USA – http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Service-Far-Called-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00IXTQ9QY/
In Dark Service
April 25, 2014
Forbidden Planet Megastore (London) book signing by Stephen Hunt in May.
I’ll be launching and signing my novel and first in the Far-called series, In Dark Service, at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Thursday 15th May from 6pm – 7pm. Your teleport co-ordinates are Forbidden Planet London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, UK.
The first novel of a new fantasy series, In Dark Service takes my work in a brand new direction.
The novel follows the Carnehans and Landors: two families whose children are kidnapped by slavers from the town of Northhaven in the Kingdom of Weyland. The town launches a rescue expedition to free the taken from captivity, but with little chances of success. Featuring heart-breaking characters and breath-taking world building, the novel focuses on both the adventures of the pursuing townspeople and the slaves’ struggle to survive their harsh captivity.
Forbidden Planet Megastore (London) book signing by Stephen Hunt in May.
