Jared Shurin's Blog, page 22
March 16, 2017
"I certainly do love to read fantasy."
From Jane Gaskell's Summer Coming (1972):
I have had so many Lord of the Rings conversations by now that I can give an effect of having read it, without having to wade through the endless volumes of self-indulgent childish fairy-story escapism itself. Who could remember all those names for a start? I know some people pretend to have got through it all, very pleased with themselves for being so fashionable as to adore "Fantasy." I know what perhaps is great, on those lines but full of truth,...
March 15, 2017
March 13, 2017
The Last Dangerous Visions
The Last Dangerous Visions might be the most famous science fiction book to never exist. 'TLDV' was the long-mooted and nearly-almost-published sequel to Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972) - two vastly important and influential publication in modern speculative fiction.
This ambitious anthology, seemingly intended to be the final word in contemporary SF, was delayed for numerous reasons, documented elsewhere by both Ellison and many others. The anticipation, the de...
March 7, 2017
Now You���re Thinking With Portals
Anne Jefferies was nineteen years when she first encountered a world only she could see. It was customary in 1640s Cornwall for the wealthiest families of the parish to take on the children of the poor, training them for service until the age of twenty-one. It was a lonely life, but nowhere near as bad as penury, and Anne knew it. She was taken from her pauper father to work as a live-in servant with the Pitt family. Moses Pitt, the eldest son, later reported that Anne was a spirited girl, t...
March 6, 2017
Wolverine rides off into the sunset - with heart, style, and more than a few scars
If you���re even slightly interested in seeing Logan, you probably know that it���s getting rave reviews. So much so that for some people, it���s going to be tough for it to live up to the hype. So let me say right out of the gate that Logan isn���t a perfect movie. But it is a very good one, and a significant enough departure from previous instalments in the X-Men franchise that your enjoyment (or lack thereof) of the earlier movies probably isn���t a very good predictor of whether you���ll...
March 5, 2017
The Action-Packed Secret Origin Story of Judge Dredd
The most intriguing part of Judge Dredd���s origin isn���t the fictional character���s designer birth by DNA cloning, nor that he was based in part on a disciplinarian monk, nor even that when the strip first appeared in the second issue of 2000AD, the original creators had already quit. It���s that Dredd's embryonic form is found in an unpublished issue of different comic ��� one that was scandalously violent, allegedly dangerous, and deliciously subversive.
Action was conceived by Pat Mil...
March 3, 2017
The Djinn Falls in Love - Out Now! Events, Reviews & More! [Updated]
Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; savaging our bodies, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends.
These are the Djinn. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their d...
The Djinn Falls in Love - Launch, Events, Reviews & More!
Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; savaging our bodies, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends.
These are the Djinn. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their d...
March 2, 2017
Three Visions of Fantasy: An Ember in Ashes, Battlemage and Starborn
The DGLA is a publicly-voted, largely-British and exclusively-fantasy award. [Except when it isn't. But we'll set that aside, as no one likes a party pooper.]
Looking at some of last year's debuts, it is fun to see how they - with the help of some wild extrapolation - represent the evolution of three very different traditions of British fantasy. So, without further ado, let's gird our loins, say farewell to the small village that never really understood us, reluctantly accept the quest that...
March 1, 2017
Small Press Shakedown: Francesca Barbini of Luna Press
The UK has a fantastic small press scene. To celebrate the people behind the imprints, and help out the writers that are looking to them for publication, we've asked a number of editors to share what they're working on - and what they're looking for. This week our featured publisher is Luna Press.
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Could you tell us a bit about who you are and what you're doing?
Luna Press was born out of my love of reading. I grew up surrounded by books, mainly Fantasy and Science Fiction and owed much o...
