Dave Higgins's Blog, page 108

Using The Brain

The World Fantasy Award will no longer be a rather odd-looking statue of HP Lovecraft. This has incited enough illogic by both pro- and anti-Lovecraft statuists that I am minded to declare a plague on both their houses; and to suggest an award statue of my own. The petition that incited the change called for […]

Cityscapes by Anthony Khayat (ed.), Sara Khayat (ed.), Gabby McCullough (ed.), and Willie Watt (ed.)

Revealing the immense power of individual perspective to turn even the most banal of experiences into a meaningful event, and then adding the counterpoint that this makes each person responsible for their life being banal, this collection suggests that the real cityscape might be the spaces between the buildings. Vibrant, emotive, meaningful, yet also fun, […]

The Noble Language of The Eye

You will be unsurprised to read that I think my books are good. If you know me well, or any author well, you will probably also be unsurprised to read that I have difficulty stating openly that I think my books are good. However, I realised today that waiting for people to ask before I […]

No Fermi Answers

This infographic sets out several solutions to the Fermi Paradox that are less pessimistic than advanced civilisations tend to destroy themselves before they reach interstellar travel. In the Greenstar Universe, our answer to the Fermi Paradox was a predator civilisation with a of the few others mixed in; it just happened that humanity was the […]

Witch’s Sacrifice by Crissy Moss

Mixing a fresh take on high-fantasy tropes with a realistic version of young love, Moss creates a tale that will appeal to both lovers of epic struggles against evil, and those seeking a more personal narrative. Since the goddess abandoned her people, the islands have been plagued by the evils of magic. Only the tyrannical […]

Sibling of the World

Debbie Manber Kupfer has nominated me for the Sibling of the World Award. While it is more a focused-getting-to-know someone affair than an actual award, I aspire to a sense of ethical siblinghood with humanity. So, I’ll happily identify as a Sibling of the World. Whether my answers advance that aim is for others to […]

Calm Down, Calm Down

As someone who has benefited from having a plan in place beforehand, I agree with the general approach Levitin suggests. However, potentially due to the needs of fitting his point into the length of a TED talk, there seem to be a couple of missing details: targeting and analysis. First, while many people might infer […]

In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett by Laura May (ed.) & Sorin Suciu (ed.)

Drawing on the literary legacy of Sir Terry Pratchett without being constrained by it, this anthology is filled with memorable speculative fiction (while avoiding that joke). This review is based on an advanced review copy. The anthology contains seventeen short stories in a variety of genres but united by the concept of memory. ‘Thanks for […]

Offering a Hand Not Pointing a Finger

With George Osborne MP attempting – and fortunately failing – to further weaken the UK welfare system, this talk seemed appropriate: Based on the time I spent working in a housing benefit office, her experiences match mine. A significant minority of my time was spent matching up duplicate information and letters chasing up progress on […]

Where Has It Bean?

I had a rather pleasant fry-up at the Farm in Clifton yesterday. One of the things that made it especially pleasant was them serving the baked beans in a little dish. And sitting there eating my meal, I mused on how their choice to corral the beans might represent a fitting guide for moral behaviour. […]