Dave Higgins's Blog, page 118
February 27, 2015
Tribes by Carmen Webster Buxton
Combining a world of both depth and breadth with a range of plausible characters, Webster Buxton delivers a novel with dilemmas and personalities every bit as complex as real life without limiting herself to the merely realistic. Mariposan society is … Continue reading →
February 25, 2015
Criminalisation Is a Social Opiate
For me, drug policy is the clearest example of social protection at a remove: restricting a choice not because of the direct outcome being negative, but because the possible outcome of that outcome could be negative. As I believe the … Continue reading →
February 23, 2015
In Collaboration, The Nature of Art
Last week Simon Cantan posted an overview of the collaborative writing method we developed since starting Greenstar about a year ago. While we are still using the passing-back-and-forth method I mentioned in mentioned in my first post about our collaboration, … Continue reading →
February 20, 2015
Apocalypse Weird: Texocalypse Now by Michael Bunker and Nick Cole
Combining a character-focused post-apocalyptic survival narrative with hints of a wider, potentially supernatural, story, Bunker and Cole have created a novel that works as both an individual work and an entry point to other story arcs set in the same … Continue reading →
February 18, 2015
More Happy Than Human?
As deep background for a possible story, I have been considering hypothetical histories of self-awareness in robots. There are many stories already which posit negative consequences to mistreating self-aware machines; but I wonder if the ethics of treating them well … Continue reading →
February 16, 2015
Your Fish Has Got Away and other Unusual Translations
Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:
The original, short version of this post was written for the Book Marketing Tools blog. This longer version was written as a guest post for Vanessa Finaughty’s blog. One of the best ideas of Douglas Adams…
The original, short version of this post was written for the Book Marketing Tools blog. This longer version was written as a guest post for Vanessa Finaughty’s blog. One of the best ideas of Douglas Adams…
February 13, 2015
Fear Like a Habit by Mallory Smart
While this collection is, as Smart indicates in her introduction, fuelled by a youthful journey in search of alternatives to modern life, the rejection of the capitalist model is filled more with melancholy than rage. This collection contains nine poems … Continue reading →
December 5, 2014
Time Heist by Anthony Vicino
Combining the life-enhancing possibilities of biological nano-technology with a society where the only thing that has changed is what currency the rich horde and a vein of dark humour, Vicino has created a worthy successor to classic cyberpunk. In a … Continue reading →
December 3, 2014
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Bathroom
Having spent a chunk of the last few days wielding poisons of might against the dark beings seeking to reclaim the bathroom, there was only one song to celebrate the start of the season: With the water leak above the … Continue reading →
December 1, 2014
Enough Blame to Go Around
One common thread in the aftermath of any tragedy is victim blaming: the idea someone facing prejudice, oppression, or crime has a responsibility to reduce the risks they face. The arguments against this are clear. However, a more subtle fallacy … Continue reading →
