skiffy

Guardian Review science fiction special

The stars of modern SF pick the best science fiction
Science fiction: Images from other worlds – in pictures A new exhibition at the British Library presents the rich history of SF down the ages, from Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century to the Russian novel that inspired 1984
Gene Wolfe by Neil Gaiman
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (recent Arthur C. Clarke award winner) – review by Gwyneth Jones
A life in writing: China Miéville
Ten of the best – Aliens in science fiction
Iain M Banks: Science fiction is no place for dabblers
Great voices of science fiction (interviews with Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, JG Ballard and Kurt Vonnegut Jr)
Being a Little Well by Brian Aldiss (poem)

From the beginning to the end

Novel First Sentences, Novel Last Sentences

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks

Surface Detail is the latest science fiction novel by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks to be set in his Culture universe.

“Increasingly illiterate, disgusting and meritless.”

‘We feel that the stories in this book are such that if your nerves are not of the strongest, then it is wise to read them in daylight.’

For a certain time, in every second-hand bookshop in the UK you would always be able to find a musty and dog-eared copy of one or more of the Pan Books Of Horror Stories edited by the splendidly named Herbert Van Thal. Now the first is being re-printed.

You cannot be serious

Interesting article in the Guardian on the state of ‘serious’ non-fiction in the UK. It’s particularly good on the history of publishing and book-selling.