Sci-Fi
With his new sci-fi epic Philip Reeve has performed a similar leap of the imagination to the one he made with his Mortal Engines series. In Railhead the earth is a distant memory, its former inhabitants now spread across the far reaches of the solar system. The ingenious twist here is that instead of moving between … Continue reading
In 1968 three films were released that showed that Sci-Fi was versatile and capable of reaching a mass audience; 2001: A Space Odyssey proved SF could be truly mind-expanding; Barbarella made the genre sexy; Planet of the Apes proved that high concept craziness could make an awful lot of money. Also that year came a … Continue reading
The thing that really got me interested in this whole sci-fi thing in the first place wasn’t Star Wars or Doctor Who, it was a story about a witch called Meg who takes her scraggly cat Mog on a birthday outing to the moon. But she wasn’t the first witch in space, and she wouldn’t … Continue reading
This week I discovered a lost classic. Lionel Davidson’s Under Plum Lake is a strange and unsettling book that draws you in and keeps you there until the end. Then it keeps you there some more, and like the book’s hero Barry, I’m not sure if that’s such a good thing. The lysergic splurge of … Continue reading
When I told my dad I was writing a children's Science Fiction book, ever supportive he said, 'Mhhh, well I hope it's not Science Fantasy.' I said, 'Well, it's about a girl who goes to school in a satellite, and has adventures with a cowardly band of space pirates. What do you think?' He's a … Continue reading
My daughter, who's seven, has been 'doing space' at school this term. It's something she's already a little obsessed by thanks to the Tintin story Explorers on the Moon. So we went out to look for some other space themed books for younger readers. It was a pretty depressing experience, particularly for her age group … Continue reading
Doctor Who is 50 this year. There is a new series with Matt Smith in the role, a Mark Gatiss scripted drama about the early days of the show, and a special episode featuring a coming together of some of the actors who have played the Doctor over the years. Whether that means wheeling Tom … Continue reading
Confession time. I was a pre-teen nerd. A geek before that was even a thing in this country. The main source of my obsession in the early 1980s was Doctor Who. And anyone who’s ever succumbed to this addiction will know that the TV show WAS NEVER ENOUGH. The serials might have rambled on, largely … Continue reading
