Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 52

And now for something completely different ... I thought it would be a bit of a laugh if, instead of the usual rambling, sporadic blather, I tried to do something truly constructive and useful with this blog. And what could be more constructive - or appropriate in 2009 - than to build this 1/96th scale plastic model kit of a Saturn V rocket so that I can have something really impressive sitting on my desk? It may all end in tears, but I'm going to shoot for assembling it by the 40th anniversary

News of the ten book contract is out there now, so many thanks for the congratulations and good wishes I've received, and the many kind things I've seen here and there on the internet. As some have noted, while it's good for me - no bones about that - it also says something encouraging about the state of the genre. Far from dying on its feet (I've been reading obituaries for SF for about as long as I've been reading them about rock music) it's not doing at all badly, and may even be in the ascen

I'm in the US right now. Thanks to my pal Louise, I was lucky enough to get ringside seats for the departure of STS-125 on its way to the Hubble Space Telescope.

It was spectacular, everything I hoped it would be.  For added comedy value, your humble correspondent was looking at the *wrong pad* until seconds before ignition (when his wife pointed out that everyone else had their cameras pointed *that way*). Never mind, I did take some truly awesome photographs as the shuttle cleared the pad and b

Once again I must apologise for my slowness in responding to both comments posted here and emails sent to the Dendrocopus account. I'm getting there, but slowly. Thanks for your patience...

In the meantime, I've finished a couple of stories. One of them, "Monkey Suit", is a 5000 word piece set in the Revelation Space universe. More on that when I know for sure that it's going to appear where I think it will. The other story, a somewhat longer piece entitled "Pandora's Box", (not set in the RS uni

Long-time readers may remember this post (you can find it in the archive, along with comments):

Wednesday, 8 August 2007 What film is this?

"Has anyone else seen the early 1960s Czech science fiction film Ikarie XB1? (Also released as Voyage to the End of the Universe).

When I was a kid, I saw a film on television that had a considerable effect on me - so much so, that at least part of it fed into Chasm Cit

Well I'm back in circulation. I've just done a massive catch-up on the Dendrocopus email account and will now move onto the comments on this page. Give me a day or two and I might actually get ahead of myself.

TERMINAL WORLD is now a finished book, barring editorial changes (I say that every year, as if the edits were a mere frippery, when in fact they can be weeks of tough work) and I'm about as happy with it as I ever am. Objectivity goes out the window when you've been doing little else than s

My apologies for the lack of response to various comment posts; I've been busy - very busy - but all are appreciated. I'm now off to London to participate in the BSFA panel discussion on the current shortlist, alongside Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Adam Roberts. Normal service will resume shortly, when I should have some more to say about TERMINAL WORLD.

Some time ago I mentioned my exciting journey into the world of guitar lessons, something that, I'm pleased to say, is on-going and still proving enormously stimulating.

I'm never going to be anything other than a hobbyist guitar player, someone who enjoys making some vaguely tuneful noises in the privacy of their own bedroom - know your limitations, as they say. But I enjoy reading around the subject of guitar playing, and as a consequence - because I've been given a piece to study which involve