Site Notes

Updates have been slow here for a few months, as my life has been busy and I haven't been reading nearly as much SF as I would like. However, there should be fairly frequent updates, at least for the next few weeks.

First off, there are now comments on this site. I went back and forth as to whether I wanted them, but have decided that one of the things I like most about weblogs is that comments allow discussion to develop. Of course, people have to find the weblog and decide it's an interesting place to visit for that to happen, but we'll see. If I try to keep updating with some frequency, maybe this little corner of cyberspace will get noticed by one or two people.

There are a few good things out there which deserve your attention and not much comment from me:

Emerald City is up to their 100th issue, and it's got plenty of good pieces by folks like John Clute and Ken MacLeod. I went to read the Clute piece, then found myself reading just about everything. Lots of thoughts on what SF reviewing is and should be.

Speaking of SF reviewing, be sure to see the new s1ngularity blog. It's a collaborative blog, and full of great conversation. The mix of personalities and tastes is particularly strong here, creating dialogue which moves ideas forward, backward, up and down.

I just discovered L. Timmel Duchamps's website, which has lots of good stuff available, including plenty of her excellent and thoughtful nonfiction. I haven't read much of her fiction -- in fact, until last week, I hadn't read any -- until I discovered a comment of high praise from Samuel R. Delany in an interview in the first issue of Argosy magazine. (The interview seems to me to be the best thing in the issue, though I haven't read the Michael Moorcock novella yet. Everything else is a bit mediocre. The design is great, the packaging handsome, but the proofreading needs work and the quality of the content does not justify the high price of the magazine. But it sometimes takes a new magazine a few issues to find its voice and get work of real quality, and if any magazine is going to do that, I think Argosy has a shot. I'll certainly keep reading.)

The new, official Philip K. Dick website is magnificent, with lots of fascinating content. One piece which has been available on the old site (now the fan site) which I had not paid attention to before, but which is worth your time, is his audio interview on the "Hour 25" radio show (a transcript of which is available at the fan site). It's a meaty interview, full of PKD's trenchant, and often bizarre, opinions and perspectives.

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