Transreal Fiction

Eric Flint & Marilyn Kosmatka - Time Spike a maximum security prison somehow appears back in the age of dinosaurs!

This is the start of a series set in parallel to Flint’s Grantsville (1632) timeslip series of books… Like S. M. Stirling’s Nantucket/Dies the Fire series, Flint has gone back to the beginning and described an event that has happened in our time while the original series remains firmly in history. Time Spike is set in the present day (therefore some years after the original 1632 book was initially set) and another Event happens. But this event leads to a more complex blending of history, as people from other eras get sucked in as well… Some scenes set in the present continue to speculate about the Time Spike events, although most of the action is way back in the past.

Anyway, if you’re a 1632 fan, this book expands on the possible reasons for the events and will, I’m sure have sequels… and it’s also quite possible to read it without having read his other work.

These guys just dropped in to sign stock, so now I have limited signed stock of UK editions of books by:

Alan Campbell - Iron Angel (his new hardback) the sequel to Scar Night (available in ‘B’ format) - both titles available with plain signature

Hal Duncan - Ink (hardback) the sequel to Vellum (available in ‘B’ format) - both titles available with plain signature

Last night was the first film in the first Math Cubed film festival at the Filmhouse. The event is being put on by Filmhouse and ICMS and the opening film was Flatland the Movie, which has never been shown in the UK before.

Transreal Fiction was sponsoring the event by providing a copy of the book to everybody attending the screening and a bag to put it in! (Other free stuff was also provided by ICMS and Filmhouse.)

The event was sold out, and there was also a little queue of disappointed people hoping there’d be some returns or no-shows, but they were disappointed… The film seemed to go down well with the audience (although I know it’s had mixed reviews) and I appreciated it more on the big screen than I did a month or two ago when I saw the dvd on a tv screen.

Most people left after it finished but around 20% stayed for a discussion session about it, and any maths questions raised. (There was a couple of fairly high-powered mathematicians, and a couple of people who knew the film and the book as well). Sadly, this had to be slightly truncated, as the previous film had run late and we had to begin a little late…

But definitely a success!

The other films in the mini-festival are Pi, which is being screened on Tuesday, and Cube, which is on Thursday next week…

Sorry about the picture; it was pretty crowded… maybe get one or two more up shortly…

I still have my 1970 paperback edition of The City and the Stars on my shelves at home. When I bought the book I just knew it would be special - it had a wonderful cover that intrigued me every time I looked at it - and I wasn’t mistaken. I re-read it again fairly recently* and the sense of wonder was definitely still there!

Since that first encounter (although I may well have read some stories from the library without knowing they were his) I’ve read most of his major works - and some of his others - although I’ve not read much of his more recent output. And I’ll get around to Fountains of Paradise yet!

He was a huge figure in sf and a key figure in making it more ‘respectable’ with idea-driven books which appealed to more than the sf crowd, and, of course, the hip recognition he gained from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Along with Heinlein and Asimov, he was regarded as one of the ‘big three’ sf authors, and, while I’ve enjoyed work by all three of them, Clarke is the one I’ve enjoyed the most - and the only one I still own any books by!

And when I heard of his death last night I put on VDGG’s anthemic (Childlike Faith in) Childhood’s End and cranked it up…

My copy from 1970, published by Corgi in the UK

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edit:

my comments from September 2006:

I’m currently re-reading The City and the Stars, which was one of my favourite books when I was discovering sf&f. I’m pretty sure I read it in 1970 - quite some time ago, now!

I checked the copyright date and realised it’s 50 years old this year! It still stands up well (so far; Alvin’s only just reached Lys) and the immersive multi-player adventures, the databases, the constant tracking of everybody (for no particular purpose; they just can, so the computers do), the personal e-mail addresses, the screen art, all combine to make it feel very prescient of Clarke, although the story is set in the extremely far future… Other ideas are still to be achieved; the peristaltic roads and paths, the instant furniture, etc. but, hey, it is science fiction!
Anyway, definitely recommended if you’ve not read it, and maybe worth a re-read if you have!
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I’ve just discovered that Ken Slater died recently.

I didn’t know him well, but he was an early source for various aging pulp magazines I used to try to track down. I’d send him a list of what I was after, and in due course we’d both be at the same convention and I’d get a small pile of Startling Stories, or Astounding, etc.

And then I’d be reading one of them and find it had a letter from him in the letters column!

He dated back way before me - he had just turned 91 - and was a link to the early days of sf in the UK… He ran Fantast (Medway) Ltd for decades, importing and selling books and magazines right up until his death; his daughter helped him latterly; maybe she’ll carry on the business…

3 - 4 weeks on, and I’m now told that the work directly outside the shop should be completed in a couple of weeks… They didn’t, however, guarantee Mr.Wood’s Fossils next door that it would definitely be all clear for one of their major deliveries (basically a pretty large crate full of rock) at the end of March…

As part of the Science Festival this year - programmes available in the shop soon - Transreal Fiction is sponsoring the UK Premiere of a new animated feature length film of Flatland!

It’s part of a ‘Maths at the Movies’ mini-season at Filmhouse, which will also include Pi and Cube. More details available from Filmhouse or from the organisers, ICMS.

Films will start at 17.45 and will have film and maths experts leading discussions after each film for those who wish to stay on for a little. And there’s a chance the shop will have to shut a little early so I can catch Flatland, at least!

Flatland is, of course, the famous novel by Edwin A. Abbott set in two dimensions…

The Grassmarket Improvement Project reaches me on Tuesday 12th February.

The pavement will be dug up, various other work done, and then replacement paving will be laid again. This all starts with almost immediate effect. (I found out 10 minutes ago!)

There will be, apparently, guaranteed shop access at all times, although pedestrians will have to walk along a coned off strip of the road when they walk along Cowgatehead and I assume it will be noisy and/or dusty at least some of the time here.

It may take 3 - 4 weeks before everything is finished.

New titles, etc. should arrive as usual and business, in theory, shouldn’t be disrupted.

My phone line is acting up and affecting my internet conectivity, so updates may be a little slow until it’s fixed…

Sorry, despite ordering in what I thought was adequate time to receive books this week, I won’t be getting most of my expected deliveries until Monday.

Blame longer delays than in previous years both by the supplier shipping it and in the extended New Year seize-up in the UK freight industry… But I did get:

in hardback:

Matthew Reilly - The Six Sacred Stones a high-speed sequel to Seven Ancient Wonders
William Ashbless - Pilot Light very small hardback by Tim Powers & James P. Blaylock. Unsigned.

in large format:

Brian Stableford - The Tree of Life a collection of 8 stories about how biotech might affect the future…

in ‘B’ format:

Sweeney Todd; the Demon Barber of Fleet Street the novel the new Johnny Depp film is based on. Apparently when it was first published as a serial in 1846, it was known as The String of Pearls: A Romance. Doesn’t give quite the same tone to the story! It’s authorship still remains in doubt…

in paperback:

David Zindell - The Diamond Warriors the 4th and final volume of the Ea Cycle