Permutation City Blog

Can't remember where I found this but it looks fun. You have to save the stars but end up destroying lots of things on Earth in an entertaining manner. There is a description on Wikipedia and some videos on YouTube. (I finally got to play it.)

A girl wakes up from a coma in the body of a chimpanzee. She has been saved from a near fatal accident but is no longer the same person. How will the world react to an animal who is human? How will she live when so much of what she was is gone? Another enjoyable read from Dickinson.

A man is born on Mars, he is the only survivor of the original expedition. He has been brought up by Martians and understands nothing of Earth's culture. In learning about humanity he starts teaching humans the Martian way of thinking. This is one of Heinlein's many books based around different ideas of relationships and sex. It had interesting ideas about what someone brought up outside human society might become. However overall this book felt old fashioned with the language and morality annoying me.

A sister podcast to Escape Pod presenting a fantasy story each week. It took me a while to get into this. My standards have been raised pretty high and it took some time for the programme to find its feet. I've found good stories are thinner on the ground here but I can recommend The Grand Cheat.

Each week Escape Pod presents a science fiction story read by the presenter or a guest reader. In the 170 episodes since it began it's grown and changed. It's something I look forward to each week. The stories are varied but some have been absolutely excellent. I'd particularly recommend: Impossible Dreams, Barnaby in Exile, and In the Late December but that's just small selection of the good stuff. I enjoy Steve Ely's presentation giving an insight into the world of science fiction, podcasting, or real life. I'm less happy that the show now has a sponser each week which can feel intrusive or repetative. However you shouldn't let that put you off, it's still definitely worth it.

A slave is bought at market by a beggar. With help he crosses the galaxy to find his home but is it where he wants to be? It uses a standard set of ideas to tell a standard story.

This is the third in Brin's Uplift series. This story is set parallel to his second book. This book follows the invasion and capture of one of mankind's world. A guerrilla war is fought against the powerful alien invaders although in the end luck has a big part to play. It's one I really enjoy for it's battles against overwhelming odds, interesting characters, and a fair grasp of science (although some of it is made up science.) It almost makes me want to read the subsequent story... if only he had squeezed that into a single book rather than stretching it out into a trilogy.

This is the second in Brin's Uplift series. This story is set parallel to his third book. Both telling of events in the galaxy after mankind discovers a graveyard of ancient spaceships. All the older alien races feel they must know everything... by force if necessary. This book follows the dolphin and human crew of the ship that made the discovery as it flees. It's one I really enjoy for it's battles against overwhelming odds, interesting characters, and a fair grasp of science (although some of it is made up science.)

This is related to Stapledon's other book The First and Last Men but with even grander scope. Through the viewpoint of a disembodied man it follows the social and evolutionary development of a multitude of alien species. It crosses from the very beginning of the universe, it's slow and gradual decline, and beyond. Driving this exploration is a continual search for the Star Maker and his reason behind it all. This is a difficult book to get into with no real plot to drive it forward. It is worth the effort in the end. While it doesn't completely satisfy it's build up that would been amazing considering it's scale.

A short film about what happens when the characters from Blake 7 take a break from their journey at one of our motorway service stations. It's short, it's strange, and it's funny. The DVD comes with a pair of similarly strange situtations involving Adam Ant in a supermarket and Big Daddy on a bus.