Over Easter I will be enjoying myself at EightSquaredCon in Bradford.
EightSquaredCon is this years' instalment of the annual Eastercon, as the National SF Convention is colloquially known due to the weekend when it takes place.
If you enjoy Science Fiction and its associated genres (and would be reading this if you didn't?), and don't have plans for Easter then I'd recommend that you consider joining the Convention to meet up with like-minded people and meet some of the perpetrators of said genres (I would expect most of the current crop of British SF authors, plus a few from outside our borders, to be in attendance); links to the programme and the membership rates are below.
World take note - there is a new magazine, publishing (preferentially) Indian Speculative Fiction (SF and Fantasy). It is published by Geetanjali Dighe, and available for free (for the time being) in pdf, mobi, and epub formats.
The first issue contains stories by Kat Otis, Ken Liu, Ram V, and Lavanya Karthik; plus interviews, book reviews, and digital art - what's not to like!
I'm not done reading yet, but am rather impressed with what I have seen so far; I can already recommend the story by Ken Liu, which tells a rather harrowing tale set in a post-singularity world.
The magazine can be found here - I would suggest you also have a look at the book shop; much of interest but less frequently seen here in Europe is on there!
If you like what you see then you could buy something from Daniel's shop or get the app for the iPad; and I hear that the story is going to be turned into an actual paper book, too. Me, I cannot wait, for both the book as well as Chapter 5!
Amazing Stories, a magazine with a history spanning back until 1926, is being resurrected - go to http://www.amazingstoriesmag.com/ to see for yourself.
Most of the content of the "Relaunch Prelaunch" issues is available online for a limited time, so it's worth going back once in a while, and checking what is coming on-stream.
Or you could, of course, just pay the $1.99 for the full editions - actually, I'd recommend you either do this, or donate something to the effort!
The magazine is freely available for download here - this version contains 3 short stories, plus features/inteviews on Brazilian and Hungarian SF.
The stories are The Death of Mr. Teodorescu by Cristian Mihail Teodorescu (which didn't set my world on fire for some reason), The Wind-Blown Man by Aliette De Bodard (great stuff), and The Ethics of Treason by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro (still reading, but unusual and thought-provoking so far!)
Go check it out - this looks like an interesting new venture!
It is free to read - I would suggest that, if you enjoy this, you donate something or buy the app to keep him going!
The story now kicks off well and truly in the parallel Wormworld - to me this had quite a lot of the feel (but a completely different look) of Jeff Smith's Bone stories.
If you haven't read the first two instalments then follow the link at the top of the page to take you there.
