I envy my dad’s generation. They bought a piece of technology and it was essentially a tool. Now you buy a piece of technology and it’s an ‘experience’. It’s got a ‘community’ of users. The company making it keep trying to be your mate all the time. Black & Decker and Triumph Motorcycles never tried […]
Read moreAuthor: jamesworrad
Found out something that cheered me up no end. The modern Library Of Alexandria has 30 million books, as many were in the Ancient library before it was destroyed. But it gets better: at the heart of the modern library are a heck-ton of state-of-the-art servers encased in steel. Every hour they collect and store […]
Read moreThe Georgia Guidestones Enigma
In 1979 a man walked into a stonemason’s office and said he represented an anonymous group of ‘loyal Americans’. Long story short, he had a monument built on a remote hill in Georgia. Carved onto the stones are what appear to be instructions for building some future civilisation, written in eight modern languages and ancient […]
Read more "The Georgia Guidestones Enigma"Unpopular Opinions Meme
There’s that Unpopular Opinions meme going around and I thought I’d muck in: -TimeShark is a dreadful series. There, I said it. Yes, I know there’s the Janitor camel-spider explosion episode, the one with Usain Bolt and Mickey Rooney, and I know that episode won a Nobel prize, but the rest of the series is […]
Read more "Unpopular Opinions Meme"The uncanny in literature should be like an MC Escher painting, possessing a realistic-seeming logic our minds cannot grasp and even recoil from.
Read moreARRIVAL: Like Me, Clever But Not Quite As Clever As It Thinks It Is
Saw Arrival. Give it 7 out of 10. Good idea film, good visuals. What knocked it short of an 8 score was the unconvincing contact procedure. They do almost nothing to prepare Amy Adams for her first encounter. Don’t show her footage of the aliens, don’t even describe them, oh, and one of he regular […]
Read more "ARRIVAL: Like Me, Clever But Not Quite As Clever As It Thinks It Is"Visualising Your Novel’s Characters With Hero Forge
(Being a quick review of the miniature company’s custom design page as a writing tool, plus some thoughts from other authors (including Angry Robot’s Rod Duncan of Bullet Catcher’s Daughter fame)!!!) In my youth I would fantasise about a contraption where I could design model miniatures and they’d pop out of one end fully formed. Think of […]
Read more "Visualising Your Novel’s Characters With Hero Forge"Brexit And The City
I think everyone here living in the multicultural cities have been sucker punched. We assumed everyone in the country was like us. In fact we’d bought into this narrative where Britain had been a bastard for centuries, had learned some vital lesson after getting blitzed fighting a greater evil and had, essentially, embraced caring for […]
Read more "Brexit And The City"Fantasycon 2016
I can report a great time was had by all. Congratulations and thanks to the whole F-con team. I’d report more but I’ve got shit to write and edit and you know how it is when you get back from a con: you wanna hit the ground running, fuelled by all the awesome you’ve been […]
Read more "Fantasycon 2016"Graham Joyce: Two Years Gone
Before I met Graham Joyce I’d stories I’d never submitted anywhere simply because they were set in Leicester. The Midlands, my internal logic ran, aren’t really about anything, have no atmosphere, not in the same way London, the North or Scotland do. And then I saw Graham speak, and then I immediately bought one of […]
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J.L. Worrad 