Peter F. Hamilton Brought Me Back to SF

Yesterday was one of those wonderful days when wonderful surprises happen and anything seems possible. I had an afternoon shift at the Hammett and when I arrived there the word was already circulating around that in the morning the renowned SF author Peter F. Hamilton had been at the Otherland Bookstore, asking if he can sign his books on the shelves.

Wolf from Otherland is a super fan of Hamilton and had been in touch with him a couple of years ago, but an event never happened. So seeing him buzzing around the shop, signing his books, Wolf decided to make the best of the situation and asked him if he has time in the evening. And he did! It was announced on various SF channels and bookstore doors that Peter F. Hamilton is in town and despite the very short notice a couple of people actually showed up.

The talk was very inspiring. Even though I have read my fair share of space opera, it has never been my favorite niche. Listening to Hamilton yesterday, I remembered how much joy Science Fiction brought to me in the past; complete escape from my own reality, yet in a plausible way that exclusively speaks to the intellect. I already don't have much reading time as it is, but I still decided to return to Science Fiction some more and give more weight to the genre in the future. Incidentally I met the moderator of the Meetup Berlin Science Fiction Club with which I used to read and discuss before the pandemic and he gave me the schedule for the remaining year, so that might be a possibility to jump back on the Science Fiction train.

As to the event yesterday, we all got our signatures and went to have dinner together, it was fun and perfect!

Comments

...the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

Hey all! It's been quite a while since I actually reviewed books here, but I have finally read enough to make some short reviews out of them. In fact, I have been reading a lot but I have been reading all over, especially in different genres, genres that don't really fit in here, but now I have enough freaky books. Make use of the nice weather to read outside and I hope you enjoy my reviews!

Films, Films, and More Films

Ah yes, time to make movie plans again while gods laugh at me. Especially this year I have felt their filmic wrath upon me, more than ever. While it was the flu that knocked me off my socks in February, it is currently the concussion I have had since the beginning of July because of a shelf full of books falling on my head that I have had some problems ever since, like bad concentration, tiredness and not really being able to watch cinema due to eye problems. It is getting gradually better, and the chances are more than good I'll fully recover but it has intervened with my reading and movies. For other people this may be a minor inconvenience but books and movies are basically what I live for, so I also feel depressed ever since, since I also missed most of my planned visits to open air cinemas. I still have some time for that, if the weather plays along. Last week I caught the last GDR movie that was shown at the Freiluftbühne Weißensee, Jadup und Boel (1988), and it was unproble

Introspective Horror, Par Excellence. Reviewing Michael Wehunt's "The Inconsolables"

It is a rare talent for an author to be able to perfectly balance the weird elements in their writing with the mundane; to scatter into what is deceivingly like our lives that which decisively is unlike it, and to do so just to the right degree. This is a delicate craft, and it's one Michael Wehunt masters in his latest short story collection The Inconsolables . The title already implies it: All Wehunt's characters are in a state of uneasiness, they are looking for comfort and for solace, whether by reviving childhood interests after a separation, by adopting a stray dog after the death of a child, in hypochondriasis, or whether it's about a married couple who simultaneously reaches the midlife crisis, or a woman, lead by a crooked and scary cupid, confronting in a room all the men who have sexually assaulted her throughout her life, or the last man on Earth who will die, because he was born thirty-seven days before the dealine for immortality in a new world where it h

protean depravity

Search This Blog