Archive for February 2012
interview by Vianne Venter
I was stuck for an hour or two in this really old train station in the middle of nowhere, and had the misfortune of needing to use the bathroom. They were in a little concrete hut. The smell was so bad I couldn't breathe and I had to tip toe in and out because the place was flooded with murky liquid. When I went in, the attendant, who looked at least 80, was mopping up. Only he wasn't doing much more than smudging the dirt around. |
From Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
Posted in Interviews | 
Tags: David McCool, Interview, Issue 18, Vianne Venter, Writers Cornered | 
Comments Closed
by David McCool
A couple of months ago - I'm talking mid-June, right smack in that heat wave - I took a walk into the town centre to kill some time on what was likely the hottest day of the year. Had I stayed at home I'd have risked dozing off in front of the TV, and, at my age, my sleep pattern doesn't need much more than a five-second, head-jerking snooze for it to be thrown right out of sync. Working in the garden wasn't an option, either. I'd have been sizzled good, even with factor 50 and a straw hat on my side. |
Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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interview by Joe Vaz
I always try to remember that the characters in the book should be fully embedded in the future and in the world they’re living in, so for them, what we would regard as amazing technologies are completely prosaic and mundane. They’re not going to be knocked out by some gadget. A spacecraft for them is just a means of getting from A to B and they don’t particularly care how it functions. I try not to get into those boring discussions that you get in bad science fiction about how the engine works… unless it’s central to the story, that’s different. |
From Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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review by Deon van Heerden
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Published by Rebellion/2000AD Originally published in 2000 AD during the late 1990s, the complete Mazeworld saga is brought together here in one, beautifully presented volume. The author, Alan Grant, and illustrator, Arthur Ranson, are, of course, familiar to comic book and graphic novel aficionados, and their names alone should be enough to get you to hand over your money without hesitation. If, however, you feel you need further convincing, read on. |
From Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
Posted in Reviews | Tags: Alan Grant, Arthur Ranson, Deon van Heerden, Issue 18, Mazeworld | Comments Closed
review by Deon van Heerden
| Published by Rebellion/Solaris
PB 384 pages
RRP £7.99 (Kindle £5.36)
The Recollection's interesting approach to light speed travel and its physical and emotional implications is convincing and well-sustained. Its three primary plots often interact in surprising - and, in one instance, startling - ways. |
From Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
Posted in Reviews | Tags: Deon van Heerden, Gareth L Powell, Issue 18, The Recollection | Comments Closed
by Nick Wood & Zandile Mahlasela
IT TOOK ME (Nick Wood) a good few years before I plucked up the courage to write the 'Other', i.e. to me, someone who was not white and male. I firstly wrote as a 'white woman' in 'God in the Box' (2003), set in an increasingly familiar London. Phew - that was picked up, published - and I wasn't scorned as a 'sexist imposter'! The leap to crossing the 'colour' divide took a bit longer for me though - part of my fear was that, given South Africa's history, it would be seen as a form of colonization of experience. Then, one day, I sat down and thought long and hard about it. |
Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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interview by Vianne Venter
Watching a news report on 'corrective rape' that outraged me. Although it's seemingly only a small part of the story, it's a central kernel. Other stories spun outwards from that one - and especially once I'd heard MamBhele's voice, while walking along a path in the Silvermine reserve in Cape Town - then, it almost wrote itself. |
Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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Posted in Interviews | Tags: Interview, Issue 18, Nick Wood, Vianne Venter, Writers Cornered | Comments Closed
by Nick Wood
We are amongst the last of the last, the ‘do-not-dies’ as the dead now call us. They follow us, the dead do, whispering and pulling at our ears and hair. The other two don’t notice, although they do see and comment on the occasional cock of my head, as I listen without comprehension to dry and meaningless whispers from shadowy lips, the occasional repetition of that one phrase, all I can make out - ‘do-not-dies…’ |
Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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interview by Vianne Venter
Like a lot of my stories, this one showed up one morning as a fully-formed image: of a man in overalls disintegrating as he’s shuffling down the street. Figuring out who that man was and what was happening to him created the story. |
Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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Posted in Interviews | Tags: Interview, Issue 18, Thomas Carl Sweterlitsch, Vianne Venter, Writers Cornered | Comments Closed
by Thomas Carl Sweterlitsch
Ashen drizzle. Black sky. Christ, thought McKinley - nothing like the fucking rain. It collected in muddy drifts. It pooled at the curbs. Already the streets were slicked with wet soot. McKinley lifted his boot from the accelerator and hit the emergency flashers. The bald tires of his Ford Focus fishtailed. It was bad enough on clear days when the ash was like fucking snow, but when it rained everything just turned greasy. |
Issue 18 (Feb 2012) |
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