What are good recent-ish scifi books to read?

I've realised I've almost entirely stopped reading purely for fun, rather than for curiosity or Improvement, and so don't read much fiction at all. I'd like to try changing that, so I'm looking for good reads. I re-read Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat and enjoyed it, but it is really showing its ( Read more... )

I'm starting to worry that I've turned in to some terrible harbinger of doom ( Read more... )

I've just come back from France ( Read more... )

I'm off to Bicon! [Edit: I am at Bicon! And have finally sorted out internet access in my bedroom. All is right with the world.] The ball theme is Bisexuals in Space, and as my costume is more conceptual than retinal, I thought it wouldn't spoil the effect to write up the background in advance.

I'm going as Professor Commissar Colonel Teichsgraf ( Read more... )

What happens when you see something? What goes in to and/or comes out of your eyes?

Genuine question: I'm interested in what people think. It's not supposed to be difficult or a trick.

Poll Vision mechanics

Feel free to expand or qualify your answer in the comments.

Edit: Clarification: the kitten is sleeping, so it cannot see you.

The respectable, reputable media present a version of what has happened in the world that can be as misleading as possible without being actionably wrong about what actually happened. (The disreputable media just make it up, but you know that.)

Have a look at these lovely photographs of the day, from teh Graun. In particular, look at the one ( Read more... )

I take it back. They were nice initially on the phone on the day my car was pranged, but they have messed up big time, and I can't get hold of them ( Read more... )

I have very easily burned skin, so I'm a big user of factor 50. Also on the kids. My discovery this season is that you can get less-greasy sun cream! It's sold as 'non-greasy' or something like that. It's based on alcohol (look for 'alcohol denat.' as the top ingredient), so it smells of rough booze when you put it on. But it's way less bother than ( Read more... )

I think I've posted before (but can't instantly put my finger on it), but maybe I meant to but didn't ( Read more... )

Last evening the phone rang while I was busy reading to the kids. It was a really exciting bit in Harry Potter, and I could tell from the ring tone that it wasn't a number I knew. So I left it. When I looked later, it was an unavailable number ( Read more... )