Yeah, Paul, I suppose “Speculative Fiction” is a bit general. As far as Sci-Fi readers being nerdy, luckily that stereotype is becoming more and more of an afterimage in todays brave new frontier -- in large part thanks to recent family-esque fantasy, and big box office movies based on those books. “Back in my day,” well, things were different: pen and paper RPGers, computer savants, video gamers, and of course Fantasy/Sci-Fi readers were ostracized from normal society, and one was hesitant to mention he liked things like MUD. But nowadays it’s nice to see the past-times of eighties and nineties nerds slowly becoming the everyday norm. (I mean everybody who’s anybody has a Facebook, Myspace, or Blog, right? And you're cool if you can reach levels 45 to 50 on Halo Live, yeah? -Well, at least in most major circles-.)

Oh and Paul, out of curiosity, do you write stories like your sister?

That's an interesting observation. If you're a nerd today you're a foretaste of everyone's tomorrow.

Write stories - me? I don't think I've written a story of any kind since I left school. I have plenty of creative ideas, but I've never seriously contemplated writing. I find it all a bit frustrating to be honest (even just writing a letter).

-Paul

Paul - there was mention of a cd being released... Any updates on that?

No, the CD still isn't available. It probably never will be. We would have liked to sell it through outlets such as Amazon.com, but it's a convoluted process. On a brighter note, we did manage to get the album posted to the iTunes Store. If you have iTunes installed you can check it out by clicking here.

-Paul

Fave authors? In no order:

GRRM- Have only read the ASOIAF series, but whilst the last book was a
disappointment, the others have been superb. Probably caused me to view fantasy in a different way.

Tolkien- The original. Ok, so parts of it aren't brilliantly written, but its
scale, history, philosophy along with many other things make it impossible to ignore.

Lynch- Ok, he's still pretty new, and I have reservations. But The Lies
Locke Lamora was so unique and brilliant that if the following books maintain that standard, it'll be a very special series.

JVJ - There is a certain sense of obligation to put this down, but the 'Ice'
series has been really rewarding so far, and again through details- geographic, cultural, the approach to magic, it's pretty unique.

I'm not actually sure about the 5th. Weis and Hickman/ Feist/ Guy Gavriel Kay (only read Tigana though)? I don't know.

Those I don't like: Erikson, Eddings, Gemmell, Jordan, Goodkind, Rowling, Donaldson... Plenty. That's not to say that these guys are necessarily bad ( say, Gemmell) but other writers like JVJ and Lynch are simply so much better.

Red,

You and I have similar tastes at least as far as what we dont like.

I didnt like Erikson, I read the first book "Gardens of the Moon" and I didnt care about ANY of the characters, I liked some of the battles and the overall premise, but not one of the characters caught my interest, if any died, eh so what.

Eddings, I do like at least some of his stuff, the Belgariad and the Mallorean, but I always know how the story is going to end in the first 50 pages and sure enough I am always right. Consider that in contrast to JVJ and GRRM which in both cases I have no idea how either is going to end.

Havent read Gemmel and havent looked into it so cant speak on that.

I havent really read any of Robert Jordan's wheel of time stories but some of what I have heard/read about it indicate that I wouldnt like it so I havent tried yet, but will some day.

I read "Wizards First Rule" by Goodkind and have not read anything else of his, it sucked.

Rowling I admit I liked it, I didnt at first, I thought the first 2 were mediocre, but by the 3rd book she hit her stride I feel and she ended the story well, and I was turning pages like a madman, of course it helped that I borrowed them and didnt have to buy them.

Donaldson i am reading "Runes of the Earth" as we speak and it is bringing me back to what I dont like about this author. Let me start off by saying that the concept of the story is good, the White Gold ring, Earthpower, the ur viles etc, however. Donaldson is a psychologist and he delves too deeply into the fears and mental issues and stresses of his characters.

It gets to the point that they are whiny and annoying, and his dialogue is bad, for example Linden Avery is so distraught that her son wont hug her that she spends literally 2 chapters whining about it in her head at the beginning of the book, she repeats this fact to herself in her mind it seems like over a hundred times, its annoying because Im invested at this point (over 7 books and counting) and I want to see how it ends, but Im really getting sick of the "Why me?" tone of the story.

I have read some of GRRM's other works, "Fevre Dream" is a new and strange take on vampires.

_________________
sumigo is just an online handle, my real name is Brandon.

I'm interested about people's take on Erikson. He seems to have generated a lot of hype and interest, but when I tried 'Gardens of the Moon' I was really disappointed.

For a start it took a long time to make sense. I was fairly confused as to what the hell was going on for a long time, which can never be a good thing. Another let down was how everything seemed to be more powerful than t he thing before. X is really powerful, but Y is more powerful, but wait, Z is still more powerful, and if T gets hold of this item then... And so on. Everything was too overpowered! How about a little incompetence? If set a more sensible base level you don't end up with characters/ creations which seem as destructive as nuclear weapons. I simply fail to see the attraction of these books.

I don't intend to go on a big downer about a load of other people. What I hope it shows is that when I praise an author, I really mean it, because I can be a picky, pedantic so-and-so.

Just to return to Rowling though, didn't she claim that she "Doesn't write fantasy", as if in some way it was a form of bacterial snot? I read the first 3 HP books and didn't take to them at all- for a start, if you're going to reference Greek Mythology (Cerberus) then don't take the mickey by calling it "Fluffy". I don't know, I suppose I simply found it childish. At least Terry Pratchett made the point that if you're writing about trolls, wizards, griffins etc, you can pretend all you want - you're writing a version of fantasy. And seeing as I believe TP is Britain's top-selling author, maybe that's not something to be ashamed of...!

Didn't know Donaldson was a psychologist. That may go some way to explaining why I wanted to punch the mawkish and miserable Thomas Covenant. For the first two books all I wanted to do was grab him by the shoulders and shake him til he stopped being so pathetic.