INTERACTION

Thomson, an Iranian-born writer and computer games developer, won in the seven to fourteen category for his book Dark Lord: Teenage Years, which is illustrated by undergraduate student Freya Hartas.

Thomson's book, an original and witty tale about a Dark Lord trapped in the body of a 13-year-old schoolboy, is the first of a new series.

...As YouGov Profiles is described in very science-fictional terms as a “segmentation and media planning product [powered by a] connected data vault”, let’s see what they have to say about the literary genre of SF.

Our typical male, 40 to 59-year-old sci-fi fan likes a good curry, probably lives in northern Scotland, is (surprisingly, to me at any rate) right-wing, and likes video games, motorsports and fishing, when they don’t have their nose in a book. They also have less than £125 a month in disposable income, which may come as a surprise to those throwing money over the dealers’ tables at the science fiction conventions.

Contemporary fiction aficionados, on the other hand, are most likely to live in London, be women in the 60+ age range, and be ever so slightly right-wing – hardly noticeable on the YouGov site’s swingometer, mind. They’ll work in media and have up to £499 to blow after all the bills have been paid....

Sanctuary in the Past
In The Whispering Swarm, Michael Moorcock confronts ghosts – history's and his own – in a secret area of London
By Michael Berry, Fri., Jan. 23, 2015
Sanctuary in the Past

At age 75, London-born Bastrop resident Michael Moorcock has enjoyed a storied career. Having written such acclaimed novels as Behold the Man, Gloriana, and Byzantium Endures, and created Elric of Melniboné, Jerry Cornelius, and a host of other aspects of the Eternal Champion, who appear in dozens of related novels and stories, Moorcock is one of the most celebrated practitioners of fantasy fiction in the second half of the 20th century. And he's one of the most influential as well, since as the editor of New Worlds magazine, he helped launched the careers of Harlan Ellison, J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, and other members of science fiction's so-called "New Wave."

Now the story of Moorcock's own life plays an integral part in The Whispering Swarm (Tor, 480pp., $26.99), the initial installment of a new trilogy set in and around a mysterious London neighborhood known as the Alsacia. In this, his first independent novel in nine years, Moorcock interpolates events from his youth and early adulthood – such as editing Tarzan Adventures at age 16 – into a fantasy plot that involves a plan to rescue King Charles I from execution.

Fantasy fiction writer and academic China Miéville discusses social anthropology, superstition, and fancying the word 'vector', as he talks about his new collection of short stories, Three Moments of an Explosion.