Saturday 26 June 2010

Light Of Other Days

Reflections in a Slow Glass (TM) window:

In 2008 I remarked here that there was no prospect of a new film version of Karel Capek's famous play R.U.R. Now it's in development, with director James Kerwin on board (reported on io9 last year, also official website here.)

In 2009 I commented on Stephen Baxter's Titan, which continues to be that rarest of things - a science fiction novel that does actually predict the future, describing clearly and accurately the first steps of the Chinese manned space programme, and sadly anticipating the break-up of Space Shuttle Columbia during re-entry. As described in the book, atmospheric data from the Cassini mission is now being analysed carefully as it may indicate there is life on Titan.
Also in 2009 I reviewed my three favourite Terry Pratchett novels here, commenting that I preferred his science fiction writing to much of the Discworld series. Mr. Pratchett has just announced to my joy that he will be returning to science fiction in a future novel - which he will co-write with Stephen Baxter (news via Grasping For The Wind.)

4 comments:

Lovy Boheme said...

I friggin love Discworld. I haven't read any of Pratchett's other scifi stuff, but he and David Sedaris are my go-to's for light reads that I'm guaranteed to like.

Sci-Fi Gene said...

Do you realise what you've done Lovy? I now have no choice but to track down a book of David Sedaris short stories and read them. Thanks a bunch ;)

Maurice Mitchell said...

I'm excited about R.U.R. Even though it turned into a cheesy old play, the concept of a world of biological "robots" yearning for freedom from mankind sounded interesting.

Sci-Fi Gene said...

It's only "in development" AFAIK - a film may be "in development" or even "in pre-production" even if it's just a few ideas jotted down on a napkin. In fact I have several films similarly "in development" as we speak. If it does ever get made I'd definitely want to see it, whatever the post-Soviet take on the plot turns out to be.

Lovy - I'm now reading Me Talk Pretty One Day and freaking people out on the tube - laughing out loud in public is a rare event in the UK ;)