A Brain Parade of reviews of Science Fiction books with a small twist, none of the books review here actually exsists. These books may not have the advantage of exsisting but at least we’ve done you the favour of giving you a sneak peak as to what you’re missing.

Me and Charlie had a drunken conversation about the “Does Science Fiction have a Job?” Brain Parade last night. Charlie didn’t like the question initiately because he thought the answer was obviously no. And of course he’s right, just about all the responses we got on that Brain Parade were basicaly variations of “no”.

This is the second installment of the Brain Parade we kicked the week off with. You can see the first installment here.

We asked the question: What is the job of contemporary SF? Does it have a job?

We kick the week off with a Brain Parade that got suggested to me by Lou Anders at Pyr.

What is the job of contemporary SF? Does it have a job?
I found it hard to come up with comments for this one, it’s much easier to answer your own questions.
Read the second part of this brain parade here

Today we take a crack at an old chestnut: Is it worth maintaining the thin red line between Science Fiction and Fantasy? My two cents is that for adults this question is largely irrelevant. Experienced Science Fiction and/or Fantasy readers know what they want and where to find it.

It’s once again time to ask a number of clever people a stupid question….

We apologize for the inconvenience, but the planet Earth is scheduled for alien invasion. Your species’ custom is important to us. Please leave a message at the tone indicating your preferred choice of alien invader and why.

Which place would you most like to see destroyed by a science fictional disaster? Please provide gory details.

MT: My pick would be an evil scientist ressurecting tiny dinosaurs and setting them loose in southern alberta where they terrorize the local inhabitants.

Has reading and writing SF changed your world view? And if so how?

MT: As usual you have to read my answer before we get to the really interesting people, please bear with me but I can sum it up very simply.

What new formats, subgenres or media would you like to see more science fiction in?

MT: My answer is customizable non-drmed ebooks. You all know what an ebook is so I won’t bore you with an exaplanation of what those are.

We kick the week off with a chat with Robert Charles Wilson author of Spin.

MTHow is work coming along on Axis? I realize its probably too early to ask you about it, but… Can you tell us anything about it?

Just in case anyone suspected that we took this blog too seriously I’m running a whimsical Brain Parade featuring bloggers. Today’s question is:

We give you a coupon redeemable for any spacecraft depicted in a science fiction story (insurance not included). Which ship do you trade it in for and what do you do with it?

I think I’ve done pretty well in avoiding the “What’s the difference between Canadian and American Science Fiction” question when interviewing Canadian SF authors. I think there probably is a difference but its really too subtle and minor to be worthy of much attention. Besides I figure every Canadian SF author gets asked that question a few hundred times a year already.

I was scratching my head for a way to introduce this Brain Parade when I came across a “Sex Slave Cult” story on the BBC. The “cult” (calling it a cult might be a bit much) is apparently based on the Gor books, a series of science fiction novels from the 60s. You can read the story here (link).

I’ve noticed an odd correlation between Science Fiction and hiking lately. If I wasn’t sifting through author blogs doing research for Meme Therapy I wouldn’t have noticed. Actualy if I wasn’t also an avid hiker I probably wouldn’t notice either. A disproportionate number of SF authors and enthusiasts are also trekkers and mountain climbers.

Mark Brown is a fellow Brit based Science Fiction blogger. Judging by his blog I suspect he’s a real brit to boot as opposed to a continent hopping vagrant such as myself. We’ve got some commentary on him on our latest Brain Parade.

Science Fiction seems to be everywhere these days. Hollywood is clearly in the throes of a skin deep love affair with the genre (I suspect largely because it mixes well with CGI). But beyond TV and film Science Fictional ideas seem to seeping everywhere nowadays.

The end of the world has always been a hot topic in Science Fiction. And in the last ten years there’s been a flood of movies with end of the world themes. A Canadian film critic called it “Apocalypse Porn”. I’ve always found stories built around these scenarios fascinating myself, its a sub genre of science fiction where a societies collective anxieties are just underneath the surface.

There’s a really cheesey site where you can find out what kind of Science Fiction writer you are. I gave it a shot and I got a writer descibed as a “A pyrotechnic talent who put only a small portion of his energy into writing.” Kind of appropirate considering that there hasn’t been a Meme Therapy entry for six days. If you want to take the cheesy test yourself you can here (link).

MT: Is there a place in the real world that gave you the impression that it was ripped out of the pages of a science fiction story?