Sunday 24 August 2014

What Became of Punkadiddle?

Once upon a time there were (I peer at the virtual dashboard and gasp) nearly 400 posts on this blog: reviews of science fiction and fantasy books and films, the vast majority of them. I blogged those pieces, here, from 2007 to the beginning of 2013. Then I stopped, for a number of reasons. When the blog was live it had a fairly dedicated though small (I prefer to think: discerning) readership; and a small trickle of readers continued through the site even after I had stopped, to read some of the more widely linked posts -- my series of reviews of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time for instance. If you have come to this blog hoping to read those, or any of the other things I wrote here, then I'm sorry to have to disappoint you. The blogposts have receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island has been removed from its place. But do not despair: I collected the best of the Punkadiddle pieces, folded them neatly in with a couple of other reviews and essays, and published the whole lot as a book. This is what that book looks like:



It's published by Steel Quill, an imprint of Ian Whates's Newcon Press; it has an introduction by BSFA-award-winning critic Paul Kincaid, and if you really want to read what I have to say about science fiction and fantasy, I urge you to buy a copy. If you want a hard-copy, you'll need to contact Ian directly (the upside of this process is that I should be able to sign it for you, should you want my signature.).  But but but! Look-y here: for the much lower price of £3.42 you can buy the whole volume right now as an ebook. I urge and exhort you to do this. If, that is to say, you want to read the best of Punkadiddle. Of course; you may not want to do that. Perhaps you find my face offputting. I wouldn't blame you.



Rather than dwell on that, you might prefer to look at the back cover, with its splendid endorsement from Jared Leto. Or Shurin. I forget. One of the Jareds, certainly.



At any rate, that is what became of Punkadiddle. It got turned into a book.