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Roderick At Random
''Roderick at Random'' is a novel by John Sladek published in 1983. It is the sequel to ''Roderick, or The Education of a Young Machine'' (1980); both novels were reissued together in 2001 as ''The Complete Roderick''. Plot summary ''Roderick at Random'' is a novel in which Roderick the robot tries to learn about being human. Reception Dave Langford reviewed ''Roderick at Random'' for ''White Dwarf'' #39, and stated that "The first worthwhile SF to arrive in 1983 is John Sladek's ''Roderick at Random'' ..Sladek's satire is merciless, hilariously pointing out how humans prefer not to think for themselves, programmed by newspapers, tranquillizers, food fads or batty cults becoming much more predictable and less rational than poor Roderick. Sad, but not far from being true." Dave Pringle reviewed ''Roderick at Random'' for ''Imagine'' magazine, and stated that "It's a crazy, venal, hilarious world that Sladek creates. while Roderick himself is beautiful, a saint." Reviews *Review b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sladek
John Thomas Sladek (December 15, 1937 – March 10, 2000) was an American science fiction author, known for his satirical and surreal novels. Life and work Born in Waverly, Iowa, in 1937, Sladek was in England in the 1960s for the New Wave movement and published his first story in the magazine'' New Worlds''. His first science fiction novel, published in London by Gollancz as '' The Reproductive System'' and in the United States as '' Mechasm'', dealt with a project to build machines that build copies of themselves, a process that gets out of hand and threatens to destroy humanity. In '' The Müller-Fokker Effect'', an attempt to preserve human personality on tape likewise goes awry, giving the author a chance to satirize big business, big religion, superpatriotism, and men's magazines, among other things. ''Roderick'' and ''Roderick at Random'' offer the traditional satirical approach of looking at the world through the eyes of an innocent, in this case a robot. Sladek r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roderick (novel)
''Roderick, or The Education of a Young Machine'' is a 1980 science fiction novel by American writer John Sladek. It was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award and was followed in 1983 by ''Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine''. The two books were originally intended as a single longer novel, and were finally reissued together in 2001 as ''The Complete Roderick''. It was included in David Pringle's book '' Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels''. Plot summary The title character is an intelligent robot, the first to be invented. The opening chapters describe the creation of Roderick and show his mind (at first consisting of a bodiless computer program) developing through several stages of awareness. Finally, Roderick is given a rudimentary body and, through a series of misadventures, finds himself alone in the world. Due to his sketchy understanding of human customs, and intrigues surrounding the project that created him, he unwittingly becomes the center of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Langford
David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most Hugo Awards, with a total of 29 wins. Personal background David Langford was born and grew up in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales before studying for a degree in Physics at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he first became involved in science fiction fandom. Langford is married to Hazel and is the brother of the musician and artist Jon Langford. His first job was as a weapons physicist at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire from 1975 to 1980. In 1985 he set up a "tiny and informally run software company" with science fiction writer Christopher Priest, called Ansible Information after Langford's news-sheet. The company has ceased trading. Increasing hearing difficulties have reduced Langford's participation i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Dwarf (magazine)
''White Dwarf'' is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop, which has long served as a promotions and advertising platform for Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures products. During the first ten years of its publication, it covered a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing games (RPGs) and board games, particularly the role playing games ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D''), '' Call of Cthulhu'', ''RuneQuest'' and '' Traveller''. These games were all published by other games companies and distributed in the United Kingdom by Games Workshop stores. The magazine underwent a major change in style and content in the late 1980s. It is now dedicated exclusively to the miniature wargames produced by Games Workshop. History 1975: ''Owl and Weasel'' to ''White Dwarf'' Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone initially produced a newsletter called ''Owl and Weasel'', which ran for twenty-five issues from February 1975 before it evolved into '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake (game designer), John Peake, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (UK), Steve Jackson, Games Workshop was originally a manufacturer of wooden boards for games including backgammon, mancala, nine men's morris and Go (board game), Go. It later became an importer of the U.S. role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and then a publisher of wargames and role-playing games in its own right, expanding from a bedroom mail-order company in the process. It expanded into Europe, the US, Canada, and Australia in the early 1990s. All UK-based operations were relocated to the current headquarters in Lenton, Nottingham in 1997. It started promoting games associated with The Lord of the Rings (film series), ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy in 2001. It al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Pringle
David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic. Pringle served as the editor of ''Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective which founded '' Interzone'' in 1982. By 1988, he was the sole publisher and editor of ''Interzone'', a position he retained until he sold the magazine to Andy Cox in 2004. For two-and-a-half years, from 1991 to 1993, he also edited and published a magazine entitled ''Million: The Magazine About Popular Fiction''. ''Interzone'' was nominated several times for the Hugo award for best semiprozine, winning in 1995. In 2005, the Worldcon committee gave Pringle a Special Award for his work on ''Interzone''. Pringle is a scholar of J. G. Ballard. He wrote the first short monograph on Ballard, ''Earth is the Alien Planet: J. G. Ballard's Four-Dimensional Nightmare'' (Borgo Press, 1979) and compiled ''J. G. Ballard: A Primary and Secondary Bib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imagine (game Magazine)
''Imagine'' (printed under the long title ''Imagine: Adventure Game Magazine'') was a British monthly magazine dedicated to the first edition ''Advanced Dungeons and Dragons'' and ''Dungeons and Dragons'' role-playing game systems published by TSR UK Limited. History Shannon Appelcine explained, "TSR tried to horn in on the British magazine market in 1983 with ''Imagine'' magazine, but they folded it just two years later. Gary Gygax would much later claim that ''Imagine'' had usually been operated at a loss and was kept around mainly for its useful marketing of TSR's lines. ''White Dwarfs lead in Britain was pretty much unassailable." ''Imagine'' was published monthly between April 1983 and October 1985. The print run lasted for 31 issues (30 issues and one special edition) before its cancellation. Don Turnbull was cited as publisher and Paul Cockburn as assistant editor for the majority of the life of the publication. Neil Gaiman wrote film reviews for several issues of ''Im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imagine (AD&D Magazine)
''Imagine'' (printed under the long title ''Imagine: Adventure Game Magazine'') was a British monthly magazine dedicated to the first edition ''Advanced Dungeons and Dragons'' and ''Dungeons and Dragons'' role-playing game systems published by TSR UK Limited. History Shannon Appelcine explained, "TSR tried to horn in on the British magazine market in 1983 with ''Imagine'' magazine, but they folded it just two years later. Gary Gygax would much later claim that ''Imagine'' had usually been operated at a loss and was kept around mainly for its useful marketing of TSR's lines. ''White Dwarfs lead in Britain was pretty much unassailable." ''Imagine'' was published monthly between April 1983 and October 1985. The print run lasted for 31 issues (30 issues and one special edition) before its cancellation. Don Turnbull was cited as publisher and Paul Cockburn as assistant editor for the majority of the life of the publication. Neil Gaiman wrote film reviews for several issues of ''Imagi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locus (magazine)
''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction and fantasy fields. It also publishes comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genres (excluding self-published). The magazine also presents the annual Locus Awards. ''Locus Online'' was launched in April 1997, as a semi-autonomous web version of ''Locus Magazine''. History Charles N. Brown, Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf founded ''Locus'' in 1968 as a news fanzine to promote the (ultimately successful) bid to host the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally intended to run only until the site-selection vote was taken at St. Louiscon, the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis, Missouri, Brown decided to continue publishing ''Locus'' as a mimeographed general science fiction and fantasy newszine. ''Locus'' succeede ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foundation (journal)
''Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction'' is a critical peer-reviewed literary journal established in 1972 that publishes articles and reviews about science fiction. It is published triannually (spring, summer, and winter) by the Science Fiction Foundation. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' has called it "perhaps the liveliest and indeed the most critical of the big three critical journals" (the others being ''Extrapolation'' and ''Science Fiction Studies''). A long-running feature was the series of interviews and autobiographical pieces with leading writers, entitled "The Profession of Science Fiction", a selection of which was edited and published by Macmillan Publishers in 1992. Several issues have been themed, including #93 (''A Celebration of British Science Fiction'', 2005), published also as part of the Foundation Studies in Science Fiction. The hundredth edition (Summer 2007) was unusual in that it was an all-fiction issue, including stories by such w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The 100 Best Novels
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector (magazine)
''Vector'' is the critical magazine of the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA), established in 1958. History The first issue of ''Vector'' was published in 1958 under the editorship of E. C. Tubb. The magazine was established as an irregular newsletter for members of the BSFA, founded in the same year, but "almost at once it began to produce reviews and essays, polemics and musings, about the nature and state of science fiction." The magazine has changed format and periodicity many times over the years. Since 2018 it has been edited by Polina Levontin and Jo Lindsay Walton. It currently focuses on articles and interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...s, and is published "two to three times per year." References External links Official websiteBack is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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