DAVID CONYERS

The great Iain Banks as died, a fantastic author who was a huge influence on my writing. I was particularly fond of Consider Phlebas, which I still consider one of my top 10 favourite books of all time. To me it remains one of the best space operas ever written.

He wrote consistently good novels, in both science fiction and literary fiction, Use of Weapons, The Player of Games

Is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? I tend to believe it is not possible, partially because of problems with causality, but also the Fermi Paradox, which states if the universe is full of intelligent life, where is it? There are no signs of intelligent life out there, not yet at least, and if intelligent alien do exist and could travel at superluminal speeds then their chances of reaching us seems more likely. Again, the Fermi Paradox counters this.

Here is an interesting site, a company called Planetary Resources that is planning private mining of asteriods for water and metals, with the ultimate intention of reviving the Earth's economy and making space travel a reality. Ambitious stuff, but exciting and worthwhile nonetheless.

This idea, if it came to fruition, could be the first real step towards minimising our impacts on environmental destruction on...

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a James Bond fan. I've read all the Fleming novels. Casino Royale is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is a film series that has only ever gotten better as it went along. So I was very excited to watch the press conference online at MI6 regarding the new movie, Bond 23, now offically known as

My favorite TV series of the 2000s, Spooks, has come to an end. The series, which ran for ten seasons and 86 episodes featured the lives of MI5 officers protecting Britian from the threats of terrorism. The series was always very topical with plot lines straight out of the headlines, and one never knew when major characters would die or leave the series suddenly. Only one character appeared in every episode, Head of Counte...

Space.com often has some great articles to spark the imagination of a science fiction writer. Check out this list: Top 10 Strangest Things in Space, including dark matter, galactic cannibalism, mini-black holes and vacuum energy.

Yes, I know, I get excited about these things.

This is certainly interesting news to me, Alastair Reynolds, one of my favorite authors is writing about a character I grew up with, Doctor Who, in a novel called Harvest of Time, an original science fiction novel featuring the Third Doctor, his companion Jo Grant, and arch-enemy The Master.

The Fourth and Fifth Doctors were always my favorites, and it was the four...

I've been very interested in the planets astronomers are detecting around other suns. What they are finding is so unexpected, and so different to what we have previously imagined possible.

But is it really that strange? Life seems to evolve and adapt to all kinds of conditions, so why can't planets.

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One of Australia's most talented authors, editor and publisher of dark fiction, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, has been running a series of interviews with various participants of the publishing industry from around the world seeking their views e-books and the future of the written word, be it ink, pixels or something else entirely. He's calling it The Grant Conversation on E-Books, and they have been insightful, informative...