Essays

Personalities and the symbiote/host relationship in Stargate SG-1 [ read ] 6kb
A result of watching too much television: I start to think too much about the details surrounding the mythos of a show. The title says it all.

Sexual dimorphism in goa'uld: convenience? [ read ] 6kb
Second in the series of articles about Stargate SG-1. This one looks at the Goa'uld's habits of taking human hosts and their preferences for one or another sex in a host.

Electronic Era: Music [ read ] 19kb
There is much free music online, a small proportion of which is fan-produced music, inspired by TV shows or books … also called filk.

The Ghosts of Logan, part 1 [ read ] 5kb
One of the favourite tales we tell about the ghosts in Logan.

Saviours in Epic Fantasy [ read ] 8kb
I wrote this for the V*I*S*I*O*N newsletter in 1999. The role of the hero in epic fantasy is an important one. We define how enjoyable the series is by him and we identify with him. Therefore, the saviour has to be recognisable. See the religious parallels that epic fantasy has.

Gender Neutrality and Language in The White Abacus [ read ] 7kb
Damien Broderick is hailed as one of the Great Writers of Australian Speculative Fiction. A closer look at the language in his award-winning book, The White Abacus. Does he really use the gender-neutral pronouns that he created in the novel, and are they in the inflection that he says they are in the Afterword?

Interview with Russell B. Farr [ read ] 13kb
When I was still running Australian SF Online, I interviewed Russell Farr of Ticonderoga Publications, a Perth small-press SF publisher.