With my new book Phoenix now only a month away, it seems like a good time to share some inspirations. So this month, I'm recommending Contact: a brilliant novel about the first contact between humans and aliens, written by Carl Sagan. There's a film version too, with Jodie Foster, but I prefer the book – it's beautiful, original, thought-provoking science fiction, written by a scientist with a real gift for storytelling.
I first encountered Sagan through his amazing TV series, Cosmos. I watched it as a child in the 1980s, and re-watched it while writing Phoenix. It was one of my biggest inspirations. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way. Professor Brian Cox has said it meant a lot to him too – so if you liked his Wonders Of The Universe, or if you're at all interested in stars, galaxies and space, you should definitely watch Cosmos! It's all up on YouTube: here's the first episode.
And here's a very silly but entertaining song that uses some of Sagan's quotes from the series – it became an internet phenomenon, and is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me! But the space imagery in it goes to the heart of what I was trying to do in Phoenix, so I hope you enjoy it too...
As a regular feature on this site, I'm recommending some of my favourite books every month. This month's featured author is Ursula K Le Guin!
The first book of hers I read was A Wizard Of Earthsea. It's the first volume in what was then a trilogy, and is now an amazing six-book cycle. It tells the story of Ged, a shepherd boy who grows into the greatest wizard of his age. It was originally published as a children's book, but has attracted readers of all ages. It remains one of my favourite novels; whenever I re-read it, which I do often, it only ever gets better. This was one of the stories that made me want to write children's books: it showed me how brilliant, ambitious and beautifully-written a children's book could be.
But Le Guin doesn't just write fantasy for younger readers. She's also produced some of the most interesting and thought-provoking adult science fiction. The Dispossessed is another one of my all-time favourite books. It imagines an anarchist society that Le Guin describes as 'an ambiguous utopia'. If you're at all interested in the big questions of human society, this one is for you. Whenever I read it, I feel excited at the possibilities of science fiction, and depressed at the thought I will never produce anything half as good!
Finally, Always Coming Home is perhaps her most experimental work; it's an anthropological report on an imagined future society, complete with songs, recipes, stories within the story... It's not always easy reading, but it creates a whole world of incredible richness and depth, and once you've experienced it, you can't ever forget it.
Here she is talking about her work on YouTube. She's still producing a steady stream of dependably brilliant books, reviews, blogs; at the age of 83, she remains a total inspiration. If you want to know more, her website is full of great information, and really worth a visit...
One of my readers recently asked me to recommend some books that I'd enjoyed. I thought about this, and decided that it might be interesting to do a regular monthly post about things I've enjoyed - not just books, but also comics, films, music, art - anything, really! So this month, I'm recommending:
The Kin, by Peter Dickinson - an epic set in Africa 200,000 years ago, telling the story of human origins and evolution. It's totally gripping, and is powered by all sorts of big ideas about the beginnings of language, religion, politics... I find this subject absolutely fascinating, and this is one of the best treatments of it I've ever read. The only thing I can compare it with is William Golding's The Inheritors, an unforgettable story told from the point of view of a tribe of Neanderthals who are facing extinction.
This month, I also visited the Ice Age Exhibition at the British Museum, where I saw this Lion Man sculpture. It was carved from mammoth ivory about 40,000 years ago, which makes it one of the oldest surviving artworks in the world - and I love that it's a man with a lion's head! The exhibition is stunning: there's something totally magical about prehistoric art, and these tiny, ancient objects still have incredible power... Here's a short video about it; the exhibition runs until May 26th, and is definitely recommended - I might even go back and see it again!
