I read a lot of SF as a kid, then for some reason slowed down a lot. Reading text books and factual books took up more of my reading time. I have though gotten back into reading SF. Some new, some old. Of the old works, it has been a pleasure to return to some stories I have read before but also to explore many that I have never gotten around to reading.

At school I won the prize for ‘Control technology’ twice. A book token was the prize, the bookshop in Tavistock was a wonderful little place, the person who owned it friendly. I spent many a saturday in town with an hour or so just looking at the books in there, it was a small section marked Science Fiction & fantasy but so many books came from there.

The two books I picked as prizes, one was J.G. Ballards ‘The Day of Creation’, the other was ‘Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction’ by Brian Aldiss and David Wingrove. Both books I loved and still have with me today. Reading a Trillion Year Spree, though, was always an adventure as I knew there was so much out there that I was yet to read.

Now, excitingly Gollancz has the SF Gateway. They are publishing the long tail of science fiction, as eBook editions. So many stories that would normally be out of print are now accessible again.

Next year, in 2014, the WorldCon, the World Science Fiction Convention is back in the UK, being held in London. This year they are holding the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, again, the last time I attended either of these was back last century when they were last held in the UK.

Its exciting to go back to spending time with Science Fiction.