New Worlds Weekly recap: The best of all the worlds

 
Our NWWonFD columnist is on a short break (don’t worry, he’ll be back soon). While he’s off exploring new worlds to report back on, here’s a look back at some of the top New Worlds Weekly columns over the past few months:
1. How Indian maestro Satyajit Ray was duped by Hollywood — and the ultimate truth behind Ray’s story ‘The Alien’ and Steven Spielberg’s E.T.
Oftentimes, the best stories (read, the really interesting, spicy ones) are not the ones that are told within the pages of a book or on the screen. This is one of them.
https://archive.old.factordaily.com/satyajit-ray-mike-wilson-et-the-alien-hollywood-arthur-clarke/
2. Lessons — 42 in all – that the writer has learnt from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If you need to ask why 42, you should be fed to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
https://archive.old.factordaily.com/scifi-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-douglas-adams/
3. Where does one begin to write about one of the finest and enduring SF novels? This book has influenced the modern classic American Gods, whose author Neil Gaiman counts it as one of his favourites, as does George RR Martin. It’s one of the most creative and twisted sci-fi adaptations of Indian mythology. All good, but what does Argo, the 2012 Oscar winner for Best Picture, have to do with this book about ancient gods and their descendants? Read this incredible story to find out.
https://archive.old.factordaily.com/roger-zelazny-lord-of-light-sf-classic/
4. Grotesque. Graceful. Macabre. Beautiful. Bleak. Disturbing. Hopeful. Surreal. Symbolic. Fantastic. Phantasmagorical. The contrasting adjectives go on and on when trying to describe the work of Swiss artist HR Giger, who was born 77 years and 5 days ago on February 5, 1940. More about Giger and sci-fi’s most influential monster in this piece:
https://archive.old.factordaily.com/hr-giger-alien-dune-monster-obannon/
5. Seminal and wildly influential science fiction writer, typist par excellence, and a writer (and singer) of bawdy love songs: there are many sides to Isaac Asimov
https://archive.old.factordaily.com/isaac-asimov-golden-age-science-fiction/