Many thanks to John Edginton for today's piece, whose film The Story of Wish You Were Here was previously discussed here on The Momus Report.  

I’m a documentary film-maker. An investigative journalist  contacted me with the story of a man - lets call him K - who has been on Death Row in San Quentin prison in California for 29 years and who is almost certainly innocent.  After several weeks of negotiations with K’s legal team and the prison authorities,  I found myself one Sunday morning driving 20 or so miles from San Francisco to one the US’s oldest and most notorious prisons.

The first surprise is the almost domestic nature of the prison setting. You drive down a village street and the gates and visitors car park is at the end, next to the water and spectacular views of the Bay. 

The prison is an old pile. There’s very little sign of any modernization. Visitors crowd into the corridor of a poorly constructed concrete slab building. Cheaply dressed, mainly Hispanic and
black, women and children.

We are processed through a small office . Even a pack of tissues is taken from me. It was not sealed appropriately apparently. I have been forewarned that no blue clothing can be worn by visitors. Nothing that can be construed as prison garb.

That certainly means denim. They say a young boy was recently turned away because he wore blue jeans.

Yet there is a peculiar informality to the vetting process. A women official calls back to a visitor as though she is an old friend. We are processed by a genial older guy who is almost regretful that my tissue packet is barred. '"Have a good visit," he says quite warmly to us as though he means it after we have collected our passes.

We then walk from that building down a street of older style houses. One is called the San Quentin museum. Hmm. That’s clearly not open to the public. Some of the staff live in this street. I am wondering what it is like for their kids to grow up within the prison walls.

Then we head into the prison itself. First stop is a very cramped visitor’s office where we hand in our IDs through a slot  in a wire mesh to a guard sitting at a desk behind.

Then into the visitors’ section itself. The section specifically set aside for 'the Condemned'. The room is basically a space containing around twelve wire mesh rectangular cages, connected together. Each cage has a door at the front and the rear. We collect snacks from a row of vending machines. Chips, crisps, soda, sandwiches. Then enter the cage allocated for this visit.  We take our seats in two of the three Formica chairs inside.

We have a few minutes to take in our surroundings. There are men in some of the other cages, pleasantly chatting with their Sunday visitors. They are all condemned to die.

K is brought in through the opposite door of our cage.

He hugs both of us and then plunges energetically into a description of his situation . He had been on death row for the last 29 years.  He was three hours from being executed in February 2004. An experience that still haunts him. He grabs my arm. "They looked at my arm searching for a good vein to inject into."

He turns mine over, prodding the skin.

"They were chatting like technicians with a job to do... I was no longer human to them."

When the call came from the State Supreme Court, confirming that the execution was stayed, he says there was a look of frustration in his executioners’ faces. "They resented me for cheating death. It seemed like they had been looking forward to it."

He says that in the days before the execution date , they had made all kinds of preparations – measuring him for the body bag and coffin. "They were always checking up on me 'are you feeling ok?' They didn’t want me committing suicide!"

"After the stay was granted they asked me if I would like some medication. I said 'Why? I’m alive, so why would I need it? But you guys probably do. You were getting ready to kill me. You look like you could use some!'"

K was warm, gracious, impressively humble. I left the prison, with the ocean air filling my lungs. I was full of resolve to raise the funding necessary for a documentary that would help to exonerate him. That was a year ago. The funding has not yet materialized.

John Edginton’s incendiary HBO-funded feature doc – Mumia Abu Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt? -  was about  the African American political activist and journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, who is on death row for a crime he may not have committed.

John’s latest documentary was Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here.

His website is www.otmoorproductions.com

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Another year, another missed Bloomsday. It's the source of some embarrassment that I spent most of my life in Dublin and never managed to attend the June 16 event. Not only that, I've actually read Ulysses - that qualifies me over most Irish folks who blather on about Joyce.

But my introduction to the book was a bit of a mistake. I first picked up a copy of the celebrated novel because I mistook it for Ulysses 31, a Franco-Japanese science fiction animated show that first aired when I was a kid in the early 80's. I wouldn't actually read Joyce's book until I was eighteen, but it is fascinating that the Greek myth managed to inspire two such diverse stories. One is a tale that explore the thoughts and feelings of two men and a woman in Dublin on June 16 1904, loosely based on the events of the Ulysses myth; the other a techno-futurist update of the story set in the 31st century with robots, shape-shifting marsh monsters, shark soldiers and telepathic blue aliens. 

One of these things is a lot more fun than the other.

It comes as a great relief that the show conceived by Nina Wolmark and Jean Chalopin for DIC Entertainment still retains its charm. Partly this is due to the quality of the animation and the imaginative visuals - the ship named the Odyssey powered by a giant iris that draws solar energy meshes influences from 2001 and Star Wars -  as well as the clever updating of the myths themselves to a science fiction setting. The Cyclops becomes a giant cybernetic monstrosity, Scylla and Charybdis are now destructive celestial bodies, and Circe builds a giant tower to threaten the gods built out of spaceships. 

My favourite episode though is the Sisyphus story, which changes the story by having the character push boulder up a hill, to spending eternity rolling an endlessly recycled metallic boulder into a chasm. The reveal as to what lies at the bottom of the chasm - and Sisyphus realizing that he has been tricked once again by the gods - is still devastating. 

Yes the dubbing is a bit dodgy and yes the repeated plot development of a grown man sending his children into battle against alien armadas and titans is a wee bit disturbing - but I still love this show. Just last January for my birthday Matthew Hoddy offered to do a commission for me of any character I wanted as a gift. I did not hesitate. 

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 We continue in our children, and in our works and in the memories of others; we continue in our dust and ash.

- The Crow Road

Iain Banks broadened my teenage mind more than any other writer that I had yet encountered. I first read The Bridge when I was 16, which baffled me with its mixture of fantasy and reality, sex and incest, black comedy and madness. I was already aware of Iain M. Banks, the sf persona and on a whim decided to only read the 'Iain Banks' titles, which were supposedly straight fiction. The Bridge of course is anything but, a Ballardian fable that skips in and out of our world. It was compelling reading and I quickly hunted down the other titles with their familiar black and white cover designs. 

The hilarious tribute to Iain Banks' dual writing career in Hot Fuzz.

 Whit, The Crow Road, Complicity, The Wasp Factory, Espedair Street, Canal Dreams, Walking on Glass - I devoured each and every one. In fact I remember spending a lot of time on public transport going to and from school, just flying through each title. The Business was the last 'non sf' book by Banks that I read, and at that point I had overdosed on his dour comedies of excess and psychological disorders. I moved on, found other writers, started tracking down Banks' own influences. He had laid the bedrock for my reading taste from that point on. 

What I admired most about Banks was how his career in both authorial personas proved that genre fiction and its more respectable cousin could be equally sophisticated, intelligent and imaginative. He proved that a story is a story - its worth is in the telling.

Below is a short interview segment from Matthew De Abaitua's excellent SF:UK series, discussing the themes of his utopian conception of The Culture.

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The latest episode of Beardy and The Geek is now up, with reviews of Collateral: Dear John and Rocksalt Season Two, with a preview of what's up for Australian pop culture fans to enjoy during Con season.

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This year's Sydney Film Festival has a great line up of films - and it's happening right now, possibly one of the few times I have been jealous of Sydney - including the latest addition of the Delphy/Hawke Before saga, Nicolas Winding Refn's new film Only God Forgives, the Liberace bio Behind the Candelabra (during the promotion of which Michael Douglas delivered an unexpected PSA on the vagaries of HPV infection), Richard Attenborough's iconic performance as Pinkie in Brighton Rock gets a showing, and finally for the kids there's Monsters University!

Phew! Plenty to enjoy in the programme. Festivals are also a great showcase for shorts and as a gesture at the range of talent I've assembled quick reviews of some of the work at this year's SFF. 

Butterflies

Isabel Peppard's paen to the importance of the imagination is a beautiful, sad and twisted adult fairy tale. Narrated by Rachel Griffiths, the story focuses on Claire, whose childhood dreams are crushed by the harshness of life. She is employed by a decrepit business owner to channel her artistic talent into the production of saccharine holiday greeting cards (hints of 500 Days of Summer here). 

Claire's childhood imaginary friend - a twisted creature that's half cherub, half demon and represents the 'butterflies' of the title - becomes corrupted by the cynicism of her dreary life. Representing the rich inner-life of her innocent dreams, its decaying state matches the washed out, grimy, industrial surroundings of the adult Claire's workplace. The story from Peppard and Warwick Burton manages to stay just the right side of being too on the nose, thanks to the wonderful animation - think Mark Ryden unleashed - and the emotive voicework of Griffiths (Bad Boy Bubby himself Nicholas Hope also features!). Butterflies is a compelling story about the risks of putting a price on the imagination.

Ellen Is Leaving

Starring the wonderfully named Tai Berdinner-Blades as the titular Ellen, this Kiwi short has a guilt-wracked young woman about to leave her boyfriend behind for adventure overseas take on board his offhand suggestion to find him a new girlfriend - preferably a redhead. 

It's a quirky and intimate tale, with a Casio-keyboard soundtrack reminiscent of Damon Albarn's Kinks-inspired noodling for 101 Reykjavik. The scene with the boyfriend in his dayjob blithely cold-calling members of the public offering funeral protection insurance neatly sums up his moribund status, whereas Ellen gets to bask in the good wishes of her friends. It's a sweet little film, well-performed, with a compelling sad core. 

Notes on Blindness: Rainfall

This UK production executes its poetic ambition admirably over its four-minute length. Visually fascinating, it offers up a pithy meditation on the sensation of rainfall as experienced by a man who cannot see. He testifies to an oceanic sense of beauty that gives him a new awareness of the world around him. Rafe Beckley in the principal role stands in for the recording of theologian John Hull, adapted by Peter Middleton and James Spinney in this short to great effect. UPDATE: Co-director James Spinney has been in contact, referring me to a further full feature adaptation of the Hull recordings, titled Into Darkness.

Pablo's Villa

This documentary short from Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker follows one man around the drowned city of Villa Epecuen, a one-time sea-side resort. Left with only photos of what was and his memories, Pablo Novak describes his life before the deluge and the hermit-like existence he has eked out over the past twenty years and more. 

Perhaps surprisingly scavenging from the rock and wood skeleton of Epecuen has proven to be a oddly fulfilling sort of life for Pablo, who claims to be able to live according to his own wants. This quirky vision is accompanied by the Ry Cooder-like guitar stylings of Steve Salvi. 

Heaven

Maziar Lahooti serves up a cutting and subversive short, that features an elderly man (Don Reid) confronting a baffled heroin dealer James (Wayne Davies) and threatening him with a gun. Slowly it becomes clear to James exactly what is happening. The two men even bond briefly over the prospect of death, only for the story to transition from the dark gloom of the grungey flat to bright sunshine and a more sedate setting. 

Lahooti manages to segue from a tense stand-off, to blackly comic musings on the legality of drugs and their uses, before a genuine tearjerker of a denouement. The multiple meanings of the title lend the proceedings an observant and sympathetic air. A lovely short.

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Spoilers for Dragon Age II follow:

So I am going to do something a little ambitious here - perhaps even futile given some of the online reviews I have read - and mount a defense of Dragon Age II.

Which is not to say it is not a mediocre game in parts. It certainly is not the equal of Dragon Age: Origins and to be frank, has lost the series a lot of ground to fantasy RPG competitor The Witcher. The re-use of levels; the illusion of choice when forced to take sides in the story's conflict between mages and templars; the conversation choices boiling down to diplomatic, goofy and grumpy - all of these points were no doubt factors in the disappointment felt by players. 

From Matt Rhodes - http://mattrhodesart.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/some-of-cast-of-dragon-age-ii.html

But here's the thing, I think the story of Dragon Age II is based around a very interesting idea, which is to try and create a game all about what happens after the climactic battle against the forces of evil. What comes next? Yes the big demonic dragon-god from Origins is dead - but what happens to all those entrenched forces when the one unifying threat they faced together is gone?

Well in Dragon Age II we see what could be called a fantasy-world Cold War.

The game starts with player character Hawke - fully voiced similar to Mass Effect's Shepard unlike the silent Warden from the first game, (another point of complaint online) escaping with his/her family from the destruction of Lothering by the evil Darkspawn. At this point the player defines the gender and class of their Hawke. I chose to play as a male rogue who happened to be a Ferelden-by-way-of-the-Caribbean. See in the first game players could be an elf, or a dwarf, or a human. Hawke is definitely human, so this was seen as a failing by some critics, whereas I appreciated that racially my Hawke did not have to be the typical European fantasy hero. Without a home and hunted by Darkspawn, our hero cuts a deal with a witch (voiced by Jane Mulgrew) to escape Ferelden with his family to the coastal city of Kirkwall. There instead of a welcome, Hawke's family find that they are seen as just another group of refugees. 

The early impetus then in the game is for your character to earn enough money to escape the Kirkwall ghetto of Lowtown. Hawke can choose to be either a smuggler or a hired sword at first and then can freelance - which is when the quests start. At this point the game makes clear that on top of the refugees, the city is also dealing with growing tensions between mages - who are kept under surveillance due to their unpredictable powers - and the templars, the military order in charge of watching them. Then there's also the small matter of the Qunari, a quasi-fascist military race of horned giants, who happen to be in Kirkwall also and are refusing to leave the city for some unknown reason. In typical Dragon Age fashion Hawke recruits a team of fellow adventurers to help him fight demons, Darkspawn, renegade mages, bandits and hopefully make enough money to buy his mum a nice house.

The main appeal of all this is your interactions with the other characters. Eve Myles is delightful as the cute, but twisted elf mage Merrill; Joanna Roth's Aveline manages this fine line between stern and warm (although my Hawke tended to make her laugh, I have no idea what a grumpy Aveline sounds like); Brian Bloom, whom I remember from his wild-eyed performance in The A-Team, is our wily narrator the dwarf Varric - who tends to lie, taking account for how many different version of the story of Hawke there are (one for every player); Gideon Emery as the escaped slave with a grudge Fenris seems to be projecting to the back of some imaginary theatre; and Victoria Kruger's Isabela is deliciously wicked, particularly when teasing Aveline about her sex life. The conversations between the cast are immensely enjoyable and well worth at least a play-through, as the writing of their badinage is excellent. Occasionally they even comment on some of the more repetitive aspects of the game. 

Players of the game may have noticed I have not mentioned Anders, the mage with a grudge who in the third act is the catalyst for a new calamitous war. Well the reason for that is that Anders is unbearable, a sniveling, manipulative, conniving little sneak. When offered the chance my Hawke quickly stabbed him in the back, even though it probably meant he became a martyr. Still I find it interesting that I had such an emotional response to his betrayal - again a sign that the writers did their job. 

Almost every character in the game is compromised in some way and during Hawke's rise to power, you as the player have to choose which of the warring factions within Kirkwall to side with (not to mention which of your friends' moral lapses to ignore - as on a purely pragmatic basis, they remain useful to you). Ultimately the game refuses to give Hawke a big win. There is no giant dragon to fight, or kingdom to save. Instead your actions may well have hastened the course of civil war across several nations. At the story's climax, Hawke discovers both the mages and templars are rotten to the core, that this internecine conflict between them will guarantee Mutually Assured Destruction - again there is a parallel with the morally grey actions of both sides of the Cold War.

That is a fairly downbeat ending to a game, but Dragon Age II is clearly intended to build momentum for the next title Dragon Age: Inquisition, with the fallout promising more of a hot war. I think as a sequel the developers tried to do something very interesting - the time jumps, the conflict with fellow characters, the corruption of power in peace time - which while not entirely succeeding, indicates a welcome degree of ambition for the next title in the series.

Also the Scarface tribute was hilarious.

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Battle of the Planets is one of those series I was aware of , but had never seen. I'd encountered its merchandise, seen references to it in shows like Futurama and Robot Chicken and even seen some cosplay at various conventions. But, if re-runs were running when I was a kid, I was too caught up in Robotech and Pokemon to notice.

An adaptation of the Japanese series 'Science Ninja Team Gatchaman', Battle of the Planets is a great example of a period in pop culture where US studios would take a Japanese series and remake it, almost from the ground up, with new dialogue and stories pieced together from the original episodes' animation. This accounts for why the 105 'Gatchaman' episodes became 85 Battle of the Planets episodes in the conversion.

Even with the missing 20 episodes, that's still a lot of content to get through and this DVD box set has 15 discs and a little over 34 and a half hours worth of episodes.

I have to say, the visual quality is pretty good given that the show was made in 1972 and adapted in 1978. I've seen DVD releases of shows from the 90's looking like they were transferred to disc from aged VHS tapes, so it's a nice surprise to see this looking as good as it would have done in its first airing, if not better since antennae aren't a concern for DVDs.

Looking at it critically, the only real indicators of Battle of the Planets age is the style of it. The characters wear flares and severely dated haircuts, the story structures and dialogue are aimed at children in that overly-simplistic way kid's shows used to be, and the soundtrack is reminiscent of 'Starsky and Hutch', or at least the way Bill Bailey talks about the 'Starsky and Hutch' soundtrack.
That said, with shows like Harvey Birdman using this dated style of animation to great effect, it's practically top of the line again and it's roughly 20min episode times (without the very long opening and closing theme sequences) would fit in on Adult Swim pretty well with another adaptation of its dialogue.

Sadly, there are no extra features on the discs to complement the episodes and, without any subtitles or optional audio tracks, it feels like an archival collection more than anything, but it does come with a bunch of Alex Ross paintings on the case covers, so it's definitely well presented.

So, while sparse in presentation and features, the Battle of the Planets DVD set is a great quality collection. For established fans, it's a great way to revisit the show or replace older copies (VHS tapes don't last forever), and for new watchers it's an accessible entry point to a series which regularly ranks in the top 100 cartoons, kids shows, or anime, even now.

Guest Review by Alastair Collins - 'Still keeping the minions of Spectra at bay!'


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"I couldn't possibly comment".

The original House of Cards was an iconic show that captured the mood of post-Thatcher politics and the decline of the Tory party. For this American adaptation, Francis Urquhart becomes the far less unwieldy to pronounce Francis Underwood, with Kevin Spacey taking on the role of the avaricious politician with a grudge.

At present House of Cards is tiding me over until the next season of Borgen is released here, with both shows presenting viewers with intelligent drama. It is interesting to compare how they treat the exercise and retention of political power. In Borgen compromise is essential, with Birgitte Nyborg (the magnificent Sidse Babett Knudsen) watching her principles slowly be eroded by the realities of her position as Prime Minister. Underwood by contrast is a cynical operator, whose view of the world is confirmed at every turn. To him, the US government is a hot-bed of egos and weak-willed sycophants, ripe for him to take advantage of. 

The other obvious point of comparison is of course Sorkin's The West Wing, which presented viewers with a more hopeful perspective on government during the tumult of the Bush era. Whereas with House of Cards we have a completely disillusioned take as a pointed comment on Obama's America. The first season of the Netflix produced show is out now on DVD and Blu-ray. 

Press release begins - 

Witness the power plays, sex and greed that motivate some of Washington’s most powerful decision-makers when HOUSE OF CARDS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON releases on Blu-ray™ and DVD June 27th, 2013.  This  smart,  dark  and  hard-edged  thriller  tells  the  story  of  political  revenge,  starring  two-time Academy Award® winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, Best Actor in a Leading Role, 1999; The Usual Suspects,  Best  Actor  in  a  Supporting  Role,  1995)   as  ambitious  and  ruthless  Democratic  Congressman Frank  Underwood,  and  Robin  Wright  (The  Girl  with  the  Dragon  Tattoo) as  his  equally  focused  wife, Claire. Based on the classic ‘90s British mini:series, the first season in this modern-day political series also stars Kate Mara (TV’s American Horror Story: Asylum)  and Corey Stoll (Midnight in Paris).

All 13 episodes will be available on the four:disc Blu-ray or four-disc DVD set for HOUSE OF CARDS: THE COMPLETE  FIRST  SEASON  with  stunning,  limited  edition  collectible  packaging  on  both  releases, mirroring the series’ brilliant stylistic quality.

HOUSE OF CARDS, from David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network), award-winning playwright and Academy Award® nominated screenwriter Beau Willimon (Farragut North, The Ides of March) and Academy Award® winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich), also stars Michael Kelly (TV’s Person of Interest), Kristen Connolly (The Cabin in the Woods), Sakina Jaffrey (The Domino Effect  and Constance Zimmer (TV’s Entourage).  The series is executive produced by Fincher, Willimon, Roth, Joshua Donen, Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, Andrew Davies, Michael Dobbs and John Melfi.

Synopsis
Ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood (Spacey) and his wife Claire (Wright) stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates modern Washington D.C.’s shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption. Kate Mara and Corey Stoll co-star in the first original series from David Fincher and Beau Willimon.

Price:    DVD SRP $49.95
Blu:ray™ SRP $54.95

Configuration:  DVD / 4 Discs / 13 Episodes / 674 mins
Blu:ray / 4 Discs / 13 Episodes / 674 mins

Genre:    TV Drama

Rating:   MA15+

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There is a scene in Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's masterpiece From Hell - which if you haven't yet read, you must, and if you *have* well there's a new Companion detailing the process of the collaboration behind it out now from Top Shelf - when the man who would be Jack the Ripper experiences a vision of 1990's England. The implication is that the killings set in motion a sequence of events that define the path of history we have experienced. It is a conceit of the author Moore's, as he is interested is drawing out exactly why the brutality of these murders possess a fascination for us today - "Truth is, this has never been about the murders, not the killer nor his victims. It's about us. About our minds and how they dance."

I was reminded of From Hell while watching Time After Time, a film which also deals with the notion of a time-traveling Jack the Ripper. In the former work it is implied that the actions of the killer are designed to reinforce a constrictive patriarchy loyal to Queen and Country. Nicholas Meyer's film has the Ripper (David Warner) arrive in 70's San Francisco and become titillated by post-sexual liberation America; news channels screening graphic footage of atrocities; and guns available for purchase over the counter. He escapes justice in Victorian London and travels to this period thanks to the invention of H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell), who actually did create the Time Machine of his fiction, with the intention of using it to confirm his theories about a hoped-for socialist future Utopia. Instead he discovers that in the future the achievement of his egalitarian views has not yielded the paradise he hoped for, whereas the Ripper is rapt at how his psychotic urges are seemingly being catered to - "Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur." 

The best scene in the film is a confrontation between the two men in the Ripper's hotel room, which results in Wells' illusions of a perfect future being cruelly ripped away. The subsequent film fails to live up to the potential of their argument, but does introduce a startling element. 'Herbert' eventually meets a bank teller - played by Mary Steenburgen, who does much with her underwritten role as the love interest - who unwittingly becomes his guide to the present. What she mistakes as adorable cuteness on Wells' part is actually debilitating cultureshock. Over lunch he tries to impress her with his theories on free love, only for Amy to dismiss him - "I haven't heard that term since the eighth grade." The film proceeds to employ Steenburgen's character as another example of Wells' disappointing future. She launches into a monologue to the befuddled 'English tourist' about her sex life. It's an unusual scene - and an unlikely scenario, given that as a prospective lover Herbert appears to have absolutely no life skills whatsoever and dresses like a catamite convention attendee. Amy eventually does display some backbone when she is finally told her prospective boyfriend is a time traveler - "I have listened to you. And a bigger crock of shit I never heard" - but by then it is already too late. The plot has already decided that she will be the Ripper's next victim, requiring that Wells mans up to rescue her from a gruesome fate. 

The curious thing about this film is that it mixes slapstick humour - see the trailer below - with a truly disturbing subtext. It suggests that 1880's Victorian values were far preferable to the contemporary mores of 1970's San Francisco, exemplified in the main by the repeatedly mentioned "women's lib" movement. Wells ultimately chooses his past over the present and forces Amy to make the same choice. The present belongs to the Ripper, unrestrained from the gentlemanly codes of conduct that apparently kept a lid on his more extreme tendencies. Leaving aside this bizarre perspective on the conditions of Whitechapel in 1888, the film argues that Amy's life in Wells' time would be less complicated by the confusion ushered in by the women's liberation movement. Christ was dating in the 70's that bad? 

As a piece of entertainment Time After Time clings desperately to the talents of Warner, McDowell and Steenburgen - who all gamely get stuck in and if you ever wanted to see Jack the Ripper hanging out in a disco this is the film for you - but its subtext is troubling. Funnily enough Meyer would later return to the idea, casting Catherine Hicks as yet another professional woman of the present-day who sacrifices her life to pursue love in another time - although in this instance the period in question is the utopian Star Trek universe. She got a better deal than Amy. 

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Yesterday evening in Sydney's Four Seasons Hotel, the 2013 ABIAs celebrated the cream of Australian letters, with awards given on the night to writers, retailers, publishers and designers who contribute so much to the industry. 

Special mentions should go to M. L. Stedman,  whose novel The Light Between Oceans picked up a hat-trick of awards - The Book of the Year sponsored by Booktopia. the Literary Fiction Book of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.; publisher of the year Allen & Unwin; Shearer's Bookshop in Leichhardt won the Independent Bookseller award (which is great to see, as I used to spend many's a Sunday hanging out there when I lived down the road); the joint winners of the Illustrated Book of the Year Paul Lockyer’s Lake Eyre: A Journey Through the Heart of the Continent and Ross Coulthart’s The Lost Diggers; finally the Small Publisher of the Year was Text Publishing.

If that last one is familiar to you, perhaps you saw this post advertising an editorial post at their Melbourne office which went viral this week, thanks to the hilarious stream of comments.

A full list of the other winners on the night is below -

The Lloyd O’Neil Award for outstanding service to the Australian book industry was awarded to legendary Penguin publisher Robert Sessions, who announced last week that he is retiring after 27 years in the industry, 22 of them at Penguin.

The Pixie O’Harris Award for Distinguished and Dedicated Service to the Development and Reputation of Australian Children’s Books was awarded to Dr Maurice Saxby for his continued support of children’s literature for over sixty years through his writing, mentoring and teaching.

The General Non-Fiction Book of the Year was awarded to Richard De Crespigny for his gripping account of a near disaster, QF32: The Captain’s Extraordinary Account How One of the World’s Worst Air Disasters Was Averted (Macmillan Publishers Australia).

The General Fiction Book of the Year was won by Kate Morton for her international bestseller, The Secret Keeper (Allen & Unwin).

AFL legend Jim Stynes has been posthumously awarded Biography of the Year for Jim Stynes: My Journey by Jim Stynes and Warwick Green (Penguin Group Australia).

Nick Bland’s charming The Very Hungry Bear (Scholastic Australia) took out the award for Book of the Year for Younger Children, while for the second year in a row, the hugely popular Andy Griffiths has won the Book of the Year for Older Children with his mega selling The 26 -Storey Treehouse (Pan Macmillan Australia).

The Nielsen Bookscan International Bestseller Award went to the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E. L. James (Random House).

The Publishing Technology Innovation Award was won by Bolinda Publishing for the Borrowbox Digital Library Solution.

Chain/Franchise Bookseller of the Year – Dymocks Melbourne

Specialist Bookseller of the Year – Boffins Bookshop, Perth

Regional Bookseller of the Year – Lorne Beach Books, Victoria

Distributor of the Year – United Book Distributors

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