Tor's latest batch of freebies includes:
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| Posted by John at 12:22 PM
| Category: Books

This is but one reason why The Zombie Astronaut rocks.
Yesterday he posted a trio of MP3s recordeed from a 1976 LP. (That would be a giant, black cd-looking thing with grooves to anyone who was born in the 80's or later.) The LP is 2001: A Space Odyssey, the final chapters read by Arthur C. Clarke.
To hear Clarke utter "My God. It's full of stars!" was chilling and bittersweet.
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| Posted by John at 12:29 AM
| Category: Books
This blog hasn't got nearly enough Larry Storch, a problem I am correcting right here, right now.
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| Posted by John at 12:21 AM
| Category: TV
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| Posted by JP at 12:10 AM
| Category: Tube Bits

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| Posted by John at 12:05 AM
| Category: Tidbits
This year's summer movie slate is full of sequels and remakes of existing properties. As science fiction/fantasy fans we know there is a wealth of written material that deserves to appear on the big screen or on TV. The recent news that Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is being adapted for the silver screen is welcome, even as we're sceptical about the final result. Our question this week:
- I think Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash could make a brilliant movie, if a screenwriter could be found who could pare the plot down to feature film length without eliminating the humor. What makes it enjoyable to me is that the over-the-top characters and settings - the reluctant hero Hiro, who is an excellent swordsman in both the real world and online, the badass teenaged skateboard messenger, the evangelist who wants to take over the world through speaking in tongues, the mafia-run pizza delivery business, the decaying crowded freeways, tacky strip malls and gated 'burbs covering Southern California, the giant "raft" of refugee boats drifting along the coast - seem almost plausible. And of course there is the appeal of the Metaverse itself, where computer geeks can don an avatar of their own creation and are at the top of the social hierarchy.
- Connie Willis's time travel novels are among my favorites, so I'd love to see them made into movies. The Doomsday Book would make a moving drama, with its contrast between young historian Kivrin's experiences in the medieval village beset by plague, and her colleagues fighting the influenza epidemic in future Oxford. The ending is probably not upbeat enough for a commercial SF movie, though. On the other hand, I think Willis's much lighter time travel comedy of errors, To Say Nothing of the Dog, could be fun light entertainment. I like to imagine it filmed in the style of a Merchant-Ivory production (maybe my fondness for period pieces makes me different from the "average" SF fan, though).
- The theme of environmental destruction in Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is as timely today as it was in the 1970s, as are the issues surrounding the ethics and technical limitations of cloning. While the multigenerational scope of the novel is probably too broad for a single movie, I think that it would work to focus the story on Mark, one of the few "singletons" in the survivalist colony of clones .
- My choice for an outer space flick would be Frederick Pohl's Gateway. It's got dangerous exploration of space and unknown worlds, flawed main characters, tense interpersonal relationships in the close quarters of the alien asteroid spaceport and, and, of course it the dramatic ending with the characters' ships trapped by a black hole. While the novel doesn't really have a feel-good ending, it could be combined with "Heechee Rendezvous" to provide a happy resolution to the story.
- Finally, my nostalgic entry is Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage. It features a teenaged girl whose coming of age story involves the development of both physical and mental toughness as she fights to survive on an unfamiliar planet. Perhaps it is out of date now, considering it was published 40 years ago, but I include it in my list because it made a big impact on me when I read it as a 13-year-old. It was the first (and one of the few) SF book I read that featured the heroics of a girl, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
- I was going to also suggest Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, but a search turned up that it's already in the process of being made into film by Morgan Freeman's production company. I'm looking forward to it.
I actually think that many SF novels can only be faithfully reproduced as miniseries, rather than 90 minute moves. That doesn't mean that SF novel-based movies aren't possible, but that they are necessarily something different than the original. Bladerunner is a great film, but it's only loosely based on Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It's not just that typical SF stories are sprawling in time and space, but that the speculative part of the speculative fiction is usually cut in favor of action. Personally, I would love to see the SciFi channel produce more original miniseries based on classic SF, rather than filling up their schedule with ghost buster "reality" shows and wrestling, but I'm not holding my breath.
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| Posted by JP at 12:29 AM
| Category: Mind Meld
REVIEW SUMMARY: A new author does well in some areas but overall comes up a bit short.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Michael is kidnapped and taken into the future, where he finds himself embroiled in an interplanetary civil war. But things aren't as simple as they appear, as Michael's past starts to catch up to him in the future.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Good small-group action sequences and interesting characters that change throughout the book. Middle section was highly enjoyable.
CONS: Writing is challenged at the beginning with text that was hard to read. Ending struggled with a space opera flavor that didn't work.
BOTTOM LINE: This book by first-time author J.W. Benford is a book I really wanted to like, however there are enough flaws that keep it from being a book I think will have broad appeal. I am looking forward to future efforts by this talented writer.
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| Posted by scottsh at 12:23 AM
| Category: Book Review
Space Nazis!
"In 1945 the Nazis went to the moon. In 2018 they are coming back."
That''s the tag line for Iron Sky, we posted about last October. But there's new buzz as this trailer is making its way around. Like Jayme, I'm lovin' the Sky Captain look.
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| Posted by John at 12:16 AM
| Category: Movies

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| Posted by John at 12:10 AM
| Category: Tidbits
For a limited time, Eos is making The Serpent Bride By Sara Douglass available as a free download in multiple formats (Adobe, MS reader and MobiPocket).
Here's their description of the book:
Tencendor is no more. The land is gone. But a few Sunsoars still remain. And in a distant realm, trouble stirs...And don't forget Eos' First Looks program, where you can sign up to read early copies of Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake, The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith, and Anathem by Neal Stephenson.Rescued from unspeakable horror, Ishbel Brunelle has devoted her life to the Serpent cult, but her destiny calls for larger plans, and dark warnings of the Lord of Elcho Falling. Meanwhile, the fabled hero and former god Axis Sunsoar returns from the Otherworld, and the Darkglass Mountain--once known as the Threshold--is waiting, for the Dark God Kanubai rises from his prison in exile.
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| Posted by John at 11:32 AM
| Category: Books
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| Posted by John at 12:18 AM
| Category: Star Trek
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| Posted by JP at 12:11 AM
| Category: Tube Bits
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| Posted by John at 12:06 AM
| Category: Tidbits
Asimov's Science Fiction Editor Sheila Williams tells us that the Asimov's and Analog magazines are now available in eBook version for the Amazon Kindle device:
Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact are now available on Kindle from Amazon. Issues can be purchased for $2.99 per month from Kindle Magazines and Journals. Kindle Magazine subscriptions start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price.
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| Posted by John at 03:20 PM
| Category: Books
Last Sunday - to celebrate my son's birthday - he and I went to see the latest super-hero movie out of Marvel - Iron Man. Surprisingly, I was thoroughly entertained. You can do a lot worse than watch the eye-candy pumped out by this relatively restrained action flick. Robert Downey Jr. turned out to be a great choice to play Tony Stark. I wasn't sure if he was tough enough to play the role, but he turned out to be good enough. He was more at ease in a tux than he was in the eponymous suit, but it wasn't a distraction. What was a shocker was Jeff Bridges. I wouldn't have thought that he would work out well for this, but his affable, fatherly demeanor made him an ice-cold villain.
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| Posted by scottsh at 12:28 AM
| Category: Movies
Cory Doctorow offers downloadable editions of his latest book, Little Brother, under a Creative Commons License. There is also a website for the book.
FWIW, I'm about 200 pages into a physical copy of the book and all the hype, so far, is justified. Here's a brief excerpt to whet your appetite:
Then the world changed forever.We felt it first, that sickening lurch of the cement under your feet that every Californian knows instinctively -- earthquake. My first inclination, as always, was to get away: "when in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." But the fact was, we were already in the safest place we could be, not in a building that could fall in on us, not out toward the middle of the road where bits of falling mortice could brain us.
Earthquakes are eerily quiet -- at first, anyway -- but this wasn't quiet. This was loud, an incredible roaring sound that was louder than anything I'd ever heard before. The sound was so punishing it drove me to my knees, and I wasn't the only one. Darryl shook my arm and pointed over the buildings and we saw it then: a huge black cloud rising from the northeast, from the direction of the Bay.
There was another rumble, and the cloud of smoke spread out, that spreading black shape we'd all grown up seeing in movies. Someone had just blown up something, in a big way.
There were more rumbles and more tremors. Heads appeared at windows up and down the street. We all looked at the mushroom cloud in silence.
Then the sirens started.
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| Posted by John at 12:22 AM
| Category: Books

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| Posted by JP at 12:15 AM
| Category: Tube Bits
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| Posted by John at 12:04 AM
| Category: Tidbits
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| Posted by John at 12:24 PM
| Category: Humor, Movies
REVIEW SUMMARY: Science-Fantasy that even a fantasy-hater (like me) could love.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: While dealing with the world's ever-impending slide from rationality to magic, futuristic detective Henghis Hapthorn is hired to investigate a conspiracy to overthrow the Archon.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great worldbuilding; well-planned mysteries; perfectly captures the flavor of Sherlock Holmes; the pitch-perfect level of dry humor.
CONS: Deductions sometimes come too easily for Hapthorn.
BOTTOM LINE: Hughes' writing will have me coming back for more.
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| Posted by John at 12:28 AM
| Category: Book Review
On the one hand, I'm kinda stoked to see Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. On the other...his Joker-voice reminds me of some whiny insurance salesman...
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| Posted by John at 12:22 AM
| Category: Movies