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The Greatest Snack Food Stadium Ever Built? [2]
Voice Of The Fans: What Books Have You Stopped Reading? [40]
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SF Tidbits for 3/21/10 [1]
SF Fanatic: I Am Not A Fan Of Fantasy, Here's Why [29]
Why I Stopped Reading: The Gone Away World [8]
Book Cover Smackdown! 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream' Edition [10]
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MOVIE REVIEW: Repo Men (2010) [4]
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    Recent Comments
    Voice Of The Fans: What Books Have You Stopped Reading? [40]
    REVIEW: The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer [6]
    What's Your Favorite Slipstream Story? [12]
    MIND MELD: Recent SF/F/H Book Covers That Blow Us Away [16]
    SF Tidbits for 3/21/10 [1]
    SF Fanatic: I Am Not A Fan Of Fantasy, Here's Why [29]
    Why I Stopped Reading: The Gone Away World [8]
    Free Fiction for 3/20/10 [1]
    SF Tidbits for 3/20/10 [2]
    MOVIE REVIEW: Repo Men (2010) [4]
    Book Cover Smackdown! 'The Devil in Green' vs. 'Blood of Ambrose' (French) vs. 'Deadman's Road' [11]
    TRAILER: 18 Days [3]

    The Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers is a ten-day workshop for speculative fiction writers aged 14-19 at the University of Pittsburgh's Greensburg campus. At Alpha, students write and revise a short story, give and receive critiques, work with professional authors , and form friendships that often last for years.

    This year, the requests for financial aid exceed the scholarship fund by several thousand dollars and they're raising money to help bridge the gap. The Alpha class of 2009 created a picture book called Ned and Jane, which they're giving away in return for donations of $5 or more. Here's a video to help promote the effort:

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12:20 AM


    Check out this clever video from the folks at Penguin [via Poe TV]

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12:18 AM

    Dark Arts Books has posted the table of contents for their horror anthology When The Night Comes Down edited by Bill Breedlove:

    1. "The Unwrapping of Alastair Perry" by Joseph D'Lacey
    2. "Etoile's Tree" by Joseph D'Lacey
    3. "Introscopy" by Joseph D'Lacey
    4. "Morag's Fungus" by Joseph D'Lacey
    5. "The Quiet Ones" by Joseph D'Lacey
    6. "Silvery Moon" by Bev Vincent
    7. "Knock 'Em Dead" by Bev Vincent
    8. "Something In Store" by Bev Vincent
    9. "Purgatory Noir" by Bev Vincent
    10. "Elevator Girls" by Robert E. Weinberg
    11. "The One Answer That Really Matters" by Robert E. Weinberg
    12. "Maze" by Robert E. Weinberg
    13. "Breeding The Demons" by Nate Kenyon
    14. "Gravedigger" by Nate Kenyon
    15. "One With The Music" by Nate Kenyon
    16. "The Buzz of a Thousand Wings" by Nate Kenyon

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12:12 AM

    The contents of Interzone #227 have been posted:

    Stories

    • "The History of Poly-V" by Jon Ingold
    • "Dance of the Kawkawroons" by Mercurio D. Rivera
    • "Chimbwi" by Jim Hawkins
    • "Flying in the Face of God" by Nina Allan
    • "Johnny's New Job" by Chris Beckett
    • "The Glare and the Glow" by Steve Rasnic Tem
    Features
    • Guest Editorial by Chris Beckett
    • Ansible Link by David Langford
    • BookZone by Jim Steel and the team
    • Laser Fodder by Tony Lee
    • Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12:12 AM

    Want More? See SF Signal's Twitter and Facebook pages for additional tidbits not posted here!

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    Sue Lange is working on a Slipstream project and would love some slipstream story recommendations. In case you aren't familiar with this genre, Wikipedia defines slipstream thusly:

    Slipstream is a kind of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction/fantasy and mainstream literary fiction.
    ...
    Slipstream falls between speculative fiction and mainstream fiction. While some slipstream novels employ elements of science fiction or fantasy, not all do. The common unifying factor of these pieces of literature is some degree of the surreal, the not-entirely-real, or the markedly anti-real.

    So tell us: What's your favorite slipstream story?

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 20, 2010 at 12:25 AM

    Anyone else recognize the standard Hanna-Barbera house music (at 6:30) that they also used in Super Friends?

    [via The Retroist]

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    Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: TV
    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 20, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    Read more...

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 20, 2010 at 12:14 AM

    Mash-up of the day!

    [via Cynical-C]

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    Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Humor, Movies
    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 20, 2010 at 12:09 AM


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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 20, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    REVIEW SUMMARY: Good ideas and a couple of interesting set pieces do not save moronic, by-the-number science fiction action movie.

    MY RATING:

    BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A man who repossesses artificial organs must flee from the organization that employs him when he cannot pay for his own artificial heart.

    MY REVIEW:
    PROS: Strong ideas, with one or two interesting action sequences and the occasional bit of cleverness.
    CONS: Unconvincing worldbuilding, implausible characters and a surprising lack of guts. (No pun intended.)

    Upon seeing Repo Men, I drove to a nearby Barnes and Noble and purchased a copy of The Repossession Mambo, the novel by Eric Garcia on which this futuristic thriller from director Miguel Sapochnik is based. My decision to buy the novel had nothing to do with the movie's quality. Or, rather, it did, and that's part of the problem. The movie presented ideas that were likely handled in the novel with exactly the finesse, skill and gallows wit that its adaptation lacked.

    Read more...

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    Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
    Posted by Derek Johnson at Friday March 19, 2010 at 11:29 AM

    In light of my abortive attempt at reading The Gone Away World I started thinking back at other books that I gave up on before finishing. I can't remember any book in the recent past, other than what sparked this post, that I quit on. For the most, if I read a book I'm not keen on, I can still find some way to plow through until the end.

    The only other book that springs to mind is Dhalgren by Delaney. That one I started and stopped several times before I managed to force myself to finish it, and I didn't like it one bit. I should have left it alone but it's a classic so I there you go.

    But what about you? What books have you stopped reading and why?

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    Posted by JP Frantz at Friday March 19, 2010 at 4:50 AM

    Here's a way-cool video from the folks at Cartoon Brew: Superman's Secret Cartoon History...

    [via Edd Vick]

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    Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: TV
    Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 19, 2010 at 12:15 AM

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 19, 2010 at 12:11 AM

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    Posted by Charles Tan at Friday March 19, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    Yesterday Tor.com published a piece by Jo Walton entitled 'In Sheep's Clothing: Why Fantasy and SF might be disguised as each other' where Jo discusses books where fantasy settings have SF-nal underpinnings. Most of the series she discusses I've never read and, being fantasy, I've never wanted to read. Bingo! The perfect topic for an SF Fanatic like myself, why am I not a fan of fantasy?

    As you might expect, being a SF fanatic, I like science fiction. A lot. It's my preferred genre of choice for TV, movies, books and games. It's not that I haven't read/watched/played fantasy stuff, I have. Some of it I've enjoyed quite a bit, but even so, there's still a reticence, a reluctance on my part to try new fantasy offerings. It doesn't matter how highly recommended or how much I may have enjoyed a particular book I still won't go running to the newest fantasy offering.

    I think I've narrowed down the reasons to the following:

    Read more...

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    Comments (29) | PermaLink | Category: Books
    Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 18, 2010 at 12:20 AM

    The winners of this year's James Tiptree, Jr. Award have been announced:
    • Greer Gilman for Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales [2009, Small Beer Press]
    • Fumi Yoshinaga for Ooku: The Inner Chambers, (volumes 1 & 2) [2009, VIZ Media]

    The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is an annual literary prize intended to "reward those women and men who are bold enough to contemplate shifts and changes in gender roles, a fundamental aspect of any society." The award is named after Alice B. Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr. for many years before revealing her identity and real name.

    For more information see The James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council website.

    Congratulations to the winners!

    See also: Past winners.

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 18, 2010 at 12:15 AM


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    Posted by Charles Tan at Thursday March 18, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    My brother doesn't typically recommend books to me, he's usually too busy doing other stuff to have a lot of time to ready. So when he sends me an email saying I should read Nick Harkaway's The Gone Away World, I take note.

    Trying to describe The Gone Away World is difficult. It's post-apocalyptic novel that fuses humor and satire with ninjas, mimes, comic books and video game elements to create something that is definitely unique, at times laugh out loud funny but sadly, ultimately, exhausting to read.

    In this future, the ultimate weapon makes people, places and things 'Go Away' and replaces them with a fantastical landscape where people's nightmares come to life. Consequently, humanity has escaped into a walled civilization where pipes spray a mist to keep the 'Gone Away' at bay. The story starts with a fire raging at a particularly important pumping station and our hero and his team are called in to put it out, like a futuristic version of Red Adair's oil well fighters.

    Harkaway has a unique writing style that can best be described as the bastard love child of Marcel Proust and Minister Faust. If that sounds interesting, it is, when it's firing on all cylinders. Which is the frustrating thing about the book, it rarely does so. Harkaway his prone to lengthy, excruciatingly detailed digressions and flashbacks, in fact the entire first 100 pages or so is one long flashback, peppered with pop culture references and riffs on comics, video games and a bunch of other stuff.

    Read more...

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    Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 2:55 PM

    We turn our attention to book cover art this week. A good cover can mean more sales for a book...but what makes a good cover? We asked this week's panelists this question:

    Q: It's generally well accepted that a book cover's primary responsibility is to sell the book. But artistically speaking, what makes a successful sf/f/h book cover? Which recent sf/f/h books had a cover that blew you away?

    Here's what they said...


    Dave Seeley

    Dave Seeley was an award winning architect before punting and becoming an illustrator. Happy mucking about with both computers and oil paint, Dave's SF work is heavily influenced by sci-fi film noir. Dave's recent client's include Baen Books, Tor, Random House, Lucasfilm, Harlequin-Gold Eagle, Solaris, Harper Collins, Pyr, Midway Games and Vivendi Universal. See his work, clients, and ramblings at www.daveseeley.com.

    OK... honestly, I don't see that many book covers because I'm reading tons of sf and f book manuscripts to then DO their covers.... so when I take a break, I don't typically head off to the bookstore.... BUT, by way of homework for Mind Meld, this morning I stopped into my local Borders, and spent some time taking a look. In the end, I learned that I should do this more often, just to stay in touch with my market. First off, clearly I need to be doing more hot-babe-w-weapon +/- tattoo images, because clearly that's half the market nowadays. (pic one)... Now I like those jackets as much as the next id-controlled red-blooded male...but if that is the context, then things that are NOT-context tend to stand out in my quest for "blew you away." Also, I've learned to be leery of my id's attraction to cover art, in that sometimes there's a "honeymoon period." ;-) Anyway... I decided to go hunt in the wild for these, and not just open my latest Spectrum, because a) I didn't want to be filtered through the Spectrum judge panel, and b) I think that book design and type solution are critical to what makes a successful book cover.... and Spectrum doesn't show me that. I even diligently wrote down all the designers names so I could credit them, and then promptly left it on the last shelf for the Border's custodial staff, while snapping iPhone pics. I think that type/cover design is like parenting, where it can nurture, showcase and enhance the art if attended to diligently with an insightful light touch, and so easily frak it up otherwise.

    So anyway...Here's what I came up with...

    Two, right off the bat by Greg Manchess. He does exceptionally good figure work (full figured?) with a perfectly spartan but juicy brushwork and fairly unfettered backgrounds...everything I do NOT do...hmmm.. Next up came Scott Fischer's Titans of Chaos, with a beautifully rendered heroine in a levitation trance.... really exploring the boundaries of her image crop in an unconventional way. I also love Scott's whimsical ornamentation and color use...

    Read more...

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 12:29 AM

    Chris Dolley has posted the table of contents for the Book View Cafe anthology Dragon Lords and Warrior Women edited by Phyllis Irene Radford and illustrated by Ursula K. by Le Guin:

    High Fantasy

    1. "Eagle's Beak and Wings of Bronze" by Deborah J. Ross
    2. "One Small Detail" by Katharine Kerr
    3. "Hero" by Sherwood Smith
    Fantastical Others
    1. "Kind Hunter" by Pati Nagle
    2. "The Merrow" by Steven Harper
    3. "Night Harvest Cuvée Rouge" by Vonda N. by McIntyre
    4. "Repo Babe" by Jennifer Stevenson
    Modern Fantasy
    1. "Grow Your Own" by Brenda W. by Clough
    2. "East of the Sun, West of Acousticville" by Judith Tarr
    3. "Headless Over Heels" by Chris Dolley
    4. "Somewhere in Dreamland Tonight" by Madeleine Robins
    5. "Daddy's Big Girl" by Ursula K. by Le Guin
    Fantastic Merlin
    1. "Taco Del and the Fabled Tree of Destiny" by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
    2. "The Thief of Stones " by Sarah Zettel
    Ancient Fantastics
    1. "Not My Knot" by Irene Radford
    2. "Dusty Wings" by Nancy Jane Moore
    3. "Heart of Jade" by " by Amy Sterling Casil
    4. "Feather of the Phoenix" by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
    5. "The Natural History and Extinction of the People of the Sea" by Vonda N. by McIntyre

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 12:20 AM

    My new favorite web find (thanks to SuperPunch) is a Flickr gallery of CubeDudes, a collection of Lego figures that resemble (among other folks) some science fictional characters, both common and off-the-wall.

    Above you can see the CubeDude version of Jean-Luc Picard, Wesley Crusher, Paul Atreides, and, my favorite, Jay Maynard the Tron Guy.

    Check out the gallery and you can also find Robin the Boy Wonder, Buzz Lightyear, Frankenstein's monster, The Tick, Film Slashers (Freedy Krueger, Jason, Leatherface and Chucky), Wonder Woman, Captain America, Green Lantern, Jack Skellington, Lando Calrissian, and lots more.

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 12:15 AM

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    Posted by Charles Tan at Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    Look at these beauties...

    Your Mission (should you choose to accept it): Tell us which cover you like best and why.

    Books shown here:

    NOTE: Bigger, better cover art images are available by clicking the images or title links.

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    Comments (11) | PermaLink | Category: Art, Books
    Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 11:29 AM

    REVIEW SUMMARY: It's both steampunk and Literary. Take that, steampunk naysayers!

    MY RATING:

    BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The story of how mild-mannered Harold became trapped aboard the airship of an evil genius with only a handful of robots, the voice of his unrequited love, and the said evil genius (now in suspended animation) to keep him company.

    MY REVIEW:
    PROS: Steampunk is used not just for flavor, but also as a vehicle to give the story more meaning; lush prose; attractive, retro-futuristic world building.
    CONS: Sometimes tries too hard to be Literary. Because of the diary-like telling, you never doubt where the story is headed.
    BOTTOM LINE: This is not only a good steampunk novel, it's also a book with more depth than one might expect.

    Read more...

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 12:29 AM

    18 Days is an animated feature based on the Mahbharata, an ancient Indian epic written in Sanskrit. Grant Morrison, the writer, describes his film as "a psychedelic Lord of the Rings with Star Wars technology." After you see the trailer, I think you'll agree that Legolas totally needs an energy bow.

    Looks interesting to me, although the city on the river does have a River Of Gods cover art vibe to it...

    [H/T Quiet Earth]

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    Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    Stephen King ventures into the world of comics with the launch of a new series called American Vampire, a new series co-authored with Scott Snyder and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque. King will co-write the first five issues of the series, which is described thusly:

    When notorious outlaw Skinner Sweet is attacked by an old enemy (who happens to be a member of the undead), the first American vampire is born... a vampire powered by the sun, stronger, fiercer, and meaner than anything that came before.

    Plus... Pearl Jones is a struggling young actress in 1920's Los Angeles.
    But when her big break brings her face-to-face with an ancient evil, her Hollywood dream quickly turns into a brutal, shocking nightmare.

    This is the beginning of an epic new series, spanning decades and generations, and it all begins here.

    The website includes a 40 second video (shown here) and other extras like a preview of the first issue.

    [via Robot 6]

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 12:15 AM

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    Posted by Charles Tan at Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    Ari Marmell is the author of several works of horror and fantasy tie-in fiction - including Agents of Artifice, a Magic: the Gathering novel-as well as roughly ten-billion-and-one role-playing game supplements for Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: the Masquerade, and others. The Conqueror's Shadow, available from Random House's Spectra imprint, is his first published non-tie-in novel. You can find Ari online at www.mouseferatu.com.


    Why Anti Matters

    With the possible exceptions of horror and superhero comic books (which, though predating the field of "contemporary fantasy," are arguably as much a subset thereof as they are a subset of sci-fi), the fantasy genre seems to contain a greater proportion of antiheroes than any other. From Elric of Melniboné to Vlad Taltos, Thomas Covenant to Xena, Locke Lamora to the Black Company, Jack Sparrow to-if I dare hope to place him in such infamous company-my own Corvis Rebaine, fantasy is absolutely replete with protagonists who are either former villains trying to make good, or who still would be villains if their tales were told from only a slightly altered perspective.

    It almost goes without saying that for such a character to work, they must be given redeeming traits to make up for, or at least explain, their more villainous aspects. Vlad Taltos limits his "evil" to (more or less) those who have earned it. Jack Sparrow occasionally tries to do the right thing, and he's just a whole lot of fun. I gave Corvis Rebaine strong motivations for his attempted conquest, and a family he loves and wants to protect once he's "retired" from his martial life. I could write an entire (very lengthy) essay on all the various ways to make an antihero sympathetic, but A) that's a little broader than I wanted to get, and B) I think most of you would lynch me if I tried to make you read that much on a computer screen.

    So, let's put that aside for just a moment and talk about something that's going to seem unrelated, but bear with me. My mind's tricksy that way, Precious.

    Read more...

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    Posted by Ari Marmell at Monday March 15, 2010 at 11:29 AM

    REVIEW SUMMARY: Tim Burton gives Lewis Carroll's classic stories a passionless, visually bland update.

    MY RATING:

    BRIEF SYNOPSIS: On the day of her engagement to Hamish Ascot, nineteen-year-old Alice Kingsley follows a white rabbit in a waistcoat down a rabbit hole leading to Wonderland, where, with the help of an eccentric group of characters, she must defeat the Red Queen.

    MY REVIEW:
    PROS: A good cast with occasionally interesting flourishes of character and scenery. And it's hard not to love Alan Rickman's hookah-smoking caterpillar.
    CONS: Uninvolving and, despite the 3D rendering, often flat.

    It shouldn't have been this way. Given the cast involved, given the director's knack for the grotesque and the surreal, to say nothing of the source material, this Alice in Wonderland should have been a marvel, a milestone in the development of fantasy cinema. After all, the logical games and off-the-wall situations presented by Lewis Carroll in both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There parallel much of the nonsense language and narrative dissociation one sometimes feels living in this first decade of the twenty-first century. It is also, in a way, the movie Tim Burton has been preparing to make since Frankenweenie. Whether or not his movies have taken place in Pee Wee's Playhouse or Gotham City, whether or not he has followed such characters as Edward Scissorhands or Sweeny Todd, he has always taken his audience to some zip code deep in his own Wonderland.

    Read more...

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    Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
    Posted by Derek Johnson at Monday March 15, 2010 at 6:29 AM

    Ari Marmell, author of the upcoming fantasy novel The Conqueror's Shadow, is offering his gothic horror/fantasy Black Crusade available as a free PDF download. Ari says:

    Black Crusade was originally written to be one of the first of the Ravenloft: Dominion line of novels from Wizards of the Coast. "Ravenloft" is the name of a gothic horror/fantasy setting. Although Ravenloft was created for the Dungeons and Dragons game, the Dominion line was meant to give it a new flavor-specifically, rather than drawing characters and domains from various D&D worlds, it would draw them from various periods of real-world history. In the case of , that period was the First Crusade.
    The line of books was canceled before Black Crusade could be published, though it was released serially online. Now you can download the complete novel as a PDF file.

    [via Grasping for the Wind]

    Note: Tune in later today for a guest-post by Ari Marmell about The Conqueror's Shadow!

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    Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
    Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 15, 2010 at 12:25 AM

    Disney knows a winner when they see it, and so far, Tron Legacy has 'winner' written all over it. To help advertise the upcoming movie, Disney has rented a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles where, each month until release, they will be displaying a new Tron Legacy related advertisement. So far they've release three for us to enjoy. Take a gander!

    tronbillboard.jpg
    Billboard #1 - Sweet, sweet blue light cycle.
    Read more...

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    Posted by JP Frantz at Monday March 15, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    A new batch of free fiction has been linked to by still-awesome resource Free Speculative Fiction Online. Some dupes from our past Free Fiction posts, but hey...never look a gift story in the mouth. Am I right?

    1. Gregory Benford "The Final Now" (Tor.com, March 2010)
    2. Craig DeLancey "Dark Matter" (Cosmos Magazine, June 2009)
    3. Paul Di Filippo "The Perfect Lover" (Nature, April 2006)
    4. Simon Ings Painkillers (Bloomsbury, 2000)
    5. Mary Robinette Kowal "Beyond the Garden Close" (Apex, March 2010)
    6. Mary Robinette Kowal "The Bride Replete" (Apex, March 2010)
    7. Matthew Kressel "The History Within Us" (Clarkesworld #42, March 2010)
    8. Jay Lake "The Dead Man's Child" (Cosmos Magazine, 2006)
    9. Chris Lawson "Empathy" (Cosmos Magazine, April 2006)
    10. Marissa Lingen "Things We Sell to Tourists" (Aeon #6, March 2006)
    11. Brian Lumley "The Nonesuch" (Subterranean, Winter 2010)
    12. Alex Dally MacFarlane "The City of Lobster, or, The Dancers on Anchorage St." (Fantasy Magazine, March 2010)
    13. Alex Dally MacFarlane "The Devonshire Arms" (Clarkesworld #32, May 2009)
    14. Alex Dally MacFarlane "The Notebook of my Favourite Skin-Trees" (Daybreak Magazine, March 2010)
    15. Sandra McDonald "Tupac Shakur and the End of the World" (Futurismic, March 2010)
    16. Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling "Junk DNA" (Asimov's, January 2003)
    17. Gord Sellar "Alone With Gandhari" (Clarkesworld #42, March 2010, also in audio)
    18. Eric James Stone "The Ashes of His Fathers" (Analog, May 2008)
    19. Eric James Stone "Upgrade" (Analog, December 2006)
    20. David Walton "Letting Go" (Jim Baen's Universe Vol. 3 No. 2, August 2008)

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 15, 2010 at 12:14 AM

    In the interest of full disclosure, here are the books and stuff we received this week.

    Read more...

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 15, 2010 at 12:11 AM

    Interviews/Profiles

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    Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
    Posted by Charles Tan at Monday March 15, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    Starts at about 7:30 minutes in...

    [via The Cinemated Man]

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 14, 2010 at 12:20 AM

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 14, 2010 at 12:14 AM

    News

    • Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews is coming in June, a book described as "A definitive collection of interviews with one of America's most famous writers, covering his life, faith, friends, politics, and visions of the future." [via File 770]
    • RevolutionSF Contest : Win The Best of Joe R. Lansdale.
    • William Shatner has launched his own social networking website called MyOuterSpace.com. By definition, it's Shatastic!

    Articles
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    Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 14, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    Recorded at Boskone...

    [via Singularity Hub]

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    Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Books, Science and Technology
    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12:25 AM

    SyFy, in its infinite wisdom, likes to take months long breaks in the middle of its high profile series so it shouldn't come as a shock they did so with SGU. In case you forgot, SGU ended with, well, the trailer pretty much picks up (and spoils!) where the last episode ended. Take a gander:

    Finally, finally!, something interesting looks to happen. You can see my feelings on the first half of SGU here but I have to say I like what I see in the trailer. Aliens and some combat can only help spice up the otherwise dreary and moribund story we've seen so far.

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    Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12:20 AM

    Subterranean Press has posted the table of Contents for Joe R. Lansdale's upcoming collection Dead Man's Road which contains his stories about Jedidiah Mercer, an Old West Reverend who deals with zombies, ghouls, werewolves, Lovecraftian monsters and kobolds.

    • Dead in the West
    • "Deadman's Road"
    • "The Gentleman's Hotel"
    • "The Crawling Sky"
    • "The Dark Down There"

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12:13 AM

    The BBC will be airing a new 6-part post-apocalyptic comedic adaptation of Dark Horse Comic's Apocalypse Nerd by Peter Bagge.

    [via Quiet Earth]

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12:12 AM

    Norilana Books has posted the table of contents for their upcoming Tanith Lee collection Sounds and Furies, which collects "seven singular, gorgeous tales of lingering atmospheric horror from the masterful pen of Tanith Lee":

    1. "Where All Things Perish"
    2. "Midday People"
    3. "Cold Fire"
    4. "Crying in the Rain"
    5. "We All Fall Down"
    6. "The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald"
    7. "The Isle is Full of Noises"

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12:11 AM

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12:05 AM

    REVIEW SUMMARY: An Epic Space Opera tale.

    MY RATING:

    BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An interesting, epic space opera revenge tale that weaves together separate story lines into an excellent read.

    MY REVIEW:
    PROS: Shadowline pulls together three distinct story lines, weaving them together over the course of the story, in an interesting universe of interstellar politics.
    CONS: The world building here isn't up to the same level as other Space Opera novels, leaving a bit to be desired.
    BOTTOM LINE: This is a very good read, with an excellent story and series of characters.

    Read more...

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    Posted by Andrew Liptak at Friday March 12, 2010 at 12:29 AM

    It's official, after the mess that was the latest Superman movie, Christopher Nolan will be "shepherding" a new rebooted Superman movie to completion. Let's hope that Brandon Routh's metrosexual Supes doesn't make a return and that there are no giant spiders (the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom) for Superman to fight. Nolan won't be writing or directing but hopefully some of the same sensibilities that made the new Batman movies so good will rub off on the new Superman.

    With concrete info hard to come by, we're opening it up to you. What would you like to see from a new Superman movie? Who would you like to see as Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Lex Luthor? Do you even want to see Luthor as the villain? What about a story line you'd like to see? Should they redo the origin story or come up with something different (I'd assume a redone origin story is in order.) Should John Williams return with his kick ass score?

    What say you?

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    Posted by JP Frantz at Friday March 12, 2010 at 12:25 AM

    Angela Slatter has posted the table of contents for a new paranormal romance anthology, Scary Kisses:

    1. "The Anstruther Woman" by Nicole R. Murphy
    2. "Fade Away" by Ian Nichols
    3. "Bread and Circuses" by Felicity Dowker
    4. "Black Widow" by Shona Husk
    5. "The February Dragon" by Angela Slatter and L.L. Hannett
    6. "Growing Silence" by Matt Tighe
    7. "The Hidden One" by Astrid Cooper
    8. "A Darker Shade of Pale" by David Bofinger
    9. "The Valley" by Martin Livings
    10. "Cursebreaker: the Welsh Widow and the Wandering Wooer" by Kyla Ward
    11. "Heat" by Donna Maree Hanson
    12. "Phaedra" by Bruce Golden
    13. "Date with a Vampire" by Annette Backshall
    14. "Pride and Tentacles" by D.C. White

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 12, 2010 at 12:16 AM

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 12, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    From a press release by The Science Fiction Writers of America:

    Read more...

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    Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 12, 2010 at 12:12 AM

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    Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
    Posted by Charles Tan at Friday March 12, 2010 at 12:05 AM