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• Acacia by David Anthony Durham has been named one of the 10 Best fiction books of 2007. Kirkus also has a SF/F special section (PDF Link).


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Brandon Sanderson, author of A Memory of Light, the final installment in the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga.


• Phillip Pullman is writing a new novel set in the world of His Dark Materials. [via The Swivet]


• At Omnivoracious, Jeff VanderMeer lists Four Great SF/F Gifts for readers.


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "History Repeats" by George O. Smith and "Gold in the Sky" by Alan Nourse.


• More free fiction! Jeff Patterson continues his tradition of Christmas stories with "The Harbinger of All Things Glorious". If you like this, you'll like his Solstice Chronicles collection.


• It's the twilight of the books...The New Yorker comments on the National Endowment for the Arts statistic that people are reading less: "There's no reason to think that reading and writing are about to become extinct, but some sociologists speculate that reading books for pleasure will one day be the province of a special "reading class," much as it was before the arrival of mass literacy, in the second half of the nineteenth century."


• Dave at Dave's Long Box explains why he hates Star Trek Gold Key comics. "Gold Key's Star Trek comics seemed like they were produced by bored hacks who had very little interest in the actual source material...Is that bearded guy slapping Spock's ass while he dances like a Russian? What the hell?"


• Good News! Peter Jackson will direct The Hobbit after all. Bad news: There's a sequel...filling in the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. No word yet on whether Tolkien has stopped rolling over in his grave.


• First Showing rounds up a host of 2008 movies, including several genre films.


• Stale Popcorn is counting down the 100 Best Movie Posters, which include Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Carpenter's The Thing.


• Wired explains the origins of Futurama's Zoidberg.


• I would be remiss in my supermodel-related duties is I did not point out this Flickr gallery: The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek TOS. [via Boing^2]

Share: | Posted by John on Wednesday December 19, 2007 - 2:15 AM | Category: Tidbits | © 2007 SF Signal

Worse news, he's only producing, not directing.

I'm not actually sure if that's worse than the idea of splitting The Hobbit in twain, but either way it's not as great as it could have been. Still, can't complain - it's undoubtedly better with him than without him, in whatever capacity.

Posted by Matt Dovey on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 7:16 AM

As has been said on the Boing, that Flickr collection is sorely lacking in the alien or true hotness departments. The Blue vs. Green post was far superior.

Posted by Jeff on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 9:12 AM

I think the splitting is designed to allow them to incorporate more of the "back story" that ended up in the appendices of "The Return of the King" (sort of like the love story). If you recall, "The Hobbit" had parts that were mentioned without being shown: the driving of the Witch King out of southern Mirkwood. It's just a brief narrative bit in the book, but obviously could be the subject matter for a good sequence in the movie.

Toss in some bridge material between "Hobbit" and "Fellowship" and you probably have a duo there. I'm optimistic, whether directing or not, Jackson and Company will stamp this with the same quality they did for the trilogy.

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 10:34 AM

Have you guys thought about consolidating all the links to free fiction into a page like the "author's who blog" page? (Sure, more work for you...but might be a good source to point to for those looking for a read, or an introduction to classic SF, etc.)

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 10:35 AM

WTF? A "Special Reading Class?" We're going backwards? Sometimes I think that people will be walking around in the near future spouting Internet speak and that's it.

Posted by E_I on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 3:03 PM

And the Fred says...
>> Have you guys thought about consolidating all the links to free fiction into a page...

That would be cool except for, as you mention, the extra work involved. Besides, there are sites that do that already. http://www.freesfonline.de/ and Quasar Dragon come to mind.

Posted by John on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 7:45 PM

I should also add other sources I use of newly available free fiction"

ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg.

Posted by John on Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 10:55 PM