SF Signal: SF Tidbits for 3/7/08

SF Tidbits for 3/7/08

Interviews:
- Neth Space has 5 questions for Michael Swanwick (The Dragons of Babel).
- Teen Book Review interviews Pat Murphy, author of The Wild Girls): "To change our society, we must imagine new stories..."
- Jason Sanford interviews Jim C. Hines (Goblin War).
- Jay Lake podcast-interviews Harry Turtledove.
- Videoedmonton has a 2-part video interview with Serenity/Firefly star (and perennially funny interviewee) Nathan Fillion. [via Illusion]

Free fiction:
- Tor's latest free eBook: The Outstretched Shadow (The Obsidian Trilogy Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.
- U.K. novelist Richard Herley (The Stone Arrow) is offering initially free downloads some of his work. via Fred K.]
- At Cosmos: "Untangling the Future" by Ingrid Banwell. [via Locus Online]
- Subterranean Online completes the Winter 2008 issue with "The Voyage of the Proteus" by Thomas M. Disch.

Baen Books announces the launch of these E-Reads titles, now available at www.webscription.net: Galactic Bounty by William C. Dietz, The Burning by James E. Gunn, and Byzantium's Crown by Susan Shwartz.

Irene Gallo shows off the cover art of Fractions, a Ken MacLeod ominbus edition consisting of The Star Faction and The Stone Canal. I've had those books for quite some tim,e but they fell by the wayside as JP assures me that it contains lots ot politics that I so dislike in my science fiction.

James Wallace Harris asks: What is Your Personal Science Fiction Fantasy?

One for JP: Bookstove talks about Science Fiction Romance: The Illegitimate Cousin No One Wants to Talk About. "Would a romance in a science fiction movie or book change its scope?"

"One thing fantasy writers need to pick up from science fiction writers is universe creation"

The original (better) ending of I Am Legend has been "leaked" to the web. Not sure how long this one will last, as others are being taken down. Google is our friend...

David Gerrold talks about a recent visit to the set of Star Trek XI, where he was taking part in a documentary about Star Trek: The Motion Picture. [via TrekToday]

Time's Lev Grossman is on Watchmen Alert and shows us some movie stills. (See also.)

Happy Catholic points us to this Christian Fandom Recommended Reading List.

Quiet Earth has a list of Post Apocalyptic movies, TV and books.

Lisa Paitz Spindler lists 13 Cool Science Fiction Robots. "Bebble-beeble-beeble...I made the list, Buck!"

"Once we got onto the soundstage, we saw ... a whole bunch of really neat stuff that I am not allowed to talk about."

Well, David, I sure hope so. I'm really hopeful that the next ST movie can get the "franchise" off of life support...but I'm not going to get enthused over it until I see it and it proves itself. Too many disappointments up to now!

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Friday March 07, 2008 at 6:57 AM

That I Am Legend ending is so much better. It pulls together the themes touched on by the film much better. It was obvious that the director wussed out and that the weird Christian ending was tacked on with very little thought.

I love the bit where he looks at the polaroids of all the people (and the vampires clearly are people... they're just not human) that he has kidnapped, experimented on and killed.

Also love the "You are not alone" bit because, of course, he never was. He just made himself alone.

If that had appeared in theatres I would have been happy with it as a more upbeat spin on the themes of the original book.

Posted by Jonathan M on Friday March 07, 2008 at 9:55 AM