SF Signal: SF Tidbits for 5/13/08

SF Tidbits for 5/13/08

Free Fiction:
- Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net: The 2nd Buck Rogers story that was ever published! "The Airlords of Han" by Philip Francis Nowlan (1929)
- "Demon, Star, Alien, Cat" by Greg van Eekhout.
Heliotrope issue #4 is out and features fiction from Nick Mamatas; poetry by Anna Tambour; articles by Jeff Vandermeer, Ian R. MacLeod, and Catherynne M. Valente.

Over at the Guardian, Eric Brown reviews Alastair Reynolds (House of Suns), John Scalzi (The Ghost Brigades), Ian Whates (Celebration), and M.M. Smith (The Servants). [via Locus Online]

PS Publishing shows off the cool cover of Will Elliot's The Pilo Family Circus.

It's not too late to celebrate Reading is Fun Week!

SF/F publisher Orbit plans to expand releases in th U.S. (to 70-80 titles per year) and U.K. (and increase of 10% each year over the next three years).

The latest SciPhiShow podcast features Rudy Rucker.

Wired tells us about Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse.

Richard Morgan of the New York Times (not th SF author) has posted his Steampunk story that was cut from NYT: Steampunk: Remembering yesterday's tomorrows. [via Boing Boing]

"Want to meet learned and passionate readers? Go to the Arthur C Clarke awards for sci-fi..." So says Andrew McKie in The Telegraph. [via Cheryl's Mewsings]

The recent Science Fiction as a Literary Genre symposium has been generating discussion. First by MSSV, then by Niall Harrison (both mentioned in previous tidbits) and now by Adam Roberts, who weighs in with his post The War Between Wells and James.

Jeremiah Tolbert looks at The Mainstreaming of Science Fiction on TV: "With this kind of potential for fans out there, it gives me hope that we could actually make a good living telling genre stories, and not just the ones marketed to an aging, increasingly conservative SF fanbase."

Over at Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic, John Markley considers whether there is still drama in a pure Utopia with his post Asimov, State, and Utopia.

File 770 looks at The Hugo and Gender Controversy, A Year Later.

AMC's SciFi Scanner is running a poll for the coolest starship.

Idol Chatter lists The 10 Greatest Spiritual Characters in Science Fiction.

SCI FI Weekly interviews the cast of Iron Man.

PC World has a slideshow of Science fiction's goofiest gadgets and technology.

Speaking of Iron Man, Over at Time, Matt Selman offers a humorous Deleted Scene From Iron Man. I saw the movie a few days ago and liked it. There were some issues (besides the prominent BK ad) but overall it was a lot of fun.

Jeepers, how can you mention The Airlords of Han" by Philip Francis Nowlan and not mention that not only did he create Buck Rogers, but that it is the second Buck Rogers story ever published?!?

Do you expect people to click the link or something for information?

I instantly downloaded that sucker unto my Kindle and will be reading it soon.

Posted by mwb on Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 8:12 PM