REVIEW SUMMARY: A good read, but I was expecting more.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Marid Audran and his crime boss, Friedlander Bey, are exiled to the Arabian desert for a murder they did not commit.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: The flavor of prose is very enjoyable and easily consumable; colorful characters; the Budayeen is a great setting.

CONS: Weaker first half; pacing issues.

BOTTOM LINE: This late-blooming story did not quite match the enjoyment levels of the previous two books; if you haven’t read them, start there.

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Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
How well is the Sci-Fi Channel doing as compared with last year?

RESULTS

Be sure to vote in this week’s poll on upcoming Sci-fi on TV and Film!

Issue #889 (August 4, 2006) of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. Here’s a snippet.

A Separate War and Other Stories by Joe Haldeman

For Fans of: Starship Troopers or Haldeman’s classic, The Forever War.

Lowdown: Whether spinning old characters into new tales (“A Separate War”) or tackling issues like terrorism, homosexuality, and global warming, Haldeman remains a nimble, necessary figure in sci-fi’s pantheon.

Grade: A-

Farthing by Jo Walton

For Fans of: Robert Harris’ Fatherland or Philip Roth’s Plot Against America.

Lowdown: A stiff-upper-lip whodunit boasting political intrigue and uncomfortable truths about anti-Semitism.

Grade: B+

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel

For Fans of: Surreal David Lynch and Wim Wenders films.

Lowdown: The book doesn’t define a genre you’ve never heard of so much as blur the line between sci-fi and mainstream.

Grade: B+

The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

For Fans of: Vampires, wizards, and philosophical ideas.

Lowdown: Urban and sleek where Anne Rice is parochial and ornate, it’s a promising entry into what could be a modern horror epic.

Grade: B-

• Did you miss the Eureka season premiere? Watch the 2-hour episode online at SciFi Channel’s Pulse website.
• Fathom Archive offers us The Biology of B-Movie Monsters.
• Take a break: Free Flash games!
• Vote for your sci-fi favorites at The 2006 SyFy Portal Genre Awards. [via SciFi Ranter Girl]
• The Washington Post reviews Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds, The Baby Merchant by Kit Reed, Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson and Daughters of Earth edited by Justine Larbalestier.
• Following Part 1, Lou Anders offers The State of Science Fiction, Part II. He also looks at Judging Books by their Covers.

Now that Richard Donner is getting a chance to make his version of Superman II, there will be changes. Access Hollywood aired a preview of the changes which found their way to YouTube. One difference: Lois throws herself out of a Daily Planet window. Silly Lois! You’re supposed to do that before the whole “Can you read my mind?” bit!

YouTube also offers a collection of deleted scenes from Superman and Superman II.

[via Cinematical]

Film Critic offers a spoiler-laden list of The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time. Some genre entries of note:

48. Batman Begins (2005)
42. The Terminator (1984)
40. The Thing (1982)
35. Back to the Future (1985)
33. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
22. Brazil (1985)
18. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
17. Planet of the Apes (1968)
16. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
7. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

[via Cynical-C]

• RIP: David Gemmell.
• Pendragon Pictures is filing suit against Dark Horse Comics claiming that the comic makers have cribbed a whole lot of visuals from their flick, which they try to illustrate via their website. [via Cinematical]
• Wildside Press is launching a new mass-market paperback line.
• Jonathan Strahan offers the second Coode Street Podcast.
• John Jarrold shares how he discovered SF.
• Charles Brown Sean Wallace shows off the cool-looking covers for 2007 editions of Prime Books‘ Best of the Year anthology series. [via Wallace's liveJournal]
• Here’s Ursula K. LeGuin’s introduction to The Norton Book of Science Fiction.
• A woman has decorated her apartment to look like Space 1999‘s Moonbase Alpha. [via The Website at the end of the Universe]

• Dear Pete, Tim and Fred: Please vote for The Top Babe of Science Fiction. Love, Goofy Blog. XXX OOO
• Lou Anders weighs in on The State of Science Fiction.
• Farah Mendlesohn asks: Where have all the Juveniles gone?.
• Liz Williams talks about agents, small press vs. larger press and novels vs. short stories.
• Boing Boing points blogs of the writers (and instructors) that attended Clarions East and West.
• Back to Future – Parts I and II side-by-side. [via Backwards City]
• SciFi UK interviews Greg Bear.
• Meme Therapy interviews John Scalzi.
• Little Willow @ Slayground interviews Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier.
• HardSF.net interviews Charles Stross, Alastair Reynolds and Joe Haldeman.

O Loyal Reader, we are nothing if not subservient. We like to think of ourselves as the protectors of common decency. That is, when we aren’t going on and on about supermodels and licking super heroes.

Speaking of superheroes, tonight was the premiere of the SciFi Channel’s new reality show Who Wants to be a Superhero, created and hosted by comic book legend Stan Lee. In an effort to shield you from Galactica 1980-like atrocities, I’m taking one for the team and subjecting myself to its promise of suckage.

Here, then, are my impressions.

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Science fiction fans the world over are known for their easy-going, acceptance of sci-fi shows and movies.

Kidding! Do you know any other group so vehemently outspoken about the things they hold dear? It occurs to me (as things often do once in a while) that are a small handful of things that far exceed sf fans’ already-low tolerance. And never you mind that we have added to the whining chorus on this very blog. We know you love it.

5. Television Executives – There used to be a time when a network, committed to airing a television show, would air a full season – A full season! – before deciding to axe it for bad ratings. The theory (archaic by today’s standards) was that a show needed time to build a fan base. Welcome to the 21st century where a show can be pulled after 3 episodes. Worse still are when the shows canceled have exhibited some sense of quality or style. The TV Suits make the list for pulling the plug on shows like Firefly. What the world really needs is another reality show. Apparently.
4. The Sci-Fi Channel – Let’s give the science fiction fans exactly what they want: a round-the-clock channel of horrible monster movies and wrestling! To be fair, the channel is headed in the right direction with shows like Battlestar Galactica and (so far) Eureka. And, true, 24 hours a day is a lot of time to fill. But seriously…Mansquito?
3. Hollywood – What’s the quickest way to tick off a science fiction fan? Flick him in his glasses? Insult his imaginary girlfriend? Nope. Adapt his favorite novel for the big screen! While you’re at it, ignore the original material, the author that made it a much-loved classic, and any semblance of plot that it contained. But keep the name. You wanna really tap into the built-in market segment.
2. Rick Berman – Star Trek fans, unite! Unite against the man who is singlehandedly credited with bringing down the Trek franchise. (Never mind that people had no other suggestions for reviving the show other than the Space Fleet Academy premise.)
1. George Lucas – You would think that the man who gave us one of the most-loved films of all time (that would be Episode IV in geek-speak) would be able to get a little slack from fans. However, good taste can only be pushed so far. Even Mother Theresa – God rest her soul – would be the target of derision if she gave us Ewoks, mitichlorians and Jar-Jar Binks. Personally, I think the whole Greedo Shoots First re-take was Lucas giving his cry-baby fans a big raspberry. From his multi-billion-dollar mansion, of course.

• William Shatner takes a look at The Lathe of Heaven.
• A collection of children’s books with a “science sensibility”.
• SF author/critic John Clute gets a blog website. [via Emerald City]
• Literary agent John Jarrold also gets a blog. [via Alien Online]
• Where are you on The Hierarchy of Geeks?
• The theme from Star Wars. Played on a banjo. Really. [via Cynical-C who adds "This ties in nicely with the Luke and Leia makeout scene."]

Because of this article in USA Today, thoughtfully provided by John in today’s tidbits, I thought I’d take a quick look at the films highlighted in the article as well as take a quick look at the upcoming SF(ish) shows on TV.

First up, the movies that are supposedly reclaiming Hollywood.

• Children Of Men – take a SF idea (human race can no longer reproduce) and then explore the ramifications when a woman discovers she is pregnant. I’d say this is SF in the same vein as Margret Atwood’s stories are SF with minimal, but present, SF ideas but an emphasis on the characters. Still, not a film that’s jumping out at me.
• The Fountain – is this really SF? I’d say it’s really romance/fantasy that happens to have one setting in the far future. Not on my list to see. Ever.
• Mimzy – Based on the short story, “Mimsy Were The Borogroves”, by Lewis Padgett. I’ve never read this one so I don’t know how SF-ish it is. It could go either way as a box of toys from the future could have a lot of SF elements to it, or just devolve into a horror/creep fest. I’ll keep my eye on this one.
• Logan’s Run – The on again/off again re-make by Bryan Singer of the X-Men movies fame. Do we really need to update the classic Micheal York vehicle? I don’t think so. How about something fresh and not another remake?
• Star Trek XI – The latest in the Star Trek franchise, this time directed by J.J. Abrams. Supposedly set during the Academy days of Kirk and Spock. Now, I like Kirk and Spock, but to me, Star Trek is about more than just the characters. Sure, they play a large part, but its also about discovery and exploration. I’d like to see a return to the fiver-year voyage and see more ‘new life and new civilizations’. Please.

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That would be J. Michael Stracynski of Babylon 5 fame. It seems that JMS dropped quite a few nuggets of information at the recently completed San Diego Comic-Con. In short order, here are the juicy bits:

• JMS has sold a movie to Ron Howard set in 1920′s LA. It’s supposedly a myster/thriller (and not the Michael Jackson variety). Did you know: Ron’s dad, Rance, played John Sheridan’s father on B5.
• JMS did a radio drama series for the CBC called The Adventures of Apocalypse Al. Still no word on an air date.
• Sam Raimi is developing JMS’ Rising Stars comic series as a TV series. Too bad the NBC look-alike series Heroes will beat them to the punch.
• Another JMS comic property, Midnight Nation, is being bid on by two movie studios. One shudders to think what Hollywood will do to the story.
• And the biggest news of all, if you haven’t seen it yet: There will be more Babylon 5 stories! Maybe on network TV, but most likely to be shot straight to DVD. Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales will be a bunch of short films detailing many different stories set in the B5 universe. The first three will be about three of the main characters. Seeing as how Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas have passed on, the pool of characters is that much smaller. I’m there whenever these are released/aired.

That’s a lot of news. I really liked Rising Stars and I wondered, given the success of comics on film recently, why it hadn’t been picked up. It’s not your typical superhero tale. Tim pointed out that it reminds him of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards series and I agree with that too, along with the Heroes series.

As far as B5 is concerned, I hear that Sheridan will be one of the characters JMS will cover. I’d like to see Garibaldi and Vir as well, although Ivanova would be fun too. If they can get Claudia Christian to do it.

REVIEW SUMMARY: More hits than misses.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of nine novellas from the year 2005.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: 6 stories ranging from good to excellent, the best being a fantasy piece.

CONS: 3 stories mediocre or worse.

BOTTOM LINE: A good assortment of stories from 2005, 3 of them award nominees.

Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels: 2006 aims to collect the best science fiction and fantasy novellas from 2005; whether or not it meets that goal is left up to interpretation, of course. While I can say there were stories from 2005 that I enjoyed better than some of the entries, there are still quite a handful of really enjoyable stories in this volume. As with any anthology, your mileage may vary.

The least enjoyable stories for me this year were hovering in the realm of fantasy. This is not surprising, really, given my preference for science fiction. As I mentioned with last year’s volume, the varied genre selection turns out to be a double-edged sword for readers like myself who may not find a particular genre suitable to their tastes.

That said, I was absolutely blown away that the most enjoyable story was indeed a fantasy: “The Cosmology of the Wider World” by Jeffrey Ford. This story worked on so many levels for me and really made me think hard about why I sometimes do not enjoy fantasy. That fact alone makes it a stunning achievement.

Statistics-wise: Three of the stories in this volume turned out to be award nominees; two for the Hugo (“The Little Goddess” and “Inside Job”), one for both the Hugo and Nebula (“Magic for Beginners”). I had already read all of these as part of my Hugo and Nebula Award nominee reading projects.

Reviewlettes of the stories follow.

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• Spiderman 3 gets a blog. [via Blog Critics]
• Director Sam Raimi (Spiderman 3) has optioned Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. [via Publishers Weekly]
• DC Comics has teamed with Warner Bros. to do a series of animated films based on its DC Universe line. The first three films scheduled for 2007 and early 2008 are: Justice League: New Frontier; Superman: Doomsday; and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. [via Publishers Weekly]
• The USA Today article Science fiction gets real talks about sci-fi’s attempts to wrestle back its movie throne from horror and profiles some upcoming sci-fi movies.
• Family Guy is planning a Star Wars episode. Giggity, giggity… [via Club Jade]
• Comic book urban legends. [via Backwards City]
• Robert Sawyer and George Zebrowski interview each other at Mundane-SF.
• Jonathan Strahan shows off the cool cover art for The Jack Vance Treasury.

Call him Harry Power. The Book Standard article Harry Potter and the Positive Impact shows how the Harry Potter books have persuaded children to turn to books.

More than half of kids ages 5-17 say they did not read books for fun before the Harry Potter series came along, according to the report, which surveyed 500 children and 500 parents nationwide. Among parents, 76 percent say reading the series has helped their child perform better in school, while 65 percent of children agree.

The Harry Potter study found that the average age at which readers pick up Harry Potter is 9, and many older children will read and re-read the books as they get older. This good news follows the findings from Yankelovich’s The Kids and Family Reading Report, released in June, which found that after the age of 8, the number of kids who read for fun significantly drops.

This is great news. I wonder, has any science fiction book had as profound an effect? Ender’s Game maybe?

Author Will Shetterly asks: Is “literary and genre” a clumsy distinction? The post is interesting and the comments even more so. They touch upon some of the literary-type discussions we’ve had here.

There are many statements this post that resonate with me: Story and style crossing genre boundaries; not liking a book of a certain type; reading fiction to be entertained, and Rebecca Ore’s sentiment that [paraphrasing] “If writing stories that show technology and science…is worth doing, it’s worth doing…well.”

As I ponder more and more about this, I am reminded that the reader play a crucial role as well. My own moods play into my enjoyment of books and stories. Sometimes I am in the mood for slam-bang action and sometimes I’m looking for something literary. (Deferring the quagmire of a discussion of exactly what that means, I will say that I am currently reading the fantasy story “The Cosmology of the Wider World” by Jeffrey Ford. It’s literate and likable and a story which is helping me pinpoint my hit-and-miss track record with fantasy. More to come in a later post.)

Anyway, it’s always entertaining to read Another Literary Debate as it pertains to science fiction, eh?

• The comic series Priest is headed to the big screen.
• Comic books of the 1950′s. [via Cynical-C]
• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, “Australia’s Pulpiest SF Magazine”, is now available as a PDF download.
• SF author Paul Levinson on TV’s new golden age. [via SFBC Blog]
• SciFi Weekly interviews Tim Powers.
• Some Fantastic interviews John Scalzi (PDF). [via Whatever]
• Cat Rambo interviews Magazine of F&SF editor Gordon Van Gelder at Suite 101. [via SFBC Blog]
• Locus Online posts interview excepts from the July issue: Peter Straub and Joe Hill.
• The latest publisher to blog: Eos. [via Locus Online] See also: The SFBC Blog enumerates publisher blogs.
• Free fiction: “Community” by Karl Schroeder. [via Velcro City Tourist Board]
• Mike Resnick, author of Starship: Mutiny (SF Signal review here and here) and the recent short story collection New Dreams for Old, will be interviewed on Cincinnati radio station WVXU 91.7 on July 30, 2006. An MP3 version will likely be available for the rest of us. [via Lou Anders and Pyr-o-mania]

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Which of the following is your favorite Robert A. Heinlein book?

RESULTS

Does anyone else notice the bell curve of Heinlein’s writing career? I tried to pick a range of career-spanning work to see if there was a trend since I hear many people say (or few people often say) that Heinlein’s later stuff is lame. It seems his earlier stuff may also be the least-favorite as well. I wonder what the “other” novels were?


Be sure to vote in this week’s poll: SciFi Channel Progress Report!

UPDATED: with NPR link.

• CinemaBlend has the teaser poster for Star Trek XI, due in 2008.
• This week’s NPR Weekend Edition Sunday will feature a report on the Singularity called “Planned Adolescence” (link) by Rick Kleffel and it will feature Vernor Vinge and Cory Doctorow, “helping to explain to listeners who are not immersed in science fiction just what the technological singularity is, where the idea originated in Vinge’s work, and how it plays out a bit in the literature.” [via Kleffel's Agony Column and SFF Audio]
• A gallery of Hubble wallpaper.
• Jonathan Strahan shows off the John Picacio covers for his two new anthologies Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005 and Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005, now available for pre-order from Locus Press.
• The Einstein Archives collects Einstein’s papers and letters.
• On November 28, Warner Home Video will release Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, a revised version of the 1980 sequel to Donner’s Superman: The Movie.
• Mumpsimus (Matthew Cheney) has a longish post about Philip K. Dick and literary style. [via SFBC Blog]
• Meme Therapy interviews Mark Budz.
• Cheryl at Emerald City talks of advance reading copies and bribes.
• Time Traveler Show episode #3: “Arena” by Fredric Brown as read by William Spurlin (~56 minutes).
• Meet the author: Jonathan Stroud, author of Ptolemy’s Gate.

There’s an interesting and (hopefully) good-natured-but-heated thread happening between Robert J. Sawyer, author of Mindscan, and Evo Terra of the Dragon Page.

It started when Sawyer, who runs his own publishing house called Robert J. Sawyer Books, received a manuscript from an author seeking publication. The author sent a follow-up email to Sawyer twice within 3 months – in today’s relatively slow-moving publishing world, that’s asking a lot – indicating a pending decision to go the Print-on-Demand route. Sawyer responded to said author with a rejection:

I’ll also say this: repeatedly forcing an editor to focus his or her thoughts on your work by asking if a determination has been made yet may lead the editor to make decisions prematurely, and there’s only one safe decision to be made that way. Since you want a decision now, here it is: I’m going to pass on your book.

…

So, best of luck elsewhere. All that said, though, one writer to another, I think going the route of online serialization and POD are mistakes you will regret in the years to come. Online publishing and POD are a waste of time; you’ll have fewer than a hundred readers, I’m willing to wager, in either format. But it’s up to you.

Evo Terra of the Dragon Page took issue with this last part and responded on his blog, citing his experience with his audio-book serializing website, podiobooks:

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In case you missed the comment about BG season 3 in the Eureka: First Impressions post, now, with thanks to Youtube.com and the Unnofficial Battlestar Galactica Blog, I present to you, the BG Season 3 Promo, in all its glory. Enjoy. (Now we just need to get the tech heads in Eureka to create us a time machine. Or bust into Ron Moore’s office and steal the dailies…)

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Star Wars and George Lucas are brought up on charges for crimes against science fiction.

PROS: Covers a lot of ground that relates to science fiction, thought-provoking essays, just a darn good read.

CONS: A few weak essays, uneven tone and a bit too much author bias in some places.

BOTTOM LINE: Star Wars On Trial should be read by every fan of Star Wars and should be enjoyed by readers of science fiction in general.

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• Trailer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• New on DVD: The Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon. [via Eternal Golden Braid]
• G4 covers ComicCon 2006.
• A website for the book James Tiptree, Jr.; The double life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips. [via Locus Online]
• A simultaneous interview between James Gunn and Bradley Denton.
• A detailed list of aliens in fiction. [via Mumpsimus]
• Here’s a forthcoming piece by Red Church on the art vs. entertainment debate.
• The infodump is contemplated by Matt Cheney and Torque Control. [latter link via SFBC blog]
• Chris Roberson wonders about declining readerships and the end of mass media as we know it when he asks Where did everybody go?

From Yahoo:

NBC said Wednesday it will let Netflix subscribers take sneak peeks at two new series before the shows air on the network.

Subscribers of the online movie rental service will be able to rent DVDs with the debut episodes of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “Kidnapped” starting Aug. 5, about six weeks before the shows premiere on television.

Anyone interested in this? I wouldn’t mind seeing Studio 60. [Looks at Kevin.] Too bad they don’t have 30 Rock.