DATE ARCHIVE: January 2006
What's the Last Book You Read and Was it Any Good?

It always interests me to see what other people are reading. I like to see what appeals to their tastes in reading. Some people like to stick to a single author until their entire bibliography is read. Others like to mix it up by alternating authors and even genres. Some switch between fiction and non-fiction. I'm curious to know what our readers read and what their impressions were.

For my part, as I religiously post on this very site, I recently read Frederik Pohl's career-spanning collection Platinum Pohl. It was a good collection of stories, though Pohl is liberal with the economic and political themes. But man, there were some great stories in there. I think I tend to overdose on a particular writing style in collections but not so much with anthologies where the various authors have widely different styles. And yet, that's a reading impediment that does not usually occur with novel-length fiction. Somehow, the short doses of science fiction make me more aware of the writer's style.

So, what's the last book you read and was it any good?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 31, 2006 at 1:42 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits for 1/31/06

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 31, 2006 at 11:23 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Some Future SF Book Titles

One of the nice things about Locus Magazine is the People and Publishing section which lists "book sales" and "books delivered". The January 2006 issue shows a sneak peek into the future of SF. (Some of this news may be a little old...print is a slower medium than the Internet, after all!)

  • Stephen Baxter is writing the four-book Time's Tapestry cycle, the first book is called Emperor.

  • Charlie Stross sold a near-future heist novel about MMORPGs tentatively titled Halting State and also sold an unnamed sequel to Iron Sunrise.

  • This was already mentioned but is worth repeating: John C. Wright sold the third book in his Orphans of Chaos series.

  • John Scalzi sold book three in his Old Man's War series, titled The Last Colony.

  • Alan Dean Foster sold Sagramanda, a near-future tale of India.

  • William C. Dietz sold two more novels in his Legion of the Damned series: When All Seems Lost and When Duty Calls.

  • Kage Baker sold a collection titled Dark Mondays.

  • Neal Asher sold Prador Moon, described as "a sequel prequel of sorts" to Skinner.

  • James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel turned in Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 30, 2006 at 10:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

There's a New Google Toolbar in Town

Google will soon be releasing an updated version of their awesome Google Toolbar. For now you can download the beta

New features include:

  • Adding custom button - This innocent-sounding feature allows you to create a custom search button (like I did for SF Signal) and it allows you to integrate a site's RSS feed through it so that the latest entries appear at the click of a button! Way cool!

  • Bookmarks - Create bookmarks that are accessible from any computer.

  • Enhanced search box - lets you see suggested terms while you are typing them.

  • "Send To" feature - Send web pages to friends via Gmail or SMS, or post directly to a blogger blog. (Hopefully, MT support will be added soon.)

  • Log into your Google account - from the Settings menu

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 30, 2006 at 5:42 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

POLL RESULTS: 2005 BSFA Awards
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Which of the following should win the 2005 BSFA Award for best novel?

RESULTS
(16 total votes)
Voter turnout was seriously down this week. What's the deal? Poor topic? Poor choices?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 30, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominees

The shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced:

  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

  • Learning The World by Ken MacLeod

  • Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

  • Air by Geoff Ryman

  • Accelerando by Charles Stross

  • Banner Of Souls by Liz Williams
Although the award is given to the best SF novel published each year in the UK (but not necessarily by a British writer), this is the first all-British shortlist in the history of the Award. The winner will be announced April 26, 2006 at the Apollo Cinema in London.

[link via Locus Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 29, 2006 at 10:27 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Locus 2005 Recommended Reading List

I always look forward to getting the next issue of Locus magazine in the mail, even if it does come late. But I anticipate the February issue even more because it contains the Recommeded Reading List of the prior year. This weekend, Locus Online posted the Locus Magazine 2005 Recommended Reading List, a consensus by Locus editors, Locus reviewers and some other big names in the field. It's quite an impressive list and it covers SF novels, fantasy novels, first novels, young adult books, collections, anthologies, non-fiction, art books and short fiction (novellas, novelettes and short stories).

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 29, 2006 at 6:41 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW: Platinum Pohl by Frederik Pohl

REVIEW SUMMARY: A worthy career-spanning retrospective.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A collection of thirty short fiction pieces from Frederik Pohl's 50-plus-year career.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 23 stories good or better, 9 of them outstanding.
CONS: 7 stories mediocre or worse.
BOTTOM LINE: A good collection of entertaining fiction; a must-have for Pohl fans.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 29, 2006 at 6:27 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Dune Ride-Along

Authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are in the midst of writing Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, the two-volume chronological grand climax to the Dune Saga based on Frank Herbert's outline for 'Dune 7'. The cool thing about this is that they are letting readers in on the process of its creation through the Dune 7 Blog. This is the same thing they did when writing Dune: The Machine Crusade and it was apparently well-received. There are some interesting bits on their blog including three cover paintings and the book jacket copy. KJA even offers a little insight into his being commissioned to write a sequel to A.E. van Vogt's Slan.

[Link via The Alien Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 28, 2006 at 5:00 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SnapShirts

SnapShirts is a service that makes T-shirts using tag words. They will even troll your blog (or any website) and find commonly used words. So, natch, I plugged in SF Signal's URL and it generated the following word list:

action age alien author award best better big book books bottom brief character city cons cool different discussion down earth end excellent family fantasy fiction film fun future good half hard help high history home human idea interesting john life light like line little love movie movies mystery note novel novelette novella old one online page pages past people permalink planet plot point pros rating read reader reading robert science sense ship short signal slow society space star stories story style summary synopsis tale technology think thought three time trackback travel two universe war wonder work world writing years young
Conspicuously absent from this list is "supermodel". Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.

[Link via LifeHacker]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 28, 2006 at 1:58 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits for 1/28/06

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 28, 2006 at 12:34 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Signal Fanboys Getting Their Props

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I secretly have my fingers crossed that SF Signal will grab a mention in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction anthology series. After all, being exlcuded from his awesome everything-but-the-kitchen-sink summary can only mean we're the kitchen sink! :)

I think Senior SF Signal fanboy and resident (and much needed) spellchecker Fred @ The Eternal Golden Braid has achieved a similar dose of fame today, for Fred and his blog are mentioned over at Space.com. Way to go, Fred! Now that you're famous, can you give Gardner a call?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 28, 2006 at 12:09 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Star Trek At Home

Literally. This guy built his home theater room as a replica of the bridge of the Enterprise from the original series. This is scary impressive. Now, I'm not that big of a ST fanboy to want to actually do this too. However, the Death Star themed home theater room (on one of the pages) is a different story. Hopefully, it doesn't come complete with Grand Mof Tarkin foul stench.

How about a Seaquest DSV or B5 insipired theater? Galactica (now or old)? Oh! I know! A Buck Rogers themed one where Twiki is the universal remote!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday January 27, 2006 at 2:00 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits for 1/26/06

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 26, 2006 at 2:26 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

New Earth-Like Planet Discovered

Cool news from Space.com:

Astronomers announced today the discovery of what is possibly the smallest planet known outside our solar system orbiting a normal star.

Its orbit is farther from its host star than Earth is from the Sun. Most known extrasolar planets reside inside the equivalent of Mercury’s orbit.

The planet is estimated to be about 5.5 times as massive as Earth and thought to be rocky. It orbits a red dwarf star about 28,000 light-years away. Red dwarfs are about one-fifth as massive as the Sun and up to 50 times fainter. But they are among the most common stars in the universe.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 25, 2006 at 2:52 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Theory Of LOST?

Andrew at the appropriately named 4815162342 website for LOST fans, has posted his Ultimate Theory on just WTF is going on on LOST. It involves, magnatisim, satellites, collective consciousness and BF Skinner. It's an interesting read anyway and does seem to fit the facts. At least those he chose to include. I'm not sure if the producers and writers of the show, JJ Abrams in particular, went this deep and complex for a TV show, but I could be wrong. Oh, and SPOILERS!!!! abound for those who haven't caught up with the current season.

I still think LOST is a great show, doling out just enough mythology each episode to keep you wanting more. I hope they can pull off the reveal of the island's mystery without leaving us confused or disappointed.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday January 25, 2006 at 1:50 PM
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SF Tidbits for 1/25/06

After realizing that the use of Roman numerals was waaaay past pretentious, I used regular numbers for SF Tidbits 70. But then Tim had an idea even more ingenious; an idea so useful that I cannot resist - use the date! Thanks, Tim!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 25, 2006 at 11:25 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW: Prodigy by Dave Kalstein


REVIEW SUMMARY: A worthwhile near-future science fiction thriller.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An unlikely pair of students from a prestigious school that educates via designer drugs, team up to solve the mystery of murdered alumni.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Cool near-future setting; raises thought-provoking issues; crisp, clear writing style.
CONS: Slow to get started; some minor suspension killers.
BOTTOM LINE: A thought-provoking and entertaining read.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 24, 2006 at 9:53 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Best Bets for Movies in 2006

CNN picks the best movies for 2006, dividing the choices into tiers.

"Can't Miss" movies include:

Safe Bet films:Sounds promising:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 24, 2006 at 11:31 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits, Part 70 - Now with 100% Less Roman Numeral!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 23, 2006 at 7:02 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

New York and London - The Most Popular Settings for Fiction

New York and London the the most popular settings for novels, according to newly released fiction statistics analysis from Bowker. Some interesting stats:

The major fictional genres of romance, mystery & detective, science fiction and westerns constituted half of all adult fiction published in the U.S. The dominant format for the fiction genre continues to be mass market and non-mass market paperback, with 65% of romance, 61% of science-fiction and 58% of mystery & detective titles published as paperbacks.

Bowker also studied the length of fiction titles and the suggested retail prices for new releases. The average science-fiction novel was 329 pages long, followed by romance at 324, mystery & detective at 292, and westerns a relatively skinny 261 pages. The average suggested retail price for mass market science-fiction novels in 2004 were $7.35, close to the average for all mass market fiction; mystery & detective novels averaged $6.94; and romances continue to be a bargain at $5.57.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 23, 2006 at 6:54 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXIX

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 23, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

POLL RESULTS: Futurama in the Future
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Would you watch Futurama if it were revived?

RESULTS
(54 total votes)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 23, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Rube Goldbots


Fans of Rube Goldberg, the guy who invents elaborate machines to do simple tasks, will appreciate this short film called Clik Clak. (Shortcut to high and low bandwidth English versions.) In the film, a pair of Goldberg-like robots attempt to teach a boy the right way to "speak".

[via Cartoon Brew]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 22, 2006 at 4:56 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

UPDATED: 2005 BSFA Awards Shortlist

The British Science Fiction Association has announced the shortlist for the 2005 BSFA Awards:

NOVEL

  • 9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

  • Accelerando by Charles Stross

  • Air by Geoff Ryman

  • Learning the World by Ken MacLeod

  • Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson
SHORT FICTIONARTWORK
  • Cover of Neal Asher"s novel Brass Man by Steve Rawlings

  • Cover of Brandon Sanderson"s novel Elantris by Stephan Martinière

  • Cover of Interzone #200 by Pawel Lewandowski

  • "Megara" by Max Bertolini (cover of F&SF, January)

  • We3 chapter 2, pages 2-3: "Run!" by Frank Quitely (with Grant Morrison and Jamie Grant)

  • "Weapon Shop" by Kenn Brown (cover of Interzone #198)
[link via Emerald City]

3/28/06 Update: TTA Press (Interzone) now has links, noted above, for all of the short fiction nominees. [Thanks again to Emerald City]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 22, 2006 at 4:36 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Movie Review: Underworld: Evolution


REVIEW SUMMARY: Marcus, the last Vampire elder, is awake and he's looking for our beloved Selene for some dark purpose. That pretty much sums up the whole movie. I think the Sony Picture website gives away more of the storyline so you can check that out if you had to know. I wish I hadn't.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Sequel to the 2003 film of the same title with a so-so storyline. Feels like the same movie with more fighting, less talking, about the same amount of gunplay.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Kate Beckinsale, in her latex (or is that polyurethane?) suit as well as her birthday suit. Need I say more? I would have given 5 stars just for Kate, but the rest of the movie averaged it down to 2 stars.
CONS: Plot and continuity, or lack thereof.

BOTTOM LINE: Unless you're a huge Kate Beckinsale fan, this is best saved for a DVD-rental. Even for a fan like me, I wished I had waited for the DVD that I would have bought anyway. Since it's a sequel, it's hard not to compare the two movies. While it tied off some of the plotlines, the movie just didn't seem that cohesive. Perhaps, in my old age, movies with a stronger plot seems to sate my appetite more than one with a lot of action. So, I'm disappointed.

Long time readers know that it's not genetically possible, for me, to diss a Kate Beckinsale movie. (Remember that nauseatingly glowing review that I gave Van Helsing? I can't even bring myself to link it now because I'm so ashamed of it; you'll just have to search for it on this site. Be careful, it might make you retch.) So I have to say that I'm, *sigh*, disappointed. After the first movie which introduced a very promising premise, I had thought they would expand on it and drive it to a more satisfying conclusion. But I was utterly rebuffed.

**My extended comments contains spoilers** Read it only if you've seen the movie or have no interest in seeing it.

Read more...

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Posted by Peter at Sunday January 22, 2006 at 8:28 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Peter Pan In Scarlet

The long-awaited sequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan is set to be published later this year on October 5th. It's called Peter Pan In Scarlet and is written by award-winning children's author Geraldine McCaughrean. The book will feature the original characters Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell, the rest of the Darling family and the fearsome Captain Hook, as stipulated by the UK-based Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, who owns the copyright to the original book.

Interesting history here (Thanks, Grumpy Old Bookman!): More than two years ago, crime fiction writer Ridley Pearson and columnist Dave Barry wrote a prequel to Peter Pan called Peter and the Starcatchers. Now, two more prequel books will follow - stories whose whose rights have been snatched up by Disney. Mind you, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children receives no royalties from these U.S. publications. They will receive money from the sequel publication, though. Disney, however, will be providing some competition for the sequel by releasing the Pearson/Barry book in the UK at the same time. (It should be noted that this is a publisher decision - apparently the authors feel a bit sensitive over the issue and may help raise funds for the hospital via their all-star mucsical band with fellow writers Stephen King, Amy Tan and Scott Turow.)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 22, 2006 at 1:43 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Gallery of 2005 Book Covers

Man, I love science fiction/fantasy/horror artwork. Mark Kelly at Locus Online has put together a gallery of genre book and magazine covers for those released in 2005. The 2005 Cover Art Gallery currently shows 550 book and magazine covers sorted by the artist's last name. A similar gallery exists for 2004.

Am I the only one who loves going trough this and mentally checking off the ones I've read, lamenting over the ones I have but haven't read yet and salivating over the ones I want?

[Link via PostHuman Blues via Robert J. Sawyer's Blog]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 22, 2006 at 12:56 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Paragaea: A Planetary Romance

Lou Anders' latest post, A Princess of Counter-Earth, recounts his intro to science fiction via the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs; specifically A Princess of Mars. Anders' love of ERB and his kind of fiction has apparently influenced his editorial vision of Pyr, his publishing house. First there was Charles Coleman Finlay's Tarzan-like story, The Prodigal Troll. Second (due in May) comes Chris Roberson's Paragaea: A Planetary Romance which takes ERB's Warlord of Mars as its inspiration. Anders' describes the book as "old style pulp fiction" and a "swashbuckling adventure."

To support the book, Roberson has launched the content-rich Paragaea.com, replete with map, character bios and (not least of all) a free prequel novel in its entirety, Set the Seas on Fire, a nautical adventure set during the Napoleonic wars...with zombies! (An SF Signal fave. :)) That should whet the apetite for the upcoming sequel, but just in case, Roberson has also posted the first three chapters of Paragaea.

This is something I definitely want to check out, not only because I tend to like the adventure side of the science fiction literary spectrum, but also because I immensely enjoyed Roberson's Here, There & Everywhere.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 21, 2006 at 12:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

For You Biblioholics

Who are also FireFox users (fight the powa!), I bring you Book Burro - The Firefox Book Agent. Book Burro will automagically scan the web for the lowest price of whatever book you are looking at. It will even look up the title in a few libraries. Of course for John, BB is almost useless since he trolls the local Half Price Books stores and they don't put their inventory online. But it just might be useful for the rest of us.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday January 20, 2006 at 4:00 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Another Self-Publishing Experiment

The Science Fiction Writers of America notes that sf author Don Sakers is serializing his next novel on the Web, supported by donations from readers. The book, Hunt for the Dymalon Cygnet is a follow-up to Dance for the Ivory Madonna and part of Sakers' popular Scattered Worlds series.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 20, 2006 at 3:30 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXVIII
[via Locus Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 20, 2006 at 3:11 PM
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Shields, two snaps up...

Following on the news about David Gerrold, George Takei will be portraying Sulu in an episode written by David. Also according to the news, Walter Koenig has also signed on to play Pavel Checkov.

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Friday January 20, 2006 at 10:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Sony Reader

At CES a couple of weeks back, Sony introduced an electronic book reader named (appropriately) the Sony Reader (aka Sony Portable Reader System PRS-500.) I've posted before that I find these concept appealing, but that so far the execution has left a lot to be desired. Does this $350, 9oz unit have what it takes?

Read more...

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Thursday January 19, 2006 at 3:48 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Who Visits Poe's Grave?

According to CNN, for the past 57 years, someone has been leaving roses and a bottle of cognac on Edgar Allan Poe's grave to mark his January 19th birthday. The curator of the Poe House and Museum is now having to fend off a small group of people who are trying to find the identity of the msyterious visitor.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 19, 2006 at 10:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXVII

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 19, 2006 at 1:46 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

2006 Guide to Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy

Jonathan Strahan and Garth Nix have compiled a partial catalogue of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy (PDF) that is due out in 2006.

Authors highlighted include Justine Larbalestier, Sean Williams, Shane Dix, Scott Westerfeld, Damien Broderick, Jack Dann, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Terry Dowling, Ian Irvine, Margo Lanagan, Juliet Marillier, Sean McMullen and, of course, Strahan and Nix.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 9:51 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Got Less Than a Second? Judge Us!

Web sites are judged in an eye-blink, says CNN.

Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers. In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site.
At the risk of sounding like I need validation (...OK, maybe I do...) I'm curious what first impressions you have had at SF Signal. Can't be too bad if you're reading this, right? At least it can't be as bad as the old purple look, can it? Is there anything we could do better? Something you want to see more of?

Let us know what you think!*

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 3:27 PM
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SF Tidbits Part LXVI

  • SF author Paul Di Filippo will write the franchise novel The Creature From the Black Lagoon: Time's Black Lagoon.

  • This week's podcasts from Holtzbrinck Podcasts include excerpts from Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.

  • Smallvile has reached the 100 episode milestone.

  • SF author Kristine Kathryn Rusch's novella "Diving Into the Wreck" was awarded the Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficción (Spain's UPC Science Fiction Award).

  • The SciFi Channel is planning a weekly series based on The Butterfly Effect.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 18, 2006 at 11:28 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW: Child of Earth by David Gerrold


REVIEW SUMMARY: An enjoyable story but it lacked the characters' motives.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Young Kaer and her extended family go through rigorous training in order to emigrate to the parallel Earth-like world of Linnea.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Clear writing style; interesting world building emphasizing culture and religion.
CONS: No clear motive for the family enduring this two-year-long hardship.
BOTTOM LINE: Good story, well written, I'd like to read the sequel and hope it fleshes out some motives.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 17, 2006 at 10:15 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Dick on the BBC

The BBC ha an audio program available for you to listen to, entitled BBC - Radio 4 - Factual - Confessions of a Crap Artist. It's about Philip K. Dick's 'encounter' in his later life with the being PKD called 'Valis'. Check it!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday January 17, 2006 at 3:01 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Mission to Pluto

From space.com:

The first spacecraft ever aimed at the planet Pluto is hours away from launching into space on a nine-year mission to the distant, icy world.

A Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 5 rocket is poised to launch NASA’s Pluto-bound probe New Horizons at 1:24 p.m. EST (1824 GMT) today from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. If successful, today’s space shot will begin a more than nine-year trek to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt for the piano-sized spacecraft.

Catch the latest updates!

What better excuse to point out some science fiction stories where Pluto plays a part:

  • "The Skylark Valeron" by E.E. "Doc" Smith (1934)

  • "The Ultimate Weapon" by John W.Campbell (1936)

  • Cosmic Engineers by Clifford D. Simak (1950)

  • The Cometeers by Jack Williamson (1950)

  • Man of Earth by Algis Budrys (1958)

  • Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein (1958)

  • To the Tombaugh Station by Wilson Tucker (1960)

  • The Secret of the Ninth Planet by Donald A. Wollheim (1965)

  • World of Ptaavs by Larry Niven (1966)

  • The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley (1977)

  • Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson (1984)

  • The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson (1985)

  • Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland (1990)

  • The Ring of Charron Charon by Roger McBride Allen (1990)

  • "Gossamer" by Stephen Baxter(1995)

A more comprehensive listing can be found here.

[UPDATED: Thanks to Eagle-Eye Fred at EternalGoldenBraid for pointing out the spelling mistake, a job he is all-too-eager to repeat. :) BTW, check out EGB for even more space news, sometimes even before Space.com is updated! Way to go, Fred!]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 17, 2006 at 1:40 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXV

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 17, 2006 at 12:12 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

POLL RESULTS: What We Do With Books
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
What do you usually do with the books you own when you are finished reading them?

RESULTS
(54 total votes)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 16, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXIV

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 15, 2006 at 4:58 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Creation of an Omnibus

The omnibus has always appealed to my bibliohlism because it was a succinct way to buy a series (or part of one). In particular I like the omnibuses that are produced by the Science Fiction Book Club. Those usually have a good chance of getting scooped up by me if I see them on the Half Price Book shelves. (The output of my biblioholism - boxes and boxes of stored books that I could never, ever possibly read in my lifetime - prevents me from actually joining the club.) They are always a good value and come in a cool-looking small-hardback packages.

Over the years I've obtained The Golden Age by John C. Wright, the two volumes of E.E "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, Dominic Flandry by Poul Anderson, A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes/Rimworld saga (5 omnibuses - sweeeet!), Rincewind the Wizard by Terry Pratchett (4 books in 1!), The Dying Earth and Ports of Call and Lurulu by Jack Vance, Valentine of Majipoor by Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe's Book Of The New Sun and Book Of The Short Sun, Dead in Dixie by Charlaine Harris, Confluence by Paul J. McCauley, Garret, P.I. by Glen Cook, Ports of Call and Lurulu by Jack Vance, Tales of the Star Wolf by David Gerrold, The Asteroid Wars by Ben Bova, and yes, still others. (Hmmm, mysteriously I cannot find links for all of these at the SFBC website.) I also have omnibuses of unrelated books like Robert A. Heinlein's " Infinite Possibilities and To The Stars, (Just don't ask me how many of them I've read :))

With my affection for the omnibus at the level it is, it's no surprise that I found Andrew Wheeler's post about How An Omnibus Is Made to be noteworthy.

I find it interesting that the stories in a set of omnibuses are in series order and not publication order. Sometimes the "earlier-in-the-timeline" book that were published after later books reveal plot details that are better left as surprises, no? Is it not safer (and more enjoyable for the reader) to present then as published? They could always include a series-order list in the omnibus. Then again, series-order vs. publication order is a matter of preference.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 15, 2006 at 12:19 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Putting SCI FICTION on Ice

Metaxucafe has an interesting post describing how to download the soon-to-be-extinct SCI FICTION website down to your local hard drive. The procedure uses a program called wget which is essentially a command line version of a web browser's save feature.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 14, 2006 at 12:37 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MOVIE REVIEW: A Tale of Two Sisters


REVIEW SUMMARY: A complex psychological thriller that's also one of the best ghost stories I've ever seen.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Two sisters move back with their father to the mansion that their mother died in. But the mansion is haunted and the girls' new stepmother is definitely no substitue for the real thing!

MY REVIEW:
PROS: VERY scary; brilliant cinematography; complex psycological story that is not at all what it appears.
CONS: subtitles only; difficult to figure out the first watch through.
BOTTOM LINE: I've watched a lot of Asian ghost stories over the last couple years, and this is by far the scariest as well as the most intelligent.

Read more...

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Posted by APEGamer at Friday January 13, 2006 at 10:38 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXIII

  • Finally, an answer to the theater slump: a CGI-animated version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [via Cinema Blend]

  • Lucy Lawless, who played a reporter on Battlestar Galactica, will be back for at least 10 more episodes. (Spoiler link!)

  • Tim Robbins wants to remake George Orwell's 1984.

  • Science fiction writer Paul Di Filippo will write a 5-issue series based on the Marvel Comics character Doc Samson, a minor player in the Hulk universe.

  • Speilberg is set to produce another miniseries for the SciFi Channel, the 12-hour supernatural Nine Lives.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 13, 2006 at 1:25 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW: The Wave by Walter Mosley


REVIEW SUMMARY: An eclectic mix of several genres that's entertaining and fun.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Errol Porter's life changes when he gets a phone call from his dead father.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: A super-quick-read; felt like several novels in one entertaining package.
CONS: Slightly weaker second half.
BOTTOM LINE: A fun ride.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 13, 2006 at 2:21 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Doctor Who Comes to the SciFi Channel


Starting in March, The SciFi Channel will be airing 13 episodes of the popular BBC television series Doctor Who. It will be part of the Friday SciFi lineup.

All I know is, James better be right. :)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 13, 2006 at 1:21 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Judging A Book By The Author's Photo

This subtitle of the Chicago Tribune article Picture This Writer (requires cookies and registration -- cough,cough...bugmenot...cough, cough) pretty much sums up the point of the article: "The right author photo helps readers judge a book by its cover".

Do you find this to be true? Publishers seem to think a picture is a selling point as it lends insight into the mystery of a book's creation. Some authors think the opposite. (The ugly ones, I suspect. ;-)) Seriously, though, has anyone made a purchase decision, one way or the other, based upon an author's photo?

I haven't. Which is not to say that I have been unaffected by an author photo. Shortly after my less-than-favorable review of Terraforming Earth, I saw a picture of the wheelchair-bound Jack Williamson in Locus Magazine and I felt kind of, well, bad. Here I was slamming the work of a well-respected, but, at the time, faceless author. Seeing what he looked like put a human face on the creator of the work, something that's all too easy to forget when judging the work itself. I stand by my opinion of the book, but maybe I could have gone a bit easier.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 13, 2006 at 12:02 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Book Trailers

Wouldn't it be cool if a book had a trailer like movies do?

With The 2006 Book Video Awards, "Hot new filmmakers at top U.S. film schools will compete to create Book Videos for three of the hottest debut titles of Summer 2006." You can also sign up to be notified when new book videos go online.

I can just imagine the trailer voice guys getting all excited at the prospect of voicing a book trailer...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 12, 2006 at 2:36 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXII

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 12, 2006 at 2:29 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Kirkus Best Books of 2005

Kirkus lists their Top books for 2005 (PDF file...got Foxit yet?) based on their reviews.

Making the cut in the "Sci-Fi and Fantasy" category:

  • The Children of the Company by Kage Baker (Tor Books)

  • The Carpet Makers by Andrea Eschbach (Tor Books)

  • Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell (Del Rey/Ballantine()

  • Viriconium by M. John Harrison (Spectra/Bantam)

  • Learning the World: A Scientific Romance by Ken MacLeod (Tor Books)

  • The Eternity Artifact by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (Tor Books)

  • The Well of Stars by Robert Reed (Tor Books)

  • Silver Screen by Justina Robson (Pyr/Prometheus)

  • The White Mare: The Dalraida Trilogy, Book One by Jules Watson (Overlook)

  • Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright (Tor Books)
[Via The Book Standard]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 12, 2006 at 2:16 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Negadon, The Monster From Mars!

In keeping with the recent theme of highlighting foreign CGI SF movies, comes NEGADON-the Monster from Mars! A Japanese monster movie done completely in CGI? Brilliant!

Check out the trailers. They have the look of the monster movies down pat, while the CGI allows them to do cool stuff with SFX and camera angles. Looks really cool. I wonder if it will ever make it Stateside.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday January 11, 2006 at 3:06 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas

Slice of SciFi's Summer Brooks and Joe Murphy have a spinoff website/podcast site called The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas. The site focuses on classic science fiction, be it books, TV shows and movies.

As an example, their first show highlights Dan Simmons' Hyperion. The shows may be spoiler-laden so they recommend you read the book first (which, sadly, for Hyperion, I haven't). As of today, 4 more shows are available. One nice feature, they have a pre-show discussion to gage interest level and help contribute. The pre-discussion for the next show is about Battlestar Galactica.

[Link via SFFaudio]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 10, 2006 at 9:38 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LXI

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 10, 2006 at 6:22 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Pratchett's Wee Free Men Heads to Big Screen

SciFi Wire (via Variety) is reporting that Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 3, The Evil Dead) will direct The Wee Free Men, an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's best-selling young-adult fantasy novel.

The best news about this? I high probability that we get to see more Bruce Campbell.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 10, 2006 at 8:32 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Still Tweaking

We're still tweaking the setup of the new Movable Type software. If it takes a while to accept your comments, it's because we need to filter through the horde or comment spam which the new software has to be trained to reject.

At the moment, I'm a little disillusioned with Movable Type version 3.2. With the previous version, we had MT-Blacklist exactly how we wanted it. Now, with the SpamLookup filter that's built in, we need to retrain. Grrrr! Maybe I need to import the MT-Blacklist entries into the SpamLookup config? Will that slow site publishing?

Another thing I need to do is pore over the Six Apart Guide to Comment Spam. I know that the next best thing to do is obfuscate our CGI file names. I tried this quick fix earlier with no immediate success, but backed off until later as it was getting late. Time to retry very soon.

Other alternatives are Commenter Authentication (via TypeKey or something similar) and Capthcas (where you type some random code to allow comment submission). Does anyone have preference for or against any of these? (See the Six Apart Guide to Comment Spam for Pros and Cons.)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 10, 2006 at 1:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

2005 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees

Nominees for the 2005 Philip K. Dick Award, given annually for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States, have been announced. The winner will be chosen Friday, April 14, 2006 at Norwescon 29. Here are the nominees:

  • Cowl by Neal Asher

  • War Surf by M. M. Buckner

  • Cagebird by Karin Lowachee

  • To Crush The Moon by Wil McCarthy

  • Natural History by Justina Robson

  • Silver Screen by Justina Robson

Past winners include Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (2004), Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter (2000), 253: The Print Remix by Geoff Ryman (1999) and The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (1984).

[via Locus Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 09, 2006 at 9:07 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

When Does a Book Become Bloated?

Having just read the enormous (and awesome) Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton, I'm amazed that the sheer size of the book did not suffer from any significant amount of writer bloat. You know what I mean - when authors pad an otherwise perfectly good story to beef up the page count while not adding anything to the reading experience.

While I did think the portions of the Pandora's Star could have been omitted without harm to the core story, I'm quite pleased that they were left in. Those extra passages added much to the overall sense of wonder to the book via world building - and sense of wonder is the main reason I read science fiction, after all.

I got to thinking (as I am likely to do once in a while, but mostly by accident) that maybe one reader's bloat is another reader's padding. Another reader could read that book, or any other for that matter, and have a totally different take on the "extra" material.

So when does a book become bloated?

For myself, the material must do one or more of these things: world-building; character development; plot advancement. Anything else is just padding, methinks. For example (and not to pick on or compare a new author like Christopher Paolini with seasoned veteran Hamilton), I found many, many parts of Eldest to be simply unnecessary. So much of the verbiage described setting (how many ways can you describe a forest?) that I grew bored.

In the age of booksplitting, I find padding even more annoying than usual. Why unnecessarily bulk it up so the publisher can split it into multiple volumes anyway? Bah! As I mentioned in the review, Pandora's Star could have easily been split into two books, just like Hamilton's Night Dawn Trilogy (six mass-market paperbacks - though that happened mainly due to format restrictions). Thankfully, it wasn't.

So when does a book become bloated for you? What's the entertainment killer?

Discuss... And I want book titles , people!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 09, 2006 at 8:52 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

2005 Preliminary Nebula Ballot

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have announced the 2005 Preliminary Nebula Ballot.

And the preliminary nominees are...

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 09, 2006 at 12:44 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

POLL RESULTS: Most Anticipated Film of 2006
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Although there are way more than listed here, which of the following 2006 movies are you most anticipating?

RESULTS
(50 total votes)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 09, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW: Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton

REVIEW SUMMARY: An immersive, grand-scale space opera.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Mysterious barriers appear around a pair of stars, the investigation of which unleashes a terrible threat to the human race.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Immersive stories; distinct and memorable characters; vivid imagery; outstanding world building; did not feel padded despite its length.
CONS: Some may feel the book suffers from too-much world building.
BOTTOM LINE: Don't be put off by the book's size, it's worth every penny.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 08, 2006 at 7:25 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

We're Back...From Spaaaaace! [UPDATE #2]

If you are reading this post, then the transfer to the new domain has been successful! If you are unable to read this post, then I must get my head examined because I'm talking to myself in the second person. If you like, you can leave a contribution to pay for my psychoanalysis. But if you did that, then I would be proven sane after all, which would be great except that my head would explode in a puff of logic-smoke.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. The domain transfer has been completed. Our new host is MyDomain and they have been extremely helpful in getting us set up. A special thanks to Nathan in customer support who, in addition to having a pleasant disposition while doing an excellent job, had the stamina to endure many annoying phone calls from from a certain me. They don't make customer support people like that any more.

Our email addresses should now be working.
Still working on email addresses...
Our email addresses should now be working. Really.

We now continue with our regularly scheduled programming.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 08, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Closed for a Weekend Getaway...In Spaaaace!

We are ready to move from our old-new host to our new-new host.

During the next few days, SF Signal will be closed for comments and no new posts will appear. Also, our email addresses will be temporarily unavailable. If the website is inaccessible during this time, it is only temporary while we move the domain to the new-new host.

We'll be back in a day or three!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 07, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Top 200 Best Selling Book of 2005

Book Standard has a list of the top-selling books of 2005.

Genre books to make the list (ignoring lower-selling editions) include:

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (#1)

  • Eldest by Christopher Paolini (#10)

  • The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (#26)

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (#34)

  • Eragon by Christopher Paolini (#37)

  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (#63)

  • Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (#83)

  • Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (#96)

  • Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover (#111)

  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (#133)

  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (#154)

  • 1984 by George Orwell (#193)

[via Emerald City]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 06, 2006 at 11:31 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW: Starship: Mutiny by Mike Resnick


REVIEW SUMMARY: A new book in Resnick's Birthright universe that includes his trademark compelling plot.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Commander Cole has twice been busted down from Captain for refusing to follow orders when he didn't like them. Having been thrice decorated though, he is too good to drum out of the navy. Eventually, Cole pushes the brass too far politically and they in return push him to far - to the point of mutiny.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Very compelling 'page-turner' of a story - the plot moves quickly and easily from high point to high point in a well-written manner.
CONS: Beginning is somewhat confusing with its 'throw you into the middle' start
BOTTOM LINE: Fans of Resnick's style will no doubt enjoy this one, and anybody looking for a sci-fi book strong on story will as well

Read more...

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Friday January 06, 2006 at 1:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Ring Around the Web Hosts

Here's an update on the pending web host migration:

We're close! We're currently testing the new host out to ensure it meets all of our requirements. It appears that the issues we are having at the current host (images not loading, URL masking, build problems, template problems, look & feel problems) do not happen at the new host. All that is left is to make sure we can get the sister blog working at the same level. Oh, and there's that annoying "recent comment" malfunction that seems to have followed us to the new host.

Anyway, a word of warning: Soon we will (again) need to close the blog for a day or three as we migrate to the new host and the domain name resolution sorts itself out. During that time, this site might become unavailable or appear closed. Not so! We'll be back with a vengeance. (And by "vengeance" I mean a "a healthy appreciation for the release that only death can bring".)

Thanks for sticking with us.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 8:50 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Reminder: BG Season Returns Tomorrow

Just a reminder for the terminally forgetful. [Looks at self]. Tomorrow, Friday 1/6/06, Battlestar Galactica returns after it's mid-season hiatus - but don't get me started on the mid-season hiatus. I'm looking forward to seeing the conclusion of the Pegasus story that ended the first part of the season.

(See? That's the problem with a mid-season hiatus. You can no longer say "last season". Now you have to say "the first half of the current season which went away for a while, but now it's back." Feh!)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 8:39 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Miyazaki Madness!

All this month, on Thursdays, Turner Classic Movies will be showing films by Miyazaki, the great Japanese animator. Starting tonight. Looks like a few I'll have to record, as I don't have them yet. And man, they are showing a ton.

According to The Comics Blog, the early showings are dubbed, the wee hours showings are subbed. Now, am I an anime elitist or not? Hmm...... I have kids, so it'll have to be dubbed. Darn kids.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 8:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

One Good Reason To Wait For The Serenity DVD

Universal announced at CES 2006 today that among its first 10 title to be released on the new HD DVD format will be Serenity. Excellent.

Now I have an excuse to buy one of them fancy shmancy HD DVD players...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 4:41 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

TOCs for Strahan's & Haber's Best of 2005 Anthologies

Jonathan Strahan has posted the tables of contents for the two Best of 2005 anthologies he co-edits with Karen Haber that are published by iBooks. The books will be on the shelves in February.

Science Fiction: Best of 2005

  1. "Triceratops Summer" by Michael Swanwick

  2. "Little Faces" by Vonda N. McIntyre

  3. "The Second Coming of Charles Darwin" by James Morrow

  4. "Is There Life After Rehab?" by Pat Cadigan

  5. "Zima Blue" by Alastair Reynolds

  6. "The Fulcrum" by Gwyneth Jones

  7. "The Blemmye's Dilemma" by Bruce Sterling

  8. "They Will Raise You in a Box" by Wil McCarthy

  9. "Finished" by Robert Reed

  10. "The King of Where-I-Go" by Howard Waldrop

  11. "The Calorie Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi

  12. "The Fate of Mice" by Susan Palwick

  13. "I Robot" by Cory Doctorow

  14. "The Little Goddess" by Ian McDonald

Fantasy: Best of 2005

  1. "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle

  2. "Snowball's Chance" by Charles Stross

  3. "A Knot of Toads" by Jane Yolen

  4. "Boatman's Holiday" by Jeffrey Ford

  5. "Ikiryoh" by Liz Williams

  6. "CommComm" by George Saunders

  7. "The Language of Moths" by Christopher Barzak

  8. "Anyway" by M Rickert

  9. "The Emperor of Gondwanaland" by Paul Di Filippo

  10. "The Pirate's True Love" by Seana Graham

  11. "Intelligent Design" by Ellen Klages

  12. "Pip and the Fairies" by Theodora Goss

  13. "Grace Notes" by Megan Lindholm

  14. "Leviathan" by Simon Brown

  15. "The Denial" by Bruce Sterling

  16. "The Farmer's Cat" by Jeff VanderMeer

  17. "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 10:31 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

More Robotic Lego Happiness

I will admit that I love Legos, and I have tried to bring that same love to my son. They are great opportunities for kids and adults to build and imagine in three dimensions, and even though they are more expensive than some of the competitors - they still build the best blocks. Now today I saw on Slashdot that a new Mindstorms product will be coming in August of this year, and I am extremely happy to hear this. Time to start saving the pennies for my Lego Robotic Legions... cue evil laughter...

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 9:46 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LX

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 12:50 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Still Yet Another More Free Short Reads

Fear not, O mornful ex-SCI FICTION reader, Free Speculative Fiction Online keeps churning out the links to free online fiction. This week's big-name titles:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 05, 2006 at 12:36 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Silent Universe

Silent Universe is a new science fiction theater-based podcast beginning February 15th. They describe themselves thusly:

Something like a mix between "24" and the new "Battlestar Galactica," the Silent Universe portrays a future haunted by nuclear proliferation, rogue dictators and terrorism. Fans can listen to the series and also participate in its development by providing feedback to the production team in the "backstage" forums.

The premiere on February 15th is a high tension character-driven drama that makes no bones about portraying some of the darker aspects of the human psyche, including racism. Still, it can be upbeat enough to poke fun at pop scifi and make the occasional quip about cyberculture, while its heroic cast struggles to keep the solar system from erupting into war.

[via Emerald City]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 10:35 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The 50 Best Robots Ever


Wired lists the The 50 Best Robots Ever, both fictional and real.

An interesting list, to be sure. The Iron giant got robbed, though. And no robots from I, Robot? No R. Daneel Olivaw? Bah!

Anyway, the winners are summarized here...

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 10:06 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Slice of Sci Fi's Top 10 Movies Of All Time

The boys over at Slice of Sci Fi are asking you (us), the SciFi fans to vote on for your Slice of SciFi Fan's TOP 10 Movies of All Time.

The categores are SciFi, Fantasy/Fable, and Horror/Supernatural. Picks must be sent to them in email, and the winners will be announced in February. Hopefully the fans can come up with some decent lists. Which should include Big Trouble In Little China...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 8:57 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Noir Sci Fi

RENAISSANCE is a new, animated French SF film that is being released, in France, in March. Check out the trailer, it looks really cool. It's obviously CGI, but done intentionaly with a black and white noir look. It's certainly different. I especially like the shot as the camera pans down the blocks of buildings from street level. Impressive. Now, I don't speak French, so I don't know what it's about, but I have heard that Disney has the US distribution rights so maybe we'll see it over here sometime in the future. I'd like to see it.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 8:43 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

An Early Look at A Scanner Darkly

There's an early positive review (based on a likely-to-change test screening) of Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, the adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel. The anonymous revewer said it reminded him of 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

[via Cinematical]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 7:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Hugo Awards to Honor Games

The SFWA will add a new category to the popular science fiction awards: Best Interactive Video Game.

Gee, what a perfect entry for another blog. :)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 04, 2006 at 7:10 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Philip Pullman in The New Yorker

Easter Lemming Notebook points to a longish New Yorker article on Philip Pullman that's sure to irk some readers, especially considering Pullman's recent publicity anti-Narnia flap.

Pullman is a rangy, spirited man in his fifties with a bristling fringe of gray hair; at times, he resembles an intelligent and amused stork. At the lectern, he began, "Quite what prompted you to ask me to talk about religious education I can't immediately see. . . . Given that I've voiced some criticisms of religion in the past, and that various Christian groups have expressed their criticisms of me, it might be that whatever I said on the subject would be hostile in any case." He smiled. "Well, I hope it won't be that. But we shall see." He went on, "I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or 'spirituality'; but I think I can say something about moral education, and I think it has something to do with the way we understand stories."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 03, 2006 at 7:54 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Tidbits Part LIX

What better way to celebrate the new year, the completion of (semi-successful but ill-fated) porting the blog to a new host and a new version of Movable Type, and the LIXth (59th) installment of SF Tidbits than with an entry that's sure to raise our LIX Score by collecting all the bits that we missed while the site was down for maintenance? Unfortunately, as of this posting, the Lix Score site is down. (Insert heavy sigh)

Anyway, enjoy!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 03, 2006 at 7:42 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

More Dust Settling...

We're still making host modifications as we try to fix some domain/host/MovableType issues (images not appering, domain redirecting...that sort of thing).

If you're reading this, then most of them should be over. For now...

However, there will be some more changes coming in the near future. Unfortunately, we did not do our homework when choosing web hosts and there may be a need to move yet again.

Please bear with us as we work like maniacs to resolve these issues.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 03, 2006 at 2:10 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Rise Of The Empire

No, not that empire, the (insert cool topic here)Signal Empire!

First there was SFSignal, which you all know and love, and now, direct from the brain of Scott, comes:

Gaming Signal!

Gaming Signal is dedicated to all things gamings. PC, console, board, card, RPG (pen and paper and computer) and any other type of game we can think of. So, if you're interested, why not take a gander at the new digs. We're still working on the design and layout, but we're posting away over there too! Why not join us?

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday January 02, 2006 at 8:37 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

RETRO-REVIEW: A Second Chance at Eden by Peter F. Hamilton

Note: I am in the middle of reading the incredibly long (but very good) Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a pre-blog review of one of Hamilton's earlier works that I read back in August of 2001.

REVIEW SUMMARY: A must-read for fans of Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A collection of 7 stories set in the "Night's Dawn" universe.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Bite size stories whet the appetite for more.
CONS: Not as enjoyable for those not familiar with the Night's Dawn trilogy (subtract a star).
BOTTOM LINE: A fun read for anyone; required reading for Night's Dawn readers.

A Second Chance At Eden is a well-done collection of short stories set in the universe of Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God). This novel was released before the third book in the trilogy but could be read anywhere in the sequence.

I like the short story format for quick SciFi fixes and Hamilton does not disappoint. Each story holds your interest and further explores the rich tapestry created in the trilogy. Included are plot twists, action, mystery and a big handful of references back to the other three books. While some stories ("Sonnie's Edge", the title story, "Escape Route", "Candy Buds", "The Lives and Loves of Tiarella Rosa") were better than others ("New Days Old Times", "Deathday"), all the stories were an enjoyable diversion.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 02, 2006 at 1:10 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

POLL RESULTS: Best Movie of 2005
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
In your opinion, which of the following was the best movie of 2005?

RESULTS
(37 total votes)


Yes, I know...Serenity is not listed. The idea was to keep the list the same as the one proposed in January 2005. Back then, Serenity (and, sadly for us, even Firefly) wasn't even on our radar. We're converts now, though, and the inclusion of Serenity in this poll would have shown just how fanboyish we are. Anywho, last year readers were expecting to enjoy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the most, but ultimately it was Batman Begins that wowed us.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 02, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

2006 New Year's Resolution

OK, after some careful consideration (and a brief lapse of sanity) I have decided to repeat my 2004 New Year's Resolution and read short stories throughout 2006. In keeping with the realization back then that I should get some extra credit for longer stories (novelettes and novellas), I will again use the patented SF-POINTS© system of weighing each story. To recap: using the SFWA's definitions we have:

.25 points = Vignette (less than 1,000 words)
1 point = Short Story (1,000 - 7,500 words)
2 points = Novelette (7,500 - 17,500 words)
4 points = Novella (17,500 - 40,000)

Thus, to formalize the resolution: I resolve to read 365 SF-POINTS©-worth of stories in 2006.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 01, 2006 at 9:00 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

2005: A YEAR IN REVIEW

Continuing my annual tradition, this is a year-end wrap up for my sf/fantasy/horror experiences for 2005. These are not necessarily things that first appeared this year; they are just the things that I read or watched this year.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 01, 2006 at 11:24 AM
© 2006 SF Signal