REVIEW SUMMARY: Depending on how you squint at it, this is either sf or mainstream, but either way it's a very good book.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Four college roommates travel across the country in search of immortality. Only two will get it, but only if the third commits suicide and the fourth is sacrificed.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Superbly written; intriguing plot; a good mood piece.
CONS: I was expecting science fiction and got mainstream.
BOTTOM LINE: A very enjoyable book that left me feeling deliciously somber.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 31, 2006 at 3:29 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• A Gallery of Sound Effect Balloons from the Batman TV series.


• Genetopia author Keith Brooke reminisces about John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy.


• Humor piece from the Onion: Science-Fiction Novel Posits Future Where Characters Are Hastily Sketched.


• SciFi Fembot's Must-See Sci-Fi TV.


• Walter "Chekov" Koenig's gets his book, Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot, published after 18 years. [via Slice of Sci-Fi]


• Free Online Story: "The Chiaroscurist" by Hal Duncan.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 30, 2006 at 7:51 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Canadian teen who came to be known as The Star Wars Kid is headed to court. He rose to fame because of a video his peers released on the Internet which showed him acting out a light saber scene, and because of all the parodies that followed. Next month he will be appearing in court to pursue a $160,000 lawsuit against his ex-classmates who leaked the video.

[via Club Jade]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 29, 2006 at 9:44 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

As a companion to the article on the 50th anniversary of Forbidden Planet, the Houston Chronicle also lists The 25 Most Important Science Fiction Films (according to the article's author, Louis B. Parks).

In true meme fashion, I've highlighted the ones I've seen.

THE 25 MOST IMPORTANT SCIENCE FICTION FILMS

1. Metropolis (1927)


2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)


3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)


4. Star Wars original trilogy (1977-1983)


5. Forbidden Planet (1956)


6. A Trip to the Moon (1902)


6. (tie) Planet of the Apes (1968)


8. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)


9. Aliens (1986)


10. Star Trek film series (1979-2002)


11. Blade Runner (1982)


12. Them! (1954)


13. A Clockwork Orange (1971)


14. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)


15. The Terminator (1982)


16. The Thing From Another World (1951)


17. The Road Warrior (1981)


18. Westworld (1973)


19. The Matrix (1999)


20. Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers serials (1939-1940)


20. (tie) E.T. (1982)


22. The Thing (1982)


23. The War of the Worlds (1953)


23. (tie) Jurassic Park (1993)


25. Akira (1988)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 29, 2006 at 10:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• It's the 50th anniversary of the film Forbidden Planet.


• Vernor "Singularity" Vinge considers the Internet of 2025. [via The Other Here]


• Richard Dean Anderson will make a return appearance on StarGate: SG1.


• Are you an Iain M. Banks fan? Check out notes on Banks' Culture novels. Or, see a list of Culture ship names.


• A PDF interview with Ellen Datlow from Shimmer magazine. [via Locus Online]


• Analog Science Fiction and Fact will serialize Robert J. Sawyer's 17th novel, Rollback, in four installments, beginning with the October issue. [via SciFi Wire]


• Here are some artistic representations of cyberspace.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 29, 2006 at 7:02 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

John Scalzi's Whatever blog is reporting that publisher Tor has allowed Scalzi and Robert Charles Wilson to make their Hugo-nominated books (Old Man's War and Spin, respectively) available in (DRM-free) electronic format. The catch is that the books are available only to Hugo voters - that is, members of LAcon IV, this year's Worldcon - and only for the duration of the voting period.

Scalzi has the scoop.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 28, 2006 at 9:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• RIP: Stanislaw Lem. [via Locus Online]


• Wired list the The Best Sci-Fi Concept Albums. [via Big Dumb Object]


• A history of the British Science Fiction Book Club. [via HubBub]


• Joss Whedon wouldn't mind putting TV Wonder Woman Lynda Carter in his upcoming Wonder Woman movie, but only if it's right and doesn't pull viewers out of the movie.


• Stephen King likes Battlestar Galactica, saying it's "a beautifully written show, driven by character...there's not a better acting troupe at work on television" and it's "far better than Star Trek, in any of its incarnations." Hmmm, I'm sure that sits well with Trek fans.


• Ed Gorman offers a piece on Richard Matheson.


• HomeVideo.com's list of Great Sci-Fi Movies.


• Listen to the original radio broadcast adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. [via del.icio.us]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 27, 2006 at 10:32 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Heat Vision and Jack was a pilot for a FOX TV show done in 1999 byt Ben Stiller. It stars Jack Black as an astronaut on the run from NASA and the evil Ron Silver, played by Ron Silver (classic). Heat Vision is Jack's motorcycle and is voiced by Owen Wilson. I guess you could say its a cross between Knight Rider and The Six Million Dollar Man, only funnier. You'll either like it or hate it, depending on your Stiller stomach quotient. It is cheesy and it is dumb, but I think it was created to be a parody, sort of a Police Squad for SF series. Yes, this is real, you can look it up on IMDB.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday March 27, 2006 at 2:34 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Some hits, some misses.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of nine novellas and 1 novelette from the year 2004.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 8 stories ranging from good to excellent
CONS: 2 stories mediocre or worse.
BOTTOM LINE: A good assortment of stories from 2004.

With several other "Best of..." anthologies on the market, it helps that each one sets its own unique goals. For Jonathan Strahan's Best Short Novels series, available exclusively from the Science Fiction Book Club, the goal is to showcase the best novellas of the previous year in the genres of science fiction and fantasy; Best Short Novels: 2005 collects ten stories published in 2004.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 27, 2006 at 12:10 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 27, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Over at Emerald City, author Karen Traviss explains why she writes Star Wars novels. In the article she voices the widespread belief that "media tie-ins are rubbish".

But are they? Do they not require effort just like any other book? According to Karen, they are even more difficult to write because of constraints put on the authors by the controlling party regarding character deaths, their backgrounds, language/terminology and the like. Additionally, the story events need to be congruent with the events in books by many other authors; there's lots of coordination involved.

Speaking for myself, I have historically tended to avoid tie-ins because of this stigma. That's unfortunate for me. I am surely missing out on some perfectly fine sf. For example, some co-bloggers have extolled the virtues of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy of Star Wars books.

Media tie-ins are not exclusive to the Star Wars universe of course. Star Trek is another popular source of books, as is Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more. There's even a whole gaming-related set of tie-ins, which I will not even start to get into here.

What do you think? Do you read tie-in novels? Which ones? Or are media tie-in novels trash?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 26, 2006 at 10:31 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Booksquare points to Publisher's Weekly article "Judging a Book By Its Cover" which tells us that (surprise, surprise) covers matter.

I love science fiction book cover art. Liking any individual artistic style is subject a personal taste. One of my favorite cover artists is the award winning John Picacio who does a lot of cover art for Pyr.

One of the reasons I like physical bookstores over online ones is because cover art is more easily browsed that way. Locus Online does an admirable job showcasing a year's worth of science fiction/fantasy book covers side by side, but rare is the online bookstore that does this and I still want the bigger images without having to use the slower method of the click-through.

According to poll SF Signal did last year, only half of respondents said they purchased a book solely on its cover. That surprises me in that people would base a decision on that alone. Sure covers matter, but I find a bad cover drives me away from a purchase more than a good one will ensure it.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 26, 2006 at 11:07 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

I stumbled across an sf-related NPR link and thought it might be time to follow up last year's post Genre Stuff on NPR.

• The topic of "The Interplay of Science and Science Fiction" is how science fiction writers use science to shape their stories and scientists are influenced by science fiction. Guests include sf authors Octavia Butler and David Brin as well as Lawrence M. Krauss (a theoretical physicist...still a good gig). [Link via Mostly Nonsense]


• Two other shows focus on Butler's impact as a writer: "Octavia Butler Set a Rare Standard in Sci-Fi" (with Greg Bear), "Octavia Butler's Lasting Impact" and "Octavia Butler: Eye on the Stars, Feet on the Ground"


• "Science Fiction Writers Target Global Warming" with Rick Kleffel looks at how writers like Michael Crichton, Kim Stanley Robinson and others treat the subject of global warning.


• "SciFi Themes Invade the Literary World" also with Rick Kleffel discusses how sf themes have spread beyond their genre-confining boundaries and into mainstream literature and movies.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 25, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Peter Jackson's King Kong will be the first title available from Universal Pictures' upcoming download-to-own service. [via SciFi Wire]


• Minnesota Stories video-interviews Bruce Sterling who talks Spime. (Relatively long download.)


• Locus Online offers an excerpt of Gary K. Wolfe's Hugo Award-nominated Soundings: Reviews 1992-1996.


• Paizo Publications announces the official cancellation of Amazing Stories. [via Locus Online]


• Voting begins for the Spaceys, Canada's only sci-fi and fantasy television awards show.


• SFRevu interviews Ken MacLeod, author of the Hugo-nominated Learning the World.


• Wikipedia's List of Fiction Inspired by Dune.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 24, 2006 at 3:48 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A novel that's thought-provoking, literary and entertaining despite a slow start.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The story of several characters during a time of political and environmental change in a futuristic 21st century India.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Cool technology; Indian culture creates excellent atmosphere; engrossing storylines; well-crafted.
CONS: Slow start; incomplete glossary.
BOTTOM LINE: A hugely enjoyable book on any number of levels.

The futuristic India in Ian McDonald's River of Gods would be marvelous enough with its technological society, one where the sentience of artificial intelligence is limited by a law called the Hamilton Acts; where illegal software houses circumvent the law; where a government agency known as The Ministry "excommunicates" rogue AIs from this world; where virtual reality is the order of the day; where popular soap operas feature computer-generated characters played by computer-generated actors; where advanced medical procedures can turn you into a genderless "nute" or genetic engineering can give you a disease free, slow-aging Brahmin child; where power is generated underneath sidewalks that harness the energy of footsteps ; where even greater amounts of energy can be realized from the potential difference between two universes that exist at different ground states; and where an alien artifact is found in space that holds untold mysteries.

But River of Gods goes one step further, adding a whole other layer of enjoyment in the process, through the portrayal of Indian culture. It permeates everyone and everything, bringing forth interesting concepts and vivid imagery that give it a distinct mood and flavor. India's caste system remains but now includes the Brahmin, a group of people genetically-bred to be disease free, whose long life gives them an extended period of youthful appearance. The culture's many Gods are also prevalent in the story. For the culturally-uninitiated (like myself) there is a handy glossary included that defines many Hindi terms. However, the novel is so steeped in culture (and wonderfully so) that the glossary is woefully incomplete. Many of the words this Average Westerner looked up were not included. Eventually, I stopped using it. Needless to say, those who know Indian culture and especially Hindi will find a whole other level of enjoyment that escaped me, as evidenced by the light bulbs that went on when I asked a Hindi-speaking friend to translate words and section titles.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 24, 2006 at 2:22 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• According to Variety, Universal has picked up the rights to adapt Alfred Bester's sf classic The Stars My Destination. [via Cinematical]


• A Serenity system map.


• 42 Things You Should Know About The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.


• Ray Bradbury's favorite Bradbury book is Dandelion Wine.


• H.P Lovecraft's fantasies (including Cthulhu) have been turned into "a baroque musical cabaret named Mountains of Madness." [Link via Mumpsimus]


• Alan DeNiro reviews Cordwainer Smith's "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons" [See SF Signal's reviewlette. Link via Mumpsimus]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 23, 2006 at 3:51 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Kathryn Cramer shows off the covers of some nifty-sounding anthologies that she and hubby David G. Hartwell have edited.

The first, due in April 2006, is The Science Fiction Century, Volume One (edited by Harwell alone) and looks to be a trade paperback booksplit reprint or Hartwell's 1997 The Science Fiction Century. In true biblioholic fashion, I've yet to read that one even though I bought it years ago.

The second is the Tor book The Space Opera Renaissance and it's due out in July 2006. Here's the book description:

"Space opera", once a derisive term for cheap pulp adventure, has come to mean something more in modern SF: compelling adventure stories told against a broad canvas, and written to the highest level of skill. Indeed, it can be argued that the "new space opera" is one of the defining streams of modern SF.

Now, World Fantasy Award-winning anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled a definitive overview of this subgenre, both as it was in the days of the pulp magazines, and as it has become in 2005. Included are major works from genre progenitors like Jack Williamson and Leigh Brackett, stylish midcentury voices like Cordwainer Smith and Samuel R. Delany, popular favorites like David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Ursula K. Le Guin, and modern-day pioneers such as Iain M. Banks, Steven Baxter, Scott Westerfeld, and Charles Stross.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 23, 2006 at 2:00 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Entertainment Weekly has identified 25 of the Worst Movie Sequels Ever Made. There are more than a few sci-fi, fantasy and horror movies that made the list.

1. Staying Alive (1983)


2. CaddyShack II (1988)


3. Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha' Hood (2003)


4. Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)


5. Batman & Robin (1997)


6. Weekend At Bernie's II (1993)


7. The Fly II (1989)


8. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)


9. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)


10. Jaws: The Revenge (1987)


11. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)


12. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)


13. The Sting II (1983)


14. Conan the Destroyer (1984)


15. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003)


16. Ocean's Twelve (2004)


17. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)


18. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)


19. Revenge of the Nerds II: nerds in paradise (1987)


20. The Godfather Part III (1990)


21. Legally Blonde 2: red, white & blonde (2003)


22. Teen Wolf Too (1987)


23. Porky's II: The Next Day (1983)


24. The Next Karate Kid (1994)


25. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 23, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Sci Fi meets Shakespeare in Return to the Forbidden Planet.


• Listen to Cory Doctorow's Guest of Honor speech from Boskone.


• Firefly's Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks talk about their new movie Slither. Cookies required. [via Whedonesque]


• Radiohead is contributing to the soundtrack for Richard Linklater's upcoming Philip K. Dick adaptation, A Scanner Darkly.


• In response to Itzkoff, The Slush God asks "What are your top ten SF novels written by women?" and "What are your top ten SF novels written by people of color?"


• Entertainment Weekly works towards a unified theory of Lost.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 22, 2006 at 4:02 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Mmmmm...short stories...

Here is the Table of Contents for the upcoming sf anthology Year's Best SF 11 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

1. "Mason’s Rats" by Neal Asher


2. "Lakes of Light" by Stephen Baxter


3. "Ram Shift Phase 2" by Greg Bear


4. "On the Brane" by Gregory Benford


5. "Toy Planes" by Tobias S Buckell


6. "What’s Expected of Us" by Ted Chiang


7. "I, Robot" by Cory Doctorow


8. "When the Great Days Came" by Gardner R Dozois


9. "Oxygen Rising" by R Garcia y Robertson


10. "Second Person, Present Tense" by Darryl Gregory


11. "Angel of Light" by Joe Haldeman


12. "The Forever Kitten" by Peter F Hamilton


13. "City of Reason" by Matthew Jarpe


14. "Third Day Lights" by Alaya Dawn Johnson


15. "The Edge of Nowhere" by James Patrick Kelly


16. "I Love Liver: A Romance" by Larissa Lai


17. "New Hope for the Dead" by David Langford


18. "A Case of Consilience" by Ken MacLeod


19. "Rats of the System" by Paul McAuley


20. "A Modest Proposal" by Vonda N McIntyre


21. "Sheila" by Lauren McLaughlin


22. "The Albian Message" by Oliver Morton


23. "Deus Ex Homine" by Hannu Rajaniemi


24. "Beyond the Aquila Rift" by Alastair Reynolds


25. "And Future King" by Adam Roberts


26. "Dreadnought" by Justina Robson


27. "Guadaloupe and Heironymous Bosch" by Rudy Rucker


28. "Bright Red Star" by Bud Sparhawk


29. "Ivory Tower" by Bruce Sterling


30. "Girls and Boys Come out to Play" by Michael Swanwick


31. "Ikiryoh" by Liz Williams

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 22, 2006 at 3:28 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

The 2006 Hugo Awards Nominations have been announced:

NOVEL

• Accelerando by Charles Stross


• A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin


• Learning the World by Ken MacLeod


• Old Man's War by John Scalzi
[SF Signal review]

• Spin by Robert Charles Wilson [SF Signal review]

• "Burn" by James Patrick Kelly


• "Identity Theft" by Robert J. Sawyer


• "Inside Job" by Connie Willis


• "The Little Goddess" by Ian McDonald


• "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link

• "The Calorie Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi


• "I, Robot" by Cory Doctorow


• "The King of Where-I-Go" by Howard Waldrop


• "TelePresence" by Michael A. Burstein


• "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle

• "The Clockwork Atom Bomb" by Dominic Green


• "Down Memory Lane" by Mike Resnick


• "Seventy-Five Years" by Michael A. Burstein


• "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan


• "Tk'tk'tk" by David D. Levine

• K. J. Bishop (second year of eligibility)


• Sarah Monette (second year of eligibility)


• Chris Roberson (second year of eligibility)


• Brandon Sanderson (first year of eligibility)


• John Scalzi (first year of eligibility)


• Steph Swainston (second year of eligibility)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 22, 2006 at 11:24 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

And you thought I forgot. For those of you who have forgotten, a quick recap. And now on to the results!

1. Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos) by Dan Simmons - 7 votes
2. Dune by Frank Herbert - 6 votes
3. Use Of Weapons (Culture Series) by Iain M. Banks - 5 votes
4. Startide Rising (Uplisft Series) by David Brin - 4 votes
5. Neuromancer by William Gibson - 4 votes
6. The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin - 4 votes
7. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke - 4 votes
8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - 4 votes

And a bunch more with 3 and 2 votes. This is an interesting mix, and it seems to follow the 10 year rule. I believe the 'newest' book listed is Hyperion. Out of the 8 listed above, I liked all of them except for Neuromancer (Gibson would rather play with words than write an actual story), while The Left Hand Of Darkness I found tedious in the extreme to read because it felt like I was reading a philosophy textbook. Otherwise, all the rest I hihghly recommend to anyone who hasn't read them, with Hyperion and Use OF Weapons topping my recommndations.

All in all, there was a bunch of good stuff listed. I encourage everyone to go back to the orginal post and read through the comments and maybe find something you haven't read yet! (Tim.... :D)

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday March 21, 2006 at 9:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The Top 6 Groovy Sci-Fi Movies from the Age of Aquarius from About.com.


• SciFiWeekly site of the week: Emerald City.


• Tobias S. Buckell (author of Crystal Rain) interviews Chris Roberson (author of Here, There & Everywhere. [via Locus Online]


• The Dragon Page podcast-interviews Jeff VanderMeer. [via Locus Online]


• Popcorn Picnic show George Lucas's interpretation of Serenity and the real reason for changing the "Han shoots Greedo" scene. [via Club Jade]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 21, 2006 at 1:12 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Some folks over in Asimov's Forum have a thread going regarding story statistics for The Years Best Science Fiction anthology series edited by Gardner Dozois. Here are some interesting statistics posted by "William Atheling III" for the first 23 volumes of the series:

Top 13 Authors with the Most Appearances in Dozois' YEAR BEST SF Volumes 1 - 23

1. Nancy Kress (17)


2. Michael Swanwick (16)


3. Greg Egan (15)


4. Robert Reed (14)


5. Robert Silverberg (14)


6. Bruce Sterling (14)


7. James Patrick Kelly (13)


8. Walter Jon Williams (13)


9. Pat Cadigan (11)


10. John Kessel (11)


11. Ian R. MacLeod (11)


12. Lucius Shepard (10)


13. Howard Waldrop (10)

1. Hainish by Ursula K. Le Guin (5 stories)


2. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynold (5)


3. Xeelee by Stephen Baxter (4)


4. Great Ship by Robert Reed (4)


5. Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick (4)


6. The Company by Kage Baker (4)


7. Hwarhath by Eleanor Arnason (3)


8. Wynne Cage by Jim Kelly (3)


9. Counting Heads by David Marusek (3)


10. Quiet War by Paul McAuley (3)


11. Hefn by Judith Moffett (3)


12. Silurian Tales by Steven Utley (3)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 20, 2006 at 2:46 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Underground Online's Top 11 Spaceships. [via Cynical-C]


• M. John Harrison, author of the well-received Light, has a sequel coming: Nova Swing. [via Jonathan Strahan]


• Walter Jon Williams is auctioning a part in his next book.


• A brief history of Doctor Who from the LA Times.


• SFFWorld interviews Ken MacLeod.


• Tune into I-Sci-Fi Internet radio on Thursday 3/23/2006 at 9:30 EST to hear an interview with Sten co-author Allan Cole about Lords Of Terror, which he co-authored with Russian fantasy master, Nick Perumov. [via SFWA]


• A new eZine on the horizon: Frozen Star SF. [via specficmarkets]


• The Speculist interviews Tobias S. Buckell, author of Crystal Rain. [via the author's blog]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 20, 2006 at 11:28 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 20, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

According to the voice of Fry, Billy West, the answer is yes. The big difference this time is that they are supposedly working on 26 new episodes to be aired on TV, not DVD! This is good news for everyone and now I must go acquire the last volume in the DVD series....

Update: Or not. :(

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Posted by JP Frantz at Sunday March 19, 2006 at 9:09 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Before the remake...er, I mean "re-imagined"...Battlestar Galactica aired, I subscribed to the general consensus that it was going to suck. Much to my surprise - and the surprise of many - it didn't suck. Gone was the corniness of the original Star Wars rip-off series. In came the dark, gritty space opera that audiences were willing to watch. Yay for scifi fans.

I've seen all of the episodes since the start of the series and I've mostly been pleased; pleased enough, at least, to keep watching. There were some low points but they were few and far between. The sf crunchy dramatic goodness was prevalent enough to keep it on my meager watch list.

I felt this way at least up until the "Pegasus" episode, the one where the Galactica finds a new Battlestar thought destroyed in the Cylon attack on Caprica. This was the episode that ended the first half of season 2, the episode that ushered in the "WTF?" practice of mid-season hiatus. It was a great episode and one whose cliffhanger ending ensured my return.

The 2nd half of the season did return with the two-part "Resurrection Ship", episodes which I found too much of a tease to be called good. The dramatic buildup of the simultaneous assassination, for example, was circumvented through most un-dramatic means. The only thing that could be more annoying wa if (like NBC does with ER) the episodes are each billed as the "must-see" episode of the season when all we get is another run-of-the-mill episode.

It turned out that "the tease" proved to be the prevailing technique used by the writers on the subsequent episodes. I kept getting the impression of good things to come - things that were ultimately never realized. In the end, the remaining episodes of Season 2 were a big disappointment for me.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 19, 2006 at 3:01 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Spider Robinson has been commissioned to write a book based on an outline Robert A. Heinlein created in November 1955. The book will be called Variable Star and is nearing final stages. It's due to be published in September 2006.

SF Signal reader (and unpaid spellchecker :)) Fred from Eternal Golden Braid told us about this nearly two years ago. I'm glad to see it finally coming to pass.

[Source: Heinlein Blog via BowieTrek]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 18, 2006 at 8:53 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Fictional character Dr. Susan Calvin (from Asimov's robot stories) has a wikipedia entry.


• Oh look! So does R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov and Hari Seldon and Elijah Baley and The Mule as do a host of Asimov's Robot Stories.


• The creators of Family Guy get an OK from LucasFilm before doing Star Wars jokes on the show. [from Club Jade]


• Article digitizing books: What Do You Do with a Million Books? [via O'Reilly Radar]


• A list of Sci-Fi Channel blogs.


• Here is a list of Science Fiction and Fantasy set in Ireland. (This might have been better to post yesterday on St. Patrick's Day itself. Oh well, better late than never!)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 18, 2006 at 5:54 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine now has a presence on MySpace.

This is interesting. I'm guessing this an attempt to drum up their readership which, sadly, has been declining for all SF/F magazines over the last few years. (So says Locus Magazine.) Getting some face time on mySpace, then, can't be all bad. I suspect this is the doing of F&SF editor John Joseph Adams a.k.a. The Slush God, whose blog, The Slush God Speaketh, is a frequently visited site and newsfeed. (Among other venues, he also writes for the SciFi Channel's SciFi Wire.)

[Link via David Barr Kirtley's LiveJournal]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 18, 2006 at 2:03 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Casting begins for the adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.


• Three interviews in one podcast: Timothy Zahn, Aaron Allston, and Mike Stackpole. [via Club Jade]


• Philly.com interviews John Scalzi.


• SF Site interviews Keith Brooke, author of Genetopia.


• A compendium of Analog's Alternate Views column by sf author John G. Cramer. [via del.icio.us]


• Dark Horizons interviews Nathan Fillion (Slither, Serenity).


• Daily Kos looks at SETI and extra-terrestrials.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 17, 2006 at 12:45 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Hey kids! Have hours and hours of fun with these science fiction and fantasy-related soundboards! Amaze your friends! Impress your enemies! Or, just kill some time.

• Aliens


• Back to the Future


• Conan the Barbarian


• Futurama: Dr. Zoidberg, Bender, Zap and Kif, or just Zap


• Gremlins


• The Matrix: Neo1 and Neo2


• Monty Python and the Holy Grail


• Spaceballs


• Star Wars: 1, 2 and Darth Vader


• Terminator 3

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 17, 2006 at 11:25 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

In addition to their Editor's Choice for Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2005, SF Site has now posted their Readers' Choice for SF Site Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2005. They are:

1. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman


2. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin


3. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson


4. Accelerando by Charles Stross


5. Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link


6. The Warrior-Prophet by R. Scott Bakker


7. Thud! by Terry Pratchett


8. Looking for Jake by China Miéville


9. (Tie) River of Gods by Ian McDonald, Mélusine by Sarah Monette and Olympos by Dan Simmons


10. (Tie) Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 16, 2006 at 10:14 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: An example of how change is inevitable.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Pure human Flint sets out to find his sister Amber in the Wildlands where nanotech changes humans into something not-human.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Intriguing and well-imagined world; thought-provoking; left me in a pensive mood.
CONS: Slow start; the focus of the book sometimes seemed to wander.
BOTTOM LINE: An entertaining and thought-provoking read.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 16, 2006 at 1:17 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Tatja Grimm doesn't fit in on the world where she lives - she's significantly smarter that everybody else, and begins to realize there might be more out in the universe than her tiny planet.
PROS: First section is a great short story, the last section is good, the middle is pretty poor.
CONS: The book bridges a couple of decent short stories together in poor fashion.
BOTTOM LINE: If you have to read everything by Vinge, get it, otherwise you can give this one a pass.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Thursday March 16, 2006 at 1:16 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Albert Einstein hated science fiction.


• Far Sector [formerly Deep Outside SFFH] interviews Timothy Zahn and interviews Martha Wells. [via Locus Online]


• Robert J. Sawyer's Hugo Award-winning Hominids is nominated for Ontario Library Association Award. [via Sawyer's blog]


• Arthur C. Clarke urges Sri Lanka not to revert time.


• Bruce Sterling laments the state of the world.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 15, 2006 at 5:52 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

From a ZDNet article:

The new offering would allow people to sign in and purchase immediate, browser-based access to books, Google said on its site. Purchasers would not, however, be allowed to save a copy of the book to their computer or to otherwise copy pages from the book.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 15, 2006 at 3:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

A couple of news sources are announcing that the Science Fiction Museum has announced the list of 2006 inductees into the Hall of Fame. They are:

• George Lucas


• Frank Herbert


• Anne McCaffrey


• Frank Kelly Freas

Oddly (and as Emerald City points out), there is no mention of this news at the Science Fiction Museum's website. I dislike posting something that could be rumor, but I'm thinking this is more of an "intentional leak".

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 14, 2006 at 5:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The Washington Post looks at Weird Tales magazine. [via Emerald City]


• A collection of online fiction from Steampunk.com.


• Cory Doctorow is podcastng his short story "Nimby and the D-Hoppers". Here's Part One.


• Holtzbrinck Podcasts this week: Titan by Ben Bova and Xenocide by Orson Scott Card.


• Producer Rick McCallum on Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 14, 2006 at 5:02 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Empire Magazine has announced the winners of the 2006 Empire Awards. Of note to SF/F/H fans:

• Scene Of The Year: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith - 'The Birth Of Vader'


• Best Horror: The Descent


• Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (video acceptance by George Lucas)


• Best Actor: Johnny Depp, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory


• Best Movie: King Kong (video acceptance by Peter Jackson)


• Outstanding Contribution To British Cinema Award: The Harry Potter Films

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 14, 2006 at 11:03 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

As previously noted, Locus Magazine reviewer Rich Horton will be editing three two annual anthology series: Science Fiction: The Best of the Year and Fantasy: The Best of the Year to be published by Prime Books.

New this week is Horton's message on the Asimov's forum listing the Tables of Contents of each:

Science Fiction: The Best of the Year

1. "The Edge of Nowhere" by James Patrick Kelly


2. "The Policeman's Daughter" by Wil McCarthy


3. "The Fate of Mice" by Susan Palwick


4. "Bank Run" by Tom Purdom


5. "Finished" by Robert Reed


6. "Triceratops Summer" by Michael Swanwick


7. "The Inn at Mount Either" by James Van Pelt


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


9. "Understanding Space and Time" by Alastair Reynolds


10. "Search Engine" by Mary Rosenblum


11. "You by Anonymous" by Stephen Leigh


12. "Heartwired" by Joe Haldeman


13. "Bliss" by Leah Bobet


14. "The Jenna Set" by Daniel Kaysen


15. "A Coffee Cup/Alien Invasion Story" by Douglas Lain

1. "Two Hearts" by Peter Beagle


2. "Wax" by Elizabeth Bear


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


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


5. "Fancy Bread" by Gregory Feeley


6. "Sunbird" by Neil Gaiman


7. "Pip and the Fairies" by Theodora Goss


8. "The Gist Hunter" by Matthew Hughes


9. "Jane" by Marc Laidlaw


10. "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link


11. "CommComm" by George Saunders


12. "Empty Places" by Richard Parks


13. "By the Light of Tomorrow's Sun" by Holly Phillips


14. "Three Urban Folk Tales" by Eric Schaller


15. "On the Blindside" by Sonya Taaffe


16. "Invisible" by Steve Rasnic Tem


17. "Comber" by Gene Wolfe

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 14, 2006 at 7:36 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The March 2006 Internet Review of Science Fiction is available:

• Editorial: Octavia Butler, A Remembrance by Steven Barnes


• Interviews: Bruce Holland Rogers and Charles Stross


• Features: Beyond Perry Rhodan: Contemporary Speculative Fiction in Germany by Ruth Nestvold & Jay Lake; Aliens at the Oscars: The Academy's Love/Hate/Love Relationship with Genre by MaryAnn Johanson


• Con Report: Sunday at Boskone 43 by Kate Nepveu


• Criticism: Kirinyaga and Beyond: Mike Resnick's African Diaspora in Space by John Rosenman


• Reviews: NFSF: The War is Over! SF Won! by Greg Beatty; A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin; Tour Guide in Utopia by Lucy Sussex; March Short Fiction Reviews

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 13, 2006 at 8:03 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Reminder: Friday 3/17 is the 2-hour U.S. premiere of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi Channel.


• SciFi Wire has an interview with Chris Roberson and his upcoming novel Iron Jaw and Hummingbird.


• Slush God provides some cutting-room-floor extra juicy bits from his SciFi Wire interview with Ian McDonald.


• Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman script is nearing completion.


• One for Pete: Women of Sci-Fi Calendar. [via SciFi Scoundrels]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 13, 2006 at 4:10 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In the late Victorian Era, two stage magicians engage in a personal rivalry that quickly escalates to active sabotage of each other's stage performances. This rivalry becomes so strong that even their descendants are caught up in it web.

PROS: Excellent story, interesting character, great writing, big SF reveal near the end.
CONS: The ending just didn't live up to the rest of the book.
BOTTOM LINE: Another great Victorian Era 'urban fantasy' story. If you aren't big on regular epic fantasy, this book may be for you. If you like urban fantasy, definitely read this book.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday March 13, 2006 at 9:51 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Gardner Dozois, editor of the annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthology series (soon to release its 23rd edition!) has announced that there will be a collection of the best novellas from the first 22(!) years called Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Best Science Fiction Short Novels. This is a follow-on retrospective to last year's Best of the Best : 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction, which disregarded story length. Dozois says in the Asimov's post that any novella included in last year's retrospective is ineligible for the upcoming one.

This news comes via Jonathan Strahan's Notes from Coode Street. Strahan is co-editor of the iBooks anthologies Fiction: Best of 200xand Fantasy: Best of 200x (now in limbo) and the Science Fiction Book Club's Best Short Novels series whose 3rd edition is due later this year.

I'm a bit divided on this one. Best of the Best seems like overkill. On the other hand, that hasn't stopped me from buying last year's Best of the Best via Bookcloseouts. What I would rather see is a reprint of the 1st, 2nd and 5th editions of The Year's Best Science Fiction since those are the ones I have yet to own.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 13, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 13, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

How important is the objectivity of a reviewer? It's a simple sentence, but boy does it have a lot of controversy behind it.

For example, reviewers here at SFSignal often get the books they review free from the publishers. The publishers send out review copies in the hopes that we'll write something good about it - making us a part of their viral marketing efforts. I don't remember seeing any review here (mine included) mention this during the review. Are we as objective about a free book as we would be for one we plunked our hard-earned cashed down on?

I've been thinking about this topic for a while, trying to get my head wrapped around not only the topic but also the way I really feel about it.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Sunday March 12, 2006 at 1:29 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Not the perfect anthology, but there are some good examples of adventure sf to be found here.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of 16 golden-age SF adventure stories.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 11 stories good or better, 2 of them outstanding.
CONS: 5 stories mediocre or worse.
BOTTOM LINE: Overall a good collection, but there were a few disappointments

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 12, 2006 at 12:03 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

From the Science Fiction Writers of America:

Air: Or, Have Not Have by Geoff Ryman will be the winner of the 2005 Tiptree Award. The award ceremony will be held at WisCon 30, to be held in Madison, Wisconsin from May 26 to May 29, 2006. Mr. Ryman will receive $1000 in prize money, an original artwork created specifically for the award, and the signature chocolate that always accompanies the Tiptree Award.

The James Tiptree Jr. Award is presented annually to a work that explores and expands gender roles in science fiction and fantasy. The award was created in 1991 to honor Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr. By her chance choice of a masculine pen name, Sheldon helped break down the imaginary barrier between "women's writing" and "men's writing." Her short stories were notable for their thoughtful examination of the roles of men and women in our society.The winner was selected from a short list that included:

• Aimee Bender, Willful Creatures


• Margo Lanagan, "Wooden Bride"


• Vonda N. McIntyre, "Little Faces"


• Wen Spencer, A Brother's Price


• Wesley Stace, Misfortune


• Mark W. Tiedemann, Remains

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 11, 2006 at 1:41 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A hugely entertaining sequel that sparkles with style.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Marid Audran solves crime in the culturally rich Budayeen.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Lively, spunky writing; rich setting; engrossing story; quick pacing.
CONS: Marid slow to catch on to the nature of the Phoenix File.
BOTTOM LINE: This is easily going to be one of my favorite reads of the year.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 11, 2006 at 12:22 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Dave Itzkoff's comments about SF have certainly garned a lot of attention. Along with that attention, has come close scrutiny of his list of favorite SF books. This list shouldn't surprise anyone as it definately seems to come from someone who thinks SF is too geeky. So, as a result, I thought I'd challenge the loyal SF Signal reader, to come up with a list of top SF books, as voted on by you. That means that you, Mr(s). RSS Feed reader, need to click on through and enter your list too. The rules:

1. Post your top 5 SF books. Order is unimportant, you can vote for a series by voting for any book in the series, just vote by saying BookName (Series).
2. Post them here in the comment section, please don't email them.
3. We'll tally up the votes, and generate a list of books, ordered by number of votes, in, say, about a week.

To get started, here are my top 5 (favorite) SF books:

1. Startide Rising
2. Use Of Weapons
3. Hyperion
4. Sten (Sten)
5. Starship Troopers

Vote away!

Update #1: There has been much, err, discussion on why only 5 books? That's easy. I'm lazy. And as this is all about me tabulating the votes, you get to list 5 to be counted. Joshua, you were right about John being the complete bastard. Me? I'm just the lazy bastard! Anyway, there is a lot of good stuff here. Some books that would be on my list if it were longer than 5. But I listed the first 5 I could think of, therefore they are my 'top 5'. Keep posting. Especially you SFS peeps reading the RSS Feed. Click on over and post a comment or risk being called lazy, like Tim!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday March 10, 2006 at 3:51 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Ian McDonald talks about his Hugo Award-nominated book River of Gods, whose first U.S. edition appears this month.


• An update on the Star Wars TV projects.


• Wired magazine has a feature, Trouble in Toontown, on the upcoming Philip K. Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly. And then there's 10 Reasons Keanu Rules.


• Today marks the anniversary of the day that Amazing Stories went on sale. (Coincidentally, I found a few old issues at the local bookstore this week that I scooped up.)


• The next Hellboy movie will be called Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.


• Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica will begin in October and have 20-episodes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 10, 2006 at 12:54 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

MIT's Media-in-Transition program is meant to "exploit some of the accretive, hypertextual and interactive capacities" of the new medium of cyberspace. Between 1997 and 2000, they focused on science fiction hoping to "encourage us to read science fiction as a mode of 'vernacular theory,' aiming to make current debates about new media accessible to a popular audience."

The website includes a 1997 essay Media and Imagination: A Short History of American Science Fiction. From their 3-year run, they have included interviews with these sf authors:

• Nalo Hopinkson/Connie Willis


• Ben Bova


• Greg Bear/Gregory Benford


• Hal Clement/Jeffrey Carver


• Pat Cadigan


• Michael Resnick/Alexander Jablokov


• Neil Gaiman/Craig Shaw Gardner


• Octavia Butler/Samuel Delany


• J. Michael Straczynski/Alexander Jablokov


• Frederick Pohl/James Patrick Kelly


• Joe Haldeman/Gregory Benford


• Orson Scott Card/Allen Steele


• Ellen Kushner/Sarah Zettel

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 09, 2006 at 3:36 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Nominees for the Aventis Prize, celebrating popular science books for adults, were announced.

• Electric Universe – How Electricity Switched on the Modern World by David Bodanis


• Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive by Jared Diamond


• The Elements of Murder – A History of Poison by John Emsley


• The Gecko's Foot – Bio-inspiration – Engineering New Materials from Nature by Peter Forbes


• The Silicon Eye – How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell Phones Obsolete by George Gilder


• Parallel Worlds – The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos by Michio Kaku


• Power, Sex, Suicide – Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane


• Venomous Earth – How Arsenic Caused the World’s Worst Mass Poisoning by Andrew Meharg


• Empire of the Stars – Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes by Arthur I. Miller


• Seven Deadly Colours – The Genius of Nature’s Palette and how it Eluded Darwin by Andrew Parker


• The Truth About Hormones – What’s Going on when we’re Tetchy, Spotty, Fearful, Tearful or Just Plain Awful by Vivienne Parry


• Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis – The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbers by Dan Rockmore


• The Fruits of War – How War and Conflict have Driven Science by Michael White

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 09, 2006 at 12:57 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

I suspect that my postman not only reads this blog, but he's become a speed-reader. I received my new issue of Locus Magazine yesterday, an unprecedented eight days into the month! This would lead me to believe that he's read my previous post on how I get the magazine late and already unsealed. Although I got my eager little hands on the magazine earlier than normal this month, it was still unsealed. And not just the-seal-became-undone-accidentally kind of unsealed. No, this was a hurried ripping of the seal. Therefore, I think my postman is a speed-reader. Who reads this blog.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 09, 2006 at 12:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Does the world really need another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie?


• New X-Men trailer. [via Club Jade]


• Young SF imprint Pyr is celebrating its first birthday.


• Universal has released an expletive-laden behind-the-scenes preview of their upcoming horror/comedy movie Slither. Bothe Both the movie and preview feature Firefly's/Serenity's Nathan Fillian. [via Cinema Blend]


• In the Asimov's Forum: The Greatest Sci-Fi FIlms of All Time.


• PopSci's Movie Awards: The Good, the Bad and the Highly Implausible.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 08, 2006 at 12:52 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

American Scientist Magazine lists 100 or so Books That Shaped a Century of Science. There are several categories, mostly citing non-fiction science books. But they did see fit to include a small handful of novels:

• Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925)


• Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1963)


• Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells (1908)


• Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 08, 2006 at 9:41 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF author James Patrick Kelly's last podcast experiment was his chapter-by-chapter reading of his novella "Burn". He is now following up that experiment with another.

Newly available is a podcast of the author reading his nebula-nominated novelette "Men are Trouble". [See the SF Signal reviewlette.] The story is also available in a pre-podcast version at the author's website.

[via Emerald City blog]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 07, 2006 at 3:07 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Kevin Spacey has already signed on for more Superman movies after Superman Returns.


• The Agony Column podcasts Kim Stanley Robinson. [via Locus Online]


• Neil Gaiman is pleased that his book Stardust is being adapted to film.


• Gary Westfahl considers the potential of Homo Aspergerus.


• The March 2006 edition of David Langford's Ansible is out.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 06, 2006 at 11:08 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

It seems that more and more these days, I am getting my news through RSS newsfeeds as opposed to random/purposeful surfing . (Must...feed...blog...) So it is always nice to find some information that has yet to make it to through my newsreader. Like this tidbit.

SF author Sean Williams announced on his news page that in 2007 Ace will be publishing his next trilogy, a solo called ASTROPOLIS. The proposed titles are Saturn Returns, Earth Ascendant, and Increasing in Light. He is also working on a young adult project.

I really enjoyed Williams' The Resurrected Man. I've been meaning to read his other works for quite a while now, but like so many other books, they keep getting supplanted by my whims of reading choice.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 06, 2006 at 10:35 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic medicine Show features an article on authors and blogging. There's quotes-a-plenty from Kathryn Cramer, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Syne Mitchell, Robert Sawyer and John Scalzi.

For a more comprehensive list of blogging authors, see SF Signal's post on SF/F writers who blog. And don't forget SF/F Writers Who Don't Blog...But Should!

[Link via Robert J. Sawyer]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 06, 2006 at 3:59 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

George Lucas made a prediction that big budget pictures will start to disappear, and lower cost movies (15 million or so) will start to make thier way into theatres. Now I find this interesting in that George's last few movies were giant budget affairs, that if they didn't say Star Wars, would not have even made a dime. Anyways, since we have a poll about SF and Hollywood - this is somewhat intriguing. I wonder can you make a decent SF movie without huge special effects and a monster budget - my guess is yes, but what do our readers think?

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Monday March 06, 2006 at 10:50 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 06, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Dave Itzkoff, SF reviewer for The New York Times, recently listed his favorite SF books. But he is also making waves with some comments about the SF genre he makes in his review of David Marusek's Counting Heads.

HERE'S a question I don't expect to come anywhere close to answering by the end of this column: Why does contemporary science fiction have to be so geeky?
...
I cannot [recommend science fiction books] in good conscience because if you were to immerse yourself in most of the sci-fi being published these days, you would probably enjoy it as much as one enjoys reading a biology textbook or a stereo manual. And you would very likely come away wondering, as I do from time to time, whether science fiction has strayed so far from the fiction category as a whole that, though the two share common ancestors, they now seem to have as much to do with each other as a whale has to do with a platypus.

Is Itzkoff right? Is he just using a bad hook to make his article more cohesive?

Is SF too geeky?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 05, 2006 at 11:09 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The economic reality of being a 1980's Cylon. [via RightMom]


• Hollywood North Report interviews Mary McDonnell of Battlestar Galactica.


• Excerpts from the Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett interview in the February 2006 issue of Locus Magazine.


• Here's a podcast by psychologist Dr. Helen where she talks with SF author John Scalzi (Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades) and Tim Minear, Executive Producer/writer of Firefly.


• One for Trek fans: Top 20 uses for Data's Detached Head.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 05, 2006 at 10:56 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• "O One" by Chris Roberson
• "Red Hands, Black Hands" by Chris Roberson
• "Pictures on a Cafe Wall" by Damian Kilby
• "The Dog Boys" by Tim Pratt
• "Bleeding West" by Tim Pratt
• "The Man Who Wasn't There" by Gregory Benford
• "Remade" by Charles Stross
• "Daydream Nation " by Paul Di Filippo
• "Angel of Light" by Joe Haldeman
• "Operation Terror" by Murray Leinster
• "Goliath" by Neil Gaiman
• "I, Cthulhu" by Neil Gaiman
• "The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds" by Neil Gaiman
• The Spriggan Mirror by Lawrence Watt-Evans (novel)
• Murder in the Gunroom by H. Beam Piper (a mystery novel)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 04, 2006 at 8:11 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Dave Itzkoff, science fiction reviewer for the New York Times, lists his favorite science fiction books, in alphabetical order.

• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter J. Miller (1959)


• Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)


• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)


• The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (1965)


• Gun, With Occasional Music: A Novel by Jonathan Letham (1994)


• Looking for Jake by China Miéville (2005)


• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962)


• R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury (1962)


• The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree (1982)


• Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1987)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 04, 2006 at 7:52 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Kevin Smith gives an awesome speech about his early involvement with the new Superman movie. I think this old - I seem to remember Scott telling me about this before - but this is the first time I've seen the video of the speech. (Thanks to Movie Blog) This is very funny stuff. The 20 minute video is expletive-laden, but that's more than made up for by the Spanish subititles!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 04, 2006 at 1:14 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Joss Whedon on more Firefly, Wonder Woman and more.


• Sci-Fi Promotion of the Week: TV Guide is giving away 1.4 million free downloads of Battlestar Galactica.


• More BG: Ronald D. Moore is a bit bummed out by the appearance of BG season finale photos before the episode premieres.


• Albert Einstein is watching you!


• A Harvard English professor has put Star Wars on the syllabus, much (I imagine) to the delight of Princeton professors. [via Club Jade]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 03, 2006 at 3:53 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

On Sunday, March 12th, The History Channel is running How William Shatner Changed the World. They only offer this brief description:

You've got a cell phone at one ear, an iPod at the other. You know that Blackberry is now a verb and Spam is not only canned meat. But just how did we get here? Blame William Shatner--yes, that William Shatner--Captain Kirk. We'll boldly go where few have gone before to reveal how scientists, inspired by the series, would revolutionize medicine and are surpassing the far-out vision of the future foreshadowed in Star Trek in the 1960s. From cell phones to computers to even leading-edge medical advancements, this 2-hour special explores how those sci-fi inventions have now permeated everyday life as we know it. Hosted and narrated by Shatner and based on his book, I'm Working on That, we'll meet the brightest minds of Silicon Valley and the Trek-inspired inventions that have help change the world.

HOW WILLIAM SHATNER CHANGED THE WORLD features interviews with other Star Trek actors George Takei and Nichelle Nichols, and looks at the legacy of subsequent Star Trek franchises and feature films which continue to impact the pace of scientific and technological advancements and inspire a new generation of world-changing scientists and inventors.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 03, 2006 at 12:42 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

The newly launched Book Magazine from the U.K. is running a poll through April 30th to determine the Greatest Living British Writer. The only genre authors included are Terry Pratchett and J.K. Rowling, but there is space to include your own choice.

With more and more award-nominated genre books coming from the U.K. it surprises me to see only two names there. No China Miéville? No Iain M. Banks or Ian MacDonald? Tsk tsk.

[via Andrew Wheeler]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 03, 2006 at 12:24 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Yes, I know its not necessarily SF related, but I think this will help all our readers out there who don't understand Podcasting. I have found a video from a Ninja to help explain it to you. If its still confusing after this little show, I will attempt to find a pirate to help elaborate a bit more...

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Friday March 03, 2006 at 10:02 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Locus Magazine reviewer Rich Horton will be editing two new annual anthology series: Fantasy: The Best of the Year and Science Fiction: The Best of the Year. A third anthology, Horror: The Best of the Year, will be edited by John Gregory Betancourt and Sean Wallace. All three anthologies will be published by Prime Books in trade paperback format.

[via Jonathan Strahan, co-editor with Karen Haber of Science Fiction: Best of... and Fantasy: Best of... anthologies from the recently-folded publishers, iBooks]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 03, 2006 at 8:26 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: The classic formula of juvenile science fiction still works.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Young Matt Dodson joins the Interplanetary Patrol in hopes of graduating to Space Cadet.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Skillful, terse writing made the story zip along; positive messages for young readers and enjoyable space adventure for all ages.
CONS: Some corny dialogue; needed a stronger antagonist; dated science may put off those who dislike such things.
BOTTOM LINE: Chock full of the tasty flavor of yesteryears' science fiction.

I have this irrational fear that all books, no matter how enjoyable, will be swept away by the tides of time as they fall out of print. Sure, there are a small handful of memorable titles that that remain on bookstore shelves years after year, but anyone who is looking for older titles is relegated to used bookstores and garage sales. Fortunately for a select few titles, the reprint publishing market is alive and kicking. One classic title that recently saw the light of day again is Robert A. Heinlein's Space Cadet.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 03, 2006 at 1:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Emerald City points out an oh-so-close-but-not-quite-cool website that maps independent bookstores. Actually, the MapMuse website maps lots of things. For example, here's a look at Houston area used bookstores, a set of establishments with which I am...somewhat...familiar.

The thing that keeps MapMuse from being a truly cool website is that, for some reason, as Tobias S. Buckell points out in the Emerald City post, they are not using the awesome Google Map interface. Grrr! Google Maps are way more responsive and intuitive. People are using the Google Maps API for a reason. Page draws pages between clicks on apps like this is so 2002.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 02, 2006 at 9:34 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Can an author promote their books too much? That seems to be the question of the week making the blog rounds.

Justine Larbalestier is a bit sensitive to the topic since she's been accused of too much "self-promotery". (I love that term.) She makes some good points. First and foremost, it's an authors job to promote their work. With so many books being published, even in a particular genre, they cannot afford to sit on their laurels. Which is not to say that self-promotion cannot get out of hand. Some self-promoting can be downright intrusive. To my (non-author) way of thinking, it's a question of taste and tact and not so much the act of promoting. Like Larablestier points out: don't be rude about it.

John Scalzi also comments on the topic and outlines some good points. (1. First-time authors get a free pass, 2. Beyond that, maintain a sense of scale, and 3. Spread the love and promote others before yourself.) He also recalls his incessant pimpage of Old Man's War and how another author took issue with said pimpage.

Tobias S. Buckell also adds to the discussion and calls out writer Jeff VanderMeer's opinion (made in the comments of Larbalestier's blog post) that authors should raise the stakes on each successive book promotion. Buckell points to the recent appearance of book-related websites - as in one website devoted to one title, usually created by the book's author.

In the end, like any form of advertising, anyone who is tired of the advertising can always tune it out, or change the channel, or turn off the radio...

UPDATE
BTW, it occurs to me that I could have provided a good example of tactful self-promoting. I could have taken the time to let people know of an awesome website that is sure to stimulate and expand your mind. But instead, I'll let the linkage do that for me. :)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 02, 2006 at 9:22 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Any Paul DiFilippo fans out there?

Now you can listen to a podcast of Paul DiFilippo's story "Little Worker". Warning: The story is rated X by hosts EscapePod. The timid may prefer a podcast interview with the author over at SmallWorldPodcast.

[Link via BoingBoing]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 02, 2006 at 1:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Amazon has Amazon.com: Firefly - The Complete Series on sale for $20. Wow! If you haven't bought it yet, now's your chance. You can't beat quality entertainment for $20. And if you're feeling plucky, why not add the Serenity DVD as well and get them both for $38 with free shipping! You can't beat that with a large caliber weapon...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 02, 2006 at 9:24 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Michael Moorcock says his new novel, The Vengeance of Rome, has no American publisher and probably won't until , he says, "the current political climate changes." The book's main character is a trickster, self-deceiver, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic Jew, bisexual and friend of fascism.


• Robert J. Sawyer has posted the introduction to the upcoming media tie-in book, Boarding the Enterprise that he co-edited with David Gerrold.


• Wanna be on a reality TV show? How about applying to be on Who Wants to Be a Superhero?


• Kathryn Cramer on digital watermarking.


• Revolution SF reviews Serenity: The RPG.


• About.com's Top 6 Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies from TV Shows.


• About.com's Top 5 Worst Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies Based on TV Shows.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 02, 2006 at 12:41 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Another great Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean collaboration.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Helen, the teenage daughter of a circus performer is transported to a strange world when her mother is taken to the hospital. The balance between light and darkness is broken, and darkness is swallowing up the world.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Even if there was no story at all, the McKean style of imagery would keep you entralled for two hours; story not Gaiman's best, but quite good
CONS: Special effects, while incredibly engrossing, fall just shy of blockbuster-budget films;
BOTTOM LINE: This is a winner - it appealed to not only a fantasy nut like me, but also my wife and 10-year-old son.

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Posted by APEGamer at Wednesday March 01, 2006 at 9:21 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Site has posted their editors' choice for The Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2005:

1. (Tie) The House of Storms by Ian R. MacLeod and Spin by Robert Charles Wilson


2. Accelerando by Charles Stross


3. Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link


4. The Silences of Home by Caitlin Sweet


5. (Tie) 9-Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay and Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds


6. (Tie) The Hounds of Avalon by Mark Chadbourn and Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach, translated by Doryl Jensen


7. The Ultimates 2 by Mark Millar, illustrated by Bryan Hitch


8. Vellum: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan


9. (Tie) The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco, translated by Geoffrey Brock and Woken Furies by Richard Morgan


10. Life by Gwyneth Jones

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 01, 2006 at 12:55 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Our recent post which discusses movie adaptations reminded me of the 1994 anthology Reel Future edited by Forrest J. Ackerman and Jean Stine which collects a handful of short stories that were adapted into movies. Here's the table of contents of that book with the corresponding movies. Three of the sixteen stories are available online.

1. "The Empire of the Ants" by H. G. Wells (1905) - filmed as Empire of the Ants in 1977


2. "Herbert West—Reanimator" by H. P. Lovecraft (1922) - filmed as Re-Animator in 1985


3. "Armageddon—2419 A.D." by Philip Francis Nowlan (1928) - filmed for television and the movies as Buck Rogers and other titles between 1933 and 1979


4. "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr. (1938) - filmed as The Thing From Another World in 1951 and The Thing in 1982


5. "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates (1940) - filmed as The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951 [read the SF Signal review]


6. "This Island Earth" by Raymond F. Jones (1952) - filmed as This Island Earth in 1955


7. "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury (1950) - filmed as The Illustrated Man in 1969


8. "The Sentinel" by Arthur C. Clarke (1951) - filmed as 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968


9. "Seventh Victim" by Robert Sheckley (1953) - filmed as The Tenth Victim in 1965


10. "The Racer" by Ib Melchior (1956) - filmed as Death Race 2000 in 1975


11. "The Fly" by George Langelaan (1957) - filmed as The Fly in 1956 and 1986 (and apparently a new one is in production)


12. "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Faraday Nelson (1963) - filmed as They Live in 1988


13. "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick (1966) - filmed as Total Recall in 1990


14. "Damnation Alley" by Roger Zelazny (1967) - filmed as Damnation Alley in 1977


15. "Enemy Mine" by Barry B. Longyear (1979) - filmed as Enemy Mine in 1985


16. "Air Raid" by John Varley (1977) - filmed as Millennium in 1989

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 01, 2006 at 12:54 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Jim Kelly concludes the podcast of his novella "Burn". [via BoingBoing]


• Speceditor666 interviews Ellen Datlow, editor of the late SciFiction. [via Locus Online]


• Book lovers are a lonely bunch.


• Sleaze Science Fiction Covers. [via Cynical-C]


• Ray Bradbury's old house may become a landmark.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 01, 2006 at 1:14 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 01, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal