Following up his recent "Beer-Money SF vs. Literary SF" post - and Velcro City's thoughtful response - Andrew Wheeler has posted "Beer-Money SF Redux". In it, he tries to pin down why science fiction is in, and will most likely remain in, a literary ghetto.

My general theory here is that most readers are primarily interested in books that are described in words they already understand. There will be exceptions, but, for most people, being told that a book is about something incomprehensible (in a more convoluted way than that) will not be a point in its favor. If someone tells me that some great novel is about the inevitability of frammis, and that it distims the doshes in a way no gostak can, I'm probably not going to be interested. If the same person tells me it's a great new First Contact book with a neat new idea about picotech and a different take on "The Cold Equations," then I'll probably look for that book. You have to have some handle on why you might like a book before you can even decide you want it.

Those science fiction fans were one weird crowd. Everything needed an explanation. Space ships had to have a logical means of propulsion, and there always needed to be schematic drawings. Strange new worlds had to be described in great detail, right down to the composition of the atmosphere. And the physics of time travel always had to be explained. Nothing was ever accepted as is. There was certainly no room for staff-carrying magicians with long flowing robes.

Brian, on the other hand, read fantasy fiction--sensible magical stories about dungeons & dragons, swords & sorcery, elves, goblins, and trolls. With fantasy the impossible was plausible, and worlds could be saved with the wave of a crystal-wearing hand. Science never interfered.

Brian didn't need rational explanations for unexplained phenomena; he read for pleasure and a simple "it's magic" was just fine by him. Anyways, it was all about the "quest". But for some reason, the sci-fi reader had some obsessive need to rationalize. He needed to know how hyperspace works, and why a pulse rifle is able to both stun and kill.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 30, 2006 at 9:30 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Dragon movie season is open. First Eragon, then Termeraire, now Warner Bros. picked up the rights to Here, There Be Dragons, an upcoming children's book by James A. Owen. [via Cinematical]
• John Picacio shows off his cover for the Del Rey reprint of Robert A. Heinlein's Red Planet.
• Sean Wallace of Cosmos Books is all ready with the cover for Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007.
• Meme Therapy asks about Science Fiction Ethical Dilemmas (Part 2).
• Edgar Allan Poe's last words: "Lord help my poor soul."
• Spike TV has canceled Blade.
• The Top 10 SF Fraternity or Sorority Names.
• Collecting the best from around the web: Solar Flare is hosting The Greatest Show In The Galaxy #5.
• My Apologetics talks about The Science in Science Fiction - Part 1.

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 30, 2006 at 12:48 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The SciFI Channel aired the first two episodes of Doctor Who series two tonight. I like the show. It has a nice mix of adult "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" humor and good ol' fashioned camp, which the kids seem to like. The new Doctor seems to be good fit. (And I still think he has a bit of a Davy Jones thing going on.)

As per usual, I watched with my daughter, who loves it. On one of the episodes, one of the characters loses a hand in a swordfight, to which my apparently geek-in-training daughter replied, "That's just like Star Wars. I think the people that made this saw Star Wars."

Could I be more proud? I think not. :)

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 30, 2006 at 12:17 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Genre pulp writer Emerson LaSalle is not a fan of science. Or, at least, according to his blog Count Pulpula, he's not happy with How Science Ruined Science Fiction.

The biggest problem with science is that it eventually undermines sci-fi staples. Take Mars for example. Thanks to that useless tax drain NASA, we now know Mars to be a lifeless rock which may or may not have had water on it at one time. Gee, thanks, science.

But I gotta wonder about the Mars comment. Has the recent Mars exploration doomed the Mars story? Has science really ruined sf?

Share:
Comments (11) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 29, 2006 at 1:22 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The Alphabet of Obscure Science Fiction (Movie) Classics
• Pyr-o-mania previews the John Picacio cover for Mike Resnick's Starship: Pirate. Arrrrgh! In spaaaaace!
• Friday YouTube: Muppet song...or Cthulhu Chant?
• SciFi Wire profiles Jon Courtenay Grimwood and his new novel Stamping Butterflies.
• SciFi Wire reports that Robert Downey Jr. has been cast as Tony Stark in Jon Favreau's Iron Man movie.
• Meme Therapy wonders what it would be like If Sci-Fi Authors Ruled the World.
• Michael A. Burstein is out to save Pluto. [via Locus Online]
• E.E. Knight has the rules for The Scifi Original Drinking Game. Not that we condone drinking. Or watching SciFi Originals.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 29, 2006 at 1:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The familiar crew of the Enterprise face another certain doom scenario.

Fortunately, five members can transport to the planet below.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 28, 2006 at 2:48 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

More in the category of 'sci-fi coming to life' is a Philips technology that allows for true fiber optics - in this case, fabric fibers. The technology called Lumalive puts an array of LEDs into the fabric itself and thus allowing you to have moving graphical images presented from your clothing. I can only imagine the potential uses for such technology - jackets for use while jogging at night that warn vehicles of your location, shirts that allow you to promote the latest craze (your favorite blog maybe), and underwear that ... well ... perhaps that's best left to the imagination.

Can the world envisioned by the movie Blade Runner be that far away?

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Science and Technology
Posted by Scott Shaffer at Thursday September 28, 2006 at 8:44 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Chapter Feeds has the first chapter of Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge. [See SF Signal review.]
• This year's Sunburst Award winner, for an SF novel or book-length collection by a Canadian writer, is Holly Phillips' In the Palace of Repose. [via Locus Online]
• Apex Digest has met its goal in a recent membership drive!
• Atlanta radio station Q100.5's Bert Show offers a 5-part (real audio) musical series: Harry Potter: Trapped in the Closet, Under the Stairs.
• John Scalzi interviews Jo Walton.
• The September issue of Internet Review of Science Fiction is out.
• Over at Asimov's Science Fiction, Robert Silverberg reflects on the use of "archaic" tools like typewriters and copy machines to draft novels.
• Nicholas Whyte does some number crunching to find that authors born between 1942 and 1951 have won almost twice as many Hugos and Nebulas as might be expected, comparing them with all Hugo and nebula winners.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 28, 2006 at 12:41 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

From 2002 P.B. (Pre-Blog), there's a Washington Post article in which authors name some favorite books. The short version:

• Michael Chabon: R Is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury.
• Thomas M. Disch: Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin.
• Neil Gaiman: Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty.
• Ellen Datlow: Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison and The Playboy Book of Horror and the Supernatural.
• James Hynes: Chronopolis and Other Stories by J.G. Ballard.
• Sheila Williams: What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown.
• Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket): Weird Women, Wired Women by Kit Reed.
• Peter Straub: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
• Terry Pratchett: The Evolution Man by Roy Lewis.
• Nancy Kress: The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
• John Clute: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
• Gordon van Gelder: In Signs of Life, Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison.
• Daniel Pinkwater: Mount Analogue by René Daumal.
• Diana Wynne Jones: Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff.
• Poppy Z. Brite: Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled by Harlan Ellison.
• Kelly Link: The Wolves of WilloughbyChase by Joan Aiken.
• John Crowley: The Priest by Thomas M. Disch and Being Dead by Jim Crace.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 27, 2006 at 1:20 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: It's important to be able to relate to the main character in a character-driven novel.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Military android goes AWOL and tries to live a normal life among the enemy.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Well-written action scenes; avoids "robot wants to be human" cliché.
CONS: Little reason to care about main character; poor pacing; somewhat mired down in politics.
BOTTOM LINE: Shows signs of being a first novel.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 27, 2006 at 7:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

UPDATED: WIth link to EW BG Story.

• Jonathan Strahan shows off the cool Stephan Martinere cover for The New Space Opera, the anthology he is editing with Gardner Dozois.
• Meme Therapy asks about Science Fiction Ethical Dilemmas (Part 1).
• Mel Brooks talks about the animated Spaceballs.
• ComingSoon.net has some Harry Potter 5 pics.
• New at Gutenberg: Ullr Uprising by H. Beam Piper
• Ah! Now I see the link between science fiction and wrestling.
• Two Cordwainer Smith stories online: "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" and "Under Old Earth", Baen samples from the collection We the Underpeople [via Paul Jessup]
• This week's Entertainment Weekly (with the Battlestar Galactica cover story) reviews Neil Gaiman's story collection Fragile Things and gives it a B+.
• An upcoming limited-edition hardcover of Christopher Paolini's best-seller Eldest will feature an excerpt of the as-yet-unnamed book 3 in the Inheritance trilogy.
• Jennifer Fallon lists The 51 sub-genres of speculative fiction as pulled from an online bookstore.
• Star Wars Duel of the Fates...Simpson's style! [via Club Jade via TFN]

Share:
Comments (6) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 27, 2006 at 7:12 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Not to be confused with robots on TV or in the movies, these robots are real. John Deere has instigated a research program designing fully unmanned robotic farm tractors. And by tractor, I don't mean the tiny 4-cylinder device you might use around the house. In this case, I'm talking about about the big farm tractors that roam the acres of commercial farmland in middle-America.

Completely automatic driving systems already exist - and in fact are already being used today. But today the operator has to hang out in the cab ready to control the more esoteric aspects of farming. A farmer today can start up his tractor and get in some reading (sci-fi no doubt) while the computer in the cab drives whatever machine he's got to either sow or reap. And the systems can automatically switch between crops depending on what field you're on - doing the right thing for soybeans and a different thing for corn. Again, while the driver barely has to look up. The researcher at Deere are unashamed of promoting the fact that eventually they will get the farmer out of the silo entirely. Luckily I don't fear a War Games scenario with this like I might with missile launch systems.

Second, at the recent Big Iron farm show in North Dakota, total-farm WiFi systems were pitched. Not designed to allow the farmer surf the web, but instead being utilized for remotely operated watering, feeding, and other systems used today on a farm.

Eventually our farmers will merely sit down at the operations center inside their massive farmhouse and direct the operation of the farm, much like a power planet operator or network administrator does today.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Science and Technology
Posted by Scott Shaffer at Tuesday September 26, 2006 at 6:30 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

It's that time again boys and girls, time for another, patented, SF Signal Reader Challenge! This time, the challenge will be broken into two separate challenges, with associated polls (although John doesn't know that yet, though, it will make the next few polls easy for him...). This time, I'm looking for your coolest/favorite science fiction setting in the written form. The rules:

1. List up to 3 settings in the comments below.
2. Please restrict your settings to those in written form. In this case, novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, poems and the like, in short, anything published in writing. Screenplays do not count.
3. For those settings that have cross-pollinated between the visual and written media, only those settings whose original story was in written form should be considered and listed. For instance, the film 2001 won't be accepted, but the short story "The Sentinel" will be. Star Wars and Star Trek are right out, this time.

I'll collate the answers, then we may have a poll to see which setting is the coolest or the most favorite of the SF Signal readers. I'll run this challenge through this coming Sunday (10/1) and then make John put up a poll starting next Monday, and then another challenge covering the visual media.

My coolest settings? Glad you asked:

• The Culture from the mind of Iain (The M Stands for SF) M. Banks. Eccentric, overprotective AIs, ginormous ships, immortality (if careful), and Special Circumstances. What's not to like?
• Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space universe. Sure, FTL is more trouble than its worth, but the society mankind has made is really cool.
• David Brin's Uplift series. Just plain cool. If only he'd finish the story of the Streaker.

Now it's your turn!

Share:
Comments (25) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday September 26, 2006 at 3:20 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

	Jose	Rosie	Charlie
Mug Shot
First sf book you read	Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster.	Oh God, can't remember. Probably either one of Asimov's Foundation novels or something by Robert A. Heinlein. My mother's a sci-fi nut so I was exposed at a very young age.	Not sure, but it could well have been Dolphin Island by Clarke when I was about 8 or 9 - I remember being captivated by the giant hovercraft he depicted roaring across land and sea, and by the tropical techno-idyll eventually reached by the young stowaway protagonist. Not sure I'd enjoy it quite as much if I re-read it now, though ;-)
Last sf book you read.	Cyrptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.	The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.	The last one I finished was Infoquake, I'm currently reading Brass Man.
Favorite sf book.	I'm going to wimp out and go with my sentimental favourite A World Out of Time by Larry Niven.	I'm going to cheat and say Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, rather than giving any single book. The character development is just amazing and the science fantastic.	I'm hopeless at picking favourites, but off the top of my head, Ringworld and Red Mars would have to be up there (sorry for cheating). I love tales of exploration.
Favorite sci-fi author (living)	Larry Niven.	Apart from KSR, Neal Stephenson for Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle. Even though they're set in the past they're still science fiction.	Argh...Well, if you base it on how far in advance I pre-order their books, I guess it would have to be Iain M. Banks, but really, there are far too many brilliant and varied writers out there (to choose just one, I mean...), and I have to register a protest at the meanness of only allowing one pick.
Favorite sci-fi author (dead)	Gotta be Heinlein.	Heinlein for being impossible to pin down and for annoying just about every sector of American society in his career.	Hmm...for some reason this is easier, and I find myself having to choose between Wells and Verne...and it's got to be Wells, really, hasn't it.
Hard SF or space opera?	Another tough call. Hard SF.	Depends on my mood, I tend to go for hard sci-fi more though.	Hard SF.
Military sf or cyberpunk?	Cyberpunk.	Cyberpunk as I tend to find most military sci-fi incredibly tedious and uninventive. If I see one more WWII/Vietnam/Trafalgar-in-space novel I'll scream.	Cyberpunk, I guess, though I'm not sure the boundary between the two is that clear cut. And I will admit to a (probably) unhealthy fascination with weapon systems through the ages.
Favorite sci-fi movie	2001: A Space Odyssey. Knowing Rosie can't stand it makes me love it even more.	Bladerunner for the style, Gattaca for the acting, plot and gnarly politics, Starship Troopers for the satire.	Tough one. I have never seen a sci-fi movie which inspired the same sense of wonder in me as the best literature. I was going to go for an intellectual choice like 2001, but if I force myself to be honest, probably Star Wars. It may not have the science part right, but it has that strange depth of field that makes it compelling and makes you wonder about what might be going on just out of sight of the camera.
Zombie fight: Night of the Living Dead vs. 28 Days Later - who would win?	I'm rooting for the British vampires. All those years of living in a poor climate make them extra surly in unlife.	28 Days Later. Hey I'm British.	Neither. Shaun of the Dead would have them both.
BG or Doctor Who?	It feels like a betrayal to say this but BG.	Battlestar Galactica any day. It's the only overtly political show on American T.V. and the space battles are cool.	Erm...I'm on thin ice here, as I don't really watch that much TV, so I haven't seen more than a couple of episodes of either. On the balance (and possibly because of ethnic bias) I'd have to go for the good Doctor, though.
Favorite sci-fi TV show (current)	Battlestar Galacti ca. Hated the original ironically.	Battlestar Galactica.	See above, if I say any more I'll just reveal the depth of my ignorance.
Favorite sci-fi TV show (canceled)	Firefly.	Firefly. There's just never been anything else like it. (Although for traditional space opera I have to say I have a penchant for Babylon 5.)	I'm not sure it's really the answer you're looking for, but The Future's Wild was wonderful. I have been a fan of Dougal Dixon's wonderful imaginings of evolutionary potential since reading After Man: A Zoology of the Future, and I just wish they'd make more stuff like this.
Boomer, Six or the Bionic Woman?	I had a crush on the Bionic Woman growing up but now it's definitely Boomer. I don't get the guys who wear "Six of Mine" T-shirts.	Boomer.	Oh bloody hell, I don't know...Six, purely because I prefer the unknown and I have no idea who she (hopefully) is.
Harlan Ellison or a punch in your gob?	I'm not a member of the Stone Harlan movement so I pick Harlan.	Since I think "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" is possibly the best sci-fi short story ever I'd have to go for Harlan Ellison.	Harlan Ellison punching me in the gob.
Occupation outside the blog	Headset Whore. But I blog at work so I consider myself a covertly pro blogger.	Politics student and professional grumpy bastard.	I work for a game testing company. It's not as interesting/fun as you might think.
Celebrity you most resemble	Chewbacca.	It's a toss up between Jesus and Che Guevera.	A mutant hybrid of Oscar Wilde and Hunter S. Thompson.
Favorite Meme Therapy post.	It's still our third post. The Unmanned vs Manned Spaceflight Brain Parade.	Ooh, there's so many. To be honest I really don't have a favourite.	The first one, where I conclusively prove that heading out into space is essential to the psycho-socio-spiritual welfare of our species, naturally.
Favorite scientist	Spock.	Richard Dawkins for being utterly uncompromising in his defence of evolution and criticism of religion.	Freeman Dyson.
Favorite website	Rudy Rucker's Blog.	The Guardian Unlimited. The Guardian's the only newspaper which actually seems to get the internet and is prepared to adapt itself and use tools such as blogging and podcasting to present its stories.	Aww, c'mon, man...no comment ;-)
Favorite superhero	Matter-Eater Lad.	I've never really been into comics that much but I guess it'd have to be Batman.	Judge Dredd.
If you could have one of Superman's powers, what would it be?	His incomprehensible staying power.	The ability to fly. Then I wouldn't have to catch the bus to work every morning.	The power of flight, of course...
The biggest disappointment in sf	That I can't use it to pick up women.	Apart from Firefly being cancelled? The lack of really good and incisive social commentary in American sci-fi at present. Come on guys, your Nation's in the midst of an existential crisis, write about it!	That no one has yet made a film of Rama. Or The Mote in God's Eye. Or any of the other brilliant books and short stories I read when I was growing up.
Science fiction personality you most admire	I don't know much about Science Fiction authors on a personal basis but from what little I've seen I really like Joe Haldeman. I'd like to get drunk with the man.	Stanislaw Lem (although he's dead now). Way smarter than any other sci-fi writer I've ever read.	If by admire you mean "would most like to meet", I guess Larry Niven.

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Interviews
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 26, 2006 at 12:04 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Dr. Suess goes CGI. [via Michael May]
• The British Fantasy Award winners have been announced.
• Locus Online has posted interview excerpts from the September 2006 issue: James Patrick Kelly and Ken MacLeod.
• Check out the cool science fiction & fantasy artwork of Dominic Harmon.
• Top 176 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With "Pants"

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 26, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Author John M. Ford has passed away.

See the Making Light blog for more info and related links...

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 25, 2006 at 11:22 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Posthuman Blues lists Ten of the best science fiction/fantasy novels you've never read. And ten more!
• Lou Anders adds his response to Cory Doctorow's Locus article How Copyright Broke.
• The Agony Column podcasts Charles Stross. [via Locus Online]
• SciFi Weekly reviews the latest permutation of the Star Wars DVDs. Rating: A-.
• "Paying tribute to the classic Italian science fiction mega-movies": The Spaghetti SciFi Shrine.
• John C. Wright talks about Separation of Church and Spaceship (Part 5).
• The latest Emerald City features a WorldCon report and a dissection of the Hugos.
• Paper dolls go digital: Dress up your favorite sci-fi stars: Brandon Routh (Superman), David Tennant and Billie Piper (Doctor Who), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and (are you paying attention, Pete?) Kate Beckinsale. [via MonkeyFilter]

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 25, 2006 at 12:29 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (6) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 25, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Cory Doctorow has completed the 4-part podcast of his Nebula-nominated short story "0wnz0red".

Here are links to the MP3s:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 24, 2006 at 10:53 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• What it might look like inside a Ringworld.
• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist interviews Joel Shepherd.
• Alan Chudnow asks: Why Collect Science Fiction Books?
• Humorous: A commercial for Sci-Fi Talent Agency [via Neat-o-rama]
• Entertainment Weekly profiles Battlestar Galactica. [via Club Jade]
• John Scalzi is giving away an advanced reading copy of his book, The Android's Dream.
• Collecting the best from around the web: Solar Flare is hosting The Greatest Show In The Galaxy #4.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 24, 2006 at 12:55 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Paris Review has posted a bunch of their past interviews with authors as part of The DNA of Literature. (Sadly, some are only interview excerpts, but some have the full interview in PDF format.) A few of these authors have been known to dabble in science fiction, despite what some of them may say. [Looks at Atwood and Vonnegut.] Here are the ones of note for genre fans:

• Kingsley Amis (1975)
• Margaret Atwood (1990)
• J. G. Ballard (1984)
• Anthony Burgess (1973)
• Aldous Huxley (1960)
• Doris Lessing (1988)
• Jonathan Lethem (2003)
• Kurt Vonnegut (1977)

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 23, 2006 at 5:24 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Stefan from the Yahoo group Beyond Reality writes in to tell us about the recent happenings in the group. Beyond Reality, with 450+ members, discusses one science fiction and one fantasy book throughout the month. Recently, they have extended invitations to authors who have accepted and will appear in upcoming group discussions as noted below. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to participate in a book club, this would be a good opportunity.

Here's their schedule:

September

• SF: Artifact by Gregory Benford
• Fantasy: City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer

• SF: Earth by David Brin (who will participate)
• Fantasy: Unbinding the Stone by Marc Vun Kannon

• SF: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (who will participate)
• Fantasy: The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 23, 2006 at 4:58 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Following on the heels of the recent Book Review Backlash, it seems that the realm of the argument has breached the blogosphere and (somewhat) entered the mainstream. I'm referring to to a recent Time magazine essay by book critic Lev Grossman called My Mortal Enemy, in which Lev talks back to blogger Edward Champion who apparently has been vocal about disliking Lev's reviews. Says Lev:

I want to be clear: I don't think Ed Champion is an idiot. I've read some of the other, non--Lev Grossman-related posts on his blog (which is mostly about books), and have found them to be highly opinionated but otherwise cogent and well-informed, and sometimes even charming. Ed Champion is not insane. He's just unswervingly committed to the position that I am a complete tool.

I know, I know, I should toughen up. Blogging is a knockabout sport, and as a writer I'm fair game. You'd think I could just ignore Ed Champion (you can find him at edrants.com yeah, go ahead, don't all click at once) and most of the time I do. But it's harder than you'd think. Blogs reach a big audience. People read him. People link to him. Google frickin' loves Ed. Not long ago I set up a website of my own, and despite the fact that it's my website, and it deals with nothing but Lev Grossman, and it's located at levgrossman.com Ed's website still comes up ahead of mine half the time.

It's one of the singular features of our little social-technological moment that people all over the world whom we otherwise would never even be aware of can effortlessly impinge upon our minds and lives and desktops. We probably see fewer people in person these days, but our lives are populated by an entire chorus of disembodied presences, amplified and directed by the Internet, as if we had all begun to suffer from a mild form of schizophrenia. Everybody talks a little louder now. There's a little less mental elbow room.

At the risk -- nay, certainty -- of sounding kind of snobbish, I wish book sections in general would leave book-reviewing to the pros. There's a pervasive notion that anybody who can read can write a book review. Not so. Good god, there is nothing so boring, so dank and unappealing on the page, as a bad book review.

And at the risk of sounding reverse-snobbish, I'd like to see more serious review attention go to genre fiction. It is, after all, what most people read. The worst of it is very bad, and the best of it is very very good. Why not help potential book-buyers divide the one from 'tother?

[via Niall at Big Blog of Cheese]

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 23, 2006 at 4:45 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Casting news for the ever-upcoming adaptation of I Am Legend, Brazilian actress Alice Braga will co-star opposite Will Smith. "Come out, Neville!" [via SciFi Wire]
• An update on the animated Spaceballs: it will air on G4 TV with a one hour pilot and 13 half-hour episodes. More at Cinematical.
• Free Doctor Who book online: Nightshade by Mark Gatiss, member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen.
• New on Gutenberg: "The Keeper" by H. Beam Piper.
• Meme Therapy interviews artist Brian Dow who, among other things, did the cool cover image for Genetopia.
• David Louis Edelman is giving away 5 copies of Infoquake to people who complete one of 5 tasks.
• Friday YouTube: Isaac Asimov on computers.
• Apex Magazine could use your help.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 22, 2006 at 12:29 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Forgotten Trek website is "a tribute to those forgotten heroes who created Star Trek - from the Enterprise herself to the uniforms worn by its crew. This is a shrine to the men and woman who made Star Trek possible and took good care of it for decades..."

There's lots of good information here for fans, both diehard and casual: concept art, behind-the-scenes info, costumes, lost voyages (unused material) and interviews with the production crew.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 21, 2006 at 1:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• John Scalzi reflects on The Last Colony, his recently delivered manuscript for the sequel to Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades.
• SciFi Weekly reviews miniature models of Cool Rockets.
• The Movie Blog has the cover art for the Superman Returns DVDs.
• Real Science: How to Blow Up a Star.
• SciFi Wire has an update on Jeff VanderMeer's pirate anthology, tentatively titled Fast Ships, Black Sails.
• Harlan Ellison^® filed suit against Fantagraphics Books over the upcoming book Comics As Art, which Ellison claims defames him. [via SFBC Blog]
• Martha Wells is posting her 1993 novel The Element of Fire on her LiveJournal. [via Locus Online]
• At Locus Online, people respond to Cory Doctorow's Locus Magazine article How Copyright Broke.
• Matt Cheney interviews Rodger Turner, editor of SF Site.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 21, 2006 at 12:56 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Don Swaim, host of the long-running CBS Radio show, Book Beat, has interviewed a butt-load of authors. Many of these uncut interviews are available online. Check out these interviews of genre authors:

• Douglas Adams
• Brian Aldiss
• Piers Anthony
• Isaac Asimov
• Ray Bradbury
• Anthony Burgess
• Doris Lessing

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books, Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 21, 2006 at 12:44 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Following a recent tidbit about J.R.R. Tolkien reading and singing his Lord Of The Rings, the good folks at SFF Audio have found some other sf goodies that were born on vinyl.

First, Arthur C. Clarke reads his short stories "Transit Of Earth", "The Star" and "The Nine Billion Names of God".

Next, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is performed by Aldous Huxley and a full cast in two parts.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 21, 2006 at 12:15 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Can you guess which ones are The World's Most Valuable Comic Books?
• MemeTherapy wonders whether science fiction has changed anyone's worldview when they ask Has Science Fiction Cranked Your Head?
• Episode #7 of the The Time Traveler Show podcast features "Mousetrap" by Andre Norton and a recording of the SF Panel attended by John Scalzi, Anne Harris, Sarah Zettel and Tobias Buckell. [via Tobias Buckell]
• Available online: Ultimate World by Hugo Gernsback.
• Solar Flare lists 6 Steps To Writing A Fantasy Blockbuster.
• ChapterFeeds offers Chapter 1 of Widdershins by Charles de Lint.
• That's one big-a@@ puppet! Your Wednesday YouTube: The Little Girl Giant. [via Monkey Filter]

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 20, 2006 at 10:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Curse you, late night blogging!

Sorry folks, I inadvertently posted an erroneous news item about the passing of James Earl Jones, when it was Robert Earl Jones (James's father) who passed away. Although the post has been deleted, some of you will undoubtedly see it in our newsfeeds. I sincerely apologize. You now have confirmation that I am indeed a big boob with a blog. Rest assured I will be the subject of ridicule for weeks, if not years, to come. And with good reason. (See aforementioned note on boobishness.)

Share:
Comments (8) | PermaLink | Category: Meta
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 19, 2006 at 1:52 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• While Junior completes an unfinished work by J.R.R. Tolkien, you can listen to the man himself...ripped from vinyl, it's J.R.R. Tolkien reading and Singing his Lord Of The Rings. (Get it while it lasts...link is only temporary!) [via Backwards City]
• Continuing his series on religion in genre fiction, John C. Wright offers Separation of Church and Spaceship Part IV.
• With the merging of the WB and UPN into CW, SciFi Fodder takes a look back at their sci-fi programming.
• Board Game Geek has a list of Games That Involve Planetary Conquest.
• StarDetsroyer.net lists The Commandments of Science Fiction.
• Rick Kleffel audio-interviews Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series.
• SciFi Weekly interviews Cory Doctorow and also offers Part 2 of their Fall 2006 Preview.
• Farkers photoshop the Eye of Sauron.
• When, exactly, did Supergirl become anorexic?
• Infinity Plus has original story, "An Oasis of Horror", by Brian Stableford, plus an interview with Stableford on occasion of his 100th book. [via Locus Online]
• Now blogging: Jon Courtenay Grimwood. And, yes, he has been added to the list of SF/F Authors that Blog. [via Big Dumb Object]

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 19, 2006 at 1:08 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An anthology of 32 stories attempting to provide historical perspective of space opera.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 24 stories good or better, 10 of them outstanding; historical editorials.
CONS: 8 stories mediocre or worse; editorials have academic tone.
BOTTOM LINE: You are unlikely to find a more comprehensive survey of space opera.

It takes a certain ambition to try to get your editorial arms around space opera because it seems that everyone has their own definition of it. It's as if the definition of it is as subjective a thing as success or beauty. It therefore may not be surprising that a space opera anthology, which attempts to put space opera in historical perspective by including samples from all its variations, is just freakin' huge. At 32 stories (12 novellas, 12 novelettes, 7 short stories and 1 vignette) and 940+ pages, The Space Opera Renaissance is one giant, arm-numbing tome. When you open the cover and see that the book is printed with smaller than normal text, it may seem downright daunting. But if space opera is your thing, like it is mine, you'll dive into it with laser blaster drawn.

So how does a reader get his arms around this? The book's table of contents shows its organization. Stories are grouped into sections roughly by era, yet inexplicably the publication dates of the stories within each section do not always fall within those dates. This must be an editorial oversight. It would have been better to leave off the year labels on the section headings to avoid the confusion.

Hartwell's and Cramer's introduction - an expansion of an earlier essay titled How Shit Became Shinola: Definition and Redefinition of Space Opera - serves to put space opera in historical perspective by considering the myriad of definitions it has held over the years. It's not all laser blasters and spaceships. Along with story intros that are longer than those in most anthologies, the main introduction has a somewhat academic tone that makes it seem like a stiffly-delivered dissertation. Space opera is supposed to fun. Writing about it should yield something fun as well. Otherwise, the essay does great job cataloguing the history of space opera, from its critical abusive roots to its morphing into something acceptable by the literati.

Since the definition of space opera is so broad, it's no wonder that some of the stories seem to be all over the sf genre map. Several stories seem more happily pigeonholed to other sub-genres (like military sf, for example) than they do in the space opera camp, but only diehard space opera purists would be bothered by this. The result of the genre-mingling is a diverse mix of stories that either hint at or have feet firmly entrenched in whatever your own personal definition of space opera might be. As to the quality of the stories, well, that varies. It seems that some stories were chosen to make the volume more comprehensive. That's the point of this volume, I suppose. But how many anthologies can boast having only top-notch stories anyway? The book succeeds in its goal of providing a comprehensive survey of space opera.

There were ten standout stories this volume. They were "The Star-Stealers" by Edmond Hamilton, "The Swordsmen of Varnis" by Clive Jackson, "Empire Star" by Samuel R. Delany, "A Gift from the Culture" by Iain M. Banks, "Escape Route" by Peter F. Hamilton, "Aurora in Four Voices" by Catherine Asaro, "The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele, "Fools Errand" by Sarah Zettel, "Spirey and the Queen" by Alastair Reynolds and "Guest Law" by John C. Wright. Six of the stories are available online, as noted by the hyperlinked story names below.

[Note: It's rare for any anthology, but certainly possible in one of this size, to include a story that qualifies as a novel by the SFWA standards, but Donald Kingsbury's Kzin story "The Survivor" clocks in at 60,000 words according to the author's website. When published as part of The Man-Kzin Wars IV, it was 245 pages. For that reason, I will not include it in my short story reading project but since it does contribute to the overall quality of The Space Opera Renaissance, I have weighted "The Survivor" rating as twice that of a novella.]

Reviewlettes follow.

Share:
Comments (6) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 18, 2006 at 12:31 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 18, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

There are a couple of discussions going on in the sf blogosphere regarding book reviews. Here are my thoughts on the matter...

REVIEWS & CRITIQUES
In a rather lengthy post that mixes review with anti-review rant, Gabe Chouinard says he's disappointed with the quality of online reviews. He says he wants substance in the reviews he reads.

There are some interesting comments and observations in that post and a healthy dose of angry comments, too. Much of the discussion revolves around the difference between a review and a critique. One commenter took issue with Gabe's rant, enough to post a scathing counterpoint on his own Live Journal to which Gabe responded. Also good reading, that. Despite the occasional angry comments, it's good that people are talking about this.

I'm reminded of people who gripe yet continue to punish themselves by continuing the behavior which seems to make them so unhappy. (I'll ignore the ironic amusement provided by Gabe's admission that he is part of the problem.) If a reviewer is not to your liking for whatever reason - lack of insight, differing tastes, poor writing - then don't read their reviews. If you have a list of reviewers who you like, great! Stick with them.

As one of the offending reviewers, I'm tempted, as was apparently intended, to respond defensively. I could pick on the fact that the more "insightful" of my comments of my review was ignored and a quote was chosen (one with a typo no less) to suit the rant. I could also mention how Eragon was a book I purchased and not a review copy from the publisher, thus there was no aim to please anyone. I could say that the review was written relatively soon after I began reviewing and that my later (and hopefully more experienced) reviews were ignored. I could cite how my reviews are not always glowing, how I don't like everything I see and that sometimes ticks people off. (Don't get me started by mentioning Klausner.)

But the fact is that people review and critique for all sorts of reasons. Some do it as a profession. Some, like me, do it for recording their impressions. Some, as the other post suspects, might even do it for the free books. Without matching each and every individual review with a reviewer's reasons and criteria, whining about them seems pointless. The most you can (respectfully) say is that your tastes differ from a reviewer and/or a review does meet your own expectations, which may be entirely different than the goals of the reviewer.

That said, there are review sites that I personally feel do not meet my own expectations. But you can't please everyone. I'm sure those same reviews are useful to someone somewhere. To each his own.

SHORT STORY REVIEWS
Over on the Nightshade forum, there's a discussion about short story reviews. The discussion revolves around whether a review of a collection or anthology should say something about every single story in the book.

Are reviewers obligated to do so? Some of that post's commenters seem to think so. They feel cheated if stories are not mentioned. But, as mentioned there, some venues are limited for space (especially print magazines) and there are only so many words that can be used. Editorial constraints apply.

Speaking for myself, which is the only thing I can do, I like to review all of the stories. Again, this suits my reason for reviewing: to serve as a record and reminder of what I've read. Admittedly, I'm probably more anal-retentive about it than most, as will be evidenced by my upcoming review of The Space Opera Renaissance. But that's just what I choose to do. Your mileage may vary between reviewers, venues and subject matter.

Share:
Comments (16) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 17, 2006 at 3:18 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• R.I.P. Charles Grant.


• Collecting the best from around the web, Solar Flare is hosting The Greatest Show In the Galaxy #3.


• SFF World interviews David Louis Edelman, author of Infoquake. [via Pyr-o-Mania]


• Pointless but fun: The Ninja Text Generator.


• Vintage Ads: a real-life Atomic Suit and Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.


• Scott Westerfeld gives the story behind the character names in his Midnighters series.


• John C. Wright considers mainstream fantasy and religion in Separation of Church and Spaceship III.


• The Top 10 Dirty Jobs in Science Fiction.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 17, 2006 at 1:46 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Yo Ho Ho! Pirate Zen 2006


• J.K. Rowling defies airport security when she refuses to part with the manuscript of the final Harry Potter book.


• How to make millions: The Time Travel Fund!


• Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly explains why he can't stop rebuying Star Wars.


• SciFi Dimensions interviews Spider Robinson.


• Lou Anders is Judging Books by Their Covers.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 16, 2006 at 1:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Science Fiction Book Club blog has posted a series of excerpts from the SFBC monthly member magazine in which authors talk about their books. Most recently:

• Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson on Hunters of Dune
• Terry Brooks on Armageddon's Children
• Tony Ballantyne on Recursion
• Chris Moriarty on Spin Control
• Ellen Kushner on Swords of Riverside
• S.M. Stirling on A Meeting At Corvallis
• Robin Hobb on Forest Mage
• David Drake on Some Golden Harbor
• Jennifer Fallon on Warrior

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 15, 2006 at 1:08 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

[subtitle: Where Tim Will Be on Sept. 18 :)]

From scifi.com:

Grace Park, who plays Sharon "Boomer" Valerii on SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, will answer viewer questions in a video interview that will go live on SCIFI.COM on Sept. 18.

Park will discuss the show, the challenges and benefits of playing multiple characters and the possibility of a Battlestar Galactica hockey team.

Park answered questions that were previously submitted by visitors to SCIFI.COM. The video will go live at 7:30 p.m. ET on SCIFI.COM's SCI FI Pulse broadband network.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 15, 2006 at 12:59 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• New on Gutenberg: Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung by the pseudonymous Victor Appleton.


• Chapter Feeds offers up Chapter 1 of Quag Keep by Andre Norton.


• Big Damn Thank You is a new website set up to thank Universal for making Serenity, years after Firefly was canceled. [via SciFi Pundit]


• The SciFi Scripts website collects science fiction movie scripts. Great! Now we can repeatedly revel in how Anakin doesn't like sand because it's coarse...and rough. It's SAND!


• David Brin has a new Salon article Why Johnny can't code, examining the difficulties of today's youth getting hooked on programming. (Login required.)

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 14, 2006 at 12:23 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

As discussed by you, the loyal SF Signal readers. Some liberties have been taken with the term 'SF' to allow horror and or fantasy threats.

I present the Top 27 Coolest SF Threats, in no particular order, although multiple nominations are listed first....

• Everyone's favorite Elder Being, Cthulhu.
• The risen Dead from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.
• The Bersekers from Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series of books. Similarly, the machine race from Gregory Benford's Galactic Center novels.
• The eponymous Aliens from the Aliens series of movies.
• A rogue AI - Scott Westerfeld's Risen Empire books, Colossus: The Forbin Project and from Karl Schroeder's Ventus.
• The planet Endurium in the classic PC game, Starflight.
• The Inhibitors from Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space books.
• The planet eater from the Star Trek episode, The Doomsday Machine.
• The wandering superstring from Stellvia Of The Universe.
• The blast front from the exploding core of the galaxy from Larry Niven's Known Space stories.
• The grey goo from Greg Bear's Blood Music.
• The Yuzon Vong from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
• Galactus, from The Fantastic Four comics.
• The Grendel from Legacy Of Heorot.
• Larry Niven's version of the Kzinti.
• The Reavers from Firefly/Serenity.
• A more personal threat here, the poison gel packs used to 'motivate' people in Gibson's Neuromancer.
• How can we forget God, in the movie Time Bandits?
• The Jain from Neal Asher's Polity Universe.
• The Prime aliens in Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth books (Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained).
• The Hypotheticals from Charles Wilson's Hugo winning Spin.
• The Omega Clouds from Jack McDevitt's Engine Of God series.
• The 'Dust' from Pullman's His Dark Materials series.
• The Shadows from Babylon 5.
• The Triffids from The Day Of The Triffids.
• The Death Star, from Star Wars.
• The Blight from Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep.

So there you have it, some of the coolest threats faced by characters and/or societies in SF/Fantasy/Horror. It's a nice list and I must say I have actually seen or read about all of these before, so nothing I hadn't encountered before. I recommend reading/watching any of the above listed books/movies if you haven't already!

Share:
Comments (8) | PermaLink | Category: Books, Movies, TV
Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday September 13, 2006 at 1:05 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Joel Schumacher will be directing a vampire Nazi movie! Sound familiar?

The Hollywood Reporter says the Batman & Robin director has signed up to helm Town Creek, a vampy Gold Circle horror movie. If vampires aren't enough to get you interested, they're also throwing in Nazis. It's the story of a West Virginia man who helps his brother wipe out a family that once protected a Nazi vampire. See, genocide alone isn't bad enough, to be really really evil you've also got to be a blood sucker.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 13, 2006 at 12:20 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Continuing the theme of the first and second parts, I submit without comment this excerpt from Grumpy Old Bookman:

...it is a fundamental error, with moral implications, to think of fiction as a hierarchy, a sort of tower block, if you will, with literary fiction at the top and the 'lower' types of fiction tucked away in the basement. That is a concept which has no intellectual validity.

The correct way to think of the various genres of fiction is as a street of many bookshops; and in this street there are no prime sites. Each shop pays the same business taxes as any other: all shops are equal. And the smart customer places her business in different shops at different times; to the advantage of everyone, most importantly herself.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 13, 2006 at 2:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Dark But Shining is in awe of the Bene Gesserit from Frank Herbert's Dune.


• Jim Kelly writes in to say that the Clarion Foundation is moving their workshop.


• Naomi Novik's Temeraire books have been optioned by Peter Jackson. [via The Alien Online]


• Seed Magazine examines the science fiction scene in China.


• Check out James Cameron's 1978 independent short film Xenogenesis.


• Although set up to pimp their DVD selling site, the DVD BoxOffice blog has a decent list of The Early Years of Science Fiction Films.


• Sci Fi Wire interviews Jon Courtenay Grimwood.


• Meme Therapy interviews artist Dominic Harman.


• SciFi Weekly's Site of the Week: The webiste of artist Stephen Hickman.


• SciFi Wire profiles Joe Haldeman's A Separate War and Other Stories.


• The adaptation of Steven Gould's young-adult novel, Jumper, will be the first of a trilogy.


• RetroCrush offers The Best Zombie films of All Time and The Worst Superhero Costumes of All Time


• John @ The Movie Blog does not like Blade Runner. I'm just sayin'...


• Lou Anders (read his SF Signal interview) offers his Three Laws of Editing.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 13, 2006 at 1:38 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

TrekMovie.com has a few trailers posted for the upcoming remastered Star Trek series. Additionally, and more importantly (and finally!), they also have a station listing of all the affiliates airing the remastered series, as well as the times. For Houston? Channel 13, KTRK, will be airing the show on Saturdays, at 1:05am!!! Urk.

Sadly, CBS will not be making the HD version available to its affiliates to air. Some one at CBS is apparently too busy screwing the pooch to realize what a terrible PR move this is. Many CBS stations are capable of handling HD feeds, yet CBS won't distribute it to them. I'm tihnking HD-DVDs in the future are the reason here. Yes, a conspiracy theory. CBS will whet the appetites of Trekkies everywhere with the standard def broadcasts, then will try to convinve them to buy the shiny new HD-DVDs at a later date. The bastages!

Still, I'll record the first few to see what it looks like. Will you?

Share:
Comments (7) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday September 12, 2006 at 10:58 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Yes, I'm still reading The Space Opera Renaissance, the massive Tor anthology edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. I'm enjoying the heck out of it but I have to admit, the sheer size of the thing is playing games with my sense of progress.

This hardback clocks in at 944 pages. But not just any 944 pages. No, these pages have some sort of patented smaller-than-average Tiny-Type which means, all things being equal, it's longer than most books of the same size. I do not know the word count - and I would love to know that and the average word count for the average book - but as a guess, I'd say this is the word-count equivalent of 3 or 4 "standard-length" books.

The good news with respect to closure is that I'm almost done. But this has to be the longest book I've ever read. I usually average about a book a week. I've been reading TSOR for over 5 weeks now. (To be fair, though, I have sneaked in two other quick-read books in the interim.)

What's the lengthiest book you've ever read? Hubbard's Battlefield Earth? Stephenson's Quicksilver? War & Peace? No fair counting omnibuses!

Share:
Comments (18) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 12, 2006 at 12:30 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Bruce Campbell will have a significant role in Spiderman 3. [via No Blasters]


• Irene Gallo, art director for Tor/Forge, shows off the Stephan Martiniere cover of Jay Lake's Mainspring, due out next summer.


• Wired interviews William Shatner.


• 100 Star Wars episodes are planned for TV.


• How Star Wars should have ended. [via Geek Zine]


• Meme Therapy asks authors if they take pleasure in killing off characters.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 12, 2006 at 12:14 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Issue #897 (September 15, 2006) of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. Here's a snippet...

Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson
For Fans of: The late master's Future History stories.
Lowdown: An enjoyable read. Star incorporates plenty of Heinlein's liberal social theories, but not enough of his sharp moral edge.
Grade: B

Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson
For Fans of: Brave New World or Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, if they met Thomas Pynchon in a cybercafe.
Lowdown: A lyrical, attentively-written anti-utopia.
Grade: A-

Stamping Butterflies by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
For Fans of: The Matrix.
Lowdown: Grimwood's hard-boiled prose reels you in like a velvet rope (smiles twist "lips without ever reaching your eyes"). Too bad about reality being an illusion, though.
Grade: B+

A Meeting at Corvallis by S.M. Stirling
For Fans of: Forget Tolkien - does the Society for Creative Anachronism ring a bell?
Lowdown: Diehards will find this richly realized story or swordplay and intrigue immensely satisfying.
Grade: B

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 12, 2006 at 12:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Rick Kleffel of the Agony Column podcast-interviews David Louis Edelman, author of Infoquake.


• SFBC Blog rounds up Star Trek 40th anniversary links of note.


• Torque Control offers a Slipstream Link Guide. [via Mumpsimus]


• Now posted: The September 2006 issue of Ansible.


• Andrew S. Swann on world building.


• Terry Brooks is creating a Shanarra graphic novel called Dark Wraith of Shannara. [via Alien online, which has more details and links]


• Bill DeSmedt, author of the exceptional first novel Singularity is planning on doing an episode of SFF Audio.


• Read Cory Doctorow's latest Locus essay How Copyright Broke.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 11, 2006 at 12:09 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 11, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Historian and futurist W. Warren Wagar reviews the range of H.G. Wells's contributions to the discipline of future thinking in this 1983 article H.G. Wells and the Genesis of Future Studies. It mentions Wells's work, including Anticipations of the Reactions of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought. (Yay Gutenberg!)

Here's an excerpt of Wagar's article on Wells's prediction powers:

Anticipations ranged widely in its subject matter, from the future of transport to the future of world order. The first chapters are familiar fare to anyone who has read other books of the time by journalists sketching with enthusiasm the progress to be expected from science in the new century. Wells looked ahead to the first aircraft and to broad highways teeming with automobiles, busses, and trucks. Suburbia would triumph over city and countryside. In the United States. one vast unbroken sprawl of middle-class life would reach from Boston to Washington. Homes would be prefabricated, and household appliances and chemicals would put an end to the need for servants.

But in later chapters, Wells turned from his predictions of miracle dishwashing solvents and tidy electric ranges to something that for him was much more crucial. By the close of the 20th century, he foresaw the collapse of capitalism and the nation state system in great technologically advanced total wars that the tycoons and the politicians could not, ultimately, understand or control. Power would slip through their fingers. They would be swiftly replaced by the technically competent, by scientists and engineers and managers, who would learn from their errors and build a world state of peace and plenty.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 10, 2006 at 11:48 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Tim @ Random Observations has a Science Fiction and Leftism post in which he details seven leftists trends in science fcition. Here's the short version:

7 Leftist Trends in Science Fiction

1. The Misunderstood Villain


2. Moral "Evolution"


3. Atheism


4. Globalism


5. Child-Worship


6. Moral and Cultural Relativism


7. Free Love

Share:
Comments (13) | PermaLink | Category: Books, TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 10, 2006 at 11:33 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

English novelist Nick Hornby wrote a surprisingly frank essay about how to read in which he suggests people fight the urge to stop reading something they are not enjoying. His thoughts stemmed from not wanting to continually slam unentertaining books in his reviews:

My solution was to try to choose books I knew I would like. I'm not sure this idea is as blindingly obvious as it seems. We often read books that we think we ought to read, or that we think we ought to have read, or that other people think we should read (I'm always coming across people who have a mental, sometimes even an actual, list of the books they think they should have read by the time they turn 40, 50, or die); I'm sure I'm not the only one who harrumphs his way through a highly praised novel, astonished but actually rather pleased that so many people have got it so wrong.

If reading books is to survive as a leisure activity - and there are statistics that show that this is by no means assured - then we have to promote the joys of reading, rather than the (dubious) benefits.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 10, 2006 at 11:24 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Zima Blue & Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds is out soon. Mmmmmm...juicy book cover art.


• SciFi Wire profiles Carnival by Elizabeth Bear.


• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is giving away two copies of Sean Williams book The Crooked Letter. [via Williams' Blog]


• Authors reviewing books: Jon Courtenay Grimwood reviews Emperor by Stephen Baxter, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, Temeraire: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik and Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore.


• C.S. Lewis talks about aliens and religion in this Time Magazine article from 1958.


• Brendan Fraser has signed on to star in an as-yet untitled third instalment of The Mummy series.


• "Robots are everywhere and they eat old people's medicine for fuel." That's why you need Old Glory Robot Insurance (an SNL skit).


• SciFi Ranter Girl conveniently lists upcoming sci-fi TV shows & their premiere dates.


• William Shatner declines a free ticket for a real-life space flight on Virgin Galactic's first passenger flight in 2008. [via Rich]


• Meme Therapy asks: What's the Most Underrated Science Fiction film of all time?


• Here's a butt-load of Terry Pratchett quotes.


• 40 CLassic SciFi Intros - with 100% YouTube!

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 09, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek.

Does anything more than this need to be said?

UPDATE: Apparently something more does need to be said. As part of his own personal celebration, Wil Wheaton has begun reviewing Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes for TV Squad. Not that I troll Wil Wheaton's blog or anything...

UPDATE #2: The Top 9 Ways to Celebrate Star Trek's 40th Birthday.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 08, 2006 at 8:28 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Movie Blog lists Top 10 List of Most Hated Films.


• Fark has some photoshopped shots of the upcoming Star Trek enhancements.


• Cinema Blend rounds up the Summer Box Office Winners & Losers.


• Three astronauts have returned from a space flight in this Twilight Zone episode called "And When the Sky Was Opened".


• BldgBlog interviews Jeff VanderMeer. [via Boing Boing]


• John C. Wright reviews Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky.


• SF authors on How to Write a Novel: Justine Larbalestier, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear and Tim Pratt. [via Pratt's blog]


• Sometimes reviewers can read too much into a story. See Neal Asher's post on his story "Mason's Rats".


• Funny: How Superman Should Have Ended. (See others at How It Should Have Ended.)

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 08, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Today, Amazon has announced their video download service, called Amazon Unbox. They will have TV shows and movies available for downloading, raning in price from $1.99 to $14.99. As a special promotion, Amazon is offering an instant $1.99 rebate. Who not download an episode of your favorite science fiction show? They have some good stuff in there.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday September 07, 2006 at 5:12 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Sam Tyler is a detective in the modern day Manchester police department. Sam's girlfriend is kidnapped by a serial killer he is hunting and, while trying to find her, Sam is struck by a car. Upon waking, he discovers he is in Manchester, 1973. Sam tries to discover whether he has actually traveled back in time, is in a coma imagining 1973, or if he has imagined 2006 and is actually crazy.

PROS: Very good characters, lots of humor, intriguing premise, being on the BBC allows for more graphic language (you know, for verisimilitude).
CONS: Episodes feel uneven in tone and content, characters don't really change too much.
BOTTOM LINE: A very interesting cop drama with strong characters and mixing in hints of time travel. If you get BBC and you want a good, but different, cop show, check out Life On Mars.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday September 07, 2006 at 4:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Some of you may have noticed yesterday an Instant Message box appeared on the left sidebar. We discovered a neat little IM widget from Meebo.com that allows website visitors to chat with the website authors. We thought that was a cool idea so we installed it. What we didn't like was the load time or the look of the thing. So, we moved it. As you can now see, there is a NEW icon next to the Chat with us link. This will open a new window with two IM widgets installed that will allow you to chat with either myself (JP) or John, assuming, of course that we are online and at our PCs and are available to chat. Which, since John is pretty much a slacker, means almost anytime during the work day....

You can edit your nickname if you want us to see who you are, or just leave it with the randomly assigned name. We thought this might be fun so give it a try and tell us what you think!

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Meta
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday September 07, 2006 at 11:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Stormtroopers blast through gender barrier. I, for one, welcome our new Stormtrooper overlords...


• Now podcasting: Sci-Fi Ranter Girl.


• Turn Me On Red Man: A backwards, hidden message from Red Dwarf.


• The SciFi Channel is airing a Firefly marathon. [via Whedonesque]


• M. John Harrison reviews J.G. Ballard's Kingdom Come. [via Locus Online]


• If you thought I was having some post office issues, check out Neal Asher. [via SFBC Blog]


• Dark Echo interviews Peter F. Hamilton and Ellen Datlow. [also via SFBC Blog]


• The Minnesota Review interviews Samuel Delany. The interviewer, Josh Lukin, also has an essay on Delany. [via Mumpsimus]


• Science Fiction Citations: The Book! [via Michael A. Burstein]


• Snoot Entertainment has picked up the film rights to Robert J. Sawyer's Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella "Identity Theft". [via Cinematical]


• SF author Crawford Killian has posted his courseware on how to write a novel. [via Tobias Buckell]


• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy presents...Time Travel and Modern Physics.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday September 07, 2006 at 12:32 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Harry Dresden is Chicago's only openly practicing wizard/private detective. As might be expected, Harry encounters lots of different supernatural entities, most of which try to kill him.

PROS: Non-stop action, smooth prose, interesting characters, unique setting, a page-turner.
CONS: Quite often Harry extricates himself from dire situations via the plot and not his own initiative.
BOTTOM LINE: A very entertaining and enjoyable read. This combination of fantasy/supernatural and P.I. genres works very well. A must read for fantasy fans.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday September 06, 2006 at 2:53 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

[Note: This has been sitting on my computer for a while now and I recently rediscovered it. So if you're wondering why this links back to old posts on other blogs, there you go.]

A couple of months ago, Grumpy Old Bookman gave a not-so-nice review of Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link. I'm not picking on the book here; I just call it out because the post is fertile ground for some discussions on the sf/f genre. Grumpy Old Bookman posits (and I'm summarizing) that in order to become more respectable in publishing circles, the sf community has been quietly giving unwarranted kudos to literary science fiction instead of more deserving books:

So what they have begun to do, consciously or unconsciously, is award prizes to work which could, on a dark night, be mistaken for literary stuff. They are doing this in the hope that, if they do it often enough, and shout loudly about it, they might one day be admitted to the Groucho club and get to meet Marty and Salman and all those other guys. Then they will be able to hold their heads up high in decent company.

Which is not to say award winners stink, of course. Many, if not most, are quite enjoyable so they can point someone looking for a good read in the right direction. There's also a distinction that exists between "good" and enjoyable, I think. A book can be well-written, tackle tough issues, have complex plots and characters - and still be a mediocre read.

This reminds me of the Literary Snob post and where I sit in the literary spectrum. While I like a literary book once in a while, I find I like reading things on the other side of spectrum more because it best provides what I'm looking for in a book: entertainment. Grumpy Old Bookman feels the same...

If I have to choose between skiffy with literary pretensions and skiffy with bug-eyed monsters, I will gladly choose the latter, any day of the week.

I read a lot of science fiction, some of it mind-bogglingly complex and filled with ideas that make my head hurt (in a good way). The last thing it needs is impenetrable, plotless storylines, author-clone characters and rambling stream-of-consciousness dirges (I generalise, sorry).

People might think science fiction and its sister genres are literary ghettoes, but in my opinion they're the last reserves of the key elements of quality fiction - a damn good story that makes you think and the wherewithal to tell it well. For example, how many people still read Booker prize winners from the fifties, apart from obscure academics? Now, compare that to how many people read Heinlein, Pohl, Asimov and the rest. Printed fiction is our version of the Norse sagas, tribal stories around a campfire. And just like the sagas, the boring, uninspired or pointless tales die a death after their first telling, whereas the adventures that keep us riveted keep coming back.

Share:
Comments (6) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday September 06, 2006 at 12:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The SciFi Channel is posting a 10-part Battlestar Galactica episode that bridges the gap between season 2 and season 3. New webisodes are posted every Tuesday and Thursday, starting today.

Reminder: Season 3 starts on October 6th.

[via Asking the Wrong Questions, who links to the torrent of part 1]

Share:
Comments (8) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 05, 2006 at 4:00 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

According to a Bloomsbury poll of 16,000 British schoolchildren.

1. Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.


2. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien.


3. Mrs. Coulter from His Dark Materials Sequence by Philip Pullman.


4. Lex Luthor from Superman Graphic novels by DC Comics.


5. The Joker from Batman Graphic novels by DC Comics.


6. Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.


7. The Other Mother from Coraline by Neil Gaiman.


8. The White Witch from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis.


9. Dracula from Dracula by Bram Stoker.


10. Artemis Fowl from Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 05, 2006 at 3:40 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Another fun book from Scott Westerfeld.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A group of kids who possess supernatural abilities during the midnight hour fight off the sinister darklings.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Fast-paced and interesting; cool depiction of the dark hour.
CONS: I would have liked to see more interplay between the characters when the Midnighters used their powers. The explanation of frozen time doesn't quite hold up under any reasonable amount of scrutiny.
BOTTOM LINE: A fun read for kids and adults.

Share:
Comments (15) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 05, 2006 at 12:16 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MetaFilter points to four online stories by Ted Chiang:

• "Seventy-Two Letters"


• "Division by Zero"


• "Understand"


• "What's Expected of Us" (PDF file)

[via Velcro CIty Tourist Board]

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 05, 2006 at 12:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Popular Science explores The Fembot Mystique, exploring the pop-culture fascination with female robots. [via Posthuman Blues]


• StarWars.com offers Episode IV: What Has Changed, 122 side-by-side comparison photos of the original theatrical release of Star Wars and the 2004 Special Edition of the movie. [via Cynical-C]


• Bangor Daily News profiles Alex Irvine. [via SFBC blog]


• Tor art director Irene Gallo looks at the artwork of Adam Rex, young adult science fiction author and illustrator of Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.


• StarTrek.com interviews Nichelle Nicholls.


• Paul McAuley explains the infodump.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday September 05, 2006 at 12:10 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• SFF World interviews Scott Westerfeld.


• Read it online, Part I: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.


• Read it online, Part II: Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss.


• Real Science: Tonight's Sky offers a cool narrated, web-based guide to constellations, objects and planets, though I doubt they've incorporated the latest news on Pluto...


• More real science: Calculate your age on other worlds. Similar disclaimer about poor Pluto...


• Here are some cool drawings of Star Trek bridges at the well-done Trek site Ex Atris Scientia.


• A comparative analysis between God and Superman shows Supes is set to overtake God by the year 2030.


• How Lord of the Rings Should Have Ended [via Chris Roberson]


• Comic Strip: Alien Loves Predator in New York.


• Judge for yourself: Someone has posted some video of the Harlan Ellison^® Grope^™ at Google Video. [via Tobias Buckell]

Share:
Comments (10) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 04, 2006 at 12:25 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday September 04, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

A while back I was adamantly opposed to reading devices. I preferred the experience of reading a physical book over a digital counterpart. When I started my 2004 short story reading project, I became something of a convert. While I generally do not read novels on the PDA, I'm OK (and sometimes prefer) reading short stories on the PDA. There are many features that mobile reading offers.

But I have to draw the line somewhere.

There's a prototype of a new device called BiblioRoll that is meant to enhance the reading experience by simulating picking up a book off a shelf and reading it. It looks like one of those drive-thru bank pneumatic tube carriers and it works by twisting it and pressing buttons.

While I applaud the intention of finding new ways to make digital reading more usable, I gotta say my impression of this device is far from "Hey, that's cool!" This device looks to be cumbersome and too large. Check out the video and you'll see what I mean. Does this thing look like must-have device to you?

[via MobileRead]

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Science and Technology
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 03, 2006 at 12:23 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Cinematical has the scoop on the upcoming zombie movie sequel 28 Weeks Later.


• Visions of Paradise has posted a Science Fiction Matching Quiz.


• Are you into comics? Read a humorous comic preview called The Maiden and the River Spirit or try out this cool comic strip generator.


• J. Marcus Xavier writes in to tell us that Silent Universe Episode 3 has been posted.


• Michael Wentz has his own ideas for a SF outreach program.


• Meme Therapy asks: Is Science Fiction Entering a New Golden Age?

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday September 03, 2006 at 12:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Public Domain Torrents is a site that hosts torrent files for many feature films that are now in the public domain. They have a decent SF section with over 150 movies available. Of course, you don't get Forbidden Planet, but you do get Teenagers From Outer Space ("The high court may very well sentence you to TORTURE!!!!"). In fact, I see several movies that have been featured on Myster Science Theater 3000. They PDA, iPod and PSP versions available, and some movies are even hosted on Google Video for those of you without bittorrent or one of the above listed playback devices.

Happy hunting!

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday September 02, 2006 at 7:42 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• SF author John C. Wright lists the Top Five Books that Unscrewed Your Head


• You, too, can make your own hero with... Hero Machine! [via Big Dumb Object]


• Strange Horizons interviews Mark Budz, author of Clade, Crache and Idolon. [via Locus Online]


• SF author Stephen Baxter looks at alternate histories at The Independent. [also via Locus Online]


• Neil Gaiman answers 10 Questions for the Politics and Prose bookstore. [via SFBC Blog]


• Real Science: Marc Millis (formerly of NASA) surveys the prospects for achieving the propulsion breakthroughs that would enable interstellar travel.


• An aspiring screenwriter examines the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey. [via Solar Flare's Greatest Show In The Galaxy #1]

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday September 02, 2006 at 12:42 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In the far future, small corporations, called Fiefecorps, battle between one another to win the hearts and bodies, almost literally, of consumers. They produce the software products that control the OCHRES (nano-bots) present in every living human. Fiefecorp master Natch has raised his fiefecorp's rating faster than any other in history, using a mix of products and shady marketing. It is Natch who is selected by Margaret Surina to help bring her revolutionary product, MultiReal to market.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Impressively detailed future society, well thought-out consequences of future software development, makes the boardroom an interesting place to read about.
CONS: Aside from Natch, the other characters aren't really well developed, I didn't really buy in what MultiReal is.
BOTTOM LINE: A very strong debut novel mixing a historically detailed timeline with an intriguing technological future. David Louis Edelman makes reading about corporate shenanigans fun.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by JP Frantz at Friday September 01, 2006 at 3:44 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Star Trek (the original series) will be getting a Lucas-like CGI makeover.

Updates include a computer-generated Enterprise; CGI upgrades for battle sequences, ship exteriors, galaxy shots and landscapes; and a re-recorded opening score with a remastered voice-over. Each episode is also being converted to high-deinition format for those who wish to broadcast in HD. [TVology 101 has more.]

All I know is that if Paramount goes all Lucas on it and they make it so that Evil Kirk shoots first, JP is gonna be really pissed off. On the bright side, at least now he'll be able to see "Spock's Brain" in HD, the way it was meant to be seen.

Edit: fixed broken link to TVology101.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 01, 2006 at 12:08 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Dragon Page interviews Rich Horton, editor of Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition.


• Side-splitting Mashup of the Week: Star Trek: TOS and Nine Inch Nails.


• RussiaIC profiles sf writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.


• Escape Pod offers up Tobia Buckell's story "Her". [via Buckell's blog]


• Cory Doctorow is podcasting "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)


• Irene Gallo previews artits John Jude Palencar's book, Origins. Some of it is downright creepy.


• John Klima (of Electric Velocipede) has set up a wiki for Science Fiction and Fantasy Editors. [via SFBC Blog via Emerald City]


• The feature-length TV show based on Terry Pratchett's best-selling children's book, Johnny & The Bomb is to be aired this coming Saturday on CBBC. [via Alien Online]


• Twitch Guru has The Worst Special Effects of the Computer-Generated Era. [via The Movie Blog]


• More fallout from BoobieGate: A.R. Yngve tells How Writers Should Behave In Public and Benjamin Rosenbaum wants a better apology from Harlan Ellison.^®

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 01, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday September 01, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal