• BBC Newsround has a first look at the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's A Golden Compass. [via Empire Online]


• OnOurTv points us to the Heroes comic, based on the TV show.


• The blog Dark But Shining interviews Joe R. Lansdale.


• Bryan Singer will direct and produce a sequel to Superman Returns expected to be in theaters in the Summer of 2009.


• Rich Horton has sold a new reprint anthology series, Space Opera, to Wildside Press for a late 2007 release. [via Sean Wallace]


• Jeffrey Carver offers advice on writing a media tie-in novel.


• Solar Flare presents The Greatest Show In The Galaxy #5.


• Count Pulpula (Emerson LaSalle) responds to Amazon reviewers.


• Last-minute Halloween costume suggestion: Zoidberg!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 31, 2006 at 1:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Boo!

It's Halloween! Everyone has their own list of scary movies. (Or movie charcters, or horror villains, or scenes, or...)

What do you think are the scariest movies?

For me, it'd be The Exorcist, The Evil Dead and The Omen (original). I saw all of these when I was an impressionable, young whippersnapper. (As opposed to the stubborn old codger I am today.) These are the movies that I'd remember when I was home alone and the house would start making noises I never heard before. The bed moved! Was that the sound of a amputated hand crawling up the wall? Is that Damien in the attic?

I was never much scared by slasher horror flicks. I always found them to be amusing when I was younger; the bloodier, the better. My all-time favorite movie-going experience is still A Nightmare on Elm Street because the audience was so into it.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 31, 2006 at 12:57 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• New/Updated at Gutenberg: Key Out of Time by Andre Norton.
• The blog Spinning has posted a series of brief, as-I-read-it posts examining Anthony Burgess' book A Clockwork Orange covering theme, society, voice and language, human nature and of media, social significance, government control, the American finale, the European finale and one more thought on structure.
• More from the Feminist blog: Dissecting Orson Scott Card, part 4
• Neth Space interviews Sean Williams, author of The Crooked Letter and the newly released sequel The Blood Debt.
• FYI: Diane Duane's blog has ben added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 30, 2006 at 12:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

"Where the heck is Robert Heinlein? Starship Troopers? Future History? Have Spacesuit will Travel? Hello?" - Cory

"I'd have listed Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth (Pandora Planet [I think Tim means Pandora's Star - Ed.] - Judas Unchained) rather than Night's Dawn. The setting of Night's Dawn (which I'm just starting to re-read, by the way) is damn cool, but, comn on! Railroads to the stars! Who could resist that?" - Tim M.

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

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The story of what really happened at Roswell takes a turn as the aliens who crashed there return to Earth once more. This time 2 creatures live - one who proves friendly to man and professes a desire to help, and one whose goal is total elimination of life from the planet..

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Good overall UFO story, strong depiction of the US military and its future enhancements
CONS: Some ideas a little difficult to buy - the Roswell rehash can be tough to get through, and there are parts too similar to the campy film Tremors.
BOTTOM LINE: Fans of UFO fiction will find this a great read, and fans of military fiction won't be disappointed either.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Sunday October 29, 2006 at 3:33 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

There's been a lot of talk lately about the genre of creative works known as science fiction and its place relative to the total body of creative work and I feel the need to weigh in with my opinion. The recent discussion about literary sci-fi only made this more interesting to me.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Sunday October 29, 2006 at 1:54 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• SciFi Wire profiles Ben Bova and his new book The Green Trap.


• Sean Wallace is previewing the covers for the audio editions of The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, Volume 1 and Volume 2.


• About lists Top 10 Actually Scary Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies for Halloween.


• The article Devotion, Expertise Help Genre Bookstores Battle Big Chains features Alan Beatts (see his SF Signal interview) of Borderland Bookstore.


• Feminist SF blog continues Dissecting Orson Scott Card with part 2 and part 3.


• More YouTube: 90 minutes of UCSD Alumni Science Fiction Authors David Brin, Gregory Benford, Nancy Holder, Kim Stanley Robinson and Vernor Vinger Vinge discuss why UCSD has cultivated more science fiction writers than any other university of our time. [via Brin]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 29, 2006 at 2:08 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

I stumbled upon this Panopticist post of Robby Benson's Star Wars audition (he reads for the part of Luke along with a mostly off-camera Harrison Ford). This led me to the YouTube profile of its source, Ghyslain. (Not the Star-Wars-Kid Ghyslain, although that would somehow be poetic, wouldn't it?) Gyslain has collected a series of Star Wars audition videos.

His notes say there is 90 minutes of footage that features folks like Kurt Russell, William Katt, Fredric Forrest, Andrew Stevens, Charles Martin Smith, Amy Irving, and several others. So far you can see: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Lisa Eilbacher (from Beverly Hills Cop reading for Princess Leia). Here's another one with someone reading for Leia I don't recognize and does not identify herself in the video.

A post about Star Wars auditions wouldn't be complete without including this Saturday Night Live skit (which we've posted before) showing Christopher Walken (awesomely impersonated by Kevin Spacey) reading for Han Solo, Richard Dreyfuss (Daryl Hammond) reading for C3PO and Walter Matthau (Spacey again) reading for Obi Wan. What we didn't post about before was another SNL skit in the series shows Burt Reynolds (played by Morm McDonald) trying out for Darth Vader, Barbara Streisand (Ana Gasteyer) reading for Princess Leia and Jack Lemmon (Spacey again) as Chewbacca.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 29, 2006 at 1:23 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of ten stories with a supernatural element that originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: 6 stories good or better; two of them standouts.
CONS: 4 stories mediocre or worse. One story ("DikDuk") is incomplete, but is fortunately available online.
BOTTOM LINE: A decent collection of stories with a supernatural element.

I've been collecting the books in the Isaac Asimov... anthology series for years and haven't read them. (Insert biblioholism admission here. Treat self to new book for the courage to do so.) With Halloween just around the corner, I figured if I wasn't going to read Isaac Asimov's Halloween around this time of year, I never would. So I did.

The title Isaac Asimov's Halloween may be misleading for those who don't read the fine print. This anthology, like others in the series, collects stories that were originally printed in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. The "Halloween" in the title does not imply stories of the horror genre; Asimov's is a science fiction and fantasy outlet, after all. But the stories do contain some element of the supernatural and/or inhuman (read: Cthulhu).

Overall, it was a decent collection. As usual in anthologies, stories vary in quality. There were two standout stories in the ten provided: the creepy "He-We-Await" by Howard Waldrop and the humorous "The Shunned Trailer" by Esther M. Friesner.

Reviewlettes of the stories follow.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday October 28, 2006 at 9:34 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Marvel offers a bunch of free digital comics. (Free registration is required to see the full issues.) [via Tyrant of the Seven Seas]
• SciFi Weekly interviews Terry Gilliam.
• The Feminist SF Blog is Dissecting Orson Scott Card.
• Friday YouTube: Award-winning sci-fi author David Brin speaks to the festival's attendees during the Planetary Society's Gene Roddenberry Tribute at Planetfest '97.
• Why didn't I think of that? A Cthulhu license plate! [via pharyngula]
• Real science from NASA: Uranus Has a Dark Spot. [Giggles uncontrollably.]
• NYT article: In Galactica, It's Politics as Usual. Or Is It? DeepGenre responds.
• Michael A. Burstein, SF author and President of The Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet, will be interviewed about Pluto live (Sunday, October 29th at 11AM EST) on the EZHelp, You and More Internet Radio Show.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 27, 2006 at 12:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Another thought-provoking read from The Movie Blog's John Campea - Lord Of The Rings - Why Fantasy Failed To Make A Resurgence - in which he says that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King made it more difficult for fantasy films to be produced. A sampling:

Many people suggested that the massive success of ROTK would OPEN THE DOOR to the fantasy genre for studios. Seems to make sense right? The problem for fantasy, is that ROTK was a little TOO SUCCESSFUL. ROTK didn't swing the door open for fantasy...it slammed the door shut.

Surely the Harry Potter films could be added to that list of successful fantasy films. As for Eragon, I've read it and while I thought it was a very entertaining book, it clearly uses the same plot outline as LOTR, and even Star Wars (as noted in the review).

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 27, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• ChapterFeeds has posted Chapter 1 of The Baby Merchant by Kit Reed.


• S.M. Stirling's latest novel, The Sky People, posits an alternate history in which Mars and Venus are habitable planets. [at SciFi Wire]


• Andrew Wheeler lists his favorite fantasy artists art.


• Jay Tomio offers some thoughts on vanity publishing.


• Subterranean Press has posted the 15th and final chapter of Cherie Priest's "The Wreck of the Mary Byrd".


• More pumpkin mashups: How to build a robotic Dalek pumpkin and Making a pirate Jack-O'-Lantern.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 26, 2006 at 1:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

We're a few weeks into the fall TV season and science fiction is making an impact on the television scene. I thought I'd go ahead and spell out what I'm watching SF-wise and give you my thoughts on those shows and where I think the are, or should be, headed. I'll go in order by day, starting on Monday night. Afterward, I'll look at a couple of other shows that are on or will be on that are of some interest to me. Be advised that I will not be avoiding spoilers so read at your own risk.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 12:08 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

As I quietly sidestep the endless debate to be had on what exactly is meant by "Literary" (I leave you to use your own definition), I was wondering: What do you consider to be your favorite two or three literary science fiction novels?

I'll start the ball rolling by citing ones that that stand out in recent memory: River of Gods by Ian McDonald, The Healer by Michael Blumlein and The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis.

I might also add that my luck with enjoying literary novels, like my track record with sf classics, is mostly hit-and-miss. (For example, my least favorite literary sf novels are 334 by Thomas Disch and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin.) As a result, I tend to gravitate to what literary snobs would call the "lower" side of the literary spectrum...at least until my mood suits me otherwise. Therefore, much to my misfortune, I have yet to read some classics that are sure to be mentioned here, like Gene Wolfe.

What about you?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 12:29 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Scar Stuff blog has mp3s of an old vinyl record album made by legendary uber-fan Forrest J. Ackerman. It's called Music For Robots. (Not to be confused with the band.)

There are two mp3s from the album actually. In the first one, Forry reminisces about robot lore with lost of juicy classic sf references. Cool stuff! The second mp3 is the advertised "music", which really is just a lengthy series of mostly-annoying electronic beeps and stuff.

[via Boing Boing]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 12:26 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Wired asked a bunch of genre writers to come up with a story of exactly 6 words. Here is a sampling:

• Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer? (Eileen Gunn)
• Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. (Joss Whedon)
• Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth. (Vernor Vinge)
• We went solar; sun went nova. (Ken MacLeod)
• Don't marry her. Buy a house. (Stephen R. Donaldson)
• TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! ...nobody there... (Harry Harrison)
• whorl. Help! I'm caught in a time (Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 24, 2006 at 9:22 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• According to SciFi Wire, the Hellboy: Sword of Storms cartoon premiering on Cartoon Network this week is more faithful to Mike Mignola's comics universe than the movie.
• The George R. R. Martin Podcast, Episode 4: Tales of Hollywood offers Martin talking about his experiences as a Hollywood writer.
• Subterranean Press has A Few Words with Cherie Priest, author of Wings to the Kingdom.
• Humor: Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas, has had it with you, man. [via Gravity Lens]
• SciFi Wire has a profile of John Scalzi, author of The Android's Dream, in which Scalzi cites Elmore Leonard as inspiration for the story, as also noted by one very astute reviewer. I'm just sayin'...:)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 24, 2006 at 1:16 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Tom Disch is asking "Who do you think is the greater SF genius...Van Vogt or Asimov?"
• Locus Magazine's Gary Westfahl reviews The Prestige, the adaptation of Christopher Priest's novel.
• UkSfBookNews.net interviews Brian J. Robb, author of Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film.
• Machina Memorialis goes to great lengths to define science fiction.
• Scott Westerfeld goes back to school to talk directly with some of his readers.
• NPR podcast: The Universal Appeal of Battlestar Galactica. (5 minutes)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 23, 2006 at 12:47 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: More of a story with ghosts than a ghost story.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Eden Moore uses her ability of seeing dead people to solve the mystery of Old Green Eyes.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The wonderfully somber atmosphere; the ghosts play a more active roll here than in the previous book.
CONS: The mystery is not very complex. The steady pacing is perhaps a bit too slow.
BOTTOM LINE: A fine companion for a cold, quiet night.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 23, 2006 at 12:06 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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

R.I.P. Jane Wyatt, who played Mr. Spock's mother on Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and also played, more notably, the mother on Father Knows Best.

See: Wikipedia entry.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 22, 2006 at 11:59 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Website at the End of the Universe points us to the Grand Comic Book Database, where you can find all comic-related info, including cover galleries.
• Cinematical lists Imaginary Movie Gadgets We Want.
• Fast Forward podcast interviews Neil Gaiman.
• The first chapter of Peter Pan in Scarlet, the new authorized sequel to J. M. Barrie's classic children's story, is available as a download from the Audible Free Audio RSS feed. [via SFFAudio]
• Today's heavy reading: The Fascist Ideology of Star Trek: Militarism, Collectivism, & Atheism. [via Whedonesque]
• Cory Doctorow points us to a full-cast audio adaptation of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Hear part 1 or subscribe to the DaveFilms feed.
• Rudy Rucker shows off the John Picacio cover for the Monkeybrain Books reprint of his book The Hollow Earth.
• Real Science: The Pr0n Prawn Nebula. [via Eternal Golden Braid]
• Mark Chadbourn ponders The Slow Death of Science Fiction. Lou Anders responds to this and also to Charles Stross's recent comments.
• Here's how to make a classic Cylon Jack-o-lantern. [via Make]
• A humorous list: The Top 10 Excerpts From the SF Writers' Guidebook. My favorite is #8: "Seven of Nine's neckline is inversely proportional to last week's ratings".

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 22, 2006 at 1:07 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Issue #904 (October 27, 2006) of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. Here's a snippet...

Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury
For Fans of: Sherwood Anderson and Bradbury.
Lowdown: Summer draws poignancy from the half-century dividing it from Dandelion Wine, but feels like an afterthought.
Grade: B.

The Toyminator by Robert Rankin
For Fans of: Douglas Adams, Mother Goose, and masochism.
Lowdown: Some clever running gags don't make up for the self-conscious cheekiness or witless plot.
Grade: D.

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
For Fans of: Brainy first-contact tales (Carl Sagan meets Umberto Eco).
Lowdown: Bursting with pungent historical detail, and Big Theme musings, this dense, provocative novel offers big rewards to patient readers.
Grade: A-.

Sagramanda by Alan Dean Foster
For Fans of: "Johnny Mnemonic" (the Gibson, not the Keanu), Blade Runner, and Monsoon Wedding.
Lowdown: Foster's world is convincingly thought-out, but there are too many plot threads (even a man-eating tiger).
Grade: B.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday October 21, 2006 at 8:13 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

As a sidebar to their review of The Prestige (which they give a B+), Entertainment Weekly lists the Top 5 Movie Magicians:

5. Merlin (Excalibur)
4. Gandalf (Lord of the Rings movies)
3. Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter movies)
2. The Wicked Witch of the West (The Wizard of Oz)
1. Yoda (Star Wars movies)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday October 21, 2006 at 8:08 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Adding to the recent (and forever-recurring) debate of Art vs. Entertainment, SF author Chris Roberson weighs in:

I don't spend too much time worrying about this, myself. I came to the realization early this year that what I'm writing isn't Art, but Entertainment. There's meaning and substance lurking beneath the surface of everything I write, though how successfully encoded or thought out is up to readers to decide, but my principle goal is to craft smart entertainment. To my way of thinking, though, a successful work can't have one without the other.

Entertainment without substance is nothing more than empty calories: it tastes good, but doesn't do you any good. Substance without entertainment is bitter medicine: it's good for you, but it's too often hard to swallow. A successful work-- one that provides both entertainment and substance -- is good and good for you: delicious and nutritious.

To me, "ART" is what happens what an artist uses their gifts to EXPRESS something through their particular medium. ART is when an artist has something to say, a thought to express or a feeling to emote through their talent. ART then elicits a response from us, a reaction to the message, thought or feeling it conveys. Maybe joy or anger or fear... perhaps we approve or disapprove... but either way it is what art does.

Entertainment needs no message or feeling to accomplish it's goals. A guy prancing like he's on a horse with another guy running behind him slapping coconut shells together to sound like galloping hoofs isn't art... but it is entertaining (depending on who you ask). Entertainment without art has value in and of itself.

UPDATE: Charles Stross says Let's put the future behind us.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 20, 2006 at 1:06 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• StarWars.com offers a new behind-the-scenes entry: The Birth of Boba. [via Club Jade]
• Worth1000 is having a Star Wars Photoshopping contest. [via Boing Boing]
• SciFi Weekly interviews author Spider Robinson (Variable Star with Robert A. Heinlein) and director Terry Gilliam (Tideland).
• Meanwhile, continuing his Heinlein tour, John C. Wright reviews Variable Star.
• Sean Wallace shows the cool cover for the audio version of SF: The Best of
• the Year, 2006 Edition.
• Far Sector SFFH interviews Tad Williams. [via Locus Online]
• Locus Online has posted interview excerpts from the October 2006 issue of Locus: Paul Park and Mary Anne Mohanraj.
• Here's a StarGate made out of Legos. [via Make]
• The SciPhi Show podcasts Robert J. Sawyer. [via Locus Online]
• New podcast: Adventures in SciFi Publishing, epsiode 1 features Ray Bradbury and Paul Levinson. [via Locus Online]
• New original fiction at Cosmos: "Apollo's Breath" by Shaun A. Saunders. [via Locus Online]
• Friday YouTube: Dogtones asks a Ninja about Star Wars.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 20, 2006 at 12:55 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MSNBC/Newsweek is reporting a dispute between the network and the writers of the Battlestar Galactica webisodes:

NBC Universal, the studio behind "Battlestar," refused to pay residuals or credit the writers of these "Webisodes," claiming they're promotional materials. So "Battlestar" executive producer Ron Moore said he wouldn't deliver any more of them, including the 10 that were already in the can. In response, NBC Universal seized the Webisodes and filed charges of unfair labor practices against the Writers Guild of America, which advised Moore and producers of three other NBC Universal shows not to deliver any new Web content until they had a deal over residuals.
...
The stakes are huge: viewers streamed "Battlestar" Webisodes 5.5 million times last month, doubling traffic to SciFi.com within two days of the premiere. By comparison, 2.2 million people showed up for the show's third-season opener on Oct. 6.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 19, 2006 at 12:40 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• John Scalzi interviews Cherie Priest.
• Cherie offers some background information on her new book Wings to the Kingdom, sequel to last year's Four and Twenty Blackbirds.
• SFF World interviews Joel Shepherd.
• Now blogging (sort of): Hiro from Heroes. [via On Our TV]
• Sci-Fi Brain looks at Sci-Fi Gaming.
• ChapterFeeds has posted Chapter 1 of Firebird by R. Garcia y Robertson.
• The Sci Phi Show is a podcast that discusses philosophy in science fiction. [via SFF Audio]
• Geek-Trivia: What are the lyrics to the faux-aria musical piece "Battlestar Operatica"?
• From Seed Magazine: Climate Changing Sci-Fi: how global warming is turning a genre once filled with pipe dreams into a pipeline of ideas.
• USA Today lists The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. [via Ed Champion]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 19, 2006 at 1:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SciFi Wire is reporting that Subterranean Press will be publishing a 9-volume set of Robert Silverberg's short fiction:

...To Be Continued is the first of a nine-volume set of his collected short fiction. "Not my complete stories, just the ones I think are worth reprinting for modern readers," Silverberg said in an interview. "This volume covers the first five years of my career, stories written between 1953 and 1958. I've done an introduction for each story, placing it in its context of the era, telling how I came to write it and who published it."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 18, 2006 at 12:10 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Signal is listed a SciFi Weekly's Site of the Week! Way cool!

This sits well with our mention in SciFi Magazine earlier this year. And by "sits well with" I mean "also strokes our over-inflated egos". And by "our" I mean "mine". :)

If this is your first time here, welcome! If you are into RSS feeds, we offer them for posts and comments. But be sure to check out other stuff you might be missing.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 18, 2006 at 7:33 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Hellboy is coming to Cartoon Network.
• David Brin points to a video interview about his participation in a History channel presentation called The Architects: Skyscraper Firefighting and Escape about how to handle fires and other disasters in high rises.
• Here are some various interviews with M.M. Bucker, Tim Pratt and Sean Wright. [via SFBC Blog]
• J. Marcus Xavier writes in to say that Episode 4 of Silent Universe, titled "Eternity, Part 1", is now available.
• Here's a Futurama timeline.
• The George R. R. Martin Podcast, episode #3: "Good Advice for Aspiring Writers"

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 17, 2006 at 1:45 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A cult (art-house?) horror story of pagan god worship.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A police officer is called to a remote island west of Scotland to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. During his investigation, he finds that the island's inhabitants worship the pagan gods of the sun and earth, and that the May Day celebration (and sacrifice?) is just days away.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: October is horror-movie month for me. This year's line-up included the likes of Scanners, Kill Baby Kill and Sleepy Hollow. Since I'd never seen the original film The Wicker Man, I also added that to my list, and am so glad that I did. While not so much a horror story as it is mystery and suspense, this movie really delivers.

The story in short is that a police officer from the mainland, Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward) gets called to investigate the disappearance of a young girl from a remote island west of Scotland. The inhabitants all worship the gods of the earth and sun, and Howie, a devout Christian, is offended by the open sexuality exhibited by the community. It is even taught to the youngest children in school! The May Day celebration is fast approaching, and Sgt. Howie thinks that the girl may be in danger of begin sacrificed if he doesn't find her first. But curiously, no one even knows who she is, or who reported her missing.

Christopher Lee plays Lord Summerisle, the grandson of the man who originally founded the island, and seems to be orchestrating the bizarre behavior of the residents.

In 1979, the Wicker Man won the Saturn Award for best horror film. There is considerable nudity in the movie, so you'll definitely not want to watch the film with children present.

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Posted by APEGamer at Monday October 16, 2006 at 12:41 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Another fun read from Scalzi.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Harry Creek must prevent an interstellar war by providing a sheep to an alien race.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Immersive; clear writing style; well-executed humor; highly entertaining.
CONS: Somewhat slow beginning.
BOTTOM LINE: Fans of Scalzi's previous work won't be disappointed.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 16, 2006 at 12:39 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Michael Moorcock announced that Del Rey will be reprinting his Elric books with some nice extras:

From next year, at three month intervals, Del Rey books will be publishing trade paperback editions of the Elric books. They will be done more or less in the order in which they were published and will be illustrated by some of the best artists currently at work. The first one will be done by my good friend John Picacio, whose first professional book illustrating job was the Mojo edition of Behold the Man (and who also illustrated Tales from the Texas Woods, also for Mojo) and will include the original stories from The Stealer of Souls and Stormbringer, as well as other material, plus a new introduction and explanatory material. They will be published in much the same style and format as Del Rey's Conan editions. I can't remember if I have already announced this, but thought I'd better mention it now just in case I hadn't! The books will include short stories from the world of the Young Kingdoms and other stories as they originally appeared in Science Fantasy magazine, including "To Rescue Tanelorn" and so on. Scripts, early illustrations and so on will also be included in the volumes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 16, 2006 at 12:32 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The New York Times has a profile on Goro Miyazaki, the son of the anime master Hayao Miyazaki, and his upcoming film Tales From Earthsea which based on Ursula K. LeGuin's books. LeGuin is quoted in the artcile, giving her thoughts on the new adaptation:

As a teenager Mr. Miyazaki read the "Earthsea" books, and he originally planned to make a faithful interpretation. "But as I continued on the project, I realized that adapting the story exactly was not really what I should do," he said. "In order for me to speak to younger audiences, some changes had to be made because of the gap between when the book was written and when I made the film. I feel that metropolitan culture is becoming a dead end and there's nowhere to go. I can't just shout, 'Return to nature,' but we need to rethink how we can live in cities yet remain close to nature."

Ms. Le Guin offered a balanced response, saying: "I thought the moral lectures in the film were spoken eloquently. In fact they were often quoted pretty directly from the books. But I didn't see how the action of the film justified them. They felt pasted on to me. I did not understand why Arren stabs his father, nor how and why he earned redemption."

She added: "I very much liked the scenes of plowing, drawing water, stabling the animals and so on, which give the film an earthy and practical calmness, a wise change of pace from constant conflict and action. In them, at least, I recognized my Earthsea."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 16, 2006 at 12:21 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Gilbert is playing a game where the winner gets a chance to either lead the planet Earth or migrate to the utopia of Venus. Unfortunately for him, he soon realizes his memories are invalid and he's just a pawn apparently working to battle current leaders and an array of shadowy puppeteers.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Excellent breadth of thinking, strong presentation of ideas
CONS: Dated in some ways (colonization of Venus, for example)
BOTTOM LINE: One of the better sci-fi works written.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Sunday October 15, 2006 at 11:38 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Irene Gallo has a 30-second interview with John Picacio, author of Cover Story.
• John C. Wright points (via Irene Gallo) to a preview of the cover art for Children of Chaos, Titans of Chaos the sequel to Orphans of Chaos and Fugitives of Chaos.
• YouTube: Dodo The Kid From Outer Space. [via Pistol Wimp]
• Abagail Nussbaum from the blog Asking the Wrong Questions has some issues with the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 premiere.
• Visions of Paradise lists Michael Bishop's 104 Really Cool Works of 20th Century Fiction.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 15, 2006 at 11:21 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

You want Neil Gaiman interviews? We got your Neil Gaiman interviews right here!

A few Gaiman interviews have appeared in the last week. Here are 4 of them (two first we've mentioned previously):

• 10 Zen Monkeys interview.
• BookSlut interview
• The Bookcast has a podcast interview with Gaiman. [via SFF Audio]
• Cranky Geeks has a video interview w/ longtime PC curmudgeon, John C. Dvorak.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday October 14, 2006 at 11:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Ground control to Mister Krabs: David Bowie will voice Lord Royal Highness on a 2007 episode of Spongebob Squarepants.
• BriiliantButCancelled interviews Sean Maher, Firefly's Dr. Simon Tam.
• Friday YouTube Part 1: Stephen Colbert vs George Lucas on a lightsaber duel!
• Stargate: SG1 will get a brief afterlife in two straight-to-DVD movies.
• A BoardGameGeeks list: Great Science Fiction Books that have not yet been made into Boardgames or CCGs.
• Friday YouTube Part 2: Here's the coolest drawing board in the world. [via PostHuman Blues]
• Now Blogging: Eleanor Arnason. [via Jed Hartman @ Lorem Ipsum]
• Google video this 52-minute documentary: On the Edge of Blade Runner.
• Also on Google video: Forbidden Planet.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 13, 2006 at 12:44 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Speaking of Isaac Asimov's Probe (HEL-lo!), wouldn't you know you can watch the 2-hour premiere episode of Probe on YouTube? (We love you YouTube!) It has been uploaded in 5-minute pieces. Start with part 1 and follow the "related" links for the other parts.

What is Probe, you say? From the Asimov FAQ:

Asimov was credited as adviser and co-creator of this television series, which lasted for a 2-hour pilot and six 1-hour episodes on ABC in 1988 before a writer's strike came along and ended the series. It starred Parker Stevenson as brilliant young scientist Austin James, who owned his own high-tech think tank consulting firm, and used his scientific expertise to solve baffling crimes as a sort of modern day Sherlock Holmes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 12, 2006 at 1:33 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• "Mmmm...Booomer"-of-the-day: Grace Park Shines at Spike TV Scream Awards [at Asian Bite]
• Fantastic Reviews interviews Paul Park, author of A Princess of Roumania and The Tourmaline. [via Locus Online]
• From ChapterFeeds: The first chapter of Druid's Sword by Sara Douglass
• The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas discuss Fritz Leiber's novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar".
• Mark Chadbourn discusses the point of fantasy.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 12, 2006 at 1:21 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of six original novellas exploring the theme of dangerous planets.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Five stories good or better.
CONS: One mediocre story
BOTTOM LINE: A very good collection of stories.

Forbidden Planets, edited by Marvin Kaye and published by The Science Fiction Book Club, offers six original novellas that play with the theme of dangerous worlds to varying degrees. (I might mention here that Allen M. Steele cheats a little by setting his story on a not-quite-forbidden colony world, but his transgression can be forgiven as his story is quite enjoyable.) It still surprises me how, given a similar theme, different writers can come up with stories so varied in content and wonder. (See also other original SFBC titles as Between Worlds, Down These Dark Spaceways and One Million A.D. as well as Space Soldiers and Armageddons.) I suppose it shouldn't be so astonishing given the broad theme that tends to unite anthology stories; nonetheless I remain pleasantly surprised. There are no retreads here.

There's not a single bad story in the whole bunch, although I did find one story to be hovering within the region of mediocrity. The two standout stories were "JQ211F, And Holding" by Nancy Kress and "Kaminsky at War" by Jack McDevitt. Three of the stories were set in already existing universes which were either nice to revisit (in the case of the Steele's Coyote and Reed's Marrow universes) or experience for the first time (Foster's Commonwealth universe).

Reviewlettes of the stories follow.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 11, 2006 at 2:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Boldly Go points us to never-aired deleted scenes from the Star Trek TOS pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Spock smiles!
• David Eick, executive producer of the new Battlestar Galactica, is doing a remake of The Bionic Woman.
• Meme Therapy offers Part 2 of Should Scientists Criticize Religion?
• The Force links to some custom made Star Wars DVD covers.
• John C. Wright continues his Heinlein tour with his review of Door Into Summer.
• Peter F. Hamilton begins blogging. (Added to our list of SF/F Author Blogs but, alas, no RSS feed yet. :() [via Velcro City Tourist Board]
• Subterranean Press is publishing The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi, which is set in the same universe as Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 11, 2006 at 2:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

There's a really, really interesting thread going on. It's quite long - and far from over, I suspect - but worth the read, comments included.

First, Lou Anders (see SF Signal interview) wrote another awesome and honest post, Getting Medieval on Reality's Ass, in which he talks about why movies are worthy of critical analysis, the prime component of fiction (entertainment) and how Star Trek and science fiction changed the world.

Ian McDonald (author of the fantabulous River of Gods) responds to Lou's post with his own, These fictions that sustain us, in which he agrees with Lou to a point, but also thinks it's about more than entertainment. (He also has issues with a related Asimov's article Barbarian Confessions by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.)

Finally (for now) Lou responds again with Getting Even More Medieval in which he reiterates: "Quality and popularity need not be mutually exclusive".

UPDATE: And now John Scalzi weighs in against the assumption that Star Wars is entertainment, which he claims is false. Says Scalzi:

"Star Wars is not entertainment. Star Wars is George Lucas masturbating to a picture of Joseph Campbell and conning billions of people into watching the money shot."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 11, 2006 at 1:51 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The George R.R. Martin podcast, Episode #2 - in which GRRM talks about how he got started as a writer and developed his craft over the years.
• Sean Wallace shows off the cover for Jeff VanderMeer's Secret Life.
• Meme Therapy interviews Liz Williams.
• BookSlut interviews Neil Gaiman.
• SFF Audio points to a bunch of free H.P Lovecraft and Doctor Who audio downloads. They also point out some free sf/f audio from the Voices in the Dark website, featuring H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens and Cory Doctorow.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 10, 2006 at 1:16 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

After just three episodes of Heroes (two and a half, actually, as I missed part of the premiere) I have to say that I've never, ever been simultaneously so intrigued and so annoyed at the same show - intrigued by the premise and the unrecognized potential; annoyed because the way some things play out are so freakin' stupid and unrealistic (as much as a show about people with supernatural powers can be) that I physically must leave the area surrounding the television or risk being engulfed in a fit of rage that would wake the neighbors.

Here, then, are 5 things that annoy me about Heroes. They all boil down to choices made by the writer(s) that sacrifice realism for some purported sense of drama, but instead play out like an insult to anyone who is paying attention.

*** SPOILER WARNING: The rest of this post is made up entirely of spoilers.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 10, 2006 at 1:08 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The article "Genre bookstores hold off big chains" features, among others, Alan Beatts of Borderlands. (see SF Signal interview) [via Locus Online]
• Boston Globe article "Make it weird" features Kelly Link. [via Locus Online]
• SciFi Dimensions interviews Lois McMaster Bujold.
• Star Trek is still raking in the big bucks.
• Australians will soon get their own SciFi Channel.
• The Future and You's October podcast includes Kim Stanley Robinson, Alan Dean Foster, Sarah A. Hoyt, and others. [via Locus Online]
• Edward Willet, author of Lost in Translation, has been posting funny photos of things you see at science fiction conventions.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 09, 2006 at 1:33 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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

• Borderlands Books (a way-cool genre bookstore) is offering to ship John Picacio's Cover Story for $1 during the month of October. [via Picacio's blog, where he shows off the exclusive, limited edition bookmark they were giving away at Borderlands.]
• Recently posted: David Langford's Ansible 231, October 2006.
• New/Updated on Gutenberg: Four-Day Planet by H. Beam Piper
• Real Science : HubbleSite explains black holes. [via MonkeyFilter]
• The Space Review looks at the influence of Star Trek. [via Eternal Golden Braid]
• This is the science fiction bust I would least like to have staring back at me.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 08, 2006 at 11:34 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF Author (The Year of the Quiet Sun) and Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee Wilson "Bob" Tucker has passed away.

• Wilson Tucker website
• SFWA announcement
• Wikipedia entry
• MidAmericon's Wilson Tucker page, which features Tucker's Le Zombie fanzine

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 08, 2006 at 11:06 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SciFi Wire is reporting that their reality show, Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, is not only getting an second season, but an expanded one at that:

The second season, which is slated to air next summer, will expand from six to 10 one-hour episodes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday October 07, 2006 at 2:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• New/Updated on Gutenberg: Badge of Infamy by Lester del Rey.
• The 10 Zen Monkeys blog interviews Neil Gaiman.
• A promising new blog: Biology in Science Fiction.
• Humorous picture: What Happens on the Death Star Stays on the Death Star.
• Here's a short live action/CGI film from 1994...The Silver Surfer. [via Pistol Wimp]
• Here's William Shatner in a funny DirectTV commercial that mixes Star Trek II footage. [via the TV in the restaurant where I had dinner and Walter Hunt for reminding me.]
• Chris Roberson and Simple Tricks and Nonsense have the scoop on the upcoming Richard Donner release of the Superman II DVD, with trailers and clips.
• List: The Top 10 Improvements to Star Trek With Today's Special Effects

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday October 07, 2006 at 1:03 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

William Shatner will be hosting a game show. No, really.

William Shatner will host "Show Me the Money," a new game show series for ABC.

Contestants answer trivia questions for the chance to win millions while also facing the risk of losing everything they have accumulated. ABC has ordered seven one-hour episodes.

If I were going to have the William Shatner host my game show - and I realize the chances of that are really, really tiny - I'd use one of these show titles:

• Shattack!
• Shat 'Til You Drop!
• Name That Shat!
• Shattletales!
• Shat Game P.M.!
• Shat Wants to be a Millionaire!
• Dancing with the Shat!
• Shat Factor!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 06, 2006 at 9:55 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

BlogPoll has been down for more than a week. I've had to take drastic measures. And by "drastic" I mean "programming geek-like".

We are now using the poll feature of our new web host. This means that the current poll is working again. I filled in the poll values as best as I remember them.

So, if you haven't already voted in our poll about Online Reviews, you can do so from the SF Signal front page .

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 06, 2006 at 12:24 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Nathan Fillion (Firefly's Malcolm Reynolds) will appear on Lost. [via Whedonesque]
• Despite the recent hubbub over Google's Literacy Project, it may not be all it's cracked up to be.
• The 5th Edition of the Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans. [via Scribbling Woman]
• James Schellenberg at The Cultural Gutter talks about very long genre books.
• SF Author John Varley is selling hos toy robot collection. [via Boing^2]
• The Movie blog has the new Eragon poster.
• Simon & Schuster is podcasting book excerpts and author interviews. This week: Peter Pan in Scarlet. [via Kids Lit]
• George R.R. Martin offers the first of eight podcasts where he discusses the backgrounds and origins of his A Song of Ice and Fire series. [via Westeros]
• Friday YouTube: Back To The Future's Biff sings the Question Song. [via Michael & Evo]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 06, 2006 at 12:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

I've been watching some of the new, and returning, SF-ish shows on TV and I thought I'd post my thoughts so far. This was inspired by John's Eureka post, but also follows up on my previous SF on TV post. Note that half of the TV shows in that post haven't aired yet which is why I won't be covering them and I will be covering some returning shows too.

On with the shows!

• Eureka - I like Eureka quite a bit because it's silly, goofy and eccentric. Sure it has a lot of technobabble and the plots may not be original, but its the characters that keep me coming back. Jack Carter seems to act like any one of us (the management!) at SF Signal would act in the same circumstances. In fact, I see Tim as the sheriff, I don't know why. I'll keep watching, at least until they have some snot-nosed teenager save the day every other episode.
• Heroes - I'm really liking Heroes especially after the dark turn of events in the second episode. As of right now, this is not a campy, people-in-tights show. It has 'real' people having to deal with obtaining special powers and with those trying to hunt them down. There is, of course, the obligatory conspiracy, but we don't have enough info to figure out what is going on or who is behind everything. This one reminds me a lot of the Rising Stars comics. If you've missed the latest episode, you can download it from the Heroes website or iTunes. In addition, there is a nice companion site run by the people behind the show called 9th Wonders. So far, this is the keeper of the new shows on TV.
• Jericho - I'm not too sure about Jericho. The premise sounds interesting, but the last two shows haven't really been that great. I found the second episode to be totally unbelievable given the short amount of time involved, and the third one I'm on the fence over because I haven't finished watching it yet. There also appears to be a conspiracy here too, as tanks have been reported racing towards Denver, one of the new residents of Jericho seems to have a small arsenal of M-16s and other military gear stashed away in a rental warehouse (and he seems to know alot about nuclear bombs and radiation, hmm), and Jake himself possible knows more than he has let on. The mystery of the bombings is intriguing, but once that is solved, is there enough here to keep coming back for? I'm not sure. If they keep producing unbelievable situations for the characters, then I'm out.
• LOST - It's back for a third season, and still has me hooked. This season is supposed to be about the Others and what they are doing on the island. It's about freaking time. Supposedly the first six episodes will be more character oriented, then a 13-week! break, and the final 16 episodes will be about the island's mysteries. Hopefully they won't drop the ball in the first 6 episodes, although last night's was pretty good. It gives you just enough to want to come back for more.
• Battlestar Galactica - Do I even need to say anymore? I don't think so. My DVR is already set to record this Friday's episode. I know some of you think BG has jumped the shark. I disagree. It's definitely gone in a different direction than expected, and that's a good thing. I'm still interested in the characters and Moore has already said <Spoiler for Tim!>that they will leave New Caprica after about six episodes</SFT!>. I'm still in for the long haul on this one.

I haven't seen Six Degrees yet, and I'm not sure I want to, although the first episode is available from ABC. So, I've gone from two must-watch shows (LOST and BG) to four (add Heroes and Eureka), with one (Jericho) on probation. All of them, with the exception of Jericho, seem to be doing well with audiences too, which bodes well for more seasons. Now I just have to cram two, or three, more shows into my exceedingly rare spare time...

Update: Fixed 9th Wonders link.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday October 05, 2006 at 2:47 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Just a reminder that the new season of BG starts this Friday.

If you are really into the show and want to enjoy it with others, perhaps you can find a fellow fan through Frak Party. Or not.

More for BG fans: TheTyee.ca article Why Smart People Love Battlestar Galactica which gets input from Scott Ian (lead guitar player for Anthrax), Madeline Stanionis (Internet advocacy and fundraising consultant, and organizer of Frak Party), Kris Krug (president of Bryght, builder of online communities and social software) and Dawn Buie (director of web technology at TheTyee.ca).

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 05, 2006 at 1:01 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Nothing says "no new content" like a butt-load of links to elsewhere. :)

• The Agony Column's Rick Kleffel interviews artist John Picacio, author of the awesome Cover Story. Kleffel also podcast-interviews Jeff VanderMeer, author of Shriek: An Afterword.
• John Scalzi interviews Mark Budz, author of Clade, Crache and Idolon.
• The Columbus Dispatch interviews Ellen Datlow. [via Locus Online]
• Meme Therapy asks people for their Wonder Gadget Wish List.
• Robert Anton Wilson could use your help. [via Locus Online]
• CGSociety is hosting a computer graphics contest based on Greg Bear's book Eon. [via Locus Online]
• Helix Issue #2 features free fiction by Terry Bisson, Jay Lake and more. [via Locus Online]
• Jim Baen's Universe Issue #3 has subscriber-only fiction by Mike Resnick, Gene Wolfe, John Barnes, Gregory Benford, Wen Spencer, and others; plus articles and columns by David Brin and Eric Flint. [via Locus Online]
• According to one Atlanta, Georgia mom: Harry Potter is evil!
• The BBC7's 7th Dimension will be airing a reading of Ted Chiang's 1991 novelette "Understand". (See SF Signal reviewlette.)[via SFF Audio]
• Jonathan Strahan and Gardner Dozois have completed The New Space Opera.
• The Thrilling Wonder Story has posted a series of their Best SF/F Lists.
• There's a new promo for the Ghost Rider movie.
• Fred Hoyle's novel The Black Cloud was scientifically helpful to vision research. [via Mind Hacks]
• Big Head Press is now serializing online the complete graphic novelization of L. Neil Smith's The Probability Broach. [via Easter Lemming Notebook]
• Elizabeth Bear has posted Chapter 1 of Carnival. (PDF).
• Chapter Feeds has posted Chapter 1 of The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross.
• G.B.H. Hornswoggler (Andrew Wheeler) celebrates his first year in the blogosphere by reviewing his best posts.
• LucasFilm is done making movies...about three prequels too late. [via Backwards City]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday October 05, 2006 at 1:16 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A man from a mining colony on the galactic rim learns that his uncanny premonitions are more than just luck and, after a bad fight with some Republic navy officers, escapes to join the Sith. And it is there he learns his true calling...

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The transition of Darth Bane through the book really shows him growing in power and understanding of the dark side. No namby pamby Skywalkers.
CONS: One scene near the end just didn't feel necessary to me.
BOTTOM LINE: Finally, a novel about the dark side that starts to tell more about the dark side, and its a great Star Wars book.

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Wednesday October 04, 2006 at 10:32 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

I watched the Season 1 finale of Eureka last night. Since I posted my initial impressions, I thought I'd give my final impressions of Season 1, too.

I still like the premise of and I'm glad the story arcs didn't become the focus of the show, although I have to admit to leaning the other way now; "The Consortium" thread was left annoyingly unexplained. Is this another Blue Sun à la Firefly?

I'm digging the Northern Exposure feel of the small town and the characters within it were likable, even if the cast sometimes felt heavy. It kept occurring to me that maybe they didn't need all those characters when some of them (like Taggert - who I will forever think of as Max Headroom Guy) appeared with no involvement whatsoever in that week's story. The will-they-or-won't-they storyline between Jack and Allison is so Sam & Diane. Who cares? For some reason, I like the character of Fargo, I think because I find it humorous that he provides the effeminate voice for Carter's automated house. I laugh whenever the house talks. The Stark character annoys me, not because he plays the antagonist or the jealous soon-to-be-ex husband (which actually provides some drama), but because of the way the actor plays him devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

The real science, alas, is not as prominent as I had hoped when I earlier compared it to the short-lived series Probe. Instead, the science is weakly explained if it is explained at all. This is a lost opportunity in my opinion but hey, I'm speaking as a science fiction fan. I suspect that they want a larger audience and want to make it more accessible so they don't want to scare off the sci-fi hatahs, despite being on the SciFi Channel.

Last night's finale (Spoiler Warning!) included the apparently requisite time travel theme, though there was a paradoxical question left unresolved. Now that Henry knows Jack came back to stop him, why didn't he just use the device to stop Jack? And, are we to assume that the future that saw Jack and Allison together means they eventually will end up together? That takes the mystique out of the will-they-or-won't-they storyline, doesn't it? (End Spoiler Warning.)

All in all, though flawed, the show is fun, though not as good as I had hoped. Some episodes were better than others, some were flat-out weak. There were only a scant 12 episodes in Season 1 but it apparently did well enough to get renewed for another season. I wouldn't call Eureka must-see, but I like it well enough (especially in the dearth of decent TV scifi) to catch a show every now and then as a run-of-the-mill diversion.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 04, 2006 at 3:46 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Former Charmed executive producer Brad Kern is trying to develop a television series based on the Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters: The Secret Hour. [via SciFi Wire]
• New/Updated at Gutenberg: "Omnilingual" by H. Beam Piper.
• The SciFi Channel is renewing Eureka for a second season.
• SciFi Weekly interviews the cast of Battlestar Galactica.
• SF Revu interviews Peter Watts, who talks about his latest novel Blindsight.
• Charles Stross explains where his book covers come from.
• For serious geeks only: Star Wars costumes for your pet. [via Neatorama]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday October 04, 2006 at 1:46 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

This is part B of this challenge, see the first part here. This time, please list your three favorite Science Fiction settings as seen on TV or on film. Rules are similar to the first part, but please limit yourself to those settings that were first seen in a visual medium. For instance, Star Wars is in, Dune the movie, not so much, in fact, no. And no fantasy. You have been warned.

At the end of this week, I'll tally up the votes then we will have a poll (as soon as the poll is fixed) to see what is the SF Signal Reader's Choice for coolest TV/Film setting. Then we'll have a poll for coolest written setting, then the final smackdown between the two winners to decide what is the coolest SF setting overall. I can't promise we'll be speedy here, but I will promise it will happen, even if I have to kill John to do so...

My list:

• Star Wars - yeah, I like SW. At least I don't receive credit card offers addressed to 'Star Wars Enthusiast'...
• Babylon 5 - I'd love to work for IPX, as long as I don't have to explore long dead Shadow worlds.
• Star Trek - just about any of the eras, but later is probably better. Sign me up for the exploration part.

Ok, so they're conventional picks, I agree. But I still like them. Now show me all the cool settings I missed (or forgot)!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday October 03, 2006 at 3:39 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

LucasFilm and Del Rey publishing are hosting a contest to name the latest Star Wars Sith Lord.

What's in a name? A great deal, indeed, for those who choose to take that final, fateful step and join the dark side. Each Dark Lord of the Sith must leave behind their old identity -- and old name -- in order to assume a moniker befitting their fearsome new status. As it was for Darth Bane, Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, and a long line of dark disciples before them...so it is now, for Jacen Solo. But what name shall he take to seal his allegiance to the dark side? How shall he be hailed by those who honor, respect, and fear him? Now, YOU have a chance to be part of Star Wars history. Because this time, this privilege of naming the newest Sith Lord...is YOURS.

One Grand Prize winner will have his or her Sith name featured as the official character name in Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss. The Grand Prize Winner will be recognized on the acknowledgement page of the aforementioned book.

[via Club Jade]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 03, 2006 at 11:23 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Boomer who? Here are The Women of Star Trek. [via TV Squad, with hat-tip to Texas Best Grok, who was infatuated with Trek babes long before it was cool. :)]
• SFX interviews Terry Pratchett.
• John Clute reviews Three Days to Never by Tim Powers.
• Borders starts an online book club. [via The Book Standard]
• Karen Traviss talks about Doctor Who at Eos Blog.
• Would you eat this Discworld cake? [via GalleyCat via BoingBoing]
• Ronald Moore talks about Battlestar Galactica Season 3.
• A BlogCritics opinion piece...Battlestar Galactica: In Defense Of The Best Show On Television.
• Torque Control and Entropy pump weigh in on Jonathan Strahan's recent space opera posts.
• Clarkesworld Magazine issue #1 features "A Light in Troy" by Sarah Monette and "304 Adolph Hitler Strasse" by Lavie Tidhar. [via Paul Jessup]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday October 03, 2006 at 1:24 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• There is some cool art over at ConceptArt.org. [via Quantum Storytelling]
• Need a Halloween costume? Check out How to build a Giant Robot Costume. [via Make]
• Jonathan Strahan wonders if there's no such thing as the "new space opera". He is also asking everyone for their definition of "space opera".
• On Spec magazine is promoting a course on The ABC's of How NOT to Write Speculative Fiction.
• Monday Fun: What do you get when you combine Asteroids with Missile Command? You get Red! [via Digg]
• Serialized Priest anyone? Subterranean Press is serializing a novella from Cherie Priest's upcoming collection Dreadful Skin. The novella is called "The Wreck of the Mary Byrd" and it will be available through the month of October. [via John Scalzi]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday October 02, 2006 at 12:09 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Well, the poll site was down for the last few days. I mostly remember the counts we had before it went down, but I'll let it ride another week and give it time to come back up. If not, I'll post the numbers I remember and move the poll. Again.

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

• For Tim: Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica's Boomer) is profiled by Newsday.
• Not for Tim: Jamie Bamber (BG's Lee Adama) is quoted in The Republican.
• Real Science: Zoom in on Mars. [via Core Dump]
• Jay Lake presents The Nine Circles of Genre Publishing Hell.
• RPG Blog The 20' by 20' Room uses Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers to rethink the science fiction RPG.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 01, 2006 at 2:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 01, 2006 at 1:46 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Xombie is a cool animated web cartoon about....zombies. (I knew you weren't thrown off by the X.)

The production value is pretty darned good. I like the style, technique and storytelling. Seven episodes are currently available online. Back in March, Slice of SciFI interviewed the creator, James Farr. (Not to be confused with Jamie Farr.)

Check it out.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday October 01, 2006 at 1:42 AM
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