In 2007 The Library of America will be publishing a collection of four Philip K. Dick stories from the 1960's: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik. The book will be edited by Jonathan Lethem.

Related: GalleyCat has responses from various genre authors about what other writers besides PKD they'd install in the Library's canon of great American literature.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 30, 2006 at 1:59 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Space Archaeology interviews Sean Williams, author of The Crooked Letter and The Blood Debt.


• Waterstone's has an interview of Chris Roberson, author of Paragaea. [via Chris Roberson]


• SFBC Blog has authors talking about their books. In this case Alan Dean Foster on Trouble Magnet and S.M. Stirling on The Sky People.


• ChapterFeeds has the first chapter of The Finest Challenge by Jean Rabe.


• In pre-production: Starship Troopers 3.


• JA Konrath talks EBooks.


• Velcro City Tourist Board and blog pathology: 18 signs you spend too much time in the blogosphere (the science fiction edition).


• From Wired: Hollywood Eats Sci-Fi's Brains in which they answer the question "Why has Hollywood stopped making serious sci-fi?"

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 30, 2006 at 1:50 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Yahoo India (yes, we outsource our news sources. Ba-dum, crash! :)) lists the outcome of an online-poll to select The Best Time-Travelling Movie. The results:

1. Time After Time
2. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
3. Back To The Future Trilogy
4. The Time Machine
5. 12 Monkeys
6. Planet Of The Apes (Nice spoiler!)
7. Army Of Darkness
8. The Final Countdown
9. Bill + Ted's Excellent Adventure
10. Somewhere In Time

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 29, 2006 at 12:47 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

I recently read P.D. James' The Children of Men and found it to be hugely entertaining and I would love to go see the upcoming movie version. But a recent SCI FI Wire article almost made me change my mind. In a discussion with the film's director, Alfonso Cuarón, we learn he wanted to depart from the science-fiction aspects from the start. "I loved the world she created in the book, but it was not something I could see myself doing," he said. "I used the book as a jumping-off point."

OK, well, I understand Hollywood and the Recycled Idea and that film is a different medium than books. I know there must be some differences: characters change, events may be condensed, etc. But how can you possibly depart from a sf-nal dystopian setting in a last-generation future where children can no longer be born? My initial reaction was worry, since that was the major appeal of the book to me. It set this beautifully bleak mood that I hoped would remain in the film. Upon reflection of Cuarón's comments, I just think we have a case of a director who is trying to make a film more marketable. Sci Fi still has somewhat of a stigma in Hollywood. If he liked the movie enough to direct it (as if Hollywood is all about art and not money), then he should embrace the science fiction. Maybe this could be a "socially-relevant SF film" as cited in the USA Today article "Science fiction gets real". We shall see...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 29, 2006 at 12:37 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Cinematical has a thorough review of Superman II -- The Richard Donner Cut DVD.


• Jayme Lynn Blaschke perfectly captures some of my problems with this week's episode of Heroes.


• "Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation of our epoch. It is the principal cultural way we locate ourselves imaginatively in time and space." So sayeth H. Bruce Franklin in his essay Science Fiction: The Early History. [via John Abbe]


• At SCI FI Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Lois McMaster Bujold and her book The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. Meanwhile, Harper Collins has posted the first three chapters of the book. [via Eos Blog]


• James Patrick Kelly continues podcasting his Asimov's "On The Net" columns with audio version of his Time Travel and Afraid of the Darknet articles.


• Michael Burstein will appear on the 5PM CBS 4 News in Boston today (Wednesday, November 29) regarding his involvement in Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet. [UPDATE: Here's video of the news piece]


• Added to the list of SF/F Writers Who Blog: James A. Owen, author of Here, There Be Dragons.


• When hanging on to dead RSS feeds pays off: Ariel from The Alien Online says that he's started blogging again at The Genre Files. Cool! I've missed his honest commentary. Welcome back, Ariel!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 29, 2006 at 12:09 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

[UPDATE: Wordsmithed the rule to read better and corrected a spelling mistake. I seriously need to get a proofreader.]

A recent post by Michael May ("I Give Up: A Game of Thrones") talks about not finishing books. He mentions a rule he got from Bookgasm...The 100-Page Rule: "If it's not good by page 100, quit reading."

A couple of months ago, I asked Do You Know When to Stop Reading? After that post, I thought I did. But I might have benefited from knowing The 100-Page Rule one month later when I was midway through Blindsight before I finally gave it up. I just wasn't getting into it and I'm not entirely sure why. It has been getting very positive reviews everywhere I see it mentioned.

Halfway through a book is probably the longest I've lasted through an unfinished book. I'm not sure 100 pages is enough to determine likability. It really depends on the book's size. I seem to remember Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy taking a while to get started as he took the time to spin up all the different story threads. Maybe a Percentage Rule would be better. Hmm...The 33% Rule sounds about right. For a 300-page book you get your 100-page acid test.

Officially stated, then:

The 33% Rule: If the first one-third of a book is not good, stop reading it.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 28, 2006 at 10:38 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Decent adventure, sound science and, perchance, a preview of The Singularity?

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Stranded on an alien planet of teleports and used as pawns of warring kingdoms, an archaeologist and a pilot try to find a way home before the local food finally poisons them.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Well-thought-out culture based on alien abilities; uses physics to frame alien mind powers; the emphasis on this sf/fantasy hybrid is on the science fiction.
CONS: Mind powers are not fully explained; the large majority of the characters are two dimensional.
BOTTOM LINE: A quick and entertaining read.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 28, 2006 at 12:28 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• David Louis Edelman talks about how he promoted his book Infoquake.
• Elizabeth Bear talks about why she doesn't write alternate history.
• Will Shetterly posts Steven Brust's Advice to Aspiring Writers culled from an interview Brust did.
• Jonathan Lethem writes an imaginary episode from the life of Philip K. Dick. [via Boing Boing]
• Premiere magazine lists The 20 Most Overrated Film of All Time which includes The Wizard of Oz and 2001: A Space Odyssey. What? No Blade Runner? Bah! [via Mental Floss]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 28, 2006 at 12:22 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Three strangers are brought together by an unusual murder. What they find sends them on an incredible journey to save the world.
PROS: A fun adventure aimed at young adult readers, lots of allusions and references to the fantasy genre, a breeze to read.
CONS: Plot driven story, paper thin characters.
BOTTOM LINE: Here, There Be Dragons is a terrific first novel by James A. Owen. Anyone who likes earlier works of fantasy will have a field day decoding the allusions liberally sprinkled throughout the book. This is also a great novel to introduce the younger readers to the world of fantasy.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday November 27, 2006 at 3:09 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast-interviews Lou Anders. See also: our SF Signal interview with Lou.
• The Top 10 Things SF Characters Are Thankful For
• The sf/f nominees have been posted for The 2006 Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards
• Here are all the Nebula Award Winners in Haiku, the way they were meant to be read. [via Velcro City Tourist Board]
• An anthology is in the works that aims to bring together a comprehensive collection of critical essays on the writing of Octavia Butler. [via Nalo Hopkinson]
• Game: Asteroid's Revenge - you control the asteroid and try to kill the ships that are firing at you.
• Free fiction from Subterranean Press: "The Heart" by Neal Barrett, Jr. (Part one and part two.)
• SciFi wire profiles Charles Stross, author of The Jennifer Morgue.
• SciFi Wire profiles the movie Children of Men. (See also the SF Signal review of the book.)
• Erik Even shows what it would be like If The Lord of the Rings Had Been Written By a Game Developer.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday November 27, 2006 at 12:26 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

I was in Walmart this weekend and two of the titles in their woefully science-fictionless mass market paperback section caught my eye. One was a Tom Clancy franchise book-of-the-week, the other was Dark Demon by Christine Feehan. The reason they caught my eye was because they were of odd dimension. The height and width of the cover was bizarre. They were skinnier but taller. It was weird. (Check out the Amazon image and browse inside to see a sample of the printing.)

I didn't get get a chance to sample the format by reading it, but it now occurs to me that being more like a newspaper column might lend itself to faster reading since your eyes need less left/right scanning. Of course, I'm sure it has something to do with fitting more books on a shelf rather than something as profitless as reading speed. But the fact that I saw two of them makes me wonder if this is going to be a new publishing format on par with - or even replacing - mass-market paperback.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday November 27, 2006 at 12:13 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

"Who makes up these lists? No BSG, no Serenity?"
- Tim Morris

"What?! No Lexx? :-)"
- Paul Harper

"The Mothership from Close Encounters is by far the most spectacular movie spaceship."
- Derek

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

Now you can act out your favorite conspiracy theory with these Lost action figures. (They're called "action figures" because Adults simply don't play with dolls.)

See Hurley play golf! See Kate walking among bamboo! See Shannon...sunbathe!

How much of a hardcore fan do you have to be to buy one of these things? The more casual fan will probably be satisfied with the Hurley action figure wallpaper. Or better yet, the Shannon wallpaper...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 26, 2006 at 4:46 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• SF über-fan Forrest J Ackerman celebrated his 90th birthday this past weekend.
• SyFy Portal explains how having genre shows like Battlestar Galactica, Lost and Heroes move into the mainstream might have a negative effect on web site ratings.
• Furinkan High School Kendo Club lists The 20 Sexiest Sci-Fi Babes, Part 1 and Part 2.
• Also worthy reads by FHSKC, Tired Sci-Fi Tropes That Must Be Retired! Part 1 and Part 2.
• Locus Online has posted an exceprt from the November 2006 China Miéville interview.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday November 25, 2006 at 12:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

An Orlando Sentinel article has Ramsey Campbell reminiscing about how the government almost took down Analog magazine in 1944 (when it was still called Astounding Science Fiction) because of a short story it published ("Deadline" by Cleve Cartmill) that gave a few too many details about atomic bombs.

When intelligence agents came calling, Cartmill blamed it all on Campbell, who had provided him with all the technical details he used in the story. Campbell, who had studied physics at MIT in the early 1930s, told investigators he learned it all in college. However, he had flunked out his sophomore year, according to a recent article by Robert Silverberg. But Campbell liked to keep up on the latest science journals as part of his job, it seems. The military wanted the magazine shut down, but cooler heads prevailed.

The Office of Censorship ultimately concluded the details in the story could have been "produced by any person with a smattering of science plus a fertile imagination," according to an article on the incident on the Popular Science Web site.

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

• Doctor Who's Tom Baker is the celebrity guest-blogger at Blockbuster's website. Sez Tom: "See how comfortable I am with this cyberspeak now!" Hmmm...if only I could figure out a way to plug these words into Tom Baker Says.... [via Keith R.A. DeCandido]
• ChapterFeeds offers Chapter one of Beast Master's Quest by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie.
• John Scalzi announces that he will be writing a sequel to The Android's Dream.
• Speaking of whom, Jon Joseph Adams serves up some leftover Scalzi.
• James Gunn to be the next SFWA Grand Master.
• Meanwhile, John C. Wright ponders the definition of science fiction.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 24, 2006 at 12:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Dark is a serial web movie whose first two episodes are offered free as a promotion to get subscribers. They describe themselves as "the new high definition digital edge in space fiction." Is this the future of science fiction?

It's written by Steven Erikson (Malazan Empire fantasy series), David Keck (Eye of Heaven) and Mark Paxton-MacRae. More info:

Welcome to a new horizon in real science...fiction.

THE DARK is unlike anything you've seen before. It is a leading wave on the new tide of webcasting.

THE DARK is a three-year journey into uncharted territory. It will be available online in weekly, 12-minute episodes (and soon, in daily 1 minute and 45 second clips on your pda or cell phone), and in print as a bi-monthly, full color comic book by Alchemical Press.

THE DARK follows the adventures of the crew of the Recluse as they fight to take back their corner of the universe from aliens and worse -- designer humanity.

THE DARK keeps physics in mind at all times...no transporters, no artificial gravity. Space is stress, tactics, and tension - battleships bending long arcs of momentum, testing the limits of ship and crew...though the ship is eel slick and nearly invisible, the crew of the Recluse live among the pipes and cables of a spacecraft as cramped as a submarine. For them, each brush with the aliens costs a week of white knuckles and a month of flashbacks.

[via SFBC Blog and Pat's Fantasy Hotlist]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 23, 2006 at 11:15 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Cinema Blend has two new Spiderman 2 posters.
• Lou Anders ponders the Cylons and God.
• The MSNBC article Time-travel physics seems stranger than fiction discusses the science and theories surrounding time travel.
• Jay Lake on the purpose of fantasy.
• Check out the trailer for the humorous, Star Wars themed movie Fanboys

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 22, 2006 at 1:22 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

In a two-part post, SF Bookworm lists these 20 Collectible Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Authors...authors who are deemed to be "highly influential and therefore worthy of collecting":

• Isaac Asimov
• Robert Bloch
• John Brunner
• Edgar Rice Burroughs
• C.J. Cherryh
• Glen Cook
• Philip K. Dick
• Harlan Ellison
• Robert Heinlein
• William Gibson
• Fritz Leiber
• Michael Moorcock
• Andre Norton
• Frederik Pohl
• Terry Pratchett
• Theodore Sturgeon
• Jack Vance
• Roger Zelazny

Subjective lists also lead me to ask the inevitably pointless ranking-related questions... No Brian Aldiss? No Iain Banks? No Campbell; John for sf, Ramsey for horror? No Lester del Rey or C.M. Kornbluth? No Ursula K. Le Guin, C.S. Lewis or C.L. Moore? How about Smiths Cordwainer and E.E. "Doc"? No Tiptree, Tolkien or Wolfe?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 22, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

As a follow-on to the Who are Your Favorite Literary Science Fiction Characters? post, it seems natural to do the TV/Film version:

Who are Your Favorite Science Fiction Characters From TV/Film?

Some of my favorites:

• Mal from Firefly/Serenity - For obvious reasons. (Hah! I called him first! Feel free to echo your own Mal-love.) River and Wash come in a very close second.
• Just about any character in The Fifth Element - All of them were so wonderfully over-the-top, it made the film all the more enjoyable.
• Jack O'Neill in Stargate-SG1 - A rare find...well-placed and perfectly timed comedy in a serious show.
• Darth Vader (Episode IV - VI version) - Han Solo was good, but not nearly as cool as Vader. Sadly, I could not think of any other Star Wars characters even though it spawned hundreds of them. This is most likely the result of Lucas' writing. Star Wars, in fact, probably has the highest number of under-used characters - Boba Fett (not nearly enough screen time), Darth Maul (one of the coolest-looking characters and a double-saber to kick some serious Jedi butt), and, call me sentimental, but I love the look of the Gamorrean Guard (not nearly enough of them on screen).

(For the celluloid-impaired, feel free to consult Wikipedia's pages of Science fiction film characters and Science fiction television characters.)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 12:15 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Here's the list of The San Francisco Chronicle's Best SF/F of 2006

• The Machine's Child By Kage Baker
• Fragile Things By Neil Gaiman
• Lisey's Story By Stephen King
• River of Gods By Ian McDonald (See SF Signal review)
• The Man From the Diogenes Club By Kim Newman
• Three Days to Never By Tim Powers (See SF Signal review)
• The Baby Merchant By Kit Reed
• The Ghost Brigades By John Scalzi (See SF Signal review)
• Shriek: An Afterword By Jeff VanderMeer
• Pride of Baghdad By Brian K. Vaughan; illustrated by Niko Henrichon

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 12:04 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

New Line Cinema is looking for a director other than Peter Jackson to helm The Hobbit and a planned prequel to Lord of the Rings:

In a letter to a Tolkien website, Jackson and his producing and writing partner Fran Walsh said that they had received a call from an executive at New Line, the studio behind the three films, telling them that their services would not be required on either The Hobbit or a planned prequel to the original trilogy.

"This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another film-maker for both projects," the film-makers wrote in a letter to Theonering.net. "This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancour. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 12:02 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• BG moves to Sundays in January: Battlestar Galactica will move to a new timeslot starting Jan. 21, 2007: Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, following the premiere of the new original series The Dresden Files.
• Space.com lists The 10 Strangest Things in Space. (I think one of them is BG on Sundays nights.)
• SFF World interviews Ian McDonald and Sean Williams. [via SFBC Blog]
• Matt Cheney interviews Julie Philips (author of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon) at Strange Horizons. [also via SFBC Blog]
• John Joseph Adams profiles Scott Lynch and his first novel, The Lies of Locke Lamora at SciFi Wire.
• The George R. R. Martin Podcast. In this final episode, George pays homage to his fans.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 21, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Would you believe there's another fine book set in futuristic India?

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In the near-future Indian city of Sagramanda, a corporate scientist and his "untouchable" girlfriend try to sell a secret formula; company hires assassin to stop him; shopkeeper tries to broker the deal; father tries to kill scientists and girlfriend; cop tries to catch sword-wielding serial killer; and a dangerous tiger prowls unsuspecting victims.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Wonderful depiction of Indian culture; fast-paced; entertaining characters and back stories; excellent finish.
CONS: Too many separate plot threads that took too long to converge.
BOTTOM LINE: A fine near-future thriller and a fun, engrossing read.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday November 20, 2006 at 12:45 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

"While I still prefer the original effects shots--warts and all--if these new effects help new fans discover the greatness of the stories, I am all for it." - Michael

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

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 19, 2006 at 12:12 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

FilmCritic lists The Top 10 Movie Spaceships

1. Millennium Falcon (Star Wars series)
2. U.S.S. Enterprise (various versions) (Star Trek series)
3. Nostromo (Alien)
4. Heart of Gold (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
5. Apollo 13 (Apollo 13)
6. Discovery One (2001: A Space Odyssey)
7. Klingon Bird of Prey (Star Trek series)
8. Mothership (Independence Day)
9. Gunstar (The Last Starfighter)
10. The Thunder Road (Explorers)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 19, 2006 at 12:04 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Issue #908 (November 24, 2006) of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. Here's a snippet...

The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Last Word: Scalzi's hilarious political thriller, filled with heroes, hackers, religious cults, and AI, is so absurd that it becomes believable. His best book yet.
Grade: A-.

The Sky People by S.M. Stirling
Last Word: It takes Stirling 100 pages to get started, but he finds a sturdy foundation for his planned sequel.
Grade: B.

A Grey Moon Over China by Thomas A. Day
Last Word: Day;s epic paints an engrossing high-tech-decaying-into-low-tech future, with lots of Machiavellian intrigue and a fascinating struggle by humans to understand their machines.
Grade: A.

In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente
Last Word: Valente's lyrical, withcy, sometimes garish fantasy mixes feminist grit and pixie dust.
Grade: B.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 19, 2006 at 12:02 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Heroes news #1: George Takei will portray Hiro Nakamura's father on Heroes starting in January. [via Club Jade]


• Heroes news #2 from this week's Entertainment Weekly: Zachary Quinto has been cast as the mysterious Sylar who will show his face and speak a line on the November 27th episode.


• Here's how all six Star Wars movies appear to someone who has not seen them.


• MonkeyFilter points us to the Dreams of Space and Space Patrol Official Handbook.


• Post-Gazette has a Q&A with William Shatner.


• The final issue of Emerald City has been posted.


• John C. Wright proudly shows off the cover of his just-released book, Fugitives of Chaos. He also displays a bevy of genre babes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 19, 2006 at 12:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

SF author Paul Levinson (The Plot to Save Socrates) has a cool podcast called Light On Light Through. The latest episode, #8, is titled Time Travel in Fiction and Fact - a sf theme near and dear to my heart.

Episode 8 contains the following:

• A special audio clip from the radioplay "The Chronology Protection Case", a Phil D'Amato story. (See SF Signal review.)


• A special give-away of the full 38-minute radioplay of "The Chronology Protection Case".


• An e-mail about time travel from Sylvia Engdahl, author of Enchantress from the Stars, who posits a Fermi Paradox for time travel.


• Shaun Farrell makes the call on Daylight Savings Time


• A tribute to Jack Williamson, 1908-2006.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday November 18, 2006 at 11:54 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

From SciFiWire:

Strike Entertainment and Universal Pictures will remake John Carpenter's SF horror movie The Thing, with Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore writing the script, Variety reported. The 1982 original dealt with a shapeshifting creature from outer space that terrorizes researchers at an Antarctic station. That film in turn was a remake of the 1951 classic SF movie The Thing From Another World, which was adapted from the 1938 short story "Who Goes There?" by legendary SF author John W. Campbell Jr.
...
The producers said they consider the new film to be more "a companion piece" to the Carpenter film than a note-for-note remake.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 17, 2006 at 7:26 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Website at the End of the Universe points to Mission Stardust on YouTube, a movie based on the Perry Rhodan books.

Sweet! I confessed Perry Rhodan as my guilty pleasure a while back so I was surprised to learn that there was a film based on it. Made in 1967, no less! This is not for the timid. Within 26-and-a-half minutes, Rhodan is making out with the alien Thora, who was previously wearing fuzzy breast cozies!

Mmmm...95 minutes of delicious corn...I musts gets my vegetables.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 17, 2006 at 1:46 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

UK bookstore chain Waterstone's has posted a list of Top 10 SF titles of 2006 which, inexplicably, names only 9 titles. Is this a metric thing? Anyway, in no particular order, here are Waterstone's Top "10" SF titles of 2006:

• Polity Agent by Neal Asher
• Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction by Gardner Dozois
• Galactic North from Alastair Reynolds
• The Man From the Diogenese Club by Kim Newman
• Crossover by Joel Shepherd (See SF Signal review)
• Paragaea by Chris Roberson (See SF Signal review)
• Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
• Air by Geoff Ryman

[via Lou Anders]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 17, 2006 at 1:44 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: I don't think you can write a brief synopsis of this book. You might as well try to summarize Proust.
PROS: The Tim Powers skewed view of fantasy, Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, the Mossad, time travel and more.
CONS: Somewhat convoluted plot, feels a lot like Expiration Date.
BOTTOM LINE: Not as inventive as Declare, but still worth a read if you're a Tim Powers fan.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday November 16, 2006 at 1:35 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

James Patrick Kelly is back from a summer vacation and has started podcasting again. A new feature of his Free Reads podcast is to read his On The Net columns from Asimov's Science Fiction starting with On The Net: FTL.

I'm patiently waiting for the Breathing the Blogosphere and Bring on the Digital Hugos columns. You know...the ones where a certain sf blog was mentioned. Maybe Jim will at least speak my name correctly since he seems to have spelled it incorrectly. [Winks at Jim ;-)]

Heh-heh.

[via SFF Audio]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 16, 2006 at 1:28 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Slice of SciFi #83 has an interview with Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica).


• Slice of SciFi lists The Top Ten Science Fiction and Fantasy Movie Soundtracks of All Time.


• ChapterFeeds has the first chapter of The Hammer of Darkness by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.


• TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello is reporting that Christopher Eccleston (Dr. Who, Season 1) is joining the cast of Heroes.


• SciFi Wire has posted the poster for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.


• Sez VCTB in the intersting post Science fiction: division versus diversity: "...perhaps the issue isn't one of a decline in science fiction readership alone, but of a decline in people who really care about reading fiction as anything other than simple escapism."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 16, 2006 at 1:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The continuing adventures of Chicago's only openly practicing wizard P.I.
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, not much character development, more convoluted plots.
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.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday November 15, 2006 at 3:35 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Cory Doctorow's latest Locus Magazine is at Locus Online: How High-Definition Is Bad News for SF Flicks. An excerpt:

[The longevity of a film's profitability] is now threatened by an unlikely menace: the high-definition screen. And no genre is more imperiled than science fiction/fantasy.
...
HD is poison for special-effects movies. Whatever sins are hidden in a standard-definition 12-inch TV set are thrown into stark relief by big, crisp displays. Whatever longevity can be wrung from a movie by releasing it to smaller, more forgiving screens is cut short by the living-room behemoths that are being pushed on us today.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 15, 2006 at 12:52 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• A new Babylon 5 DVD film, written and directed by executive producer and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, officially in the works. It's called Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.


• Cool steampunk site: Brass Goggles. [via Thursday Haiku]


• The Trivia Geek asks for some gateway science fiction titles.


• Aragorn maketh books! Actor Viggo Mortensen, Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, founded a publishing company, Perceval Press. [via UKSFBookNews]


• SlashDot lists some Abberant Dreams interviews with Greg Bear, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, and Gerald W. Page.


• Like Publishers Weekly, Amazon has posted their Best Books of 2006 already. (Woe to the author whose book hits the market between now and the end of the year. :() For genre fans, see the editors' sf/f picks and customer favorites(based on Amazon orders). [links via SFBC Blog]


• Here's A Guide To SF Chronophysics. Be sure to stay for the finale: Twenty Fun Things To Do With A Time Machine.


• YouTube treasure: The unaired production pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. [also via UKSFBookNews]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 15, 2006 at 12:48 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Don't get me wrong, I really like Heroes, and what I am about to outline doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the show one bit. In fact, its really just me ranting a bit about the show and NBC.

1. This one really bugs me to no end and I don't know whose fault it is. Time Warner's for having crappy time servers feeding time to the set-top boxes, or NBC for running Heroes long, but the last three episodes I've recorded have all ended with at least one minute left, if not more. As it is, not only do I miss the ending monologue by Mohinder, I also miss the teaser trailer for next week. WTF? And no, watching it live is not an option. There is no way I will have Heroes on TV when there is any possibility my kids will be around. As it stands now, it looks like I'll have to go and bittorrent the show over-night just so I can watch the last couple of minutes the next day. Insane. The other thought is that I record the show in HD, and I've noticed that the HD feeds tend to lag the regular feeds by a second or so for no discernible reason. But its only a second lag, not a minute or more. As I don't know who to blame, I will place it equally on the media whore corporations of NBC and AOL/Time Warner. A pox on you!


2. And now the non-serious one. I realize they are probably shooting the different 'settings' in close proximity to one another, but the Odessa setting really bugs me, cause, well, it isn't really Odessa. For one thing, there are too many trees, way too much grass and not to mention the existence of large hills. There is no hint of the car-eating tumbleweeds, bone dry environment, or vast fields of oil wells. Yes, yes, its just a show, but it still bugs me. And being out in the middle of BFWest Texas, Odessa isn't the most connected of places. I have to assume that Claire's dad is using the company jet to galavant around the country, because he sure isn't flying in and out of the Midland/Odessa airport in a timely fashion. But then again, the fairly remote location, yet within easy reach of most of modern life's amenities, is a selling point if your going to be running a secret government facility masquerading as a paper products manufacturer.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 5:04 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Science fiction is often said to be best when the story is character-driven. That must mean there are some pretty cool characters in sf/f. So, who are your favorites?

Maybe it's Rick Deckard from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Or maybe you prefer the hardboiled attitude of Marîd Audran from George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails. Maybe you like the heroic nature of John Carter from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books or the time traveler from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine?

Your favorite character could be alien, like Pip the minidrag from Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth books or the Kzin Speaker-to-Animals from Larry Niven's Ringworld.

The character doesn't even have to be biological! How about HAL 9000 (from 2001: A Space Odyssey), Marvin the Paranoid Android (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) or R. Daneel Olivaw (Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel and other robot novels)?

Don't forget, bad Guys make great characters too! Maybe Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from Frank Herbert's Dune or Quinn Dexter from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy?

Some rules:

1. You must name characters originating from a book or short story. No media tie-ins, please. And no comics/graphic novels - that's a whole other ball of wax. A follow on post will address TV/film.
2. Cite the character and the source, including author.
3. Must be a single character, no groups or species. Sorry, you cannot pick the sandworms from Dune.)
4. Name as many single characters as you'd like.

Your turn! Who are your favorite literary science fiction characters?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 1:06 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Subterranean Press has made the John Scalzi guest-edited issue of Subterranean available as a free PDF download. Here's what's in it:

Subterranean #4

• "Scene from a Dystopia" by Rachel Swirsky
• "The Third Brain" by Charles Coleman Finlay and James Allison
• "It Came from the Slush Pile" by John Joseph Adams
• "A Finite Number of Typewriters" by Stuart MacBride
• "Cliche Haiku" by Scott Westerfeld
• "Horrible Historians" by Gillian Polack
• "Hesperia and Glory" by Ann Leckie
• "What a Piece of Work" by Jo Walton
• "Remarks on Some Cliches I Have (By Definition) Known Too Well" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• "The Last Science Fiction Writer" by Allen M. Steele
• "Shoah Sry" by Tobias S. Buckell and Ilsa J. Bick
• "Labyrinth's Heart" by Bruce Arthurs
• "The NOMAD Gambit" by Dean Cochrane
• "In Search Of...Eileen Siriosa" by Ron Hogan
• "Tees and Sympathy" by Nick Sagan
• "Last" by Chris Roberson
• "Refuge" by David Klecha
• "The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe" by Elizabeth Bear
• "Editor's Afterword" by John Scalzi

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 1:11 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Henry Jenkins profiles Joe Haldeman (The Forever War, Camouflage) who will be appearing at the MIT Media Lab's Bartos Theatre this Thursday for the "The Craft of Science Fiction" event. [via VCTB]
• SFF Audio wants YOU to make audiobooks...and so they are putting a call out for people to record audio version of public domain science fiction stories.
• FantasyBookSpot interviews E.E. Knight author of the Vampire Earth dark fantasy series.
• George R.R. Martin reads an excerpt from A Feast for Crows.
• YouTube has a Battlestar Galactica promo gag reel, not to be confused with the slightly funnier BG classic bloopers (See Adama in bed with Moffit!)
• ABC is looking for "families who are Extreme Star Wars Enthusiasts" to appear on Wife Swap. Now, if only I knew someone who gets mail addressed to "Star Wars Enthusiast"... (H) [via Club Jade]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 12:51 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

New York Magazine says the solution to the problem with never-ending shows like Lost is to craft the TV equivalent of a novella: the limited-run show.

Now let's imagine an alternate reality in which, say, Lost was designed to run for only two seasons. Rather than getting an increasingly tedious shaggy-dog story, we'd get 48 episodes of tightly plotted, expertly interwoven suspense. Viewers would be both more willing to sign on at the beginning (knowing their investment will pay off) and more inclined to buy DVDs later (either as catch-up for newbies or as a satisfying boxed set). Sure, the show won't syndicate well, but shows like Lost don't syndicate well anyway. And the series finale would be huge--the kind of event TV network executives drool over.

[via Backwards City]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday November 13, 2006 at 12:03 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

"While Hiro is the best character, Claire is the hottest." - Kev

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

There's a new email list in town and it's called Fantastic Fiction. Here is the info sent to me from the list's creator:

I've started a new mailing list, dedicated to fantasy and science fiction. Rather than being exclusive, I'm trying to be inclusive. Discussions will range, I hope, all over. From (Clark Ashton) Smith to (E.E.
"Doc") Smith. From Heinlein to Howard. From Leiber to Lovecraft and beyond.

This list is a spinoff of another list I've been a member of for a few years now, ERB-List, dedicated to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Oftentimes we'll wander off from the subject matter (the works of
Burroughs) and have to be gently moved back on course.
I suggested this list because many of these authors are interconnected due to friendships and associations, so why not discuss them in a similar fashion.

This list is not connected with Yahoo or Yahoo Groups. In fact, I am putting up my own funds to help run the list, a measure of my dedication and interest. So, I hope you will consider joining.

I hope to see this as an extension of my blogging, and my site (The Eternal Golden Braid). I often write about science fiction there, and I'm hoping to have a discussion on this list that helps inspire me to write more for the blog.

To join the list, Fantastic Fiction, send an e-mail (no subject line needed) to:

MAJORDOMO AT ERBLIST DOT COM [Replace the "AT" with @ and the "DOT" with "."]

...and have the body of the message be...

subscribe fantasticfiction (YOUR MAILING ADDRESS) end

The second line should be "end" because some mailers, like Yahoo, add advertising and the like at the end.
Having "end" on the second line tells Majordomo to ignore anything after that and only execute the command "subscribe fantasticfiction yourmailingaddress".

Hope to see you there.

- Fred Kiesche

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 12, 2006 at 9:55 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Interesting action-packed book that explores the collapse of a technological society.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Jak is a delivery man (or runner in this time) who is asked to deliver a very interesting package - a boy believed to be the reincarnated spiritual leader of the predominant religion. In addition to dodging a rival sect who wants to eliminate the boy, he also runs into a woman capable of reading thoughts who is occasionally possessed by the spirit of the former ruler of the 1000 planet empire.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Excellent action sequences, the exploration of a space-faring society dealing with technological collapse is well done, most characters are complex.
CONS: Ending seems very rushed, and the plot stalls out right near the climax.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a fun book that offers a decent read, if not much to savor afterwards.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Sunday November 12, 2006 at 6:10 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A sure-fire way to get teenage readers hooked on science fiction.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of seven original young-adult novellas designed to get kids hooked on science fiction.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Filled with sense of wonder; strong, positive role-models.
CONS: One story less effective than the others.
BOTTOM LINE: This is simply a very good collection of science fiction stories, for teenagers and adults alike.

This week my daughter's elementary school had a book fair and I was once again amazed at how many more fantasy titles there are for kids than there are science fiction titles. I could count the number of sf books they offered on one hand and still have enough fingers left over to poke Scholastic in the eyes. To be fair, there is a much higher demand for fantasy these days thanks to books and films like Harry Potter. And, of course, we are happy that kids are reading anything! But that doesn't stop us here at SF Signal from opining about the lack of science fiction for kids. (Not for the least of reasons which include being able to use a form of the word "opine".)

Imagine, then, how high my hopes were when I heard about the new young adult sf anthology Escape From Earth edited by well-respected and capable editors Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. The book is designed to be a gateway to science fiction for younger readers.

It succeeds in a big way...with one caveat. Parents may feel that some of the language (s**t, b***h,) and situations (talk of sex) presented herein might be unsuitable for younger readers but they may decide it's OK for teenagers. This exemplifies the difference I see between "young adult" and "juvenile" books. The good news is that all the stories have positive messages for young readers, something that, as a parent, I find particularly encouraging and commendable.

While all the stories are good (with one borderline case), the standout ones for me were "Derelict" by Geoffrey A. Landis, "Combat Shopping" by Elizabeth Moon and "The Mars Girl" by Joe Haldeman. Each one of these not only provided the requisite sense of wonder that drew me to the genre in my formative years, but they also contain characters who exhibit positive qualities without being phony.

Reviewlettes of the stories follow.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 12, 2006 at 12:30 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Borderlands Bookstore wants you to suggest stuff to put on their mascot, Ripley the hairless cat. From this month's newsletter:

Help us put stuff on Ripley! Thanks to Susan Tunis for telling us about this contest. Chronicle Books is sponsoring a "Stuff on My Bookstore Cat" contest, as a tie-in to the release of the book Stuff on My Cat. Please email office AT borderlands-books DOT com with your suggestions for stuff we might put on Ripley! And, yeah, we already thought of a toupee, you wisecrackers.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday November 11, 2006 at 12:29 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Wired interviews Orson Scott Card whose latest book, Empire, is part of a multiformat franchise that was conceived from the ground up for video games, comic books, novels and films.


• Hero Spy has a preview of a new Star Trek comic debuting in January 2007: Star Trek The Next Generation: The Space Between.


• Saturday YouTube: South Park riffs on the opening sequence to Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.


• Brian Aldiss (The Helliconia trilogy, The Dark Light Years, Non-Stop), who just turned 80, wrote his Guide to Old Age in the Guardian. [via SFBC Blog]


• An original list based on the Wired piece: The Top 10 Funniest Six-Word SF Stories.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday November 11, 2006 at 12:26 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

From Locus Online:

SF Grand Master Jack Williamson, born 1908, died this afternoon at his home in Portales, New Mexico, at the age of 98. His first published story was "The Metal Man" in Amazing Stories in 1928, the beginning of a writing career that spanned nine decades. His work ranged from early space opera series The Legion of Space (beginning 1934), werewolf SF/fantasy Darker Than You Think (1940), thoughtful SF classic The Humanoids (1948), Golden Age antimatter tale Seetee Ship (1951 as by Will Stewart), and time travel series Legion of Time (1952). Later works included Hugo and Nebula Award winning novella "The Ultimate Earth" (2000) and its novel expansion Terraforming Earth (2001), winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He won a Hugo Award in 1985 for autobiography Wonder's Child, and his career honors included a Pilgrim Award for his nonfiction work including H.G. Wells: Critic of Progress (1973), Life Achievement World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards, SFWA's 2nd Grand Master Award in 1976, induction in the SF Hall of Fame in 1996, and Grandmaster of the World Horror Convention in 2004. The Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library was established in 1982 at Eastern New Mexico University, which for 30 years has hosted an annual Lectureship in honor of the writer. Williamson's last novel was The Stonehenge Gate (2005).

• Wikipedia Entry
• ISFDB Bibliography
• Awards
• Sciece Fiction Museum entry

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 10, 2006 at 9:11 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Editor Jonathan Strahan has posted the table of contents for next year's anthology The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Of The Year Volume 1 (the year being 2006), published by Night Shade.

1. "How To Talk To Girls At Parties" by Neil Gaiman
2. "El Regalo" by Peter S. Beagle
3. "I, Row-Boat" by Cory Doctorow
4. "In The House Of The Seven Librarians" by Ellen Klages
5. "Another Word For Map Is Faith" by Christopher Rowe
6. "Under Hell, Over Heaven" by Margo Lanagan
7. "Incarnation Day" by Walter Jon Williams
8. "The Night Whiskey" by Jeffrey Ford
9. "A Siege Of Cranes" by Benjamin Rosenbaum
10. "Halfway House" by Frances Hardinge
11. "The Bible Repairman" by Tim Powers
12. "Yellow Card Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi
13. "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)" by Geoff Ryman
14. "The American Dead" by Jay Lake
15. "The Cartesian Theater" by Robert Charles Wilson
16. "Journey Into The Kingdom" by M Rickert
17. "Eight Episodes" by Robert Reed
18. "The Wizards Of Perfil" by Kelly Link
19. "The Saffron Gatherers" by Elizabeth Hand
20. "D.A." by Connie Willis
21. "Femaville 29" by Paul Di Filippo
22. "Sob In The Silence" by Gene Wolfe
23. "The House Beyond Your Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum
24. "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 10, 2006 at 1:26 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Zombie Astronaut, aside from having a cool domain name, has a two part MP3-audio production of Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth's classic satire The Space Merchants. (See SF Signal review) [via SFF Audio]


• Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) has a blog. [via Big Dumb Object]


• The back cover of the comic Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse #4 features Harlan Ellison as a corpse.


• Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast-interviews R.A. Salvatore.


• Useless gadget: The Evil Robotic USB Snowbot


• Battlestar Galactica Politics-on-a-T-shirt: "Don't blame me, I voted for Roslin".


• Friday YouTube: The opening to Battlestar Galactica classic. I still love that theme music.


• Torque Control has collected a butt-load of James Tiptree, Jr. links.


• Mal on MySpace: Nathan Fillion (Mal from Firefly) has a MySpace page. [via Whedonesque]


• Lou Anders (author and Pyr editor -- see SF Signal interview) lists Top 10 Books I'd Be Reading Now If I Weren't Reading Other Books.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 10, 2006 at 1:23 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Next Tuesday will see the 50th anniversary re-release of the 1956 sc-fi classic Forbidden Planet.

The Two-Disc 50th Anniversary Special Edition features additional scenes, lost footage, three documentaries and two follow-up vehicles starring Robby the Robot (The Invisible Boy and The Thin Man TV series episode "Robot Client").

Hardcore fans can also opt for the Ultimate Collector's Edition, which additionally includes vintage memorabilia (looks like postcards), a tin DVD package ("collectible packaging" in market-speak), a mail-in offer for a reproduction of an original Forbidden Planet theatrical poster and, best of all, a Robby the Robot replica!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 09, 2006 at 12:16 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

In what has to be one of the most hyped premieres for a movie trailer, the Spider-Man movie blog announced that the newest (not even the first) "full-length, two-and-a-half minute trailer" for Spider-Man 3 will premiere tonight at 10 PM (ET) on TV and online at several outlets (CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Logo, MTV2, Spike TV and VH1).

Check back later for the link...

UPDATE: iFilm has the trailer.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 09, 2006 at 11:01 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The blog On Our TV collects a bunch of Heroes links.
• Chapter Feeds offers Chapter 1 of Conflagration by Mick Farren
• From Twitch Guru: Harlan Ellison Interviews Ronald D. Moore, the man behind the new Battlestar Galactica.
• The Sci Phi Show podcast-interviews sf author Vernor Vinge. [via SFF Audio]
• Quiz: Your Literary Personality (I'm an electronics user's manual) [via Books, Words, Writing]
• John C. Wright is on a blog roll...Some recent posts:
  • You oughta be in Pictures - on which SF books would make good films (a response to this NewsVine post)
  • What is Hard SF?
  • Is there such a thing as Hard Fantasy?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 09, 2006 at 12:22 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Ah, November. The welcome chill in the air, the picturesque landscapes...and the Best Books of 2006 lists.

Publishers Weekly has posted their Best Books of 2006. Here are the titles in SF/Fantasy/Horror category:

• The Armies of Memory by John Barnes (Tor)


• Pretender by C.J. Cherryh (DAW)


• The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)


• Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)


• No Present Like Time by Steph Swainston (Eos)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 09, 2006 at 12:03 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

David Drake created an Amazon list of Jim Baen's Top 10 Science Fiction Books which Jim discussed with David shortly before Jim's death. [via Isegoria]

1. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
2. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
3. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
4. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
5. Dune by Frank Herbert
6. Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague deCamp
7. Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke
8. Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein
9. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
10. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 08, 2006 at 12:44 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The latest Time Traveler Show features Isaac Asimov giving a fascinating and fun 1974 talk titled "Utopian Change" in which he discusses science fiction, technological change and the birth of sf.

Some choice quotes:

On sf: "The only relevant literature of our time is science fiction."

On critics: "They can observe, study and analyze but they can't do it themselves."

On sf: "This is the importance of science fiction -- that it considers possible futures by taking into account possible changes in technology and their consequences and gives some thought to how to meet the consequences."

On futurists: "It seems to me that all futurists are either science fiction writers, science fiction readers, ex-science fiction writers and ex-science fiction readers. You show me a futurist who's never read any science fiction and I'll show you a person who's so uninterested in the future that he [couldn't] really decide anything about it."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 08, 2006 at 12:33 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Cocktail Party Physics offers the science behind The Tick. [via Cultural Gutter]
• The Science Fiction Book Club blog has posted The History of SFBC Original Anthologies.
• Here's a list of SciFi books that ought to be movies.
• New/Updated at Gutenberg: The Door Through Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Added to the list of SF/F Authors Who Blog: David Herter and Jim Hetley. [via Locus Online]
• Simple Tricks and Nonsense has a brief Vintage Star Wars Interview with Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford and conducted by the huge-haired Gene Shallit.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 08, 2006 at 12:27 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Jonathan Strahan has posted the table of contents the upcoming anthology he edited with Gardner Dozois, The New Space Opera:

1. "Verthandi's Ring" by Ian McDonald
2. "Saving Tiamaat" by Gwyneth Jones
3. "Hatch" by Robert Reed
4. "Winning Peace" by Paul J. McAuley
5. "Glory" by Greg Egan
6. "Maelstrom" by Kage Baker
7. "Blessed By An Angel" by Peter F. Hamilton
8. "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken Macleod
9. "The Valley of the Gardens" by Tony Daniel
10. "Dividing the Sustain" by James Patrick Kelly
11. "Minla's Flowers" by Alastair Reynolds
12. "Splinters of Glass" by Mary Rosenblum
13. "Remembrance" by Stephen Baxter
14. "The Emperor and the Maula" by Robert Silverberg
15. "The Worm Turns" by Gregory Benford
16. "Send Them Flowers" by Walter Jon Williams
17. "Art of War" by Nancy Kress
18. "Muse of Fire" by Dan Simmons

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 08, 2006 at 12:06 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Andrew Ainsworth, the man who helped to design the Star Wars Stormtrooper, is being sued by George Lucas over his replica costumes.

Lucas, who has made an estimated $3.5 billion fortune from his series of sci-fi films and related merchandise, sued his former designer when he discovered that Mr Ainsworth was reproducing costumes of Stormtroopers — the distinctive foot soldiers used by the evil Empire to crush rebel forces.

Mr Ainsworth told The Times that he would contest the action because he believed that he held the intellectual rights to the design. Andrew Hobson, a solicitor who has discussed the deposition with Mr Ainsworth but will not be acting for him on the case, said that he had seen no evidence that Ainsworth had surrendered his design rights. “In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the designer is the first owner of the copyright,” he said.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 07, 2006 at 12:39 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Two interesting posts from the Biology in Science fiction blog: Biology in Peter Watts' Universe: Vampires, Madonnas and more and Panspermia in Star Trek.


• Devil's Due Publishing has optioned film, television and merchandising rights for R.A. Salvatore's fantasy novel series DemonWars. [via SciFi Wire]


• At Strange Horizons, Matthew Cheney discusses The Absence of Animals on Battlestar Galactica.


• In December, ABC will air the half-hour special Shrek the Halls, an original animated special from DreamWorks Animation SKG based on the hit Shrek movies.


• Niall @ Torque Control uses Peter Watts' novel to talk about sub-genre in Blindsight and Hard SF.


• The George R.R. Martin Podcast, Episode 6: An Excerpt from A Feast For Crows.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 07, 2006 at 12:34 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Zima Blue is a collection of 10 short stories not set in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe.
PROS: All of the stories were excellent and thought-provoking, great hard SF ideas, interesting new universes.
CONS: Some of the characters were a bit weak.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a must read for all fans of Reynolds.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday November 06, 2006 at 2:42 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

Wired offers their Top 20 Sci-Fi Flicks ranked using three factors: "a film's power to enthrall and excite (Adrenaline), how well it presents a scenario for the future (Vision), and whether the science behind the fiction holds up (Precision)".

1. Blade Runner
2. Gattaca
3. The Matrix
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Brazil
6. A Clockwork Orange
7. Alien
8. The Boys From Brazil
9. Jurassic Park
10. Star Wars
11. The Road Warrior
12. Tron
13. The Terminator
14. Sleeper
15. Soylent Green
16. RoboCop
17. Planet Of The Apes
18. The Day The Earth Stood Still
19. Akira
20. Barbarella

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday November 06, 2006 at 12:02 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

"Geez! Again! Where's the Stargate universe? And 5th Element!?" - Tim M.

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

The winners of the 2006 World Fantasy Award have been announced:

• Novel: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• Novella: "Voluntary Committal" by Joe Hill
• Short Fiction: "CommComm" by George Saunders
• Anthology: The Fair Folk edited by Marvin Kaye
• Collection: The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers
• Artist: James Jean
• Special Award: Professional: Sean Wallace (for Prime Books)
• Special Award: Non-Professional: David Howe and Stephen Walker (for Telos Books)
• Lifetime Achievement: Stephen Fabian
• Lifetime Achievement: John Crowley

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 05, 2006 at 12:15 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist interviews Ian McDonald, author of River of Gods.
• The Top 10 SF Political Slogans.
• Added to list of Authors Who Blog: Crawford Kilian
• The Ghost of Entertainment Weekly past (October 1998): Sci-Fi's Top 100, the greatest works of science fiction. (See 1-50 or 51-100)
• The Ghost of Entertainment Weekly present: EW goes on the set of Heroes.
• The Ghost of Entertainment Weekly future: A first look at Richard Donner's Superman comic Last Son.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday November 05, 2006 at 12:14 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

The Meet the Author website specializes in videos of authors talking about their books. This week, they have posted not one, not two, but three videos of Scott Westerfeld. Scott talks about three of his books: Parasite Positive, The Last Days, and Midnighters.

Westerfeld gained my immediate admiration after I read his awesome Succession sequence, made up of The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds. I followed that up with Midnighters, another enjoyable book.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday November 04, 2006 at 10:40 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Trek linkage:
  • Part I - The TV Episodes: TV Land offers online viewing of the original Star Trek. [via GeekZine]
  • Part II - The Wrath of Uhura: ifMagazine has a 2-part interview with Nichelle Nichols. [via Boldly Go]
  • Part III - The Search for Shiner Bock: Modern Drunkard chronicles the use of alcohol in Star Trek and closes the article with Top Ten Signs Your Starship Captain is a Drunkard. [via Gravity Lens]
• Controversy of the week? SF Site offers up Writers of the Future -- A Background by Algis Budrys. Alex Irvine responds.
• Interesting blog: Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie. [via The Nonist]
• Robert J. Sawyer's story "The Shoulders of Giants" is now available in a sleek, 21st century podcast form. [via SFBC Blog]
• Armchair Anarchist provides his own definition of science fiction, which differs slightly from the referenced SF Signal post.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday November 04, 2006 at 12:00 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

A few months ago, we started using Google Analytics to rack track web traffic. It's a bit addicting looking at all the different ways they present the data and seeing which posts are being read the most. I thought it might be fun to look at the top posts that were posted during the previous month. Here, then, are Top 10 SF Signal Posts for October 2006.

1. 5 (Spoilery) Things About Heroes That Annoy the Begeezus Out Of Me
2. Reader Challenge #5B - The Coolest Science Fiction Setting (TV/Film)
3. What Are Your Favorite "Literary" Science Fiction Novels?
4. Musings On The Current Science Fiction TV Scene
5. REVIEW: The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
6. Science Fiction as Entertainment
7. REVIEW: The World of Null-A by A.E. van Vogt
8. REVIEW: Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest
9. Name the Next Sith Lord
10. Star Wars Screen Tests

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday November 03, 2006 at 12:10 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Come to the book for the pre-apocalyptic sf or thriller story line, but stay for the dark mood.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: During the last generation of mankind, Theo Faron falls in with a band of revolutionaries who aim to change the ways of the tyrannical Warden of England.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Wonderfully dark and moody; thought-provoking; well-done characterizations; page-turning.
CONS: It's not entirely convincing that more efforts wouldn't be put towards a technological solution to worldwide fertility rather than enforcing new policies to achieve a level of civilization.
BOTTOM LINE: A smashingly good read.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 02, 2006 at 12:33 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

Wil Wheaton's latest Geek in Review column is Five Books Every Geek Should Read.

Here's the short version:

1. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)


2. Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)


3. Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)


4. The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling (1992)


5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 02, 2006 at 12:20 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

• Fun blog: The Avalanche Software Art Blog [via Club Jade who found this cartoonish pic of Princess Leia]


• RevolutionSF will have live coverage of World Fantasy Con. [via Locus Online]


• Neil Gaiman has a NYT Article: Ghosts in the Machines. [via Eternal Golden Braid]


• Firefly star Nathan Fillion will appear in the podcast novel 7th Son by J.C. Hutchins. [via Slice of SciFI]


• Chapter Feeds has the first chapters of Song of Ireland by Juilene Osborne-McKnight and Secret Story by Ramsey Campbell.


• Fox Atomic has an "in-progress trailer" of Danny Bolye's 28 Weeks Later, sequel to 28 Days Later. [via Cinematical]


• John C. Wright unearths a review of C. S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength by George Orwell (1984).


• Sean Wallace reveals the likely tables of contents for Rich Horton's upcoming anthologies Fantasy: The Best of the Year, Science Fiction: The Best of the Year and Space Opera.


• The Writer's Block blog just posted a downloadable mp3 of Kelly reading her zombie story, "The Hortlak". [via Small Beer Press]


• Free (PDF) downloads from the National Library Board of Singapore: A science fiction genre guide and a guide to biotechnology fiction.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday November 02, 2006 at 12:10 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Wednesday November 01, 2006 at 2:38 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

The BBC is launching a new, member-driven science fiction site this month called My Science Fiction Life. Free membership allows sf fans to recall their fondest memories with some science fiction classics from multiple media, like John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek. And yes, even Blade Runner.

Sez the site:

Help us build the story of science fiction in Britain, as BBC Four celebrates the much-loved genre in all its forms. We're putting together a timeline of memorable science fiction and we need your suggestions and recollections for the website - some of which may also be used in a new TV programme.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 01, 2006 at 12:30 PM
© 2006 SF Signal

• The ideology of the Church of Spock in Lynchburg, VA., is centered on so-called Vulcan philosophy which includes the belief in pure "logic" and which emphasizes a lifestyle devoid of emotion. [via Purgatorio]


• Time Travel and Modern Physics. [via Grow-a-Brain]


• Over at Deep Genre, David Louis Edelman lists 20 Reasons to Live in a Cheesy SF Dome City.


• SFX has Christopher Priest talking about The Prestige.


• I agree with SciFi Ranter Girl: The "Save the Cheerleader..." tagline from Heroes is quite lame.


• Time Travel and Modern Physics. [via Grow-a-Brain]


• The Guardian has an article on fan fiction. [via BookNinja]


• Easter Lemming Notebook points us to the super-longish essay "The Heir of James Branch Cabell: The Biography of the Life of the Biography of the Life of Manuel (A Comedy of Inheritances)" by Bill Patterson.


• Geek Trivia: What did the Clarke-Asimov Treaty stipulate between the two iconic sci-fi writers?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday November 01, 2006 at 12:05 AM
© 2006 SF Signal

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