December 2006
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| Posted by John on Sunday December 31, 2006 - 12:25 PM
| Category: Tidbits
| © 2006 SF Signal
REVIEW SUMMARY: A must-read for anyone who is a fan of "A Boy and His Dog" and a should-read for anyone else.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Graphic novel of three Ellison adaptations (plus Ellison's original short stories) in which Vic and his telepathic dog named Blood travel a post-apocalyptic landscape in search of food and sex.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Excellent stories; graphic adaptations faithful to original material; high production value.
CONS: Visual adaptations appear before the source material.
BOTTOM LINE: A fine addition to the library of any sf fan.
I first read Harlan Ellison's brilliant short story "A Boy and His Dog" many years ago. When I recently happened upon a graphic novel adaptation of not only that story, but two other stories that round out the saga of said boy and dog, I think I experienced what could only be referred to as glee. It was manly glee, but glee nonetheless. Even better: this particular graphic novel is more than it first appears. This 2003 reprint - for which Ellison has provided additional introductory material and flavor text in the form of quotes from the telepathic dog named Blood - has both graphic adaptations and the original stories on which they are based. Talk about easy purchase decisions.
Vic and Blood is made up of two stories ("Eggsucker" and "A Boy and His Dog") and an excerpt (titled "Run, Spot" Run") from the (still) upcoming book (Blood's a Rover) that is meant to tell the complete story of Vic of Blood. For those wondering about Ellison's anti-sequel rule, his introduction explains that 1969's "A Boy and His Dog" is part of a larger novel that he has been writing for over 30 years. The story is finished, but the last, longest part is written as a screenplay with no current plans for production. With the year 2007 only hours away, there is still no indication of when Blood's a Rover will be officially completed. Until then, Vic and Blood will have to suffice.
A word about reading order: Ellison recommends reading each original story before its corresponding graphic novel adaptation, so that's what I did even though, oddly, each story is printed after the visual adaptation. I suspect this is to lead the graphics novel fan to written prose as opposed to my situation of book-lover reading the adaptations. I second Ellison's recommendation: read the original stories first.
"Eggsucker" takes place before the events of Ellison's classic "A Boy and his Dog". It recounts an early adventure in the lives of Vic and Blood. It also provides a good introduction to the gritty, post-apocalyptic setting for all the stories. Sometime after World War IV, population has dwindled considerably and people are living day to day scrounging for the most valuable resource of all: food. But ammunition is valuable, too, and when Vic finds some booze, he enters into a food trade with a gang who has little respect for Vic's short-tempered, four-legged partner. Blood, you see, has the power of telepathy and can communicate directly (and only) to Vic. Vic and Blood are solo rovers in search of food while avoiding roverpak gangs and mutated people called screamers. The adventure quotient here is tamer than later adventures but still nicely done.
Ellison's Nebula-winning story "A Boy and His Dog" is the anchor of this book and still stands out as the superior work. Vic, now a very horny teenager, meets a girl named Quilla June Holmes who initially masquerades as a boy to safely walk amongst the horny male rovers. She is from the "downunder" (underground) city of Topeka, where residents try to assume a normal life decades after the world was demolished to ruins and savagery. Vic's emotions for Quilla put him and Blood at risk. To overcome the challenges of the ensuing adventures, Blood must once again show that he is the smarter of the two and Vic goes to somewhat scary lengths to show just how loyal he is. This story best exemplifies Vic's and Blood's literary role switch of the man and beast. The ending has to be one of science fiction's best.
"Run, Spot, Run" takes place immediately after the draw-dropping ending of the previous story. Headed for the unknown west once again, Vic and Blood encounter the rival Fellini roverpack. While attempting escape they run into a horde of nasty creatures. Being an excerpt, I expected "Run, Spot, Run" to be an unresolved cliffhanger. I was pleasantly surprised that the ending could simultaneously be considered both a cliffhanger and a tidy resolution, albeit one of high import.
The visual versions of the stories are quite faithful to the original material - to the point of being a cut-and-paste job of the original text. This is fine as it helps to translate the feel that Ellison successfully creates in the original material. Naturally, the graphic adaptations are going to be abbreviated. Reading the original stories beforehand helps quite a bit in this regard. Corben's art is suitably dark, though his drawing style does not exactly suit my particular tastes. His all-too-scant pencil illustrations presented in the original material do much more to match the mood of Ellison's stories and better show his skill.
Taken as a whole, Vic and Blood is a must-read for anyone who is a fan of "A Boy and His Dog" and a should-read for anyone else. Ellison's prose is as spry and engaging as ever and also what one would expect from an author who is considered master of the short form. Simply put: the stories do not disappoint. And Ellison's introduction provides some background trivia behind the stories and the 1975 movie adaptation starring Don Johnson and Jason Robards. I also note that the book's overall production value is high and would make a fine addition to the library of any sf fan.
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| Posted by John on Sunday December 31, 2006 - 2:37 AM
| Category: Book Review
| © 2006 SF Signal
Author Paul Levinson is asking for your picks to the best recent "first" science fiction novels - authors' first written novels, that is. Click over to his Squidoo Lens to participate.
In the meantime, here are Levinson's picks (ported from his Amazon List):
]
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| Posted by John on Sunday December 31, 2006 - 12:06 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2006 SF Signal
REVIEW SUMMARY: The cover blurb caused me to expect something more.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Two mathematicians devise a way to predict the future and hop to parallel worlds in hopes of wooing the same girl and depose a tyrannical president.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Cool premise; clear language allows Inner Geek to enjoy advanced math concepts.
CONS: The promise of alternate-realities doesn't come to fruition until the second half of the book and even then it's downplayed in favor of political satire; Surfer-Dude dialogue can become annoying.
BOTTOM LINE: A mediocre reading experience.
The cover-flap blurb of Rudy Rucker's Mathematicians in Love promises two smart guys vying for the same girl as they "fight it out by altering reality". Given this intriguing many-worlds premise, one might expect a series of slightly altered realities in some dueling contest of Puppet Masters. I know I did. Perhaps this false expectation is why I found the book less than fulfilling.
The narrator and main character of Mathematicians in Love is Bela Kis, a carefree surfer-dude who happens to dabble in advanced mathematics. With his slightly-smarter roommate, Paul Bridge, he develops a mathematical formula for predicting the future. Their mathematical proof leads to the creation of a "GoBrane" device (later called a "GoBubble") that allows one to travel to parallel worlds and, in effect, change the future as well as predict it. Bela and Paul (the cover blurb promises) use the technology to alter reality so that each winds up with Alma, the girl they both like. Meanwhile, Bela's and Paul's highly strung math advisor, Roland Haut, begins to see reflections of cone shell aliens that do not appear in reality. These aliens - mathematicians themselves - exist in another dimension with a god-like alien jellyfish that is responsible for creating our own reality and many others.
This is certainly a serviceable setting for a series of parallel world adventures where Alma is the treasure sought by reality shapers Bela and Paul. Unfortunately for those expectations, the promise of alternate-realities doesn't even come into play until the second half of the book. This was a big drawback. Until then, the story merely follows the ups and downs of their lives: Bela ticks off Haut; Bela's life becomes a web-based reality show; Paul gets a job with a corporate techie-turned-politico named Van Veeter; Bela plays in a rock band, etc. There are only taunting hints at the ability to change reality with lamentations of "if only...", "in another world..." and the like. When Bela and Paul finally do manage to travel to another dimension (via the ultra-cool, "neutral" fractal world called La Hampa), they are more concerned with deposing the predicted tyrannical leadership of Joe Doakes, the Heritagist leader of the U.S. OK, so it has a satirical take on current events - Heritagists are the Republicans and the Common Ground party represents the Democrats - that's fine as far it goes. My personal tastes usually see politics as deadweight in fiction and this is a good example of that. The political satire comes at the expense of sf entertainment. Furthermore, any hopes a reader had of becoming involved in the Bela/Paul/Alma love triangle never quite gels because Alma is so damn fickle. She hops between Bela and Paul way too often, seemingly and shallowly motivated by the money and success of a potential lover. One wonders what they see in her besides the sex.
As the book progresses Bela and Paul become more involved with Heritagist Van Veeter who strong arms the mathematicians for control over the reality-changing technology. Veeter becomes aware of Bela and Paul through a side story concerning video blogging (vlogging). The vlogging aspect is a cool glimpse into a probable future; imagine a time when easily accessible ring-cams stream live video to the web making anyone the star of their own reality show. (Holy YouTube, Batman!) Unfortunately for the book these vlogging elements added little to the story besides that coolness factor. I'm reminded of Cory Doctorow's Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town in which the WiFi storyline felt somewhat disconnected from the main thrust of the book.
Lest this sound like a hate-fest, I should note that there are some redeemable qualities here. Mathematicians in Love succeeds in being light sf with an air of fun, mainly due to its laid back, Surfer-Dude writing style. It is, however, something of a double edge sword. At first encounter, it makes the story inviting in a "join the party" kind of way. This is the kind of book you read kicking back in a hammock within arm's reach of some drink that sports a tiny umbrella. Bela and Paul seem to have promising futures ahead of them, but that's not something they take too seriously; they are geeky but fun. However, that inviting, carefree feeling is dulled by the dialogue's prolific inclusion of phrases like "gnarly" and referring to people as "dog". Otherwise, the writing style is quickly ingested and Rucker uses clear language, even when talking about advanced mathematical concepts which are beyond firm comprehension yet fun for the Inside Geek.
To be fair to the book, I did read it in small increments, something that I think does have an effect on continuity and enjoyment. And the parallel world-hopping promise of the cover misled me, so my expectations were aimed differently. Yet if I must convey my honest reading experience, I would say it was firmly planted in the mediocre range.
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| Posted by John on Saturday December 30, 2006 - 12:20 AM
| Category: Book Review
| © 2006 SF Signal
I still love science fiction/fantasy/horror artwork. Mark Kelly at Locus Online has put together this year's gallery of genre book and magazine covers that made their first appearance in 2006. The 2006 Cover Art Gallery currently shows 493 book and magazine covers sorted by the artist's last name. Similar galleries exist for 2005 and 2004.
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| Posted by John on Saturday December 30, 2006 - 12:15 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2006 SF Signal
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| Posted by John on Saturday December 30, 2006 - 12:10 AM
| Category: Tidbits
| © 2006 SF Signal
Have you heard the hype but haven't been able to check Heroes out yet? Perhaps you want to, but you can't because they are on mid-season break and you hate the thought of braving the torrent networks. Well, you are in luck! NBC has made all 11 episodes online for free! Normally NBC posts one episode at a time, but for right now, you can catch up on all the episodes, in one convenient place, and with no waiting. Major props to NBC for doing this (here's to hoping that ABC will do this for the un-aired episodes of Daybreak (they killed Taye, you bastards!)).
In another interesting move, NBC has teamed up with Netflix to release a 'Season To Date' DVD, available to rent on January 9th. This is interesting, but if you can watch all the episodes online, what's the point?
Hat tip to Hacking Netflix for the link.
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| Posted by JP on Friday December 29, 2006 - 3:21 PM
| Category: Heroes
| © 2006 SF Signal
It's hard to find a reliable Time Lord these days...
The Sun is reporting that the second actor to play Doctor Who in the new series, David Tennant, will be following in the footsteps of the former Doctor and will be leaving the show. Apparently Tennant has been bombarded with film offers after appearing in the last Harry Potter movie and will be leaving Doctor Who in the middle of season 3 of the new series.
[via Geek Monthly]
UPDATE: As mentioned by commenters, the BBC is denying this.
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| Posted by John on Friday December 29, 2006 - 10:25 AM
| Category: TV
| © 2006 SF Signal
James Patrick Kelly has been converting his past Asimov's Science Fiction "On the Net" columns to podcasts. He has recently posted an audio version of his Bring On The Digital Hugos! column from March 2005.
Why is this so special? Thanks for asking! This is the column in which SF Signal (the blog recommended by 4 out of 5 undead, time-traveling Nazi zombies) was nominated for a proposed digital Hugo award. This was hot on the heels of Kelly's inclusion of SF Signal in the list of top 40 blogs. Not that we like to toot our own horn or anything. (Toot-toot!)
Bonus! The podcast version of Bring On The Digital Hugos! is dedicated to SF Signal. A special shout-out goes to yours truly in particular for Janes Patrik Kellee's past misspelling of my name. Jim, to make it easy for the "entire Free Reads research staff", the correct spelling of my name can be found on our About Us page.
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| Posted by John on Friday December 29, 2006 - 12:05 AM
| Category: Meta, Web Sites
| © 2006 SF Signal
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| Posted by John on Thursday December 28, 2006 - 12:50 AM
| Category: Tidbits
| © 2006 SF Signal
Entertainment Weekly's Best of 2006 issue is out. Here is the smattering of genre-related tidbits it contains:
PEOPLE
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| Posted by John on Wednesday December 27, 2006 - 12:15 AM
| Category: Books, Movies, TV
| © 2006 SF Signal
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| Posted by John on Wednesday December 27, 2006 - 12:11 AM
| Category: Tidbits
| © 2006 SF Signal
I know we are behind the UK on this one, but the U.S. only aired the season 2 finale of Doctor Who this week with the episodes "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday". Here are my quick thoughts...
SHORT VERSION:
It rocked. The story was solid and offered several surprises. In the true spirit space opera there was action out the wazoo. They even managed to combine past storylines. Well done.
LONGER VERSION: (**** SPOILER WARNING!!! ****)
What's not to like when you combine the double threat of Cybermen and Daleks? One of them alone would have been enough to fill up a single show. I guess for the two part finale they felt they needed two threats. It worked quite well. Even though I guessed that the Daleks were in the Void ship, I still got tingles on the reveal.
I loved the way they were able to combine past story elements (the past Cybermen and Dalek episodes.) It was a hoot to see Mickey again; I was thought it was too bad when they closed him off in the other Cybermen universe. It was cool that Rose's mom hooked up with the father from the other universe. Rose leaving was a bummer even though it was well publicized. Was the "this is the story of how I died" intro misleading since she didn't? It looks like the Doctor will have to train someone all over again. The bride with the 'tude? Apparently not!
I had missed a couple of episodes this season and my daughter did too. We had a new tradition of Doctor Who Fridays and some of the episodes were a little too scary for her. I watched the finale alone and again with her. She loved it too. When it was over she said "I love Doctor Who!" And the geek baton has officially been passed.
Overall then, it was very, very entertaining in the pulpy, cheap way that only Doctor Who can manage. I very much look forward to season three. I liked the Torchwood aspect of the story and look forward to that spinoff as well.
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| Posted by John on Tuesday December 26, 2006 - 12:05 AM
| Category: TV
| © 2006 SF Signal
[In the spirit of re-gifting, I am recycling this old post on Cthulhu & Christmas and updating it with new links. - John]
Thanks to Gravity Lens, we have another reason to start a new Cthulhu category. There are no less than nine websites that combine Christmas & Cthulhu.
I'm really gonna have to break down and read a few of these stories. Darn you, HPL!
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| Posted by John on Monday December 25, 2006 - 12:05 AM
| Category: Cthulhu
| © 2006 SF Signal
| (80 total votes) |
"I do think it's a good idea. I think it'll help remove some of the pomp which surrounded Star Trek in its latter days, before it collapsed on itself. The Original Series had not only very good writing, but a sense of fun as well. I think the cartoon, done well, could revive that." - Pete TzinskiBe sure to vote in this week's poll about buying a book fom a vending machine!
"Wesley rocks! Well, Wil Wheaton rocks, and that's good enough for me. We need to start a netroots campaign for Wil to play the young Kirk in the upcoming ST XI. Now that would _REALLY_ rock." - Tim Morris
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| Posted by John on Monday December 25, 2006 - 12:00 AM
| Category: Polls
| © 2006 SF Signal
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| Posted by John on Sunday December 24, 2006 - 12:24 AM
| Category: Tidbits
| © 2006 SF Signal
Not all authors attack critics. Infamous NYT science fition critic Dave Izkoff has this to say about John Scalzi's books:
The Ghost Brigades has its minor, forgivable flaws — sitcom-like dialogue that's meant to read like clever banter, and a few adolescent jokes about bodily functions — but what I can't completely overlook is an unusual swipe it takes at Heinlein himself. During their training, Dirac and his company are made to read Starship Troopers, which they collectively decide "had some good action scenes but required too much unpacking of philosophical ideas." Heinlein may have cultivated a philosophy that now seems distasteful bordering on appalling, but it is unfair to criticize him for simply having a philosophy. At a time when endless war is not just a nightmarish fictional scenario but a real and looming possibility, there is still a position less commendable than having dangerous ideas, and that is having no position at all.Scalzi has a pleasantly upbeat response that addresses four of Itzkoff's points:That is the unfortunate lesson of Scalzi's new novel, The Android's Dream...There are also signs that his writing style is succumbing to the impulsive, first-draft ethos of the blogosphere, with infelicitous phrases like "well nigh," "be that as it may" and "that's the corporate world for you" turning up throughout the text. The novel is merely sarcastic when it should be satirical, and apolitical at a most inopportune moment. It's as if Rudyard Kipling woke up one morning and decided he wanted to be Benny Hill.
I just had a full page devoted to me in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. This is the part where I hop, jump and skip.Andrew Wheeler (an editor), on the other hand, does have something to say about it.
...
I'm sad Itzkoff didn't like The Android's Dream at all, but, you know. If you write a book that starts off with a chapter-long fart joke, you go in knowing not everyone's going to follow where you lead. I'm not going to fault Itzkoff for deciding that it's not his thing.
...
So no, I'm not actually whacking on Heinlein. However, that part where I give the Special Forces a wish death on the Ewoks? That's all me, baby.
...
I understand where Itzkoff is coming from, but if I'm reading him correctly, I going to have to disagree with him about the need to change my rhetorical tactics. I think they're working fine; I just don't think they're the usual tactics.
[via Gwenda Bond]
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| Posted by John on Sunday December 24, 2006 - 12:06 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2006 SF Signal
Shedding light on the question "How do bookstores survive?" might be an explanation of How Bookstores Die...
According to one source in the Guardian article Price wars come at a cost, independent booksellers suffer at the hands of supermarket-style stores and book lovers may end up paying the price.
The problem, independent booksellers claim, is that publishers accord huge discounts to bulk buyers such as Amazon and Tesco, but not to anything like the same degree to smaller outlets. So a two-tier system is created, where independents charge more for many titles - they cannot compete with the aggressive price wars engaged in by the giants, and risk going to the wall. And, as the supermarkets increase their market share - from 9% of the book market in 2004 to 12% in 2006, according to the Book Marketing Society - the problem looks likely to grow.
...
While the savings look good for the consumer, the benefits of these price wars may be short-term at best, according to Jonathan Spencer-Payne, who runs the Peak Bookshop. Independents carry a much greater range of titles, he says, so a greater diversity of authors and books are represented, including traditionally hard-to-shift first novels. "We support publishers with other titles, with the backlist," he says. "The feeling in the independent sector is that publishers aren't thinking about tomorrow. If independent bookshops disappeared, where would they sell the full range of their books? It would be a terrible indictment on society if one or two sellers sold a limited range of books and they basically picked and chose what people read."
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| Posted by John on Saturday December 23, 2006 - 12:20 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2006 SF Signal
Here's a pic of the CGI Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four sequel. (Also here.)
Now, I'm no FF fanboy by any means. I never read the comic and saw the first movie. My brother-in-law was saying for years that they could make a decent Human Torch. (I think the only basis for this claim was that CGI commercial for athlete's foot cream that featured some poor bastage's foot on fire.) Maybe because of that I at least thought the CGI of the first FF movie looked kinda cool. In the trailer at least.
But this? This looks kinda lame. It looks amateurish. Granted, there is only so much realism you can give to a being made of chrome, but still. Maybe in motion it becomes cooler, I don't know. Hopefully the animation will be good enough to overcome the flat computer-generated look of the thing.
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| Posted by John on Saturday December 23, 2006 - 12:10 AM
| Category: Movies
| © 2006 SF Signal
Books on Demand is one of those things that is often discussed around these parts due to our general love of brick and mortar book sellers. In most cases, the ability to publish this way has not done well in the retail environment, and in many cases it was a way for authors to sell books without actually having to publish copies up front, but that may all be changing in the coming year. The Expresso POD machine is slated to show up in select libraries (including the New York Public Library) and stores starting next year. The claim is that it can produce two books simultaneously in seven minutes including printing, cutting, and binding. This is all done at a production cost of 5 cents a page, but the final cost of the book is dependent upon the copyright holder and store the service is offered at. Anyways, this may actually usher in the concept of stores enabling you to purchase the book you want when you want it, and this will save those hunters the trouble of dealing with some store staff.
From those guys and gals at Engadget.
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| Posted by Tim on Friday December 22, 2006 - 11:35 AM
| Category: Books
| © 2006 SF Signal
As a promo to the video game Star Wars: Lethal Alliance, UbiSoft is hosting the Death Star Designer, a web-based simulation of managing the construction of the most fearsome weapon in the Star Wars universe besides Hayden Christensen's acting.
In Death Star Designer, your goal is to design the Empire's ultimate weapon. You are graded on the 5 attributes of Power Output, Firepower, Defense, Personnel Capacity and Naval Capacity. Sadly, there is no option for guarding the tiny Achilles' heel exhaust port that allows one to destroy the Death Star with a single X-Wing photon blast. Noobs.
[via Big Dumb Object]