SF Tidbits for 8/2/07
By John DeNardo (SF Signal) |
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at
12:05 am
- A Dribble of Ink interviews Joe Abercrombie, author of The Blade Itself, the first 63 pages of which is posted at publisher Pyr’s site. [via Pyr-o-mania]
- Over at Amazon Blog, Jeff VanderMeer interviews Tobias Buckell (Ragamuffin). Meanwhile, at his own blog, Tobias talks about being a Caribbean writer.
- At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Robert Holdstock, author of The Broken Kings.
- Wikibooks offers How To Read The Silmarillion. [via Books, Words, Writing]
- Jeff VanderMeer is showing the trailer for Shriek.
- Free eBook: The Janus Syndrome by Steven E. McDonald. [via BoingBoing and Quasar Dragon]
- According to this Suit101 article, Science Fiction Is About Politics. “Since science fiction is about how large and small societies use technology to interact with other societies, its intent is, more often than not, political.”
- Eclectics Anonymous looks at the politics of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. “…I think morality is evolutionarily hard wired; having moral feelings towards family groups allows species do better than ones that don’t have this characteristic. Morality is the basis for duty not the other way around.”
- Chris Levinson lists 5 SF story collections which should be in your collection. Good call on The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume 1. Sadly, I haven’t read the others.
- Heavy reading assignment: Cyberculture, Cyborgs and Science Fiction. “…this book argues that the first-person experience of pure consciousness may soon be under threat from posthuman biotechnology.”
- Andrew Wheeler and Jonathan McCalmont make their Hugo predications.
- Cool products at ThinkGeek: Escher Waterfall Sculpture, The Government Manual for New Pirates and Glow in the Dark Zombies.
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Unfortunately “Adventures in Time and Space” and “Dangerous Visions” have been out of print for years, so they’re hard to find… seems to be the way with many classics. At least The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume 1 is still available.
Interesting article on the politics of SF as well… often people dismiss SF as being too implausible, but they miss how grounded it is in reality and real world issues. The best literature should always have something important to say; why should SF be any different?
I went to look at the 5 SF story collections that should be in my collection. Silly me, I assumed the writer would perhaps say WHY the books should be in my collection.