We seem to have a "cost of books" theme going with a previous tidbit ("Literary Kicks says Books are Too Damn Expensive") and the recent post The Most Expensive Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Sold by AbeBooks in 2006. I thought you, dear, dear reader, might want to weigh in on the highest price you ever paid for a single science fiction or fantasy novel.

Me? I'm a biblioholic as opposed to a collector, so most of my book-buying dollar goes towards used science fiction, not collectibles. But back before I discovered the plethora of used bookstores in Houston, I did pick up a new (gasp!) copy of David Brin's Foundation's Triumph for around $24 in order to complete my pre-2000 Asimov Robots/Foundation reading project. There have been times when I thought about paying more for a book (a $300 set of sf reference books, a copy of the hard-to-find Year's Best Science Fiction #1 by Gardner Dozois) but I could never bring myself to do it.

What's the most you ever paid?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 31, 2007 at 5:44 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

An online version of Graham Sleight's "Yesterday's Tomorrows" from the June 2006 issue of Locus has been posted online. Sleight looks at two classic novels by Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination.

I recently read The Stars My Destination. This, my friends, is the differene difference between a professional review and an amateur review. (That and running a spell check.)

There are books you admire and books you love. Ulysses is easy to admire; Pride and Prejudice is easy to love. I think that when you love a book, it's almost always because of voice, because you want to know the person telling you the story. These two novels by Bester are both admired and loved in the SF field, I think rightly. Re-reading them as an adult is, inevitably, not the same as when you first encounter them (as almost everyone seems to have) at the age of 14. But Bester's ceaseless tug of story remains unstoppable, a force of nature; and unlike with many books, you can see that he had reasons to write these two. They weren't just stopping-posts or contractual obligations partway through a career. You sense, more than anything, how thrilling it would have been to know the man who wrote them at the time he wrote them. Streamers and confetti burst from him, still.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 31, 2007 at 12:18 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Abe Books has announced new Science Fiction and Fantasy book rooms which focus on their respective genres. The rooms offer a link to this interesting list. Check the page for details about each volume.

The Most Expensive Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Sold by AbeBooks in 2006

1. 1984 by George Orwell ($8,258.40)
2. (Tie) Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson ($7,500)
2. (Tie) The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King ($7,500)
3. (Tie) I, Robot by Issac Asimov ($4,500)
3. (Tie) The Healer's War by Elizabeth Scarborough ($4,500)
4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ($4,025)
5. The Ship That Sailed to Mars by William Timlin ($3,995)
6. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm ($3,975)
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ($3,250)
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ($3,000)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 31, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Subterranean Press is now selling The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi.


• Heroes creator Tim Kring gets all spoilery.


• Chris Dolley interviews Chris Roberson.


• John C. Wright reviews Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.


• Entertainment Weekly looks at James Cameron's Avatar.


• Irene Gallo at the Art Department asks artists what they think about the working on genre series covers. Head on over just for the cover eye candy alone.


• An internal Google Maps mashup is mapping places mentioned in books. Only a few are available so far. For example, for Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, see the section "Places mentioned in this book". [via Hackzine]


• SCI FI Wire has a video interview with Doug Jones, who plays the Silver Surfer in the Fantastic 4 sequel. [via Monitor Duty]


• Neatorama lists Authors Who Write in the Buff. Benjamin Franklin? [...Shivers...]


• Black Gate has posted an appreciation of David Gemmell. [via Locus Online]


• NY Times Magazine has begun serialization of a new novel by Michael Chabon. [via Locus Online]


• SCI FI Wire profiles Tad Williams, author of Shadowplay, and Harry Turtledove, author of Beyond the Gap.


• The current Bat Segundo Show podcast features Christopher Moore, author of You Suck. [via SFBC Blog]


• Kathryn Cramer is hosting an index page for The New York Review of Science Fiction.


• John Joseph Adams has posted the prelimary contents for his 2008 post-apocalyptic reprint anthology, Wastelands.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 31, 2007 at 12:03 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: How can you not watch Elvis and JFK fight a mummy?

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Elvis and JFK fight a soul-eating Egyptian mummy in a nursing home.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Campbell as Elvis; witty dialog; social commentary on the elderly gives the story some depth;
CONS: Stretches some limits of believability, but only if you look at this as a horror film.
BOTTOM LINE: A quiet, subtly insightful drama. With a mummy.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 30, 2007 at 12:21 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Continuing the quality of effort from the previous book, Birmingham delivers on a quality ending to a complicated trilogy.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The task force from the future introduced in the work Weapons of Choice, continues to deal with the impact of its arrival and, most importantly, the continuation of the fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The politics of nations takes center stage here as the planet deals with the new ending to WW2 and the significantly different history of the Soviet Union.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Excellent thoughts on the behavior of Stalin, Yamamoto, Roosevelt, and others when confronted with the major changes in the world brought about by the technology of the future.
CONS: Perhaps a bit gratuitous in parts - but war is hell.
BOTTOM LINE: The final 2 books in this trilogy make it overall very solid and worth your time if you are interested in military fiction of this type.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Tuesday January 30, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• The BBC is animating Doctor Who in a 13-part adventure called The Infinite Quest. [via Forbidden Planet]


• Velcro City Tourist Board lists an incomplete bibliography of worthwhile science fiction and genre criticism culled from a new website/forum set up by Gabe Chouinard to discuss such matters.


• Free fiction at Analog: Queen of Candesce (part I). [also via VCTB]


• CBS has picked up two SF pilots: Babylon Fields, an hour-long zombie-themed comedy-drama, and Twilight, a drama about a vampire private eye who's dealing with the fallout from being immortal.


• Literary Kicks says Books are Too Damn Expensive.


• Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy will host Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier, a History Channel documentary special that will take a look at the 40-year history of the venerable SF franchise, on Feb. 19 at 9 p.m. ET.


• Make shows us How to make an invisible book shelf.


• A few new additions to the list of sf/f authors who blog: James Barclay, Jeffrey Carver, Paul Di Filippo, Mark Morris, Susan Palwick, Brian Ruckley, Ryk E. Spoor and Steph Swainston.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 30, 2007 at 12:02 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

From the Nevada Appeal:

Fantasy writer David Eddings, 75, said he was using water to flush out the gas tank of his broken-down Excalibur sports car, when some fluid leaked. In a lapse of judgment he readily admitted, Eddings lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable. The answer came in an orange torrent.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 29, 2007 at 1:02 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

• "Save The Teen Pop Singer, Save the World!" Everyone's favorite cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere, has a life outside Heroes. She sings the song "I Still Believe" on the soundtrack of Disney's straight-to-DVD release Cinderella III. Go, go, gadget YouTube!


• Jeff VanderMeer's latest project is Strange Tales of Secret Lives.


• File under: I couldn't Make This Up If I Wanted To. Here's a website devoted the Tom Baker's Doctor Who Scarf. Really.


• After recently proposing that SF Author Bios Should Be Moved from Wikipedia to the ISFDB Wiki, Kathryn Cramer offers How to Write an Author Bio: A Tutorial for Wikipedians & Others. BONUS: A link to author bios from The Ascent of Wonder, the anthology she co-edited with husband David G. Hartwell.


• David Bishop and S. L. Viehl have been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• NPR Pop culture podcast: Dragons Get a Modern Image Makeover, discusses the recent movie Eragon, Anne McCaffrey's Pern series and Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. [via Locus Online]


• A New Hampshire Public Radio podcast explores the sub-genres of science fiction with authors James Patrick Kelly and Maren Tirabassi. BONUS: James Patrick Kelly notes his latest project is recording audio versions of 52 of his stories for Audible.com.


• Time magazine has 10 Questions For William Shatner. [via Trek Today]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 29, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"I simply can't pick a favorite. Least favorite is A Feast For Crows, but only because I would have rather waited for the whole damn' book instead of getting half the story lines and having to wait at least as long again as for the second half. But I do understand Martin's desire to get _something_ in the readers' hands before fannish hit men began stalking him." - Tim Morris

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 29, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

A new science fiction series and mobile video game called Ice Planet are only in co-development, but already has an "Unofficial" fan site. (Read: Official fan site meant to generate buzz.) Ice Planet, to be shot in High Definition video, involves aliens, alien artifacts and Armageddon and stars everyone's favorite bad guy, Michael Ironside (Scanners, Total Recall).

The series marks the second time a science fiction series will be shot in HD. (The first was The 4400.) This is good news. If anything deserves to be shot in high definition, it's science fiction. At least since Baywatch went off the air. Additionally, the producers plan to shoot the show as a five-season story arc.

More info on the story line comes from a press release:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 28, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Stainless Steel Droppings profiles genre artist Donato Giancola


• The Art Department interviews genre artist Tiffany Prothero.


• North Carolina State University's student-run newspaper, The Technician profiles professor and author John Kessel whose 1985 story "A Clean Escape" has been adapted for Masters of Science Fiction. [via WatEotU]


• Charles Stross sheds dome light on a writer's lifestyle.


• After a brief hiatus, The Bat Segundo Show is back and has podcast-interviews with Richard Ford and Anne Fernald and Valerie Trueblood.


• Eternal Golden Braid laments the decline of science fiction on the bookstore shelves in The Death of Captain Future and Other Stories (and Other Stories).


• MSNBC asks: What suit do you wear to a spacewalk? [via EGB]


• Robert Silverberg talks about re-reading Jack Vance's The Dying Earth.


• Tom Becker has won the 2007 Waterstone's children's book prize with his first novel, Darkside, a young adult novel about a parallel world with werewolves and vampires in a Victorian setting.


• The moderators of the website for Campbell-eligible authors are trying to collect info about all authors who are eligible for the 2007 John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award. [via Jed Hartman]


• Asimov's upcoming 30th anniversary issue. "Each of the past editors--George Scithers, Kathleen Moloney, Shawna McCarthy and Gardner Dozois--will contribute a short piece to the editorial, and their essays, along with mine, will be combined with a reprint of Isaac's first editorial for the magazine," current editor Sheila Williams said in an interview.


• David Louis Edelman lists 10 Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades.


• Charlie Huston wonders how publishers deem one book to be in hardcover and another in paperback.


• John Barnes, Mick Farren, Ellen Klages, Geoffrey Landis and Catherynne M. Valente have been added to the list of SF/F authors who blog. [Some via S. Andrew Swann]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 28, 2007 at 12:04 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Talking Squid is reporting (via Jonathan Strahan) that the winners of the 2006 Aurealis Awards are as follows:

GOLDEN AUREALIS
NOVEL: The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott
SHORT STORY: "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan

SCIENCE FICTION
NOVEL: K-Machines by Damien Broderick
SHORT STORY: "The Seventh Letter" by Sean Williams

HORROR
NOVEL (split): The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott and Prismatic by Edwina Grey
SHORT STORY: "Dead of Winter", Stephen Dedman

FANTASY
NOVEL: Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
SHORT STORY: "A Fine Magic" by Margo Lanagan

YOUNG ADULT
NOVEL: Monster Blood Tattoo: Book One. Foundling by D.M. Cornish
SHORT STORY: "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan

CHILDREN'S
NOVEL: Melissa Queen of Evil by Mardi McConnochie
SHORT FICTION (split): "The True Story of Mary Who Wanted to Stand on Her Head" by Jane Godwin and "Woolvs in the Sitee" by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas

See also: this year's nominees and past winners.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 27, 2007 at 10:26 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

As mentioned last year, Prime Books is publishing a new annual anthology called Best American Fantasy guest-edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer with Matthew Cheney serving as series editor.

This week, Jeff VanderMeer offers up some more information. Initial story selections have been made and stories will be included by Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Peter LaSalle, Brian Evenson, Sarah Monette and 20+ others.

We'll know more when the table of contents is finalized.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 27, 2007 at 10:24 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Issue #7 of Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer is now available with these offerings:

• "Riverworld in Parody" by Walt Liebscher
• "The Roller Coaster Ride with Phil Farmer" by Bette Farmer
• "Excerpt from The City Beyond Play" by Philip José Farmer & Danny Adams
• Farmerphile Interviews Danny Adams and Philip José Farmer
• "The Frames"by Philip José Farmer
• "The Light-Hog Incident" by Philip José Farmer
• "A Letter from Farmer" by David Bischoff
• "Creative Mythography" by Dennis E. Power
• "Bibliophile"by Paul Spiteri
• "Up from the Bottomless Pit (part 7)" by Philip José Farmer

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 27, 2007 at 9:59 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Gardner Dozois has posted the table of contents for his annual Year's Best anthology:

The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection

1. "I, Row-Boat" by Cory Doctorow
2. "Julian: A Christmas Story" by Robert Charles Wilson
3. "Tin Marsh" by Michael Swanwick (Read excerpt)
4. "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald (Read excerpt)
5. "The House Beyond Your Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum
6. "Where the Golden Apples Grow" by Kage Baker [See SF Signal review]
7. "Kin" by Bruce Mcallister
8. "Signal to Noise" by Alastair Reynolds [See SF Signal review]
9. "The Big Ice" by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold (Read excerpt)
10. "Bow Shock" by Gregory Benford (Read excerpt)
11. "In The River" by Justin Stanchfield
12. "Incarnation Day" by Walter Jon Williams [See SF Signal review]
13. "Far As You Can Go" by Greg Van Eekhout
14. "Good Mountain" by Robert Reed [See SF Signal Review]
15. "I Hold My Father's Paws" by David D. Levine
16. "Dead Men Walking" by Paul J. Mcauley (Read excerpt)
17. "Home Movies" by Mary Rosenblum
18. "Damascus" by Daryl Gregory
19. "Life on the Preservation" by Jack Skillingstead
20. "Yellow Card Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi (Read excerpt)
21. "Riding the Crocodile" by Greg Egan [See SF Signal Review]
22. "The Ile of Dogges" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
23. "The Highway Men" by Ken Macleod
24. "The Pacific Mystery" by Stephen Baxter
25. "Okanoggan Falls" by Carolyn Ives Gilman
26. "Every Hole Is Outlined" by John Barnes (Read excerpt)
27. "The Town on Blighted Sea" by A.M. Dellamonica
28. "Nightingale" by Alastair Reynolds

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 26, 2007 at 12:16 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Rich Horton has released the tables of contents for the three anthologies he's working on for Prime Books.

Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007 Edition

1. "Another Word for Map is Faith" by Christopher Rowe (Read excerpt)
2. "Okanoggan Falls" by Carolyn Ives Gilman
3. "Saving for a Sunny Day" by Ian Watson
4. "The Cartesian Theater" by Robert Charles Wilson
5. "Hesperia and Glory" by Ann Leckie
6. "Incarnation Day" by Walter Jon Williams [See SF Signal review]
7. "Exit Before Saving" by Ruth Nestvold
8. "Inclination" by William Shunn (Read excerpt)
9. "Life on the Preservation" by Jack Skillingstead
10. "Me-Topia" by Adam Roberts
11. "The House Beyond Your Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum
12. "A Billion Eves" by Robert Reed

1. "Journey Into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert
2. "The Water Poet and the Four Seasons" by by David J. Schwartz
3. "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)" by Geoff Ryman
4. "The Osteomancer's Son" by Greg van Eekhout
5. "Salt Wine" by Peter Beagle
6. "The Original Word for Rain" by Peter Higgins
7. "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire" by Ysabeau Wilce
8. "Journey to Gantica" by by Matthew Corradi
9. "Irregular Verbs" by Matthew Johnson
10. "A Fish Story" by Sarah Totton
11. "The Night Whiskey" by Jeffrey Ford
12. "A Fine Magic" by Margo Lanagan
13. "Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge" by Richard Parks
14. "Citrine: A Fable" by Elise Moser
15. "A Siege of Cranes" by Benjamin Rosenbaum

1. "Have You Any Wool" by Alan De Niro
2. "Lehr, Rex" by Jay Lake
3. "Lady Be Good" by John G. Hemry
4. "Every Hole is Outlined" by John Barnes (Read excerpt)
5. "The Plurality of Worlds" by Brian Stableford (Read excerpt)
6. "Dead Men Walking" by Paul J. Mcauley (Read excerpt)
7. "The Muse of Empires Lost" by Paul Berger
8. "Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations" by Mike Resnick
9. "Thousandth Night" by Alastair Reynolds [See SF Signal review]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 26, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist interviews Dan Simmons, author of The Terror. [via SFBC Blog]


• The 2007 World Horror Convention has named Joe R. Lansdale this year's Grand Master [via Locus Online]


• From EGB: Choose your Flatland Fix: (See Wikipedia for more)
  • Flatland: The Film - animated
  • Flatland: The Movie - animated (starring Martin Sheen and Kristin Bell)
  • Flatland - the book by Edwin A. Abbott!


• The Colorado Springs Independent has a write-up of COSine, the Colorado Springs Science Fiction convention and has a quote from guest of honor Connie Willis.


• S. Andrew Swann opines the nature of bad SF movies.


• Kathryn Cramer proposes that SF Author Bios Should Be Moved from Wikipedia to the ISFDB Wiki.


• Charlie Huston and Syne Mitchell have been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• IESB.net has a preview of George Takei's upcoming appearnace on Heroes. There's also some footage of Christopher Eccleston in there.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 26, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday January 25, 2007 at 5:02 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Popular Mechanics "asked industry insiders to pinpoint the biggest breakthroughs in digital F/X history." This is the list they came up with.

Top 10 F/X Scenes in Movie History

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. Tron (1982)
3. Terminator 2 (1991)
4. Cliffhanger (1993)
5. Jurassic Park (1993)
6. Forrest Gump (1994)
7. The Perfect Storm (2000)
8. Lord of the Rings (2001)
9. The Polar Express (2004)
10. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 25, 2007 at 12:40 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

• The Art Department profiles (with cool thumbnails!) Illustrators 48 which showcases some of the work of the best contemporary illustrators.


• Chapter Feeds offers a sample from the Battlestar Galactica novel Sagittarius is Bleeding by Peter David.


• Paperback Writer collects a bunch of free online courses for writing.


• SCI FI Wire profiles Andrea Hairston, author of the Philip K. Dick Award nominated Mindscape.


• David Louis Edelman predicts the end of MySpace.


• Forbidden Planet interviews Charlie Huston, author of Already Dead and No Dominion.


• StarshipSofa has a two part podcast interview with Neil Gaiman. [via SFF Audio]


• From the Washington Post: A Librarian's Lament: Books Are a Hard Sell. "...literacy today is defined less by how English departments or a librarian might teach Wordsworth or Faulkner than by how we find our way through the digital forest of information overload." [via Velcro City Tourist Board]


• Animations of a Broken Space Elevator. [also via VCTB]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 25, 2007 at 12:24 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Someone please tell me this series gets better!

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The misadventures of incompetent magician Rincewind who acts as a guide for the rich-but-naïve tourist named Twoflower.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: "The Lure of the Wyrm" was the strongest story; well-conceived world.
CONS: Not as funny as expected; uneven stories, some of which hovered near mediocrity.
BOTTOM LINE: Considering the expectations fueled by the series hype, this was a letdown.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 25, 2007 at 12:01 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The continuing adventures of Polity Agent Ian Cormac as he tries apprehend the terrorist Skellor, deals with remnants of Dragon and meets an old foe thought destroyed in Mr. Crane, the brass man of the title.

PROS: Interesting universe and characters.
CONS: Very violent, choppy story threads, somewhat overcomplicated and long, plot centered at expense of characters.
BOTTOM LINE: A decent entry into the Polity universe, but doesn't quite live up to Gridlinked.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 11:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Hear Joe Haldeman speak about The Craft of Science Fiction in an MIT podcast from his talk that we mentioned last November. From the intro:

The thing about science fiction," says Haldeman, "is that it's a form of writing but it's also a way of looking at things - a mode of thought." Early sci-fi writers sought to educate young people, and direct them toward careers as scientists or engineers. Not all of the writing was stellar. Some of the "old stuff can be ugly stuff," he says. Haldeman can't read the Foundation trilogy now - "My eyes lock," the writing's so bad. But some of the stories from the 1930s inspired the scientists on both sides of World War 2, those behind radar, the atom bomb and Germany's V1 and V2 rockets. Today, as fewer people read novels, Haldeman says, science fiction has become less important. "The idea that science fiction can educate isn't there anymore."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 12:27 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Michael A. Burstein writes in to tell us about an opportunity to get your rare science fiction books valued in a program sponsored by AbeBooks and a show on NPR called The Book Guys.

AbeBooks.com is looking for booklovers who have a rare science fiction book they would like to get valued. We have a partnership with an NPR radio show called the Book Guys and each week they take callers from AbeBooks customers who have a rare book they want valued. On Tuesday February 6, they are recording a science fiction special so if you've got a rare sci-fi book and want it valued, this is your chance.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

From AlterNet comes a look at religion in a popular fantasy series. The article is called The Anti-Christian Mythology of Phillip Pullman. Here's an excerpt...

Perhaps the West is so steeped in Christian mythology that we can't imagine an outside to Christianity. Pullman gets to be antireligious simply because he criticizes one aspect of Christianity. Instead of pushing hierarchy and sexual repression, he celebrates individualism and sexual expression -- as long as everybody is heterosexual, in love, and conforms to appropriate gender roles.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Free online read from the website for Lou Anders' Fast Forward 1 anthology: "Wikiworld" by Paul Di Filippo. [via Locus Online]


• Neatorama gives us Hand Made Star Wars, as in Star Wars re-enacted with hands.


• The Chicago Sun Times talks about book remainders, the "used car lot of the book world". [via AbeBooks]


• Crooked Timber chats with China Miéville about Cormac McCarthy's The Road. [via AbeBooks]


• Cover Pr0n: Paul McAuley shows off the cover of his new novel Cowboy Angels. Ditto Jeff VanderMeer and the cover of his anthology The New Weird.


• The Dream Police interview Steve Aylett, author of LINT. [via Locus Online]


• OSC's Intergalactic Medicine Show looks at translated science fiction. [via Tobias Buckell]


• The OnOurTv blog has a preview of Heroes that shows new hero Hana Gitelman as seen in the Heroes online comics.


• Worthwhile Podcast of the Week: Listen to Vanderbilt University physicist Robert Scherrer comparing and contrasting science fiction and real science. Great stuff. [via Thursday Haiku]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 12:04 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Five school 'children' attempt to escape their school grounds and discover the full potential of their powers.

PROS: Strong philosophical discussions of different supernatural power paradigms, snappy/witty dialogue, intriguing main characters.
CONS: Suffers from being the middle book, last half if basically one long 'chase' sequence with little actual chasing.
BOTTOM LINE: Fugitives Of Chaos is a worthy addition to this series, especially if you enjoy Wright's wide-ranging and deeply philosophical writing style.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday January 23, 2007 at 3:51 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

So, I finally manged to watch the first episode of SciFi's adaptation of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, called The Dresden Files. My first reaction? 'Meh'. Seriously, there wasn't too much here to get excited about. A lot of the fun in reading the books is in Butcher's writing, as Harry describes the action, the scenes and what he's thinking. That doesn't translate well to TV, and it shows. Apart from one scene between Harry and Murphy in the diner (Murphy: "Tell me the first thought in your head". Harry: "The first thought? My car's still booted."), The rest of the episode didn't feel like a Dresden story.

Maybe that's because the producers 'had' to make some creative changes to make it work for television. Now, I can understand changes to switch from first-person to third-person, but they changed the entire backstory of Harry, his childhood, relationship with his Mother, and current status with the Council. And it's not even close. By making these changes, they have changed the Dresden character dramatically from the books, thus ensuring that the writers will have to rely on their own ideas for future shows, and not use the books as source. I really don't see the reason why such wholesale changes were needed. The stories, as written, would make great TV. SciFi had the opportunity to do HBO one better. They could have taken each book, and made 3 or 4 episodes out of each one. That would give them at least 2 SciFi seasons worth of episodes, and given Butcher more time to write more books. Plus, SciFi would have done something that hasn't really been done before. Alas, it was not meant to be.

The other thing that really bugged me was Bob. Bob, in the books, is a snarky, sarcastic elemental/demon who really enjoys living it up, when he gets the chance. In the show, they changed Bob into this pompous, pretentious character who thinks he's constantly performing as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Just stop, please. Bob is funny. Bob isn't King Lear.

I'd rate The Dresden Files as a 2 out of 5. The pilot really didn't have enough time to flesh out much of the characters. Maybe the show will get better. For now, its part of my weekly DVR rotation, but that will change in a hurry if it doesn't improve.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday January 23, 2007 at 11:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

John C. Wright points us to some very insightful observations made by sf author Steven Brust on the range literary range books offer:

Books can be broken down into four classes: popcorn, steak, caviar, and celery.

Popcorn is pretty obvious. Anyone here enjoy The Destroyer novels by Sapir and Murphy as much as me? gobble gobble gobble Steak is the stuff you can bite into, chew, swallow, and gain sustenance from. Some of us use spices on our steak, or do interesting things with it by stir-frying it, adding ginger and various vegetables, and so on. In my case, paprika. But at the end of the day, it is steak. Niel writes particularly good steak--range fed, the spicing is different every time, always delectable, and some of it obviously comes from places where cattle are not indigenous, making you go, "Wow. How did they ever think of doing that?" as you go for the next bite.

Gene Wolfe and John M. "Mike" Ford write caviar. It is a lot of work to get to. You have to open the can, you have to make sure the refrigeration is exactly perfect. You have to have the right atmosphere, and you have to approach it with the proper reverence if you're going to get anything out of the experience. But if you do, my god, is it worth it!

Celery is that stuff you have to chew and chew and chew and, by the time you're done, you've gotten even less nutritional value from than the popcorn. I won't name any names.

Some turn up their noses at popcorn. Well, that's okay. Just don't bring 'em to a ball game. Most of us like steak, in one form or another. Some object to caviar because they have just never got into the glories of eating--into food that is worth the work. For them, the payoff just isn't there.

The interesting thing, to me, is that there really are people out there who like the celery because it is so hard to chew, and the fact that there's nothing of substance there doesn't bother them.

Okay, so, probably not as deep as I'm making it sound. But fun to think about.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 23, 2007 at 12:53 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Stainless Steel Droppings profiles classic sf artists John Berkey and John Harris. [via The Art Department]


• Lady in the Water and BloodRayne are among the Golden Raspberry nominees "celebrating" the worst in filmmaking.


• A.R.Yngve points us to Philip Pullman's Carnegie Medal acceptance speech which contains such witticisms as "We need stories so much that we're even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won't supply them."


• The inventor of a military exo-skeleton is looking for buyers. [via Gravity Lens]


• An interesting read from the British blog SF Diplomat: Thoughts on SF Criticism, Technology and Accessibility. "By locking itself away behind the walls of an anachronistic business plan, SF criticism is not only making itself less accessible to people who might have something to contribute to it, it's also making itself less and less relevant to the experience of reading SF." Anyone up for a course in sf criticism?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 23, 2007 at 12:33 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Coinciding with the return shiny, fresh new episodes of Heroes beginning tonight, NBC is revamping the Heroes website. From CNet:

Heroes story lines are moving online. The hit NBC series is relaunching its Web site on Monday with new interactive features coinciding with a batch of new original episodes. The multiplatform strategy will deepen the Heroes mythos with additional content for Internet and mobile applications.

New add-ons include a real-time, two-screen application that plays out on the PC along with each episode, mobile content and commentary from cast members set to streamed episodes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 22, 2007 at 9:49 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Engaging vampire noir. With zombies!

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Joe Pitt, vampire for hire, must find a carrier of the dreaded virus and a socialite's missing daughter.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The bleak-but-tasty noir feel; accessible and engaging writing style; realistic depiction of the effects of the virus.
CONS: Joe needed some more backbone; lack of quotes on dialogue sometimes caused unwelcome pauses in reading.
BOTTOM LINE: A refreshing and fun book.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 22, 2007 at 12:28 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Check out the way cool stop-motion animation of the 10-minute short film Android 207. Also see the Android 207 website.


• Times Online wonders if the digitization of books means the death of the book is near. [via BookNinja]


• Eric Nylund has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Rick Kleffel podcast-interviews Charlie Huston, author of Already Dead and No Dominion.


• Monday YouTube: a video interview with David Crosby and sf author Spider Robinson about their collaboration on Variable Star.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 22, 2007 at 12:16 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"C'mon people! His only decent performance was in 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' - in the rest he's just a cardboard cut out! Awesome, yeah, like - rock on!" - Richard Hawkins

"Glad you only picked the first Matrix movie, because the second and third were pretentious sh*t, like the others in the list!" - Paul Harper

"Where the hell was "Point Break" on this list?!?! I mean come on, Keanu Reeves AND Patrick Swayze. Thats Academy Award material bub!" - Trent

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 22, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Julie Phillips' James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon are among nominees for this year's National Book Critics Circle awards. [via Locus Online]


• At Deep Genre, David Louis Edelman offers 10 Writing Tricks to Avoid.


• Locus Online has interview excerpts from The January 2007 issue of Locus: editor Ginjer Buchanan and writers Naomi Novik and Allen Steele.


• The March issue of Starlog includes a nice feature about Philip José Farmer (read excerpt), focusing on his Wold Newton stories. [via Chris Roberson]


• A new Top 5 SciFi List: The Top 10 Shows Hosted by SF Actors We'd Like to Forget.


• To assist with the new best editor Hugo category, Locus Online's Mark Kelly will compile lists of books categorized by editor, as a service to the SF community. Furthermore, John Klima has already set up a Science Fiction and Fantasy Editor Wiki that may serve much the same purpose.


• Check out this cross-section artwork by Graham Bleathman from Fleetway's Gerry Anderson Comics: Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. [via Eternal Golden Braid]


• The Fanthorpe Write-Alike Contest Winners 2006 have been announced. [via Locus Online]


• Cosmos has Gregory Benford's article How to write an awesome scientific paper. [via Locus Online]


• Orion Publishing interviews Robert Holdstock, author of The Merlin Codex trilogy. [via UKSfBookNews]


• Did you know there was a Hammers Slammers miniature wargame?


• The Art Department micro-interviews Jason Chan.


• Kathryn Cramer has started an Amazon Connect blog.


• Here's a fluff profile of The Dresden Files that includes quotes about the show from author Jim Butcher who wrotethe books on which they were based.


• Sunday Video Zen: I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 21, 2007 at 3:54 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Niall Harrison, editor of Vector, gfives us the shortlist for The 2007 Arthur C Clarke Award:

• End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Gollancz)
• Nova Swing by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
• Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet (Heinemann)
• Hav by Jan Morris (Faber)
• Gradisil by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
• Streaking by Brian Stableford (PS Publishing)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 21, 2007 at 12:25 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Entertainment Weekly #917 has more than a little fun in citing some pretty bad roles chosen by otherwise top notch talent. Most of them are genre films. Hmmm...are genre films big-money lanterns to money-seeking moths? Anyway, here's the list. See the issue for the humorous writeups of each.

The 25 Most Shameless Paycheck-Grabbing Roles in History

25. Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again
24. Jason Alexander in Dunstan Checks In
23. Bill Murray in Garfield
22. Marlon Brando in Superman
21. Matt Dillon in Herbie: Fully Loaded
20. Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Chill Factor
19. Elizabeth Taylor in The Flintstones
18. Ben Affleck in Paycheck
17. Buster Keaton in Beach Blanket Bingo
16. Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich in Eragon
15. Christopher Walken in Kangaroo Jack
14. Richard Pryor in Superman III
13. Faye Dunaway in Supergirl
12. William Hurt in Lost in Space
11. Laurence Olivier in Clash of the Titans
10. Demi Moore in Striptease
9. Michael Caine in Jaws: The Revenge
8. Judi Dench in The Chronicles of Riddick
7. Orson Welles in Transformers: The Movie
6. Peter O'Toole in Club Paradise
5. Dennis Hopper in Super Mario Bros.
4. Tony Curtis in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan
3. Sir Ben Kingsley in BloodRayne
2. Richard Burton in Exorcist II: The Heretic
1. Robert DeNiro in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 21, 2007 at 12:17 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

In light (or darkness) of the recent theatrical release of the dystopian Children of Men, Entertainment Weekly #917 lists...

The Top 20 Dystopian Movies

1. A Clockwork Orange (1971; set in near future)
2. Brazil (1985; set in 20th century)
3. The Road Warrior (1982; postapocalypse)
4. Escape From New York (1981; set in 1997)
5. Logan's Run (1976; set in 23rd century)
6. 12 Monkeys (1995; set in 2035)
7. Metropolis (1927; set in 2026)
8. The Matrix (1999, circa 2199)
9. Blade Runner (1982; set in 2019) [see SF Signal book review]
10. Akira (1988; set in 2019)
11. THX-1138 (1971; set in near future)
12. Dark City (19; set in a not-so-far-off future)
13. Alphaville (1965; set in a distant time, in another world)
14. Fahrenheit 451 (1966; set sometime after the 20th century) [see SF Signal book review]
15. The Omega Man (1971; set in the late 1970s)
16. Soylent Green (1973; set in 2022)
17. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970; set in the late 3900s)
18. Death Race 2000 (1975; set in 2000)
19. Back to the Future II (1989; set in 2015)
20. Gattaca (1997; set in the near future)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 21, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

It seems like every couple of months there's a media spotlight on book reviewing. Usually, the ones I see are within the science fiction community. However, the latest focus seems to from the world of mainstream literature.

The Valve points to a semi-confessional Newsweek article "In Literature, Size Matters", in which Malcolm Jones says he only read 100 of the 928 pages of Sacred Games. The Valve focuses on the fact that Jones, a paid reviewer, did not finish the book because it was too big. As per the Jones article:

Book reviewers, if they're being paid and if they're being the least bit fair, finish the books they review. But this creates a strange, maybe unnatural, situation: the very people paid to be objective about a book are also duty bound to finish it, and believe it or not, this warps a lot of peoples' judgment. Let's say you read a 900-page novel and you don't absolutely hate it. You even sort of like it. Are you going to say that? Apparently not, judging by most reviews I read. Most reviewers get invested in the books they review, one way or the other. So the books are either panned outright or praised.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 21, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Issue #917 of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. Here's a snippet...

Overclocked by Cory Doctorow
Studio Pitch: I, Robot meets Dr. Stangelove.
Lowdown: The four page opening fable is as absorbing an prescient as the gruesome 76-page war story that ends the book. Doctorow is rapidly emerging as the William Gibson of his generation.
Grade: A.

Ice Vladimir Sorokin
Studio Pitch: George A. Romero meets Nikolai Gogol.
Lowdown: Sorokin's inventively sliced plot doesn't make room for a proper climax, bu the particulars of his pulp allegory are eerie enough to chill.
Grade: B+.

Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
Studio Pitch: Battlestar Galactica meets Master and Commander and the Protestant Reformation.
Lowdown: A thin sci-fi frame for a sometimes rousing, often sluggish age-of-sail epic.
Grade: B.

From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust
Studio Pitch: Super Friends meets Analyze This.
Lowdown: While fanboys might wish Faust had played it more straight, Brain is entertaining and impishly savvy about comics.
Grade: B+.

Elsewhere in the issue is a review of Voices in the Street by Philip K. Dick which gets a B+ rating.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 20, 2007 at 9:33 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Rod Lott and Joe Rogers share their humorous misadventures in The World's Most Dangerous Bookstore.

Bill's Yesterday Books is not the nicely organized, aesthetically pleasing publication warehouse like a Barnes & Noble or even a typical trade store you're used to visiting. Instead, it's a whole damn house with no living space whatsoever. Books are literally (and pat yourself on the back, dear reader, if you caught that pun) piled to the ceilings, but not on shelves, with a foot-wide pathway rudely carved through the rubble that one must shimmy through sideways in order to travel. The place is so overflowing with reading material that the path itself is comprised of volumes. It is near impossible to see the walls. And a window? Forget about it.

On a similar note, the Solaris Books blog asks "What do you do if you own over 14,000 books?" The answer, obviously, is to build a house around them.

"What holds the house together is a vertical staircase that wraps itself around a tower of books that goes up three floors," Mr. Tehrani said. (The family lives on the top three floors, while Ms. Bina's mother, Aghdas Zoka-Bina, and a tenant occupy apartments on the first and ground-floor levels.) The stairway ends just below a skylight. "The tower of books appears to pierce the skylight, though it doesn't in reality," Mr. Tehrani said.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 20, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• The Eternal Night interviews Lou Anders, editor of the upcoming anthology Fast Forward 1. (Read the book's introduction).


• Here are some more details on the upcoming Stargate: SG1 movies.


• Charlie Huston (Already Dead, No Dominion) has been added to the list of authors who blog.


• Star Trek: The Original Series will be the first Trek on HD DVD.


• Time Traveler Show, Episode 12 features Lester del Rey's "Spawning Ground".


• Neat-o-rama offers us zombie shirts and Cthulhu buns.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 19, 2007 at 12:40 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

For all you who are watching the SF(ish) shows on TV, here are a few reminders:

• The short lived series, Daybreak, will be available on ABC.COM on January 29th. All episodes will be there, including the 6 never aired. I was into this show, although it was difficult to follow if you attention was split between the TV and your Sudoku puzzle book...


• Battlestar Galactica returns this Sunday, January 21st, at 9pm CST. That's right, Sunday. SciFi up and went and changed the date on us in an attempt, presumably, to halt sliding ratings. My fix would be to get back to what made the first show so enjoyable: the race through space to avoid the Cylons, since that appears to be what people want. Me, I still like the show, even if it isn't as strong this season. It still doesn't suck. And watch for something big for the season ender...


• And now, the big new show of the season is set to return on Monday, January 22nd! That's right, Heroes starts again! Finally. Hopefully you've been keeping up with the comic on the website so you have some more background on new characters. And in addition, NBC has greenlighted a second season. Go NBC, way to milk a cash cow!


• LOST begins on February 7th and Jericho returns on February 21st.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday January 18, 2007 at 3:26 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Thanks to super-faithful reader Fred K. and his blog post about the proper reading order for the Discworld novels, a scheme was hatched here at SF Signal HQ. Said scheme being: Why not read all Discworld stories, including the short stories? Hence, the Great Pratchett Reading Project (GPRP) was born!

Both Tim and I jumped at the idea. Me, because I thought of it, and Tim because he likes Pratchett. John is also in, but with some reluctance. Something about the time involved or some such silly reason. Scott claims to have read all the books anyway and the young adult titles are, basically crap (that's a loose translation of his statement).

So what, exactly, are we going to do? Well, we are going to follow the Discworld Reading Order Guide 1.5 . I will start with the Rincewind Novels, Tim is taking the Watch Novels. We'll read each track, left to right, then move on downward to the next track. This will allow us to avoid any potential book conflicts, while insuring that there is a steady stream of Discworld goodnes here on the blog.

So what will we be producing for SF Signal? Most likely, some sort of master page listing the books and our reviews for them. The reviews themselves may not be the bigger ones we normally write, but to make up for that, each book review will have our individual takes on that book. Look for the reviews to see how that will work. I haven't quite figured out how we'll notify you of updated reviews, RSS readers will see the updated review in the feed, readers who scan the homepage won't. Maybe we can enlist John to create a patentet GPRP Widget for the right side bar. Stay tuned.

Now, you may be asking yourself, 'What? Why?". To which I respond: "Because". Pratchett's Discworld novels rule so why not read them all? I won't be reading them all one after the other. I will intersperse them with other books. But because they are, usually, fast reads, they shouldn't get in the way of the other books I want to read. And besides, who wouldn't want to read the books by a man unafraid to have his picture taken with a duck.....on his head.

Feel free to play along at home. If you post a review of one of the books, let us know and we'll add a link to our review of that book thus creating a ginormous repository of Pratchett reviews! The duck thanks you.

PS - I'm already 60 pages into The Color (Colour) Of Magic. Man, I had forgotten how funny it is...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday January 18, 2007 at 1:46 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

• ChapterFeeds has posted the first chapter of Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder.


• The latest issue (PDF) of Walking Bones Magazine has Paul Jessup's story "And the Maker Climbed Down"


• Rain Taxi interviews Neil Gaiman. [via Backwards City]


• More for Gaiman fans: Minnesota Public Radio has an audio interview with Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean.


• Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast-interviews John Ringo, author of Unto the Breach.


• Lou Antonelli's Sentinel SF launches 2007 with a new story by Howard Waldrop. [via Locus Online]


• Robert J. Sawyer talks about Michael Crichton's science fiction. [via Locus Online]


• At SCI FI Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Mike Resnick and Starship: Pirate.


• John Scalzi interviews Tim Pratt, author of Hart & Boot & Other Stories and The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl.


• Submitted without comment: Babes in Space [via Curved Mind]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 18, 2007 at 12:42 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Today, HBO has announced that they will be bringing George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series to the small screen. Now, before you go off, thinking "How the hell can they do that? It'll take a bazillion movies.", notice that they will be making this a series. With each book one season.

Think about that. Each book gets its own season to tell the story. That, my friends, is the way it should be done. A season gives you roughly 18 - 20 hours of time, which should be plenty to jam in each 1000 page book. Sure, you'll have to trim stuff, but the sheer amount of time available works in your favor.

Plus, Martin will supposedly be working as co-producer on the show. Let's hope that doesn't take away form his time to actually, you know, finish the series. I'm also hoping that the SFX used don't turn out to be cheesy. At least this isn't on SciFi, where cheese isn't just for movies anymore...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday January 17, 2007 at 11:25 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

I still have fond memories of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1, a superb 1970 anthology of twenty-six short stories that were chosen by members of the SFWA as the best stories that existed before the institution of the Nebula Awards.

The reason I mention this is because it has come up three times this week while web surfing: first in Michael Cassutt's The Canon of TV Sci-Fi, Part 2; second is a news item about The Mimzy, a movie based on Lewis Padgett's (Henry Kuttner's and C.L. Moore's) "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"; and third in this video posting from Pistol Wimp.

The video is the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life" and is based on the awesome short story by Jerome Bixby (free read!) that I first experienced in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1. I would definitely include this story in my dream anthology.

Useless Trivia: As many readers know, the creepy kid in the episode is played by Billy Mumy who later went on to appear in Lost in Space and Babylon 5. Most people know about the episode remake in 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie, but according to wikipedia there was a sequel episode called "It's Still a Good Life" that appeared in a 2003 revival of The Twilight Zone series. In that sequel, Bill Mumy returned as Anthony Fremont, his on-screen daughter was played by his real-life daughter Liliana and Cloris Leachman also returned as his mother.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 17, 2007 at 12:21 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

A newsfeed picked up an eye-catching phrase today: Check out why the Sentient Developments blog is convinced that Star Trek's Prime Directive is stupid.

While perusing the Sentient Developments site, I found links to other interesting articles including the heavy read Developmental and ethical considerations for biologically uplifting nonhuman animals (in PDF).

On the not-so-heavy side, there's Must-know terms for the 21st Century intellectual: Redux.

And if all else fails , there is always the ever-popular, previously-posted Bald Women in Sci-Fi. [Looks at Pete.]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 17, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• The Last Mimzy is a movie based on Lewis Padgett's (Henry Kuttner's and C.L. Moore's) "Mimsy Were the Borogoves". Check out the trailer.


• The Mid-January 2007 issue of the SF Site is now online.


• Bored? Here's How to Make a Starship Enterprise Out of a Floppy Disk.


• Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie shows us some science fictiony bookplates and asks readers to send images of their own.


• Neil Gaiman's next collection is called M is for Magic. [via Jonathan Strahan]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 17, 2007 at 12:04 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Over at Screen Head, they have posted an article detailing their List Of The Hardest Novels To Film. This list includes all your favorites such as Ulysses, 100 Years Of Solitude and Metamorphosis, among others. But I got to thinking, science fiction is the home of the strange and fantastic so there ought to be SF books that would be darn near impossible to put on film, at least in any comprehensible form.

But what makes a book unfilmable? Is it story structure? Narrative style? Perhaps its the sheer inventiveness and weirdness of a far-future univerese that any movie, full of needed CGI, just can't capture correctly. I'm sure our group of faithful readers, as diverse and well read in the SF field as we are, can come up with an interesting list of titles. I'll list mine, at least those I can think of, below.

Dhalgren

In the interest of completeness, I must admit that I tried to read Dhalgren several times before I finally managed to work through it. I found it dull and tedious each time, even when I finished it. However, that was roughly 20 years ago, so I think as an adult, I might find it more bearable to read. But we may never know, as there are so many good, new stuff coming out, I may never get around to it.

Vellum

Others

So now we throw it over to you, the readers. What SF novels do you think are 'unfilmable'?

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday January 16, 2007 at 1:10 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Matt Cheney digs up a seriously retro review by Time magazine (?!?) of Stanley Weinbaum's collection A Martian Odyssey which offers some reflections on the sf field we now call "classic":

Small publishing houses devoted to science fiction such as Weinbaum turned out have been mushrooming during the last few years, and the business as a whole appears to be on the upgrade. Most of them are three-or four-man affairs. The half-dozen or so outfits in the field each print anywhere from two to a dozen books a year. Press runs usually hover around 5,000. Yet such midget firms as Prime Press in Philadelphia, Fantasy Press in Reading, Pa. and Shasta Press in Chicago eke out profits from their small printings, for two reasons: 1) they keep advertising and other overhead costs to a minimum, and 2) they can count on regular patronage from their own rabid fans.

...
There has been some speculation about the reasons for the science-fiction fad. The Saturday Review of Literature's Harrison Smith has speculated about the relation of the "age of anxiety" to the "scientific fantasy story" as "a buffer against known and more conceivable terrors." Publishers' Weekly finds that the appeal of these stories lies "in their free flight of [imagination] . . . uninhibited by present reality, yet sometimes terrifyingly close to the advanced discoveries of modern science."

The reader who reads science fiction dispassionately is likely to be struck by how closely the human imagination is tied to reality, even when it deliberately sets out to violate it. Stanley Weinbaum's loonies and slinkers have been seen before. The shapes may be different, but his dream-beasts come startlingly close to what the human race has been running across, for a good many years, in its childish nightmares.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 16, 2007 at 12:54 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Cory Doctorow offers free downloads of the stories in his collection Overclocked.


• Subterranean Press has completed the online serialization of "Lucifugous" by Elizabeth Bear.


• Time's Lev Grossman lists The 10 Greatest Books of All Time as collated from The Top Ten, where writers pick their favorites. Surprise! No speculative fiction is on the list.


• Kay Kenyon has a brand new website and it offers many details of Bright of the Sky, book one in the series The Entire and the Rose, including an excerpt. [via Pyr-o-mania]


• Locus magazine's Claude Lalumière offers his Best SF, Fantasy, and Horror of 2006.


• The Biology in Science Fiction blog talks about Zombie Evolution.


• Over at SCI FI Wire, John Joseph Adams profile Tony Ballantyne, whose novel Recursion was just named a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.


• Paul Levinson is blogging this the new season of 24.


• Read Steven Gould's (Jumper) brush with Theodore Sturgeon and then listen to Gould read his early story "The Touch of Their Eyes" (in two parts).


• John Holbo is looking for literary references of the "it turns out he's a robot" trope.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 16, 2007 at 12:41 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Hello Hugo voters! I've been asked to convey the following information...

Patrick Nielson Hayden has pointed out some questionable content on this year's Hugo Awards nomination ballot. Before filling out your ballot form, you may want to check that any potential issues have been resolved, perhaps with PNH's blog.

1/16 UPDATE: Frank Wu has some more information.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 16, 2007 at 12:02 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

The British Science Fiction Association has announced the shortlist for the 2006 BSFA Awards:

NOVEL

• Darkland, Liz Williams
• End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Icarus by Roger Levy
• The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
• Nova Swing by M. John Harrison

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 15, 2007 at 11:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Reading this classic was long overdue.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Gully Foyle seeks vengeance on those who refused to rescue him from his derelict ship, the Nomad.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Textured prose; swift-moving plot; memorable main character; inventive and well thought-out societal backdrop.
CONS: A minor one: Foyle's feelings for Olivia seem unfounded.
BOTTOM LINE: If you haven't read this yet, do so.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 15, 2007 at 12:26 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• B&N interviews Charlie Huston, author of No Dominion.


• Paul Levinson's latest podcast asks What on Earth Are They Doing to Poor Pluto? and interviews Michael A. Burstein who is also head of the Pluto Is A Planet organization. After the podcast, check out Levinson getting downright funky (lyric-wise) with "Alpha Centauri - the song".


• While on the subject of music, you might also enjoy Gollum and Smeagol Singing Barry White.


• Now podcasting (through iTunes): Strange Horizons.


• Concatenatnation has a new seasonal update.


• The Agony Column's Rick Kleffel podcast-interviews Rudy Rucker, author of Mathematicians in Love. [via Boing Boing]


• As If has an interview with editor Jonathan Strahan.


• The Locus Online Gallery of 2006 Book Covers that we previously mentioned has been updated with more juicy book cover goodness.


• French review site ActuSf has an interview with Ian R. MacLeod . [via Locus Online]


• SCI FI Weekly's Michael Cassutt examines The Canon of TV Sci-Fi, Part One (old) and Part Two (new).


• The Future And You podcasts Kim Stanley Robinson, David B. Coe, Catherine Asaro and others. [via Locus Online]


• On March 1st, 2007, NBC Universal plans to roll out Chiller, a new horror-themed Channel, available in both Standard and High Definition. I'd like Cthulhu, please.


• Monday YouTube: What really happened after the Deathstar blew up. [via BookNinja]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 15, 2007 at 12:19 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"We actually watched it as a family. Sure it is hokey, but in the end it is a Stan Lee production which means kid friendly and good message!" - Bryans

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 15, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

I thought we'd posted this already since we've done so in the past. Apparently not! So here goes...with SF Signal review linkage.

Barnes & Noble's Editor's Choice: Top Ten Novels of 2006

1. Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
2. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
3. Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker
4. The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams
5. Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington
6. Resolution by John Meaney
7. Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer
8. The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo
9. A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
10. Valentine's Exile by E. E. Knight

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 14, 2007 at 2:20 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

An interesting Guardian article ponders the question of what makes a good writer and examines the responsibilities of both writer and reader.

...the duty of writers is to please readers and to be eager to do so, and this duty has various subsets: the duty to be clear; to be interesting and intelligent but never wilfully obscure; to write with the average reader in mind; to be in good taste. Above all, the modern writer has a duty to entertain.
...
Personally, I have no objection to books that entertain and please, that are clear and interesting and intelligent, that are in good taste and are not wilfully obscure - but neither do these qualities seem to me in any way essential to the central experience of fiction, and if they should be missing, this in no way rules out the possibility that the novel I am reading will yet fulfil the only literary duty I care about. For writers have only one duty, as I see it: the duty to express accurately their way of being in the world.
...
A novel is a two-way street, in which the labour required on either side is, in the end, equal. Reading, done properly, is every bit as tough as writing - I really believe that. As for those people who align reading with the essentially passive experience of watching television, they only wish to debase reading and readers.

Call me judgmental, but this smacks of literary snobbery. Does reading always have to be about art? Can't entertainment sometimes be the "central experience"? Hey, I like literature as much as the next guy. But I'm also the guy who's still giggling at the word "duties".

[via Backwards City]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 14, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

At The Art Department blog, Tor Books' Art Director Irene Gallo uses the recent paperback publication of Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain to discuss why the covers of paperback books might look different than their hardback predecessors.

"Basically, a tremendous amount of paperback books are not bought in bookstores. They are bought in supermarkets, pharmacies, airports, or, as the ads say, "wherever books are sold." People don't often go to these places to seek out a particular book, they go there to buy toilet paper, aspirin, and to catch a plane. So, we need to grab someone's attention away from their primary task...being toilet paper, aspirin, and death defying air travel. Anything with a bit more glitz has a better chance at this."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 14, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

SCI FI Channel has green-lighted production of 22 one-hour episodes of Flash Gordon, a series based on the popular comic-strip franchise:

The characters of Ming, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov will be brought back for a contemporary retelling of the comic-strip story created in 1934 by Alex Raymond.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 13, 2007 at 12:17 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

SciFi today unveiled their new slate of programs in development. Lets take a look and determine whether SciFi is getting the 'suck' out:

• Diamond Age - Based on the Neal Stephenson book (a good thing), this mini-series will be brought to you by George Clooney and friends (potentially scary). Still, Stephenson will be adapting the novel for TV (good!). I have no idea how they will film this. It's sort of like Hitchiker's Guide, in that there are vignettes that take place inside the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. I'll definitely be watching this as I liked the book, and the potential is there for some really cool SF. Cautiously optimistic.


• Avery House - Deals with "a bed and breakfast in which the innermost thoughts of both guests and owners miraculously come to life". Hmm, I've seen this show before, when it was called Fantasy Island. I'll watch only if they can get Herve Villechaize to reprise his roll and shout, "De SUV! De SUV!". Thumbs way down.


• And Unnamed Action Movie - And no, I don't mean He Who Must Not Be Named. Rather, this one deals with "four convicts who are given new identities and technologically enhanced bodies to join a covert wing of the government on a mission to battle threats from science run amok". Sort of like The Dirty Dozen with an anti-science bent and without a dozen cast members. If this is a typical SciFi made for TV movie, thumbs way down. Otherwise, I"m ambivalent.


• Revolution - colonists on a remote planet find themselves under siege from Earth. The premise sounds interesting and this is definitely SF. No word on whether Steven Segal will reprise his role....


• Middletown - "two-hour pilot about a small town in Middle America that becomes the final battlefield for Earth when nefarious aliens make the town their Ellis Island". Shades of Men In Black! Is there enough here for an entire series? We'll have to wait and see, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.


• Johnny Midnight - is the heartwarming tale of "a slacker who discovers that he has powers that can save the world from malevolen [sic] forces". Why a slacker? Is it because everyone else has a job and is too busy to save the world? A big fat 'Meh!' for this one.


• Starcrossed - "is a half-hour comedy starring David Hewlett...who will draw from his own experiences for stories that go behind the scenes of a long-running space opera". What? Is this a comedy about the backstage shennanigans on a TV show? If so, I hope its like the 200th episode of Stargate which was pretty good, but I don't see this one lasting long term.


• Witch School - is a "docusoap" about a school for witches. Ugh, just ugh. The less said the better.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday January 12, 2007 at 3:02 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

• SCI FI Wire profiles Mark Budz, author of the Philip K. Dick Award finalist Idolon.


• The Sci Phi Show podcast-interviews Mike Resnick.


• Cory Doctorow has started podcasting his novel Eastern Standard Tribe. Be sure to sign up to the RSS feed. [via SFF Audio]


• Eternal Golden Braid ponders the proper reading order for Terry Pratchett's Discworld.


• Friday YouTube: The Ewok Song...as sung by a barbershop quartet. [via The Force.net]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 12, 2007 at 12:23 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Today we get two frightening pieces of news about upcoming series on SciFi and NBC.

First, SciFi News Wire has a small blurb about actor Paul Blackthorne who will be playing Harry Dresden in the upcoming SciFi series, The Dresden Files. Paul talks about how he developed Harry Dresden as an onscreen character:

So I went about creating a character in the same way as I would whether people were aware or not. Obviously, Jim Butcher gave me a considerable push-off in the world and the character that he created. I just took it beyond there with regard to the scripts. When the scripts came in, the character further developed in my mind.

Second, and in the WTF department, NBC is moving forward on a new SF series pilot, called Journeyman. Its about a man who travels in time to fix the lives of people in trouble. I think I saw that show before, when it was called Quantum Leap. No word on whether Scott Bakula or Dean Stockwell are interested. Seriously, what the hell? Is NBC so bereft of ideas for SF shows that they have to re-hash one of their own properties? For the love of fall things SF, call a real SF author and come up with something new! Please.

We know return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday January 11, 2007 at 4:16 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Author Robert Anton Wilson (The Illuminatus! Trilogy) passed away today.

His final blog post reads thusly:

Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.

Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.

[via BoingBoing]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 11, 2007 at 3:59 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY:Excellent sci-fi thriller that offers a ride reminiscent of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An ex-con turned animal hunter is thrust onto a very dangerous planet and forced to rally his rag-tag team of misfits into a fight for their very lives.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Very well written action sequences, overall pacing is excellent
CONS: Some characters are openly stereotypical, dream element heavy-handed
BOTTOM LINE: Well worth the time if you enjoy a bit of thrill along with your pulpy science fiction.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Thursday January 11, 2007 at 12:15 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Kirkus lists their Top books for 2006 (PDF file).

Making the cut in the "Sci-Fi" category:

• Shadows in the Starlight by Elaine Cunningham
• A Grey Moon Over China by Thomas A. Day
• The Crippled Angel by Sara Douglass
• Eifelheim by Michael Flynn [see SF Signal review]
• Stamping Butterflies by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Bridge of Souls by Fiona McIntosh
• The Toyminator by Robert Rankin
• Greywalker by Kat Richardson
• Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder
• In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 11, 2007 at 1:07 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• R.I.P. Yvonne De Carlo, TV's Lily Munster.


• Chapter Feeds has a preview of The Cylons' Secret by Craig Shaw Gardner.


• SFF World interviews Orson Scott Card, author of Empire. [via SFBC Blog]


• Ain't It Cool News talks to Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire books. [via SFBC Blog]


• In Australia, the geek genre has its groove back.


• SCI FI Wire profiles Justina Robson, author of Living Next Door to the God of Love, and David Weber, author of Off Armageddon Reef.


• More Malazan stories are coming in 2007 from Ian Cameron Esslemont, who created the World of the Malazan with friend and fellow author Steve Erikson. [via UKSFBookNews]


• Sci-Fi Fodder lists the Top Ten Sci-Fi Devices.


• According to SCI FI Wire: William Shatner confirms that Trek XI will indeed focus on the Starfleet Academy years of young Kirk and Young Spock.


• David Marusek, author of Counting Heads, is showing off the cover of his upcoming collection Getting to Know You.


• Locus Online has posted Cory Doctorow's article from the latest issue of Locus, Blogging Without the Blog, in which he outlines the ease of author blogging. See also: SF Signal's list of sf/f authors who blog.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 11, 2007 at 1:03 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

I have some surprising news - at least it was for me. This year the World Science Fiction Society's 65th annual convention, Worldcon, is being held in Japan. This convention is also known as Nippon2007 and is held the first week of September. I think having the convention in Japan is a great idea - I understand this is the first Worlcon to be held in Asia and I think a World organization certainly should hold its conventions outside in the world.

The surprise is - the Hugo balloting cycle is tied to these conventions. As a result I think we're going to see some very interesting outcomes.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 8:44 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

[UPDATED: Now with more free fiction links!]

The SFWA has posted the 2006 Preliminary Nebula Award Ballot. The final ballot will be mailed in early March, with the Nebula Award presented in New York City at the 2007 Nebula Awards Weekend, May 11-13, 2007.

Here are the stories, linked to online versions where available. (SFWA members have access to even more.)

NOVELS

• From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes (Golden Gryphon Press, Sep05)
• Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell (Tor, Feb06; read preview) [see SF Signal review]
• The Girl in the Glass by Jeffrey Ford (Dark Alley, Aug05)
• The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra, Jul06)
• Counting Heads by David Marusek (Tor, Oct05) [see SF Signal review]
• To Crush the Moon by Wil McCarthy (Bantam Spectra, May05)
• Seeker by Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov05)
• A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park (Tor, Aug05)
• Remains by Mark W Tiedemann (BenBella Books, Jul05)
• Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor, Mar05) [see SF Signal review]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 12:10 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Elvis Robot has left the building." [via Gravity Lens]


• The January edition of Internet Review of Science Fiction is now available.


• Author Brandon Sanderson writes about Why You Should Buy Hardback Books.


• Benjamin Rosenbaum's short story "House Beyond Your Sky", which will be included in 4 of this year's "Best" anthologies, is under a creative commons license. [via BoingBoing]


• John C. Wright looks at science fiction events that fortunately failed to come true.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 12:03 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Redeems the series with an excellent, action-packed finish.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Delgado and Ash join forces with a rebel Seriatt group to overthrow the alien Sinz that are using the planet as a launch point for war with Earth.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Relentless, engrossing action sequences; likable characters; page-turning quality; vivid imagery.
CONS: Some moments broke suspension of disbelief.
BOTTOM LINE: 100% adventure.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 09, 2007 at 12:42 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

OK, enough time has passed since my horribly unsuccessful book meme that I'm willing to give this another go. This time around, though, I'm going to focus on science fiction, fantasy and horror movies. Some of them I'd like to see, others...not so much.

The list of 2007 genre movies follows. It's sorted alphabetically since release dates change and are geo-centric. Titles are pulled from Dark Horizons, SciFi Movie Page and IMDB.

Highlight the genre movies you are anticipating, as follows:
- BOLD for movies you want to see in the theater
- ITALICS for movies that you'll wait for the DVD release

• 28 Weeks Later
• Alien vs. Predator AVP2
• Arthur and the Invisibles
• Fanboys
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
• Ghost Rider
• Halloween
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
• I Am Legend
• Meet the Robinsons
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End
• Resident Evil 3: Extinction
• Shrek the Third
• Spider-Man 3
• Stardust
• Sunshine
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Astronaut Farmer
• The Dark Is Rising
• The Invasion
• The Martian Child
• The Mist
• Transformers
• Underdog

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 09, 2007 at 12:17 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• SciFiWeekly interviews Rudy Rucker, author of Mathematicians in Love.


• The Edge Foundation asked 158 scientists, philosophers, and futurists "What are you optimistic about?" There are responses from the likes of Gregory Benford and Rudy Rucker. See previous post for 2005 and 2006 questions. [via Locus Online]


• Bookslut interviews Nick Mamatas, author of Under My Roof .


• Art Department gets a 30-second interview from artist Brom.


• Tuesday YouTube: World of Warcraft Meets Battlestar Galactica. [via Science Fiction Buzz]


• "These aren't the tunes you're looking for..." Meet the R2-D2 Mobile Entertainment System.


• Q: When is it OK to perpetuate a product's viral video commercial? A: When it's Bruce Campbell hawking Old Spice! [via Pistol Wimp]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 09, 2007 at 12:08 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

The finalists for the 2006 Aurealis Awards, which honors the best in Australian genre fiction, have been announced:

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• Hydrogen Steel by K. A. Bedford
• K-Machines by Damien Broderick
• Underground by Andrew McGahan
• Geodesica: Descent by Sean Williams with Shane Dix

BEST FANTASY NOVEL

• The Silver Road by Grace Dugan
• Heart of the Mirage by Glenda Larke
• Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
• Voidfarer by Sean McMullen
• Blaze of Glory by Michael Pryor

BEST HORROR NOVEL

• The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott
• Prismatic by Edwina Grey
• Carnies by Martin Livings
• The Mother by Brett McBean

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Monster Blood Tattoo: Book One. Foundling by D.M. Cornish
• The King's Fool by Amanda Holohan
• Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier
• Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
• The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 08, 2007 at 12:25 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Nominees for this year's Philip K. Dick Award, recognizing distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States, have been announced:

• Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
• Catalyst by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Idolon by Mark Budz
• Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson
• Mindscape by Andrea Hairston
• Recursion by Tony Ballantyne
• Spin Control by Chris Moriarity

[via Locus Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 08, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Robert J. Sawyer has posted the opening chapters of Rollback, his upcoming novel.


• At Locus Online, Jeff VanderMeer looks at 12 overlooked books you may not have discovered in your journeys through the literary world in 2006.


• Farkers photoshop Luna 1.


• Blue Monday: Pistol Wimp has the "Staying Alive" episode of the BBC documentary Space, hosted by Sam Neill. Learn about Earth's chances of survival.


• Paperback Writer offers The Devil's Publishing Dictionary Parts One and Two. Patrick Nielson Hayden offers some corrections.


• NPR features Rick Kleffel talking to science fiction writers about economics. Need more to get you economic jones on? Check out our earlier post or The Economics of Science Fiction.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 08, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"Only two of the movies listed were worth the accolade, and it was a tough choice between "V" and "Children". But for sheer cinematic excellence, it had to be "Children". Best film for years." - Paul Harper

"Well, seeing as I've only really seen X-men 3... I can't really say." - Kev

"Hard to vote if you haven't seen all these movies. I have only seen one of them myself! And besides, what are you doing seeing moves - you should be reading!" - Scott

"I voted "V" but still have not seen either Children of Men or Pan's...so I might change my mind. But then again if I see them now wouldn't they fall on my 2007 Movie list?!?!?!?" - Bryans

"Holy hell, will someone please denounce Pan's Labyrinth? It's the most overhyped, overblown movie I've seen this (06) year." - Chris

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 08, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• BBC7's The Seventh Dimension is rebroadcasting their unabridged reading of Richard Matheson's classic 1954 novel I Am Legend. [via SFFAudio]


• Starship Sofa is a U.K. podcast specializing in science fiction authors. [via SFFAudio]


• Tales from the Vault, Canadian Pulp Fiction, 1940-1952 is a virtual exhibit of Canadian pulp magazines. [via The Cultural Gutter]


• Eye Candy: Earth From Space.


• Adventures in Scifi Publishing Episode 007 features Keith R.A. DeCandido and Paul Levinson.


• Tim Pratt presents his The Sinister Sixth Annual Tropism Awards.


• Now posted: Ansible #234 (January 2007 issue)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 07, 2007 at 12:04 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Shortly after learning about Amazon's fluctuating prices comes this interesting secret of Price Protection from Slate's Amazon's Secret Price Guarantee article:

Perhaps you are wondering: What 30-day price guarantee? Like Amazon's customer-service number itself, the 30-day price guarantee is not something Amazon publicizes. For instance, it isn't mentioned on the "Refunds" page. If you click here you'll learn all about Amazon's 30-day returns policy, which provides a full refund for most unopened items returned within 30 days. But that's different from the 30-day price guarantee, which requires only that you pay attention to whether Amazon lowers its price within 30 days after you purchase your item. If it does, Amazon will refund you the difference. No need to box up your purchase or fret about receiving only a partial refund because you removed the plastic wrap.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 06, 2007 at 12:39 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

In a previous post , we mentioned that the Incwell iPulp Fiction site was serializing their young adult science fiction story From the Shadows. Now, KB Shaw writes in to tell us iPulpFiction has just published part one of a new science fiction series for young adults called The Neworld Papers: Below. The three-issue story continues in February and March:

The IncWell iPulp Fiction Library is an effort to update the literary legacy of the Dime Novel and serialized fiction popular during the late 19th through mid 20th centuries. We will blend the look and feel of Dime Novels, such as Beadles Boy's Library, with the tradition of serial novels featured in such magazines at The Strand, and Harper's to create original genre fiction suitable for readers 10 to adult.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday January 06, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Coming in March: Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #1. [via BlogCritics]


• Mike Resnick has some issues with sci-fi movies like Star Wars, E.T., Blade Runner, Matrix Reloaded, Minority Report and more.


• Tobias Buckell's no-nonsense Author/Critic response FAQ may help prevent author attacks.


• David Gerrold reminisces about Star Trek in the Courier Mail article Where no one's gone since. [via Trek Today]


• Premiering soon on Cartoon Network: Saul of the Mole Men, an intentionally-low-budget sci-fi comedy. I think. [Sent by Fred K. via Boing^2]


• SF Bookworm has created an interactive bookstore map featuring stores with great selections of science fiction, fantasy or horror books. Add your favorites!


• Dirk Benedict, TV's first Starbuck, will appear in Celebrity Big Brother. Sez Dirk: "My sons persuaded me to do the show. I'm a recluse...I expect 25 days of absolute hell." [via Big Dumb Object]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 05, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

I'm lovin' our new HDTV, but one of the downsides is that I find myself flipping through HD shows that I normally wouldn't bother with. Case in point: last night's channel hopping led me to two episodes of the Showtime series Dead Like Me on the InHD HDNet channel. It's a quirky black comedy about a bunch of dead people - modern grim reapers - charged with guiding the newly departed to the afterlife. It got a few laughs out of me and seemed like an interesting premise. The Scrubs-ending-like seriousness seems to add a little something to it.

Not being a Showtime subscriber, I hadn't seen it before. I now know that the SciFi channel is airing it, but in edited format. (On InHD HDNet it aired without commercial interruption and unedited - curses and all.) I've only seen the two episodes and liked it in a Eureka kind of way.

Has anyone else seen this show? Is this worth my time? Showtime canceled it after two seasons and I'm wondering if I should take the time to rent the DVDs.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 05, 2007 at 12:03 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• China Miéville's young adult book, Un Lun Dun, has a website.


• Asimov's 2006 reader poll is open for voting.


• Chapter Feeds has posted the first chapter of Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson


• For Tim: Evil Mad Scientist tells us How to Build a Lego Trebuchet.


• Free fiction: "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow.


• Rocket Jones offers Know Your Japanese Movie Monsters, Part 1 - Gamera.


• Warner Brothers is inviting fans to submit 15-minute fanfilm of Smallville in a contest where the winning films will be featured on the upcoming sixth season DVD release.


• Fan Jamie Rubin has decided to spend 2007 going through his entire collection of Science Fiction Age and he's blogging about it. [via Michael Burstein]


• Guy Gavriel Kay, author of Ysabel, is interviewed by Blogcritics and Pat's Fantasy Hotlist


• Cool: 5-Inch Die Cast Figure of Gort.


• Cooler: Horrified B-Movie Victims Figure Set


• Coolest: Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer (Number 6) will appear in the next Playboy. And there was much rejoicing...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 04, 2007 at 12:40 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

I've posted mine.

Now it's time for our readers to sound off on their best books, films and television shows that they read or watched in 2006. Since I didn't stick to things released in 2006, I won't hold anyone else to that. So, its OK if you read a classic sf book or caught up on your DVD watching...

If you need help remembering what was new, check out these handy references:
BOOKS: Locus Online's 2006 Index
MOVIES: The Numbers' Annual Movie Chart - 2006
TV: Sci-Fi Ranter Girl's Season Start Dates (two posts)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 03, 2007 at 12:20 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

SF Signal has been nominated for the KBCafe Blog Awards in the Best SF Blog category. I'm not sure what the criteria is for being nominated, but it's a nice honor nonetheless.

Of course, winning would be even cooler, so stop by and vote before the polls close on January 10th, won't you? :)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 03, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Barnes & Noble list their Top Ten SF Novels of 2006. [via John Picacio]


• SF Revu interviews Cory Doctorow, John Picacio and Lou Anders (in process of being published). [via John Picacio]


• The Guardian profiles JK Rowling. [via Backwards City]


• Like Steampunk? Check out Steampunkopedia.


• Fimoculous has compiled a list of 650+ Best of 2006 Lists categorized by subjects like books, film and TV.


• The Art Department has a Four Questions with Artist John Harris.


• Even though Heroes is on a break, NBC is still releasing the online Heroes comics. [via OnOurTV]


• SFFAudio interviews Bill DeSmedt, author of Singularity.


• John Scalzi has officially lost his marbles.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 03, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Aliens crash land in a mid-14th Century village while present day researchers try to discover why that village disappeared from the maps.
PROS: Believable, sympathetic characters; unusual first contact setting; thought provoking ideas about cosmology and religion.
CONS: Present day story line weaker than the historical one; too many coincidences overall.
BOTTOM LINE: A thought provoking first contact novel any SF fan should enjoy.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday January 02, 2007 at 3:26 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

From The Los Angeles Times article Amazon Mystery: Pricing of Books, Amazon appears to be experimenting with dynamic pricing:

Imagine this: You go to a bookstore, browse, choose a couple of volumes. But you don't want to carry the books around. So you ask the clerk to hold the tomes until Saturday, when you'll come back to buy them.

When you return, the bookseller hands you the items but advises you that he's raised the prices. "I knew you were hot to buy them," the clerk says, "so I figured I could make a few extra bucks."

That's what it feels like online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. has been doing to me.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 02, 2007 at 9:28 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Go, go Google Analytics!

Here are The Top 10 SF Signal Posts for December 2006:

1. REVIEW: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips
2. How do bookstores survive?
3. REVIEW: Blindsight by Peter Watts
4. When Authors Don't Attack
5. Who Killed Science Fiction?
6. Is a Star Trek "Re-Imagining" Overdue?
7. Alastair Reynolds and Future History
8. When Authors Attack II
9. See Battlestar Galactica on the Big Screen...For Free!
10. Quick Thoughts on Doctor Who, Season 2 Finale

Looking at the top overall hits in December, which includes posts published earlier, we get these stats:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 02, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Chris Roberson starts the year off with a bang and this YouTube video featuring some childhood idolettes.


• Speaking of whom...SciFiChick has drawn a cool pencil drawing of Wonder Woman Lynda Carter.


• The British Science Fiction Association's list of upcoming 2007 interviewees includes Paul Cornell, Rob Holdstock, Hal Duncan, Jon George, Stephen Hunt, Brian Stableford, Anne Sudworth, Chris Beckett, Juliet McKenna, John Clute and Iain M. Banks. [via Big Dumb Object]


• Green Man Review collects a bunch of authors' picks for Best of 2006. [via SFBC Blog]


• The Internet Speculative Fiction Database is open for editing by the general public. [via Locus Online]


• Strange Horizons has the article Flight of the Useful Books By Matthew Cheney in which he explains why the most useful books to me on long flights are mysteries and thrillers.


• SF Site has Jeff VanderMeer's Dispatches From Smaragdine which includes an interview with Ellen Datlow.


• Andrew Wheeler lists his best of 2006.


• Justine Larbalestier compares young adult and adult literature.


• Subterranean Press is serializing "Lucifugous" by Elizabeth Bear.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday January 02, 2007 at 12:10 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY:Well-written alternative history novel with a story that comes up a bit short.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The worlds of Mars and Venus turn out to be exactly as the classic sci-fi writers of the 50's thought they would be - populated with sentient life. After establishing a base on Venus, American colonist Marc Vitrac goes on a rescue mission for a downed SovietBloc space ship only to be caught up in a squabble with the natives for the very reason for Venus' existence.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Solid prose, well-done military / action sequences
CONS: Characters are largely one-dimensional, story isn't very compelling
BOTTOM LINE: If you love Stirling you'll probably like this one - otherwise, I'd give it a pass and read one of his better works such as Islands in the Sea of Time.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Monday January 01, 2007 at 7:13 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Being a fan of both The Iron Giant book and film, I find this website to be way cool: The Ultimate Iron Giant.


• Beyond Reality's science fiction and fantasy picks for January are Accelerando by Charles Stross and Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson.


• SciFi Weekly interviews Jack McDevitt, author of Odyssey.


• John Picacio artfully looks back at 2006.


• Website at the End of the Universe continues its tradition of providing a free science fiction calendar with vintage science fiction magazine covers and author birthdays.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 01, 2007 at 12:47 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Continuing my annual tradition, this is a year-end wrap-up for my personal sf/fantasy/horror experiences for 2006. These are not necessarily things that first appeared this year - some of the books I read are reprints or older copies - they are just the things that I read (or watched) this year.

THE SHORT VERSION

To sum up, the Best of 2006 (works that received at least a 4.5 out of 5 rating) are: