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
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 31, 2007 at 12:12 AM
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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
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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.[via Eternal Golden Braid]
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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 29, 2007 at 1:02 PM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 29, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal
| (119 total votes) |
"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 MorrisBe sure to vote in this week's poll on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels!
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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:
Read more...
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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday January 28, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

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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:
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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
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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
Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2007 Edition
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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday January 26, 2007 at 12:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

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

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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
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."[via Resource Shelf]
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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.See the AbeBooks blog for more information.
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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.Discuss...
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

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

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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

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 22, 2007 at 12:16 AM
© 2007 SF Signal
| (116 total votes) |
"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 HawkinsTrent has apparently forgotten this was a science fiction blog. :)
"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

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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:
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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
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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...
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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.I guess it all comes down to whether a reviewer can be truly honest with himself, even in acknowledgement of any psychological factors that may come into play. Read more...
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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.Yikes! And look at those snapshots! Could my biblioholism be leading me down the same path?
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

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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:
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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
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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

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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 is Samuel Delany's classic post-disaster novel of the city of Bellona. Strange things happen here: a river changes location, the protagonist looks in a mirror and sees someone else (someone vaguely familiar to the reader (hopefully)), and time passes differently for different characters. The reason for this becomes clear when the reader discovers what the central conceit of the story is, but if you haven't read it, I won't spoil it for you. Dhalgren is big, dense and complex and I don't see how this novel could ever work as movie. It would be incredibly difficult to film correctly, and we haven't even covered the themes of sex, gender and race, among others, that make this a difficult read, not to mention put on film.
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 is Hal Duncan's debut novel, and I think you could consider it to be this generation's Dhalgren. At times challenging and complex, Vellum also play fast and lose with narrative and time. After a somewhat conventional start (if you consider motorcylce driving witches conventional), Vellum veers off into territory where time and space really have little meaning, preferring to focus on the characters journey of discovery. Again, with the unconventional use of time, I see no easy way to put this story on film. Its challenging enough to read, let alone try to watch and figure out what the heck is going on. See the SFSignal review for more.
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.Apparently in 1949, science fiction was a "fad" that had "rabid" fans. Oh well, at least they got the "rabid" part right....
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
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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
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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
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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 15, 2007 at 12:19 AM
© 2007 SF Signal
| (67 total votes) |
"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!" - BryansBe sure to vote in this week's poll on Keanu Reeves' Movies!
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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
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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.There are some good points made in this article, but it seems to me that its author forgot one thing: different people look for different things in reading. Not everyone is looking to "allow into their own mind a picture of human consciousness so radically different from their own as to be almost offensive to reason." Even further, I would argue that any single individual can opt for a wide spectrum of reading experiences from different titles. Is there nobody who likes both T.S. Eliot and and "lowbrow" fiction?
...
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.Why is it that every time I hear the name Flash Gordon the Queen song pops in my head? Ah well, there are worse things to have echoing through your skull.
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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:
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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday January 12, 2007 at 3:02 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

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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.So instead of using Butcher's characterization of Harry, he used Butcher as a starting point to create his own. This doesn't bode well. Additionally, Blackthorne doesn't look like what I thought Harry would look like. Blackthorne looks too frail to take the beatings that Dresden takes. And in the trailers I've seen, Blackthorne's character seems somehow smarmy, which Harry definitely isn't. I'm wondering how much of the books they will follow. I can't see them doing a book a week as they will run out of story in about 8 weeks. This suggests they will have to create their own stories, and that The Dresden Files will be based on Butcher's books, as opposed to being a serialized version (which they should do). Which is too bad, since much of the enjoyment from the books comes from Butcher's writing and Harry's observations about the situations he finds himself in. Still, I'll give it a chance, which is more a testament to Butcher's writing ability than of faith in SciFi's ability to successfully adapt a novel series for TV.
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.See laso: wikipedia entryPlease 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:
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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday January 11, 2007 at 1:07 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

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

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

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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
BEST FANTASY NOVEL
BEST HORROR NOVEL
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
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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:
[via Locus Online]
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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 08, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday January 08, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal
| (155 total votes) |
"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 HarperBe sure to vote in this week's poll on the 2nd season of Who Wants to be a Superhero?
"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

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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

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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

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

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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:
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

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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

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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: