Sniff...sniff... Smells like award season.

The nominees for the 2007 John W. Campbell Memorial Award, celebrating the best SF novel published in the US, are:

• Titan by Ben Bova (Tor)
• A Small and Remarkable Life by Nick DiChario (Robert J. Sawyer Books)
• Infoquake by David Louis Edelman (Pyr) [see SF Signal review]
• Nova Swing by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
• Odyssey by Jack McDevitt (Ace)
• The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow (William Morrow)
• Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson (Tor)
• Dry by Barbara Sapergia (Coteau Books)
• Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder (Tor) [see SF Signal review]
• Glasshouse by Charles Stross (Ace)
• Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (Tor) [see SF Signal review]
• Farthing by Jo Walton (Tor)
• Blindsight by Peter Watts (Tor) [see SF Signal review]

[via SF Scope]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 31, 2007 at 6:03 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

All you Speed Racer fanboys can commence drooling (let me get my handkerchief). USA Today has a first look at the Mach 5 that will be used in the upcoming Speed Racer movie.

I confess, I watched Speed every afternoon after school. My most favorite Hot Wheels car was my Mach 5. I even have the first two issues of the Speed Racer comic released by Wildstorm in 1999. Yes, I like Speed Racer. I mean, who doesn't like a giant truck made out of solid gold? Just think of the power needed to move that!

I had heard there was a movie in the works, but knowing the Wachowski brothers were directing gave me some pause. Although Speed Racer will be a family film, producer Joel Silver says:

And it will have great effects like the Matrix, just with the car.

As if the Mach 5 isn't enough, the last sentence is:

"They're using a real monkey," Hirsch says. "Just don't call him that. He's a chimpanzee. He gets upset if you call him a monkey."

But dang, that is one cool looking car. Maybe Detroit ought to make those for mass market consumption.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 31, 2007 at 3:29 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

I saw this picture over on Viscious Imagery and felt nothing screamed for a caption challenge like it did. Sure John offers a challenge where you can wrack your brains trying to figure out movies from some clues, but here I offer folks the ability to demonstrate their intelligence and humor and make some wry commentary about images pulled from the internet.

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Thursday May 31, 2007 at 1:37 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Just when you thought Pottermania would finally die down after the release of the last book, come word that Warner Bros. and Universal will be opening a Harry Potter theme park in Orlando sometime during 2009. That's right, a Potter theme park. As if seven books and seven movies isn't enough, the llPotter cash cow will continue in the land of oranges and sunshine.

I'd assume that there will be a Hogwarts Castle a la Cinderella's Castle at Disneyworld, and at least one rollercoaster will be themed to match Harry's broomstick (either the Nimrod 2000 or the Rollercoaster of Puking, take your pick). I'm sure there will also be a Hogmeads food area and Quidditch field (pitch?). I'd like to be able to throw bludgers at animatronic Potters, that would be cool. I'm sure there are tons of things they will do.

But will people actually go? I'd say there will be an initial crush as people check out what the park is like, but to be successful long term, it will have to offer something more than just all Potter, all the time. Like rides, good ones, and lots of them. But then again, if the Lumos 2006 is any indication, there are already some over obsessive fans. Harry Potter pr0n? Yes, Potter slash fiction. Really. Let's hope none of that makes it into the theme park. After all, the characters are kids for crying out loud. WTH?

So back on topic, I'm not sure whether to wish Warner Bros., Universal and Rowling success in their next money grubbing endeavor or not. I'm sure Rowling thinks it'll be fun, and it could be. I'm just not sure how long lasting a Potter-themed park will be. I guess we'll find out starting in two years.

Update: Alright, with more information coming in, via MuggleNet, I officially tone down my initial skepticism. It seems that The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter will be a themed area within Universal Studios Orlando. Aside from the areas mentioned at the website, no real word on what kind of attractions we can expect to see. But to stay in my curmudgeon role: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter? Is 'wizarding' even a word? Doesn't really ro of the tongue does it?

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 31, 2007 at 9:02 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

In this L.A. Weekly News piece, Ray Bradbury says that the masses misunderstood the meaning behind his classic novel Fahrenheit 451:

Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands.
...
Bradbury, a man living in the creative and industrial center of reality TV and one-hour dramas, says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 31, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Allen Steele, author of Spindrift, a book set in the same universe as his Hugo Award-winning Coyote series.


• Articulate (ABC Australia) interviews Margo Lanagan, author of Black Juice. [via Lanagan's blog]


• George R.R. Martin lists films that are better than Star Wars and names "the best science fiction film of all time": Forbidden Planet.


• Russell Kirkpatrick has a theory on why fantasy is so popular: "I believe the 1970s saw the beginning of a widespread public rejection of the 'tech fix', and this is mirrored by the rise of the fantasy novel, in which technology is absent or at least tightly prescribed, and the consequent decline of science fiction."


• Gerry Canavan has a butt-load of 12 Monkeys links.


• Topps introduces Hollywood Zombies trading cards. [via Table of Malcontents]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 31, 2007 at 12:06 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Steadily improving work that delivers some interesting ideas.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In 2210 a young man decides to defy the galactic authority and creates a Von Neumann Machine (VNM) capable of terraforming an entire planet. Unfortunately his programming is a shoddy and he ends up destroying the planet instead. He's caught, and then ends up in a massive web of intrigue involving 200 year old plots to deal with rogue AIs released into the galaxy.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Very interesting ideas around the hazards of AIs and self-replicating machinery.
CONS: Writing starts out weak, characters end up thinner than they initially appear.
BOTTOM LINE: I found myself quite put off by Recursion when I first started it, but by the end I was cheering the author for his interesting use of technology and some of the grand ideas of science fiction.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Wednesday May 30, 2007 at 5:21 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

OK, a week old but you know you love it...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 30, 2007 at 6:49 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Heidi Ruby Miller interviews Tobias S. Buckell, author of Ragamuffin.


• SF Canada interviews Nancy Kress, author of Beggars in Spain. [via Edward Willett]


• The Homeland Security Department is tapping science-fiction writers Jerry Pournelle, Arlan Andrews, Greg Bear, Larry Niven and Sage Walker for ideas.


• New/Updated at Gutenberg: "Gambler's World" by Keith Laumer.


• Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné heads to film.


• James Boone Dryden likes soft science fiction and asks: Where's the sf that questions the world around us?


• James Patrick Kelly is podcasting his novel Look Into the Sun. Here's Part 15.


• Comics adopt the Hollywood model. [via Easter Lemming Notebook]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 30, 2007 at 12:20 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

PopMatters ponders The Death of Serious Science Fiction:

[Science Fiction has] been dominated for decades by a single storytelling dynamic. Instead of reaching for intelligence and stretching the boundaries of imagination, it decides to take hoary old clichés, lots of narrative formula, and one man's F/X laced legacy, and completely rewrite the rules of acceptability. Where once the speculative spectacle questioned the existence of man within the cosmos, today it's all Westerns with robots.
...
In the last four decades (leaving everything before the '60s out of the equation for the moment) there have only been eight serious sci-fi triumphs—movies that readily define what one means by a thought provoking, inventive approach to speculative subject matter. In conjunction with the equally important TV triumphs of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and The Star Trek Saga (including all recent TV incarnations), this influential octet - Planet of the Apes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Soylent Green, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Brazil, Dark City, The Matrix, and most recently, Children of Men - represent real attempts to address the category's myriad of issues and possibilities. Scattered among this collective are intriguing also-rans like Silent Running, Solaris, Blade Runner, Gattaca and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. While some may argue for a missing favorite—Alien, The Fifth Element, I, Robot—there is a significant reasons why these movies fall outside this discussion, primary among them, their lack of an inherent allegorical nature.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 29, 2007 at 12:59 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Flat characterizations translate into an un-engaging novel.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: First contact with aliens in Asher's Polity universe.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Fast-paced; much action; cool depiction of aliens.
CONS: Flat characters that lack any qualities to which the reader can relate.
BOTTOM LINE: Could have spared a few pages to flesh out the characters more.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 29, 2007 at 12:27 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Articulate, the ABC/Australia blog, interviews Sean Williams, author Saturn Returns.


• Locus Online has excerpts from Locus Magazine's May "Horror" issue including a discussion with Peter Straub, John Clute, and Gary K. Wolfe and the Joe R. Lansdale interview.


• Over at SciFi Weekly, Wil McCarthy looks at the Science of the Silver Surfer.


• Science-Fiction & Fantasy forums is looking for references to airships in films/books/games.


• Here's what happens when geeks dress their kids up or Halloween. [via Tim]


• Here's a Star Wars spaceport in Legos.


• Take a look at these rayguns created by special effects guys.


• City Beat looks at Tron, 25 years later.


• John Klima offers sf/f reading recommendations by decade.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 29, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

I've been tagged by Nick Senger at Literary Compass to participate in his Title Blending meme...
(I might counter with resurrecting my sf book meme... :) )

The idea is to blend two book titles together by using the last word of one title and the first word of the second title. If you want, you can blend the authors' names too.

Here are my picks, confined (as one might expect at a science fiction blog) to science fiction and fantasy titles.

• Stranger in a Strange Land That Time Forgot by Robert A. Rice Burroughs
• Ender's Game of Thrones by Orson Scott R.R. Martin
• A Deepness in the Skylark of Space by Vernor E.E. Smith
• Old Man's War of the Worlds by H.G. Scalzi
• American Gods of Red Mars by Neil Stanley Rice Burroughs

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

• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist talks to Ian McDonald about his novel Brasyl.


• Booklust's Nancy Pearl video-interviews Connie Willis (D.A. and the upcoming time-traveling novel All Clear). [via Locus Online]


• Newsarama.com interviews Harlan Ellison^®. [via Locus Online]


• Washington Post reports on last week's Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Show. [via Locus Online]


• Despite the fact that the article How to Pick a Science Fiction Novel doesn't actually tell you how to do so, it's worth a read if only for the spelling and grammar mistakes. (Like I'm one to talk.)


• Writer/Anthologist Kathryn Cramer is tracking the fluff between Wikipedia and Cory Doctorow over the Wikipedia entry for Teresa Nielson Hayden, Tor Editor and co-blogger (along with Editor husband Patrick) of the popular Making Light blog.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 28, 2007 at 12:06 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"Every episode is absolute Gold, I voted Jaynestown because it was so 'off the wall'." - BrianD

"You really can't stop this signal. We Firefly fans are seriously committed!" - Devon
[Ed: If not, you ought to be. :)]

"Where is the "all of the above" answer? Time to work on voting across the board..." - Tim

"I just voted for "Out of Gas" a great story, but it looks like someone has already stuffed the ballot box for it and 'Objects in Space'." - Kristen

"I have the box set and "Out of Gas" is still the episode I pop in the dvd player most often, when I need a hit of 'Firefly'. Followed by 'War Stories' and 'Heart of Gold'" - Kathryn

"This is like asking me to choose among my children or cats or something! Each episode has something special to recommend it, and which one I pop into the player depends on the circumstances at that time. 'Serenity' is (duh!) the episode I recommend to newbies, followed by "Out of Gas," but there is goodness throughout. For example, nobody should miss Jayne (even in the background) in 'Heart of Gold,' or Wash, all muddy and inebriated, interacting with Zoe in 'Jaynestown,' or Inara's big scene in 'The Train Job,' or too many more to record here. Who wouldn't want to sit at the table with our crew and talk over adventures or plan a new one?" - FloralBonnet

"Our Mrs Reynolds......Christina Hendricks. Red hair. Ummmm....yummy treats" - doctorferris

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 28, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 24 weeks after the rage virus strikes, all of the infected have starved and the U.S. military begins rebuilding London. A month after that the first children are allowed back in...

PROS: Far more tense than even 28 Days Later.
CONS: Premise of setting up so soon after the virus is a little tenuous; camera too shaky
BOTTOM LINE: I was a big fan of 28 Days Later. As edge-of-your-seat as that film was, 28 Weeks Later was even more terrifying!

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Posted by APEGamer at Sunday May 27, 2007 at 10:36 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:

Brasyl has been receiving high praise from just about everyone since it's publication. It's easy to see why. Not content with writing just one interesting story, McDonald gives us three: Father Quinn is tasked with tracking down a renegade priest in the vastness of the 18th Century Amazonian watershed, Marcelina Hoffman is a reality TV producer for Canal Quatro in 2006 Brazil who seems to be haunted by herself, and Edson Oliveira de Freitas is a small time hood and part-time business man in a panoptic Brazil in 2032 who becomes enamored with a quantum computing queen. Each story is interesting in its own right, with Father Quinn's being the most interesting of the three. McDonald has obviously researched Brazil extensively, and this research pays off as Brazilian culture and society come alive within McDonald's prose. Portugese words and ideas are liberally spread throughout each setting which help the settings come to life.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Sunday May 27, 2007 at 9:03 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

StarWars.com has posted a trailer for the Clone Wars, the upcoming animated series.

I'm not sure how much I like the animation style. They use the "realistic" 3D animation style that you'd find in a computer game rather than the cartoon-ish style of the Star Wars: Clone Wars miniseries they did back in 2005. To me, it just looks like a videogame. It's just not realistic enough to be anything other than a distraction. It's more like the creepy animation they did for The Polar Express. But that's just me...    

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 27, 2007 at 7:01 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

From About:

At Midnight on July 21, J.K. Rowling will give a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in its entirety. The reading is expected to last until dawn and will be attended by by 500 randomly selected fans, all of whome will also receive a free signed copy of the book.

The event will take place at the National History Museum in London and is sponsored by Bloomsbuy and Scholastic publishing houses who publishing the Harry Potter books in the U.K. and U.S. respectively. Seven U.S. fans can enter to win round-trip tickets to London and hotel accomodations.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 27, 2007 at 2:28 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• In his article Confessions of an Accidental Encyclopedist, Gary Westfahl considers how SF and fantasy are different from other forms of literature, how the two genres are nevertheless the same, and how circumstances beyond an editor's control can shape the content and message of a work like The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Be sure to check out the Ten Quotations list at the end of the article. [via Locus Online]


• Family Guy will kick off next season with an hour-long Star Wars spoof approved by LucasFilm. [via Fanboy]


• Adam Roberts (Gradisil) gets a redesigned website. Also, he has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog. [via The Genre Files]


• Star Wars Celebration has a blog [via Club Jade]


• Sneak Peek has the new posters for the upcoming Iron Man and Transformers movies.


• My Elves are Different is promoting Blog Like It's the End of the World, in which bloggers as if a zombie uprising were taking place for real.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 27, 2007 at 2:20 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Issue #936 (June 1, 2007) of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. Here's a snippet...

Harm by Brian W. Aldiss
For Fans of... 1984; A Bug's Life.
Bottom Line: Aldiss' dystopian chops - his 1969 story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" - inspired Steven Spielberg's A.I. - falter in this unsubtle vision of a paranoid West that persecutes Muslim minorities and anthropods alike.
Grade: B-

Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg
For Fans of... George R.R. Martin; Anne Bishop.
Bottom Line: Moments of colorful intensity highlight the workmanlike coming-of-age adventure.
Grade: B

Brasyl by Ian McDonald
For Fans of... Philip K. Dick's paranoid philosophizing; City of God's urban squalor.
Bottom Line: Packing his pages with local color and big-picture speculation, McDonald conjures three equally vivid worlds.
Grade: B+

In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan
For Fans of... Dick's Man in the High Castle; Quantum Leap.
Bottom Line: Goonan weaves experimental jazz, particle physics, and biochemistry into a compelling adventure through alternate universes. But her interdisciplinary mystery unravels as theory gives way to sentimentality and antiwar hokum.
Grade: B-

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 27, 2007 at 2:14 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles John C. Wright, author of Titans of Chaos.


• Jennifer Fallon offers 10 Tips for writing a fantasy bestseller.


• Gone Gaming serves up Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Part One: A History and Ten Top Games.


• Before they were stars: the cast of Heroes. [via Look at This]


• Fanboy has Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 5 seconds.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 26, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

A bonus on this Star Wars anniversary...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 25, 2007 at 1:06 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:

It's been awhile since I've read a media tie-in novel, the last being the horrible first book in the Babylon 5 series of novels. However, Mass Effect: Revelation is based upon the upcoming Bioware game for the Xbox 360 called, oddly enough, Mass Effect. The book promises to illuminate some of the backstory to the game, and takes place roughly 10 years previous to the game.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 25, 2007 at 12:41 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

I hate to break up the Star Wars love fest we are having today, but this is too cool to pass up. Ain't It Cool News points us to some footage released by Warner Bros. about the shooting of The Lost Tales.

• Bruce Boxlietner, Tracy Scoggins, JMS and the guy who plays Galen talk about how it feels to be back on the set.


• Bruce reminisces about Babylon 5.


• JMS' first day back on the set.


• The aftermath of the shoot.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 25, 2007 at 10:52 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Interzone #209 is my very first issue of Interzone to read and it also happens to be the 25th Anniversary Issue. And since it also contains a short story by SF Signal favorite Alastair Reynolds, you can imagine my excitement over obtaining a copy.

First, I have to say that I like the three-column layout of the magazine, which they use throughout. It makes the stories and columns very easy to read and they can pack in a bit more stuff into the same page count. This being the 25th Anniversary issue, the first few pages are authors and other field related people's reminisces about their involvment with IZ. Not having read IZ before, this was a nice way to get some flavor of the history behind IZ. The next section, 25 TV, is Stephen Volk's listing of the top 10 TV shows from last 25 years. Since IZ is based in the UK, you can imagine why this list has several shows I've never seen, which makes it hard for me to argue against the list (Ultraviolet is #1?, no Babylon 5? Shudder).

Next up is an interview with Hal Duncan, author of Vellum, wherein Hal discusses many things authorial and otherwise, including comparing writers to musicians. Which seems appropriate since the first short story in this issue is "The Whenever At The City's Heart", by Hal. In it, we return to the city at the center of the Vellum and we see the effects the rebellious tome Book Of All Hours has on the Vellum. Not so much a story as a tone poem, Hal uses an incredible mastery of language to paint a picture of chaos slowly encroaching on the Vellum. Relatively short, but striking.

The other standout shorts here are "Winter" by Jamie Barras and "The Sledge-Maker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds. Both stuck with me and I think there is enough in Reynold's setting to make a stand-alone novel.

An interview with Kim Stanley Robinson and the obligatory book, film and manga reviews round out the rest of the issue. Oh, and my mailperson doesn't seem to know what Interzone is, as I have no issues receiving it...

All in all, a very enjoyable experience, and I'd like to thank Andy Cox for making it possible! I just received issue 210 and I will be reading through that shortly.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 25, 2007 at 7:55 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Since today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, we'd thought we'd celebrate by giving you, our loyal readers, recycled content! And if we're going to recycle content, what better way than to dig up one of our most popular past posts: the Conan O'Brien skit in which Triumph the Wonder Dog rails against a bunch of Star Wars fans.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 25, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, we present this special edition of SF tidbits!

• See Stephen Colbert, Linda Ellerbee, Joss Whedon and Peter Jackson talk about their Star Wars memories in this snippet from the documentary Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed.


• Star Wars: Where Are They Now? [via Cynical-C]


• CNN: Thirty years later, 'Star Wars' force still being felt.


• 30 Most Memorable Star Wars Quotes.


• 30 pieces of trivia about Star Wars.


• There might be a 7th Star Wars movie announced today! Discuss...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 25, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

On May 25th, 1977, the science fiction movie landscape changed forever. It's hard to believe that a movie that opened in only 32 theaters (I said it was hard to believe) would end up being one of the most influential movies of all time. It's just icing that it happened to be a science fiction movie.

This is how we remember it...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 25, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Star Wars celebrates the 30th anniversary of its release tomorrow.

To commemorate the event - besides the plethora of specials and promotional campaigns - the official Star Wars website will re-launch with a new design.

Part of this includes adding a library of hundreds of photos Star Wars-related photos and video clips for sand to use in their own mashups. More evidence that Lucas is loosening his grip on the copyrights...

Yay, George!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:26 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

(Note: Consider this whole post as a spoiler. If you haven't seen the finale yet, read no further. You will be spoiled worse than John.)

With all due respect to Heroes, whose season finale was underwhelming, LOST's finale pretty much shows how its done. While we didn't learn a lot mythology-wise, we did get some stuff. Like, Penny Widmore isn't behind the 'rescue' ship from where Naomi came, the Others (and the island) are fighting another group of people who are behind the 'rescue' ship (DHARMA? Someone else?), the island has chosen Locke to help and we see Locke is a mean shot at knife throwing. Ouch.

We get the resolution of the Other storyline that's been running throughout this season. We see Ben's plans slowly fall apart as the situation spins out of his control, but we also learn that Ben is doing everything he does in the belief that he is protecting the island. He's still a lying, manipulative bastard which leads to the long awaited and much warranted pwning at the hands of Jack, and we see that he is not infallible. This is spectacularly illustrated in Ben's failed bluff to get Jack to destroy the satellite phone by having his cohorts on the beach pretend to kill Sayid, Bernard and Jin. Ben obviously felt Jack would cave and all would be alright. The obvious flaw in Ben's plan is what happened after Jack, finally becoming a real leader and sticking to his guns come thick or thin, calls Ben's bluff. Again, ouch. And, really, the way the Others come out of this episode being devastated was something I wasn't expecting. Now it looks like Ben's power is gone and the anti-Ben faction will be able to openly move against him. I also liked Hurley's heroics to save Juliette and Sawyer. You can't help but feel good for Hurley who finally got a chance to be a hero. Nicely done by the writers.

The second storyline about the Looking Glass I felt was well done as well. The mind games being played between Mikhail, Ben and the babes in the hatch was well done. Ben being forced to admit lying to Mikhail only highlighted how much things had gone out his control, and yet, Mikhail is still loyal enough to do what Ben asked. The claustrophobia induced by being in a small hatch 60 feet or so underwater certainly helped add to the tension of the situation as Charlie, Mikhail, Desmond and two other Others maneuvered for control of the situation. And who didn't know that Mikhail wasn't really dead even after taking a harpoon to the chest? And I hope all you Charlie haters are happy now. Charlie did everything he did with the full expectation of dying, which happened, just as Desmond predicted, but not as we were lead to assume. Again, a nice mis-direction by the writers which added even more poignancy to Charlie's death. I was sad to see Charlie go, especially since his actions may not have the happy outcome he expected. And now Desmond has take take the news back to Claire. Sad.

The only thing I thought was just OK was Jack's 'flashback'. Aside from the twist at the end of it, we pretty much see Jack being a drunken, drugged-out loser. A far cry from the man we see who, apparently, has lead his charges to rescue. He's pretty messed up, and we only learn why when we discover it's not a flashback at all, but a 'flashforward', and his 'It wasn't supposed to happen this way' line paints the actions on the island in a new light. Is this truly the future? Ben said if the rescue helicopter came, then Jack and his friends would all die. According to the flashforward, they don't but are given 'Golden Passes' on Oceanic Air. Which is odd. Doesn't the world think they are all dead? That one scene with Kate opens up a slew of new questions as to the nature of the island and the hell is actually going on.

Which leads me to the one question that was never asked, with one exception. That being 'Why?'. Alex actually asked Ben, as they were trying to intercept Jack and the Losties, 'Why don't you just let them leave?" Yes! Finally, someone asking the right question. Ben's non-answer answer: "I can't, Alex". This should have been the time Alex asked a two-year old's favorite question: "Why?" But she didn't. I would have kept on asking why until Ben couldn't take it anymore. They had time during their walk to explain why, but Alex just accepted the answer and moved on. Later, when Locke shows up to confront Jack of the satellite phone, he says: "This isn't supposed to happen this way." Did Jack bother to ask "why?" or "What isn't supposed to happen this way?" No! He just called Locke's bluff and answered the sat phone. Gah. Come on, ask the damn question.

Of course, the 'why' of the situation will be explained over the coming 48 episodes, so we'll just have to wait (until 2008!) to start learning why. Still, I felt this was a finale that lived up to expectations and the stellar writing that we've seen in the second half of season 3. It's a long haul till January of next year, I'm sure there will be much gnashing of teeth over the wait and there will be even more theories as to the what is going on. Hopefully, the writers will begin to give us more answers starting next year. I can't wait.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 11:01 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Jonathan Strahan has the scoop on the unfortunate events happening at the Science Fiction Book Club.

On Monday Publishers Weekly reported that Bertelsmann would overhaul its Book Club business, restructuring a number of specialty book clubs and eliminating 280 jobs. It also announced that it would close Madison Park Press, its 18-month-old original publishing arm, to focus on its book club business.

The impact of these decisions on the science fiction community was immediate. While there have been no official announcements, it appears that both long-serving Science Fiction Book Club Editor-in-Chief Ellen Asher and Senior Editor Andrew Wheeler have lost their positions with the company. Given that they were the only editors working for the fifty-four-year-old SFBC, it seems likely that Bertelsmann will ultimately combine the SFBC with its main Doubleday Book Club.

But more importantly, the SF community is sure to be adversely affected by the loss of these two influential Editors. We wish them both the best of luck in their future endeavors and are confident that they will excel at whatever they choose to do.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:52 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Finalists have been announced for this year's Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, given annually to the best science fiction short story, novelette or novella of the year.

The nominees (and available online versions) are:

• "Yellow Card Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi
• "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth" by Michael F. Flynn
• "Botch Town" by Jeffrey Ford
• "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald
• "The Walls of the Universe" by Paul Melko
• "A Billion Eves" by Robert Reed
• "You Have Never Been Here" by M. Rickert
• "The House Beyond Your Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum
• "Another Word for Map Is Faith" by Christopher Rowe
• "Inclination" by William Shunn
• "Lord Weary's Empire" by Michael Swanwick
• "The Cartesian Theater" by Robert Charles Wilson
• "Julian: A Christmas Story" by Robert Charles Wilson

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:40 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Wil Wheaton visited the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle as part of an extra he's working on for and upcoming Star Trek DVD box set celebrating its 20th year. Read his report in his Geek in Review column, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Science Fiction, which also talks about the science fiction genre itself.

Sez Wil:

These are but a few examples of the real power that science fiction has to address current events in a context that's safe and acceptable for most audiences, while speaking very seriously about them to others. They illustrate why SF endures and resonates with casual and hardcore fans. Whether it was written one hundred years ago, or just published last month, SF can give us warnings about the future, hope for the future, or just blissful escape from the present, into fantastic worlds that are light years away – but as close as our bookshelves.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:34 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Subterranean Press has begun posting the 2007 Summer issue of Subterranean Online. Here's what's available so far:

• Audio: "Wax" by Elizabeth Bear
• Column: Bears Examining #4 by Elizabeth Bear
• Column: The Life and Work of Godfrey Winton: A Panel Discussion on One of Science Fiction's Lost Masters
• Fiction: "Coat" by Joe R. Lansdale

This also means that the previous issue (Spring 2007) has been completely posted with an audiobook version by Kage Baker; columns by Elizabeth Bear, Norman Partridge and Mike Resnick; fiction by Bruce Sterling, Caitlin R Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Neal Barrett, Jr., Joe Hill, Charles Stross, John Scalzi, Jay Lake and Mike Resnick; and a whole bunch of reviews.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Tobias Buckell has posted the first 5 chapters of his new novel Ragamuffin.


• Readers and writers of fanfic may want to check out Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Making Light blog for the latest fanfic brouhaha.


• Paul Jessup weighs in with his definition of space opera.


• Reason Online interviews Vernor Vinge on science fiction, the Singularity, and the state.


• Check out these cool Star Wars Weekend ads. [via Michael May]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 24, 2007 at 12:10 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

According to professionals, Darth Vader was a bit...unbalanced:

Experts from the psychiatric department at France's University Hospital of Toulouse told the APA's annual meeting that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader could "clearly" be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
...
The French psychiatrists -- who included Laurent Schmitt, M.D. -- based their diagnosis on original Star Wars film scripts.

Schmitt's team describes Skywalker's symptoms, including problems with controlling anger and impulsivity, temporary stress-related paranoia, "frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (when trying to save his wife at all costs), and a pattern of unstable and intense personal relationships," including his relationships with his Jedi masters.

Changing his name and turning into "Darth Vader" is a red flag of Skywalker's disturbed identity...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 23, 2007 at 12:11 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Dubai is know for its off the wall architecture, but check out architect Rem Koolhaas' latest proposal for Dubai's new convention and exhibition center. I can hear Admiral Ackbar now: "We can't stand up to conventions of that magnitude!"

Koolhaas (cool name) says he modeled this building on an old Panasonic radio from 1972. Whatever dude. You'll get more geek cred by saying you've always wanted to build the Death Star, and now you have the chance to. Unfortunately, the convention center won't be life size, or come equipped with planet busting weaponry. And I have to wonder how useful the space inside will actually be.

Still, a cool idea though.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday May 23, 2007 at 9:41 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Continuing our clearly groundbreaking series of chat-like reviews, John and JP discuss Tobias Buckell's sophomore novel, Ragamuffin.

Tobias Buckell's Ragamuffin is set in the same universe as his first novel, Crystal Rain and looks at life outside the planet Nanagada. Humanity, which is technologically and geographically repressed by the supposedly benevolent Satrapy, has suddenly become marked for extinction. This should be easy since the inhabitable forty-eight worlds are connected by wormholes under the Satrapy's control. However, an augmented warrior named Natasha who holds the key to saving mankind has other plans. Meanwhile, back on Nanagada, John DeBrun and his friend Pepper face the return of the vicious Teotl, only to learn that they are also in the crosshairs of the Satrapy. An uneasy alliance may be their only hope...

John: Woot! Finally, the sequel to Crystal Rain. And Ragamuffin's not a direct rip-off of the prequel. I applaud Buckell's decision to write a sequel that breaks the format of a successful first novel. It's a daring move to make changes to an already-established world, especially for a new author who had a successful first novel. Buckell is obviously not afraid to disrupt the fictional status quo, and even to make some major changes of direction with the plot.

JP: I think Buckell has taken a risk by moving from a planetary adventure story to a more traditional space opera setting. Part of the success of Crystal Rain, I think, can be attributed to its unique and interesting setting. Moving to space opera places Ragamuffin in a more conventional SF setting. I think Buckell succeeds with this change, as he has his own unique take on a space opera setting. Also, taking a wider view of the setting allows Buckell to expand on events alluded to in Crystal Rain (the destruction of the wormholes leading to human worlds) and also what the role of humanity happens to be in the Satrapy. He also gives us some rip-roaring set pieces, one of which is depicted on the cover. Lot's of fun. The other interesting aspect of the setting is the wormhole transit system, which feels like a cross between a subway and a river.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 23, 2007 at 12:45 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

For those keeping track, it took the U.S. Post Office 21 days (!) to deliver the May issue of Locus magazine.

It's a normal sized magazine, not some giant magazine that clowns might use in a circus, so I don't know why it would take so long. The answer is obvious: someone between Locus and my mailbox is reading it and taking their sweet old time doing it. The magazine, which is mailed with a sealed overlay page, is always delivered with those seals opened, without fail. Additionally, there have occasionally been dog-eared pages as if someone wanted to save their spot because they were interrupted with...oh, I don't know...some actual work activity like delivering the mail.

My last attempt to find out what the hell is going on was met with:

• Denial (Me: "My magazine has been arriving late for more than a year, even worse these last few months." Them: "We deliver magazines as soon as we get them.")
• Finger-pointing (Them: "Maybe the publisher is sending it out late." Me: "I verified that they send it out the last say of the previous month. Plus others people have gotten theirs within days.")
• Finger-pointing at inanimate objects (Me: "I know someone is reading it because the seals are broken." Them: "The sorting machine can do that." Me: "Occasionally, there are dog-eared pages." Them: "Oh...the machine does that, too." )
• The Big Blow-Off (Me: "What can I do to resolve this?" Them: "The best we can do is put a trace on it." Me: "Great. Let's do that. How soon before I know?" Them: "You have to wait until next month's issue is delivered." Me: [Fuming])

It's not libelous to call the U.S. Post Office as bunch of Jack@sses, is it? I mean, technically, to prove me wrong they'd have to prove they aren't Jack@sses, right. And, just in case I need more evidence...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 23, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Dark Roasted Blend looks at the fantastic artwork of Tomasz Maronski.


• The annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Award has been given to Dr. Gregory Benford at LunaCon. [via Locus Online]


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Tim Powers, author of Three Days to Never.


• MeeVee interviews Heroes Star Masi Oka.


• Fanfic is making a splash this week. First, there was Cory Doctorow's Locus article In Praise of Fanfic. A.R. Yngve responded to that. Paul @ VCTB responded to that. And then they discuss the matter. [via SFBC Blog] For more information on Fan Fiction, see John Scalzi's Corporatized Fan Fiction piece.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 23, 2007 at 12:06 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Feast your eyes on the trailer for Fox's upcoming SF TV show, The Sarah Conner Chronicles.

Yes, that is Summer Glau. In Firefly, she played a girl conditioned to be an inhuman, ninja killing machine. In TSCC, she's plays an inhuman, ninja killing machine. Typecast much?

I'm not sure about this. No Ahnold, no Cameron. It doesn't feel the same. And I keep waiting to see Claire from Heroes to show up and act as the guy from Heroes (err, John Conner's) crack suicide defense squad. But I guess Summer will have to do. I may tune in. Of course, if Fox terminates the show after about 5 episodes, I'll be first in line to rent the DVD set of one of the finest SF TV shows ever, briefly, on TV...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday May 22, 2007 at 10:51 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Last night was the season 1 finale of Heroes, probably the best show of what little TV I watch these days...besides channel surfing for Girls Gone Wild commercials...you know, for the research. This will be a quick one because the #comments blog echoes most of my thoughts on the matter.

Simply put: I like the show but fear the finale suffered for the same reasons that have bothered me all along with the show. The events exhibit total disregard for common sense given the character's abilities.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 22, 2007 at 7:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• There's a new trailer for The Golden Compass, based on the Philip Pullman book. (Airships!)


• Peter Watts (Blindsight) tells us How to Build a Zombie Detector. [via Posthuman Blues]


• The Art Department shows off the cover for a reissue of The Red Magician. Is that robot doing what I think he's doing?


• Rick Kleffel interviews Tony Ballantyne (Recursion).


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles John Klima, editor of Logorrhea.


• James Patrick Kelly is podcasting his novel Look Into the Sun. Here's Part 14.


• Surviving Sci-Fi: 8 Simple Rules for Girls.


• A college student animated David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for a project. [via Look at This]


• Holy Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, Batman! Robin the Boy Wonder (Burt Ward) sings! [also via Look at This]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 22, 2007 at 12:10 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

So Many Books points to the short PDF e-book ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skill for Transforming Life Through Literature by Nick Senger. His 5-step method of reading uses the acronym ROMAN, as in: Read the book, Outline the book, Mark the pages, Ask the right questions and Name your experiences. (Mark the book? Gasp!)

Senger is a schoolteacher who developed the ROMAN reading idea to help his students become better readers. Specifically, he teaches by encouraging the reading of classic literature, the best of which he determines by collating data from 13 "best of literature" lists. (Topping the list with 12 citations: Don Quixote by Cervantes, Iliad by Homer and Aeneid by Virgil.)

Encouraging reading is a good thing, but I detect a smack of reading elitism here, particularly in this passage:

Books are like neighbors, and your personal library is your neighborhood. Take a look at your bookshelves. What kind of neighborhood are you living in? Are you in a slum or in the suburbs? Who are your neighbors? Are they trash talkers or shrewd sages? If you live next door to Socrates, then invite him to dinner every night. If you live next to Dan Brown, then put your house on the market.

And yet...

I sometimes hear people speak as if (or say outright that) reading is not a worthwhile activity unless you are reading Literature with a capital L. Enter self-doubt. Am I wasting my time by reading anything else? Am I denying myself the true value of reading? Am I becoming a literary snob? Is this self-doubt the beginning of a midlife crisis?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 21, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Literary Compass has compiled a list of 30 Must-Read Classics for Teenage Boys. Making the cut is a nice selection of 16 genre fiction titles:

1. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
2. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
3. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
5. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
6. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
7. The Belgariad by David Eddings
8. Animal Farm by George Orwell
9. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
10. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
11. Flatland by Edwin Abbott
12. The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
13. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16. Time and Again by Jack Finney

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 21, 2007 at 12:07 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Walter Jon Williams shows off the cover of the upcoming Night Shade reprint of Voice of the Whirlwind.


• Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi point to an MP3 of "Science Fiction: The Road From Here to There", a panel from the LA Times Festival of Books with Doctorow, Scalzi, Kage Baker and Harry Turtledove.


• SF Author Eric Nylund has an article in this month's Game Informer magazine comparing and contrasting working in various media: novels, screenplays, graphic novels, and video games.


• Andrew Wheeler lists the things that bug him about Darkover.


• 11 reasons why reading novels in school is not a waste of time. [via Uncertain Principles' post "In Defense of Fiction Reading"]


• Paul Levinson predicts the season finales of Lost and Heroes on his latest Light On Light Through podcast.


• Film School Rejects lists The 10 Best Computer Generated Films of All-Time.


• Neil Gaiman goes YouTube and tries his hand at bat training. [via Yatterings]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 21, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"Scene from Chronicles of Riddick (2nd movie title?) where he is introduced into the death ship..very gothic/cyberpunk... the movie stank, but this was a groovy scene." - Doug

"No fair pitting poor Tron against the Matrix, they were both revolutionary in their time. It seems I picked the underdog in Tron. I even had the Intellivision games. Good times." - Richard

"Star Wars Episode V: Darth Vader revealing himself as Luke's father." - Martin T.

"From Alien: the scene of finding the pods; creeping around in that green-lit foggy space in an alien vessel, building up to the initial opening of the egg. The stomach bursting scene was just shock value." - Bluejack

"The final chase and fight in Blade Runner is disturbingly intense and more weighted with both suspense and significance--both moral and dramatic--than those other sequences. Ford and Hauer give desperate performances." - Bill P.

"1984. opening scene when winston smith is writing in his diary a letter to the future. (the version made in the 80's)..." - Steve

"Adama jumping Galactica into the stratosphere and launching all the vipers to save the slaves in Battlestar Galactica season 3. Didn't see it coming, and it was a very tense moment." - Dale

"These are all lame. Deckard meeting Rachel for the first time in Blade Runner beats them to paste." - J.H. Woodyatt

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 21, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

If the participation levels of this week's poll are any indication, the fanbase of Joss Whedon's space western Firefly is still going strong.

Most of the votes resulted from this thread on the fan site FireflyFans.net. Fans came out in force to voice their opinion. Given that only one of this week's poll's choices was Firefly-related, their decision was quite easy. :)

This week, we'll be making it a bit harder for them with a Favorite Firefly Episode poll. Watch for it beginning tomorrow!

In the meantime, check out FireflyFans.net and revel in all the shiny goodness.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 20, 2007 at 4:14 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Your task: Count the number of times someone says "Engage."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 20, 2007 at 12:26 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

The website A Science Fiction Odyssey chronicles the ambitious reading project of Jeff Vehige to read the novels that won the Hugo and/or Nebula Awards.

I'm envious! I've thought of doing a reading project like this for some time but the idea of forcing myself to read from a set list always makes me back away like the commitment-phobe that I am. I choose books to fit my reading mood and like the ability to go wherever that takes me. (Which is usually to the used bookstore. :)) Jeff also mentions he will be reading other books, too, but it sounds like he's more dedicated to the award winners than I would be. More power to him! Good luck, Jeff!

I should note also that the thing that caught my eye was the huge cover graphic for Joe Haldeman's Camouflage by Joe Haldeman -- mainly because it's on my to-read pile. No, not that one...another one. What, you don't have multiple to-read piles?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 19, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• The U.S. SciFI Channel is running an all-day Heroes marathon today. [via TV Squad]


• Here's the original Mercury Theater / Orson Welles production of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. See also, their cool archives.


• Largehearted Boy has Nick Mamatas' music playlist for his novel Under My Roof.


• Google sez they expanded Google Book Search to include results for "millions of other books that still just exist in the analog world."


• One for Scott: Conan The Librarian from Weird Al's UHF.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 19, 2007 at 12:19 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

A couple of weeks ago, John was all atwitter when he thought that a new hero was being introduced on Heroes to help fight Sylar (turns out it was an old hero, Molly Walker). I wonder how he'll react to the news that new heroes will be introduced in the season finale?

Apparently, as Tim Kring has said before, each season is like a volume, telling one story. The next season, called Heroes: Generations (no word on whether Kirk dies in this season too), will focus more on the newcomer's story. As a result, new characters will be added, and some old ones will be, uh, 'removed' (my word, not theirs). The rational is actually quite a good one, as Kring says:

The idea was that we wanted to make it easy for viewers to be able to come on in the second season. And we thought if we wrapped the show too tightly around itself so that you had to watch 23 episodes before, I would be harder for new viewer to find the show. And we always want to be a show that has the barrier of entry low enough so that new viewers can join if they want.

With that in mind, we get a glimpse that the season ending cliffhanger my be a bit different too. Rather than a 'OMG! Who's going to live???' ending, I bet we get more of a 'Where do they go from here?' type. I'm interested to see how they do this and I hope season 2 does go down the toilet.

And it's nice to see the ratings tick upwards a bit too, although they are down from the initial episodes. What confuses me are the people who want to watch Dancing With The Stars over other, better shows. Heck, The Bachelor beat out Heroes. What?

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 18, 2007 at 11:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

MY RATING:

Gradisil is, to me, the magnum opus of hard, mundane science fiction. The book tells the story of three generations of the Gyeroffy family, set against the backdrop of humanity's colonization of low Earth orbit, with heavy doses of revenge and revolution thrown in to the mix. First and foremost, the amount of thought that Roberts has expended in building the setting of Gradisil is very impressive. In Roberts' vision of the future, amateur rocketeers are the vanguard for permanent human presence in space. Foregoing the use of chemical rockets, which are bulky and costly, they instead rely on ships that pull themselves into orbit using the Earth's magnetic field. The pratical upshot of this being that most launch facilities are placed as close to the poles as possible for the best grip. Roberts uses the Norse idea of Yggdrasil , the world tree, as a metaphor for the use of the magnetic field as pathway to space. And the title of the book, Gradisil, is a young girl's attempt to pronounce Yggdrasil. This use of Norse mythology fits brilliantly within the confines of the story, giving the reader an easy and memorable way to grasp the idea of 'climbing' up the Earth's magnetic fields.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 18, 2007 at 12:27 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is a three-part unofficial mini-series that stars many actors from the Trek universe, some reprising their roles:

The series was directed by Tim Russ (Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager) whos also stars as Tuvok. (See the Making Movies blog's interview with Tim Russ.) Also reprising their roles are Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand), Alan Ruck (Captain John Harriman from Star Trek: Generations). Other Trek actors also appear, though not as their original characters: Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim from Voyager), Chase Masterson (Leeta from DS9), Lawrence Montaigne (Stonn, a Vulcan, from the classic Trek episode "Amok Time") and Gary Graham (Ambassador Soval from Enterprise). Star Trek veterans also appear behind the camera.

Here's the trailer:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 18, 2007 at 12:18 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Check out this way-cool trailer for Transformers.


• Here's a first peek at the forthcoming CG-animated television series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. [via Club Jade]


• Jeff VanderMeer is reading Alastair Reynolds and uses the occasion to classify space opera.


• BoingBoing has an MP3 of Rudy Rucker, Terry Bisson and Cory Doctorow as part of the Science Fiction in San Francisco series.


• Michale Shanks (Stargate: SG-1 and 24) has a TV Guide blog. [via Boldy Go]


• At The Cultural Gutter, James Schellenberg contemplates the re-reading of books.


• Sci-Fi Overdrive chats with Allen Steele. [via Locus Online]


• UKSFBN interviews Steph Swainston (The Modern World). "If more writers didn't write 'fantasy' so self-consciously and follow imagined 'rules' of the genre then the whole thing might not be so hidebound and repetitive. It should be the most creative writing around but is frequently the most conservative." [via Genre Files]


• Calling all fanboys! Here are the details on Blade Runner: The Ultimate Collection.


• Must-Read of the Week: No Fear of the Future's An Alternate History of Chinese Science Fiction.


• John Scalzi mashes up Bacon Cat and the Motivational Poster. Inevitable and still funny.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 18, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Sad news...

Author Lloyd Alexander has passed away.

Author Lloyd Alexander died 17 May 2007. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 30 January 1924, he was a children's fantasy author for half a century (though he did also write several adult novels). He won the 1970 Newbery Award, and was a National Book Award Finalist, for The High King.

His books include three well-known series—The Chronicles of Prydain, The Westmark Trilogy, and The Vesper Holly Series—as well as at least 24 other books. His latest, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, is scheduled to be published by his long-time publisher, Henry Holt, in August 2007.

[via SF Scope]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 17, 2007 at 5:21 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Sanctuary is a new, online only science fiction show starring Amanda Tapping of SG-1 fame. Having only watched the trailer, all I can say is it looks to be a mash-up off science fiction and horror/supernatural genres. What did impress me was the production values and the SFX, which look to exceed any SciFi Original movies. I bet the story will too, but I can't say for sure.

Additionally, the creators have a blog and a dedicated fan site so that viewers can interact with the actors and producers of the show. Now, many TV shows have this already, LOST and Heroes come to mind, but Sanctuary seems to have been created with the fan community in mind. I think I read somewhere that the fans may be able to have some impact on the show's direction. That might be an interesting thing.

I'm also interest to see how the producers plan to make money so they can make more episodes. I'm not sure who's bankrolling them or how they can afford to pay the actors and post-production companies. But if they can make money, I think we'll see more of this kind of production. If there is money to be made by releasing your show directly on the web, then the floodgates will open. This will be like the introduction of cable and it's 100's of channels, only much bigger.

Just think, there are many TV show concepts that never make it to the pilot stage. With an alternate release stream, we could see hundreds of new shows all over the web and all free from the constraints of studio meddling. SF TV stands to gain quite a bit from this as there are lots of things that should be on the air but aren't.

I realize this may not happen for a long time yet, but I'd certainly like to see it happen. Otherwise, we're stuck with SciF (now with more monsters and wrestling!) for the foreseeable future....

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 17, 2007 at 2:14 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Well, some of them do anyway...

Despite recent aversions to being rat-holed into the sci-fi genre, some Hollywood names embrace their science fiction labels:

It's officially cool to like science fiction and fantasy now. Shows like Heroes and Lost are in the top 10 and the biggest movie opening of all time is a comic book.

Even the stars are into it, as attendees at the 2007 Saturn Awards proved. The show, honoring achievements in genre movies and television, attracted glamorous nominees and guests who revealed their affinities for material that used to get kids beaten up in school.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 17, 2007 at 1:04 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Here's another installment of the IMDB game

My job: I went to IMDB and looked up 10 movies. Listed below are four official "Plot Keywords" for each movie.

Your job: Name these movies!

1. Friendship / Hiding In Closet / Quarantine / Bicycle
2. Violence / Sociopath / Invented Language / Eye
3. Graphic Violence / Cyberpunk / Toxic Waste / Human Android Relationship
4. Dystopian / Totalitarian / Illegal Immigrant / Hope
5. Science Runs Amok / Theme Park / Tropical Island / Child In Peril
6. Science Runs Amok / Theme Park / Evil Robot / Gunslinger
7. Gang / Feral Child / Muscle Car / Australian Outback
8. Kidnapping / Asylum / Animal Rights / Time Travel
9. Interdimensional Travel / Escaped Mental Patient / Rocket Car / Watermelon
10. Lincoln Memorial / Totalitarianism / Ice Cave / Man Hunt

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 17, 2007 at 11:59 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Cover Pr0n I: Artist John Picacio shows us the cover of The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper.


• Cover Pr0n II: Artist Bob Eggleton shows off the cover for Alan Dean Foster's next Flinx book.


• Empire Magazine celebrate Star Wars' 30th birthday by creating 30 (!) covers for their May 2007 issue. Their website is posting one a day, starting with Chewbacca. [via TheForce.net]


• The Time Traveler podcast-interviews Tobias Buckell (Ragamuffin) who will have a short fiction collection called Tides from the New Worlds due by the end of in early 2008.


• Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast-interviews Lou Anders who talks about webscabs.


• SFF World interviews Richard Morgan, author of Thirteen.


• Here's Cory Doctorow's artcile from the May Issue of Locus: In Praise of Fanfic. (And, no, my mailman is still not done reading that issue so I don't yet have it. (6) Grrr!)


• At Geekend, the Trivia Geek tells us where SciFi Channel Movies really come from. "Absurd premise + Vancouver filming locations + has-been stars + five-year-old cheap CGI = Sunday movie marathon."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 17, 2007 at 1:30 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Nothing lifts the spirits out of the middle-of-the-week doldrums like a giant, space-traveling turtle!

"Come on, Space Monsters! Bring it on! Let's cut and poke! Okay, go-go-go..."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 16, 2007 at 1:02 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Suicide Bots has the skinny on the Robot Hall of Fame 2007 inductees: "Data finally got in… I kinda expected him to end up as the Susan Lucci of robots."


• Geekend has video of the new Bionic Woman in a fight scene with bionic villainess Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica).


• Cynical-C wants to know your favorite post-apocalyptic book.


• The new issue of The Internet Review of Science Fiction is out.


• Cinema Blend has put together A Shrek Guide.


• Online genre review outlet Scalpel Magazine opens and includes an interview with Charles Stross.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 16, 2007 at 12:59 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Yahoo! News has a rather interesting article detailing how J.K. Rowling is asking HP readers to not spoil the ending for those who haven't read the book yet.

We're going on three months until Deathly Hallows is released, and you can bet that some people already know what happens. I'm looking at employees at the publishing house, and, of course, the editors, among others. I can imaging the temptation that some might feel to be the first to release the info on who gets the whack. But, really, who can they blab to?

The HP sites, as stated in the article, aren't going to broadcast that information. I'm thinking that the smaller blogs will be willing to release the Whacked List in the interest of generating hits. I'm almost positive that big media won't release any info either, unless, of course, the monetary value is perceived to be worth it.

So, the question for our readers who have pre-ordered and/or will have the last book on release day: How do you plan to avoid being spoiled over the ending?

I'm thinking it may be fairly difficult if you access HP web sites frequently and are engaged in HP discussions. You know, typical fan type things. I'll be trying to avoid spoilers as well since the enjoyment will much greater that way. Then I can tease my son: "I know a secret! Mwuahahahaha!" But that's just me.

And if you haven't participated in our Harry Potter Outreach Program yet, you can go to our post and contribute. I'll be tabulating the results so far for a future post.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 2:09 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Golemon can write action sequences with the best of them, and he lands a solid uppercut with this book. The depth of the science fiction lies under the surface for the most of the work, but is surprising and ingenious none the less.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Following in the footsteps of Gonzalo Pizarro, the Event Group finds itself searching for El Dorado in the hopes of saving the lives of innocent college students caught up in a secret plot involving nefarious agents out to capture the surprisingly more modern wealth to be found there.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Enjoyable plot, science elements surprisingly deep, excellent action scenes
CONS: Strains believability at times, characters mostly wooden and static
BOTTOM LINE: Legend is a fun, action-filled romp through the jungle with just the right mix of combat and science. If you're a fan of the science fiction written by Clive Cussler or Michael Crichton you will have a blast reading Legend.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 7:44 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

1. What's the earliest use of the term "prime directive"?
2. Which author used the pseudonyms Eric Rodman and Calvin M. Knox?
3. Who is attributed with inventing the term "slidewalk"?
4. Who coined the term "ansible"?
5. A.E. van Vogt coined the term "videophone" in which of his novels?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 12:55 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Tim Mortiss has posted a 12-part video interview with SF legend Jack Vance (Ports of Call and Lurulu).

Here's part 1. Follow the YouTube trail for the rest.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 12:22 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Dragon Page Cover to Cover interviews John Scalzi (The Android's Dream).


• Tor Art Director Irene Gallo shows off the alternate covers of the upcomimg reprint of Harry Harrison' overpopulation novel Make Room! Make Room!, the basis for the movie Soylent Green. Which one would you choose?


• HardSF.net interviews Robert J. Sawyer, author of (Rollback).


• Jim C. Hines has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• From Yahoo News: Authors like Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Stephen King, Greg Rucka, Brad Meltzer and Jodi Picoult are increasingly turning to comics. [via Gerry Canavan] Even Shakespeare is going Manga!


• GalleyCat gives the skinny on a fierce debate at a Nebula Awards panel between SF editors discussing the state of SF as a genre.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

NBC has announced their new Fall schedule and it looks like Heroes, their only hit this season, will spawn a spinoff next season. It's called Heroes: Origins and introduce a new character each week. Viewers will select which one stays for the following season.

Between the two series, there will be a total of 30 new episodes combined. Remember when that was the number of episodes in a single season of one show?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 14, 2007 at 1:07 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

Michael May really, really wants to like Wonder Woman, but just can't. Check out his excellent post, (Part 1 of a promising series) that explores the reasons why.

Wonder Woman should be the Sean Connery of her gender: men should want to be with her and women should want to be her. When Connery played Bond, he walked around every setting he found himself in as if he owned the place. Didn't matter if it was his office, a hotel, or the villain's headquarters, he was completely comfortable with himself. That's how Wonder Woman should be.

Not aggressively so. Not, as my friend Alex would say, "strident." Connery never had to convince anyone through aggression that he was competent. You knew it by just looking at him. Wonder Woman should be the same way.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 14, 2007 at 12:45 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

A few days ago, BoingBoing posted about a Flickr set for "reading stacks".

I finally got around to taking a snapshot of my own reading stack...by which I mean just one of the stacks that's not stored in one of the boxes that I use to hide my biblioholism. Also, this does not include any books received from publishers.

My contribution is shown in this post's image...click the image to see the larger version.

How about it, SF Signal readers? Show us your stacks!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 14, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

The Visual Effects Society has posted The 50 Most Influential Visual-Effects Films of All Time.

Here are the 11 films that occupy the top 10 spots:

1. Star Wars (1977)
2. Blade Runner (1982)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Matrix (1999)
4. Jurassic Park (1993)
5. Tron (1982)
6. King Kong (1933)
7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
8. Alien (1979)
9. The Abyss (1989)
10. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 14, 2007 at 12:10 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Jeffrey Thomas, author of the excellent Punktown novel Deadstock, says that there is another Punktown novel coming called Blue War.


• At the risk of becoming Heroes Signal:
  • Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive 3-minute video interview with Maki Osa (Hiro) and Adrian Pasdar (Nathan) from Heroes.
  • There's also a behind-the-scenes look at How Heroes Will End, recorded at the EW/Heroes photo shoot.
  • See also: the Heroes cover story "The Bomb Squad".
  • NBC will launch an original 8-part web series based on Heroes called "Inside Heroes" on May 21 at NBC.com. [via SliceofSciFi]


• SciFiWire has the scoop on new SF/F shows being aired by the networks.


• KludgeSpot has 20 Signs You Might Be A Geek. "You have a gigantic box of spare cables that you never use." [via Netorama]


• David Anthony Durham (Acacia) and M.K. Hobson (numerous short stories) have been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Wouldn't it be cool if there was A Floating City on Venus?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 14, 2007 at 12:01 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

"Minority Report, while an idea that is not new by SF print standards, still was an important SF movie and a superior Dick adaptation." - Paul Weimer

"Um, why the heck am I voting on Tom Cruise movies? I figure that now we would see some sort of poll regarding Hasselhoff next week" - Tim
[Be careful what you wish for, Tim. - John]

"I watched 'Interview' in spite of Mr. Cruise; I like vampires. Did take awhile to see it, though." - Richard Novak

"I chose Legend not because of Tom Cruise, but because of Tim Curry. He was awesome as the devil! I also chose this one because Tom Cruise has maybe a total of 15 minutes of speaking dialog in the whole movie... which is a bonus because he wasn't much of an actor at this point. Oh, and he's short, which is unimpressive to Xenu." - Trent

"They were all varying degrees of awful. War of the Worlds was the least painful for me; the bits without Tom cruise in them were very nearly interesting. "The short little bugger's gotta go away eventually, right? (I'm referring to Tom Cruise; obvously)" - Pete Tz.

"Do you mean good jumping or bad jumping? I remember Legend as a good movie but it was before Tom Cruise was famous. The other movies were good in their own right and Cruise couldn't quite ruin them. Now I think I would shy away from a Tom Cruise movie just for decorums sake." - Richard
[Good point, Richard! My wording left that open, didn't it... I meant it as "liked it very much". - John]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 14, 2007 at 12:00 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

NOVEL: Seeker by Jack McDevitt
NOVELLA: "Burn" by James Patrick Kelly
NOVELETTE: "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle
SHORT STORY: "Echo" by Elizabeth Hand
SCRIPT: Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt
ANDRE NORTON AWARD: Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier

James Gunn was presented the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, and D.G. Compton was named Author Emeritus.

See also: This year's nominees.
See also: Ellen Datlow's photos of the event
See also: SF Signal's review of the short fiction nominees.

See also: Past Winners

[via Locus Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 13, 2007 at 1:34 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Leonard Nimoy has a new photography book looking to re-align the accepted norm for body image.

But for the last eight years, Mr. Nimoy, who is 76 and an established photographer, has been snapping pictures of plus-size women in all their naked glory.

He has a show of photographs of obese women on view at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Mass., through June; a larger show at the gallery is scheduled to coincide with the November publication of his book on the subject, The Full Body Project, from Five Ties Publishing. The Louis Stern Fine Arts gallery in Los Angeles and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston have acquired a few images from the project. A few hang at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 13, 2007 at 12:23 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Paul Levinson talks about Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, George Melies, Hugo Gernsback, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, and everything in between in this 2002 interview.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 13, 2007 at 12:13 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Paul Levinson posts another Locus 2002 article from Locus, Confessions of a Science Fiction Chauvinist. This one was in response to seeing Peter Jackson's The Two Towers.

(Hey Paul, how come you're not writing columns now that I'm a Locus subscriber?)

• What I most value in science fiction is its exploration of the human impact of scientifically plausible but not yet accomplished developments, or discovery of similarly plausible truths about the real, natural universe. Yes, I know there is much in time travel that is paradoxical -- that's actually why it's so much fun -- and faster-than-light travel violates Einstein's proscriptions. Yet the very fact that we can talk about the relevance of Einstein's theories to science fiction seemed to make it different from fiction that relies on spells and elves.
• My lack of interest in elves led me to forgo not only most fantasy novels, but even the lesser investment of time required for fantasy movies. The first part of [The Fellowship of the Ring] -- which took place in the Shire -- was barely enough to hold my attention. I think the physical resemblance between Gandalf and Jean-Luc Picard kept me interested more than anything else... But by the end of the movie, I felt very differently. I've now seen The Fellowship of the Ring, in one mode or another, perhaps a dozen times. And I just saw The Two Towers. I think they are masterpieces of movie-making, fantasy, and, as I will explain below, perhaps even of science fiction. (And, seen in the context of the unfolding story, The Shire section is now most enjoyable, too.)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 13, 2007 at 12:10 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Award season is upon us!

Today at Nebula Weekend, Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction magazines awarded their readers' awards for the year 2006.

The winners of Analog's Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards are:

• Best Novella: "The Good Kill" by Barry B. Longyear (November)
• Best Novelette: "Lady Be Good" by John G. Hemry (April)
• Best Short Story: "Kyrie Eleison" by John G. Hemry (September)
• Best Fact Article: "The Great Sumatran Earthquakes of 2004-5" by Richard A. Lovett (October)
• Best Cover: September 2006 by Jean-Pierre Normand

• Best Novella: "The Walls of the Universe" by Paul Melko (April/May)
• Best Novelette: "Yellow Card Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi (December)
• Best Short Story: "Impossible Dreams" by Tim Pratt (July)
• Best Poem: "Remembering the Future" by Darrell Schweitzer (October/November)
• Best Cover Artist: J.K. Potter (March)

[via SF Scope]

See also: Asimov's Reader Poll past winners.
See also: Analog Analytical Laboratory past winners.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 12, 2007 at 11:18 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Regular Readers know how much I have enjoyed the work of author George Alec Effinger and artist John Picacio. John did the covers for two Golden Gryphon story collections by Effinger: Live From Planet Earth and Budayeen Nights, the latter being a set of stories set in the cyberpunk future Effinger showed us in When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun and The Exile Kiss.

Now Golden Gryphon is publishing their third Effinger collection, A Thousand Deaths and guess who's doing the cover?

Today, John Picacio shows off the cover for A Thousand Deaths.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 12, 2007 at 10:26 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

In its review of Daniel H. Wilson's Where's My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived, Salon asks: What happened to the future that science fiction promised us?

The obvious landmarks of tomorrow's world never materialized: vacations to the moon, 900 miles per hour transatlantic trains hurtling through vacuum tunnels. But the absence is felt equally in the fabric of daily life, the way that the experience of cooking an egg or taking a shower hasn't changed in our lifetime.
...
Today we seem to have trouble picturing the future, except in cataclysmic terms or as the present gone worse ("Children of Men"). Our inability to generate positive and alluring images of tomorrow's world has been accompanied by the fading prominence of futurology as a form of popular nonfiction. It carries on as an academic discipline, as research and speculation conducted by think tanks and government-funded bodies.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 12, 2007 at 12:23 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• John Scalzi on The Last Colony (See SF Signal review.)
• Patrick Rothfuss on The Name of the Wind
• John Moore on A Fate Worse Than Dragons
• Sarah Zettel on Sword of the Deceiver

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 12, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles China Miéville, author of Un Lun Dun.


• Adventures in Scifi Publishing offers an audio preview of Paul Levinson's Phil D'Amato book, The Silk Code.


• Small World podcast-interviews Lou Anders. (See also: the SF Signal interview with Lou Anders.)


• SciFi UK interviews Tim Kring, Executive Producer of Heroes.


• Fantasy Book Critic interviews David Anthony Durham, author of Acacia.


• Nalini Singh interviews Emily Gee, author of Thief With No Shadow. [via When Gravity Fails]


• Geek Monthly lists the Saturn Award winners.


• Time magazine tells us How Shrek Changed Fairy Tales.


• AbeBooks is having a Harry Potter Poetry contest. The winner gets a bokshelf constructed from Harry Potter books.


• Edward James Olmos says that next season might be Battlestar Galactica's last. Producer David Eick disagrees. [via Boldly Go]


• The Top 10 Signs Your Best Friend Is a Cylon.


• The only thing better than C3P-Nuts? A chocolate version of Han Solo in carbonite!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 12, 2007 at 12:05 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: What do you get when you combine superheroes, neuroses, and self-help books? Don't answer yet since you also have to mix in some satire and some fantastic characters. The end result of this combination is this book by Minister Faust which was an enjoyable read with an ending that I still find very interesting.
MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman is an author of several self help books for meta humans, and in this book she tackles a group of dysfunctional heroes who are about to be kicked out of the Fraternal Order of Justice (FOOJ). This book documents that journey in psychology.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The characters and a unique way of presenting the story. Fantastic dialogue and the right amount of action.
CONS: A few too many acronyms (although I think that was intentional) and some of the psychology devolves into babble (again probably intentional).
BOTTOM LINE: A fantastic book that delivers entertainment and more.

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Friday May 11, 2007 at 12:16 PM
© 2007 SF Signal

I would be remiss if I didn't admit to liking Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna (and their pet monkey Gleek) when they first appeared on the Superfriends cartoon of my youth. It wasn't until I was a more discerning viewer that I realized how lame they truly were. Seriously, when a show replaces characters (poor Wendy and Marvin!), it's already jumped the shark.

Anywho, Adult Swim's 2-minute parodies of The Wonder Twins from 2002, like the one below, are a hoot.

[via Cynical-C]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 11, 2007 at 1:12 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Baen has posted part of their new anthology Future Weapons of War edited by by Joe Haldeman and Martin Harry Greenberg.

Available stories online include

• "Craters" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• "Rocket Boy" by Paul McAuley
• "Jade Angel" by Dena Bain Taylor

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 11, 2007 at 12:55 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Ray Bradbury had this to say about science fiction and fantasy, as quoted from the introduction to (I believe) The Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories:

Science-fiction is the law-abiding citizen of imaginative literature, obeying the rules, be they physical, social, or psychological, keeping regular hours, eating punctual meals; predictable, certain, sure.

Fantasy, on the other hand, is criminal. Each fantasy assaults and breaks a particular law; the crime being hidden by the author's felicitous thought and style which cover the body before blood is seen.

Science-fiction works hand-in-glove with the universe.

Fantasy cracks it down the middle, turns it wrong-side-out, dissolves it to invisibility, walks men through its walls, and fetches incredible circuses to town with sea-serpent, medusa, and chimera displacing zebra, ape, and armadillo.

Science-fiction balances you on the cliff. Fantasy shoves you off.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 11, 2007 at 12:45 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Mark Chitty has the scoop on Peter F. Hamilton's upcoming books and stories, including the spiffy new Jim Burns cover of The Dreaming Void.


• Jonathan Strahan is looking forward to the upcoming anthology Rewired: the Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, the editing team behind Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology.


• Alan DeNiro talks about Space Opera. "Space opera is the ultimate sandbox of non-realism."


• Author Justine Larbalestier lists the Top 10 Reasons Banning Books is a Bad Idea.


• SFX has a brief interviews with John Meaney and Mark Chadbourn.


• Here's a detailed look at the Film References in the Song "Science Fiction Double Feature" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.


• Paul Levinson lists 10 Reasons to Like the Clones, from a 2002 Locus article in response to reviews of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.


• Here's Why so Many Science Fiction Fans Are Turning Off the Sci-Fi Channel. The short version: Sucky programming.


• Maxim lists (what else?) The 15 Hottest Women in Comics.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 11, 2007 at 12:15 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

From the folks over at Forever Geek, we have news that the Sci-Fi channel be showing anime on Monday nights between 11pm and 1 am ET/PT starting June 11. This will obviously expand upon their current lineup of wrestling and Mansquito starting June 11. The release indicates that new lineup will include the premiere of Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society and will be a venue for new series such as Tokko, Noein. Hopefully these shows won't be too hacked up considering they are on later in the evening and on The Sci-Fi Channel versus Cartoon Network.

Updated to fix bad writing skills...

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Thursday May 10, 2007 at 10:47 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Frank Schatzing's SF novel The Swarm is headed for the big screen.


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Paul Park, author of The Tourmaline.


• Andrew Wheeler lists the things that sell books by being in the cover art.


• How many authors would go the extra distance by tattooing a line from their own book on themselves? That's what one author did.


• Free fiction: Hugo winner "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson. [via BoingBoing]


• Simon & Schuster is launching Bookvideos.tv, a website to promote their books via book videos.


• SciFi Chick's Least Favorite Aliens.


• John Scalzi's Whatever has been named as SciFi Weekly's site of the week.


• Star Wars humor: Star Wars toys that never made it.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 10, 2007 at 12:27 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Here's the 2001 pilot for Constant Payne, an animated, futuristic, action/adventure show that aired on Nickelodeon.

Nickelodeon?!? Perhaps they decided to get out of the sci-fi biz before the inevitable wrestling programming corrupted the kids. :)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 09, 2007 at 12:39 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Paul at Velcro City Tourist Board posts about "Compact classics" and literary elitism where he discusses the publication of abridged classics and Literary Snobbery:

The issue I have is with the assumption that people need to have read the 'classics' to have any valid claim to being a reader. It's this attitude, I think, that drives so many people away from reading as a hobby - because, like enthusiasts of any pursuit, readers can be very snobbish about reading, and that "what do you mean, you've never read {x}?" attitude has one effect and one effect only - it makes the accused feel inadequate.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 09, 2007 at 12:38 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Galley Cat talks about one of the most anticipated releases in genre publishing, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The UK site Times Online is reporting that the book may not be the revenue savior that people anticipate.

Bottom Line; it will generate sales, but not profits:

The seventh and final adventure of the young wizard, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on July 21 and Simon Fox, the chief executive, said that Waterstone's had already sold nearly as many by preorder as were sold in total of the sixth Harry Potter book.

He said that it was vitally important for Waterstone's to offer the book at a competitive price but because it was selling it at £8.99 – half price – it would be "hard to make money".

Mr Fox said that Ottakar's, the bookstore that Waterstone's bought last year, was a clear example of how a retailer's fortunes could be damaged by not engaging in price competition on block-buster books.
...
Mr Fox's comments reflect the fears of Kate Swann, the chief executive of WH Smith, and Philip Downer, the retail director of Borders, as the high street prepares for a Harry Potter price war with the supermarkets and online stores such as Amazon, which is already offering the book for £8.99.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 09, 2007 at 12:14 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• The Look at This blog points us to a couple of Star Wars goodies: The plans for a Death Star...subwoofer and an Everything Star Wars Flickr set.


• The Top 15 Han Solo Quotes You Need to Use in Regular Conversation.


• Here's (another) website of classic science fiction radio plays.


• Those who don't believe that science fiction has an image problem, raise your hand.


• Some sci-fi staples are on the lists of Most Watched films by Men and Women. [via Big Dumb Object]


• Remember, before you can kill an Ewok...you must walk among them and speak their language.


• What do you get when you cross science fiction and beer? You get a podcast on mundane sf and beer of course!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 09, 2007 at 12:08 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: This is everything you want in a good Space Opera.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The crew of a colonist ship, which crash lands on a mysterious helix made up of thousands of worlds, sets out to find a suitable home planet and learn the mystery behind the creation of the helix itself.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Huge sense of wonder; interesting alien races; dramatic characterizations; page-turning.
CONS: The crew was sometimes not as careful as they should have been given their situation.

BOTTOM LINE: A perfect blend of ingredients. Equal parts adventure, drama and wonder.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 08, 2007 at 12:47 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

• Sean Wallace shows off the final cover design for Best American Fantasy edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. See also: the book's TOC.


• James Patrick Kelly is podcasting his novel Look Into the Sun. Here's Part 13.


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Scott Lynch, finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for The Lies of Locke Lamora.


• Strange Horizons has Matt Cheney explaining How to Write a Paragraph.


• The On Our TV blog has the Larry King interview with the cast of Heroes (in 7 parts).


• Courtesy of the Gutenberg CD/DVD Project, here's the torrent for Project Gutenberg Science Fiction CD for March 2007.


• "Let's Begin now... BEEP!" SFF Audio's Jesse Willis brings to our attention the ReadAlongAdventures website, which provides digital versions of those read-along books and tapes we all loved as kids.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 08, 2007 at 12:11 AM
© 2007 SF Signal

Don't worry, that's a good thing! ABC has confirmed that LOST will end, after three more seasons. The interesting thing is, each 'season' will be comprised of 16 episodes that will run straight through without interruption. This will alleviate the two month break the show went through this season, and, if the writers can keep it up, the show will be stronger for it.

I think one of the main reasons the show may have lost some viewers was a direct result of having no end date in sight. This forced the writers to vamp and stretch the reveals out as much as possible. Thinking this was another Twin Peaks, people bailed. However, LOST is not Twin Peaks. It is evident that there is a cohesive story behind it all, but the writers were shackled by the open ended stop date. Now, with a concrete date, the writers can concentrate on moving the story lines forward and giving us more info on what is going on.

If you've given up on the series after last season, or even after the first 6 episodes of this seasons, then you've missed some incredible shows. Since LOST returned from its break, its been giving us some great TV, with interesting stories along with some answers, while, of course, giving us more questions, which we know will be answered in the next 48 episodes. This weeks episode looks to be a winner, as we get to see the backstory for Ben. I've been really enjoying the heck out of it lately and I have to watch it as soon as I can get the kids in bed. LOST and Heroes are the only two shows that do that for me. If you liked LOST and have left, why not come back? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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