SF Signal: May 2007 Archives

Thursday May 31, 2007

NOMINEES: 2007 John W. Campbell Memorial Award

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]

Speed Racer's Mach 5

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.

Plus, most of the car effects will be done with CGI and the model you see above will be in a wire-fu setup. Please, please, please don't screw this up. There's a lot of possibilities with the car, just think about those retractable saw blades, but how much will they tone it down?

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."

A real chimpanzee. Sweet. I'm almost convinced to be there in the theaters. But I still have doubts. Check out the cast: Emile Hirsch (who?) as Speed, Christina Ricci (Wednesday Adams?!) as Trixie and Matthew Fox (Jack! He got off the island! But did his dad?) as Racer X.

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

Caption Challenge #1: Star Wars Edition

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.

My goal is to try to do this somewhat regularly, but in the meantime enjoy...

Harry Potter Land

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?

Bradbury: TV Kills Interest in Reading

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.

Bardbury's website offers a page of video clips, including one called "Bradbury on Censorship/Television" in which he describes the book's real meaning.

SF Tidbits for 5/31/07

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]

Wednesday May 30, 2007

REVIEW: Recursion by Tony Ballantyne

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.

I bought this book right before a trip to Florida. That flight turns out to be just perfect for a reasonable mass-market paperback because I generally read about 100 pages per hour and the total of a five hour round-trip means I can easily get a 400 page book finished with time left over to make some polite smalltalk with whomever is sitting near me. But when I started this one, I was a little worried - the initial parts of the book are hard to get into and somewhat simply written. As the book progresses the story kicks into gear, the ideas begin to flow, and Ballantyne's prose improves to quite respectable. By the end, I was hanging on every page wondering exactly where the author was taking me next.

The future depicted by Ballantyne is somewhat of a mystery, and he uses the book as a way to explore that mystery and ultimately explain its evolution. One of the best parts of the world he predicts is that it isn't that far away from our own. The technology advances, certainly, but humans continue to behave much like they have for thousands of years. Here is an example of the future he paints:

To so many people alive at the start of the twenty-second century, the real world was a commodity like any other, sold shrink-wrapped, dated, and best befored. Whether it was freshly baked bread, imitation grit of the millstone baked inside it, or a weekend in a country house with a trout river running through the grounds, the real world had to have authenticity added before it could be sold.

And there are several dirty little secrets around in this world that need that vernier. From replicating machinery run amok, to AIs gone rogue, to interstellar computer viruses, this future has many things to be concerned about. The technologies have also been used for some good, certainly. VNMs build arcologies on the harshest of terrain to ease the overcrowding of the Earth. Warp drive enables mankind's expansion throughout the solar system and beyond. And AI systems help run the planet and eliminate many of our current ailments.

What surprised me most about the book is Ballantyne's humor. Humor is often very difficult to convey in a book, but his characters banter and sarcasm come through with very well. Here is an example from early in the book when Herb has been caught red handed orbiting above the planet he has annihilated.

"That doesn't mean we couldn't cut a deal, though. I could have you transferred to an Earth prison instead. Get your sentence cut to about a year. Even arrange for some remedial training in the responsible applications of self-replicating machines."

Herb sat up straighter, though without as much enthusiasm as he would have expected. His constantly changing fate was making him feel drained and passive.

As it was supposed to.

He gave a weak smile. "Would you?" he said.

"Oh, yes,", said Johnston. "If it was anybody else but you."

If I have a complaint about the book besides the start, it is that the characters are relatively thin. The funny part to me was how initially they seemed more complex (complete with flaws and eccentricities) but ultimately ended up shallower than I prefer. The characters of Herb and Constantine appear to have some tremendous opportunities to grow and learn but instead stay relatively static. The character of Eva goes through some tremendous changes with plenty of depth, but somehow ends up flat in the end. But these are relatively minor nits that don't spoil the overall novel.

So ultimately we have a tale that warns us of the hazards of our technology. To be sure he has some interesting ideas in here and there is more that I won't spoil, but in writing this thoroughly modern hard sci-fi Ballantyne has done a great job capturing the classic spirit of sci-fi as well. I was glad I took the time to read this one, and I'm thinking of reading the sequel as well - especially if I have another trip.

Top 10 Surprises in the Season Finale of Heroes

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

[via OnOurTV]

SF Tidbits for 5/30/07

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]

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Is Serious Sci-Fi Dying?

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.

[via Big Dumb Object]

REVIEW: Prador Moon by Neal Asher

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.

I really wanted to like Prador Moon. It's set in Asher's Polity universe like Gridlinked, which I read and liked, and The Brass Man, which JP read and liked. Those two books follow Polity Agent Ian Cormac while Prador Moon shows us the Polity's earlier days as it examines the clash between humans and the all-too-absent aliens in the Polity universe.

The very first encounter takes place on Avalon station in a scene that immediately shows that the aliens are not as benevolent as one would hope. Through several gory scenes throughout the novel, in fact, we learn that these crab-like aliens have little regard for human life and an insatiable appetite for human flesh. Polity security agent Jebel Krong is one of the few survivors of that first, fateful meeting and takes a decidedly intense interest in retaliating against the predators who come to be nicknamed the Prador based on their predatory nature.

As fans of this universe already know, the human-populated Polity travels great distances through gates known as runcibles which use advanced technology that can only be controlled by artificial intelligences. In Prador Moon, Moria Salem is a runcible technician who becomes embroiled in the humans' fight against the Prador when a supposedly routine augmentation meant to provide simple net access proves to give her abilities far beyond the norm. And as if the Polity doesn't have enough to contend with besides invading, flesh-eating aliens, they also have to deal with a human faction known as the Separatists who are not so much pro-Prador as they are anti-AI.

The story's construction lends itself to a fast-paced, action-packed book. The narrative of Prador Moon alternates points of view between Jebel, Moria, and the Prador leader known as Immanence. Through them we see different aspects of the players in this battle for human survival. Given that we are seeing things through the characters' eyes, it could be assumed that the reader would make instantaneous connection with those characters; not necessarily like them, just connect with them in some way. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In all story threads, it's difficult to make any emotional connections with the characters at all beyond the ability to superficially determine who the bad guys are. (That would be the human-flesh-eating aliens, in case there was any doubt.) In Jebel Krong's case, this inability to connect may be because he is a merciless killing machine. But even the loss of a loved one - his main motivation for going all Rambo on the Prador in the first place - does not come through as the dramatic moment it should be and thus does not endear Jebel to us. At times it seemed that a minor character, the Golem named Urbanus, was more sympathetic. Moria Salem, augmented with a state of the art (and illegal) technology, had a story that was even less engaging than Jebel's. At least Jebel had personal motication; Moria's story lacks even that. Her story serves merely to educate the reader about the goings-on of the all-knowing (and sometimes cryptic) AI. The augmentation was cool, but again, there was just no emotional attachment to the character. Without these connections, the characters are archetypal at best.

Oddly, the Prador POV offered the most engaging story and the most enjoyable sf-nal outlet. The culture of the Prador is exposed at great length through these passages. We see their hierarchies and their strict social structure, where underlings evolve and advance through controlled pheromones while those that disobey, fail, or otherwise piss off the leader are eaten. Tough crowd, those Prador. The scenes that depict the Prador as the badass aliens they are were gory and frequently accompanied by whimpering and/or dying humans who knew their fate. The gore was really nothing more than shock value here; the human reactions are what really gave the Prador their menacing image. Learning about the Prador social structure was some nice gravy. Their relentlessness in attempting to capture runcible technology - even though it was never 100% clear to me what they'd do with it since they lack the AIs to control it - was nonetheless believable.

There a few surprises in Prador Moon. One character in the book, for example, is revealed to be a Separatist and that storyline is decent enough. But the book's focus is more on the action and less on the drama. I'm not sure if the book's 222-page length worked for or against it. On the one hand, I like short books because they tend to cut out the bloat. On the other hand, this particular story could have use more fleshing out of the characters.

SF Tidbits for 5/29/07

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.

Monday May 28, 2007

Meme: Title Blender

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

Tagging others is hard when there are so many to choose from. So, if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

SF Tidbits for 5/28/07

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.

POLL RESULTS: Our Favorite Firefly Episode

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
The fanbase of Joss Whedon's Firefly is still going strong. Which episode is your favorite?

RESULTS

(438 total votes)

During the early days of this post, there was apparent ballot-stuffing going on, so make of these results what you will.

Some comments this week:

"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

Be sure to visit our front page and vote in this week's poll about Season One of Heroes!

Sunday May 27, 2007

MOVIE IMPRESSIONS: 28 Weeks Later

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!

The first 10 minutes of 28 Weeks Later was so exciting as to be almost unbearable. Okay, if that makes me sound like a Sissy-Mary then so be it. I'm a fan of zombie films, and I thought I knew what I was in for with this one, but I seriously underestimated how far they could ratchet up the intensity.

The story opens on a group of survivors holed up in a house in the country. Among them a middle-aged man Don (Robert Carlyle from Trainspotting - another film by 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle) and his wife. Hordes of infected break into the house and Don is forced into the snap decision of taking an insane risk to save his wife or to save his own life and attempt to stay alive long enough to raise their kids (who are out of the country studying in Spain.)

Flash forward a half year later and Don is living in London, part of 15,000 others working with the U.S. military to rebuild District 1. Don's is reunited with his children and has to confront them with the terrible guilt of leaving their mother to die.

A somewhat impractical string of events follows in which the rage virus infiltrates District 1 and some serious mayhem ensues.

The camerawork was very shaky, to the point of being distracting, but it did lend a great deal to the moods of chaos and rage.

The soundtrack borrowed tracks from the original film, which is a good thing - it's one of the few movie soundtracks I actually purchased. The main song "In the House - In a Heartbeat" starts slow and ratchets up with the action onscreen to a frenetic crescendo.

REVIEW: Brasyl by Ian McDonald

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.

What's even more amazing is that McDonald has taken these stories and wrapped them around a very hard science fictional idea. Namely that of the quantum computational view of cosmology. In short, the universe is a quantum computer that is computing itself. My first introduction to this idea was from the mind expanding book, Programming the Universe by Seth Loyd. In fact, McDonald has actually given us a taste of this view before in his previous book, River of Gods. It's the reason the AIs in that book 'leave' Earth and go where they go. In Brasyl, McDonald takes the idea to its next, logical conclusion. I won't spoil the idea, but it does lead to all sorts of interesting philosophical ideas which the characters must face. It's also the basis for a conflict that is hidden for most of the book, based on different views of the universe, but comes to the fore as the story threads slowly wind together. Brasyl isn't just a parallel dimensions story, it tackles big issues like free will and the heat death of the universe and places them in intensely personal stories, which serves to humanize these ideas and make them easier to understand. In fact, one of the sides in the conflict has a very gloomy outlook that reminded me of the book Darwinia. Of course, the other side in the conflict has a more hopeful outlook.

McDonald's prose also stands out. Each story has its own unique voice, appropriate to the era in which it's set. For the later stories, McDonald uses Portugese words and phrases quite often, and tends to write in shorter, punchier sentences and fragments. You get the feeling that later day Brazil is a busy, frenetic place even though it is under the ever watchful eyes of the authorities. The earlier Brazil is more languid and slow, reflecting the slower pace of life in the 18th century and the sentences are longer and more traditional to reflect this. Overall, Brasyl has some of the deliberate storytelling from River of Gods, but at only 343 pages, the storylines converge quicker and, reflecting the quantum view, in unexpected ways. It felt a bit like Cloud Atlas, only with a heavier science fictional element.

I did have some issues with Brasyl. Mainly the prevalence of Portugese in the stories. I don't know Portugese and it isn't always apparent from context what the words mean. Additionally, even though there is a glossary in the back, not all the words used appear there. This necessitates either a trip to the web to figure them out, or, in my case, just accepting the words as is and making a guess as to meaning. This made the reading a slow go for the entire book and sapped some of the enjoyment from the book. Luckily, the big issues are explained in English terms which makes them easier to understand. I also felt that, despite the outstanding story telling, there is more to be told. Nothing is really wrapped up, the origins of the different sides aren't really explained and there is no final resolution. Perhaps McDonald was going for that type of ending since we, currently, have no idea how universe will actually end, but here, it feels like Brasyl is the first book in a series and there is enough left hanging for a sequel.

Brasyl rivals River Of Gods story-wise and surpasses it in science fictional terms. I'd say its on par with River Of Gods overall and if you liked River, you should like Brasyl, with the caveat that the Portugese seems to get in the way more than the Hindu did.

Clone Wars Trailer

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...

Rowling Reads Potter...All...Night...Long

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.

See also: SF Signal's Harry Potter Outreach Program.

SF Tidbits for 5/27/07

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.

EW Reviews SF/F