REVIEW SUMMARY: A great hard science fiction story that delivers more ideas in a single novel than most do in a series. Niven is a great writer, and this is a great collaboration.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Fleeing a chain-reaction supernovae in the galactic core, the Citizens (Puppeteers from Niven's other books) take their planets and head out. This fleet of worlds comes across a human colony ship and turns the embryos they find into a race of slaves. Kirsten is one of the best and brightest and is eventually sent out to scout ahead of the fleet looking for danger. What she ends up discovering involves the history of her race and threatens to send the Citizen planets spinning out of control.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Niven and Lerner turn in a fantastic collaboration. Even if you haven't read any of Niven's known space novels you'll find a lot to like here. Excellent set of ideas around the alternative evolution of life, exploiting teleportation, starship construction, and much more.
CONS: You really need to be a fan of science fiction to enjoy this book.
BOTTOM LINE: Set in the universe of the Ringworld novels, this book stands very well on its own and delivers a very strong hard science fiction experience. It is a great novel that is not to be missed.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Friday February 29, 2008 at 7:24 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

John Joseph Adams has posted the Table of Contents of Seeds of Change, his upcoming anthogy of original fiction about world-changing events:

1. Introduction by John Joseph Adams
2. "N-Words" by Ted Kosmatka
3. "The Future by Degrees" by Jay Lake
4. "Drinking Problem" by K. D. Wentworth
5. "Endosymbiont" by Blake Charlton
6. "A Dance Called Armageddon" by Ken MacLeod
7. "Arties Aren't Stupid" by Jeremiah Tolbert
8. "Faceless in Gethsemane" by Mark Budz
9. "Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
10. "Resistance" by Tobias S. Buckell

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 29, 2008 at 9:21 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

In 1974 after having his wisdom teeth removed, Philip K. Dick experienced a profound religious experience. Pumped full of Sodium Pentathol, Dick answered the door to meet a girl from the pharmacy who was delivering his pain medications (if only they delivered now) and, upon seeing her golden fish pendant, experienced what he called 'anamnesis'.

This experience led to his 'discovery' of the 'Black Iron Prison' and, slowly, Dick would believe that he was a Christian from Roman times. Often times assuming the personality of that person.

If you've ever wondered what that might be like, then look no further than The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick, as illustrated and written by R. Crumb. There's something about reading this in comic form that works extremely well and gives us a great sense of what it must have been like to slowly loose touch with reality. Or did he?

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday February 29, 2008 at 6:18 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

As I write this, I just finished watching the latest episode of LOST, called 'The Constant'. To all those who poo-pooed the idea that LOST was not science fiction, watch this episode. After hinting and teasing, the writers finally pulled out the stops and gave us a full-bore science fiction episode.

'The Constant' is a Desmond-centric episode, which is great because Desmond is a great character, but what set it apart was that, depending on how you look at it, it was either a flash-forward episode, or a flash-back. Why? Because, due to forces only hinted at (of course), Desmond becomes unstuck in time, and oscillates between 1996 and 2004. He must find Penny in both periods (she is the constant) to ground him, or else he will die as his consciousness will be unable to handle the ever increasing time shifts. Yes, we get the paradoxical infomational loops, but they are handled pretty well, although there were a couple of areas that were glossed over. But that's ok, because:

Not only do we get some heavy duty SF tossed into the show, it only took the writers 4 seasons to smack people over the head with it, we also got a terrific character story centered on Desmond and Penny. Now we see what prompted Penny to start, and continue, her search for Desmond. We see the lengths Desmond will go to try and reconnect with Penny, ultimately ending with a very emotional, and powerful, reunion. This was, by far, the best episode this season and might be the best overall. An awesome job by all those involved.

I won't say much more then you simply have to watch it for yourself. If you gave up on LOST, I think you owe it to yourself to catch up (fulls eps available on ABC's website). If you've never seen it, all seasons are online at ABC, what are you waiting for? It should be one incredible run to the series finale in 2010.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday February 29, 2008 at 5:57 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Arthur C. Clarke talks about sea monsters...

This video is from the 70's. Compare and contrast that with this video from the 70's kids' show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

[via raincoaster]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 29, 2008 at 1:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Tor's latest free eBook is the 2006 Hugo Award-winning Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

Have you signed up yet?

They've also posted a couple of cool desktop wallpapers: Todd Lockwood's cover for To Light a Candle by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, and Stephan Martiniere's cover for Escapement by Jay Lake. Get them quickly! They will be rotated out every week.

[via The Art Department]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 29, 2008 at 1:23 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Reads:
  • As promised, Neil Gaiman's publisher, Harper Collins, has made his book American Gods freely available. It's only available for one month and only via online reading. So hurry up and read it while you can!
  • Tobias Buckell has posted the 1st chapter of his next novel, Sly Mongoose.
  • Jayme Lynn Blaschke is giving away copies of his Locus Poll-nominated story "The Final Voyage of La Riaza".


• Apex has purchased the short story collection (I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein). About time, imo. [via SF Scope]


• Meet the Author: Iain M. Banks, whose mum recommends Matter.


• Locus Online has interviews excerpts with Maureen F. McHugh and Lucius Shepard, pulled from the latest issue of Locus magazine.


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Alastair Reynolds (The Prefect) and Robin Hobb (Renegade's Magic).
  
• Angry Black Woman features a guest essay by David Anthony Durham.


• Paul Levinson is reading from his upcoming book, Unburning Alexandria at Gypsy Moon, in Second Life this Sunday.


• Fantasybookspot interviews Michael Cisco (The Traitor and Secret Hours).


• At Time Magazine, Matt Selman tells us How to Store Books. "It is unacceptable to display any book in a public space of your home if you have not read it." Uh-oh... [via When Gravity Fails]


• Check out Gus Hunter's cool King Kong artwork.


• Cover Pr0n:
  • Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams.
  • The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia.
  • Project Moonbase and Others by Robert A. Heinlein.
  • The Affinity Bridge by George Mann.


• Cinematical has the new WALL-E poster.


• Jeff Prucher, editor of Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, talks about organlegging


• Leonard Maltin interviews Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot).


• W.W. Ni has posted an excerpt from Tophero: Son of Smilodon, a "provocative prehistoric space action adventure for men who dare to dream".


• Jim van Pelt lists 10 Reasons To Not Be Discouraged About the State of Science Fiction.


• io9 lists The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life. A nice list, as far it goes, which is just short of explaining exactly why they are life-changing.


• Speaks for itself: Spock as a DJ.


• SciFi Web Comic Humor: Brewster Rockit takes on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 29, 2008 at 1:19 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Marc Wade, former director of production at StarTrek.com, has landed a weekly column over at Roddenberry.com. His first column takes a look at Star Trek: The Tour.
• Cine Fantastique Online has a very long, in-depth interview with George Takei. The cover a wide range of topics including Star Trek, William Shatner, Heroes, Howard Stern and a lot more. Part 1 here. Part 2 here. This interview happened some time last year, but only recently posted, so some of the information is out of date.
• At last week's WonderCon, Chris Carter dropped some hints about the upcoming X-Files movie. It will be stand alone and won't deal with the mythology of the show, instead it will focus on the scarier stories that peppered the show during its original run. Rumor has it there may be werewolves involved.
• If you really can't wait for the last season of Galactica and don't mind being very spoiled, then head on over to IO9 ans see thier BG video clips for season 4.
• In case you weren't planning on playing the new video game, LOST: Via Domus, now you can watch TyndelM play through the entire game! In fact, it looks like he has several video walkthroughs. I find this, odd.
• The fine folks over at RavenStake have released their second LOST parody video, using actual LOST action figures. Check it:
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday February 29, 2008 at 12:41 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

From the Science Fiction Writers of America:

The SFWA® Board of Directors and President Michael Capobianco are pleased to announce that writer and editor Michael Moorcock has been named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2008. The Grand Master represents SFWA's highest accolade and recognizes excellence for a lifetime of contributions to the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

Mr. Moorcock is the twenty-fifth writer recognized by Science FIction and Fantasy Writers of America as a Grand Master. He joins Robert A. Heinlein (1974), Jack Williamson (1975), Clifford D. Simak (1976), L. Sprague de Camp (1978), Fritz Leiber(1981), Andre Norton (1983), Arthur C. Clarke (1985), Isaac Asimov (1986), Alfred Bester (1987), Ray Bradbury (1988), Lester del Rey (1990), Frederik Pohl (1992), Damon Knight (1994), A. E. van Vogt (1995), Jack Vance (1996), Poul Anderson (1997), Hal Clement (1998), Brian Aldiss (1999), Philip Jose Farmer (2000), Ursula K. LeGuin (2003), and Robert Silverberg (2004), Anne McCaffrey (2005), Harlan Ellison (2006), and James Gunn (2007).

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 28, 2008 at 4:42 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Call me silly, I liked the first movie. I never saw the supposed suckfest that was Starship Troopers 2. And now this? I dunno. Your thoughts?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 28, 2008 at 12:16 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• There's a brand new website for Space Vulture, the new pulp science fiction adventure book written by Gary K. Wolf (Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the basis for the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and Archbishop John J. Myers.


• Paul Cornell has announced that he has been commissioned to adapt the Iain Banks novella "State of the Art" into a BBC radio play. [via Iain Banks (Official Site)]


• Free SF Sample: Alastair Reynolds has posted the 2nd chapter from House of Suns.


• Tobias Buckell, in a guest essay at The Angry Black Woman, talks about how history affects his fiction.


• Nancy Kress is dwelling on the Pareto principle and wonders: Does the 80/20 rule apply to science fiction? "Should we pay that disproportionate amount of attention to that 20% of writers, of stories, of a given author's oeuvre?"


• Enturbulation claims to have proof that L. Ron Hubbard plagiarized Scientology from a 1934 German book called Scientologie. [Boing Boing]


• The SFWA has decided that "World Enough and Time" is indeed eligible for the Nebula, despite some complaints. Science Fiction Awards Watch has more.


• Good news for Our UK Readers: BBC is airing a 3-part series called The Worlds of Fantasy exploring the growth of Fantasy fiction. The bad news: it started yesterday (Wednesday February 27th). [via Yatterings]


• Mr. McGroovy's shows us How to Build a Cardboard Spaceship. [via MonkeyFilter]


• Science Fiction Addiction names 5 Strong Female Characters Science Fiction Literature.


• SciFi Scanner's Kevin Maher has another illuminating episode of the SciFi Department in which he lists 5 Oscar-award winning actors who went on to grace the screens of B-movie trash.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 28, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Common sense and statistics say that, even when you think you're watching a decent SciFi film, you should refrain from celebration until after the end credits - because sometimes movie endings suck. We asked a host of luminaries the following question.

*** SPOILER WARNING! ***
Some of these answers (and accompanying videos) contain spoilers. But in this case, the answers are more entertaining than the end of the movie anyway, so...spoiler warning redacted. :)

I decided to start with a list of movies I think have endings flawed one way or another, a list that includes a lot of movies I truly like. 2001 is pretty confusing. Contact is a bit of a let down and the government cover-up seemed unnecessary. AI goes for the weird alien happy ending. The Hulk ending is a dark mess. The finale of Sphere sucks. Changing the ending of Armageddon sure couldn't hurt it. Return of the Jedi is full of Ewoks and happy happy joy joy Darth Vader. Ridley Scott himself has changed the ending of Blade Runner several times.

And then there's the movie I finally settled on: Signs...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

MilkandCookies Middle-Unearths this 1968 interview with J.R.R. Tolkien and grandson Adam (2007).

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 12:27 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Science Fiction Quarterly interviews Robert J. Sawyer (Rollback). "What's best about the genre right now is that a goodly number of writers are striving to engage the heart as well as the mind, and are giving us books that actually live up to that hoary old cliche we've trotted out for decades about SF being a special lens for examining the human condition." [via Jason Sanford]


• The Agony Column podcast interviews Terry Bisson (Number s Don't Lie).


• The following stories have been added to the list of Free Nebula Fiction [via Joe Sherry]:
  • "Awakening" by Judith Berman
  • "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson
  • "Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse" by Andy Duncan


• Free audiobooks: SFFaudio rounds up some short fiction stories with Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 3.


• Free Magazine: Steampunk Magazine Issue #4, which includes fiction, features and an interview with Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. [via Ecstatic Days] (VanderBonus: PS Publishing shows off the awesome cover art for Jeff VanderMeer's chapbook/novelette, The Situation.)


• Free Sample: Eos Blog has a sneak peak of The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison.


• Guardian Unlimited Arts blog wants to know what you think of reading books in bite-size, daily chunks via email, like via DailyLit.


• Paul Jessup shares some information on his intriguing-sounding surrealist Space Opera.


• As advertised: Speculative Fiction Writers Pick Their Favorite Stories.


• Helium lists The most famous science fiction authors.


• The Onion A.V. Club interviews Summer Glau.


• GalleyCat, with the help of Ellen Datlow, names the most award-nominated story you've never heard of.


• Screen Rant has a first look at the X-Men Origins: Wolverine poster.


• Looking to drop $50 in a hurry? PopTherapy takes us to these Alien Spaceship Lawn Figures. Hmmm..lawn ornaments or 3 Dalek T-Shirts...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 12:26 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A collection of well-written erotic science fiction short stories.

MY RATING: See the text below.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 10 erotic science fiction short stories written by Polly Frost.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: An interesting collection of stories that makes fun of science fiction tropes occasionally but also contains some interesting ideas. Most of the stories involve a last-minute twist (ironic or otherwise) that I enjoy most in short fiction.
CONS: Some stories are just strange as opposed to interesting.
BOTTOM LINE: If you find erotic fiction to be your cup of tea, I think you'll enjoy this collection of stories that Polly has written.

Because I'm not sure how sensitive our readers are to this sort of thing, I'm putting the rest of my review and an analysis of each of the stories after the jump. Read on if you dare!

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 7:04 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

From the press release:

Cathy and Arnie Fenner, the directors for Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, announced that this year's Grand Master Award has been presented to John Jude Palencar. The Spectrum Advisory Board--consisting of Rick Berry, Brom, Mark Chiarello, Leo and Diane Dillon, Harlan Ellison, Irene Gallo, Bud Plant, Don Ivan Punchatz, Tim Underwood, and Michael Whelan--reviewed a list of eligible artists and reached a consensus to confer the honor.

The Spectrum Grand Master Award is presented annually to a living artist whose career has spanned at least twenty years, whose work has achieved and maintained a high-level of skill and imagination, and who has inspired others with their art and attitude.
...
Previous recipients of the award are Frank Frazetta, Don Ivan Punchatz, Leo and Diane Dillon, James E. Bama, John Berkey, Alan Lee, Jean Giraud, Kinuko Y. Craft, Michael William Kaluta, Michael Whelan, H.R. Giger, Jeffrey Jones, and Syd Mead.

The Spectrum site has more winners of the Spectrum 15 Awards.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 2:07 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Stefan G. Bucher's Daily Monster website operates with a simple premise: every day he posts a short, high-speed video of him drawing a new monster.

A simple idea, yes, but the results are awesome.

The website has also spawned a book: 100 Days Of Monsters, which also comes with a DVD that features videos from the website. Now why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, no-talent @$$-clown. (With apologies to Michael Bolton...)

[via Boing^2]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 12:12 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Another reader writes in with a story description looking for a title. Do any of our readers out there know the title of this story?

When I was a kid in the 1970s, I read what was probably a short story (probably in an anthology for young readers) about a bunch of children who lived in a controlled environment with a minder looking after them from a voice in the wall. In fact that's what they called this person, "Voice." All the children have names like Emelen and Emanee (those are the two I can remember). One very bright child figures out that "Voice" is actually more than one person, as the personality changes over time, and this child eventually organises an escape, in which all the children discover a huge world outside their home and that they have been kept prisoners. They also learn that they are all mutations of some sort, with extra limbs or misshapen facial features, and that that was why they were separated from the rest of humanity. Their names turn out to be 3-letter codes, MLN and MNE, in the examples above, and the M stands for "monster."

I remember this story hitting me very hard as a youngster and I'd like to reread it if anyone remembers it.

- Maria S.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 1:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Fiction: "Mathralon" by David Louis Edelman (appears in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two]


• Free Audio Fiction: Key Out Of Time by Andre Norton. [via SFFaudio]


• Free Fiction Teaser: Asimov's has posted the beginning of Elizabeth Bear's story "Shoggoths in Bloom".


• John C. Wright liked Steven Gould's book, Jumper. The movie? Not so much.


• F&SF Blog interviews K.D. Wentworth whose story, "Exit Strategy", appears in the March 2008 issue.


• Artist Maurizio Manzieri shows off the cool artwork he did for April 2008 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine to coincide with the lead story "Five Thrillers" by Robert Reed.


• D.D. Shade at Lost Books asks: What is Speculative Fiction? "...we need a good way of defining Speculative Fiction other than saying, as Damon Knight said of science fiction, that Speculative Fiction is that which we point to and say it is Speculative Fiction."


• io9 lists 7 Scifi Comic Books That are Free Online.


• TexasBestGrok points us to these cool Model kits that Might Have Been, a set of realistic (but faux) model kit boxes which you can actually order and showcase at home (or wherever it is one showcases models). My favorite: Balok from Star Trek. Clint Howard always creeped me out.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 1:03 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Way back when I was a young geek, science fiction took many forms, one of which was a precursor to audio books: I'm talking about the 45 RPM Read-Along comic books. I personally owned my very own copy of a Spiderman read-along comic called Mark of the Werewolf, much to the endless amusement of my much-cooler imaginary friends.

Now you can once again experience the unique joy of reading along with these Flash Gordon read-along MP3s. Well, almost experience....you don't actually get to see the books, they're just MP3s. But you do get to hear the awesome "turn page now" chime. Man, that sends chills down the place where my spine used to be.

[Note: the download links for these MP3s use the MegaUpload website which makes you (1) type in a captcha code, and (2) wait 45 seconds for the "free" download. Very Lame.]

[via Cool-Mo-Dee]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 25, 2008 at 10:39 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Toy2R and Diamond Comics Distributors unveiled their upcoming Futurama Qees figures in ToyFare magazine. Check out the sweet Fry pic on the right, and click through to see Bender. They will be released sometime this summer, with a promise of more figures in the future.
• Lots of J. Michael Straczynski news from WonderCon: JMS has signed a deal with DC Comics, but he was tight-lipped about what that entails. His first major motion picture, The Changeling (starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, directed by Clint Eastwood) has just wrapped. In news sure to warm Tim's heart, he has been tapped by Plan B to adapt World War Z for the big screen. He also hints at Lensmen, the movie, and a possible Babylon 5 feature movie. Go read.
• The Telegraph has a long piece cover Bionic Woman actress, Michelle Ryan. Interesting tidbit from the story: Jennifer Aniston was up for the role of Jamie Sommers. That would have been, bad.
• From the 'What are they thinking' file: Did you know Sony Pictures is producing Starship Troopers 3 - Marauder? Casper Van Dien is back, this time bringing with him...Jolene Blalock. Why won't this series die? When the trailer hits (today, supposedly) we'll let you in in all the gory details.
• Recently, ReelzChannel caught up to J.J. Abrams and asked him a few questions about the new Star Trek movie and the possibility of Cloverfield 2. Here's what he had to say:
  
  
  Dailies | J.J. Abrams

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday February 25, 2008 at 9:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A very good read that I might have enjoyed this even more if I hadn't read the novella on which it is based.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An angry prospector is forced by aliens to hunt someone down.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: The core story is engaging; thought-provoking sf-nal ideas; clear, concise prose makes for easy reading.
CONS: Because I read the novella version, the extra material felt like padding.
BOTTOM LINE: A solid, well-constructed and wholly entertaining story.

A few years ago, I read an excellent novella called "Shadow Twin" that was co-written by George R.R. Martin, Gardener Dozois, and Daniel Abraham. Now, in the grand tradition of science fiction literature and marketing, that novella has been expanded into the novel-length story Hunter's Run. I was curious. Does the novel hold up?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 25, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 25, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Issue #980 (February 29, 2008) of Entertainment Weekly offers some brief reviews of science fiction and fantasy books.

Here's a snippet...

by A. Lee Martinez
Movie Pitch: Iron Man meets X-Men.
Lowdown: The dialogue and supporting cast are full of creaky clichés, but in time Mack's smash-and-grab mission acquires some satisfying philosophical heft.
Grade: B+

by Iain M. Banks
Movie Pitch: A Star Trek "Prime Directive" episode meets The Lord of the Rings.
Lowdown: Trippy geography and climactic techno-mayhem can't fully offset the slog through pseudo-Tolkien territory.
Grade: B

by Kim Harrison
Movie Pitch: Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Tank Girl.
Lowdown: Outlaw may be tough for newbies, but Rachel's personal growth, series-altering revelations, and a lot of humor make it inviting.
Grade: B+

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 25, 2008 at 12:06 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Fantasy Book Critic interviews Jonathan Barnes (The Somnambulist).


• The Australian interviews Iain Banks (Matter). [via Locus Online]


• Strange Horizons interviews Greg Bear (Quantico).


• io9 interviews Amy Thomson (Storyteller).


• Jay Lake podcast-interviews Jeff & Ann Vandermeer. [via SFFaudio] Meanwhile Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast-interviews Jeff VanderMeer all by his lonesome.


• Telegraph looks at The Omega Force by Rick Moody.


• George R.R. Martin has a series of posts about the Hugos (Best Editor, Best Artist, Best Fanzine) and the John W. Campbell Award.


• Matthew Sanborn Smith responds to the recent Where Has All The Sci-Fi Gone? question.


• March 2 - 8, 2008 is Read an E-Book Week! [via SFF Chronicles]


• Kathryn Cramer points us to this $1,800 Rocketship Side Table (a few items down) for "the Hugo winner who has everything".

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 25, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION

Which of these 2007 Stoker nominees for best novel should win?

RESULTS

"I've only read HSB and I thought it was a bit overrated." - Tony Geer

"I lived through a war. For me that is all the scares I will ever need." - GeneralX

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 25, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Screen Rant also has a lot more Iron Man information posted from the WonderCon Iron Man panel. And if you want to see the new trailer, be sure to tune in to this week's episode of LOST (2/28).

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Posted by JP Frantz at Sunday February 24, 2008 at 8:43 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The Statesman profiles Elizabeth Moon (Victory Conditions).


• The Regina (Saskatchewan) Leader Post profiles Edward Willett (Marseguro).


• The Guardian Arts blog looks at New women's worlds in fantasy: "Once thought to be a primarily male genre, women writers are expanding its frontiers in the 21st century." [via Illusion TV]


• The Nebula-nominated story "Child, Maiden, Woman, Crone" by Terry Bramlett is now up for free reading. Check out the list of nominees for more free Nebula Fiction. [via Fred K.]


• Jason Sanford points us to a lively discussion of the Nebulas over at Asimov's Forum, which keys off Dave Truesdale's article SFWA Nebula Apathy Slights Original Anthologies: Or Why I Like the Hugos.


• The World in the Satin Bag rounds up Podcasts For Writers.


• StarShipSofa #79 focuses on M.John Harrison (Nova Swing).


• Classic sf/f cover blog: Golden Age Comic Book Stories. [via Drawn!]


• For Tim: About.com interviews Torchwood's Naoko Mori.


• Journihilism lists 20 Incredible Women of Science Fiction.


• io9 lists The Worst Scifi Resurrections.


• Yet another useless Star Wars item that I want so, so badly for no logical reason: a Han Solo carbonite desk! [via Geek Alert]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday February 24, 2008 at 1:59 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Our Future: Thoughts talks about how rapid technological change is outpacing scinece fiction when it asks: Where has all the Sci-Fi gone?

Where has all the science fiction gone? Well, it would appear that we are living in it. Many futurists such as Ray Kurzweil believe that fiction writers are no longer able to think beyond the predicted "technological singularity" that many believe will occur in or around 2030. That is to say that the human mind can no longer comprehend how life could be beyond the next thirty years when taking into account the advancements we have made in the past few decades. Think back to the sci-fi greats of the past and how most of the technology seems antiquated and obsolete now. Even Star Trek, arguably the biggest science fiction phenomenon of all time, seems to have missed the mark by several hundred years in its predictive power. The thing is though that the writers were off because a lot of the technology came about faster than they predicted not because they were not imaginative. The fact that many technologies predicted by Science Fiction to be hundreds of years out is now with us is due in large part to the law of accelerating returns

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday February 24, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Today, Spectrum - the group devoted to honoring fantasy, science fiction, and horror artwork and getting it in front of the masses - is running a series of photo and video posts showing some behind-the-scenes glimpses of the judging process.

Stop by and check out what goes into producing their beautiful annual art books!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 23, 2008 at 11:49 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Earlier in the week, we mentioned that NBC had made available, online for free. many classic SF TV shows. NBC's offering is rather extensive, and involved several different networks under the NBC/Universal umbrella.

Well, CBS has just released their own classic SF TV shows online, again for free, and they have the grand daddy of all classic SF, Star Trek, the original series. All three seasons. How cool is that?

I'm not sure if these are the remastered versions, but I would guess not, seeing has how CBS/Paramount want you to buy the DVDs. Still free Trek is a good thing.

CBS also has classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Melrose Place and Hawaii Five-O. Book 'em, Danno!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday February 23, 2008 at 10:46 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Another reader writes in with a story description looking for a title. Do any of our readers know of which story she speaks?

You have probably discussed this book before but you seem like the folks in the know. A couple of years ago, the Science Fiction Book Club offered a book with the premise of a man who worked for a "company." His job was to determine which wars and/or military excursions the company would support and/or fund. He was married but had a mistress. Of course, he ended up on the run for his life because someone was out to kill him. He was not exactly the hero we could root for and several critics did not like the book. I was curious about the premise but lost all of the book information - like title and author. I tried contacting the SFBC but got no response. By any chance do you remember this book and how I can find a copy? Thanks for your help.

- Donna G.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 23, 2008 at 1:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

A while back, I wrote a post at SciFi Scanner about Jonathan Lethem's return to science fiction via the 10-part comic series Omega the Unknown. The story concerns killer robots and a silent superhero.

Now, Marvel has made the first issue freely available online. Check it out.

Much coolness...

[via Publishers Weekly]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 23, 2008 at 1:13 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Rob's Blog o' Stuff points us to the just-released cover of George R.R. Martin's next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire sequence, A Dance with Dragons. The book is scheduled for a September 30, 2008 release.


• Visions of Paradise culled from 20 "Best of 2007" lists and came up with a definitive Best SF/F of 2007 list. Ian McDonald's Brasyl looks like the clear winner.


• Keith R.A. DeCandido takes issue with the recent Nebula nominations, specifically that a fan-film was nominated while media tie-in go largely ignored.


• Event: Ellen Datlow writes in to tell us that the March 19th Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading (hosted by Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant) will feature Michael Swanwick (The Dragons of Babel and The Dog Said Bow-Wow) and David Keck (In the Eye of Heaven and In a Time of Treason).


• Interviews:
  • Physicality of Words interviews Mike Brotherton, author of the upcoming Spider Star: "Science fiction has a tremendous impact on the general public in movies and TV. The written form is more generally reaching the folks scientifically inclined, true, but it's important to realize that science fiction fans fill all sorts of technical roles in our society from scientists to computer support to engineering and more."
  • io9 interviews Samuel Delany about Greenwich Village: "Most of my science fiction was written while I lived there, starting from Jewels of Aptor up through Dhalgren...It inspired anybody who was interested in writing or the arts or music. I think anybody who liked those things or was involved in those things got a certain charge out of the neighborhood."
  • Dark Horizons interviews George A. Romero.


• Over at Eos Books, Ian Douglas talks about rewrites: "Back when I mentored genre writing students at a local college, I frequently advised them to avoid rewriting at all costs. Your first take on something is usually the best, sharpest, and most vivid."


• The Free Speculative Fiction review blog (not to be confused with the Free Speculative Fiction Online website listing free fiction) focuses (mostly) on reviewing free fiction offerings, with links to said stories.


• Xeno's Paradox has a running scorecard of Science Fiction vs. The Fox Network.


• SFX magazine is looking for science fiction experts.


• SciFi Wire has some details about the first-person shooter game Aliens: Colonial Marines, based on the film franchise.


• Little Fivers lists The Top 10 Courses at Evil Overlord University. (#9: Music 216: Minor Chords on Rusty Pipe Organs)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 23, 2008 at 1:02 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

[3/10 Update: Added link to "The Story of Love" by Vera Nazarian.]

John Scalzi (and finally, the SFWA) has the list of finalists for the 2007 Nebula Awards, to be presented in Austin, TX, on April 25-27, 2008:

[Note: Book/Story title links go to FREE online versions. :)]

NOVELS

• Odyssey by Jack McDevitt
• The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
• The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
• Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell [See SF Signal review]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 22, 2008 at 8:13 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 22, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• You may have seen this all over the nets yesterday: the classic manga and anime film, Akira, is getting the live-action treatment, courtesy of Leonardo DiCaprio and his poduction company, Appian Way. They are aiming for the film to actually be two films. Release is set for Summer 2009.
• While no official word has come from NBC yet, it appears the cast and crew of Bionic Woman has been told to start making other plans. I'm not sure anyone really cares at this point.
• The Saturn Award nominations are out and LOST has garnered 7 nominations, while Heroes gained 4. The awards will be handed out on June 24th in Universal City.
• Concurring Opinions has an interview with Galactica's Ronald Moore and David Eicke (who now has more time for BG thanks to Bionic Woman being canceled). It's a four part audio interview, in .WAV format of all the crazy things. Parts three and four are to come.
• I know some people care: Buddy TV has some promo pictures for season 4 of Galactica. Nothing spoilery there so go ahead and look if you want.
• Want to make postive impact on the future? Then head on over to Sci Fi and vote in their 'Visions of Tomorrow' poll and "vote for the films, televisions programs, works of literature, and the most important things they believe individuals can do to save the world." Alright.
• It's time once again to play John's favorite game: The Ratings Game! (cue Whipped Cream). Jericho isn't faring well, with ratings falling for the second episode and coming in dead last for its timeslot. Sara Connor also came in last in its slot with a 5.1/8. If I were a Jericho fan, I'd resign myself to 5 more episodes and an untimely end.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday February 22, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Based on Neil Gaiman's book, it opens in theaters in 2009.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 22, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Over at Grist, an environmental journalist Michelle Nijhuis interviews Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories): "Science fiction, traditionally, is very much a technophilic sort of literature. And I'm much more of a technophobe -- I'm not quite a Luddite, but I'm definitely not a techno champion." [via Night Shade Books]


• The Dragon Page podcast-interviews Nina Munteneau, author of Darwin's Paradox. [via SFFAudio]


• HardSF interviews John Barnes. On the staleness of science fiction: "Lately I find the weird stuff isn't, somehow, disturbing enough, the hard stuff doesn't engage anything emotionally for me, and the warmer, fuzzier things by the new writers seem terribly derivative." [via Monkeys In My Pants.]


• Lou Anders was guest-blogging over at the blog of Stargate: Atlantis executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, where he talks in-depth about his anthology Fast Forward 1.


• Electric Velocipede editor John Klima posts his Thoughts on Short Fiction.


• Solaris has signed on Keith Brooke (Genetopia and Infinity Plus - The Anthology) to write a science fiction thriller called The Accord.


• Ellen Datlow has posted pictures from the February KGB reading in NYC.


• John Scalzi is auctioning off a galley of Zoe's Tale for Disabled Veterans. [via SFScope]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 22, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The latest episode of SciFi Scanner's SciFi Dept. has Kevin Maher interviewing zombie legend George Romero at a screening of his latest flick, Diary of the Dead.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 21, 2008 at 1:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Most of us know Mervyn Peake as author of the Gormenghast novels. But did you know he was also an artist?


• Lou Anders points us to this brief Publishers' Weekly interview with "Science Fiction's New Prophet", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories).


• SciFi Wire profiles Michael Knost, editor and publisher of the new online horror magazine Noctem Aeternus.


• Irene Gallo points us to Sidebar's podcast-interview with artist Jon Foster.


• Biology in Science Fiction excerpts an Science Fiction Studies interview with Octavia Butler (the Xenogenesis trilogy) on Biology and Behavior: "Some readers see me as totally sociobiological, but that is not true. I do think we need to accept that our behavior is controlled to some extent by biological forces. Sometimes a small change in the brain, for instance--just a few cells--can completely alter the way a person or animal behaves."


• I'm not sayin' I need more room for storing books, but for those who do, check out these Staircase Bookshelves and/or this house built for books. [via TexasBestGrok and ectoplasmosis]


• EVENT: Legendary author Michael Moorcock and World Fantasy Award-winning author John Picacio will be signing copies of Elric: The Stealer of Souls in Austin, TX this weekend.


• Slice of SciFi has the complete list of Saturn Awards nominees.


• SciFiDrive looks at Evolution of Science Fiction Cinema: The Early 20th Century.


• Scribd has a list of Top 15 Great Science Fiction Books.


• Here's a Flickr set of a steampunk Justice League. [via Boing Boing]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 21, 2008 at 1:07 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

We always knew the original Star Trek was a bit trippy, now here's proof. A music video of Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit', starring the cast of classic Trek. Psychedelic! Too bad I'm not a big Airplane, or 'White Rabbit' fan...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday February 21, 2008 at 12:35 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Now that the HD DVD/Blu-Ray format war is over (you knew that Blu-Ray won, right?), one of the first post-war casualties is the second season of the re-mastered, original Star Trek series. Toshiba was paying for the re-mastering in a deal with Paramount, but now they no longer support HD DVD and have pulled the plug. Ouch! On the plus side, the first season is $98 at Amazon, and you can get a Toshiba HD DVD player for only $100 now, plus 7 free movies! And all in a now defunct format! Win-win!
• NBC is giving classic TV shows a new lease on life. If you go to NBC's Way Back Wednesdays, you can find full episodes of The A-Team, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Battlestar Galactica (the cheesy version), Buck Rogers (horribly, horribly cheesy), and Night Gallery. Additionally, Sci Fi will be hosting Tek War (way beyond cheese), and all of these will show up on Hulu, if they aren't already there.
• Gilbert Bouchard of Canwest News Service has a nice piece on companion books to TV series. You know the ones, guides to popular shows that help you fill in the blanks. The rise of these books, as stated, can be traced back to Babylon 5, with its seasons long plots unfolding over a long period of time. With the increase in serialized shows, these types of books and magazines are making a nice niche for themselves.
• Sy Fy Portal looks at the upcoming genre TV shows. Of interest: Dollhouse (from Joss Whedon) and Sanctuary (the online show coming to Sci Fi). Otherwise, not much exciting. Certainly nothing like I'd really like to see: space opera with lots of ships and 'splosions! or some sort of near future Earth/Ghost in the Shell setup. Maybe they should hire me as the idea guy.
• And now for John's favorite bit: ratings! It seems that Knight Rider, despite it's cheesiness, scored the best demographics for a TV movie in three years (12.7 millions viewers overall). Are we that nostalgic for even a small whiff of the Hoff? I thought it was ok, not great, and mildly entertaining.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday February 21, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

If you look around, you'll see that science fiction seems to be very popular, especially in movies (The Matrix, Star Wars) and TV (Heroes, LOST), but you may have noticed that science fiction still doesn't seem to get the respect from the teeming masses that it's popularity would seem to indicate it deserves. This time we asked science fiction bloggers and authors the following question:

By virtue of its setting, science fiction and fantasy have a certain distance from conventional experience. For some folks, that’s the draw. For others, it’s a put-off. Geeks, to lean on a stereotype, have no trouble envisioning themselves in these foreign settings. (Heck, most of us are willing to literally dress up in costume to emulate them.) Sadly, this puts us in the minority. Geek shows only become mainstream when they design themselves to be accessible to the regular viewer, not the geek viewer.

For example:
“Chuck”—about an average-joe schlub who gets thrust into a wacky action-movie goofy CIA underworld, played mostly for laughs. The protagonist is designed to appeal to the average guy, even if he does trend a little geeky. The cast makes this show rise above its McG origins.

“Heroes”—despite a subpar second season (I wasn’t wild about the first, either), is about ordinary people who wake up one day with superpowers and extraordinary destinies. Dash in some maudlin soap opera tropes, and you’ve got a network darling.

“Lost”—a bunch of average folks thrust into a bizarre, byzantine, mysterious situation that is only barely revealing itself each episode. Also, the island castaway setting let them sneak the show past you, getting a larger audience hooked before they realized this was a geek show. Admit it, you thought this was a dramatic version of “Survivor” or at least Tom Hanks’s “Castaway—The Series” before you ever heard of the Dharma Project. But by then, it was too late.

The new “Battlestar Galactica” fails this test. Despite having what I would argue are some of the most human and humanly complex characters on television, BSG presents a setting that is just too outside the norm for regular folks to buy in. By any aesthetic measure, BSG is the better show than any of the three listed above, but that trio will kick BSG’s ratings butt from here to eternity, largely on the strength of accessibility. (Being on major networks helps, but BSG is owned by NBC, and it could have had mainstream positioning a long time ago if there was any hope of it justifying a network timeslot.)

Wildly successful sci-fi movies, by contrast, don’t have to play by these rules, for two reasons. One: They can get by on spectacle, with folks coming in just for the eye candy and explosions. Two: They are a one-off commitment, so they have a certain measure of accessibility built in, and where that fails, the movie-goer is a bit more forgiving. And anyone who does make a long-term connection with the characters is almost instantly branded a geek—hello, Star Wars fans who wear costumes in line for the next movie.

Take a look at the all-time (inflation adjusted) box office gross Top 30 list, and pick out the sci-fi members: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

#2 Star Wars – Spectacle, the original Memorial Day tentpole move
#4 E.T. – Average kid meets cute alien, everyone identifies with Elliott
#12 Empire Strikes Back – Spectacle, the sequel
#14 Return of the Jedi – Spectacle part three
#16 Raiders of the Lost Ark – Spectacle with classic movie feel, plus everyone hates Nazis who steal religious artifacts
#17 Jurassic Park – Average kids get chased by dinosaurs while scientists save them. We rooted for the dinos.
#19 The Phantom Menace – Raping the corpse of spectacle for a new generation
#30 Ghostbusters – Screwball comedy with sci-fi elements, likeable schlub Bill Murray as main lead

As geeks become more and more identified as “the average guy,” this stigma will fade a bit, but never completely. While “the computer guy” is now seen as an average fellow by most people, simply incorporating computers no longer qualifies a work as science fiction. As sci-fi continues to push the edge of the plausible, those who enjoy these outlandish settings and ideas will always be viewed as outlandish and unusual themselves. It’s the price of admission. One, incidentally, I’m more than willing to pay.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This morning I woke up and said, "I'd like to watch a video of Pulp science fiction covers with women on them set to soothing music."

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• io9 interviews Iain M. Banks about his latest Culture novel: Matter: "The universe is vast, uncaring and composed almost entirely of colossal quantities of nothing, and yet it is constantly throwing up examples of the bizarre and grotesque. Humour is a way of coping with this and also a kind of rejoinder to it; a reply in the same coin and tongue."


• Jesse Willis has a thoughtful essay up over at SFFAudio: Why History, Noir and pretty much anything else I like are really just Science Fiction, wherein he talks about sf definitions and philosophy: "It is my contention then, that 'Science Fiction,' and all its relatives, Horror, Fantasy and Noir, (H, F, N) are quite literally philosophical fiction in disguise."


• L.E. Modesitt, Jr. talks about the subjectiveness of quality when he asks How Many "Really Good Books?"


• Wordclay looks at Challenges Writers Face in the Sci-fi Genre: "Subtly and real human emotions are what make or break science fiction."


• Boing Boing points us to this way cool site of Classic SF movies rendered as Russian folk-art woodcuts. How many can you name?


• Sigourney Weaver is in the news: First, saying that Alien vs. Predator 2 makes her heartsick, then dashing hopes of a Ghostbusters III.


• Geekend tells us what should have happened (but didn't) in Spider-Man 3.


• Salon does a reverse MST3K by providing animated video for the soundtrack of the horrible classic sf film Atom Age Vampire. (Thanks, Tom M.!)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 12:02 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

You may or may not have known that Heath Ledger was working with director Terry Gilliam on Gilliam's next movie, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. After his untimely passing (and don't weird things seem to happen Gilliam?), the state of the film was up in the air, as Ledger was a main character. Now we have word from the BBC that Heath Ledger will be replaced by Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell.

That's right, three guys will be used to shoot Ledger's remaining scenes. But it's not some sort of weird situation where the new actors will be shot from behind, no. They will each play a different incarnation of Ledger's character. From the description of the film, I'm guessing this means different versions of the same character in alternate universes. Which, actually, sounds rather interesting and makes a bit of sense.

Principal filming had already wrapped when Ledger passed away, with only blue screen and interior shots left. It's unclear how much of Ledger's footage will be used in the final film.

I was going to see this movie anyway, being a fan of Gilliam's work, now I'm even more curious to see how this shakes out. I'm also guessing that many more people will go see Dr. Parnassus just because it's Ledger's final film.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 2:15 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

NSFW language. But funny...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now has a blog.

Posting will be done by editor Gordon Van Gelder and assistant editor John Joseph Adams.

They're off to a great start with

• This interview with Albert E. Cowdrey.
• A visual history of F&SF magazine covers.
• The variations of the mag's name.
• An index of pats interviews done by Adams.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 12:20 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

After a long hiatus, The Internet Review of Science Fiction returns! It's got a spiffy new redesign and has a bunch of new content:

• Editorial: Notes on Resurrection by Bluejack
• Interview: Peter Watts by J. G. Stinson
• Feature:Cyborgs Then and Now by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold
• Essay: Dodos, Wooly Mammoths, and Other Erudite Obsessions in the Fiction of Howard Waldrop by Robert Bee
• Criticism: The Magic Mundane: Re-examining the Supernatural in Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon by Darin C. Bradley
• Reviews: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Michael Andre-Driussi, January 2008: Short Fiction by Lois Tilton, Ancestor by Scott Sigler by Mur Lafferty.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 12:14 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Check out this sweet Minimate Classic Cylon Centurion (as seen on Razor), set to hit store this July as part of Diamond Select Toys' Series 3 of Galactica figures. And while I'm perusing the Diamond Select Toys site, I see Back to the Future minmates too. Sweet!
• Sticking with Galactica, Sy Fy Portal informs us that the last remaining episodes of season 4 are set to start shooting in Vancouver at the end of March. "We will finish the story, and I think the fans will be satisfied," says Edward James Olmos. I hope so.
• Sy Fy Portal also reviews Knight Rider and gives it a mostly good review, saying if the ratings are good, we can expect to see a series sometime in the fall. I thought it was ok, not great. Maybe it's a sign of the times, but I thought there was too much cheese, but still kinda fun. I also am not a fan of Val Kilmer as KITT. But if it goes to a series, I'll probably give it a shot.
• The fan run Star Trek: New Voyages production is changing it's name. Henceforth let it be known the new name will be Star Trek: Phase II. Now they just need to work on their official web site name.
• Jim Werdell, the chairman of MENSA, has picked his smartest TV shows of all time. Mad About You? Really? Where is LOST? Twilight Zone? No science fiction at all?
• Check out this, err, interesting photoshoot of Summer Glau. Seriously, WTF? And, sorry John, this is SFW.
• We leave you with this extemely sweet picture of the new Mindstyle toy series, Mechtorians, created by figure artist extraordinaire, Doktor A. There will be six figures, and they will be available in the fall. Just, wow. [via Toys R Evil]
  
  
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• At Locus Online, Gary Westfahl reviews Jumper. He liked the book. The movie? Not so much...


• At Omnivoracious, Jeff VanderMeer interviews artist John Picacio and author J.M. McDermott.


• Fantasybookspot interviews Charles Stross: "...the internet has conditioned us to multi-task, to the detriment of our ability to focus on any single activity. And it's taught a whole generation of kids that plagiarism is trivial and research is easy..."


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "The Soul Bottles" by Jay Lake (2004).


• SciFi Scanner wants you to vote on your favorite special effects!


• Subterranean Press offers a sneak peek at some of J.K. Potter's illustrations for Tim Powers' Fisher King Trilogy (consisting of Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather).


• Peter @ Living the Liminal lists 10 Reasons Why He Hates the Movie Version of Stardust.


• Real Science: New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.


• Sci-Fi Fan Letter has a nice list of Urban Fantasy P.I.'s. Great for the "recommended if you like..." way of choosing books to read.


• Here's a big directory of cult sf/horror movie posters.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 19, 2008 at 12:03 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Charles Tan, proprietor of Bibliophile Stalker (a blog you may recognize from our tidbit posts), contacted JP and me recently about doing an interview. Once our heads deflated a bit, we agreed.

The interview has been posted here: Bibliophile Stalker interviews SF Signal.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 18, 2008 at 5:27 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

MY RATING:

The February 2008 issue of Jim Baen's Universe (Issue #11, also known as Volume 2, Number 5) contains 12 pieces of short fiction and 6 non-fiction articles. Nine of the stories are reviewed below. I did not partake of the classic reprint "Unprofessional" by Rudyard Kipling and two of the three serials: "Fish Story" by Dave Freer, Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, now in its tenth episode; and " The Ancient Ones" by David Brin, now in it's fifth episode. I suspect it would be easier for hesitant readers like me if each episode came with an "Our Story So Far..." intro.

Considering the nine stories I did read, this is another solid issue. I prefer science fiction over fantasy so maybe it's not surprising that the weakest story for me was a fantasy story. But the good outweighed the bad overall, with the standout stories being David Brin's "The Smartest Mob" (airships!) and Holly Messinger's "End of the Line" (Vampires in the Old West!).

Individual story/article reviews follow...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 18, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Neil Gaiman ran a poll recently to see which books his fans would like to read online for free. The results are in and the winning book is American Gods.


• Sidebar podcast-interviews artist Jon Foster. [via The Art Department]


• Neal Asher shares some more cool Stephan Martiniere covers, this time from French version of his books.


• The shortlist for the 2008 Ditmar Awards (the Australian equivalent of the Hugos) have been announced. The main site seems to be down at the moment, but Matilda lists the nominees.


• The premiere episode of Shadow Unit (the online group writing project of Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette and Will Shetterly) is called "Breathe" and is written by Emma Bull. [via Elizabeth Bear and Adventures in Reading


• Bloggasm's Simon Owen has the skinny on Tor's Watch the Skies project. It seems that, in addition to freee eBook versions of published works, the site will be include original short fiction social networking features.


• Gizmodo has a gallery of C3PO, a Clone Wars Trooper and Indiana Jones in life-size Lego.


• SciFi Now lists The Top 10 Sci-fi Armies. Two of them are from Doctor Who. [via Illusion TV]


• File under Retro-Futurism: The Pointless Museum has a gallery of images from the 1979 book The Usborne Book of the Future, subtitled "A Trip in Time to 2000 and Beyond. It shows future predictions for robots, future cities and space travel. (See also: Usborne World of the Unknown: UFOs and The Doctor Who Technical Manual)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 18, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Bla Blah! Tech wonders how close are we to Star Trek technology? The answers may surprise you.
• If any of our readers attend Harvey Mudd College, this is just for you. The commencement speaker for this year will be none other than Bill Nye! Sing it with me: Bill Nye the science guy! (Bill! Bill! Bill!) I'm not sure how I'd feel about this, but apparently he has spoken before to great success. I guess we don't have to wonder what Bill is up to anymore.
• Paul Levinson's latest podcast is up. This time he's discussing science fiction in the new golden age of television. The podcast is available at the link.
• Can't keep up with all the latest SF show news? TwinCities.com has you covered. Nothing really new here, although it is interesting to see what, ostensibly, non-sf fans think is news.
• You've probably heard of a little show called LOST, but did you ever wonder how J.J. Abrams came up with the idea? Well, the guys over at Lost Casts discovered the following short film that is apparently the inspiration behind the TV show. It's titles, appropriately enough, Lost.
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday February 18, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

"The Big Bang Theory and House...I know, House is not SF, per se, but it's really just the only show I care about." - PeterY

"Just because The Big Bang Theory isn't remotely close to being realistic or make sense, doesn't mean it should be in a list of SF&F shows. And Lost just released a couple of episodes, so it would be very hard for people to miss it. I wonder if either of those would get more than 0 votes. :-)" - Yaron

"Pushing Daisies is the freshest show on TV today. I'd really like to see where it goes." - Michael A. Burstein

"CSI. I am in Iraq though, so I am now just able to see the early episodes of some of this season's shows. Thanks to spoilers, I know the CSI writers are going to screw up a relationship. For geek cred, I'd like to say BSG, but, once it goes into season break I kind of forget about it until it returns. Some of these other shows I haven't even seen yet." - SF Fangirl

"There is nothing SF about The Big Bang Theory, nothing. Not even one thing you can point to and say: "Aha, that is science fiction." Yet, still I miss it the most. BSG I will watch, and a week or so prior I might get excited but there has been just so much time I have spent waiting that any heat I might have had is just not there anymore. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, but they also say that time heals all wounds (alert, cliche overload). These other shows I just don't watch that much of to get excited about. Bring on TBBT! So say we all!" - General X

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 18, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The number of episodes remaining keeps getting smaller, but we keep bringing them to you. This time it's 'Ariel', where Simon smuggles River into a hospital to figure out what happened to her.

Enjoy.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Sunday February 17, 2008 at 2:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Libba Bray offers us a a zombie version of Goodnight Moon. [via Justine Larbalestier]


• Ticonderoga Publications has announced publication of Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams. [via HorrorScope]


• Free fiction by email: Noctem Aeturnus, fiction for the horror fan. The January 2008 issue includes fiction from Ramsey Campbell. Cherie Priest, Charles Coleman Finlay, Tim Waggoner, and Michael Laimo. [via John Joseph Adams, who gives high pariase to Finlay's "The Rapeworm"]


• Nancy Kress is shocked at the some of the subject matter of young adult fiction.


• The People vs. Geoge Lucas is an in-production documentary looking for Star Wars fanboys. [via Show Me SciFi]


• Speaking of Star Wars fanboys, I bet they already know everything in the Star Wars Blooper Guide.


• MSN/PC World looks at 5 Sci-Fi Scenarios That Will Come True.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday February 17, 2008 at 1:50 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Omnivoracious has published the introduction to Inferno by Ellen Datlow.


• David Niall Wilson interviews Sarah Monette, author of Mélusine and The Virtu : "Well, the first thing to remember is Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. This applies across the board, to literary fiction (soi-disant) as much as genre fiction, but what tends to happen is that reviewers and critics will compare the 10% to the 90%: that is, the best of the literary fiction with the undistinguished mass of genre fiction. So, yeah, of course genre fiction comes off looking like pulp."


• Fantasy Book Critic interviews David Keck, author of In the Eye of the Heaven and In a Time of Treason: "I'm a fool for world building. You have no idea..."


• SCI FI Weekly interviews George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead and the new Diary of the Dead).


• Jeff VanderMeer shows off the cover for his upcoming novel Predator: South China Sea.


• Cover Pr0n Extravaganza! Locus Online has posted their 2007 Cover Art Gallery.


• Boing^2 points us to this Gallery of Space Settlement Art.


• Paul Jessup says fantasy has been sucking on the teet of SF for too long: "All the current ailing staticness of fantasy as a genre, stems from it being written by science fiction writers." Discuss...


• Warren Ellis has Harlan Ellison writing about The WGA Strike Settlement, as only Harlan Ellison can: "You are their [bitc**s]. They outslugged you, outthought you, outmaneuvered you; and in the end you ripped off your pants, painted yer asses blue, and said yes sir, may I have another." [via SciFi Scanner]


• Lucasfilm is suing Gen Con over issues with Celebration IV.


• io9 lists a buttload of Tron trivia. [via Chris Roberson]


• Gerry Canavan offers up a nice set of Philip K. Dick Links.


• SF Site lists their 2007 Readers' Choices for Best Read of the Year in Science Fiction and Fantasy.


• Knight Rider lists!
  • Topless Robot lists The 10 Pre-KITT Knight Rider Inventions that Didn't Work (like the Rickshaw 2000).
  • Little Fivers lists Things the New KITT Will Not Be Saying. (#9: "If you sing 'Jump in My Car' just once I swear I'll drive us into a Mack truck.")

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 16, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Ellen Datlow writes in to tell us that the 2007 Stoker Ballot (presented by the Horror Writers Association) has gone final:

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

• The Guardener's Tale by Bruce Boston
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
• The Missing by Sarah Langan
• The Terror by Dan Simmons

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 16, 2008 at 12:09 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

S.M. Duke is undertaking a project that needs your participation: determining social/religious/ethnic biases in SF/F:

What I'm asking is this: For every book you read in the SF or F genre, take a note of which ethnic, religious, social groups are present within a work in a significant way. What this means is if the main character or a significant character is White, Black, or Asian, then write that down. The same applies to religions and significant social groups (feminists, ACLU types, etc.). They must be significant presences, not just a mention. If there is a strong Catholic presence, say so. If you don't know what religion is present, but there is one, just say unknown...I'd like to address gender too. Mention main characters that are male or female and secondary, but significant characters that are male or female (make them separate to differentiate). This will allow me to gather as much data as I can on this.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday February 16, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The Deadbolt has some comments by Matthew Fox on the upcoming Speed Racer movie. Anyone else have this on their 'to see' list?
• Staying with Speed Racer, Gizmodo gives us this really cool Race-A-Round Sound Helmet. Now you can look like Speed! But that's not all, check out these awesome Dark Knight and Speed Racer toys. For me? Give me the original Batmobile and then all the Speed cars. Thanks.
• The new Knight Rider debuts this Sunday (set your DVRs!), and now you can see what KITT's interior looks like. There is also a link there to a few minutes from the actual movie. I have to say, I was not impressed with Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT.
• The Misfits of Sci-Fi bring us: Sci-fi's most engrossing shows. I'm not sure I'd cast Buffy or Twin Peaks as science fiction. They should replace them with something else.
• In case you were wondering, it looks like the Galactica season 4 DVDs will be, again, split into two sets, both with 10 episodes each, and both costing upwards of $45. Way to let greed get in the way of a good series, Sci Fi.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday February 15, 2008 at 9:12 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 15, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Locus Online lists 10 SF/F books with the Most Citations on Year's Best Books lists:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
2. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
3. The Terror by Dan Simmons
4. Brasyl by Ian McDonald
5. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
6. Territory by Emma Bull
7. Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan
8. Acacia by David Anthony Durham
9. Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon
10. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
11. The Arrival by Shaun Tan

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 15, 2008 at 12:20 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The Fix interviews Paolo Bacigalupi, author of Pump Six and Other Stories: "More and more, I think that environmentalism and science fiction are almost the same thing." [via Night Shade]


• Free audio fiction: SFF Audio has the links to audiobook readings of "Inclination" by William Shunn and "The House Beyond Your Sky" by Benjamin Rosenbaum.


• The Night Shade Books message boards have returned.


• Tor books has the second part of a 2-part podcast of a panel discussion on book covers. (See also: Part 1)


• Holly Messinger has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Books Under the Bridge continues their series with Part 2 of The Fantasy Materials Anniversary Gift List.


• Valentines Day leftovers:
  • Tor Books blog lists 10 Unconventional Love Stories.
  • SyFy Portal looks at Tragic And Doomed Relationships In Sci-Fi


• Real science: Seed Magazine offers PDF cribsheet on Exoplanets.


• MSNBC's Cosmic Log looks at Jumper and teleportation.


• The latest Meet The Author UK has John Barrowman (Torchwood) pimping his autobiography Anything Goes.


• MMOG Nation lists Five Reasons Sci-Fi Pwns Fantasy. ("Down With Poncy Elves!")

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday February 15, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

6. Leeloo and Corbin Dallas (The Fifth Element)
   The romantic themes of "true love conquers all" is still alive and well in the future. Of course it helps if you fall in love with a hot, scantily-clad, god-like being. Mooltipass indeed. (No we didn't show a picture of both Leeloo and Corbin -- see aforementioned note about "hot, scantily-clad, god-like being".)
5. Fry and Bender (Futurama)
   Futurama shows us that metal and flesh can be a great combination. And who said relationships have to be between two humans? Fry always wanted to get with the one-eyed Leela, but he always wound up with Bender. In the end.
4. Princess Leia and Han Solo (Star Wars)
   Their on-screen chemistry was top notch...especially considering Lucas was suggesting Leia hook up with her brother. Ewww. Harrison Ford's "I know" ad-lib in The Empire Strikes Back has become the stuff of legend. Geek legend, to be sure, but legend nonetheless.
3. John Perry and Jane Sagan (The Last Colony by John Scalzi)
   Scalzi's old-guy-in-young-man's-body protagonist John Perry is quick to quip and immediately likable. It's almost enough to be jealous of his independent wife, Jane, who gets to have him...jealous in a non-touching man-love sort of way. Jane can hold her own against any adversary. Together they support and respect each other in a picture-perfect relationship that manages to stay realistic.
2. Zoe and Wash (Firefly/Serenity)
   Tough female characters are hot, and I don't mean "all the rage". The fact that this one falls for the class clown fulfills the fantasies of every geek who thinks he's funny, which is to say, every geek. Those archetypes would be enough, but throw in Joss Whedon's dialogue and you have a ménage a tois of brilliance.
1. R2D2 and C3PO (Star Wars)
   Laurel and Hardy, Fred and Ginger, Roy and Trigger. You can't think of one without the other. For SF fans, you can't think of R2 without thinking of C3PO. They're like a bickering couple that's been together forever, but can't live apart. They just happen to be robots. And I think we all know who wears the pants in this relationship. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 11:35 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

It's Valentines Day, which means the first Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer has been released. See it in its full glory below:

Sweet momma! I got tingles when the main theme started up about half way in. And yes, I'm a fanboy. I am so there on opening day. I wonder if the wife would think this is a good anniversary movie...

I do.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 11:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The folks over at Spectrum - a group devoted to showcasing fantasy, science fiction, and horror artwork - have posted their thoughts on the Best Artists Hugo award:

Benefits to artist-winners...are a bit more nebulous. Perhaps part of the reason is that, unlike the fiction categories, the Best Artist Hugo has never been for a specific work: there's never a singular piece you can point to and say "that's the winner." Though it could be argued that the Best Editor Hugo is similarly non-specific, it's also just as fair to point out that it's not the same either: an artist is a creator on par with the writers, responsible for producing original works. Editors fulfill many valuable and laudable functions - but they're not creating content.

So the generic "body-of-work" nature of the Best Artist Hugo often has led to votes being cast for familiar names, not particular covers or illustrations.
...
The Hugo shouldn't be a "nice guy" award, presented because this artist or that was "so friendly" when encountered at a convention: it should be for the work.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 10:35 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Ruthie Kelly of The Daily Aztec (the independent student newspaper of San Diego State University) explains why TV has lost its appeal. The big reason: the lack of compelling, strong female characters. Except in science fiction, which, apparently is a problem because it makes the women 'unbelievable'. As opposed to anything on TV which is believable. So why, again, are strong female characters in SF shows a bad thing?
• Pat Molloy has a very interesting essay detailing why the technology of Star Trek should be updated for the new movie. I tend to agree. Just look at the 'technology' of the original series. Yeah, it needs to be updated. Sorry traditionalists, the '60's look just doesn't cut it in the 21st Century.
• ABC is jacking with LOST's time slot yet again. The last 4 episodes of this season will start in late April and will move to the 10pm slot on Thursdays, right after Grey's Anatomy. And as a reminder, instead of 16 episodes this season, as originally planned, thanks to the lovely writer's strike, there will only be 13.
• This entry is for John, as it covers his favorite TV related item: ratings! Seems the strike managed to hit some networks harder than others. ABC and CBS lost a few million viewers, NBC barely lost any of the tens of people who watch their shows, while Fox actually added viewers (thanks Simon!). LOST placed seventh with 15.3 million viewers (take that Heroes!).
• Did you know that Jericho returned to the small screen this past Tuesday? If you didn't, you're not alone. Jericho pulled in a paltry 4.2 rating/7 share. I guess CBS ordering only 7 episodes was a good move, as was the creators filming an ending to the series in addition to shooting the normal season finale.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 9:17 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

When we asked Mike Resnick if he would like to participate in this week's Mind Meld on short fiction, he graciously offered to respond to past questions as well. Here's what he had to say:

Q: From your point of view, how has the proliferation of online book reviews affected the publishing world?

Mike Resnick: Very little. They certainly haven't affected print runs or distribution, and I doubt that they've had anywhere near as much effect on sales as the self-proclaimed cognoscenti think they have.

Q: How has the internet impacted your ability to sell books and what impact do you see it having in the future?

MR: It's made instant contact and feedback with editors -- especially foreign editors -- incredibly easy, and it has presented endless new ways of marketing your books, both to editors/publishers and thereafter to readers/buyers. And it's only going to become a more important tool in the future.

Q: With most television shows on hiatus due to the writers strike, it's a good time to reflect on the quality of the genre shows of this past TV season. If you ran Hollywood, what changes would you make? What would stay the same?

MR: Can't answer this. I gave up watching network series 25 years ago, and to this day I have managed not to feel culturally deprived.

Q: Everyone knows the "Old Guard" definitions of science fiction. As part of the "New Guard," how would you define science fiction?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Innovation or Bandwagon? John Joseph Adams' respectable Wastelands anthology now has a page on the I-still-don't-get-it MySpace. (See also: John Joseph Adams interviewed by Graeme's Fantasy Book Review.)


• Fantasy Book Critic interviews Kevin J. Anderson:


• SciFi Weekly interviews the cast of Jumper (Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Bell).


• At SciFi Weekly, Jeff VanderMeer reviews Ellen Datlow's Inferno and rates it an "A".


• A book cover that might make JP tingly: Pat's Fantasy Hotlist previews the cover art for the US edition of Steven Erikson's next Malazan book, Toll the Hounds.


• David Louis Edelman explains How to Help Promote Your Favorite Author.


• Coinciding with U.S. release of his latest Culture book, Matter, author Iain Banks gets a re-designed website. (See also: io9's Guide to the Culture.)


• In my spare time, I've been reading Chris Roberson's awesome Celestial Empire stories. Yesterday, he posted an essay on the origins of the Celestial Empire, which also includes his handy timeline.


• Congratulations to Colleen Lindsay who is now working as a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management, specializing in fantasy and science fiction, horror, paranormal romance, graphic novels, YA fiction, and pop culture. Writerly types should check out her submission guidelines.


• For those who think we should cover more horror: NPR interviews The Cookie Monster.


• Lots of folks are asking interesting questions:
  • Futurismic asks: Should science fiction short stories be more optimistic?
  • James Nicoll asks: Has the Grandmaster Award served its purpose?
  • J. Steven York asks: What is Science Fiction Anyway, and Does it Matter? "Frankly, I think that science fiction's function as a literary crystal ball predicting the future has always been highly over-rated." [via Paul Jessup]


• Silver for the 25th anniversary? Bah! Books Under the Bridge lists The Fantasy Materials Anniversary Gift List. My personal favorite: Poison for the 7th.


• Free audio fiction: Escape Pod has Ann Leckie's awesome story "Hesperia and Glory", one of my top picks out of Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition edited by Rich Horton.


• The J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot has a new release date: May 8th, 2009.


• Things I agree with: Any book is better with a zombie! [via Scott Westerfeld and Cherie Priest]


• Dirty Writer lists The 9 real reasons you want to believe in aliens.


• SF universe lists Our 10 Greatest Black Superheroes (Part 1).


• Mike Brotherton continues a strong stream of posts with Ten Superpowers You Can Have Now.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 12:12 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here is the table of contents of the upcoming Australian sf anthology Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann and due out in September:

1. "Old Friends" by Garth Nix
2. "A Guided Tour In the Kingdom of the Dead" by Richard Harland
3. "This Is My Blood" by Ben Francisco and Chris Lynch
4. "Nightship" by Kim Westwood
5. "The Fooly" by Terry Dowling
6. "Neverland Blues" by Adam Brown
7. "The Jacaranda Wife" by A. G. Slatter
8. "The Constant Past" by Sean McMullen
9. "The Forest" by Kim Wilkins
10. "Robots & Zombies, Inc." by Lucy Sussex
11. "This Way to the Exit" by Sara Douglass
12. "Grimes and the Gaijin Daimyo" by A. Bertram Chandler
13. "Lure" by Paul Collins
14. "The Empire" by Simon Brown
15. "Lakeside" by Christopher Green
16. "Trolls' Night Out" by Jenny Blackford
17. "The Rest Is Silence" by Aaron Sterns
18. "Smoking, Waiting For the Dawn" by Jason Nahrung
19. "The Lanes Of Camberwell" by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
20. "Lost Arts" by Stephen Dedman
21. "Undead Camels Ate Their Flesh" by Jason Fischer
22. "Europa" by Cecily Scutt
23. "Riding On the Q-ball" by Rosaleen Love
24. "In From the Snow" by Lee Battersby
25. "The Lost Property Room" by Trudi Canavan
26. "Heere Be Monsters" by John Birmingham
27. "Purgatory" by Rowena Cory Daniells
28. "Manannan's Children" by Russell Blackford
29. "The Fifth Star In the Southern Cross" by Margo Lanagan
30. "Twilight In Caeli-Amur" by Rjurik Davidson
31. "Paradise Design'd" by Janeen Webb
32. "The New Deal" by Trent Jamieson
33. "The Last Great House of Isla Tortuga" by Peter M. Ball
34. "Conquist" by Dirk Strasser
35. "Perchance To Dream" by Isobelle Carmody

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday February 14, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Kevin Maher serves up another cool episode of the Sci Fi Department, this time, listing 5 Classics of SciFi Cinema. Bonus points awarded for the inclusion of the William Shatner vehicle, Kingdom of the Spiders, because we all love William Shatner. Well, most of us.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 3:55 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Popular Mechanics looks at the lightning induced helicopter crash from last week's episode of LOST and determines: Totally couldn't happen. I know! Ubelievable! Tune in each Friday for Popular Mechanic's LOST watch, where experts weigh in on the Sci Fi vs. Reality on the show. (Notice how PopMech subtly describes LOST as science fiction)
• We know that many TV shows are shot in Vancouver, and with the strike now over, shows are staffing up again, but it will take some time to get back in the full swing. Galactica's production office has started adding staff. It's only a matter of time until the last episodes are shot. Unfortunately, Vancouver's economic hit was an estimated $100 millions dollars (as it's a Canadian newspaper, I'm assuming that means Canadian dollars).
• ABC has picked up 9 shows for next season. Of interest to genre fans, this includes LOST (duh) and Pushing Daisies (yay!).
• Wondering when Galactica's final episodes will air, now that they are staffing up to shoot them (see above)? Buddy TV wonders the same thing. As it turns out, the writer's strike may give Sci Fi the reason to follow through with their previously rumored decision: to split season 4 in half, and air the last 10 in 2009. The bastages.
• The Extra Life comic strip brings us little known downsides of the writer's strike. Thank goodness it's over! The horror!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 7:06 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

I'm an avid fan of short fiction for many reasons, so a Mind Meld question about short fiction seemed to be in order. Trying to skirt around the futility of the "short fiction is dying" rhetoric (though learning something about that in the process) I asked a handful of Editors, some of them authors as well, to comment on the purpose of short fiction. The responses reaffirm my belief that short fiction can be every bit as entertaining - if not more so - than novel length stories...

Here are the responses...feel free to chime in.

It's also easier to get away with radical experimentation in short fiction than it is in the novel market, too, which is one reason why some writers continue to write it even after they're established enough to sell novels instead. It's a lot less risky, and expensive, for a magazine editor to take a chance publishing an experimental story in a magazine, where if the audience doesn't like it, they've still got five or six other stories to read and not feel cheated, than it is to publish an experimental novel, where there's a LOT more money at risk if it should fail.

Since these arguments apply just as well to the online world as they do to the print world, I don't see any of this changing dramatically anytime soon.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

LucasFilm animation is releasing Star Wars: Clone Wars in theaters August 15th. The computer animated film takes place between episodes II and III (or as I like to call them "sand" and "lava"). Sez USA Today:

Director Dave Filoni says the film delves into the wartime exploits of Anakin Skywalker, who later becomes Darth Vader, and his mentor/friend Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's about "the mission they are sent on, which brings them together as a mentor and student."

Following the film in the fall is a new TV series that, Filoni says, "looks at the larger scope of the war and covers many characters and cultures."

The TV series, set to show on the Cartoon Network and TNT, should not be confused with the short Clone cartoon clips shown earlier on CN. Some episodes even delve into the lives of the cloned warriors, who previously seemed interchangeable. As the live-action prequels revealed, the clones are reproductions of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, father of fan-favorite Boba Fett, himself a clone of his "father."

"We have the chance to do an episode just about the clones and explore their personalities, which may be more unique than a lot of fans think," Filoni says. "We also have the chance to use the many different Jedi, who we've only glimpsed in the features, which is exciting."

StarWars.com has a video preview and behind-the-scenes look at the computer animated film, featuring Supervising Director Dave Filon.

[via USA Today]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:21 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Rich Horton has finalized the table of contents for his annual science fiction anthology...

Science Fiction: The Best of the Year: 2008 Edition

1. "Dark Integers" by Greg Egan
2. "A Plain Tale From Our Hills" by Bruce Sterling
3. "An Eye for an Eye" by Charles Coleman Finlay
4. "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler
5. "An Ocean is a Snowflake, Four Billion Miles Away" by John Barnes
6. "Virus Changes Skin" by Ekaterina Sedia
7. "Wikiworld" by Paul Di Filippo
8. "Artifice and Intelligence" by Tim Pratt
9. "Jesus Christ, Reanimator" by Ken MacLeod
10. "Night Calls" by Robert Reed
11. "Everyone Bleeds Through" by Jack Skillingstead
12. "Art of War" by Nancy Kress
13. "Three Days of Rain" by Holly Phillips
14. "Brain Raid" by Alexander Jablokov
15. "For Solo Cello, Op. 12" by Mary Robinette Kowal
16. "Perfect Violet" by Will McIntosh
17. "Vectoring" by Geoffrey Landis
18. "The Skysailor's Tale" by Michael Swanwick

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Rich Horton has finalized the table of contents for his annual fantasy anthology...

Fantasy: The Best of the Year: 2008 Edition

1. "Unpossible" by Daryl Gregory
2. "Light" by Kelly Link
3. "The Teashop" by Zoran Zivkovic
4. "The Rope" by Noreen Doyle
5. "Buttons" by William Alexander
6. "Brother of the Moon" by Holly Phillips
7. "A Diorama of the Infernal Regions" by Andy Duncan
8. "Heartstrung" by Rachel Swirsky
9. "Something in the Mermaid Way" by Carrie Laben
10. "Public Safety" by Matthew Johnson
11. "Stray" by Benjamin Rosenbaum and David Ackert
12. "The Comb" by Marly Youmans
13. "Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again" by Garth Nix
14. "The Last Worders" by Karen Joy Fowler
15. "Singing of Mount Abora" by Theodora Goss
16. "Save Me Plz" by David Barr Kirtley
17. "Bufo Rex" by Erik Amundsen
18. "The Master Miller's Tale" by Ian R. MacLeod
19. "The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairy Tale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:06 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here's a 1960's television commercial for Robot Commando, a voice-activated robot that "takes orders from no one...except you!"

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• According to Variety, the Coen brothers have purchased screen rights to The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon's detective story set in an alternate history. [via Cinematical]


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Elizabeth Moon, author of Victory Conditions.


• Neal Asher shares the cover of his new Polity novel Line War


• Lynn Viehl shows off the cover of her latest StarDoc novel Omega Games.


• Drawn! points us to a Flickr photo set of cool scifi art from '50s Sci-Fi artist John Polgreen.


• Gail Martin has a slew of guests lined up for her 2008 podcasts.


• From CNN: When free books aren't really free. "Sites like Bookmooch.com appeal through the power of the 'gift economy.' But sometimes they have hidden costs and flaws." Including...resellers!


• io9 lists The Best Spaceship Sacrifices in Science Fiction.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 13, 2008 at 12:02 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

That's because, on February 14th, the new Indiana Jones trailer will debut. First, it will air on Good Morning America (WTF?) between 8am and 9am, and thereafter, it will be available on the official web site as well as appear in theaters.

And what movie would be opening on February 14th that you might want to go see? Why, Jumper of course! Indy, Anakin and Mace Windu, what could be better? Go see it just for the trailer. Take your SO with you, just so you all won't have 'bad dates'.

And to keep the excitement going, The Deadbolt has this cool article about the Indiana Jones 4 scripts that weren't. They look at all the proposed scripts for the movie that were rejected for one reason or another. Of course, that doesn't mean that ideas from them didn't carry forward to the current movie, so proceed at your own risk.

Now, if you'll excuse, I must go hum the Raiders and annoy my co-workers.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 3:17 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Despite the awesome reputations we've built up as science fiction gurus with a less-than-healthy appetite for supermodel posts, we do not know everything there is to know about science fiction. Occasionally we get email from folks desperately looking - they'd have to be to contact us - to remember the title of some mostly-forgotten story. We usually redirect them to sites that are more effective for this sort of thing (like the Asimov's forum or MetaFilter) and send them on their merry way.

This time, I thought that we would additionally throw the questions out to our knowledgeable readers. (That's you.)

Here's a description we recently received:

Howdy! Help me remember a series of books I read in maybe 1975. They take place on another planet - or perhaps a moon? The whole society lives in the tops of enormous trees. I think there was something about green in the title. I don't remember the author or the title. I remember loving them, and I want to find them again. They were probably written in the '50s or '60s.

- Roger W.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 11:33 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Now before all you Trek fans get up in arms, and I consider myself one, even if I'm not as ardent a fan as I once was, this sentiment is not mine. It was voiced by none other then Captain Kirk himself in an interview for his video blog (via The Telegraph). The money quote:

“I never watched Star Trek."
“I have not even seen any of the Star Trek movies. I don’t watch myself.
“When I direct and have to look at filmed scenes of myself, I suck.”

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 6:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

MY RATING:

After a very long dry spell, the Culture is back in Iain M. Banks' new novel, Matter. I'll state upfront that I absolutely love Banks' Culture novels. In fact, Use of Weapons currently holds the top spot in my 'Most Favoritist Science Fiction Novels' list, so you can imagine the glee with which I tore into Matter. And, for the most part, I wasn't disappointed.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 5:31 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This brief scene from Star Trek: The Animated Series leads me to believe that Kirk is more than a little clueless on the whole Vulcan nerve pinch thing...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The Canadian TV show Big Ideas features a fascinating talk by sf author Robert J. Sawyer (Rollback), who talks about the effect Hollywood has had on science fiction - which is to say that the social commentary has become watered down on the big screen. Any keynote address that starts "I'm mad at George Lucas!" deserves a listen... [via Futurismic, which has a brand new Editor -- Paul Raven]


• A Dribble of Ink interviews Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself).


• Bibliophile Stalker interviews Richard Dansky (Firefly Rain).


• Adventures in Scifi Publishing interviews John Zakour and Brandon Sanderson. [via Locus Online]


• Fast Forward TV interviews Kathleen Ann Goonan. [via SFF Audio]


• Issue 12 of Apex Digest has been posted and features fiction from Sara King and Jason Sizemore; interviews with Jeremy Shipp, Sara King, and David Wong; and a handful of reviews.


• Millionaire John Scalzi has some advice for writers: "Why am I offering this entirely unsolicited advice about money to new writers? Because it very often appears to me that regardless of how smart and clever and interesting and fun my fellow writers are on every other imaginable subject, when it comes to money -- and specifically their own money -- writers have as much sense as chimps on crack."


• Random House is to begin selling individual chapters of a popular book online...for 3 bucks a chapter. (Please don't shoot the messenger...)


• Topless Robot lists The 10 Lamest Cartoon Superheroes.


• Over at SF Gospel, Gabriel McKee lists 10 Comic Book Characters Who Have Met God.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The Terminator train just keeps on rolling. Just recently The Sarah Connor Chronicles has graced our TVs (mmm, Summer Glau), now we hear that a new Terminator trilogy is in the offing, to be directed by McG and starring Christian Bale as John Connor. It will take place in 2019 and will feature a darker feel than the previous movies.
• ComicMix informs us that 70 years ago, the Brits created the first science fiction TV program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play "R.U.R." Cool!
• Damon Lindeloff, executive producer of LOST, lets us know that new episodes of LOST could begin airing after the current eight, and he also says: "I don't see why we couldn't deliver all eight remaining episodes." Good news indeed for LOST fans.
• Michael Cassutt, of The Cassutt Files over on Sci Fi Weekly, talks about science fiction spec scripts for TV, and why they may be in a slump. The big reason being that the two big, ongoing sci fi series, Heroes and LOST, make it difficult for writers to write something new within their serialized universe. Of course, he points out there is one show that is successful and not necessarily serialized: Dr. Who. Anyone looking to write a spec script should look there for their setting.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: My desire to see the film has been considerably lessened.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Teenager David Rice, who can teleport at will, tries to figure out what to do with his talent.
PROS: Interesting premise; some good uses of the jumping ability; a quick read.
CONS: Lack of any clear antagonist; the plot seems to lose focus.
BOTTOM LINE: I had high hopes but came away underwhelmed.

MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Young Griffin O'Connor, who can teleport at will, is on the run from an evil group of jumper-killers.
PROS: Interesting premise; clear antagonists; a quick read.
CONS: The antagonists are without motive and not used to good effect; the plot loiters around while nothing interesting happens.
BOTTOM LINE: I suspect this might fare better if you saw the movie and liked the Griffin character.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 11, 2008 at 1:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Short Answer: No.

Longer answer: Having been away from the show, I've had time to reflect. I realized that no show warrants the viewer frustration it put me through. I was weak and holding on to past glories. But no more. I was on the right track when I said that season 2 sucked. I have now decided what I could not commit to before, in my mid-season recap: I have officially jumped off the Heroes train. I believe it is destined to be a slow, regrettable decline to the end.

For those who think the recent grumblings of the writers' strike ending means a magic ticket back to greatness, check out this Hollywood Insider column at Entertainment Weekly, which says, among other things:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 11, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Check out this really cool mighty-morphin Mach 5, based on the car from the upcoming Speed Racer movie. Yes, it says '6' on the car. Apparently, the car has '6' on it at some point in the film. This model comes complete with jump jacks and saw blades. Sadly, all the pre-orders are sold out. We'll just have to wait until April for the release batch.
• With the writer's strike apparently over, you may be wondering the fate of your favorite shows. TV Guide [via Buddy TV] has a report on what you can expect. Short answer: LOST is on track for 14 episodes this 'season' (instead of 16), while fans of Chuck and Pushing Daisies will have to wait until the Fall for production to start again.
• The new Trek movie opens this December, and some people aren't happy. Apparently, they are tired of the current state of America's space program, so they decided to whine to Paramount, via an online petition, to force Paramount to donate a portion of the new film's earnings to various non-profit space exploration organizations. Their threat? We won't see Trek XI on opening week! Take that, Paramount!
• The latest Development Journal for the MMO Stargate Worlds pinpoints the time the game will take place in: Between seasons 8 and 9 of Stargate: SG-1. I'm more and more intrigued with this game, and I hope it brings something good to the MMO scene.
• More casting news for J.J. Abrams' new show, Fringe. Joshua Jackson, of Dawson's Creek 'fame', has been tapped to play the male lead, genius high-school drop-out Peter Bishop, alongside female lead Anna Torv.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday February 11, 2008 at 12:16 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Amazon has had these non-fiction essays available for a while now, but these 18 shorts just popped up in feeds. I didn't realize there were so many, and there are probably more...but for now, here's a list of 18 of them with their descriptions. They are available in full for fifty cents each from Amazon.

by Robert Silverberg.

During my fifty years as a science-fiction writer I've often ventured into the invention of alternative worlds of possibility - history that never happened, but perhaps should have -- which I find opens up the sort of infinite ranges of speculative thought that have made s-f so much fun for me. In this piece I explain what the science-fiction genre of :"alternative reality" is all about and show, step by step, how I went about creating the alternative world that was the basis of ROMA ETERNA, my most ambitious work in that form.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday February 11, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• New Weird News:
  • In honor of the publication of The New Weird anthology, editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer are hosting a contest. Tell them your "new, weird" story and you could win one personalized copy of each anthology they edit between now and 2010. See contest rules for details.
  • Read a sample of The New Weird with Paul Di Filippo's "Festival Lives" (PDF Link). [via Locus Online]


• Neil Gaiman wants you to vote on which of his books should be made freely downloadable. Will it be American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, Fragile Things, M is for Magic, Neverwhere, Smoke & Mirrors, or Stardust? [via Boing Boing]


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net:
  • "Watch the Sky" by James H. Schmitz (1962)
  • "Faithfully Yours" by Lou Tabakow(1955)
  • "Blind Man's Lantern" by Allen Kim Lang (1962)


• Cohenside interviews Lou Anders, editor of Pyr, the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint.


• Winners of the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards have been announced.


• David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C.E. Murphy are group-blogging at Magical Words, which has just been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Bloggasm's Simon Owen has been conducting interviews with magazine editors as research for a long feature article centered around the profitability of online SF magazines and whether they'll ever be able to replace the pulps. The latest article, The rise of the genre ezine: Will it ever find a profitable model? features input from Ellen Datlow.