REVIEW SUMMARY: An eye candy extravaganza.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A showcase of contemporary sf/fantasy art.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Every page is stuffed with sense of wonder; a variety of styles to suit any taste; excellent book production.
CONS: Some styles might not appeal to some tastes.
BOTTOM LINE: Highly recommended to anyone who has a love for sf/fantasy art.

I confess. I'm a science fiction and fantasy art junkie. Yes, I have bought books based solely on book cover art. Some book covers stoke my fire as much as the books they illustrate; sometimes more so. Therefore, an art book like Spectrum 14, the 2007 edition of the annual showcase of contemporary sf/fantasy art, is like a drug for someone like me. Every single page is brimming with the fantastic and imaginative by a variety of artists producing work in various sectors: advertising, books, comics, concept art, three-dimensional, editorial, and institutional. Even the previously unpublished works show outstanding talent.

Excerpted artwork from Brom, Shaun Tan, Robert Carter, and Glen Orbik.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 31, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Fantasybookspot interviews Neal Asher (The Shadow of the Scorpion). "...I come from the Arnold Schwarzenegger school of SF." [via The Bodhisattva]


• Free Audio Fiction: Starborn by Andre Norton. Read by Mark Douglas Nelson or a computer...I can't tell which. [via SFFaudio]


• The fourth episode of Shadow Unit is Will Shetterly's "A Handful of Dust". [via Elizabeth Bear]


• Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "Control Group" by Roger Dee (Roger D. Aycock, 1960)


• SciFiRama is looking for blog feedback.


• Locus Online has posted the table of contents for the April 2008 issue of Locus Magazine, which includes interviews with Terry Pratchett and Sarah Monette and the obituary of Arthur C. Clarke.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 31, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The 2004 movie, Casshern, billed as a 'live-action anime' movie, was actually based on the 1970's era anime Shinzo Nigen Casshern. Now, animation studio Madhouse is resurrecting the 70's show and will create a new modern anime TV show. Having not watched the movie yet, I can't say for certain if this is a good thing. Although the movie does look incredible.
• Tired of trying to figure out the heck is going on with LOST? Too many competing theories making your head hurt? Then check out this Timeloop Theory of LOST and marvel at all the thought that has gone into it. Simply amazing, and nicely presented too. Is it close to the truth? I guess we'll just have to keep watching to find out. But still, a job well done.
• Chris Carter recently dropped a few minor spoilers about the upcoming X-Files movie: It will be standalone, we will learn more about Fox and Mulder's baby William (they had a baby?? What? When? Stupid season 9), and it takes place six years after the last season. I know I'm interested, even if I did quit watching around season 7.
• Tim's arch-nemesis, Tahmoh Penikett (Helo on Galactica and Boomer's baby's daddy), has been cast in Joss Whedon's new TV project, Dollhouse. Penikett will play FBI agent Paul Smith who becomes romantically linked with Eliza Dushku's character. Dushku + Grace Park = One lucky guy.
• Edward James Olmos on a potential ending for Galactica: Everybody dies. Olmos said this is a possibility if the writers stay true to form and he would be O.K. with that. Of course, the fans wouldn't be... Remember, April 4th at 10pm ET marks the return of Galactica.
• The Stargate themed MMO, Stargate Worlds continues to release trickles of information. This time it's in the form of four new screenshots depicting the decidedly Egyptian motif from the movie. This game certainly looks cool.
• The Vuze platform (based on Bittorrent), now has the Sci Fi series Afterworld available for download.
• The alternate reality hopping detective story Charlie Jade will be making its way to the Sci Fi Channel. I'll say this, it certainly looks interesting. Hmm, may have to check this out soon.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday March 31, 2008 at 12:16 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The winners of the Bram Stoker Awards (for superior achievement in horror) have been announced:

• NOVEL: The Missing by Sarah Langan


• FIRST NOVEL: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill


• LONG FICTION: "Afterward, There Will Be a Hallway" by Gary Braunbeck


• SHORT FICTION: "The Gentle Brush of Wings" by David Niall Wilson


• ANTHOLOGY: Five Strokes to Midnight edited by Gary Braunbeck & Hank Schwaeble


• COLLECTION (Tie): Proverbs for Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen and 5 Stories by Peter Straub


• NON-FICTION: The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre edited by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer


• POETRY (Tie): Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison and Vectors: A Week in the Death of a Planet by Charlee Jacob & Marge B. Simon

[via Locus Online]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 31, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

"What about Capt Janeway?" - David
[And the John sez: I'm not a Trek expert, but wasn't she the Captain of the Voyager?]

"Hmmm, that was a tough decision. I voted for Belushi since I feel Star Trek always needed a little more humor :) Why not add Kevin Pollack to the list since he does an excellent James Kirk imitation." - Tim
[John sez: Good idea!]

"Hey! What about Decker, Spock, Harriman, Riker, Jellico... (do I know a little too much about Star Trek?). Props to Jellico for being a bad-ass, but there's something appealing about Harriman's "Tuesday"." - Ian Randal Strock
[John sez: OK, you're obviously a Trek expert. I decided to keep it to the mainstays. Besides, everyone knows that Spock's stint as captain was the result of affirmative action pressure...]

"I just know I would get ragged on for suggesting that Jonathan Archer is the best Captain of the Enterprise, but the obvious favorite Jean-Luc Picard was just too cerebral for me. Jean-Luc never made any mistakes, even when he did, while Jonathan Archer seems more real. Besides if he can set of enough things right in time, he can finally make the leap home." - Richard
[John sez: Hiyo!]

"To a point it is like comparing apples and oranges. Different overarching missions and ships call for different skill sets and abilities. Overall, though, there is only one and he drinks Earl Gray, Hot." - General X
[John sez: I hope by "hot" you mean the tea!]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 31, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 30, 2008 at 1:15 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Fiction:
  • "The Outlaws of Mars" by Otis Adelbert Kline (1933)
  • The latest Beam Me Up podcast features Mike Resnick's Hugo-nominated story "Distant Replay". (See also: Links to online versions of the Hugo nominations.)


• The Boston Globe profiles Jennifer Pelland, author of the Nebula-nominated story "Captive Girl". (See also: Links to online versions of the Nebula nominations.) [via Apex Book Company]


• Sunday Salon interviews Matt Cheney, "One of the most fascinating minds wrapped around science fiction today."


• PS Publishing looks at some forthcoming titles and shows off the cover of Shrike by Quentin S. Crisp.


• Paul Raven's Velcro City Tourist Board gets a redesign.


• I can't make this stuff up: Member of the British Jedi Church was attacked by a drunken Darth Vader. [via MonkeyFilter]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 30, 2008 at 1:41 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The Film Society of Lincoln Center sent us word that Harlan Ellison will be attending the April 8th 7:00 PM premiere screening of Dreams with Sharp Teeth, the documentary that follows the legendary author's life and career.

From the press release:

Erik Nelson's engaging portrait of Ellison catches the 70-something author in his full cantankerous glory, offering his thoughts and opinions on a dizzying array of subjects. It also shows us the other, lesser known sides of Ellison--from his political activism in the Civil Rights era to altercations with Barbra Streisand and pelvis shattering battles with network executives. Younger writers discuss Ellison's influence on their work, and even actor Robin Williams is on hand to offer his tribute to Ellison. Director Erik Nelson and Harlan Ellison are expected to attend this screening.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 29, 2008 at 2:00 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Well over a year ago, the CG Society held a contest asking artists to produce several different type of digital art surrounding Greg Bear's Eon novel. The results were quite impressive.

Now, CG Society is in the midst of a new contest, covering David Brin's Uplift series of books. Artists are asked to 'depict the
relations between humans and aliens'. This is the largest contest to date, with over $100k worth of prizes. If you have any artistic bone in your body, why not give it a shot?

The Uplift series is one of my all time favorite series, and I especially like the cover art for Startide Rising. I think this is one contest to pay attention to, although it's still early. The Uplift books have a lot of very unique aliens, it should be cool to see how they are depicted.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday March 29, 2008 at 6:27 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Fiction:
  • Project Gutenberg has The Green Rust by Edgar Wallace.
  • The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction says it's time to read "Start the Clock" by Benjamin Rosenbaum.
  • This week's Tor freebies: Lord of the Isles by David Drake and two wallpapers by Raymond Swanland (with his cover for ) and Dan Dos Santos (with his painting for a MicroVisions charity auction).
  • Matthew Sanborn Smith has redesigned his website and included links to some of his free fiction in the process.
  • Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "Longevity" by Therese Windser (1960) and "A Matter of Magnitude" by Al Sevcik (1960).


• Interviews:
  • The latest Bat Segundo Show podcast features Jeffrey Ford, author of The Shadow Year.
  • At Omnivoracious, Jeff VanderMeer interviews Felix Gilman, author of Thunderer.
  • At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Sarah Hall, author of The Carhullan Army, a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award.


• Michael A. Stackpole now has an asteroid named after him. [via ComicMix]


• Robert J. Sawyer looks at the ethics of Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations".


• Fiona Kelleghan presented a paper at International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts on Humor in the SF of Robert J. Sawyer. Have a listen. [via Locus Online]


• Paleo-Future shares this image scan from the back cover of a 1939 issue of Amazing Stories that shows a Future War Tank. It looks like a giant, metal cockroach, albeit a cool-looking, kick-@$$ one...


• GalleyCat has more on the revolving book cover debate.


• Blog@Newsarama has the X-Files 2 poster. Meh.


• Reclaiming Superman: "A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel -- who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 -- were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character." [via Screen Rant]


• On a related note: Great White Snark offers Five Suggestions for the Lex-Luthor-Free 8th Season of Smallville, which includes a suggestive video that Trent is sure to love.


• Entertainment Weekly has started posting Firefly episodes courtesy of Hulu. Gee, I wish we thought of that because that's a cool idea!


• Entertainment Weekly lists The 20 worst comic book movies ever. Keith R.A. DeCandido comments.


• Popular Mechanics lists The 10 Most Prophetic Sci-Fi Films, complete with a rundown of the hits and misses of each one.


• InfoAddict lists The Best 11 Time Travel Tales of All Time and includes titles from television, movies and books. It's a decent list...and overlaps some with the SciFi Scanner slide show I wrote: The Best Uses of Time-Travel. I know I have a copy of Rucker's Master of Space and Time somewhere...may have to dig it up and actually read the darn thing.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 29, 2008 at 12:54 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Asimov's has posted more of the Hugo-nominated stories that appeared in their magazine:

• (Novella) "Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.


• (Novelette) "Dark Integers" by Greg Egan.


• (Short Story) "Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick.

The list of Free Hugo-Nominated Short Fiction has been updated.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 28, 2008 at 7:09 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Are you a budding film director but worried about the high cost props and SFX? Never fear! Cardboard is the wonder material you've been looking for! To prove it, check out the two videos below. It's amazing what a little cardboard, stop-action photography and a lot ingenuity will do for you...

First up, Star Wars (Note to Lucas, more cardboard in the prequels = better movies)

And the best video today, Tron. Nice work guys.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday March 28, 2008 at 10:44 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Call me an impulsive, illogical, book-mongering biblioholic consumer - you won't get any arguments from me. I've bought books for completely illogical reasons. Maybe I just liked the cover and thought it would look good on a shelf. Maybe it was the next book in series that I already own but haven't started reading yet. Maybe it was a copy that was in better condition than the one I already own.

Another reason I've bought books is because of buzz. I'm not talking about publisher hype - that's just blatant advertising. No, here I'm talking about lots of positive things emerging from the blogosphere about a particular title. A "Buzz Book".
If several bloggers and reviewers mention a book in a positive light, it sticks with me, hibernating, ready to be instantly recalled while I'm walking down the book aisles.

Here are some Buzz Books I've picked up. What are yours?

• Plague Year by Jeff Carlson - This was the book Lou Anders wished he had published but, for some reason I cannot recall and am too lazy to look up, passed up instead. A post-apocalyptic Buzz Book!


• Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows my experiences with fantasy are hit-or-miss. So the logical part of my brain wonders why I would pick up a copy of Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. It's a buzz book, of course, which was apparently enough to overcome my indifference and bring it home.


• Speaking of brains, just this week I picked up a copy of the zombie novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. Who doesn't like zombies? I'm hoping this fares better than the book Xombies which was so cliché I couldn't finish it. Not only does the book have good buzz, but an early peek at its movie script is looking good, too.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 28, 2008 at 12:45 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 28, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free fiction!
  • Free read...for a limited time: Crown Publishing is allowing Scott Sigler to give away free PDF's of his book Infected from March 27 through March 31. The hardcover version is due in stores on April 1st. [via MobileRead]
  • Free audio fiction: "The Stickball Witch" by Peter S. Beagle, read by the author himself. [via The Green Man Review]
  • More free audio fiction: StarShipSofa narrates Jeff VanderMeer's story "Shark God Versus Octopus God". [via SFFaudio]


• Eos is giving away 10 copies of The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, editors of The New Weird.


• Analog will be serializing Robert J. Sawyer's Wake, the first book in the WWW trilogy.


• Science Fiction Awards Watch reminds us that all of us can vote in the 2008 Locus Poll & Survey - no fee/subscription/membership required. The deadline for voting is April 15.


• Over at Wired, Gary Wolf interviews Futurist Ray Kurzweil. [via Boing Boing]


• What do P.D. Cacek, Jack Ketchum, Terri Windling, Midori Snyder, Jeff Somers, Stefan Merrill Block, JoSelle Vanderhooft, and John Kessel have in common? They are all part of upcoming Fantastic Fiction@KGB readings, conveniently listed by Ellen Datlow.


• The Sci-Fi Dominion is a social network for sci-fi fans. [via Sci-Fi Storm]


• CNN has info on the censored Rod Serling script that may finally be realized the way Serling intended. There have been a few watered-down versions of it, but his original script of a story based on the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, an event viewed as one of the catalysts of the civil rights movement.


• Speaking of Rod Serling, another Twilight Zone story written by Richard Matheson is headed for film: "Death Ship". (Link goes to YouTube, which unfortunately prevents embedding these particular videos.)


• Real Science: This Space.com article about alien sociology by Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute explains why aliens won't ever visit Earth. No, it has nothing to do with George Lucas making Han shoot first. [via Mike Brotherton]


• Movie Crunch lists 10 Guy-Fi Movies, "movies that fall into the Vampire/ Horror/ Sci-Fi/ Superhero/ Fantasy/ Comic Book/ Graphic Novel genres and have elements of guy movies." From Dusk Till Dawn...buckets of awesome, that.


• Lisa Paitz Spindler lists her Thirteen Favorite Firefly Quotes.


• Topless Robot's headline says it all: Star Wars Golf Bags...Seriously.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 28, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Over at Eos Blog, Diana Gill links to two more recently-posted stories that were nominated for the 2008 Hugo Award:

• (Novelette) "Glory" by Greg Egan.


• (Short Story) "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod.

NOTE: Eos also has the Hugo-nominated novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon available for online browsing, too!

The list of Free Hugo-Nominated Short Fiction has been updated.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 27, 2008 at 2:10 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Comic book fiction mixed with some realistic personalities creates a fun read for superhero fans.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Corefire is missing and Doctor Impossible has escaped again. Was he responsible for Corefire's disappearance? Well, the New Champions are on the case.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Interesting narrative style; Fantastic characters.
CONS: Some of the transitions into and out of the flashbacks are a little abrupt; Some characters could use a bit more development.
BOTTOM LINE: A great book with some minor flaws that gives yet another view on superheros.

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Posted by Tim Zinsky at Thursday March 27, 2008 at 1:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Mary McDonnell, President Roslin on Battlestar Galactica, clues us in on a minor spoiler for the upcoming season: Her character has a resurgence of cancer, but that she, McDonnell, is excited but sad to be working on the last season, which begins airing Friday, April 9th, at 9pm ET.
• Colin Ferguson, Sheriff Carter on one of SF Signal's fave SF TV shows Eureka, talks about the changes for the upcoming season. He mentions that some characters are leaving, while new ones will be joining. We know Henry will be staying, but I'm curious as to who they could loose and not really hurt the show: Beverly? Stark? Any guesses? And from the did you know department: Sci FI has full episodes of Eureka online. Sadly, not all of them. Come on Sci Fi, it's the 21st Century. There's no reason not to have them all available.
• Carol Barbee, exec producer of Jericho, looks at options for continuing the Jericho storyline. These include moving the series to a cable network, a web-based series, comic book or a movie. Of these, I'm guessing that a cable or web-based presence would be about right for the ratings they drew.
• TV Squad gives us nine reasons Eli Stone keeps getting better. I wasn't sure what to expect with Stone, and even though it has the typical, clichéd Hollywood view of what is a good lawyer vs. a bad lawyer, I still like the show. Johnny Lee Miller, as Eli, really makes the show despite the plots (evil corporations, greedy law firms, etc.)
• Jack Trevino, writer and producer, finds some humor on the set of Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. Of Gods and Men is a 'fan' production with some big name stars involved with it, such as Nichelle Nichols and Bester, I mean Walter Koening. Maybe we'll see this up for a Nebula next year...
• Did you know that Sci Fi's here but gone almost overnight series, Tripping the Rift has a direct to DVD movie? Neither did I. But the folks at Armchair Critic took one for the team and review the DVD. Verdict: Stick with the series. Which is kinda scary.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 27, 2008 at 1:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Interviews:
  • Sci-Fi Talk podcast-interviews Archbishop John J. Myers, co-author of Space Vulture with Gary K. Wolf. I'm reading this now and it's lot's of fun.
  • Locus Online includes interview excerpts from this month's issue of Locus magazine, featuring Charles Stross and Peter Watts.
  • White Screen of Despair is not really helping me to manage my time when they point out the web comic Bit Strips and their one-shot Conan the Culinarian.


• Free Fiction:
  • Recently posted at ManyBooks.net: The Planet Strappers by Raymond Z. Gallun (1961).
  • The list of Free Hugo-Nominated Short Fiction has been updated with Michael Swanwick's Hugo-nominated story, "A Small Room in Koboldtown", which has been posted (in PDF format) by Tachyon Publications. [via Science Fiction Awards Watch]


• The Agony Column looks at Philip K. Dick's Ubik: The Screenplay.


• Mike Brotherton gives us The Hard SF Writer's Bookshelf.


• The latest episode of BoingBoing TV features Xeni Jardin covering the phenomenon of filk, the combination of folk music and science fiction fandom. I caught my first live performance of filk at last year's ApolloCon and was quite impressed.


• io9 lists 6 Brilliant Dragons from Science Fiction.


• This week, SciFi Scanner's SciFi Department asks: Can Superhero Parodies Be Saved?


• Before they were Action Figures: Plaid Stallions has a scan of a print ad hawking a Fembot doll, the "Female Robot Adversary of The Bionic Woman". Ideal for "thrilling action and fashion play!" Uh-huh.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 27, 2008 at 1:01 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This week's question was suggested by Lou Anders, who not only received extra Mind Meld credit redeemable at imaginary nerd shops everywhere, but who also must serve penance by answering his own question:

In 1984 I wrote a very controversial novel titled The Branch, in which God and the true Jewish Messiah (not Jesus) were the two villains of the piece. The poor producer/director who optioned and made it got excommunicated from his church and thrown out of his country (Andorra)...and yet if you do not accept the existence of God and the truth of the Old Testament, there's no story. So was it irreligious, or was it simply Politically Incorrect religion?

I am an atheist, yet I have given God speaking parts in four or five humorous stories, and have treated religion with respect in literally dozens of stories and novels. On the other hand, I know many devout Christian and Jewish science fiction writers whose religious beliefs are deeply personal, and who choose not to share them fictionally with their audience. Are they irreligious because they do not evangelize in print?

You can't just a book by its cover...and you can't necessarily judge an author's (or a field's) religious beliefs by that book's contents.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 26, 2008 at 12:51 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Weird Tales announces The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years. [via Locus Online]


• SFScope rounds up the winners of the Ditmar Awards, celebrating the best of Australian science fiction and fantasy.


• Night Shade Books' Jeremy Lassen is hosting a Breakfast for Barry campaign in support of a Hugo Award for Barry N. Malzberg.


• Interviews:
  • The Agony Column podcast-interviews Jeffrey Ford (The Shadow Year).
  • Spike Magazine interviews Iain M. Banks (Matter).
  • ComicMix interviews Joe Lansdale about his work on the comic Pigeons from Hell, an adaptation of Robert E. Howard's story featuring artists Nathan Fox.
  • Radio Free Bliss podcast-interviews Sue Lange, author of We, Robots, who discusses Joanna Russ, feminism, speculative fiction, humidity and the Mason-Dixon Line.


• Free Fiction:
  • Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's anthology, The New Weird, has a new home on MySpace and offers a FREE (PDF version) of Jay Lake's "The Lizard of Ooze". Jay has also recorded an audio version. Jeff VanderMeer has more info and goodies and deals.
  • Tachyon Publications offers Michael Swanwick's Hugo-nominated "A Small Room in Koboldtown" in glorious PDF. [via Locus Online]
  • Free Speculative Fiction Online has added a ton of new additions this week.
  • Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "The Monster" by Randall Garrett (writing as S.M. Tenneshaw, 1949)
  • Pyr is offering a Sampler eBook containing "sizable excerpts" from Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged, Kay Kenyon's A World Too Near, Theodore Judson's The Martian General's Daughter, Robert Silverberg's Son of Man, David Louis Edelman's Infoquake, and Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn and Stalking the Dragon.
  • More free award-nominated fiction: The page of 2008 Hugo Award Nominees has been updated to include Campbell-nominee Mary Robinette Kowal's Free Fiction Sampler.


• Magazine news:
  • The final print edition of Subterranean magazine is available for pre-order, and contains fiction from Michael Marshall Smith, Tim Lebbon, R. Andrew Heidel, Jason Erik Lundberg, Sarah Monette, John Scalzi, and Darren Speegle.
  • Apex Digest Issue 12 contains fiction from Brian Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury, Cherie Priest, Michael West, Jim Stewart, Paul Jessup, Lavie Tidhar, Maurice Broaddus, Ryck Neube, Joy Marchand, Brandy Schwan, Geoffrey Girard, Durand Welsh; a Hal Duncan interview with Jeff VanderMeer, and more.
  • At Torque Control, Niall Harrison lists the contents of the latest issue of Vector, the "Review of 2007" issue.


• Think you've read everything by Kurt Vonnegut? Julie Phillips reports in the Village Voice that a new book, Armageddon in Retrospect, collects his unpublished writing.


• Orbit blog points us to Unshelved comic strips take on The Electric Church by Jeff Somers.


• Congratulations to scifi blogger "Ariel" (from UKSF Book News) on his new job at Orbit!


• It's official: Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. has a cameo as inventor Tony Stark in this summer's other Marvel superhero movie The Incredible Hulk.


• SciFi Scanner has some more news on the A&E miniseries adaptation of The Andromeda Strain (a Ridley and Tony Scott production), including a link to the miniseries website.


• The List Universe lists The Top 15 Science Fiction Book Series.


• Even setting Kanye West's music to SciFi visuals (like Akira, Tron, and 2001: A Space Odyssey) can't make me like his music.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 26, 2008 at 12:13 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• We mentioned yesterday that Sci Fi Channel will be airing a special on the Crystal Skulls on Indy 4's release date of May 18th. But that's not all! They will also air the first three Indy films during the day, so if you play your cards right, you can watch the first three films, then catch the new one in the theaters that evening.
• The G4 channel has come a long way from its roots as a gaming channel. G4 merged with TechTV awhile back and they have been trying to grow their audience. Currently you can find severl Japanese game shows during their Duty Free TV block: Ninja Warrior, Unbeatable Banzuke, and the crazily named Big Super Product Fun Show, which all sound like a hoot. On June 1st, G4 will air the animated Spaceballs series, and they will also suplement their airings of Heroes by airing repeats of LOST, in order, starting with the pilot.
• A couple of Jericho bits here: Showrunner Carol Barbee says the fans did more than enough, but there's a limit to what they can do. SF Universe gives us a list of what went wrong. I can answer both posts with the same reason: The writers didn't make their show compelling enough. Sure Jericho has a dedicated fan base, but it wasn't enough to ensure long term success. In the end, it boils down to appealing to a wide audience, and the didn't do that.
• Joe Morton, who plays Henry on Eureka, hopes that his character will become more involved with politics and the environment on the show. Normally I would roll my eyes at a statement like that, expecting the usual Hollywood take, but Morton says this: "I think, probably, it would be nice if politics was a thing, if the world economy was a thing, if he could find a way to use science to help people to make a better living, have a better life, etc., etc..." I agree to the extent that I fell science, in most TV and film, is shown as being bad or is used for bad purposes. I'd like to see science portrayed in a positive light.
• Holy cow! Check out these sweet, custom-made Futurama LEGOs! I want a set. Too bad they aren't official. Awesome.
• South Park Studios has done what every studio should do, make every episode of South Park available, for free, online. Yes, all 11(!) seasons. Yes there are ads, but they are short and few in number. Applause all around.
• Our boys over at Raven Stake strike again, giving us another episode of LOST, What Will Happen Next?.
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday March 26, 2008 at 12:12 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Last week, March 18th, the Sci Fi Channel held their press upfront announcement in New York. During the even, Sci Fi announced a whole slew of new stuff for the upcoming year. I thought we would take a look at their announcements and see what is interesting to us as SF fans...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 3:58 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

I'm feeling a little musical today...and not just because I'm hopped up on Dr. Pepper...

Here's Young Galaxy's sci-fi-ish video for "Come and See".

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Sweet Jebus, there are a lot of links today!

• Free book! Night Shade Books is offering for free a downloadable version of Jon Armstrong's John W. Campbell Award-nominated novel, Grey. (This was previously released as a free audio book. Now you can read along with Jon!)


• Free Hugo fiction! F&SF's magazine has posted the Hugo-nominated story "Finisterra" by David Moles. (See also: A list of Hugo nominated stories with free fiction links.)


• Apex Books has posted the final table of contents for I Remember the Future, a collection of award-nominated stories by Michael A. Burstein.


• Joseph Mallozzi, writer and executive producer for Stargate:SG-1 and Stargate:Atlantis, has chosen April book club picks: Timescape by Gregory Benford (sf), The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (fantasy), and The Keep by F. Paul Wilson (horror). [via Jeffrey Ford, who will guest-blog on or around April 21st]


• Subterranean Press has posted some cool J.K. Potter artwork for the Fisher King Trilogy by Tim Powers.


• The Wenatchee World Online interviews Kay Kenyon, author of A World Too Near.


• The First Book interviews Matthew Jarpe, author of Radio Freefall.


• Bibliophile Stalker interviews John Klima, editor of Electric Velocipede and Logorrhea.


• James Wallace Harris is contemplating a follow-up piece to his Classics of Science Fiction article (itself a classic to which I repeatedly turn) with this post: The Greatest Science Fiction Novels of the 20th Century, in which he tries to identify science fiction novels that are popular by (Gasp!) non-sf readers.


• Andrew Wheeler takes issue with New York Times critic Dave Itzkoff asking Who Is The New Clarke?


• Neatorama points us to Comics with Pulp Magazine Style Covers. Check out Glen Orbik's Batman and Gary Gianni's Swamp Thing Martian Manhunter.


• The Linguist lists Sci-Fi languages.


• GalleyCat looks at U.S. vs. U.K. book covers and mainstream crossover potential. Orbit Blog offers more insight.


• John Joseph Adams, editor of the post-apocalyptic anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse absolutely hated the post-apocalyptic movie Doomsday. "It's just absolutely abysmal. You just might find yourself wishing the end of the world would come just so you wouldn't have to sit through another second of this pathetic excuse for a movie." Ouch!


• Universal Day of the Jedi lists The 10 Coolest Star Wars Videos Ever Made. (For dessert, be sure to check out Triumph vs. Star Wars Fans.)


• Wired goes behind the scenes of Fanboys.


• Guess which science fiction show made Mental Floss Blog's list of 10 TV Shows That Changed The World?


• SCIFI.COM is planning a major expansion with "new stand-alone gaming and tech sites, original and exclusive scripted entertainment, a game center and a new social-game experience."


• Real Science: The Science Channel has a photo gallery of dark science.


• If I did need a psychotherapist - and I'm not saying I don't - I would hope that I could afford a real one, and not just this online robotic one. [via Wired]


• Jeff VanderMeer is grooving on rayguns. Control yourself, Jeff. For goodness sake, you're supposed...to...be...Mmmmmm...rayguns....


• Two fun links from Boing Boing: A Tardis MAME cabinet and Hobbit Socks!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Cool idea!

From SFScope:

Nathan E. Lilly, editor of SpaceWesterns.com writes about a new project:

This doesn't have to do with SpaceWesterns.com--my day job is as a Web Developer, and I moonlight under the auspices of GreenTentacles.com. In the early morning of 21 March, John Joseph Adams put out a call on his web blog for some "con-loving web savvy fan" to put together a convention finder that allowed people to find the closest conventions by ZIP Code.

By 10:30PM, I had created this Con Finder which only has about 8 conventions in it at the moment, but allows con-runners to add their own).

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• DVD Verdict judges the newly released DVD set of Painkiller Jane, stating: Painkiller Jane is a middling, unoriginal sci fi series that is only occasionally interesting. Ouch. I guess you'll need some painkillers to watch this one.
• Ronald D. Moore, king of the SF reboots, visited the set of the new Star Trek movie and opines that rebooting the series was a good idea, saying "it was a very smart move to sort of clear the decks, wipe the slate clean and start over." Apparently there is/was too much Trek info needed to appreciate it that new viewers were scared off. Going back to the beginning gives everyone a chance to start over and get in on the ground floor. We'll see, though I'm not optimistic.
• Speaking of Trek, the new Sulu, John Cho, states that Sulu isn't really Japanese, but is, in fact, Pan-Asian. He bases this claim on Roddenberry's statement that Sulu was supposed to represent the continent of Asia. Alright, but when I hear the name Hikaru Sulu, I think Japanese.
• The Baltimore Sun has a short article on artist Steven Parke, whose work is featured on the liner notes for the new Heroes soundtrack CD.
• Scott Brown at Wired says explains why Battlestar Galactica must self-destruct. Self-destruct meaning come to an end, not literally explode, although that may happen too.
• Check out the new Season 4 trailer for Dr. Who:
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here's Isaac Asimov talking about the changes in SF after 1949 from the Literature of SF DVD.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 24, 2008 at 12:55 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 24, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica producer David Eick tells Sci Fi Wire that he is adapting P.D. James' novel, Children of Men as a TV series. The series won't be about the story from the book, but will instead focus on the culture and society James has created. Eick is currently writing the script for the show.
• Anime fans should like this: GDH, parent company of the anime studio Gonzo, announced plans to provide popular video streaming sites Youtube, Crunchyroll, and BOST with simultaneous, English-subtitled anime broadcasts of upcoming TV series. These episodes will be available at the same time as they air on Japanese TV, thus making licensing/subbing/production turnaround time a thing of the past. Wow. Now U.S. fans won't have to wait for the fan sub groups to do their thing, and won't have to rely on the greymarket torrents to get their fix. Well, at least of Gonzo shows. Hopefully other studios will follow suit.
• Staying with anime, Cartoon Network's online view, Adult Swim Fix, will be airing episodes of Code Geass before they are broadcast on Cartoon Network. How odd is that? Of course, CN is airing the show at 1:30am.
• You've probably already seen this: CBS has cancelled Jericho. Apparently the changes they made for this season didn't help. Having not watched a single episode this season, I can't comment on that. But when you kill off the best actor, then kill off a popular character, you're asking for trouble.
• Did you know that Torchwood has it's very own Alternate Reality Game? It does, and you can find it here! Join the mission now and help solve weekly mysteries.
• The Command Line Warriors wonder: Is Torchwood just too depressing? Again, having never seen an episode, I don't have a comment. I have seen mixed reviews. Our very own John loves it. Make of that what you will.

• There has been no official word on the fate of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but the producers of the show have begun lining up directors for season 2. That's probably a good sign. I'm on the fence here. I thought TSCC was just O.K., with the technological aspects on display in the last few episodes were just, well, terrible. I don't know if I want to keep watching.
• NBC has placed the entire opening of tonight's Medium online to whet your whistle. See it below:
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday March 24, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Sci-Fi Fan Letter interviews John Varley (Rolling Thunder) "In science fiction there is often a lot of research that has to be done, and lately, the monetary rewards tend not to be quite so great. In fantasy you get to make up all the rules, and write for a larger audience."


• Meet the Author has a video clip of Philip Palmer talking about his book Debatable Space.


• Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast #46 features Timothy Zahn.


• Free audio fiction: Jay Lake reads his story "The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black". [via SFFaudio » Blog Archive » Jay Lake Reads "The Sky That Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black"">SFFAudio]


• Sci-Fi Talk podcast-interviews Gail Z. Martin, author of The Summoner and The Blood King. [via SFFaudio » Blog Archive » Sci-Fi Talk Interviews Gail Z. Martin">SFFAudio]


• Todd McCaffrey has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Subterranean Press shows off the creepy-cool cover of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 24, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

"And I've even read adult SF as a young adult that was 'inappropriate'. Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, and many more. My parent's were aware and had no problems. I seem to have grown up all right, other than a need to read SF Signal way too many times a day (more posts, dang it!). Parent's need to be aware of what their kids are watching, reading, texting, etc. Don't blame the author for 'inappropriate material' if you don't take on the responsibility of getting involved with the upbringing of your offspring!" - Fred Kiesche

"I do not believe that there is such a thing as subject matter inappropriate for young adults." - General X

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 24, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

And so, sadly, we come to the end of Firefly, with perhaps the best episode of the season, "Objects in Space". Jubal Early has to be the most interesting bounty hunter ever created (sorry Boba), certainly the most philosophically read. Add in some sneaky River action and you've got a great ep.

So, comments from our readers on the Sunday Cinema feature. Did you like it? Not? Would you like to see more? Hulu has quite a bit of SF fare to post.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Sunday March 23, 2008 at 7:48 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The winners of the 2007 British Science Fiction Association Awards have been announced:

• BEST NOVEL: Brasyl by Ian McDonald
• BEST SHORT: Lighting Out by Ken MacLeod
• BEST ARTWORK: "Cracked World" by Andy Bigwood
• BEST 1958 NOVEL: Non-Stop by Brain Aldiss

See also:
This year's nominees.
Past winners.

[via Big Dumb Object]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 23, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• E.E. Knight is celebrating William Shatner's birthday the way God intended...with a parade of Star Trek babes. I have the most embarrassing memories of Shahna... Thanks for reminding me, E.E. :)


• Science Fiction Awards Watch and Locus list the Prometheus Awards nominees, a list that includes Tobias S. Buckell, Ken MacLeod, Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner, Harry S. Turtledove, and Jo Walton.


• Mary Robinette Kowal has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• SFFaudio rounds up upcoming SF Radio adaptations on BBC radio.


• The Ballardian has an interview with J.G. Ballard translated from a 1976 interview that appeared in German. "...I also had the feeling that the young people who were writing SF didn't at all know what they were writing about, that they either didn't see or didn't take advantage of the possibilities of the genre, so to speak. The 'landscapes' of SF were not satisfactorily made use of, because SF was fundamentally a commercial business. And therefore it was not permissible that authors should ever challenge the reader."


• Real Science, or, two Kaku links:
  • CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks podcast-interviews Dr. Michio Kaku about his book Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel. [via SFFaudio]
  • The Telegraph profiles Dr. Michio Kaku. "In the world of theoretical physics there is a certain amount of snobbery aimed at those of us who try to engage the public." Not in these parts!


• Boing Boing included a picture that forced me to hop on over to this Stormtrooper Easter bunny.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 23, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This is interesting:

BookLamp.org is a system for matching readers to books through an analysis of writing styles, similar to the way that Pandora.com matches music lovers to new music. Do you like Stephen King's It, but thought it was too long? The technology behind BookLamp allows you to find books that are written with a similar tone, tense, perspective, action level, description level, and dialog level, while at the same time allowing you to specify details like... half the length. It's impervious to outside influences - like advertising - that impact socially driven recommendation systems, and isn't reliant on a large user base to work.

I've talked before about book recommendations, but this is the first one I've heard of that analyzes writing style and uses it as the basis for the recommendation. So I signed up and took it for a test drive...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 22, 2008 at 12:33 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award: Nova Swing by M. John Harrison. Special Citation: From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust.


• The 2007 Bram Stoker Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on the Internet on Saturday 29 March 2008.


• Free audio fiction at Escape Pod: "This, My Body" by Jeremiah Tolbert, which is rated X for "graphic sexual and culinary scenes".


• Bookgasm lists The 9 Most Annoying People at the Bookstore.


• Aye Write! has video of Iain M. Banks (Matter) and Ken MacLeod (The Execution Channel). Hear also: the complete audio recording.


• Peter Hodges interviews Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind.


• This week's genre musings: Hal Duncan points us to Roger Luckhurst's The Many Deaths of Science Fiction: A Polemic: "The death of the genre is the only way in which SF could survive as literature."


• According to NASA, a powerful stellar explosion (a gamma ray burst) detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye. Larry Sessions proposes that we refer to the blast (officially designated GRB 080319B) as the "Clarke event" in honor of recently departed Sir Arthur C. Clarke. [via Jason Sanford]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 22, 2008 at 12:32 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This doesn't quite qualify as a Friday YouTube entry since it's audio only, but damn, this is good stuff. I believe this is from Dreams with Sharp Teeth, the documentary of Harlan Ellison that features Robin Williams.

[Poe TV]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 21, 2008 at 1:01 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• This week's FREE eBook at Tor's website is Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell. See why I loved it.


• Speaking of Tor, the latest Tor.com Wallpapers courtesy of Sam Weber (Beasts! edited by Jacob Covey) and Shelley Eshkar (The Andriod's Dream by John Scalzi): [via The Art Department]


• OK, I'm not a Tor-whore, but here's another tidbit: The Tor podcast interview with Whitley and Anne Strieber (2012 and The Grays).


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Matthew De Abaitua, whose novel The Red Men is a finalist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award.


• Topless Robot shares a photo of Benicio Del Toro as the Wolfman.


• The British Science Fiction Association announces that Matrix Online is now live...for members only. D'oh!


• Yet another list of Top Ten Mind-Blowing Science Fiction Books. (The short version: Evolution by Stephen Baxter, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, The Source by James Michener, 1984 by George Orwell, The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, Walden Two by B. F. Skinner, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.)


• Does the Galactic Empire have a marketing department? Here's the TV commercial for the Stormtrooper Army. [via MilkandCookies]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 21, 2008 at 1:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• SCI FI Wire sez: David Eick (BSG, Bionic Woman) is working on a pilot script for a proposed TV series based on Children of Men, P.D. James' excellent SF novel, which also inspired the well-received (and totally awesome) Alfonso Cuaron's 2006 film of the same name. I'm keeping my eye on this one. I loved the book and loved the film. The setting is beautifully depressing.


• She'll be Bach...TV Guide's Michael Ausiello says that The Sarah Connor Chronicles will most likely be returning, if the hiring of directors and staff is to be believed. [via SF universe]


• In related news, Cinema Blend has Terminator 4 plot details, including the possibility of connecting all 3 previous films with The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series.


• SyFy Portal has spoliers for Heroes for season 3.


• Doctor Who series/season 4 start dates: April 5th in the U.K. and April 18th in the U.S. [via SFX]


• I agree with Show Me SciFi: The much-hyped appearance of the BSG cast doing Letterman's Top 10 was Superlame. Most of the lines were over-delivered. Exception: Number 5 was laugh-out-loud funny. Check it.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 21, 2008 at 12:53 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 21, 2008 at 12:47 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

SF Scope has posted the 2008 Hugo Award Final Ballot.

[NOTE: Short fiction titles link to free online versions, if available. This is sure to be updated in the coming weeks, so check back for updates!]

BEST NOVEL

• The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
• Brasyl by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr) [See SF Signal review]
• Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor; Analog Oct. 2006-Jan/Feb. 2007) [See SF Signal review]
• The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor) [See SF Signal review]
• Halting State by Charles Stross (Ace) [See SF Signal review]

• "The Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's July 2007)
• "Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov's Feb. 2007)
• "Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard (F&SF July 2007)
• "All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis (Asimov's Dec. 2007, Subterranean Press)
• "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe (F&SF April 2007)

• "The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea, ed. John Klima, Bantam)
• "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF Sept. 2007)
• "Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (Asimov's Oct./Nov. 2007)
• "Glory" by Greg Egan (The New Space Opera, ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)
• "Finisterra" by David Moles (F&SF Dec. 2007)

• "Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, ed. George Mann, Solaris Books) [See SF Signal review]
• "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's June 2007)
• "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod (The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois, and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)
• "Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's April/May 2007)
• "A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's April/May 2007, The Dog Said Bow-Wow, Tachyon Publications)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 21, 2008 at 12:02 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The good news: There's a sale at Borders!

The bad news: The sale just might be Borders itself. Oh noes!

Publishers Weekly is reporting that Borders is considering selling the company and/or certain divisions.

From the Borders press release:

Borders Group, Inc. today announced the launch of a strategic alternative review process. J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. have been retained as the company's financial advisors to assist the company as it explores strategic alternatives. The review process will include the investigation of a wide range of alternatives including the sale of the company and/or certain divisions for the purpose of maximizing shareholder value. The company can give no assurances that a transaction of any kind will occur.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 4:26 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

If you're like us, there's nothing quite like a really cool piece of science fiction or fantasy art. For this week's Mind Meld we decided to ask the SF&F artist community about what they find appealing about science fiction, fantasy and art. (Special thanks to Lou Anders for his help in bringing this Mind Meld together. Thanks Lou!)

And now, our question:

I was hooked early.

It was the era of the space race and television; Zorro and Batman and moonshot coverage competed with Gunsmoke and Wells Fargo for my love. One of my most treasured possessions was my G.I. Joe space capsule and astronaut. Lost in Space almost captured me in the third grade, though it became stupid pretty quickly. But Star Trek changed everything. Science, plus fiction, coupled with amazing visuals ... and my first taste of social consciousness. Later, 2001: A Space Odyssey would push science fiction into philosophical terrain as yet undiscovered by me, and the first two Planet of the Apes movies would awaken my political awareness in a big way by killing my heroes, trashing our civilization, then destroying the planet. The movies drove me to the books, where Arthur C. Clark asked questions about life, the universe, and everything, and Isaac Asimov laid down the law for robots.

Everything I learned that I remembered best came from a science fiction movie or book. I learned about PH from The Andromeda Strain before I was old enough to have a chemistry class. Fantastic Voyage taught me more about the human body than any 5th grader had business knowing; most adults couldn't tell you what a fistula was -- but I knew. Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man introduced me to Psychology. Valley of Gwangi pushed me right over the edge with dinosaurs; I devoured every text about them I could find. The fiction made me hungry for the science.

When I discovered Tolkien (after rejecting it several times; who wants to read about elves and dwarves?) I realized that Fantasy could have something to say, too. Fantasy and its mythic roots led me to Joseph Campbell and a whole new understanding of religion and mythology and the fuzzy boundaries between the two.

Fantastic fiction speaks to our thirst for knowledge, our hunger for personal discovery, our desire to shape and understand our environment, by asking "what if?" and playing with the answers.

As a visually-oriented kid, the art of it all was key. Good writing in books evoked mental images that I had to explore; I learned to draw largely by creating my own science fiction and super-hero comic books. The ground-breaking and mind-bending special effects in Forbidden Planet, 2001, and Marooned taught me to look at the world with a more critical eye, and to make use of the sciences to inform my art. Geometry and Perspective go hand in hand, the physics of bodies in motion are essential to good art, as are understandings of color theory, geology (a mountain is not a pyramid), astronomy and astrology, history, even the psychology of perception ... on and on.

Good art makes it all the more real. Art informs. Art, like writing and movie-making, is an exploration into the unknowns without and within. It ponders realms that cannot be photographed or described with words, because they are ineffable and timeless. It helps connect the emotional and visceral with the cognitive and philosophical, the unreal with the real. At its best, it teaches or amuses, shocks or disturbs; it makes you look again, and then again – only deeper.

It takes the question "what if?" and answers "perhaps this..."

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 12:55 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

MY RATING:

Where Halting State sounds like a riff on Dreampark. Glasshouse actually has more in common with Dreampark than Halting State. Glasshouse takes place in the far future, where post-human humanity has been ravaged by war. Unfortunately, a virus was released that makes people forget the cause of the war and why they are fighting. This leads to the fragmentation of humanity as those who are trying to piece civilization back together must contend with those who are still infected. Enter Robin, who seems to have an assassin tracking him down, but he can't remember why. Robin voluntarily under went a memory wipe to try and reprogram himself into something different. This wipe also makes him a good candidate to enter the experimental 'Glasshouse', whose inhabitants are recreating the time period 1950-2040, in a completely isolated environment. However, those who want to kill him may have followed him there.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 12:45 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Adding to the previous list of appreciations and links, her's another batch. For more, please see Google News and Blog searches for "Arthur C. Clarke".

• IEEE Spectrum Online has Arthur C. Clarke's last interview. [via BoingBoing]


• Mental Floss lists 5 Reasons We'll Miss Arthur C. Clarke


• Here are some more notable appreciations for Sir Arthur:
  • Tobias Buckell
  • Jeffrey Carver
  • Peter Crowther
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Ben Jeapes
  • Colleen Lindsay
  • Alastair Reynolds
  • Michael Swanwick
  • Jeff VanderMeer (at Omnivoracious)
  • John C. Wright
  • SFWA
  • Biology in Science Fiction
  • SciFi Scanner
  • The Wertzone
  • Wired
  • Seed Magazine
  • Guardian Books

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 12:37 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Lou Anders reveals the table of contents for his upcoming anthology Fast Forward 2.

1. "Catherine Drew" by Paul Cornell
2. "Cyto Couture" by Kay Kenyon
3. "The Sun Also Explodes" by Chris Nakashima-Brown
4. "The Kindness of Strangers" by Nancy Kress
5. "Alone With An Inconvenient Companion" by Jack Skillingstead
6. "True Names" by Cory Doctorow & Benjamin Rosenbaum
7. "Molly's Kids" by Jack McDevitt
8. "Adventure" by Paul McAuley
9. "Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter" by Mike Resnick & Pat Cadigan
10. "An Eligible Boy" by Ian McDonald
11. "SeniorSource" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
12. "Migration" by Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell
13. "Long Eyes" by Jeff Carlson
14. "The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 12:32 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Sarah Zettel returns to the world of science fiction with the tentatively-titled Bitter Angels. I read Zettel's 1993 short story "Fools Errand" (the basis for the novel Fool's War) and loved it, so I this is good news for sf. [via SFScope]


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Ian McDonald, author of Brasyl.


• Grasping for the Wind interviews Pamela Freeman, author of Blood Ties.


• PodioMedia Chat podcast-interviews SFFAudio proprietor, Jesse Willis


• Jason Stoddard doesn't see a lot of "visionary" in sf past and present when he says Science Fiction Fails the Long View. Not sure I agree. Just because a prediction (which is what he's talking about, really) fails to come true, doesn't necessarily mean it lacks vision, just that it's a bad prediction. Many writers are still thinking of cool ideas and inventions. So what if they don't come to pass? It's still fun to mind-chew.


• The latest issue of The Internet Review of Science Fiction has been posted and includes an interview with Jo Walton by Lyda Morehouse, and essay by Steven Utley (Science Fiction or Not? Frankenstein as a case study in defining SF), Chicks Rule: The Rise of Female-Oriented Fantasy and Science Fiction by Cynthia Ward,


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "The Stars, My Brothers" by Edmond Hamilton (1962)


• Time Traveler Show podcast #24 features "Missing Link" by Frank Herbert.


• For the writers:
  • SFReader's Grand Index of Writing Advice. [via Velcro City Tourist Board]
  • Robot in the Woods Publishing is seeking original robot stories for publication in April.


• Christopher Paul Carey tells us to swing on over to documen.tv and pay the well-worth-it $5 to watch the hour-long documentary I, Tarzan, which features Philip José Farmer tearing up as he talks about his in-the-flesh interview with Tarzan.


• Cover Pr0n:
  • Wolfblade by Jennifer Fallon.
  • Clarkesworld Magazine Issue #19 (which will include at least Jeffrey Ford's "After Moreau".)
  • The Subterranean Press editions of Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard and Expiration Date by Tim Powers.
  • Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, Book 1 by Juliet McKenna.


• Another you should be checking out the group Art Blog Gorilla Artfare...these sketches by Dead Mello.


• Are you Droid enough to take the Atom Films Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge? Submit your parody, fan fiction or mash-up by May 27. Top fan movies will be selected by AtomFilms and Lucasfilm -- with George Lucas as one of the judges. (Don't be surprised if George thinks it should be faster and more intense.)


• Speaking of Star Wars, ThinkGeek sells a Do-It-Yorself Lightsaber Kit, which essentially consists of a bunch of fitted tubes.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The SciFi Channel has officially announced the development of Caprica, a spinoff prequel of its hit Battlestar Galactica that will "weave together corporate intrigue, techno-action and sexual politics into television's first science fiction family saga." It's Dallas! In spaaaaaaace.....


• Buh-bye, Jamie. According to SuperheroFlix, Bionic Woman is officially canceled.


• If I thought the TV show Chuck was science fiction like some people (looks at JP, clutching mightily to his Things-That-Aren't Really-SciFi DVD box set, which includes Chuck and the Indiana Jones movies), then I'd have to mention that Chuck is headed for the comics. But I don't, so I won't.


• For the craftically (?) inclined: Wired looks at Star Trek mosaics made from colored beads and thread. [via About:Blank]


• SciFi Channel's YouTube Channel now has:
  • The BattleStar Galactica Season 4 Launch video.
  • The BattleStar Galactica Revealed special. Here's Part 1. Follow the YouTube links to the rest.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 20, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This is just a friendly reminder that the cast of Battlestar Galactica will be appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight. They will be presenting the nightly Top 10 list.

See original post.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 19, 2008 at 4:20 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here's Orson Scott Card's response to last week's Mind Meld on young adult sf/f fiction, which was received after the post was published:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 19, 2008 at 11:33 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

There is often a compulsion to seek out the written works of recently departed authors, as if reading their work can hopefully, in some small way, keep them with us a little bit longer. To that end, I've rounded up a few links to some online stories of Sir Arthur C. Clarke. If you don't own any of his work, you should. See why through these links...

• "The Nine Billion Names of God"
• "Rescue Party"
• "The Star"

• "A Walk In The Dark"
• "Summertime On Icarus"
• "The Haunted Spacesuit"
• "The Nine Billion Names Of God"
• "The Sentinel" (basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey)
• "The Star"

"I am sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science popularizer. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers and, hopefully, stretched their imaginations as well."

"Overhead...the stars are going out"

[Links via
Best Science Fiction Stories, Free Speculative Fiction Online, Living the Limnal, Free SF Reader, and Laughing Squid]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 19, 2008 at 12:45 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles S.M. Stirling, author of In the Courts of the Crimson Kings.


• UK SF Book News interviews Joe Abercrombie (the The First Law trilogy).


• The Guardian interviews Terry Pratchett about Alzheimer's, his books, and the movie adaptation of The Colour of Magic. [via Grasping for the Wind]


• Also check out the trailer for The Colour of Magic.


• Gary Westfahl's essay Tunnel Vision and the Unfarmed Sky: Columbia, and the Dreams of Science Fiction, Five Years Later discusses the space program. And the Mundanes say....


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net:
  • "The Premiere" by Richard Sabia (1959).
  • "The Great Potlatch Riots" by Allen Kim Lang (1959).


• Random House has published a spoiler for Brisingr, the 3rd book in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy.


• Solaris will be publishing Heart of Veridon by Tim Akers.


• Tobias Buckell briefs us on The Novel Synopsis Project, where authors submit the proposals they used to get their books published.


• /dev/null/kevin lists The 7 Most Annoying Sci-Fi Kids. No, Wesley Crusher is not #1...but he does make the list.


• Kevin Maher serves up another fun SciFi Dept: A Children's Guide to the Apocalypse, a "definitive instructional video for children on how to survive with minimal death and dismemberment in a post-apocalyptic future."


• Two words: Lego Futurama.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 19, 2008 at 12:37 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• USA Today reviews tonight's FX airing of The Core "an intoxicatingly awful adventure that is, in its own completely committed, deliriously goofy, warped science way, far more fun than any number of more carefully competent movies." I think that's a compliment. The critic continues: "The Earth's core has stopped moving, which has damaged the magnetic field, short-circuited pacemakers and made pigeons so disoriented by their lack of long-range radar, they apparently forget how to use their eyes. All that stands between us and destruction is a dedicated corps of underemployed actors, led by Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank and Stanley Tucci." Er, I'll pass.


• Entertainment Weekly interviews George Lucas about the upcoming animated and live-action Star Wars series and 3-D versions of the Star Wars films. The only thing that beats Princess Leia in a metal bikini is Princess Leia in a metal bikini COMIN' AT 'YA!


• Geek Speak begins listing The 100 Greatest Things About Star Trek (Part 1). "Picard maneuver- No, not the real Picard Maneuver. The one where he repeatedly pulls his uniform shirt down when he stands up. It happens so much you start actually watching for it."


• From SciFi Wire: Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told says he is producing a Web-based superhero musical called Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Hmmmm...perhaps that's why he's too busy to direct a Battlestar Galactica episode.


• Back when I was a young 'un, the lame-@$$ Marvel superhero cartoons they showed featured very little animation. What's that soldier? I was distracted by the creepy fact that, except for your inhuman lips, you are completely motionless! I suspect NickToons will do better with their upcoming Iron Man and Wolverine cartoons. [via Comic Mix]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 19, 2008 at 12:34 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Sad news...

SF legend Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at the age of 90.

From BBC:

Legendary British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

He came to fame when his story was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, by director Stanley Kubrick in 1968.

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.

Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset, and was a radar specialist for the RAF in World War II, become a full-time writer in the 1940s.

• His Wikipedia entry
• Google's Books by Arthur C. Clarke
• IMDB entry
• A list of Arthur C. Clarke quotes.
• Reactions from around the web: Paul Levinson, Pat Cadigan, Matt Cheney, Bob Eggleton, Niall Harrison, Jonathan Strahan, Lou Anders, Walter Jon Williams, Jeff VanderMeer, Steven Barnes, Charles Stross, Boin Boing, Texas Best Grok, Engadget, The NY Times, The LA Times, CNN, USA Today, and Time magazine.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 5:30 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Neatorama points us to this PDF file of 100 Best Last Lines from Novels as per The American Book Review.

I've culled some last lines from some of the genre-ish novels listed. Can you match the last line with the book's title?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 12:15 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

MY RATING:

In 2018, a daring bank robbery takes place at Hyak Associates. However, this is no ordinary robbery, being executed by a band of marauding orcs with a dragon as backup in the online game world of Avalon Four. The robbery was supposed to be impossible as the data exists in multiple locations, each checking the others to ensure integrity. That it happens at all leads to some serious questions about the network underlying the future Earth.

Edinburgh constable Sue Smith is called on to investigate and must join forces with Elain Barnaby, a forensic accountant, and Jack Reed, an unemployed game programmer to figure out what happened and what is going on behind the scenes.

While at first glance Halting State may sound like a modern day take on Dreampark, the action doesn't take place in a game, but in the 'real' world. Having said that, Halting State is a darn good read, especially if you are a techie or an online game player.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 12:44 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

io9 is stirring the pot again...this time by listing 5 Reasons To Stop Reading Science Fiction.

To summarize:

1. SF is now real life.
2. It's been colonized by mainstream literature authors like Cormac McCarthy.
3. It's turned into pure fantasy.
4. The fanbase is ancient.
5. Rackspace is shrinking.

io9's sensationalism aside, the article does little to connect individual statements with factual data about reading habits and sales. But then again, these arguments are attributed to "a gang of critics". What's the point of...oh yeah...Sensationalism = Page Hits + Ad Dollars!

See also: David Louis Edelman's response to this perennial battle cry.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 12:32 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• If anyone asked, I would say that there is not nearly enough coverage of Smallville on SF Signal. Sure, it's Dawson's Creek with super powers, but when they tap into the Superman mythos, it gives me chills. Er...that is...it would if I watched it. Anywho, there's news that the undeniably pretty Kristen Kreuk (Lana Lang) will be making an appearance next season, despite word that she (and Michael "Lex Luthor" Rosenbaum) won't be returning.


• The NY Daily News profiles Battlestar Galactica star Edward James Olmos who says, "The final season is not a way of resolving anything. Happy would be tying things in a nice bow. There are no bows being tied."


• AMC's MonsterFest blog tells us the Lena Headey is not taking her post-season 1 respite from The Sarah Connor Chronicles sitting down. She just joined the cast of Tell-Tale, an updated version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart".


• Good news or bad? Sam Raimi's syndicated original fantasy TV series Wizard's First Rule, based on the Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind gets the green light.


• I stopped watching Battlestar Galactica a while back (Gasp!) and I haven't seen Lost (Bigger gasp!), but if JP were here, he'd definitely point out this pictorial mashup of the similarities between BSG and Lost. [via Kiss My Feed]


• Sez SFX: The BBC has announced that filming has begun on Merlin, a new family fantasy series.


• As per the BBC, The new Doctor Who Series Four trailer will make its official TV and web debut on Saturday March 29, 2008. [via Big Dumb Object]


• Doctor Who toys for adults (not to be confused with Doctor Who adult toys, if there is such a thing):
  • The Doctor Who Fob Watch. [via Chris Roberson]
  • The Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver. Sweet!


• And finally, an answer to the question: "Is there such a thing as a Happy Dalek Song?" Seek and YouTube shall find...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 12:23 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Bibliophile Stalker interviews Ellen Datlow, Editor of (among many, many other things) the upcoming anthology The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy: "It's not that the genres have weaknesses or strengths but that the purveyors of genres write well or badly and use the genres ambitiously or in hackneyed ways."


• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction interviews Robert Reed about his story "Five Thrillers". Also: Check out Reed's free story archive.


• The Agony Column profiles Tim Pratt, author of The Strange Adventures of RangerGirl (a.k.a. T.A. Pratt, author of Blood Engines and Poison Sleep) and points us to his reading of his story, "The River Boy".


• George R.R. Martin shows off the U.S. and U.K. covers of A Dance with Dragons.


• The Art Department showcases Stephan Martiniere's four season-themed covers for Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. Nice.


• Free audio fiction: SF author James Patrick Kelly has completed the recording of his Nebula-nominated story "Men Are Trouble". (Start with Chapter 1.)


• Here's an essay on The Early History of Science Fiction by H. Bruce Franklin, who defines sf thusly: "Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation of our epoch. It is the principal cultural way we locate ourselves imaginatively in time and space." Personally, I'm happy when I locate myself unimaginatively...if you know what I mean.


• WFMU's Beware of the Blog offers this impressive Gallery of Early Science Fiction Fanzines Covers. Was there really a Logan's Run fanzine? Wow.


• Alexis Gilliland and his wife have launched a web site for their cartoons, The Adventures of Captain Fanboy. [via SFScope]


• Elfwood bills itself as "the world's largest site for SciFi/Fantasy Art and Fiction. You be the judge.


• Heavy Metal magazine artist A.P. Furtado and fellow fantasy webcomic artists Nate Piekos, James V. West and Chuck Whelon have combined forces to start a new sketch blog for all fans of old-school, D&D inspired, cartoon fantasy comics: Wizard of Ur!


• According to Cinematical, the Cloverfield DVD will have 2 new endings. What is this? Roll your own movie?


• The latest Paleo-Cinema Podcast features the work of George Pal, producer/director associated with such films as Destination Moon (1950) When Worlds Collide (1951), The War of the Worlds (1953), The Time Machine (1960), and Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975).


• MTV has the trailer for Lost Boys: The Tribe. I'm not sure why the original never really worked for me. It could the 2 Coreys.


• Brewster Rockit: Space Guy stars in "Invasion of the Mole Men"!

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 12:01 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A memorable, one-sitting read.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A fact-based graphic novel about the first animal sent into space.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great basis for a story; the fact-based details and meaty character portrayals enhanced the reading experience; artwork lends itself to the mood of the story.
CONS: The launch scene laid on the sentimentality a little too thick.
BOTTOM LINE: An affecting story that is sure to have lingering effects after reading it.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 17, 2008 at 12:59 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Kay Kenyon, author of A World Too Near.


• James Morrow has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.


• Free fiction: Shadow Unit episode #3 is now available. It's "Dexterity" by Sarah Monette. [via Elizabeth Bear]


• Free Fiction reminder: Even if super-short reviews for short stories are not your thing, Free SF Reader includes links to all the free stories reviewed.


• For those who got a kick out of last week's audio interview with Kenneth Johnson, check out this fan site for his television series V: TheVistors.info.


• Don't get caught with your scalp down. Before the Zombie Apocalypse comes, check out this Zombie Emergency Procedure.


• Sci-Fi Fan Letter compiles a sf reading list of robots, cyborgs, clones and other things Not Quite Human.


• Science Junkies lists 10 Helpful Sci-Fi Movie Survival Hints.


• More from Science Junkies: Futuristic Fashions in Foil.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 17, 2008 at 12:39 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Just a quick reminder to you all that we are still running our contest to give away 10 DVD copies (to 10 people, not all at once) of the Sci Fi Channel movie Sands of Oblivion, starring Adam Baldwin, Morena Baccarin, and George Kennedy.

Send an email to:

contest at sfsignal dot com (do the email replacement thing)

for your chance to win. This offer good only in the U.S. and Canada. Go ahead, send us an email. What have you got to lose? Remember the SF Signal motto: "If it's free, it's for me!"

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday March 17, 2008 at 12:36 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

[NOTE: I am subbing for JP this week on the Tube Bits. Can you guess at which point JP will regret he ever asked? - John]

• SCI FI Weekly reviews the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack from season 3 and gives it a "B+". Or, as Tim would say: "B+ as in Boomer plus me!"


• The Ghost of Doctor Who Past: Online Doctor Who magazine & fan site Kasterbourous points us to this Telegraph article which offers insight into some of the original ideas being battered about in 1963 concerning the Doctor Who series - things like an invisible TARDIS. The Telegraph also offers up this list of Little-known Doctor Who facts like "the ethereal theme tune was the first in the world to be made up entirely from electronic sounds."


• The Ghost of Doctor Who Future: According to BBC Audiobooks, TV's latest Doctor, David Tennant, will read their latest audio-exclusive release Doctor Who: Pest Control, available only on CD and for download on the May 8, 2008. [via Outpost Gallifrey]


• The SciFi Channel has a YouTube channel for its classic documentaries. It opened about six weeks ago and so far contains 5 videos of their Curse of the Blair Witch documentary. Someone wake me up when they take us behind the scenes at ECW...not!


• SCI FI Wire finds some information on the film adaptation of Land of the Lost, starring Wil Ferrell as Rick Marshall and Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) as a grown-up Holly.


• The Hollywood Reporter looks at TV series on the bubble for fall, those awaiting a renew or cancel notice. Prospects are good for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Knight Rider, but doubtful for Jericho and Reaper. This is great news for Michael Knight. I wonder how David Hasselhoff feels right now....?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 17, 2008 at 12:35 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

"30 some years ago, I started reading the Travis McGee mystery/detective novel series by John D. McDonald in mid-series. The books I was reading kept referring to an injury that had happened to Travis earlier. So... I went back and found the first book in the series: The Deep Blue Goodbye - and in that book they refer to the injury as happening earlier! Well...what the heck. I went to used book stores and found all the earlier novels, and read all of the Travis McGee novels." - Morjana

"The last time I can remember doing it on purpose was because I received an ARC of one of Kristine Smith's novels (Endgame) I had not read any of her novels previously but I didn't want to read the entire Jani Kilian series as prelude to this one." - Paul

"No, just like how I won't start watching a TV series without seeing the pilot episode. I also won't watch an episode if I've missed the first few minutes." - Chris Johnston

"I have to go and start at the beginning as I've recently done with John Ringo's Posleen books." - platyjoe

"Most book series aren't set up very well for someone to start in the middle. But one writer who gets around this problem is Mike Resnick. He's written some trilogies in his time, but every book is written in such a way that it contains a comlete stand-alone story, and can be enjoyed independent of the other books in the series. (By the way, I assumed here that you weren't including series like those that focus on one character, say a detective, but have little continuity outside of that...)" - Michael A. Burstein

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday March 17, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

All you need to know about this episode can be summed up in one word: hookers. You want more? OK: Space hookers.

And a bad guy who rides around in a really cheesy hovercraft.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Sunday March 16, 2008 at 5:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Following Terry Pratchett's recent contribution to Alzheimer's research, Pat Cadigan has started a campaign to get Terry Pratchett fans to match his generous donation. The campaign is called "Match it for Pratchett." [via BoingBoing]


• James Wallace Harris asks: What Motivates Science Fiction Fantasies? "We live in at least three worlds. The first is the unseen world of microbiology and its programming. The second is the actual reality where our bodies dwell. And third is the fantasy world of our minds where we constantly reshape reality."


• Fred K. reminds us of Unshelved, a web comic that covers books, like this one about Larry Niven's Ringworld.


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "Teams (A Terran Empire story)" by Ann Wilson


• 411 Mania looks at SciFi Sidekicks.


• Those lucky bastards at Slice of SciFi podcast interview Theoretical Physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, author of Hyperspace and Physics of the Impossible. (Starts at the 30-minute mark). Funny: listening to the smarmimess of the "Borg vs. Death Star" question being met with the cold, hard seriousness of Type IV civilizations. "Ohhhhhhh," they say in unison.


• If there were such a thing as bookshelf pr0n, then it would definitely include this Heartbeat Bookshelf.


• Black Sundae points us to some 2001: A Space Odyssey-inspired Lego creations: The spaceship Discovery and The Dawn of Man.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday March 16, 2008 at 1:14 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Free audio fiction for your aural pleasure!

Starship Sofa has completed podcasting the BSFA short fiction nominees:

• "Lighting Out" by Ken MacLeod
• "Terminal" by Chaz Brenchley
• "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
• "The Gift of Joy" by Ian Whates
• "The Sledge-Maker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 15, 2008 at 3:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• This week's Tor Wallpapers come from Luis Royo and Jon Foster.


• Charles Coleman Finlay interviews Paul Melko (Ten Sigmas and Other Unlikelihoods and Singularity's Ring).


• Kaleb Nation interviews Scott Westerfeld, who talks about his Uglies books. [via Yatterings]


• More than 120 YA authors are participating in Simon & Schuster's Pulse Blogfest. [via Yatterings]


• Peter F. Hamilton is hard at work on Temporal Void, the sequl to The Dreaming Void.


• Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a new website and blog (and has been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog). [via Tobias Buckell]


• An Internet experiment done right - Flash fiction meme turns into book! Gareth L. Powell has the scoop on Illuminations, an anthology showcasing "original, cutting edge short fiction from eight up-and-coming young British writers." That'd be Paul Graham Raven, Gareth D Jones, Martin McGrath, Dan Pawley, Justin Pickard, Neil Beynon, and Shaun Green.


• BBC's 7th Dimension is featuring Philip K. Dick's story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", the basis for Total Recall. Tune in on March 16th, or listen again afterwards. [via SFFaudio]


• Free audio fiction for the podiobooks: "Time Crime" by H. Beam Piper (1955).


• Science Fiction Concatenation offers "Futures" by Steven Longworth (PDF link).


• Fanboy shares some videos of Comic Book Artists in Action.


• Geek Alert: A 7-foot tall Battlestar Galactica Cylon figure. Cost: $8,000. That's a lot for a toaster. ALthough, at 7-feet, I bet it makes a whole lotta toast.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday March 15, 2008 at 3:18 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• All you lucky New York City Galactica viewers, listen up! During the premiere of Galactica on April 4th, you will be able to call a certain pizzeria in town, answer a simple question about the premiere, and you get a free pizza. Mmmm, pizza.
• Staying with Galactica, if you're in L.A. on April 13th, composer BearMcMreary is hosting a concert the will feature music from the first three seasons of Galactica. James Callis (Gaius Baltar) will host the show. For more info, visit Bear's website.
• Deadbolt explains what we want from the new Star Wars TV series. Very well done, with some nice speculation. And I'm totally onboard with giant space battles. I'd watch just for that.
• Dynamite Entertainment has just acquired the rights to re-print, and create new, comics of everybody's favorite space adventurer, Buck Rogers. Gil Gerard need not apply.
• Did you know Warner Bros. is creating a new, animated Bat Man DVD? They are and it's called Batman: Gotham Knight. Check out the trailer for this new, anime-styled movie:
• And finally, The History Channel shows us, in this cool video, the birth of the universe:
  

One administrative note: Tube Bits will be going on hiatus for the next week or so as I will be on vacation. Feel free to lobby John to continue the 'Tube' in his copious amounts of spare time!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday March 15, 2008 at 12:51 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Artsy, touching and way cool.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 14, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Michael Burstein lists the contents of his upcoming collection from Apex, I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein:

1. "TeleAbsence" (Analog, July 1995)
2. "Broken Symmetry" (Analog, February 1997)
3. "Cosmic Corkscrew" (Analog, June 1998)
4. "Absent Friends" (Analog, September 1998)
5. "Reality Check" (Analog, November 1999)
6. "Kaddish for the Last Survivor" (Analog, November 2000)
7. "Spaceships" (Analog, June 2001)
8. "Paying It Forward" (Analog, September 2003)
9. "Decisions" (Analog, January/February 2004)
10. "Time Ablaze" (Analog, June 2004)
11. "Seventy-Five Years" (Analog, January/February 2005)
12. "TelePresence" (Analog, July/August 2005)
13. "Sanctuary" (Analog, September 2005)
14. "Empty Spaces" (original to the book)
15. "I Remember the Future" (original to the book)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 14, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Salon interviews Harlan Ellison: "I have, I suppose, a very peculiar love-hate relationship with the human race. As a concept, the human race seems to be a very workable idea. When you get down to the individuals, most of them need a ball-peen hammer to the middle of their forehead to make them move even as a slow pony."


• Simon Haynes (author of the Hal Spacejock series) Paul Melko (author of Sungularity's Ring)


• Robert J. Sawyer posts a short interview he did regarding his book Mindscan.


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Simon R. Green, author of The Unnatural Inquirer.


• Cory Doctorow is podcasting the story he co-wrote with Benjamin Rosenbaum: "True Names" (an homage to Vernor Vinge's famous story).


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "The Woman Who Vowed" by Ellison Harding (1908).


• The first 3 chapters of Nathalie Mallet's Arabian Nights-esque fantasy, The Princes of the Golden Cage, are now available as MP3 downloads. [via Night Shade Books]


• Holy Manga, Batman!


• Real Science: Bad Astronomy Blog lists Ten things you don't know about the Milky Way Galaxy.


• Headline of the day: Killer Tomatoes Ripe For Remake?


• The adaptation of the final Harry Potter book will be released as two films.


• SciFi Scanner tells us that Wolfgang Peterson is set to direct Uprising, a movie whose plit sounds suspiciously close to Battlefield Earth. I read Battlefield Earth over a decade ago and I remember it being one of those books that was pretty good for the first half (until the antagonist died) and thereafter was page-by-page struggle to decide whether to stop reading it (when the plot moved from Terran rebellion against alien overlords to business dealing with shark bankers).

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday March 14, 2008 at 12:21 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

SCI FI Wire sez that ten stars of Battlestar Galactica will be making an appearance on CBS' Late Show With David Letterman to present the Top 10 List on Wednesday March 19.

The BSG stars include Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas and Lucy Lawless.

Or, as Tim would say, Boomer and nine other people. :)

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 5:10 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Oh yes, as if I needed any more incentive to go see Wall E, the new Pixar movie, along comes the final trailer. We see a lot more of the adventures Wall E will get into and, dang, here's another movie I am so in on. Opening day here I come!

June 27th is so far away...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 5:00 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Earlier we brought you two international trailers for the Speed Racer film. Now, feast your eyes, and I do mean feast, on the new US trailer:

Wow, wow wow. This thing looks amazing. And was that the Mammoth Car I saw? I am so in. I don't care even if the acting turns out to be bad. This movie wins on style points. And given its supposed 'G' rating, this is something I won't think twice about taking my kids to. Go Speed Racer, go!

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 4:46 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

I only caught bits and pieces of the previous Hulk movie, and the one thing that struck me was that they got the physics of the Hulk's movement all wrong. Hard to tell from this new version. What do you think?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

UK SciFi magazine SFX has an online book club that's open to anyone. This month's selection is The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein.

More details:

Every month we pick a classic SF or fantasy book. You lot read it and post your comments. A couple of months later we run a feature in which a top-class SF or fantasy writer discusses the book, with a selection of your remarks running down the side.

• Stephen Baxter on Ringworld by Larry Niven, Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.


• Geoff Ryman on A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, and Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison.


• David Langford on The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester and A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.


• Jon Courtenay Grimwood on The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller.


• Tom Holt on The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.


• Christopher Priest on I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Pavane by Keith Roberts.


• Joe Abercrombie on A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 12:12 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Everything old is new again...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 1:18 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Pyr Editor Lou Anders and author William H. Drinkard (Elom) were interviewed by the local Fox News show regarding the local OmegaCon convention.


• Physicality of Words interviews Alastair Reynolds: "Too often the face of science that SF presents to the world is a negative one, of hubris, of experiments going wrong and ending the world."


• Fast Forward latest video interview features Elizabeth Moon talking about Victory Conditions, the fifth novel in her Vatta's War series.


• Neth Space has 5 questions for Steven Erikson (The Malazan Book of the Fallen.).


• Asimov's Science Fiction magazine celebrates it's 31st anniversary. Here's the editorial by Sheila Williams.


• Apex Digest Issue 12 is now available and features fiction Brian Keene, Cherie Priest, Paul Jessup, Lavie Tidhar, Brandy Schwan, Maurice Broaddus, and Sara Genge; Hal Duncan interviewing Jeff VanderMeer; an interview with Laura Anne Gilman; and a new essay from Alethea Kontis; and a way-cool cover.


• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist shows off the cool Stephan Martiniere cover for Kay Kenyon's City Without End.


• At Geekend, Jay Garmon offers up a counter-rant on Why science fiction will never go extinct: "...come the Singularity, science fiction will cease to be distinct from mainstream fiction, since rapid, high-social-impact technological change will be so widespread and commonplace that literature will have no choice but to deal with this new status quo as part and parcel of its narrative."


• The story behind the story: Night Shade Books goes behind the scenes with Andy Duncan to discuss his Nebula-nominated story "Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse".


• Robert J. Sawyer appears on a literacy poster that also includes some of his favorite sf books.


• Biology in Science Fiction gets a leg up on REPO! The Genetic Opera. With YouTube video!


• Collider spills some details of Star Wars animated and live-action shows. [via SciFi Scanner]


• Kevin Maher has another entertaining entry in his SciFi Dept: The Time Travel Movie Guide.


• io9 lists 8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories.


• The List Universe lists Top 12 Dystopian Novels.


• S.L. Viehl lists 10 Things You Probably Shouldn't Title Your Novel.


• Latest Worth1000 Photoshop contest: Superhero ModRen. Very cool stuff. [via Michael May]


• This Cthulhu-like monster in a business suit is steeped in awesome.


• Robots can't act. Or can they? Here are Robots doing Pulp Fiction. [via growabrain]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 1:07 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Sci Fi Scanner points us to this really cool, and detailed, Futurama timeline. Bender would be proud.
• The new X-Files movie now has a release date: July 25, 2008. Apparently Mulder and Scully will evolve their relationship in an unexpected direction. And all this without the overarching 'mythology' of the show playing any role in the movie. Good or bad? You decide.
• Joshua Jackson talks to Sci Fi Wire about his reluctance to star in the new J.J. Abrams TV show, Fringe. He turned it down three times before finally accepting. I guess Abrams really wanted Jackson.
• Some interesting Star Trek related info for you from Trek Today. Author Peter David talks about his story for the upcoming IDW Comic mini-series New Frontier. Additionally, Star Trek will be appearing in manga form from TokyoPop and will include stories by Wil Wheaton and David 'No Chtorr for Old Men' Gerrold.
• Digital Spy interviews Peter Davison, who played the fifth incarnation of the good Doctor during the early 1980's Dr. Who run. Davison talks about his role in the Dr. Who audio adventures, and playing the Doctor again for the new series' 'Time Crash' episode. See it below!
  

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday March 13, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

In case you've been hiding under a rock lately, you may not know that Hulu, the streaming video service from NBC and Newscorp went live today. Everyone in the US and Canada can access the wealth of shows available. Not only do they have TV shows, they also have many full length movies.

To celebrate, we present to you, with limited commercial interruption, the Don Bluth film, Titan A.E.. Yes, it's terribly cliched, but it's one of the few SF movies they have.

Enjoy.

If you'd like to see a movie, which I think is better, with similar themes, check out Castle in the Sky, by Hayao Miyazaki. For a book, read The Forge of God by Greg Bear.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 4:51 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

A recent post by Nancy Kress concerning the mature themes of current young adult science fiction struck a chord with my own observations over the last few years. Namely, that the fiction being marketed to today's young adults deals with adult themes more than the young adult fiction from yesteryear. This seemed like a good topic to throw at some of the people in the field:

[UPDATE: See also, a belated answer from Orson Scott Card.]

Long Answer:

I have a dear friend, a hospital pediatrician, who told me her father had explained that "sex is wet and messy." This kept her from experimenting with same for nearly two years longer than she would have otherwise. This, in of itself, would justify more explicitness. My book (it's all about me, Me, ME!), Jumper, was on the American Library Association's 100 Most Banned Books List (1990-1999) because it essentially said, "If one of your parent's is an active alcoholic bad things may result" (page 2) and "If you run away from home you may become the target of sexual predation" (page 9).

Now let's try a thought experiment. You have a child. You want them to find out that they could be targeted for rape as a homeless teen by (a) Reading about it in fiction or (b) experiencing it.

Anybody choose B?

The job of writers is, foremost, to entertain, but we have other functions too. We give people experiences about choices and consequences from which they can draw conclusions for their own lives, and they didn't have to go through that sexual assault or become a drug addict or live in a war ravaged city or kill somebody themselves. But, we also have to sell it--to make it real, to make it believable and sometimes that calls for explicit detail.

Looking back two hundred years, we can see a significant shift in what is explicit and what isn't. We aren't tying skirts around the legs of our tables lest the exposed nature of the "limbs" unduly excite the young (but the Victorians did.) Bare midriff's would give them a heart attack.

And what is too explicit shifts widely between cultures and even between families. It shifts too much to expect school and public libraries to be able to decide (other than on a broad basis) what is and isn't appropriate for your kids.

That's your job.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 1:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Speaking of Tor, they are giving advance copies of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother high school newspaper reviewers.


• The Dragon Page podcast-interviews John Joseph Adams, editor of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.[via Night Shade Books]


• SciFi Weekly profiles John Varley (Rolling Thunder) and Edward Willett (Marseguro).


• Subterranean Press announced that there's a new novella coming from Mike Resnick set in his Kirinyaga universe.


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "Youngling (A Terran Empire Story)" by Author Ann Wilson.


• Jason Sanford is thinking about the singularity: "For me, though, these beliefs about the looming singularity don't hold much water."


• The Art Department has 5 question for Artist Nic Klein.


• Over at Making Light, Patrick Nielsen Hayden talks about Tor's innovative redesign of their website.


• Now open: The 2008 Locus Poll and Survey ballot at Locus Online.


• At SciFi Weekly, Paul Di Filippo writes about the website of week, Hey Oscar Wilde! It's clobberin' time!!!, which includes sketches of several science fiction authors and characters, like Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Leto Atreides II, Captain Nemo, Madeleine L'Engle, H.G.Wells, Ray Bradbury, J.R.R. Tolkein and Michael Moorcock, John Carter of Mars, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman,


• Win your own Dalek! SFX is running a contest for UK readers.


• io9 lists lesbian-dominated cultures in science fiction.


• USA Today has a first look at Monsters vs. Aliens. Cool.


• Robot in the Woods lists Blogs dedicated to Robot Art.


• OMG Horror lists The 26 Best Zombies of All Time. [via Neatorama]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 1:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Many times throughout my life I have heard fans of science fiction promote the genre by stating how many times its authors have predicted the future. Look at the works of Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Frederick Pohl, Arthur C Clarke, and others and you'll find many examples of things that they predicted that came true. From submarines to waldos to geostationary satellites science fiction has either influenced science or science has eventually caught up to the ideas of science fiction. Certainly we can continue to be smug in the belief that our genre is an accurate look into the future.

It's not true of course. But how wrong have authors been? Well...

Predicting the future is hard, and it's easier to see things that weren't predicted than every prediction that didn't come true. But it is also fun to point out how some science fiction authors thought the future would be and how they were wrong.

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 2:56 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

There is honor in eating at McDonald's. Apparently.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 12:35 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• io9 interviews John Varley (Rolling Thunder): "Space opera has not only arrived, it has conquered all, since the release of Star Wars. Don't get me wrong, I loved that movie (and none of the sequels), but I don't see it as science fiction."


• SciFi Wire lists the finalists for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.


• Robert J. Sawyer is featured on Living in Toronto.


• F&SF profiles James Stoddard.


• The First Book interviews debut author Anton Strout (Dead to Me).


• Space Westerns is running a cool feature this month: The Women of Space Westerns! First up: "A World is Born" by Leigh Brackett (1941).


• Recently free fiction at ManyBooks.net:
  • "The Alternate Plan" by Gerry Maddren (1958)
  • "The Marooner" by Charles A. Stearns (1958)
  • "New Year's Wake (A Terran Empire Story)" by Ann Wilson.


• As an aid to aspiring writers, Sean Williams has posted his book pitches.


• Mike Brotherton lists the strengths of science fiction.


• According to Topless Robot, Spiderman's Aunt May is sexy as hell.


• The Blog of the Zombie Astronaut completes the audio postings of The Space Alphabet. I know you were waiting on the edge of your seat.


• Here's a slideshow of things Luke Skywalker got wrong. At least until it breaks into song... [via Star Wars Blog]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Recently the blogosphere has been abuzz with listings of obsolete skills. It was started by Robert Scoble and was focused initially on skills obsoleted by technological advancements. But as with any idea that makes the rounds, it has expanded well beyond that and currently boasts its own website (a warning to visitors from far into the future - that's about 6 months in internet time - that this link might not still work.)

Not to be left out, I decided to come up with an SFSignal themed list (some flat-out stolen from the site above, but others original) and invite the readers