Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 31, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Publishers Weekly profiles Lucius Shepard, author of Softspoken and The Best of Lucius Shepard. [via Scott Edelman, who also lists The 10 Most Promising New SF & Fantasy Writers of 1982]


• The latest Cult-Pop episode features The Consortium of Genius, three mad scientists that are bent on taking over the world.


• Fiona McIntosh (The Quickening Trilogy) guest-blogs at Eos Books and talks about creating fantasy worlds.


• Over at Deep genre, David Louis Edelman dispenses with the writerly advice when he talks about building characters.


• Time magazine profiles Mary GrandPre, Harry Potter's portrait artist.


• The VanderMeers' latest art column is up at io9: The Jewels Of Apator: Trondheim and Sfar's Cute Aliens Who Kill.


• Speaking of Jedd Jeff VanderMeer, he has been named Assistant Director of Wofford College's Shared Worlds Creative Writing Program. Congratulations, Jeff!


• L.E. Modesitt, Jr. looks at the popularity and influence of f/sf writers and wonders which of today's F&SF writers will outlive Tolkien and Poe.


• Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "The Man Who Hated Mars" by Gordon Randall Garrett (1956).


• Fred K. writes in to tell us about a new sf eZine: Darwin's Evolution. That cover art is absolutely beautiful.


• Lou Anders and Jonathan Strahan will be co-editing an anthology tentatively titled Conquering Swords which collects new "Sword and Sorcery" stories.


• Ellen Datlow has posted photos from Wiscon.


• The June issue of the IEEE Spectrum has a special report on the Singularity. [via Biology in Science Fiction]


• File 770 has the latest on real-life Organlegging.


• Fun website: Diary of the Dead Zombie Face Changer!


• Four words: Buck Rogers Rocket Ship. [At Paleo-Future]

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 31, 2008 at 12:58 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• You've probably seen it already, Sci Fi has announced it's summer programming. Of interest: Stargate Atlantis starts on July 11th and Eureka (finally) starts on July 29th.
• TrekToday has some info on the different types of starships to appear in the new Trek movie. Apparently there will be one that has never appeared before. We also see that Spock will be travelling back in time in a specially constructed ship. I guess Hiro wasn't available.
• Score one for the Scotts: Shirley Manson of the band Garbage (um, who?) will be a recurring character on the next season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Manson will play the CEO of a high-tech company. As the saying goes, "If it ain't Scottish, it's crap!" True that.
• Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe Online opines that the fun on LOST is found in the questions. Absolutely. This is what I meant when I said LOST fans are incredibly fanatical, rivaled only by Trek fans in their ability to argue and flame over the tiniest minutia.
• Fox (spoilers ahead!) previewed Fringe for a bunch of TV writers on May 29th and Sci Fi Wire has the lowdown on the pilot episode. I'm kind of in to this one as it looks to be a cross between The X-Files and CSI: Whatever.
• Electronic Arts is working on a new Xbox 360 SF/Horror Survival game called Dead Space. Below are two 'animated' comic books that tell the story leading up to the events in the game.
  
  
  
  
  

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday May 31, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This Week's Free Tor Book: A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

• Free Book: A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham. (Links to HTML version. Those who sign up at the Tor site also get links to a PDF and MobiPocket version via email.)


• Free Wallpaper: Michael Kaluta's cover art for Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott.


• Free Wallpaper: Seth Fisher's painting "Robot Tessellation".

The wallpapers are only available for one week, so don't wait to snag 'em.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 30, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Humor, Star Wars
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 30, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• io9 lists 10 Books that Prove Science Fiction Just Got Harder, as in "hard sf". (Cool = I own seven of them. Sad = I've read none of them.)


• Interviews:
  • This week's Studio 360 podcast features Harlan Ellison. (Link includes an uncut version.) And the Harlan sez: "I have never written science fiction."
  • John Scalzi drops by Joe Mallozzi's blog to talk about his book The Android Dream.
  • Locus online shares excerpts from the latest issue of Locus magazine, including interview snippets with Theodora Goss and Catherynne M. Valente.


• Free Fiction: Karen Burnham pointed me to a great resource for free science fiction: FeedBooks! Recent freebies include:
  • "Chronalgia" by Richard Kadrey
  • "Surfing the Khumbu" by Richard Kadrey
  • "The Silk Road" by Richard Kadrey
  • "The Mad Hatter" by Richard Kadrey
  • "Dog Boys" by Richard Kadrey
  • "Mementos" by Richard Kadrey
  • "The Index of Refraction" by Richard Kadrey
  • "The Street That Wasn't There" by Clifford D. Simak


• Events:
  • Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias Buckell, Charles Coleman Finlay, Sandra McDonald, Paul Melko and Sarah Prineas will do a joint reading in Columbus, Ohio, on June 7th at 7 P.M. at the Barnes & Noble Bookseller, 1739 Olentangy River Rd. [via Jason Sanford]
  • Blue Moon Rising is hosting this year's Blog Like it's the End of the World.


• Chris Jensen says: Be Prepared for Today's Alien Video Hoax!


• Chris Roberson shares the short film The Saga of the Space Cowboy, a post-apocalyptic western. Obviously!


• Big Dumb Object lists 10 SF Facts That Require No Further Explanation. Some of them are brutally honest ("We will never get jetpacks"), and some are fightin' words ("Star Wars is better than Star Trek").


• However, to support BDO's argument, I note here that Leonard Nimoy tops the list of 15 Celebrities Who Sang...But Shouldn't Have.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 30, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs is the 2nd Futurama film released straight-to-DVD and is hitting store shelves on June 24, 2008.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Dave N. is looking for the name of a story that eludes him. Here is his description:

I don't remember the entire plot, but it involved the protagonist going to bed on what I believe was a Monday night & woke up very early in the morning. He found creatures, for lack of a better world, constructing all the things familiar to him, i.e. his house, the neighborhood, the town, etc., suggesting that the whole world was deconstructed during his sleep. He ended up somehow asking what day it was, or stating that today was Tuesday, and was told (I can't remember if it was from another human or one of the "creatures") that "Yesterday was Tuesday". Thanks for your help!!

- Dave N.

Share:
Comments (7) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Emma Bull and Elizabeth Bear are ending the first season of Shadow Unit with a serialized novel called Refining Fire, being made available online piecemeal now through Saturday.

The Shadow Unit project is written by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Will Shetterly, and Amanda Downum. All 250,000 words of Season One--seven novellas, a novel, and "DVD extra" vignettes, plus artwork and interactive LiveJournals by three of the characters -- are free on the web under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books, Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:18 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Ellen Datlow, who serves on the Board of Advisors for The Shirley Jackson Awards, writes in to tell us that she is hosting a reading of Shirley Jackson's work by award-winning and leading authors on July 23rd at the KGB Bar in New York City. Proceeds from the event, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of Shirley Jackson's classic short story "The Lottery", will benefit the Shirley Jackson Awards.

From the press release:

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, "The Lottery." "The Lottery" was first published on June 28, 1948 in The New Yorker.

Ms. Jackson's work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work. National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem has called Jackson "one of this century's most luminous and strange American writers," and multiple generations of authors would agree.

My first encounter with "The Lottery" was through a television set in a school classroom. I was amazed...

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Books, Events
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The Telegraph profiles William Shatner, who talks candidly about the death of his wife, which he discusses at length in his new autobiography Up Till Now.


• Boing Boing TV has Cory Doctorow reading from Little Brother.


• A handwritten, 800-word, card-sized Harry Potter prequel written by J.K. Rowling is being auctioned to benefit English PEN, the writers' association, and the British charity Dyslexia Action. Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing and novelist Margaret Atwood are also scheduled to provide auction items.


• Free Fiction:
  • StarShipSofa offers "Easy as Pie" by Rudy Rucker. Also available: an article by Peter Watts and Poetry by Laurel Winter. [via SFFaudio]
  • John Scalzi will be writing new short short fiction for the Subterranean Press newsletter.
  • Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net:
    • "The Nothing Equation" by Tom Godwin (1957).
    • "The Hunted Heroes" by Robert Silverberg (1956).
    • "Postmark Ganymede" by Robert Silverberg (1957).


• Over at Futurismic, Jonathan McCalmont looks at the entanglement of science fiction with Young Adult literature, and wonders whether YA is the latest victim of science fiction's aggressive expansionist tendencies: "SF has proved itself not only to be a survivor but also a voracious predator and a cunning diplomat, endlessly subsuming or allying itself with smaller and related sub-cultures."


• Weird Tales has recently started posting 365 Days of Blasphemous Horrors, a year of artwork based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos.


• SpaceWesterns podcast-interviews SFWA President-elect Russell Davis.


• Event: The June 3rd New York Review of Science Fiction Reading features Thomas M. Disch and Karen Russell. [via Tachyon]


• At SciFi Scanner, John Scalzi explains Why the Movie Version of Your Favorite SciFi Book Stinks and Kevin Maher looks at The Truly Alien Nature of Politics Revealed in They Live.


• Can you guess which genre movies made Scene-Stealers' list of Top 10 Flops Turned Classics? Hint: It's not Waterworld.


• Jeff VanderMeer is wondering about Unfilmable Novels.


• Laughing Squid shares this grieving Stormtrooper poster: "I had friends on that Death Star..."


• Topless Robot lists The 10 Most Blatant Star Wars Toy Rip-Offs of the '70s. I think I had one of those Black Hole robots.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• At right is the new teaser poster (and a more appropriate name than teaser I can't imagine) for the upcoming (2009) movie, Witchblade. Based on the Top Cow comic of the same name, let's hope it's better than the TNT series also based on the comic which starred Yancy Butler. All I can say is the character in the poster is no Yancy Butler.
• The Star Trek and Media Science Fiction blog takes the recent news about the Sci Fi Channel broadening it's programming to ask: Is Sci-Fi just a brand which doesn't have the same meaning as "science fiction," or should NBC change Sci-Fi's name to more accurately represent its broader programming? Clearly, science fiction on Sci Fi is an endangered species, but almost everyone knows the Sci Fi Channel name, even if they don't watch it. But yes, it's more of a brand name right now.
• Matthew Fox claims he is the only LOST actor who knows how the series ends. How will we know he's telling the truth? After it ends he can just say, "Yeah, that's what I knew was going to happen." Bastard.
• Bolt City liked the new Speed Racer movie, including the part many critics hated: the story. He's basically saying that what the Wachowskis did for visual storytelling in The Matrix, they did for 'flashback' storytelling in Speed and using anime storytelling techniques to illustrate why many critics, and the public, didn't 'get' the way the movie was told. I haven't seen it yet, but I would agree that, if it follows the conventions of anime storytelling (and Speed Racer the TV show is anime), then it will be told, and shot, in a manner most people aren't used to. I still have to go see this, although my oldest has already told me he wants the DVD when it comes out.
• On June 5th, NBC is premiering it's new Thursday night movie of the week series, Fear Itself. Basically, several horror film directors are taking turns making 'episodes' for a movie anthology series. See the trailer below:
  
  
• To celebrate the season finale of LOST (remember kids, tonight at 9/8 CT. I fully expect minds to be blown.), the Fine Bros present their LOST parody season finale, starring the man with the hat. I think this is the best one yet...
  
  

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:06 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

MY RATING:
For better or worse, I have an aversion to reading media tie-in novels. I think it stems from the many mediocre Star Trek books I read as a kid, so when the good folks over at The Black Library sent us a bunch of novels, all based either the Warhammer or Warhammer 40000 miniatures table-top games, I was leery about digging in. However, our own Tim has raved about how good author Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy novels are and then Chris Roberson named him one of his underrated authors. I looked at our stash and picked out the first book in the Ravenor series, entitled, appropriately enough, Ravenor. I'm glad I did.

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 12:13 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Science fiction presents itself to us through different mediums, most notably through the written and visual. Have you ever wondered who owns it? Lou Anders has, and he submitted the following question:

To speak in wildly oversimplifying terms, written science fiction is about speculation; visual science fiction is about spectacle. The distinction was there from the beginning of science fiction as a visual medium: Georges Méliès' Le voyage dans la Lune was made not because Méliès' cared about showing men getting to the moon, but because he cared about showing off his state-of-the-art effects skills. Look at the list of the most successful science fiction films over the last three decades and you'll understand how much spectacle is privileged over speculation. It doesn't mean visual SF is doing something wrong; it means it's doing something fundamentally different than written SF.

Written and visual science fiction have different goals, so to say one is driving the other (or that either is driving both) isn't accurate. It's more accurate to say that each influences the other in a more or less indirect way. Visual sf influences written sf (to go to another, different metaphor) very much the way movies are currently influencing Broadway: Popular movies are now being turned into hit Broadway musicals; Popular sf movies, TV show and video games are turned into profitable book series. Written sf influences visual sf very much the way avant-garde musicians influence pop music: Glenn Branca influences Thurston Moore, who influences Frank Black, who influences Liz Phair, who influences Avril Lavinge, who sells trillions of albums and mp3s to bunches of 14-year-old girls who would pepper-spray Glenn Branca if he walked up to them in public.

For his part, Branca might be entirely horrified at the idea that he's in some small way responsible for Lavinge's smash #1 hit "Girlfriend." But on the other hand, it is catchy. It has a nice beat, and you can dance to it, as long as you don't think about it too hard. And as you can connect Branca to "Girlfriend," so too can you connect, say, Olaf Stapledon to Heroes. But being connected is not the same as driving the field. That's more like being in the backseat, shaking your head and saying "you should have taken that left. Now we're going to have to detour through all this crap."

Suffice to say written and visual sf will drive themselves, independently, and that's fine. And when they get hungry, one will pull over at MacDonalds, and one at the French Laundry. But which at which? Well, think: which one has more money? Yes, the irony, it burns.

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Mind Meld
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 12:58 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Book: Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes.


• Science fiction publisher Baen Books is making its entire Webscriptions catalog of e-books free to the astronauts living aboard the International Space Station. [via SF Scope]


• Interviews and Profiles:
  • At Fantasybookspot, Jay Tomio interviews Ian Esslemont, author of Return Of The Crimson Guard.
  • [via PS Publishing News Room]
  • Barnes and Noble have a video interview with artist Stephen Youll. [via The Art Department]
  • At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles William H. Drinkard, author of Elom.
  • SFX interviews editor Jo Fletcher, who dispenses with some writing advice.
  • Author Mike Brotherton interviews Simon Haynes about his latest book Hal Spacejock: No Free Lunch.


• John Scalzi turns the Whatever blog mike over to David J. Williams, author of The Mirrored Heavens.


• Jeff Prucher, responds to critics who disliked the inclusion of fannish entries in his book Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction.


• John Picacio is previewing the cover art he did for the September '08 issue of Asimov's illustrating the lead story, "The Ice War" by Stephen Baxter, which John describes in his post.


• Darth Mojo tells us about The Best Star Wars Movie You've Never Seen, which is a re-cut version of Episode II...one without comments about sand and the droid version of comic relief.


• Screaming Blue Reviews lists 6 Forgotten Science Fiction Films of the 1970s.


• In Pravda, Harry Harrison praises Russia and calls USA fascist state. [via Locus Online]

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 12:50 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

"Hulk crush Martians. But first, Hulk check his package."

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Humor
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 12:28 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Another fun action novel from Somers albeit with a less sympathetic character.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Hitman Avery Cates searches for the people who infected him with a nanotech plague that threatens to kill the world's population.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Fast-paced story with cool tech; well-written action scenes that drive the plot forward with perfect pacing.
CONS: The Avery Cates character comes off as a watered-down version of the one we saw in the previous book; a tacked-on plot hook would have made a great motivator for Cates had it been brought up earlier.
BOTTOM LINE: This will satisfy readers looking for a fast-paced action story.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Nancy Kress reviews Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.


• Geeks of Doom interview Bruce Campbell. Those magnificent bastards.


• The HypaSpace podcast interviews Nalo Hopkinson, Robert J. Sawyer, William Shatner, George Takei, Alessandro Julianni, and Robert Charles Wilson. [via SFFaudio]


• Over at Strange Horizons, Matthew Cheney has The Antidote to Dystopia: "One of the attractions of dystopian stories is that they offer opportunities for rebellion, even if, in the end, the rebels are overcome by the powers that be."


• From Cinematical: Christopher Tolkien is trying to stop The Hobbit. The issue? Money.


• Ziraxia sells some sf-related T-shirts...like this zombie X-Files one and this happy ray gun.


• Star Trek & Media Science Fiction Blog culls the Rotten Tomatoes list of 20 Sequels We're Still Waiting For... to form the sub-list of SF Sequels That Never Happened.


• Star Wars tidbit of the day: A trio of Star Wars villain posters. [via Neatorama]

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

While I wrestle with our blogging software, please entertain yourself with the science behind Superman.

[via Biology in Science Fiction]

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Science and Technology
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 26, 2008 at 1:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• ComicMix asks: Are Comic Books Hurting Movies?...referring to Jack Donaldson's Huffington Post article blaming comic book films for ruining special effects. Nice going, Iron Man.


• Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net: "Impact" by Irving Cox (1960)
. "They were languorous, anarchic, shameless in their pleasures ... were they lower than man ... or higher?"

• Paul McAuley shows off the cover for his upcoming book, The Quiet War.


• The Los Angeles Times interviews Jeff VanderMeer.


• io9 interviews Zoe Saldana about Star Trek and Avatar.


• The latest SF Canada updates includes interviews by Celu Amberstone and fiction by Steve Stanton. [via Locus Online]


• Real Science: The Phoenix Mars Lander has landed safely! [via TexasBestGrok]


• Visions of Paradise looks at Science Fiction categories. "All science fiction can be divided into genre versus non-genre." Discuss.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 26, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Advertising Age wonders whether the new season's 'copycats' of LOST will be able to find success. Among those listed are the genre shows Life on Mars (which I am not optimistic about the direction it seems to be going in) and Fringe (which I'm a bit more optimistic about). There's also a rather interesting show called Harper's Island, where one member of the cast is violently offed each week, a twist we can only hope will make it to Survivor. AA cautions that several new shows from last season tried overarching story lines to no success: Vanished, Kidnapped, The Nine, Jericho. To that list, I'd add Drive and Journeyman. Sure, TV is a hit driven business, so instead of trying to copy cat, why not invent?
• Joss Whedon dishes out some more info about his new show, Dollhouse. I sort of like the identity aspect of the show. And it's Whedon, and SF, so I'll be watching.
• All of us here are well aware of Fox's track record with science fiction shows. So is it any wonder there is a petition afoot to save Dollhouse before it has even aired? If you'd like to join, mosey on over to their forums.
• The Star Trek and Media Science Fiction site has more details about Ron Moore's upcoming Virtuality project. Err, can you say 'soap in space' opera?
• Film School Rejects wonders why Galactica's ratings are on the uptick. I have no idea, really. This season has been hit and miss, with some threads being interesting, and some not. I think it's a good thing the show will end this 'season', if this 'season' means next year. Thank you Sci Fi Channel. Stellar as usual.

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Monday May 26, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 26, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Did you know James Earl Jones appeared on Sesame Street?

RATING:

REVIEW: He doesn't really loosen up until "G" and by "I" he's making it his own. He clearly is showing off his acting chops during "LMNOP" which sees him cycle from confusion to understanding. Sadly, by "W" he's seeing the light at the end of the gig.

[Bonus video after the jump!]

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Humor, Star Wars
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 25, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

PoeTV unearthed this classic Disney show, Man in Space, about space travel. Where are today's animated physics lessons?

The remaining parts are after the jump...

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Space, TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 24, 2008 at 11:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Interviews:
  • Fantasybookspot interviews Charlie Huston, who talks about the latest Joe Pitt Casebooks novel, Every Last Drop. I'm really looking forward to this one as this is a really entertaining series.
  • Joe Malozzi's book club features the 2nd part of an interview with Joe Abercrombie, author of The First Law series.
  • Peter Hodges has posted the 2nd part of an interview with S.M. Stirling, author of In the Courts of the Crimson Kings.
  • Fantasy Book Critic interviews Greg Keyes, author of The Born Queen.


• Eos is letting you Ask Neal Stephenson about Anathem, his forthcoming novel that explores issues of science and humanity and is due in September. Selected answers received by May 26th will be answered by Neal in an online video. [via Locus Online]


• Free Audio Fiction: James Patrick Kelly has begun podcasting "The Ice Is Singing".


• Free Books Sample: Eos has posted online the first two chapters of Vicki Pettersson's new book, The Touch of Twilight.


• Tor Books has a MySpace video channel.


• I Am Legend, Superman II, Dawn of the Dead and Blade Runner make Cracked's list of 5 Awesome Movies Ruined By Last-Minute Changes.


• New York Magazine looks at the early work of Philip K. Dick; specifically his 1958 novel In Milton Lumky Territory: "...you can't appreciate how profoundly paranoid and surreal Philip K. Dick's novels became until you read how square they once were."


• Entertainment Weekly tells us that


• Tom Hanks is a huge fan of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey at an event where special effects maestro Douglas Trumbull revealed some of the pioneering methods they used 40 years ago.


• Artist Louie Mantia offers a bunch of cool desktop wallpapers, some of which feature genre themes (Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.) [via Smashing Magazine]


• I'm not usually one to wear T-shirts with anything on them, but these retro-scifi T-shirts look freakin' cool. [via The Samurai Gunslinger via Pharyngula]

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 24, 2008 at 12:17 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Tor's latest batch of freebies includes:

• Free Book: Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp. (Links to HTML version. Those who sign up at the Tor site also get links to a PDF and MobiPocket version via email.)


• Free Wallpaper: Gregory Manchess' painting for Omni Magazine, from the 1980's


• Free Wallpaper: Kinoku Craft's cover art for Firebird by R. Garcia y Robertson.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Did you know Sammy Davis, Jr., had a cameo on the Batman television series?

Pop Quiz: Which of the following celebrities also had a similar wall-climbing cameo?

1. Jerry Lewis
2. Dick Clark
3. Green Hornet and Kato
4. Santa Claus
5. Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes
6. The Addam's Family's Lurch

ANSWER: All of them. Check out the cameos after the jump.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• More Dune novels are on the way from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson: Jessica of Dune, Irulan of Dune and Leto of Dune. I stopped reading Dune after the 2nd sequel. Does anyone have any thoughts on these Herbert/Anderson volumes?


• September 23 will see the release of the 10th anniversary edition of Harry Potter, which features exclusive bonus material from J.K. Rowling and new cover art.


• SF Scope interviews Interview with James and Kathryn Morrow, editors of The SFWA European Hall of Fame.


• The Sci-Fi Genre Review interviews Jim C. Hines (Goblin War).


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles David J. Schwartz, author of Superpowers, and Ted Chiang, whose story "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" won this year's Nebula Award for best novelette.


• Free audio fiction: Escape Pod podcasts "Elites" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.


• Free preview: Bantam Dell has posted the first three chapters of Mind the Gap by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon for free.


• Free Non-Fiction: The Secret History of Star Wars is a new full-length e-book exploring the writing and creation of the Star Wars saga. [via The Website at the End of the Universe]


• At his blog, Auxiliary Memory, James Wallace Harris offers a nice primer for obtaining free science fiction.


• The June meeting of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, features Terri Windling and Howard Gayton.


• Catherine Asaro joins Beyond Reality's June discussion to talk about her book Schism


• George Takei joins the SyFy Radio In July.


• Over at SciFi Scanner, John Scalzi tells us How to Make a (Good!) Science Fiction Movie (for Cheap!)

Share:
Comments (8) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The anime-styled Batman: Gotham Knight now has it's own website. Think The Animatrix set in Gotham City and you'll have a good idea about this new collection. It looks rather cool. Here's the trailer:
  
  
  Batman Gotham Knight - Official Trailer
  
• What are the most recorded shows on TV? Well, something called Grey's Anatomy and American Idol. The only genre shows to make the list: LOST and Heroes.
• This Vanilla Life on 'why I heart LOST'. I'd have to say agree with these reasons and you definitely won't find a more rabid or obsessive fan base for any other show.
• For those of you who have jumped off the Heroes bandwagon, will trading cards bring you back? I didn't think so.
• You figured it was going to happen, and now it will. Galactica will air 3 more episodes before taking a looooong mid-season break. When will the remaining 10 air? Who knows. Late this year or sometime next. Smooth move there Sci Fi.
• Blend Television reviews the A&E version of The Andromeda Strain.
• For all the Hellboy fans out there, here is the new TV spot:
  
  
  
  
  

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:12 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Sad news...

Multiple sources are reporting that Robert Asprin, author of the popular MythAdventures series, has died.

See also:

• Wikipedia entry.
• Bibliographies at SciFan and ISFDB.
• Robert Lynn Asprin FAQs

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Darth Mojo offers this NSFW Pon Farr edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Be sure to check out Darth Mojo for the "behind-the-scenes" look at the making of this. Hours of research indeed...

[Thanks, Trent!]

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Star Trek
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 22, 2008 at 12:43 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Science fiction would be nothing without the science. Who doesn't like reading about new or interesting ideas inside of a story? But should SF authors know their stuff when it comes to the science behind the stories? To that end, our question this week:

There's a wider point, though, this is this: why would anyone not be sufficiently enthralled and interested in science to want to get it right? Science is an inherently fascinating and rich human enterprise. We would rightly scorn any writer who professed to a disinterest in the facts of history, or psychology. But science is too often seen as some kind of optional intellectual add-on, a bit like having an interest in early music or Swedish cinema.. That's not to say that all SF should be scrupulously accurate, all-dots-crossed, my slide-rule's bigger than yours Hard SF - it would be boring if that were the case. But I don't think the injection of a tiny amount of real-world science has ever hurt a story, and it's definitely helped some of mine.

Share:
Comments (6) | PermaLink | Category: Mind Meld
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 22, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Fiction:
  • Fantasy Book Spot offers "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls" by Nancy Kress. [via Locus Online]
  • ManyBooks.net has Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton (1923) and
  • ManyBooks.net also has The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton (1962).
  • Cosmos has "Not Enough Stars in the Night" by Brendan DuBois (2008). [via Locus Online]


• Interviews and Profiles:
  • At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Matthew Hughes, author of Template.
  • The Los Angeles Times interviews Joss Whedon.
  • The Dragon Page podcast-interviews L.E. Modesitt, Jr, author of Viewpoints Critical. [via SFFaudio]
  • Grasping for the Wind interviews Scott Mackay, author of Tides, Phytosphere, and Omega Sol.


• Solaris previews the cool Bob Eggleton cover art for an upcoming Brian Lumley book.


• Ellen Datlow has posted photos from the recent KGB reading with Ekaterina Sedia (The Secret History of Moscow) and Jack O'Connell (The Resurrectionist).


• Kate Elliot joins Beyond Reality's June discussion to talk about her book The King's Dragon.


• The Guardian looks at why do vampire novels have such lasting appeal: "...the reason the vampire novel will continue to endure is because words have the power to capture and sustain the allure and mystique that surrounds them in a way that films, despite their more visceral properties of sound and image, do not."


• Sir Arthur C. Clarke and William Gibson make the list of Top 50 Tech Visionaries. [via Shadowrunning]


• Michael Blumlein, author of The Healer, has a website. [via Pyr-o-mania]


• At Solar Flare, Eoghann says critics should stop slamming book for not being original, it's the execution that matters.


• George Takei has announced his intention to marry his partner, Brad Altman.


• SciFi Scanner's latest SciFi Dept. looks at the weirdness that is Fantastic Planet.


• Another big screen version of Flash Gordon is in the works. (Ah-Aaaaah!)


• Den of Geek lists The 7 very best Star Wars parodies ever! [via TheForce.Net]


• Wired lists Five Gadgets That Will Make You a Superhero.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 22, 2008 at 12:09 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The web site for Journey to the Center of the Earth is live.

This is supposed to be a remake of the Jules Verne classic, but the trailer makes it look more like a hybrid of fun family film and a young Indiana Jones rip-off. (Seriously, that mining car jump is straight out of Temple if Doom. And I won't even bother asking what mining cars are doing in the center of the Earth to begin with...)

Oh yeah, and it's got dinosaurs. And Brendan Fraser. And it's in 3D.

It opens July 11th. Since the Worldwide machine of Marketing Hype has its vice-like grip around my kid, I'm pretty sure I'll be going to see this.

Share:
Comments (6) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Everyone's (ok, mine and a few others) favorite Nerd Herd-er, Chuck Bartowksi, is getting his very own comic book. The comic will be 6 issues long and will be comprised of a story seperate from the TV series. The comic, which is being published by the DC Comics imprint WildStorm (who released the sadly cancelled too early comic Steampunk), will be released on June 11.
• The Star Trek and Media Science Fiction blog has a nice rundow of the fall network SF schedule.
• Axiom's Edge takes a look at the off network SF and Fantasy offerings for the upcoming cable season.
• Sclerotic Ring goes off on a rant against the Sci Fi Channel and the NY Times article where Sci Fi basically says SF isn't where the money is. If SF disappears from Sci Fi, where do we go then for good, televised SF?
• Sy Fy Portal lists the most unjustly cancelled series this decade. And yes, Firefly tops the list.
• Will Sci Fi give the new Ronald Moore show, Caprica, a chance? Probably not. I wouldn't think there's any money in televised SF...
• Daemon's TV has a first look at the Jerry Bruckheimer series Eleventh Hour. See snippet of the show below:
  
  

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, editors of the Steampunk anthology.


• SFX interviews Liz Williams, author of the Detective Inspector Chen novels.


• BBC's Listen Again feature makes radio shows available for 1 week after their original broadcast. So hurry on over an listen to some of the these goodies [via SFFaudio]:
  • At BBC Radio 4's On The Ropes, which features interviews with successful people who have weathered storms in their careers, John Humphrys talks to best-selling author Terry Pratchett, who talks about being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and its effect on his life and work.
  • BBC Radio 7's The 7th Dimension has begun a 17-part unabridged reading of John Wyndham's awesome cozy catastrophe, The Day Of The Triffids. The book was way, WAY better than the film.


• StarShipSofa podcast #89 features John Scalzi.


• Speaking of Scalzi - and when don't we? - he turns the Whatever mike over to Walter Jon Williams, author of Implied Spaces.


• Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book has a web site.


• The Art Department interviews Patrick Arrasmith.


• Subterranean Press shares Michael Komarck's incredible artwork for Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon.


• More from Subterranean...the latest Subterranean Online has been updated with some free reads: Read "Road Dogs", part 1 of a novella by Norman Partridge, and catch Joe R. Lansdale talking about Henry Kuttner in the reprinted introduction from Elak from Atlantis published by Planet Stories.


• Excited about Christian Bale's appearance in the next Terminator movie? Well, are you ready for 3 more Terminator sequels?


• Remember that superb "Blink" episode of Doctor Who? The genius writer behind that show, Steven Moffat, has just become the Lead Writer and Executive Producer.


• The Inter-Galactic Playground lists books about computer gaming.


• SlipperyBrick lists 54 memorable sci-fi robots. A great list!


• Biology in Science Fiction examines H.P. Lovecraft and the science of resuscitation. Helloooo Reanimator! This was the movie where Fritz Weaver's career went south...if you know what I mean.


• Boing Boing points us to this Star Wars sand sculpture. Cool-looking, yes...but I think it would take an extraordinary amount of control of the Force to get Yoda to sit on Darth Vader's lap.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:02 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here's a tip for the writers of Heroes: when you're coming off a sucky season 2, don't start your season 3 pep rally with Nikki - the single worst character ever to escape from your random, illogical script-generator. You're supposed to lure viewers, not scare them away.

I'm just sayin'...

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Heroes
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 11:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

We like to criticize Hollywood for it's overwhelming tendency to re-make old movies or create sequels to existing ones. But recently there has been a spate of deals where Hollywood has decided to adapt SF books for the big screen (see City of Ember, Larklight, and Hyperion, all based on the books). Now we can add two more to this list.

Robert Charles Wilson's Spin is heading to the big screen, courtesy of Olympus Pictures. Spin certainly has a cool SF hook, a 'shell' that envelops Earth and causes time to slow down for humans inside it, but it's not your typical SF action/adventure. It's much more of a science mystery, with a lot of heavy metaphysical ideas thrown around, especially towards the end. It also shows scientists as being the heroes instead of the heavies. While cautiously optimistic, I wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood did, indeed, turn Spin into another big-budget, Summer SF action flick.

It's no secret that Hollywood loves Philip K. Dick. There have been numerous adaptations of his work, some successful (Minority Report, Total Recall, some not (Next, Paycheck, so it should be no surprise that another of his books has been optioned. Next up will be Ubik, which I've never read, but given the Wikipedia summary, it sounds very interesting. Of course, Hollywood has no problem adapting Dick's work into Summer blockbusters, so I'm expecting the same treatment here. Of course, Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett is one of the producers so maybe, maybe, she'll be able to keep it from being an SFX spectacle.

I'm glad to see Hollywood going after some good, if not great, SF stories. Whether they survive the move to the silver screen remains to be seen, but at least they aren't making more in an endless series of re-makes and sequels.

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 11:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

James Morrow published his first novel, The Wine of Violence, in 1981. His efforts since then include The Continent of Lies (1984), This Is the Way the World Ends (1986), Only Begotten Daughter (1990), City of Truth (1991), Bible Stories for Adults (1996), and The Cat's Pajamas & Other Stories (2004). He is best known for the Godhead Trilogy -- comprising Towing Jehovah (1994), Blameless in Abaddon (1996), and The Eternal Footman (1999) -- as well as The Last Witchfinder (2007), a postmodern historical epic about the coming of the scientific worldview. His latest books are The Philosopher's Apprentice, about a young ethicist hired to implant a conscience in an adolescent amnesia victim, and The SFWA European Hall of Fame, an anthology he co-edited with his wife Kathryn.

SF Signal had the opportunity to talk to James about his recent work and genre fiction in translation...

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Interviews
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:27 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Stargate: Atlantis Executive Producer and showrunner Joseph Mallozzi is doing his part to encourage reading in television scifi viewers. His blog features a tri-monthly book club discussion - covering the genres of sf, fantasy & horror - which include featured authors and other literary luminaries. Past discussions have included Pyr editor Lou Anders and authors Jeffrey Ford and F. Paul Wilson.

Here's a schedule of upcoming discussions. Pop on over and check it out!

• Week of May 19th: Author Joe Abercrombie will be dropping by to discuss The Blade Itself.
• Week of May 24th: Author John Scalzi will be dropping by to discuss The Android's Dream.
• Week of June 30th: Author Kage Baker will be dropping by to discuss In the Garden of Iden.
• Week of July 7th: Author K.J. Bishop will be dropping by to discuss The Etched City.
• Week of July 14th: Author Jennifer Pelland will be dropping by to discuss Unwelcome Bodies.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books, Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Over at Religion Dispatches, Gabriel Mckee responds to the Vatican's recent announcement (that it's OK for Catholics to believe in aliens) and wonders: Are God and Aliens Compatible? (Bonus flashback cover pr0n: Over at his blog SF Gospel, Gabriel has posted the wraparound cover scan for the issue of If magazine that featured the first appearance of James Blish's story "A Case of Conscience".)


• I'm not sure what these Spanish sci fi paperbacks from the 1950's say, but the covers sure do look perty. [via PCL Linkdump]


• Free Fiction at Strange Horizons: "The Refutation of Rosemont" by Barth Anderson and "Tell Her" by Rachel Kincaid.


• SF Canada rounds up the Aurora Award results.


• Real Science: A new study suggests that "legions of tiny black holes created during the big bang may lurk at the centre of the galaxy, creating a prodigious antimatter factory..." [via Charlie Huston, who should stop blogging and get to work on the next Joe Pitt book! :)]


• A headline that explains it all: Dawn of the Dead is resurrected in 3-D!


• The Top 5 Lists in This Post:
  • PickTheBrain lists 7 Pleasurable Ways to Improve Your Reading Ability.
  • Planet Surfer lists Top 10 Incredible Robot Art Creations.
  • Topless Robot lists The 10 Worst Album Covers by Comic Artists.
  • Zap2it's Misfits of Sci-Fi list Essential Sci-fi Movies.
  • SCI FI Weekly Editor Scott Edelman offers The 10 Most Important Sci-Fi Films he's Never Seen. Of that list, I've seen only The Andromeda Strain (most awesome), The Thing (also made of awesome), Repo Man (weird, iirc), Enemy Mine (memory is dim on this one -- I do recall seeing it in the theater, though), and The Fly (Not sure if this still holds up, but I remember liking this one a lot, too). I really want to see The Man Who Fell to Earth since I read the book a few years ago and loved it.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• LOST, which wraps up next Thursday with two hours of goodness, will be released on DVD on Dec. 9th. In addition to the episodes, the DVDs will also contain a lot of goodies for fans. You can, if you wish, bend over and shell out for Blu-Ray and help Sony continue their proprietary format hegemony...
• The Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at the new TV season and calls it a mulligan of this season. I have to agree.

• Stargate SG-1 did it, so did Farscape and now, so might Battlestar Galactica. What did they do? The shows continued on after cancellation via made for TV movies. Sci Fi is apparently running the numbers on up to three Galactica movies. My question: Why? All we care about is what happens when everyone gets to Earth. And depending on the ending, we may not care at all.
• Wired has an interview with BG head honcho Ron Moore.

• The BBC has posted this really cool gallery of concept art for season three of the new Dr. Who.

• The recent anime series, Gurren Lagann, will be hitting Sci Fi in July. GL is a mecha anime set in the far future Earth. If you want to see it in English, you'll have to watch the Sci Fi version for now as the DVDs aren't scheduled for 2009. I've seen the first episode and, so far, so so-so. It certainly plays up the comedy angle.
• When is does sci fi not mean sci fi? When you're the Sci Fi Channel of course. Sadly, the New York Times article is hidden behind a registration link. The gist confirms what we've all known for awhile now. Sci Fi is moving away from real sf in search of ratings and money. As a result: more reality shows, more fantasy-ish fare (Field of Dreams!) and possibly even a name change for the channel. It looks like the internets may be our last, best hope for good SF, or any SF.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Steve Ogden writes in to tell us that the web site for Moon Town is live.

Moon Town is a web-based animated scifi series. Sadly, no plot details are given, but the web site offers up a blog and a series of podcasts detailing the behind-the-scenes development of the series.

The first episode has yet to appear but is scheduled for June 30th, 2008. The visual style looks promising; the ships look cool in a retro way. Browse to Moon Town's eye candy page and check out the Security Cruiser and the Moon Shark and you'll see what I mean.

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:17 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

Can Batman reach the lofty heights of box office success that Iron Man has scaled? We'll see. In the meantime, if, like me, you don't watch a ton of TV, here is the third TV trailer for The Dark Knight:

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Movies, TV
Posted by JP Frantz at Monday May 19, 2008 at 9:18 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

I've been reviewing the Hugo and Nebula short fiction nominees for a few years now. (See: Reviews of Hugo Award short fiction nominees for 2006 and 2007; and reviews of Nebula Award short fiction nominees for and 2005, 2006, and 2007.) The recent trend of making award-nominated short fiction available for free online reading makes it easy. In most cases, that is. I have little use for PDF and proprietary formats. Even so, thanks go out to the publishers and other folks who make this possible.

Historically, these reading projects involving award-nominated fiction, while enjoyable overall, usually lead me to a few stories that aren't to my particular tastes. However, this year's Hugo ballot has a significantly larger number of stories that I found to be quite good. The short stories were particularly strong, offering perfect, bite-size portions of that single conceit that makes short fiction fun. Perhaps the high quality of the nominees is bolstered by the small number of them that are considered fantasy, a genre I meet with seemingly variable success. Whatever the reason, this year's Hugo (and Nebula) short fiction award ballot offers a strong set of stories.

Here is a summary of the ratings each story received, reviewlettes follow:

NOVELLAS
"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard
"Recovering Apollo 8" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"The Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress
"Memorare" by Gene Wolfe
"All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis

NOVELETTES
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
"Finisterra" by David Moles
"The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham
"Glory" by Greg Egan
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan

SHORT STORIES
"Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter
"Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov's June 2007)
"Distant Replay" by Mike Resnick
"A Small Room in Koboldtown" by Michael Swanwick
"Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" by Ken MacLeod

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:40 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Since it fared so poorly in the last poll, I thought a video reminder of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie was in order.

This is Tim Burton's first film. It's about a dog that is resurrected a la Frankenstein. It was released by Disney (Disney!) and features Shelly Duvall and Daniel Stern. And of course, that lovable dog, Frankenweenie. It is currently available as an extra on the The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD.

Enjoy the movie.

Parts 2 and 3 follow...

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Movie buffs could troll the Internet Archive looking for genre-related cult films that are freely available. Or, you could use this handy list: The Psychotronic Guide to Archive.org and see films like 1963's Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory. [via Boing Boing]


• Interviews and profiles:
  • The Dead Robots' Society podcast-interviews Patrick Rothfuss
  • At Omnivoracious, Jeff VanderMeer profiles Kay Kenyon's The Entire and the Rose.
  • Over at Crucial Taunt, John Markley profiles Alastair Reynolds.
  • No Fear of the Future has posted the 1979 Penthouse interview of J.G. Ballard.


• Booklist Online lists The Top 10 SF/Fantasy Books for Youth for 2008. [via Margo Lanagan, whose book Red Spikes made the list.]


• It Doesn't Have To Be Right offers Part 2 of their list of Overlooked Classic SF Books.


• Compare and contrast: Elton John's "Rocket Man" as interpreted by Star Trek's William Shatner...and Family Guy's Stewie.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The H. Rider Haggard classic...

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 18, 2008 at 1:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The CubeeCraft website features printable patterns for making paper figures built from cubes. The website's tag line is "Download. Print, Cut, Fold" and it's really that easy.

The website features a new character every week, but there are already a large handful of characters at the ready, including:

• A Star Wars Stormtrooper


• The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters


• The Rocketeer


• Dr. Zoidberg and Bender from Futurama


• The Adam West Batman.


• Iron Man


• Hellboy

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 17, 2008 at 11:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The Word This Week turns the spotlight on Philip K. Dick in an episode that features appearances by Minister Faust, Jonathan Lethem, Chris Miller, Mark Askwith, Winona Ryder, Michael Bishop, Richard Linklater and William Gibson.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 17, 2008 at 12:58 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Now that I have your attention (what, isn't the title sensational enough for ya?) I have a question. Do you prefer your science fiction harder or softer? If you're not sure what I mean, to me hard science fiction refers to books where there is a focus on technical accuracy, except for the fictional elements of course. The fiction is based on extrapolating from the known facts of today's physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc.

I enjoy hard science fiction most, but don't eschew the softer side. There are plenty of good books that aren't based on reality as we know it at all and that works just fine for me. For example, I don't think people would count Gene Wolfe as hard science fiction but I enjoy the heck out of almost all his writing.

But what about you? Do you demand hard science fiction? Maybe go so far as mundane science fiction?

Share:
Comments (17) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by Scott Shaffer at Saturday May 17, 2008 at 12:51 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Eddie Murphy is set to star in another adaptation of Richard Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man. No...really.


• Free Fiction: To Begin, the Gods by Will Shetterly.


• CNN interviews Iain M. Banks. [via Locus Online]


• This Week In Geek has an exclusive interview with Wil Wheaton. [via SFFaudio]


• Peter Hodges interviews S. M. Stirling (In the Courts of the Crimson Kings ).


• SciFiDimensions podcasts Scott Sigler, author of Infected.


• SF Scope lists the contents of Ben Bova's upcoming lighter-side-of-sf collection Laugh Lines, which collects 2 novels and 6 stories.


• Charlie Huston, author of the very entertaining Joe Pitt vampire novels, lists his favorite writers. [via Orbit Books]


• AbeBooks lists The 10 most expensive yearbooks ever sold on AbeBooks. The high school yearbook for Frank Herbert makes the list.


• L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth made Mental Floss' list of The 10 Longest Novels Ever. Ummm...isn't that a series of 10 books? Do they mean Battlefield Earth?


• Nathan Zeldes notes the growing obesity of science fiction (Read: Padded Fiction).


• At io9, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer profiles Artist Ian Miller.


• Cinematical shares some more Dark Knight posterage...this one featuring Heath Ledger's Joker.


• Boing Boing points us to this tin toy from 1958: Laika the astro-dog.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 17, 2008 at 12:40 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

It's a sci-fi on Fox fest today, so get ready!

• Fox seems to be the place this next season for science fiction on TV. To that end, Fox is trying something called "Remote-Free TV" for both Dollhouse and Fringe. Apparently this means that "both air with fewer commercials and fewer promotional spots for other Fox shows." Well that certainly is good news as it should mean more time for each episode. And the less in-house promotion of Fox shows the better as far as I'm concerned.
• SF Universe has a bit more information about Fox's new SF series, Fringe and Dollhouse.
• IO9 has the trailer for Joss Whedon's Dollhouse posted for your perusal. Looks like the patented butt-kicking babe character Whedon is famous for. I'm sure some people will be unhappy with Dusku's character.
• Remember CBS' vampire show Moonlight? Yeah, most people don't which is why it was canned. However, the CW is in such desperate straights for programming that they might take on chance on reviving Moonlight for their 'network'. Nothing says desperation more than reviving another networks canceled show. Then again, it would probably become the top-rated show on the CW, what with Smallville having problems.
• EW.com lists TV's best season finales. Several genre shows make the cut and remember, this is season finales, not series finales.
• Here's the trailer for ABC's re-make of Life on Mars. Man, they're playing up the cheesy aspects here, which is very disappointing as the original is tough and gritty, and not cheesy at all and thus, looks to be better than this.
  
  

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday May 17, 2008 at 12:09 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Tor's latest batch of freebies includes:

• Free Book: Starfish by Peter Watts. (Links to HTML version. Those who sign up also get links to a PDF and MobiPocket version.)


• Free Wallpaper: Jeff Jones' cover art for the September 1970 issues of Amazing Science Fiction magazine.


• Free Wallpaper: Bruce Jensen's cover art for Brass Man by Neal Asher.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 16, 2008 at 12:28 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A book about books for people who love books.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The patrons of an independent bookstore have been dropping dead, and it's up to a bookish detective and a bookseller to find out why.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Told with a delightful sense of humor, this story appeals to the bibliophile in all of us. (I'm looking at you, John!)
CONS: The story is so short that sometimes it seems a little rushed, especially in the romance department.
BOTTOM LINE: It's Umberto Eco for the rest of us.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by Karen Burnham at Friday May 16, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

What's more embarrassing than this video is remebering you used to watch it. [Looks up and to the right.] Did anyone else confuse the brown-haired dude with Shaggy? Zoinks!

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 16, 2008 at 12:24 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Arthur C. Clarke's final novel (co-written with Frederik Pohl) will be The Last Theorem. [via File 770]


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles David J. Williams, author of The Mirrored Heavens.


• Free audiobook: Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton.


• Escape Pod podcasts Ken MacLeod's Hugo-nominated story "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?"


• The Fix interviews Catherynne M. Valente


• Artist John Picacio previews an early draft of the upcoming artwork for the third of Del Rey's Elric books The Sleeping Sorceress.


• The Daily P.O.P. interviews Kevin Conroy, the voice of the animated Batman.


• Cinematical brings us Famous Sci-Fi Locations in the Real World.


• John Scalzi looks at How Star Wars Changed Movie Math: "Why does a $20 million opening spell disaster for Speed Racer today when its equivalent was absolutely fantastic for Star Wars, back in the day?"


• InfoAddict lists The Top 25 Batman Stories of All Time.


• Lisa Paitz Spindler lists Thirteen Perks of Being Captain of the Enterprise. (#7: If you blow up or crash the ship, Starfleet will just build you another Enterprise.)

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 16, 2008 at 12:14 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The LA Times has an interview with fanboy favorite Joss Whedon. He talks about the inspiration for Dollhouse and how pizza with Gouda can change your life.
• Fox, which will be airing Dollhouse mid-next season, will be moving The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Mondays at 8pm ET. That's early for network television, thus speculation is they may have to tone down the violence in the show, which means less Summer Glau @$$ kicking and less appeal. J.J. Abrams' Fringe gets a sweet spot, Tuesday's at 9pm, right after powerhouse, uh, House.
• The Stargate Worlds MMO will be adopting a TV show development model for content releases after the initial launch. Basically, each release, think episode, will be given a certain amoung of time to be written/coded/tested, then released on specific schedules. By going with smaller content releases, they hope to keep their audience engaged and ensure a long life for the game. Despite not watching the shows, I'm interested in this game. Now to get into the closed beta...
• In case anyone is still watching (I do), here is the trailer for tonight's episode of Battlestar Galactica:
  
  
  
  How is Saul going to explain that?
• It's amazing what you can find on the inter/you-tubes. For instance, genre fans must have been very happy on Friday nights in the summer of....1966:
  
  

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 16, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This week the government of the UK began releasing years worth of research officially done into UFOs. The focus of the research was to determine if the reported UFO was a threat to the security of the UK. Once determined not to be one, the research was dropped. Of course, this leaves many unanswered questions - specifically what exactly was the phenomena witnessed, if not a threat?

The documents contain records dating from around 1950 and are available online in The National Archives. Most records prior to 1962 were destroyed due to the cost of archiving the physical records, sadly. The information is being transferred from the Ministry of Defense to the National Archives over a four year period with this being the first dump - so there is more to come.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Space
Posted by Scott Shaffer at Thursday May 15, 2008 at 11:38 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

MY RATING:

To get a good sense of what Implied Spaces is about, I'll let the back cover blurb speak for itself instead of a psuedo-synopsis:

Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 15, 2008 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The intro from the cartoon based on the Frank Miller comic.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 15, 2008 at 12:20 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Rescued By Nerds interviewed Jeff Somers, author of The Digital Plague.


• Newsarama interviews Jonathan Lethem, creator of the comic Omega the Unknown (which I blogged about at SciFi Scanner). [via Daily P.O.P.]


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Karen Joy Fowler, author of Nebula-winning "Always"


• The latest Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast features Lois McMaster Bujold (The Sharing Knife).


• Guardian's Book Blog reviews James A Blish's classic, A Case of Conscience.


• Geekend has a podcast interview with io9 Editor, Annalee Newitz.


• Omnivoracious interviews steampunk Jake von Slatt.


• Meanwhile, here's why Audrey Soffa hates Steampunk.


• The StarShipSofa Audio Science Fiction Magazine features fiction (Terry Bisson, Paul Di Filippo, Cory Doctorow) and articles (Amy Sturgis, Cory Doctorow), and music (XJ3).


• Ian Sales looks at Overlooked SF Classics.


• Ellen Datlow has posted photos from the recent book launch for her new anthology The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction & Fantasy.


• "Hulk like new movie poster. Make Hulk want forget first movie."


• This just in: "A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church was given a suspended sentence..."


• Larry Ketchersid looks at Marvel vs. DC in Film.


• "William Shatner desperately tried to avoid romancing obsessed Star Trek fans - because they wanted to enact their sci-fi fantasies with the actor." Ewww! [via Mike Brotherton]


• Let this be a lesson to anyone bold enough to take on the hobby of Doctor Who knitting! [via Big Dumb Object]


• A couple of genre books make the list of 100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man's Library by The Art of Manliness.


• io9 lists 7 Reasons Why Scifi Book Series Outstay Their Welcomes.


• Topless Robot lists The Top 10 Brutally Annoying Comic Relief Characters and - surprise, surprise - Jar Jar makes the list.


• ComicMix lists The Worst Supervillain Names in Comics. tee-hee....Bushmaster...

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 15, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Darth Mojo has an incredibly cool and detailed post covering the new and classic style Cylon Centurions, as seen in Razor. Check out all the robot goodness. There's even a part 2 with even more stuff.
• The re-make/adaptation madness continues. This time, Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock is being made into a live action.....musical. The music in FR works well with singing puppets, but live action? I'm scared and I like the Rock.
• CBS has given the green light to three genre pilots for the fall season: The Ex List (something about Tarot cards and such, meh), Eleventh Hour (sounds X-Files-ish), and The Mentalist (which is a horrible name, but sounds like a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Why not go all they way and give us Hengis Hapthorn?).
• The comic book franchise, Witchblade, is being turned into a live-action feature film. At least it isn't a musical live-action, and hopefulyl sans Yancy Butler.
• The fans of Jericho are, well, nuts. They're at it again, only this time, the subject of their ire over the cancellation of Jericho isn't CBS (you know, the network that canned the show) but Nielsen. Apparently, somehow, Nielsen failed to record all the people who, in fact, did watch the show. I guess Jericho can't count Nielsen families among it's demographics. Sorry guys, Jericho was axed because very people, Nielsen or otherwise, watched it. Time to move on.
• And now for the visual portion of our Bits. First up, the teaser trailer for The X-Files: I Want to Believe:
  
  
• And next, Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers Conquer the Universe! Awesome. [via The Daily Galaxy]:
  
  

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 15, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Young Adult fiction is a hot topic at the moment, mostly brought on by John Scalzi's recent post about YA genre classification. He mentions that some adult readers overlook YA sf/f, but some YA books may be equally enjoyed by even the most discerning adult reader. So we asked some folks:

For what it's worth, the recommendation at the front of my mind (probably because I just read it) would be Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. And I wasn't the only one...

Read on to see how our esteemed panel responded. And be sure to offer up your own suggestions!

Beyond this, my recommendation for titles is for adult readers to go into the YA section and do what they do in every other section of the bookstore: browse, damn it. Look at the covers and the jacket copy and maybe read a little of the book and just see if the book looks interesting to you. Oddly enough, it works as well in the YA section as it does everywhere else. Alternately, go to the library and ask the YA librarian to suggest some title. Oh, go on, you baby. You won't be the first adult she's recommended a YA book to in her life.

Share:
Comments (16) | PermaLink | Category: Mind Meld
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

From a 1979 SNL skit...

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Humor, TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• John Scalzi turns the blog mike over to Melinda Snodgrass, who talks about her new book The Edge of Reason.


• "Jeanette Winterson told SCI FI Wire that her latest novel, The Stone Gods, was inspired by the idea put forth by Stephen Hawking that man must colonize space if he is to have a viable future."


• Hard Case Crime will be publishing Roger Zelazny's long-lost and recently-discovered unpublished noir novel The Dead Man's Brother in early 2009. (Read a sample chapter.) [via SFScope]


• SFFaudio collects some MP3s of Arthur C. Clarke talking about Stanley Kubrick.


• Matrix interviews Pyr Editor Lou Anders. (PDF link.)


• Cover Pr0n:
  • Kathryn Cramer previews the cool covers for the anthologies Year's Best SF 13 and Year's Best Fantasy 8, which she co-edits with David G. Hartwell.
  • Jeffrey Ford's minimalist cover for The Drowned Life.


• Lit Soup is featuring the book trailer for The Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams.


• The website for Jeff Somers' novel The Electric Church was a nice complement to the book. Orbit and Somers are at it again with the website for the sequel, The Digital Plague.


• Weird Tales continues their profiles of The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years with this recent entry about David Bowie (who was apparently persecuted for having long hair).


• FirstShowing.net has the vague trailer for The X-Files: I Want to Believe Trailer.


• The List Universe lists The Top 10 Fantasy Adventure Movies. Ummm....Krull at #6...? As if!


• Check out these handmade Ceramic Ray Guns!


• I'm not sure I'd ever use these Han-Solo-Frozen-in-Carbonite-ice-cubes, but maybe if I was drinking Elshandruu Pica Thundercloud I wouldn't care.


• Humor: Better Living Through Science Fiction shares Alec Baldwin's SciFi Pilot Idea.

Share:
Comments (4) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 12:06 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Ideas I wish I thought of #317: Pop-up videos. Cool trivia and baseline humor...what a great combination!

"Mechanical Monsters" was inspiration for Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I can certainly see the similarities...

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 12:45 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

A short movie about Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris, The Cyberiad, and Tales of Pirx the Pilot.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Fiction:
  • Recently-free fiction at ManyBooks.net: The 2nd Buck Rogers story that was ever published! "The Airlords of Han" by Philip Francis Nowlan (1929)
  • "Demon, Star, Alien, Cat" by Greg van Eekhout.
• Heliotrope issue #4 is out and features fiction from Nick Mamatas; poetry by Anna Tambour; articles by Jeff Vandermeer, Ian R. MacLeod, and Catherynne M. Valente.


• Over at the Guardian, Eric Brown reviews Alastair Reynolds (House of Suns), John Scalzi (The Ghost Brigades), Ian Whates (Celebration), and M.M. Smith (The Servants). [via Locus Online]


• PS Publishing shows off the cool cover of Will Elliot's The Pilo Family Circus.


• It's not too late to celebrate Reading is Fun Week!


• SF/F publisher Orbit plans to expand releases in th U.S. (to 70-80 titles per year) and U.K. (and increase of 10% each year over the next three years).


• The latest SciPhiShow podcast features Rudy Rucker.


• Wired tells us about Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse.


• Richard Morgan of the New York Times (not th SF author) has posted his Steampunk story that was cut from NYT: Steampunk: Remembering yesterday's tomorrows. [via Boing Boing]


• "Want to meet learned and passionate readers? Go to the Arthur C Clarke awards for sci-fi..." So says Andrew McKie in The Telegraph. [via Cheryl's Mewsings]


• The recent Science Fiction as a Literary Genre symposium has been generating discussion. First by MSSV, then by Niall Harrison (both mentioned in previous tidbits) and now by Adam Roberts, who weighs in with his post The War Between Wells and James.


• Jeremiah Tolbert looks at The Mainstreaming of Science Fiction on TV: "With this kind of potential for fans out there, it gives me hope that we could actually make a good living telling genre stories, and not just the ones marketed to an aging, increasingly conservative SF fanbase."


• Over at Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic, John Markley considers whether there is still drama in a pure Utopia with his post Asimov, State, and Utopia.


• File 770 looks at The Hugo and Gender Controversy, A Year Later.


• AMC's SciFi Scanner is running a poll for the coolest starship.


• Idol Chatter lists The 10 Greatest Spiritual Characters in Science Fiction.


• SCI FI Weekly interviews the cast of Iron Man.


• PC World has a slideshow of Science fiction's goofiest gadgets and technology.


• Speaking of Iron Man, Over at Time, Matt Selman offers a humorous Deleted Scene From Iron Man. I saw the movie a few days ago and liked it. There were some issues (besides the prominent BK ad) but overall it was a lot of fun.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 12:04 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A great example of a "Young Adult" book that adults can thoroughly enjoy. Also serves as a great candidate to get teens hooked on science fiction.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Teenage hacker Marcus Yallow takes on the Department of Homeland Security after being falsely connected with a terrorist attack.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Gripping story; conveys the coolness of technology; thought-provoking issues about surveillance and freedom.
CONS: Story periodically stops for infodumps although, to be fair, they are necessary and entertaining.
BOTTOM LINE: A captivating book for readers of any age.

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is being met with lots of praise, and I was curious to see if it was justified. I went in with a little skepticism, but I have to say, this book quickly won me over. What I find interesting, though not surprising, is that the book is being marketed as young adult fiction yet it is easily as entertaining for adults.

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• TV viewership is down, way down in some cases. We can surmise that the writer's strike chased some people off for good, even from their favorite shows. The Writer's Write blog conjectures that, even though people may not know their shows are back on (really?), they'll be back in the fall when the new season starts. Probably so.
• I know that William Shatner has a lot of detractors. But this article at The Daily Mail, it seems like excerpts from Shatner's autobiography Up Till Now, does a lot to humanize Shatner. There are some amusing anecdotes about the early Star Trek years, Kirk's death scene, and a poignent remembrance of his third wife, Nerine, whom he found dead in their pool one evening. If the rest of the book is like these pieces, I may have to check it out.
• Plenty of Nothing tells us why Battlestar Galactica is good TV and LOST is not. If the roles were reversed, then I could agree. You can't compare the storytelling aspects of both shows against each other. They are apples and oranges. Galactica is telling a linear, and sometimes plodding, story, while LOST is experiementing with a mosaic style of story, and since the announced end date, you can't accuse LOST of being plodding.
• Kristin at E! Online interviewed Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff about the latest episode "Cabin Fever". If you haven't seen the episode, spoilers ahoy. Otherwise, read on and enjoy the answers to some of the questions raised.
• Not really TV, but still funny. What if Nintendo had made Halo? It might look like this:
  
  

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:14 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Author Nick Abadzis has out up a website dedicated to his fantastic graphic novel, Laika.


• The Agony Column podcast-interviews with Jeremy Lassen of Night Shade Books. [via SFFaudio]


• Speaking of which: There's a 50%-off sale on Night Shade titles!


• Fantasy Book Critic interviews Stephen Hunt


• Scott Westerfeld shares some Midnighters fan art that's way better than your average doodling.


• Fanzines beget blogs, sez Roger Ebert: "I have always been convinced that the culture of sf fanzines contributed heavily to the formative culture of the early Web, and generated models for web site and blogs." [via Boing Boing via Making Light]

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:09 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

"It's not just SF, though. There are a number of raunchy books out there being called YA when they're far from it." - Chris

"I hope that these publishers publish an author's work based upon the author's intended audience and not what audience the publishers think the book is suited for. It's kind of like Hollywood actors being typecast." - Jim Shannon

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Polls
Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

From November 2007, Hugo-winner Joe Haldeman reads from The Accidental Time Machine as part of the Authors@Google series.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 11, 2008 at 12:15 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• StarWars.com has gone all Clone Wars. Check out the Star Wars; Clone Wars trailer. The CGI film is set for an August 17th, 2008 release.


• Subterranean Press shows off the artwork for Starlady and Fast-Friend, a pair of novelettes to be released in a single volume.


• Reason Magazine interviews Bruce Sterling on media, design, fiction, and the future: "I'm not really all that interested in what Hollywood does with its stuff. I mean, they're only the size of the porn industry."


• Starship Sofa podcast-interviews Ted Chiang.


• The latest Cult Pop episode features talkas with author Ben Tanzer and artist Stefan Bucher.


• PSDTUTS, a resource for Photoshoppers, serves up some nice inspiration ofr Cyborgs, Robots, and Mecha artwork.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 11, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Free Reads: Daily Bits rounds up 17 Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels, including The War of the Worlds, Y: The Last Man, and Neil Gaiman's Sandman. [via ComicMix]


• Free Listen: Escape Pod podcasts Michael Swanwick's Hugo-nominated story "A Small Room in Koboldtown".


• At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Nancy Kress, author of the Nebula-winning story "Fountain of Age".


• The Bat Segundo Show interviews Sarah Hall (The Carhullan Army).


• Niall Harrison shares his thoughts of Gresham College's symposium, Science Fiction as a Literary Genre. [via Roberson's Interminable Ramble]


• At SF Novelists, Mike Brotherton examines the False Dichotomy of Science vs. Fantasy.


• HarperCollins UK has released its new social networking site Authonomy for aspiring authors, which "aims to connect aspiring authors with 'keen talent-spotting readers' by uploading a minimum of 10,000 words of their manuscript for the Authonomy community".


• Fanboy rustles up some Sci Fi Lunchboxes.


• Beedee-beedee-beedee-beedee....Buck Rogers is headed for the big screen again.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 10, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Tor's latest batch of freebies includes:

• Free Book: Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott. (Links to HTML version. Those who sign up also get links to a PDF and MobiPocket version.)


• Free Wallpaper: Eric Fortune's cover art for The Red Magician by Lisa Goldstein.


• Free Wallpaper: Pablo Defendini's cover art for The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 09, 2008 at 12:22 PM
© 2008 SF Signal

This is but one reason why The Zombie Astronaut rocks.

Yesterday he posted a trio of MP3s recordeed from a 1976 LP. (That would be a giant, black cd-looking thing with grooves to anyone who was born in the 80's or later.) The LP is 2001: A Space Odyssey, the final chapters read by Arthur C. Clarke.

To hear Clarke utter "My God. It's full of stars!" was chilling and bittersweet.

Go forth and listen.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Books
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 09, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This blog hasn't got nearly enough Larry Storch, a problem I am correcting right here, right now.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: TV
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 09, 2008 at 12:21 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The creators of Eureka told Sci Fi Wire that season 3 will be lighter in tone and will contain homages to several movies, including The War of the Worlds, The Truman Show and Groundhog Day. It should be interesting to see how they work those into the stories. Season 3 returns this summer.
• David E. Kelley may be leaving his adaptation of the BBC's Life on Mars series. Financial concerns are the rumored reason, though its unclear whether that means the show is costing too much or he wants to much to run it. If you can, check out the original series. Even with some thick accents, its a good show.
• Rumor is that a major character on LOST will die this season. Buddy TV lays the odds for their guesses. Plus potential spoilers!
• Darth Mojo, the lucky guy, worked on Babylon 5 from the pilot through season 3. And he has set pictures to prove it. Very nice.
• Many shows today have multi-episode or even season long story arcs. Darknote takes a look at the New Who multi-episodes and explains why, on balance, they are disappointing.
• Some Speed Racer stuff:
  
  • Rex Reed of The New York Observer reviews Speed Racer, and it isn't pretty. However, a big caveat here. From reading the first paragraph, it seems that Mr. Reed is less than enthused by any summer movie, and Speed Racer is definitely not aimed at non-comic/superhero/anime fans.
  • Sci Fi Japan has a ridiculously in-depth look at the new movie. Spoilers abound so be warned!
  • For all you fans of slot-cars (those of us who remember what those are), check out this sweet Speed Racer slot-car set.

• Sheridan, noooo!!! Has Bruce Boxleitner won a recurring role on Heroes? I guess we'll find out.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 09, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Apex shows off the really nice artwork for the latest issue.


• Interzone posts their 2007 Readers' Poll Results. (Winning story: "Ack-Ack Macaque" by Gareth Lyn Powell.)


• Geoff Ryman's recent BBC Radio appearance is available as MP3s. [via Big Dumb Object]


• Post-Weird Thoughts interviews Ian McDonald. On Brasyl: "I'd been wanting to do something that expressed, in human terms, the reality of the Everett Many-Worlds interpretation, and, as I said above, Brasil seemed the country that best expressed it."


• J.M. McDermott interviews sf author Mary Robinette Kowal about her puppeteering.


• MSSV has a great summary of a recent talk by Neal Stephenson at a symposium on Science Fiction as a Literary Genre at Gresham College.


• Wil Wheaton speaks out about the upcoming Star Trek film: "...if this 'reinventing' -- which is such a loaded term in this post-Episode One world (5-19-99 never forget!) -- extends to some of the fundamentals of the Star Trek mythos, and if [J.J. Abrams] wants to make Star Trek more like Star Wars, we could be looking at the biggest geekriot in history.


• John Scalzi is now blogging at AMC. Here's his first article, Is Guillermo del Toro the Right Man for The Hobbit?


• Wired has the scoop on the anime Batman.

Share:
Comments (1) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 09, 2008 at 12:05 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

This year's summer movie slate is full of sequels and remakes of existing properties. As science fiction/fantasy fans we know there is a wealth of written material that deserves to appear on the big screen or on TV. The recent news that Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is being adapted for the silver screen is welcome, even as we're sceptical about the final result. Our question this week:

- I think Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash could make a brilliant movie, if a screenwriter could be found who could pare the plot down to feature film length without eliminating the humor. What makes it enjoyable to me is that the over-the-top characters and settings - the reluctant hero Hiro, who is an excellent swordsman in both the real world and online, the badass teenaged skateboard messenger, the evangelist who wants to take over the world through speaking in tongues, the mafia-run pizza delivery business, the decaying crowded freeways, tacky strip malls and gated 'burbs covering Southern California, the giant "raft" of refugee boats drifting along the coast - seem almost plausible. And of course there is the appeal of the Metaverse itself, where computer geeks can don an avatar of their own creation and are at the top of the social hierarchy.

- Connie Willis's time travel novels are among my favorites, so I'd love to see them made into movies. The Doomsday Book would make a moving drama, with its contrast between young historian Kivrin's experiences in the medieval village beset by plague, and her colleagues fighting the influenza epidemic in future Oxford. The ending is probably not upbeat enough for a commercial SF movie, though. On the other hand, I think Willis's much lighter time travel comedy of errors, To Say Nothing of the Dog, could be fun light entertainment. I like to imagine it filmed in the style of a Merchant-Ivory production (maybe my fondness for period pieces makes me different from the "average" SF fan, though).

- The theme of environmental destruction in Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is as timely today as it was in the 1970s, as are the issues surrounding the ethics and technical limitations of cloning. While the multigenerational scope of the novel is probably too broad for a single movie, I think that it would work to focus the story on Mark, one of the few "singletons" in the survivalist colony of clones .

- My choice for an outer space flick would be Frederick Pohl's Gateway. It's got dangerous exploration of space and unknown worlds, flawed main characters, tense interpersonal relationships in the close quarters of the alien asteroid spaceport and, and, of course it the dramatic ending with the characters' ships trapped by a black hole. While the novel doesn't really have a feel-good ending, it could be combined with "Heechee Rendezvous" to provide a happy resolution to the story.

- Finally, my nostalgic entry is Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage. It features a teenaged girl whose coming of age story involves the development of both physical and mental toughness as she fights to survive on an unfamiliar planet. Perhaps it is out of date now, considering it was published 40 years ago, but I include it in my list because it made a big impact on me when I read it as a 13-year-old. It was the first (and one of the few) SF book I read that featured the heroics of a girl, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

- I was going to also suggest Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, but a search turned up that it's already in the process of being made into film by Morgan Freeman's production company. I'm looking forward to it.

I actually think that many SF novels can only be faithfully reproduced as miniseries, rather than 90 minute moves. That doesn't mean that SF novel-based movies aren't possible, but that they are necessarily something different than the original. Bladerunner is a great film, but it's only loosely based on Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It's not just that typical SF stories are sprawling in time and space, but that the speculative part of the speculative fiction is usually cut in favor of action. Personally, I would love to see the SciFi channel produce more original miniseries based on classic SF, rather than filling up their schedule with ghost buster "reality" shows and wrestling, but I'm not holding my breath.

Share:
Comments (17) | PermaLink | Category: Mind Meld
Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 08, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: A new author does well in some areas but overall comes up a bit short.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Michael is kidnapped and taken into the future, where he finds himself embroiled in an interplanetary civil war. But things aren't as simple as they appear, as Michael's past starts to catch up to him in the future.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Good small-group action sequences and interesting characters that change throughout the book. Middle section was highly enjoyable.
CONS: Writing is challenged at the beginning with text that was hard to read. Ending struggled with a space opera flavor that didn't work.
BOTTOM LINE: This book by first-time author J.W. Benford is a book I really wanted to like, however there are enough flaws that keep it from being a book I think will have broad appeal. I am looking forward to future efforts by this talented writer.

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Book Review
Posted by Scott Shaffer at Thursday May 08, 2008 at 12:23 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Space Nazis!

"In 1945 the Nazis went to the moon. In 2018 they are coming back."

That''s the tag line for Iron Sky, we posted about last October. But there's new buzz as this trailer is making its way around. Like Jayme, I'm lovin' the Sky Captain look.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Movies
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 08, 2008 at 12:16 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• John Scalzi shows off the cool cover art for he Spanish version of The Ghost Brigades and even offers up the first chapter.


• Michael Chabon and Jeffrey Ford are talking genre classification over at GalleyCat.


• Free Fiction:
  • Free F&SF! The Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Gordon Van Gelder, is giving away free copies of the July 2008 issue to bloggers. Assistant Editor John Joseph Adams has the details and lists the contents of the issue.
  • Free Audio Fiction at Starship Sofa: "Gigantic" by Steve Aylett
  • Free Speculative Fiction Online lists many new additions this week:
    • "Guardian" by Jeff Duntemann
    • "Inevitability Sphere" by Jeff Duntemann
    • "STORMY vs. the Tornadoes" by Jeff Duntemann
    • "Silicon Psalm" by Jeff Duntemann (PDF link)
    • "Happily Ever Awhile" by Ruth Nestvold
    • "The Leaving Sweater" by Ruth Nestvold
    • "Beachcomber" by Mike Resnick
    • "Bully!" by Mike Resnick
    • "Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations" by Mike Resnick
    • "Hothouse Flowers" by Mike Resnick
    • "Winter Solstice" by Mike Resnick
    • "All of Creation" by Steven Utley
    • "Repeating the PastPDF file" by Peter Watts (PDF link)
    • Behemoth by Peter Watts


• Cinematical shares the movie poster of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.


• At the SciFi Dept, Kevin Maher looks at The Best SciFi Buddy Cop Movie Ever.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 08, 2008 at 12:10 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

For a limited time, Eos is making The Serpent Bride By Sara Douglass available as a free download in multiple formats (Adobe, MS reader and MobiPocket).

Here's their description of the book:

Tencendor is no more. The land is gone. But a few Sunsoars still remain. And in a distant realm, trouble stirs...

Rescued from unspeakable horror, Ishbel Brunelle has devoted her life to the Serpent cult, but her destiny calls for larger plans, and dark warnings of the Lord of Elcho Falling. Meanwhile, the fabled hero and former god Axis Sunsoar returns from the Otherworld, and the Darkglass Mountain--once known as the Threshold--is waiting, for the Dark God Kanubai rises from his prison in exile.

Share:
Comments (5) | PermaLink | Category: Free Fiction
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 07, 2008 at 11:32 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

An oldie but a goodie.

Share:
Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Star Trek
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 07, 2008 at 12:18 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• The 'if you blinked you missed it' FOX show, Drive, starring Nathon Fillian, was canned after only airing 6 episodes. Supposedly, FOX has released the last two episodes, ad free, bringing the total # of episodes to 6. Did anyone watch this show? I caught the first act of the first episode, but that's it...
• The British SF-ish show, Spaced, is coming to America (sans Eddie Murphy) in July. This set will contain all 14 episodes on 3 discs. Spaced is from the creators of Shaun of the Dead, if that helps you get a feel for the comedy aspects. Yet another show I've never seen.
• Some casting news for you: Paula Malcomson will be the female lead in Sci Fi's new series, Caprica. Additionally, Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly will headline the Sci Fi comedy drama (isn't that an oxymoron?) series, Warehouse 13. The last show sounds more interesting than the former.
• KOMO TV has posted an interview with Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci about their newfilm, which you may have heard of, Speed Racer.
• BoingBoing TV has this really cool interview with Speed Racer's visual designer, John Gaets. Once you get over the BMW ad, there is some interesting stuff here, especially the info on how they created the look of the movie.
  
  

Share:
Comments (2) | PermaLink | Category: Tube Bits
Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday May 07, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

• Spinning a thread from his Why YA? post, John Scalzi asks Who Lost Scott Westerfeld? to address Paul Di Filippo's comment about an author's young adult book replacing the adult title he could have written in its place. Sez Scalzi: "The reason we might not see another Evolution's Darling from Scott has almost nothing to do with the fact he's successfully writing YA, and quite a lot to with the fact that adult SF/F didn't make it worth his time to continue in the field." Oh great...now I have this incredible urge to go box-diving for Evolution's Darling...


• Speaking of young adult, Brian Selznick's YA novel/graphic-novel Hugo Cabret is headed for the big screen.


• Interviews and profiles:
  • The Age interviews Neil Gaiman who talks about the influence of graphic novels: "Gaiman has a few theories about why the genre no longer remains on the fringe. 'I think we have a generation that's visually sophisticated and familiar with comic-book language.'" [via Bookninja]
  • ISEEE-USA Today's Engineer interviews Mike Resnick, Robert J. Sawyer, and Lawrence Watt-Evans. [via Locus Online]
  • Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews interviews John Joseph Adams, editor of the anthologies Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse and the forthcoming Seeds of Change.
  • SFX interviews Richard Baker, author of Swordmage.
  • The Future And You talks with Katherine Kurtz
  (the Deryni Series series).


• Chris Roberson shares the John Picacio covers of the Star Trek: Myriad Universes omnibuses, one of which contains his Star Trek novel, Brave New World.


• Locus Online Features posts Cory Doctorow's latest article Think Like a Dandelion: "The net is an unending NOW of moments and distractions and wonderments and puzzlements and rages. Asking someone riding its currents to undertake some kind of complex dance before she can hand you her money is a losing proposition."


• The Blog of the Zombie Astronaut has posted the audio for one of those "choose your own adventure" type books called Vampires, Spies and Alien Beings. A little hard to follow without the book, of course, but fans of such nostalgia won't care.


• James Nicoll points us to this Solar System Visualizer that let's you see planetary orbits around the sun and the orbits of the moons around the planets.


• Time Out London revisits The Matrix - ten years later. [via Shadowrunning]


• Topless Robot offers us a peek at The Dark Knight's Two-Face. Waaaaay better than the Tommy Lee Jones version.

Share:
Comments (3) | PermaLink | Category: Tidbits
Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 07, 2008 at 12:06 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Asimov's Science Fiction Editor Sheila Williams tells us that the Asimov's and Analog magazines are now available in eBook version for the Amazon Kindle device:

Asimov's Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact are now available on Kindle from Amazon. Issues can be purchased for $2.99 per month from Kindle Magazines and Journals. Kindle Magazine subscriptions start with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price.

Share: