DATE ARCHIVE: May 2008

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 31, 2008 at 12:22 PM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 31, 2008 at 12:58 AM
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Posted by JP Frantz at Saturday May 31, 2008 at 12:05 AM
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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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 30, 2008 at 12:22 PM
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[via Poe TV]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 30, 2008 at 12:22 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 30, 2008 at 12:11 AM
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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.

[via Roberson's Interminable Ramble]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:22 PM
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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.
Can you name this story?

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:22 AM
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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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:18 AM
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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.

Authors scheduled to appear att he reading include F. Brett Cox's, Jeffrey Ford, Jack Ketchum, Carrie Laben, John Langan, Sarah Langan, Peter Straub, David Wellington, and Jack Womack.

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

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:15 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:08 AM
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  • 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...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 29, 2008 at 12:06 AM
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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.

Read more...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 12:13 PM
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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:

Q: Although science fiction was born on paper, sci-fi presented through visual media (film and television) has significantly higher audiences. Which medium, then, is the driving force behind what science fiction is and where it's headed, and who is driving it?
John Scalzi
John Scalzi is damn precious. Hell, yeah, he's the motherf***ing princess.
This is like asking who is driving the food presentation industry, MacDonald's or the French Laundry. They both work in food, to be sure, and they're both good at what they do. But what they do is different enough that comparing the two in a general sense is silly.

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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 12:58 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 12:50 AM
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"Hulk crush Martians. But first, Hulk check his package."


[via Poe TV]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 12:28 PM
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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.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 12:28 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 12:15 AM
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While I wrestle with our blogging software, please entertain yourself with the science behind Superman.

[via Biology in Science Fiction]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 26, 2008 at 1:04 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 26, 2008 at 12:11 AM
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  • 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.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday May 26, 2008 at 12:08 AM
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Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Prince Caspian is generating some controversy for its PG rating not reflecting the amount of violence it portrays. Do you think that PG is a fair rating for the film?

RESULTS
(69 total votes)
No comments this week -- I think. It turns out some @$$-clowns hacked into our poll database and populated it with spam comments out the wazoo. There were over 10,000 comments...only about 360 of which were valid. The poll is being taken offline until we get the issue resolved.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 26, 2008 at 12:00 AM
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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!]

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 25, 2008 at 12:04 AM
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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...

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 24, 2008 at 11:22 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Saturday May 24, 2008 at 12:17 AM
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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.

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

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:22 PM
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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.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:28 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:22 AM
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  • 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:

  • 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:



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Posted by JP Frantz at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:12 AM
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Sad news...

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

See also:

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM
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Darth Mojo offers this NSFW Pon Farr edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

It's interesting how the joke hits you, then becomes dangerously close to being overdone before recovering with the subtle nuances of the characters' on-screen reactions. Watch Lt. Ilia lean forward with interest, Spock's raised eyebrow, Bones leaving the bridge in apparent disgust...then reappearing with an awkward-looking Chekov...

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

[Thanks, Trent!]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 22, 2008 at 12:43 PM
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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:

Q: Do science fiction authors have an obligation to be scientifically accurate with their stories? Is there a minimum level of accuracy an author should adhere to?
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds is a science fiction writer and former scientist. He lives in Wales. His latest novel is the far-future House of Suns.
No, science fiction authors don't have any obligation to be scientifically accurate - up to a point. If we insisted on absolute scientific verisimilitude, then - at a stroke - we'd take out some of the best stories and books the field has produced - Dick, Sturgeon, Cordwainer Smith - pretty much the entire "New Wave" and a lot that's come since. But there have to be limits, and I think (since most written SF does at least give lip-service to scientific accuracy) this is best illustrated in relation to media SF. Star Trek, for all its undoubted faults, always exhibited a basic grasp of the scale and structure of the universe. The writers and producers, despite their reliance on "creatures of pure energy", the "particle of the week", and other such hokum, did at least understand that planets went around stars, that stars were an inconveniently long way apart, that the galaxy was composed of billions of such stars, and all the other galaxies were sufficiently far away that they may as well not exist. It was understood that warp drive was a necessary prerequisite for interstellar journeys, whereas impulse drive sufficed for tootling around the solar system. Compare and contrast this creditable stab at realism with the lamentable Space:1999 (which I nonetheless loved with an unbridled passion when I was 9) and there's little or no sense of the writers having any grasp of the rhetoric of scale. Planets, suns, galaxies, etc, all seem to be essentially interchangeable entities. No known physics could ever account for the speed with with the runaway moon zipped from planet to planet, while remaining close enough to any given planet to facilitate back-and-forth travel by rocket for an entire episode's duration. Star Trek's writers understood that the Enterprise would require inertial dampeners if its crew weren't to be squashed by the immense accelerations associated with star travel. No such consideration was ever part of the thinking behind Space:1999, in which the entire moon was blasted out of Earth orbit with no repercussions beyond a few broken items of furniture. In my view, Space:1999 is beyond the pale and can't really be enjoyed on any level except as dreamlike fantasy, filled with science fictional props that nonetheless don't fit together in any coherent fashion. But the Eagle transporters did look way cool.

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.

Read more...

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Posted by JP Frantz at Thursday May 22, 2008 at 12:25 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 22, 2008 at 12:09 AM
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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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:22 AM
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  • 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:

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Posted by JP Frantz at Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:05 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:02 AM
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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'...

[via Topless Robot]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 11:29 AM
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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.

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Posted by JP Frantz at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 11:05 AM
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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...


Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:27 AM
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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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:15 AM
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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 12:08 AM
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  • 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.

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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.

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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:

Read more...

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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

Read more...

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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...

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:25 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:11 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Which of these is your favorite Tim Burton film?

RESULTS
(124 total votes)
As several people noted in the comments, notably missing choices were The Nightmare Before Christmas and Ed Wood. About the former I would say that I only meant to include movies he directed, thus the "Tim Burton film" phrasing. On Nightmare, Burton worked as writer and producer, but Henry Selick gets the directing credit. About the latter I can only say that to include it would have meant to cut off Frankenweenie. And we all know how painful that can be.

Speaking of which...Poor Frankenweenie! Not one single vote? Of course, you realize that this means that steps must be taken!

After the jump are some of the many comments we received this week: Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 19, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

The H. Rider Haggard classic...


[via Divers and Sundry]

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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:

This website will make a nice rainy-day activity for me and the young one.

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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.

Parts 2 and 3 after the jump.... Read more...

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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?

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Posted by Scott Shaffer at Saturday May 17, 2008 at 12:51 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

Read more...

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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!


[via Poe TV]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday May 16, 2008 at 12:24 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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:

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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.

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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.
Sounds cool, right? And, for the most part it is.

Read more...

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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.

[via Poe TV]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 15, 2008 at 12:20 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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]:

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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:

Q: Which young adult sf/f titles, if any, would you recommend to an adult reader who would not otherwise consider reading YA fiction because they think it's only suitable for kids?


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!

John Scalzi
John Scalzi believes immersing one's self daily in a vat of hand sanitizer will wash away all of one's sins. And also, some dirt.
I think it's no secret I'm a big fan of Scott Westerfeld's work, but rather than recommend Scott's wildly successful Uglies series, which really doesn't need any more help, let me give a shoutout to one of his other books, Peeps. These days there are more "vampire reboot" sort of books than any one planet actually needs, but what makes Peeps worth the time is both the plot, and the every-other-chapter digressions into parasitology that actually manage to dovetail into the story Scott is telling. It's clever, it's exciting, and it's good, and if you were handed the book without knowing where in the bookstore it was shelved, you wouldn't know or care that it was YA.


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.

Read more...

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 12:29 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

From a 1979 SNL skit...


[via Paleo-Future]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 12:22 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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...

[via Milk and Cookies]

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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.


[via Divers and Sundry]

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 12:08 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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.

Read more...

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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:

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Posted by JP Frantz at Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:14 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:09 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Are publishers cashing in on the young adult craze by marketing adult sf/f to young adults?

RESULTS
(60 total votes)
Yikes! Participation was down by 50% this week. I guess YA fiction is not popular with our readers?

Just a couple of comments this week...
"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
Be sure to visit our front page and vote in this week's poll about your favorite Tim Burton film!

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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.

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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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Sunday May 11, 2008 at 12:00 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

I guess Ken Berry was too MacLaen-Stevenson-popular to complete the F-Troop reunion..
[via Cynical-C Blog]

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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.

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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.

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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:

Q: What other story, or stories, do you believe are deserving of being made into movies and why?
Peggy Kolm
Peggy Kolm is a science fiction fan who can be found, blogging, at the Biology in Science Fiction website.
I like Dune as much as the next science fiction fan, but I find it disappointing that Hollywood keeps remaking the same stories instead of tapping into the wealth of science fiction literature. I'm not sure that every story can be easily translated into film, particularly if it features many non-humanoid or posthuman characters. I also think that there is a glut of action thrillers and SF-horror movies. Keeping that in mind, here are a few SF stories that I'd like to see on the big screen:

- 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.

Read more...

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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.

Read more...

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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.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday May 08, 2008 at 12:16 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

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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.

And don't forget Eos' First Looks program, where you can sign up to read early copies of Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake, The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith, and Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday May 07, 2008 at 11:32 AM
© 2008 SF Signal

An oldie but a goodie.


[via MilkandCookies

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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.

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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:

  • 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.

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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.

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