Post-apocalyptic vampires. Right on.

Daybreakers opens on January 8th, 2010.

Today begins a 5-part excerpt of Lavie Tidhar‘s upcoming steampunk novel, The Bookman.

What’s it about?

A masked terrorist has brought London to its knees – there are bombs inside books, and nobody knows which ones. On the day of the launch of the first expedition to Mars, by giant cannon, he outdoes himself with an audacious attack. For young poet Orphan, trapped in the screaming audience, it seems his destiny is entwined with that of the shadowy terrorist, but how? Like a steam-powered take on V for Vendetta, rich with satire and slashed through with automatons, giant lizards, pirates, airships and wild adventure, The Bookman is the first of a series.

Read on to see Part 1…

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Here’s a digital restoration showing actor Declan Mulholland as Jabba the Hutt.

[via Distracted by Star Wars]

In the interest of full disclosure, here are the books and stuff we received this past week.

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Interviews/Profiles

• NPR interviews Jeff & Ann VanderMeer (podcast).
• Confessions of an Aca/Fan interviews Interfiction 2 Contributors.
• Innsmouth Free Press interviews Daniel Heath Justice.

News

• Dedalus Books needs help. (via KJ Bishop)
• No more Sofanauts.

Articles

• Odyssey Workshop on Finding Reputable Literary Agents.
• Rachel Aaron on Middling.
• Justine Larbalestier on Blogging & Teaching.
• Richard Dansky on The Ritual of Fine-Tuning My Writing.

Sad news…

Ansible reports that Robert Holdstock has died at age 61:

Robert Holdstock (1948-2009) died at 4am in the morning of Sunday 29 November, having been in intensive care since his collapse with E. coli infection on the 18th . He was only 61 and will be much missed. All sympathy to Sarah and the rest of the family.

Holdstock was perhaps best known for his Mythago Wood cycle, for which he won the World Fantasy Award in 1985.

See also:

• The occifical Robert Holdstock homepage
• Robert Holdstock’s wikipedia entry
• Robert Holdstock’s ISFDB entry

[via Adam Roberts and James Nicoll]

Oh noes! Aliens try to take over the world by seizing control of Gamera’s brain!

Pass the popcorn, please…

[via The Classic Science Fiction Channel]

• @ManyBooks.net:
  • Astounding Stories, May 1931
  • Freedom Incorporated by Peter Tylee (2005)
  • “The City of the Living Dead” by Fletcher Pratt (1930)
• @FeedBooks:
  • “The Passenger” by Kenneth Harmon (1954)
  • “The Terrible Answer” by Arthur G. Hill (1952)
  • “Lion Loose” by James H. Schmitz (1961)
  • “Blind Spot” by Bascom Jones (1955)
• Audio fiction:
  • @Starship Sofa: “To Go Boldly” by Cory Doctorow
  • “Human Readable” by Cory Doctorow, read by Spider Robinson.
  • @Podcastle:
  • “Marsh Gods” by Ann Leckie, read by Phoebe Harris.
  • @Escape Pod: “Pirate Solutions” by Katherine Sparrow, narrated by Sarah Tolbert, Kate Baker, Nate Periat, and Steve Eley.
  • @Pseudopod: “The Sultan of Meat” by James B. Pepe, Read by Kris Johnson.
• Serialized:
  • @Tor.com: Cory Doctorow’s Makers, Parts 59, 60, 61, 62, and 63.
  • @Timeslingers:
  • “Fugitives” (Episode 14-1)
  • “Tremors” (Episode 14-2)
• @Brain Harvest: “The Chinese Room” by Alec Deason
• The November 2009 issue of Afterburn SF has fiction from Robey Jenkins and Regina Glei.
• Online Graphic Novel: Man-machine Book 2: The Name of the Father.
• @DayBreak Magazine: “The Branding of Shu Mei Fen” by Amanda Clark.

Interviews and Profiles

• @Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys: Brenda Cooper (Wings of Creation)
• The Guardian profiles Kim Stanley Robinson (Galileo’s Dream)

Articles

• Charles Stross on The myth of the starship: “the trouble with going into space is that there’s no ‘there’ there when you get to the other end of your voyage…”
• @Scientific America: Splitting Time from Space–New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein’s Spacetime.
• Phyllis Gotlieb honoured in Canada’s Federal Parliament.

Fun Stuff

• Entertainment Weekly posts some fun mashups: Star Trek/The A-Team and Star Wars/Scarface.
• Fun with Photoshop: Adobe Wan Kenobi.
• A Darth Vader Breathing Keychain

Mark at Walker of Worlds spotted some way-cool covers for the French release of Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga. The artist is Manchu and a quick visit to the website reveals tons of equally cool science fiction artwork.

The site (which is in French) is organized as a standard blog, so there is no convenient gallery page. A google image search of the site reveals some (but not all) of the tasty eye candy, so use these handy links to see more: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

The SyFy Channel is airing a re-imagined version of Alice in Wonderland called Alice, premiering Sunday December 6th.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek:

More videos can be found here.

Interviews & Profiles

• Locus Online has interview excerpts with Cory Doctorow (Makers) and Jack Skillingstead (Are You There? And Other Stories).
• @The Dragon Page: J.C. Hutchins (Part 2)
• @The Literary Project: Dan Abnett.
• @Innsmouth Free Press: Malcolm Barber.

News & Articles

• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer’s anthology Steampunk Reloaded is open to (reprint) submissions.
• Here’s a book trailer for Aliette De Bodard’s Servant of the Underworld.
• Jo Walton reveiws Seteven Brust’s The Phoenix Guards.
• The website for the game Star Wars: Old Republic has some stellar wallpaper downloads. [via Super Punch]
• An Intersection of Art and Technology in the Early Space Race. [via Big Dumb Object]
• The Website at the End of the Universe on Science fiction recommendations for kids and teenagers.
• Mish Sci Fi Musings on Asimov and Socionomics.
• More pics emerge from Smallville, showing images of Michael Shanks as Hawkman, Britt Irvin as Stargirl, Brent Strait as Doctor Fate and Justin Hartley as Green Arrow. Holy bottom-of-the-hero-barrel, Batman!

Lists

• Techland identifies 2 Game-Changing SF Novels recently read.
• NY Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 includes titles by Lethem, Powers, and Atwood; Janet Maslin’s Top 10 includes Stephen King’s Under the Dome. [via Locus Online]
• BestScienceFictionStories lists 9 Christmas Gift Ideas: Movie Bundles Based on Science Fiction Short Stories.
• Ten Fantasy Meals Mary Robinette Kowal Would Rather Eat Than Thanksgiving Leftovers.
• @SFX: 14 Greatest Format-Breaking SF & Fantasy TV Episodes Ever.

Happy Black Friday.

[via Poe TV]

Interviews/Profiles

• Eric Rosenfield interviews Jeff VanderMeer (Finch).
• Command Line Podcast interviews Cory Doctorow (Makers).

News

• Stephen King Announces sequel to The Shining, but warns fans “don’t hold your breath”. [via Locus Online]
• Black Matrix Publishing is launching four magazines full of action, adventure, romance and suspense: Encounters (Contemporary or dark fantasy,scifi, horror and stories with a paranormal twist), Realms (traditional fantasy), Night Chills (creature-oriented horror), and Outer Reaches (stories of high adventure in the deepest reaches of space). [via Lou Antonelli]
• Patrick Rothfuss details the  Worldbuilders fundraiser.

Articles & Stuff

• Twelfth Planet Press On publicity and promotion.
• Rochita Loenen-Ruiz on Five months later, I’m still thinking of Clarion West.
• New Scientist on How Our Brains Learned to Read. (via Booksquare)
• The Guardian on Why does Mandelson favour the Analogue Economy over the Digital?
• The German website Fantasy-Atlas.org has dozens of maps from various genre books. [via Marooned]
• Here’s a trailer for Hardcore by Andy Remic.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Postponing Your Dreams.

Lists

• Reasons why the list “100 Reasons Star Trek XI Sucked” Sucked.
• Lev Grossman’s 6 greatest fantasy books of all time. [via John Anealio]

Welcome to the sixth serialized installment of J.C. Hutchins’ human cloning thriller 7th Son: Descent. If this is your first exposure to our free serialization of 7th Son, you can easily catch up by experiencing part one, part two, part three, part four and part five. You can also dive in right away, right here…

THE STORY SO FAR: John, Kilroy2.0, Father Thomas and four other unwitting human clones have been assembled by the U.S. government to track their villainous progenitor, a psychopath responsible for the murder of the president. His plans of terror are just beginning.

In the last episode, the clones continued to decipher John Alpha’s Morse code clue. Meanwhile at a military base in the Russian wilderness, a former CIA agent named Doug Devlin reminisces about his past — and his current alliance with Alpha. A much larger conspiracy is unveiled.

Check out this week’s installment below.

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An excellent find by Paul Di Filippo, it’s an excerpt from the DVD John W. Campbell’s Golden Age of Science Fiction and features science fiction author/editor Barry N. Malzberg talking about his favorite issues of Astounding magazine.

Interviews/Profiles

• Frightening Journeys interviews Lauren Beukes.
• The Interstitial Arts Foundation interviews Alaya Dawn Johnson.
• The Agony Column interviews Scott “SG” Browne (podcast).
• Innsmouth Free Press interviews Aliette de Bodard.
• The Future & You interviews Doctor Gregory L. Matloff, C Bangs and Keith Comito (podcast).

News

• Borders’ UK website suspends book sales.
• Fantasy theme park plans unveiled.
• Boneshaker is on the PNBA Book Awards Shortlist 2010.
• Superman Franchise Finds Lawsuits as Debilitating as Kryptonite.
• There’s a new blog and community for James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar film.
• Nominations are open for StarShipSofa’s 2010 Sofanaut Awards!

Articles

• Publisher’s Weekly on Making Contacts and Money at Philcon.
• Anil Menon on The Raw and The Cooked.
• NextRead on Reviews, what are they good for? (via OF Blog of the Fallen)
• Juno Books on E-Galleys and Zombies.
• Steve Boyett on Books to Die For (1, 2).
• Sarah Monette on A rose by any other name…
• SciFi Wire on Why The Road‘s post-apocalyptic struggles make us happy.
• @Write Anything: Why Science Fiction is Important.
• Adam Roberts reviews Transition by Iain M. Banks.
• Solaris on The Four Authors of the Apocalypse: Eric Brown.
• Jason Sanford on Where to shove your self-published crap.

Lists

• @Bookgasm: 9 Great Gift Books for the Holidays.
• @AbeBooks: 25 Un-Limited Editions to Remember.
• @Spill: 10 Deadly Movie Epidemics.

We asked this week’s panelists:

Read on to see their responses…

I don’t read e-books. As a writer, I do a lot of reading on screen. I compose my own stories; I workshop my colleagues’ stories; I research online; I conduct my correspondence online; I hold virtual office hours online; I waste time reading online blogs. Being an editor for a magazine that accepts e-submissions makes the situation worse. Consequently, one of the things I’m looking for in a novel, anthology, or collection that I’m reading for pleasure is its non-electronic, paper form. I want to be able to sit down with a traditional book.

If I were neither a writer nor an editor, I think I’d be an ideal candidate for e-book reading. I like gadgets and I like reading. If onscreen fiction reading weren’t such an integral part of my work, I’d be better able to appreciate it for recreation.

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Here’s a foreign trailer for Zombies and Cigarettes, which screened at the 2009 NYC Horror Film Fest, decribed thusly:

Xavi just wanted to invite his loved Carol to an ice cream, but he found himself involved in a zombie invasion.

Interviews/Profiles

• Confessions of an Aca/Fan interviews Delia Sherman (Interfictions 2).
• Big Hollywood profiles Harlan Ellison.
• ActuSF interviews Kevin J. Anderson.
• Marshall Payne interviews John Kessel.
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist interviews Mark Charan Newton.
• Robert Freeman Wexler interviews Alan DeNiro and Daryl Gregory.
• John Scalzi profiles Jeff Carlson.
• SCI FI Wire talks to Rob Zombie about his new animated movie, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.
• Details profile Zoë Saldana, Space Babe.

News

• Odyssey Writing Workshop Announces Its 15th Summer Session.
• The Year’s Best SF and Fantasy, Honorable Mentions, Part 1.
• Amazon Extends Battery Life of Newest Kindle by 85 Percent and Adds Native PDF Reader.
• Read an excerpt from Robert McCammon’s manhunt masterpiece, Mister Slaughter.
• EDGE Forthcoming Releases.
  
• New Solaris deal for Erc Brown.
• Orbit signs Kim Stanley Robinson to multibook deal.
• The first visible-light video of Saturn’s auroras was released by NASA’s JPL.

Articles

• Suvudu on Suvudu is Thankful for…
• Mike Brotherton on False Dichotomies and Science/Science Fiction.
• Nathan Bransford on The Economics of Publishing.
• John Schoenherr’s Dune Artwork (Part 1).

Lists

• The 10 Most Clichéd Character Types in Sci-Fi
• SciFi Wire ranks 18 post-apocalyptic sci-fi survivors
• Steve Boyett’s Books to die for (part 1)

Your Mission (should you choose to accept it): Tell us which cover you like best and why.

Books shown here:

• Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie (Designer: Lauren Panepinto)
• Total Oblivion by Alan DeNiro (Artist/Designer: Lynn Buckley)
• The Terminal State by Jeff Somers (Designer: Lauren Panepinto)

NOTE: Bigger, better cover art images are available by clicking the images or title links…

REVIEW SUMMARY: It takes more than adding zombies to make an excellent story.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Survivors must escape from a zombie plague that runs rampant aboard an Imperial star destroyer and prison barge.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Some fast, zombie action in the second half of the book; a few welcome surprises.

CONS: Pacing, characterization and being part of a well-established universe issues weigh down the book.

BOTTOM LINE: While it’s not a bad story, a Star Wars/zombie mashup is not the automatic win you think it might be.

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Song: “Livin’ In The Future”

Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Album: Magic

This past Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend Philcon in Cherry Hill, NJ. You may ask: “Shouldn’t Philcon take place in Philadelphia?” My best answer to that question is that hotel rates are cheaper across the river in Cherry Hill and that renaming the event “Cherrycon” would mistakenly draw unsuspecting bakers and Warrant fans.

Anyway, I was in the audience for an excellent panel entitled “Why Aren’t We Writing About The Future Anymore?” There was lots of great commentary by Sci-Fi Authors Cory Doctorow, David Louis Edelman, and Gregory Frost.

This got me thinking about songs with “Future” in the title.

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Interviews/Profiles

• Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings interviews John Brown. (via Tor/Forge)
• The Agony Column interviews Peter Straub (podcast).
• Tor.com interviews Garth Nix.
• BSC Review interviews Joe Abercrombie.
• Tor/Forge interviews Hideyuki Kikuchi.
• Bibliophile Stalker interviews K.J. Bishop.

Articles

• Teresa Sousa de Almeida on Science Fiction in Portugal: The Drawing Up of a Territory.
• Jim C. Hines on Why My Books are Not My Babies.
• Genreville on Self-Publishing Done Right.
• The Creative Penn on Update on the Amazon International Kindle and What It Means For Authors.
• The Nebula Awards Blog on “International SF” and Problems of Identity.
• Will Hindmarch on Giving It Away.
• Rachel Swirsky on The Virtues of Vampires.
• Liam Sharp on Getting it ‘out there’.
• Strange Horizons on Universal Language? Authors from The Apex Book of World SF Discuss the Global Reach of Speculative Fiction.
• John Picacio on Renovation Steps Up.
• Edward M. Lerner on Clever, these nanobots.
• J.C. Hutchins on What If? and What Happens Next? Two secret weapons for aspiring writers.
• Rachelle Gardner on Change or Die.
• John Scalzi on Quick Note on Self-Publishing.
• Nathan Bransford on The Top 10 Myths About E-Books.

As I’ve done in the past, here are my quick takes on the genre-related films I’ve watched in the last several weeks which admittedly was a little Vin Diesel heavy…

1. V for Vendetta (2005) – I loved the way this complex Dystopian story about a totalitarian British governemnt unfolded, though near the end the film it was feeling a bit drawn out.
2. The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) – What could have been a cool update of one of my all-time SciFi favorites was riddled with logic-defying decisions by characters and plot.
3. Battle for Terra (2007) – Nice animation but clichéd and, therefore, unengaging. And what’s up with the nonsensical plot points? Falling from the sky is not really dramatic if you can fly. Just sayin’…
4. Pitch Black (2000) – What could have been a good mash-up of SciFi and Horror was instead a long, drawn-out hodgepodge of no suspense and Vin Diesel.
5. Chronicles of Riddick (2004) – This is a significant improvement over Pitch Black, offering a meatier story, more action and better characters.
6. Babylon A.D. (2008) – The interesting post-apocalyptic setting was interesting, but the real reason for mercenary Vin Diesel’s quest fell short..