A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
The 2012 inductees to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame have just been announced.
The 2012 inductees are:
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame display will reopen on June 9, 2012 in Seattle, WA.
[via Locus Online]
Mike Resnick is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He is the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He is the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and is the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He is the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.
Brad Torgersen is a full-time healthcare tech geek by day, and United States Army Reserve Warrant Officer on weekends. He is a Writers of the Future winner, as well as a contributing author for Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine—the latter awarding him the “AnLab” readers’ choice prize for best novelette, 2010. Presently, Torgersen is a Campbell nominee for Best New Science Fiction writer, Hugo nominee, for his novelette, “Ray of Light,” and also a Nebula nominee, for the same novelette. “Guard Dog” is the first of several collaborations with Mike Resnick. Brad can be found online at bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com.
Their collaboration in the anthology Space Battles, “Guard Dog”, is the moving tale of a Watchfleet sentinel named Chang, who leads a lonely life of extended, dream-filled sleeps in between frenetic, life-or-death battles. The Sortu had almost defeated humanity and the lives of everyone, including his wife and son, depend on men like him. Then, called to battle again, he finds himself up against the last opponent he’d ever expected…
BTS: Where’d your interest in SFF come from?
Mike Resnick: Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars books and Groff Conklin’s anthologies, both around 1950.
Brad Torgersen: My earliest memories of science fiction and fantasy – though I did not recognize what science fiction or fantasy were at the time – were of television programs from the late 70s and the very early 1980s. The original Battlestar Galactica, the original Star Trek, as well as Japanese animation imports like Battle of the Planets, otherwise known in Japan as Gatchaman. I was an eager viewer, and when I ultimately went off to see Star Wars on the big screen, I fell in love with the larger-than-life characters, other-worldly settings, and the spectacle of special effects combined with the tantalizing promise of what technology could offer.
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In episode 121 of the SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester asks a panel of guests and SF Signal Irregulars:
Q: Which movies are you looking forward to seeing this summer?
This week’s panel:
There is still some time left for you to enter our giveaway Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy…but hurry, time is running out!
See the original post for details on how to enter.
There is still some time left for you to enter our giveaway for a signed galley of Mongoliad…but hurry, time is running out!
See the original post for details on how to enter.
A short and sweet film about an astronaut’s lonely wife…
[via Cartoon Brew]
This “Movies That Come to the Rescue” YouTube video may as well be called (like Geeks are sexy says) “Every Superhero Movie Ever in 5 Minutes”. (See the ful list of films here.) Bonus: The audio track is playing Weezer’s “Perfect Situation”
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In the interest of full disclosure, here are the books we received this week.
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Interviews and Profiles
News
Events
Daily Science Fiction has announced its May 2012 line-up of free stories:
Additionally, the stories from May 2012 will appear in a Kindle edition available on Amazon.
I have oddly fond memories of this animated treatment of Tolkien’s classic. Ralph Bakshi’s presentation may be a truncation of the trilogy, but for its day, the animation was fantastic. Watch and see for yourself…
[via Kevin Maher]
Perhaps not as hypnotic as the video of all 56 Episodes of Star Trek at the same time from earlier this week, but noneteless…this video of every single Ferengi Rule of Acquisition (in order!) from Deep Space Nine is still captivating…
Interviews & Profiles
News
New Author Spotlight is a series designed to introduce authors with 3 books or less in the different SF/F subgenres.
Today’s spotlight shines on Darin Bradley!
His debut novel is Noise published by Random House.
Prime Books has posted the table of contents for their upcoming anthology edited by Paula Guran: Extreme Zombies:
It’s too late! The living dead have already taken over the world. Your brains have been devoured. Nothing is left but spasms of ravenous need—an obscene hunger for even more zombie fiction. Forget the metaphors and the mildly scary. You want shock, you want grue, you want disturbing, gut-wrenching, skull-crunching zombie stories that take you over the edge and go splat. You want the bloody best of the ultimate undead. You have no choice…you…must…have…Extreme Zombies!
Here’s the toc…
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The Winnipeg Science Fiction Association has just announced the creation of the A.E. van Vogt Award (The A.E.V.V.A.).
From a press release…
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Here’s Robert Jackson Bennett baring his all for his soon-to-never-be-released novel A Sexual Experience: The Robert Jackson Bennett Story.
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Interviews & Profiles
News
Events
Paolo Bacigalupi‘s new novel The Drowned Cities (a companion to Ship Breaker) comes out next week. Here is the book description:
Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man–a bioengineered war beast named Tool–who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.
This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi’s highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
Author A.S. King had the chance to talk with Paolo about The Drowned Cities…
