A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
Welcome back to the Weekend Playlist! We hope that you had a good week off for Thanksgiving, and now that the holiday is over, we’re back to full swing.
On Saturday, NASA launched Curiosity, a new Mars rover that will explore the red planet, and to commemorate it’s 9 month voyage, we’re looking at songs about Mars this week.
Right now, I’m reading Rob Ziegler’s recently released novel Seed. You’ll have my review in a little while here on SF Signal, but the story has gotten me thinking quite a bit lately about the implications of global climate change and how we’re likely going to respond to it. It’s certainly a hot-button issue in the United States, and while proof that global temperatures are rising, there’s still quite a bit of controversy over the source and response to it. (This isn’t to say that the controversy is warranted.)
One of the things that I’ve loved about music is it’s ability to tell stories, and for this column, I’ve been collecting songs over the years, grouped together into themes that fit together. Individually, few of these really have all that much to do with anything wholly speculative. But, together, they tell a story in and of themselves:
We’re back after an unexpected break! In all of speculative fiction, there’s very little that captures the public’s imagination quite like stories of warfare. There are stories abound, capturing epic stories of good verses evil, heroic characters that fall and eveil that is to be fought, on planets, in deep space, between the forces of good or sometimes just questionable. On this November 11th, it’s a good time to reflect on just what soldiers of every military have done, and to honor their memory. Within science fiction, there are plenty of examples of war, and that’s also translated into a number of songs, either inspired by real wars, characters involved in combat, or just reflecting on what motivates people.
This week, we’re going to go through a timeline of wars throughout the ages.
T.C. McCarthy‘s first novel, Germline, was recently released by Orbit books to relative acclaim, earning a starred review from Publishers Weekly, who stated that the book “crafts a portrait of the effects of battlefield stress that is difficult to bear but impossible to put down.” McCarty’s background includes work with the CIA as an analyst during the earlier days of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. He also holds a PhD from the University of Georgia. He recently took some time to speak with us about his first novel.
SF SIGNAL: Germline is your first novel, a military science fiction story set in the near future. The United States and Russia are at war over mineral rights, with your central character Oscar Wendell caught in the middle of the war. What drew you to military science fiction?
TCM: I’ve always been a fan of Heinlein and Haldeman. The Forever War and Starship Troopers were my introduction to the genre and it’s kind of like your first love: you never forget him/her, even after you’ve moved on. So there was no question; when I made the decision to write SF novels, the first was going to be a military one.
REVIEW SUMMARY: A fantastic entry in the Halo universe: a solid military science fiction story in its own right.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: With the end of the Covenant/Human war, both sides begin to pick up the pieces as a stranded Spartan team uncovers a secret that could radically change the balance of power, while figures within each side begin to plan their next moves.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Dark, mature and grown up; Glasslands surpasses the norm for tie-in novels, with Traviss spinning a fantastic story of warfare, politics and morality that continues the Halo story into new ground.
CONS: Lots of setup and transition; those expecting as much action in the prior novels will be let down.
BOTTOM LINE: One of the best Halo books published yet.
The first real ‘geek’ musician that I really followed was “Weird” Al Yankovic. His fantastic Star Wars parodies opened me up to quite a bit of new music, and frequently, I’ll hear a song on the radio that I’ll easily recall as a Weird Al song, but can’t think of the original title or lyrics. This past weekend, I got to see him in person – not only from the crowd, but with him right in front of me, on stage:
Not *the* moon, but Duncan Jone’s fantastic film, Moon. It’s remained one of my favorites, despite repeated viewings, and I fully believe that this will become a classic film in the years to come.
Surprisingly though, there’s been a small group of musicians who’ve penned songs about the movie. It’s a small number, to be sure (making this a short list), but there are some really good things to listen to.
On to a new group of songs!
The first block of music (five weeks, plus a break and reader feedback) saw songs about books, zombies, Star Wars, and more, and with this new block, we’ve got some interesting things lined up.
First up, a group of songs about one of my favorite TV Shows of all time: Firefly. This short-lived television show and movie need little introduction from readers of the site, but something that I found interesting about it is that there’s a growing number of songs about the various characters and the story itself.
The first part of the Weekend Playlist is over, and we’re already up to six weeks! Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve gotten a number of recommendations from people that build upon the lists that we’ve put together, and I’m very happy to see the input. The current plan is to run in five week batches, with something easy in between, and this week, we’re going with the recommendations that you have submitted in the comments. Here’s a selection of what we liked from the comments. (There’s a lot, but here’s some of the best!)
For our first week, where we looked at Songs inspired by SF/F Books, we got a lot of recommendations:
Blake Charlton (Medical Student, Novelist, Essayist, Dyslexic) is the author of Spellwright and Spellbound from Tor Books. He is also currently a medical student at Stanford Medical School. Find out more about Blake at his website (BlakeCharlton.com and by following him on Twitter (@BlakeCharlton) and Facebook.
We had a chance to talk to Blake about his new book Spellbound (sequel to Spellwright), writing and “middle book syndrome”…
SF Signal: Spellbound is your second book to be released. How did you go about tackling the inevitable sequel problem and avoid the sophomore slump that seems to plague so many projects?
Blake Charlton: When I started out on Spellbound, anxiety about a “sophomore slump” haunted me, and given that this is the second book in a trilogy, that anxiety was compounded by a fear of the dreaded “middle book syndrome”–wherein the trilogy’s middle book lacks a satisfying start and finish.
I had started worrying about these two problems while working on the end of Spellbound. I deliberately wrote the end of that book to allow me to hit the ground running with book two. I don’t think I did it perfectly: a few critics have noted that the end of Spellwright goes on longer than is necessary or good for a satisfying conclusion. Good or bad, I think most will agree that it did allow me to start Spellbound off with a bang. (Coincidentally, I’m hoping to do something similar, with a bit more skill, in the transition between book two and three.)
This week, we get to a subject that’s been covered quite a bit, with a good variety of songs: zombies. One thing that I’m continually impressed with is the variety of styles that range from metal to folk, and just about everything in between. It’s no wonder: Zombies have captured the popular imagination by a storm, with numerous films released over the last couple of years, and with zombie walks getting ever more popular in major cities. This week, we’ll take a look at a broad sampling of what’s been released.
To start, Devil Wears Prada is a Christian Metalcore group, something I wasn’t aware existed. In 2010, they released, Zombie EP, following a bit of a zombie kick that the band found themselves interested in. ‘Outnumbered’, the first song off the record, feels very appropriate when it comes to the subject matter. Metal really isn’t my thing, but I think they captured the tone nicely.
Last week, Jonathan Coulton released his latest album, Artificial Heart, his first with a full backing band, produced by They Might Be Giants member John Flansburgh. The album’s the first major album since 2006′s Thing A Week Four, and with a couple of songs in here and there, it’s a welcome addition to the Geek Music field. As such this week, we’re taking a look at Coulton’s career and music this week.
Coulton’s probably one of the more recent influential members within Geek Music, gaining an incredible amount of fame for someone who’s never worked with a major record label, working extensively on the grassroots level: viral marketing at its finest, as he sang about a whole, awesome range of geeky things, from computers to monkeys to robots. Hailing from Colchester CT, (a town who’s motto inspired the name of his second album), where he played music throughout school before being hired in the software industry.
Coulton’s first album was 2003′s Smoking Monkey, which didn’t go as well initially, as he wasn’t as well known at the time of its release. One of my favorite songs off of the album is “Ikea”:
Welcome to The Weekend Playlist, a regular look at science fiction references and popular music and a mix tape of music for you to tide you over until next week. This week, we’re looking at songs that are based relating Star Wars. Unlike the last couple of weeks, which generally saw music written because of a book or game, there’s more songs than usual that are parodies of other songs, incorporating in George Lucas’s universe. That being said, there’s plenty of other songs that go to A Galaxy Far Far Away for inspiration:
One of MC Chris’s recently released free singles, Han Solo is a great Nerdore song that’s probably one of my favorites from the artist. It’s a great piece of music that has a good flow and beat, and nice, lyrical retelling of Han Solo’s story. As a bonus? He’s an honorary member of the 501st Legion. (Also, today’s his birthday.)
Welcome to a new feature here on SF Signal, The Weekend Playlist, a regular look at science fiction references and popular music and a mix tape of music for you to tide you over until next week. Over the last couple of years, I’ve amassed a lot of songs that reference the genres that I really love, and am continually surprised at how much music is out there that is inherently geeky. This week, we’re looking at songs that are based relating to gaming of all types:
This was probably the first Who song that I really listened to when I was a kid: it’s certainly the one that I remember the most. Off their album Tommy, Pinball Wizard a song where I see a gamer, far before the age of video games. There’s obsessiveness, practice and perfection implied here, something that I generally associate with most hardcore gamers. It’s a lighter song amongst a pretty dark album.
Welcome to a new feature here on SF Signal, The Weekend Playlist, a regular look at science fiction references and popular music and a mix tape of music for you to tide you over until next week. Over the last couple of years, I’ve amassed a lot of songs that reference the genres that I really love, and am continually surprised at how much music is out there that is inherently geeky. This week, we’re looking at songs that are based on books and authors:
Perry Gripp is no stranger to the fantastic when it comes to music. A member of The Nerf Herders, the group responsible for the theme to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, Gripp’s collaborated with author Lev Grossman, who’s latest book, The Magician King, came out last week. “I Wanna Be a Magician” recounts some of the high points of the land of Fillory, as well as that of the lead character, Quentin Coldwater. It’s a fun, exuberant song, one that actually feels at odds to the tone of the books.
Lev Grossman is the author of the recently released The Magician King, sequel to The Magicians, as well as two other novels Warp and Codex. Now the book reviewer / technology writer for Time magazine, he has written for a number of publications and has been visibly promoting fantasy literature in such places as the Wall Street Journal and NPR. We recently caught up with Lev to talk with him about his latest book (reviewed here).
SF Signal: Hi Lev…thank you for taking the time to speak with us. First off, what is the story behind the creation of The Magicians, and now, The Magician King?
Lev Grossman: When I was 35 I realized that I was still thinking a lot about what it would be like to go to Narnia. To really go — not just in a daydream, or in a children’s book, but what it would actually feel like, physically, psychologically, every other way. The idea was haunting me. I guess it was a way I had of dealing with depression — I’d reached a particularly low moment in my personal and professional life. Writing Quentin’s story was a way of finding an answer.
REVIEW SUMMARY: A surprising, fantastic novel that surpasses its predecessor.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Picking up five years on from The Magicians, Quentin Coldwater finds himself amidst world-changing events that go to the core of Fillory and Earth.
PROS: Strong characters drive this story to surpass the first book in the storyline, The Magicians; epic in scale, this book doesn’t merely continue the story begun in Grossman’s first novel in the series, but grows and builds upon the characters, stories and world that he’s created.
Cons: Some storylines are left a bit unanswered and un-explored, as well as some minor technical elements in the prose.
It’s rare when a book will take me by surprise and really blow me away. It’s even rarer when said book is a sequel to a book that I thought would be impossible to top. Lev Grossman has managed to accomplish this with his latest novel, The Magician King, sequel to his fantastic 2009 novel The Magicians. This book is to its predecessor as The Dark Knight is to Batman Begins, topping the original by miles, and exploring completely new themes and storylines that makes this book one of the best novels that I’ve read so far this year.
Jon Armstrong grew up outside Seattle, State College, PA., and Columbia, Maryland. His first book, Grey (avaliable as a free eBook download), was published by Nightshade Books in 2007, and its followup, Yarn, was released earlier this year. You can stay in touch with Jon through his website (jonarmstrong.com and Twitter (as @Jon_Armstrong)
Recently, we had a chance to speak with Jon about science fiction fashion, writing and his works.
SF Signal: Hi Jon, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. How did you come to begin writing science fiction?
Jon Armstrong: I spent more than two decades working on various novel-length projects without success. My modus operandi was write a draft, celebrate for a few moments, reread it, hate it, and then start another. That’s how it went for except for one project. It began in the early 80s as a short story and over time I expanded it. Then every year or so I would returned to it. Sometimes I would get excited by the language, the imagery, or the world and I would take it in a new direction. I don’t know how many times rewrote Grey, but each time I pushed it a little farther along. I think the difference was that the science fiction world I invented was fun and freeing, where most of my other more mainstream projects ended up boring or constraining me.
REVIEW SUMMARY: A disappointing, but interesting re-imagination of Russian Folklore.
RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A 20th century re-imagination of Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: A well written, imaginative novel.
CONS: Slow pacing threw everything off, and the story felt as if it was lost for the language.
THE BOTTOM LINE: I think Catherynne Valente and I are completely incompatible. I really want to like her books: The Habitation of the Blessed was a highly anticipated book for me, and I couldn’t get past the first hundred pages before putting it aside. With Deathless, I’d hoped for another chance, but quickly found that it was a chore to read.
We recently had a chance to sit down (figuratively) with Hugo-Award winning author Will McIntosh, who’s just released his first novel, Soft Apocalypse with Nightshade Books earlier this year. Our review is still forthcoming, but we get a chance to talk with him about the end of the world, writing and teaching as a Science Fiction author.
SF Signal: First off, we have to congratulate you on your first novel. Where did Soft Apocalypse come from?
Will McIntosh: Thanks! It started out as a snippet of an idea in my idea file: A guy looking for love during the apocalypse. I thought it might be an interesting twist on the apocalypse story.
