Web Sites
The latest Internet Review of Science Fiction is up with the following table of contents:
Posted by John at 12:02 AM
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In the past the lego-lovers here at SFSignal have shared with you information on exciting Legos such as the Mars Rover model (still excellent), the Indiana Jones collection, and the variously large sets devoted to Star Wars (such as the Millenium Falcon, Star Destroyer, and Death Star.)
But I feel shamed, because I clearly dropped the ball on what can only be called extreme Lego building. Take a look below at some of the massive Lego projects people have completed.
First up is the latest Star Wars theme from Lego itself. What exactly is your $500 Falcon model supposed to attack? A new $400 Death Star, of course! The set includes 25 figures including all the favorites plus 6 new figures seen here for the first time, a trash compactor monster, and locations of the major scenes from the movies including the imperial throne room and detention block. The final assembly is 16" in diameter and certainly would take over most dining rooms.
There are also regular guys like you and me who decide to do something amazing with Legos. Well, they are like me except they have amazing artistic and sculptural talent with Legos. A guy by the name of Andrew Lipson does lego renderings of Escher drawings. These have to be seen to be believed. And there's Henry Lim who does lots of interesting things with Legos, including this Stegosaurus. The replica dinosaur is almost 6 feet tall and uses tens of thousands of bricks. Did you know you could special order 2400 green bricks from Lego? Apparently you can...
Next we have an amazing model of the Kenndy Space Center, including a Space Shuttle on the launch pad. Using a mind-blowing 750,000 bricks, the shuttle is over 6 feet tall and the Saturn 1B is 9 foot tall. Follow the link to Gizmodo to see what this massive complex looks like.
And finally, there is the complete replica of Munich's Allianz Arena done in Lego. It lights up just like the full-size version and contains 30,000 lego people. Awesome, even if it only has 400,000 bricks. Oh, the bricks were specially made by Lego just for the project so the LED lights can shine through. Nice!
And then there is this large-scale project that can only be gawked at. It has 3 million bricks. It's taken hundreds of volunteers year to build. It's sponsered by Segway-inventor and millionare Dean Kamen. It can only be the Manchester Mill Yard project! Huh? OK, that might not be as exciting to us as Space Shuttles or Death Stars, but this replica of what the town used to look like in the early 20th century is extensive. It was designed to help keep the memory alive in a way that would interest everybody.
Posted by scottsh at 1:50 PM
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From Jonathan McAlmont:
Fruitless Recursion is an online journal devoted to the review and discussion of works of criticism and non-fiction relating to the SF, Fantasy and Horror genres.Best of luck, Jonathan!It is a paying market and it is currently looking for writers as well as subject matter. Go and have a look, I have kicked things off with a review of Paul Kincaid's What it is We Do When We Read Science Fiction and Joanna Russ' The Country You Have Never Seen.
Posted by John at 12:22 AM
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[Update: Now with added YouTube linkage for non-US readers.]
CSpot is a small production comedy that produces several series of short, comedy shows. Now, normally, these series have nothing to do with science fiction, and I only watch two of them, Roadents (about two Winnebago traveling guinea pigs) and Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (a totally random acts of weirdness parody of a Japanese talk show). Recently, both of these shows displayed some SF love.
First up, Roadents on alien abduction:
YouTube linky.
Michael Biehn? Classic.
And now Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. You'll either love it or hate it. Even with this episode's special guest, Wil Wheaton. No other SF related things here, except Wil. Enjoy.
YouTube linky.
Posted by JP at 6:54 AM
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Allen Steele writes in to tell us about the new site dedicated to his Coyote series of books:
A year in the making, this new site is the creation of science fiction author Allen Steele and web site designer Gary Rose. Its subject is the Coyote series of novels -- Coyote, Coyote Rising, Coyote Frontier and the forthcoming Coyote Horizon -- and the novels set in its universe, Spindrift and the recently published Galaxy Blues. Among the many features of this site are:I've read a few of the Coyote stories and they are consistently good. Looking at this new website makes me want to crack open the books that have been taunting me from the shelves...
- A video introduction by Allen Steele
- A podcast reading from Coyote by the author.
- A free Coyote short story, "The War of Dogs and Boids", previously available only on Amazon.
- A gallery of artwork -- some previously unpublished -- by Ron Miller, John Harris, Rob Caswell, and Thomas J. Peters.
- An extensive concordance of characters, locations, spacecraft, and events.
- A set of interactive maps of Coyote.
- A trivia quiz.
- A readers forum.
- Links to the American and British publishers and booksellers of the Coyote series.
Posted by John at 7:47 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.
Posted by John at 12:18 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!
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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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.
Posted by John at 12:17 PM
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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:
Posted by John at 11:28 AM
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Tony from StarshipSofa writes in to tell us about some the cool things going on there:
The StarShipSofa podcast is metamorphosing into the StarShipSofa - The Audio Science Fiction Magazine. Following in the great tradition of magazines like Analog, Asimov's and Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Each week the StarShipSofa will deliver a full package of SF related audio material all free including audio fiction, fact audio essays, flash fiction and poetry, all by leading names in the SF field.
Many writers have agreed to let StarShipSofa narrate their works including Ben Bova, Joe Haldeman, Alistair Reynolds and M. John Harrison, to name a few.
There will be two shows per week, the Wednesday show, also know as Aural Delights will contain narrated audio fiction, fact and poerty and the weekend show will be an in depth look into an author's life and work.
This week saw the first of the metamorphosing with the StarShipSofa's Aural Delights show. Fiction was provided by Kage Baker's fantastic story "The Likely Lad," there were two poems by Bruce Boston and Laurel Winter, both winners of the Rhysling Award for SF Poetry. Flash fiction came from a very short but very powerful story called "Repeating The Past" by Peter Watts, author of the SF novel Blindsight.
In the weeks to come Peter Watts will also be delivering a monthly narrated fact article; this part of the show will be called Reality, Remastered.
As for the weekend shows, StarShipSofa has her sights upon writers such as John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson and Ken Macleod.
Posted by John at 3:48 PM
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I completed another short-term blogging gig over at AMC TV's SciFi Scanner blog. Here's a recap of my posts this past week:
Posted by John at 12:05 PM
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Just a quick note to sat that I'm blogging at AMC TV's SciFi Scanner again this week.
My posting there will be light as this is a very busy week at work. (I do have a day job, tidbit monkeys.)
For now, you can check out my posts thus far:
Posted by John at 12:14 AM
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Volume 2, Issue 6 (April 2008) of Jim Baen's Universe has been posted. Here are the contents:
Science Fiction Stories:
Posted by John at 12:10 AM
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Rudy Rucker has posted the contents of Flurb #5:
Posted by John at 12:05 AM
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Well over a year ago, the CG Society held a contest asking artists to produce several different type of digital art surrounding Greg Bear's Eon novel. The results were quite impressive.
Now, CG Society is in the midst of a new contest, covering David Brin's Uplift series of books. Artists are asked to 'depict the
relations between humans and aliens'. This is the largest contest to date, with over $100k worth of prizes. If you have any artistic bone in your body, why not give it a shot?
The Uplift series is one of my all time favorite series, and I especially like the cover art for Startide Rising. I think this is one contest to pay attention to, although it's still early. The Uplift books have a lot of very unique aliens, it should be cool to see how they are depicted.
Posted by JP at 6:27 AM
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Cool idea!
From SFScope:
Nathan E. Lilly, editor of SpaceWesterns.com writes about a new project:This doesn't have to do with SpaceWesterns.com--my day job is as a Web Developer, and I moonlight under the auspices of GreenTentacles.com. In the early morning of 21 March, John Joseph Adams put out a call on his web blog for some "con-loving web savvy fan" to put together a convention finder that allowed people to find the closest conventions by ZIP Code.
By 10:30PM, I had created this Con Finder which only has about 8 conventions in it at the moment, but allows con-runners to add their own).
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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This is interesting:
BookLamp.org is a system for matching readers to books through an analysis of writing styles, similar to the way that Pandora.com matches music lovers to new music. Do you like Stephen King's It, but thought it was too long? The technology behind BookLamp allows you to find books that are written with a similar tone, tense, perspective, action level, description level, and dialog level, while at the same time allowing you to specify details like... half the length. It's impervious to outside influences - like advertising - that impact socially driven recommendation systems, and isn't reliant on a large user base to work.The website has a video that explains the ideas behind it...
I've talked before about book recommendations, but this is the first one I've heard of that analyzes writing style and uses it as the basis for the recommendation. So I signed up and took it for a test drive...
There are only 179 books in the database to date - not a huge number but something to get a flavor for how it works. But here's the cool news: They are all science fiction titles. Sweet!
I stared with a book I've read: The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov. The resulting recommendations are:
I'm going to try again, but first I note that the results also include some books statistics, including number of words, a piece of information that is otherwise unknown to me. It's nice to get a feel for word count, I guess, especially when some author blogs talk about story sizes. (FYI: The Naked Sun clocks in at 67,239 words.) There is also a button enticingly labeled "Show Me the Graphs from this book". I press it. Up pops a semi-transparent window with more stats...including: scene count (71), pacing (7), density (4), action (9), description (5), and dialog (9). These are the test points used to compare other texts, though for me they currently lack any frame of reference. There is also a graph where these 5 characteristics are plotted (you are able to enable each plot individually on the same graph. Also helpful: you can click on the characteristic labels to see what Book Lamp means by these terms; for example, what a high pacing rating means.
My next book was Rogue Moon, by Algis Budrys. Recommendations here included The Web Between the Worlds by Charles Sheffield (77%), Manhattan Transfer by John E. Stith (76%), and Bright Messengers by Gentry Lee (78%). I'm not sure why results are not displayed in high-to-low percentage order, seems like they should be. Again these are books I haven't read, so I cannot speak about their success.
I tried some other titles, but I'm not going to list the details -- being a flash application makes it too time consuming. (No cut and paste for you!) But I will note some data:
Posted by John at 12:33 AM
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In 1974 after having his wisdom teeth removed, Philip K. Dick experienced a profound religious experience. Pumped full of Sodium Pentathol, Dick answered the door to meet a girl from the pharmacy who was delivering his pain medications (if only they delivered now) and, upon seeing her golden fish pendant, experienced what he called 'anamnesis'.
This experience led to his 'discovery' of the 'Black Iron Prison' and, slowly, Dick would believe that he was a Christian from Roman times. Often times assuming the personality of that person.
If you've ever wondered what that might be like, then look no further than The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick, as illustrated and written by R. Crumb. There's something about reading this in comic form that works extremely well and gives us a great sense of what it must have been like to slowly loose touch with reality. Or did he?
Posted by JP at 6:18 AM
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Stefan G. Bucher's Daily Monster website operates with a simple premise: every day he posts a short, high-speed video of him drawing a new monster.
A simple idea, yes, but the results are awesome.
The website has also spawned a book: 100 Days Of Monsters, which also comes with a DVD that features videos from the website. Now why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, no-talent @$$-clown. (With apologies to Michael Bolton...)
[via Boing^2]
Posted by John at 12:12 PM
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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now has a blog.
Posting will be done by editor Gordon Van Gelder and assistant editor John Joseph Adams.
They're off to a great start with
Posted by John at 12:20 AM
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After a long hiatus, The Internet Review of Science Fiction returns! It's got a spiffy new redesign and has a bunch of new content:
Posted by John at 12:14 AM
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Irene Gallo, Art Director for Tor Books, tells us that Tor has something exciting and new on the horizon:
Something new is coming. Register to be one of the first to join us, and receive free digital books from bestselling and award-winning SF and fantasy authors. This is just the beginning.Once you register, you'll receive our newsletter and a link to download a digital book. And you'll receive a link to another new book every week.
The first week's free book is Mistborn, by rising fantasy star Brandon Sanderson. Next week's will be Old Man's War by John Scalzi, 2006's winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Over the next several weeks, other books still.
So sign up. Stay in touch. And watch the skies.
Posted by John at 9:25 AM
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Here are 4 reasons why you should visit the website of artist Jim Murray.
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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Two years ago, we linked to the science fiction resource website, AboutSF. It's been a while since I checked in, but that should be easier now that they have added a blog.
So what goodies can you find there? Well, besides great online resources like lesson plans and James Gunn's compilation of A Basic Science Fiction Library, they also sell a set of science fiction documentary DVD's. If the field interests you as much as what it produces, check out John W. Campbell's Golden Age of SF and the DVD Lecture Series.
To whet your appetite, feast your brain on AbouSF's YouTube Channel, which offers up a bunch of clips from those DVDs. Here, for example, is Damon Knight talking about science fiction from Wells to the Pulps...
[Thanks to the always-insightful Biology in SF for the reminder]
Posted by John at 12:45 AM
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Volume 2, Issue 5 (February 2008) of Jim Baen's Universe has been posted. Here are the contents:
Science Fiction Stories:
Posted by John at 12:45 AM
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Starship Sofa is a science fiction audio podcast that offers up lots of free stories and in-depth profiles. Check out their latest offerings, "The Crystal Spheres" by David Brin and a profile of L. Sprague De Camp.
Tony writes in to let us know that upcoming audio renditions include fiction from Ian Watson, Pat Cadigan, Peter Watts, Harry Harrison, Joe Haldeman, Joan D Vinge, Norman Spinrad, Michael Moorcock, Ian MacDonald, J D Nordley, Bruce Sterling, Gweneth Jones, David Brin, Alastair Reynolds, Jerry Pournelle, Landon Jones, John Varley, Pat Murphy, John Kessel, Laurel Winter, Jeff Vanermeer, Kevin J Anderson, Jonathan Carroll, Bradley Denton, and Matthew Hughes.
Also coming up is a video documentary with Michael Moorcock.
There's a lot going on, so keep an ear out!
Posted by John at 10:50 AM
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The fine folks over at BlogTalkRadio wrote in to tell us that actress Summer Glau from the upcoming Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles will be on tonight's podcast:
Actress Summer Glau from the upcoming "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" joins Dr. Blogstein today January 8, 2008, at 9pm ET / 6pm PT to discuss the new Terminator series. Many of you will recognize Summer from the Firefly television series and the action-packed sci-fi movie Serenity. Terminator premieres on Fox on Sunday Jan 13th and Monday Jan 14.Also on tonight's program Collette Mclafferty, lead singer of edibleRed and an update from the World Series of Beer Pong. Don't miss a single minute!
Dr. Blogstein's Radio Happy Hour is a live, interactive Internet broadcast hosted on BlogTalkRadio. A call in number as well as a text chat room can be found on the host page. Archives of the show are made available after the show at the host page or via RSS subscription at the host page or iTunes.
Posted by John at 3:18 PM
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The long-awaited science fiction blog from the Gawker Media empire is ginally here and it's called io9.
Io9 is edited by Annalee Newitz (of Wired and Popular Science fame) and says this about io9:
"We don't see it as a niche entertainment site. We see it as a pop culture site. So much of our mainstream culture is now talked about and thought about in science-fictional terms. I think that's why people like William Gibson and Brian Aldiss are saying there's no more science fiction because we are now living in the future. The present is thinking of itself in science-fictional terms. You get things like George Bush taking stem cell policy from reading parts of Brave New World. That's part of what we are playing with. We are living in world that now thinks of itself in terms of sci-fi and in terms of the future."Posts so far range from the snarky (Six Reasons Why Star Trek Should Stay Dead) to the interesting (Post-Apocalyptic Movie Chart) to the...err...helpful (How To Sh*t In Space).
Posted by John at 8:44 PM
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Subterranean Press has just started posting the Winter 2008 issue of Subterranean Online. Here's what available now, with more to come in the weeks ahead:
Posted by John at 12:22 AM
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Posthuman Blues uncovers the website Flying Saucers in pop culture, which features great cover scans of 4100+ books, comics and magazines...not to mention toys and other merchandising saucer images.
Simply awesome...
More after the jump...
Posted by John at 1:36 AM
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Volume 2, Issue 4 (December 2007) of Baen's Universe has been posted. Here are the contents:
Science Fiction Stories:
Posted by John at 2:37 AM
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We all know Gene Autry as 'The Signing Cowboy'. but did you know that his first starring role on film was in the Mascot Serial The Phantom Empire. The really interesting thing about this serial is the plot is very science fictional. From Wikipedia:
A chance to be real heroes occurs when Betsy, Frankie and Gene are kidnapped by the real Thunder Riders, from the super-scientific underground empire of Murania, complete with towering skyscrapers, robots, rayguns, elevators that extend miles from the surface, and an icy, evil blonde Queen, Tika.
Posted by JP at 7:13 AM
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Book Bump is a new online book manager you can use to catalog your books. But how is it?
I like the mostly-intuitive Web 2.0 user interface. The site allows you to add/remove books fairly easily, by ISBN, author, title or keyword. Yet there was no indication that I could see to indicate which books in the search results were in which format (hardcover, mmpb, etc.) or edition. Once books are added, they can be sorted any which way. The site provides lots of information about each book in the list including: general book info (publisher, format, number of pages), reviews, price comparisons (new and used), and a host of attributes. These attributes include whether the book has been read (or which page you are currently on), date started/finished, number of copies owned (the biblioholic inside of me is smiling), whether it's signed, rating, and more.
It's an interesting site, particularly for those who are looking for an online book list, but I just don't see myself using it. For one thing, there seems to be no way to print the book list. That's would be my main usage of the darn thing. Also, I just don't see myself adding the tons of books I own into the website. Oh well.
Posted by John at 12:04 AM
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OK, so not really the return of everyone's favorite mock a movie program. But if, like me, you miss the comedy gold only a bad movie can bring, you'll be happy to know that former MST3K cast members are working on several MST3K-like projects.
Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and TV's Frank, among others, are starting a movie riffing company called Cinematic Titanic! That is good news indeed. They are in the process of riffing on a bad movie right now, and will release it before Christmas. Now word on the title, but Joel says "it makes "Manos the Hands of Fate" look like "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" in a car wreck with "Eegah!"". Sounds horribly bad, but good.
This may be a good time to point out that Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy have their own website, RiffTrax, where they produce audio files meant to be played instead of your movie's or TV show's soundtrack, where they mercilessly lampoon the thing in MST3K style. And just look at all the SF goodness they make fun of: Spider Man, Heroes episodes 1 and 2, Revenge of the Sith and the Fantastic 4 among many, many others. Watch the previews to decide if you want to download, and if you do, each trax is only a few dollars. Bravo!
If you'd rather get your MST3K-type fix on a DVD, we can accommodate you there as well! Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy have also created 4 DVDs as The Film Crew Online, where they take really bad movies and, well, you know the rest. Killers From Space looks really, really bad.
As much as I liked Mike Nelson in control of the Satellite of Love, I'll always have a soft spot for Joel. I'm glad to see him back in action, so to speak.
Posted by JP at 8:35 PM
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It's October 31st, and all the little ghosts and goblins will be out tonight, looking for candy. Parents across the world cringe in anticipation of sugar fueled behavior and combative bedtimes, much like dealing with John on a daily basis. Not one to skip 'the next big holiday', SF Signal has scoured the web for Halloween items of interest for our loyal readers. Consider this our sugar free treat to you. (Note the completely gratuitous picture of zombie John Scalzi, because we can.)
I'm assuming most of us here have seen, and really liked, Ghostbusters. Well, CIO online has a neat article covering the technology of paranormal investigations. OK, so not real Ghostbusters, but more like the guys on Sci Fi's Ghost Hunters show. Still, who knew you could hunt ghosts with a mylar blimp? Read on for other interesting uses of technology and how it's used to ascertain the environmental reasons for hauntings. Or does it?
Sticking with 'science', Cracked.com gives us 5 scientific reasons a zombie apocalypse could actually happen. Mmm, brain parasites. Actually, quite an interesting list, and based on actual science, however far fetched the 'human turning into zombie' step may be. So if you see a zombie tonight, you can ask them which of the 5 reasons turned them into a zombie. Don't be surprised if they answer: "Braiiiiiiiiins!" Zombies aren't verbose.
Perhaps you're thinking of taking a vacation to get away from all the door knocking and bell ringing on Halloween. If so, Concierge.com has compiled a list of the world's creepiest places. Sadly (or luckily?), John's house isn't listed. Instead you get more mundane places, such as Easter Island and the Paris Catacombs. Good stuff here.
But let's face it, you're looking for Halloween items you can make. Out of paper. If this is you, then look no further than our link filled list of Halloween items:
And lastly, what's Halloween without pumpkins? Lame, that's what! You could, of course, search yourself and see all the themed pumpkins around, but you'd probably miss the weighted companion cube pumpkin, starring in the best short game of the year, Portal. Oh waited companion cube, your untimely demise was heart breaking, yet mitigated by your selflessness in helping me get past the puzzles. I'll miss you, companion cube.
So, as night falls, we wish you a happy and safe Halloween, whatever you decide to do this evening. Just remember, stay away from John's house and you'll be alright.
Posted by JP at 7:00 AM
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Back in the day, comic strips were a place for artists to showcase their talents with, you know, actual artwork. These days, with everyone jumping on the web comic bandwagon, it seems that all is required is one scene cut-and-pasted into multiple frames.
Not so with the Tim Rickard's syndicated sci-fi comic Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! It's an honest-to-goodness comic strip that even delivers some funny. I'll let wikipedia give the description:
Brewster Rockit is the Captain of the R.U. Sirius (a spoof of the phrase "are you serious?"), a space station orbiting earth that acts as both an embassy for visiting aliens as well as a first line of defense against hostile aliens. The comic often goes off into long story lines based upon different science fiction movies and books, with Brewster and his crew typically coming out victorious over the countless evil villains they face.The latest story line involves an alien race called the Emoticons, who have lost the ability to communicate verbally.
See Also:
Go Comics, who publishes an RSS feed.
Wikipedia, for a character list.
[H/T Quasar Dragon]
Posted by John at 12:45 AM
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Two book-related websites crossed my path today...
First up is BookJetty, a "user-friendly book cataloging system, where you can catalog, tag, rate and review your books, and check your books availability seamlessly from 300 libraries worldwide."
Second is WorldCat, "a publicly accessible online interface to the holdings of all types of libraries throughout the world: currently 57,000 libraries in 112 countries. Tell it what book you're looking for and your zip code or city, and it will pinpoint the nearest library that has the book."
This are neat ideas. I'm not sure I'll personally use them (borrow from a library instead of own?!?!) but it's nice to know that, not only is there an LP of Theodore Sturgeon reading his stories, but the nearest one to me is 1800 miles away. (For those too young to know what an LP is, it's like a giant, black CD that scratches easily.)
[via MonkeyFilter and Consumerist]
Posted by John at 12:10 AM
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Scientific American has a nice little article covering an area of astronomy you probably don't think much about: When a new extrasolar planet is discovered, how do the artists illustrate a planet they've never seen?
Turns out, there's a lot of science behind the illustrations, of course. Things like planetary size determine whether the planet is a gas giant or ball of rock. Composition can determine the colors of the atmosphere, and distance from the star can give dramatic artistic visualization to an illustration. It's all covered.
As a bonus, the article also mentions Lynette Cook as one of the artists NASA contacts to create an illustration. Check out her website for some really nice pictures. Heck, go check out the Spitzer Space Telescope's Artist's Conception page for even more eye candy, many wallpaper worthy.
Posted by JP at 1:32 PM
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The website for Honorverse: The Online Game has just launched.
The game is based on David Weber's Honor Harrington series of books and allows players to design and build space stations and fleets of ships, implement battle tactics, optionally set economic policies, and more. You can even create your own flags, insignia and national anthem.
The game itself is not due until the Fall of 2008. For now, check out the game's trailer.
[Yet-another-h/t to Fred K.]
Posted by John at 12:25 AM
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The Cult-Pop website is unassumingly cool. It's a simple web page; there are no links and there's no navigation because there are no sub-pages. There's just a giant TV screen. The website is the online companion to the TV show that airs on Michigan cable.
What do they show? Their play list includes video interviews with authors like John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Karl Schroeder, Brad Meltzer, Nick Sagan and more. They also have a ComicCon report. The videos are cool, so hang in there through each show's too-long intro.
There only seem to be about 8 video podcasts at this time, but the subject list promises good things to come. Check it out!
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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As previously mentioned, yours truly had a guest-blogging gig at AMC TV's SciFi Scanner blog. Here's the final roundup of the posts I did there.
See also: SciFi Scanner Post Roundup #1 and SciFi Scanner Post Roundup #2.
Posted by John at 12:18 PM
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As previously mentioned, yours truly is currently guest-blogging at AMC TV's SciFi Scanner blog. Here's another roundup of the posts I did there.
Posted by John at 12:05 AM
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In today's Tube Bits, there is a story about how Masi Oka, via his character Hiro, introduced the Japanese word 'Yatta' to American TV viewers. He uses the phrase a lot in Heroes, but the iconic image is of Hiro, with arms raised and outstretched, in Times Square. Below is a short clip of this scene:
Well, awhile back my brother had sent me a music video link to a Japanese group whose song is 'Yatta'. I found the link again on YouTube, and I thought I'd give you a look at how the Japanese use the word in pop culture. Warning: Those of you with easily upset stomachs or weak constitutions may not want to view the clip. It's disturbing in a uniquely Japanese way..
No need to thank me.
Posted by JP at 1:13 PM
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As previously mentioned, yours truly is currently guest-blogging at AMC TV's SciFi Scanner blog. Here's a roundup of the posts I did there so far.
Posted by John at 12:10 AM
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Starting today, I've got a temporary guest-blogging gig over at SciFi Scanner. That's the science fiction blog at AMC TV's website.
I'll be bringing my vast knowledge of supermodels - er...I mean, science fiction - to the movie watching masses. My postings will most likely be more frequent over there for the next several days, so if you need a bigger dose of me - and who doesn't? - then stop by and check it out!
Posted by John at 12:10 AM
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Über-editor John Joseph Adams has created a website for his upcoming post-apocalyptic science fiction anthology, Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.
Besides profiling the authors who contributed to the anthology, the website also includes story excerpts. And check out this lineup:
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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After 10 years, Infinity Plus, the science fiction website started by Keith Brooke (and later co-edited with Nick Gevers and then Paul Barnett) is calling it quits.
Infinity Plus was publishing free online fiction before it was in vogue. The website is also a great resource for insightful reviews and commentary. It's sad to see it go, but thankfully the current website will remain available as an archive.
And they're not going out with a whimper, but with a bang...check out this final lineup of content:
Hats off to the folks behind Infinity Plus for a job well done!
[via Jason Erik Lundberg]
Posted by John at 12:29 AM
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Pete Tzinski of Blood, Blade & Thruster magazine is embarking on an ambitious writing project. It's an online fiction serial called God in the Machine and features cool illustrations (like the one shown here) by Christoffer Saar.
Season one is called "Cold Machines". Here's the synopsis:
A freak encounter with an electromagnetic storm shuts down all the ship systems of the starship Damocles, as well as the whole robotic crew. Everyone, that is, except for an engineering droid and a 'Lifter, clinging to the outside of the ship. They're still active. They're awake...The first episode is called "Awake" and it goes live today. New episodes are scheduled to appear on alternating Mondays. Head on over and check it out.
Posted by John at 12:14 AM
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Book Hunter is a comic for book lovers. Actually it's like Law and Order for biblioholics. The first sequence is not for the squeamish.
Here's the synopsis from the website:
The year is 1973. A priceless book has been stolen from the Oakland Public Library. A crack team of Bookhunters (aka. library police) have less than three days to recover the stolen item. It's a race against the clock as our heroes use every tool in their arsenal of library equipment to find the book and the mastermind who stole it.Cool comic -- check it out.
[via Ben Peek]
Posted by John at 1:07 AM
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August 13th - 17th is Sci-Fi Week at XFire, bringing you 5 days of chats with the top authors, artists, and creators in the field of science fiction.
Here's the schedule:
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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Weta Workshop is best known for their SFX work for The Lord Of The Rings movies. But they also do a lot more interesting things. We've reported earlier on their Dr. Who collectibles, and now they have a full blown site for Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aetheric Oscillators & Other Marvelous Contraptions, featuring Ray Guns. This is one really nicely done website, featuring all sorts of Steampunk goodness. For example,they have some nice Phosphorescent Etchings and Bestiaries Of The Cosmos. For some reason, these sections remind me of an author by the initials of: John C. Wright.... But the best part is, without a doubt, the directory of the Ray Guns.
They have several to look at, including my favorite: the Manmelter 3600ZX (and no, that is not a Terminator version of Natalie Portman). The others are really nice too. So nice, in fact, that I'd like to actually have one or two in my possession. Well, we're in luck, as this whole entire site is really a advertisement for the Ray Guns, which you can purchase. Weta is making 500 of each, and you can buy one for a paltry $650. And if you do, in fact, buy one, you'll be entered to win two more. Now that's a sweet promotion. But if you need more enticement, please see the following video:
Also, coming in January 2008 will be a hardcover book Doctor Grordbort's Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory (I just love that name). They have a small preview available (PDF warning). Any book with a Luminiferous Aether Exciter has to be great.
Does anyone have a spare $650 + applicable taxes just lying around?
Posted by JP at 1:07 PM
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SciFi.Uk points us to a gallery of Interzone covers hosted by a website called Cover Browser.
Cover Browser is heavily geared towards comic books but they do have other genre-related galleries as well. For example, there are cover galleries for:
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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And a parting video for you. A spoof of The Prisoner, done with stuffed animals. Behold, The Prisonbear.
Posted by JP at 12:18 AM
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Pete Crowther sends word that there's another publisher to welcome to the blogosphere. His own PS Publishing has announced the PS Publishing News Room. As per the site:
We'll be using the News Room to keep you up-to-date with all the latest PS publication news and behind-the-scenes developments, point you in the direction of PS-related material elsewhere out there on the World Wide Web and, from time-to-time, bring you news and info from PS authors, artists and partners.The site is run by Ariel, who I've been reading since his Alien Online days. Back then, Ariel inspired me to write my review criteria. Today he also blogs at The Genre Files and UKSF Book News, so he's no slouch to blogging. Peter Crowther, no slouch himself, is an award-winning author and editor.We've kick-started the process with a couple of months' worth of back-dated items to fill you in on what we've been up to - or have spotted elsewhere - recently; including the latest, June 2007 news bulletin from our highly esteemed (and, indeed, award-winning) publisher, Pete Crowther.
Good luck, Ariel and Peter!
Posted by John at 1:47 PM
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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is experimenting with posting free fiction online. Since this is an experiment, they expect to have stories posted for one month only.
First up: "The Thief With Two Deaths" by Chris Willrich (2000), a tie-in to his most recent story set in the same universe, "A Wizard of the Old School", that appears in the August 2007 issue of F&SF.
[via SF Scope]
Posted by John at 12:27 AM
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Mark Watson's Best SF is one of the longest running short fiction review sites and this month, he's branching out.
Best SF Presents aims to make short stories available online that showcase the best the genre has to offer. There's no set schedule, but expect a new story - primarily science fiction - every month or so.
In Mark's words:
I'm aiming to get a mix of old and new stories, from established and up and coming authors. First up is "The Last Reef" by Gareth L Powell, which appeared in Interzone #206 Jan/Feb 2006.I have to admit that Best SF is the site that prompted me, when I review short fiction myself, to review each story individually. Not only does it allow me to remember each story more than a one-off description would (or worse, no description at all), but it also allows me to lazily cut-and-paste what I wrote before for reuse when a story appears in multiple anthologies.
...
Gareth L Powell's "The Last Reef" was long listed for a BSFA award, and came sixth in the Interzone Reader's Poll for best short story of 2006. He's got a collection and a novel appearing in 2008, and he's a regular blogger. Co-incidentally, another story of his, "Six Lights Off Green Scar" has just appeared on the InfinityPlus website.
Posted by John at 12:10 AM
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Star Wars celebrates the 30th anniversary of its release tomorrow.
To commemorate the event - besides the plethora of specials and promotional campaigns - the official Star Wars website will re-launch with a new design.
Part of this includes adding a library of hundreds of photos Star Wars-related photos and video clips for sand to use in their own mashups. More evidence that Lucas is loosening his grip on the copyrights...
Yay, George!
Posted by John at 12:26 PM
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Subterranean Press has begun posting the 2007 Summer issue of Subterranean Online. Here's what's available so far:
This also means that the previous issue (Spring 2007) has been completely posted with an audiobook version by Kage Baker; columns by Elizabeth Bear, Norman Partridge and Mike Resnick; fiction by Bruce Sterling, Caitlin R Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Neal Barrett, Jr., Joe Hill, Charles Stross, John Scalzi, Jay Lake and Mike Resnick; and a whole bunch of reviews.
Posted by John at 12:22 AM
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If the participation levels of this week's poll are any indication, the fanbase of Joss Whedon's space western Firefly is still going strong.
Most of the votes resulted from this thread on the fan site FireflyFans.net. Fans came out in force to voice their opinion. Given that only one of this week's poll's choices was Firefly-related, their decision was quite easy. 
This week, we'll be making it a bit harder for them with a Favorite Firefly Episode poll. Watch for it beginning tomorrow!
In the meantime, check out FireflyFans.net and revel in all the shiny goodness.
Posted by John at 4:14 PM
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The website A Science Fiction Odyssey chronicles the ambitious reading project of Jeff Vehige to read the novels that won the Hugo and/or Nebula Awards.
I'm envious! I've thought of doing a reading project like this for some time but the idea of forcing myself to read from a set list always makes me back away like the commitment-phobe that I am. I choose books to fit my reading mood and like the ability to go wherever that takes me. (Which is usually to the used bookstore. ) Jeff also mentions he will be reading other books, too, but it sounds like he's more dedicated to the award winners than I would be. More power to him! Good luck, Jeff!
I should note also that the thing that caught my eye was the huge cover graphic for Joe Haldeman's Camouflage by Joe Haldeman -- mainly because it's on my to-read pile. No, not that one...another one. What, you don't have multiple to-read piles?
Posted by John at 12:22 AM
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Sanctuary is a new, online only science fiction show starring Amanda Tapping of SG-1 fame. Having only watched the trailer, all I can say is it looks to be a mash-up off science fiction and horror/supernatural genres. What did impress me was the production values and the SFX, which look to exceed any SciFi Original movies. I bet the story will too, but I can't say for sure.
Additionally, the creators have a blog and a dedicated fan site so that viewers can interact with the actors and producers of the show. Now, many TV shows have this already, LOST and Heroes come to mind, but Sanctuary seems to have been created with the fan community in mind. I think I read somewhere that the fans may be able to have some impact on the show's direction. That might be an interesting thing.
I'm also interest to see how the producers plan to make money so they can make more episodes. I'm not sure who's bankrolling them or how they can afford to pay the actors and post-production companies. But if they can make money, I think we'll see more of this kind of production. If there is money to be made by releasing your show directly on the web, then the floodgates will open. This will be like the introduction of cable and it's 100's of channels, only much bigger.
Just think, there are many TV show concepts that never make it to the pilot stage. With an alternate release stream, we could see hundreds of new shows all over the web and all free from the constraints of studio meddling. SF TV stands to gain quite a bit from this as there are lots of things that should be on the air but aren't.
I realize this may not happen for a long time yet, but I'd certainly like to see it happen. Otherwise, we're stuck with SciF (now with more monsters and wrestling!) for the foreseeable future....
Posted by JP at 2:14 PM
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An animated sci-fi show called Afterworld will be a test video of YouTube's revenue generating potential.
It will be hard to miss Afterworld, a new animated show featuring a cell phone salesman who makes a long, lonely trek home after all technology fails in a post-apocalyptic world. Story producer Stan Rogow calls it a "lyrical and poignant and dramatic and emotional" show--not exactly the type of fare viewers have come to expect on one of the Internet's most popular websites.See the first installement here, then follow the trail.But that is exactly where they will find Afterworld, now showing in ten "preview" episodes on video-sharing site YouTube. The serial officially launches on its home site in mid-May and will soon thereafter be available on various other websites. In contrast to the many grainy, humorous and often trashy videos that populate YouTube, Afterworld's big budget and richly drawn story make it one of the most ambitious attempts yet to program for the web.
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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The Summer 2007 issue of Concatenation is posted. In addition to numerous reviews, here's what's included:
Posted by John at 1:11 AM
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Rudy Ruker has posted the 3rd issue of his webzine, Flurb. Here's what's in it:
"Postsingular Outtakes" by Rudy Rucker
"Special Guest Stars" by Kris Saknussemm
"That Certain Day With Magdalen" by John Shirley
"The Last Young Person Alive Writes a Memoir" by Charlie Anders
"No Place to Raise Kids" by Eileen Gunn
"Up Around the Bend" by Paul Di Filippo
"Four Milestones of Quantum Tantra" by Nick Herbert
"One Hundred Years" by Mac Tonnies
"Beloved Vampires of the Blood Comet" by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia
"Seized by Meat" by Th. Metzger
"An Evening's Honest Peril" by Marc Laidlaw
"How RU Sirius Slipped Into Another Dimension" - an interview by Frank Shook
Posted by John at 6:26 PM
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The University of Delaware Library offers an online exhibit From Verne to Vonnegut: A Century of Science Fiction.
There are several "rooms" to explore...
Early work opens with Sir Thomas More's Utopia from 1516 and showcases books by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (The Last Man, her first major work after Frankenstein), Edgar Allan Poe (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque), Jules Verne (From the Earth to the Moon), H.G. Wells (Tales of Space and Time).
The Magazines room briefly covers Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, and If.
Other rooms showcase other types of books. The Aliens and Others room shows samples relating to robots, martians and first contact. The Other Voices room profiles works by women, African American authors and books the deal with gender issues. Dystopias shoes the obvious, but also Alternate Histories and Disasters. There's also a Curator's Choice room offering exhibit curator Iris Snyder's best picks of the genre (standalone and series).
Posted by John at 2:13 PM
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The Spring 2007 issue of Subterranean Press Magazine has been posted online with the following offerings:
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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Just a reminder that tomorrow (April 15, 2007) is the deadline to vote in the 37th annual Locus Poll.
You don't have to be a subscriber of Locus to vote, but if yo are you get a free issue for doing so.
Posted by John at 8:15 AM
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Author S. Andrew Swann has out-geeked us.
He's taken SF Signal's list of SF/F Authors Who Blog and used Yahoo Pipes to create a stream of sf/f all author posts. This stream will be automatically updated when we update our post. Cool!
Take heed to his warning though..."Subscribing to this feed is the digital equivalent of drinking from a fire-hose."
Posted by John at 12:49 PM
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The second issue of Darker Matter, the new online science fiction magazine, is out. Here's what's in it:
Posted by John at 12:22 AM
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For those who don't have enough to read, theres the Infinite Story website. This site offers more than the "Choose Your Adventure" type stories: it allows you to add your own branch!
From the site:
This site is an interactive fiction writing engine that allows one to read and write infinite stories. Infinite, or branching stories are stories that have choices for the reader at the end of each chapter or "room." Each choice then takes the reader to a new room and the story continues. If the author of a story chooses, the reader can add on to the end of a story, thereby creating a never-ending adventure!There are several story paths available in the science fiction and fantasy categories. Note: It looks like free registration is required before you get too far.
Posted by John at 12:08 AM
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It's the return of Meme Therapy! After a four month absence, they finally poke their heads up with the question: Is there one writer or novel in particular that has "cranked" your head open?
Welcome back, guys!
Posted by John at 12:19 AM
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The Solaris Books blog, When Gravity Fails, points us to a goldmine of old radio dramas on the web at OTR Network. They offer a bunch of the standard programs you think of when you think of old radio, like Abbot and Costello. (And shame on you if you've never heard "Who's on First?" )
But they have lots of genre titles, too. Check out these beauties...
As Marco notes in the comments, there are a bunch more radio dramas, many of them genre-related, over at Mercury Theatre.
Posted by John at 12:12 AM
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The Winter 2007 issue of Subterranean Press Magazine has been posted online with the following offerings:
Posted by John at 12:18 AM
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Back when I talked about How Innovative Authors are using the Internet to Increase Their Profiles, I made note of a missed opportunity by publisher Tor to fully utilize the Internet; the site was woefully out of date and was screaming for a new design.
Looks like the website got the update it deserved. Check out Tor's new website.
[via Tobias Buckell]
Posted by John at 12:13 AM
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(Updated: Added link for Batman: The Animated Series.)
While perusing the tubes this morning, I've run into a couple of really cool science fiction(ish) items that might be of interest to our readers.
Posted by JP at 10:54 AM
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One of the Best SF Resources Ever, The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards, has been updated. All awards results through the end of 2006, plus announced 2007 nomination lists, have been added. Other updates include:
Posted by John at 12:15 AM
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There's a new (to me) science fiction community: Sci Fi Studios.
What is it? According to the website:
Sci Fi Studios is a combination of Hollywood entertainment professionals and global science fiction/fantasy fans, working together to create major motion pictures, television series, comics, graphic novels, games and the ultimate online community. Sci Fi Studios believes that fans and viewers are not just a ratings number or a statistic. More than any other genre, science fiction attracts fans who are loyal, dedicated, and involved. And What better way to cater to the people who value the genre than to develop sci-fi and fantasy products with their input!It looks free for basic access, but a membership fee allows you to have input into the community. The fees would go towards content like "original stories in graphic novel or storyboard form which could be the basis for films and television series".
Posted by John at 12:08 AM
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Here's a podcast of a 2005 keynote address by Vernor Vinge:
In this keynote address from Accelerating Change 2005, Vernor Vinge discusses the potential for a "technological singularity" - the event at which the creation of artificial superhuman intelligence changes the world so dramatically that it is impossible to imagine the world after that point. He explains that the singularity is not a given, nor is it necessarily a positive event. Many factors could arise that prevent the singularity from occurring and there is a potential for it to be a catastrophic event rather than a positive revolution.Vinge suspects that if the Singularity arises after several years of progress rather than as an overnight event, it is more likely to be a positive step in human evolution. He calls this the "soft-takeoff," and offers some ideas that may encourage a longer approach to the point of change. The pace of progress may be exponentially increasing, but that does not preclude a gradual move toward the moment of transition.
Posted by John at 12:14 AM
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Issue #7 of Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer is now available with these offerings:
Posted by John at 9:59 AM
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Hear Joe Haldeman speak about The Craft of Science Fiction in an MIT podcast from his talk that we mentioned last November. From the intro:
The thing about science fiction," says Haldeman, "is that it's a form of writing but it's also a way of looking at things - a mode of thought." Early sci-fi writers sought to educate young people, and direct them toward careers as scientists or engineers. Not all of the writing was stellar. Some of the "old stuff can be ugly stuff," he says. Haldeman can't read the Foundation trilogy now - "My eyes lock," the writing's so bad. But some of the stories from the 1930s inspired the scientists on both sides of World War 2, those behind radar, the atom bomb and Germany's V1 and V2 rockets. Today, as fewer people read novels, Haldeman says, science fiction has become less important. "The idea that science fiction can educate isn't there anymore."[via Resource Shelf]
Posted by John at 12:27 AM
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Coinciding with the return shiny, fresh new episodes of Heroes beginning tonight, NBC is revamping the Heroes website. From CNet:
Heroes story lines are moving online. The hit NBC series is relaunching its Web site on Monday with new interactive features coinciding with a batch of new original episodes. The multiplatform strategy will deepen the Heroes mythos with additional content for Internet and mobile applications.New add-ons include a real-time, two-screen application that plays out on the PC along with each episode, mobile content and commentary from cast members set to streamed episodes.
Posted by John at 9:49 AM
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A newsfeed picked up an eye-catching phrase today: Check out why the Sentient Developments blog is convinced that Star Trek's Prime Directive is stupid.
While perusing the Sentient Developments site, I found links to other interesting articles including the heavy read Developmental and ethical considerations for biologically uplifting nonhuman animals (in PDF).
On the not-so-heavy side, there's Must-know terms for the 21st Century intellectual: Redux.
And if all else fails , there is always the ever-popular, previously-posted Bald Women in Sci-Fi. [Looks at Pete.]
Posted by John at 12:12 AM
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Shortly after learning about Amazon's fluctuating prices comes this interesting secret of Price Protection from Slate's Amazon's Secret Price Guarantee article:
Perhaps you are wondering: What 30-day price guarantee? Like Amazon's customer-service number itself, the 30-day price guarantee is not something Amazon publicizes. For instance, it isn't mentioned on the "Refunds" page. If you click here you'll learn all about Amazon's 30-day returns policy, which provides a full refund for most unopened items returned within 30 days. But that's different from the 30-day price guarantee, which requires only that you pay attention to whether Amazon lowers its price within 30 days after you purchase your item. If it does, Amazon will refund you the difference. No need to box up your purchase or fret about receiving only a partial refund because you removed the plastic wrap.
Posted by John at 12:39 AM
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In a previous post , we mentioned that the Incwell iPulp Fiction site was serializing their young adult science fiction story From the Shadows. Now, KB Shaw writes in to tell us iPulpFiction has just published part one of a new science fiction series for young adults called The Neworld Papers: Below. The three-issue story continues in February and March:
The IncWell iPulp Fiction Library is an effort to update the literary legacy of the Dime Novel and serialized fiction popular during the late 19th through mid 20th centuries. We will blend the look and feel of Dime Novels, such as Beadles Boy's Library, with the tradition of serial novels featured in such magazines at The Strand, and Harper's to create original genre fiction suitable for readers 10 to adult.
Posted by John at 12:00 AM
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James Patrick Kelly has been converting his past Asimov's Science Fiction "On the Net" columns to podcasts. He has recently posted an audio version of his Bring On The Digital Hugos! column from March 2005.
Why is this so special? Thanks for asking! This is the column in which SF Signal (the blog recommended by 4 out of 5 undead, time-traveling Nazi zombies) was nominated for a proposed digital Hugo award. This was hot on the heels of Kelly's inclusion of SF Signal in the list of top 40 blogs. Not that we like to toot our own horn or anything. (Toot-toot!)
Bonus! The podcast version of Bring On The Digital Hugos! is dedicated to SF Signal. A special shout-out goes to yours truly in particular for Janes Patrik Kellee's past misspelling of my name. Jim, to make it easy for the "entire Free Reads research staff", the correct spelling of my name can be found on our About Us page.
Posted by John at 12:05 AM
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As a promo to the video game Star Wars: Lethal Alliance, UbiSoft is hosting the Death Star Designer, a web-based simulation of managing the construction of the most fearsome weapon in the Star Wars universe besides Hayden Christensen's acting.
In Death Star Designer, your goal is to design the Empire's ultimate weapon. You are graded on the 5 attributes of Power Output, Firepower, Defense, Personnel Capacity and Naval Capacity. Sadly, there is no option for guarding the tiny Achilles' heel exhaust port that allows one to destroy the Death Star with a single X-Wing photon blast. Noobs.
[via Big Dumb Object]
Posted by John at 12:10 AM
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Check out Year's Best SF Info, a website put together by Jed Hartman to track the ever-increasing amount of Year's Best Anthologies. It's aimed at editors so you'll find stuff like tables of contents and submission guidelines. There are 16 (!) anthologies confirmed for 2007, with possibly more to be published. I list them here in order of publication along with links to tables of contents linked when available. See Year's Best SF Info for the latest updates:
Posted by John at 9:59 AM
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The Fall 2006 issue of the Internet Review of Science Fiction is up and, as usual, it's filled with some good, insightful reads...
Posted by John at 11:26 AM
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The Dark is a serial web movie whose first two episodes are offered free as a promotion to get subscribers. They describe themselves as "the new high definition digital edge in space fiction." Is this the future of science fiction?
It's written by Steven Erikson (Malazan Empire fantasy series), David Keck (Eye of Heaven) and Mark Paxton-MacRae. More info:
Welcome to a new horizon in real science...fiction.Through my cursory glance, I will say there seems to be a higher-than-expected production value, but it comes at the expense of sitting through a series of F-bombs.THE DARK is unlike anything you've seen before. It is a leading wave on the new tide of webcasting.
THE DARK is a three-year journey into uncharted territory. It will be available online in weekly, 12-minute episodes (and soon, in daily 1 minute and 45 second clips on your pda or cell phone), and in print as a bi-monthly, full color comic book by Alchemical Press.
THE DARK follows the adventures of the crew of the Recluse as they fight to take back their corner of the universe from aliens and worse -- designer humanity.
THE DARK keeps physics in mind at all times...no transporters, no artificial gravity. Space is stress, tactics, and tension - battleships bending long arcs of momentum, testing the limits of ship and crew...though the ship is eel slick and nearly invisible, the crew of the Recluse live among the pipes and cables of a spacecraft as cramped as a submarine. For them, each brush with the aliens costs a week of white knuckles and a month of flashbacks.
[via SFBC Blog and Pat's Fantasy Hotlist]
Posted by John at 11:15 AM
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SF author Paul Levinson (The Plot to Save Socrates) has a cool podcast called Light On Light Through. The latest episode, #8, is titled Time Travel in Fiction and Fact - a sf theme near and dear to my heart.
Episode 8 contains the following:
Posted by John at 11:54 AM
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James Patrick Kelly is back from a summer vacation and has started podcasting again. A new feature of his Free Reads podcast is to read his On The Net columns from Asimov's Science Fiction starting with On The Net: FTL.
I'm patiently waiting for the Breathing the Blogosphere and Bring on the Digital Hugos columns. You know...the ones where a certain sf blog was mentioned. Maybe Jim will at least speak my name correctly since he seems to have spelled it incorrectly. [Winks at Jim 
]
Heh-heh.
[via SFF Audio]
Posted by John at 1:28 AM
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There's a new email list in town and it's called Fantastic Fiction. Here is the info sent to me from the list's creator:
I've started a new mailing list, dedicated to fantasy and science fiction. Rather than being exclusive, I'm trying to be inclusive. Discussions will range, I hope, all over. From (Clark Ashton) Smith to (E.E.
"Doc") Smith. From Heinlein to Howard. From Leiber to Lovecraft and beyond.This list is a spinoff of another list I've been a member of for a few years now, ERB-List, dedicated to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Oftentimes we'll wander off from the subject matter (the works of
Burroughs) and have to be gently moved back on course.
I suggested this list because many of these authors are interconnected due to friendships and associations, so why not discuss them in a similar fashion.This list is not connected with Yahoo or Yahoo Groups. In fact, I am putting up my own funds to help run the list, a measure of my dedication and interest. So, I hope you will consider joining.
I hope to see this as an extension of my blogging, and my site (The Eternal Golden Braid). I often write about science fiction there, and I'm hoping to have a discussion on this list that helps inspire me to write more for the blog.
To join the list, Fantastic Fiction, send an e-mail (no subject line needed) to:
MAJORDOMO AT ERBLIST DOT COM [Replace the "AT" with @ and the "DOT" with "."]
...and have the body of the message be...
subscribe fantasticfiction (YOUR MAILING ADDRESS) end
The second line should be "end" because some mailers, like Yahoo, add advertising and the like at the end.
Having "end" on the second line tells Majordomo to ignore anything after that and only execute the command "subscribe fantasticfiction yourmailingaddress".Hope to see you there.
- Fred Kiesche
Posted by John at 9:55 PM
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Borderlands Bookstore wants you to suggest stuff to put on their mascot, Ripley the hairless cat. From this month's newsletter:
Help us put stuff on Ripley! Thanks to Susan Tunis for telling us about this contest. Chronicle Books is sponsoring a "Stuff on My Bookstore Cat" contest, as a tie-in to the release of the book Stuff on My Cat. Please email office AT borderlands-books DOT com with your suggestions for stuff we might put on Ripley! And, yeah, we already thought of a toupee, you wisecrackers.When we interviewed Alan Beatts, proprietor of Borderlands Books, he gave us Ripley's back story. I would think Ripley deserves something more spectacular than, say, John Scalzi's bacon-laden cat.
Posted by John at 12:29 AM
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The latest Time Traveler Show features Isaac Asimov giving a fascinating and fun 1974 talk titled "Utopian Change" in which he discusses science fiction, technological change and the birth of sf.
Some choice quotes:
On sf: "The only relevant literature of our time is science fiction."On critics: "They can observe, study and analyze but they can't do it themselves."
On sf: "This is the importance of science fiction -- that it considers possible futures by taking into account possible changes in technology and their consequences and gives some thought to how to meet the consequences."
On futurists: "It seems to me that all futurists are either science fiction writers, science fiction readers, ex-science fiction writers and ex-science fiction readers. You show me a futurist who's never read any science fiction and I'll show you a person who's so uninterested in the future that he [couldn't] really decide anything about it."
Posted by John at 12:33 AM
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The BBC is launching a new, member-driven science fiction site this month called My Science Fiction Life. Free membership allows sf fans to recall their fondest memories with some science fiction classics from multiple media, like John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek. And yes, even Blade Runner.
Sez the site:
Help us build the story of science fiction in Britain, as BBC Four celebrates the much-loved genre in all its forms. We're putting together a timeline of memorable science fiction and we need your suggestions and recollections for the website - some of which may also be used in a new TV programme.
Posted by John at 12:30 PM
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Wired asked a bunch of genre writers to come up with a story of exactly 6 words. Here is a sampling:
- Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer? (Eileen Gunn)
- Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. (Joss Whedon)
- Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth. (Vernor Vinge)
- We went solar; sun went nova. (Ken MacLeod)
- Don't marry her. Buy a house. (Stephen R. Donaldson)
- TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! ...nobody there... (Harry Harrison)
- whorl. Help! I'm caught in a time (Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel)
Posted by John at 9:22 PM
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Xombie is a cool animated web cartoon about....zombies. (I knew you weren't thrown off by the X.)
The production value is pretty darned good. I like the style, technique and storytelling. Seven episodes are currently available online. Back in March, Slice of SciFI interviewed the creator, James Farr. (Not to be confused with Jamie Farr.)
Check it out.
Posted by John at 1:42 AM
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Stefan from the Yahoo group Beyond Reality writes in to tell us about the recent happenings in the group. Beyond Reality, with 450+ members, discusses one science fiction and one fantasy book throughout the month. Recently, they have extended invitations to authors who have accepted and will appear in upcoming group discussions as noted below. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to participate in a book club, this would be a good opportunity.
Here's their schedule:
September
Posted by John at 4:58 PM
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The Forgotten Trek website is "a tribute to those forgotten heroes who created Star Trek - from the Enterprise herself to the uniforms worn by its crew. This is a shrine to the men and woman who made Star Trek possible and took good care of it for decades..."
There's lots of good information here for fans, both diehard and casual: concept art, behind-the-scenes info, costumes, lost voyages (unused material) and interviews with the production crew.
Posted by John at 1:00 AM
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Don Swaim, host of the long-running CBS Radio show, Book Beat, has interviewed a butt-load of authors. Many of these uncut interviews are available online. Check out these interviews of genre authors:
Posted by John at 12:44 AM
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[subtitle: Where Tim Will Be on Sept. 18 ]
From scifi.com:
Grace Park, who plays Sharon "Boomer" Valerii on SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, will answer viewer questions in a video interview that will go live on SCIFI.COM on Sept. 18.(Note to self: Make sure The Wife is not nearby when googling for Grace Park pics.)Park will discuss the show, the challenges and benefits of playing multiple characters and the possibility of a Battlestar Galactica hockey team.
Park answered questions that were previously submitted by visitors to SCIFI.COM. The video will go live at 7:30 p.m. ET on SCIFI.COM's SCI FI Pulse broadband network.
Posted by John at 12:59 AM
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Today, Amazon has announced their video download service, called Amazon Unbox. They will have TV shows and movies available for downloading, raning in price from $1.99 to $14.99. As a special promotion, Amazon is offering an instant $1.99 rebate. Who not download an episode of your favorite science fiction show? They have some good stuff in there.
Posted by JP at 5:12 PM
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Variable Star, the science fiction novel conceived by Robert A. Heinlein and completed by Spider Robinson, has its own website.
The site offers excerpts - 2 chapters right now, a third added on August 31. Also available, book info, review quotes, author bios, a DVD-extra-like making-of afterword and promotional information like author tour info and a David Crosby song.
The book will be available on September 19th, 2006.
[via Core Dump]
Posted by John at 12:25 AM
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More WorldCon updates from around the blogosphere...
Posted by John at 4:00 PM
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Now arriving at Project Gutenberg: Golden Age Science Fiction!
As tidbit readers are aware, many of the golden age science fiction classics are falling out of copyright and starting to show up on Project Gutenberg. Can you say "free science fiction"? I knew you could.
The Thunder Child has begun compiling a list of free science fiction classics including work by the likes of Victor Appleton (the Tom Swift books), Edgar Rice Burroughs, Terry Carr, Lester Del Rey, Murray Leinster, David Lindsay, A.E. Merritt, Andre Norton, Alan E. Nourse and H. Beam Piper.
[link via MobileRead via TeleRead ]
Posted by John at 1:23 AM
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WorldCon #64 started this week. This is the convention where the Hugo Awards are presented.
Many folks in the blogosphere are attending and posting reports on their blogs. Folks like Andrew Wheeler, Jay Lake, Mark Kelly, Robert J. Sawyer, Cheryl Morgan, Michael L. Wentz and Bad Astronomy (Phil Plait).
There's also more official writeups in Wired Magazine and The Guardian.
Posted by John at 12:49 PM
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Rudy Rucker has announced the launch of a new webzine called Flurb, which boasts some major sf talent. Issue #1's TOC:
Posted by John at 12:20 AM
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John Herman wrote in to tell us that his video blog, The Eye, begins a two-part interview this week with James Patrick Kelly. In this week's episode JPK explains how podcasting enabled a small press book (the Hugo-nominated Burn) to gain notoriety.
James Patrick Kelly seems like a pretty bright guy, you know, considering he misspelled my 4-letter name. I'm just sayin'.
Posted by John at 9:51 PM
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Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine has launched new, web-only content at their website called Off on a Tangent. It's written by Dave Truesdale from the short-fiction review website Tangent Online, hence the column name.
His first article examines the sometimes-controversial reviews that Alfred Bester did for F&SF. Good stuff...
[Via The Slush God, check his post for interesting comments on the PayPal mechanism they are using to woo subscribers.]
Posted by John at 5:10 PM
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No, I'm not talking about JP. Book Mooch is a community for exchanging used books. It uses a points-based system for trading books with other members. The only cost is the postage to mail books to other members. They currently have 2280+ science fiction and fantasy titles. If you hate the thought of discarding books, or are looking for a way to turn unwanted books into future reads, check it out. [Thanks to Trent for the link.]
Posted by John at 12:34 PM
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William Shatner is running a promotional contest through his DVD club where contestants can upload a short video proving why they are the biggest Sci-Fi fan. Video submissions are posted on shatner.blip.tv where other people can watch the videos and vote for their favorites. The winner gets to be the new spokesperson for the DVD club.
Take a look at the video submissions.
[via Slice of SciFi]
Posted by John at 2:21 AM
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With these Star Trek Inspirational Posters. It's too bad they don't have really large .JPGs suitable for printing and hanging on your co-workers doors. Still, That Fight Music is classic!
Posted by JP at 5:15 PM
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The Lost Books website offers thoughtful reviews of out-of-print speculative fiction books. The origin of Lost Books details how it came under the auspices of Orson Scott Card's Hatrack website. While the site is maintained by D.D. Shades who also provides the reviews, there is a nifty selection of guest reviews. Check it out.
[link via A Progressive on the Prairie]
Posted by John at 12:59 AM
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Award-winning zine Emerald City will cease production by the end of the year.
This is actually a decision I took back in early June, well before the most recent attack on the integrity of reviewers. I haven’t been able to announce it until now because announcing a fold just before the voting deadline would undoubtedly have affected the Hugos and that would never do. (I will, of course, decline any nominations I might receive next year.) If I’ve been a little cranky over the past few weeks, now you know why. I’ve just wanted to get the whole thing over with.The reasons for this decision are many and varied. One of the least obvious is that I have a major logistical problem. It simply isn’t possible to run an operation like this when you don’t have a permanent home. In addition, over the past year or so I have become very disillusioned about both the quality of my own work and the general usefulness of online book reviews. The bottom line is that if you don’t think what you are doing is worthwhile then it is very difficult to maintain the level of commitment necessary to produce something like Emerald City.
Posted by John at 1:03 PM
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That would be J. Michael Stracynski of Babylon 5 fame. It seems that JMS dropped quite a few nuggets of information at the recently completed San Diego Comic-Con. In short order, here are the juicy bits:
Posted by JP at 2:45 PM
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The good folks at the United States Post Office - and by "good" I mean "cheap" and by "folks" I mean "clowns that take weeks to read my mail" (I'm still waiting for this month's issue of Locus, Buddy!) - are issuing a set of stamps picturing DC superheroes. The stamp images range from character portraits to specific comic covers.
So now the question is: Which stamp is easier to lick? Wonder Woman or Isaac Asimov?
I'm just sayin'...
Posted by John at 1:56 PM
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John Scalzi has been trolling technorati and came up with version 1.0 of the list of The Top 50 Personal Blogs in SF/F. Of course, all the caveats apply: constantly mobile rankings, traffic versus popularity, etc. Scalzi nicely calls them all out. Check out the comments section as well for some other worthwhile blogs.
Also of note, SF Signal (and other fine blogs) was excluded from the list. But - if we had to toot our own horn - SF Signal would rank at #14! (With the ranking that I just pulled now, hours after Scalzi grabbed his.)
Toot-Toot! Thanks for reading/linking folks!
Posted by John at 12:50 AM
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Here's the height of irony. The cast of SF Signal is being featured on MemeTherapy's Brain Parade feature. And by "cast" I apparently mean "posse".
And as the SF blogosphere's undisputed linkmaster, I'd like to thank MemeTherapy for providing the link fodder.
Posted by John at 10:13 AM
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UPDATE: Whoops! Forgot one: The "Must" Audiobook.
The latest Entertainment Weekly (double issue #884/#885), which contains their "Must List", contains some entries of note for genre fans:
Posted by John at 2:07 AM
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It's time again for the annual Houston science fiction convention known as ApolloCon, taking place this weekend June 23-25, 2006.
The Guest of honor is Peter S. Beagle who was just nominated for a Hugo award for his short story "Two Hearts". Other author guests include Bradley Denton, Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Martha Wells. (See the complete guest list.) The schedule contains a wide variety of talks and events.
[via Easter Lemming Notebook]
Posted by John at 2:59 PM
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GOBELINS is a French animation school that has produced several well done and humorous animated shorts. Burning Safari is one such short, made for the Annecy 2006 international animated film festival. It has spaceships, an exploratory feel, cute robots and monkeys. What's not to like? Take a look!
Update: The YouTube link no longer functions. They must have removed the video. Fear not! I found a link on the Gobelins site and added the link above.
Posted by JP at 2:20 PM
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Those Angry Alien guys are at it again, this time with Superman: The Movie in 30 seconds, as re-enacted by bunnies. (The way it was meant to be seen.) I love these clips. "C'mon Dad, I'll race you!"
Notice that the Angry Alien Superman clip is being hosted by the Starz channel. There's a success story, huh? Why, I remember them when they were young whippersnappers! I also see that some upcoming productions include parodies of Office Space and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sweet!
[Link via Backwards City]
Posted by John at 11:15 PM
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Jonathan Strahan has launched The Coode Street Podcast to promote work that he feels is "worthwhile, noteworthy, or just neat in some way."
The first podcast is "Stealing Free" by by Deborah Biancotti, winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Horror Story, the Ditmar Award for Best New Talent, and the Ditmar for Best Short Story, She describes "Stealing Free" thusly:
"This story is one of those, begun late at night, the broad brush stroked added over several days between work and Life and other projects, but the real guts of it, the meat of the tale, so to speak, requiring another late night to pull itself together. And here - for what it's worth - is an unusual piece on the dutiful Salamander and his odd mixed bag of friends and enemies. Kingfisher. Pelicans. Empress. Monster. Sea Snake. And all their attendants."[via Locus Online]
Posted by John at 1:41 AM
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The June IROSF has been posted. Here's the TOC:
Posted by John at 12:51 AM
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Beginning June 5th, the BBC Radio show 7th Dimension will be running a 17-part reading of John Wyndham's classic The Day of the Triffids. Each part is about 30 minutes making the total piece about 8 hours. For folks outside the UK, the BBC makes the recordings available for 6 days after the broadcast at their Listen Again site.
I read this cozy-catastrophe story several years ago and loved, loved, loved it. Nothing at all like the cheesy movie I saw in my childhood. Thankfully. This is one of those books that you know you are going to read again. Luckily for me, I have since acquired the hardcover SF Masterworks edition of this.
[via SFF Audio]
Posted by John at 12:34 AM
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The first issue of Jim Baen's Universe is now live. The DRM-free e-mag is subscription based, but non-subscribers can get a free preview.
The contents of the first issue is looking sweet:
Science Fiction Stories
Posted by John at 2:18 PM
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Revolution SF has completed their 5-part series on the Top 75 Heroines of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror.
You would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't go read the writeup on each choice. It was done in parts, so they are grouped from 1-10, 11-20, 21-35, 36-55 and 56-75.
For those with short attention spans, here are the Top 10:
Posted by John at 1:33 AM
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Over on Pantsketch, Quirckybird has drawn the cast of Battlestar Galactica, Simpson's style. Very nice. Especially the Dualla/Billy/Apollo sketch. Doh! indeed.
Posted by JP at 4:00 PM
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A couple of Sci Fi Channel bits for you today.
First up, Sci Fi will be launching Pulse, their broadband-centered site for SF content. It looks like they will be taking the stuff they have done with BG, and expanding it in a big way. Every show on SciFi will have broadband content available, they will have an online film festival called Exposure, pilots for possible shows will be online (cool), and users will be able to submit their own videos, sort of a YouTube for SF. All this sounds cool. Let's hope they keep the science fiction part of their name in mind as they move forward.
Second, VXFWorld has a list of upcoming SciFi Channel shows,movies and mini-series. In the series, SNAP and PERSONS UNKNOWN sound intriguing. SNAP definately sounds interesting, if done right. I can't believe they're doing a CHARIOT OF THE GODS mini-series. Please. And the UNKNOWN SCIENCE SKETCH COMEDY show sounds interesting too. All the other stuff is typical big media crap, with focus on the supernatural and 'reality' shows. Still, they at least have a couple of SF themed shows. SciFi may have more definate recordings on my DVR in the future.
Posted by JP at 3:36 PM
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MeetTheAuthor allows you to see and hear your favorite authors in short clips where they discuss one of their titles.
The science fiction selection is a bit sparse at the moment, offering up two authors in nine clips dated between April and December of 2005. Brian Aldiss is seen in six clips (where he discusses Greybeard, Non-Stop, Super-state, The Helliconia Trilogy, Trillion Year Spree and "Supertoys Last All Summer Long") while Neil Gaiman is seen in three clips (discussing Mirrormask, Neverwhere and Smoke and Mirrors).
The 65 clips of Children's authors includes Terry Pratchett (discussing A Hat Full of Sky and The Wee Free Men), Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl:The Arctic Incident) and Diana Wynne Jones (The Merlin Conspiracy).
[via Forbidden Planet]
Posted by John at 11:27 AM
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Nebulous is a funny BBC sci-fi radio comedy described thusly:
The year is 2099. Professor Nebulous returns with his team of inept eco-trouble shooters in the second series of this hilarious sci-fi sit com.Episodes are less than 30 minutes. The "I, Nebulous" episode features the voice of David Warner as the evil Dr. Klench and features lines like "A child's face can say so much. Especially the mouth part." and "...the man who was recently voted the man with most votes." and mentions aliens with "a core of pure antimatter and a thick, chocolate coating." Funny stuff. Those Brits slay me!NEBULOUS 2 continues the adventures of K.E.N.T. - the Key Environmental Non-Judgemental Taskforce in their struggle against alien threat and eco-logical disaster.
Like some strange collision of Doctor Who, Quatermass and Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, series two beams back in with more monsters, more mayhem and more bizarre and inventive plots.
[via Curufea]
Posted by John at 1:27 AM
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A relatively new site profiled today in CNet (via The New York Times) is Zunafish, which is a service that allows it's members to trade between them various types of media; CDs, Movies (DVDs and VHS), video games and books (paperback and audio).
How it works is simple: You enter a list of all the things you want to trade, offer them as trade for like items (books for books, CDs for CDs), then, if the trade is accepted by the other member, each member pays $1 plus shipping for the item. They even calculate the cost and allow you to print a shipping label.
I like this idea. It seems like a great way to turn unwanted stuff into wanted stuff. (Not that I would ever part with a book!) It's gotta beat selling them on the used market - for higher priced items anyway.
A couple of potential downsides. First, the trading is limited to like items. This assumes that people want to trade like items which may not always be the case. Secondly, the trade is a bit inequitable. That Highlander Season Three 8-disc box set counts as a fair trade with, say, Porky's. Of course, both parties must still agree on the trade so I suspect that's not likely to happen. Another potential downside I foresee is dishonesty amongst members. You just can trust the internets. The planned member ratings system will help with that somewhat, I guess.
As Holtzbrinck Online notes, as the site becomes popular it will be interesting to see if publishers cry foul or, with only a weak stick (ahem) to lean on, at least whine a little.
Posted by John at 8:01 PM
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The SciFi Channel website has launched SCIFIPEDIA, a science fiction wiki. Oddly, they didn't grab the scifipedia.com domain name. Although I can't seem to see the RSS feeds, other functionality is there, like categorized wiki browsing and This Day in History (on the main page). Like all wikis, content can be updated by anyone.
It'll be interesting to see how this compares over time with Wikipedia which, right now, has way more content. As an example the Isaac Asimov Wikipedia enrty has much more information the Scifipedia Asimov entry.
[link via Locus Online and Slush God]
Posted by John at 9:30 AM
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I'm not exactly sure what to make of theJedi Chefs. Aside from a bunch of people with too much time on their hands and a penchant for accosting B-list celebrities that is. Still, its rather impressive they managed to persuade several of those celebrities to 'join' their order. And you have to love the hat.
Posted by JP at 1:39 PM
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SciFi Friday is a weekly podcast that rebroadcasts old science fiction radio dramas. Some of the works listed there include Earth Abides by George Stewart (Parts 1 and 2) and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Most of the episodes are replays of the old radio show Dimension X and X Minus 1.
[link via Cynical-C]
Posted by John at 12:12 PM
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James Patrick Kelly, no stranger to podcasting himself, has an Asimov's article called Adventures in Podcasting. In it he envisions a "talknet" of podcasters - much like an audio version of the blogosphere - that will be realized when podcasting comes of age. He also goes on to list some of his favorite podcasts. My favorite bit:
It's been my personal experience, alas, that it's a hell of a lot easier for me to say something stupid than it is to write something stupid; rarely can I listen to an interview I've given without cringing. On some podcasts I've listened to, the quantity of chatter seems to matter more than the quality of thought. Oftentimes these shows will consist of two or more speakers who seem to be modeling themselves on drivetime shockjocks. They interrupt and insult one another, often in the process losing their train of thought. They crack wise about sex and beer and skiffy flicks and reward each other with guffaws in a kind of grotesque comedic codependency.I have to agree with the sentiment in the article that the awkwardness of poor blogs extends into podcast-space. I don't listen to podcasts all that much, but some of the ones I've listened to are mediocre at best. There's a skill involved in speaking just as there is in writing.
Note to self: If we ever do a podcast, fill the airtime with sensuous supermodel-sounding babes to cover any lack of podcasting skills.
Posted by John at 8:12 PM
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I stumbled across an sf-related NPR link and thought it might be time to follow up last year's post Genre Stuff on NPR.
Posted by John at 12:01 AM
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Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine now has a presence on MySpace.
This is interesting. I'm guessing this an attempt to drum up their readership which, sadly, has been declining for all SF/F magazines over the last few years. (So says Locus Magazine.) Getting some face time on mySpace, then, can't be all bad. I suspect this is the doing of F&SF editor John Joseph Adams a.k.a. The Slush God, whose blog, The Slush God Speaketh, is a frequently visited site and newsfeed. (Among other venues, he also writes for the SciFi Channel's SciFi Wire.)
[Link via David Barr Kirtley's LiveJournal]
Posted by John at 2:03 AM
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Hey kids! Have hours and hours of fun with these science fiction and fantasy-related soundboards! Amaze your friends! Impress your enemies! Or, just kill some time.
Posted by John at 11:25 AM
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A couple of news sources are announcing that the Science Fiction Museum has announced the list of 2006 inductees into the Hall of Fame. They are:
Oddly (and as Emerald City points out), there is no mention of this news at the Science Fiction Museum's website. I dislike posting something that could be rumor, but I'm thinking this is more of an "intentional leak".
Posted by John at 5:04 PM
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The March 2006 Internet Review of Science Fiction is available:
Posted by John at 8:03 PM
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MIT's Media-in-Transition program is meant to "exploit some of the accretive, hypertextual and interactive capacities" of the new medium of cyberspace. Between 1997 and 2000, they focused on science fiction hoping to "encourage us to read science fiction as a mode of 'vernacular theory,' aiming to make current debates about new media accessible to a popular audience."
The website includes a 1997 essay Media and Imagination: A Short History of American Science Fiction. From their 3-year run, they have included interviews with these sf authors:
Posted by John at 3:36 PM
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Emerald City points out an oh-so-close-but-not-quite-cool website that maps independent bookstores. Actually, the MapMuse website maps lots of things. For example, here's a look at Houston area used bookstores, a set of establishments with which I am...somewhat...familiar.
The thing that keeps MapMuse from being a truly cool website is that, for some reason, as Tobias S. Buckell points out in the Emerald City post, they are not using the awesome Google Map interface. Grrr! Google Maps are way more responsive and intuitive. People are using the Google Maps API for a reason. Page draws pages between clicks on apps like this is so 2002.
Posted by John at 9:34 PM
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Any Paul DiFilippo fans out there?
Now you can listen to a podcast of Paul DiFilippo's story "Little Worker". Warning: The story is rated X by hosts EscapePod. The timid may prefer a podcast interview with the author over at SmallWorldPodcast.
[Link via BoingBoing]
Posted by John at 1:04 PM
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Australian magazine Cosmos is making its science fiction stories available online. Titles up so far:
Posted by John at 10:34 PM
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Sometimes I feel like I missed the boat on all the cool stuff life has to offer. Or maybe it's more accurate to say I'm behind the wave. Many colleges today offer courses in science fiction. Imagine that! Getting to discuss and learn about science fiction while earning college credit! That sure beats the lame electives from which I was forced to choose.
Professor Courtney Brown PhD of Georgia's Emory University is offering a Political Science course entitled Science Fiction and Politics and he's making the lectures available as a podcast. Available lectures ready for download include Foundation (parts 1 and 2), Foundation And Empire and Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov , Brave New World (parts 1 and 2) by Aldous Huxley (parts 1 and 2) and The Left Hand Of Darkness (part 1) by Ursula K. Le Guin.
[via SFF Audio]
Posted by John at 1:51 PM
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Matrix Magazine is the news magazine of the British Science Fiction Association. The latest issue contains some good reads. Here are some of them:
Posted by John at 1:20 AM
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This is the weekend of the Boskone 43 in Boston, a science fiction convention focusing on literature, art, music, and gaming.
Headlining guests include are Ken MacLeod and Cory Doctorow. Among the panelists for discussions and readings are James Patrick Kelly, George R. R. Martin, Charles Stross, Mike Resnick, John Scalzi, Tobias S. Buckell, David G. Hartwell, Allen Steele, Karl Schroeder, Michael A. Burstein, Paul Levinson, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, John M. Ford, Melissa Scott, Walter H. Hunt, Bob Eggleton, Wen Spencer, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear, Jeffrey A. Carver, Paul Park, Michael F. Flynn, Bruce Coville, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Steven Popkes, James Cambias, and Geoffrey A. Landis.
That's quite an impressive array of names. It makes me wish I was going to be in the Boston area this weekend. I've never been to a sf convention before but the Boskone schedule looks darned interesting. Well...except for Filksinging.
Posted by John at 12:32 PM
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Before podcasts were cool, radio was da bomb.
DataJunkie points to classic radio dramas Dimension X and X Minus 1 which featured radio adaptations of classic science fiction stories. A chronological log of the X Minus 1 broadcasts gives this description of the show:
X MINUS ONE was an NBC science fiction series that was an extension,DataJunkie points to MP3 downloads of these shows:
or revival, of NBC's earlier science fiction series, DIMENSION X.
which ran from Apr. 8, 1950 through Sept. 29, 1951. Both are
remembered for bringing really first rate science fiction to the air.The first X MINUS ONE shows used scripts from DIMENSION X, but soon
created new shows from storied from the pages of Galaxy Magazine. A
total of 125 programs were broadcast, some repeats or remakes, until
the last show of Jan. 9, 1958.
But wait, there's more! Internet archive also collects 50+ episodes of X Minus 1 including adaptations of "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin and Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll". RadioLovers has another collection of 44 episodes of X Minus 1. (Unfortunately, the numbered labels are not very helpful.) You can also buy the episodes in CD.
Posted by John at 12:10 PM
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Quiz Farm has this interesting poll running,
which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
Me? Well, glad you asked. I got the following:
You scored as Moya (Farscape). You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.
What's interesting is that I never really watched Farscape and I certainly don't like it as much as many other people do. I watched the first DVD of Season 1 and just didn't get into it. Possibly it gets better, but I may never know.
I still don't how I manged to be Moya. Although, come to think of it, being a sapient spaceship with muppets inside you can't be all bad....
Posted by JP at 11:14 AM
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New free fiction! [via Free Speculative Fiction Online]
Posted by John at 5:35 PM
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Emerald City brings word that the latest issue of Fast Forward has an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson.
I'm glad I stumbled across this tidbit because, although I've seen this site before, it fell off my radar. Now that I see they have news feeds for their news and interview podcasts, I'll be more in-touch. Interviews are about 15 to 20 minutes long. A look back on just the last 12 months shows they have interviewed some big names:
Posted by John at 6:49 PM
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Here are the contents of the Internet Review of Science Fiction for February 2006
Posted by John at 6:41 PM
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If only Charles Babbage had had LEGO, he may haev been able to create a working LEGO Technic Difference Engine. Oh how different today's world would be. Instead of opening up the world of steampunk, he could have ushered in the era of LEGOpunk and its Danish overlords. I for one would welcome our Danish overlords, especially if their welfare program included LEGOs. Lots of them. Cthulu or not, it doesn't matter.
Posted by JP at 1:43 PM
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A couple of sf-related websites got facelifts this week. The content is the same in both cases, only the appearance has changed. Please do not be alarmed.
First, as previously mentioned, Neil Gaiman's website underwent a redesign at the beginning of this month; a redesign that also included his popular journal and message board. The new site is more "pop" than the old one (downright blog-like, in fact) but those pining for the nostalgic weird can alsways click over to his MouseCircus.
Secondly, The SciFi Channel's Science Fiction Weekly gets a facelift with this week's issue. The front page is more portal-like and contains more than a healthy dose of purple which, I guess, is keeping up with the scifi channel's main page. One of things I like about the redesign is that the new customization features like seeing any number of book reviews in any sort order. (A certain science fiction blog is conspicuously missing from the Site of the Week listing. I'm just sayin'...)
Posted by John at 10:32 PM
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Another intersting mashup, this time using Brokeback Mountain and Back To The Future. Here is Brokeback to the Future. You'll never look at Christopher Loyd the same again!
Posted by JP at 10:19 AM
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Amazon announced a service this week called Amazon Connect that gives authors blog space to post their thoughts. Communication is one-way (no comments allowed) to customers of their books or other members of Amazon Connect. Signup is free for authors. Amazon customers can have a personalized blog (which Amazon calls a "plog") that culls posts from multiiple author blogs.
This is an interesting way to add more content for users. A few months back, Amazon added a Product Wiki that allowed customers to add content about the purchased product; and now this. Seems like my idea took hold. (Yeah, I'm pretty sure sure the credit is all mine. ) More bonus material for the reader is a good thing.
Some authors who already blog are pointing Amazon Blog readers to their own blogs. For example, Tobias S. Buckell.
Posted by John at 7:42 AM
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Tobias S. Buckell and Emerald City point to fledgling website AboutSF which describes itself as "a resource center that provides services related to speculative literature, science fiction, and education." Among other things, the site serves as a way to contact experts on speculative fiction for speaking engagements. They also plan to be a one-stop-shop for SF curriculum resources. Cool.
What's even cooler is their blog posting talks up the planed Curriculum Wiki which will host SF curricula information. This wiki will be open up to the public.
Posted by John at 12:57 PM
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Authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are in the midst of writing Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, the two-volume chronological grand climax to the Dune Saga based on Frank Herbert's outline for 'Dune 7'. The cool thing about this is that they are letting readers in on the process of its creation through the Dune 7 Blog. This is the same thing they did when writing Dune: The Machine Crusade and it was apparently well-received. There are some interesting bits on their blog including three cover paintings and the book jacket copy. KJA even offers a little insight into his being commissioned to write a sequel to A.E. van Vogt's Slan.
[Link via The Alien Online]
Posted by John at 5:00 PM
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SnapShirts is a service that makes T-shirts using tag words. They will even troll your blog (or any website) and find commonly used words. So, natch, I plugged in SF Signal's URL and it generated the following word list:
action age alien author award best better big book books bottom brief character city cons cool different discussion down earth end excellent family fantasy fiction film fun future good half hard help high history home human idea interesting john life light like line little love movie movies mystery note novel novelette novella old one online page pages past people permalink planet plot point pros rating read reader reading robert science sense ship short signal slow society space star stories story style summary synopsis tale technology think thought three time trackback travel two universe war wonder work world writing years youngConspicuously absent from this list is "supermodel". Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.
[Link via LifeHacker]
Posted by John at 1:58 AM
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As anyone who knows me will tell you, I secretly have my fingers crossed that SF Signal will grab a mention in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction anthology series. After all, being exlcuded from his awesome everything-but-the-kitchen-sink summary can only mean we're the kitchen sink!
I think Senior SF Signal fanboy and resident (and much needed) spellchecker Fred @ The Eternal Golden Braid has achieved a similar dose of fame today, for Fred and his blog are mentioned over at Space.com. Way to go, Fred! Now that you're famous, can you give Gardner a call?
Posted by John at 12:09 AM
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Literally. This guy built his home theater room as a replica of the bridge of the Enterprise from the original series. This is scary impressive. Now, I'm not that big of a ST fanboy to want to actually do this too. However, the Death Star themed home theater room (on one of the pages) is a different story. Hopefully, it doesn't come complete with Grand Mof Tarkin foul stench.
How about a Seaquest DSV or B5 insipired theater? Galactica (now or old)? Oh! I know! A Buck Rogers themed one where Twiki is the universal remote!
Posted by JP at 2:00 PM
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Fans of Rube Goldberg, the guy who invents elaborate machines to do simple tasks, will appreciate this short film called Clik Clak. (Shortcut to high and low bandwidth English versions.) In the film, a pair of Goldberg-like robots attempt to teach a boy the right way to "speak".
[via Cartoon Brew]
Posted by John at 4:56 PM
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Lou Anders' latest post, A Princess of Counter-Earth, recounts his intro to science fiction via the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs; specifically A Princess of Mars. Anders' love of ERB and his kind of fiction has apparently influenced his editorial vision of Pyr, his publishing house. First there was Charles Coleman Finlay's Tarzan-like story, The Prodigal Troll. Second (due in May) comes Chris Roberson's Paragaea: A Planetary Romance which takes ERB's Warlord of Mars as its inspiration. Anders' describes the book as "old style pulp fiction" and a "swashbuckling adventure."
To support the book, Roberson has launched the content-rich Paragaea.com, replete with map, character bios and (not least of all) a free prequel novel in its entirety, Set the Seas on Fire, a nautical adventure set during the Napoleonic wars...with zombies! (An SF Signal fave. ) That should whet the apetite for the upcoming sequel, but just in case, Roberson has also posted the first three chapters of Paragaea.
This is something I definitely want to check out, not only because I tend to like the adventure side of the science fiction literary spectrum, but also because I immensely enjoyed Roberson's Here, There & Everywhere.
Posted by John at 12:05 AM
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Who are also FireFox users (fight the powa!), I bring you Book Burro - The Firefox Book Agent. Book Burro will automagically scan the web for the lowest price of whatever book you are looking at. It will even look up the title in a few libraries. Of course for John, BB is almost useless since he trolls the local Half Price Books stores and they don't put their inventory online. But it just might be useful for the rest of us.
Posted by JP at 4:00 PM
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Following on the news about David Gerrold, George Takei will be portraying Sulu in an episode written by David. Also according to the news, Walter Koenig has also signed on to play Pavel Checkov.
Posted by Tim at 10:13 AM
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The BBC ha an audio program available for you to listen to, entitled BBC - Radio 4 - Factual - Confessions of a Crap Artist. It's about Philip K. Dick's 'encounter' in his later life with the being PKD called 'Valis'. Check it!
Posted by JP at 3:01 PM
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Metaxucafe has an interesting post describing how to download the soon-to-be-extinct SCI FICTION website down to your local hard drive. The procedure uses a program called wget which is essentially a command line version of a web browser's save feature.
Posted by John at 12:37 AM
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Slice of SciFi's Summer Brooks and Joe Murphy have a spinoff website/podcast site called The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas. The site focuses on classic science fiction, be it books, TV shows and movies.
As an example, their first show highlights Dan Simmons' Hyperion. The shows may be spoiler-laden so they recommend you read the book first (which, sadly, for Hyperion, I haven't). As of today, 4 more shows are available. One nice feature, they have a pre-show discussion to gage interest level and help contribute. The pre-discussion for the next show is about Battlestar Galactica.
[Link via SFFaudio]
Posted by John at 9:38 PM
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Silent Universe is a new science fiction theater-based podcast beginning February 15th. They describe themselves thusly:
Something like a mix between "24" and the new "Battlestar Galactica," the Silent Universe portrays a future haunted by nuclear proliferation, rogue dictators and terrorism. Fans can listen to the series and also participate in its development by providing feedback to the production team in the "backstage" forums.[via Emerald City]The premiere on February 15th is a high tension character-driven drama that makes no bones about portraying some of the darker aspects of the human psyche, including racism. Still, it can be upbeat enough to poke fun at pop scifi and make the occasional quip about cyberculture, while its heroic cast struggles to keep the solar system from erupting into war.
Posted by John at 10:35 AM
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The boys over at Slice of Sci Fi are asking you (us), the SciFi fans to vote on for your Slice of SciFi Fan's TOP 10 Movies of All Time.
The categores are SciFi, Fantasy/Fable, and Horror/Supernatural. Picks must be sent to them in email, and the winners will be announced in February. Hopefully the fans can come up with some decent lists. Which should include Big Trouble In Little China...
Posted by JP at 8:57 AM
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No, not that empire, the (insert cool topic here)Signal Empire!
First there was SFSignal, which you all know and love, and now, direct from the brain of Scott, comes:
Gaming Signal is dedicated to all things gamings. PC, console, board, card, RPG (pen and paper and computer) and any other type of game we can think of. So, if you're interested, why not take a gander at the new digs. We're still working on the design and layout, but we're posting away over there too! Why not join us?
Posted by JP at 8:37 AM
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Author Jeff VanderMeer has posted his story Experiment #25 From The Book Of Winter: The Croc And You on his weblog. A 'sort of' holiday tale that is.
Read and enjoy!
Posted by JP at 11:33 AM
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Google has released their year-end zeitgeist for 2005, a snapshot of the world's search behavior.
Interesting choice they made on the movies zeitgeist page; Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are the subject of some search-offs. For example, there's the comparison between "The Force" and "Dark Side", between "Skywalker" and "Yoda" and between "Hogwarts" and "Middle Earth".
Posted by John at 1:57 PM
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Bloggasm features a bunch of short sf-related interviews with the likes of Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Tim Pratt, Charlie Stross, Greg van Eekhout, Nick Mamatas, Christopher Rowe, Jay Lake, Alan DeNiro, Jeff VanderMeer and Benjamin Rosenbaum. Not bad for being around only 2 months.
Posted by John at 4:16 PM
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LabLit, a website whose tagline is "the culture of science in fiction and fact", is "dedicated to real laboratory culture and to the portrayal and perceptions of that culture - science, scientists and labs - in fiction, the media and across popular culture." They examine how science is portrayed in the media. Interesting article abound like Math on Film (ala Numb3rs), Child's Play (books for the budding young scientist, nicely grouped by age range) and more. If you like science fiction for the science, check out what real scientists think!
Posted by John at 3:05 PM
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There are a couple of science fiction related contests going on right now
Posted by John at 3:30 PM
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The cool RetroFuture website answers the question (from their FAQ) "what happened to all that futuristic stuff which was supposed to change our lives by the year 2000?"
Marvel at the wonders of Yesteryear's Tommorow! Things like: the 2-Way Wrist Radio, Smell-o-Vision, perpetual sunlight, rocketmail and, of course, flying cars.
Posted by John at 2:03 PM
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Is now Monks Vs. Vikings! A sweet little animated short whereby a monastary is overrun by rampaging Vikings. Funny, brutal, violent and gory, it's got it all. Plus a some mystical monk fu. Created by, I think, Black Bunny Studio in France.
Posted by JP at 2:46 PM
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Tobias S. Buckell has a great idea. He's starting a group wiki, sfnovelists, where sf/f/h writers can do a mindshare on the issues that concern them all. There are some conditions for inclusion, naturally, since the intent is to have a forum for people in the same literary boat. But the idea is a good one. He's using the technology to increase communication - an admirable project by any standard. Not being a writer, I won't get to see all the juicy stuff they talk about. Too bad. I'd love to be a fly on the wall.
Posted by John at 11:34 PM
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Amazon now offers the ability of customers to add content about the purchased product. A new ProductWiki link appears on each product page allowing customers to collaborate on product-related information. And yes, there's even one for the $220 frying pan.
As sf author Tobias Buckell points out, this is pretty cool, even in its early stages. For books, this could be the "bonus material" culled by hordes of ravaging fans, espousing the behind-the-scenes look at the making of the book. Even better if authors contributed. Of course, to do so, the authors would have to purchase their own book. Heh.
Posted by John at 11:24 AM
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Here's another update on the collection of science fiction and fantasy lists that have crossed my path. Many of these have been posted on SF Signal before, but never all in the same place. In no particular order:
Posted by John at 10:11 AM
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Here are a set of websites offering many free online games for your enjoyment.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it does offer a website for each letter in the word Moop.
Posted by John at 6:59 AM
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Back on October 24th, a player in Project Entropia paid $100,00 of actual US dollars for the rights to online space. Literally space in this case - the rights to own an asteroid space resort.
The virtual construct has 1000 Apartment complex, Commercial Space Ship Docking, Themed Shopping Mall, Mega Stadium for championship sporting events, Nightclub with multiple Dance floors, Live Amphitheater, lounges, and 10 Hunting Biodomes. I don't know what all that means in PE, but it sounds like a lot.
Jon can do anything he wants with this space - charging admission to the stadiums and hunting domes, selling or renting access to the apartment complex, selling advertising space (real life commercial advertising) and more. I know that PE allows players to write code and create other games within it, and it looks like Jon believes this will be a good investment for him.
You might remember that this isn't the first time PE has sold online space for real dollars. About a year ago, a guy paid $27k for a virtual island. At the time, the press and blogs panned this as a waste of money. But lo and behold, the PE team announced recently that the virtual island guy has made all his money back through various means (by selling parts of it, mostly.) This year, he's going to focus on ways to get people to pay for things as a way of making a living.
This isn't for me I don't think but it is an interesting development.
Posted by scottsh at 1:39 AM
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Locus Online is reporting that SciFi.com, the website of the SciFi Channel, has announced its intent to "discontinue Sci Fiction, the Hugo Award winning fiction site edited by Ellen Datlow, at the end of 2005."
This is sad news for sf fans and authors alike.
Aside from the recent improvements the SciFi Channel has made with the airing of Battlestar Galactica, SciFiction was the one bright spot in an otherwise weak lineup of offerings. Sure, 24 hours a day is a lot of programming to fill, but seriously, SciFi Channel programming department, Interceptor Force 2? You have become the laughing stock of fanboys and fangirls who would gladly watch your shows if they contained even 1 measly ounce of quality. The one thing you did right was provide quality fiction via the Internet (The Wave of the Future!); fiction that not only won awards, but was increasingly the source of stories included in Year's Best anthologies. It's a damn shame you couldn't find a business model that worked. I suspect your image will suffer more than the savings can buy back in publicity.
The creative team (read: non-executives) behind SciFiction should be commended for an outstanding job in bringing quality sf to the fore. Heck, even bringing us the classic stuff was a great win for the sf community.
Posted by John at 12:46 AM
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I don't really enjoy Penny Arcade (way too many naughty words), but they did a pretty stand-up thing a couple weeks ago by donating $10,000 to the charity Child's Play when Jack Thompson had problems putting his money where his mouth was.
Yeah, this is old news, but I just found out about it last night while listening to Mur Lafferty's Geek Fu Action Grip podcast.
Posted by Kevin at 8:55 AM
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how they work for you really to put a zombie in its place. Lets face it, zombies are darned terrifying critters, and if you get one of them time travelling nazi ones, you may as well scoop out your own brain matter for them. But just in time for Halloween, our friends at How Stuff Works have come to our rescue with a crash course in How Zombies work. And now you know.
Posted by Tim at 10:27 AM
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No, not another Star Wars parody. Steam Wars is a site that showcases some artwork depicting steam-driven robots. And who doesn't like steam-driven robots? Seeing this makes me want to watch Sky Captain and Iron Giant again.
[via Planet Magazine]
Posted by John at 11:25 AM
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This time telling the story of Zero Wing sung to the tune of Queen's ubiquitous hit.
Zig! For great justice!
Posted by JP at 7:54 PM
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Where else but the vast and shameless internets can you see the first season of Lost summarized to the Queen hit song, Bohemian Rhapsody, as song by Weird Al? No where, that's where! Gotta loves the internets.
Posted by JP at 8:43 PM
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TV Squad is an umbrella blog for all things TV. Their coverage is all over the dial (does anyone remember TV dials?) and they have categories for individual shows with episode-by-episode entries for Battlestar Galactica (not to be confused with the official BG blog), Invasion, Lost, Smallville (not that I watch it or anything), Stargate, Supernatural, Surface, The 4400 and Threshold.
Posted by John at 1:17 PM
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I find that I'm now using Google Maps for directions instead of the traditional MapQuest or Yahoo Maps. I'm also starting to use some of the other features as well like, say, mapping bookstores in Houston (as if I didn't already know where they were).
But Google maps has lots of other cool uses. People have developed web applications that use Google maps to do some interesting things like help you find cheap gas, locate housing, track your website visitors and (perhaps most important of all) locate a New York City pizza joint. There are lots more - the Google Maps Mania blog tries to list them all. These "mash maps" are usually useful, although there are plenty of questionable efforts like the UFO Sightings mash map. Engadget even shows you how to make your own and O'reilly Radar provides a series of map-hacking goodies.
Are you Google-Mapping yet?
Posted by John at 9:10 AM
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The Visual Index of Science Fiction Cover Art was used to make the experimental interface at A Few Thousand Science Fiction Covers.
Wow. I can't say this is a useful interface. I'm sure it might have some applications for a smaller number of items, but a thousand? Yikes!
Not that any of that stopped me from clicking on some of the covers, though.
[Link via del.icio.us]
Posted by John at 10:45 AM
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Wondering What to Read Next? Try asking this website. Type in an author name and a book title and the site will offer a list of recommended titles to read next, as suggested by readers' lists of favorite authors and titles. The thinking behind the site is that if one person likes author A and B, anyone else who likes author A will also like author B. More weight is given to associations made multiple times across different lists.
For kicks, I types in some books I liked. Here are the recommendations:
For Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
Posted by John at 1:08 AM
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Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, due in October, is a new web-based magazine put together by the sf author himself. The mag proposes to "really use the power of the web" and will feature audiobook fiction. The mag also proposes to break the limitations of a print magazine by adding content to any given issue up until the next issue is published.
Posted by John at 7:21 AM
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A new website called PaperbackSwap promises to build the largest library in the world.
It's an online book club where you list books you want to trade to get credits which you in turn use to get books from other members. You don't pay for anything except postage - when another member requests your book, you mail it to them (~$1.50 in postage). There is currently no fee for this service, but there will be one eventually. The video and small print on the website explains it in more detail.
Posted by John at 1:11 PM
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Yes, you can learn about these two characters and many more by listening to the episodic SF podcast called The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd. It is a series of 4 to 6 minute episodes done in that "old time radio" style (as per their webpage.) I have listened to the first two seasons and these guys have a formula that works. Its family friendly and educational too - plus its darned funny. If you have not really listened to a podcast, this would be a great one to start with.
Posted by Tim at 11:19 AM
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Google has launched a blog search. It's About time. Sites like Feedster, DayPop and Tecnorati have been around for a while.
In addition to the standard Google GUI, there's also a Blogger-style interface. Results include all blogs, not just Blogger blogs. Or, more precisely, it includes all blogs that have an RSS feed.
My acid test, of course, is searching for the term "science fiction", which in this case yields some fine results. Now, if only they would put an RSS feed on that so I can see when new results come in...
Posted by John at 10:06 AM
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I've posted about Michel Gagne's work before, without know about his early film Prelude to Eden. PtE was Gagne's attempt to do animation in the Gagne style, whatever that turned out to be. The end result is an epic battle between opposing forces which results in, well, you'll see. I love the look of this short. It's beatifully drawn with vibrant colors and whimsical characters, plus its got lots of action and a hint of anime. I highly recommend you spend the three minutes to watch it. I must acquire more of his work.
Posted by JP at 7:45 PM
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Check out the fan parody of Firefly, called Mosquito. This 10 minute film takes the form of a behind the scenes documentary of the short lived TV series, Mosquito. Very funny, especially the part about the Canadians and Ukranians being the 'meek' who inherit the Earth.
Still waiting for Sept. 30th...
Posted by JP at 7:31 PM
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From those crazy guys at The Dragon Page, we hava link to some fan fiction from the Star Trek univers. The web site is called To Boldly Go, and apparently its "pretty good".
Posted by Tim at 9:53 AM
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Chris Doyle has done the unthinkable, and extremely cool, by creating a model of the Serenity in LEGOs. Yes, LEGOs. He created the thing himself and also created little LEGO crewmembers. Most excellent. I think the best part though is that the model lights up. Oh yeah, LEGOs and electricity.
Posted by JP at 4:56 PM
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From Scribblingwoman, we get this delightful selection of Klingon Fairy Tales. Very humorous. My favorite? Glad you asked:
"The Three Little Pigs Build an Improvised Explosive Device and Deal With That Damned Wolf Once and for All"
Posted by JP at 6:52 PM
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A brand spanking-new website, Alien Ethos, will discuss ethical issues in science fiction. Visitors are encouraged to comment in their forum.
Here are some topics I wouldn't mind seeing:
Posted by John at 10:26 AM
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Library Thing is a website that allows you to catalog your books online. You can catalog up to 200 books for free or, with a $10 lifetime membership fee, up to 20,000 books. Each book is taggable so you can categorize, search and sort. Exporting to CSV format is also supported.
UPDATE: Reader2 is a similar site -- it uses tagging to track books you have, like or want to read. This is a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us.
Posted by John at 4:27 PM
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SciFi Wire has an entry today about Karl Schroeder's newest book, Lady of Mazes and how its actually a warning about how technology will disrupt the political process in today's society. I say, "Whatever." (ok, not really. That's all well and good and interesting but I'm not in a political SF frame of mind right now...)
The real nugget in this story is at the bottom. It seems Mr. Schroeder is at work on a new story, Sun of Suns, which he calls a Newtonian Space Opera, with wooden ships, pirates and swordfights, but set in a world without gravity. I say, "Arr me harty, bring it on!".
Posted by JP at 2:52 PM
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I have yet to install and play with Google Earth, but this video showcasing some of its capabilities looks way cool!
Posted by John at 2:43 AM
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And you thought SF was only for squid! Not so. Octopus Pulp! shows us old pulp SF covers featuring octopuses (octopi?) in all their science fictiony glory.
Posted by JP at 3:17 PM
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We have several interesting sites for you today, all involving Mars.
First up, The Mars Homestead Project is a group researching a plan to colonize Mars, using local Martian materials. They have technical document, forums and images available for your perusal.
Second, Red Colony is a site for people interested in colonizing and/or terraforming Mars. Lots of up to date info on Mars. They also have lots of links to Mars related stuff.
And last, but not least, our own Fred "Real Men Don't Eat" Kiesche is heavily involved in Martian Soil and toils endlessly to bring you the latest news covering the exploration of Mars.
Now all we need is someone to get us to Mars so I can go there. Too bad NASA got hit by the budget crunch in the late '70s. No telling where we'd be today. Instead, we get an agency that is unwilling to take risks and lacks a coherent vision for its future direction. I'm not sure if the private sector has the resources to do much more than to get us into orbit. I hope so, because I'd love to make it at least as far as Earth orbit before I die. Even if I do throw up.
Posted by JP at 9:47 AM
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Gravity Lens points us to the website Sci-Fi Science Blunders which lists scientific errors made in science fiction. It hasn't been updated in a while (Bad Astronomy, however, is still being updated) but it's still a decent site. I'm sure there are lots more infractions than are listed here.
Science blunders in science fiction, assuming you catch them, are potential story killers depending on the reader/viewer. A scientific fallacy might be easily dismissed or it might be the thing that stops you from reading/watching. Suspension of disbelief can be shattered if, say, a planet scan determines the surface temperature to be -280º C. Some people are annoyed with explosions in the vacuum of space. Whatever the reader's willingness to let it slide, realistic science makes for good science fiction.
Posted by John at 8:01 AM
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Here's a cool-looking science fictiony web site called Yesterdayland that harkens back to the days of classic scifi. It's got some real fancy-shmancy animation and controls...
The bad news is that its an ad for MS SQL Server and Visual Studio.
[Link via Ed Bott]
Posted by John at 1:27 PM
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No really, Talking Squids in Outer Space is just that. A web site devoted to squids in SF. I have to admit that my squid SF reading is sadly lacking. Although, I have read Manifold: Time and the first two books in the Rifters Series by Peter Watts, and squids were in Galaxy Quest? I must have missed them or, more likely, have forgotten.
Who knew that cephalodpods were so versatile? A tasty (so I'm told) appetizer and intrepid space explorers. Not bad for a creature with no spine!
Posted by JP at 12:52 PM
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As I am listening to the most recent This Week in Tech podcast, I hear an interview with Bob Young, the former CEO of Red Hat, discussing his newest venture. That venture is LuLu. This allows authors the ability to self publish and consumers can then acquire books on demand either in print or in an ebook format. They have a section dedicated to Sci Fi/Fantasy. So a question to those authors who visit us and share thier wisdom, would this change the way you release a novel or would you ever consider this as a mechanism for distribution...
Posted by Tim at 10:19 AM
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In an attempt to prove that my PSP is more useful than simply an overpriced gameboy, I have found a link to NYC2123 which is a graphic novel rendered specifically for the PSP. The promo claims its a cyberpunk novel and I will download the first issue tonight...
Posted by Tim at 9:56 AM
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Microsoft is palying with RSS in a new portal page called Start/3 (This is version 3. See also version 1 and 2.) It uses Passport, natch. Oh, and it accepts OPML files so you can import all your favorite RSS feeds.
[Link via TechBlog]
Posted by John at 1:14 AM
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I never really looked all that deeply at the politics espoused in Firefly, but Sara Hinson did. She concludes that Firefly is advancing a very libertarian worldview, and I agree to a certain extent. What I can say is that now I want to rewatch the TV series in advance of the upcoming movie.
And maybe get the comics, being the fanboy that I am....
Something Shiny to JohnL at TexasBestGrok from the link!
Posted by JP at 7:50 PM
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Eric Joyner has a collection of his Robot paintings on his site for your perusal. Very cool stuff there. And what's more interesting, you can follow the development of the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em painting at The Sneeze, which also shows the development of the I/O JIMA painting. Cool stuff.
Posted by JP at 10:17 AM
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Review aggregator website Metacritic has been bought by CNet. Not entirely sure what this means, the press release is way too long. I scanned it real quick but didn't see my name so someone give this a read and let me know how it affects me.
Posted by John at 2:57 PM
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Finally, the perfect accessory to the nerdy T-Shirt. It's the Pac-Man Hat!
Nothing else says "Stay away, ladies" quite as loudly.
[Link via Gizmodo]
Posted by John at 9:09 AM
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For all you MST3K fans (curse you Sci-Fi Channel!), you may enjoy looking at the poster art for the movies featured on the show. In fact, check out the entire website for more MST3K . Excuese me while I go breathe and just relax.
Posted by JP at 8:55 AM
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Before today's subway system in New York City was built, there was another attempt to create an underground transit system. This system was the Beach Pneumatic Transit Company. Yes, that's right, pneumatic trains filled with people were pushed along underground tracks using the same principle of compresses air propulsion like you see at bank drive-through windows or the message system in Brazil. Sadly, for various reasons, this system never made it past the early couple of stations.
I know, not SF, but still an extremely cool example of Victorian Era technology. I could see this concept being used in an alternate history story, along with working Babbage Engines and the like.
Posted by JP at 7:35 PM
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Slice of SciFi points us to a website called Roll Call subtitled an "(In)Complete Guide to every Science-Fiction Character who was ever killed". The emphasis here is on the (In). Many popular characters are missing yet, strangely, many characters from V are present.
More interesting, I thought, was the sister site Never Forget subtitled the "(In)Complete Guide to every Science-Fiction Television Series screwed over by Hollywood." An ominous omission is Firefly (an SF Signal fave) and a suspicious inclusion is Galactica 1980. But! I did learn that Allan Cole and Chris Bunch (authors of the Sten series of books) wrote for Galactica 1980, which is confusing because Sten was good and Galactica 1980 sucked. This news gave me the same WTF? feeling I got after learning that Theodore Sturgeon and David Gerrold wrote for Land of the Lost.
Another interesting page by the same webmasters is Ways I'd improve the Sci-Fi Channel. I think we can all relate.
Posted by John at 2:27 PM
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Launched 2 days ago, 365 Tomorrows is "a collaborative project designed to present readers with one new piece of short speculative fiction each day for one year. Utilizing the broad palate of science fiction, our vision of the future creates a diverse pool of stories with something for everyone to enjoy." They're super-short so if you need a quick fix...
The archives acts as a table of contents, but the site seriously needs some previous/next navigation. [Link via WatEotU]
Posted by John at 8:43 AM
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Tales of Colossus is a new giant comic book from Pixar animator, M. Andrews. It takes place in a medieval setting, with castles, siege engines, swords and a giant, well, Colossus. The cover looks stunning and the rest looks rather cool too. It's from E-Ville Press and you should check it out if you like this sort of thing.
Posted by JP at 8:31 PM
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So once again, the Internet Archive comes through with quality, old-school pulp SF action. This time they have the first 12 chapters of
Radar Men From The Moon available for you viewing pleasure. If you enjoy the old time pulp SF serials, get thee to the Internet Archive!
Posted by JP at 1:36 PM
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The RC Groups discussion forums has a cool thread about people who have created replica Star Wars ships in remote control format. The Falcon model is sweet and has lots of pictures covering its making. Now, if i were the type to make my own Star Wars props (say, a Stormtrooper Halloween outfit), I'd probably try to do this too. But I'm not, so I won't.
Still, it is cool to look at the pics...
Posted by JP at 7:25 PM
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Yes, you too can have a Star Trek screensaver. It uses sounds and images that look quite nice on my PC and they also have a MAC version for you zealots out there ( you know who you are.)
Posted by Tim at 9:52 AM
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As usual, the stuff that I post has very little, if at all, to do with SciFi/Fantasy (just wondering when they're going to take my posting rights away...) and this one is no different; but in my own defense, this is too cool not to share...
By the way, here is his website even though it has fewer 3D stuff...
Now, back to our regularly scheduled SF/F programming...
Posted by at 9:29 PM
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Not that I have anything against PDF format or anything, but MobileRead points us to a handy site called PDF Online that will convert PDF files to HTML in addition to converting a variety of formats into PDF. According to MobileRead:
...you can also upload an existing PDF file to receive back its HTML version via E-Mail (only restriction: 2MB size limit).I'm just sayin'.
Posted by John at 8:28 PM
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Thanks to those lovely folks at Engadget, I have no learned of a animitronic squirrel that will screen your incoming cell calls. The design uses bluetooth and is part of a student's work at MIT and I am so proud of those youngsters these days...
Yes, I know its not SF, but its an animitronic squirrel darned it...
Posted by Tim at 8:28 PM
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Google has released a free desktop software program to get you access to a huge amount of planetary imagining data - for free. I'm not sure how this (and their other free software such as Picasa and Goggle Desktop) generates revenue for Google shareholders, but I have to admit the software is pretty cool. They do sell and upgrade for $20 US per year that offers integration with GPS trackers.
Posted by scottsh at 1:53 PM
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The Spoken Alexandria Project is a library of free, Creative Commons tagged, audio stories for your enjoyment. They come in a variety of flavors, including podcasts. The first story listed is an SF short story by Kelly Link called Most of My Friends Are Two-Thirds Water. I need some of those, most of my friends are two thirds rocks. At least in the cranial area.
This is an excellent use of technology and more open copyright rules. I'd like to see more authors do this, even if its just extracts of their novels. More exposure is a good thing.
Posted by JP at 12:16 PM
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David Langford, author of the monthly UK zine Ansible, also writes for the UK mag SFX. Thanks to Big Dumb Object, I now know that Langford's SFX columns are posted online. I've picked up a few issues of SFX here in the states. It's a good magazine (even though it's import price of $9 is a little steep) and Langford's column was always fun to read.
Posted by John at 8:05 AM
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Or, more specifically, Statler & Waldorf from the balcony. Yes that's right. The two old, crotchety guys review upcoming movies based on their trailers. Quite humorous, especilly Pepe the Prawn, who has the best lines in this episode. Hopefully, they will continue to do this as its much more interesting than your typical review show!
Posted by JP at 8:09 PM
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CNN (of all places), has joined the ranks of podcasting. Which would earn a 'meh' from me, except! they have a program entitle Hollywood's Sci-Fi Summer. It examines Hollywood's use of SF in summer movies and they interview Harlan 'I'm a bit on the crotchety side' Ellison and Bruce Sterling, among others. Check it out!
Brought to you by the l33t f0lx at /.
Posted by JP at 9:01 AM
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I'm curious to know what other science fiction (and/or fantasy and/or Horror) websites people visit regularly. (Besides this one, of course! )
Most of the websites I visit regularly are listed over in our Links section on the main page, but generally they fall into categories, sometimes one site falling in several categories as listed below.
What about you? Are there any worthy websites you like that aren't listed here?
NEWS SITES
The best sources for original science fiction news are those places who make a living reporting it. So I frequently hit up Locus Magazine and SciFi Wire. (Science Fiction Weekly is just a summary of the past week's news.)
Other sites (SF Signal included) collate the news from these and other sources. While not original information, the one-stop-shopping is nice. SF Crowsnest is good for SF news in the UK although its propensity for popups is starting to irritate. Solar Flare has been stepping up a bit in terms of news posts as well.
BLOGS
SF Blogs can be interesting. SF bloggers post two different kinds of information - news and opinions - sometimes in the same post. The news, as mentioned above, is usually just a rehash of what's easily found elsewhere (with a link and a hat-tip). That's fine for blogs like ours where we have a community of people with whom we want to share the news. But the opinion is usually the more interesting content. Even better when it's not just a rant for the sake of ranting, but an honest opinion or reflection based on the topic. Better still when the topic starts a conversation by several contributors.
There are several SF blogs I like to visit regularly. Matthew Cheney's Mumpsimus and Jonathan Strahan's Notes From Coode Street are always good reads. Big Dumb Object is another frequent stopping place and a good source for UK news as well. John Scalzi's Whatever blog is another favorite as of late. I frequently visit the consistent content of SciFi Dailyand Sci-Fi Ranter Girl, but I'm a bit confused by The Dragon Page blog since they started podcasting via their more popular Slice of SF site. Other blogs, while not solely science fiction, do offer the occasional science fiction tidbit; sites like The Eternal Golden Braid, TexasBestGrok, Spacecraft and Voyage to Arcturus.
MAGAZINE SITES
I call sites that tend to release a new version of their categorized websites at predetermined intervals "Magazine Sites". (Oddly, I don't place the website for Locus Magazine here because they focus on daily news and tidbits - the real content is in the printed magazine.) SciFi Weekly (updated every Monday or Tuesday) is usually a must-read as is SF Site (updated twice a month). The UK-based Alien Online is also fun to read and updated more often than most. Revolution SF is both interesting and funny. The Internet Review of Science Fiction always has some thoughtful discussion but, alas, is published on a monthly schedule. Emerald City is another mag site. Then there are the online versions of the print magazines: Asimov's , Analog and Fantasy & SF.
FREE FICTION
There are many places (some mentioned in other sections) for free fiction, but the most comprehensive collector of this fiction has got to be Free Speculative Fiction. I've snagged many a short story through this site. (A simple conversion via the MS Word eBook converter to store eBooks on my PDA and I'm good to go!) Infinity Plus is another site I visit when looking for original short fiction, although it used to be updated much more frequently.
REVIEW SITES
Occasionally I like to read reviews that others have written. (So I can steal their opinions, reword it using John-speak, and publish it as my own. Just kidding...or am I? ) Two of the best sites for short fiction reviews are Tangent and Best SF. Mark Watson at Best SF has a great review archive of anthologies. After I review older anthologies myself, I like to go there and compare notes. Evil Androids and Fantastica Daily are good, too, and both offer news items as well.
LINK SITES
I find lots of exciting SF-related stuff through link sites (sites whose main content are links to things - things you may want to bookmark or email to people). Usually, these sites are not strictly science fiction sites and they offer other good stuff too. Gravity Lens is a good one in this category. Although GL's Jeff is not as...spirited...on his own site as he is in these pages, his links are always interesting. I look forward to the first of every month where Jeff lists the [whatever]-of-the-month. Website at the End of the Universe does a good job of picking a current topic/link/story and finding lots of related information. Boing Boing, one of the most popular blog ever, puts anything and everything on their pages. Best is to subscribe to their newsfeed to wade through the noise. The best posts there are Cory Doctorow's science fiction related posts although I think others disagree with my assessment as just about everything else they post is reverberated throughout the blogsphere for days.
RESOURCE SITES
The value of some sites is not in their fresh content at all. Locus Magazine offers The Locus Index to Science Fiction and The Locus Index to Awards. The index lets you search for stories and novels by author, collection, anthology or whatever and shows the publication history. The Awards site lets you see all nominees and winners sorted by year, author, award, category and more.
SciFan's from page is not updated very often, but you can be sure that things are being added to their database frequently. SciFan collects comprehensive bibliographical information for authors and also lists books in a series. Their themes pages were a great way to find an if-you-like-that-then-you'll-like-this book.
Other useful resource sites are Classic SF (for a listing of currently-playing science fiction on TV) and SF Resource Guide. The Resource Guide hasn't been updated in years, but the content it contains (too much to mention here) is still valuable.
Posted by John at 12:36 PM
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BrickJournal is toutted as the magazine for Adult Fans of LEGO. Its sort of like MAKE magazine, but for LEGO fans. The first issue is available for download (PDF). Now we just need to make a LEGO HAL...
Posted by JP at 8:33 PM
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Get ready for some cool futurama panoramas. A bunch of panaromas stitched together (I'm assuming) from frames of the show. Cool any way you slice it.
Posted by JP at 8:26 PM
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Sci-Fi Ranter Girl adds to my "things to check out" list with link to The SciFi Podcast Network. It's a collection of science fiction related podcasts.
I've listened to some podcasts before. And by "listened" I mean "played them in the background while occasionally fast-forwarding because they were too long". JP suggested once that SF Signal should podcast. An intriguing idea, to be sure, but is the world really ready to hear my whiny voice? I imagine there are other challenges as well, like how do we convert Dan's big ASCII head to audio?
Posted by John at 8:11 AM
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Hey look! The Onion A.V. Club has a interview with voice actor Billy West (Futurama, Ren & Stimpy).
Posted by John at 1:32 PM
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Dark Horse Comics is publishing a web comic of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Its an abridged adaptation of the classic story, with a new chapter released every Friday. Chapter 1 is available now.
Among the other interesting items on the site:
All very cool, and just in time to refamiliarize yourself with the original story before the Spielberg/Cruise duo production arrives in theaters, which I admit, I'm kinda looking forward to seeing.
Posted by JP at 10:16 PM
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[Free Association Mode: ON]
I'm currently reading Robert Silverberg's Star of Gypsies, a reprint from Pyr, a Prometheus Books imprint led by sf author/editor Lou Anders. The book, like the other Pyr books I've read, features excellent cover art from artist/designer John Picacio. I really like Picacio's style. The home page for Picacio's website features the way-cool artwork he did for Anders' Live Without A Net anthology. BTW, you should check out Lou's blog for insightful articles in the world of science fiction and publishing.
[Free Association Mode: OFF]
Posted by John at 11:32 PM
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This time from WEIRD TALES. Its in French, which is why you may not be able to read all of the pages, but!, the covers are scans of the magazines, and the story listings are in English. Plus it covers the years from 1923-1943. There's a lot of, well, weird covers here.
Enjoy.
Posted by JP at 2:34 PM
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From Gizmodo, we find a link to a Squirrel Flask. Thats right, its a dead squirrel converted to a decanter for beverages. And people say that innovation is dying - I fully embrace this move and plan to build me a Skunk Lotion Container to go with my Muskrat toothpaste dispenser.
Posted by Tim at 9:52 AM
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Need help understanding a piece of classic literature? Surely you've heard of Cliffs Notes. There's also another line of learning books called SparkNotes published by Barnes & Noble.
What I found interesting is that both of their websites offer free and complete content online for many titles like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land
SparkNotes even offers notes on movies like Spirited Away, The Lord of the Rings, A Clockwork Orange and, perhaps needed most of all, The Matrix Trilogy.
Posted by John at 12:52 PM
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If you've been hanging around JP, John, or I in the last couple of weeks you've heard one or all of us lament the lack of access to TV shows on demand on the web. Why aren't all of ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox's* shows available for on demand viewing on the web? I know I'd certainly watch - complete with commercials - if I got to see episodes of shows I've missed.
Well, it turns out Google might be coming to the rescue of the various H
