A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
Interviews & Profiles
Interviews & Profiles
Now available is the ebook novella Cahill’s Homecoming written by none other than our own Patrick Hester!
Here’s the synopsis:
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Interviews & Profiles
I wasn’t planning on watching The Hunger Games, but since I have a daughter, it was kinda required. I was pleasantly surprised. The following trailer for the sequel looks decent, though it probably doesn’t matter much as I will be required to watch this one as well.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever.
Release: November 22, 2013
The winners of our giveaway for Blood Trade by Faith Hunter have been chosen and notified.
Congratulations to:
You will be receiving your prizes soon!
“[R]eading is as much a strategic enterprise as the work itself. To read, then, is to engage in one set of strategies in order to decipher another set.” – Terry Eagleton, The Event of Literature, p. 185.“Imagination and reality can be in cahoots, not at daggers drawn.” – ibid, p. 127.
I’ve been ill for the past several weeks and not writing very much, but I have been doing some reading, and I just finished Terry Eagleton’s new book The Event of Literature. It is a sometimes snarky, often erudite discussion of what literature is and is not, and a wide-ranging discussion of ways to conceive of literature and the significance of doing so. As I read I couldn’t help but think not just of the idea of literature writ large, but of the subset of fantastic literature. Reading the book (which I recommend to anyone who wants to think more about the meaning of literature, the self, and the life of the mind) stimulated my thinking on the nature of fantastic literature, and what I want to do this week is to present some of those thoughts and consider how they might relate to the reading of fantastika.
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In this bizarre but captivating animation by Patrick Smith, “masked men exploit an edible smaller species as a renegade scientist perfects a cloning process to satisfy demand, but the clones conceal a destructive secret.” This is Smith’s visualization of musician Karl von Kries’ seven minute audio score.
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Here’s the (NSFW) red-band trailer for Kick-Ass 2, which hits theaters August 16, 2013.
The costumed high-school hero Kick-Ass joins with a group of normal citizens who have been inspired to fight crime in costume. Meanwhile, the Red Mist plots an act of revenge that will affect everyone Kick-Ass knows.
The film stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Moretz, Jim Carrey, Lyndsy Fonseca, Yancy Butler, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo, Lindy Booth, Olga Kurkulina. And…wait for it…Nicolas Cage apparently makes a cameo. My guess is he plays someone crazy.
Interviews & Profiles
Interviews & Profiles
In the interest of full disclosure, here are the books we received this week.
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In the interest of full disclosure, here are the books we received this week.
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In the interest of full disclosure, here are the books we received this week.
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Check out the cover art and synopsis of the Karen Lord’s next novel The Best of All Possible Worlds.
Cover art shown here. Here’s the synopsis:
When Grace Delarua, civil servant of the government of Cygnus Beta, is assigned to work with Dllenahkh from the new Sadiri settlement, her routine job suddenly becomes very interesting. Formerly the galaxy’s ruling elite, Dllenahkh and his group of Sadiri refugees are the excess males of a decimated population, desperate in their search for stability, security … and wives. Some people would let the Ministry of Family Planning handle the matchmaking duties, but Dllenahkh, conscientious as ever, decides to track down the descendants of previous Sadiri settlers.
Grace gets swept along on a year of travel and discovery that changes her life completely and challenges the very idea of what it means to be Cygnian or Sadiri. The Best of All Possible Worlds is Grace’s journal, and a story about survival and identity on several levels – individual, familial, national, global, and human.
Book info as per Amazon US:
George Mann has posted the UK cover art and synopsis of his upcoming Newbury & Hobbes novel The Executioners Heart. I’m excited about this one, as I’ve read the other stories and enjoyed them very much.
Here’s the synopsis:
A serial killer is loose on the streets of London, murdering apparently random members of the gentry with violent abandon. The corpses are each found with their chest cavities cracked open and their hearts removed. Charles Bainbridge, Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, suspects an occult significance to the crimes and brings Newbury and Veronica in to investigate.
Book info as per Amazon UK:
Small Beer Press has sent along the table of contents for Ursula K. Le Guin’s upcoming multi-volume collection Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin.
Here’s the description:
Ursula K. Le Guin’s stories have shaped the way many readers see the world. By giving voice to the voiceless, hope to the outsider, and speaking truth to power—all the time maintaining her independence and sense of humor—she has proven herself one of our greatest writers. This two-volume selection of Le Guin’s stories — as selected by the author — omits stories directly connected to novels. The first volume, Where on Earth, focuses on Le Guin’s interests in realism and magic realism and includes stories from The Compass Rose, Orsinian Tales, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Buffalo Gals, Searoad, and Unlocking the Air. The companion volume Outer Space Inner Lands includes Le Guin’s best known nonrealistic stories. Both volumes include new introductions by the author.
And here’s the table of contents for both volumes…
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Last night, NBC premiered an extended preview of J.J. Abrams’ new post-apocalyptic series premiering this Fall. Revolution is set in a near-future world 15 years after the world loses power.
Check it out after the jump and tell us what you think…
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Director Jake Schreier’s Robot & Frank was unveiled at the Sundance Film Festival and picked up by Sony. I have to admit, this (probably spoilery) trailer won me over instantly.
Robot & Frank is about an aging jewel thief (Frank, played by Frank Langella) who is suffering from dementia. His son (James Marsden) buys him a robot companion (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard)…who Frank then teaches to commit crimes. The film also stars Liv Tyler as Frank’s anti-robot daughter and Susan Sarandon as Frank’s love interest.
Watch this trailer and tell me it’s not charming…
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