A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
Not that James at Big Dumb Object trolls Star Wars sites or anything, but he does inform us of a new SW webdoc called Pickups & Reshoots (for non-Hyperspace members). All of the episode III webdocs offer fleeting glimpses of the movie for the crazed fanboy, admitted or in-denial.
Filed under: Star Wars
Prepare to feast your eyes on the Hasselhoffian Recursion.
Excuse me while I go find the pieces of my sanity.
Filed under: Humor
The Austin Chronicle has a fairly short article about the upcoming PKD movie, A Scanner Darkly. Its got a little info on the innder workings of the production company, Detour Film Production, some new screen caps of the movie (small!), and a plea for more artists at the end. Check it.
Filed under: Movies
by Lois McMaster Bujold
REVIEW SUMMARY: 2 novels and a novella from Bujold that really delivers.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: This book contains 2 novels, The Warrior’s Apprentice and The Vor Game, and a novella named “The Mountain’s of Mourning.” The novella is the real gem here (oh and surprise, it won both Hugo and Nebula awards) but the books are very good too (Vor won the Hugo.) I hate to give anything away from the plot though – know that this details the beginning of Miles’ career where he takes over a band of mercenaries and rescues his Emporer.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great story-telling, deep characters, and sci-fi that is integral to the plot but not overwhelming. Miles’ exhibits elements of Horatio Hornblower and The Mercer Boys. Bujold also has a dry wit that works.
CONS: Nobody would confuse this with Gene Wolfe, but so what – the thing is just flat out fun to read.
BOTTOM LINE: Excellent story – definately worth the read.
Filed under: Book Review
Google is finally doing something about blog spammers who use links back to their websites in order to increase its search ranking. Finally!
Filed under: Computers
In March, Mongoose Publishing will be releasing a 30mm tabletop miniature game based on the novel Starship Troopers. The bugs look really cool. But with only 3 ‘sides’ to play (human, bug, skinny) will it be that interesting? And at $75 for the initial box set, I’m not that interested to find out. Still, bringing powered armored grunts to live can’t be all bad.
Filed under: Games
Official Theoretical Physicist of SFSignal, Michio Kaku, has an interesting article in the U.K.’s Prospect Magazine about how a civilization could escape the death of the universe by fleeing to another dimension. He touches on an earlier article about the types of civilizations that may be achieved, given enough time and tenacity.
This is some heavy duty stuff here. I like the suggestions for how to actually achieve the dimensional migration. I was reminded of Twistor and a book by Bear or Benford (can’t remember which) where a baby universe is created in the lab and it proceeds to start expanding into ours. Lots of cool ideas here. Any other books that you can think of that deal with the subject of leaving this dimension/universe for another? They don’t have to be good, but please note if they are!
Filed under: Science and Technology
Figures.com has a preview of the upcoming Mavin the Paranoid Android action figure from the H2G2 movie. This is light-years better than the Marvin as depicted in the BBC TV show. His melon is huge, although I’m not sure how he stuffs a brain the size of a planet in there without some complex spindling and mutilating of the space-time continuum. But that’s just me.
I want one. Yesssss.
A poorly worded entry in the Guide to Jeff at Gravity Lens for the link!
Filed under: Movies
I’ve finally played it. It’s here – the hands down best, most user-friendly, newbie-friendly MMORPG ever. It caters to the beginner, the intermediate AND the advanced user. It is called Progress Quest.
Oh, and did I mention this game is free? I know, it sounds too good to be true but it isn’t.
Filed under: Games
[Via Solar Flare] The Fantasic 4 movie trailer is available. It opens July 1, 2005.
Yet another summer with some special-effects-laden superhero movie. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I still giggle, though, when I see The Commish as The Thing.
Filed under: Movies
The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop are holding an auction to pay for this year’s sessions. Some fine items are up for sale including a signed limited edition of American Gods from Neil Gaiman (word is its actually signed by him) and an item signed by Cory Doctorow. Pulled from /.
Filed under: Web Sites
Author Benjamin Rosenbaum has released his story Start the Clock with a Creative Commons license, thus allowing you to download and read it for free. He has also released his Nebula nominated story Embracing-the-New as well as The Orange under a CC license as well. Check ‘em out!
Filed under: Books
Some genre authors have created original Sherlock Holmes stories.
[From Notes From Coode Street]
Filed under: Books
The new Battlestar Galactica that is. At least asccording to this news nugget. It easily outpaced Enterprise. Who knew that actual, good sci fi on the SciFi Channel would get good ratings? Let’s hope BG doesn’t turn into the monster of the week…
Update: James at BDO wonders about the size of the audience, 3.1 million, and asks if that is small. I’ll try to answer.
Short answer: Yes, its small, when compared to broadcast TV ratings.
Long answer: Not really.
Considering that SciFi Channel is a cable only channel, the number of potential viewers is considerably less than any of the broadcast stations (NBC, CBS, ABC, etc). In cable terms, 3.1 millions viewers is quite good. In fact, BG beat out Enterprise in viewership. I don’t know what UPN’s status is, but it is a broadcast network like the big boys, only they didn’t have a built in network of local stations. They had to convince non-affiliated stations to carry their programming. These stations are typically in the UHF portion of the spectrum and, thus, reach fewer people than the big stations. That is to say, the potential UPN viewership is roughly analogous to cable viewership, but still less than the big networks. So I’d say 3.1 million is quite good in this case. What I’d really like to see is what the ratings were for BG when NBC broadcast it a couple of Saturdays ago…
Filed under: TV
Excuse me, I just have to get this off my chest.
Geek Mode: ON!
Thirty-One years ago on this day (1/18/74), ABC aired the first episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, based on the book Cyborg by Martin Caidin. (There were ultimately 4 books in the Cyborg series and later this year, there will be a movie remake of The Six Million Dollar Man starring Jim Carrey.)
The pilot movie for The Six Million Dollar Man (aired in March of 1973) starred Darren McGavin in the Oscar Goldman-like role. (Oscar did not appear until the second Steve Austin movie).
McGavin is famous to sf/f fans as Carl Kolchak in Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series, an X-Files-like TV show from 1974. X-Files creator Chris Carter cites The Night Stalker as inspiration for The X-Files.
X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz, is currently in the process of remaking The Night Stalker for ABC.
Geek Mode: Off.
We now resume your regularly scheduled blog.
Filed under: TV
Fictionwise has added more Nebula nominees to their list of free ebooks. With the previously posted story, Fictionwise now has 3 stories for free, two novellas and a short story. Go thou forth and may thine leeching be fruitful!
Filed under: Books
According to this website, if you purchased certain widescreen MGM DVDs (a list of 325 titles) between December 1, 1998 to September 8, 2003, you are a member of the proposed settlement class against MGM and retailers, Blockbuster, Best Buy, Target, Columbia House and Amazon. Apparently, there was some “false advertising” of widescreen image width being different than standard image width.
MGM admits no wrongdoing, but as a reward for your lucky purchase, you can either get a replacement DVD or $7.10 in cold, hard cash.
I love the bit about “If you do not exclude yourself from the settlement class, you will be bound by the terms of the settlement.” So, if I can reword this: If you are not even aware of the lawsuit, you are bound by its terms. A$$-Clowns.
If you listen closely, you can hear the cha-ching of some lawyers getting rich.
Filed under: Movies
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