SF Signal

Muppets Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker were voted Britain’s favorite screen scientists. (These are probably the same clowns who voted Blade Runner the top SF film.) The Muppets beat out Dr. Strangelove, Dana Scully and Mr. Spock.

Filed under: Science and Technology

The 1954 Retro Hugo Awards were also awarded this weekend. Here’s a brief summary:

• BEST NOVEL: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• BEST NOVELLA: “A Case of Conscience” by James Blish (If, Sept. 1953)
• BEST NOVELETTE: “Earthman, Come Home” by James Blish (Astounding, Nov. 1953)
• BEST SHORT STORY: “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke (Star Science Fiction Stories #1, Ballantine)

Filed under: Books

The Hugo Awards were held this weekend. Here a brief summary of the award winners:

• NOVEL: Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
• NOVELLA: “The Cookie Monster” by Vernor Vinge
• NOVELETTE: “Legions in Time” by Michael Swanwick
• SHORT STORY: “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman

Filed under: Awards

Because this Wednesday, in Houston anyway, PBS will be airing The Video Game Revolution. It looks to be a fairly wide ranging show, covering the development of games from the earliest (pong anyone?) to today.

Since I don’t have a Tivo, I may have to actually catch this as it airs. How so 20th Century…

Filed under: Games

REVIEW SUMMARY: A good read that was deftly plotted, contained a few surprises, had likable, well-written characters and moved quickly

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: UN Secret operatives, a streetwise teenager and a galactic newsblogger uncover a plan to destroy the planet of New Dresden amidst assassination attempts, weapons of mass destruction and a seriously lethal faction known as the ReMastered.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Good characterizations; smart plotting; memorable action sequences.

CONS: A bit too much politics and economics for my taste; the memorable action sequences were too short.

BOTTOM LINE: I’m glad I read this.

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Filed under: Book Review

Entertainment Weekly has published the latest of their brief, monthly roundup of recent sf books reviewed by Noah Robischon. To wit:

• CAMOUFLAGE by Joe Haldeman
  • Grade: B+
  • Lowdown: Haldeman trips through history wearing alien goggles, but his message is all about human nature.
• EDENBORN by Nick Sagan
  • Grade: B
  • Lowdown: Long on mythological references and a bit short on believability, Edenborn presents a microbial apocalypse worth living through.
• LIGHT by M. John Harrison
  • Grade: A
  • Lowdown: First released to raves in the U.K. in 2002, Light is mind-bending in both its conceptual framework and literary deftness.
• NEUROLINK by M. M. Buckner
  • Grade: A-
  • Lowdown: Dante’s Inferno goes cyberpunk in Buckner’s toxic future tale of working-class bravado.

Filed under: Books

SF Signal had the opportunity to interview science fiction and fantasy author John C. Wright through email. Mr. Wright is the author of the highly acclaimed trilogy The Golden Age, which is made up of THE GOLDEN AGE (finalist for the 2003 Locus Award for first novel and finalist for the 2003 Campbell Memorial Award), THE PHOENIX EXULTANT and THE GOLDEN TRANSCENDENCE. His newly-available novel, THE LAST GUARDIAN OF EVERNESS, begins the high fantasy sequence called The War of the Dreaming.

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Filed under: Interviews

…about the RIAA. It was an interesting opinion even if it seems to be somewhat overly simplified. I think, until the end of time (and by definition), lawyers will continue to sue, and politicians will continue to politick. So to think that the RIAA is finished because of a few recent court losses would seems naïve — we’ll just have to wait and see if the proverbial fat lawyer has sung.

Note: This post would not have been possible without help from the Merchant’s Encyclopedia of HTML — more specifically, this table.

Filed under: Science and Technology

From /., the ewok movies are being released on DVD.

Filed under: Star Wars

I’m sure you’ve heard people on the phone or more likely on a radio listing out names for letters. The phonetic names are used so there isn’t any confusion between F, S on the phone or radio. Instead you’d say Foxtrot Sierra and nobody would get it wrong. Here’s the complete list:

The interesting thing is you can then use your initials to come up with your phoentic name or radio name. Mine would be Delta Sierra (uninteresting) – other friends of mine (you know who you are) would be Juliet Delta, Juliet Papa (I like that one), Tango Zulu, and Papa Yankee (fitting.)

Filed under: Science and Technology

Via James at BDO, we learn that The Alien Online has the prologue and first chapter of Iain M. Banks’ new novel, The Algebraist online.

Too bad Banks is a Brit, otherwise we’d get his books sooner! The only saving grace is that he is Scottish….

Filed under: Books

This is what happens when RPG gamers get hold of a camcorder. It’s a movie called The Gamers. [Reviewed here].

Filed under: Games

Not that I troll Will Wheaton’s blog or anything (or subscribe to his newsfeed which, somehow, is even sadder), but a recent post talks about how Rod Roddenberry (Gene’s son) is making a documentary of his dad called Trek Nation. Just though the Trek fans would want to know. Although, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why any Trek fan would be reading this blog and not Will Wheaton’s blog.

Filed under: TV

Continuing a recent trend in the MMORPG-space, Dragon Empires has been canceled, due to ‘technical’ reasons. I’m not sure what that means, but probably something along the lines of: “OMG, creating an entirely new MMORPG based on a new setting that no one’s ever seen before is #$^&% expensive!”

So, add this one to the MMORPG boneyard along with Ultima X, Mythica and Warhammer.

Maybe the MM game space is getting saturated, or maybe the games aren’t different enough (almost everything seems to be fantasy based, or a version thereof) or maybe there aren’t enough people interested in playing these games.

Filed under: Games

So finally, I’ve got my level 31 character copied over to the Test Server and started playing with it which is not live, yet. Here are just some stuff that I’ve noticed:

1. A cape is earned by doing, what else, a mission. So far, it’s been nothing but a FedEx mission running from contact to contact learning about Hero 1*. Since it is a mission, make sure you’re don’t already have three missions already, or the city rep won’t give you a new one, and you have to traipse your way back to Brickstown to your contact before running all the way back to Atlas Park again like me. Oh yeah, the cape will cost you influence!! And my 1.1+ million influence did not get copied over, so I had to quickly mow through some mobs for some SOs. The newbies said that at Level 20, the cape costs 12.3K inf. At 34, it costs 120K inf.
2. It’s easier to see the Enhancements in your inventory, you don’t have to go to the full screen to move them around, or delete them anymore. Oh, and when you’re selling them, they’re actually listed before all those Inspirations that you can never sell… wow, they finally figured that out!
3. The chat windows have improved, you actually have one just for combat messages. I didn’t play with it much, but the UI suggests that you can create new tabs, etc.
4. They’ve tweaked the portraits of the contacts.
5. You can skip the tutorial now and supposedly you get better XP from the newbie Atlas missions, or so I’ve heard. But I don’t have first hand experience in this.
6. Upon entering for the first time, you’ll be deluged with an onslaughter of “Badge” messages. Apparently, we’ve been earning badges that they haven’t told us about. Badges also come with titles — at level 31, I can set my title to Defender of Truth (you get that title at level 30, actually). You still can’t see your own titles in 3rd person view.

This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. It’s just some stuff that I’ve noticed, I’m sure you can read everything else about the update at their website.

* I’ve punched up the way-back machine and remembered that “Hero-1″ was the name of a robot built back in the 80′s by Heath Co. I remember seeing it in science class when I was in junior high. I’ve also punched up the way-back machine to recalled that the name “Way-back Machine” was a reference in the cartoon show called Rocky and Bullwinkle. So now I know we’re all old-farts here…

Filed under: Games

Coming soon (November 16, 2004) to an Amazon near you. Features include:

• Eight never-before-seen additional scenes with introductions by Brad Bird, including an alternate opening sequence.
• 13 mini documentaries revealing the origin and the in-depth development process of The Iron Giant.
• Interviews with creative consultant Teddy Newton on the storyboard sequence development process.
• The Voice Of The Giant: Brad Bird and Vin Diesel discuss voicing The Iron Giant.
• Scene-specific commentaries by filmmakers
• A motion gallery of original animation
• A letter from Ted Hughes, author of the original book upon which the film was based.
• DVD-ROM access to the original web site and “Easter eggs” revealing the behind-the-scenes filmmaking process.

Filed under: Movies

An animated version of Highlander is in the works. More reason for me to watch my season 3 DVDs.

Filed under: Movies

Various blogs have picked up the BoingBoing post about author John Scalzi’s request for contributing to his book about the most significant SF films. Needless to say, it’s generated quiet a few responses. Are your favorites represented?

Filed under: Books • Movies

MISSION: Find out why people read science fiction.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Librarians.

RESOURCE: Article from The Library Journal.

MAIN POINT #1: There is a difference between sf readers and sf fans.

MAIN POINT #2: SF is the reading material of choice for (1) satisfaction of reading goals (exploration of ideas, the affirmation of worldview and/or escape) and (2) strategic reasons (habit, using SF as a filter to make the selection task a manageable size, influencing the reader’s social network, and/or domain knowledge).

MAIN POINT #3: People abandon SF reading when they read too much, becoming saturated which thereby decreases the “newness” that appealed to them in the first place.

INFO SOURCE FOR MISSION: Website at the End of the Universe.

Filed under: Meta

This one’s for Peter. Maybe NOW he’ll buy a copy of my game! Click on the various letters to see Mackenzie in different poses with the game.

Filed under: Games