SF Signal

The SciFi Channel is making available the first-ever online pilot for their new series The Amazing Screw-On Head, which they describe like this:

In this hilarious send-up of Lovecraftian horror and steampunk adventure, President Abraham Lincoln’s top spy is a bodyless head known only as Screw-On Head.

When arch-fiend Emperor Zombie steals an artifact that will enable him to threaten all life on Earth, the task of stopping him is assigned to Screw-on Head. Fortunately, Screw-On Head is not alone on this perilous quest. He is aided by his multitalented manservant, Mr. Groin, and by his talking canine cohort, Mr. Dog.

Can this unorthodox trio stop Emperor Zombie in time? Does Screw-On Head have a body awesome enough to stop the horrors that have been unleashed? Where can we get a talking dog?

All these questions (O.K., maybe not that last one) will be answered when you watch the thrilling tale of The Amazing Screw-On Head!

I’m about halfway through it right now. Not bad! It’s interesting in a undead steampunk kind of way.

Filed under: TV

• Irene Gallo’s Do’s and Dont’s of SF/F Book Covers.
• John Scalzi interviews Alan DeNiro. [via Whatever]
• Torque Control w/ thoughts on the sf genre.
• Matt Cheney responds to the Strange Horizons essay The Reader and the Map
• As promised, John Joseph Adams’ (extremely thorough) ReaderCon report.
• Just what the world needs: a science fiction tap-dance opera. Oh well, at least it’s based on the music of David Bowie. [via Gravity Lens]
• The New York Times article Thank You for Hating My Book proves there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I’m just sayin’.[via Book Ninja]

Filed under: Tidbits

Today is SF Signal’s 3rd birthday! Yay us! If we could make only a single birthday wish, it would be for eternal peace, true love and extreme joy for all our readers across this great, big, wonderful globe. But only for those who are on our Frappr map, of course. There’s only so much peace, love and joy to go around, you know.

In the grand tradition of birthday posts, this recap will be filled with action-adventure, drama and sex. It’ll sort of be like one of those self-absorbed pulp-fiction books except without the action-adventure, drama and sex; which pretty much leaves self-absorbed.

Our third year was memorable for several reasons. Oh wait – I’m thinking of some other blog. Our blog was preoccupied with no less than three web host changes. On the “bright” side, we managed not to lose the readership of our favorite whipping boy, Pete. No matter how much we moved. Three times, people! (I kid!) Actually, Pete provided one of the best bits of in-comedy with his SF Signal poem, for which we will extend both his Maxim and FHM subscriptions – but only in his imagination. Also of note, Pete channeled his supermodel obsession from past years into actual blog content, but only because it involved Kate Beckinsale. We take what we can get, folks.

This past year saw the launch of a spinoff blog, Gaming Signal, a move which mostly ended the non-sf game posts in SF Signal’s gaming category. This, in turn, led to a less diluted, more focused science fiction blog. Maybe that’s what helped us get mentioned in SciFi magazine. Or the bribe money. Probably the bribe money.

Our impression of television sci-fi has notably improved. In the absence of Firefly, which we discovered post-mortem and so dearly miss, we had Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who to fill the void. And while we discussed – JP opined, the rest of us discussed – the Top 50 SciFi Shows and new TV sci-fi, we took matters into our own hands with our Studio President for a Day posts. And to show we cared about our readers (and by “show” I mean “make it look like”), we also asked you. We might even have been listening. I’m not sure – I was just skimming over the post looking for my name.

Movie-related posts this past year were mostly us fawning over Serenity. We asked if film was a poor medium for science fiction and we gave you list after list after list after list after list after list after list after list after list after list after list after list. What can we say? We likes the lists, we do.

Reading, as always, played a prominent role in our lives. We challenged our readership to name the top sf books, which resulted in many answers and a poll. Our second Reader Challenge was less popular thanks to my own poorlyized wordimications. Better was when we asked why you read/watch science fiction, a post in which Tim has the final clap of approval. We also asked about your own reading habits. Are you a literary snob and do your reading follow the popular vote?

Other popular matters of reading included reading/publication order, deciding what to read next, the last good book you read, declining book readership and overseas book-buying. At least that’s what I think was happening. I was kinda busy complaining about my postman, repeating a reading project, listing my top 7 external impediments to reading (did I mention we likes the lists?) and fleeing.

Reading inevitably turns into reviewing. Our new book review index is a good starting point to see if you think we are objective reviewers. (You do.) Which is not to say that the authors themselves are happy with our reviews. One personal note of accomplishment: this was the first year I read all the short fiction nominees for the most recent Hugo and Nebula awards. (I still think those stories would make a good anthology, if not a profitable one.) JP’s Orphans of Chaos review turned into a relatively popular post since John C. Wright, the book’s author and accused SF Signal fanboy, gave it the personal touch. Which is exactly what George Kennedy would do. JP, on the other hand, has since moved on to post more about Legos. Other review bits: Scott posted his review criteria and one of Tim’s reviews earned him a fan this year; two if you count her other personality!

After reading and reviewing, what’s left but publishing? This past year saw the rise (Bean online, Orson Scott Card’s web mag) and fall (iBooks, SciFiction – save it while you still can) of publishing outlets. We talked bloated books, media tie-ins, book remainders, and innovative authors. As a way to generate some intellectual property revenue for the blog (cheap bastages that we are), we even created the never-before-seen subgenre of undead time-traveling nazis/facists/pirates/ninjas/1972 Green Bay Packers. Hmmmm…maybe there’s a reason that was never seen before.

The sf/f genres in general were also topics of discussion. (Again, we discussed while JP opined.) We asked if science fiction was too geeky and whether Golden Age sf sucked. We mulled over military sf and once again talked about the definition of sf. As if that weren’t enough, we had a SF vs. Fantasy world-building smackdown. Last year’s list of sf/f authors who blog is still fairly popular. This year’s post on authors who should blog? Not so much.

Anywho, thanks to all the loyal readers for sticking around and thanks to all the new readers and authors for giving us a try. We may be a bunch of contentious boobs, we might make mistakes both grammatical and politically incorrect, we may not strive for excellence, we may not have any goals, we might be lazy and smell a little ripe, we might have issues with our irrespective mothers, we may be egotistical, selfish and mean, but darn it we…we…ummm…where was I going with this?

Oh well, happy birthday to us!

Tagged with: Birthday Post

Filed under: Meta

• Book Trust interviews Margo Lanagan and reviews her collection Black Juice.
• Two images from Metropolis.
• The website of artist Ralph McQuarrie.
• New on Gutenberg: Last Enemy by H. Beam Piper
• SciFi Weekly reviews Prador Moon by Neal Asher and gives it an A-.
• Dangerous Visions bookstore is now called Infinite Worlds. [via Dark Echo]
• Mundane-sf offers notes on a George Zebrowski speech about the ills of publishing.
• Irene Gallo, Tor Books’ art director, has a blog called The Art Department. [via John Scalzi]
• As per David Levine: Pirates say “Ahrr”, not “Argh”.
• A first look The Prestige, adapted from the book by Christopher Priest. [via Big Dumb Object]

Filed under: Tidbits

The Internet Review of Science Fiction has posted an article by author/editor Gary Westfahl titled How to Make Big Money Writing Science Fiction, and Other Dangerous Delusions. In it, he cites Locus magazine as perpetuating the idea that science fiction writing is a lucrative business for authors.

…at times, it read like a sort of Lifestyles of the Science Fiction Rich and Famous, with photographs of millionaire authors smiling at conventions, brief reports of authors receiving six-figure advances or huge sums for movie rights, news items about noteworthy authors receiving high honors or making lucrative deals. And the recent changes in the magazine’s format-more and more glossy pages, more and more color photographs, a higher price-further suggested an impulse to provide science fiction with more and more of an upscale image.

Hmmm. As a Locus subscriber, I’m not sure I ever got that impression from the magazine. While I would prefer more news or articles rather than the pictures, I still think there is a good blend of both. It’s always nice to put a face to an author, lest you mistakenly think he looks like George Kennedy. The interviews – the subjects of which are both famous and not so famous – are always enjoyable to read as each person brings a different perspective to the field.

Emerald City’s Cheryl Morgan also reacts to the article.

Filed under: Books

The SF Signal contest, in which we asked you to answer 10 sf-related trivia question, is over and the winner is…Julia! Congratulations, Julia!

Julia was one of the ones who answered all 10 questions correctly. Here are the trivia answers…

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Filed under: Meta

• Meme Therapy interviews Adam Roberts, author of Gradisil.
• All hail the mesmerizing animation of Bendito Machine! [via Chris Roberson]
• More ReaderCon reports from David Louis Edelman, Matthew Kressel. See also John Joseph Adams’ Flickr Set (his report to folow soon).
• Fast Forward interviews Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series.
• Jay Tomio’s Top 100 Speculative Fiction Books of the Last Ten Years continues with 81 – 90.
• The World eBook Fair is offering free Access to the public from July 4th to August 4th, in celebration of Project Gutenberg’s 35th Birthday. One of the free collections is the Baen Free Library Collection, 70+ Baen books made available in PDF format.
• This month marks the birthday to the bikini…[pauses while Pete composes himself]…to which we owe the existence of the website called Leia’s Metal Bikini. [via Google Current]
• Lou Anders clarifies his intentions with his essay that’s published in the media tie-in Star Wars on Trial.

Filed under: Tidbits

Taking a page from George Lucas’ book, Daren Dochterman took a few minutes from the original Star Trek episode, “The Doomsday Machine”, and enhanced it. Basically, he re-did all the SFX shots he could and composited them into the old show’s footage. The result looks quite impressive, especially considering this was done by one person. One guy did the work of the entire SFX crew (well, models and exterior shots mostly) of the original series.

The brings up an interesting question. Aside from the fiasco of Greedo shooting first, I think the Star Wars updates were alright to useful. But Star Wars wasn’t as dated looking as Star Trek. Would Star Trek benefit from an enhancement effort of this sort or is the look of the old show part of the charm? Personally, I like the updated SFX as they aren’t in your face different and hew to the look and feel of the original, while adding some flair. Apparently Paramount had already been approached to do something like this and had passed on it. I’m not sure doing this for a DVD release would be practical, but could there be a deal worked out with a cable network to split the cost and re-air the old shows with the enhancement? (I’m looking at Spike TV here. Them and their Star Trek 2.0 nonsense.) I think it could breathe some life back into the old show.

Filed under: TV

Some recent SF Signal updates worth mentioning…

First, we now provide a recent comments feed so you can keep in tune with all the drive-by lovuhs, hatahs and smiley abuse. If history is any indication, that feed is sure to be home to some lively discussion. All SF Signal news feeds can be found in the News Feeds widget on the front page.

Second, by user request, we now provide a Book Review Index which is an abbreviated for the Book Review category archives. The link to the Index can be found next to the Book Review archive link in the Categories widget on the front page.

Still to come: Entry-specific comment feeds.

Filed under: Meta

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The Terran Hanseatic League is falling apart and with it, the sanity of its Chairman, Basil Wenceslas. King Peter and his Queen attempt to escape Earth to protect their unborn child from the erratic Chairman. The Ildiran Empire strikes an accord with the Hydrogues to save itself, at the expense of betraying Earth. The Klikiss robots, allies of the Hydrogues, begin their final attack on Earth to eradicate humanity. The other sentient elemental entities, the Verdani and the Wentals, join forces to attack the Hydrogues. And some other stuff happens too.

PROS: Interesting far future galactic setting, intriguing aliens, cool SF ideas abound.

CONS: Workman-like writing, illogical happenings and plot contrivances.

BOTTOM LINE: Anderson has warmed up his characters for this, the fifth volume in his The Sage Of Seven Suns series, but overall it is still a competent space opera that doesn’t rise above its parts.

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Filed under: Book Review

• An early peek at the SciFi Channel’s new show Eureka
• Separated at birth: Davey Jones the pirate and Cthulhu.
• Stupid Plotting Tricks excerpts by Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
• Locus Magazine‘s reviews A Scanner Darkly.
• SF UK Review interviews Christopher Priest, author of The Prestige.
• Jeff VanderMeer will be editing a pirate-themed anthology for Night Shade books. [via Notes from Coode Street]
• ReaderCon reports from John Scalzi, Matthew Cheney, and (the most verbose and tell-all) William Lexner.

Filed under: Tidbits

REVIEW SUMMARY: Lots of gems, only a few misses.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of thirty one science fiction stories that first appeared in 2005.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Twenty seven stories that are good or better; eight of those are exceptionally well done.

CONS: Four stories mediocre or worse; a bit heavy on the posthumanism theme.

BOTTOM LINE: A fine collection bursting with lots of cool science fiction ideas.

David G. Hartwell’s and Kathryn Cramer’s annual Year’s Best SF series makes it to number eleven this year. While other annuals play with the definition of the genre, this series strives to collect stories that clearly lie within the science fiction domain. Thus, science fiction fans will not feel cheated that this series offers a diluted selection. Instead, all the stories are clearly sf.

The only factor that could possibly limit the series’ range is that it is constrained to the mass-market paperback format. (I think that hardback editions eventually appear later through the Science Fiction Book Club, but the target format is MMP.) Because of the smaller form factor, you won’t find the 60+ pages of introduction that you would find in the Dozois anthologies. Nor will you find a large number of novella-sized short fiction. In fact, the story length tally for Year’s Best SF 11 comes in at zero novellas, 9 novelettes, 12 short stories and 10 vignettes. That’s a whopping 31 stories of varying length. That’s a fairly decent story count.

There was one noticeably recurring theme throughout the anthology: posthumanism. (Oddly, there were also a couple of stories where rats played a prominent role.) Before I read this anthology, I had no idea that posthumanism was so prominent in 2005. Actually, it almost got to the level of annoyance as it put a slight damper on the variety that I look for in an anthology. While it’s true that even the posthuman-themed stories provided some diversity amongst themselves, perhaps the story selection could have been chosen to provide more variety overall. Just my 2 cents.

As expected in any anthology, the quality of the stories is not entirely consistent. A small handful of the stories failed to entertain. But the good news is that the large majority of the stories were good or better.

Standout stories in Year’s Best SF 11 are “Second Person, Present Tense” by Daryl Gregory, “Mason’s Rats” by Neal Asher, “The Forever Kitten” by Peter F. Hamilton, “City of Reason” by Matthew Jarpe, “What’s Expected of Us” by Ted Chiang, “Bright Red Star” by Bud Sparhawk, “Beyond the Aquila Rift” by Alastair Reynolds and “I, Robot” by Cory Doctorow.

Reviewlettes follow…

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Filed under: Book Review

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
How would you rate the Spiderman 3 trailer?

RESULTS

Yikes! Poor turnout this week. Too complex a question?

Be sure to vote in this week’s poll on reading short fiction!

Filed under: Polls

Just a reminder that there is one day left in our contest.

Blogs being what they are, the main contest entry has fallen of the main page. So take this friendly reminder and win a free book.

Filed under: Meta

As regular readers are aware, I’ve embarked on another reading project this year to read a short story a day. (Well, not really – that’s too much for me so I developed a points system where a longer novella counts more than a shorter novelette which counts more than a short story. Fred at The Eternal Golden Braid, on the other hand, is a reading maniac shooting for 600 pieces of short fiction – regardless of length – this year alone!)

One of the reasons I am doing this reading project is because I like variety. Short fiction in any format provides nice, quick sf jolts of varying flavors. There is usually no time to be bored and the stories rarely feel padded. With short fiction, I can fit many more science fictional ideas into my reading.

That said, the part of me that likes variety also likes to get lost in a good novel. The is a certain comfort once you are acquainted with a story’s setting. A good novel can be absorbing and entertaining and still provide the sense of wonder I enjoy from the quick hit of short fiction. A novel also allows time to get to know the characters and develop a relationship. Some characters are very likable, some are fun to hate.

There’s an interesting recent post from David Schwartz (which links to some other excellent posts on the subject from Jay Lake, Scott Westerfeld and others) that talks about some of the differences between long and short fiction. There are always exceptions, of course, but usually short stories are plot/idea-focused and books are more character focused. I find I like both types of stories for the variety they bring.

How about you? A recent SF Signal post about the creation of an award-nominee-based anthology leads me to believe that there is not much demand for short fiction; this regardless of the fact that there are a shelf-loads of annual anthologies published every year with even more new ones on the horizon. Someone must be buying them, right?

Do any other readers like variety? Is the short story a dying format? Do any of you read short stories on a regular basis?

Filed under: Books

• Meme Therapy interviews Chris Roberson, author of Paragaea.
• SciFi Wire has videos from the Science Fiction Hall of Fame awards ceremony: An overview with Neil Gaiman and Anne McCaffery’s acceptance speech. [via Locus Online]
• James Patrick Kelly hosts a podcast (in three parts) of the one-act theatrical production of “Breakaway, Backdown”, adapted from his 1996 short story and performed by Lisa Richardson. “In space nobody wears shoes…” [via SFF Audio]
• Jay Tomio starts counting down his Top 100 Speculative Fiction Books of the Last Ten Years, starting with items 91 – 100.
• Duck of Destiny interviews Cheryl Morgan and Matthew Cheney.
• Dragon page interviews John Meaney.
• An online novella: “Thor Meets Captain America” by David Brin (1986).
• Top 10 Science Fiction Geek Pickup Lines.
• Scott Westerfeld dissects Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing.
• Recently posted on Project Gutenberg: The Sky Is Falling by Lester del Rey.
• Bradbury on blogging

Filed under: Tidbits

The winner of this year’s John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best SF novel published in 2005 is Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer. (See a list of finalists.)

The winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short fiction of the year is “The Calorie Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi. (See the list of finalists.)

The awards were announced at the Campbell Conference.

[via Locus Online]

Filed under: Awards

Greg Bear and Jack Williamson have been named recipients of this year’s Robert A. Heinlein Award for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human exploration of space. The Science Fiction Writers of America has the details.

[via Locus Online]

Filed under: Awards

• The SciFi channel’s video website, SciFi Pulse, will premiere two shows (Amazing Screw-On Head and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace) on July 13th…2 weeks before they appear on the SciFi channel.
• SciFiWeekly reviews A Scanner Darkly (Grade: B) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Grade: C).
• SF Emmy nominations include Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, Smallville and Supernatural.
• Feminist SF Blog contemplates Joss Whedon and race.
• Community service: Help a science librarian decide what to read next.
• More SF Signal on Brain Parade: Science Fiction Death Scenes.

Filed under: Tidbits

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!

Filed under: Web Sites