SF Signal

I’ve been so blessed by an incredible opportunity that I hesitated until now to reveal to my blogging friends. As usual, it’s a bit off-topic for me, but given the immense opportunity here, I feel that it’s more than justified. I feel that this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to leave all of my financial worries behind that I’m, now, compelled to share with my dearest blogmates and all of our loyal fans.

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Filed under: Web Sites

This recent article on Walter Tevis and his first-rate novel The Man Who Fell To Earth made me pull out my review from October 2001. Here’s what I said then.

REVIEW SUMMARY: Deserves the “classic” label. You’ll love this book!

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A lone extraterrestrial lands on Earth with a mission.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Excellent story with fascinating characterizations; poignant and memorable.

CONS: A revised edition that is not labeled as such

BOTTOM LINE: Fantastic! This is a classic that’s worth reading now and re-reading every so often.

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Filed under: Book Review

With all of us posting constantly, it will just be matter of time before we have 10¹⁰⁰ entries in our blog. In an effort to minimize the risk of ligitation capitalizing on our popularity, I suggest that we, henceforth, denote the number 10¹⁰⁰ or 1 with 100 zeros after it, an åssçlown. This can also be shortened to be represented by a lowercase Angstrom plus a lowercase Cedilla, “åç”.

Filed under: Science and Technology

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So, are we going to need a new a new Cthulhu category?

Filed under: Cthulhu

Rejoice and sing in the good news…. Or not – the link from Slashdot.

Filed under: TV

John, Tim, Kevin, and maybe JP, this one is for y’all. I know how y’all were swooning over my collection of Maxim and Stuff only to find out that I got them free, so here is your chance to also.

I can’t take credit for this fine find, I owe it all to Ben’s Bargains Center.

Sorry for the off-topic post, again…

Filed under: Web Sites

NTITSWSOA^*: [Link]

Filed under: Star Wars

The PBS show Closer to the Truth examines science and the impact on society. I’ve never heard of this show before, nor is it being aired anytime soon in my area, but they did air a show titled Is Science Fiction Science? which looks like it might have been interesting. They interviewed David Brin, Octavia Butler and Michael Crichton. [Transcript].

Filed under: TV

Some students at Carnegie Mellon have developed the world’s first Origami Folding Robot.

Filed under: Science and Technology

For those who like poetry and sf (not that they would admit it in public), a new book of sf poetry is available from Ian Watson titled The Lexicographer’s Love Song. Of course, this is not to be confused with recombinant lexography. The book contains entries such as the bizarre True Love.

Filed under: Books

Here’s a comprehensive look at the current landscape of television sf.

Filed under: TV

Also from IGN comes word about Dragon Age, BioWare’s spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate and NeverWinter Nights. It will be in a completely new world, complete with detailed history, and won’t use the Dungeons and Dragons D20 ruleset. It will also address many of NWN’s shortcomings.

Two things jump out from the included pictures:

1. The graphics engine looks great. Some of the shots are spectacular. Although the rainswept castle looks like it was lifted straight out of Scrapped Princess.

2. The shot with the armies fighting beneath the bridge is way cool. If this is in game, and the article says it is, this will rock.

IGN has created a Dragon Age page detailing info on DA as it comes in. Too bad it seems like it be out in 2-3 years! Wow! If it takes 3 years, it had better knock your socks off then wash them for you….

Filed under: Games

You could have gotten to this site by followng links from a previous blog entry, but I found David Darlings web site to be amazing. It has a great ‘news of the day’ feature that I actually found interesting (at least for the last weeks entries) and an encyclopedia that contains a great listing of sci-fi concepts, books, and history.

Filed under: Web Sites

Jack Emmert, better known in game as Statesman, gave a long interview with IGN about the game and its future. The upcoming patch looks cool and the City of Villains expansion looks to have to really interesting stuff lined up.

I really like CoH. The last MMOG that made me want to stay home and play was Earth and Beyond. CoH is better than that. I’ll definately stick around for the first content patch and for as long as it is fun to play. EnB ended up being 6 months before becoming tedious. CoH is a literal blast to play in groups so it may actually last longer!

And its refreshing to see a game designer be so candid in his answers. The less marketing speak, the better.

Filed under: Games

So sign up to win a trip to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame! I assume this means the grand opening although it doesn’t explicitly state that.

Plus a trip to Seattle, which is a nice place, except for all the clouds and rain. Whatever, you’ll be inside…

Filed under: Meta

SF Author James Patrick Kelly offers a roundup of web sites that offer information related to faster-than-light travel.

Filed under: Science and Technology • Web Sites

Got an email from Sierra today – who saw fit to use my email address obtained through the registration of my daughter’s educational software to send me game release news showing scantily dressed 3D models. Anywho, it goes like this:

To celebrate the release of Tribes: Vengeance we’re giving away the first two titles in the award winning Tribes series for free! Pick up the July issue of Computer Gaming World at your local newsstand and get a special-edition DVD-Rom with the two titles. Or you can go on-line and download Starsiege: Tribes from Fileplanet.

Filed under: Games

Author JG Ballard reveals what the Hollywood disaster movie says about the US psyche.

Filed under: Movies

At least that’s the theory posited by Big Dumb Object. An interesting theory. Maybe there is a physical law of Conservation of Quality? Hmmm….

Filed under: Movies

Like IMDB, the Internet Book List will one day be a comprehensive list of books. They have a decent list of sf which can be further filtered by sub-genre (time travel, etc.) but by then, the lists get sparse (most seem to be categorized under “general” sf). Each entry includes author name, a synopsis, user rating, reviews (if any), series info, alternate titles, etc. Database entries are contributed by users.

This is an interesting site with a simple interface, but I wonder if the purpose of the site, as described by IBL’s explanation, isn’t precluded by sites like Amazon and SciFan.

Filed under: Books • Web Sites