SF Tidbits for 10/24/08
- Interviews & Profiles:
- @SciFi Wire: John Scalzi (METAtropolis, the shared-universe audio anthology featuring Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Scalzi, and Karl Schroeder). Related:
- @Scalzi’s Whatever: Phil Plait, “The Bad Astronomer” (Death From the Skies!).
- Locus Online posts interview excerpts from Locus magazine with Tobias S. Buckell (Sly Mongoose).
- The Word: a podcast-interview with Neal Stephenson (Anathem). [via Locus Online]
- @Omnivoracious: The latest in a series profiling Geoff Ryman.
- @Salon: Stephen King: “This year, the novel The Stand turns 30, and far from fading into the dustbin of bygone bestsellers, King’s great tale of plague seems more prescient than ever.” [via Locus Online]
- @GalleyCat: Brian Francis Slattery shares his thoughts about releasing free eBooks.
- @Tor: Artists Bill Carman.
- @Gizmodo: Bruce Coville (The My Teacher Is an Alien series): “Geekhood is definitely much cooler than it used to be.”
- Lyda Morehouse talks about SF/F and Race at SF Novelists: “One of the African-American students made a very compelling case that she actually prefers stories that don’t physically describe people in terms of race, because then, she felt, race no longer mattered. The future was color blind. I’ve heard this argument before, and I’ve come to understand it. But, respectfully, it doesn’t work for me.”
- io9 has the scoop of when Isaac Asimov burned Robert Heinlein.
- Director David Cronenberg is writing a novel. I expect it will be…weird.
- Hitler’s Brain Gets a Musical Makeover. Listen as decapitated Hitler sings the songs that make you tap your feet! Or not.
- Phil for Humanity straightens out some misconceptions discussing How Science Fiction Misrepresents Cloning: “First, if a person is cloned, a full grown adult is NOT the immediate product on the cloning process…”
- Real Science: Sad news for C3PO, R. Daneel, Adam Link, Helen O’Loy, Robby, Rodney Copperbottom, the Iron Giant, HARLIE, and Gort…today’s robots and AI systems are no smarter than insects.
- Free Fiction [courtesy of QuasarDragon]:
- @Space Westerns: “Last Taste of Manna” by T.J. McIntyre.
- Now complete @Subterranean Online: “Mirror of Fiery Brightness” by Chris Roberson.
- Audio Fiction:
- @The Agony Column: A Rudy Rucker reading from The Hollow Earth.
- @Clonepod: “Old Folk’s Home” by John Kratman, read by Bruce McDonald.
- @LibriVox: The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum, read by Luke Nelson.
- @LibriVox: The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by John Dryden, read by many readers.
- @Digital Meltdown: Tales of Mystery and Horror by Edgar Allen Poe, read by Christopher Lee. [via Monster Rally]
- Lists:
- @Fevered Mutterings: Scifi TV Shows That Fell Off The Wagon (Part One). [via Planet-x]
- @Topless Robot: The 10 Greatest Zombie Films of All Time (with Evidence)
- 2 from Sojourners Magazine: Classic science fiction books on science fiction and spirituality and Spiritually-Inflected Science Fiction. [via James McGrath @ Exploring Our Matrix]
- @Not a Planet Anymore: Top 5 SF Movies You Enjoyed as a Kid/Youth but Didn’t Hold-up When You Watched Later as an Adult. Another Willow-bashing! George Lucas is turning over in his gold-lined grave.
Thanks for the link, John!
It doesn’t take much for us to take a birch rod to Lucas as punishment for Willow.