-
Science Fiction Worth Rereading
Shadow and I have a fundamental difference of opinion about revisiting favorite books: If I like a book, I’ll re-read it periodically until the pages fall out. Shadow sucks a book dry on his first reading and is always on the hunt for new prey. A recent SF Signal Mind Meld asked several authors to…
-
The Grandmasters of the Oughts
Here’s a topic we’ve tackled in chat from time to time: The new “grandmasters” of the SF genre. The 3car blog has put together a list of newer authors that have staying power, and has helpfully included listings and mini-reviews of some of each writer’s books. It is not particularly surprising that the majority are…
-
Female Stephenson-esque Writers
A recent Ask Metafilter thread posed a rather odd question: Are there any female writers whose work is similar to Neal Stephenson? The reason I found the question somewhat odd (other than the whole “why do the writer’s chromosomes matter?” part) was that the requester was looking particularly for writers who were similar in regard…
-
Books That Should be Movies
Considering all of the unnecessary remakes of classic SF movies, you’d think that there was no new material available for adaptation. Au contraire, says Topless Robot, now that it’s had a foreign language upgrade. They’ve put together a list of The 8 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Which Most Desperately Need Movies. I’m not sure that…
-
Are the Pulps Doomed?
The Mediashift blog interviewed John Scalzi and the editors of two leading SF magazines about whether the blow that digital media has dealt to pulp magazines is fatal. They’ve been losing readers for the past 20 years, and there are now only three speculative fiction pulps still in production. Scalzi compares the magazines’ inability to…
-
RIP Michael Crichton
The 66-year-old author of Jurassic Park has died suddenly after a private battle with cancer. More at io9.
-
Haldeman News
Oooooooh! From Haldeman’s LiveJournal: Ridley Scott to make The Forever War Today’s Variety: Fox 2000 has acquired rights to Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel “The Forever War,” and Ridley Scott is planning to make it into his first science fiction film since he delivered back-to-back classics with “Blade Runner” and “Alien.” “Whoop,” Mr. Haldeman is quoted…
-
Scientific (Fiction) American
CNET Editor Tom Merritt used the articles in October’s Scientific American as the basis for an SF novel(la) story treatment. Marlin doesn’t have the genes to be a scientist. He knows that and the academic world he wants to break into very much knows it. While the law prevents them from outwardly discriminating and stopping…
-
Vote for Your Favorite SF Books and Movies
New Scientist’s November issue will feature a look at the future of science fiction. To help them prepare, they’re asking fans to vote for their favorite SF movies and books (and to explain why they’re favorites). This should be an easy task; if there’s one thing that fans never seem to tire of debating, it’s…
-
Pulp Fiction
Dark Roasted Blend has a great article on “pulp” SF magazine and book art, including examples from masters like Frank Kelly Freas and Chesley Bonestell. They make an interesting point, too: At the time, the artists working for the pulps weren’t considered anything but cheap creatives providing cheap entertainment for cheap minds. But now we…