Nesto se razmisljam da bi nam dobro dosao topik koji bi mogli da punimo raznim novostima, prikazima i svim ostalim zanimljivostima na koje nalecemo dok krstarimo netom. Svako od nas ima par sajtova, foruma, blogova koje manje-vise redovno obilazi, ali, bar mene, cesto mrzi da za nesto otvaram novi topik. Takodje, mnogi ne postizu da obidju sve sto ih zanima u toku dana, pa se nadam da cemo ovakvim topikom uspesno premostiti i lenjost i nedostatak vremena.
Naravno, hteo bih da se zahvalim roditeljima, producentima i Mehmetu i novostima iz sveta video igara.
Nego:
Quote from: Amanda Robin on 29-07-2010, 10:01:08
It is Booker Prize season again, and therefore time for wailing and gnashing of teeth around the blogosphere.
First up, if you want to see the long list, it can be found here.
And now the controversy. Last year, you may remember, Kim Stanley Robinson complained about the lack of recognition for his type of novel, and Booker judge John Mullan made a complete ass of himself by saying that the award didn't look at science fiction because SF is, "bought by a special kind of person who has special weird things they go to and meet each other." Unsurprisingly, a few noses were put out of joint.
Pre par dana China Mieville imao je high noon diskusiju sa Mullanom povodom ovih desavanja koja je Amanda prijavila. Okrsaj se odigrao na Cheltenham Literary Festivalu, pa koga zanima nek progugla malo.
pa, u skladu sa tvojom zahvalnicom, planiram da zloupotrebljavam ovaj topik isključivo za SF kontroverze... :|
A Teachable Moment
Posted by lavietidhar on October 21, 2010
Ok, we're not sure what "a teachable moment" means, exactly, but it's an Americanism and we loves Americanisms. As James Gunn so helpfully pointed out, American science fiction is the base line against which all the other fantastic literatures in languages other than English must be measured.
No, seriously. Apparently it was the idea that Elizabeth Moon could be invited to Wiscon not as a guest-of-honour but to be educated, a little like a child being sent to summer school, and there was a lot of behind-the-scene discussion about it and the other guest-of-honour, Nisi Shawl, talked to Elizabeth Moon, though we're not quite sure about what. Shawl said:
Part of my reluctance to go into detail stems from the fact that Elizabeth Moon will be calling me again, in about a month, when I hope to have the time to go return to the matter more fully. Note that this "teachable moment" is arranged around my schedule. And that it's taking place before the con.
I hope that after our second talk Elizabeth Moon will have things to say to the community at large, and apologies to deliver. And that's not just a rhetorical formula I'm mouthing; based on what she has already said to me privately, I really do actually have hope on that score. I really do.
So, very cloak-and-dagger stuff. Very Dumas, if you like. Moon, of course, has been silent about the matter ever since deleting the 500 comments on her blog. So we don't know what she thinks.
Then there was a big debate over whether Moon's invitation should be withdrawn. Apparently the convention organisers weren't that keen on doing that. In fact, they said:
Even though we strongly disavow these elements of Ms. Moon's post, we have not rescinded her invitation to be a Guest of Honor, nor do we plan to do so. The WisCon planning committee selected Ms. Moon earlier this year based on her past work and our feeling that she would make a positive contribution to WisCon. After extensive conversation in recent days, and having spoken directly with Ms. Moon on the subject, we continue to believe that her presence will contribute to the Con.
Then there was a lot more stuff and N.K. Jemisin ended up quitting Wiscon in protest:
On the WisCon concom's mailing list, I was honest with the folks there about my feelings: that bringing a bigot to WisCon as Guest of Honor was counter to the con's feminist mission, not to mention a slap in the face to a whole bunch of people. I advocated for her GoHship to be rescinded because of this — and I also said that if she came to the con, I planned to participate in protest efforts already being discussed among WisCon's former and current attendees (e.g., turning my back on her during her GoH speech, challenging her when she's on panels). For this, I got verbally slapped by several other concom members with accusations of being abusive, unreasonable, too emotional, hysterical, and worse. I got into a particular battle with one woman who, when I pointed out that second-wave feminism was inadequate for dealing with this issue and it should be considered from a third-wave intersectional perspective, proceeded to try and inform me about how much second-wave feminism had done for me, and the poor black, Irish, and American Indian women who are my immediate ancestors.
Leaving aside the mind-boggling ignorance of statements like this, I was seeing another dynamic at work. All kinds of irrelevant points got brought up during this period: one guy wanted to discuss WisCon's future in light of the advent of the internet (I don't even know), another wanted to revisit the PoC safe space and whether it should exist (yeah, I know), and so on. Basically, WisCon's concom wanted to talk about something, anything, other than the cranky, stinking elephant in the room.
Then things got quiet for awhile, as the concom exhausted itself and we waited for... something. I wasn't sure what. But when two weeks passed in silence, it seemed clear that the Troika had had plenty of time to hear from the WisCon membership, and was either not going to change its mind or was simply waiting for the member rage to blow over. So, annoyed by this, and still pissed off over the Racism 101 reactions I'd encountered on the concom — I kept thinking, didn't any of these people actually attend any of WisCon's panels? — I sent a note to one of the Troika members with whom I was familiar, and let her know I was quitting in protest. She let me know about the SF3 organization's resolution in favor of rescinding Moon's GoHship... but also let me know that it didn't really mean anything. In point of fact, that resolution had been passed almost two weeks before (nobody bothered to make it public), and nothing had happened since. It was a pretty, but empty, gesture.
And then, today, a notice has been posted on the Wiscon parent site (an organisation called the SF3) that simply said: "SF3 has withdrawn the invitation to Elizabeth Moon to attend WisCon 35 as guest of honor."
So, to be honest, we're not quite sure why she was disinvited – was it because of her statements, or because of public pressure, or because of sunspot activity? Hard to tell.
Meanwhile, Moon's response (ok, we're only inferring that), was on her blog:
Last night, well after dark, the squirrels were still at it. This morning, before dawn, the squirrels were at it again. They beat the early birds out of bed. They prefer this side of the house when they're in the mood, and although it's sometimes fun to watch them flirting their tails and chasing each other up and down trees and turning somersaults (however many are in the mood at the time) they make enough noise to be disruptive. Both vocally and in the noise they make rushing around or falling ka-thump! on the water tank (which, when not full, booms like a big drum) and rustling in the leaves.
I wish they'd just go on and get it over with. They won't, of course. They're going to be leaping, running, chasing and being chased until the last pair finally give up sometime in December. (Ah. The first bird just spoke up–a blue jay. And that pair of squirrels is now silent (or much farther away. Back to work.)
Quite poignant, really.
Anyway. We really weren't going to comment on this beyond our initial post, but the sad reality is that that single post generated more hits on this site than anything else we've been posting for two years. When we posted about French author Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud recently, do you think anyone read it? When we posted on Islamic steampunk, or a new manifesto for Islamic science fiction, do you think it got the same amount of hits? Or our recent exclusive interview with Indian author Samit Basu?
Which, to me, is the real tragedy. What Moon proved is that there is more interest in the negative comments of a single American writer, than there is in the entire body of work of a mass of international writers. Which is what this blog is about. It's not about Moon, or Gunn, or whether the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) will ever give another woman writer a Grand Master Award (3 out of 27, at the last count).
So, if you come to this post because you wanted to follow the last bit of controversy surrounding Moon – I like MoonGate myself for it, as a name, but you can pick your own! – why not stick around? Check out some of the other hundreds of posts? Try a short story highlight, or an interview, or look at some of our other original content? Check out Arabic science fiction. Or African science fiction. Check out what's happening in the Philippines. Or France. We don't mind which!
Or pick up a copy of The Apex Book of World SF. We're having a sale on. If memory serves, there are a couple of Muslim writers there and, really, you could do worse than check them out. Let's all have a teachable moment! Who knows, it could be fun.
mun-bladi-gejt. *grin*
ima tu podosta stvarci koje nadaleko prevazilaze okvire same ove kontroverze i njenih aktera, sa svim njihovim jin & jangom; ovo su skroz gadna vremena u kom cenzura defilira u demokratskoj odori političke korektnosti i nosi sa sobom ceo cakum nov sistem vrednosti.
Cheltenham 2010
October 19, 2010 — Niall
My main complaint about the sf programme at this year's Cheltenham Literary Festival is that I couldn't spare the time and money to go to more of it. As it was, I spent a very pleasant weekend in Cheltenham, staying with friends, and went to three events over two days. All three were worth attending, if only for the pleasure of seeing serious items at a mainstream literary festival take sf seriously. Of course, though it should go without saying that my recollections are likely imperfect, there were also some frustrations.
Most of those came in the first event, China Mieville and John Mullan, in conversation:
Why is there never any science fiction on the Booker shortlist? Yet why have so many 'literary' novelists, from Atwood to Ishiguro, borrowed their stories from science fiction? Where does sci-fi lie on the literary landscape? What are the issues of perception surrounding this genre and its counterpart 'literary fiction', and how porous are the borders between them?
This was a follow-up to last year's brief fuss on the same topic, and as Mieville emphasised more than once, all credit to Mullan for turning up to defend his remarks. Each man set out their stall for about ten minutes, then there was some back and forth, and then they opened the floor to questions. Mieville's contention was that the Booker prize should do one of two things: either be genuinely open to all types of fiction; or admit that it is concerned with a specific category of fiction, no more or less a category than the many others with which bookshops are stocked. Mullan's reply, stated with increasing firmness as the discussion wore on, was that literary fiction is a category apart, primarily because it eschews formula.
There were, I think, two problems facing the debate, one embedded in the panel description, the other in the panelists. The former was the assumption — pushed at slightly, but never to the extent that I would have hoped for — that a work published outside the category science fiction, and not stocked in the "special room in bookshops" that Mullan talked of, is not science fiction. So Mullan, for instance, mentioned his surprise at being informed that Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, to his mind the greatest English novel of the last ten years, could have been nominated for a science fiction award; and confessed that although his first thought on hearing that it had lost the Arthur C Clarke Award to Ryman's Air was to be intrigued, his second was to assume that it must have lost not because Air was a better novel, but because Never Let Me Go failed to meet the rules of science fiction (specifically, he suggested, in focusing on the characters instead of explaining its world). The assumption buried in there did not go uncommented on — Mieville even dragged out sf's no good/they bellow 'til we're deaf. But, although I wouldn't wish to claim that that attitude towards "outsider" sf doesn't exist, it would have been good to be able to suggest a bit more strongly that Air is indeed a novel very worth Mullan's time; and to be able to emphasise that Ishiguro is far from the only non-category-sf author to be shortlisted for, or to win, a science fiction award; that David Mitchell, Jan Morris, Marcel Theroux and Sarah Hall have all appeared on the Clarke Award shortlist in recent years, and that a couple of years ago Michael Chabon won a Hugo and a Nebula. If, as Mullan contends, the borders have hardened since he was younger, the hardening doesn't seem to be coming from the sf side.
The second problem was related to the first, insofar as it became awkwardly clear that while the discussion was going to be primarily about the absence of category sf from the Booker list, only one of the participants could and would talk fluently about fiction from all over the literary map. Mullan had almost no recent primary experience with category science fiction. His astonishment, for instance, that Mieville could suggest that a science fiction writer — Gene Wolfe, to be specific — might be the equal of JM Coetzee, seemed to be genuine. And it meant that he had no real way to engage with Mieville's suggestion that different categories of fiction might have different, but equally valid, "aesthetic specificities"; and that one of sf's specificities might be estrangement, as compared to literary fiction's preference for recognition. When making his case for the importance of formula to genre it was telling that Mullan pointed over and over again at crime fiction, describing a template detective story. It would have been good to ask: what is the template story of a science fiction novel? The clearest demonstration of Mullan's inability to consider that the characteristics of literary fiction Mieville was pointing at might be, in their way, as much generic markers as anything in a science fiction novel was highlighted by his description of Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe — which he'd read as background for a documentary on first novels — as "a send-up of science fiction", when in fact — with its solipsistic, sadsack narrator obsessed with his relationship with his father — it plays with the conventions of "literary fiction" at least as thoroughly. (And in fact, I'd argue the metaphysics of Yu's novel are constructed — not even subtly! — to articulate, among other things, precisely the sorts of points about literary categorisation that Mieville was trying to make.)
After all that, the second event — an interview of Iain M Banks by the editor of the Guardian Books website, Sarah Crown — was thoroughly refreshing for the unabashed enthusiasm for sf that radiated from Banks. Indeed, the first audience question could have been a plant, so completely did it seem to justify every caricature of literary snobbishness ever constructed by sf fans — the guy actually stood up and asked, in so many words because I wrote them down, "I realise this may provoke a fight, but I have to ask: why does Iain Banks, one of my favourite writers, spend so much time wasting his prodigious talent on science fiction?" — and so fully did Banks seize the opportunity to offer a full-throated and crowd-pleasing endorsement of sf as "the most important genre of the modern age". (It was also rather cheering to hear Banks refer to himself off-handedly as writing "in two genres"...) Surface Detail sounds, in many ways, like Culture business as usual; but Banks did a good job of reminding the audience of how appealing that business can be.
Sunday's event, also ably moderated by Sarah Crown, was probably the one I went into with highest hopes:
British Science Fiction From H G Wells to John Wyndham, Britain has been home to some of the most groundbreaking and successful classic science fiction writers. Explore past classics and the best of the current crop as authors Iain M Banks, Gwyneth Jones, Michael Moorcock and Guest Director China Miéville discuss this very British tradition.
Inevitably — and not just because three of the four panelists were respondents to the survey! — there was familiar ground covered, but it was covered thoughtfully. So, we had a consideration of how the loss of empire shapes British sf, and the extent to which in some cases it may be an assumed influence, even imposed by expectation rather than springing from within. We had The Politics Question, with the observation that it's not so much that American sf is right-wing and British sf left-wing, but that American sf has both right and left wings, and British sf, generally speaking, has not heard from the right, plus a discussion of how individualistic vs communitarian philosophies work themselves out at the level of narrative. And we had some discussion of how sf has been positioned in relation to mainstream literature, with Michael Moorcock suggesting (not for the first time, I think) that where American sf has a stronger tradition of writers who express their ideas through sf, British sf has a stronger tradition of writers who seek to express science-fictional ideas: that is, more writers for whom science fiction is not an entire career, for whom the idea comes before the form.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the discussion came when it strayed into what-next territory. Nic, braver than I, raised the topic, pointing out that the recent history of British sf has been a self-described golden age, particularly in the resurgence of space opera, but that other developments, such as the reduction in the number of women writers, suggested a narrowing of the field, and asked which the panel felt was the more powerful trend. Gwyneth Jones suggested, in line with recent discussion here, that British space opera, at least, is no longer a growth industry and may be starting to stagnate; and that women writing sf and feminist sf in general may have suffered for being positioned as "the next thing" in a genre that is always hungry for the next thing, rather than more usefully seen as a an evolution. (Mieville, in turn, suggested that it may be worth looking to what he characterised as an "underground tradition" of British sf — involving Katharine Burdekin, Jane Gaskell, and another writer whose name I forget — for a more congenial reception of women.) And speculating on the next thing, the panel suggested that the sf to look for may be that coming from elsewhere — from the Pacific Rim, or Africa — and may not necessarily be prose sf. Or it may be — and this was the point missing from the earlier debate for me, even bearing in mind Moorcock's comments — that more and more interesting fantastical writing is coming from writers positioned outside the current category; Mieville cited Toby Litt, David Mitchell and Helen Oyeyemi as writers to keep an eye on, all picks I'd cheerfully agree with
All good clean fun. Perhaps not all attendees agreed, mind you; as we were leaving the panel discussion, an elderly gentleman behind me was heard to wonder why, oh why, do sf writers always seem to be so interested in navel gazing?
Jel ovo sa Moonovom nastavak onog sranja sa LJa od prosle godine? Da parafraziram: kako se beli muskarci i zene pisci usudjuju da pisu ista izvan svog miljea, kao i zasto nisu feministi, lgbt paladini, manjine, kultovi i sekte etc.
I komentari na vectorovom blogu su vredni paznje, pojavi se tu dosta bitnih ljudi.
A šta je to Munova izjavila? Mislim, iz ovog teksta sam samo skužio da je obirsala neke postove sa bloga, da neće učestvovati u WisConu i to je to. Gde je poetak tragedije? :D
Prvo sam pomislio da ima veze sa RaceFail-om '09 (http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=RaceFail_09). Ima, samo u smislu da je ova kontroverza duhovni nastavak proslogodisnje. Sto se ovoga sada tice, ladno su joj na kraju otkazali gostovanje, tj ne gostovanje, trebalo je da bude GoH.
Today the World SF Blog posted an excerpt from a much longer post at Elizabeth Moon's Lj (http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/335480.html):
QuoteI know–I do not dispute–that many Muslims had nothing to do with the attacks, did not approve of them, would have stopped them if they could. I do not dispute that there are moderate, even liberal, Muslims, that many Muslims have all the virtues of civilized persons and are admirable in all those ways. I am totally, 100%, appalled at those who want to burn the Koran (which, by the way, I have read in English translation, with the same attention I've given to other holy books) or throw paint on mosques or beat up Muslims. But Muslims fail to recognize how much forbearance they've had. Schools in my area held consciousness-raising sessions for kids about not teasing children in Muslim-defined clothing...but not about not teasing Jewish children or racial minorities. More law enforcement was dedicated to protecting mosques than synagogues–and synagogues are still targeted for vandalism. What I heard, in my area, after 9/11, was not condemnation by local mosques of the attack–but an immediate cry for protection even before anything happened. Our church, and many others (not, obviously all) already had in place a "peace and reconciliation" program that urged us to understand, forgive, pray for, not just innocent Muslims but the attackers themselves. It sponsored a talk by a Muslim from a local mosque–but the talk was all about how wonderful Islam was–totally ignoring the historical roots of Islamic violence.
I can easily imagine how Muslims would react to my excusing the Crusades on the basis of Islamic aggression from 600 to 1000 C.E....(for instance, excusing the building of a church on the site of a mosque in Cordoba after the Reconquista by reminding them of the mosque built on the site of an important early Christian church in Antioch.) So I don't give that lecture to the innocent Muslims I come in contact with. I would appreciate the same courtesy in return (and don't get it.) The same with other points of Islam that I find appalling (especially as a free woman) and totally against those basic principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution...I feel that I personally (and many others) lean over backwards to put up with these things, to let Muslims believe stuff that unfits them for citizenship, on the grounds of their personal freedom. It would be helpful to have them understand what they're demanding of me and others–how much more they're asking than giving. It would be helpful for them to show more understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship in a non-Muslim country
I zbog toga čitava pomama? Pih.
Po meni, sve je to uvek i bila jedna-te-ista kontroverza, ja njene aspekte razlikujem samo po povodima na kojima se rasplamsaju. RaceFail09 je kontroverza kojom su se svi pozabavili, svako na svoj način, i to meni ima daleko veću težinu od samog blogerskog prepucavanja. Van pomalo preteranih reakcija po pitanju rasizma, mene je više šokiralo koliko je suštinsko nerazumevanje zapravo konstanta u 'computer generated' konverzaciji; hoću reći, i Tereza i Patrik su ipak editori za Tor, pa bi čovek očekivao da će biti bar selektivniji u izboru sagovornika. Ili da će barem više svrnuti pažnju na one artikulisanije sagovornike, ako ništa drugo. Jer neki od takvih komentara jesu imali point, samo što su taj point kasnije udavili silni postovi wannabe pisaca sa T&P radionice. :( Recimo, originalni argumenti nisu toliko bili protiv da 'beli pisci' izlaze iz 'svog' miljea, nego su više bili protiv stereotipizacije koju većina takvih 'izlazaka iz svog miljea' nudi. A to ipak nije isto, samo što su dalji sagovornici do besmisla pojednostavili te stavove, pa je kasnije ispala cela frka nekako više iz nesporazuma. E sad, koliko su ti pojednostavljeni stavovi na kraju imali merita, to je druga stvar, ali sigurno ima dosta težine u argumentu da stereotipizacija jeste oblik rasizma, čak i kad dolazi od ljudi koji rasizam ne praktikuju van te i takve 'teorijske' primene, pa je zato i došlo do vređanja na sve strane. Istina da ima razlike da li je stereotipizacija namerna, sa ciljem da izruguje ili karikira, ili je nenamerna, u delima onih pisaca koji pišu isuviše slobodno o miljeu kojeg ne poznaju dovoljno. Editori za Tor možda i mogu da uoče te fine nijanse razlikovanja, ali mislim da je većini ostalih bilo jednostavnije da prosto generalizuju - "drži se miljea iz kog potičeš i basta!" ne podržavam niti jednu krajnost kao naročito ispravnu, ali mislim da obe imaju dosta čvrstih argumenata.
A ovo sa mungejtom mi je drugačije, bar što se nesporazuma tiče; ona je sasvim precizno rekla šta misli, tu nema nikakvih dubioza niti širenja, kao kod Tereze. Priznajem da se intimno slažem sa njenim stavom, pa možda jesam pristrasna, ali stvarno mi se čini da dosta manjina zahteva (i dobija) velike ustupke na bazi civilnih sloboda, a da pri tom sami prave vrlo malo istih. Onda ispada da takve manjine zapravo ne streme ravnopravnom položaju u društvu, nego nekom krajnje povlaštenom, a to uvek pravi dodatne problem kod ostalih, koji se iznenada osećaju kao građani drugog reda. Ali smešne su mi reakcije na njenu izjavu i celu tu aferu: pa šta ako je Heston član & predsednik fetišizacije vatrenog oružja, pa šta ako je Džon Vejn držao top u dvorištu da njime upuca 'jebene komije', pa šta ako su Bejtsova ili Malkovič desničarski bigoti – to je okej, oni su glumci, onim imaju prava da paradiraju lične stavove. Ali sf pisci (koji su u poređenju sa glumcima relativno minorno poznati, pa stoga i manje uticajni) kao da nemaju taj luksuz, ili ga danas imaju daleko manje nego pre. Ne znam da li je to zato što se na literaturu generalno gleda kao na najuticajniji umetnički domen ili je prosto zato što je (posle fenomena Sajentologije) SF viđen kao vrlo uticajan kontrakulturni faktor, ali čini mi se da blogovi SF pisaca ipak imaju više kontroverzi nego što im po pravdi boga spada. :roll:
Quote from: Amanda Robin on 24-10-2010, 11:52:22
ali čini mi se da blogovi SF pisaca ipak imaju više kontroverzi nego što im po pravdi boga spada. :roll:
To moze biti i da sto je bara manja vise se talasa. Ali mislim da nije samo tu problem, vidi izbacivanje Gibsona od strane ekipe filma, to je globalni(ok, anglo-americki, ali maltene mu dodje isto) fenomen, smejali smo se kada su trazili da odenu Davida, ali se plasim da se taj balon nece tek tako izduvati. Kao Makartijev lov na vestice samo iz drugog ugla.
Pa ne slažem se baš za veličinu bare, ali slažem se da je fenomen tipično anglo-američki, samo što je SF također, tako da je po meni to nerazdvojno, bar u ovom kontekstu.
Recimo, kad sam već tamo pomenula glumice, sećam se sasvim slične kontroverze po pitanju filma Monster's Ball, kad je Bassett u scenariju našla stereotip u ponižavajućoj erotizaciji crnkinja i zbog njega odbila ulogu. Koliko taj njen stav ima merita, ja stvarno ne znam, ali opet, ja nisam živela život u njenim cipelama, tako da i ne mogu znati. Ali ono u šta sam prilično sigurna jeste fakt da je ista ta Bassett glumila u mnogim ulogama koje su me se iskreno dojmile kao sasvim stereotipne, bilo erotski ili otherwise, pa slutim kako je za nju glavna a verovatno i jedina razlika bila u faktu da su te konkretno filmove režirali crnci. Što znači da su u pitanju prvenstveno predrasude, to sa obaju strana. Ali priznajem da ima dosta žanrovskih izleta van autorskog miljea koji jesu malko... pa, recimo dubiozni po pitanju sterotipizacije, a to sigurno ne olakšava situaciju. Sreća da imam tekst koji baš po tom pitanju čeprka, pa ću ti isti serviram u svrhu argumentacije.
Dalje, ne shvatam opasku za Gibsona - nisam u toku, zaista, zadnjih par meseci sam bila totalno van svih aktuelnih 'online' zbivanja... o čemu se radi?
Quote from: crippled_avenger on 23-10-2010, 03:45:15
News of Gibson's casting triggered an internal backlash at the studio and on the film.
In a highly unusual public rebuke of a former A-list movie star, Warner Bros. has dropped Mel Gibson from the cast of The Hangover Part II.
Gibson, whose anti-Semitic, racist and misogynist rants have made him radioactive in some Hollywood circles, was to have a cameo as a tattoo artist in the sequel to the 2009 hit.
But the stunt casting, which was picked up by the media this week, triggered an internal backlash at the studio and on the film set. And the studio, where Gibson reigned as a major star during the '80s and '90s with such movies as the Lethal Weapon series, decided to go public with a statement that the actor was no longer involved in the project. Gibson's spokesman declined comment.
. . .
Other members of the movie's cast and crew also are said to have opposed Gibson's casting, and insiders said high-level execs at the studio also objected.
Bezveze. Ne slažem se ja sa njegovim stavom, daleko bilo; ali da ga ovako odrađuju i protestvuju protiv njega, baš je sranje. Meni je on bio jedan od omiljenih glumaca :)
To što je pola nacije htelo spaliti Kuran, to ništa. Ljudima treba žrtveno jagnje; Gibson je izrazio neke stavove sa kojima se, usudio bih se reći, većina Amerike podsvesno slaže, ali mehanizam odbrane je odradio svoje.
Gibson im je trn u oku pošto je u svojim filmovima otvoreno pokazao šta je sistem. Proći će isto kao i Čarli Čaplin, Orson Vels i drugi koji su to radili. To se u Americi ne oprašta.
ah, taj Gibson...
Melkore, reko bi neko da malko meandriraš... :lol:
Dobro sad to, ali ne važi se ovde, pošto se tog Gibsona napada uglavnom kao hipokritu kakav i jeste. :)
Late to the Debate
I never know what's going on. I didn't hear about Elizabeth Moon's 9/11 post on her blog until yesterday, when, in response, Wiscon withdrew its invitation to her to be next year's Guest of Honor. Then I tracked down and read her original blog entry, plus some of the subsequent controversy.
Mine is not a political blog. Seldom do I comment on political events, partly because I can't imagine why anyone might care what I think. But this is not just a political matter, it is also an SF one. As a former GOH at Wiscon myself, I have a strong opinion on this issue.
Wiscon's purpose is stated on its website: "WisCon is the first and foremost feminist science fiction convention in the world. WisCon encourages discussion, debate and extrapolation of ideas relating to feminism, gender, race and class." But not, apparently, if those views are unpalatable to the committee.
Elizabeth's blog concerned the building of the Islamic community center in NYC, a few blocks from Ground Zero. I am in favor of building this; I think it is guaranteed by the Constitution, and anyway the building will not be in sight of Ground Zero. Elizabeth argued not that building it should be forbidden, but that Muslims themselves should think twice about the place they are building it, and the impression of cooperation that it gives or does not give to others in their adopted country. Again, I do not agree with her. But that's not the point. Her blog entry is quiet in tone, thoughtful in argument. If you haven't read it, I urge you to do so. Then you can make up your own mind about its statements regarding assimilation, citizenship, and tolerance.
The point IS just that -- reading the blog provides a point of departure for discussion about gender, race, and class -- just what Wiscon is supposed to be about. This discussion could have happened at Wiscon, if Elizabeth were going to be there. It would have been stimulating, and everyone could have had a say. Now that will not happen. In addition, the con will be losing the other thing it is supposed to showcase -- successful female writers of speculative fiction.
I think the Wiscon committee has erred in withdrawing its GOH-ship. This is NOT the equivalent to not inviting a raving racist or virulent anti-feminist. Elizabeth is not those things. Wscon should have honored its commitment to her.
Posted by Nancy Kress at 2:07 PM
ali ovo je ipak malko bitnije:
David Brin: AboutSF Wants Help
David Brin: One of the best things to happen in SF and fandom, in recent years is the "AboutSF" project, run by famed author and SF academic James Gunn, at the University of Kansas's "Science Fiction Center."
See www.AboutSF.com (http://www.aboutsf.com).
One AboutSF program — the online curriculum on science fiction literature – has been tested at numerous conventions and Worldcons, receiving great praise. The turn-key program will let almost anyone run a fascinating Introduction to SF seminar almost anywhere, from local libraries and schools to cons around the world.
The AboutSF Project could use some help! Volunteers and people with expertise could be invaluable to Jim Gunn's endeavors, strengthening SF fandom and literature. Especially needed are DATABASE experts who could help fix and improve AboutSF's other paramount program... the SPECULATION SPEAKER'S BUREAU.
SpecSpeakers aims to provide an easy, one-stop shopping place to find SF authors, SF scholars and futurists who might be willing to talk to the public about a wide range of topics (especially SF and the future, but also science and related subjects). It could be a library, looking for a local writer willing to talk about her or his latest book. Or a major corporation seeking a keynoter for a big fee. Either way, SF will benefit. So will fandom and civilization!
Experts who might be willing to form an advisory group, and get their coding fingers dirty, for a good cause, should contact Professor Gunn at: jgunn (at) ku.edu or to AboutSF (at) gmail.com.
Jim Gunn adds: Kristen Lillvis, our current coordinator, thinks this would be helpful, particularly if we're able to get an assistant who is skillful in web matters, as we hope to do. So, we'd be grateful for any volunteer help.
At MadCon, an ailing Harlan Ellison will say goodbye
Farewell to the fans
Josh Wimmer on Thursday 09/23/2010, (7) Comments, (21) Likes
Ellison: 'The truth of what's going on here is that I'm dying.'
Ellison: 'The truth of what's going on here is that I'm dying.'
Related Events:
* MadCon
Fans of fantastic fiction -- or just some of the finest damn writing to be put on paper -- take heed: If you've ever wanted to talk to Harlan Ellison, this weekend's MadCon 2010 is your last chance.
The 76-year-old writer, cultural critic and longtime den mother of the genre he'd prefer you didn't call "science fiction" is the guest of honor at the convention, happening Sept. 24-26 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Ellison is the winner of multiple Hugo, Nebula and Edgar awards and the author of such oftreprinted short stories as "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" and "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore," as well as the mind behind the original screenplay for what many consider Star Trek's best episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever." Other scheduled notables at MadCon include writers Gene Wolfe, Peter David and Patrick Rothfuss, and Doctor Who's Sophie Aldred.
Due to his failing health, there had been some doubt about whether Ellison would show up in person or participate in panels, readings and other events by telephone from his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. But at press time he affirmed he was coming. He is also adamant that MadCon will be the final convention he ever attends, in any fashion.
"The truth of what's going on here is that I'm dying," says Ellison, by phone. "I'm like the Wicked Witch of the West -- I'm melting. I began to sense it back in January. By that time, I had agreed to do the convention. And I said, I can make it. I can make it.'"
Besides giving several talks and sitting on panels, Ellison has a book signing with David scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday at Frugal Muse's west-side location. His Sept. 26 event at the Barrymore Theatre is up in the air; check MadCon2010.com for updates.
The legendarily opinionated author says there is no question he will not answer. (Although he'd prefer not to hear the one about whether he threw a fan down an elevator shaft -- answer: he didn't -- again. "That will follow me to my grave," he mutters.) And he strongly encourages fans to attend.
"This is gonna be the biggest fucking science-fiction convention ever," Ellison says, "because no con has ever had a guest of honor drop dead while performing for the goddamn audience. The only comparison is the death of Patrick Troughton, at a Doctor Who convention. And I don't think he was even onstage."
Never one to hold back, Harlan Ellison shared his thoughts and feelings freely in a 90-minute conversation from his California home, the Lost Aztec Temple of Mars.
On how he knows he's dying
"An old dog senses when it's his time -- dogs have that capacity; nobody doubts that. Nobody. But everybody doubts when you say, 'I'm dying.' They think you're being a Victorian actress. They think you're doing Bernhardt."
On mortality
"I'm not afraid of death, and there is not one iota of suicide in me. All I want to make sure is that when the paper comes out, it says, 'Harlan Ellison died in his sleep.' You're talking to, essentially, a pretty happy guy. No, not 'pretty' happy -- that's television talk. I am inordinately happy. I am wonderfully happy. I am Icarus-flying-to-the-sun happy. I have led a magical life. I have led exactly the life I would wish to lead. I have led the life I guess that everybody in their heart of hearts wants to lead."
On days gone by
"I loved writing. I loved the word. I loved movies, and we had no television when I was a kid, but I loved books, and I read book after book after book after book. Unlike many another writer who was educated and had college, I was on the road at age 13. Not because of anything bad with my family -- it was just, I had a wanderlust. I was like the great writer Jim Tully or Jack London. I stood there at age 10 in Paynesville, Ohio, and I said, 'This is all mine! All I gotta do is go and get it.' And so I started running away. After a while, my mother said, 'I'll pack you sandwiches. Would you like peanut butter-and-jelly?' Sometimes I'd get as far away as Kansas City and wind up working as carny and then wind up in jail, and get sent home. And I'd go back to school and I'd do very well, and then I'd run away again, and I'd run away to way up into Canada and work in a logging camp."
On current projects
"I just finished my last piece, which is an introduction to a book called The Discarded, based on the short story I wrote and then the teleplay I wrote with Josh Olson, the Academy Award nominee for The History of Violence, the film directed by Cronenberg. Josh and I wrote the script and then they did it on Masters of Science Fiction, and that'll be available for sale -- dun-unh, he said, hustling -- at the convention. Josh wrote a little introduction, and then I was going to write a little introduction. Well, I got into it in May, and it took me through August to finish it, and it's 15,000 words. It's the longest piece I've written in a long while, and it's called 'Riding the Rails in Atlantis.' And somehow, somehow or other, the book is all together. And The Discarded is going to be my last book."
On discovering his destiny
"When I was a little kid, and I was going to East High in Cleveland -- my dad had died in '49, and my mom and I were living there -- I cut school one morning and I went to, I think it was Halle Brothers, down in the public terminal, the Cleveland Terminal Tower. And John Steinbeck was on tour, and he was speaking. And I was this little bitty kid clutching my schoolbooks, and I couldn't get through the crowd -- it was deep. John Steinbeck was standing on a little riser, and I crawled through people's feet, and I got to, literally, the feet of John Steinbeck.
"And I listened to him, and then I turned and looked at the faces, and I said, 'Oh. Boy. Now I know what famous is. Now I know what it is to be a mensch.' Because there stood John Steinbeck, who was an ex-prizefighter -- I mean, he looked like a fire plug! He was a tough guy. He worked like I had worked! I had ridden on boxcars, worked on demolition teams, and driving truck, and crops, and all that shit. But I was a little skinny squirt of a thing.
"And it was an epiphany. If I had stood under the Sistine Chapel ceiling, if I had finally reached Petra, a crimson city half as old as time, as they said of it, I would not have been more impressed. And that set the first part of my destiny. I was on the road, and I was doing my job, and my job was to tell stories."
On conventions
"I had withdrawn from conventions, not because I didn't like seeing my friends -- I did. But goddammit, man, when you're up in your 70s, you don't need to keep being trotted out like an old warhorse. Like, they trotted out Lionel Richie on America's Got Talent last night, and I felt sorry for him."
On being nominated for his second Grammy, for Best Spoken Word Album For Children, earlier this year
"I was up against Ed Asner, David Hyde Pierce, Nelson Mandela, another very, very fine reader and a guy named Buck Howdy. And if you're in the audience at MadCon, you can ask me, 'Who did you lose to?' And I'll say, 'Very short story, interesting story.' See, how I lost my first Grammy -- the first time I lost, I lost to Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud doing a Harold Pinter play, and people say, oh, yeah, boy, that's good. I lost! But I was on the royal robe with both feet, and I was dragged a bit by having lost to them.
"But with this one, people say, my god, you were up with Mandela? Who did you lose to? And I say, 'Uh, Buck Howdy.' And they go, 'What?!' [Mumbles.] 'Who? What?' 'Buck. Howdy.' They say, 'Who the fuck is Buck Howdy?'"
On his present appearance
"I weigh 154 now. I look like Gollum. I was great-looking when I was younger -- I was hot. All the pictures of me, they're very hot."
On his unfinished work
"My wife has instructions that the instant I die, she has to burn all the unfinished stories. And there may be a hundred unfinished stories in this house, maybe more than that. There's three quarters of a novel. No, these things are not to be finished by other writers, no matter how good they are. It could be Paul Di Filippo, who is just about the best writer in America, as far as I'm concerned. Or God forbid, James Patterson or Judith Krantz should get a hold of The Man Who Looked for Sweetness, which is sitting up on my desk, and try to finish it, anticipating what Ellison was thinking -- no! Goddammit. If Fred Pohl wants to finish all of C.M. Kornbluth's stories, that's his business. If somebody wants to take the unfinished Edgar Allan Poe story, which has now gone into the public domain, and write an ending that is not as good as Poe would have written, let 'em do whatever they want! But not with my shit, Jack. When I'm gone, that's it. What's down on the paper, it says 'The End,' that's it. 'Cause right now I'm busy writing the end of the longest story I've ever written, which is me."
(... a dotle Ursula sa svojih svežih 81 ima idući mesec u Portlandu promociju i potpisivanje svoje najnovije knjige... :) )
Au bre, suzu čovek da pusti... :( :( :( Ali lepo je da ispada šmeker.
Jebi ga. :(
"AM" ("I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream") bila je otkrovenje za šesnaestogodišnjaka koji još nije imao pojma gde mu je dupe a gde glava.
Kasnije sam obožavao njegove uvode u antologijama...
Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 28-10-2010, 22:47:00
Kasnije sam obožavao njegove uvode u antologijama...
Da, uvodi su mu genijalni!
Ako je izgubio na težini u tolikoj meri... :( :( :(
Šteta...
A bilo bi svakako u njegovom stilu da ode onako kako je napomenuo u tekstu - " 'This is gonna be the biggest fucking science-fiction convention ever,' Ellison says, 'because no con has ever had a guest of honor drop dead while performing for the goddamn audience.' " :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
Gaffe on je patuljast. Nije smršao već se ugojio... :(
Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 29-10-2010, 00:20:20
Gaffe on je patuljast. Nije smršao već se ugojio... :(
Znam da je veoma nizak...
No reče:
"On his present appearance:
"I weigh 154 now. I look like Gollum."
Što će reći - sada ima oko 70 i kusur kila.
Poslednji put, kada sam ga video na slikama, snimkama, imao je oko 100 i kusur kila.
Znači da je smršao.
Može biti. Kako li je tek izgledao sa 100 kila???
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30610 (http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30610)
Notes from New Sodom: The Kerspindle Kerfuffle
Hal Duncan
The Autonomous Archipelago of Åthorland
It was Friday night in the city of Writing when the shit hit the fan. I didn't make it down to the SF Café myself till Saturday afternoon or so, having been off at a gig that Friday night; so when I finally stumbled in, somewhat worse for wear, to grab my daily brunch of coffee and a cigarette over the Twitter Gazette, the kerfuffle was already in full swing. It's war! people were saying. War! The neighbouring states of Amazonia and Macmilland have gone to war! Even the poor citizens of Åthorland have been dragged into it, much to their chagrin! Chagrined? They were downright pissed, those Åthorlanders. Since there's a rather sizeable contingent of them who hang out at the SF Café, it was hard not to notice their impassioned speeches from their counter stool pulpits, the conversations going on in the booths.
For those of you who don't know, the tiny autonomous archipelago of Åthorland lies off the coast of this fair nation of Art. Just a spattering of craggy islands, it is, each with little more than a stony croft inhabited by a wild-eyed Åthor, with only their herd of kittens for company and inspiration. Each Åthor is a creative anchorite, you see, hoping to scrape a living for themself through their strange cottage industry — which we'll come to in a minute. Most fail to do so, in truth, subsidising their... well... survival with summer-jobs as barnacle polishers or starfish attendants. A few manage to scrape by without this additional income to bring them up to the breadline. A tiny few — like Good King Stephen, for example, or the renowned Jakie Rowling — make such a success of it that the fame of their wealth spreads around the world; but their coral palaces and caviar-and-cocaine banquets are a far cry from the pitiable poverty of most Åthors, huddling in their stone-built shacks, living off the bacon harvested from their cats, drowning their sorrows in alcohol and (occasionally) the odd hit of of the hard drug they call kudos. Still, they're a hardy people, the Åthors, and downright thrawn in their commitment to the Åthorlandish craft of kitten hair rug design.
This is the primary industry of Åthorland. If the islands of the archipelago can be a little barren, to say the least, what they do have going for them is the wealth of strange shellfish to be gathered from the beaches, or prised from the rocks; for from the ground shells of these crustaceans and molluscs come the myriad of powders with which the kitten-hair yarn spun from their looms can be dyed in every colour imaginable... and then some. It's not perhaps the most practical skill, granted, but it's certainly unique, the way these Åthors seem able to invent wholly new shades — and just when the rest of us least expect it, when we've convinced ourselves that we've seen every shade of blue under the sun, even that one Hume was so bothered about. In and of itself, that would be... a nice feat but not terribly commercial, but it's what they do with all those threads of many colours that's important, weaving them into intricate patterns that make the Persians look like amateurs, every kitten hair rug a weaveworld one can virtually walk in never mind on.
Back in the old days, so it's said, every summer, the Åthors would come over to the mainland in their coracles, and hike from city to city. Arriving in the agora of each, they'd find a corner and spread their exquisite artifices upon the dusty ground, taking a groat or two (or more) from any who wished to tread that kitten-soft fur between their toes, to gaze into the whirling curlicues and lose themselves in the articulation of sensation for half an hour, an hour, a day, a week. Rich lords would act as patrons, buying rugs to furnish their marble floors, relishing the chance to walk on them any time they wished, sometimes appreciating them more each time they did so, sometimes becoming bored with the repeat experience. So it goes. This was long ago though, and now one doesn't even have to be a rich lord to experience the joy of an Åthorlandish kitten hair rug. In each of the continental principalities or kingdoms within a day or so sailing of Åthorland, a mass weaving industry has emerged. So, in the summer, instead of traveling from market to market, the Åthors cart their wares from manufactory to manufactory, hoping to sell the kitten hair rug they have hand-crafted, thread by thread, as a prototype — or to license its design, to be more accurate, for mass-production.
*
From Prototype to Product
This is where the Kingdom of Macmilland comes in. There are a handful of others, but they're not important here; all you need know is that each of these little sovereign territories stands proud as a Phoenician city-state and every bit as mercantile (and often, yes, every bit as mercenary because of that). To say that kitten hair rugs are Macmilland's major export doesn't do it justice. In each nation — Macmilland, Hachettia or wherever — the weaving industry is nationalised. Trade and Industry, Church and State, all are bound together into a great metropolis of a corporate entity, walled like ancient Jericho, gated like old Jerusalem, ruled over by an oligarchic board of the bourgeois, presided over by some latter-day Melchizedek of a merchant-king.
Faced with the scale of this Behemoth, the average Åthor might be forgiven for feeling a little awed, all too aware that the only real leverage they have is their ownership of an original kitten hair rug. If they're lucky they've recruited a good rug-hustler to tout their new design though, ensure a good deal for it. Even so, sometimes those city-states will try and take advantage of their might. (As the dreaded Disneyóna, for example, is notorious for its cruel "shafting" of unwitting Åthors. Those "shafts" are pointy.) Largely though, that might is of great benefit to the Åthor. Macmilland doesn't just buy a design, chuck it onto the production line and pump out a bazillion identical copies. All the expertise of a city-sized system is brought to bear, not just the savvy of a cunning vizier but often the creative wisdom of a score of visionary craftsmen. Is this truly the best shade here? Is that knot intentional? You might be surprised at the amount of sheer finishing put into the production of an actual batch of rugs from the original prototype. There are people whose job it is simply to perfect the texture by ascertaining the optimum proportion of breeds in the kitten hair — 80% Persian to 20% Siamese? Or maybe 15% Siamese with a 5% dash of Turkish Angora? And so on.
For the Åthor who manages to sell their first kitten hair rug, it's often a revelation to see so many people spend so many months taking their work from prototype to product. It's kind of a weird experience in a whole host of other ways too — being paid with a six months supply of cat-food and cabbages, for example, (a supply that can all too easily be traded in at the nearest market for a weeks-worth of caviar and cocaine,) having a promise of "some" (entirely unpredictable) further payments, at six month intervals down the line, if and when the rug "earns out" this "advance" (with the naive Åthor often not quite hearing the loud emphasis on the if). We can put these to the side though; I mention them only as a reminder that, after all is signed and sealed, done and dusted, the Åthor will be rowing their coracle home to their island croft, with a copy of the slick finished article under one arm, to a winter they are now better equipped to survive, but not much more of a guaranteed future than that. Meanwhile, Macmilland will be exporting their rugs, sending them out to every rug shop within their legally-contracted domain.
And so, from its humble beginnings as a hand-crafted artefact on a desolate island, the Åthor's kitten hair rug will arrive en masse in the People's Republic of Amazonia. And across Amazonia, in the InstantStuff4U retail outlets that spring up in an instant on every street-corner at the blow of a whistle, (but we'll come to those presently,) the kitten hair rug is stuck up on a shelf, with a price tag slapped on it.
*
The Value of a Kitten Hair Rug
Now, the thing is, there have always been those who don't particularly want to play the rich lord, adorning the floors of their homes with kitten hair rugs. Some of us love that furry feeling betwixt our toasty toes, but for many it's just about admiring the visual pattern. They do really admire that pattern for as long as it takes to admire it fully — a half an hour, an hour, a day, a week — but they don't particularly care for the rugs as home furnishings, not least because one doesn't always have space in one's home for a few thousand rugs. Where a rug collector would hate to lose their most precious specimen, ("It really tied the room together," they might say,) these folks might appreciate a chance to gaze into this or that rug's intricacies again at a later date, but it's not such a big dealio.
This doesn't mean they don't appreciate the Åthor's work, mind. Some will wait in line for hours in front of their nearest rug store, to snap up some new design the very moment it becomes available, if they haven't put an order in for it even before it is available. Sure, there are others who will happily just pop down to the local flea market, pick up a second-hand rug that looks intriguing, and trade it in for another when they're (rather quickly) done with it. But it's not that they're dismissing the rugs by treating them as disposable pleasures. It's just that it's really more the leisure activity they enjoy than the thing in and of itself. It's a little like buying a tankard or two of ale for them: you're buying the beer to drink, and once it's drunk it's gone; you don't particularly want to hang on to the glass; more likely, you just want a refill.
Actually, back in the day, when Åthors would sit in the corner of a market and ask a few groats from passers-by for the chance to enjoy their kitten hair rug, this was the standard metric of value — booze. With rugs pretty much coming in four or five sizes, it's not even hard to calculate: there are the small and extra small ones that you might spend an hour or less on; there are the standard size ones, that really take a day to fully dig — a five to ten hour stint or more; and every so often some crazed Åthor will come up with a monumental epic size rug that's a veritable odyssey of an experience, a rug that you could stand on and gaze into for months. It seemed only obvious, in days of yore, in the era of taverns and bazaars, to convert time into tankards — an hour of rug-time for an hour of drinking-time, a tankard's worth of ale. Keep me in ale for as long you're on the rug, the Åthor would say, and we're trading like for like, your entertainment for mine. A fair exchange, no?
At two groats a tankard, we can even translate that into cold hard cash: one or two groats for a little rug; ten to twenty groats for the standard size. It's really quite simple. Or at least it was.
*
The Happiness That Comes of Haggling
The reality is, of course, that the industrial revolution changed all that. As the merchant-kings of city-states came in, with their manufactories built to mass-produce a plethora of Åthorlandish kitten hair rugs, these canny traders and industrialists saw that just as some were ready to pay more for a truly fresh beer while others would take their beer stale if it halved the price, just as some would pay more for speedy service while others would rather wait and pay less, the different attitude of different customers to kitten hair rugs translated to a different valuation, a different worth.
A cheaper version of the rug could be produced down the line, woven from common-or-garden tabby fur, sold for a mere five groats, and far more would buy this "mass-market" variant. The standard version became, in effect, a luxury commodity, a high-end edition for those willing to pay full cost, whether because they preferred the higher quality or, more likely, because they simply wanted it hot off the loom, the instant it was available. As that demand tailed off, the trade emissaries of Macmilland realised, it was even sensible to gradually discount those high-end rugs over the months following their release, to be flexible with one's prices, sell at whatever the market will bear. It wasn't long before the flea markets selling second-hand rugs had competition from stalls with "bargain bins" full of unused premium-quality kitten hair rugs that cost fifteen groats on their release, now selling for a mere three.
Many an Åthor gives a little meep when they see their work in such stalls, but such is business. Ultimately, the technology has benefited all concerned. The Åthor is able to provide their service — that exquisite experience of immersion in the sensual spectacle that is a finely-crafted kitten hair rug — to nigh on anyone and everyone. Macmilland and their ilk earn a fair cut, on the whole, given that they are, contrary to common opinion, a whole lot more than mere go-betweens. And the customer can toddle down to any number of stores or stalls within reach, and most probably pick up a nice new (or newish) rug that, measured in terms of the hours they'll spend on it, will cost them a damn sight less than if they were to spend that time quaffing ales in their local tavern.
This is the happiness that comes of haggling, and though few realise it, it is the customer who is essentially setting the price, by deciding what to buy and when to buy it.
But this is where Amazonia comes in.
*
The Kerspindle and the Kerfuffle
We could go into all the innovations brought to the system by the transportation revolution out of which Amazonia emerged, but it's a story we all know, surely. We all remember seeing our first ornithopter flutter through the sky. We all remember the little tin whistles floating down on their parachutes. We remember unrolling the leaflets, realising that we simply had to give a toot to summon a salesman — and within seconds! — a salesman who could supply us with any rug in their whole inventory. You want it by tomorrow? We can do that. If you're happy to wait a little longer, we'll even do it for free. Tell you what, we'll even do you a three-for-two deal like the brick-and-morter rug stores are doing. We'll do a better deal. The zealous citizens of the People's Republic of Amazonia — every one of them a salesman ready to spring into action — built their new nation almost overnight by such strategies. Those strategies are, of course, far from altruistic, cannily designed to undercut the existing competition so as to establish and consolidate their own, shall we say, lebensraum; but international politics is a cut-throat business and when the customer gains so much from this sort of ruthless savvy, we tend to have little sympathy for the Principality of Borders, say, who would happily use similar tactics to try and drive their competitors out of business, crush and swallow them, aiming for the nearest thing to a conquest of the world they can get away with under the Treaty of Monopolis.
Anyway, all of that's old hat. And you probably don't want to hear about the more idiosyncratic features of the new world order born with Amazonia, from an Åthorlandish perspective. Like, say, the arcane art of Amazonomancy, by which Åthors lean out the window of their croft each afternoon to toot their whistle, not to buy rugs themselves, but to scry the complex ornithopter formation flying displays for "signals" of how well their own rug is doing, how sales are going in the Amazonian InstantStuff4U outlets that spring out, whirring and click-clacking, wherever one of those ornithopter lands — on any corner of any street in any city, town or village, pretty much across the world. Amazonomancy is probably the single most important aspect of it all to an Åthor but, well, the neurotic behaviour patterns of obsessive hermits aren't really pertinent. No, there's only really one innovation that matters here, and that's the Kerspindle that caused the big kerfuffle last weekend. And by "kerfuffle" I mean "Cuban Missile Crisis level hostilities between Macmilland and Amazonia." Or, simply speaking, "war."
It all began with tapestries.
Who exactly came up with this new idea, it's hard to say, but the idea itself is simple: some people, (as I say,) are happy to just look at that kitten hair rug design, aren't really bothered about the feel of kitten-fur between the toes, and might actually even prefer to have it somewhere easier to look at — like right in front of their face; so what if we use this crazy new tech that's just been developed to make tapestries instead of rugs? You could take that same basic kitten hair rug design and turn it into something that goes on your wall rather than your floor. If you don't have to make them sturdy enough to be walked on, that makes them a bit cheaper to produce because it cuts out one stage of the finishing process. It makes them a whole lot more delicate, means you need to buy this special doohickey to hang them from, but the tapestries are so thin you can store oodles of them in this doohickey. There are other pros, other cons, but the most important thing for many gadget-oriented rug afficionados is the convenience: if all you want to do is admire the intricacy of the design, the collapsible, portable doohickey can offer that experience anywhere you can find a place to hang it; and new designs are available at the toot of a whistle with Amazonian salesmen waiting at your beck and call.
It's hard not to see the appeal. Those kingdoms and principalities whose industry is based on rug manufacturing and export were a little slow on the uptake, but even they soon realised this was a demand they'd be fools not to supply.
Here's where it gets gnarly though. With their nationalised retail industry, their merchant airforce aiming for commercial air supremacy, the People's Republic of Amazonia really sees the appeal, because they quickly come up with a neat new strategy. They produce their own brand of doohickey — the Kerspindle — and sell that the same way they sell rugs. (They've always sold a whole lot more than just rugs anyway.) To encourage people to buy their brand of doohickey rather than anyone else's, they strike a deal with the Kingdom of Macmilland and suchlike — who agree to supply them with tapestries that can't be hung on any other type of doohickey. And to close the circle into a feedback loop of positive reinforcement, Amazonia set a price for tapestries that undercuts the high-end, new release rug version of the same design — ten groats, give or take a plinkle, where the average brand-new premium rug is fifteen.
But, wait! Remember how that cheaper "mass-market" version was produced down the line. Remember how this is based, in part, on the idea that some will pay more for a speedy service while others would rather wait if it means they pay less. Doesn't it kind of throw a spanner in the works if you release the ten groat tapestry on the self-same day the rug comes out for fifteen?
Well, that's where the kerfuffle kicks in.
*
A Declaration of War!
So at some point in the preceding weeks, The People's Republic of Amazonia and the Kingdom of Macmilland entered into a trade dispute. The details of this appear to be rather complicated and dull — like all that bollocks that's going on at the start of Phantom Menace, you know? — but it boils down to a basic disagreement, as I understand. The way it stands at the moment, Amazonia buys tapestries from Macmilland for twelve groats or so and sells them to the punter for ten. Yes, they're selling them at a loss. But it's not that they learned their business strategy from Milo Minderbender, and they're not selling them at a loss out of the goodness of their hearts; they figure more people will buy their Kerspindles if the hot-off-the-loom tapestries are a cushty deal. And when the hot-off-the-loom rugs are fifteen groats, they are.
Only thing is, the Kingdom of Macmilland just heard a big presentation by a delegate from the United States of Apple, suggesting a whole nother approach that's actually a lot like the traditional way of selling rugs: price them high when they're new releases, and drop the price in steps over the subsequent months. Weirdly, Macmilland would get less groats here, but this is what they'd prefer; they want new tapestries to be released at fifteen groats or so, which would mean selling them to Macmilland for ten rather than twelve. And over months, bear in mind, the price would drop until Amazonia could actually be selling those tapestries for as little as six, so those of us punters who don't want to pay through the nose for our pretty little patterns in kitten fur could hang on for a more reasonable deal. Again, Macmilland isn't doing this out of the goodness of their heart; they just think this strategy is more sensible in the long term.
Now, Amazonia and Macmilland just can't see eye-to-eye on this, and in closed meetings, we must imagine, diplomats become a bit less diplomatic than they should be. Eventually Macmilland lays its cards on the table. If Amazonia insist on sticking to the current terms, Macmilland will just have to release the tapestry versions later — like it does with the cheaper "mass-market" rugs. If it didn't, why it might as well just put the "mass-market" rug on sale at the same time and have done with it — and sit back and watch as everybody but a few obsessive collectors bought that Åthor's design in kitten fur at knockdown prices.
At the point when I was trying to get my head around this part of the situation on Saturday afternoon, I figured a little grub might help. Now you can get full table service in the SF Café, a good hairy steak brought right to your table, and the best thing is, the chef in back is psychic, so he'll have it ready for you at the point you actually order it. Fricking awesome, right? But this costs extra because, well, it's an extra service. For folks who're happy to slum it, there's the cheaper option: wander up to the counter and give your order in to Old Mac; wait for him to call out your number when it's done; then go up to collect it. You save money, but it's slower; you don't get that... instant gratification.
Table-service or self-service. Paying more to get treated like a prince among men, or sucking it up to save a few groats cause it's not that big a deal. Hardly a radical notion, eh?
Only what do I notice when I pick up the menu to see what takes my fancy? Fuck me, if there's not a whole new "no linen" option. With table service, they bring linen napkins, see, not that cheap-ass paper shite. That's not why the table service is more expensive, mind — the terribly burdensome overhead of them having to wash all those cloth napkins — but for some reason the "no linen" option is priced like it is. The chef in back still uses his psychic powers to take your order before you decide. He still has it ready for you at the very point you decide. They still bring it right to your table. But if you go for the "no linen" option it costs pretty much the same as self-service. Fuckin' A, as they say.
– How the hell can you afford to do this? I ask Old Mac when he brings my steak.
– We can't, says Old Mac. We make the bulk of our running costs back on table-service. Self-service racks up more customers because it's more affordable, but it's more affordable because it's a minimal profit per person. The "no linen" option doesn't break even, and since we started offering it, it's undercutting both those parts of the business.
– So why the fuck are you offering it?
– That's what I've been asking myself, says Mac.
At this point I began to see why the Kingdom of Macmilland might want to revise their contract with Amazonia, why they might want to negotiate better terms for tapestries, why they might see only two viable options for themselves: to release high-end rug and tapestry at the same time, and have people pay more for the instant gratification, less if they're willing to wait, regardless of which version they go for; or to wait and release the lower price tapestry when it won't undercut a crucial part of their business, just as they do with the "mass-market" rug.
At this point, however, is pretty much where The People's Independent Republic of Amazonia stormed out of negotiations and declared war.
*
The Blockade versus the Blogosphere
On Friday, without warning, Amazonia closed its borders with Macmilland. In the tiny autonomous archipelago of Åthorland, wild-eyed anchorites leaned out of their windows and tooted their whistles, only for Amazonian ornithopters to swoop low over their crofts and drop bombshells that left them stunned and horrified. Leaflets fluttered down from the skies, catalogues of Amazonia's vast inventory with every Macmilland product — not just tapestries but rugs as well — stricken from them. Not for sale. Not for sale. Not for sale. Nowhere on those leaflets was there an explanation. No Amazonian diplomat held a press conference. The Amazonian premier made no statement. Instead, every Åthor whose kitten fur rug was mass-produced and exported to the world via Macmilland simply found themselves subject to an instant blockade with not a word as to why.
The King of Macmilland was quick off the mark though, summoning the radiovision cameras to relay his speech to all the Åthors who had contracts with Macmilland, laying out what exactly had happened and why. In their stony crofts, Åthors stopped peeling the bacon from their cats and listened in awed silence as the situation was outlined. And then they fired up their aetherotransmitters and began to spread the word. By the time I stumbled into the SF Café on Saturday afternoon, the Twitter Gazette was on fire with the news. Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Scott Westerfield, Charles Stross, John Scalzi — all these Åthors and more spoke out, many at length and all in more hard-nosed detail than this... um... freeform perspective of mine. If you want the full skinny on the ins and outs of it all, I highly recommend you go read them. But it wasn't just those directly affected by the blockade who sprang into action. Even many Åthors who had nothing at all to do with Macmilland made it all too clear that they had utter contempt for Amazonia's action here.
(Strangely all these Åthors seem to have adopted a fanciful conceit that this is to do with ebooks rather than tapestries, perhaps in some misguided attempt to create a sort of... metaphoric illustration, to storyise the blockade and thereby side-step some of the knee-jerk assumptions of loyal Kerspindle users and Amazonia customers as regards the Evil Corporate Weaving Industry, its mercenary exploitation of both artists and consumers, and its obstinate adherence to obsolete media. I can only say I think this ill-judged. Everyone knows, after all, that ebooks cost nothing to produce, that the writer simply hands their manuscript into some corporate lackey called an "editor," who chucks it into an OCR scanner, presses a button and laughs as InstaPublisher 3.0 automatically transforms it into an ebook that can be marked up by infinity percent! Laughs all the way to the bank! Everyone knows that, don't they?)
And so the blogosphere lit up, the aetherotransmitters glowing like beacon fires on the islands of Åthorland, heated by the friction of furious typing. Down in the SF Café, those wild-eyed anchorites were far from alone. Rug afficionados with no professional stake in the blockade, not even on a possibly-maybe-one-day-I'll-sell-my-own-rug level, rallied round to support the artisans they admired. People who, as long-standing customers of the Amazonian ornithopters, had every reason to value the revolution they'd wrought, people who'd bought rugs and tapestries by the fuckload from those InstantStuff4U stalls, threw down the whistles they'd had hanging from their front doors (as part of this rather neat credits-for-referrals scheme,) and smashed them underfoot. The resounding message of the community as a whole? Fuck you, Amazonia! Fuck you!
*
Spitting the Dummy
Here and there, it must be said, a few voices snarled contemptuous dissent. Fuck Macmilland! they growled. They just want to screw me for as much as they can. They want to stop me from getting what I want when I want it. A tapestry costs fuck all to make, and they want to charge the price of a high-end rug? It's just like the mosaic industry, with its fucking crazy-ass evil attitude to craftsmen and consumers alike!
I asked Old Mac what he thought of those voices. They're customers, after all, and isn't the customer always right.
– Man, I work in a café, said Mac. Sometimes the customer is a jumped-up obnoxious prick who thinks the world revolves around them. You can spot them a mile away, the kind of arrogant arsewipe who thinks they're owed table-service just for deigning to bless you with their half-groat custom, the kind of fucker who wouldn't tip if you fed them with a spork and wiped their mean and mealy mouth for them after. Sometimes the customer doesn't know shit about the work that goes into the service they get. Sometimes they care even less.
Now Mac may be something of a curmudgeon, but...
One word that I've seen pop up time and time again over the weekend and the days since — wherever Åthors tried to convince Kerspindle users that Macmilland wasn't just out to ream them for every plinkle they can, wherever those who habitually buy rugs and/or tapestries supported Amazonia's unilateral pre-emptive strike as some sort of underdog's sucker punch aimed to bring down a no-good racketeer, wherever those customers basically refused to listen to detailed breakdowns of the realities of the weaving industry — is entitlement. However the facts and figures fall out, in terms of how much it costs to produce a tapestry versus how much it costs to produce a rug, Old Mac is right about the attitude of some, I think.
You can tell them about the winter spent gathering shells and pounding them into dust, mixing up dyes and spinning kitten fur into yarn, designing and redesigning, trying to come up with... something wonderful. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them about the actual advance most Åthors get of about six months worth of cat-food and cabbages, how really, honestly it's far from caviar-and-cocaine. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them about the weaving company's consultant designers, how they're in the business first and foremost because they love rugs, because they love to discover a new and exciting one, love to work with Åthors — even at the miserable wage most earn — to make it better, the best it can be. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them about those who have to pore over every square millimetre of the revised (and revised and revised) prototype, looking for knots and loose threads that shouldn't be there. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them that even tapestries must go through a whole long process that makes them not actually that much cheaper to produce than rugs, that dropping the little extra step that makes it something you can walk on doesn't save much, not when most of the cost lies in making your woven artifact flame-retardant. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them that the true value of a mass-produced craftswork that functions essentially as a leisure service, providing entertainment, is not a matter of the per unit cost marked up, that a solid ten hours of diversion, maybe more, is surely worth as much in rug form as it is in the form of ale, that a pint an hour at two groats per pint is really quite a good deal. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them that getting an even lower price than that, getting a high-end rug hot off the loom for fifteen groats, is a mark of how customers already benefit from prices bound to demand and open to haggling. They don't give a fuck. You can tell them that their rejection of your pricing strategy is entirely within their rights, that they can just walk away and spend their money elsewhere if they really think that paying more than ten groats for a tapestry is being rooked, that if they do so that very act will contribute to driving down prices by lowering demand.
They don't give a fuck.
Wait a minute. Back up there. Simply not being able to agree on a fair price is not an option? They're outraged at the thought of someone not caving to their demands?
It takes a monumental sense of entitlement to desire something so intensely that not being able to have it now renders one furious, and yet to bristle with even greater wrath when asked to stump up a price in line with that desire. This is just spitting the dummy.
There's a little echo of that attitude in the statement that was broadcast over the airwaves from Amazonia the other day. At the time of writing, the blockade is still in place, the kitten hair rugs of every Macmilland-contracted Åthor still unavailable through their service; but posted on a forum, from the desk of some unnamed minion on the "Kerspindle Task Force" — in distinct contrast with the radiovision broadcast from the King of Macmilland himself — a communique was sent out to loyal customers, admitting that eventually they'd have to give in. As others have put it most succinctly: Amazonia blinked. But it was a source of no little amusement in the SF Café that included in this memo was a little rhetorical turn of phrase characterising Macmilland as having "a monopoly" over their own products.
Oh, how we laughed. Some began a campaign against Amazonia's monopoly on the Kerspindle. Some expressed shock that — ye Gods! — Nabisco has a monopoly on Oreos!
– Oh noes! said Elizabeth Bear. I have a monopoly on Elizabeth Bear works too.
Amusing as it is though, it's a telling little sign of one of two things: A) a risible idiocy on the part of the scribe who penned it, some sort of infantile worldview in which it's scurrilously mercenary for someone to...um... have control of their own fucking products, because diddums not getting what diddums wants is just so unfair; or B) a cynical attempt to push that sort of button in the reader, to cast the legally contracted producer of an Åthor's kitten hair rug designs as a ruthless controller preventing the free use of those craftworks (by "monopolising" them) rather than facilitating the free use of those craftworks by fucking making them.
Bear's joke is pointed, skewering the craven elicitation that lurks under that word, the way it panders to — seeks to exploit — an ugly selfishness that might just as easily dismiss the claim of any Åthor to their own work. Go on, it urges. Spit on all the time and toil they put into it. Surrender to that sense of entitlement. Resent that bastard who says they have a right to control what they made themselves, if it's something that you want. They're just a venal miscreant seeking to monopolise it.
Oh noes! The Åthor has a monopoly on their rug!
I have a message for the People's Republic of Amazonia. I have a monopoly on my fingers too; I can do exactly what I want with them. I can offer you my forefinger, on the understanding that you'll sell it for ten groats, or I can walk away from that as a bad deal for me. I can offer you my thumb to sell at fifteen groats now, and my pinkie finger six months down the line, to sell at five. Or not. I can offer you my ring finger to sell at fifteen if it sells right away, but on the understanding that we drop the price in stages as the months go on. You can refuse these offers, of course, but I can make them as I will and be as intransigent as I want in the haggling because, yes, I have a monopoly on my fingers.
Tell you what though, Amazonia: I'll give you one of those fingers right now. I'm keeping all the others to myself at the moment, but giving you one of them right now.
Can you guess which one?
Eto, rant je toliki da nije stao u jedan post... :)
(A baja Hal makar zbog ovoga artikulisanog rejva definitivno zaslužuje prozno upoznavanje, i to veoma izbliza... )
Lepo sto si podsetila na njega. Ovo mu bese jedan od prvih... izliva inspiracije, ako se ne varam. Pise li on to jos uvek?
O da, itekako je aktivan na bscreview: overi njegov zadnji blog (http://www.bscreview.com/2010/10/notes-from-new-sodom-the-booker-and-the-bistro-de-critique/), povodom Booker afere.
Inače, da se pohvalim, dobila sam danas na poklon - Vellum!!! :!:
Evo, cim prodje sajam. Nikako da se odvazim da na Vellum i Ink, a procitao sam Escape from Hell! koji je, kazu, drugaciji od prethodne 2 i veoma je zabavan.
Strange Horizons Announces New Editor-In-Chief
Susan Marie Groppi, fresh from her World Fantasy Award win, has announced she will be stepping down as editor-in-chief of Strange Horizons effective November 1, 2010. Reviews editor Niall Harrison will take Groppi's place, though Groppi will remain on staff in her capacity as a fiction editor. Abigail Nussbaum will take over Harrison's old position.
S obzirom da sam pratio i SH i Torque Control nisam siguran koliko mi se, u stvari, dopada ova vest. al' dobro, videcemo kako se situacija razvija. U isto vreme u Vector-u:
The incoming features editor will be known to many of you, and certainly anyone who regularly attends the London Meetings, and I have no doubt that Shana Worthen will do an excellent job. I'm certainly looking forward to reading her first issue.
Pa, biće da je Groppi morala da bira između braka i karijere, a ovo joj dođe pomalo kao kompromis. ;)
Inače, APEX u Novembru donosi specijalni "Arab/Muslim Issue", pa me zanima da li će se to iole nadovezati na mungejt... Nisam stigla juče da overim, iako sam planirala, ali onako na letimičan pregled, rekla bih da zaista obećava.
Recimo, ovaj uvod u 50 Fatwas for the Virtuous Vampire (Pamela K. Taylor) već mi, sam po sebi, obećava brda i doline kontraverze u stvaranju:
Sheikha Yasmin al-Binawi writes in the first chapter of her book, Culinary Etiquette for the Islamic Undead, "It is commonly believed among the living that the Qur'an forbids all Muslims from eating blood. What the Qur'an actually says, is 'He has forbidden to you only carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that over which any name other than God's has been invoked; but if one is driven by necessity–neither coveting it nor exceeding his immediate need–no sin shall be upon him: for, behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.' (Chapter 2, The Cow, verse 173) Clearly, as the vampire requires blood for survival, it is completely permissible for him to consume his natural food, so long as he does not become gluttonous, gorging himself and going to extremes. God is indeed most Gracious, His Favor upon us Most Complete!"
:lol:
Nego, naišla sam pre neki dan na mali gem na Venterella blogu:
MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA: I am pleased to be interviewing two-time Hugo award winning author Allen Steele today! Allen has won numerous awards and nominations for his science fiction stories, novels, and novellas. His novels include ORBITAL DECAY, LUNAR DESCENT, THE JERICHO ITERATION, OCEANSPACE, and the "Coyote" series. Allen is the Guest of Honor at the 2010 Albacon SF convention (which is next weekend as of this posting). I'll be there too (but only as a regular ordinary guest)!
Allen,You're one of the few authors who has been published on another planet. How did that come about?
ALLEN STEELE: A couple of years ago, NASA's Phoenix lander made it to Mars, and aboard it is a DVD containing a library of science fiction stories and artwork about Mars that was compiled by the Planetary Society. Among them is 'Live From The Mars Hotel", my first published story, which was published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1988. The DVD is intended to be a repository for future Mars colonists, and also a tribute to SF writers and artists who've portrayed Mars since the 1700′s. It's a huge honor to have my work represented in this way. In fact, I wrote a story about this that appeared in Asimov's earlier this year: "The Emperor of Mars", in the June 2010 issue.
Eto. Ja bežala od njegovog Coyote serijala da ga i za dž "skinem", kad tamo - njemu prozni prvenac već odavno na Marsu ... za nepoverovati... :shock: :lol: :lol:
Folks, Cat Valente is one of my favorite people, and she's a hell of a writer, and her new book The Habitation of the Blessed is very cool, and she's brought audiovisual aids for her Big Idea piece, so I'm just going to step out of the way here and let her tell you all about her book.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE:
It is indeed true that due to an overabundance of post-graduate education I have managed to write an entire series of novels about an obscure historical hoax, the first of which came out yesterday. It is doubly true that much as I spent the last two years defining, pronouncing, and spelling the word "palimpsest," I will now spend the next three explaining who and what Prester John was, why he is important, and making poor medieval puns. I am comfortable with this fate—but that is not what I'm going to talk about today! The fact is, as a speculative fiction author I used my powers of imagination to see my future as a professorial background-info exposition-bot—Giles in a tight black dress. And I made a handy little video to explain all the historical hilarity that is Prester John and his madcap pwning of the medieval mind.
Now that you're back, what I want to tell you is that this is not a fantasy novel.
This is a science fiction novel.
What? (I imagine you say. I also imagine you with a very fetching smoking jacket and crystal goblet full of morning coffee, gesturing grandly at your computer.) Isn't this a book about a bunch of immortal monsters living in India in 1140 or so, planting cannon-orchards and sheep-trees and messing around with magic stones? Yes, yes it is. And normally I'd give that to you—it does sound a lot like fantasy. It has that familial look. But since genre distinctions are blurring all over the place and even works that would once be called science fiction are often called fantasy due to lack of compelling science, I'm gonna call this one right out of the gate: The Habitation of the Blessed is a science fiction novel. Its concerns are SFnal; its science (mostly) rigorous.
It's a first contact story. I couldn't just let the story lie as it was, with Prester John as a (literal, according to the Marvel Universe) superhero whose awesome Godliness and general fabulosity allowed him to live forever, crush infidels, and land Sexiest Man Alive 1165. He was also less filling, yet tasted great. The fact is, given the story as it is, Prester John is the only human in the place, and he is king despite having no family in the kingdom and no particular reason to be king. That, friends, is a colonial story.
I didn't want to lionize my man PJ—history's done that part. I wanted to tell a story about a man from the West arriving on what is essentially an alien planet, with no one who looks like him, and what he is willing to do to control it, to convert it, to make it like his own land. I wanted to deal with how very much like a natural disaster the arrival of such a person would be, opening up an isolated country to the predations of a burgeoning Europe and a Church hungry for conquest. And I wanted to tell the better part of it all from the point of view of the aliens and monsters who became subsumed into Prester John's missionary zeal, who make up the complicated folklore we mean when we say: "Prester John's Kingdom."
It's a post-scarcity story—or at least a pre-scarcity one. The economics and politics of Pentexore (the name finally given to that kingdom by John Mandeville, the second John and second hilarious liar to lay claim to the narrative) are predicated on a reversal of Aristotle's Physics: where our man in Athens says that you can discern things made from things born by the fact that if one plants a bed, one cannot reasonably expect a bed-tree to arise come spring. (All right, I admit it. I've actually been writing this book since I translated the Physics in undergrad, when I looked up form my Greek and said: but a bed-tree would be so awesome.) Anything planted in the Pentexore ground grows, no matter whether it is made or born: bed-trees and sheep-trees and corpse-trees and jewel-trees.
Between that and the Fountain of Youth, there is no poverty and no death in the Kingdom of Prester John. It is a transhumanist nation isolated from the rest of the world, struggling toward those goals the slow way. How they have learned to live without those constraints is a major concern of the novel—the central mechanism is a lottery held once every two hundred years that determines each creature's profession, relationships, and home for the next pair of centuries, staving off boredom and a good deal of cruelty. The rest is more complicated.
It is a story rooted in science—just not 21st century science. The series takes as a given that every legend and folktale concerning Prester John was true, including the Fountain of Youth, which came into Western myth with this very letter, and the various grotesque monsters which may or may not have been allegories for human failings, but here are given serious considerations as races and cultures with their own deep histories. So too Ptolemaic cosmology is taken wholly seriously, with the Crystalline Spheres a hard fact of the world. How this world changes into and acquired the physics of our own is part of the long game of the series.
But no physical fact of the world is not centered and grounded in the science of the time, which after all was as hard and fast to them as our own rules of the universe are to us—with the sole exception of the middle finger to Aristotle, though of course he was mightily argued with even in his own time. There is no actual magic in Prester John's Kingdom, only the properties of stones and plants that were taken as knowable fact at the time, even to the Fountain of Youth, and tales of the world which were believed as surely as we believe any blogger on holiday in Asia today.
This is my medieval science fiction novel. It's a weird beast with oversized parts and a warped sense of humor. It's a 21st century girl spinning remixes 12th century style. Of course, the legend of Prester John is itself a bizarre combination of modern concerns and ancient methods—essentially, it was Ye Olde Tyme EweTubbe video, hitting the medieval internet. Which was, like, your brother who knew a guy in the next village over. It's the first word in taking a freaky story and just running with it. And in that noble tradition, I'm thrilled to see The Habitation of the Blessed out there in the world.
Da li se neko dokopao ovoga:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.locusmag.com%2F2010%2Fcovers%2Frajaniemiqt_92x140.jpg&hash=65b873512445f2444636a1fac41027456ad899e5)
Prikaz Garyja Wolfa iz Locusa (nadam se da se nece ljutiti sto ga ovde prenosim)
Offhand, I can think of about four different ways to read Hannu Rajaniemi's rather astonishing debut novel The Quantum Thief, each of them equally valid, each equally inadequate. The first and most obvious is to approach it as Greg Egan-style radical hard SF (or maybe post-radical, since that movement by now is about as middle-aged as its sibling cyberpunk), and Rajaniemi clearly invites such a reading with a storm of barely-contextualized inventions in the first few chapters – a surreal Dilemma Prison run by immortal minds called Archons on behalf of a governing collective called the Sobornost, where prisoners trapped in an infinity of glass cells endlessly battle with millions of copies of themselves; ''warminds'' with ''non-sequential dorsal streams''; weaponized Bose-Einstein condensates called q-dots; Oortian spiderships full of virtual butterflies; spimescapes; tzaddiks; exomemories; utility fogs; gevulots; strangelet bombs and nanomissiles – all with scarcely an appositional phrase, let alone an infodump, in sight. It wouldn't be hard to blame a reader for taking a deep breath a few pages in and concluding that this is going to mean work.
Yet it really isn't, as it turns out. From another angle, The Quantum Thief is a fairly straightforward cat-and-mouse romantic mystery pitting a master thief against a brilliant boy detective in a world so information-drenched that crime would seem to be impossible. (In a way, this also echoes earlier SF mysteries like Bester's The Demolished Man, with ubiquitous information technology replacing the rather wobbly notion of psi powers that was so popular in the '50s). The plot hook is almost pulp: the famous thief Jean le Flambeur is sprung from prison by itinerant spacer Mieli and her wisecracking ship Perhonen, who – after a dizzying setpiece of a quantum space battle with the pursuing Archons – flees with him to Mars for a special assignment commissioned by her mysterious employer. Meanwhile, the boy detective Isidore Beautrelet (he's described as 15 years old, but Rajaniemi gives us to understand these are Martian years), having just solved the murder of a prominent chocolatier (in a nice touch, chocolate is one of Mars's main products), learns that his next case will involve le Flambeur. There is, in other words, as much of Maurice Leblanc as of Greg Egan in this mix, and Rajaniemi signals this early on when le Flambeur (the only one of the three main viewpoint characters to get a first-person voice) mentions that Leblanc's Le Bouchon de Cristal is one of his favorite books, and Isidore Beautrelet himself is borrowed, name and all, directly from Leblanc's youthful detective in The Hollow Needle, a novel which pits Leblanc's own Arséne Lupin against Sherlock Holmes, who also gets a shout-out or two later on.
So there are some tissue-traces of Egan here, to be sure, and of Bester, and of Leblanc. But wait, there's more! There's a fair bit of reality-testing in the manner of Philip K. Dick, as le Flambeur and others are led to question not only their own identities and memories, but even the universal Martian ''exomemory'' that provides the community's consensual reality and history – all of which, in classic paranoid Dickian fashion, may be secretly manipulated by some hidden masters with unknown motives. ''Perhaps the old philosophers were right,'' muses Isidore's newest client, ''and we are living in a simulation, playthings of some transhuman gods.'' For all its intimidating hard science (and you suspect that Rajaniemi, like Egan, knows exactly what he's talking about), the central new technology in the novel is the very Dickian notion of the gevulot, an elaborate system of information nodes which permits people to control their degree of privacy, while feeding information into the city's larger ''exomemory.'' And the Martian colony itself – most of the action is set in a giant moving city called Oubliette, which is involved in a terraforming project – is as politically idealistic as anything in Kim Stanley Robinson. ''We believe in what the Revolution stood for,'' explains one character. ''A human Mars. A place where we recreate Earth without problems. A place where everyone owns their own minds, a place where we belong to ourselves. And that is not possible when someone behind the curtain is pulling our strings.'' This political theme, which also echoes the socioeconomic tensions between the inner and outer solar systems that we see in novels like Paul McAuley's The Quiet War, may be the least developed of the major themes, but comes to play an important role in the backstory which eventually unfolds.
It's clear that Rajaniemi feels he has to get a lot done with this widely anticipated first novel, and for the most part he succeeds brilliantly. While his opening setpieces – the prison itself and the high-tech space battle between Mieli's ship and the pursuing Archons – are spectacular enough, Rajaniemi really hits stride with the peripatetic Martian city of Oubliette, where time is literally currency (Isidore's wealthy client is a ''milliennaire''), where those whose Watches run out must serve time as Quiets, helping run the city's infrastructure, and where privacy is a commodity controlled by an elaborate system of protocols and hierarchies enforced by cop-like ''tzaddiks.'' But Rajaniemi mitigates the alienating effect of his setting by populating his tale with likeable and familiar characters that sometimes approach pop culture archetypes – not only the bandit-roué with a secret past le Flambeur (whose name may also echo a classic Jean-Pierre Melville heist movie), the tough-as-nails adventuress Mieli (so battle-ready she has a fusion reactor embedded in her thigh), and the brilliant young Isidore (whose Holmesian deductions regarding a letter which impossibly appears in his client's secure home are what finally blows the plot open), but also such comic-book figures as the Gentleman, a phantom rescuer who appears at opportune times throughout the story. Rajaniemi is having as much fun with these characters as with his gonzo physics, and by the end of the novel we'd be willing to follow them down any of the several sequel-corridors that Rajaniemi gives himself. For now, he's spectacularly delivered on the promise that this is likely the most important debut SF novel we'll see this year.
A ja ga uporno preskacem iako mi Amazon non-stop nudi... Oh, well, sacekace Novogodisnju posiljku.
Nesto novo: http://www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/ (http://www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/)
Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 03-11-2010, 20:24:38
Da li se neko dokopao ovoga:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.locusmag.com%2F2010%2Fcovers%2Frajaniemiqt_92x140.jpg&hash=65b873512445f2444636a1fac41027456ad899e5)
Kao da sam upao u vrtlog...
Pre će biti da si uhvaćen u paukovu mrežu...
Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 04-11-2010, 15:56:57
Pre će biti da si uhvaćen u paukovu mrežu...
Ma jok, stil mu je ludački...
Bombarduje informacijama i činjenicama koje se nude kao podrazumevajuća. Bez objašnjavanja. Bez odmora. I dah čovek jedva da uzme...
Stvar ukusa. Meni ne smeta ovaj neprestani napor koji moram da ulažem dok se "probijam" kroz tekst (u kome događaji jure sto na sat) kako bih shvatio šta se tu u stvari događa. Ali zato, s vremena na vreme, moram da se odmorim...
Dobro je. Nije me opčinio, ali je veoma dobro.
Đe to ima?
Hvala. Jesi li čitao ovaj roman ili to po pričama...
Upravo čitam.
To se zove sveža informacija... :)
Kvantum kradljivac je zakuska koju vredi dati najpre kušaču otrova, a Gaff je, metaforikli spiking, po tom pitanju daleko vredniji od mene, ako preživi da nam ispriča kako je bilo. Sadržaj je svakako obećavajući, ali je ujedno i sasvim opak za debitantski roman... no dobro, neka novija remek-dela su došla upravo u debitantskom pakovanju, tako da... budimo otvoreni za sve mogućnosti.
S druge strane, proza gospojice Valente zasigurno zaslužuje overavanje, to ne samo zbog njenog hrabrog izbora u pominjanom APEXu, nego i zbog overenih prvih par poglavlja knjige, koji su uslužno stavljeni na njen blog u vidu tizera.
Ali, gospojica Valente se odlučila da tu knjigu ponudi s onom vrsti kičeraj naslovnice zbog koje bi mi zaista bilo krajnje neprijatno da rečenu knjigu poklonim ikome koga stvarno gotivim, tako da joj je to minus u startu, bar kod mene. :roll:
"Gospojica" Valente nit je mala stasom nit je neudata xrofl
nisam ni ja, pa svejedno nemam ništa protiv da me 'gospojicom' vikaš.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=br_lf_m_1000628171_grlink_1?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000628171 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=br_lf_m_1000628171_grlink_1?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000628171)
Best Books of 2010
Top 10 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Welcome to our Best of 2010 top 10 lists for Science Fiction & Fantasy. We've put our editors' picks and our 2010 bestsellers for each category on the same page together, so you can easily compare. Click on "Editors' Picks" (or "Editors' Picks: Kindle eBooks") to see our choices for the best science fiction and fantasy of 2010, including our top pick, Michal Ajvaz's The Golden Age. And click on "Customer Favorites" to find the bestselling science fiction and fantasy at Amazon.com during 2010. (Ranked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2010 are eligible.) See more editors' picks and customers' favorites in our Best of 2010 Store.
Editors' picks
1. The Golden Age (Czech Literature Series) by Michal Ajvaz
2. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel by Charles Yu
3. Redemption in Indigo: a novel by Karen Lord
4. The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
5. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Book 1 (The Inheritance Trilogy) by N. K. Jemisin
6. The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich
7. The Dream of Perpetual Motion (Playaway Adult Fiction) by Dexter Clarence Palmer
8. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
9. The Fixed Stars: Thirty-Seven Emblems for the Perilous Season by Brian Conn
10. Kill the Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
Na moju sramotu ali za 1, 3, 6, 9 i 10 nikad cuo, i to za pisce, o knjigama i da ne govorimo.
Customer's favorites su :x #6 je valjda najmanji u seriji.
Za Kedrija si bre čuo - pričali smo ti, ja i Zak o njemu, ako nisam sanjao. Da l' ga je beše Boban objavio svojevremeno? Pre neki dan pročitao sam Sandman Slim-a i uopšte nisam impresioniran. Teško da je nastavak te knjige jedno od deset najboljih dela ove ili bilo koje godine. N. K. Jemisin je hajpovana do bola, ali ništa novo niti bogznakako originalno nije donela, sem što je crnkinja. Njena proza mi je otprilike na nivou romana Trudi Kanavan - dakle, ništa nadahnuto, vispreno niti ne znam koliko originalno. U suštini, prosečno, pa čak ne ni mnogo zanimljivo. 2, 3, 4 i 7 čekam da mi stignu, a za ostalo - sem onoga što sam pomenuo - nisam ni čuo.
I dalje ne mogu da se setim, sto ne znaci da mi niste pricali :oops:
Nego, kad smo jos kod ove liste evo komentara jednog od (a mozda i jedinog) kreatora: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2010/11/best-books-of-2010-top-10-science-fiction-and-fantasy-selections-focus-on-nos-1-5.html (http://www.omnivoracious.com/2010/11/best-books-of-2010-top-10-science-fiction-and-fantasy-selections-focus-on-nos-1-5.html)
QuoteI also want to mention briefly three books not covered here: Michael Cisco's The Narrator, which I didn't discover until late, Lauren Beukes' Zoo City, which isn't eligible until next year but would've been a strong contender, and Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief , not yet been published in the U.S
.
Kedri je napisao Kamikaze l'amour, ako ćeš ga po nečemu znati, po tome ćeš. I po fotkama goli' žena. Al ni ja se nešto ne sećam da smo pričali o njemu... ali sad mi je mnogo rano, možda mi je tad bilo mnogo kasno...
Quote from: zakk on 05-11-2010, 09:11:54
Kedri je napisao Kamikaze l'amour, ako ćeš ga po nečemu znati, po tome ćeš. I po fotkama goli' žena. Al ni ja se nešto ne sećam da smo pričali o njemu... ali sad mi je mnogo rano, možda mi je tad bilo mnogo kasno...
Jeste, pričali smo baš o Kamikaze l'amour. Ja ga nisam čitao, a spomenuo sam da mi Butcher Bird, roman pre Sandman Slima, zvuči zanimljivo, a neko je rekao da je Kamikaze l'amour loš. Ne sećam se ostalih detalja.
Ovo je postalo povod za nesto sto je vec nazvano Steampunk Backlash :)
The hard edge of empire
By Charlie Stross (http://www.antipope.org/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=1&id=2)
I am becoming annoyed by the current glu (http://www.tor.com/tags/Steampunk%20Fortnight)t of Steampunk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk) that is being foisted on the SF-reading public via the likes of Tor.com and io9.
It's not that I actively dislike steampunk, and indeed I have fond memories of the likes of K. W. Jeter's "Infernal Devices", Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates", the works of James Blaylock, and other features of the 1980s steampunk scene. I don't have that much to say against the aesthetic and costumery other than, gosh, that must be rather hot and hard to perambulate in. (I will confess to being a big fan of Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius. (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php)) It's just that there's too damn much of it about right now, and furthermore, it's in danger of vanishing up its own arse due to second artist effect. (The first artist sees a landscape and paints what they see; the second artist sees the first artist's work and paints that, instead of a real landscape.)
We've been at this point before with other sub-genres, with cyberpunk and, more recently, paranormal romance fang fuckers bodice rippers with vamp- Sparkly Vampyres in Lurve: it's poised on the edge of over-exposure. Maybe it's on its way to becoming a new sub-genre, or even a new shelf category in the bookstores. But in the meantime, it's over-blown. The category is filling up with trashy, derivative junk and also with good authors who damn well ought to know better than to jump on a bandwagon. (Take it from one whose first novel got the 'S'-word pinned on it — singularity — back when that was hot: if you're lucky, your career will last long enough that you live to regret it.) Harumph, young folks today, get off my lawn ....
But there's a dark side as well. We know about the real world of the era steampunk is riffing off. And the picture is not good. If the past is another country, you really wouldn't want to emigrate there. Life was mostly unpleasant, brutish, and short; the legal status of women in the UK or US was lower than it is in Iran today: politics was by any modern standard horribly corrupt and dominated by authoritarian psychopaths and inbred hereditary aristocrats: it was a priest-ridden era that had barely climbed out of the age of witch-burning, and bigotry and discrimination were ever popular sports: for most of the population starvation was an ever-present threat. I could continue at length. It's the world that bequeathed us the adjective "Dickensian", that gave us a fully worked example of the evils of a libertarian minarchist state, and that provoked Marx to write his great consolatory fantasy epic, The Communist Manifesto (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm). It's the world that gave birth to the horrors of the Modern, and to the mass movements that built pyramids of skulls to mark the triumph of the will. It was a vile, oppressive, poverty-stricken and debased world and we should shed no tears for its passing (or the passing of that which came next).
Contemplating the numerous errors of the zombies'n'zeppelins fad in SF makes me twitch, for reasons that parallel China Mieville's denunciation of The Lord of the Rings (http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=7813) (except that I have the attention span of a weasel on crack and am besides too lazy to anatomize the errors of a generation at length in such an essay: personally, I blame the internet). The romanticization of totalitarianism is nothing new (and if you don't recognize the totalitarian urge embedded in the steampunk nostalgia trip, I should like to remind you that "king" is a synonym for "hereditary dictator" and direct you to the merciless skewing Michael Moorcock delivered to imperial hagiography in his Oswald Bastable books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nomad_of_the_Time_Streams)). Nevertheless, an affection for the ancien regime is an unconsidered aspect of the background of most steampunk fiction: much like the interstellar autocracies so common in space opera (and again, let me cite Michael Moorcock on Starship Stormtroopers (http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/moorcock.html)). The Science! in steampunk (which purports to be science fiction, of a kind ... doesn't it?) is questionable at best (Cherie Priest, I'm looking at your gas-induced zombies) and frequently flimsier than even the worst junk that space opera borrows from the props department, because, as it happens, the taproots of steampunk lie prior to the vast expansion in the scientific enterprise that has come to dominate our era. But that's just about forgivable, inasmuch as much modern SF doesn't even like to pretend that sometimes a spaceship is just a spaceship, and not a metaphor. That leaves the aesthetic ... which I can't find anything intrinsically wrong with, as long as steampunk is nothing more than what happens when goths discover brown. Viewed as a fashion trend for corsets and top hats, steampunk is no more harmful than a fad for Che Guevara tee shirts, or burkas, or swastikas; just another fashion trend riffing thoughtlessly off stuff that went away for a reason (at least in the developed world).
You probably think I'm going a little too far in my blanket condemnation of a sandbox where the cool kids are having altogether too much fun. But consider this: what would a steampunk novel that took the taproot history of the period seriously look like?
Forget wealthy aristocrats sipping tea in sophisticated London parlours; forget airship smugglers in the weird wild west. A revisionist mundane SF steampunk epic — mundane SF is the socialist realist movement within our tired post-revolutionary genre — would reflect the travails of the colonial peasants forced to labour under the guns of the white Europeans' Zeppelins, in a tropical paradise where severed human hands are currency and even suicide doesn't bring release from bondage. (Hey, this is steampunk — it needs zombies and zeppelins, right? Might as well pick Zombies for our single one impossible ingredient.) It would share the empty-stomached anguish of a young prostitute on the streets of a northern town during a recession, unwanted children (contraception is a crime) offloaded on a baby farm with a guaranteed 90% mortality rate through neglect. The casual boiled-beef brutality of the soldiers who take the King's shilling to break the heads of union members organizing for a 60 hour work week. The fading eyesight and mangled fingers of nine year olds forced to labour on steam-powered looms, weaving cloth for the rich. The empty-headed graces of debutantes raised from birth to be bargaining chips and breeding stock for their fathers' fortunes. In other words, it's the story of all the people who are having adventures — as long as you remember that an adventure is a tale of unpleasant events happening to people a long, long way from home.
Only none of this stuff is fun, exactly, so I suppose it has to go on the list of "Novels I will not write" ... filed under "too angry".
Čitao sam to pre neki dan - i nešto baš nisam siguran da nije reč samo o brecanju na trenutno popularan podžanr kojim se bave mahom mladi autori i koji donosi pare. Pre stimapanka to je bio slučaj sa urbanom fantastikom, a pre toga sa epskom fantastikom. Žalosna je činjenica da pisci tvrde naučne fantastike sebe doživljavaju kao elitu žanra i vrhovne kritičare društva u kojem živimo ili ne živimo. Većini njih su devedesete i uspon epske fantastike veoma teško pali.
A evo šta Ari Marmel (čiji roman takođe imam i takođe ga nisam pročitao) ima da kaže o stimpanku i antistimpanku:
A few days ago, a friend of mine in the industry pointed me to a blog post by someone else in the industry. (Names withheld to protect the innocent, the guilty, and me.) It was a pretty long post, and it covered a bunch of specific details, but the gist of it was that "steampunk is over." That there's nothing left of the genre but people imitating other people in the genre.
Seems to me that I've heard that before.
I hear that superhero movies were over–a couple of years before Batman Begins, Iron Man, and (especially) The Dark Knight.
After the initial peak of popularity for Anne Rice, Tanya Huff, PN Elrod, and White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade, I heard that vampires were over. I've heard the same said more recently, in the wake of Twilight. (Leaving aside the usual arguments as to whether those are actually vampires.) If that's true, and vampires are "over," you might want to tell Jasper Kent, or Clay and Susan Griffith, or the folks behind True Blood. Or heck, even the guys at White Wolf, who are about to release a brand new MMORPG based on Masquerade.
I've recently been hearing people say that zombies are over. I think AMC and Frank Darabont just put the lie to that rather handily.
People have been saying that sword & sorcery fantasy is over for years, even decades. Well, I've talked about that before; let's just say you only have to browse the fantasy section at your local bookstore to see just how true that's not.
Almost every sub-genre that's attained any real popularity and has been around more than a few years has been declared over–by fans, by creatives, by experts in the field. And you know what? They're always wrong.
Oh, sure, popularity wanes. Topics that were once everywhere become more scarce, harder to find. But they don't go away, and more often than not, after a period of quiescence, they come roaring back. Maybe in a slightly different guise, maybe tweaked for a new generation (often more than traditionalists–myself included, when it comes to lots of fantasy and horror–would like), but they come back.
In my experience, at least, the bulk of the cries of "That's over!" come from people who want it to be over. Maybe they're tired of superhero movies. Maybe they prefer urban fantasy to sword & sorcery. Maybe they're sick of vampires as romantic figures and want to see them go away for a while so they can come back as the monsters they should be. *cough, cough*
And sometimes–I stress sometimes; I'm not painting everyone, or even a majority, with this brush–it's because they're bitter about the fact that they themselves couldn't find success in the sub-genre. It's a sad display of jealousy, but it does happen. I've seen it firsthand.
What might legitimately be "over"–and what I think a lot of people are actually talking about when they speak of an entire sub-genre being "over"–is a particular cycle of influence and mimicry. Anne Rice's vampire books were a huge success, and suddenly every portrayal of vampires for many years cast them as steamy, romantic, tragic, operatic figures. Vampire novels weren't being inspired by the myths of vampires. They were being inspired by Anne Rice's novels. And then they were being inspired by books that were inspired by Anne Rice's novels, or books that were inspired by games that were inspired by books that were inspired by Anne Rice's novels. And so forth.
So sure, when a particular sub-genre starts feeding on itself like Ouroboros with the munchies, it's probably time for that particular interpretation to take a siesta. But the sub-genre itself ain't dead, and anyone who says otherwise is either genuinely mistaken or has an agenda.
What's my point with all this? Honestly, I'm speaking mostly to the aspiring writers out there. One of the first lessons that many experienced writers, and agents, and editors give to the newcomers is that you shouldn't chase the fads. Just because steampunk, or vampires, or cannibal marmosets with daddy issues are popular now doesn't mean that they will be in two years when your next book comes out. "Write," the say, "what you want to write. What you can get excited about writing. It may not sell, but you'll have a better shot, and more fun, and a better finished product, than if you're trying to ape the current hot stuff."
And that's true, but I wanted to make it clear that the reverse is also true. Don't assume that because something's popular and common that there's no room for a new spin. Don't throw away an exciting idea just because some pundit online said that a particular genre is "over," or that it's so narrowly defined that your story doesn't fit. Don't be derivative–we don't need knock-offs–but a new spin? A zombie or vampire or steampunk story that we haven't seen before? Not only is the genre never too over for that, but it just might be what a whole bunch of the genre's fans, hungry for something both new and familiar at the same time, are looking for.
Najtflajere, drago mi je što te niko ne plaća da zvanično prevedeš taj Charlie Stross blog koji je Melkor ovde postovao.
Elem, najnoviji Asimov's onlajn (http://www.asimovs.com/2010_10-11/exc_story2.shtml) ima zanimljivu prozu.
Quote from: Amanda Robin on 06-11-2010, 12:42:07
Najtflajere, drago mi je što te niko ne plaća da zvanično prevedeš taj Charlie Stross blog koji je Melkor ovde postovao.
Što?
Pa, zato što nikako ne uspevam da povežem tvoj komentar na Štrosov blog sa samim sadržajem tog bloga. A znaš već kako mudri starci zbore: sve što prevodilac učita u original, on upiše i u prevod... ;)
Inače, moram da dodam kako je i mene Torov blog pošteno smorio, mada priznajem da to nije zbog stimpanka, koji mi uopšte nije mrzak, naprotiv.
Quote from: Amanda Robin on 07-11-2010, 09:27:37
Pa, zato što nikako ne uspevam da povežem tvoj komentar na Štrosov blog sa samim sadržajem tog bloga. A znaš već kako mudri starci zbore: sve što prevodilac učita u original, on upiše i u prevod... ;)
Inače, moram da dodam kako je i mene Torov blog pošteno smorio, mada priznajem da to nije zbog stimpanka, koji mi uopšte nije mrzak, naprotiv.
Nisam ni rekao da je to bio Marmelov odgovor na Strosa. Možda jeste, a moža je bilo upućeno nekom drugom. A ako misliš na ono što sam ja napisao iznad Marmela... pa, zaista mislim da je sva povika na stimpank koja se u poslednje vreme čuje sindrom lisice i kiselog grožđa. Nije taj stimpank pao sa neba. To je uveliko krenulo prošle godine, sa Pristovom, Vesterfeldom i još nekima - ali tada nikome nije smetalo, jer su svi mislili da se to neće prodavati.
Raspisala se ovih dana...
Cat Valente - Here I Stand, With Steam Coming Out of My Ears (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/616832.html)
QuoteI am sick to death of steampunk.
Cat Valente - Steampunk Reloaded (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/617159.html)
Cat Valente - 10 Things I Actually Do Love About Steampunk (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/617393.html)
Cat Valente - Long Hard SF Against the Wall (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/617820.html)
Quote from: Nightflier on 07-11-2010, 10:44:27
Quote from: Amanda Robin on 07-11-2010, 09:27:37
Pa, zato što nikako ne uspevam da povežem tvoj komentar na Štrosov blog sa samim sadržajem tog bloga. A znaš već kako mudri starci zbore: sve što prevodilac učita u original, on upiše i u prevod... ;)
Inače, moram da dodam kako je i mene Torov blog pošteno smorio, mada priznajem da to nije zbog stimpanka, koji mi uopšte nije mrzak, naprotiv.
Nisam ni rekao da je to bio Marmelov odgovor na Strosa.
Nisam ni pominjala "Marmelov odgovor na Strosa", nego samo tvoj.
QuoteČitao sam to pre neki dan - i nešto baš nisam siguran da nije reč samo o brecanju na trenutno popularan podžanr kojim se bave mahom mladi autori i koji donosi pare. Pre stimapanka to je bio slučaj sa urbanom fantastikom, a pre toga sa epskom fantastikom. Žalosna je činjenica da pisci tvrde naučne fantastike sebe doživljavaju kao elitu žanra i vrhovne kritičare društva u kojem živimo ili ne živimo. Većini njih su devedesete i uspon epske fantastike veoma teško pali.
Ne vidim gde si u Štrosovom blogu našao opravdanje za svoj ovakav zaključak, pa mi se zato i učinilo da učitavaš u njegov blog ono što čovek uopšte nije nameravao da kaže.
Ili ja bar ne uspevam da vidim gde je on to rekao, pa ako možeš da me prosvetliš, bila bih ti zahvalna.
Zar nije pisao (Stross) o "hajp"-u?
I o: "(The first artist sees a landscape and paints what they see; the second artist sees the first artist's work and paints that, instead of a real landscape.)" efektu?
Pa, moj utisak nije zasnovan samo na Strosovom blogu, niti se odnosi samo na njega. Razgovarajući sa piscima i urednicima koji promovišu stimpank i onima koje stimpank nervira, stekao sam takav utisak. A ono da hard sf pisci sebe doživljavaju kao elitu fantastike, te da mahom nipodaštavaju sve ostale valjda ne moram da dokazujem posebno. Bilo kako bilo, to je moj stav & mišljenje - a nije moj manir da svoje mišljenje namećem drugima, te stoga neću ni pokušavati da te prosvećujem.
A da me neko angažuje da prevedem bilo šta, pa i Strosa, bojim se da ne bih mogao drugačije da prevodim nego onako kako doživljam taj tekst. Za potpuno objektivno prevođenje za sada je jedini izlaz Google Translate.
Quote from: Gaff on 07-11-2010, 12:26:54
Zar nije pisao (Stross) o "hajp"-u?
I o: "(The first artist sees a landscape and paints what they see; the second artist sees the first artist's work and paints that, instead of a real landscape.)" efektu?
je, bogami. :cry: :cry:
(My bad; ne znam zašto sam uvek toliko svesna sveta drugih-po-redu umetnika... karakterna mana, garant... :()
ps. jel' ono "drugih-po-redu" sinonimno sa
drugorazrednim?
Quote from: Amanda Robin on 07-11-2010, 12:56:39
ps. jel' ono "drugih-po-redu" sinonimno sa drugorazrednim?
Pre će biti - trećerazrednim.
Jah.
Overi, molim te, "Lost in Translation".
Vrlo poučan "lip my stocking" film...
Quote from: Nightflier on 07-11-2010, 12:28:22
A da me neko angažuje da prevedem bilo šta, pa i Strosa, bojim se da ne bih mogao drugačije da prevodim nego onako kako doživljam taj tekst. Za potpuno objektivno prevođenje za sada je jedini izlaz Google Translate.
Vidi, na sto sam čuda bila kako da ti odgovorim. Neke izjave koje ovde nudiš stvarno prevazilaze moju moć shvatanja. Ali ovo gore citirano itekako shvatam, pa zato:
Zaista ne očekujem od prevodioca da mi nudi svoj "doživljaj" originalnog teksta, još manje to želim, a još ponajmanje želim da za to ikada
platim. Tebi se možda čini da ja očekujem nemoguće, ali, ja zapravo samo očekujem profesionalan prevod originalnog teksta i definitivno ne želim da u ime istom dobijem ikakvo alternativno 9i krajnje subjektivno) tumačenje istog. Drugim rečima, smatram da čak i izraelski Jevrejin može da mi bez greške prevede Majn Kampf, to samo ako je dovoljno profesionalan i ako dovoljno dobro poznaje nemački jezik, a ne samo getoiziranu mu "jidiš" varijantu. S druge strane, smatram da čak ni rođeni švaba neće uspeti u tom poduhvatu, ako ne ispunjava te minimalne uslove.
Tako da... ja zapravo nikada nisam uporedila tekst tvog prevoda sa tekstom originala kojeg si prevodio, pa sam ti sve kvalifikacije do sada uzimala zdravo-za-gotovo. Ali u ovom slučaju, vidim da postoji suštinsko nerazumevanje(©Mića Milovanović :lol:) između Čarlijevog teksta i tvog tumačenja istog, pa ja ne mogu a da ti na to ne skrenem pažnju.
Naravno, to u sasvim prijateljskom maniru, da se razumemo, pošto ja ionako nisam ciljna grupa za tvoje prevode.
Vidi, da bilo koja dva, tri ili šesnaest prevodilaca prevode isti tekst, dobila bi različitih prevoda koliko iima prevodilaca. Zato se prevod smatra autorskim delom. Prevodilac je tumač originala, po definiciji. Naravno, ti to ne moraš da prihvatiš, niti to od tebe očekujem. Na kraju, ovde ima i drugih prevodilaca pa možeš i njih da pitaš za mišljenje, ako te zanima.
Inače, ne verujem da postoji suštinsko nerazumevanje između "Čarlijevog" teksta i mene. Pre će biti da trenutno postoji nerazumevanje između mene i tebe, ili mog i tvog tumačenja Strosovog stava o stimpanku.
Najtflajere, molim te shvati; ovo nema nikakve veze za stimpankom, nego sa tvojom sklonošću da sasvim proizvoljno tumačiš tuđe izjave, sad ne više samo Štrosove, nego i moje.
Ti si u svom komentaru impliciraš da je rečeno ono što uopće nije bilo rečeno, i ja sam na to reagovala. A ako je to zaista nekakva baza kodeksa domaćeg prevodilačkog esnafa, onda stvarno ne znam šta da ti kažem. Čovek nigde nije niti insinuirao, a kamoli se referisao na te tvoje konfrontacije sa epskom i urbanom fantastikom, nigde se nije postavio kao "elita hardSF-a" – nemam blage veze po kom bi on to merilu ušao u tu kategoriju, čak i da ista ovde nije isključiv produkt tvoje konstrukcije, a i da jeste, kakve veze u tom kontekstu ima epska fantastika?? taman koliko i krimić ili ljubić, pošto se otprilike toliko ti žanrovi razlikuju.
Opet tvrdim, to što si ti ponudio kao tumačenje njegove izjave nema nikakve veze sa stvarnim sadržajem njegovog bloga, čak ni utoliko da ovaj konkretno blog bude makar i posredan povod tim tvojim konstrukcijama. A ljudi koji ne barataju engleskim dovoljno dobro da shvate finese njegove sintakse, garant će lako poverovati upravo tvom "prevodu", pa ti ja ovde zato i tvrdim kako je isti potpuno proizvoljan.
A ako se zaista podrazumeva da prevodioci "tumače" tekstove koje prevode, onda ne shvatam tvoju potrebu da se na prevod Kombibove "Mehaničke Devojke" osvrćeš onako kako si se osvrtao, jer ako smatraš legitimnim ovakva tumačenja Štrosovih izjava, onda su valjda i skroz legitimne sve one vreće sa zejtinom, jer – bože moj – prevodilac je to možda upravo tako doživeo a ko smo mi da mu kažemo da je u krivu?
Opet ponavljam, nije u pitanju ništa lično, ja prevode fantastike ne čitam po difoltu, sem Skrobovih; ali svejedno verujem da je velika odgovornost u prevođenju tuđih tekstova, i verujem da ta odgovornost pri takvoj obavezi prevazilazi bilo kakve "lične utiske" ili "doživljaje", koje bi prevodilac lično mogao imati. A ako zaista nije tako, onda guglovom prevodiocu nekako i ne vidim realnu alternativu.
I kakvo značenje ima to tvoje stavljanje njegovog imena u navodnike?
Mislim stvarno, na kom mi ovde jeziku uopšte komuniciramo??
Znaš šta, sve si u pravu. Povlačim sve što sam rekao.
Naravno, naravno... zar bi te inače bilo u esnafu u kojem te ima?
nazad na topik;
Better Living Through Software (http://www.salonfutura.net/2010/11/better-living-through-software/)
Ever since the rise of cyberpunk in the 1980s (and quite possibly before then), science fiction has been obsessed with the relationship between the human brain and computers. There's an argument that virtual worlds and nanotechnology have provided writers with the sort of magic wands that make modern day SF indistinguishable from fantasy, though personally I find a lot of it reminiscent of Michael Moorcock's wonderful Dancers at the End of Time series. The important point, however, is not how you choose to classify subgenres, but whether the books are any good. Fortunately some of our finest writers are on the job.
The idea that human minds might be uploaded into software has been around for quite a while. Charlie Stross's Accelerando is one of the most famous uses of the idea. The new Iain M. Banks Culture novel, Surface Detail, picks up the idea and runs with it. Suppose, Banks asks, this was possible. What would happen if fundamentalist religions got hold of this technology? That's right, they would be able to make Heaven and Hell a reality. And Saint Peter would be redundant, because living people would decide who ended up where.
Of course The Culture would never do anything so dastardly as to condemn their citizens to Hell; not when they put so much effort into creating Heaven for the living. But they are not the only civilization in the galaxy. Some less evolved civilizations are very enthusiastic about "preserving local traditions", especially those with authoritarian governments. Other civilizations are determined to stamp out the barbaric practice, but because all-out war is frowned upon in galactic society they agree to fight a proxy war in virtual worlds instead. The only trouble with such agreements, is that sooner or later one side has to face the fact that it is losing, and at that point they have to decide whether to escalate matters into the Real.
The plot of Surface Detail covers a wide range of characters including a corrupt businessman whose fortune is tied up with providing the server farms in which the Hells of the galaxy are hosted; two alien academics who brave their local Hell to find out how the dead are really treated; a Universal Soldier who fights in the virtual wars because being used as a weapon is all he knows how to do; and a Culture warship who is itching to actually use all of his lethal toys. I don't need to tell you which of those characters steals the show.
While Banks might still be one of the big stars of science fiction, there are plenty of young pretenders snapping at his heels. A book that people are tipping to carry off a few awards next year is The Quantum Thief, a hugely impressive debut by Finnish writer, Hannu Rajaniemi. He also has characters spending time in virtual worlds after they die, but in the sophisticated far-future Mars of the novel death is only a temporary state that citizens go through in order to earn more time alive. While in the Quiet they work in the brains of the machines that keep the city of Oubliette running.
Much of the plot of The Quantum Thief involves a seemingly impossible crime. Isidore, a young man who fancies himself as a Consulting Detective, tries to solve the mystery. A prime suspect is the notorious thief, Jean le Flambeur, who has recently arrived on Mars having escaped the fearsome Dilemma Prison. Of course as le Flambeur is one of the main viewpoint characters, we know it can't have been him that did it, unless of course it was something he planned and put in train before he went to prison and has since expunged from his memory. It is the sort of mystery that you can only do in science fiction.
Rajaniemi's prose is excellent, and all the more impressive as English is not his native language. You may also have noticed quite a bit of French influence in the names. It helps to know a little French when reading the book. But it is the character of le Flambeur that will probably capture readers' hearts. He's the sort of loveable rogue that might have been played by David Niven in years past, and would doubtless be picked up by Robert Downey Jr. these days. The Quantum Thief is an explosive debut and I couldn't be happier for Hannu.
John Meaney has a rather different take on software life-after-death. His new SF novel, Absorption, has a complex plot spanning many characters over several millennia. The characters include a Viking warrior, a Jewish lady physicist from Nazi Germany, and a mu-space pilot from the same far-future universe in which his Nulapeiron Sequence is set. The far-future action takes place in a tech-based city that bears some similarities to Rajaniemi's Oubliette and Kathleen Ann Goonan's Flower Cities, and here we encounter the fearsome concept of vampire code. Imagine that you are jacked in to the Internet, and someone comes through that interface and sucks out your mind, absorbing your skills and talents for themselves.
With so many viewpoints spread through space and time, the book takes a while to get started. It isn't really until about half way through that you start to see the shape of the story. But the pace keeps accelerating as the book progresses and by the end we reach a breathless climax that leaves you itching for the next book in the series.
A somewhat different take on the idea is provided by Tricia Sullivan's Lightborn. In this novel a software system known as Lightborn, or colloquially Shine, is used to give viewers a more interactive and intense experience of popular media. It links you to your TV set, which by the time of the book is the same thing as your home computer. At the beginning of the book a rogue AI takes over the software and starts suborning viewers. It is more zombie code than vampire code, but alarming all the same, and by the time the software security guys manage to isolate the rouge a small American town has been taken over. Only the kids, who are too young for full-blown Shine connections, escape the AI's control.
A lot of authors would have written a book leading up to something like that, with the climax being the defeat of the AI. Sullivan is much braver. Her book is all about what happens after the event — to the people in the town, to the kids who managed to flee, and to America in general. The book reminded me in part of Sheri S. Tepper's Raising the Stones, in which the population of a planet comes under the influence of a sentient fungus. Tepper is fairly happy about this, because the fungus puts an end to war and inequality; everyone is a happy part of the hive mind. Sullivan has a much more nuanced view of the possibilities, and therefore, to my mind, has produced a better book.
Colin Harvey's Damage Time is also much closer to our own world. Set in New York just a generation or so into the future, it too deals with the relationship between brains and software. The main character, Pete Shah, is a cop whose primary expertise is searching through recorded memories. In particular it is vital for the police to know if the memories they are studying are genuine or have been edited. But if memories can be recorded, so too can they be stolen and sold, and there you have an opportunity for organized crime.
Because he is dealing with the very near future, Harvey runs the risk of readers complaining "that couldn't possibly happen." For example, in the book, things like Peak Oil and Climate Change turn out to be real and not scurrilous lies put about by evil Liberals trying to deny good, upstanding Republicans their God-given right to unlimited consumption. Some people won't like that. You might equally wonder whether California would really secede, build a wall to keep the rest of the country out, and proceed to uplift its citizens in nerd-like rapture to some early version of those Flower Cities. But Harvey isn't really predicting here, he's just postulating (see his interview in this issue for more on the background to the book). And who knows what will really happen in the future. I particularly like the bit where Shah, being a hard-bitten male cop, is thoroughly disrespectful towards a beautiful intersex woman, and then gets chewed out over his bigotry by his Imam.
The real problem with memory, however, is that if you wait long enough it degrades horribly. That's true whether it is stored in flesh, in software, or in history. Michael Moorcock's Doctor Who novel, The Coming of the Terraphiles, is set in the very far future when our Earth is more myth than history. The Terraphiles of the title are Americans aliens who have developed an obsessive interest in English Terran history. So enthusiastic are they, that they create re-enactment theme parks worlds in which they can role-play the lives of the people they worship. That includes sporting events that merrily muddle archery, darts and cricket. In fact they get just about everything wrong, except perhaps that they all come over like characters out of a P.G. Wodehouse novel.
The Doctor, of course, is a bit of a Terraphile himself.
Moorcock fans will know that he has visited this sort of territory before – and for those who are not fans there is a clue at the beginning of this article. However, the Doctor is not exactly Jherek Carnelian, and Amy Pond is most definitely not Mrs. Amelia Underwood. Things are different this time around, and perhaps a little less funny.
Nevertheless, Moorcock manages to skewer both American re-enactors and the English upper classes at the same time. Much fun is had with an enormous, ugly hat that appears to be crowned with a particularly fearsome example of giant spider. The notorious space pirate, Captain Cornelius, takes an interest in proceedings, sailing the solar winds in a vessel that is a far better idea of a starjammer than anything that came out of a Shi'ar shipyard. The forces of obsessive Order are thwarted. Ordinary people mostly get to live happily ever after, and the TARDIS whisks the Doctor and Amy off into what they fervently hope will be the sunset but will probably end up being more deadly peril. Which just goes to show that Mr. Moorcock knows exactly what is required of a Doctor Who story.
Samo da znate, Ellison je preživeo MadCon 2010 :), što se ne može reći za mobilni kojim ga je neko pokušao uslikati :D.
Uspeo je, pored toga, rasplakati i jednu devojčicu i izvređati barem pola posetilaca MadCon-a xrofl.
Ko je bio blesav pa njemu dete privodio na domet sluha? To je u istoj ravni kao proturanje ruku kroz šipke kaveza u zoo-vrtu.
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 11-11-2010, 20:41:07
Ko je bio blesav pa njemu dete privodio na domet sluha? To je u istoj ravni kao proturanje ruku kroz šipke kaveza u zoo-vrtu.
xrofl xrofl xrofl
Ako sam dobro shvatio, incident se dogodio kada je - nakon jednog od svojih "predavanja" - prešao sa društvom u restoran da prezalogaji (mada nigde nisam saznao šta je jadna klinka učinila).
Možda je klinka donela kesicu jellybeansa? Evo u čemu je stvar:
Quote"At a con in the mid-80's, Harlan encountered something rare in his book: an extremely attractive, big-busted, non-fat blonde who happened to be about 2-3" shorter than he was. The catch was that she actually seemed interested in him, not for his status as a SF writer, but because of some aspect of his lack of charm or whatnot - ergo, him for himself. Word spread around the con about this, and Harlan was escorting this gal around the con as a trophy. It was then that several other writers and fans decided it was time to give Harlan his come-uppance.
Flashback to a previous con. One question Harlan hates the most is when someone asks where the Harlequin got all those jelly beans he dumps on the Tick-Tock Man. At this one con, Harlan went ballistic and threatened to throttle the next person who asked him that question. From all accounts, it wasn't just a tirade, it was an actual promise of bodily harm to the next poor unfortunate who made such a mistake of query. Needless to say, word spread around about this one, and a lot of people shied away from Harlan for the rest of that con.
Some of those in attendance were also at the con where Harlan had apparently scored. It was then that the plan went into effect. One SF writer decoyed Harlan, while a couple of fans gave the trophy du femme a bag of - you guessed it - jelly beans. They told her these were Harlie's favorites, and she could score great brownie points by giving him this big bag.
Needless to say, jelly beans exploded all over the convention floor."
Uzgred, evo kako su se momci iz Penny Arcade proveli kada su bili gests ov onr zajedno sa Elisonom na jednoj konvenciji: (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/9/26/)
QuoteSo Tycho and I are up in front of the audience with Harlen, and Hank (the con organizer) presents us with some jester hats ("Fool's caps"). Tycho and I put ours on because we are polite, but Harlen - who is apparently too cool for school - refuses to wear his. I turn to him and say, "Don't you want your hat?" and he tells me to fuck off. This caught me off guard, I mean I have no clue who this fucking coot is. Then he points to a pad of paper he has and asks if I'm aware that his paper is also called foolscap. Now, I've never heard that term before, I pretty much just call it paper so I shake my head "no." This really isn't a fair question. I mean, it would be like me asking him about Photoshop or if he can remember what he had for lunch. The guy was essentially setting me up to look stupid in front of all these people. So then he asks me if I even attended college and I say "No, I did not." Then, he says "did you at least finish high school?"
I said that I had, but you couldn't really hear me because the audience is laughing at me along with Harlen. So once they stop, I turn to him and I say, "While I've got you here I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Star Wars stuff you wrote."
I didn't know him very well but I felt like mistaking him for someone who writes Star Wars books was the sort of insult that would cut right to his brittle old bones. The audience seemed to agree because I could hear a lot of ooooooooh's and oh no's over the laughing. Some people in the front even suggested a fist fight was now in order. I look over at Harlen and he's staring at me like he wants to choke me. He then says "so that's how it's going to be." Now keep in mind that he's the one that started hostilities when he told me to fuck off. I'm just the one that finished it. The guy tells some pretty funny stories about how witty he is and how he's always saying clever things at exactly the right moment. When confronted with someone who was unwilling to take any crap from him he had no clever retort. The great writer just glared at me and then walked off stage. I don't doubt that given enough time he could craft a perfectly worded and extremely vicious response but up there on stage in front of all his fans the man didn't have shit.
I don't blame Harlen for not knowing who I am. I honestly don't expect him to. I don't expect anyone that old to know who I am. I did expect him to be polite and at least respect the fact that I was a fellow guest of honor. That was apparently too much to ask for from the great Harlen Elison.
Elison je... priča za sebe. :lol:
Nego:
Houellebecq, the enfant terrible of French contemporary literature accepted the Prix Goncourt at Le Drouant, the small Paris restaurant where the jury always make their final judgement over lunch.
The jury had voted seven to two in favour of his widely-acclaimed novel "La Carte et le Territoire" (The Map and the Territory) after three failed attempts over a decade.
He wins a symbolic prize of 10 euros (£8.60), but the prize is said to boost sales to around 400,000 copies in general - the book has already sold almost 200,000 copies in France.
The win comes despite accusations of plagiarism – one critic noticed at least three chunks of text were apparently the same as passages from the French-language edition of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. "It's a bizarre sensation but I'm deeply happy", the controversial 54-year-old said of the prize previously awarded to Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir and Marguerite Duras. "There are people that only know contemporary literature thanks to the Goncourt, and literature at the centre of French people's concerns, so it's significant."
Houellebecq has previously criticised the award after missing out.
When Atomised, his sexually explicit novel about two half brothers' relationships that shot him to fame in 1998, lost the Goncourt he claimed the jury were "bought off".
He complained when his next work, Platform about third-world sex tourism and terrorism, was knocked out in 2001, while in 2005, his book, The Possibility of an Island, featuring a standup comic cloned by the Rael sect, failed to make the grade, he said: "The prize system is so opaque that it is better to expect nothing from it."
Yesterday [Monday], he said however: "I'm someone who forgets bad things, the wounds have healed."
Detractors of the Goncourt have accused the jury of awarding prizes to make sure publishers share the spoils. Houellbecq's publisher, Flammarion, however, has not won the award for 30 years.
Pierre Assouline, a critic for Le Monde newspaper, wrote in his literary blog: "If the Goncourt jury had not crowned him this time, they would have looked ridiculous."
Houellebecq's latest novel, set largely in Paris, centres on a lonely misanthropic artist who wins critical and commercial success by photographing Michelin maps and then painting business tycoons.
The character befriends a grumpy writer who "stinks a little less than a corpse" and resembles "an old, sick tortoise", named Michel Houellebecq.
The writer's works have consistently sparked controversy and claims of misogyny, racism and sexism.
His description of Islam as "the most stupid religion" landed him in court in 2002 on a charge of inciting racial hatred, of which he was acquitted.
He also hit the headlines over a savage public row with his estranged mother Lucie Ceccaldi, whom he portrays in a deeply unflattering light in his novel Plateforme. She responded by writing a book in which she called him a liar, an impostor and a parasite.
Houellebecq dismissed the allegations of plagiarism, arguing that the passages were part of a "patchwork" approach that was ironic.
"If people really think that, then they haven't the first notion of what literature is. That is part of my method", he said, saying other great writers versed in the arts of mixing "real" texts into fiction.
(Okej sad, ovo mi izgleda kao kontroverza ne samo zbog 'sf' varijante (khm, khm) koju autor piše nego i zbog činjenice da postoje ljudi na ovom belom svetu koji smatraju da je ugrađivanje informacije sa vikipedije u prozu... plagijat. :P xfoht xrofl )
Ursula najzad bloguje: :)
Someone Named Delores
Posted on November 9th, 2010 by Ursula K. Le Guin
A sentence in a story has been troubling me. The story, by Zadie Smith, was in The New Yorker recently (October 11, 2010). It's in the first person, but I don't know whether it's fiction or memoir. Many people don't even make the distinction, now that memoir takes the liberties of fiction without taking the imaginative risks, and fiction claims the authority of history without assuming the factual responsibilities. To my mind the I of a memoir or "personal essay" is a very different matter from the I of a story or novel, but I don't know if Zadie Smith sees it that way. And so I don't know whether she's speaking as a character in fiction or as herself when towards the end of her tale of a seemingly unrepaid loan to a friend she says, "The first check came quickly but sat in a pile of unopened mail because these days I hire someone to do that."
The implacable editor in my hindbrain promptly inquired You hire someone not to open the mail? I silenced the meddling reptile, but the sentence continued to bother me.
"These days I hire someone to do that." What's wrong with that? Well, I guess it's the "someone." Someone is no one. The nameless nobody hired to answer the mail of a somebody with a name.
So, at this point I'm beginning to hope that the story is fiction and thus that the narrator is not Zadie Smith, because this doesn't sound like the voice of a writer highly sensitive to class and color prejudices. It reminded me, in fact, of the dean's wife, when I was a lowly assistant professor's wife, who couldn't leave "my housekeeper" out of her conversation for five minutes, she was in such a state of admiration of herself for having the grand house that required keeping and the housekeeper to keep it. But that was silly, naive, like Mr Collins continually mentioning "my patron Lady Catherine de Bourgh." The statement "these days I hire someone to do that" has a harsher ring to it.
And so what? Why shouldn't a highly successful writer hire help and say so? And what skin is it off my nose?
Envy, of course, in the first place. I am envious of people who hire a servant with perfect assurance of righteousness. I envy self-confidence even as I dislike it. Envy co-exists only too easily with righteous disapproval. Indeed perhaps the two nasty creatures live off each other.
And then, annoyance. There's an "of course" implied in "I hire someone to do that," and there's no of course about it. But people think there is, and this kind of talk encourages them to think so — which annoys me.
It's a widespread illusion: a writer (a successful writer, a real writer) doesn't do her own mail. She has a secretary to do it, as well as helpers, amanuenses, researchers, handlers — lord knows what — maybe an Editor's Hole in the east wing, like the Priest's Hole in old British houses.
I imagine writers commonly had secretaries, a century ago. Henry James did, sure enough. But Henry James was not exactly your average writer, right?
Virginia Woolf didn't.
Among writers I know personally, only one has a secretary to do mail. To me it seems a perquisite of the extremely successful, and of a magnitude of success that daunts me. Privacy to be with my family and do my work was of the first importance to me. So, when I began to need help answering my letters, I found it extremely difficult to convince myself that I needed it badly enough to justify my hiring "someone," bringing a stranger into my study, setting myself up as a boss.
I always had trouble calling Delores my secretary, it sounded so pompous (echoes of "my housekeeper...") If I had to speak of her to strangers I said her name, or "my friend who does mail for me." But I knew that this latter phrase was one of the mildly devious devices by which we handle guilt, the ways we try to re-introduce humanity into the relationship of hirer and hired, which inevitably, to whatever slight a degree, involves inequality, the raising up of one and degradation of the other. Democracy by strenuously denying the fact of inequality does enable us, to a surprising extent, to act as if it didn't exist; but it does exist, and we know it. So our job is to keep the inequity of power as small as possible, and refuse to let our common humanity be reduced, however slightly, even by a careless word, by an assertion of unequal worth.
My envy of writers who hire a person to handle their mail and annoyance at people who assume that I have such help are really quite mild, but they are painful now, because I did have "someone," but I have lost her.
Delores Rooney, later Delores Pander, was my helper and dear friend.
Thirty years ago or so, I finally got up my courage and asked around for recommendations of a professionally competent and discreet person to give me a hand with my letters, which were getting beyond me. Our mutual friend Martha West, who had worked with Delores as a secretary in an office, recommended her. She was then working as manager-agent for a dance company. We rather nervously gave it a try.
I had never dictated anything to anybody (outside Beginning French courses where you very slowly and clearly read a dictée in French to the students who very slowly and inaccurately write it down.) Delores had taught herself shorthand and was a whiz at it — a skill now, I suppose, almost entirely lost? — and she'd taken lots of dictation from lots of dictators. She coached me in composing a letter orally, and encouraged me with praise; she was an excellent teacher. And also she'd worked and lived with artists, painters, dancers, and was used to artistic temperamental peculiarities, having a few of her own.
We got to doing letters quickly and easily, and I soon began to draw on her as a collaborator in composing the letters — what to say and how to say it. Does that sound all right? What if you said this instead of that? What on earth am I going to write to the man who sent me the 600-page manuscript about fairies on Venus? This one's a whiner, you don't have to answer him... — Delores was always better than me at kind answers to kooks, but she was tough-minded, too, and encouraged me not to answer a letter that was troublingly weird or made unreasonable demands. She got to be so good at replying to the eternally repeated questions that I could hand her a letter and just say "Idea for Catwings" and the tale of how I happened to think of cats with wings was all ready in in her computer — though she varied it according to her mood and the age of the inquirer. She had a gracious, graceful tone in discouraging problematic requests by explaining why I couldn't personally reply just now. She covered for me beautifully. She loved to answer children's letters, even when they were the mechanical kind some teachers make kids write. The open kindness and generosity of her spirit lent all my correspondence a quality it would never have had without her collaboration.
She never came more than once a week, usually only once every three or four weeks. I'd do the most urgent business correspondence and let the rest and the fan mail pile up. She got a computer before I did, and it eased her work a great deal. When I got one, it didn't make much difference at first. But when e-mail really got going I began to be able to deal with all the real business myself. Still Delores and I together handled non-urgent business, the fan letters from readers, and what we called The Gimmies: the letters everybody who becomes visible to the public gets, asking you to do this, give to that, endorse this book, speak at that good cause, etc. Even if you can't possibly say yes to them, most such letters are well-intentioned and deserve a civil no. Delores said no thank you in every possible way, always politely. It was a great burden off me. She said that the Gimmies were boring but just various enough to be entertaining too.
As for fan mail, letters from readers have always come to me on paper only, my crude but effective way of keeping the volume down. The letters people write me — often with pen and ink, or in pencil, crayon, glitter, and other media if they're children — are ever-amazing, giving me immense pleasure and reward, but they are also never-ending. I knew there was no way I could handle the load if I tried to read and answer them on my website or on email. But I have always felt that such letters deserve a reply, however brief, and for years Delores was my invaluable aide in answering them.
We loved each other as friends, but didn't have extensive contact outside our work sessions. She was a busy woman: she soon became Jean Auel's secretary four days a week, and was agent and manager for her husband the painter Henk Pander; when her parents grew old and sick she looked after them, and late in life she adopted and brought up her granddaughter. Our friendship was expressed mostly during and in our working relationship. I always looked forward to Delores coming, and we always spent half the time talking, catching up. Once, when I was scared by a stalker, she and Henk gave me wonderful immediate support.
As the years went on she seemed to grow shyer and more withdrawn from her friends than she had been, I do not know why. She told me once that she liked coming to work with me because we laughed together.
Her computer began to get out of date, and her life was complicated by various issues; her energy was being overtried. She couldn't or didn't want to figure out how to help me with e-correspondence the way she did with paper mail, which she took home along with dictated answers or suggested notes from me. So I came to do all the email and most of the letters, leaving her only some Gimmies and no-thank-yous and those fan letters that needed only acknowledgment.
Delores's joy in life had been visibly flagging for a long time when she was diagnosed, last year, with cancer. At first it seemed local and curable, but proved to be metastasizing. It killed her in a few months. There was a brief and lovely respite or remission for a few weeks late in her illness, when we were able to visit with her quite often, and laughed together as we had used to laugh. Then the cruel disease closed in again. She died a few months ago, attended with great tenderness by her husband.
I find it extremely hard to talk about people I loved who have died. I can't now make a proper tribute to that complex and beautiful woman, or say more than that I miss her friendship in every way.
Without her, I've had to give up the effort to answer fan mail, at least temporarily. As for the Gimmies, some of them get answered, some of them don't. I suppose I could hire someone to do that.
But I doubt that I will. I can't put my heart into it.
— UKL
9 November 2010
_____________
What a coincidence... Pročitala sam taj post pre par sati. :D
Hej, pa znači i ti overavaš buk-kafe...! kuuul!! :)
Povremeno... Na ovo sam naišla sa Ursulinog sajta. :)
An Open Letter to MFA Writing Programs (and Their Students)
Dear MFA writing programs (and their students):
Recently New York magazine published a story, in which Columbia University's graduate writing program invited James Frey to come chat with its students on the subject of "Can Truth Be Told?" during which Frey mentioned a book packaging scheme that he had cooked up. The contractual terms of that book packaging scheme are now famously known to be egregious — it's the sort of contract, in fact, that you would sign only if you were as ignorant as a chicken, and with about as much common sense — and yet it seems that Frey did not have any problem getting people to sign on, most, it appears, students of MFA programs. Frey is clearly selecting for his scheme writers who should know better, but don't — and there's apparently a high correlation between being ignorant that his contract is horrible and being an MFA writing student.
I don't blame Columbia University's graduate writing program for inviting James Frey over to talk to its students about "truth." If there's anyone who knows about the word truth contained between ironic quotation marks, it'd be James Frey, and it's probably not a bad idea for the kids to see a prevaricating hustler up close to observe how one of his kind can rationalize bad actions and even poorer ethics as transgressive attempts at literature. It's always a joy to see how a master of bullshit spins himself up; publishing and literature being what they are, the students should probably learn to recognize this species sooner than later, all the better to move their wallets to their front pockets when such a creature stands before them.
What does bother me, however, is that Frey apparently quite intentionally was working his way through MFA programs recruiting writers for his book packaging scheme. You could say there's an obvious reason for this, which is that MFA writing students are likely more competent at writing than your average schmoe writer on the street (this is a highly arguable contention, but never mind that now), and they're all in one place, which makes for easier recruiting. But I suspect there's another reason as well, which is that in general it appears MFA writing programs don't go out of their way educate their students on the publishing industry, or contracts, or much about the actual business of writing.
And so when someone like James Frey breezes in and starts blowing smoke about collaborations, the response is this –
We were desperate to be published, any way we could. We were spending $45,000 on tuition, some of us without financial aid, and many taking out loans that were lining us up to graduate six figures in debt. A deal like the one Frey was offering could potentially pay off our loans and provide an income for the next decade. Do a little commercial work under a pseudonym, sell the movie rights, and never have to suffer as a writer in New York. We wouldn't even need day jobs.
– followed by a number of students receiving and then signing a contract that pays them next to nothing, and offers a deal so constrictive that by the terms of the contract Frey could publish works under their names and keep them from publishing again (via a gloriously vague "non-compete" clause). Frey was no doubt counting on the students being starry-eyed at the presence of a real-live bestselling author (even a disgraced one) who was waving a movie deal in their faces, but one reason he could count on it was because he was speaking to an audience whose formal educations did not include learning how to spot a crappy deal.
So, MFA writing programs, allow me to make a suggestion. Sometime before you hand over that sheepskin with the words "Master of Fine Arts" on it, for which your students may have just paid tens of thousands of dollars (or more), offer them a class on the business of the publishing industry, including an intensive look at contracts. Why? Because, Holy God, they will need it.
Now, perhaps you are saying, "We focus on the art of writing, not the business." My answer to that is, please, pull your head out. Your students are not paying as much money as they do for your program strictly for the theoretical joys of writing. They are paying so they can publish, and it's a pretty good bet, considering how many of those Columbia folks scrambled to pitch to Frey, that they actually want to be published commercially, not just in university presses, in which (sorry) low advances and small print runs don't matter since it's just another line on the CV. Yes, you are teaching an art, but whether you like it or not you're also teaching a trade — or at the very least many of your students are coming to learn a trade, and put up with the art portion of it as part of the deal. Teaching them something about the trade will not hurt your program.
And then you might say, "there's no point in teaching them about the business because if they go the commercial publishing route they'll have agents." To which I would say, wow, really? "Other people will handle the dirty money part" is a response that a) shows a certain amount of snobbery, b) sets up a writer to be dependent on others because she is ignorant of the particulars of her own business. You know how every year you hear about an actor or musician who has been screwed by his accountant or business manager? That's what happens when you don't pay attention — or more relevantly don't have the knowledge to pay attention.
To be clear, I don't want to paint literary agents, et al as suspicious and shady characters; I have two literary agents (one for fiction and one for non-fiction) and they are super-smart and do a great job for me, and I'm glad they do their job and leave me to do mine, which is writing. But you know what? Part of the reason I know they're doing a good job is because I know my own business, which makes it easier for me to know what they are doing. It also means they know that they can discuss business with me on a realistic and sensible level. Beyond that, not everyone has an agent, or (alas) a good one if they have one.
Finally, you may say "We don't have anyone on our faculty who can/wants to teach that course." Well, presuming that your university doesn't have a business or law school on campus, from whom you might borrow an appropriate professor every now and again, I can't help but notice that adjunct professors are very popular in academia these days, and I'm guessing that maybe you could find someone. Try a working agent, maybe. Point is, if you wanted to offer this class, you could.
There is no reason not to offer a class on this stuff. And maybe students will choose not to take that class. But if that's the case, at least then it's all on them. Your students are all presumably adults and are responsible for their own actions, to be sure. But if you're not giving them the tools to know when a huckster is hucking in their direction, if they get hulled, some of that's on you.
Speaking of which, let me know turn my attention away from the MFA writing programs and to the writing grad students themselves:
Dudes. Learn about the industry, already, before you sign a contract. Otherwise you're going to get shaved by the first jackass who waves a publishing deal in your face. Yes, I know, you're smart and clever and you write really well. You know what, your belief in your intelligence and your cleverness and your writing ability as a proxy for knowing everything you need to know about the world is exactly what's going to get you screwed. Because being smart and clever and writing well has nothing to do with the backend business of the publishing industry or reading a contract knowledgeably and dispassionately. Think about those MFA students who are now slaving away for Frey on the worst contract just about anyone in publishing has ever seen. I'm pretty sure they all think they are smart and clever and write well, too.
If your MFA program doesn't have a class on contracts and the publishing industry, ask for one. Because, Jesus, you're spending enough for your education. You might want to get some practical knowledge out of it as well. If it can't or won't offer that class to you, a) complain and b) seek out that information. The writers' organization to which I belong, SFWA, sponsors Writer Beware, which offers some of the basics about avoiding scams and bad practices, and has an informational area which includes sample contracts. Other writers' organizations also have information for you, and most bookstores will have sections on writing and the business of writing. Find that information, learn it, and use it before you have anything to do with anyone trying to make a deal with you.
But why you should have to pay extra for this essential bit of education, or search for it outside your writing program, mind you, positively baffles me.
(Scalzi, (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/11/15/an-open-letter-to-mfa-writing-programs-and-their-students) naravno... :) )
More about China Mieville's EMBASSYTOWN:
No cover art yet, but the book has a blurb:
"Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.
Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie.
Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes.
Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts.
And that is impossible"
Mieville will also be undertaking an American tour for the book, visiting New York, Washington DC, Boston, Seattle and Portland. I'm also hearing that Mieville's entire backlist is going to be repackaged in the UK with new cover art.
Embassytown will be published on 6 May 2011 and will be 432 pages in hardcover (not 208, as is being listed in some quarters) and tradeback.
http://www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com (http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/cowboys-and-aliens.html?showVideo=1#movTitle)
New/Old Japanese SF
Many Japanese SF novels conclude with an essay exploring the context of the book and championing the author. I thought that Toshihiko Onoue's essay for The Ouroboros Wave (in stores today!) was especially interesting as it shows how closely Japanese critics and fans follow English-language SF, so I decided to print it here for you. (Note that this was published in 2002, so some of the material is a bit older and current US space policy is a bit different.) I'd definitely recommend Greg Egan and Vernor Vinge if you're coming to Haikasoru from the manga side of things and haven't read their work yet.
New/Old Japanese SF
by Toshihiko Onoue
The space shuttle program is still plagued with problems, even after the promises NASA made following the nightmare of Columbia's midair breakup. A major rethink also seems likely for the International Space Station. Today, at the dawn of the 21st century and more than three decades since the first Apollo Moon landing, it is hard to suppress a sense of impatience. How long do we have to wait for humanity to claim space as its own? Until that happens, escaping into SF that makes that future seem real isn't a bad way to spend your time. If you agree, then this book is for you.
The Ouroboros Wave appeared in 2002 as part of the Hayakawa SF Series J Collection. Set in our solar system in the 22nd century, it depicts the rich tapestry of experience encountered by human beings who are completely at home in space. A giant project—placing a black hole named Kali, discovered at the edge of the solar system, in orbit around Uranus and creating an artificial accretion disk (AAD) around it to generate energy for use throughout the solar system—serves as a central theme for a series of stories that feature mystery-solving and techno-thriller elements. The social organization adopted by humanity in space; social changes triggered by the impact of communication technologies; conflicts arising from different structures of conscious awareness; the essence of intelligence and the "necessities" it gives rise to; these and other fascinating explorations are woven together, intersecting and interacting on multiple levels.
Since the first of these stories appeared in SF Magazine, they have come to be known as the AADD series. This volume includes all but three published to date, and new full-length installment will soon be available.
Three writers in Hayakawa's J Collection, launched in 2002, gained immediate attention for their work: Housuke Nojiri [note—author of Usurper of the Sun and Rocket Girls—NM] , Yasumi Kobayashi, and Jyouji Hayashi.
Nojiri's work is straight Japanese SF in the tradition of Sakyo Komatsu, focusing on the romance and excitement of technology. Yasumi Kobayashi takes offbeat ideas and explores their logical ramifications, giving his work an unconventional flavor somewhat like that of the acclaimed, hard-SF Australian writer Greg Egan.
In contrast, Hayashi's SF builds realistic worlds using straight-pitch ideas with matter-of-fact detail and minimal window dressing. At first glance his style may seem unpolished, but it is replete with naming games and sophisticated, Japanesque accents and plot twists. Hayashi's method of building worlds on a foundation of detailed simulation probably started with his career as an author of fictional war chronicles. Of the three authors, his work may also be the closest to standard UK/American SF. In the stories collected here, the process of finding a solution to a challenge via creative application of knowledge and technology becomes the story itself. This is nuts and bolts storytelling—Analog-type storytelling, which is somewhat unusual in Japanese SF.
I'm referring, of course, not to analog vs. digital, but to the historic American SF magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact and its predecessor, Astounding Science Fiction, which under the editorship of John Campbell Jr. featured some of the earliest work from such authors as Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein. Analog eventually became practically synonymous with hard SF. Compared to other SF magazines, Analog's stories are not as literary; the magazine leans toward idea-driven stories that combined detailed, realistic scientific/technical underpinnings with offbeat elements.
Hayashi's work, with its emphasis on problem-solving, bears comparison to the stories Analog often favors. But once cyberpunk came into vogue in the 1980s, Analog-style SF started to look dated, and for a while the genre was completely out of the running for such major prizes as the Hugo and Nebula Awards. But since the late nineties, with standard, space-based SF beginning to attract renewed attention and Analog featuring a new generation of writers, this kind of story is gradually making a comeback. "Analog-type" is a synonym for new/old SF—eager to grapple with new knowledge, new world views, and new challenges, yet presented with an established style.
In terms of concrete comparisons with other writers, Vernor Vinge would probably be a compatriot of Hayashi. Vinge's Hugo Award-winner for 2000, A Deepness in the Sky, contains echoes of The Ouroboros Wave. Vinge's novel tells of the encounter and ensuing conflicts between fleets dispatched by two space-faring human societies, both aiming to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrials in a distant star system. One fleet takes control of the other, and a central theme is the process those who have been subjugated go through to escape their predicament. The novel also features opposing social structures, the challenges of space fleet management and control, and the ways human organizations operate under dangerous conditions. There are major differences from The Ouroboros Wave as well—Vinge's novel is set in the distant future and deals with interstellar travel, to give just two examples—but there are no extreme technologies such as warp drives; everything is a realistic, logical extension of current science and technology. Strictly speaking, Vinge is not a typical Analog-type author, but his work is a good example of the way space-based, new/old standard SF is gaining in popularity.
Vinge also has a great interest in the problems of artificial intelligence. In his essay, "The Coming Technological Singularity," Vinge expands the scope of the term "technological singularity," supposedly first suggested by John von Neumann, which refers to an acceleration of technological development so pronounced that the future beyond the singularity becomes hard to model. Vinge asserts the inevitability of qualitative shifts in artificial intelligence and human psychological processes; Hayashi's depictions of wearable computers and artificial intelligence are fundamentally in line with Vinge's outlook. Wearable computers are personal data processing terminals as well as a core network communication technology; they change the structure of human organizations and of society and culture. There are also artificial intelligences with ways of knowing the world and patterns of reasoning that differ completely from those of humans. Vinge would consider all these elements to be part of the same general vector. Hayashi does a masterful job of depicting communications technologies and AIs in the same unified framework.
As for younger writers with similarities to Hayashi, one could name space SF authors Michael Flynn, Allen M. Steele, and Geoffrey A. Landis. Of course, these authors have very different characteristics and their styles can't be lumped together, except in one sense—they all go to great lengths to depict space as a real environment. Flynn's Fallen Angels (with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) has been published in Japan, but unfortunately, only a few short stories by Steele and Landis are available in Japanese, and if you want to read them, you'll have to search through back numbers of SF Magazine or in anthologies (though I may be criticized for being so SF-obsessed as to go that far). Flynn's popular "Firestar" series depicts the impact that a single individual with will and resources can make on space exploration. Both Fallen Angels and Firestar are near-future SF with realistic depictions of space.
The AADD series explores a vector that also exists in UK and American SF. Is this "happenstance" or "necessity in disguise"? It may be too early to tell, but without a doubt, The Ouroboros Wave not only stands as proof of the richness of Japan's contemporary SF, it represents a new development in the history of Japanese hard SF. I think we can count ourselves extremely fortunate to have outstanding hard SF writers like Hayashi at work in Japan today.
(Nick Mamatas na haikasoru.com)
Heheh, ovo je lep tekst. Japanski tvrdi SF. Iako nisam ljubitelj hard SF-a, zbog ovog "japanski" pročitao bih nešto :)
A za film, Kauboji i Vanzemaljci, sam znao već odavno :)
Ehhh, a ja tek juče nabasala na trejler... :oops:
(A haikasoru.com bi obavezno trebalo da detaljno overiš, sad kad si i ti u buk-bizu... tamo definitivno ima naslova vrednih prevođenja, pa možda se ti se zalomi i prilika za kakvu preporuku... :))
I još jedan vatreni debi, i to multižanrovske prirode:
Destefano, Merrie : Afterlife
Urban fantasy novel, the author's first novel and first in a series, set in a futuristic New Orleans, in which Babysitter Chaz Dominguez helps the newly resurrected (via clones) to adjust to their new lives.
"A haunting story that seamlessly blends the hard-boiled twists of cyberpunk with the noir flavor of a Southern Gothic thriller. Gritty and compelling....Truly high octane stuff."
—Marc Giller, author of Hammerjack
Bladerunner meets Jim Butcher in Afterlife, a thrilling urban fantasy noir adventure set in an alternate world where everyone gets nine lives. In the vein of J. D. Robb's bestselling 'In Death' series, author Merrie Destefano blends a futuristic concept with gritty noir mystery for a riveting story of murder, conspiracy, and multiple-resurrections that will appeal equally to fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fans. Even paranormal romance lovers will find something to love in Destefano's extraordinary Afterlife
"AFTERLIFE is a seamless combination of hard-boiled mystery, science-fiction exploration of a future based on cloned existence after death, and a fantasy struggle for the survival of good in an evil world. Merrie Destefano has made a fine start on a promising career."
— JAMES GUNN, SCIENCE FICTION GRAND MASTER
Quote from: Lidija on 19-11-2010, 13:38:55
I još jedan vatreni debi, i to multižanrovske prirode:
Destefano, Merrie : Afterlife
Da pročitam ili čitaš, pa da sačekam tvoju ocenu?
Ajde ti, mene za vikend čeka Ink. :)
Ajde. Kontam, ovo je nešto opuštenije.
Mada i mene čeka Ink. :)
Quote from: Lidija on 19-11-2010, 13:37:03
Ehhh, a ja tek juče nabasala na trejler... :oops:
(A haikasoru.com bi obavezno trebalo da detaljno overiš, sad kad si i ti u buk-bizu... tamo definitivno ima naslova vrednih prevođenja, pa možda se ti se zalomi i prilika za kakvu preporuku... :))
Imaš na http://hollywood-spy.blogspot.com/ (http://hollywood-spy.blogspot.com/) mnogo vesti što se tiče sveta filma...Blog je od kolege, i na engleskom je :) Čim naiđe kakav zanimljiv trejler, on ga okači :)
A za haikasoru.com, overiću, hvala na preporuci :)
Hm, šarolik blog...
(Jel' ono Dezmondova RL fotka? )
Da :D Pravo ime je...Ne bih javno :) To tell you the truth...Imam neke sumnje...glede nekih stvari u vezi ganje.
Michael Moorcock izgleda da pise nesto poput autobiografije. Citam odlicnu zbirku koju su uredili gaiman i Sarrantonio "Stories" i upravo sam procitao Murkokovu pricu nazvanu: "Stories" :?: Nisam jedini koji se zapitkivao posle procitane price, pa sam, posle malo googlanja nasao ovaj post:
Quote from: David HebblethwaiteI don't quite know what to make of this. 'Stories' is the first-person account of a magazine editor reflecting on his friendship with a writer named Rex Fisch, who has recently committed suicide. The idea of telling stories in both fiction and real life runs through this piece, and Moorcock is doing something of this himself here — his narrator is named 'Mike' and apparently modelled on himself, whilst Rex Fisch and the other characters are apparently fictional. I've no idea how far Moorcock has fictionalised his own life in the story — and therein lies the difficulty I had connecting with it.
The portrait of the characters' lives and relationships is interesting enough; but I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to know more about Moorcock's life (and, perhaps, his work) to really appreciate this story. That's why I've ended up feeling ambivalent about it.
i komentar:
Quote from: David Mosley If it helps any, the character of 'Rex Fisch' is based on Moorcock's friend Tom Disch – author of 'new wave' sf novels ECHO ROUND HIS BONES, CAMP CONCENTRATION, 334 and many others – who committed suicide in 2008. The magazine 'Mysterious' that 'Mike' edits in 'Stories' replaces 'New Worlds' which Moorcock edited in real life. "Stories" is extracted from an episode in Moorcock's work-in-progress novel STALKING BALZAC, which according to Moorcock "expands on how Tom and I first met and at present keeps New Worlds as the magazine we all worked on".
U svakom slucaju, preporucujem i zbirku i pricu.
Bogami me Moorcock tom pričom totalno šokirao... mada ima naznaka o Dišu kao vrlo... pa, recimo kompleksnoj :mrgreen: ličnosti, ovo me iskreno zabezeknulo, pogotovo onaj deo sa Jenny. :shock:
Ali zbirka je, inače, stvarno impresivna. (Btw, to je moj prvi susret sa Al Sarrantoniom.)
Nego, već je počela manija naj-lista za 2010, a LJ donosi ovih pet za SF & F:
Barclay, James. Elfsorrow. Pyr: Prometheus. (Legends of the Raven, Bk. 1). ISBN 9781616142483. pap. $17.
The mercenaries of the Raven journey to the heart of the elven continent of Calaius to save the land from dying in a superbly visualized fantasy adventure reminiscent of Glen Cook's classic Black Company tales. (LJ 11/15/10)
McCaffrey, Todd. Dragongirl. Del Rey: Ballantine. ISBN 9780345491169. $26.
Devotion and sacrifice are the twin keys that will save Pern from a plague that is killing the dragons necessary to combat the deadly space-born spore that falls from the sky. The son of sf Grand Master Anne McCaffrey continues the beloved world created by his mother. (LJ 7/10)
Miéville, China. Kraken. Del Rey: Ballantine. ISBN 9780345497499. $26.
Museum curator Billy Harrow tracks the preserved corpse of a giant squid through a London populated by cultists, paranormal investigators, and supernatural scoundrels. Brilliant storytelling and doses of eccentric humor and eerily compelling horror call to mind the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. (LJ 6/15/10)
Newton, Mark Charan. Nights of Villjamur. Spectra: Bantam. (Legends of the Red Sun, Bk 1).
ISBN 9780345520845. $26.
Conspiracy and murder threaten the grand city of Villjamur as an ice age's approach brings throngs of refugees to civilization's heart. Newton's outstanding fantasy series debut is filled with splendid imagery and compelling dramatic conflicts. (LJ 5/15/10)
White, Skyler. And Falling, Fly. Berkley: Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 9780425232347. pap. $15.
A neuroscientist seeking to cure his memories of past lives meets a fallen angel of desire in an underground asylum. One of the year's most unusual blends of supernatural fiction and urban fantasy. (LJ 3/15/10)
(klan Mekafri, a? :lol:)
Ta lista uspesno izaziva :roll: i :P i :x reakcije po internetu a i blize :shock:
The early success of AMC series Walking Dead confirms it: Though zombies have been hot for a while, they are now officially the new vampires. Why do Americans love zombies, and what does it say about us?
Though some of the greatest zombie stories in recent memory have come out of the UK, namely 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead, the modern zombie seems to have risen in America. Since the early days of pulp fiction, Americans have been scribbling about zombies; and this country also spawned some of the world's most recognizable zombie imagery in movies like Night of the Living Dead, the book World War Z, and now the TV series (based on an American comic book) The Walking Dead. (http://io9.com/5692719/a-history-of-zombies-in-america)
Nisam čitao poslednje sa spiska, tako da ne mogu da sudim, ali od ostalog navedenog jedino Mjevil zaslužuje da se nađe na listi najboljeg bilo čega.
Bogami se tu slažem na neviđeno, pošto ja F zaista slabo pratim.
Kapiram da je ovo bio izbor Jackie Cassada, i ajde što mi je razumljivo da će ona 'natezati' F stranu, ali ipak... osim Čajninog Krakena koji definitivno jeste za naj-liste, ja na ove naslove zaista nigde nisam nabasala, pa mi se čini da je Cassada ladnjaka izignorisala ne samo nagrade nego i mnoge rivjue objektivnijih od sebe. :roll:
Uzgred-po-apdejtu budi rečeno, nakon bladi mungejta, nesuđeni GOH samo tvituje...
There's no such thing as an inexhaustible resource... other than human idiocy. We can exhaust forests of trees, oceans of fish...
(Ah, kako ne voleti tu Elizabet... :D)
SF, H & F tržište je po pravilu više pažnje poklanjalo ljubiteljima serijala, dok su ljubitelji kraćih formi po pravilu ostajali skrajnuti kao ciljna grupa, ali možda će upravo e-čitači doneti malo više balansa po tom pitanju:
Do You Read Short Fiction? (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/11/do-you-read-short-fiction/#comments)
This topic was born of a twitter conversation between myself & @thenewauthor, Brian Knight. He asked:
1. Do you believe short stories are respected in the current publishing world? Is there a demand for them?
2. Do you agree that eReaders and phone apps make short stories more appealing?
He and I had a long talk about this over twitter, and it really got me thinking.
So, with that in mind - I put it to you, the SF Signal readers: Do you read short fiction?
If yes - how and where? By this I mean - do you subscribe to magazines? (Which ones?) Are you buying anthologies? Trolling the web? (What are your favorite sites?)
Do you use an eReader? What kind? What does your short fiction library look like? What do you like about your eReader & what do you wish were different?
Nosy minds want to know...
Svi se slažu kako je Michael Moorcock zaista old-skul džentlmen, pa je tim žešća kontroverza oko pikanterija u njegovoj priči Stories.
Za žene Filipa Dika to se baš i ne bi moglo reći, ali garant će ova bio (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/books/23philip.html?_r=1) biti pikantno štivo.
Nano lansiran! (http://www.angryrobotstore.com)
The table of contents for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Five edited by Johnatahn Strahan has been posted.
1. "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi
2. "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains" by Neil Gaiman
3. "Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots" by Sandra McDonald
4. "The Spy Who Never Grew Up" by Sarah Rees Brennan
5. "The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue" by Holly Black
6. "Under the Moons of Venus" by Damien Broderick
7. "The Fool Jobs" by Joe Abercrombie
8. "Alone" by Robert Reed
9. "Names for Water" by Kij Johnson
10. "Fair Ladies" by Theodora Goss
11. "Plus or Minus" by James P. Kelly
12. "The Man With the Knives" by Ellen Kushner
13. "The Jammie Dodgers and the Adventure of the Leicester Square Screening" by Cory Doctorow
14. "The Maiden Flight of McAuley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand
15. "The Miracle Aquilina" by Margo Lanagan
16. "The Taste of Night" by Pat Cadigan
17. "The Exterminator's Want-Ad" by Bruce Sterling
18. "Map of Seventeen" by Christopher Barzak
19. "The Naturalist" by Maureen McHugh
20. "Sins of the Father" by Sara Genge
21. "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis
22. "Iteration" by John Kessel
23. "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" by Diana Peterfreund
24. "The Night Train" by Lavie Tidhar
25. "Still Life (A Sexagesimal Fairy Tale)" by Ian Tregillis
26. "Amor Vincit Omnia" by K.J. Parker
27. "The Things" by Peter Watts
28. "The Zeppelin Conductors' Society Annual Gentlemen's Ball" by Genevieve Valentine
29. "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky
The table of contents for The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2011 Edition edited by Rich Horton has been posted:
1. "The Fermi Paradox is Our Business Model" by Charlie Jane Anders, (Tor.com)
2. "Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory" by Paul M. Berger (Fantasy Magazine
3. "Under the Moons of Venus" by Damien Broderick (Subterranean)
4. "Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed)
5. "Braiding the Ghosts" by C.S.E. Cooney (Clockwork Phoenix)
6. "Amor Fugit" by Alexandra Duncan, F&SF )
7. "The Green Book" by Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine )
8. "No Time Like the Present" by Carol Emshwiller (Lightspeed)
9. "The Interior of Mr. Bumblethorn's Coat" by Willow Fagan (Fantasy Magazine)
10. "The Thing About Cassandra" by Neil Gaiman, Songs of Love and Death )
11. "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand (Stories)
12. "The Red Bride" by Samantha Henderson, (Strange Horizons )
13. "Holdfast" by Matthew Johnson (Fantasy Magazine)
14. "The Other Graces" by Alice Sola Kim (Asimov's)
15. "Merrythoughts" by Bill Kte'pi (Strange Horizons)
16. "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis, Asimov's )
17. "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" by Yoon Ha Lee, Lightspeed)
18. "Abandonware" by An Omowoyela (Fantasy Magazine)
19. "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" by Paul Park (F & SF)
20. "Amor Vincet Omnia" by KJ Parker (Subterranean)
21. "Dead Man's Run" by Robert Reed (F & SF)
22. "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean)
23. "The Word of Azrael" by Matthew David Surridge (Black Gate)
24. "A Letter from the Emperor" by Steve Rasnic Tem, Asimov's)
25. "The Things" by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld)
26. "Bloodsport" by Gene Wolfe (Swords & Dark Magic)
27. "The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories" by Christie Yant (The Way of the Wizard)
28. "Standard Loneliness Package" by Charles Yu (Lightspeed)
Da ne zapostavimo braću Ruse, :). brine se Lavie Tidhar:
The Russian science fiction and fantasy writer Sergey Lukyanenko (of the "Night Watch" fame) just reported on his blog (Attn, it is in Russian: http://dr-piliulkin.livejournal.com/233826.html (http://dr-piliulkin.livejournal.com/233826.html)) the results from a small experiment on e-book sales.
Actually, the experiment is not that small – apparently he asked the readers of his blog (http://dr-piliulkin.livejournal.com/ (http://dr-piliulkin.livejournal.com/)) to pay him 1 Russian ruble (about 0.03 US dollars, as of Nov 29, 2010) to support his writing. In return he promised to release a free piece of his writing. Many of his books are already freely available over the net, albeit without his approval. Also, he wants to test if the donations could be sufficient to support a SFF writer.
He is not pressed for money so he promised to donate the income to some charity, and after the test was over he said he would even match every ruble to double to donation to the charity. The donations are collected via some Russian analog of PayPal (PayPal doesn't work in Russia, or rather you can pay with it, but you can't draw real money).
The post was read by nearly 52,993 people. It is not clear if multiple visits were accounted for, i.e. via IP checks. Lukyanenko points out that this number is higher than his typical number of readers which is about 25,000.
Donations from 2640 people were received, for 6404 rubles (about 200 US dollars) in total. Many people donated more than the one ruble he asked for.
It appears that only about 5% of the readers are willing to pay money to support their favorite writer.
Lukyanenko draws two conclusions:
(1) A new writer in Russia typically sells 5000-7000 copies. If only 5% of the readers are willing to support him or her, there is no hope to sustain a writing career via donations.
(2) An established writer like Lukyanenko himself sells 200,000 copies (the blog readers mention that the typical cover price is 250-300 rubles). He doesn't quote his income but he implies that it exceeds by far what he would have made if he was getting only the full cover price for 5% of the sales.
Finally, Lukyanenko said that the low response level didn't surprise him, but that nevertheless he will release to the readers a piece of his work for the money that they have sent him.
* * *
It is a curious experiment and it does give some food for the thought. The low returns are not a surprise to me given the state of the Russian economics, and the low fraction of people would Internet access, with respect to the West. However, I suspect that with time the public consciousness of the readers will cause more and more people to reach for legal e-books and to become more ... accustomed to the concept of supporting their favorite artists.
It is interesting to compare this "study" to the on-going project "With A Little Help" (http://craphound.com/?p=2360 (http://craphound.com/?p=2360)) of Cory Doctorow.
Zanimljivo :) Ali od toliko naroda, da samo pišljivih dve hiljade i kusur daje pare...Baš crnjak.
TOC: 'The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Five' edited by Johnathan Strahan (UPDATE: w/ Free Fiction Links!)
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/12/toc-the-best-science-fiction-and-fantasy-of-the-year-volume-five-edited-by-johnathan-strahan/ (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/12/toc-the-best-science-fiction-and-fantasy-of-the-year-volume-five-edited-by-johnathan-strahan/)
e, da, super. stavili su linkove za free fiction i na Hortnov TOC.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/12/toc-the-years-best-science-fiction-fantasy-2011-edition-edited-by-rich-horton-w-free-fiction-links/ (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/12/toc-the-years-best-science-fiction-fantasy-2011-edition-edited-by-rich-horton-w-free-fiction-links/)
The nominees for the 4th Annual Black Quill Awards have been announced:
DARK GENRE NOVEL OF THE YEAR
(Novel-length work of horror, suspense, or thriller from a mainstream publisher; awarded to the author)
# A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (Doubleday)
# Kraken by China Miéville (Del Rey) [Read the SF Signal review.]
# Sparrow Rock by Nate Kenyon (Leisure / Bad Moon Books)
# The Caretaker of Lorne Field by David Zeltserman (Overlook Hardcover)
# The Passage by Justin Cronin (Ballantine)
# Under the Dome by Stephen King (Scribner)
BEST SMALL PRESS CHILL
(Novel or novella published by small press publisher; awarded to the author)
* A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)
* Dreams in Black and White by John R. Little (Morning Star)
* Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance)
* The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton (Gray Friar Press)
* The Wolf at the Door by Jameson Currier (Chelsea Street Editions)
BEST DARK GENRE FICTION COLLECTION
(Single author collection, any publisher; awarded to the author)
* Blood and Gristle by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)
* In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay (ChiZine Publications)
* Little Things by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
* Occultation by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
* Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse by Otsuichi (VIZ Media LLC)
BEST DARK GENRE ANTHOLOGY
(Multi-author collection, any publisher; awarded to the editor)
* Dark Faith Edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon (Apex Publications) [Read the SF Signal review.]
* Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology Edited by Michelle McCrary and Joe McKinney (23 House)
* Haunted Legends Edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor)
* Horror Library IV Edited by RJ Cavender and Boyd E. Harris (Cutting Block Press)
* When The Night Comes Down Edited by Bill Breedlove (Dark Arts Books)
BEST DARK GENRE BOOK OF NON-FICTION
(Any dark genre non-fiction subject, any publisher; awarded to the authors or editors
* Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators by Rocky Wood (McFarland)
* I Am Providence: The Life and Times of HP Lovecraft by S.T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press)
* Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever by Joe Kane (Citadel)
* The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti (Hippocampus Press)
* Thrillers: 100 Must Reads Edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)
BEST DARK SCRIBBLE
(Single work, non-anthology short fiction appearing in a print or virtual magazine; awarded to the author)
* "Bully" by Jack Ketchum (Postscripts 22/23)
* "Goblin Boy" by Rick Hautula (Cemetery Dance #63)
* "Secretario" by Catherynne M. Valente (Weird Tales, Summer 2010)
* "The Things" by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
* "We" by Bentley Little (Cemetery Dance #64)
BEST DARK GENRE BOOK TRAILER
(Book video promoting any work of fiction or non-fiction; awarded to the video producer or publisher)
Neverland / Produced by Circle of Seven Productions (for the book by Douglas Clegg)
Neverland (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfl9g_zbANo#)
Niall Harrison je sastavio preliminarnu listu:
Top Ten SF Novels 2001-2010 by British Writers
1. The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
2. Maul by Tricia Sullivan
3. Natural History by Justina Robson
4. Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
5. Life by Gwyneth Jones
6. Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
7. City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
8. The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
9. Living Next-Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson
10. In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield
Top Ten SF Novels 2001-2010 by American Writers
1. Maul by Tricia Sullivan
2. The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3. Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
4. Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. Passage by Connie Willis
7. Spin State by Chris Moriarty
8. Nekropolis by Maureen McHugh
9= Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
9= Hammered by Elizabeth Bear
Top Ten SF Novels 2001-2010 by Writers from the Rest of the World
1. Farthing by Jo Walton
2. Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
4= UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolo Guo
4= Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
6= The Etched City by KJ Bishop
6= Lifelode by Jo Walton
8. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
9. The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
10. The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
Melkore, a gde su tu muškići?
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss. Ova spisateljica je pisala i neke StarWars knjige, zar ne? Ili mi se čini?
Mislio sam da nema potrebe da naglasavam da se lista odnosi na zene. Kao i da su svi romani iz tekuce decenije. kao i da je Niall skoro-pa-bivsi ili vec bivsi urednik Vector-a. Kao i da je Vector... xrotaeye
Posto od zaka vajde nema moracemo drugacije da se snalazimo xfrog
Starting January 2011, we will be launching our first digital editions of Locus magazine. Subscriptions will be available in, at minimum, PDF format, and we hope to have e-pub and Kindle versions also. We plan to primarily distribute from our own website, though we will be looking into other distribution options as well. Many of our readers have requested digital editions, and we are excited to be able to offer this alternative.
If you use an e-reader, you already know that e-pub format is problematic for magazines, graphic novels, and any documents that are image heavy or use columns. As a result, we have spent several months working toward creating a readable, searchable, and enjoyable e-pub experience for our readers. We have to reformat the layout of the entire magazine each time to produce the digital version, but it's worth the extra work, and as the technology continues to develop (and magazine and graphic novel digital publishing is seeing some serious development right now) we will also continue to fine-tune our own process. Thank you for your patience with us as we make this leap.
We will post more information to this page as we have it. Subscriptions and single-issue sales of digital Locus should be made available both here and on the regular subscription page. Stay tuned!
Regards,
Liza Groen Trombi
Editor-in-Chief
Locus Publications
Gardner Dozois has posted the table of contents for his upcoming anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection:
1. "A History of Terraforming" by Robert Reed (Asimov's)
2. "Dead Man's Run" by Robert Reed (F&SF)
3. "The Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String" (http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2010/05/the-spontaneous-knotting-of-an-agitated-string/) by Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy)
4. "The Night Train" (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20100614/nighttrain-f.shtml) by Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons)
5. "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov's)
6. "Mammoths of the Great Plains" by Eleanor Arnason (Aqueduct Press)
7. "The Things" (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/) by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld)
8. "Jackie's-Boy" by Steven Popkes (Asimov's)
9. "Seven Cities of Gold" by David Moles (PS Publishing)
10. "Chicken Little" (http://craphound.com/walh/Cory_Doctorow_-_With_a_Little_Help.html#2038) by Cory Doctorow (Gateways)
11. "Under the Moons of Venus" by Damien Broderick (Subterranean)
12. "Re-Crossing the Styx" (http://a1018.g.akamai.net/f/1018/19025/1d/randomhouse1.download.akamai.com/19025/freelibrary/recrossingstyxsuvudu.pdf) by Ian R. MacLeod (F&SF)
13. "Elegy for a Young Elk" (http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring-2010/fiction-elegy-for-a-young-elk-by-hannu-rajaniemi/) by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean)
14. "Chimbwi" by Jim Hawkins (Interzone)
15. "Sleeping Dogs" (http://bit.ly/hMlcaT) by Joe Haldeman (Gateways)
16. "Seven Years from Home" by Naomi Novik (Warriors)
17. "And Ministers of Grace..." by Tad Williams (Warriors)
18. "Sleepover" by Alastair Reynolds (Apocalyptic Book of SF)
19. "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/flower-mercy-needle-chain/) by Yoon Ha Lee (Lightspeed)
20. "In-Fall" (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/in-fall/) by Ted Kosmatka (Lightspeed)
21. "Amaryllis" (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/amaryllis/) by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed)
22. "Flying in the Face of God" by Nina Allan (Interzone)
23. "The Emperor of Mars" by Allen M. Steele (Asimov's)
24. "The Peacock Cloak" by Chris Beckett (Asimov's)
25. "The Starship Mechanic" (http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/01/the-starship-mechanic) by Jay Lake and Ken Scholes (Tor.com)
26. "Again and Again and Again" by Rachel Swirsky (Interzone)
27. "Return to Titan" by Stephen Baxter (Godlike Machines)
28. "Libertarian Russia" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's)
29. "The Shipmaker" by Aliette de Bodard (Interzone)
30. "Blind Cat Dance" by Alexander Jablokov (Asimov's)
31. "The Taste of NIght" (http://martyhalpern.blogspot.com/2010/05/taste-of-night-by-pat-cadigan-part-1-of_17.html) by Pat Cadigan (Is Anybody Out There?)
32. "The Books" by Kage Baker (Apocalyptic Book of SF)
33. "My Father's Singularity" (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/cooper_06_10/) by Brenda Cooper (Clarkesworld)
Quote from: Perin on 12-12-2010, 00:49:44
City of Pearl by Karen Traviss. Ova spisateljica je pisala i neke StarWars knjige, zar ne? Ili mi se čini?
Najpoznatija je po Gears of War adaptaciji iz tri dela. Imam sva tri, ali nisam čitao.
The Heroes Book Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p03k7D_f5-U#ws)
ql je meni ovaj marketing, ali kvalitet bi mogao da se makne od '96.
The Science Fiction Dictionary of New Criticism (http://sflanguage.wordpress.com/)
Dystopalyptic n.
Dystopalyptic n. Condition afflicting many authors, leaving them unable to imagine or create an actual working future.
Uses: mainstream writers turning to SF are uniformly dystopalyptic.
[Attribution: BT]
Koontz v.
Koontz v. the act of producing an entire novel in the shortest amount of time, for commercial publication.
Uses: I koontzed a fantasy novel last week, but then the publisher asked for it to be darker, so rather than re-write I koontzed another one during the weekend.
Additional use: If the market is saturated in sci fi novels, you can always Koontz a romance or a Western in the meantime.
[Attribution: NY]
Clute v.
Clute. v. to provide a theoretical framework by making up most of the terminology.
Uses: Adam Roberts sure did Clute the hell out of Wheel of Time, didn't he!
ABOUT US:
Here at the Science Fiction Dictionary of New Criticism we attempt to re-Clute SF. Wish us luck.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
:lol:
Da li je neko gustirao elektronski Lokus?
Ne? Niko?
Onda nista.
Nego, gledam nesto nominacije za BSFA, ovo je zanimljiv tekst:
http://bigother.com/2010/07/14/blogging-the-hugos-decline-part-1/ (http://bigother.com/2010/07/14/blogging-the-hugos-decline-part-1/)
QuoteThe revenant steampunk, perhaps inspired by Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999) (which was, of course, itself inspired by the postmodern habit of mashing-up other fictions) has tended to borrow Victorian and Edwardian fictional characters as much as they have borrowed the technology of the era. So there is a late-postmodernist element to this trend, though most contemporary steampunk I've read tends to go for a middle of the road literary style and eschews conscious literary experimentalism, so I'm not sure how much this is a factor. There is the attraction of steam (think how many people are involved in keeping alive steam railways across the UK), it does after all give machinery the semblance of breathing life. But if that were reason enough for this literary trend, then steampunk would have been a major literary movement for the last couple of hundred years. If, however, we contrast the human scale of steam technology with the posthuman scale of digital technology, a visible, graspable, clearly understandable machinery of pistons and levers with an invisible, super-fast, mystifying machinery of bytes and information, then maybe we are on to something. Steampunk represents a decline from the modern, but a decline to something comforting in scale and appearance; a decline from a fractured, computer-controlled society, but a decline to a more ordered, hierarchical social order. Sometimes we want to step away from tomorrow, and steampunk gives us a way to do so that can convincingly claim that it is not anti-technology, but that is rather stylish and fashionable.
And fashion does, of course, have a lot to do with it. The technology that affects most of us most closely and most consistently is transport, what marks the true beginning of the technological age is the ability to travel further, faster, without reliance on human or animal muscle. The obvious icon of steam technology, therefore, is the steam train, which is a feature of any number of steampunk works, from China Miéville's Iron Council (2004) to Robert Charles Wilson's Julian Comstock. But a steam train is a little bit too obvious, steampunk (like all of the fantastic) wants to suggest difference, so the solution is to go for another technology from a slightly later era, a technology that in fact did not work, but hey, this is fantasy, so we can of course pretend that it does. That technology is the dirigible or airship, which has become the obligatory fashion accessory of any self-respecting contemporary steampunk. Just look at the number of book covers that feature an airship as the convenient way of signaling: this is steampunk.
I am far from being a regular reader of steampunk (I have very little interest in such literary fashions), but this April alone I read three novels that employed dirigibles: Pinion (2010) by Jay Lake, Terminal World (2010) by Alastair Reynolds and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. You can't get away from the damned things. They are romantic, of course, and steampunk is nothing if not a very romantic mode; they are vulnerable (how could a big bag of gas be anything but a perilous means of transport) which makes them a handy device whenever you want high drama, and steampunk is a highly melodramatic mode; and they are a good way of traveling long distances if you don't want to invent something as sensible as, say, an aeroplane, and since steampunk authors come from a culture where you don't have to think too much about traveling intercontinental distances, this is a simple way of inserting their modern world view into their old fashioned world.
Jos jedan dokaz da IQ mase tezi ka minimumu... Pa onda neko kaze da tirazi imaju veze sa kvalitetom :x
Posted by Niall Harrison
12 January 2011
Tor.com are running a poll to determine "the best science fiction and fantasy novels of the first decade of the 21st century!" They're also providing a running update of the results. Here they are as of last night:
1. Old Man's War by John Scalzi - 180 votes (2005)
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 135 votes (2007)
3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman - 127 votes (2001)
4. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 93 votes (2004)
5. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - 88 votes (2010)
6. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin - 87 votes (2000)
7. Anathem by Neal Stephenson - 76 votes (2008)
8. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville - 70 votes (2000)
9. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson - 63 votes (2005)
10. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - 56 votes (2006)
Three Hugo-winning novels; three sf novels, seven fantasy (or three sf novels, six fantasy novels, and Perdido Street Station, if you prefer; six Americans, three Brits and one Canadian; nine books by straight white men, one book by a straight white woman; reasonable chronological coverage, although the eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that Tor.com's version of a decade includes eleven years.
Quote from: Melkor on 13-01-2011, 22:35:10
Jos jedan dokaz da IQ mase tezi ka minimumu... Pa onda neko kaze da tirazi imaju veze sa kvalitetom :x
Pa dobro, bar su PSS i Spin uglasali među prvih deset. I to je nešto.
Quote from: Melkor on 13-01-2011, 22:35:10
...although the eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that Tor.com's version of a decade includes eleven years.
:mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Ha, i ovo mi je novo:
recnik za razumevanje Robertsovog reviewa Anathem-a :)
REVIEW GLOSSARY
ANNOYLOGISMS. Words invented or new-coined specifically for the purpose of delaying a ridder's passage through a spoilbinder, thereby making the process much more burdensome than it need be. In some communities this term has lost its negative connotations and is used to refer to any defamiliarising or worldbuilding use of invented terminology.
BIG-MACG. A triple layered MacGuffin product, containing a higher proportion of cholesterol than a regular MacGuffin. The consumption of too many Big-Macgs may lead to fanbesity
BLOCKBLOCKER A word coined in opposition to 'blockbuster'; a tekst that assembles massy boulder-like obstacles in the way of a ridder's passage.
CRITIASS. Named for the Platonic dialogue in which Plato gives his eponymous speaker the opportunity to discourse upon Atlantis. Modern day Critiasses devote themselves to deprecating the inferiority of modern imaginary worlds (particularly those in contemporary Fatasy) when compared to the achievements of the classics.
DULLKEEN. An apparent oxymoron. Originally this term was used to criticize writers who imitated certain features of the ancient author 'Tolkien'—specifically his great length, his fondness for coining new words and his simple quest-narrative structures—without imitating his sublimity, profound moral and imaginative engagement or mastery of tone and mood. In later use, when dullness itself became increasingly prized as an aesthetic virtue (cf yawngasm), Dullkeen was taken not as oxymoronic at all, but as something closer to tautology. Eventually all new imitations of Tolkienian fantasy were dullkeen.
FANBESITY. A variant of Fatasy, which may be descriptive of (a) a Fatasy novel itself, (b) to the individual whose diet consists wholly of such teksts, irrespective of their individual body-type, or (c) the state of the genre as a whole.
FATASY. Originally a contraction of the Amglish phrase 'Fat-ass Fantasy novel', the term in present use carries no negative associations and is merely descriptive of a genre in which the very notion of a 'thin fantasy' has become something of a contradiction in terms.
HARI-PARTER. Committing a form of tekstual suicide by increasingly expanding the parts of an ongoing tale until they reach such size that the guts of the story split open and spill all over the ground (see Rowmbling). Painful and grisly.
MacGUFFIN'S. Extremely successful company that provides standardized plot-devices, especially those whose exact composition is a mystery but which are appealing enough to encourage ridders to consume product.
NARRACTOR. A character who narrates. More specifically, a character whose sole focus of characterization is that s/e narrates the story in which they appear. There is usually nothing more to such a figure than a blandly generic niceness and a lot of day-to-day details that contribute to the worldbling of the story.
NEW-FO A new form of UFO. The particulars of the new-fo vary from place to place, but may include twists such that the pilots of the unidentified spacecraft turn out to be us, or that such craft travel not so much from star to star as from Platonic reality to Platonic reality.
RIDDER. An individual who reads a book in order to rid themselves of an onerous spoilbinding. In most recent usage, a person in thrall to a narrative, and usually somebody doomed to the disappointments of anticlimax.
ROWMBLING. Going interminably on and on after the manner of J K Rowling. Particularly applied to tekst that get longer and longer the more famous an author becomes. See also Hari-parter.
SPOILBINDING. A tekst that binds its ridder to its unfolding narrative by withholding 'spoilers'.
STYLESS. Originally this word, a variant spelling of 'stylus', referred to the instrument of writing. In later usage, and in keeping with a general valorization of the 'neutral' or 'ordinary Joe' stylistic preferences of most readers, this became a term of praise for the writer who downplayed 'literary' or 'purple' prose.
TE DIUM. Quasi-religious song in praise of the dullness of enormously elongated narrative faldapiffle.
TEKST. A text (such as a novel) with a high 'technological' quotient that tests--as it might be, the patience, the endurance or the imagination--of a ridder.
WORLDBLING A variety of worldbuilding in which a great many details of an imaginary world are put on rather showy and vulgar display in order to impress upon the ridder the prodigious imaginative wealth of the author. The imaginative wealth of the author, it can be added, is not usually in doubt, although some critiasses, especially those that value restraint, subtlety and inflection, question the judgment of authors who indulge too blatantly in worldbling.
YAWNGASM. A strange circumstance whereby prolonged boredom leads to a state of near ecstasy. Not as unusual as you might think, actually.
Quote from: Melkor on 14-01-2011, 00:13:38
ROWMBLING. Going interminably on and on after the manner of J K Rowling. Particularly applied to tekst that get longer and longer the more famous an author becomes. See also Hari-parter.
:cry: :mrgreen: :cry:
Quote from: Gaff on 13-01-2011, 22:59:55
Pa dobro, bar su PSS i Spin uglasali među prvih deset. I to je nešto.
Spin ispao iz prvih 10 xfoht
E, a pazi gde je tek The Windup Girl!
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/01/best-sff-novels-of-the-decade-poll-update-0113 (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/01/best-sff-novels-of-the-decade-poll-update-0113)
Ali zato je Watts preskocio 20ak mesta.
Dobro, ima li kraja ovome? :x
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Quote from: Melkor on 16-01-2011, 20:24:19
Dobro, ima li kraja ovome? :x
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xrofl :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: xrofl
Kraj će doći kad nešto drugo postane hit.
Nema. Skoro su mi poslali Elizabeth Tudor Vampire Slayer. Ili zombie slayer, a Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Pomešalo mi se. Uopšte ih ne čitam, inače. Poklonio sam jednom klincu punu putnu torbu.
Quote from: Nightflier on 16-01-2011, 23:19:28
Pomešalo mi se. Uopšte ih ne čitam, inače. Poklonio sam jednom klincu punu putnu torbu.
xrofl :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: xrofl
Quote from: Nightflier on 16-01-2011, 23:19:28
Nema. Skoro su mi poslali Elizabeth Tudor Vampire Slayer. Ili zombie slayer, a Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Pomešalo mi se. Uopšte ih ne čitam, inače. Poklonio sam jednom klincu punu putnu torbu.
A ja mislio da je vrh sprdnje Lesbian Vampire Killers...
Jedino sto preostaje je reality sa vampirima.. - In the house of Dracula
Quote from: Usul on 17-01-2011, 01:25:27
Quote from: Nightflier on 16-01-2011, 23:19:28
Nema. Skoro su mi poslali Elizabeth Tudor Vampire Slayer. Ili zombie slayer, a Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Pomešalo mi se. Uopšte ih ne čitam, inače. Poklonio sam jednom klincu punu putnu torbu.
A ja mislio da je vrh sprdnje Lesbian Vampire Killers...
Jedino sto preostaje je reality sa vampirima.. - In the house of Dracula
To bi već i moglo da bude zanimljivo. Ali ako je Drakula pravi, a ne emo u kožnim gaćama.
Quote from: Nightflier on 18-01-2011, 11:41:10
Quote from: Usul on 17-01-2011, 01:25:27
Quote from: Nightflier on 16-01-2011, 23:19:28
Nema. Skoro su mi poslali Elizabeth Tudor Vampire Slayer. Ili zombie slayer, a Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Pomešalo mi se. Uopšte ih ne čitam, inače. Poklonio sam jednom klincu punu putnu torbu.
A ja mislio da je vrh sprdnje Lesbian Vampire Killers...
Jedino sto preostaje je reality sa vampirima.. - In the house of Dracula
To bi već i moglo da bude zanimljivo. Ali ako je Drakula pravi, a ne emo u kožnim gaćama.
xrofl xrofl xrofl
A Riff on the Harper Contract
Posted on January 18th, 2011 by Ursula K. Le Guin
(New language in the termination provision of the Harper's boilerplate gives them the right to cancel a contract if "Author's conduct evidences a lack of due regard for public conventions and morals, or if Author commits a crime or any other act that will tend to bring Author into serious contempt, and such behavior would materially damage the Work's reputation or sales." The consequences? Harper can terminate your book deal. Not only that, you'll have to repay your advance. Harper may also avail itself of "other legal remedies" against you.
From a blog by Richard Curtis.)
* * *
Dear Mr Rupert Murdoch,
Forgive me, for I have sinned.
Because I did not read my contract with your wonderful publishing house HarperCollins carefully, I did not realise my moral obligations.
There is nothing for it now but to confess everything. Before I wrote my book Emily Brontë and the Vampires of Lustbaden, which you published this fall and which has been on the Times Best Seller List for five straight months, I committed bad behavior and said bad words in public that brought me into serious contempt in my home town of Blitzen, Oregon. In fact the people there found me so seriously contemptible that I am now living in Maine under the name of Trespassers W. This has nothing to do with the fact that some parts of my book come from books by Newt Gingrich and other people, in fact quite a lot of them, but everybody borrows from great novelists, because information wants to be free. It was nothing really materially damaging, only just the money and i.d. I stole from the old man with the walker and some things I said about some schoolgirls with big tits back in stupid Blitzen. I have really suffered for my art. I hope maybe you will forgive me and not terminate me and make me pay back the money because I can't because I already had to give most of it to some stupid lawyer who said I had defaulted on a loan and was behind in my child support which is just a lie. That stupid brat never was mine. I am sure you will understand better than anybody else could that the only actual crime I have committed was writing my book. And I believe you will see that it was expiated by your giving me the contract for it and publishing it and making a lot of money out of it. So it is all right, I hope. I really hope so because I have nearly finished the sequel Alfred Lord Tennyson and the Zombies of Sex-Coburg and my agent says it is going to be a blockbuster as soon as it comes back from the person who is rewriting it. You would not want to miss it I am sure! And here in Maine I am paying strict regard to public conventions and morals just like you do. I would not go to a Democrat Convention if they paid me and crime is the farthest thing from my mind. I would feel so terrible if I damaged the reputation or sales of my Work, or your reputation. You are my Role Model.
Please believe me your loyal and obedient author,
Trespassers W.
:mrgreen:
Da li je mythpunk prvi the new thing na sceni posle New Weirda? Ili je svima preko glave raznih -punkova?
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frlv.zcache.com%2Fmythpunk_army_shirt-p235497402059433188yfxq_400.jpg&hash=d26ae550de81a2b5baab6a70a31200a2552d7497)
Valenteova je skovala termin. (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2011/20110124/mythpunk1-a.shtml) A rasprava je ovde.. (http://www.strangehorizons.com/blog/2011/01/mythpunk.shtml#c516122).
Ok, mythpunk ne zvuci... toliko lose, mada je preferiram slipstream (ne u Skrobonjinom kontekstu). A interstitial jeste nekako rogobatno akademski.
U svakom slucaju lepo je videti da Niall Harrison nema problem sa prelaskom na novi posao.
Imaš i fashionpunk. Tako bar nazivaju Grey i Yarn od Armstronga.
The Purpose of Science Fiction
How it teaches governments—and citizens—how to understand the future of technology.
By Robert J. SawyerPosted Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, at 10:26 AM ET
This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate. A Future Tense conference on whether governments can keep pace will scientific advances will be held at Google DC's headquarters on Feb. 3 and 4 .
Science fiction scene.What does science fiction teach us?Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, is generally considered the first work of science fiction. It explores, in scientific terms, the notion of synthetic life: Dr. Victor Frankenstein studies the chemical breakdown that occurs after death so he can reverse it to animate nonliving matter. Like so many other works of science fiction that followed, Shelley's story is a cautionary tale: It raises profound questions about who should have the right to create living things and what responsibility the creators should have to their creations and to society.
Think about that: Mary Shelley put these questions on the table almost two centuries ago—41 years before Darwin published The Origin of Species and 135 years before Crick and Watson figured out the structure of DNA. Is it any wonder that Alvin Toffler, one of the first futurists, called reading science fiction the only preventive medicine for future shock?
Isaac Asimov, the great American science fiction writer, defined the genre thus: "Science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology." The societal impact of what is being cooked up in labs is always foremost in the science fiction writer's mind. H.G. Wells grappled with creating chimera life forms in The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), Aldous Huxley gave us a heads-up on modified humans in Brave New World (1932), and Michael Crichton's final science-fiction novel, Next (2006), brought the issues of gene splicing and recombinant DNA to a mass audience.
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What's valuable about this for societies is that science-fiction writers explore these issues in ways that working scientists simply can't. Some years ago, for a documentary for Discovery Channel Canada, I interviewed neurobiologist Joe Tsien, who had created superintelligent mice in his lab at Princeton—something he freely spoke about when the cameras were off. But as soon as we started rolling, and I asked him about the creation of smarter mice, he made a "cut" gesture. "We can talk about the mice having better memories but not about them being smarter. The public will be all over me if they think we're making animals more intelligent."
But science-fiction writers do get to talk about the real meaning of research. We're not beholden to skittish funding bodies and so are free to speculate about the full range of impacts that new technologies might have—not just the upsides but the downsides, too. And we always look at the human impact rather than couching research in vague, nonthreatening terms.
We also aren't bound by nondisclosure agreements, the way so many commercial and government scientists are. Indeed, a year before the first atomic bomb was built, the FBI demanded that the magazine Astounding Science Fiction, recall its March 1944 issue, which contained a story by Cleve Cartmill detailing how a uranium-fission bomb might be built. Science-fiction writers began the public discourse about the actual effects of nuclear weapons (see for instance Judith Merril's classic 1948 story "That Only a Mother," which deals with gene damage caused by radiation). We also were among the first to weigh in on the dangers of nuclear power (see for example Lester del Rey's 1956 novel Nerves). Science fiction is the WikiLeaks of science, getting word to the public about what cutting-edge research really means.
And we come with the credentials to do this work. Many science-fiction writers, such as Gregory Benford, are working scientists. Many others, such as Joe Haldeman, have advanced degrees in science. Others, like me, have backgrounds in science and technology journalism. Our recent works have tackled such issues as the management of global climate change (Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain and its sequels), biological terrorism (Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl), and the privacy of online information and China's attempts to control its citizens' access to the World Wide Web (my own WWW:Wake and its sequels).
Print science fiction writers often do consulting for government bodies. A group of science fiction writers called SIGMA frequently advises the Department of Homeland Security about technology issues, and Jack McDevitt and I recently were consulted by NASA about the search for intelligence in the cosmos.
At the core of science fiction is the notion of extrapolation, of asking, "If this goes on, where will it lead?" And, unlike most scientists who think in relatively short time frames—getting to the next funding deadline, or readying a product to bring to market—we think on much longer scales: not just months and years, but decades and centuries.
That said, our job is not to predict the future. Rather, it's to suggest all the possible futures—so that society can make informed decisions about where we want to go. George Orwell's science-fiction classic Nineteen Eighty-Four wasn't a failure because the future it predicted failed to come to pass. Rather, it was a resounding success because it helped us prevent that future. Those wishing to get in on the ground floor of discussing where technology is leading us would do well to heed Alvin Toffler's advice by cracking open a good science-fiction book and joining the conversation.
Edit: http://www.slate.com/id/2282651/ (http://www.slate.com/id/2282651/)
Može link za ovaj tekst?
http://www.slate.com/id/2282651/ (http://www.slate.com/id/2282651/)
Zahvatiš bilo koji deo teksta i pustiš da Google nađe gde ga ima; obično prva ponuda bude originalno postavljena verzija.
tekst je infantilno naivan, sa linkom i bez njega.
xjap
Quote from: Lidija on 29-01-2011, 14:12:18
tekst je infantilno naivan, sa linkom i bez njega.
S obzirom da je u pitanju covek zbog koga su promenili nacin dodeljivanja Nebule..:)
Taman da je u pitanju i Jehova lično. :)
rejectamentalist manifesto
China Miéville's waste books (http://chinamieville.net/)
Pre 10ak dana poceo je crta i pise webcomic London intrusion.
Posted by Niall Harrison
2 February 2011
Theodora Goss on mythpunk, addressing two aspects of the discussion I'd been thinking about: who's doing the writing, and how what's being written differs from New Weird.
Is it a useful designation? I think it is, actually. It does seem to be describing what a particular group of writers is doing at the moment. There's something to writing identified as Mythpunk that does make it distinctive. It's fantasy – not dark fantasy, not urban fantasy, not whatever it is people are doing now that involves vampires. Fantasy proper, but with stylistic experimentation. It's Virginia Woolf with fairies and gryphons and blemmyae. With all sorts of strange but wonderful monsters. It doesn't have the darkness of New Weird and is not indebted to Lovecraft. It's not really slipstream, because rather than making you uncomfortable it says, "Here are the monsters, get comfortable with them." It is political because it presents a world where social conventions don't apply, where to be different is to be normal, and to be ordinary is to be odd. It embraces beauty and strangeness as normal conditions. And it is definitely not interstitial, because as soon as you say something is Mythpunk it is no longer between things, it is a thing.
It started in the small presses because larger presses did not want to take a chance on something so different. Fairy tale retellings – those it could handle. But these were fairy tale retellings with a difference. However, the more Mythpunk is out there, the more not-different it becomes, so you can say, "This is like Orphan's Tales."
I also see in it a richness, an almost overflowing of inventiveness and language. In that way, it is like New Weird, which was also rich and overflowing.
Do we really need all these labels, all these punks? We probably don't need them. But because of them, certain writers and works are talked about. So they enable us to have conversations we did not have before. They allow us to notice writers we might have overlooked. And they allow those writers to speak and say, "This is what I am. Or am not."
The Edge Of Reason
February 2, 2011 — Martin
The Edge Of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass (Tor, 2009)
Reviewed by Martin Lewis
Imagine if Richard Dawkins was not only American but retarded. Imagine he taught himself to read using the work of illiterate megasellers like James Patterson and Tess Gerritsen. Imagine he further fleshed out his understanding of human nature on a diet of romance novels and misery memoirs. Finally, imagine he stayed up one night getting drunk and watching piss poor police procedurals before having the sudden brainwave of re-writing American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Imagine all that and you have imagined Melinda Snodgrass's dire The Edge Of Reason and thus saved yourself the pain of actually reading it.
Our hero, Richard Oortz, is an East Coast blueblood concert pianist turned New Mexican policeman with a Terrible Secret. You might think this sounds unlikely and you would be right. He is also an extraordinarily good-looking bisexual gymnast whose DNA, unlike most of the rest of humanity, contains no magic. This last is of paramount importance because, counter-intuitively, it allows him to wield a magic sword that will save the world.
The idiotic plot revolves around the rather large co-incidence that the Devil also happens to live in Alberquerque (apparently this is because "it is a place where science and magic rub close".) In a mind blowing twist, He is actually the good guy since he represents rationality and Oortz must unite with him to overthrow the tyranny of God. What follows is tosh to the nth degree, Snodgrass has somehow managed to harness the worst of the blockbuster thriller and paranormal romance genres. And if the plot is bad – lacking sense, structure and interest – then the writing is even worse. To take an example:
Lean Cuisine hefted light in the hand as if the contents of the package were as cardboard as the box. Richard hooked open the crisper drawer of the refrigerator with the tow of his shoe. Fresh bok choy, peppers and ginger flashed color and guilt at him. He would cook. (p82)
The rest of the prose is equally cloth-eared and over-wrought and the dialogue reads like the work of Elizabots. It was solely because of professional obligation that I read all the way to the end, only to be rewarded with a limp, open-ended conclusion that paves the way for equally appalling sequels.
The book's jacket bizarrely claims that it is as controversial as The Golden Compass or The Illuminatus! Trilogy, possibly the only time those two books have been mentioned in the same sentence. The Golden Compass was controversial (in the US) because it was marketed at kids and suggested that organised religion wasn't that great. The Illuminatus! Trilogy was controversial because it was an insane counter-culture conspiracy theory fuckfest. The Edge Of Reason is supposedly controversial because of the whole theological inversion thing but this is only going to shock you if you have parachuted in from the 19th Century (as Oortz appears to have done.) In fact, the only thing controversial about the book is that it ever made it into print from a major publisher like Tor.
This review originally appeared in Vector #258.
Mislim da mu se bas, bas nije dopalo.
A sa druge strane Atlantika:
BANTAM BOOKS AND DYNAMITE ANNOUNCE COMIC ADAPTATION OF GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE
NEW YORK, NY – February 2, 2011 – Bantam Books, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, announced today the acquisition of the comic book and graphic novel rights to the worldwide bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. The series will be illustrated by Tommy Patterson and adapted by Daniel Abraham, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Long Price Quartet. The first issue of the monthly comic—which will be published by Dynamite Entertainment—is planned to release in late spring 2011, with compilations of the comics in graphic novel form to follow under the Bantam imprint. With the television adaptation of A Game of Thrones scheduled to air on HBO starting in April 2011, the comics and graphic novels will further expand the Song of Ice and Fire series into a new medium, creating opportunities for readers old and new to immerse themselves in this bestselling world.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN sold his first story in 1971 and hasn't stopped. As a writer-producer, he worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. In the mid-90s he returned to prose and began work on A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. He lives with the lovely Parris.
DANIEL ABRAHAM is the author of ten books and more than thirty short stories. He has been nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy awards, and won the International Horror Guild Award. He has written the graphic novel adaptations of George R. R. Martin's novel Fevre Dream and novella "Skin Trade," and original scripts for Wild Cards: The Hard Call. He also writes as MLN Hanover and James S. A. Corey. He lives with his family in the American southwest.
Artist TOMMY PATTERSON'S credits include Farscape for Boom! Studios, the movie adaptation The Warriors for Dynamite Entertainment, and Tales From Wonderland the White Knight, Red Rose and Stingers from Zenescope Entertainment. He has a BS in Stu
divota jedna, bar za mene, ja sam verovatno jedini humanoid koji nije overio te pesmuljke leda & vatre...
Nisi.
Hmm, kao neko ko ih je poodavno, delimicno, overio i sad ceka da Martin umre ili zavrsi da bi nastavio, preporucio bih vam prvu novelu iz tog sveta, Hedge Knight. Tu jako lepo moze da se vidi o cemu se, u stvari, kod Martina radi.
Nego, Melkore, nikako da iskopam taj tvoj post za Axis, a baš me zanima elaboracija pozitivnih strana tog romana. (mene je totalno razočarao, ali totalno... :()
Zauzvrat, nudim (malko kilavu, garant) elaboraciju drske tvrdnje da mi je Robert J. Sawyer post infantilan. :)
Mea culpa, nisam toliko napisao koliko sam pricao sa zakkom i Milosem. Ali, evo sta sam napisao:
QuotePosle odusevljenja Spinom, Axisu sam pristupio opreznije, posto mi je najavljeno da je slabiji i da komotno mogu da prodjem i bez njega. Naravno da nisam poslusao dobronamerne savete (opsesivni kompletista kakav jesam) i, moram reci, drago mi je zbog toga.
Axis je drugaciji roman od Spina. Odlican balans karakterizacije i fantastike je i dalje tu, ali na drugi nacin. Dok je u Spinu Sf bio pozadina, ovde je mnogo integralniji u razvoju likova i to se vidi od prvog poglavlja. Ljudi su i dalje u fokusu i to uveliko pomaze da roman ne postane samo platforma za iznosenje Teze - koja je jako zanimljiva i zavodljiva ali sama ne bi opravdala postojanje celog romana.
Sto se kontinuiteta tice Axis pocinje 30-ak godina po okoncanju Spina i efektivno se samo jedan lik ponovo pojavljuje. Razmere dogadjanja su lokalnije i samo naizgled manje bitne za covecanstvo. Takvim pristupom Axis vara ocekivanje citaoca posle Spina, Wilson mudro spusta loptu i postize, iako ne Evro-, efektivan go.
U proceni Axisa trebalo bi imati u vidu da je to druga knjiga trilogije. Taj podatak nisam imao kada sam se latio citanja (ili sam ga zaboravio). Ne da je krucijalno bitan posto se Axis cak moze citati i kao stand-alone ili kao par uz Spin, ali mislim da ce svoje pravo mesto naci tek kada se sagleda i treca knjiga koja ce se zvati Vortex
.
E sad, uz ovu vremensku perspektivu, slazem se da jeste slabiji roman od Spina, i da me flavour prisecanja vuce na '80, dok Spin ima svoje mesto u novom milenijumu. Ali i dalje ne mislim da je to los roman.
Sto se Sawyera tice, daj, da se zabavljamo. Ionako nisam ni nameravao da ga ikada citam :)
Annual Analysis of the Locus Recommended Short Story List
Now that Locus Magazine has published its recommended reading list for 2010, I can once again dig into my spreadsheets and take a look at how this year's data reflects on the state of short stories. I've been monitoring the list's short fiction category for a few years now and have always found the results interesting.
Some Quick Facts:
* Number of short stories on the list: 68, up from 61
* Number of publications represented: 27, down from 29
* Number of publications with 2 or more stories on the list: 14 (52%), up from 12 (41%)
* Number of stories from online magazines: 36 (52.9%), up from 18 (27.9%)
* Number of online magazines represented: 9 (33.3%), up from 6 (20.7%)
* Number of stories from print magazines: 12 (17.6%), down from 16 (26.2%)
* Number of print magazines represented: 4 (14.8%), down from 6 (20.7%)
* Number of stories from anthologies/collections/chapbooks: 20 (29.4%), down from 28 (45.9%)
* Number of anthologies/collections/chapbooks represented: 14 (51.8%), down from 17 (58.6%)
* Online magazines represented: Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Subterranean, Tor.com, Fantasy, Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Shareable.
* Print magazines represented: Asimov's, F&SF, Black Gate, and Albedo One
* Anthology/Collections/Chapbooks represented: Is Anybody Out There?, Sprawl, Zombies vs. Unicorns, Swords & Dark Magic, What I Didn't See and Other Stories, Sourdough and Other Stories, Stories, Gateways, Wings of Fire, Full Moon City, The Beastly Bride, Temporary Culture, The Man with Knives, Songs of Love and Death, and Masked.
* There is a two-way tie for publications with the most recommended short stories. One online magazine (Clarkesworld) and one print magazine (Asimov's). These two magazines were two of four tied for first last year.
Final Standings:
7 - Asimov's (+2)
7 - Clarkesworld (+2)
6 - Lightspeed (new)
5 - Tor.com (+4)
5 - Fantasy Magazine (+2)
4 - Strange Horizons (-1)
3 - Subterranean (+1)
3 - Apex (+3)
3 - F&SF (-1)
3 - Is Anybody Out There?
3 - Sprawl
2 - Zombies vs. Unicorns
2 - Wings of Fire
2 - Shareable
1 - 13 other markets
Observations:
* This is the first year that there have been more stories selected from online venues than from books or print magazines.
* Although the number of stories on the list increased by 111%, growth within the categories was not proportional. Online magazines increased their total by 212%, but anthologies/collections/chapbooks and print magazines respectively declined to 71% and 75% of last year's figures.
* Anthologies/Collections/Chapbooks spent the last four years at the top. This is their first decline since 2005.
* Overall, print magazines continue to decline as a presence on the list. Three years ago, Asimov's (alone) represented 25% of the entire list. That's more than all of this (or last) year's print magazines combined.
* Notable publications absent in the short story category: Analog, Realms of Fantasy, and Interzone.
* 38 stories are by women, giving them the majority. 20 of those stories were in online magazines. 12 stories were in print magazines. 18 in anthology/collection/chapbooks. (30 for men, 16 online magazines, 12 print magazines, 2 in a/c/c).
Detailed analysis by Neil Clarke.
Eh, Melkore, kad kažeš "posto se Axis cak moze citati i kao stand-alone ili kao par uz Spin", meni to znači kao da si mi rekao da je Axis mogao da napiše i neko drugi, a ne Vilson. Hoću reći, drugi roman u trilogiji je ipak nastavak prvog romana u trilogiji, pa ne mogu da procenjujem koliko je taj roman zapravo vredan u striktno stand-alone smislu. Ali dobro, okej, priznajem, to sad već zadire duboko u domen ukusa i očekivanja, pa je zato i skroz subjektivno, a moguće i da sam preterano zahtevna po pitanju serijala. Recimo, sad posle Axisa nisam više sigurna vredi li mi uopšte overavati Vortex, dok sam posle Spina jedva čekala nastavak; rekla bih da za serijale imam samo onoliko rispekta (ili strpljenja) koliko ga zasluži poslednji pročitani roman.
Dalje, za Sawyera; naravno da ja poštujem staru gardu, nema tu zbora, ali taj pasivno distopični svetonazor (van svoje striktno kreativne svrhe, naravno) ne nailazi na nešto mnogo razumevanja kod mene, priznajem. Naravno da je postojalo doba (neposredno posle ww2, a na Balkanu i par dekada duže, sve dok je bar četvrtina stanovništva ne samo preživljavala nego i iznosila na plećima dobar deo državne proizvodnje, bez savremenih blagodeti tipa 'lektrike, vodovoda i kanalizacije) kad je takav svetonazor donekle i bio ubedljiv po svojim 'profesi of d dum" linijama, ali ni tad me nije sasvim kupio, priznajem. Daleko bilo da tvrdim da Sawyer nije u pravu – neka bude da SF ima ulogu Vikiliksa – ali ne bih išla toliko daleko da danas u žanru vidim alatku kojom se razotkrivaju naučni defekti, a još sam manje raspoložena da te defekte generalizujem u svrhe distopičnih teorija zavera. Nije slučajno da i sam Sawyer nudi primere iz rane faze žanra, kad je futurizam po pravilu bio pesimističan, i da koristi tek par savremenih uradaka, kao recimo The Windup Girl, u kontekstu u kom ja tu knjigu uopšte nisam doživela – u tehnofobičnom kontekstu. Mene futurizam TWG fascinira i ja ga uopšte ne doživljavam kao subverzivan, bar ne samo zato što se fokusira na zloupotrebe. U čovekovoj je prirodi da za svaku alatku izmisli više načina zloupotrebe nego upotrebe, i što je alatka sofisticiranija, to više "štete" može da napravi, ali to meni zaista nije dovoljan razlog da se čovek blatantno prikloni tehnofobiji. Izgleda meni da Sawyer živi u ideji da tehnološka evolucija mora biti kontrolisana, umivena i dezinfikovana, kao da ona putuje nekim paralelnim putem od čovekovog, i to doživljavam kao zaista detinjastu viziju nekakvog "dizajniranog" razvoja, koji mi izgleda daleko više kao "teroristički akt" nad samom prirodom, nego što mi je to TWG futurizam. Naravno da je u prirodi čoveka da "radi na sebi", da se "unapredi" po sopstvenim merilima, bilo da sebi uklanja defekte ili da se kozmetički približava sopstvenom idealu lepote, i naravno da će određeni procenat tih napora biti procenjen kao "zloupotreba", gledano iz nekih drugih sistema vrednosti. Ali, čovek se nalazi ovde gde jeste upravo zbog tih zloupotreba jednako koliko i upotreba, tako da je pomalo besmisleno tvrditi da je išta zapravo "sprečeno", zbog postojanja knjige kao što je Orvelova 1984; pre će biti da su bile u egzistenciji i daleko mračnije opcije, ali nisu održale upravo zbog evolucije koju bi cenjeni Sawyer tako rado da kontroliše. Tako da tu vidim jedan mali paradoks koji me oduvek fascinirao, kad su tehnofobične opcije bile u pitanju – recimo, ima dosta velikana iz tog "distopično futurističnog" miljea koji i danas slove kao humanisti (Klark, recimo), dok ih ja intimno nalazim kao poprilične mizantrope, koji su o čoveku imali duboko negativno mišljenje. I ne ulazim ja sad u raspravu po pitanju generalnih teorija, neka bude da negde u kosmosu ima trilijun intelektualnih entiteta i nek su svi redom na emptom stepenu superiornosti nad čovekom, ali to ne menja činjenicu da pouzdano znam da je "čovek" ipak tu obrao kajmak, i obire ga i dalje, to upravo u borbi sa vrlo opasnim neprijateljem – samim sobom. I nekako mi žao ljudi koji su bili živi svedoci upravo najekspanzivnijem delu civilizacijskog razvitka i pri tom ostali dovoljno mizantropi da sa najviše prečage upravo tog & takvog uspeha ne vide koliko su daleko bačeni horizonti realma. A ne kažem sad da je Sawyerov svetonazor jedini tehnofobski front kojeg sam svesna, daleko bilo... tu mi, recimo, upada i stimpank i njemu slični fentezi pravci, u kojima nalazim širok tehnofobski dijapazon. Mislim da je nekim ljudima jednostavno preteško da suoče džagernat tehnološke erupcije, pa nalaze utočište u vrsti eskapizma koju primarno nalazim infantilnom, mada ujedno i vrlo zabavnom. :)
No dobro, da ne davim, o tome bi se dalo raspravljati do sudnjeg dana u podne, veruj mi. :mrgreen:
Is speculative fiction poised to break into the literary canon?
The Booker prize judges have yet to acknowledge the flowering of British SF and fantasy. Will 2011 be a breakthrough year?
* Damien G Walter
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 February 2011 11.53 GMT
Speculative fiction has produced many great works of literature. Even a partial list of SF's canonical works could fill many blogposts. It would be difficult to talk seriously about the last century of literature without considering HG Wells, or George Orwell, or JG Ballard at the very least. And of the writers working today, how many owe something to the works of Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut or Philip K Dick? In fact, the number of SF authors being retrospectively rolled in to the literary canon seems to grow exponentially year on year.
But new works of speculative fiction rarely receive the critical recognition accorded to their literary cousins, a fact most evident in the major literary awards, not least the Man Booker prize. In the last decade, British SF has been through a period of intense creativity and brilliance. From Neil Gaiman's seminal urban fantasy American Gods (2001), Light (2002) M John Harrison's meditation on psychosis and quantum states and Gwyneth Jones's Life (2004), through Air by Geoff Ryman (2005), Accelerando by Charlie Stross (2005), Brasyl by Ian McDonald (2007) and culminating with The City and the City by China Miéville (2009) British SF has led the world in originality and excellence. Whether any one of these books would have swayed the Booker judges is an open question, but the fact that only one significant work of SF from this extraordinary decade (Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) was even longlisted suggests a systematic problem in the Booker's treatment of speculative fiction.
Over the same period, the fashion of literary fiction writers borrowing ideas from SF has continued. Putting aside concerns that novels such as Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go lag more than two decades behind in their treatment of cloning and genetics, for the Booker judges to consider SF ideas when recycled by literary authors, but to ignore the source of those ideas, only highlights the narrowness of the award's perspective.
As the Booker prize opens for nominations, accepting digital submissions for the first time, will this also be the year that worthy works of SF receive serious consideration from the Booker judges? The issue has been increasingly discussed in recent Booker seasons, leading this year to an entirely unsatisfactory statement on the subject from the Booker judges, and a literary smackdown between China Miéville and John Mullan at the Cheltenham festival, from which Miéville emerged victorious.
But which works of speculative fiction might challenge the Booker judges' perceptions of the genre? Already available for consideration is The Silent Land by Graham Joyce. A previous winner of The World Fantasy award, Joyce has been stalking the boundary between literary and fantastic fiction for some years. His latest novel is an emotionally shattering exploration of the human need for love, focused through the lens of a contemporary ghost story. Jo Walton is also a World Fantasy award winner. Her new novel, Among Others, is as much a story about fantasy as a work of fantasy, and is already gathering the kind of awestruck praise that marks a breakout hit from an established but underappreciated author. And China Miéville must surely have a chance of consideration this year. Miéville's mission to reform SF continues in 2011 with Embassytown, which promises to be a weird revision of the space opera genre. But will actual aliens and spaceships be a wormhole too far for the Booker judges?
Kad smo već kod Elisona, da pomenemo i kako je njegov A Boy And His Dog našao udomljenje i u grafičkoj noveli. Evo DeNardovog rivjua:
I first read Harlan Ellison's brilliant short story "A Boy and His Dog" many years ago. When I recently happened upon a graphic novel adaptation of not only that story, but two other stories that round out the saga of said boy and dog, I think I experienced what could only be referred to as glee. It was manly glee, but glee nonetheless. Even better: this particular graphic novel is more than it first appears. This 2003 reprint - for which Ellison has provided additional introductory material and flavor text in the form of quotes from the telepathic dog named Blood - has both graphic adaptations and the original stories on which they are based. Talk about easy purchase decisions.
Vic and Blood is made up of two stories ("Eggsucker" and "A Boy and His Dog") and an excerpt (titled "Run, Spot" Run") from the (still) upcoming book (Blood's a Rover) that is meant to tell the complete story of Vic of Blood. For those wondering about Ellison's anti-sequel rule, his introduction explains that 1969's "A Boy and His Dog" is part of a larger novel that he has been writing for over 30 years. The story is finished, but the last, longest part is written as a screenplay with no current plans for production. With the year 2007 only hours away, there is still no indication of when Blood's a Rover will be officially completed. Until then, Vic and Blood will have to suffice.
A word about reading order: Ellison recommends reading each original story before its corresponding graphic novel adaptation, so that's what I did even though, oddly, each story is printed after the visual adaptation. I suspect this is to lead the graphics novel fan to written prose as opposed to my situation of book-lover reading the adaptations. I second Ellison's recommendation: read the original stories first.
"Eggsucker" takes place before the events of Ellison's classic "A Boy and his Dog". It recounts an early adventure in the lives of Vic and Blood. It also provides a good introduction to the gritty, post-apocalyptic setting for all the stories. Sometime after World War IV, population has dwindled considerably and people are living day to day scrounging for the most valuable resource of all: food. But ammunition is valuable, too, and when Vic finds some booze, he enters into a food trade with a gang who has little respect for Vic's short-tempered, four-legged partner. Blood, you see, has the power of telepathy and can communicate directly (and only) to Vic. Vic and Blood are solo rovers in search of food while avoiding roverpak gangs and mutated people called screamers. The adventure quotient here is tamer than later adventures but still nicely done.
Ellison's Nebula-winning story "A Boy and His Dog" is the anchor of this book and still stands out as the superior work. Vic, now a very horny teenager, meets a girl named Quilla June Holmes who initially masquerades as a boy to safely walk amongst the horny male rovers. She is from the "downunder" (underground) city of Topeka, where residents try to assume a normal life decades after the world was demolished to ruins and savagery. Vic's emotions for Quilla put him and Blood at risk. To overcome the challenges of the ensuing adventures, Blood must once again show that he is the smarter of the two and Vic goes to somewhat scary lengths to show just how loyal he is. This story best exemplifies Vic's and Blood's literary role switch of the man and beast. The ending has to be one of science fiction's best.
"Run, Spot, Run" takes place immediately after the draw-dropping ending of the previous story. Headed for the unknown west once again, Vic and Blood encounter the rival Fellini roverpack. While attempting escape they run into a horde of nasty creatures. Being an excerpt, I expected "Run, Spot, Run" to be an unresolved cliffhanger. I was pleasantly surprised that the ending could simultaneously be considered both a cliffhanger and a tidy resolution, albeit one of high import.
The visual versions of the stories are quite faithful to the original material - to the point of being a cut-and-paste job of the original text. This is fine as it helps to translate the feel that Ellison successfully creates in the original material. Naturally, the graphic adaptations are going to be abbreviated. Reading the original stories beforehand helps quite a bit in this regard. Corben's art is suitably dark, though his drawing style does not exactly suit my particular tastes. His all-too-scant pencil illustrations presented in the original material do much more to match the mood of Ellison's stories and better show his skill.
Taken as a whole, Vic and Blood is a must-read for anyone who is a fan of "A Boy and His Dog" and a should-read for anyone else. Ellison's prose is as spry and engaging as ever and also what one would expect from an author who is considered master of the short form. Simply put: the stories do not disappoint. And Ellison's introduction provides some background trivia behind the stories and the 1975 movie adaptation starring Don Johnson and Jason Robards. I also note that the book's overall production value is high and would make a fine addition to the library of any sf fan.
A zdravog balansa poradi, evo i kako je Džoana Ras rivjuisala film:
A Boy and his Dog
The final solution
by Joanna Russ
from Jump Cut, no. 12-13, 1976, pp. 14-17
Reprinted from Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies 1:1, Fall 1975
The Denver area is full of male feminists. Two of them, both science-fiction writers, urged me to see A BOY AND HIS DOG, the feature-length film made from Harlan Ellison's science-fiction story of the same name. Both men are friends of mine, and Harlan Ellison is a friend of mine also; yet must I proclaim publicly right here that sending a woman to see A BOY AND HIS DOG is like sending a Jew to a movie that glorifies Dachau; you need not be a feminist to loathe this film. I don't know whether Ellison supervised the making of the film or whether he approves of it, so this review will deal entirely with the film and not with Ellison's story. (1) Kate Millett called Norman Mailer's An American Dream a novel about how to kill your wife and live happily ever after; A BOY AND HIS DOG is about how to feed your girl friend to your dog and live happily ever after.
This film is in the direct line of descent of hundreds of Hollywood movies in which a designing and dangerous woman tries to part loyal male buddies. BOY has essentially the same ending as CASABLANCA, although in the latter film getting rid of the woman is romantically glossed over—i.e., she is renounced, not chopped into dog food. Samuel Delany, an excellent science fiction writer and critic, has invented the word "homosexist" to describe films like BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, in which the woman is a dim tagalong, brought in to placate the audience, which might be expected to grow uneasy at a film in which the main emotional entanglements between men and women are either secondary or rejected. (2)
In this sense, BOY is a homosexist film. It is not a homosexual film—I want to make that clear. If there are constant jokes made about the "fuzzy butt" of the telepathic dog, Blood, and if the dog is pictured as immensely appealing, this is not because the dog rouses erotic feelings in either Vic (the hero) or anybody else; it is because he doesn't, and it is therefore safe to love him. BOY is affectionate towards the dog, who is asexual. It is the woman, Quilla June, corrupt, dangerous, but powerfully attractive, that the film finds evil and menacing. Stories in which the world's evil is attributed to women or women's sexual attractiveness are hardly new in western culture, and there are times you'd swear BOY was a remake of SAMSON AGONISTES or even the story of the Garden of Eden, although the garden here (a world devastated by World War Three) is a pretty bleak and minimal one.
Stories which portray a noble, talented, or sympathetic man done in by an evil temptress depend heavily on the plausibility of the temptress, and it's here that BOY falls down—it's a good film until the utter impossibility of Quilla June, Vic's girlfriend, destroys it. Among other good things the movie has a splendid performance by the dog—pieced together by the director, one assumes, but at times one wonders; the dog's a better actor than many human ones. And the film has that rare science fiction virtue one might call Not Shoving Your Nose In It. Remember those films in which somebody says,
"My God, Sheila. Don't you realize what this means? Those unknown monsters which devoured a little girl and killed old Grandpa Perkins are the mutated ants caused by radiation from the bomb tests held three years ago in the Arizona desert."
Well, nobody in BOY ever talks like this. The film does not painfully belabor the obvious but gives you the science fiction background and details you need quickly, dramatically, and above all, obliquely. But you buy the considerable virtues of the movie by having to endure (once again) a story whose main point is that women are no damned good and men are better off without us, even when it means killing us.
Vic, the boy, survives (with the help of his telepathic dog, Blood) in a ruined, sterile, war-devastated America in which rape and murder are commonplaces. He attempts to rape Quilla June, only to be unexpectedly trapped by love. She tempts him down to the underground world of "Topeka,"(3) a 1905-ish midwestern smalltown world like a Ray Bradbury story gone totalitarian, and he finds himself a prisoner. Quilla sets him free, wishing him to kill the leaders of this ghastly place, but the leaders' robot executioner is all but unkillable (although Vic manages to short out one of them, there are plenty more in the warehouse) and the lovers flee above ground. A wounded, weakened Blood, waiting above ground for Vic, has waited too long: Vic is forced to choose between Blood's life and Quilla June's, and he chooses his real friend, the dog.
From the above synopsis (if you hadn't seen the film) you might guess that both societies are intolerable, that both characters are driven, and that any course of action taken by anybody will, of necessity, be tragic. This is not the case. For example, the film presents the judicial executions in "Topeka" as horrifying, while casual murders above ground are a grim sort of fun—Vic's and Quilla's reactions give the audience its cue in both cases. The murders are also paced differently and shown differently. A key line in the film—Vic shouts that he wants to go back to the dirt above ground so that he can feel clean—characterizes her form of Hell as infinitely worse than his. He is a loser below ground and a winner above ground, but the film translates this difference into a moral difference between the two societies. (I might add that the line itself is television-ghastly. Vic has been carefully created as someone who would not give a damn about feeling morally clean and to whom such a self-conscious fatuity as the line would be impossible.)
Above all, Vic and Blood are lovable and good, and Quilla June is manipulative and bad, so Vic's final choice is a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, the foregoneness of the conclusion destroys its drama. Since feeding your girlfriend to your dog is neither suspenseful nor tragic—it's necessary and she deserves nothing better—the end dwindles to a sour joke, exactly as the audience took it. It isn't hard to see in this film another repetition of the common American idea that if only men could get away from civilization (i.e. women) and civilization's troublesome insistence that one actually interact with others, life (men's lives) would be much better. Even though Vic's life, after Quilla, will be lived in a bleak and ruined world, he will be free; BOY is surprisingly like Huckleberry Finn, with Blood as the undemanding and loving companion who isn't quite human, like Nigger Jim. The movie, however, goes farther than Twain did; civilization ("Topeka") is totally corrupt. And woman is not simply avoided but wiped out, a necessity if man (who has now seen through her bitchery and is no longer a slave to his gonads) is to go off with his real friend, the dog.
BOY presents its woman as corrupt and produced by a corrupt society; only by murdering her can man avoid her dangerous fascinations. A sexless relationship is better, "love" is rotten, and Vic's becoming disillusioned with "love" and returning to his old friend (the dog) is the plot of the film. Quilla June is therefore an important character, and the film's judgment of her is the linchpin of the plot.
Quilla June at first looks like a brave woman. By coming above ground she risks death, not to mention rape. She is also surprisingly competent; she knows how to shoot. However, we soon find that her escapade is neither patriotic nor curious but fueled by greedy ambition, for the elders of "Topeka" have sent her up with the promise of reward. Later she braves the rulers of "Topeka" (including her own father) by freeing Vic, but this action is not undertaken because she likes him or repents of having trapped him; instead, she wishes him to kill—for her—the "Committee" which rules this underground society. Why she can't do this herself is something of a puzzle, for she apparently knows how to shoot and guns are available, but perhaps the film wants to characterize her as simultaneously dangerous and helpless. She has persuaded other teenagers to rebel against the rulers of "Topeka," an accomplishment which you might think would show her as something of a political mastermind, but no, they are all boys—there are no girls in Quilla's rebellion—so it is probable that she has seduced them into submission, as she did Vic. She is no Joan of Arc (or even Evita Peron), but only Mata Hari. The government of "Topeka" is viciously conformist, but no credit accrues to Quilla for wanting to destroy such a set-up; for what she really wants, as she makes plain to Vic, is to replace those currently in power with herself. The film simultaneously presents her as enormously dangerous and powerful (because of her sexuality) and totally helpless (although she must know about the robot executioner, all she does is scream for Vic to protect her, though earlier she was daring enough to bash in heads). Back on the surface (in her wedding dress, a good touch) she reveals that she is not only helpless but stupid; she whines unpleasantly and "manages" Vic badly—and this is fatal, because he is now her only protector.
According to Samuel Delany,(4) a literary characterization proceeds by means of three kinds of actions: gratuitous, purposeful, and habitual, and well-written characters perform all three. (This classification certainly applies to realistic fiction, and I suspect it applies to all fiction, however stylized.) Sexist literature produces two kinds of female characters, both imperfect: the Heroine, whose actions are all gratuitious, (5) and the Villainess, whose actions are all purposeful. Neither performs habitual actions.
Now Quilla June perfectly fits this formula for a Villainess—she is all calculation. She has no habits, and what a difference it would make if she did—bit her fingernails, for example. or wince uncontrollably whenever her dreadful Daddy comes too close! But aside from a few clumsy betrayals of hatred, Quilla never does anything spontaneously (that is, gratuitously) any more than she does anything out of habit; she is all outside, all mask, and the few revelations of her feelings are simply revelations that Quilla is hateful. The inner life that makes Blood and Vic so lovable is withheld from Quilla June; she is a grotesque enormity, a totally manipulative Bitch. We are shown that she is "ambitious," but it's hard to know what ambition is supposed to mean here (it seems to be only another word for hate) since what she wants is neither flattery, glory, nor self-importance, but only revenge.
In addition to repeating the theme of Love Between Buddies, the film strongly resembles those 1950s films in which the Good Girl is bait, used to bind the Bad Boy to the Conformist System—except that the 1950s films I'm thinking of are on the side of the System (of which the Good Girl is an artifact), and this film most emphatically is not. Clearly, BOY intends to attack the Conformist System (a remarkably nasty one in this film); judgment is pronounced upon it by Vic, and its representative. Quilla June, is destroyed by him.
What is odd is that Quilla June, far from representing "Topeka," is in fact trying to destroy it, and that "Topeka," far from being hurt by Quilla June's death, is protected by it. One might begin to suspect that "Topeka" has an interest in having Quilla destroyed and that far from being its representative, she is its scapegoat—expendable, unnecessary, but useful at times for containing the rage of punks like Vic.
That is, thinking you are attacking society when you condemn or ravage the hypothetical Nice Girl Next Door is the exact equivalent of thinking that stealing from the local supermarket makes you a Communist.
The Nice Girl Next Door, although she is often perceived as the most protected and most valuable citizen in a sexist society, is neither. She isn't even really in the society at all. She's a figurine, a possession. a commercial product, something the film recognizes at one point when it shows a long line of girls in bridal dresses (same uniform, different faces) waiting in a hospital corridor to be led in and "married" to Vic. ("Topeka" is taking semen samples from him as he lies wired to a machine that stimulates his brain in order to induce orgasm; each girl in turn stands under a horseshoe of flowers in her white gown, a minister solemnly reads the marriage service, the machine is turned on, and the resulting semen is neatly labeled, presumably with the name of the "wife.") The Nice Girl is socially powerless, useful at best for the minor policing of teenage boys, useful as a reward or a "responsibility" but hardly a citizen in her own right—after all, the major policing in a sexist society is done by others, overwhelmingly by adult males. When Vic destroys Quilla he is destroying a victim, a quasi-slave, a piece of useful property. He is certainly not harming "Topeka." And the film does not present Quilla's destruction as Quilla's tragedy; on the contrary, it is she who is the real menace; it is she who must be punished.
This is scapegoating.
The movie hates "Topeka," but it executes Quilla June. Are the two identical? To think they are is comparable to the theories which maintained that the only flaw in antebellum Southern slavery was the wretched character and corrupting influence of the slaves themselves. This logic is a form of Philip Wylie's Momism, in which women are "society" and a man escapes from "society" and its obligations by avoiding women; the usual American form of this illusion is the concept of marriage as a trap into which men are tricked by women. But if society is really constituted by other men (as "Topeka" certainly seems to be), then no escape is possible; avoiding women leaves a man just as open to intimidation by other men, i.e., by "society." BOY avoids the problem of society-as-other-men by splitting the world into two: in underground "Topeka" there are relatively free women (that is, young people and members of the lower classes are oppressed regardless of sex), while above ground women are prostitutes, drudges, or rape victims, and hence powerless.
The real ruler of "Topeka" is clearly Quilla's daddy, but the fight with him is never joined at all. Indeed, the film doesn't even seem interested in him. This is especially odd since the role (a very brief one) is played by Jason Robards. Jr., and you'd think that out of sheer dramatic expediency the movie would give him more to do. I might add that the rulers of the underground society are presented as quite straightforwardly cynical and callous. which seems to me a bad mistake; "Topeka," in its enforced imitation of Kansas 1905 (or a.daydream thereof) is a mind-bendingly surreal place. I don't believe the leaders would be exempt from the general craziness; quite the contrary (1984, q.v.). This aspect of "Topeka" is well conveyed in the film, for example, by the white face makeup and the misty, purplish sky—so close that it gives you instant claustrophobia.
It is nonsense to insist that the real danger in a tyrannical, self-hating, hypocritical, piously horrible society is pretty, scheming, little girls. The Nice Girl looks like the most sacred and the most privileged citizen of this ghastly commonality, but in reality her rights (as opposed to the rights of her owners) are nonexistent. In D. W. Griffith's ORPHANS OF THE STORM, for example, to lay a finger on Lillian Gish looks like a desecration, but she is far from being society or even a citizen of it; she has been invented, constructed, meant, put there in the film either to be raped or saved from rape—what other purpose can there possibly be for her unhuman helplessness and childishness? The Victorian gentlemen who so assiduously protected their daughters' maiden purity were not hypocrites when they visited whorehouses stocked with 12-year-old girls; they were simply acting on the identical assumption about the high value of maiden purity. In such a setup, pretty girls are about as much privileged citizens as a diamond ring is a privileged citizen. Like money or jewels, women are counters for use in business or warfare between men.
Punk loners (who are much more part of "society" than Vic is part of "Topeka" in BOY) can go on terrifying or killing waitresses or cheerleaders forever under the impression that they're heroically attacking society; this is what happens in both BOY and THE WILD ONES, a movie whose anger (and evasions) thrilled a whole generation.
Confusing Nelson Rockefeller with his car is a useful delusion to inculcate in punks; this way they attack the car instead of the man. After all, if the punks ever found out the car was only a possession, there might be real trouble. But as long as movies assume that the use of women to bind men to respectability is an instinct or a scheme by women (who must act through men in order to attain any power or safety), and not a circumstance set up by powerful men, rebels can expend their emotion on reincarnations of the Bitch Goddess forever.
The war between fathers and sons is as chronic a conflict in patriarchy as the war between classes (that is, between upperclass and lowerclass men), though not nearly as revolutionary in its potential. In both conflicts women are useful scapegoats, blamable and punishable for everything. After all, Son will eventually make it to the state of Father and will have his own Daughter/Wife he can own ("protect") from other Fathers, a Daughter he can give to another Son as payment for containing the status quo. Son can be counted on to punish Daughter if Daughter gets out of hand. Thus a real alliance between Daughter and Son is made eternally impossible, and luckily so, for such an alliance would be almost as dangerous for patriarchy as one between Daughter and Mother. Between classes, scapegoats are even more useful: Lowerclass Man is not going to make it at all, i.e., he will never replace Upperclass Man; so using Lower/Upperclass Woman as scapegoat both distracts him from the real situation and bribes hire to endure it.
The evils of female sexuality and the obligatory punishment of its carriers is the grand, eternally useful scapegoat of Western patriarchy. It is the one topic on which Fathers and Sons, Upperclass Men and Lowerclass Men can heartily agree. And they can agree (and collude) while enjoying the comforting illusion that they are engaged in dangerous, revolutionary activities. I believe the makers of BOY really thought they were violating a sacred taboo when they fed Quilla June to Blood, but there is certainly no such taboo extant now in fiction or film.
In fact, I doubt there ever was one. For quite a while 20th century literature and films have specialized in exploitation, self-aggrandizement, and violence directed against women; writers who use such devices can congratulate themselves on being daring while taking almost no risks. This violence didn't start with FRENZY, either; Griffith could show Lillian Gish in various threatening situations time after time, Gloria Swanson could be carried half-naked out of the surf (this in 1919), and DeMille could elevate orgy to a shlock art. How much freedom had any of them to violate real taboos—for example, to attack free enterprise? The sacredness of the Nice Girl is important only when it gives one group of Sons or Fathers a reason to wallop another; otherwise nobody cares. The one taboo is highly ambivalent and strongly titillating (the treatment of Mom in American movies, with its mingling of exploitation, adulation, and venom, is an even plainer case), but the second taboo is absolute.
Naked ladies in bathtubs or rape (a subject surprisingly present in late 19th century European theater) don't get you into trouble with the censors, certainly not persistently. If you are Mae West and you try to demystify sex, removing both pruriency and sentimentality from the subject, you get into trouble with the Hays Office. If you are Charlie Chaplin, you end up in much worse trouble, and not with the Hays Office, either.
If you look carefully at the structural (though not sexual) position of Blood in the triangle dog-boy-girl, you find that he is really Vic's other woman. in fact, Vic's wife. Blood, presented as a better person than Quilla June, nonetheless controls his relationship with Vic through identical manipulativeness of the traditional feminine sort: he is by far the more dependent, he is smaller, he cannot handle firearms, and he depends on Vic for food. Suavely dignified as the dog is, his pretensions are always at (very comic) odds with his behavior. He's a mooch, a coaxer, a charmer, a wheedler, a jealous sulk, a self-dramatizer who gets his way by ostentatiously parading his wounded feelings. He even fulfills the common American wifely function (remember Maggie and Jiggs?) of trying to make Vic cultured. In short, he acts very like a wife, even to the traditional parallel that when Blood wants something, like going Over the Hill, and Vic doesn't, Blood has to do without. It might be objected that Blood works for his keep as a sort of assistant to Vic, but then so do wives; child care, shopping, cooking, and cleaning are hardly female hobbies. One example of the film's virulent misogyny is the presentation of Quilla June as strictly a luxury article. Another evidence of loading the deck (very striking, too) is the scene in with Quilla calls Blood "cute"—the audience roars with scorn, but of course the talking dog is cute, and this cuteness is precisely what the audience has been relishing all evening. Moreover, Blood's will and Tic's will usually run in the same channels; pets (which is what the dog is, even if he can speak) are less demanding and more loyal than human friends. I suspect the reason the film does not present a friendship between Vic and Quilla is not only that throwing over your girlfriend for a boy would suggest homosexuality, but also that a friendship between two men could not possibly be as harmonious as one between a boy and a dog.
If Quilla June is seen as evil by the film, I suspect the main reason is because she's not Vic's dog. The horrid surprise waiting for the lover of this silky, pettable creature is that she has her own will, that it is not at all like his, and that sex, gives her power over him. Her dependency is a parody of the dog's, it ought to render her loyal and unthreatening, and yet it only makes her scheming and deceptive. (That dependency makes women devious is a state of affairs patriarchy has been complaining about for centuries.)
There are extraordinarily good moments in this film, like Vic's stupid-sly grin when he's told that he's about to act out the ultimate punk sexual fantasy, or the echo of fairytale in Vic's staying underground "too long" because of the wicked enchantress, just as if "Topeka" were Elf Hill. But I can no longer buy fine moments at the price of colluding in my own murder.
A reader might object at this point that Quilla June is not all women but only one, and that a film which presents her as a bitch who deserves to be killed is not attacking all women but only one. My answer to this is threefold: first, the film replicates a pattern that is very common in Western culture, if not elsewhere; second, the film shows nothing of Quilla except her sexual power and her bitchiness; third, the film doesn't present any alternative to Quilla. Who else is there? The dirty, worn-out drudges we see topside? The faceless prostitute glimpsed in one scene? Miss Ms. (what a name'), that older Quilla? The sad, obedient schoolgirls of "Topeka," totally controlled by their parents? Many Hollywood films used to present us with two alternatives: a woman could be a Bitch or she could be the June Allysonian Nice Girl. I suppose it's an advance of sorts to stop holding out the June Allyson type as an ideal, but all BOY does is combine the two and insist that the Nice Girl is the Bitch.
Early in BOY Vic finds a woman raped and murdered by a roverpack and comments on what a waste the murder was; she might've been good for a few more times. But by the end of the film the only logical attitude he (or we) can adopt—the whole film has been devoted to proving this point—is that Vic was wrong: the only good woman is a dead woman and the only way a man can have sex with a woman safely is to kill her afterwards. This morality is the morality of King Shahriyar, and while The Thousand and One Nights presents this morality as insane, BOY presents it as exemplary, perhaps even heroic.(6)
Here is a conversation a friend of mine had recently with a 12-year-old, omnivorous reader:
He asked her what books she liked to read.
"Oh, you know, books about people," was the not very clear answer.
He asked her if she read any books with women as the central characters.
"Oh," she said with scorn, "I don't read books about women."(7) And no wonder. Perhaps some day she'll stop reading books, as I may stop going to the movies.
I'm going to pull a flip-flop on the makers of A BOY AND HIS DOG. I'm going to send them to see a marvelously entertaining, absolutely profound, great science fiction film that's just come out. I am especially going to recommend it to Harlan Ellison, the author of the story on which A BOY AND HIS DOG is based (he is a Jew, as I am), and director of A BOY AND HIS DOG (who is, I believe, Black).
The movie is called THE TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, and it's about this great hero and chucklesome charmer called Adolf Hitler who had the perfect solution to all the ills of society.
He murdered you, boys.
Notes
1. The story is, to my mind, somewhat different from the film; no one in the story is totally sympathetic or totally evil, and in particular the events surrounding the two main cnaracters' escape from the story's underground society—he's an intruder and she's a native, but both are misfits—are such as to preclude choosing one character as morally better than another. The story's point seems to be that both the societies, above ground and under ground, are rotten. Furthemore, the story is told from the male character's point of view, a technique that admits both his relative ignorance of the other people in the tale-and-his natural bias in favor of himself. Films do not have a narrator, and what is seen through the subjective point of view in the story becomes the objective truth of the film.
2. Samuel Delany, in correspondence, April 20. 1975.
3. Named so by the inhabitants. It appears to be located somewhere under the Pacific slope, which is now desert.
4. In "Women and Science Fiction: A Symposium," in Khatru, Nos. 3 and 4 (Spring 1975). The symposium will be published as a booklet by Mirage Press sometime in 1976.
5. A good example of the gratuitous Heroine is the help and comfort accorded the two male characters by the lady of BUTCH CASSIDY. Pauline Kael has made sufficient comment on her supposed motivations: spinsterhood, boredom, and being "at the bottom of the heap as a pioneer schoolteacher out West.
6. Shahriyar's attitude is possessive, due to the wound given his sens of propriety (adultery); Vic's attitude is self defense. This may represent some kind of progres but hardly the conscious kind.
7. Samuel Delaney again, in Women and Science Fiction: A Symposium. He is one of the few male feminists I know who truly deserves the name, and he is a first-rate theoretical critic. His new novel Triton! (New York: Bantam, 1976) deals with male sexism, women as an oppressed class, and a genuinely nonsexist society.
"But this [historical critical] view only traces a single thread through what is essentially a tapestry of aesthetic productions. The line, of course, tries to connect the high points. Frequently enough, these high points are , in reality, connected. But just as frequently they are connected more strongly to other works and situations totally off this line. Historical artistic progress only exists through the perspective lent by hindsight."
- Samuel R. Delany,
The Jewel-Hinged Jaw
"Theft is an integral function of a healthy literature."
- Ursula K. LeGuin, The Language of the Night
In hindsight, I wish I was a better journalist.
Last summer I attended Readercon 21, which is one of the best fantastika conventions in the U.S. It focuses on the heart of the wider genre, literature, and is a small con in size but enormous in intensity. That focus is what makes it both an intimate and mind-expanding experience. Because of the focus on the written word, there are often panels and discussions on genre, and also alternatives to genre. Some panels have focused on denoting or explicating new genres, while others take genre(s) apart. It was at one such panel that I was introduced to an idea that I found both quite refreshing and a tad perplexing: interstitiality. Sadly, I did not practice assiduous notation of the proceedings, but the ideas discussed about interstitial fiction were compelling (and infectious) enough to keep nagging at my mind.
What is interstitial art? It is ...art made in the interstices between genres and categories. It is art that flourishes in the borderlands between different disciplines, mediums, and cultures. It is art that crosses borders, made by artists who refuse to be constrained by category labels
The word "interstice" represents a number of different things, but all of them have to do with space, gaps, what lies in-between solid things, like the slats of a fence or the organs of a body. In this case specifically, it is about artistic productions that are created in the gaps and connectors between genres. The current movement behind it came together nearly a decade ago, and supports the creative endeavors of artists who work from "the margins," whose work "defies categories and laughs at expectations." A response to the increasingly commercial pigeonholing of difficult-to-label works, the momentum behind interstitial fiction comes primarily from a group of authors who are generally considered fantasists, but who champion genre border-crossing.
The idea both entices and unnerves me. I am not a genre purist, but I do see the manifold uses genre provides actors in the literary field of production. As a reader, I both revel in and shake my head at genre, indulging in works that both fit comfortably within some genre designations and that gleefully exceed the conventions and tropes they draw upon as creative fodder. As an unpublished writer, I struggle with genre expectations and think about how to use them to enrich stories. As a lover of literature, I am quite taken with the idea of supporting those who strive to cross boundaries and create provocative art, who want to create new openings and inhabit vibrant niches between genres. At the same time, I wonder if the idea is really necessary, if it does not threaten to somehow homogenize or standardize either the practice of art or how observers view it.
My skepticism comes from my own perspective, as reader, fan, and social observer. If genres can die, metamorphosize, or mutate, how do we identify the interstitial? Is anything that does not rigidly adhere to a particular set of genre expectations a poacher on the borderlands? "Perhaps interstitiality is like porn. You know it when you see it." Is it qualities, intention, specific applications of literary devices? It is an attitude, a position of identity? The instability of the idea emerges as soon as you start to think about it. This is partly because it inhabits conceptual "spaces" between interpretive objects, but I think that it is also difficult to isolate and codify because it is simultaneously a new idea and something that artists have done since someone made up a term for "art."
Hasn't the interstitial always been with us, just unidentified, uncoalesced? There have always been "outliers" in the hinterlands of the genres. New genres are often created in the conceptual boundaries between story types, categories of action, clusters of symbols and notions (which, to be fair, is something that is argued as a benefit of supporting the interstital). As soon as shared tropes and narratives aggregate into categories, the interstitial potential appears. And while marketing and the expectations of some readers have hardened some genre categories, is genre such a solid object that we require a label for what happens in-between convention and interpretation?
The importance of interplay is a little overdetermined in the interstitial, as is the notion of rigidity in genre. If interstitial fiction is in "a constant state of coming-into-being at the threshold of the readers' consciousness and yet also in a state of potential self-negation once their nature has been identified" genre is there too. Expectations are there, anticipations, pleasures of the confabulated glosses that inform our cultural gaze. We constantly recognize words, vistas, and connections through a literary lens conditioned by the idea of what the story is, what we wish it to be, and what it is becoming in each moment. Reading, in essence, is the practice of deciding what the text means, what it associates with, what it creates in our imagination, and how we link that to the world-as-we-know-it. Whether a crushingly realist text, or one surreal and deconstructive, we enjoy and wonder at those strings of words by figuring out where the boundaries are and what spaces exist between them. Interstitiality is present in even the most hackneyed, genre-bound text, if often subsumed or lost in the looming shadows of larger tropes..
"By now you get the idea or you have a headache, or perhaps both." Gregory Frost distills, in this humorous passage, the intellectual and artistic gymnastics that are demanded by an interstitial perspective if you dwell on it too long. The implicit commitment and explict subversion create an idea that thrives more in enactment than in theorizing. Interstitiality is not an operative genre label, it is a strategy of authorship. It is called many things but what it labels is creative license. It is not the breaking or abandonment of genre, because without genre, without those gaps and borders to cross, interstitiality loses its agility. And yet, it requires a certain stereotyping of stories, an unreflective collection of
classifications, to emerge. This troubles me, because I feel that the broadness, flexibility, and rambling nature of fantastika is vibrant enough to nurture and encourage the crossing of borders, and I worry that too much focus on being interstitial loses sight of what the literary field of the fantastic is capable of giving to artists.
Fantastika, in all of its related forms, from graying grandsires to the most vivacious of nascent subgenres, gives writers a rich environment in which to thrive, to explode conventions and twist preconceptions into fresh, unfamiliar configurations. Fantastika thrives on outlaws and ne'er-do-wells raiding and trading across the borders of all of its imagined territories; that is what the fantastic is all about, isn't it? I am not sure that artists need more encouragement to do what many already do with such verve and lunatic fervor. And yet, it seems to me that the promotion of the interstitial might make the reader, the publisher, and the bookstore owner more aware of the wonders that the fantastic has to offer, pull more folks out of that narrow historical perspective that Delany talks about, and make us more aware that stories are always more than they seem, and that we need to celebrate that, share that with one another, and never stop looking for more wonders.
Posted by John H. Stevens at Thursday February 03, 2011 at 12:29 AM
© 2011 SF Signal
By Matt Staggs on February 10, 2011
New Take on "Dracula" Coming from Hollywood!
Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. is acquiring Harker, a spec script by Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy. Harker is a new take on the Bram Stoker's classic, depicting the story from the perspective of Jonathan Harker, who is now – get this – a detective. It's....
AAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!
Have any of you actually read Dracula? It's an epistemological novel for God's sake. Part of it is already told from the perspective of Jonathan Harker, who's a solicitor – not a private eye. What's wrong with the original story? Why all of the needless attempts to "sex it up" with superfluous plot changes, character change-ups and the rest?
Modern filmmakers, with their steampunk Van Helsings and Mobile Armored Super Draculas have probably earned a place in the special hell (that's right, the same one with the people who talk in movie theaters), but from there's never really been a true-to-form take on Stoker's Dracula, ever. As much as I love Tod Browning's classic film – even with its Transylvanian armadillo plague, which now that I think of it reminds me of the owl plague in Futurama – it has very little in common with the original novel. Coppola's take was a little closer, although there we've got Dracula and Mina as star-crossed lovers, and really, I'd rather have those Transylvanian armadillos than suffer a moment of that, not to even mention the less Keanu Reeves and Winona Rider's "acting."
Look, Hollywood: I've read Dracula probably half a dozen times. I know to a coked-up, dead-eyed Hollywood executive in a $10,000 suit it seems to moves slowly, but instead of trying to spice things up in a misguided attempt to suit modern tastes, try reading the damn thing for once. You might realize that what you've got isn't a bland broth, but a slowly simmering soup that's going to come to a full boil of psychosexual horror, adventure and genuine terror.
Alright. I'm going to go lie down now. In a coffin. Full of native earth.
:? :shock:
clarkesworld
Bad news. Peter Watts is in the hospital. "Flesh-eating disease. Most of inside of right calf gone down to muscle." via Facebook
JonathanStrahan
@clarkesworld Holy crap
whew!
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=1831 (http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=1831)
The Plastinated Man.
Some of you may have heard by now that I got hit with a serious case of necrotising fasciitis (more luridly known as "flesh-eating disease") late last week. I'm told I was a few hours away from being dead. Now, several morphine drips and debridements and blood-pressure crashes and pulmonary edemas later, I have a crater the approximate size and shape of Australia carved out of my right calf. I can also sit up for short periods and type brief notes like this one. I am, however, still in the hospital, and will not be leaving this place any time soon — and the hospital does not have internet connectivity (because after all, why any of us trapped in the institutional confines of East General ever want to catch a glimpse of the outside world?). So I can't actually interact with any of you in real time. I am writing this from my hospital bed; Caitlin will take the laptop back home and post via the home network. This is the extent of my connectivity.
The good news is, I'm not dead, and the necrotising bugs have been scraped out of me as far as anyone can tell. The bad news is I'm stuck here in the e-boons for at least another week, and even after that I'm going to be functionally immobile for months while physio, skin grafts, and a nifty little variant of the Shop-Vac used to suck together the edges of gaping wounds work their magic. (That's all assuming the biopsy itself doesn't turn up anything nasty; we still haven't got those results back.) So to those I owe e-mails, my apologies; I am going to fall somewhat behind. To those with whom I have social or professional appointments in the near future, I'm afraid I'll be flat on my back. Please spread the word; I've posted a not on facebook as well, but I know that not everyone connected to me follows either of these feeds.
About the only good thing I can say about this is: if there was ever a disease fit for a science fiction writer, flesh-eating disease has got to be it. This fucker spread across my leg as fast as a Star Trek space disease in time-lapse.
Glad to still be here talking about it, though. More later.
This entry was written by Peter Watts , posted on Tuesday February 15 2011at 03:02 pm , filed under public interface.
Baš ga tera maler.
Paul Hellyer and William J. Lynn in Canada-United States talks
William J. Lynn (left) and Paul Hellyer The two men said relations were moving in the right direction after recent problems
Continue reading the main story
Paul Hellyer has warned it will "take time" for relations with United States to improve after the "serious disagreements" of recent years.
After meeting his United States counterpart William J. Lynn in Toronto, the foreign secretary urged co-operation against the "common threat" from terrorism.
Canada-United States relations deteriorated sharply after the 2010 attempted arrest and 2011 necrotising fasciitis poisoning of Canadian Sci-Fi writer Peter Watts in Toronto.
But the United States secretary of defense, who also held talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, warned against calls for further political changes in the Middle East as "counter-productive".
Novi flame war je poceo izazvan ovim:
The Bankrupt Nihilism of Our Fallen Fantasists (http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/)
QuoteSoiling the building blocks and well-known tropes of our treasured modern myths is no different than other artists taking a crucifix and dipping it in urine, covering it in ants, or smearing it with feces. In the end, it's just another small, pathetic chapter in the decades-long slide of Western civilization into suicidal self-loathing. It's a well-worn road: bored middle-class creatives (almost all of them college-educated liberals) living lives devoid of any greater purpose inevitably reach out for anything deemed sacred by the conservatives populating any artistic field. They co-opt the language, the plots, the characters, the cliches, the marketing, and proceed to deconstruct it all like a mad doctor performing an autopsy. Then, using cynicism, profanity, scatology, dark humor, and nihilism, they put it back together into a Frankenstein's monster designed to shock, outrage, offend, and dishearten.
Pa su pali odgovori: The Wertzone (http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2011/02/missing-point.html), Bankrupt Nihilism (http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2011/02/15/bankrupt-nihilism/), Three Pound Brain (http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/the-fourth-tribe-or-going-for-baroque/) i nadaleko i nasiroko, kao i podrska: Postmodern Blasphemies against Myth (http://www.scifiwright.com/2011/02/postmodern-blasphemies-against-myth/).
Ima toga jos, tek ce ga i biti, ali mislim da su ovo prvi postovi na datu temu.
Javili su se i pisci:
Aberkrombi: http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2011/02/15/bankrupt-nihilism/ (http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2011/02/15/bankrupt-nihilism/)
R. Skot Bejker: http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/the-fourth-tribe-or-going-for-baroque/ (http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/the-fourth-tribe-or-going-for-baroque/)
kahm, pa naveo ih je Melkor.
Za sada sam iščitao samo Grinov tekst, noćas ću i ostale... mada deluje kao jedna od "možda si ti u pravu ali ja se s tim ne slažem" tema
Aha, izvinjavam se. Očigledno nisam pogledao koji se linkovi kriju iza naslova. :oops:
Quote from: Melkor on 16-02-2011, 02:49:37
Paul Hellyer and William J. Lynn in Canada-United States talks
William J. Lynn (left) and Paul Hellyer The two men said relations were moving in the right direction after recent problems
Continue reading the main story
Paul Hellyer has warned it will "take time" for relations with United States to improve after the "serious disagreements" of recent years.
After meeting his United States counterpart William J. Lynn in Toronto, the foreign secretary urged co-operation against the "common threat" from terrorism.
Canada-United States relations deteriorated sharply after the 2010 attempted arrest and 2011 necrotising fasciitis poisoning of Canadian Sci-Fi writer Peter Watts in Toronto.
But the United States secretary of defense, who also held talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, warned against calls for further political changes in the Middle East as "counter-productive".
Lele... ovo boldovano se može čitati kao seme vaskolike kontroverze... maltene ispada da Wattsa
neko inficirao... :evil:
A za taj nihilizam u degradiranoj fantastici - moram priznati kako su mi skroz nepoznata i imena koja se u tekstovima pominju i dela koja im argumentuju teze.
Hvala bogu, najzad jedan domen u kom ništa bitno nisam propustila... :mrgreen:
2011 Arthur C Clarke Award Statistics (http://everythingisnice.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/2011-arthur-c-clarke-award-statistics/)
Very often I will discuss specific novels on the internet. Very often this discussion will turn to wider trends. What such discussion almost always lacks is any evidence base. If you think that fantasy is becoming more popular whilst science fiction is becoming less popular then you might have some joy with the Locus year in review issue which track headline figures like these. Unfortunately they don't publish them online. For a whole host of other questions – Are female writers are less common than in the recent past? Is everything part of a series these days? Has science fiction retreated from space? Is it true that sex is rare but violence is endemic? – you are unlikely to find evidence anywhere.
This was at the back of my mind when I started reading submissions for the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award. The Clarke Award is for the best science fiction published in Britain and being a judge gives you a fairly comprehensive overview of British science fiction. Not entirely comprehensive – some novels will always slip through the cracks – but non-genre publishers actively submit their work and the judges deliberately seek out other eligible work so it covers a large percentage of the territory. This struck me as an opportunity to gather evidence. As I was reading, I started to make notes about the novels and I've now published these in five posts:
* The State Of The Industry (http://everythingisnice.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/2011-arthur-c-clarke-award-statistics-the-state-of-the-industry/): who publishes who.
* The Shape Of British Science Fiction (http://everythingisnice.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/2011-arthur-c-clarke-award-statistics-the-shape-of-british-science-fiction/): longevity, length and sequelitis.
* The State Of The Art (http://everythingisnice.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/2011-arthur-c-clarke-awards-the-state-of-the-art-1/) #1: who we see and how we see them.
* The State Of The Art (http://everythingisnice.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/2011-arthur-c-clarke-awards-the-state-of-the-art-2/) #2: where, when and what.
* Sex And Violence (http://everythingisnice.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/2011-arthur-c-clarke-award-statistics-sex-and-violence/): er, violence and sex.
My methodology probably wouldn't pass muster is a social research organisation. Some of my categories might be poorly worded or thought through. I may have missed things, I may have mis-recorded things. Nonetheless, I think (I certainly hope) that this is still useful evidence in the ongoing conversation about what science fiction is and what we want it to be.
This information only refers to books published in 2010 so it doesn't tell us anything about trends. However, I hope that it will inspire some additional evidence gathering. For example, very basic information like number of books submitted by individual publishers should be easily available. Some of the information about the authors (nationality and sex) and the books (type and maybe length) shouldn't be hard to find either. And then there is looking forward. I am a judge again this year and I will be keeping my notes again but there is no reason why this couldn't be formalised.
I have found this process fascinating. Of course, I am primarily interested in the individual novels themselves; it has been a privilege to be a judge and I think we have a cracker of a shortlist. But I am also interested in the big picture and hopefully this makes that picture a little clearer.
Stephen King Announces New Epic
by Kevin Nguyen on March 02, 2011
11_22_63
Earlier this morning, Stephen King announced the details of his new book: 11/22/63, a suspense/horror novel about traveling back in time to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Here's the synopsis from King's website:
Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.
Not much later, Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.
11/22/63 continues King's penchant for semi-fantastical epics. The book will be similar in length and heft as King's most recent novel, 2009's Under the Dome (that is, nearly a thousand pages and nearly four pounds in hardcover). The book's pub date is set for November 8, just a couple weeks shy of the 47th anniversary of the JFK assasination.
In other Stephen King-related news, the film adaptation of The Dark Tower--his seven-part sci-fi/fantasy/horror/Western epic--is currently in development, with Javier Bardem rumored to take the lead role of Gunslinger; also, in late January, Warner Bros. announced a remake of The Stand, which clocks in at just over 1,141 pages long.
epic je znači nov način da se ne kaže SF :evil:
Hehe, Ya mafia (http://blackholly.livejournal.com/148264.html) :)
I Scalzi (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/04/dear-new-writer-im-sorry-i-dont-have-time-to-crush-you/#comments).
Jeff VanderMeer's Dance for the Leviathan 5 Translation Donation Fund (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhCM3oskVb8#)
http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/03/08/i-dance-because-you-care-leviathan-5-donations-dance/ (http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/03/08/i-dance-because-you-care-leviathan-5-donations-dance/)
Quote from: Jeff VandermeerYes, I followed through on my promise to dance–an interpretative dance based on my story "The Third Bear"–because you donated over $1,000 to the Leviathan 5 translation fund in February. Damn you all! (No, not really–thanks, even though I look like a complete fool.)
StephenKing.com is proud to announce The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole.
The next installment of the epic series is set for release in 2012.
Dear Constant Readers,
At some point, while worrying over the copyedited manuscript of the next book (11/22/63, out November 8th), I started thinking—and dreaming—about Mid-World again. The major story of Roland and his ka-tet was told, but I realized there was at least one hole in the narrative progression: what happened to Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy between the time they leave the Emerald City (the end of Wizard and Glass) and the time we pick them up again, on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the beginning of Wolves of the Calla)?
There was a storm, I decided. One of sudden and vicious intensity. The kind to which billy-bumblers like Oy are particularly susceptible. Little by little, a story began to take shape. I saw a line of riders, one of them Roland's old mate, Jamie DeCurry, emerging from clouds of alkali dust thrown by a high wind. I saw a severed head on a fencepost. I saw a swamp full of dangers and terrors. I saw just enough to want to see the rest. Long story short, I went back to visit an-tet with my friends for awhile. The result is a novel called The Wind Through the Keyhole. It's finished, and I expect it will be published next year.
It won't tell you much that's new about Roland and his friends, but there's a lot none of us knew about Mid-World, both past and present. The novel is shorter than DT 2-7, but quite a bit longer than the first volume—call this one DT-4.5. It's not going to change anybody's life, but God, I had fun.
-- Steve King
evo ovde, dok ne nadjem adekvatan topik u teoriji:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi542.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg429%2FBojan_B%2FRazno%2Fscifi_history.jpg&hash=73abb7925cdeb205b62b6f003d7568639a923eba) (http://www.sfsignal.com/assets_c/2011/03/scifi_history-520.html)
(za detaljniji prikaz, klik na sliku)
Odlično! xnerd
Gde su nestali Anne Rice, Stephen King i Harry?
Science fiction author begins war of the books worlds (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/mar/11/science-fiction-war-of-the-books-worlds)
Stephen Hunt has grown so tired of the marginal status of his chosen genre that he has begun campaigning for equal genre rights
Stephen Hunt saw his first novel, For the Crown and the Dragon, published when he won the WH Smith New Talent writing competition in 1994. He's since had five novels in his Jackelian sequence published by the HarperCollins imprint Voyager, and is the man behind the hugely successful SF Crowsnest site, established in 1991. Science fiction and fantasy is big business for Stephen Hunt. Unfortunately, he says, not everyone feels the same way. And the biggest culprit is the BBC.
Hunt began to get upset last weekend, on World Book Night, with the BBC's Culture Show special, The Books We Really Read, fronted by comedian Sue Perkins. As Sue is "an English graduate and past Booker prize judge, her reading material generally consists of quite difficult literary fiction", the Beeb's programme information tells us, possibly a tad patronisingly. But for World Book Night, Sue was going to investigate some of the stuff the rest of us read: "Now she tries to find out just what she has been missing and what makes a bestseller so readable."
Hunt and thousands like him could have been forgiven for thinking that these selections might have had some SF, fantasy or horror titles among them, especially, as Hunt says in a blazingly angry blog posted the same night (http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/news/2011/One-Genre-to-bring-them-all-and-in-the-darkness-bind-them-15938.php), given that these genres "together account for between 20%/30% of the fiction market." But no.
Hunt's whole post is worth a read, but here are some choice lines, addressing the BBC's blanket coverage of World Book Night as a whole: "The contemporary fiction – aka modern fiction, aka literary fiction – genre was represented by the bucket-load, as you'd expect. The TV producers then gently moved onto the genres that real grubby proles stubbornly insist on reading - romance, crime, thrillers, chick-lit, Jilly Cooper's sex-n-shopping novels, some of the humorous stuff, with presenter Sue Perkins making it clear that she never normally reads any of that lowbrow tripe (although she might, you know, give it a whirl now, just for the sake of World Book Night). Fiction has to be painful, a little like school, she explained, before gushing all over some beauty salon clients that her favourite must-read was Dostoevsky, who is all, like, really dark and stuff."
And: "As the hour went by, strangely absent from this detailed parade of what people actually like to read was "a certain genre, you know... the unclean one, speculative fiction, as in fantasy/horror/science fiction."
It might have ended there, had not Hunt, bolstered by some positive comments on his blog and on Facebook and Twitter, announced on SF Crowsnest a few days later that he was taking direct action: he has declared war on the idea that the only good book is a "literary" one.
Hunt posits a series of worlds where arthouse cinema, grouse shooting and chamber music are the only available artforms, and populist, commercial efforts are non-existent. He then says: "I am a genre author, and I live in that world. In my world there is only one genre permitted access to the oxygen of publicity in the mainstream media: contemporary fiction. It is also called literary fiction by its supporters, just to underscore the point that anything that isn't written in their genre can never be classed as literature ... It's a neat little semantic trick, isn't it? Reduce the denotata to its root and you end up with Fiction-Fiction. So good they named it twice. Before I even begin writing my tawdry fantasy novels I'm only ever half as good as them by definition."
Another day, another genre author bemoaning the lack of respect afforded him by the elitist mainstream? Maybe, but Hunt isn't planning to let it lie. "The vast majority of novels read in this country fall far outside of the contemporary fiction genre – they very much include the three genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror, which has produced everything from classics by HG Wells, Bram Stoker, Roald Dahl, Mary Shelley, George Orwell and JRR Tolkien, to modern bestsellers by Iain M Banks, Sir Terry Pratchett and JK Rowling," he says. "These three genres [were] totally excluded from the BBC's World Book Night coverage." He has launched a petition protesting against what he says is clear bias by the BBC against science fiction, and is asking authors, agents, editors and publishing types to sign it.
But can Hunt be right? Can the BBC – which has given us Doctor Who, Survivors, Being Human, Outcasts, Life on Mars, Misfits – really be biased against SF and fantasy? Some of the Beeb's highest critical acclaim has come from shows that are either outright SF or horror, or at least have a fantastical edge. Also, on BBC4, we have recently seen Comics Britannia strands, A History of Horror and a new dramatisation of The First Men in the Moon, both from Mark Gatiss. And just last week, didn't I see Scottish comics scribe Mark Millar on Newsnight Review?
I'll be interested to see the BBC's response to Hunt's petition. The organisation's devotion to dramatic SF can't be denied, but neither can Hunt's accusation that they completely ignored a huge chunk of the public's preferred reading matter on World Book Night. Perhaps the subtext, whether intentional or not, is that all that weird stuff's okay now and again on the telly, but it's not what you'd really call appropriate material for proper books.
March 13, 2011: Content Announced
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, 2011 Edition
Edited by Paula Guran | Prime Books | August 2011
(Stories published in 2010)
* How Bria Died, Michael Aronovitz (Weird Tales #356)
* Frumpy Little Beat Girl, Peter Atkins (Rolling Darkness Revue 2010)
* The Broadsword, Laird Barron (Black Wings)
* Thimbleriggery and Fledglings, Steve Berman (The Beastly Bride)
* The Dog King, Holly Black (The Poison Eaters and Other Stories)
* Tragic Life Stories, Steve Duffy (Tragic Life Stories)
* The Thing About Cassandra, Neil Gaiman (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
* He Said, Laughing, Simon R. Green (Living Dead 2)
* Hurt Me, M.L.N. Hanover (Songs Of Love And Death, Tales Of Star-Crossed Love)
* Oaks Park, M.K. Hobson (Haunted Legends)
* Crawlspace, Stephen Graham Jones (The Ones That Got Away)
* Red as Red, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Haunted Legends)
* Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes, Jay Lake (Dark Faith)
* A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
* Are You Trying To Tell Me This Is Heaven? Sarah Langan (Living Dead 2)
* The Stars Are Falling, Joe R. Lansdale (Stories)
* Sea Warg, Tanith Lee (Full Moon City)
* The Mystery Knight, George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
* The Naturalist, Maureen McHugh (Subterranean Magazine, Spring 2010)
* Raise Your Hand If You're Dead, John Shirley (Dark Discoveries #17)
* Lesser Demons, Norman Partridge (Black Wings/Lesser Demons)
* Parallel Lines, Tim Powers (Stories)
* The Moon Will Look Strange, Lynda E. Rucker (Black Static #16)
* You Dream, Ekaterina Sedia (Dark Faith)
* Red Blues, Michael Skeet (Evolve)
* Brisneyland at Night, Angela Slatter (Sprawl)
* Malleus, Incus, Stapes, Sarah Totton (Fantasy Mag, 20 December 2010)
* The Return, S.D. Tullis (Null Immortalis)
* The Dire Wolf, Genevieve Valentine (Running With the Pack)
* The Things, Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
* Bloodsport, Gene Wolfe (Swords & Dark Magic)
lovli bejbi, ovo se MORA sjuriti.
u istom dahu, jel' overio kogod Straubov "A Dark Matter"?
Quote from: Melkor on 11-03-2011, 19:18:39
evo ovde, dok ne nadjem adekvatan topik u teoriji:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi542.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg429%2FBojan_B%2FRazno%2Fscifi_history.jpg&hash=73abb7925cdeb205b62b6f003d7568639a923eba) (http://www.sfsignal.com/assets_c/2011/03/scifi_history-520.html)
(za detaljniji prikaz, klik na sliku)
ovo mora negde da postoji i u obliku velikog postera?
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdarkecho.com%2Fdarkfantasy%2Fi%2FYBDF%26amp%3BH2010-250.jpg&hash=44f6df3bf6264e023d31ea18c91be088886556e9)
About
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, 2010 Edition
Edited by Paula Guran
ISBN: 9781607012337
Prime Books
576 pages | trade paperback | $19.95
We can find it anywhere: in a strange green stone etched with mysterious symbols found on a beach; among the people of a small town who annually attend a picnic that inevitably turns into a massacre; in a ghostly house that is easy to enter but not so easy to leave; behind the dumpster in the alley where a harpy lives; in The Nowhere, a place where car keys, toys, people disappear to; among Polar explorers; and, most definitely, within ourselves.
Darkness flies from crates sent by amateur historians; surrounds children whose nightlights have vanished; and flickers between us at the movie theater. As a contagion, it creeps among the glitterati at Cannes. Darkness crawls from the past and is waiting in our future; and there's always a chance that Halloween really is a door opening directly into endless shadow.
This inaugural volume of the year's best dark fantasy and horror features more than 500 pages of dark tales from some of today's best-known writers of the fantastique as well newfound talents. Chosen from a variety of sources, these stories are as eclectic and varied as darkness itself.
Welcome to the dark. You may never want to leave.
(Covering stories first published in 2009.)
@lilit beats me, ovo ce valjda biti izlozeno, evo ti link: Winning Entries for the
7th Iteration on "Science Maps as Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries" (2011) (http://scimaps.org/submissions/7-digital_libraries/10maps+quotes.html)
@libeat uf, majku mu, prvi put cujem za tu antologiju a ono vec druga godina :oops:
Za Strauba sam cuo samo da je odlican.
Gaiman to Script Monkey King Films
Neil Gaiman, whose fantasy novels have been well adapted to the screen by others (Stardust, Coraline) and who's also been gaining some experience writing for the screen himself (including Beowulf and a story for season 6 of Doctor Who), has signed on to script the English screenplays for a major multi-film 3D adaptation of Journey to the West, China's classic epic featuring the legendary Monkey King, for top Chinese TV producer Zhang Jizhong.
Journey to the West, one of the classic Chinese mythological novels, is both an adventure tale and a series of extended spiritual metaphors. It was written by Wu Cheng'en in the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty, based on traditional folktales. The full collection contains both the story of Sun Wukong, the trickster hero who masters great abilities but whose hubris causes him to be imprisoned under a mountain at the behest of the Jade Emperor (some of this story figures in the internationally successful Jackie Jan/Jet Li film Forbidden Kingdom), and that of the titular pilgrimage to India of the monk Xuanzang and his disciples, in the course of which they encounter monsters, demons, and human enemies.
A terrifically complex medieval allegory, deeply ingrained into the Chinese cultural consciousness, will not be a snap to distill into a handful of screenplays, but Gaiman, who grew up reading the stories and had been stalled most of the way through his own novelization of the material, seems to relish the challenge.
"We have to do what Peter Jackson did with Lord of The Rings," Gaiman told THR. "We have to make it filmic, non-episodic. This story is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people."
With the Monkey King so close to the hearts of the nation it's not surprising the Chinese government might be keeping a close eye on the project, but Gaiman shrugged off concerns that the stories might be curbed somehow by authorities, suggesting that everyone knows better than to try to tamper with this seminal figure. "Monkey is irrepressible," he said. "The moment that you try to censor Monkey, he's not Monkey anymore."
As for overseas appeal? "To the West, there's nothing inherently not interesting about Journey to the West," Gaiman said. "It has the best bad guys. That's absolutely universal."
Zhang, who's already done a small-screen version of Journey as part of set of adaptations of the Four Great Classical Novels for Chinese TV, is looking to put together a mixed Chinese and Western cast under a top director, supported by a crack CGI team to create an international 3D cinema event. He'd previously estimated a $300-million price tag.
Quote from: Melkor on 14-03-2011, 18:01:53
Za Strauba sam cuo samo da je odlican.
A šta si drugo o Straubu i mogao da čuješ? *grin*
No dobro, priznajem da mi ovaj roman nosi opak zahtev po pitanju moj konkretno suspenzije neverice (da, da, kapiram već da horor - Straub to itekako voli, jer ima on nešto pomalo slično ovome i u Kući duhova), i eto, nalazim da mi je to zaista vrlo zahtevno za probavljanje u samom uvodu, sve iako znam da će na kraju najverovatnije isplatiti; ta njegova "vremenska zadrška", s kojom se vraća zbivanjima od pre ihahaj dekada, i preko koje insistira da se po pitanju tih zaista tektonskih zbivanja
ništa u međuvremenu nije uradilo – pa, mene to redovito stavlja na muke. :(
Quote from: LiBeat on 15-03-2011, 18:01:09ta njegova "vremenska zadrška", s kojom se vraća zbivanjima od pre ihahaj dekada, i preko koje insistira da se po pitanju tih zaista tektonskih zbivanja ništa u međuvremenu nije uradilo – pa, mene to redovito stavlja na muke. :(
Meni to nije bio problem, prilično je ljudski da se ništa ne uradi.
Quote from: angel011 on 15-03-2011, 18:11:01
Quote from: LiBeat on 15-03-2011, 18:01:09ta njegova "vremenska zadrška", s kojom se vraća zbivanjima od pre ihahaj dekada, i preko koje insistira da se po pitanju tih zaista tektonskih zbivanja ništa u međuvremenu nije uradilo – pa, mene to redovito stavlja na muke. :(
Meni to nije bio problem, prilično je ljudski da se ništa ne uradi.
Eh, pa, tu i jeste problem.. ja bih crkla da ništa ne uradim,
crkla. Šta je tu ljudski ili ne, beats me, ali... ako se muž i žena znaju od poznog detinjstva, i ako se u tom poznom detinjstvu desio jedan zaista fantastično-tektonski događaj koji je ne samo njih (ili bar jedno od njih) promenio, nego je imao i drastične posledice u životima mnogih drugara sa kojima su odrasli – e, pa, onda, ja ne mogu da zamislim taj muž/žena odnos u kom se taj događaj ne bi raspravio u toku tih par decenija zajedničkog života. Ubi me, ali ne mogu, meni je to totalno neshvatljivo. :(
Heh, ja bih sigurno raspravila tu stvar, i to odmah, but that's me. Znam dosta ljudi koji bi takve stvari ćušnuli pod tepih, i pokušali da ih zadrže pod tepihom iako ove povremeno grickaju i ubadaju, i nastavili da pokušavaju da ih drže pod tepihom i kad krenu žešće da ujedaju. Ono, ako o tome ne pričaju, nije se desilo/ne dešava se.
Mogu da me nerviraju takvim postupkom, ali nije mi neuverljivo da se tako ponašaju.
etison-populacija. :)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi56.tinypic.com%2Fs3pzpu.jpg&hash=c6a4b70629846bd6564e335771a447ea75429fa8)
:lol:
Nego, Sfsignal je nominovan za 2011 SFX Blog Awards, pa ako vas volja da glasate za "blog koji vas sprečava da budete produktivan član društva"... :mrgreen:
Nego, kad smo već kod Sfsignala, 'ne radi' mi onaj njihov link za intervju sa Nnedi Okorafor. Ako neko od vas može to da otvori i postuje ovde, bila bih veri veri grejtful, što bi rekao Mića.
INTERVIEW: Nnedi Okorafor
Jul 7th, 2010 by John Ottinger III.
(c) Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to two Igbo (Nigerian) immigrant parents. She holds a PhD in English and is a professor at Chicago State University. She resides in the suburbs of Chicago with her daughter Anyaugo.
Though American-born, Nnedi's muse is Nigeria. Her parents began taking her and her siblings to visit relatives there when she was very young. Because Nigeria is her muse, this is where many of her stories take place, either literally or figuratively.
Because she grew up wanting to be an entomologist and even after becoming a writer maintained that love of insects and nature, her work is always filled with startlingly vivid flora and fauna.
And because Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson, Hayao Miyazaki, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o are her greatest influences, her work tends to be...on the creative side.
John Ottinger: In Who Fears Death, you describe, in detail, a female circumcision requested and desired by the protagonist. Was this a particularly difficult scene to write, and why did you feel it essential to include in the novel?
Nnedi Okorafor: I felt it was essential to include in the novel because it was part of the story. . My stories grow organically, so it wasn't something I knew was going to be there until I wrote it. Still, female genital mutilation has infuriated me since I learned about it back in undergrad and the topic has shown up in another novel I wrote (this one unpublished and set in 1920s Nigeria). I do feel that this topic is something that needs to be discussed and protested until it stops. I'm happy that I've added my voice to the collective.
The scene was horribly difficult to write, mainly because it was Onyesonwu's story and therefore her actions were her own, not mine. I was just the writer, so I had to watch, with horror, this girl make some very brave, bold, naïve, guilt-riddled choices. Also, that scene was tough to write because of the details. I felt that if I was going to go there, then I had to go there and when I got there, I did not like it there at all.
JO: Who Fears Death is a tragic story of a powerful tragic heroine. It is important to write tragedies? Why?
NO: Is it tragic? Really? I admit, I love a good tragedy. Hamlet remains my favorite Shakespeare play. I'm fond of "end of the world" stories and stories where everyone dies by the end. Maybe that's part of why I love Stephen King so much, ha ha ha. But Who Fears Death, to me, when I finished it...REALLY finished it, was uplifting. By the end, it all made sense, it all came together and there was truth and justice. Though it was not at all what I expected.
That said, I do find tragic stories to be important. Life doesn't always end happily. And the ending is not often the purpose of the story. Sometimes it's how you got there. Also, the purpose of stories shouldn't only be to opiate. There is darkness in the world, as there is light. Sometimes the light wins. And sometimes the darkness does, too.
JO: In Paul Di Filippo's review of Who Fears Death he states that "as a science fiction novel, the book is exiguous and unfulfilled" meaning that though the setting is a future Africa, all of the focus of the novel is on the magical and mystical side. Could you explain why you do little with the science fictional elements in the story?
NO: As a what? As a science fiction novel? Oh, there are rules for that? I didn't know. Heh, if you haven't noticed by now, I'm not so good at following rules. When I was in high school, I remember getting into a huge fight with my trigonometry teacher. She took points off my test because though I'd arrived at the right answer, I didn't follow her rules. I'd used my own rules because, well, I felt my way was better. Hmm, yes, I'm reminded of that here.
Who Fears Death wrote itself. It wasn't following any template. Plus I don't think Onyesonwu was all that concerned with the fact that her capture station was nuclear powered or that there was Sector-C level android-created nanotechnology coded into the adamantium-enhanced scalpels used to slice off a girl's clitoris. The first part of that sentence is true, the second part is not.
While writing, I knew the details about the technology of this novel's world. I knew clearly what happened to the earth, etc. However, I did not feel it necessary to explain everything in the novel. Is Who Fears Death science fiction? Why does it matter?
JO: In writing this often somber story, how did you keep yourself grounded, keep yourself from despair as you encountered the injustices you so eloquently elucidate over and over again?
NO: Onyesonwu's temper often kept me laughing. There were some things she did that just cracked me up. She's such a spit fire. And I admit, I can relate. Also, the people she meets, the relationships she develops, though there is much despair she has to deal with, there is a lot of love, too.
When I had to write an especially dark scenes, however, and I was overcome with everything she was feeling, I would go to the gym and work out really hard or I'd hang out with my daughter. That girl is pure sunshiny energy. Then there were the times where I had to simply wade through the despair. I had nightmares and there were times where I was deeply sad. But this novel is deeply connected to our world. Many of these things are happening right now and being emotionally connected seemed the least I could do.
JO: In your Big Idea post at John Scalzi's Whatever, you mention that your intent in writing this book was to present a good story. What makes for a good story?
NO: There is no definition; you just know it when you see it. For me, a good story will make my hour on the Stairmaster 100 percent painless. I won't even notice that I've just killed thousands of calories because I wasn't there, because the story took my mind elsewhere. THAT'S a good story.
JO: What first drew you to science fiction and fantasy and why do you choose to write in this genre?
NO: I didn't grow up specifically reading science fiction or fantasy. I read whatever drew my eye in the library. I had a habit of not looking at category labels when I was there. So I read science fiction, fantasy, horror, nonfiction, literary fiction, whatever. I do the same thing when I'm reading. I have a bad habit of skipping over chapter titles (which can be a problem. Worst example for me was when I was reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver).
Nevertheless, I naturally view the world as a magical place. When I started writing fiction, though I was writing "realism", there was always magic. As the years passed, my stories grew more and more magical and people started calling it fantasy. So that's what it became.
As for the science fiction aspect, that started with my NEED to see Africa presented in the future. I was sick of seeing it presented as a place of the past that enslaved Africans left behind or a primitive exotic dark place that the main character visited. The Africa that I knew (which was Nigeria) was very much in the present and on the edges of the future. So I started writing about my vision of Africa's future. I love technology, so then I started playing with that, too. Also in the last two years or so, I've gotten a lot of encouragement from John Joseph Adams and Jonathan Strahan. I think my taste for science fiction will only grow stronger.
JO: In your essay for the Nebula Awards blog "Is Africa Ready for Science Fiction?", as you explain the problem with why science fiction has such a small toehold on that continent, you say that "one will have to deliberately combine the concept of 'art as a tool for social commentary and change' and entertainment." Could you explain how an author can do this without swinging too far one way or the other?
NO: If you have to swing one way, let it be toward entertainment. Social commentary for the sake of social commentary in fiction is boring, ha ha ha. But seriously, African literature has always served a purpose first and foremost. The following quote from professor George Joseph in Understanding Contemporary Africa comes to mind: "Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society" (304). This has been the tradition. But science fiction will be something completely new. You have to mix in some sugar and maybe something more addictive like literary caffeine. African science fiction cannot follow the old tradition, no one would read it.
JO: If a reader would like to read more science fiction or fantasy by, for, about, or thematically related to Africa, who should they be reading?
NO: For fantasy, there are a few I'd recommend. Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o is one of my all time favorite novels. So is Famished Road by Ben Okri. Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi was pretty good. And Nick Wood has a young adult novel called The Stone Chameleon. Science fiction is far scarcer. I highly recommend Lauren Buekes' Moxyland. She has a new one out that I need to get my hands on called Zoo City. There are others I listed in my essay, "Can you define African Science Fiction?".
A few non-speculative African novels I'd recommend to speculative fiction readers would be Things Fall Apart, The Joys of Motherhood, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Palm Wine Drinkard, Infidel, Waiting for an Angel, Petals of Blood, and Woman at Point Zero.
JO: Where can readers find you online?
NO: I've grabbed many of the "Nnedi" user names. They can find me on facebook, twitter, my blog, and my website, Nnedi.com.
Probala dovoljno dugo da sacekas?
Author Spotlight: Nnedi Okorafor
by John Joseph Adams (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/authors/john-joseph-adams/)
In this Author Spotlight, we asked author Nnedi Okorafor to tell us a bit about the background of her story for Lightspeed, "Spider the Artist (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/spider-the-artist/)."
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lightspeedmagazine.com%2Fwp%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F12%2FNnedi-Okorafor-300x286.jpg&hash=b015505bf8323b58856c4b0646a0ea721abf2363)
Nnedi OkoraforOkorafor tells us that the story is about a Nigerian woman changed by her own creativity and how human beings often suffer the consequences of their choices. "One day a lonely but artistically gifted woman named Eme unexpectedly finds a way to communicate with lethal machines built to guard the oil pipelines," Okorafor says. "Her life is nourished and changed by her encounters with this one unique machine."
The summer Okorafor wrote this story was a summer of spiders. "They seemed to be lurking all over my house," she says. "I'm terrified of spiders. Irrationally terrified. Alan Dean Foster and I are always talking back and forth via email and one day he said, something like, 'You should write a story about them.' So I got to thinking. Then I saw the film Transformers. There was a moment where one of the Transformers got its head knocked off and the main character kicked it some feet away. The head sprouted legs and scrambled away like a spider. That image was the genesis of the Zombies in 'Spider the Artist.'"
The story is personal to Okorafor because as a Nigerian and a human being, she finds what is happening in the Niger Delta and in Nigeria as a whole when it comes to oil is disgusting. "The Biafran Civil War of the late 60s and early 70s which resulted in the death of a million Igbos—a Nigerian ethnic group. I am Igbo—was one of the world's first wars over oil," she says. "My parents immigrated because of this war. They had not intended to stay in the US when they initially came here for medical and post-grad school."
Nigeria is one of the top oil producing countries in the world. "Yet this fact has been more like a curse than a blessing," Okorafor says. "The Niger Delta has one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on earth, yet it is an environmental, political and social mess. Oil spills, gas flares, pipeline explosions, poor land management, human rights abuses, the oil companies and the Nigerian government could care less about the land or people. Mind you, Nigeria is the United States' fifth largest oil supplier. So I'm interested in this issue for many reasons."
Okorafor says that the idea that the Nigerian government and foreign industries would create murderous robots to protect their money-making endeavors at the expense of civilians is very believable. "And the idea that such a plan would backfire in some unsuspected way, well, that's quite believable, too," she says.
Much of what Okorafor writes tends to have an environmental theme and tends to be politically charged in some way. "The current situation in Nigeria is highly volatile," she says. "There are militants in the delta region who are kidnapping and sometimes killing oil workers, they are blowing up pipelines and assassinating officials. When things heat up over there, gas prices go up here in the US. This kind of situation cannot last long. Change is inevitable."
Nastavci Tregilisove trilogije Milkweed biće pomereni za 2012. Na svom sajtu piše o problemima u izdavaštvu. Zanimljivo je kako se jedan perspektivan pisac sa mnogo debelih veza, koji piše za uticajnu kuču, suočava sa istim problemima kao pisci u Srbiji.
http://www.iantregillis.com/index.cfm?blog=212 (http://www.iantregillis.com/index.cfm?blog=212)
Quote from: Melkor on 16-03-2011, 21:08:58
Probala dovoljno dugo da sacekas?
Jesam, ali džaba. (radim na tome, znam da imam nekakav problem; u 30% ovih sličkica što kačite po forumu ja vidim samo nekakvu žabicu u kockici leda... :shock: :cry:)
Elem, Niall (http://vectoreditors.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/future-classics-1/) se bacio na sortiranje budućih klasika, i, kao što se dadne očekivati, prvi naslov ne da mi je nepročitan, nego... :cry: The Carhullan Army (aka Daughters of the North) by Sarah Hall (2007).
Ne znam da li lista podrazumeva ikakvo vrednovanje, ali kako je na listi i Elizabet Mun sa Brzinom mraka i Ursulina Lavinia, rekla bih da bi ovo ipak moglo da bude nekakvo make-or-breake odmeravanje. :shock:
And here's a round table discussion at Stone Telling on speculative poetry, crossing boundaries, and mythpunk again, featuring Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne Valente, Nin Harris and others:
Stone Telling Roundtable: Crossing Boundaries and Blurring Edges (http://stonetelling.com/issue3-mar2011/rios-st3-roundtable.html)
Nancy Kress (http://nancykress.blogspot.com/) najzad overila "Sumrak"... xrofl
QuoteSeveral years after everyone else, and in the name of research into current YA novels, I finally read Stephenie Meyers's mega-bestseller of vampire love, TWILIGHT. I finished it with very mixed reactions.
First, if I had been given this book at age 13, I would have loved it. At 13 I read absolutely everything that came my way, and with an absolute lack of taste or discrimination. I would have fallen for the book's central theme: A gorgeous guy falls totally and almost instantly in love with a normal girl, loves her romantically and unconditionally, saves her life over and over, and would risk anything for her. As she does for him. No one else in the world can disrupt their love; no one else even matters much. My overly romantic 13-year-old soul would have thrilled.
But I'm not 13. And so I was put off by that very excess of romanticism; real love does not occur instantaneously; other people and pursuits do matter; no love is unconditional, and shouldn't be. Edward now seems to me not romantic but creepy: breaking into Bella's house to watch her sleep, obsessing over her every move, all but stalking her. She seems to me immature in her disdain for everyone but Edward: the "friends" she makes at school, the father who gives her a home and tries to please her, the entire Olympic Peninsula. The vampirism, in fact, seemed to me more believable than the relationship.
Nor did I like the writing much. Characters seldom just say something: they "growl" it or "decide" it or "agree" with it (even when the dialogue already carries agreement). Everyone glares a lot; that seems to be the author's favorite verb. Meyers isn't bad at description of weather and landscape, but the only words she can find for Edward, used over and over, are "perfect," "magnificent," "gorgeous." He even has a "crooked smile."
Yet millions love this book. They can't all be 13. Go figure.
Unfacts Concerning the Google (Un)SettlementPosted on March 28th, 2011 by Ursula K. Le Guin
In discussions concerning the Google Book Settlement — and now Judge Chin's ruling against it — I keep running into the same misunderstandings over and over.
Some of these are simply mistaken ideas of what copyright is and does. Most of them naturally arise from the very complicated nature of the issues. All have been perpetuated by inaccurate, confusing, tendentious language.
I'll cite these "unfacts" as I come upon them and have time to discuss them. I welcome corrections of factual mistakes and will revise to include them. My opinions are just that, my opinions.
1. Unfact: Everybody who opposed the Google Book Settlement hates Google and everything it stands for and wants to destroy the Evil Corporation root and branch and go back to carving runes on rocks.
Fact: Most of us who opposed the Settlement use Google all the time. Whatever misgivings we may have about corporate control of information, Google's performance in offering access to information without strings attached has so far been admirable and immensely impressive. And most of us strongly favor the idea of a free digital library.
The problem is that Google saw fit to defy copyright law by digitalizing works without permission from the copyright holders.
Discussion: I don't understand why Google did what they did. If they'd just done it right – followed their own motto "Don't be evil!"
I know... the Library of Alexandria consisted mostly of stolen books taken by force from the libraries of subject cities. But in this case there was no need for theft. Many authors would gladly give permission for their out-of-print books to be included in a great free digital library (especially if it paid usage royalties, as European public libraries do). The harm came when Google began digitalizing works without permission, and thus attacking both copyright and moral right.
2. Unfact: Copyright is a selfish grab by rich, famous authors so they get to make all the profit out of their books.
Fact: Copyright is a limited and carefully designed law to protect authors from poverty. It allows authors control over the rights in their books, so that they, like any worker, can make what profit they can from their work.
It's called "copy" right because it involves, literally, the right to make copies of the work.
An author contracting with a publisher sells the publisher a limited piece of her copyright: that is, the right to make copies (i.e., publish the work in a certain form for a certain period of time) in exchange for a share (usually 15% or less) of the publisher's profits.
Discussion: Copyright has existed only since the 18th century. Till then, writers mostly lived by finding and sucking up to a rich patron. Since then, writers have been able to make an independent living... well, dependent on the whims of publishers — but after all, publishers and writers have pretty much the same stakes in the very chancy game of making books.
Only ignorance or irresponsibility dismiss copyright as "irrelevant to the Digital Age." It's needed more than ever, to protect authors from trying to live by selling themselves to corporations or selling their text space to advertisers. Copyright law has to be extended and rewritten to work with the new technologies of publishing. The notion that it's unnecessary makes it all the harder to get that necessary work done.
A lot of people quote Stu Brand: "Information wants to be free." I wonder why they hardly ever quote the other half of Stu's sentence: "It also wants to be paid for."
Information can be free to the user, the reader, and pay a living wage to the originator, the author: Think of the free Public Library. This balance can extend to the Internet, if we can rewrite copyright law to cover the new technologies.
Sneers and sloganeering ain't going to butter the beans. It will take hard and careful work. Can you imagine trying to explain to the current Speaker of the House how it might be done and why it's important to do it?
3. Unfact: Out-of-print and out-of-copyright are the same thing. "Orphaned" books are out of print and out of copyright.
Fact: A book that is "out of print" is one which no publisher currently claims to have in print and available.
A book that is "out of copyright" is one whose copyright has expired. It is said to be "in common domain." No one can own the rights — anyone can copy it, reprint it, etc. at will.
Out of print and out of copyright are entirely different things. Most books go out of print within a year or two, but their copyright goes on for decades.
An "orphaned" book means a copyrighted book whose copyright owner — author, or estate, or trust, or representative — can't be located.
An orphaned book is usually out of print, but it is NOT out of copyright. It's "orphaned" because the copyright owner can't be located to send royalties to, or ask for permission to excerpt, copy, reprint, digitalize, etc.
Discussion: "Orphaned" books were always a problem in publishing, but didn't become a huge problem until the recent grotesque extension of the period of copyright (called the Mickey Mouse Act because a lobby led by Disney Corp. strongarmed it through Congress.)
Copyright used to be 28 years, plus a 28-year extension at request. It is now the lifetime of the author plus 70 years (that could be 120 years!) — an indefensible crippling of the intention of the Copyright Act, which was to give living authors the rights and profits they'd earned, and then let the book go into "public domain" — become free to everybody.
Under Mickey Mouse, a huge number of books are going to end up orphaned — trapped in useless copyright.
It is (God help us!) up to Congress, with the guidance of the Justice Department, to figure out how "orphaned" books should be handled. The best first step would be to knock down the Mickey Mouse Act and return to a rational duration of copyright. If this is unthinkable, perhaps the Copyright Office should be enabled to declare a copyright void if the copyright owner cannot be found — after a bona-fide search plus a period of say two years.
It's a real problem. But it has nothing to do with Google's illegally digitalizing books without getting permission from the copyright owners.
The use of "orphaned" as if it meant "uncopyrighted" is an obstinate, unfortunate confusion of terms, clouding the whole debate: and many of those who have used it that way surely know better.
And the sneakiest gambit is that of talking as if only orphaned books are being illegally digitalized. All the time the Settlement has been in the courts, Google has been blithely going ahead digitalizing any book it wanted without obtaining permission, let alone contractual terms. (I can attest to this, since they have thus pirated several of my books, with no attempt whatever to contact the publishers, my agent, or myself — none of whom are exactly hard to locate.)
Such methodical theft looks like more than corporate indifference to the law. It looks like a deliberate effort to destroy copyright. In other words, the corporation would like to do away with the concept of workers getting a fair share of the profit from their work.
That would "be good" for the corporation. Not good for the worker, the writer — or for readers, or for anybody else.
– UKL
Da li je neko već čitao ovo?
http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Kultura/Prica-o-postnuklearnom-svetu.sr.html (http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Kultura/Prica-o-postnuklearnom-svetu.sr.html)
Прича о постнуклеарном свету
Московски метро, национално светско чудо, инспирација градских легенди, и у великој мери неистражена територија која садржи тајна подземна здања и бункере противракетне одбране, инспирисао је једног од најчитанијих писаца у свету, младог Руса Дмитрија Глуховског (1979) да напише роман у два дела ,,Метро 2033" и ,,Метро 3034".
Обе књиге говоре о постнуклеарној ери и малобројним преживелим људима који обитавају под земљом, управо у тунелима московског метроа, ратујући једни против других, као и против бића која су мутирала услед радијације. Глуховски је јуче посетио Графички атеље ,,Дерету", свог београдског издавача, и показао да је не само зрео писац већ и сјајан саговорник.
Наиме, четири године живео је и школовао се у Израелу, био ратни извештач из ове земље, као и из Абхазије, радио на Радио Русији, ТВ Дојче веле и на Еуроњузу, као специјални извештач из Кремља. Говори пет језика.
Оно што је оригинално у вези са књижевним пројектом ,,Метроа" јесте интерактивни приступ Глуховског писању ових књига. Како је објаснио, први роман није могао одмах да објави и због тога га је поставио на Интернет, и то бесплатно. Како су се поглавља књиге низала онлај, читаоци су почели да сугеришу одређена литерарна решења, мењајући фабулу. Замерили су аутору што је ,,убио" главног јунака Артема, хероја који се пробија кроз читав метро како би спасао своју станицу, тако да га је ипак ,,оставио у животу".
– Књига као Интернет и мултимедијални пројекат ,,Метро" постали су инспиративни и за друге писце, тако да је само у Русији, Белорусији и Украјини објављено четрнаест књига, наставака приче о постнуклеарном свету. ,,Метро" се шири и на друге земље, па ће Италијан Тулио Еволеде објавити роман о Венецији и Риму после Трећег светског рата. У својим срединама исто ће учинити и неки кубански, индијски, британски и немачки писци, критикујући пре свега нашу савременост, рекао је Глуховски.
Покушавајући да жанровски одреди роман ,,Метро 2033" Глуховски се опредељује за одредницу еклектичког, због тога што прича садржи елементе антиутопије, урбаних митова и фантастике, социјалну критику.
– Почео сам да пишем књигу када сам имао седамнаест година, а завршио је са двадесет четири. У основи, у њу сам уткао све што ми се дешавало, сва осећања и мисли, и приметна је еволуција језика и симболике, од првих до последњих поглавља. Наставак ,,Метро 2034" написао сам после пет година. То је био ризичан подухват, јер публика је већ имала очекивања после првог дела. Реч је о причи у стилу француско-америчког ноара – објашњава Глуховски у разговору за наш лист.
Као оличење наде у свеопштем уништењу, у причи ,,Метроа 2034" истиче шеснаестогодишњу девојку Сашу, која је читав живот провела у станици, затворена, због оца, политичког егзиланта.
– Моја је идеја симболично значење московског метроа, и то не као пакла, већ као чистилишта. Човек уништава свет који није створио и који му не припада. Они који су преживели Трећи светски рат и нуклеарну катастрофу прогнани су у подземну железницу, као у чистилиште. Затим су суочени са тестом у којем треба да покажу да су и духовно напредовали. У таквом окружењу Саша је оличење друге шансе и наде у будућност. Међутим, главно је питање може ли она својом наивношћу променити Хантера, човека који има монструма и убицу у себи – каже Глуховски.
– Ако је прва књига била блиска научној фантастици, друга има религиозну перспективу исте приче. Прва говори о мутантима који прете људској раси, друга та иста бића описује као анђеле које је Бог послао како би искушао човека. Ако човек пронађе начин да са њима склопи мир, онда заслужује спасење, додаје затим наш саговорник.
Не изражавајући поверење у људску природу, Дмитриј Глуховски сматра да су људи способни за делимичне промене само после великих траума:
– Био је потребан Први светски рат како би била основана Лига народа, али праве лекције из овога рата нису биле научене. Немачка је била понижена до нивоа националне трауме, која је затим створила нове монструме рата. Једна од најкултивисанијих нација направила је најужасније злочине. Људи нису научили лекцију ни из Другог светског рата. Гомила се нуклеарно наоружање које би сигурно могло да уништи читав свет. Само је страх од таквог уништења обезбедио период дуге и релативне стабилности. Американци се боре против нација које немају нуклеарно наоружање, у Ираку је страдало толико цивила. Исто гледамо сада и у Либији, иако је Гадафи покварењак. Не мислим да је човек способан да учи на сопственим грешкама.
Глуховски наставља да пише у свом субверзивном стилу, а предмет његове осуде тренутно је родна Русија.
– Путин тврди да се бори против олигарха за праведнију социјалну државу, а уместо тога окружио се својим школским друговима, џудо партнерима и послушницима – истиче Глуховски.
Пре пола године Глуховски је објавио књигу ,,Приче о домовини" у којој, како каже, критикује и руску корупцију, цензуру на телевизији, намештене изборе, монопол моћи, марионетске политичке партије у марионетском парламенту.
Марина Вулићевић
објављено: 29.03.2011.
Imaš na http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php?topic=8851 (http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php?topic=8851)
Pavle je pisao prikaz, valjda za popboks.
Read all about it u Emitoru.
A imaš i poziv za pisanje u tom svetu na http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php?topic=10064 (http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php?topic=10064)
Quote from: varvarin on 29-03-2011, 11:55:50
Da li je neko već čitao ovo?
Ja bih rado čitala kad bi mi neko dao (ili pozajmio) knjigu, cijena je sitnica, oko 1500 dinara... :(
Fans of epic fantasy are used to long series - The Wheel of Time & The Sword of Truth come to mind. But I don't know that even the most hard core fantasy fan would read 51 books in a series without some complaint.
I bring this up because Final Crisis is the series that set the stage for several stories that came after, including Battle for the Cowl and Blackest Knight and, eventually, The Return of Bruce Wayne.
Final Crisis was horrible. Absolutely freaking horrible. It's one of those rare times when I wanted to track down those responsible and extract from their lives the time stolen from my own while reading it. That's how bad it was. Superman battles Space Vampires - how's that for bad?
It culminated with Batman shooting Darkseid, who uses his Omega Beams in retaliation. Think of Omega Beams like Balefire (keeping the whole Fantasy/Wheel of Time thing going here) - Since he is a god, Darkseid can use his Omega Beams to essentially erase you from existence. There is no coming back from that.
Unless, of course, you're a major character in a comic book universe and worth, all on your own, billions of $$$'s in future book sales. Then you 'return'...
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne (Hardcover, 232 grueling pages, Publisher: DC Comics) (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/03/review-batman-the-return-of-bruce-wayne/)
:roll: :lol:
Ovo je jedno od glupljih poredjenja koje sam ikad video. Da, isto je knjiga od 1000+ strana i DCijev superherojski strip. Mada, njima mozda i jeste.
Quote from: Melkor on 31-03-2011, 21:52:06
Mada, njima mozda i jeste.
ha. da nije to jelou brik road ka...? :mrgreen:
Kako god da okreneš, čovek je u pravu:
Quote from: LiBeat on 31-03-2011, 18:56:25
Final Crisis was horrible. Absolutely freaking horrible. It's one of those rare times when I wanted to track down those responsible and extract from their lives the time stolen from my own while reading it. That's how bad it was. Superman battles Space Vampires - how's that for bad?
It culminated with Batman shooting Darkseid, who uses his Omega Beams in retaliation. Think of Omega Beams like Balefire (keeping the whole Fantasy/Wheel of Time thing going here) - Since he is a god, Darkseid can use his Omega Beams to essentially erase you from existence. There is no coming back from that.
U meni je Final Crisis proizveo gotovo fizičku revulziju spram Morisona a činjenica da sam pročitao samo core serijal i tri najvažnija tie-ina je još gora - da sam pročitao svih 50+ svesaka svih tie-inova, ubio bih se.
I slažem se da to nije isto kao čitanje dugačkih fantasy serijala, mnogo je gore.
Elem, trenutno se na sve strane ljudi bave naj-romanima žanrovskih autorica i ovo je samo deo liste naslova u užem izboru:
Spin State, Chris Moriarty
Maul, Tricia Sullivan
The Year of Our War, Steph Swainston
City of Pearl, Karen Traviss
Dark Space, Marianne de Pierres
Moxyland, Lauren Beukes
Winterstrike, Liz Williams
Bold as Love, Gwyneth Jones
The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
Natural History, Justina Robson
The Time-Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffennegger
Maul, Tricia Sullivan
City of Pearl, Karen Traviss
Life, Gwyneth Jones
Farthing, Jo Walton
The Carhullan Army/Daughters of the North, Sarah Hall
Lavinia, Ursula Le Guin
Spirit, Gwyneth Jones
Ma svaki bloger ima neku svoju listu, a svi se vode samo i isključivo svojim ukusom, mesto ikakvim merilima koje propisuje teorija književnosti. Na primer, nigde nisam video Kej Kenjon, koja je najbolja stvar koja se poodavno desila SFu. Nigde nema ni pomena Krisa Vudinga, koji je u dva navrata pokazao izvanredno spisateljsko umeće, dostojno ma kog dobitnika Bukerove ili Vitbredove nagrade. Nema ni Metjua Stovera - koji doduše nije wordsmith kakav je Vuding ili Martin, ali jeste napisao tri veličanstvena romana koji su ujedno sinteza dva glavna žanra fantastike i potpuno izrugivanje i sa jednim i sa drugim i sa gikovskom tradicijom in general.
Sve je to smuti pa prospi, in general.
Pa dobro, ali ja, ako nista drugo, verujem ovoj grupi "blogera".
Quote from: Melkor on 02-04-2011, 19:04:52
Pa dobro, ali ja, ako nista drugo, verujem ovoj grupi "blogera".
Pazi, ne znam ko je sastavljao spisak koji je Lidija stavila, ali ako je to tipičan primer onoga što nude, ja im ne verujem - makar samo stoga što tu nema Kej Kenjon, Elizabet Ber, Sare Mone i Lejn Robins - četiri verovatno najjača ženska pera fantastike iz prethodne decenije.
Dobro, ja, sticajem okolnosti znam. Ne zelim da se sporim sa tobom, stavise i ne mogu, posto, sem Berove na kasicicu, nisam citao nista sto si naveo ali
Quote from: Nightflier on 02-04-2011, 17:01:45
Ma svaki bloger ima neku svoju listu, a svi se vode samo i isključivo svojim ukusom, mesto ikakvim merilima koje propisuje teorija književnosti.
se, ovako napamet, moze i tebi prebaciti, pogotovo sto sam upoznat sa procesom nastajanje one liste dok ovo tvoje deluje, da naglasim, deluje sasvim pausalno u tom kontekstu.
Quote from: Melkor on 02-04-2011, 21:44:45
Dobro, ja, sticajem okolnosti znam. Ne zelim da se sporim sa tobom, stavise i ne mogu, posto, sem Berove na kasicicu, nisam citao nista sto si naveo ali
Quote from: Nightflier on 02-04-2011, 17:01:45
Ma svaki bloger ima neku svoju listu, a svi se vode samo i isključivo svojim ukusom, mesto ikakvim merilima koje propisuje teorija književnosti.
, se, ovako napamet, moze i tebi prebaciti, pogotovo sto sam upoznat sa procesom nastajanje one liste dok ovo tvoje deluje, da naglasim, deluje sasvim pausalno u tom kontekstu.
Naravno da može. Moje mišljenje nema ama baš nikakvu težinu, sem one koju čitaoci mog bloga ili mojih prevoda ili čega već odluče da mu daju i svaka moja preporuka je besramno subjektivna. Upravo to i hoću da kažem. Nema nade da iko pokrije čitav žanr - i to je moja najveća zamerka. Ja nikada nisam sastavljao spiskove najboljeg ovoga ili onoga te i te godine, već samo najboljeg ovoga i onoga što sam čitao te i te godine.
Elem, kao što rekoh, ovo je samo deo liste, a Melkor zna da je prvih dvanaest naslova uzeto sa Torque Control :), dok sam ostale uzela sa jedne još šire liste koja je uključila i neka dela iz prošlog milenijuma. TC je izabrao 12 naslova, zato što je plan da se obradi po jedna knjiga mesečno – za svaki naslov sledi čitanje, analiza, rivju & sav taj džez. A pošto se biraju "novi klasici" iz prethodne decenije, nema potrebe za žurbom, radi se temeljito, biraju se naslovi za temeljito seciranje, a to će se sigurno preliti i u iduću godinu, pošto je očigledno da su ovde izostali naslovi koji se sigurno neće mimoići. Na primer, Beuksova je na listi sa Moxyland, tako da je logično pretpostaviti da njen Zoo City obavezno sledi, samo nije ušao u ovogodišnji plan. Tako bar ja to vidim a i fer je, jer zbrzavanje bi proizvelo kilav rezultat. Ovo je zapravo ona vrsta pristupa za koju bih volela da serijali imaju, Najtflajere; te face na TC su... pa, face. ;)
Dalje, lično mislim da će Brzina mraka definitivno biti žanrovski klasik, zbog te genijalne upotrebe žanrovskog alata u svrhu traženja odgovora na pitanje šta to čoveka čini čovekom. EM je vernik, a vernici imaju sklonost da kontempliraju razlike između duhovne i fizičke smrti, plus i ceo tovar egzistencijalnih pitanja koja je ona očigledno sebi postavljala i van ove proze. Moglo je to komotno da bude i mejnstrim seciranje takvih pitanja, ali, sf joj daje upravo ono što mejnstrim ne može – opciju da Lu bira da li da ostane takav kakav je rođen ili da postane neko/nešto drugo, plus opciju da uopšte bira. U mejnstrimu bi se to svelo na izbor koji neko drugi čini za njega, dok ovako, Lu ipak bira sam za sebe. A Munova je očigledno emotivno vezana za taj izbor, otud onaj epilog koji nudi više kao majka i vernik, nego kao autor provokativnog književnog dela; Munova ne samo da zadržava i jednog i drugog, nego i daje na znanje da je onaj prvi, autistični Lu, srećan, pa tako izmiruje dilemu koja je njoj, kao verniku, nesumnjivo veoma bitna: da li je u tom procesu ubijena jedna božja kreacija i na njeno mesto postavljena blasfemična ljudska. Takve dileme o pravu na život iz verskog ugla pretresao je detaljno Miler u Kantikulumu, mada to niko ne pominje sa Brzinom mraka, pominju samo Cveće za Aldžernona, iako po meni Čarli Gordon uopšte nema dimenziju koju Munova daje. Enivejz, stvarno verujem da će se Brzina mraka secirati onako kako se secira Leva ruka tame i vremenom ce postati klasik u tom rangu.
2011 Science Fiction Hall of Fame Inductees
The 2011 inductees to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame are Harlan Ellison, Vincent Di Fate, Moebius, and Gardner Dozios.
The induction ceremony will be held Saturday June 25, 2011 at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum in Seattle WA as part of the Science Fiction Awards Weekend, June 24-26, 2011, in conjunction with the Locus Awards and NW Media Arts writing workshops with Terry Bisson and Connie Willis. The museum will also feature exhibits on Battlestar Galactica and Avatar. Further information and tickets to the Science Fiction Awards Weekend are available on the Locus.
Hal Duncan: (http://www.bscreview.com/2011/04/notes-from-new-sodom-an-essay-into-exoticism/)
"Imaginary Exoticism: Wells, for example. His mechanism: the dissociation of ideas, and their subsequent reassociation with a peculiar state of mind. Examine the question of 'the Future.'"
– Victor Segalen, Essai sur l'exotisme
There's a particularly bold form of the fake that's of import here, what I call the quirk — the core component of strange fiction, born in breaches of narrative modality. The import of a narrative, the judgement of meaning we make on it, isn't flat pseudo-fact, as if we were transcribing a deposition with no concern over the content. Rather there's a constant tension between the narrative and our stance to it: did this happen? could this happen? should this happen? would we have this have happen? To grasp the different modalities that might play in a narrative, we only need to look to the modal auxiliary verbs that set the mood of a sentence: will; is; did; can; could; shall; should; might; may; must. There are four broad types of judgement there.
http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html (http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html)
Prepucavanje pisca i čoveka koji je napisao rivju za knjigu. Čitati komentare :lol:
Hehe, ja sam to stavio na Moze li biti gluplja :) "Who are you really?" mi je najbolji deo :D
Salon Futura skiknuo na broju 8... :(
Editorial: April 2011
Well, this is an editorial I hoped I wouldn't have to write for a while.
As you probably all know, this is not the best of times to be starting a new business. With all of the economic uncertainty, people are buying less, and that includes books. Fortunately Wizard's Tower was planned to require little in the way of operating expenses. We will be able to keep publishing books (indeed we have two more coming out this month), and running the bookstore. However, Salon Futura is not so cheap to run, primarily because we pay our contributors. I had been subsidizing the magazine because I knew it would take time to build a reputation, but the economic crisis has just hit my other business rather badly and I can no longer afford to do so.
There is enough money in the bank for one more issue, but unless there is some sort of miracle in the coming month then issue #9 will be our last. I'm not going to run a "Save Salon Futura" campaign, because what the magazine needs is regular income, not one small injection of cash. But I will keep looking for sources of funding.
I'll do a proper thanks editorial next month, as there are a lot of people to thank, but in particular I'm very grateful that we did have a small number of regular and supportive readers.
Cheryl (http://www.salonfutura.net/2011/04/issue-8/)
An Overview of International Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2010
compiled by Jeff VanderMeer
compiled by Jeff VanderMeer
Although my year's best selections included some international fiction, I thought it would be of use to compile a few "core samples" of work, mostly in other languages, that my contacts found of particular interest in 2010. This year I decided to exclude Australia and New Zealand because writers from those countries have received extensive coverage in SF/Fantasy media. It's worth noting, too, that the term "International Fiction" or "World SF" requires further specificity of detail, in the sense that some countries have a stronger tradition of supporting non-realistic fiction than others. In addition, some countries have a stronger tradition of supporting their own authors than others. (For example, the Russian books noted represent just a fraction of Russian authors published there.)
I would also note that this is of necessity a haphazard sample — several of my queries went unanswered and some people did not have time to compile lists. Still, an incomplete overview is better than no overview at all. I would welcome any additional recommendations in the comments, and next year we will spread our net much, much wider.
Finally, my heartfelt thanks to the respondents, and to S. Boyd Taylor, who was invaluable in compiling and editing this list.
–Jeff VanderMeer
Brazil, recommended by translator/writer Fábio Fernandes
Paraíso Líquido (Liquid Paradise), by Luiz Bras, pub. Editora Terracota
– Published as a free edition under the auspices of the government of the State of São Paulo, Paraíso Liquido is the latest collection of short stories by Luiz Bras. The curious fact about this book is that Luiz Bras doesn't exist. It's the pseudonym of Nelson de Oliveira, a well-known, award-winning Brazilian writer in his forties who suddenly decided, like the Japanese writers of the Edo period, to change his name when he decided to change his narrative style and genre approach. Two and a half years in the making, Paraíso Líquido presents thirteen stories, ranging from a very unusual first contact (Primeiro Contato) to a fantastic tale during the Crusades (Cruzada), and what is maybe the best story in the collection, Aço Contra Osso (Bone Against Steel). It's also one of the shortest stories in the book, and one of the most intricate. Thirty-one clones play a deadly game inside a mathematical cathedral (a "gigantic system of equations", as the protagonist says in the beginning of the story) reminiscent of Greg Egan or Hannu Rajaniemi. The cathedral is in fact a Guantánamo of the mind, a simulation created for torturing mentally and physically not only those guilty of terrorism but those even slightly suspected of it. Paraíso Liquido has been considered by fans and critics one of the best Brazilian SF collections of the year.
Guerra Justa, by Carlos Orsi, pub. Editora Draco
– A post-cyberpunk conspiracy set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, Guerra Justa studies the consequences of religious manipulation and the nature of reality. Two siblings, Sister Rebeca and scientist Rafaela, are caught in opposite sides of the conspiracy, and must overcome their personal issues to solve together the mysteries behind the Pontifical Cult who rules the world through benevolence but at the same time wages war and ignorance. Orsi, a science journalist and sturdy atheist, is definitely against all religions, but in Guerra Justa he makes a valorous effort to bring the reader a good, entertaining story without proselytism.
Cyber Brasiliana, by Richard Diegues, pub. Tarja Editorial
– In the future, the decadent corporations of the Northern Hemisphere fight for control of the spoils of the old countries, while in the Southern Hemisphere a new utopia is founded. This utopia is composed of three great powers: the Union of the República Brasiliana, the Africanisia, and the Euronova. They have created the Hiperworld: a supernetwork giving people a complex form of augmented reality that affects their entire lives. But is it good? Is this technology alienating humankind from the spiritual realm and turning men into machines?
Bulgaria, recommended by astronomer/writer Valentin D. Ivanov
Fantastika 2009, ed. Atanas P. Slavov and Kalin Nenov, pub. Foundation Human Library
– This is the third volume of an annual anthology launched in 2008. The title is an intentional mix of Cyrillic and Latin letters, forming the Bulgarian generic term for speculative fiction. This volume contains an extended profile of the Bulgarian SF writer Angelina Ilieva and stories by the Bulgarian SF writers Georgi Hristov, Gergana Veleva, Maria Belcheva, and Anton Fotev. Translated stories by John Varley, the Strugatsky brothers, and Dmitry Bilenkin are also included. The book contains a lot of non-fiction — speculative essays about the future, reviews of genre books, and summary of the genre events in Bulgaria for the previous year, as well as lavish illustrations by the Bulgarian SFF painters Stefan Lefterov and Atanas P. Slavov, among others. Over the years, the anthology has become for Bulgarian speculative fiction what the Year's Best anthologies edited by Garner Dozois are for the English language genre scene.
The Unknown Strugacky Brothers, ed. Yuri Ilkov, Aleksander Karapanchev and Vladimir Borisov, pub. ERNOR
– This anthology celebrates the 35th anniversary of the speculative fiction fan club Arcady and Boris Strugatsky, named after the venerable brothers who — together with Stanislaw Lem — still dominate the landscape of the modern Slavic SF. The book is a collection of some fifty short contributions, organized into three sections. The first is a history of the club, the second talks about the connection between the Strugatsky brothers and the cultural life in Bulgaria, and the third is a collection of mini-memoirs and essay about the brothers and their work by people from all over the world.
The Kindness Factor, by Kancho Kozhuharov, pub. Lingea Ltd
– This novel is a Science Fiction time-travel tale where the future needs help from the past. It is also a political thriller and a love story. Last but not least, it's a book about a writer — which allows every aspiring writer to identify with the characters.
The Warm Key of Life, by Aleksander Karapanchev, pub. e-Books
– Few people read science fiction. Few people read poetry. The cross section of these two small groups — on a small national book market — is even smaller. Collections of fantastic poetry are rare, and this book appeared only because of the minimal production costs of modern day electronic publishing. It offers tender and lyrical poetry, reminiscent of the early Bradbury stories.
Czech Republic, recommended by editor Martin Šust
Spěšný vlak Ch.24.12 (Express Train Ch.24.12), by Jan Poláček
– A very impressive novel, maybe the best of the decade. A dark view of society after Germany wins World War Two, but not the stereotypical tale from that type of alternative world.
Vládcové vesmíru (The Masters of the Universe), ed. Ivan Adamovič
– A great anthology with long forgotten stories from the dawn of Czech science fiction literature.
Labyrint (Labyrinth), by Pavel Renčín
– An interesting project, first published online as a serial novel. Later, it became a magazine serial novel and later still was traditionally-published. The story is about the dungeons under Prague city.
Holomráz (Black Frost), by Štěpán Kopřiva
– A very entertaining collection that features a wizard who pretends to be powerful, but in fact is a charlatan. A masterpiece of sarcastic parody.
Denmark, recommended by bloggers/reviewers/librarians Zenia Johnsen and Janus Andersen
Mount København (Mount Copenhagen), by Kaspar Colling Nielsen, pub. Gyldendal
– Kaspar Colling Nielsen's debut shows that even people in little countries can think big. The creation of an artificial mountain south of Denmark's capital city is the starting point for the book — and from that, Colling Nielsen weaves 17 stories that range from science fiction to magical realism and contain both their own stories and a tale of Denmark transformed. The author won the prize for Best Debut in 2010, and Mount Copenhagen has been optioned for a TV series.
Marskens konge, by Alex Uth, pub. People's Press, jr
– Marskens konge is Uth's second book and a sequel — but it is one of the very few fantasy sequels that manages to become a book all of its own. The girl, Fanke, returns from the realm of the Quiet People, the fishlike creatures that are a dark fact of life in the marsh. But everyone seems to agree that Fanke should have stayed to become a bride to the King of the marsh. Society comes together against her while dark forces rise from the waters. A tight, original, and atmospheric mix of horror and fantasy.
De underjordiske, by Thomas Strømsholt, pub. H. Harksen Productions
– After having appeared in several anthologies, fanzines and other places, Thomas Strømsholt finally got a book all to himself — and it is very difficult to compare it to anything else published in Danish in the last century. Thomas Strømsholt writes horror — but in a way that you suspect that he has just returned from dinner with Arthur Machen and M. R. James. De underjordiske contains 19 short stories and is bound to transport you somewhere else entirely.
Drømmetid, by Richard Ipsen, pub. Science Fiction Cirklen
– Longtime fan writer Ipsen has proved his worth as a writer of science fiction years ago with both nerve and style. He may not be the most prolific writer, but stylistically he is often miles ahead of the competition. Drømmetid is mostly science fiction but weaves in into fantasy at times (and sometimes out of it). The string that ties Drømmetid together is Ipsen's beautiful language and imagery.
Diget, by Teddy Vork, pub. Tellerup
– Vork's second book and a shorter piece of historical horror. Diget takes place in the western part of Denmark in the Middle Ages, where every seven years a boy would be buried in the dykes to strengthen them against the sea. Knud is one of those boys and — as he is locked in the darkness — the story shifts between his encounters there and his flashbacks to what happened before. The power of Diget comes from its use of old Danish myths and legends and its refusal to tell us what is waiting there in the dark, just outside Knud's touch.
Finland, recommended by editor/writer Jukka Halme
En tunne sinua vierelläni (I Don't Feel You Beside Me), by Tiina Raevaara
– This Runeberg prize winning short story collection plays with various genre conventions. Stylistically strong stories mix surrealism, the fantastical, expressionism, and science fiction into a mycelium-like subconsciousness that verbalizes the silenced.
Unenpäästäjä Florian (Dream Releaser Florian), by Jani Saxell
– Part mystery, part love story, but all magical realism. While Europe is losing its dreams, Florian (a Romanian Roma living in Finland) has the ability to see into other peoples' dreams — and lead them into those dreams. This near-future thriller also highlights the current plight of European internal refugees and beggars.
Kirkkaan selkeää (Bright and Clear), by Maarit Verronen
– Gripping near-future dystopia on environmental disaster and social inequalities, from the POV of a societal drop-out. Sharp, almost clinical writing from Finland's keenest critic of modern society. Plenty of questions, yet very few answers.
France, recommended by writers Gio Clairval and Edward Gauvin
Rue Farfadet (Sprite Street), by Raphaël Albert, pub. Editions Mnémos
– Panam (slang for "Paris"), 1880: Humans have known and controlled the Old People for a long time. Sylvo, an Elvish private detective in bowler hat, takes pictures of adulterous spouses and deals with cuckolded husbands and jealous wives. Our hero prefers cafés, maisons closes, and cancan dancers to his lackluster job — until, one day, a duke of Panam hires him to disentangle a diabolical plot. Surprising for a first novel, the tone proves both mischievous and profound, swerving between centaur taxis, steam-bikes, and magic.
Plaguers, by Jeanne A. Debats, pub. L'Atalante
– On near-future Earth, all resources are depleted, and all flora and fauna are destroyed. A few adolescents develop "plagues" — abilities to create water, fire, and extinct species — until the plaguers mature and merge to become gigantic creatures with multiple limbs and manifold powers. Mutant adolescents are parked in reservations from which they can escape only when the "externals" request their abilities. But the plaguers are needed when an untested energy source threatens to destroy the planet. This YA novel captures the reader thanks to the well-penned personalities of the protagonists, teenagers who discover love and sexuality in a tragic and disturbing setting.
Druide (Druid), by Olivier Peru, pub. Éclipse
– 1123: Druids rule the Forest, a domain that conceals dark secrets. Obrigan, investigating a strange massacre, faces a power of the blackest kind, poised to cause a fratricidal war. The protagonist eventually discovers that his life is built on lies. This debut novel is a dark tale rich in suspense and action, where ethically ambiguous characters cross the blurred boundaries between good and evil.
Forêts noires, by Romain Verger, pub. Quidam Editeur
Rosée de feu, by Xavier Mauméjean, pub. Du Belial
– Both from small presses (the latter a spec-specific press), both involving Japan.
Germany, recommended by writer Jakob Schmidt
Schaumschwester, by Thor Kunkel, pub. Matthes & Seitz Berlin
– Kunkel's novel is based on the notion that in the near future, humanity is threatened by extinction because people have begun to prefer advanced sex puppets to human partners. To be honest, I dislike the philosophy put forth in this book so much that I did not finish reading it. But I can appreciate that it is among the most relevant German SF novels of 2010. Therefore, with kind permission, I'm borrowing Frank Böhmert's words of praise: "Kunkel is taking us on a tour-de-force through the cultural history of the puppet, always keeping a close eye on his protagonists. His love of the crime pulps and William S. Burroughs is obvious. (...) Finally, a German SF novel that reminds the reader of the great iconoclastic tradition of British SF from the 60s and 70s."
Wenn das der Führer wüsste, by Otto Basil, pub. Pabel-Moewig Verlag Kg
– This alternate history novel about a victorious Nazi Germany was first published in 1966, but has been out of print most years since. In 2010, Austrian publisher Milena finally reissued the book, which represents a fundamentally different take on the well-worn topic. Wenn das der Führer wüsste shows the absurdity of Nazi ideology by further exaggerating all its contradictory elements and letting them clash: it is a surrealistic road trip, with a despicable and pathetic Nazi protagonist wandering through a German Reich that is rapidly falling to pieces after Hitler's death, until finally Germany engages the Japanese in a third world war. An English translation of Basil's novel has been published in 1968 under the title The Twilight Men.
Hinterland, Karla Schmidt (ed.), pub. Wurdack
– This anthology collects 20 SF/slipstream short stories by a broad range of authors, among them well-known mainstream writers like Dietmar Dath, newcomers like Dirk Röse and Jasper Nicolaisen, and writers who are well-known in their community like Heidrun Jänchen, Karsten Kruschel, and Nadine Boos. The common element is that each of the 20 stories is inspired by a song by David Bowie. What makes this anthology special is not only the high overall quality of the stories, but also that it ventures further out into slipstream territory than anything published by a German SF small press in the last few years. Standout stories are Markolf Hoffmann's disturbing Triptychon about a future society where murder is not a crime if the deed is considered to be of artistic value, Pepe Metropolis' Lovecraftian steampunk-story Hinterland, and Erlösungsdeadline by editor Karla Schmidt, a restrained but powerful piece of social fiction.
Ende der Nacht, by Ralph Doege, pub. Deltus Media
– Doege's short fiction has been published in various SF magazines and anthologies over the past few years. Ende der Nacht (End of Night) is his first collection. Most of Doege's stories feature fantasy and/or SF elements, but the focus is always on psychological dilemmas. This in itself is pretty unusual for German science fiction and fantasy, and Doege takes it a step further by repeatedly confronting his characters with virtually unsolvable philosophical problems. Standout stories are Karmamaschine, about a machine that determines if someone is bound to become a criminal one day, Wunden, a frightening and sexual werewolf fantasy, and Im Sog, which contains no fantasy elements, but presents a haunting metaphor for the erosion of childhood memories. While Doege's stories have a tendency to be flawed in one way or the other and are sometimes stylistically overwrought, he is a truly unique and highly recommended voice in German speculative fiction.
Israel, recommended by publisher/editor Rani Graff and writer Lavie Tidhar
Nuntia (Frost), by Shimon Adaf, pub. Zmora Bitan Publishing
– Set 500 years in the future, the Tel Aviv depicted in this novel is a very different place from the vibrant seaside city we know today. In fact, it might be a different city altogether. Strange genetic alterations are discovered in the bodies of some yeshiva students, and a Torah scholar, who might be a scientific genius, is called to solve the mystery. This fantastic futuristic thriller walks on the border of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It is a demanding, not easy, read — but a very rewarding one.
Sequoia Children, by Gon Ben-Ari, pub. Zmora Bitan Publishing
– Nikolina is a sequoia child, which means that when she was born she received, like all other sequoia children, a revolutionary injection that will prolong her life to a thousand years. She is 16 years old and her grandfather, the last holocaust survivor, is about to pass away — but before he does, he leaves her a coded letter that she must solve. But to Nikolina the whole world is one giant code that awaits a solution. Sequoia Children examines myths at large and tells a new one while doing so. This one of the most fascinating novels published in Israel in 2010.
The Day the Music Died, by Ofir Touche Gafla, pub. Keter Publishing
– This modern tale is set in the imaginary town of Innoville, which was an ordinary town until June 26th, 1984. That day a mysterious boy came to town and wrote in a group of files the exact date of each resident's death. Once a resident of Innoville turned 18, he or she was allowed to open the file. From that day on, Innoville became known to everyone as the town where people know when they will die. A few years after the mysterious visit, on her 18th birthday, Dora Matter opens her file — and her life, plans, and everything else becomes overshadowed by the grim news. But, unlike other people, she refuses to let her knowledge change her life, and she seems to be the only one in town who acts that way. In her unique voice, Dora tells a moving and intimate story of growing up and self discovery. Unlike its dire topic, The Day the Music Died is a funny, entertaining story that celebrates life rather than death.
Japan, recommended by translator/publisher/editor Yoshio Kobayashi
First of all, thank you for your concern over our recent tragedy, but most of us in Japanese speculative fiction community are alive and well. Although our publishing industry is based on paper books and is suffering very badly in many aspects — from editing to distributing to the bookstore shelves — our major concerns are the economy itself. Many readers likely won't be able afford to buy books for quite a while. Yet for some people, book reading is still cheap and convenient pleasure under the controlled blackout situation, so we have to keep on.
Last year, 2010, was regarded as a bad year for our SF community as well. We lost major figures in translation. Takumi SHIBANO, the founding father of SF community in Japan passed away in January. Hisashi ASAKURA (nee Zenji OTANI), one of our best translators followed in February. Both of them helped shape our idea of SF and had great influence over our writers, including Haruki MURAKAMI. Death took a heavy toll again following 2009 when Kaoru KURIMOTO and Project ITOH died in the middle of their growing popularity.
Yet, I read a decent share of good novels and my favorite three of 2010 were:
Pistils, by Kazushige ABE
– The Tohoku area, ravaged by the recent earthquakes and tsunami, is the home of an excellent novelist. You might call Tohoku the Japanese south because, although it stands in the northern part of Honshu island, it was defeated in our civil war in the early 19th century. Since then has become a neglected and underdeveloped agricultural outland, rich with legends and myths. Kazushige ABE hails from this part of Japan and is regarded as one of the most ambitious novelists of mainstream literature today — especially after winning Akutagawa prize, equivalent of National Book Award for first fiction. The novel describes the rise and fall of Findhorn — a hippie-like commune in rural Tohoku village where a family with Psi power has been secretly residing for a millennium. It's kind of a Magic realism novel with a small scale hippie dream (our heroine literally uses flower power by tapping into their aroma) and is reminiscent of The Children of Atom by William H Shiras.
Koroyoshi! (Commence!), by Aki MISAKI
– Mainstream writers in Japan have begun to employ fantastic elements more and more in their stories, and the most eminent young writer is Aki MISAKI. In his recent Koroyoshi!, he dovetails into another big trend: sports fiction. In an alternate Japan, people of the defeated Western Regions camouflage their martial arts and simultaneously keep them alive by creating the sport of brooming. In this sport, a player swings a broom-like stick to sweep confetti into the air and gather it swiftly and beautifully into a pile, while dancing. This book reminds me of another hippie-flavored SF novel from the 80s, The Gameplayers of Zan by M. A. Foster. Sports fiction tends to be a coming of age story, but this one is also an alternate history novel without describing the world. It's a refreshing way to write an alternate history novel. I've been one of Aki MISAKI's most devoted readers, but think this is his best so far.
The Ocean Chronicles (Karyu no Miya), by Sayuri UEDA
– I'm happy to introduce you a genuine genre novel by a very young author, Sayuri UEDA. Due to the plume tectonics collapse (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plume_tectonics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plume_tectonics)), most of the land masses of the world have sunk beneath the ocean. There is a big conflict between the ocean people — who genetically modify themselves to live in the ocean — and the land people — who control the power and resources in the former highlands. The major theme is ecology, but it is also about one renegade diplomat's struggle to save mankind from the next tectonic collapse. The novel reminds me of Frank Herbert and Roger Zelazny, rather than Hilbert Schenk. It's also a bit like Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick, because the author uses telepresence AI technology.
Yoreiden (Tale of Yan Ling), by Kenzo KITAKATA
– A fifteen volume alternate history saga, a sequel to the author's Suikoden (Water Margin), was completed in 2010. This is the tale of rebels who build an independent state in 12th century China, using international trade as their primary weapon.
Fukkatsu no Chi (The Land of Restoration), by Issui Ogawa (2004)
– Though it is not a 2010 novel, I recommend this book for those who might be interested in how Japanese speculative fiction treats a massive earthquake and the restoration afterward. The author describes a scene like today's Japan, where ordinary people perform heroic deeds to revitalize a ravaged planet.
Philippines, recommended by writer/blogger Charles Tan
Neil Gaiman Presents The Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards: Prose Anthology, pub. Sketchbooks Inc.
– This anthology compiles all the winning prose entries of the previous three competitions in the Neil Gaiman-sponsored Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. There are over 20 stories, including both veteran and new voices, from the likes of Michael A.R. Co, Ian Casocot, Yvette Natalie Tan, Joseph Frederic Nacino, and Dean Francis Alfar. Covers fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
Poland, recommended by translator/writer Jan Żerański
Chocholy (The Chochols), by Wit Szostak, pub. Lampa & Iskra Boża
– A tenement in the city of Cracow. A family, the Chochols, restore an old building and soon create The House — a kind of a living organism, full of hidden tombs, secret passages, and unknown corridors. Here, every recess has its own history, and soon we discover that the outside world is also changing. Wit Szostak's latest novel is a family saga written in magical realism tradition, but it is also a portrait of Polish society after the 1989 transformation. Szostak, the winner of the 2008 Janusz A. Zajdel Award for a short story about Cracow, The City of Tombs, has written his best novel to date.
Wieczny Grunwald (The Eternal Tannenberg), by Szczepan Twardoch, pub. National Culture Centre
– Six hundred years ago, on the field of Grunwald/Tannenberg, Polish and German knights fought in one of the largest battles in Medieval Europe. Paszko, a Polish king's bastard, dies on the battlefield, but death is only the beginning of his odyssey through space and time. As Paszko tries to understand why he cannot die, it seems that the key lies in complicated Polish-German relations. The Eternal Tannenberg, ordered by National Culture Centre as part of the publishing series Shifts of Time (focusing on alternate histories of Poland), may be seen either as a science fiction novel or a metaphysical treatise about two struggling nations. In my opinion it is one of the most significant genre novels of the last decade.
Eremanta, by Joanna Skalska, pub. Powergraph
– Our friends at Powergraph work hard on debuts. In 2009 Robert M. Wegner, whom I wrote about last year, won the Polish Hugo — the Janusz A. Zajdel Award — and I am pretty sure that Skalska is also an author to keep an eye on. Her debut novel, Eremanta, tells the story of Magda — who finds a mysterious book about people living in a hidden Spanish village called Eremanta. The Eremantians do not speak to each other, and, as in Marquezian Macondo, the air around them is filled with magic. When Magda translates the book from Spanish, fiction and reality merge. Of course, Skalska is not Marquez, but her language is very good and her imagination vivid. I am looking forward to read her second book.
Russia, recommended by translator Nikolai Karayev
Dom, v kotorom... (The House Where...), by Mariam Petrosyan, pub. LiveBook
– This thick, almost 1000-page, debut novel narrates the lives of the disabled children in The House, located on the outskirts of the unnamed city. But the children are entities that only look like disabled children — in actuality they are psychics or superhumans or gods. This is the story of a strange, highly mythologized, seemingly immortal society of boys and girls that has no beginning and no end. The House turns out to be continuum in itself, its story is singular. There is no confluence, only flow and rhythm.
Ostromov, ili Uchenik charodeya (Ostromov or The Magician's Apprentice), by Dmitry Bykov pub. PROZAiK
– Based on the real criminal case of the Leningrad Freemasons and set against a backdrop the Soviet mid-1920s, this novel revolves around Ostromov, a swindler who pretends to be an omniscient and omnipotent wizard, and one of his pupils, young naïve Daniil, who is trying to learn the art of levitation. Ostromov is actually an informant for the secret police, who eventually arrest all the members of his lodge. Daniil is the only one left outside the prison walls. That's when the metamorphosis of man into overman begins.
Migrant (The Migrant), by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko, pub. EKSMO
– Our protagonist, nicknamed Crocodile, is captured by the Bureau of Universal Migration Services and carried (allegedly by the consent of his future self) through space and time on the planet Raa. In order to earn citizenship, Crocodile passes an examination called Probe, becoming transformed in the process, and is pulled into a game where the prize is the stability of reality itself. An elaborate adventure SF story, by turns political, ethical, and metaphysical.
Simbionty (The Symbionts), by Oleg Divov, pub. EKSMO
– The ambitious head of the Nanotechnology Institute wants to become President by (literally) making all Russian citizens happy. The key is the teenager, whose body (unbeknownst to him) contains the unique microbots invented by his grandfather, the previous director of the Institute. This Bildungsroman-cum-technothriller earnestly resuscitates "close-range SF", the forgotten genre that flourished in the Soviet literature and dealt with the slightly more sophisticated technology of the near-future.
S.S.S.M. (The Happiest Country in the World), by Maria Chepurina, pub. Krylov
– Partly an ironic fairytale, partly an alternative history, this book is about the USSR of the 1930s that never was: the Utopian country where the happy proletarians fly in the sky, Teslenergo factories transmit electricity across vast distances, food and clothes are free, and so forth. The worker Kraslen becomes a spy in bourgeois Angelica (i.e. UK), contributes to the world revolution, and reanimates the dead Leader. Interestingly, the eponymous country has two symbols, Red Star and Black Square.
Padeniye Sofii (The Fall of Sophia), by Yelena Hayetskaya, pub. Shiko
– Set in the would-be Russian Empire with the values and attitudes of the 19th century and the realities of some distant future, this novel combines a plot in the vein of The Midsomer Murders (or perhaps Twin Peaks) with the Golden Age of Russian literature from Gogol to Chekhov. A young man unexpectedly inherits the estate of his late uncle and soon finds himself entangled with odd neighbors, alien brigands, and enigmatic murders. Past mysteries and present crimes abound.
South Africa, recommended by writers Nick Wood and Sarah Lotz
Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes, pub. Angry Robot
– Zoo City is a densely energetic and engaging story, complex in its structure and narrative, melding and breaking genres with great skill. It is both riveted together and pulled along by a strong but flawed young amaZulu woman called Zinzi December, who has a 'gift' for 'finding things' — and many things she does indeed find, both internal and external to herself. Due to her prior criminal history, she is supernaturally connected to an animal (an 'aposymbiote') — which varies across individuals — and for Zinzi, her animal is a beautifully characterized sloth. Unlike Philip Pullman's daemons from His Dark Materials however, these animals appear to reflect less inherent personality characteristics than act as companions and stigmatizing social markers. The ambivalence in such markers is that they provide comfort, as well as peril and power, reflecting an enforced attachment to the animal world in the otherwise stark urban ghetto environment of Jo'burg. The novel compellingly knits together Zinzi's central detective noir 'missing persons' quest against a background of scientific and traditional African 'supernatural' discourses — historically divided discourses now integrated within a strange — but resonant — South Africa indeed. Although classified as 'urban fantasy' this book sprawls across genre and literary boundaries in a way that will appeal to readers from any literary or genre background. Zoo City is deservedly already starting to pick up nominations for major SF/F prizes, such as the Arthur C. Clarke and BSFA Awards. Beukes has indeed burst prominently onto the international SF/F scene and looks likely to set as many powerful trends as she breaks. She is a creative force of nature – and a truly South African one at that!
Sidekick, by Adeline Radloff, pub.Tafelberg Publishers Ltd
– Sidekick, a YA debut by Adeline Radloff is a witty, twisted, slightly subversive teen novel centering around an unfortunately named teen — Katie Holmes — who is the sidekick to Finn, a flawed 'superhero' who can stop time. Katie shares Finn's talent to inhabit 'untime' — a frozen landscape where only they can move and everyone else remains absolutely still. Katie has to battle with Finn's drug abuse and self-destructive tendencies, her own high school hell, and get to the bottom of the disappearance of several Cape Town school children. It's packed with laugh-out-loud one-liners, and is an original, quirky, and at times shocking novel that has undeservedly slipped under the radar. I recommend it unreservedly.
Deadlands, by Lily Herne, pub. Penguin Books
– Deadlands is a recently published YA South African zombie novel, set in a post-soccer World Cup ravaged Cape Town. In this inventive and gripping book, the World Cup went off a little less smoothly than the real event, being set ten years after a zombie invasion and war that spiked the mid World Cup celebrations. The outcome of this apocalypse is that people are living in segregated enclaves run with dictatorial certitude and power by a priestly caste who call themselves 'Resurrectionists'. The lead protagonist is Lele de la Fontein, trapped between her step-mother's Resurrectionist beliefs, school and a small, underground anarchic anti-Zombie league. Lele learns to take control of her own fate through her alliance with an outlawed splinter group — 'the Mall Rats' — and the novel moves swiftly towards a clever and powerful resolution. It is an assured and engaging story, its subtext perhaps challenging conformity and the deadening power of political oppression, but never losing its inherent sparkle and energetic drive that should make it a hit with teenagers from South Africa and beyond.
Sweden, recommended by bookseller Karin Waller
Lilla stjärna (Little Star), by John Ajvide Lindqvist, pub. Ordfront
– The latest novel by Sweden's foremost horror writer (known internationally for Let the Right One In) is a story about two girls, Theres and Teresa. Theres is thought a miracle by the man who finds her as a newborn baby, left in the woods: she has the purest singing voice he has ever heard. He and his wife raise her in secret, until that arrangement comes to a nightmarish end. Teresa grows up as a "normal" girl, not one of the popular crowd, but with a secret life online and in the library's poetry shelf. Theres becomes famous through a reality/talent TV show and Teresa sets out to find her — and when these two girls meet it's the beginning of a series of events leading to a horror perhaps even more disturbing than any of Ajvide's previous books.
Udda verklighet (Odd Reality), by Nene Ormes, pub. Styxx Fantasy
– Sweden's first real urban fantasy novel is set in Malmö, 3rd largest city and hometown of debut author Ormes. The protagonist is a young woman named Udda whose very vivid dreams turn out to be glimpses of reality — but a strange reality, populated by people other than human. When her best friend Daniel follows the clues of one of these dreams he goes missing, and Udda's quest to find and save him shows her more of the strange and dangerous things existing in the middle of her everyday city: shapeshifters, oracles, vampires who feed off memories, "pilots" who guide not through water but through layers of time, and much more. Well-written, entertaining and a fresh and welcome take on the genre.
Vem är Arvid Pekon? (Who Is Arvid Pekon?), by Karin Tidbeck, pub. Man Av Skugga
– This first book by Clarion Writers Workshop alumnus Tidbeck is a weird short story collection. In the title story, a telephone operator makes some very strange connections and ends up being switched out of existence. In Beatrice, a woman falls in love with a steam engine and bears its child, who is raised by a man in love with an airship. In Mister Cederberg, a rotund gentleman tired of being compared to a bumble-bee decides that well, if bumble-bees can fly when they shouldn't be able to, he should be able to as well. There are lyrically absurd stories, creepy ones, and ones that shift perspectives and realism to make the reader blink and reappraise reality.
Vännerna (The Friends), by Lars Jakobson, pub. Albert Bonniers
– A science fiction novel set in a uchronic contemporary Sweden with an alternate history. From the 1940s onward, the development of modern Sweden has been defined by the industrial magnate Janis Rokka, who in this reality is the architect of "Folkhemmet", a society which in the real world was formed by the Social Democratic Party. Rokka's corporation is high tech, dealing with artificial intelligences and hologram servants/accessories known as "Friends", but it also has a military branch and has practically as much power as the government. The resulting contemporary society is similar in many ways to the one we have, but perhaps more paranoid, more suspicious, and less safe despite all the rhetoric about security.
85 Authors Protest At The BBC's Treatment Of Genre Fiction
85 authors have signed a joint letter if protest sent to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, complaining about the Beeb's shabby treatment of genre fiction during last month's World Book Night coverage
The signatories to this letter range from Gold Dagger-nominated crime authors such as SJ Bolton, writers of children's fiction such as Debi Gliori, as well as many fantasy, science fiction and horror authors – from Iain Banks to Michael Moorcock.
The BBC programming which has raised their complaint was the state-sponsored television channel's coverage of fiction during World Book Night, with programmes including The Books We Really Read: A Culture Show Special and New Novelists: 12 Of The Best which went out on BBC2 on the 5 March 2011.
Fantasy author Stephen Hunt, who organised the protest, commented, "The sneering tone that was levelled towards commercial fiction during The Books We Really Read was deeply counterproductive to the night's aims of actually encouraging people to read novels. The weight that was given to the single sub-genre of literary fiction in the remaining programmes was unbalanced and unrepresentative of all but a small fraction of the country's reading tastes. And closest to my own heart, the failure to feature a single work from the three genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction was a disgrace. The official World Book Night list included Philip Pullman's fantasy novel, Northern Lights. It is a shame the BBC could not."
Hunt went on to say, "There have been weeks when one in three books sold in the UK were Harry Potter novels, or more recently, Twilight novels. The sweeping under the carpet of the very genres of the imagination which engage and fire readers' minds shows a lot more about the BBC production team's taste in fiction than it does about what the general public is actually reading. If the BBC really wishes to support reading in this country, then they should produce a literary version of The Film Programme, or commission a modern updating of the Bookworm show that had Griff Rhys Jones as its lead presenter in the '90s. A series with a mainstream slot. Then perhaps the BBC can do what it said on the tin the first time around: cover the books we really read."
The list of writers supporting the petition...
Kevin J Anderson
Neal Asher
Iain M Banks
Greg Bear
Jacey Bedford
Gregory Benford
Michael Bishop
S J Bolton
David Brin
Michael S. Brotherton
John Brown
Ramsey Campbell
Gail Carriger
Mark Charan Newton
Michael Cobley
Diane Duane
Kevin Duffy
Steven Lundin (writing as Steve Erikson)
Geraldine Evans
Russell B. Farr
Matt Forbeck
Gregory Frost
Gary Gibson
Linda Gillard
Felix Gilman
Debi Gliori
Alison Goodman
Joe Haldeman
Elizabeth Hand
Steve Haynes
John Helfers
John Hemry
Jack Hessey
Liz Holliday
Matthew Hughes
Stephen Hunt
Jasper Kent
Kay Kenyon
M. D. Lachlan
Jay Lake
David Langford
Bob Lock
James Lovegrove
Jonathan Maberry
David Mack
Juliet Marillier
Ian McDonald
Juliet E McKenna
Karen Miller
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Elizabeth Moon
Michael Moorcock
Theresa M. Moore
Yvonne Navarro
Stan Nicholls
Larry Niven
Jonathan Oliver
Phil Palmer
Steve Parker
Tamora Pierce
Jonathan Pinnock
Phyllis Irene Radford (writing as P.R. Frost/C.F. Bentley)
Robert V.S. Redick
Kit Reed
Mike Resnick
Adam Roberts
Steven Savile
Robert J. Sawyer
Ann Scarborough
Michael Shea
Lucius Shepard
Michael Marshall Smith
S.M. Stirling
Charlie Stross
Stephen Sullivan
Michael Swanwick
Harry Turtledove
Robert E. Vardeman
Tim Waggoner
Ian Watson
Simon West-Bulford
Sean Williams
Walter Jon Williams
Geoff Willmetts
Jane Yolen
And SFX supports the campaign 100%. We still remember the sneering attitude of the presenters and the talking head guests towards The Lord Of The Rings during the BBC's coverage of The Big Read a few years back, even though it won a public vote to find Britain's Favourite Book. Oh, and five other books in the Top 10 were SF or fantasy too. So, what books are we really reading?
Baš je jak spisak. Uf.
Evo nešto da se stimpank (eventualno & nekome) oduži za fanovsku vernost :lol:: (http://angryrobotbooks.com/2011/04/win-a-kindle-a-steampunked-kindle/)
Dobra vest je da i od zlog uvek ima gore; zamislite samo kako bi vam bilo da ste kojim slučajem Kinezi... :o
Hong Kong, China (CNN) – China has been cracking down on dissent of late, as the recent detainment of artist Ai Weiwei suggests.
But the latest guidance on television programming from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television in China borders on the surreal – or, rather, an attack against the surreal.
New guidelines issued on March 31 discourage plot lines that contain elements of "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking."
"The government says ... TV dramas shouldn't have characters that travel back in time and rewrite history. They say this goes against Chinese heritage," reports CNN's Eunice Yoon. "They also say that myth, superstitions and reincarnation are all questionable."
The Chinese censors seem to be especially sensitive these days. But for the television and film industry, such strictures would seem to eliminate any Chinese version of "Star Trek," "The X-Files," "Quantum Leap" or "Dr. Who." And does that mean rebroadcast of huge Hollywood moneymakers like "Back to the Future" and the "Terminator" series are now forbidden? (http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/14/china-bans-time-travel-for-television/?hpt=C2)
xrotaeye
Over at the FictionMags Yahoo Group, David Pringle (editor of Interzone between 1982 and 2004 and author of such books as Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels) posted the following message about the return of Michael Moorcock's seminal New Worlds magazine, which originally had a 201 issue run between 1946 and 1971.
The new magazine will be published in print and electronic formats and have a website. Michael Moorcock himself will lend his name to the masthead.
Here's David's message with more details...
Quote
I've just seen this, from Dave Hodson in London...
It is, in part, a kind of tribute to the late Gamma (Paul Gamble), who died, aged 61, on what would have been J. G. Ballard's 80th birthday, 15th November 2010.
Dave H and friends wanted to call themselves the Unlimited Dream Company (the name Gamma used for book-trading), but couldn't get clearance for that; so they're now the "Daves Dream Company."
-- David P[ringle].
_Michael Moorcock's New Worlds Magazine_
The Directors of the Daves Dream Company - Dick Jude, David Hodson, David Tamlyn, Roger Gray and Felix Jude- West - have reached an agreement with Michael Moorcock to revive the seminal science fiction magazine New Worlds. Michael has kindly agreed to lend his name to the masthead of the magazine and to contribute editorial pieces. The magazine will appear in both electronic and traditional print on paper formats and be backed up by an extensive website that will feature exclusive editorial features free to all interested readers.
It is anticipated that the new incarnation of the magazine will debut in September/October 2011, initially on a quarterly publishing schedule. Subscribers will receive both the electronic and printed versions of the magazine. Subscription rates and details will appear on www.newworlds.co.uk (http://www.newworlds.co.uk) when the website goes live in June/July 2011. The website will be hosted by colleagues from Storm Books, a specialist electronic publications publisher, owned and managed by Phil Ryan, one of the founders of The Big Issue. It is also anticipated that the title will represented to specialist bookshops for retail sale.
Our agreement with Michael Moorcock includes the proviso that the electronic version of the magazine should strive to incorporate cutting edge technologies to present fiction and editorial pieces to their maximum impact and that authors and artists should benefit from an innovative editorial approach. It is our hope that we can attain these wishes as they would also provide a fitting legacy to Paul Gamble. We may not be able to [fulfill] this promise immediately, we have to find the right people to provide and, hopefully, teach us the skills as we go along, but we're already on the look-out for people and technologies that will make the magazine unique.
We are now actively seeking contributions of all kinds from writers and artists. Until the website is active we ask that any potential contributors contact David Hodson via email on hodson798@btinternet.com.
Ian McDonald Sells Film Rights to The Dervish House...
Posted in News | April 28th, 2011
Zeno Agency is delighted to announce that film and television rights to Ian McDonald's award winning novel THE DERVISH HOUSE have been optioned by Warp Films. The deal was negotiated by Zeno's John Richard Parker who says, 'As with all Ian's books THE DERVISH HOUSE is very much cinematic as well being an imaginative tour de force. I have always believed it has the qualities that make it eminently suitable for film and I am sure that with Warp's enthusiasm for the project and their fantastic track record, all the ingredients are in place to put together something very special indeed.'
Warp Films have had notable successes recently with SUBMARINE and FOUR LIONS and Executive Producer Peter Carlton says 'We're delighted to have the chance to adapt THE DERVISH HOUSE for the screen, set in that most iconic of cities, crossroads of east and west, past and future, Istanbul. It starts with an explosion on a tram and ends in a race to stop a terrorist plot, but in the meantime Ian somehow weaves together speculative share trading, nanotechnology and Islamic microcalligraphy, to name but a few strands in this visual feast that has a narrative sweep and ambition all too rare in contemporary fiction.'
Terry Windling's Studio: (http://windling.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/joanna-russ-1937-2011.html)
Monday, May 02, 2011
Joanna Russ (1937 - 2011)
Sad news today. Joanna Russ, the award-winning author and literary critic, died at age 74 on Friday, in Tucson, Arizona. She'd been in poor health (with chronic fatigue and other problems) for a long while, and had been in hospice care in Tucson since suffering a stroke in February.
Joanna, for those unfamiliar with her brilliant work, was one of the leading pioneers of feminist sf/fantasy in the 1970s/1980s, and her books (including the groundbreaking novel The Female Man, 1975, and the insightful nonfiction text How to Suppress Women's Writing, 1984) was deeply important to my generation of feminist writers/editors. In an sf/fantasy field where we now take it for granted that women, too, can be influential writers, editors, critics, and publishers, Joanna's sharp, lucid, provocative writing lives on in every feminist's work. We are all her daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters...with a few sons and grandsons in there too. Rest in peace, great lady.
iz poslednjeg broja Salon Future (http://vimeo.com/23412517)
Pošto večeras već spemujem po forumu, evo ovo:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/13/iain-banks-science-fiction-genre (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/13/iain-banks-science-fiction-genre)
Dakle, Iain Banks se ostrvio na mejnstrim pisce koji otkrivaju toplu SF vodu, vrlo argumentovano i sve, ali ne navodeći primere. I naravno da je prvi komentar:
QuoteOh, Iain, Never Let Me Go.
Od čega sam ja počela da skačem od sreće jer sam posle čitanja te knjige usvinjila drugaricu koja mi ju je poklonila misleći da će me obradovati SFom, a SF ona inače prezire, drveći joj (uz mahanje rukama i pljuckanje) o tome po čemu se sve vidi da Išiguro nema pojma o SFu i šta bi sve tu trebalo izmeniti na čisto teorijskom planu a šta je u knjizi dobro do vrhunsko - sve ono što nije SF - i zašto to ništa ne vredi kad je osnovna postavka tako, ali tako prežvakana i neekonomična i curi u alegoriju i OMGWTF bolje da je još pisao o batlerima.
Ššššššš... nikad se ne zna ko je ovde kome fan... xph34
:mrgreen:
Enivejz, ja religiozno eskiviram slipstrim pa ne bi ni znala za frku, da nije komentara na svakom blogu... mada, dobro što Ijan nije naveo konkretne naslove, ovako svi navode sve.
Veli Šeril na blogu: My top suspect was Margaret Atwood, not for The Handmaid's Tale, which is a great piece of SF, and a Clarke Winner, but for Oryx & Crake, which to me read like the sort of eco-disaster novel that science fiction produced back in the 1970s. However, on Twitter whoever is behind the Gollancz account (Simon Spanton?) suggested that the primary target might be a book called Time's Arrow. Given that making fun of Martin Amis is pretty much a national pastime here in the UK, I think that is entirely possible.
Citing increasing crossover appeal of some of its adult science fiction titles by young adults, Prometheus Books's Pyr imprint is starting a series of titles aimed specifically at that audience. Lou Anders, editorial director of Pyr, will oversee the YA program which will begin in November with the publication of Lightbringer, an urban fantasy/paranormal romance by K.D. McEntire.
While Lightbringer is a debut novel, two other titles are from primarily adult authors. Hugo and Philip K. Dick-winning Ian McDonald's Plansrunner with be released in December followed in February by Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell. Planesrunner is the first in the new Everness series.
Anders said he has a total of six titles signed and would eventually like to do 10 YA titles annually. Rather than expand the Pyr list beyond the 30 titles it does now, Anders said he plans to make one-third of the Pyr list YA. The YA titles will be released in hardcover and e-book formats and have their own section in the Pyr catalogue.
Quote from: LiBeat on 16-05-2011, 18:50:33
Ššššššš... nikad se ne zna ko je ovde kome fan... xph34
Mislim da je Išiguro ipak previše Britanac za nindžu... možda samo neka krajnje džemsbondovska varijanta ;)
A inače, meni se ova knjiga, kao što rekoh, dopala, stvarno je izuzetno napisana, posebno ona evokacija detinjstva i ljubavni trougao i, uopšte, psihologija njih troje, ali mi priča jednostavno ne pije vodu na nivou opšte koncepcije, dakle kako? kada? zašto? Čitava ta ideja o načinu uzgajanja klonova, o njihovoj upotrebi odnosno životnom toku, procedura transplantacija - sve mi deluje krajnje neuverljivo a ja, pritom, nisam nikakav lekar ili biolog. Ili kad se jednoj ličnosti omakne: "Kako da ukinemo klonove kad živimo u društvu gde je rak izlečiva bolest?" Znam da će me sad neko klepiti po ušima, ali otkad se metastaze leče transplantacijom?
Naravno da je jasno kako autor sve moguće "tvrde" detalje izostavlja kao nebitne i da ne bi remetili priču, ali da prostite, nije svejedno šta kada i kome vade, da li bubreg ili rožnjače. Pitanje kompatibilnosti davaoca i primaoca nije ni okrznuto. I na kraju, moram da priznam da mi je najveća mana bila jedna čisto psihološka začkoljica - nikada, ni u jednom trenutku, ne vidimo nijednu osobu koja pomišlja na nekakav beg, ilegalu, ili makar na krajnje ljudsku reakciju u stilu one Mujine iz vica "Neće vala od moje kože doboš!" da se namerno zaraze nekom polnom bolešću, nasrnu na heroin ili nešto slično. Svi se mirno i rezignirano pokoravaju, uz eventualne pokušaje da se nešto uradi preko nadležnih instanci - a to nešto nije čak ni oslobođenje nego puko odlaganje. I tu se meni onaj predivan stil i nostalgična atmosfera osamdesetih sa audokasetama i uzvišena rezignacija poslednje rečenice smuče svi zajedno i ja počnem da mašem rukama i prskam pljuvačkom. (Izvinjavam se.)
O bozi, kud to ide ovaj svet kad se ti zbog vrlina izvinjavaš... :cry:
Nego, priznajem, odlično je sve ovo ispalo, saznala sam za mnogo naslova koje izgleda da ne bi trebalo ni rukavicama pipati. Ali zanima sad mene gde si to ti (i kako) stekla tu toleranciju da možeš jasno da vidiš sve manjkavosti a da svejedno nađeš i ponešto što ti je "dobro do vrhunsko"...? Pa ja to ne mogu, ni pod razno, kod mene ceo paket padne na prvoj manjkavosti, pogotovo ako je manjkavost od ove vrste koju ti opisuješ kod Išigura... pa, pobogu, kako uzeti za ozbiljno išta od autora koji tako malo veze održava sa realnošću? i kako uzeti za ozbiljno bilo kakva psiho-profilisanja kad se jasno vidi da sirotan autor ima problema sa najosnovnijim svakodnevnim konceptima? Takve stvari redovito ne dočitam do kraja, sve ako se ponekad i zeznem da u njih zavirim. :lol:
Imam i ja takvu toleranciju. :lol:
Recimo, "Vrabac" Meri Dorije Rasel. Na naučnom nivou to je neopisivo trućanje, gore od ovoga što Jevtropijevićka opisuje, ali na emotivnom nivou to je prelepo, jedna od (meni) najlepših knjiga ikad, toliko lepo da sam u stanju da zanemarim sve ono neviđeno lupetanje.
Ma. Jevtropijevićka će sad garant da zamaše rukama, ali, ja mislim da vas je fahovsko obrazovanje napravilo preterano tolerantnima, pa to vam je. :mrgreen:
:mrgreen:
:cry:
"fahovsko" :(? "fanovsko" :)!
Pa eto, izgledalo mi skroz da filolozi i dramaturzi imaju više strpljenja nego obični fanovski smrtnici... ali neću više o tome, eto rasplakah Jevtru... :oops:
>What's Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism about?
Eutopia is a story set around the time that the eugenics movement was getting going in the United States - by odd co-incidence, exactly 100 years back from the time of the book's release. It's the story of two men - Andrew Waggoner, a black physician who finds himself working in Eliada, a mill town built on Utopian principles in northern Idaho; and Jason Thistledown, a young man who is the only survivor of a mysterious plague that wiped out his community in rural Montana. Jason arrives in Eliada, accompanying his aunt who rescued him from the plague town. Germain Frost is an early eugenicist, who's traveling America looking to catalog the weak, insane and criminal. Jason and Andrew uncover some very sinister goings-on in and around Eliada - monsters both human and otherwise. In the end, they find things that could have near-apocalyptic implications.
> Eutopia deals with some heavy subject matter, eugenics and racism. Was it a difficult book to write?
It was difficult to write, as any novel is - but not because of the heaviness of the subject matter. I've always found eugenics to be a fascinating science - in part, because it really isn't a science. Its fundamental premise - that the fact that we can and do breed for certain traits in plants and animals means that we ought to be able to better our own species by doing the same with humans - is deeply flawed, and also deeply alluring. Who wouldn't want to make things better for us, the same way we make things better for cows?
Of course, when we breed cows to be bigger and fatter and more docile, we're not making it better for the cows - we're making things better for we who eat the flesh and drink the milk.
We can breed cows and get away with it because they're a commodity. The idea that we can treat human beings as domesticated animals and do better that way marks a fundamental misreading of Darwinism - and it represents an even more fundamental moral blindness. I found this fascinating from the get-go, as I did the racism that really went hand-in-hand with the eugenics movement.
The racism was tough, but only inasmuch as I had to face the fact that if I was going to write about racism, I was going to have to write racist characters. Which meant employing some pretty ugly language. So far, nobody's complained -- but still, I flinch at that kind of talk.
> What's the appeal of writing horror?
I have been asked this question before, believe it or not. My stock answer is that horror's not - or shouldn't be - a genre; it should be an emotion that we invoke, when we write stories that are otherwise about people and the drama of their interactions in the world. So the real question is, why do I like invoking the emotion of horror in my stories about people and the world and so forth. And I think it's because horror is such a deliciously complex emotion; it's more than just being frightened at a shadow, or a tableau of gore. It's a profound unease -- a sense that the world that we know is slipping away -- and something else is there underneath. And in experiencing that sense, I think that we open ourselves up to insights and epiphanies, that otherwise wouldn't be apparent.
Eutopia, A Novel of Terrible Optimism (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MON_o7qrWEc#ws)
(Najtflajere, imaš li kakav insajd info o ovome? Ovaj deo intervjua sa autorom mi najavljuje intrigantan roman... )
It's always fascinating when we read about classic science fiction novels headed for the screen...even though it doesn't happen often. Adaptations of beloved science fiction novels come with huge audience expectations, and huge budgets, so perhaps understandably, it's rare that they actually make the transition to the big screen. We know that Morgan Freeman has a long-simmering adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" in development, while visual effects master Richard Edlund and filmmaker Ridley Scott are adapting Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War".
The lastest sci-fi novel stirring up dust is Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" series. In a recent interview on Charlie Rose, actor Bradley Cooper said that he's interested in adapting the books and has already approached Graham King Productions with a treatment that he and his friend, Conal Byrne, wrote together. (http://www.cinemaspy.com/movie-news/bradley-cooper-anxious-to-adapt-dan-simmonss-hyperion-for-the-screen-7564/)
Game Over: Google Insists on Linking to Pirate Sites
Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt dealt authors and publishers a staggering and possibly fatal blow by declaring he opposed any effort to curtail Google's right to link to piracy websites like Pirate Bay. And he said it in such unequivocal terms that any author cherishing a shred of hope for the protection of his or her rights is spitting in the wind.
Josh Halliday of The Guardian reports: "Speaking to journalists after his keynote speech at Google's Big Tent conference in London, Schmidt said the online search giant would challenge attempts to restrict access to the Pirate Bay and other so-called "cyberlocker" sites that encourage illegal downloading – part of government plans to fight online piracy through controversial measures included in the Digital Economy Act." (http://ereads.com/2011/05/game-over-google-insists-on-linking-to-pirate-sites.html)
Ma gluposti. Prvo, većina knjiga se ne deli preko WWW-a, a drugo - ko mi brani da idem direktno na PB ili Demonoid, pa da tražim preko njihovog endžina?
istina, ali, eto, principi su u pitanju pa to mu je... xrotaeye
nego, SFSajt izbor čitalaca za 2010:
10. (Tie) Changes: The Dresden Files, Book 12 by Jim Butcher
(Roc / Orbit, April 2010)
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Butcher is still going strong with his series The Dresden Files. This one represents the 12th book following the adventures of your favourite wizard detective, Harry Dresden. It features explosions and vampire kidnappers, crime lords and Mayan elder gods, dimensional rifts, wizard duels, and a giant regenerating centipede. The ending is quite a shocker (to Harry as much as to the reader) leaving us all clamouring for the next volume, which is scheduled for release in July 2011.
Saltation Saltation by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
(Baen Books, April 2010)
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Liaden is an ongoing space opera series, popular since its inception in 1988. This is the 10th book in the series, and focuses on the character of Theo Waitley in her training to become a starship pilot. It's a direct sequel to Fledgling (Baen, 2009) and is clearly the middle book in what will be a trilogy of books in the overarching series. Lee and Miller have previously shown their talent for writing characters to keep the reader engaged, and Theo's ordeals at the academy are more than enough to maintain interest that will carry readers into the next book.
9. Bitter Seeds Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis
(Tor, May 2010)
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An impressive first novel, beginning a new series: The Milkweed Triptych. During the Second World War, British secret agent Raybould Marsh discovers the Nazis are making use of people with unusual abilities, including a man who can walk through walls, a woman who can turn invisible, and another who can see into the future and use that knowledge to influence the present. Marsh enlists the aid of the secret warlocks of Britain to counter the planned Nazi invasion, but magic never comes without its price. And in this case, the price might just be higher than the price of losing the war...
8. (Tie) Cryoburn Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
(Baen Books, November 2010)
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Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga has been enormously popular for more than 20 years. In this latest addition to the series, Miles Vorkosigan is tasked by the Emperor to investigate the expansion of a cryogenic facility franchise into the Barrayaran Empire. What he finds is bribery, corruption, conspiracy and kidnapping -- all in the name of attempting to cheat death. And during his visit to New Hope, the planet where they routinely freeze sick and dying people, Miles must himself cheat death in order to get to the bottom of what's really going on -- and to get out again.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (Pantheon, September 2010 / Atlantic/Corvus, October 2010)
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Another first novel on our top 10. This one is about a guy whose father walked out years ago, and who's now stuck in a dead-end job as a repairman for time machines. Until he gets caught up in a time loop, striving to avoid a paradox in which he may cease to exist. At the same time, he strives to repair -- or at least better understand -- his relationship with his father, who turns out to have been instrumental in the development of the time machine.
7. Blackout All Clear Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
(BO: Spectra / Subterranean, February 2010 / AC: Spectra, October 2010 / Subterranean, January 2011)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsite.com%2Fgrc%2F1012%2Fbo.jpg&hash=3261e1237adbc54fad952e2ff11359d7818c8aa7)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsite.com%2Fgrc%2F1012%2Fac.jpg&hash=b0a146304c072c7b3c42cff814528254ff7a13bb)
This longer work was published in two parts, as a pair of books which, together, tell a complete story. The Oxford University time travel program was established by Willis in her previous novels, The Doomsday Book (Bantam, 1992) and To Say Nothing of the Dog (Bantam, 1998). This time, time-travelling historians visit London during the Blitz, where they become stranded. The level of historical detail included in these two novels brings war-time London vividly to life for the reader, even as the historians from the future struggle to find their way out of their predicament.
6. Half-Made World The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
(Tor, October 2010)
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Gilman's third novel is a weird western, with an edge of steampunk. In this world, a gunslinger is only as good as his gun. And if your gun is inhabited by a demon, that can make you supernaturally good at beating the other guy to the draw. This is the story of a land torn apart by war between two factions: the Gun, a cult of terror and violence, versus the Line, paving the world with industry and enslaving the population in the process. A doctor of psychology, the new science, travels to a spiritually-protected mental institution in the wilderness of the west to learn the secrets of how to fight the Gun and the Line from those already driven mad by the attempt.
5. The Quantum Thief The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
(Gollancz, September 2010)
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Yet another notable debut novel for our top 10. Jean le Flambeur is a criminal and con artist, whose various selves are serving sentences for past crimes, undergoing the endless mental torture of the Prisoner's Dilemma -- forced to play that cruel game with copies of himself. One day, Jean (or at least one version of himself) is offered the chance to win his freedom. To do this, he must return to the moving cities of Mars to complete the heist that ended his criminal career in the first place.
4. Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
(Orbit, October 2010)
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The latest in Banks' long-running series of The Culture follows a war in heaven. Some civilizations in the galaxy have created a simulated afterlife in which the mind-state of the deceased is tortured. There are pro- and anti-hell worlds. While The Culture is opposed to the notion of hells, they have agreed to abide by a ruling to be determined by the outcome of a war-game in a simulated environment between pro-hell and anti-hell factions. But the pro-hell faction is cheating to gain the upper hand, and plans to bring the war into the real world.
3. Under Heaven - Roc/Viking edition Under Heaven - Harper/Voyager edition Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada/Roc/Harper Voyager, April 2010)
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Kay's latest is set in a fantastical version of 8th century China. At the passing of his father, a great general, Shen Tai sets out to lay the ghosts of 40,000 dead to rest by burying the bones of soliders from both sides of a battle, left unburried for 20 years. A princess, in recognition of his efforts to honour the dead, gifts him with 250 of the finest horses the world has seen. This overwhelming gift catapults Shen Tai into the middle of a complex tangle of political intrigue, dynastic struggle and military rebellion, all of which will challenge his personal desires and obligations to his family.
2. Kraken - Del Rey edition Kraken - Subterranean edition Kraken by China Miéville
(Macmillan, May 2010 / Del Rey, June 2010 / Subterranean, August 2010 / Pan, November 2010)
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For Billy Harrow, a curator at the British Museum, his pride and joy is a 40-foot specimen of a giant squid which the public loves to gawk at. Until one day it is mysteriously, impossibly gone. Then a human corpse is found folded and preserved in a smaller version of the squid's bottle. London is a far stranger place than Billy every realized, and someone or something is willing to kill in order to liberate the Squid God, or keep it hidden. What follows is a strange and dangerous chase through London, with Billy variously running from and aligning with cultists, ghosts, supernatural criminals, London's version of the X-files agents, ancient deities, the ordinary police, and some people or beings who defy explanation.
1. The Dervish House - Gollancz edition The Dervish House - Pyr edition The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz / Pyr, July 2010)
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This is a novel of near-future Istanbul. It begins with a suicide bomber on a crowded tram, and follows the lives of 6 very different people whose lives are all affected by this incident, and whose paths intersect. One witness to the bombing thereafter begins to see djinni and saints; a young invalid witnesses the event through the eyes of a BitBot monkey, and witnesses someone else also spying remotely; this boy shares his concerns with a disgruntled professor who has been forced into retirement; another woman is delayed by the blast in her effort to get to a job interview and consequently takes a job that involves her in a nanoware company; an antique dealer is set on a quest to find a man mummified in honey -- something that may exist or may be mere legend -- while her boyfriend is planning a stock-market scheme of unprecedented proportions. The tightly plotted story takes place over a brief period of time in a confined setting, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. But it is McDonald's writing and his handling of character that led SF Site readers to choose The Dervish House as the best book of 2010.
Bučer je super za opuštanje. :) Volim Dresden Files serijal, super mi je to urban fentezi :)
Future Shock
By Paolo Bacigalupi
Hiroshi Nomura/Stone
More from OnEarth
Science fiction writers ask if climate change is transforming Earth into the ultimate alien planet
Welcome to the Greenhouse
Edited by Gordon Van Gelder
OR Books, 348 pp., $17
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If you run your hand down the shelves of a bookstore, you'll find a wide range of contemporary fiction, categorized by reader fetish and with genres kept carefully separate. This one is "mystery," that one a "romance," another is a "thriller," and that one over there? Well, it's "literary." But whether we're talking about dragon tattoos or Da Vinci's codes or fraught Thanksgiving reunions, contemporary novels all seem to share a certain binding principle. Even as they try mightily to distance themselves from one another, in fact, they're all the same genre. They're historicals.
While we debate what constitutes fictional trash and hash over the trendiness of present tense, great events are afoot. Carbon dioxide concentrations are rising. The world is changing. The stories that purport to describe our contemporary world are becoming a bit like mammoths in glaciers. They're nicely detailed, but they're also extinct. Even as these novels explore families and politics, landscapes and nature, murders and liaisons, global mean temperatures continue to jag upward. Permafrost melts. The ocean turns acid. Polar bears mate with grizzlies. Bark beetles chew their way north to new timber.
The tide creeps up the beach and over the dikes. (http://www.onearth.org/article/future-shock)
Ovo bi moglo da se uveze.
TOC: 'Halloween' edited by Paula Guran
Prime Books has posted the TOC (http://www.prime-books.com/shop/trade-paperbacks/halloween-edited-by-paula-guran/) for their upcoming anthology/collection Halloween edited by Paula Guran. Here it is (alphabetically by author):
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"The October Game" by Ray Bradbury
"Tessellations" by Gary Braunbeck
"Memories" by Peter Crowther
"Universal Soldier" by Charles de Lint
"Auntie Elspeth's Halloween Story (or The Gourd, The Bad, And The Ugly)" by Esther Friesner
"Struwwelpeter" by Glenn Hirshberg
"Pranks" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
"By the Book" by Nancy Holder
"The Sticks" by Charlee Jacob
"Riding Bitch" by K.W. Jeter
"On the Reef" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
"Memories of el Dia de los Muertos" by Nancy Kilpatrick
"The Great Pumpkin Arrives at Last" by Sarah Langan
"On a Dark October" by Joe R. Lansdale
"Conversations in a Dead Language" by Thomas Ligotti
"Hallowe'en in a Suburb" by H.P. Lovecraft (poem)
"The Vow on Hallowe'en" by Dorothy Macardle
"Pumpkin Night" by Gary McMahon
"The Halloween Man" by William F. Nolan
"Monsters" by Stewart O'Nan
"Three Doors" by Norman Partridge
"Ulalume" by Edgar Allan Poe (poem)
"Night Out" by Tina Rath
"Hornets" by Al Sarrantonio
"Tamlane" by Sir Walter Scott (poem)
"Mask Game" by John Shirley
"Pork Pie Hat" by Peter Straub
"Halloween Street" by Steve Rasnic Tem
"Tricks & Treats: One Night on Halloween Street" by Steve Rasnic Tem
"The November Game" by F. Paul Wilson
"Sugar Skulls" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Big Deal :) :
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In this moving debut from Hugo-winner McIntosh, the prosperous world of 2023 ends not with a bang but with a crackle, the sound of genetically engineered bamboo growing overnight and destroying roads and buildings. Naïve college graduate Jasper struggles to trade charged batteries for food as his "tribe" wanders the Georgia countryside, dodging local cops and designer diseases. Settling in Savannah, they try to find some stability in a crumbling city beset by anarchist gangs and the "scientist-rebels" who release tailored organisms to hasten societal collapse. In the end, each member of the tribe must decide what to give up in order to survive. The novel, expanded from a short story, shows some unevenness in tone, but McIntosh strongly delineates his characters and makes Jasper's struggles very affecting. Though it may be soft, this apocalypse has plenty of sharp edges.
(prvo što su mi rivjui prizvali u sećanje bio je Vindamov Dan Trifida... :mrgreen:)
Dobra vest za dragog Miću; žanr naučne fantastike će najzad da prigrli & pod okrilje uzme onaj saj-faj izrod poznat kao "Planeta Majmuna" :evil: : (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/feature-trailer)
I da povežem prethodni post s Darylom Gregoryjem:
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Liptak i ja se ponovo nalazimo na istoj talasnoj... :)
REVIEW SUMMARY: A disappointing, but interesting re-imagination of Russian Folklore.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A 20th century re-imagination of Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F0765326302.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL200_.jpg&hash=50bfbb49ef23fa79a85bfb2535dafa8bba60dfed)
MY REVIEW:
PROS: A well written, imaginative novel.
CONS: Slow pacing threw everything off, and the story felt as if it was lost for the language.
THE BOTTOM LINE: I think Catherynne Valente and I are completely incompatible. I really want to like her books: The Habitation of the Blessed was a highly anticipated book for me, and I couldn't get past the first hundred pages before putting it aside. With Deathless, I'd hoped for another chance, but quickly found that it was a chore to read.
Set in the background of the rise of Stalinist Russia, Deathless takes the tale of Koschei the Deathless and re-imagines it for a new time and place. For the unaware of Russian folklore, it's an interesting and informative exercise, one that's peaked my interest in some of the background stories that have helped to inform it.
This story follows Marya Morevna as she watches her sisters wedded off to men who've sprang from birds, and who marries Koschei the Deathless, who's hidden his own death from himself, and Marya's own fall from grace with Koschei and her recovery with the naïve soldier Ivan. I have a difficult time remembering some of the finer points of the story, because often, I found myself focusing extensively on the language, rather than the story.
To be sure, Valente has crafted a well-written tale, one that uses repetition and some excellent language to carry the story across. But it comes off more often than not as pretentious, and frequently, I had to go back and revisit passages. By the end of the story, the book simply wasn't something that I was reading for entertainment, but was something that I found myself working to get through simply to finish the book, never a reaction that I want to have when I read something. It's a shame, because the book has quite a bit going for it: the modernization of a story, set in a relatively modern time, but with a real bit of imagination behind it.
At the end of the day, I'm not entirely sure why Deathless wasn't for me: I've come across books with excellent, dense and ponderous writing that I've greatly enjoyed: Suzanne Clarke's fantastic novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell springs to mind. Maybe it's this particular brand of storytelling and alien background when it comes to folklore, or maybe the writing itself. Whatever the reason, I was relieved to reach the end, if anything, so that I could get on to my next book -- which bothers me greatly. Maybe her next novel will suit me better.
Q: What F/SF authors should be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Here's what they said...
Will Shetterly
Will Shetterly is the author of 10 fantasy novels and numerous short stories.
I'm a firm believer that it's a greater honor to be nominated than to win, because there are usually better reasons to quibble about the winner than the nominees. Therefore, my first thoughts on nominees, in no special order: Jane Yolen, Ursula LeGuin, Samuel R. Delany, John Crowley, and Gene Wolfe. If she was still alive, I would include Diana Wynne Jones.
John Ginsberg-Stevens
John Ginsberg-Stevens is a writer, anthropologist, and bookseller whose has loved all forms of SF and Fantastika since he was a wee lad. He is married to a red-headed fiddler and father of an infant geek-in-training who is slowly perfecting her Jedi mind tricks. He is working on a novel and several short stories, is a biweekly columnist for Forces of Geek and a monthly blogger for Apex Book Company. He has taught anthropology and writing at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and several other fine institutions. At parties he participates in improv poetry competitions as Iron Poet Scandinavian Saga, whose lengthy eddaic paeans to the dust-bunnies beneath Odin's throne often extend the celebrations until dawn.
As I started thinking about this question, my first reaction was rather ambivalent: the idea of a writer of fantastika winning the Nobel Prize for Literature was not far-fetched, but seemed at once improbable and, more importantly, unnecessary. What would it do for the allied genres if a "real" writer of SF or fantasy or horror took the honor (and doesn't 1987 Worldcon GoH Doris Lessing count for something)? Would there be a sudden renewal of interest in fantastic literature? What does the Prize do for the field of literature anyway?. The Prize is an odd creation, funded rather ambiguously by the estate of the man who patented dynamite and who was prematurely excoriated as a "merchant of death" when his brother's death was confused with him dying. The Prize was to be awarded "to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction," an instruction that has its own peculiar history of interpretation. It is a strange honor, one created by privilege and granted by a tiny elite, to acknowledge something that is, as the award's history itself demonstrates, rather subjective, leading one to wonder just what is being lauded in its giving.
For these reasons, I think that the question is interesting not as one of speculation, but as one of rumination about what strengths we find in the works of genre authors that exemplify fantastika's broader artistic and contemplative values. Looking for such nominees is like looking for our Jose Saramago or our Nadine Gordimer, but it's also like looking for our Sully Prudhomme or Roger Martin du Gard; what was resonant fifty years ago may not be today. As Gene Wolfe once noted about the Nobel, winning it is no guarantee of enduring importance or admiration, especially as its standards have shifted over time. A given writer's legacy is rarely influenced by winning the Award, nor is it predictive of enduring eminence. But the question of which authors in fantastika come to mind as contenders can start a conversation about what we think fantastic literature has to offer authors as well as readers.
Wolfe would, perhaps not surprisingly, be my first nominee. As our gracious host noted himself on Twitter a few weeks ago: "It's my contention that Gene Wolfe is one of the few core genre writers who could plausibly get a Nobel Prize in Literature." A quick search on Goggle turned up many conversations about this possibility, touting Wolfe's gifts as world-class and deeply literary. He fits many of the preconceptions we have about what makes an author worthy of the Prize: his work is written with precision and profundity, his novels are often capacious and labyrinthine, with subtexts, depths of interpretation, and philosophical intricacies. They have aesthetic flourishes and meticulous structures, and they often have a lot to say about human nature. Wolfe reflects, for a number of readers, all of the qualities that we think a Nobel Laureate should possess.
And yet, I wonder if he is the best name to put forth. Wolfe is one of my favorite writers, and hugely influential, but I can't help but think that he is too easy a choice to advocate. In some ways, Wolfe's work fulfills certain expectations of what "literature" should be; dense, sometimes overly verbose, stratospherically intellectual, headily erudite. This makes him a fine candidate, but I think there are other authors who, for somewhat different reasons, are as good if not better nominees.
Ursula K. Le Guin comes to mind immediately. Her work often has those literary qualities I have described for Wolfe, but she has also demonstrated a wider range, writing YA fiction, criticism, and even a re-interpretation of the Tao Te Ching. She has addressed political topics, social issues, and the very idea of story itself in her work. Her range is stunning, and her ability to create works that can be simply deft or exactingly sophisticated demonstrates a gift for adaptation that arises precisely from her grasp and utilization of the fantastic and the mythic as her inspiration. Her literary heights might not dizzy us as often as Wolfe's do, but she can ground us or make us soar in our minds with a shift in phrase or notion. In her work we see much of the potential of fantastika to serve the author's talents and skill.
Samuel R. Delany would be another candidate of equal value. Delany too creates works with amazing depths and ornamentations, provokes emotion and reflection with power and sophistication. But, moreso than Wolfe or Le Guin he plays with the form of narrative, with the use of words, with the meanings that are possible in the structure and linguistic relationships within a story. His experimentations are legendary (if lamented by some), and his knowledge of literature, of the building blocks of signification, make his stories into a different sort of wonderland that can dishevel and delight, can ask hard questions and provide sobering answers. Delany fearlessly writes about himself as well, and while occasionally indulgent (as almost all autobiography is), his purpose is to reflect on how the words and experiences and ideas that influence his thoughts and actions, particularly from SF, can themselves be rendered on the page to provoke the reader and explicate matters that may not be easily grasped straightforwardly. He is one of our most powerful literary critics, and frequently takes great chances with his work (as those who have read or heard him read excerpts from his new novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders can attest). Fantastika is both toolbox and contemplative garden for him, and he has created a literary legacy that few can match.
My last nominee, which should also be unsurprising, is Joanna Russ. I have written about her influence on me personally, but as the outpouring of tributes for her work demonstrate, her influence was mighty and pervasive. She precipitated a shift in thinking about some of the essential conceits of SF, of the production of literature, and of the ongoing struggle to crack open the potential of fantastika to discover new ideas, to look at our assumptions from different angles, and to construct stories that did not assuage the reader, but that forced them to reflect on what they knew. As she has passed away she is technically ineligible for the Prize, but as a writer I reserve the right to change the rules a bit; if there is an author of the fantastic who fulfills the idea of "ideal direction," it is Russ.
One closing thought: these are not just nominees as "SF authors" but as authors who write fantastika that are more than worthy of such a Prize, odd as it is. Their work is not just technically proficient, not merely "literary;" it touches lives, reverberates through the field of fantastika and beyond, asks questions that demand a response in the reader, tells us that there is more to the world than what we see, than what others tell us is there. It does what I feel that literature should do: shake us, enrapture us, make our days strange and wonderful, tear at cherished notions and force us to defend them, perhaps question them, perhaps discover something new and stronger within them. I wish there was a prize for that.
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. Card also writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts.
Nobel Prize for Ray Bradbury. By no means does Ray Bradbury represent the main tradition of science fiction or fantasy, if only because he is inimitable. Instead, his stories, at their best, represent the finest literature of their time. Today it is only Fahrenheit 451 that schoolchildren read -- which is a shame, since it is not even close to being his best work. It is for Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, The October Country, and I Sing the Body Electric that he has earned a place in world literature worthy of permanent recognition.
If there is a runner-up, then it must be Harlan Ellison. Like Bradbury, his greatest work has been in the short story form; in addition, his personal essays and generous collaborations add luster to the body of his work. "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Tick-Tock Man" and "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" pulled him to the forefront of science fiction, but the more of his work you read, the more richly you are rewarded.
Elizabeth Hand
Elizabeth Hand is the multiple-award-winning author of numerous novels and short fiction.
My candidates (in alphabetical order):
John Crowley
Samuel Delany
M. John Harrison
Gene Wolfe
Gary K Wolfe
Gary K. Wolfe, Professor of Humanities and English at Roosevelt University and contributing editor and lead reviewer for Locus: The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field, is the author of critical studies The Known and the Unknown: The Iconography of Science Fiction, David Lindsay, Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever (with Ellen R. Weil). His Soundings: Reviews 1992-1996 (Beccon, 2005), received the British Science Fiction Association Award for best nonfiction, and was nominated for a Hugo Award. A second review collection, Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001, appeared in April 2010. Wolfe has received the Eaton Award, the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and, in 2007, a World Fantasy Award for criticism. A collection of essays, Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature, is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. He is also well known in the speculative fiction community for the Coode Street Podcast, in conjunction with Jonathan Strahan.
Which SF/F Authors should be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Offhand, I can think of three different ways to answer this question, all based on the assumption that we're talking about living writers with substantial long-term careers, which is allegedly what the Nobel Prize is for.
Answer #1: None of them. I'm tempted to say that our very best SF/F writers deserve better than to have their names appended to a list that is in substantial part made up of writers such as Sully Prudhomme, Grazia Deledda, and Pearl Buck. If you only recognize one of those names, that's sort of my point. Like most awards, the Nobel has a spotty record of identifying awardees whose works are still read, or readable, more than a decade after the prize is awarded, and it might be just as well for us to stop obsessing over these very traditional forms of mainstream recognition. Whether we like it or not, SF/F is perceived as genre literature, and the only genre which has been occasionally recognized by the Nobel committees is historical fiction. That should tell us something right there. SF, almost by definition, is forward-looking, and the Nobel, almost by definition, is backward-looking.
Answer #2: It's already happened. If one makes only a slight change in the question--from asking about SF/F writers to asking about writers who have written SF/F in one form or another, then the Nobel history doesn't look quite so bleak, from Rudyard Kipling to Hermann Hesse and William Golding to, most prominently and recently Doris Lessing, who has offered some very public and spirited defenses of SF as a legitimate mode of writing. Even Philip Roth, who is perennially listed as a candidate the last several years, has at least one fantasy (The Breast) and one alternate-history novel (The Plot Against America) in his bibliography. Of course I'm being a bit coy about this, and it's quite likely that Lessing, for example, received the prize in spite of her SF rather than because of it.
Answer #3: OK, I'll play the game. Since the Nobel committees don't like to recognize genre literature as anything other than a temporary illness which serious writers just ought to get over, we probably ought to look at writers whose careers are seen as somewhat broader than genre, even though genre may make up the bulk of their work. In this sense, the most likely living candidate, and certainly one of the most deserving, is Ursula K. Le Guin. If the committee were ever to look inside the genre, to see what richness and complexity can be accomplished within that framework, then I'd add Gene Wolfe to the list. Both are richly deserving, I think, though both suffer from the handicap of being Americans and having a substantial degree of popularity.
There is a long list of writers in comparatively early stages of their careers who might become reasonable candidates in a couple of decades.
Stina Leicht
Stina Leicht's debut novel Of Blood and Honey, a historical Fantasy with an Irish Crime edge set in 1970s Northern Ireland, was released by Night Shade books in February 2011. She also has a flash fiction piece in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's surreal anthology Last Drink Bird Head.
This was a tough question, largely because I feel that the award itself is so important. Whether or not it's true of the prize for literature, I associate it with works that aren't only beautiful or entertaining but are also ethical somehow. So, I'll stick with SFF literature that comments on the human condition. (Again, whether I've interpreted the question correctly is a whole other thing.) Anyway, here are my thoughts. Daniel Keyes is my first choice. Flowers for Algernon is an amazing, powerful work. Not only does Keyes present interesting scientific concepts, but he also creates heartbreaking characters. Charlie is so real and so tragic. In many ways, he's all of us. We're all destined to live those stellar moments of clarity and beauty and then pass into nothing through no fault of our own. Next, I'll name Margaret Atwood. A controversial one, I know, but The Handmaid's Tale has stuck with me every bit as much as the others I'll name. Regardless of whether Atwood was willing to admit its status as a SFF work or not, it's a great book and an important one. Whenever I hear someone downplay the contributions of female writers to the genre, Atwood is one of those names who comes to mind as a defense. I'd also throw down with Ray Bradbury, but then someone else is bound to toss his name into the hat. And well, that needs no explanation, really. All I have to say is Fahrenheit 451, and we're done.
Enough with the older stuff. What about newer works? In a way, I'll admit my choices aren't fair because I'm not as up to date these days as I'd like. However, a few things have snuck past my mountain of research. I was fascinated with the concepts and the world of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl. Bacigalupi poses some fantastic questions about where we're headed with genetic engineering. Granted, it's the same question Mary Shelley posed with her novel Frankenstein, but it's a question we human beings should never forget to ask. Lastly, I'm going to go with Libba Bray. There are some amazing things going on in young adult fiction, and in particular, young adult SFF. Bray is definitely a part of that force. Going Bovine was a stunning surrealist piece and Beauty Queens is far more weighty than its title and tongue-in-cheek introduction implies.
E, a skontaj, dva imena koja meni padaju na pamet su upravo Džin Vulf i Ursula Legvin.
Ursula Legvin bi, svakako, bila i moj izbor. Kao i Batlerova.
Slažem se, pogotovo za Batlerovu, ali potpuno me (prijatno) iznenadilo koliko se Dilejni visoko kotira.
Men je i Atvudova okej, ali smatram da je ona mejnstrim pisac.
Tjah, ja sam po tom pitanju beznadežno aut-of-sink... :cry: meni ti je Atvudova nekako u rangu sa Uelbekom, i ja ti tu nisam u stanju da dočitam niti jedan jedini naslov... ali opet, upravo mi to potencira izvesne razlike između "onda" i "danas": recimo, sećam se vremena kad su domaći doktori književnosti nosali pod miškom subverzivnog Balarda, Barouza, Sterdžena, Spinrada ili Rusovu, i zato stvarno ne mogu da pojmim kako to mogu da nadoknade Uelbek ili Atvudova. Mislim stvarno, to meni niti je žanr niti je mejnstrim, to mi je prosto kvazižanrovska bezvezarija. A koliko vidim iz ovdašnjih opaski, i Išiguro mu je tu negde. :twisted:
Nisam čitao Išigura :lol:
Za Sterdžena baš i nisam siguran ali su Balard, Barouz, Spinrad i Rusoova, ako ništa drugo, jedinstveni kako po stilu, tako i po temama koje obrađuju. Atvudova je (po mom mišljenju) slab pokušaj imitacije unikatnosti prethodnih.
Međutim, ni jedan (ma koliko specifični da su) od gorepomenutih ne predstavlja žanrovske autore koji zaslužuju Nobela (ponavljam, ma koliko da su specifični ili jedinstveni).
(ni ja nisam čitao Išigura)
Pa sad, okej, možda cela ta ideja 'za Nobela' i jeste malko prežestoka, ali Sterdženu garant treba malko rehalibilitacije, ipak je čovek morao da palpom plaća kiriju, isto kao i Dik... :(
Quote from: LiBeat on 09-06-2011, 21:43:02
Tjah, ja sam po tom pitanju beznadežno aut-of-sink... :cry: meni ti je Atvudova nekako u rangu sa Uelbekom, i ja ti tu nisam u stanju da dočitam niti jedan jedini naslov... ali opet, upravo mi to potencira izvesne razlike između "onda" i "danas": recimo, sećam se vremena kad su domaći doktori književnosti nosali pod miškom subverzivnog Balarda, Barouza, Sterdžena, Spinrada ili Rusovu, i zato stvarno ne mogu da pojmim kako to mogu da nadoknade Uelbek ili Atvudova. Mislim stvarno, to meni niti je žanr niti je mejnstrim, to mi je prosto kvazižanrovska bezvezarija. A koliko vidim iz ovdašnjih opaski, i Išiguro mu je tu negde. :twisted:
Atvudova ima sjajnih stvari, ali nežanrovskih.
Mira Grant i njeni zombiji:
A trailer for Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUXWlXK985U#)
Our question for this week's fearless panelists: (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/06/mind-meld-what-cultures-are-neglected-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy/)
Q: What Civilizations and cultures are neglected as inspirations in Fantasy and Science Fiction?
Here's what they said...
Daniel AbrahamDaniel Abraham is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. His work includes the International Horror Guild Award winning and Nebula nominated "Flat Diane" and Hugo nominated "The Cambist and Lord Iron." His Long Price Quartet novels are published by Tor in the US and Orbit UK, along with editions in half a dozen other languages. Daniel's latest novels are Leviathan Wakes (which he co-wrote with Ty Franck under the shared pseudonym James A. Covey) and The Dragon's Path
Almost all of them are under-used and almost none of them are utterly ignored. And there are reasons for both of those things to be true. Most fantasy and science fiction is less in conversation with real history and culture than it is with other fantasy and science fiction literature, so there winds up being a feedback loop in which fantasy is about faux-medieval quasi-Europe because it's all in the shadow of Tolkien (rather than because of some particular virtue of faux-medieval quasi-Europe). And at the same time, genre writers try new things and reach for the unfamiliar in a way that encourages experimentation with non-standard cultures. Barry Hughart's The Bridge of Birds, Ian McDonald's River of Gods, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood books, and Who Fears Death? by Nnedi Okorafor all come to mind. All of them are bringing something to the table that broadens that conversation within the genre, but none of them have yet brought that so much into the mainstream that their settings have become standard.
If I got to pick what cultures and civilizations got more stage time in our genres, I'd like to see more of India, especially in the era of the East India Company. I think having a fantasy set in a similar place and time would open up some really interesting possibilities. I'd also like to see more use of eastern Europe and Russia of the kind that Ekaterina Sedilla and Catherynne Valente have been doing.
More than particular civilizations and cultures, though, I'd be very interested in seeing more stories set in contexts of poverty. Class is the third rail of American culture, and when I see what noir does with rural poverty in something like Winter's Bone, it makes me interested in seeing something similar in other genres.
Justina RobsonJustina Robson is the author of Silver Screen, Mappa Mundi, Natural History, Living Next-Door to the God of Love, and the Quantum Gravity series (Keeping It Real, Selling Out, Going Under, and the upcoming Chasing the Dragon - all from Pyr). Given that so much of our genre has historically been the product of a narrow band of human beings with a relatively narrow area of interests I'd say without actually surveying it that the answer to this must be MOST of them. Whether you regard said inspiration as plundering or reinvigorating is probably another question, but given the way writers operate it won't make any different - everything is grist to the mill and the mill grinds what it will. Now that the internet is here making it so much easier to have access to previously-tough-to-find anthropological information I guess things will change and anything with a relatively rich fabulism will find itself put to new use.
Rene SearsRene Sears has been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy for as long as she can remember. She is the slush reader/ editorial assistant at Pyr. You can find her on Twitter as @renesearsOne thing that's so exciting about SF/F right now is that many writers are exploring cultures that aren't as well-trodden in the genre. In no particular order:
Nnedi Okafor's powerful Who Fears Death is set in a post-apocalyptic Africa, but very much draws from contemporary issues, and despite some extremely grim events manages to be hopeful.
I'm seeing more stories now with Asian settings as well. Cindy Pon's YA books Silver Phoenix/ Fury of the Phoenix are set in Xia, an alternate China, and employ hunger-inducing descriptions of food as well as creepy monsters. Richard Park's Lord Yamada stories at Beneath Ceaseless Skies are set in Japan. I don't know of any SF/F set in Korea, either historical or contemporary, but would love to see some.
I'm very much looking forward to Elizabeth Bear's forthcoming Range of Ghosts, which will have cultures analogous to those of the Central Asian steppe. One of our own forthcoming books, Blackdog by K. V. Johansen, is not directly analogous but has a similar steppe-culture feel.
There have been several books out recently set in or drawing from various periods of Russian/ Soviet history. Jasper Kent's Danilov Quintet begins with Napoleon's invasion of Moscow in 1812 and follows the Danilov family to 1917 in a Russia suffering the depredations of the vampires it invited in and can't get rid of. Cathrynne Valente's Deathless combines the Russian folktale of Koschei the Deathless with a Soviet-era setting, while Ekaterina Sedia's Secret History of Moscow is set in the 1990s. Ken MacLeod's forthcoming Restoration Game takes place in a near-future informed by the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
I'd love to see more books set in contemporary South America, and more books drawing from Native American/ First Nations culture, both past and contemporary. I would be thrilled to read stories set in Hawai'i, as well as Australia and New Zealand-- I'm aware of Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead, which has Maori elements, but have yet to read it. I'd welcome suggestions about any books or stories I'm missing.
I'm also interested in books that take several cultures and give them an alternate history together. Kate Elliott describes Cold Magic as "an Afro-Celtic post-Roman Regency novel." I haven't read it yet, but that description is certainly enticing. Fusion history sounds as fun as fusion cuisine.
James MacdonaldJames D. Macdonald is an author of over 35 fantasy and science fiction novels, often in collaboration with his wife Debra Doyle.Under-used world cultures and settings?
Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong places, but while there's tons of stuff in temperate zones, I don't see a whole lot set in the tropics, particularly urban Latin America (Panama through Colombia). And for world cultures, non-medieval Spanish cultures aren't being done a lot. I'm not talking about Castenada nor about the magic realists, but the current folklore and society of around 7% of the world's population.
Spain has a vibrant science fiction tradition, but I'm not seeing it translated, or used, in the English-speaking SF world.
Karen LordKaren Lord was a physics teacher, diplomat, part-time soldier, academic and traveller (some of them at the same time). She is now a research consultant and writer in Barbados. Redemption in Indigo, winner of the 2011 Crawford Award, is her debut novel. You can find her on twitter (@Karen_Lord) more often than not. The old places are too familiar: sci-fi set in MegaMetropolis, fantasy in pseudo-mediaeval country. New locations sometimes arise, but they remain unique, or, if they generate sufficient appeal, they can spawn enough imitations to win a subgenre label. Our fictional cultures and civilisations are reused and recycled, just as Hollywood has developed a peculiar demographic and aesthetic that little resembles reality. We live in the real world, but we prefer to step into the Matrix for our fiction.
It would be interesting if we could scale back the Hollywood and absorb some influences from Bollywood, Nollywood and wuxia. But, given that they too have their flaws, it would be even more interesting if our new fictional worlds were not obtained second-hand from old fiction, but primary-sourced from the real. The real is complex, changing and surprising. Its truths are vulnerable when documented by the hostile, uncomprehending, or fetishising researcher. In spite of (and because of) these challenges, quality, not quantity, should be the aim. Why list underused cultures and civilisations when we can't even do justice to the ones we've already have?
Lyda MorehouseLyda Morehouse is the author of the AngeLINK series, which won her a Shamus in 2001 and the Philip K. Dick Special Citation for Excellence in 2004. Despite this critical acclaim, she now writes romance and urban fantasy under the pseudonym Tate Hallaway. Tate's most recent release is Almost To Die For, a YA vampire novel (August 2010). Lyda returned to the AngeLINK universe in March 2011 with the publication of Resurrection Code by Mad Norwegian Press. You can find Lyda and Tate all over the web, but feel free to star at: www.lydamorehouse.com (http://www.lydamorehouse.com) or www.tatehallaway.com (http://www.tatehallaway.com).For science fiction, clearly: white male scientists! In fantasy: Ireland.
In all seriousness, my first impulse was to say Africa, but I think that more and more authors are turning to Africa for fantasy and science fiction settings -- particularly authors like Nnedi Okorafor and Stephen Barnes among others. I used North Africa, specifically Egypt, for the setting of my new science fiction novel _Resurrection Code_. Very likely, however, we could still more science fiction, in particular, that uses Africa as a setting.
My next guess was going to be the Arab world, but Saladin Ahmad had been taking up that setting quite nicely. In fact, I just discovered and really enjoyed a couple of his short stories: "A Judgment of Sword and Souls" a fantasy that I listened to at PodCastle, but which was originally published in IGMS, and a science fiction story "A Faithful Soldier, Prompted" which appeared in the all-Arab/Muslim issue of Apex Magazine last November. He will have a new novel set in the Arab world _Throne of the Crescent Moon_ coming out in February of next year from DAW.
What about American Indians? I remember being really struck that the actor who played Helo on the new "Battlestar Galactica" was a First Nations actor, and that's not something you see a lot: Native Americans in space/in the future. Of course, there was Chakotay on "Voyager," so maybe I'm wrong. There is also Eleanor Arnason's "Mammoths of the Great Plains" is a lovely science fiction/alternate history (with a fantasy feel) novella.
So what setting or culture is completely untapped? I'm not sure, but, focusing on science fiction, I would like to see more Latino/Latina characters represented. I feel like Mexico and South America could use a bit more attention, though my friend and fellow writer Barth Anderson set his near-future novel _Patron Saint of Plagues_ in Mexico City. He followed that book up with a fantasy that takes place partly in Central America, _The Magician and the Fool_.
As far as cultures go, I'm still always up for more queerness in science fiction and fantasy. I know that, for me, finding echoes of myself in science fiction stories like Theodore Sturgeon's "World Well Lost" and fantasy like that written by Elizabeth A. Lynn were critical to my survival. I'm not entirely being hyperbolic there, either, because growing up in a small Wisconsin town in the 1970s, science fiction was, in point of fact, my version of "It Gets Better."
I know that things like "Race Fail" have made white authors like myself a little nervous about writing characters of color, but I think that's mistake. The far bigger mistake is to dismiss/ignore a future of color or claim a future "beyond race." Because what we say about the future is what we say about ourselves. I continue to hope that "it gets better."
N.K. JemisinN.K. Jemisin's short stories have appeared in Baen's Universe, Strange Horizons, Postscripts, and elsewhere. Her fantasy novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Orbit) has been nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Here latest novel is The Broken Kingdoms.
Everything outside of the British Isles/Atlantic Archipelago.
Guy Gavriel KayGuy Gavriel Kay is the author of Under Heaven
"I'm never contrarian (!) but it does feel a bit wrong to imagine writers cynically prowling in search of underexploited real estate in fantasy. (Maori! Toltec!). The key, surely, is to work from within, let research be guided by what engages, animates; for authors to be steered not by claim-staking but by passion. I am happier reading, say, another Renaissance-inspired work if it is genuinely inspired, rather follow a writer who has done routine due diligence on some apparently under-used time and place purely because there was no one else exploiting it. If a writer's intense engagement steers them to new settings, that's wonderful - for all of us. But intense engagement + talent will give us something wonderful, even in areas covered before."
Ian McDonaldIan McDonald is a British science fiction novelist whose novels include the Locus-Award-winning Desolation Road (1988), Out on Blue Six (1989), the Philip K. Dick Award-winning King of Morning, Queen of Day (1991), Ares Express (2001). His widely acclaimed, BSFA-Award-winning novel River of Gods (2004) introduced readers to a future India of 2047. His follow up novel, the BSFA-Award-winning Brasyl (2007), was also well-received. His collection of short stories, Cyberabad Days, is set in the same future India. His latest books include Desolation Road, Ares Express, and The Dervish House,a finalist for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
I can't really answer that much for fantasy, though I could imagine a dearth of South American-inspired -and-located epic fantasy. Science fiction is indeed more my area. There the landscape is a little different --there's always been the tradition of the 'one-culture-planet' in which one Earth nation has enetirely settled one extrasolar planet and written the homeland extemely large across the stars. One of the funkiest examples was Richard Lupoff's 'With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Li'l Ole new Alabama', which, IIRC, featured a spacewar betwen New Alabama and New Haiti --and some very cool zombies.
I set my novel ;River of Gods' and the story collection 'Cyberabad Days'in India because it seemd to me that it was a global culture that had been largely overlooked by Western Science Fiction. Likewise, I'll never (but then again, never say never) set a novel in China becaiuse it's too obvious and too much the default state of the imagination when we in the West think of 'Asia'. I've been reading about Central Asia recently (not Fantastika) and it's fascinating and pretty underrepresented -- I can think of Geoff Ryman's 'Air' and that's about it. 'The Dervish House' is set in Turkey --or, more specifically, Istanbul, because it seemed to me that here was a major country undergoing an economic and political boom withan inteersting Imperial past that had really featured in SF before,
North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa --particularly West Afruca, which is where I suspect the next global boom will happen-- seem poorly represented. Indonesia and the Pacific nations --though I'm thinking a little about them for the putative Next Novel. Germany! And, where I'm writing this, at a convention in Stockholm, Sweden and Scandinavia (though Norse myth is one course one of the preferred fuels for fantasy). I've been visiting the former Yugoslavia in the past year and it's one of the most interesting places I've ever been. Of course, my own home country of Northern Ireland is a tad neglected --but then again there's Stina Leicht's 'Of Blood and Honey'. Writers from all over the planet are looking around them at the world and engaging sensibilities with geopolitics. That's exciting.
Steven SilverSteven H Silver is the editor of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus, the publisher of ISFiC Press, editor of three anthologies for DAW Books, and the author of several short stories. He recently edited a two volume collection of Lester del Rey's short fiction for NESFA Press.Because the majority of speculative fiction in the English language is written by and for people whose culture is based on Western Europe, the majority of cultures represented in the field are based on those civilizations, whether Roman or Celtic or Greece. However, even when an author turns their attention to a non-Western civilization, in writing about it in (or using it as the basis for) a work of speculative fiction, they have a tendency to view the culture through the lens of that same Western civilization which informs so much of the average reader's world view. Several science fiction authors over the years have explored other cultures, and although there have been some egregious examples (Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan stories spring to mind), other authors have been able to write about different cultures with respect and accuracy, using foreign cultures to tell their stories, from Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts's Korean based Empire Trilogy to Kara Dalkey's Indian-based Blood of the Goddess trilogy. Other authors have made good use of their own cultures as the basis for their speculative fiction, whether it is Nalo Hopkinson or Tobias Buckell using the Caribbean, Somtow Sucharitkul's use of Thailand, Nnedi Okorafor and Nigeria, or Ekaterina Sedia and Russia.
In a lot of cases, a potentially interesting historical culture has only left behind tantalizing hints about day to day life and beliefs, nothing tangible enough to form the basis of the type of culture needed to create the background for a work of speculative fiction. Therefore, the Angkor Wat society, or Timbuktu traders, or the Clovis culture (a moniker which always makes me think of Merovingians in America), are not ripe for fully realized settings in science fiction or fantasy.
One problem with writing in a foreign culture is the potential for cultural misappropriation, especially when there are people who belong to that culture who feel that an author's use of their heritage is disrespectful or outright incorrect in its representation. For this reason, writing about long-dead, or extremely altered, historical cultures provides a degree of safety for the author. When writing about any culture that isn't one's own, the author should be careful to do their research and treat the culture with respect. Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward offer a writers workshop, Writing the Other, and have an accompanying book, Writing the Other: A Practical Guide to help authors with the complexities of writing in a foreign culture. (http://www.sfwa.org/members/shawl/other/ (http://www.sfwa.org/members/shawl/other/))
But the focus on the Mind Meld is supposed to be on some of the under-represented cultures, which are legion, that speculative fiction could make use of. Some intriguing cultures which spring to mind include the Basques, the Armenians, any of a number of different African and Asian cultures. While certain major cultures around the world do find themselves used in various ways, including India, Brazil, and Russia, many of the different cultures surrounding those areas are overlooked. There isn't a lot of SF that draws from Bangladesh, Uruguay, or Kazakhstan. And, of course, each of those and so many more cultures can draw from history. The only stagnant culture is the dead one (and even then, our understanding can continue to change).
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 19-05-2011, 11:19:54
Mislim da je Išiguro ipak previše Britanac za nindžu... možda samo neka krajnje džemsbondovska varijanta ;)
A inače, meni se ova knjiga, kao što rekoh, dopala, stvarno je izuzetno napisana, posebno ona evokacija detinjstva i ljubavni trougao i, uopšte, psihologija njih troje, ali mi priča jednostavno ne pije vodu na nivou opšte koncepcije, dakle kako? kada? zašto? Čitava ta ideja o načinu uzgajanja klonova, o njihovoj upotrebi odnosno životnom toku, procedura transplantacija - sve mi deluje krajnje neuverljivo a ja, pritom, nisam nikakav lekar ili biolog. Ili kad se jednoj ličnosti omakne: "Kako da ukinemo klonove kad živimo u društvu gde je rak izlečiva bolest?" Znam da će me sad neko klepiti po ušima, ali otkad se metastaze leče transplantacijom?
Naravno da je jasno kako autor sve moguće "tvrde" detalje izostavlja kao nebitne i da ne bi remetili priču, ali da prostite, nije svejedno šta kada i kome vade, da li bubreg ili rožnjače. Pitanje kompatibilnosti davaoca i primaoca nije ni okrznuto. I na kraju, moram da priznam da mi je najveća mana bila jedna čisto psihološka začkoljica - nikada, ni u jednom trenutku, ne vidimo nijednu osobu koja pomišlja na nekakav beg, ilegalu, ili makar na krajnje ljudsku reakciju u stilu one Mujine iz vica "Neće vala od moje kože doboš!" da se namerno zaraze nekom polnom bolešću, nasrnu na heroin ili nešto slično. Svi se mirno i rezignirano pokoravaju, uz eventualne pokušaje da se nešto uradi preko nadležnih instanci - a to nešto nije čak ni oslobođenje nego puko odlaganje. I tu se meni onaj predivan stil i nostalgična atmosfera osamdesetih sa audokasetama i uzvišena rezignacija poslednje rečenice smuče svi zajedno i ja počnem da mašem rukama i prskam pljuvačkom. (Izvinjavam se.)
Tek sad procitah knjigu, a ovaj mi se post odavno vrti po glavi, pa prosto moram da dopišem ponešto iako s ovolikim zakašnjenjem.
Elem, pitanje je da li je prava ljudska reakcija zaista pobuna ili ipak pomirenost sa sudbinom i instinkt krda. Tako je mene u detinjstvu stalno kopkalo zašto se onoliki ljudi koje su Nemci streljali nisu pobunili, pokušali da pobegnu, da makar ugrizu najbližeg Nemca, ali ne... Bilo je mudrih ili patetiènih poslednjih reèi, dostojanstvene smrti, ali ne i spontane pobune, bar sudeæi po svim onim prièama o konc-logorima, o Šumaricama, Bubnju i ostalim stratištima. Ili zašto su onoliki crnci slušali robovlasnike cak i kad ih je bilo sto na jednog? Pa onda pogledajmo da li se mi danas bunimo zbog bilo cega što nam se dešava, a svašta nam se glupo dešava, pa da li smo stvarno sami oterali Miloševica ili su oni iz Otpora morali debelo da se potrude da razmrdaju ljude da uopšte izaðu iz kuæa i šetaju, a šta li bi tek bilo da je bila potrebna neka oružana pobuna... I što to se to nije desilo mnooogo pre ako je ljudima u prirodi da se suprotstavljaju. Suština je da se lepo dresirani ljudi ne bune, kao što se ni mi ne bunimo protiv onog što smatramo normalnim i što se prosto dešava oko nas, ma koliko bi to možda iziskivalo pobunu ako bismo ga osmotrili s distance ili ako bi nas neko na nju podstakao. Stoga mi deo o pomirenosti klonova sa sopstvenim mestom u svetu nije nelogican, baš to mi je bilo dirljivo i... ljudski. Bune se i izazivaju promene u svetu samo oni koji vec imaju nešto ili èak svašta, nikad (ili neverovatno retko) oni koji nemaju ništa.
A Išigurova knjiga mi se, zacudo, dopala mnogo manje od filma po njoj, koji me je bukvalno naterao u plac iako sam znala da su te scene namerno tako smišljene, i posle tri meseca još uvek mi izlaze pred oci. I svaki put kad ih se setim, naježim se i imam potrebu da ljudima koje volim to i kažem, da ih zagrlim ili oprostim ako su me nešto iznervirali. U filmu nekako nelogicnosti u zapletu nisu toliko bitne koliko neverovatan splet prikazanih emocija i savršeno docarani likovi. I kako je samo prikazano ono što je u knjizi precutano, to kako izgledaju davaoci posle nekoliko donacija, i kako se doktori prema njima ophode... Ne znam za drugi slucaj da je film toliko nadogradio knjigu po kojoj je stvaran, obicno uvek više volim da procitam nego da pogledam neku pricu, ali ovo su uspeli da snime bolje nego što bi meni pošlo za rukom da zamislim, i mnogo potresnije... Pogledajte film.
:) Pa, nažalost sam u letnjem režimu rada i neću skoro sesti da opširno odgovorim, ali - čak i u konclogorima je bivalo pobuna, što spontanih i neorganizovanih koje uglavnom nisu doprle do nas ni u vidu priča jer su odmah zatrte, što onih zaista suludo herojskih kao u varšavskom getu. Naravno da je instinkt krda i poslušnosti dobrih građana bio ono što je sve to omogućilo, kako u istoriji tako i u ovom romanu, ali meni se čini da su Išigurovi junaci previše slični standardnoj razmaženo-sebično-nepokorno-samostalnoj deci današnjice, bez tragova ozbiljnog dresiranja i ispiranja mozga koje bi baš ovolika pasivnost zahtevala.
Ima još dosta mudrih ljudi koji zbore kao ti, upravo povodom ove knjige i filma, no sigurno tumačenje zavisi i od toga gde i kako živimo i kakve ljude srećemo, bar sam se ja od buntovnice sa razlogom ili bez njega skoro pa pretvorila u dobru građanku jer su mi pobune ispale jalove i nikad nisu naškodile ni sistemu ni ličnosti protiv koje bih se bunila, i sad ćutim i kad uđem u autobus čiji vozač razgovara mobilnim ili kad vidim da neko baca kesu u reku, pa čak i kad vaspitačica moga sina kaže pomarandža a ja je nagonski ispravim, posle mi bude krivo jer ona to neće naučiti ni od mene ako nije dosad, nego će samo biti uvređena. Ili da skroz banalizujem koliko ljudi lakše trpe nego što se bune: kada mi je mesar isekao neke masne šnicle, a ja tražila da iseče nove, besprekorne, sugrađanka do mene odmah je uzviknula kako su njoj dobre, i neka ih da njoj, iako je svejedno morala da sačeka da ja prvo dobijem ono što želim. A nije bila nestašica mesa i šnicle su stvarno bile bljak... Što li je to učinila, da li joj je mesar je autoritet pošto ima mantil i glavni je u radnji, je li htela da mu se dodvori, ili samo da mu stavi do znanja kako njoj uvek može uvaljivati šta hoće, ili samo da ocrni onog ko se izdvaja tj. mene, koja sam se usudila da prekršim nepisano pravilo da o tome šta kupujete ne odlučujete vi i da je svaka pobuna neukusna i spada u kršenje pravila lepog ponašanja...
I među decom današnjice ima mnogo izuzetno pokornih pravilima društva (koja možda nisu naša pravila), da krenemo samo od toga šta sve pod pritiskom okoline školarke rade po školskim WC-ima. Ako deci koja rastu u internatu, bez roditeljske pažnje i bez ikakvog izdvajanja iz mase koje bi doprinelo razvijanju ega, kažemo da nešto mora biti ovako ili onako, verujem da će ona to prihvatiti i usvojiti zasvagda, po onoj jezuitskoj ideji o lakom oblikovanju dečjih umova.
Drugo su ova naša razmažena i prezaštićena deca koja preispituju roditeljske tvrdnje i pametuju i raspravljaju se otkako progovore – to čine jer ih mi podržavamo u tome, sami smo ih tome naučili, u stilu: neka to rade, daj bože da takvi budu i kad im vršnjaci budu predlagali kako da žive, a drugo su deca iz romana koja su od početka odgajana kao posebna, kao manje vredna, kao drugoklasna, gde je to ispiranje mozga vrlo suptilno sprovedeno, ono ,,kažu im i ne kažu", s gomilom tabua, s temama o kojima ni međusobno ne govore, o svrsi koja se shvata kao nepromenljiva. Uostalom, i naš kraj je nepromenljiv, i mi znamo da ćemo neminovno umreti, pa bunimo li se zbog toga, bežimo li, borimo li se, radimo li išta pametno sem što živimo dan za danom dok ne okončamo, sem ono malo umetnika i njihovih pomagača koji ispunjavaju život tako što istovremeno ulepšavaju naš.
Phoenix Pick nudi za julsku besplatnu knjigu "Solis", A.A. Attanasio.
kupon šifra je 99922191, pa ko voli...
Mr. Charlie is a brain without a body, revived after being frozen for a thousand years.
Charlie Outis has no idea of what the world might be like in the far future after he decides to have his brain frozen with the slim hope of it being revived one day.
But even a thousand years from now, brains are a valuable commodity--even brains without heads. But who does the brain belong to? And who controls a mind without a body. (http://www.phoenixpick.com/catalogue/PPickings.htm)
Solis is a thought provoking and original exploration of what it means to be a sentient being by the author of the highly acclaimed Radix Tetrad, and an author, the Los Angeles Times calls "a truly amazing, original talent."
Quote from: Dacko on 02-07-2011, 00:58:11
A Išigurova knjiga mi se, zacudo, dopala mnogo manje od filma po njoj, koji me je bukvalno naterao u plac iako sam znala da su te scene namerno tako smišljene, i posle tri meseca još uvek mi izlaze pred oci. I svaki put kad ih se setim, naježim se i imam potrebu da ljudima koje volim to i kažem, da ih zagrlim ili oprostim ako su me nešto iznervirali. U filmu nekako nelogicnosti u zapletu nisu toliko bitne koliko neverovatan splet prikazanih emocija i savršeno docarani likovi. I kako je samo prikazano ono što je u knjizi precutano, to kako izgledaju davaoci posle nekoliko donacija, i kako se doktori prema njima ophode... Ne znam za drugi slucaj da je film toliko nadogradio knjigu po kojoj je stvaran, obicno uvek više volim da procitam nego da pogledam neku pricu, ali ovo su uspeli da snime bolje nego što bi meni pošlo za rukom da zamislim, i mnogo potresnije... Pogledajte film.
Da nastavim gde sam manje-više stala: pogledaću film :) makar da vidim kako je rešen ključni problem: meni je nedostajala upravo ta nadogradnja, jer Išiguro prećutkuje maltene sve u vezi sa donacijama, i kako se izvode, i kakvi su lekari, i kakav je odnos između lekara, pacijenata i donatora. Praktično mi je nezamislivo da se ne uspostavi kakav-takav odnos između lekara, donatora i negovateljica, i velika je rupa što se u romanu taj aspekt preskače. Jasno mi je da je to namerno urađeno kako bi se suzio fokus, ali to u suštini - bar meni, bar gledano sa SF a ne, štagaznam, alegorijskog stanovišta - deluje kao varanje.
I drugo: prva asocijacija je svima holokaust, druga, eto, robovlasništvo, i sve je to tačno, postojali i postoje sistemi u kojima je to sve moguće, ali pripremni radovi, da ih tako nazovem, krajnje su obimni. Nije se antisemitizam rodio 1933. u Nemačkoj, nego znatno ranije, i bio je toliko raširen i u određenim slojevima prihvaćen da su nacisti sve što su radili mogli da rade očekujući nekakvu podršku i prihvatanje svojih nebuloznih doktrina. Kod Išigura mi nikakva obrazloženja o tome kako klonovi nisu ljudi ne dobijamo. OK, ja svakako ne očekujem da mi se kompletna izmišljena stvarnost servira na tanjiru, ali nagoveštaji koje dobijamo su jadni i protivrečni kao i ovi za donacije, naprosto nedovoljni i neuverljivi ako čovek stane i razmisli. Dosta toga proizlazi iz pozicije pripovedačice, ali kad se setim kako je taj problem rešen npr u Sluškinjinoj priči Margaret Etvud, ne mogu a da ne poželim nešto na tom nivou.
Quote from: Dacko on 02-07-2011, 17:32:17
no sigurno tumačenje zavisi i od toga gde i kako živimo i kakve ljude srećemo,
Nešto ne mogu da stanem s pisanjem, dakle: možemo da pretpostavimo kako živimo u sličnoj, da ne kažem istoj okolini? ;) Recimo: eto, ti si reagovala drugačije nego ta građanka kojoj je stalo da se dodvori mesaru. Mantil je jak faktor, bio na mesaru ili na lekaru,
ali ne za svakog. I meni je nedostajao taj neki minimum raznolikosti. Nije morao baš Spartak da se pojavi :lol: ali, uh, neko dovijanje u okviru sistema, ne znam, neki donator koji bi se dosetio da lekaru ponudi seksualne usluge ili ma šta drugo u zamenu za odlaganje donacija? Nema. Nema
ničeg. I to mi je nekako neuverljivo. Kao što su mi inače neuverljivi filmovi u kojima se dugogodišnja dresura, ubeđenja, religije, očas posla odbace jer film, eto, traje samo sat i po, a treba junaka ili junakinju osloboditi od predrasuda i još srušiti robovlasničko društvo, pa se nema vremena za finese.
QuoteUostalom, i naš kraj je nepromenljiv, i mi znamo da ćemo neminovno umreti, pa bunimo li se zbog toga, bežimo li, borimo li se, radimo li išta pametno sem što živimo dan za danom dok ne okončamo, sem ono malo umetnika i njihovih pomagača koji ispunjavaju život tako što istovremeno ulepšavaju naš.
Pa da, slažem se sasvim, to i jeste poenta knjige, barem jedna od mogućih, povlačenje paralele sa našim kaobajagi slobodnim životima, i zato me je knjiga i dirnula i ovoliko brndžim i zagađujem topik, mesecima već. Ali ofrljizam u konstrukciji SFa, ma koliko umjetničkog, ne opraštam. :lol:
Da ne ispadne kako sad nešto branim knjigu, našla sam joj razne mane, samo eto taj nedostatak pobune nije među njima, a dosta sam razmišljala o tome jer sam istu zamerku pročitala i u kritikama filma (koji već branim jer me je baš dotakao, mada ja i ne znam bogzna šta o filmovima, naivna sam gledateljka). Mi zapravo ne znamo je li bilo nekih pobuna jer sve saznajemo iz Ketine perspektive, pa kako ona samo nagoveštava da su drugi klonovi imali mnogo gori tretman nego hejlšamski, moguće je i da za eventualne pobune i ne zna ili ne mari. Da ne gnjavim sad o Čehovu i nekim ljudima koji se takođe prosto ne bune, samo se nadaju da će se jednog dana odmoriti od svega, na šta su mene ponajviše podsetili Keti i drugari. :)
A Išiguro jeste štošta zbrljao i preko mnogo čega preleteo, ali po prirodi posla toliko gluposti pročitam da sam sklona da sve to oprostim ako mesec-dva posle čitanja knjige još uopšte pamtim o čemu je bila. Dobro, ovde ću pamtiti film, ali pošto ga ne bi bilo bez knjige, opet plus za Kazua.
The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1 - Ellen Datlow (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0042X9WGE/sfsi0c-20)
Asimov's has posted the TOC for the August 2011 issue:
NOVELETTE
"The End of the Line" by Robert Silverberg
"Corn Teeth" by Melanie Tem
"Paradise Is Walled A Garden" by Lisa Goldstein
SHORT STORIES
"Watch Bees by" Philip Brewer
"For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not Be Back Again" by Michael Swanwick
"We Were Wonder Scouts" by Will Ludwigsen
"Pairs" by Zachary Jernigan
POETRY
"Bribing Karma" by Danny Adams
"The Music of Nessie" by Bruce Boston
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: The 2011 Dell Magazines Award by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Earth Is the Strangest Planet by Robert Silverberg
Thought Experiments: Celebrating Isaac by James Gunn
On The Net: James Patrick Kelly: Writing Lessons
I još jedna kontroverza međ' knjigama... :lol:
Maul – product placement
July 3, 2011 — tonykeen46
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F41ZY5MC9TXL._BO2%2C204%2C203%2C200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click%2CTopRight%2C35%2C-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg&hash=b69edfcbb60e9bac563cb20d3594211f1a4ddc8e)
Many commentators, most recently Sebastian Faulks, have noted the manner in which Ian Fleming validated James Bond as a character through the brands he used. It was important to Fleming to know, and to let the reader know, what cigarettes Bond smoked, what vodka he drank, what golf balls he used.
Something similar is going on in Maul. The bloody gunfight that precipitates much of the action in the maul occurs not just in an upmarket clothes boutique, but in Lord & Taylor. Sun and Alex have sex in the stockroom not just of an electrical goods store, but of Sharper Image. Other shops are mentioned – Godiva, Toys-R-Us, etc. Sun's existence seems defined by the brands she uses – she doesn't wear perfume, she wears CK1. When she finds a packet of cigarettes what registers is Benson & Hedges. The only significant thing that is not referred to by its brand, interesting, is Sun's gun.
Sullivan does this for authenticity. This may not be a mall in our world, but it is a mall in something that is a close enough approximation of our world to be recognisable. Americans, and most Brits (certainly anyone who'd ever seen The Blues Brothers or Dawn of the Dead) would have an idea of a mall in which trading names are prominent. Sullivan herself, who grew up in New Jersey in the 1970s and 1980s, no doubt spent some time herself in such places (though hopefully she never ran into a running gun battle). So Sullivan's maul needs to have same quality of commercial branding – anonymous stores or invented ones just won't cut it.
Something similar is going on in the future strand. Of course, there the brands are made up, but commercial interests clearly still loom large in this world. The Mall game Meniscus is a product of NoSystems. Madeleine Baldino works for Highbridge. Some of the names, however, are not invented. Dunkin' Donuts is still going, as is Play-Doh. Clearly, Meniscus' world is not that far into the future.
I've talked in the previous post about how Maul is a novel about violence and gender roles. But the use of brand names suggests to me that it is also a novel about commercialism, and the way that can wreck lives. It is not just about the fetishisation of violence, but its commodification. It truly is an SF novel for the way we live now.
John Carter of Mars -- Official Movie Trailer 2012 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rf55GTEZ_E#ws)
Grešiš:
Đžon KARTER sa Marsa
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:shock: :? :lol:
a kako se to izgovara?
Đ-Žon! Šta ti tu nije jasno?!
Elem, da se podsetimo malo na onu akciju žene u žanru od 2001 do 2010, s naglaskom na prepoznavanje novih klasika:
The Future Classics: the top ten from 101 sets of nominations
1 The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
2 Maul by Tricia Sullivan
3 Natural History by Justina Robson
4 The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
5= Spirit by Gwyneth Jones and Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
7 Life by Gwyneth Jones
8 Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin
9 Farthing by Jo Walton
10= Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones and City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
Komentarisanje se sad već razgranalo na desetine mesta, pa sve postaje prilično zahtevno za praćenje, ali ovo je cener koji definitivno vredi overiti, pa ga neka odve za podsetnik. :)
Quote from: Gaff on 18-07-2011, 21:55:39
Đ-Žon! Šta ti tu nije jasno?!
ah, vi mladi, vazda i sa svime lako izađete na kraj... :lol:
Quote from: LiBeat on 18-07-2011, 21:59:13
ah, vi mladi, vazda i sa svime lako izađete na kraj... :lol:
Mda...
Da mi penzija nije ovolika kolika je, ja bih ovu knjigu odma' kupio! Al' meni je i 250 dinđži mnogo!
a ja sam uvek smatrala da će se sinijor sitizens lakše oprostiti sa parama kad su ovakvi kurioziteti u pitanju... :mrgreen:
Elem, sfsignal (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/07/happy-birthday-to-us-part-8/) slavi osmi rođendan... :)
Bryan Singer, he of X-Men and The Usual Suspects fame, has a new post-apocalyptic web series on the horizon. Here's the description:
+: The Digital Series takes viewers on a journey into an apocalyptic future where technology has begun to spiral out of control...a future where 33% of the world's population has retired its cell phones and laptops in favor of a stunning new device - an implanted computer system called H+.
This tiny tool allows the user's own mind and nervous system to be connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. But something else is coming... something dark and vicious... and within seconds, billions of people will be dead... opening the door to radical changes in the political and social landscape of the planet -- prompting survivors to make sense of what went wrong.
H+ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlXmsNK_V4k#ws)
Izašao je treći nastavak serijala Terra Incognita, pod nazivom The Key to Creation Kevina J. Andersona.
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Kevin J. Anderson has been nominated for multiple literary awards, including the Nebula Award and the Bram Stoker Award, and as of 2003 held the Guinness World Record for the largest single author book signing.
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Brave explorers and mortal enemies across the world clash at a mysterious lost continent. After long voyages, encountering hurricanes and sea monsters, Criston Vora and Saan race to Terravitae, the legendary promised land. Saan's quest is to find the Key to Creation, a weapon that may defeat Uraba's enemies, and Criston wants vengeance against the monstrous Leviathan that ruined his life long ago.
Back home, two opposing continents and religions clash for the remnants of a sacred city, unleashing their hatred in a war that could end both civilizations. Queen Anjine and Soldan-Shah Omra are driven by mutual hatred, heaping atrocity upon atrocity in an escalating conflict that only their gods can end.
Meanwhile, the secretive Saedrans. manipulating both sides, come ever closer to their ultimate goal: to complete the Map of All Things and bring about the return of God.
So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut's Classic SF novel 'Slaughterhouse Five' Banned from Missouri Public High School Library Shelves! (http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2011/07/so-it-goes-kurt-vonneguts-classic-sf-novel-slaughterhouse-five-banned-from-missouri-public-high-school-library-shelves.html) :shock: :? :cry: :x xfoht
Da deca ne krenu u krstaške ratove...
Quote from: LiBeat on 28-07-2011, 09:52:08
So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut's Classic SF novel 'Slaughterhouse Five' Banned from Missouri Public High School Library Shelves! (http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2011/07/so-it-goes-kurt-vonneguts-classic-sf-novel-slaughterhouse-five-banned-from-missouri-public-high-school-library-shelves.html) :shock: :? :cry: :x xfoht
Pa zamisli da neko dete pročita kako je rat gadan (ili da američko dete pročita o Amerikancima koji bombarduju nemačke civile), kako onda da ga regrutuju u vojsku i pošalju da bombarduje ljude širom sveta i da im ono veruje da time štiti svoju zemlju?
MissourAH!
E, ako je tako, onda se u Mizurah ne čita ni za kim zvona zvone, ni kvaka 22, ni limeni bubanj, ni go & mrtav, ni ratnu molitvu, ni sve tiho na zapadnom frontu, pa čak ni dobrog vojnika švejka... šta li to onda čitaju u bajbl-beltu, da mi je znati? :(
Mada ja ipak mislim da ih kod klanice 5 najviše zbunjuje fantastika.
a evo i The Clockwork Rocket :!:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F51jMmlCvieL._SL500_AA278_PIkin4%2CBottomRight%2C-46%2C22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg&hash=e58015c91b73621d2c2c10007ed139ca472105f3)
In Yalda's universe, light has no universal speed and its creation generates energy.On Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting their own light into the dark night sky.As a child Yalda witnesses one of a series of strange meteors, the Hurtlers, that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed. It becomes apparent that her world is in imminent danger -- and that the task of dealing with the Hurtlers will require knowledge and technology far beyond anything her civilisation has yet achieved.Only one solution seems tenable: if a spacecraft can be sent on a journey at sufficiently high speed, its trip will last many generations for those on board, but it will return after just a few years have passed at home. The travellers will have a chance to discover the science their planet urgently needs, and bring it back in time to avert disaster
Eto, audio knjiga već izašla.
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Audioslice: Cowboys & Aliens by Joan D. Vinge:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/audioslice-cowboys-and-aliens-by-joan-d-vinge (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/audioslice-cowboys-and-aliens-by-joan-d-vinge)
Clarkesworld #59 (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/issue_59/)
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Eto. Izašlo iz štampe pre nedelju dana.
Robert E. Howard - Conan the Barbarian: The stories that inspired the movie
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Conan the Barbarian is a collection of six fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his seminal sword and sorcery hero of the same name, first published in paperback by Del Rey/Ballantine Books in July 2011 as a tie-in with the movie of the same title. The stories originally appeared in the 1930s in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales. An earlier collection with the same title but different contents was issued in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1954.
Contents:
"The Phoenix on the Sword"
"The People of the Black Circle"
"The Tower of the Elephant"
"Queen of the Black Coast"
"Red Nails"
"Rogues in the House"
SF Site News objavljuje i par smrtovnica:
Author Leslie Esdaile (b.1959), who wrote as L. A. Banks died on August 2. In June 2011, Esdaile had announced she had been diagnosed with late stage adrenal cancer. Using a variety of pseudonyms, Esdaile published romance, non-fiction, crime, and horror novels.
Actor Richard Pearson (b.1918) died on August 2, a day after his 93rd birthday. Pearson appeared as Mole in the BBC series based on The Wind in the Willows and also provided the voice of Gordy in Men in Black II and appeared in Scrooge and episodes of Tales of the Unexpected and Out of the Unknown. He played Professor Watkins in the first series of Stranger from Space. He also had a bit part in Royal Flash.
Felicia Day radi na novom web-serijalu: 'Dragon Age: Redemption'
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2011-02-15-felicia15_ST_N.htm (http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2011-02-15-felicia15_ST_N.htm)
Dragon Age: Redemption teaser - New Felicia Day Webseries (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF2mPgwrlT4#ws)
Podržavam ideju, ali sumnjam u Felicijinu sposobnost da me ubedi da je ne gledam kao Codex nego kao novi karakter. Biće overeno u svakom slučaju.
Quote from: mac on 04-08-2011, 12:42:15
... ali sumnjam u Felicijinu sposobnost da me ubedi da je ne gledam kao Codex nego kao novi karakter.
Da, slažem se. Pogotovo što je i u Eureci pljunuta Cyd Sherman (aka Codex).
Najpre jedna kontroverza malko sanirana:
INDIANAPOLIS — Up to 150 students at a Missouri high school that ordered "Slaughterhouse-Five" pulled from its shelves can get a free copy of the novel, courtesy of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, library officials said on Thursday. (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44036337/ns/today-books/#.Tj440M33Ijx)
... a već se našla i druga. Terri Windling:
Ellen Datlow just alerted me to an interesting article published in The Guardian on June 29. It seems that a story from our Snow White, Blood Red anthology (a collection of re-told fairy tales for adult readers) has been denounced in the state-owned al-Akhbar newspaper in Egypt. Gracious! That's a first for us.
The offending story is Tanith Lee's "Snow-drop," an Angela-Carter-esque retelling of Snow White.
"It was on the reading list of a fantasy fiction course offered to final-year students during the first term of this academic year, 2010-2011," says The Guardian. "The short story, according to the al-Akhbar journalist, teaches nothing but depravity and moral degradation. It encourages perversion and is therefore 'a crime in the full sense of the word'. Brandishing his moral sword, he threatened to file a complaint of moral corruption to the public prosecutor and to sue all those involved in allowing this short story to corrupt innocent minds."
The power of fairy tales indeed. (http://windling.typepad.com/blog/2011/08/fairy-tale-depravity.html)
Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume III: Century #2 1969
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Chapter Two takes place in the psychedelic daze of Swinging London during 1969, a place where Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26 is the drug of choice, and where different underworlds are starting to overlap dangerously to an accompaniment of sit-ins and sitars. The vicious gangster bosses of London's East End find themselves brought into contact with a counter-culture underground of mystical and medicated flower-children, or amoral pop-stars on the edge of psychological disintegration and a developing taste for Satanism. Alerted to a threat concerning the same magic order that she and her colleagues were investigating during 1910, a thoroughly modern Mina Murray and her dwindling league of comrades attempt to navigate the perilous rapids of London's hippy and criminal subculture, as well as the twilight world of its occultists. Starting to buckle from the pressures of the twentieth century and the weight of their own endless lives, Mina and her companions must nevertheless prevent the making of a Moonchild that might well turn out to be the antichrist!
Miyuki Miyabe - ICO: Castle in the Mist
http://www.haikasoru.com/ico-castle-in-the-mist/ (http://www.haikasoru.com/ico-castle-in-the-mist/)
Paula Guran (Ed.) - The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2011 Edition
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This incomparable annual compilation of the best short fiction and novellas features an unmatched variety of the quietly weird, the merely eerie, high fantasy, modern Lovecraftian horror, nightmarish near-future scenarios, the darkly humorous, the supernatural, and the monstrously mundane from the brightest new talent, legendary authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Tanith Lee, and Gene Wolfe, and bestsellers such as Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, and Sarah Langan. Includes a 36,000 word novella by George R.R. Martin set in his A Song of Fire and Ice universe.
Dobro... 'ajde da se vratimo malo fantastici. Sterlingu krajem godine izlazi zbirka priča: Gothic High-Tech.
http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SP&Product_Code=sterling02 (http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SP&Product_Code=sterling02)
Keen On... Bruce Sterling: Gothic High Tech and Favela Chic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT9jsFWbl3c#ws)
Izašlo juče u HC-u.
Robert Jordan/Chuck Dixon/Chase Conley: The Eye of the World - The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 (The Wheel of Time)
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(ma znam, al' ne znam gde ovo da stavim, pa reko' i ovo mesto je dobro k'o i svako drugo.)
Credits to Irena Adler
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/magic-and-the-supernatural/call-for-papers/ (http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/magic-and-the-supernatural/call-for-papers/)
Quote from: Gaff on 02-09-2011, 00:43:40
Dobro... 'ajde da se vratimo malo fantastici. Sterlingu krajem godine izlazi zbirka priča: Gothic High-Tech.
je l' čitao ko skorije Sterlingove knjige (The Caryatids, The Zenith Angle, ...)? valja li čemu?
Greetings everybody! Here's a quick update on things at the Haffner Press Secret Moon Base:
- Facebook Updates - We continue to add content (text and graphics) to the Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/453gdok) for Shannach-The Last: Farewell To Mars by Leigh Brackett. More images will be posted this weekend.
- Shannach-The Last: Farewell To Mars - Speaking of which, Shannach-The Last: Farewell To Mars has been at the printer for 3 weeks and, with the bindery's workload for the holiday season, we are currently scheduled to take delivery of inventory on the week of October 24th. This book has had the best pre-sell of any Haffner Press title, so if you're thinking about getting a copy, don't wait too much longer.
- Fredric Brown To Take Flight! - Fans of Fredric Brown should "keep watching the skies" in the coming weeks!! Translation: Haffner Press has an agreement for volumes that are designed to collect the mystery fiction of Fredric Brown. This series will be a wonderful and affordable opportunity to own the entire mystery output of this fondly-remembered author. With the already announced titles: The Complete John Thunstone by Manly Wade Wellman, The Complete I.V. Frost by Donald Wandrei, and The Michael Gray Mysteries by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore, our new line of mystery titles is shaping up to be something very special.
- Asimov's Says Haffner Press Rules!! - At least Paul di Filippo says so as he reviews no fewer than four recent releases from Haffner Press in the September issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. The online text is here (http://www.asimovs.com/2011_09/onbooks.shtml).
- Edmond Hamilton Gets Some Ink - Richard A. Lupoff gives a charming review to the two most recent Edmond Hamilton volumes: The Collected Captain Future, Volume Two and The Universe Wreckers, The Collected Edmond Hamilton, Volume Three in the September (#608) issue of Locus magazine. The Locus subscription page is here (https://secure.locusmag.com/Magazine/Subscribe.html).
- Oops! - Out-Of-Print Notice - Effective immediately, Martian Quest: The Early Brackett is out of print. We still have copies of the slipcased/limited edition signed by Grandmaster Michael Moorcock (http://www.haffnerpress.com/189388712X.html) at the original price of $125. If you're aware of what happens to out-of-print HP titles, and don't have a copy of Martian Quest, you might consider latching on to one of these (before they're oop as well).
- Party With Us On Www.Librarything.Com (http://www.librarything.com) - We're slowly adding content to our account at www.librarything.com (http://www.librarything.com/home/jdenardo) and we plan on offering Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) of select titles in the coming months through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. If you're a member of Library Thing, you've got a head-start; otherwise we recommend you visit http://www.librarything.com/er/signup (http://www.librarything.com/er/signup) so you don't miss out on chances for early peeks at forthcoming books.
That's all for now, fellow astrogators. Our next update will feature details about the two forthcoming Henry Kuttner titles (
Thunder In The Void &
Hollywood On The Moon / Man About Time: The Pete Manx Adventures), news about Edmond Hamilton / Leigh Brackett Day 2011, the contents list of the Fredric Brown titles (maybe), and much, much more.
Keep Watching the Skies!
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(Gaffe, ovo ko stvoreno za tebe... :) )
Tyra Banks (da, ta Tyra Banks) - Modelland
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No one gets in without being asked. And with her untamable hair, large forehead, and gawky body, Tookie De La Crème isn't expecting an invitation. Modelland - the exclusive, mysterious place on top of the mountain - never dares to make an appearance in her dreams. But someone has plans for Tookie. Before she can blink her mismatched eyes, Tookie finds herself in the very place every girl in the world obsesses about. And three unlikely girls have joined her. Only seven extraordinary young women become Intoxibellas each year. Famous. Worshipped. Magical. What happens to those who don't make it? Well, no one really speaks of that. Some things are better left unsaid. Thrown into a world where she doesn't seem to belong, Tookie glimpses a future that could be hers - if she survives the beastly Catwalk Corridor and terrifying Thigh-High Boot Camp. Or could it? Dark rumors like silken threads swirl around the question of why Tookie and her new friends were selected . . . and the shadows around Modelland hide sinister secrets.
Are you ready? Modelland is waiting for you. . . .
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9535351-modelland (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9535351-modelland)
Amazon Launches SF/Fantasy Imprint: 47North
— posted Tuesday 11 October 2011 @ 10:05 am PDT
Amazon.com's publishing division has announced a new SF/fantasy/horror imprint, 47North.
The imprint has announced their first 15 titles, to be released in late 2011 and early 2012. Upcoming books include Against the Light by Dave Duncan (January 2012); The Mongoliad: Book One by Neal Stephenson & Greg Bear (April 2012); and Further: Beyond the Threshold by Chris Roberson (May 2012).
Titles will be available in Kindle, print, and audio formats at Amazon.com, "as well as at national and independent booksellers." They plan to publish original work, reprints, and out-of-print titles.
47North is the seventh imprint from Amazon Publishing, and joins other genre lines including Montlake Romance and mystery/thriller imprint Thomas & Mercer. For more details, see www.amazon.com/47North (http://www.amazon.com/47North).
http://www.sfgateway.com/ (http://www.sfgateway.com/)
Enter the Gateway!The SF Gateway is your portal to the classics of SF and Fantasy, where we hope you'll renew acquaintances with old favourites and discover new guides to strange and wonderful worlds .
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/ (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/)
Welcome to the beta text of the third edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Some sample entries are below. Alternatively, you can browse the Encyclopedia through the search box above or the categories in the grey bar above.
SFE Beta Text launches 02/10/2011 18:57:51
On October 3rd, the beta text of the third edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction went live. To answer some Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What exactly is a beta text?
In this context, it means a text of the SFE that isn't yet complete. We think we're about 3/4 of the way through compiling the Encyclopedia. Our current 3.2m wordcount will probably expand to 4.2m by the time we're done at the end of 2012. So there will be some entries missing in the beta text, and some cross-reference links that aren't yet working. Of course, we hope that 3.2m words will be enough to occupy everyone for a while...
Q: How are you going to update the text?
Updates will probably happen monthly, and be flagged through our blog (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sf-encyclopedia.com%2Fstatic%2Fimg%2Fexternal.gif&hash=b4417361b423483c0ffbe999a8d153e7a1ca8d63) (http://sfencyclopedia.wordpress.com/), our Twitter feed (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sf-encyclopedia.com%2Fstatic%2Fimg%2Fexternal.gif&hash=b4417361b423483c0ffbe999a8d153e7a1ca8d63) (http://twitter.com/#%21/SFEncyclopedia), and Facebook page (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sf-encyclopedia.com%2Fstatic%2Fimg%2Fexternal.gif&hash=b4417361b423483c0ffbe999a8d153e7a1ca8d63) (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sf-Encyclopedia/138995776178949).
Q: My favorite author/film/TV programme doesn't have an entry. Is this because the SFE is still a beta text?
In all probability, yes. We know there are a lot of missing entries at the moment. These gaps will be filled over the course of the next year or so.
Q: You say you're going to "be done" with the SFE at the end of 2012. Does that mean you'll stop updating it?
No. We intend to continue updating the SFE for as long as we're partnered with our friends at Gollancz. End-2012 simply marks the point at which we'll be able to claim the Encyclopedia is as comprehensive as we want it to be.
PS. Ovo zasluzuje i poseban topik gore u "teoriji".
Quote from: Melkor on 14-10-2011, 02:04:39
Amazon Launches SF/Fantasy Imprint: 47North
— posted Tuesday 11 October 2011 @ 10:05 am PDT
Amazon.com's publishing division has announced a new SF/fantasy/horror imprint, 47North.
The imprint has announced their first 15 titles, to be released in late 2011 and early 2012. Upcoming books include Against the Light by Dave Duncan (January 2012); The Mongoliad: Book One by Neal Stephenson & Greg Bear (April 2012); and Further: Beyond the Threshold by Chris Roberson (May 2012).
Titles will be available in Kindle, print, and audio formats at Amazon.com, "as well as at national and independent booksellers." They plan to publish original work, reprints, and out-of-print titles.
47North is the seventh imprint from Amazon Publishing, and joins other genre lines including Montlake Romance and mystery/thriller imprint Thomas & Mercer. For more details, see www.amazon.com/47North (http://www.amazon.com/47North).
Ova Mongolijada teoretski obećava!
Prophets of Science Fiction - Ridley Scott - Science Channel - HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNpZmUjPL6E#ws)
Harlan Ellison tvrdi da su mu In Time-ovci maznuli ideju iz "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/sep/16/harlan-ellison-justin-timberlake-movie (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/sep/16/harlan-ellison-justin-timberlake-movie)
Justin Timberlake's 'In Time' Sued By Author Harlan Ellison (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il__qi5nNUM#ws)
Elison je pedigrirani kopirajt skvoter. :lol:
Koliku glavudžu ima ova omladinka...
The Intersection of Science Fiction and Horror (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/science-fiction-and-fantasy/intersection-science-fiction-and-horror/#continue_reading_post)
(John DeNardo na Kirkusu)
The Book That Will Make You Rethink Vampires
Frankenstein's monster isn't the only classic creature that gets the science fiction treatment. While several novels attempt to lay scientific groundwork for the legendary notion of vampires—Peter Watts' Hugo-nominated novel[/color]Blindsight (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/peter-watts/blindsight-3/) is one example—one book stands out in my mind as a must-read "scientific" vampire novel: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Although this too is often considered a horror novel, it squarely deals with the societal impact of a pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism. Robert Neville, the apparent sole survivor of the pandemic, a man who attempts to find a cure for the condition, learns this firsthand. It's a terrific novel that woks both a science fiction andhorror.
The Cthulhu Mythos
H.P. Lovecraft, a notable name in horror fiction, wrote a short story in 1928 called "The Call of Cthulhu" which involves an unspeakable, supernatural horror: the great Cthulhu, a malevolent entity who poses a threat to mankind. Cthulhu is just one of The Great Old Ones, a group of powerful and ancient extraterrestrial beings currently imprisoned on Earth and on other planets though not powerless) and who are worshipped by evil cults awaiting their inevitable return.
While Lovecraft's story is considered a classic, even more impressive is what followed it. Lovecraft worked Cthulhu into subsequent stories and it eventually spawned what came to be known a The Cthulhu Mythos, a still-thriving shared universe in which many writers would extend Lovecraft's original premise. Cthulhu stories are still being published today. For example, Charles Stross has some great fun by combining Cthulhu with in his "Bob Howard" series of novels (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue and The Fuller Memorandum). Cthulhu is alive in short fiction as well; two recent Cthulhu anthologies are New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird edited by Paula Guran and The Book of Cthulhuedited by Ross E. Lockhart.
Who Goes There? Many Others!
This is but a small sample of science fiction horror stories...and I'm only scratching the surface. For more, seek out Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, Jeffrey Thomas' Punktown novels or David Moody's Hater series. If you're into short fiction (and who isn't?) you would do well to find copies of A.E. van Vogt's "Black Destroyer" (the basis for the film Alien) and "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell (the basis for the film The Thing). There are plenty of sf horror stories to get your scare on—not to mention the whole genre of zombie fiction—so dig in!
Steven Erikson completes THE FORGE OF DARKNESS
from The Wertzone by Adam Whitehead
Steven Erikson has reported that he has completed The Forge of Darkness, the first novel of the Kharkanas Trilogy.
Erikson's new book is set several hundred thousand years before the events of the main Malazan sequence and expands on the Tiste Andii and events in the city of Kharkanas (which appears, in a deserted state, in the main series novels). Anomander Rake is expected to feature heavily.
Erikson reports that the novel has come in at 292,000 words, noting that (ironically) this is 'short' by his standards. It falls between the length of Deadhouse Gates (272,000 words or over 900 pages in paperback) and House of Chains (306,000, or over 1,000 pages). No publication date has been set for the novel, but it is likely to appear before the end of 2012.
Meanwhile, Erikson's collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont's latest Malazan novel, Orb, Sceptre, Throne, is due for publication in January 2012.
Jao, ja sam digao ruke na osmoj knjizi. Prosto ne mogu da poverujem kako je naglo usrao onako dobar serijal. To je za plakanje....
- Top Stories (http://io9.com/)
Full size (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/11/ba1517029d3c011093a8e099d3eb43e1.jpg)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffastcache.gawkerassets.com%2Fassets%2Fimages%2F8%2F2011%2F11%2Fxlarge_ba1517029d3c011093a8e099d3eb43e1.jpg&hash=ce1ceb2618d1bac9f0f478ade132e49471433546) rant (http://io9.com/rant/) By Charlie Jane Anders Nov 3, 2011 1:21 PM 3,219 (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.io9.com%2Fassets%2Fbase.v10%2Fimg%2Ficons%2Frightbar.flame.png&hash=547dfe976b21b5ba5f867e76c734f62415cc69a7) 22(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.io9.com%2Fassets%2Fbase.v10%2Fimg%2Ficons%2Frightbar.comment.png&hash=b8c24a511554b238fd9071bf4cc0917bcfb3741f) (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.io9.com%2Fassets%2Fbase%2Fimg%2Fsubscribe%2Fio9.com%2Flogo.png&hash=6f64dc2f50d71625dc42056931bb9b212c747d7a)
- Facebook
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(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.io9.com%2Fassets%2Fbase%2Fimg%2Fsubscribe%2Fio9.com%2Fcarrot.png&hash=908af86cb91e3fdde48d756e25f5b1ba63715343) Why Science Fiction Writers are Like Porn Stars I didn't want to write about Glen Duncan's nerd-baiting book review (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/books/review/zone-one-by-colson-whitehead-book-review.html?_r=1&hpw=&pagewanted=all) in last Sunday's New York Times. The one that starts, "A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star." And just goes downhill from there.
The whole thing grossed me out, and felt like such a cheap shot that the only proper response was a sort of inchoate rage — the very response, I felt sure, that Duncan was counting on to prove his point. So I figured I'd interview Duncan about it, find out what the hell he was thinking, but he never got back to me. Here are the questions I wanted to ask him.
Images via Richard Kadrey/Kaos Beauty Klinik (http://kaosbeautyklinik.carbonmade.com/)Q: Have you ever dated a porn star? How did it go?
Q: Are you aware that "porn star" is a job, not a class of person?
Q: You say in your review that literary authors are "hard-wired or self-schooled to avoid the clichéd, the formulaic, the rote." Are you aware that most literary fiction is full of cliches? Elsewhere, you've written (http://www.goodreads.com/interviews/show/603.Glen_Duncan) of your admiration for John Updike's
Rabbit tetralogy — are you aware how many cliches those books have spawned?
Q: There's an undercurrent, in your Times review, of frustration with the readers of your werewolf book,
The Last Werewolf. Have you actually had exasperating interactions with genre fans who felt that your work included too much reality? What form did these interactions take?
Q: Have you read
Dhalgren?
The Female Man?
House of Leaves?
The Wasp Factory?
The Dispossessed?
Air? In what way do you feel these books failed to show readers "the strangeness of the familiar and the familiarity of the strange"? (Something that you seem to feel genre readers will be unable to cope with.)
Full size (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/11/2d3f65c64425dc03012b8ba8ea82554c.jpg)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.gawkerassets.com%2Fassets%2Fimages%2F8%2F2011%2F11%2Fmedium_2d3f65c64425dc03012b8ba8ea82554c.jpg&hash=e1caf527b50e41c7c2d6f7426f4ce01859ca1c3a)Q: The heart of your discontent with genre fiction seems to be that it doesn't allow writers to tackle all of reality — just the parts of it that are fantastical. That there's a certain psychological complexity, or texture, that gets lost in the fixation on monsters or whiz-bang gadgets. (William Gibson voiced a similar complaint (http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6089/the-art-of-fiction-no-211-william-gibson) about the state of the genre when he wrote
Neuromancer the other day.) But wouldn't you agree that there's more than one way to write about "reality"? Q: You also quote from Susan Sontag saying "Whatever is happening, something else is always going on." Which actually contradicts the thrust of your review — since you seem to think that in genre fiction, whatever is happening is all that's happening. Don't you think you missed the point of the Sontag quote?
So now I've posted my questions, and maybe Duncan will take the time to respond to them. Meanwhile, there doesn't seem to be much point in writing an outraged screed about Duncan's "genre slumming" piece — it really feels like we're mostly past that by now, when places like the Atlantic are celebrating the trend that Duncan decries. (http://io9.com/5851205/more-proof-that-the-book-worlds-literarysf-division-is-increasingly-meaningless) You're always going to have your Margaret Atwoods and Glen Duncans, because humans love hierarchy and status.
So instead of condemning Duncan, I'll close it out with a list of reasons why genre writers are like porn stars:
Genre writers and porn stars come from all sorts of backgrounds and social classes. Some have PhDs, others never finished high school.
Full size (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/11/f70a38548253effe5443e9007bd5c37d.jpg)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.gawkerassets.com%2Fassets%2Fimages%2F8%2F2011%2F11%2Fmedium_f70a38548253effe5443e9007bd5c37d.jpg&hash=192b33108fb4b16848078b413dc218efa11c1370)There's underground porn and indy porn and vegan porn as well as huge mainstream porn — likewise, genre writers have a lot of underground imprints (http://io9.com/5409552/independent-publishers-who-are-reinventing-the-future) focusing on weird fiction (http://io9.com/5116097/the-it-list-of-small-presses-publishing-scary-stuff) that would make your hair curl, as well as big mainstream publishers. Porn stars and genre writers work fucking hard, and sometimes get screwed over.
Porn stars and genre writers are both trying, in very different ways, to satisfy a basic human need for a transcendent experience, something that takes you out of yourself. People — who feel imprisoned in these bodies, these lives, these surroundings — crave escapism and fantasy, but also a feeling of connection to a world where implausible things happen. (For most people, having sex with an actual porn star probably counts as "implausible.")
There is a lot of terrible porn and a lot of really godawful science fiction. (Just like there's a lot of bad literary fiction. As we've noted before (http://io9.com/5050871/do-you-really-want-science-fiction-books-to-be-more-literary), "literary" is not a synonym for "good.")
Porn stars and science fiction writers don't give a fuck what you think of them.
Edit: *bes formatiranje
Michael A. Stackpole (i K.W. Jeter u komentarima) o The New Midlist Writers (http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=2905).
Publishers Weekly The Best Books of 2011 (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2011)
Quote from: Gaff on 22-10-2011, 19:20:59
Harlan Ellison tvrdi da su mu In Time-ovci maznuli ideju iz "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman.
Harlan Ellison has settled out of court with the creators of new movie
In Time. The filmmakers have agreed to list Ellison's name in the film's credits. Ellison brought suit against director Andrew Niccol (along with several others involved with the project) for copyright infringement, claiming that
In Time was based on his "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman."
| Prime Books Sells Magazines Lightspeed and Fantasy to Editor John Joseph Adams (http://www.prime-books.com/2011/11/07/prime-books-sells-magazines-lightspeed-and-fantasy-to-editor-john-joseph-adams/)Paula Guran (http://www.prime-books.com/author/paula-guran/) | Nov 07, 2011 in News (http://www.prime-books.com/category/news/)
Prime Books is pleased to announce the sale and transfer of ownership of their acclaimed online magazines Lightspeed (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/) and Fantasy (http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/) to John Joseph Adams. Adams, the current editor of both magazines, will officially assume the role of publisher starting with the January 2012 issues.
"With the continuing expansion and success of Prime Books, my attention and time is increasingly consumed by book publishing," publisher Sean Wallace said. "With John already doing a terrific job as editor, it simply made sense for him to take over as publisher as well. We're really thrilled that this has worked out for both John and Prime."
New publisher John Joseph Adams says he is delighted at the prospect of taking over the magazines and looks forward to the challenges ahead. "It's an exciting time to be involved in publishing," he said. "Models are changing and so is the readership, and online magazines have a better shot at sustainability than ever have before. I believe the possibilities for growth are tremendous, and I look forward to staying in the vanguard of this new frontier."
Fantasy Magazine was established in 2005, and has been edited by Sean Wallace, Paul Tremblay, and Cat Rambo, with Adams taking over as sole editor earlier this year. Lightspeed—published by Wallace and edited by Adams—debuted in June 2010 and was a 2011 Hugo Award nominee. Numerous stories originally published in Lightspeed and Fantasy have been reprinted in best-of-the-year anthologies, and Lightspeed and Fantasy stories have been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and others. Lightspeed's first year of fiction has just been published by Prime Books in the print anthology Lightspeed: Year One (http://http//www.prime-books.com/shop/trade-paperbacks/lightspeed-year-one-edited-by-john-joseph-adams/). |
http://www.prime-books.com/2011/11/07/prime-books-sells-magazines-lightspeed-and-fantasy-to-editor-john-joseph-adams/ (http://www.prime-books.com/2011/11/07/prime-books-sells-magazines-lightspeed-and-fantasy-to-editor-john-joseph-adams/)
Dokumentarni film o životu Ursule K. Le Guin. (http://documentaries.org/cid-films/worlds-of-ursula-k-leguin/)
Se snima.
A Brent Weeks ima ovo da se slihta citaocima kaze o Martinu
Brent Weeks Opinion Column: "George RR Martin is not your bitch"
GRRM is not your bitch. The rest of us...
by Brent Weeks
Neil Gaiman famously told a reader tired of waiting for the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire that "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch." Though Mr. Gaiman said many fine and humane things in his post, he also erected a straw man argument that such readers think authors shouldn't do anything except write the next book. "No such contract existed. You were paying your ten dollars for the book you were reading." Neil Gaiman being Neil Gaiman, the internet greeted this with a chorus of amens. Someone even wrote a song, which is great, except they're all wrong. Part of what entices us to buy a book is the promise conveyed in the title. "Gragnar's Epic Magical Dragon Quest Trilogy: Book 1" promises there will be two more books. Whether through the title, or interviews, or through a note to readers at the end of a book that says the next book will be out in a year, when an author makes that kind of commitment, maybe technically there's no contract, but there is an obligation.
And do you know who's hurt when that obligation is broken? Not the multimillionaire authors, but the mid-listers who are in the middle of a series, barely making it, who hear readers say, "I don't start a series anymore until all the books are finished. I've been burned too many times." This is not an attack on GRRM. He's easily my favorite author; he's certainly done the field far more good than harm, and I'm sure that he's been working hard. I write big, complicated epic fantasy; I understand how difficult it is. I've worked with a director to make a 90-second book trailer; I can hazard a guess at what a ridiculous amount of work an entire HBO series must take. And writers make mistakes about how fast they're going to finish books All The Time. GRRM's situation is merely illustrative.
Authors today have to be writers, social media geeks, marketers, public speakers, bloggers, and book reviewers. Tolkien knew Elvish, but not html. Few authors are equally good at all the parts of their job. GRRM promised something he didn't deliver. If he were better at PR, he might have defused a great deal of the anger, but he can get away with it because he's a towering talent with millions of fans. Another outlier told Oprah's readers that they weren't smart enough for his books. Another shuns the internet. The talented, the rich, and the famous are always able to get away with things. So, Mr Gaiman, that "GRRM is not your bitch" is trivially true, but I'm not sure it's something we should cheer. We can fail to fulfill our obligations for many good reasons. However, when we do, it behooves us to apologize, not to pretend that readers are the ones acting entitled.
Regardless of their success, writers have obligations to readers because readers pay us to do what we love. Readers don't understand how hard writing can be, but many of us don't understand how hard it is to work at McDonald's, or a post office, or a sales desk. I'm in the middle of writing my second trilogy now, and I've been working six days a week for the last two years. The more successful I've gotten, the harder I've had to work. Some days I look at my full inbox, dozens of comments on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, and more awaiting moderation on my webpage, and I despair. But you know what? Every job requires you to do things you'd rather not. That's why you get paid for it. At the end of the day, we have the best job in the world. How about some gratitude?
A evo i malo uvida u okrutni svet izdavastva. Ovaj pisac mi nista ne znaci, mozda Nightflieru i Perinu, ali to nije ni bitno. (sa patove fantazi hotliste)
by noreply@blogger.com (Patrick)
Just learned about this. . .
Harry Connolly recently announced that Del Rey wouldn't offer him a contract to write additional Twenty Palaces installments. You can the read this post (http://www.harryjconnolly.com/blog/?p=5488) on his website. That's too bad, for I believe the series had a lot of potential.
Harry Connolly is the author of Child of Fire (http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/09/child-of-fire.html), Game of Cages (http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/10/game-of-cages.html), and Circle of Enemies. I enjoyed the first two volumes, but felt that they lacked some depth. Interestingly enough, some of the shortcomings I elaborated on in my reviews were more widespread among readers than I thought. . .
Sadly, this proves once again just how harsh the publishing business can be. Harry Connolly sold his first three books in a pre-empt to Del Rey. He was pimped as the new Jim Butcher. His debut benefited from a vast marketing campaign, with ARCs and Advance Reader Editions going around to most reviewers out there. The book received blurbs from Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Charles Stross, and even more genre writers. Child of Fire was named one of the "Best 100 Books of 2009″ by Publishers Weekly. His books earned starred reviews from PW. Connolly got terrific reviews from Locus and other print and online venues. It looked as though the man had it made, right? Wrong. . .
Here's an excerpt from his post:
The thing is, I think these books are successful artistically. They're pretty much what I was hoping to create, and I think I did a good job.
But commercially it's failed and there's no one else to blame for that but me. It's my job as an author to overcome hurdles, not blame them for tripping me. Cover art? Format? Weather? It doesn't matter. It's my job to write a book so awesome that it breaks through every barrier. And while there are readers who've really loved the series (best people on the planet, no joke) the numbers are irrefutable: there aren't enough of them.
[...]
"Thank you," is what I want to say. Thank you to everyone who's read the books, recommended them to their friends, blogged or tweeted about them, or sent me kind notes. I hear all the time about authors having weird or contentious interactions with their readers, but that's never happened to me. The fans of this series have been great.
There are no guarantees in writing. You work like crazy on a story that means a lot to you, and when you send it out into the world where it's met with scorn, or indifference, or casual contempt. There are no guarantees that X will be a great story or that Y number of readers will fall all over it and spread the word. I know as well as anyone that no one owes me anything.
Here's to hoping that Connolly's future projects will enjoy a bit more commercial sucess so that readers are not left hanging like this.
Harry Connolly's post offers some insight as to how the business works. And as such, I think that it's well worth reading. . .
Quote from: Gaff on 11-11-2011, 13:15:30
Dokumentarni film o životu Ursule K. Le Guin. (http://documentaries.org/cid-films/worlds-of-ursula-k-leguin/)
Se snima.
super :| :| :|
Iskren da budem, ja pored Bučera nisam ništa od urbanih fantastičara čitao. Mada je ovaj tekst dosta poučan.
Imam ga, ali nisam čitao. Krenuo sam prvu, ali sve vreme sam imao utisak da se roman oslanja na neku raniju priču, koju ja nisam pročitao. Možda je moj utisak bio pogrešan, ali je ipak bio dovoljno jak da me natera da ostavim knjigu. Sem toga, nisam stekao nikakav utisak o piscu. Premalo sam pročitao.
Malko promo-materijala povodom (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F1597802816.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=995d2f12c087c599c274b34a6fa55374bb951f09)
- Pat Cadigan - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/pat-cadigan-the-alien-contact-interview)
- Adam-Troy Castro - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/10/adam-troy-castro-the-alien-contact-interview)
- Barbara Hambly - Guest Post (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/guest-post-barbara-hambly-on-george-alec-effinger-and-the-aliens-who-knew-everything)
- Ernest Hogan - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/ernest-hogan-the-alien-contact-interview) & Guest Post (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/guest-post-ernest-hogan-on-the-making-of-guerrilla-mural-of-a-sirens-song)
- Nancy Kress - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/10/nancy-kress-the-alien-contact-interview) & Guest Post (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/10/guest-post-nancy-kress-on-building-a-story-from-fortuitously-nearby-construction-materials)
- Bruce McAllister - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/bruce-mcallister-the-alien-contact-interview/)
- Paul McAuley - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/paul-mcauley-the-alien-contact-interview)
- Mike Resnick: Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/10/mike-resnick-the-alien-contact-interview)
- Jack Skillingstead - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/jack-skillingstead-the-alien-contact-interview) & Guest Post (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/guest-post-jack-skillingstead-on-thermalling)
- Mark W. Tiedemann - Interview (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/mark-w-tiedemann-the-alien-contact-interview) & Guest Post (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/10/guest-post-mark-w-tiedemann-on-science-fiction-its-not-about-the-buttons)
ROBERT SILVERBERG JOINS AMAZING STORIES EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Mr. Silverberg, whose fiction first appeared in Amazing Stories in 1956, will serve in an advisory capacity and will author an updated version of his Introduction to Amazing Stories for the first issue of the magazine's latest incarnation, slated to appear sometime in 2012. (http://amazingstoriesmag.com/?p=307)
Stephen Hunt na blogu daje piratski škicaj u Prometheus... (http://stephenhunt.net/?p=1252)
Nick Cage's Stolen Copy Of 'Action Comics' #1 Now In Auction (http://sciencefiction.com/2011/11/27/nick-cages-stolen-copy-of-action-comics-1-now-in-auction/) Posted about 11 hours ago by Scott West (http://sciencefiction.com/author/scott-west/)0 (http://sciencefiction.com/2011/11/27/nick-cages-stolen-copy-of-action-comics-1-now-in-auction/#disqus_thread) To date, the most expensive comic ever (http://sciencefiction.com/2011/09/07/top-5-most-valuable-comic-books/) auctioned was a copy of 'Action Comics' #1. The 1938 first appearance of Superman was CGC graded at 8.5 and sold for $1.5 million.
The reason for the unbelievable price is that there are believed to be only six copies of this issue in existence with a CGC grade of 4.0 or higher. The highest graded copy ever (CGC 9.0) was owned by actor Nicolas Cage. This copy was stolen from Cage back in 2000. However, in April 2011, the Los Angeles Police Department found a copy of 'Action Comics' #1 in a storage locker in the San Fernando Valley. After it was confirmed that the found copy was indeed Cage's copy and some insurance issues worked out, since Cage had already been reimbursed for the theft, the comic was returned to Cage.
However, after his eccentric buying habits drove him to bankruptcy, Cage is auctioning off the rare comic. The reserve has been met with a current bid of a little over $1.3 million and, with a few days remaining on the auction, it is on track to break that past record sale of $1.5 million. There are some analysts predicting that this near pristine edition of 'Action Comics' #1 will break the $2 million mark before all is said and done.
If you're a comic fan with a couple million dollars on hand, you can bid on it at Comic Connection auctions (http://www.comicconnect.com/bookSearch.php?searchType=advanced&listing_type=event&quick_sort=price_desc). If you don't want it, do you have $2 million that I can borrow?
Graham Joyce o kontroverznom Overhaul of BFA:
Rather more controversial is the idea of offering two awards, one for Fantasy and one for Horror, in the Best Novel category. The survey yielded closer results on this matter and so needs to be put to the vote. Having won this award myself with novels that might have gone in either category I can see technical discussions ahead. However when I took on the job of Acting Chair I promised to look for ways of re-enfranchising some friends we might have lost through the dominance of the Horror genre over the last years. I do think that if we want authors and publishers to put their weight behind the Society we can't afford to be exclusive. This is part of a wider policy and if we can tempt back some of the valued members we have lost by offering another prize then I think we should do so. If the balance is restored in the coming years we can always return to a single prize if that's what the membership wants. Meanwhile I very much hope that members will support the proposal in Resolution 2. (http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/news/overhaul-of-the-british-fantasy-awards/)
Krenuo sam da citam taj novi pravilnik, ali previse je tehnicki za mene. Ne znam koliki je znacaj imala ta nagrada, nikad je nisam dozivljavao ni kao 2. ligu, tako da ce morati da se namuce i da proteraju mnogo vode ispod mosta ne bi li imali bilo kakvu relevantnost.
Same here. Mada me skroz živo zanima kako će se praviti žanrovska razgraničenja ako ovo prođe; šta će se to stavljati pod kategoriju Fantasy a šta pod Horor, i kojim će se to smernicama povoditi, i ko i kako će ih ustanoviti. A skroz mi ljupko što sam Graham priznaje da je u pitanju čisto manevar za pribavljanje balansa sa "odlutalim" članovima, a neću ni da pretpostavljam ko im je to odlutao, i kuda, i zašto, šim on misli da može da ih vrati ekstra nagradom za horor roman. :mrgreen:
Announcing... Zoo City – the movie! (http://angryrobotbooks.com/2011/11/announcing-zoo-city-the-movie/)
Dalek je put od ovoga do filma, ali cool 8-)
i do ovoga je dalek put, ali... ako bude dovoljno para za posteno uradjene efekte... :!:
http://io9.com/5800488/nnedi-okorafors-who-fears-death-to-become-a-feature-film (http://io9.com/5800488/nnedi-okorafors-who-fears-death-to-become-a-feature-film)
kad smo kod toga
from tor.com / frontpage_full (https://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tor.com%2Frss%2Ffrontpage_full?hl=en) by Stubby the Rocket(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tor.com%2Fimages%2Fstories%2FBoneshaker.jpg&hash=f3449ae163c4ed0b61fad14266c0526c06dd3b67)Variety has just reported (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118046797) that Tor Books's very own Boneshaker is headed to the big screen. Cherie Priest's (http://www.tor.com/Cherie%20Priest) steampunk novel has been picked up for production by Cross Creek Pictures, Exclusive Media Group, and Hammer Films.
Boneshaker (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/boneshaker-cherie-priest/1100356362?ean=9780765318411) is the first title in the Clockwork Century series and is followed by Clementine (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/clementine-cherie-priest/1101927918?ean=9781596063662&itm=2&usri=cherie+priest), Dreadnought (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dreadnought-cherie-priest/1100356840?ean=9780765325785&itm=5&usri=cherie+priest), and the recently released Ganymede (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ganymede-cherie-priest/1103102465?ean=9780765329462&itm=3&usri=cherie+priest). (Two more books are due in this series: Inexplicables in 2012 and Fiddlehead.)
No word yet on casting or a release date. With this news comes the question: Is Boneshaker poised to be the first high profile steampunk film? Will its release be considered a benchmark for the subgenre's growth?
You can read an excerpt from Priest's Dreadnought here. (http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/11/dreadnought)
i da nastavimo:
by John(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F0307379205.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=fae688c6c38fee6e157e14301606d52be928d1bb) (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307379205/sfsignal-20)It
is a good week for science fiction books, isn't it?
Hot off the heels of the announcement that
Zoo City by Lauren Buekes,
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/12/zoo-city-and-boneshaker-to-be-adated-for-film/), and Grahame-Smith's
Unholy Night (http://www.sfsignal.com/Grahame-Smith%27s%20UNHOLY%20NIGHT%20Headed%20to%20Big%20Screen.) are headed to the big screen, comes word that Chris Columbus' production company, 1492 Pictures, has acquired the rights to Charles Yu's
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (http://www.sfsignal.com/Cracked).
Columbus and 1492 principals Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe will produce and Brendan Bellomo is set to direct.
The novel centers on a time travel machine repairman -- also named Charles Yu -- who has spent the past 10 years traveling back and forth in time in search of his father, who has disappeared. When the fictional Yu falls into a time loop he must find a way to change the future.See also: our review of
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/08/review-how-to-live-safely-in-a-science-fictional-universe-by-charles-yu/).
Ha, sjajno!
http://www.sfsignal.com/interactive/2011HolidayGiftGuide/SFSHolidayGuide.htm (http://www.sfsignal.com/interactive/2011HolidayGiftGuide/SFSHolidayGuide.htm)
In a week that has already seen
four separate science fiction books (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/12/and-another-scifi-book-gets-adapted-for-film-charles-yus-how-to-live-safely-in-a-science-fictional-universe/) get optioned for film, it shouldn't be a surprise that there's a fifth...especially when the author is philip K. Dick, the author whose novels have more film adaptations than any other writer I can think of.The newest PKD book to be optioned is 1966's
Now Wait for Last Year. According to
Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118047030), Lila 9th and Electric Shepherd Productions have optioned the novel with Ted Kupper adapting. Barrie M. Osborne (
Lord of the Rings), Cameron Lamb and the author's daughter Isa Dick Hackett are producing along with Dan Keston, Laura Leslie, Christopher Tricarico and Kathy Morgan as executive producing.
Storywise, as variety puts it:
Story is set in the distant future in a war between "the starmen" and earth and revolves around an organ transplant doctor who gets mixed up in the politics between both groups.
By comparison, here is the book's plot summary:
Dr. Eric Sweetscent has problems. His planet is enmeshed in an unwinnable war. His wife is lethally addicted to a drug that whips its users helplessly back and forth across time -- and is hell-bent on making Eric suffer along with her. And Sweetscent's newest patient is not only the most important man on the embattled planet Earth but quite possibly the sickest. For Secretary Gino Molinari has turned his mortal illness into an instrument of political policy -- and Eric cannot tell if his job is to make the Male better or to keep him poised just this side of death.
Now Wait for Last fear bursts through the envelope between the impossible and the inevitable. Even as ushers us into a future that looks uncannily like the present, it makes the normal seem terrifyingly provisional -- and compels anyone who reads it to wonder if he really knows what time it is.
Production is to begin in 2012. Fingers crossed...
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2011/12/rulesofmagic2.jpg (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2011/12/rulesofmagic2.jpg)
Gardner Dozois has posted the TOC for his upcoming anthology
The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection:(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F51QeqsLgFBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg&hash=1d892f718ef0351c75ff75cb821b7a6a1650cf68)
- "The Choice" by Paul Mcauley
- "Silently And Very Fast" by Catherynne M. Valente
- "The Man Who Bridged The Mist" by Kij Johnson
- "The Ants Of Flanders" by Robert Reed
- "A Soldier Of The City" by David Moles
- "The Invasion Of Venus" by Stephen Alan Baxter
- "Laika's Ghost" by Karl Schroeder
- "The Beancounter's Cat" by Damien Broderick
- "The Vicar Of Mars" by Gwyneth Jones
- "Dolly" by Elizabeth Bear
- "Martian Heart" by John Barnes
- "Ascension Day" by Alastair Reynolds
- "The Smell Of Orange Groves" by Lavie Tidhar
- "After The Apocalypse" by Maureen Mchugh
- "A Long Way Home" by Jay Lake
- "What We Found" by Geoff Ryman
- "The Incredible Exploding Man" by Dave Hutchinson
- "The Copenhagen Interpretation" by Paul Cornell
- "The Way It Works Out And All" by Peter S. Beagle
- "The Dala Horse" by Michael Swanwick
- "Earth Hour" by Ken Macleod
- "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman
- "Digital Rites" by Jim Hawkins
- "Ghostweight" by Yoon Ha Lee
- "A Response From Est17" by Tom Purdom
- "Digging" by Ian Mcdonald
- "A Militant Peace" by David Klecha & Tobias S. Bucknell
- "For I Have Laid Me Down On The Stone Of Loneliness And I'll Not Be Back Again" by Michael Swanwick
- "The Iron Shirts" by Michael Flynn
- "The Boneless One" by Alec Nevala-lee
- "Canterbury Hollow" by Chris Lawson
- "The Cold Step Beyond" by Ian R. Macleod
- "The Vorkuta Event" by Ken Macleod
- "Dying Young" by Peter M. Ball
Sa Stirlingovog profila na FBu:
QuoteThe whole Emberverse series (plus the Nantucket books) has been optioned for possible development as a TV miniseries. And no, THE GIVEN SACRIFICE probably won't be the last.
Melkore, reaguj! :lol: Zna se koliko voliš kolektors ajtems papir...
Offered: 25% of all sales from the Philip José Farmer Estate - through 12-15-11 go to Magick4Terri! (http://magick4terri.livejournal.com/104911.html)
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Seller: The Philip José Farmer Estate
Philip José Farmer, the legendary iconoclastic Science Fiction Grand Master, who passed away in 2009, was a lifelong reader and book collector. He left behind a vast library of not only his own books (many of them signed), but many of the books that influenced his career. A nice part of this library is for sale at his website.
Many of the books in the Estate Sale are signed. Except where noted, every book was owned by Phil Farmer (the exceptions are newer books that have been sent to his Estate by his publishers). Over half of the books we started with have been sold, but there are still over forty signed Farmer titles, over forty signed anthologies, and nearly forty books signed by other authors, many of them association copies inscribed to Farmer by his peers (Joe R. Lansdale, Charles Willeford, Ed Gorman, Fender Tucker, and James Crumley just to name a few). There are also unsigned Farmer titles, a few audio books, a couple of items left from Farmer's Edgar Rice Burroughs collection, a sampling of some of the antiquarian books Farmer owned and a Sir Richard Francis Burton collection that will knock your socks off.
If you are overwhelmed by the selection and can't decide what to buy, note that volume discounts are available:
Order 3 to 6 books and save 15%
Order 7 to 10 books and save 20%
Order 11 or more and save 25%
Order 16 or more and save 30%
But here is the best part ladies and gentlemen: 25% of all sales from the Estate, from this moment through December 15th, 2011, will go to Magick 4 Terri. So, visit the estate sale page and treat yourself to some classic science fiction, or perhaps a rare signed book, and do some good at the same time.
:lol:
Sta znam, zavisi kako sam raspolozen, a sa Farmerom sam se zestoko ispromasivao u zivotu i procitao sam samo neke od prica objavljenih kod nas. SCI&FI Fan Filip je veliki obozavalac, inace.
Bacio sam pogled na knjige, najjeftinije izdanje koje bih eventualno posedovao je 150$. Kad sam dosao do 300 i 500$ prestao sam da browsujem.
Ne mogu da nadjem gde smo ovo kacili a prepeglao sam cele "Gluposti" :)
Star Wars is SOOO Much Better than Star Trek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU2jqIRjJVI#ws)
Dearest Carrie... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPiWm4mGgyg#ws)
George Takei is the Broker of Star Peace (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvTCr5Z-0lA#ws)
Ovde:
http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php/topic,582.msg383032.html#new (http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php/topic,582.msg383032.html#new)
Top 10 Sci-Fi Epic Fails Of 2011 (http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/12/15/top-10-sci-fi-epic-fails-of-2011/)
&
10 Great Bars in This Universe (and the Next) (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/10-great-bars-in-this-universe-and-the-next)
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Here's the table of contents for Haunts: Reliquaries of the Deadedited by Stephen Jones, an anthology of new and reprinted ghost stories:
- "The Revenant" by Richard L. Tierney
- "A Warning to the Curious" by M.R. James
- "The Door" by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
- "Hand to Mouth" by Reggie Oliver
- "Two O'Clock Session" by Richard Matheson
- "Inheritance" by Paul McAuley
- "Grandmother's Slippers" by Sarah Pinborough
- "The Mystery" by Peter Atkins
- "Poison Pen" by Christopher Fowler
- "Return Journey" by Ramsey Campbell
- "Grandfather's Teeth" by Lisa Tuttle
- "Ill Met by Daylight" by Basil Copper
- "The Place " by John Gordon
- "The Bridegroom" by R.B. Russell
- "Is There Anybody There?" by Kim Newman
- "Wait" by Conrad Williams
- "City of Dreams" by Richard Christian Matheson
- "A House on Fire" by Tanith Lee
- "Party Talk" by John Gaskin
- "The Hurting Words" by Simon Kurt Unsworth
- "The Church at Monte Saturno" by Robert Silverberg
- "The Hidden Chamber" by Neil Gaiman
- "Good Grief" by Robert Shearman
- "Blue Lady, Come Back" by Karl Edward Wagner
- "The Naughty Step" by Michael Marshall Smith
[/list]
[via Paul McAuley (http://unlikelyworlds.blogspot.com/2011/12/haunting-we-will-go.html)][/size][/size][/size][/size]
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Product Description
Here There Be Monsters: The fifteen stories of Drink for the Thirst to Come lead the reader into the darkest corners of the imagination. The people who inhabit these places are demons or angels; here, life ends horribly or stretches to the darkest eternity. Here, the world dies whimpering, ends with a bang, or goes down with the clack of a billion tiny teeth. Here, you'll find all the standard tropes, vampires, zombies, ghosts, ghouls. You may not recognize them, not right away. They might be standing in a quiet corner or walking in a sunny field or seated next to you on a bus, they might be pulling up to the gas pump or, hell, they might be you, sitting there, reading the book.
[/color][/size]
Lokusov Roundtable: The Silliest Thing... (http://www.locusmag.com/Roundtable/2011/12/roundtable-the-silliest-thing/) :)
...na neke stvari se i dandanas čudom čudim... :shock: :lol: :lol:
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It is eighty-three years after the last of the thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. Great changes are brewing that will shape and twist all of humankind.
The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of Abulurd Harkonnen Griffen and Valya have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their fortunes. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School on the jungle planet Rossak as the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva have built Venport Holdings, using mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. Gilbertus Albans, the ward of the hated Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentats...and hiding an unbelievable secret.
The Butlerian movement, rabidly opposed to all forms of "dangerous technology," is led by Manford Torondo and his devoted Swordmaster, Anari Idaho. And it is this group, so many decades after the defeat of the thinking machines, which begins to sweep across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.
Every one of these characters, and all of these groups, will become enmeshed in the contest between Reason and Faith. All of them will be forced to choose sides in the inevitable crusade that could destroy humankind forever....
...a ima i trejler! :lol: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJcdN3oa_Kg#ws)
Trailer: Peter Jackson's The Hobbit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEOM13UyZ0A&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2F&feature=player_embedded)
Quote from: LiBeat on 23-12-2011, 18:41:50
...na neke stvari se i dandanas čudom čudim... :shock: :lol: :lol:
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Nije to ništa, pazi ovu kombinaciju Tvajlajta i čega ne:
Twilight, True Love and You: Seven Secret Steps to Finding Your Edward or Jacob
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twilight-True-Love-You-Finding/dp/1849531404 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twilight-True-Love-You-Finding/dp/1849531404)
Kaže Amazon:
"Stephenie Meyer's gripping supernatural romance saga has inspired millions of people worldwide with its tale of a young girl torn between two apparently perfect loves. Many fans are now on the hunt for their own real-life Edward or Jacob - but can such a love truly exist? Luckily for all the Twilight fans out there, psychologist Louise Deacon has uncovered seven secret steps towards true love. Inspired by the saga, these secrets reveal the relevance of Bella's experiences to your own love life, explain your feelings for Edward and Jacob and expose the perils of Twilight's powerful, romantic messages. So for all you girls who adore vampires or werewolves, read on to learn how to find lasting love and loyalty with a human"
A ima i trejler:
Twilight True Love and You - teaser for new book about Twilight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4tA5d4Vmxs#ws)
Top 100 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Quotes of 2011
The wit and wisdom of our sci-fi faves, collected by Will Salmon (http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/12/23/top-100-sci-fi-fantasy-quotes-of-2011/)
...čoveče, pa ovo je stvarno vrh svih otkačenih vrhova.... :-D
Ima stvarno sjajnih, Grant Morison je bas bio veseo ove godine npr. :)
Eh, da. A vidim da je i Miler upao u izbor, sa svojim Occupy WS rantom.... :mrgreen:
"I'm not a fan of Twilight, but then again I'm a 40 year-old heterosexual." Toby Whithouse
xrofl
"2011 was a surprisingly - I would say even shockingly - good year for science fiction."
Paul Goat Allen, B&N.com
This week Barnes and Noble.com reviewer Paul Goat Allen published his list of The Best Science Fiction Releases of 2011 (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRXvRXah8CvDtMEOzm44nxjJco0cTuC3l7bMzDLL7-f2x-uz_cfmWamPG7s7tWaoRvUSsa7gj2QxS7lc6_I3Bs_Nomp5Qh4kznj_XG3S_zYzWiW9SU0M7meOz5OEdIot5LVye7wiymv1GfOPWuT592WrF6JRAb7asws7tT-mA2YTl0WXCztKhd0zA4xXvL2aKj8kco-Sv_K9x1qAN_9St3o1SvW9dQUCqgS193h2XM8xf8SwW6o4IQa) and we were thrilled to see that six Night Shade titles made the selection!
Soft Apocalypse, the awesome debut novel by Will McIntosh, came in at number 2! When Paul Goat Allen reviewed this apocalyptic tale of a world ending not with a bang but with a whimper, he said, "If Soft Apocalypse isn't nominated for a Hugo or Nebula Award, I will eat the entire book page by page..." You can read the full review here (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQuJHPAtIzvvLcfUF2jy4CDG_4oB5Npdg2olpJ61u-iuS9h7IpNDvH_rDGhyzYCYLtA8sMhvApNo_dbFAA4oKv7-ugY0cOSFbc9FSG6D4yY7Gk7heQtAu7qtsYluiLalfsJwb1Hdt-xhXBg74ZVCMToRfK11Rc6cwDSwIFM8YT-B-dSLjyP09lQnUP8c9OupIqPfj57llIdySH73mnLCCS8KK6lo2ObNHP3D23p02yCbO2B-8pg96inkSmN4hUzf8Se8p5Ia-uukw==).
Amazon (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJTQA0pFmLk6b8DuhhRsMQg5FYmZENwvSUU3I_CFkD9VEtSUAeXPICQ-RrAVquq5ofJ1g-n3BO9Pn1wdZQGngdVmrGFeeXmOCfcNR10HfKv7V9FQRGSQpJiTImAjJmz2sFVuiUSj5lzsEAISj6-C2pLrw3m4b378OmEUb5lhxt5-DJjMjIORP8ZB_EsNAVF0NZgabbehUXkeR77Bbb5udBe55BVwaoFeCzcLxp2ARp-qTupftprn_Tnn) IndieBound (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRm_NuWwPIEWrldHs3yqJWf3nfb9VrGhfB9VLVy25A9vsWqLwOv4EB2Dp8Q9-_-4J8ZgJ0bKa7VGQqwfJ2H_TGJMgcwQbl2bRx9AqXnuxCn6scKERLLju09Z05tkl4HS4gqPFmNKR61sQ==) B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJSic4Rbp98X9X8D4ZdgMnwwEuc2WPXiA3-r4EvboTMitkOPJuKoGXX4qUgxS1RH8wu8rfq1GITl0sNxE_I_9LkyHiOdtj8ldJ_cXqg0NIKexZK8TpHzufm2-Uu6t9Eszx1h4fFOPoRQ4-UxTrpODbSeT8ODZF03cvlwuRoPXTA7nn7l4Dl4ThsCzXQniOPMef57FAOhA99kOAM7d8KyDO1ZGUVobVqE9le-NtqhPRoL1-yOh5-lMQBQqkLqfpiC37I=)
Seed claimed the number 3 spot. Rob Ziegler's entrancing novel is set at the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. Paul Goat Allen says, "Brilliant world building, an impressively thick storyline, and some powerful social speculation make this another must read."
Amazon (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRLVDq0uLNzpjYcmufGN-pCxwO7F9UZmnfo8Ak7YlrLCsNzQ1e3RkP5Cu38vc0dm61jQxXS0HNvSAgsn6RH3nPGE-VTznilwIzMN33T9VASzo0G9BW_HvdtQqpmqxI0dmDBc4wf4m9qwhS5pdV-qokzJFSpwCcmCX2RZDniygXJcMRPhtCnHuVHtAqmNX4psGlacxwyVRUYHbISFmSu7aaJnvL5UCd89H1gKxQ0i6qRAw==) IndieBound (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRvlKqAtDNbv0zVH5AJRLpuVLCtEdHQ6oVoUig90v44-QTaK2QGO9glCiMnTK0a5XYvwQznWFVsHQsjS9AM8EyE5Fe3-EmqLfNPYO4JURv21YijSDS88xOL6fqK6yrekeFP5W_CrWPNOw==) B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQ9pwvtfzLjBCenV5p56cdLZXSzfSzuL7r4sqhnG3iJPUMi5Na7ZSItq9QLWvYN7uxw8VBTvNLLzrE-WHRYTYlsbDc5-Z7s_7O6ifWvyay88maa_dj-8np4_DiuiOlui7ySoiTWcTdMrsFVs6o2yUnwZqs-Ue14rr1CYet4aPwB8Lxldtu7XZiDeZ-78CnHSaArClmtJ0EqWkP5RxStsTnzvMG--xktldHXRidEzJsHOA==)
Katy Stauber grabbed the 5th spot with Revolution World. Paul Goat Allen describes this fantastic debut as, "a darkly nuanced novel about a future America collapsing under the weight of it's own ineptitude and paranoia." Read his full review at B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJSCVWIhy2e-lAk7p531GSH31pvwUqq9_QOHVYWgUBwO2C-eXQMdy4SQ8bEOkspMyPnk7F4kkC-UuVn2fKvImrEBexkI_uZxdAoQrxLTbC1r8qt_aZxuuR3c7yugGeQsGOlfCbcASD71juKNvQZUVwhta7aQdYIJet7GljW9SIwzfasI9SRLmb3Nc7BYzlytevPjbvBwgH1YiqkbqjuBwpPWi8WYc6rjruqDXAez3lr841V6Y23R0MmoxXHQgqGXAm4D9BFIRRr4ng==).
Amazon (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJTYzH4ep7mFV6l2Kl8qGwcCNfW4x-1pbyFowr8Im_HsP128XKn_RYEeBOBYHbyj2sQyXtBDuvEjz5e9u1VtJL-DF1bWxMIjL19toxRxBl03nas72Hq12Sg86pCgTH33s4r44e2ltwBJ4dik8VeHc_K4NjLHz8lE3vXlLDkaOFnpk0rLz9M-ud1_m-gBCHGS3hIV_jlkGS8nKEtiCBBD92lWuLkfdQf1IvfERYkAcTrI2OZmr78Q_tEWfc2JdljfCXI=) IndieBound (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJSa2XWXsHxaf6mOm819kaGqmr5Qt0_LpvnjjhYZu865emkdy4t0FMqKsHTuTSMY_buNLMty98QdskAZDxM2OC3Rm1azxn4l-Zm1vWPq9-ffIJNauNyEYtapgsSEdJdSBb0vgpS5BFebkA==) B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJTHEKy-Y-7nq1nE5Pm0kjJnwTuzJ4B9BChaOsUYbRwN3TkFxkrDbZ2xvtY28Dtr-clPsDEzUZK28xVWEGfGdlTD3epXzk2zlp88AGShy-AQKazkWwBE0VP2SU46FWY8lKh_fQMZwHK3JpgZlh0v6Wv2VcI5tgMDmJkrHJMBT6HWJmji91Q_biGWQTnlae7ZJ3N0s_2XKQ1ZngHkDLuq36mls4Jwu3OFAFcOonFWbCnVnWx9oOZ7PHqs)
Richard Cox and his terrific novel Thomas World made it to number 6. Thomas World explores what happens when the borders of reality start seeming a bit porous... when things start bleeding through the edges, challenging ones perceptions of the universe. The grand tradition of Dickian, New Wave SF is explored by Richard Cox in this 21st century thriller!
Amazon (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQ2ZNs_ysszHujVpX4buDFP2Xj7dD9GA8Cw6dRtiDARR_6VicXljVvkHMUg-CdsMGUK0KHqMKcUkJhi7-jheWyYMKYOiz7uzHfAzzIp8MGv1hVUFuSVatCHOIAQSg7PUXYNEdTuKOJVy8kNVpHZSPawPUHf_F1Ek1CkeZkBtu9cQx41CetKfGasFq0qQmxk_Vw2hLBoyLa6KsEegDehaHW-IMKi51I1cUdURCcnJsS4Bwma5Ll1eSsB) IndieBound (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRUhyoQwyqQ6KfQi3hEXoqEy0toKfmoXhVVjO6KwzoEWpz5gOuDLTvXAzm0gDb42pGyFfkMJTYaq4h4oFnOQm31208XSsUxZSNhycKN3Qd9q9OcgmRN_7ks8ht3s0ARfkcxEFQ8KF5mjQ==) B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRM4K9hPlBFK6iQ70dxdnfRVr5j-DM1T1lapBLJ2Rt4JhvTyKipZd4UNCkEOXeZ463lB32Tbk9eYUZ8q23RFaAerYvdyWtS3nS-wJMSikw6xj4LkCxXpAHTfrsHjtprqReMoidk81BhOHd33JSRNIMQc7wXFjNZsezrLR__aiImbtL3HoIEfmqFQFJUUULaj13g_zTbyU3weyzV1pzTR9xHhjsLI2WWW8q6rPCWqBE5FedKliHmXeubCZj1iCIm2sAL05UQkX154g==)
Acclaimed author Rudy Rucker came in at number 11 with his novel Jim and the Flims. Paul Goat Allen says of Rucker, "Reading Rudy Rucker is like doing hardcore drugs - once you start, it's very hard to kick the habit without an intervention." Jim and the Flims is the Orphic myth retold for the twenty-first century. Will there be a happy ending this time? You can read the full review online (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQYt8r0fGE7EtyANH6IjRJ4HLWsCxg0zCNCt9mxsNeSYFM7CdnwmEWf0xgH68nX_3vMiEXTHBCUzoW2LuPbkprKGRqupGwcexEkJGKI3jv608Y0ZJAsl74GE9H06FGLOtIdpCDkFmc7cc5AJMHNWIMj2KlJ_W507UgErYNnvvYbj9u5fXami0KYtTjYwXNKrmBcPO-CW_vuiHRbMJ6BTKvAU61eYz_O8QtFEadCH7hpXyxYBGQXW78tlnvMuwy8U6flumcMgkOORVJR3ndAe5lr).
Amazon (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJS7OaGoe4Av8B8QUMmJuusonXcy3_VzeOnQCZUeudNZyDDb6wCebXqpynLNYHUr7G20SLidJ80dDUlAmRm3ZAuJC2yKKf_E5KypCE-cgXwxBtN4Oz88dsjlVH1gy_-XoXnO0TcqqZSCQ4QEYqQLxrn-O_ZH-VX1Cs_WGEuuHkGv3DjR9XTrSA394k4RzlInbSEPiS9mnJWadHzJ6BJLcAOXJ0ST9kimJaeOoJ7OAeN2rCgQzmczd0TZ) IndieBound (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJRTsJa1aRE-yUuwa5FQmgLNXPzsDl1dmtn5Fng7ucZrW6ji5z2wmATGkzthF9FacUUcMcy4v4bqfyiUmBXDHeRlncGJfsQQI6Nl_MqUl1bRPkEBCTOQJi9j3DkZZqQFt5CGJmga1CwzjA==) B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJTi-Wk7KpBy3sC0DV75-WGg8d_gOkUWUkZQQpBE85xHzMDqYhttn8k8892d-sE1dCxNL7u9yZpcx5VpIaGGgyrfm-lyV1sMu6iAWz97cuNd1poBzbk1dHnhTTjJaXlopyqZULHJzZfFe8UbGEhvajIQHFyMOg_KLiK1MLsNzPL8bfAVBxKbSFQB3ProM7kqFayLWdRJU2AoyPfSUztXymwy4kUxi1bC5XG5ycrh9VRvG1nf_GGY8BBmEUyzJeOlJyI=)
At number 13 came the fantastic offering from John Joseph Adams, Brave New Worlds. Paul Goat Allen calls it, "a simply magnificent anthology of short-form dystopian fiction that features dozens of cacotopian classics." Read more here (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJTAe7Dje1GTZKfbNNYkTzMB0ogphgdkVs0y_mQ9Gf4OXzucef3UpZxAO7CeHT6rHQKXUvEYG5X0qNX0PvKDzU0W3YPI4CfTSjqe8QNZ2oqmG-HwBMHG00rAF4Kam0y6pt2x7HDe57umtxKNVTCvcNDD6O9d4VsI9GKR-p6qJueM-4ERMJTZ1JCLFlolmBfZqSeRyr4vA_ri0UBEY4JpZUFd2Y6Cb8cWa1y1n_dUcYbCfOezORvG_LXbWcR8_tifqKwLDVEA4sOvvQ==). Brave New Worlds collects 33 of the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today's most visionary writers, including Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Amazon (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQKMYZBKgIqD3UyqZFomDvU-STPEoFLnd7yHvCiA_sCB2oVXqettWBAnSUl8GpQslrRwqkQA2reu9SzZgCnxlwG25iPEk5gebv2bqUkDwqX-guPsPD0d-cpVzH8xJ4i2tR6_WMVlccQmJ6bAkg4LmM5HCkl1aV6G9mTsUsT250FOOhz1mPTT8CwS_0cz-rqe4qWD0SNVNCV8JBE1g9O7q_ogCLiXHDVkpsqzAoeYIKOtm3qLa9-NG0aq5AiyQBdgRBOenKOnBivpg==) IndieBound (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQy3E-17EbNswhhniBm-_RpTieJHUcNf6w9HLZ110FIb8cZsZiQUf3PAXuR6x3QoTeh5lkUN3jdCHnnoALEs4xE_N9CIdx41vng8oqpTtM2HoRaNYlRP-iuaG15IgMrKsA59KTfE7ShZA==) B&N.com (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy5id4bab&et=1108994329621&s=7294&e=001I87ALjSDeJQCAjwlwAJMV1rXjjALrd4y0kDSbB5DNHnHnB5r-RMOkC63OBEFCKhf-LPbf8424DSvXcEnExQ-AKpBbYRjzSRrMj3FpaOVufqVmscPIiL29aOEBU7NXAFZILJXZIV8l8LYkGGNTBxeWkA9Ye_bYQ0n3YJEa1GwPDlHxpgO1qP0hHIFMg25BQcDoAJQUiJUp_arkPXoQJYUfcV3Cmiy_pwNhrwgPT25o0uasvCJGX5aLOMa-88pTHnY2gsoPUxgSpDww5Li40_2tQ==)
Soft Apocalypse bi se definitivno morao naći u užim nominacijama, tu apsolutno držim palčeve. Ostalo mi je promaklo skroz... :(
Evo te liste:
1. Ready Player One (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ready-Player-One/Ernest-Cline/e/9780307887436) by Ernest Cline
2. Soft Apocalypse (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Soft-Apocalypse/Will-McIntosh/e/9781597802765) by Will McIntosh
3. Seed (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Seed/Robert-Ziegler/e/9781597803236) by Rob Ziegler
4. The Quantum Thief (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Quantum-Thief/Hannu-Rajaniemi/e/9780765329493) by Hannu Rajaniemi
5. Revolution World (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Revolution-World/Katy-Stauber/e/9781597802338) by Katy Stauber
6. Thomas World (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Thomas-World/Richard-Cox/e/9781597803083) by Richard Cox
7. Tattoo (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Tattoo/Kirsten-Imani-Kasai/e/9780345508829) by Kirsten Imani Kasai
8. WWW: Wonder (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/WWW/Robert-J-Sawyer/e/9780441019762) by Robert J. Sawyer
9. The Children of the Sky (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Children-of-the-Sky/Vernor-Vinge/e/9780312875626) by Vernor Vinge
10. March in Country (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/March-in-Country/E-e-Knight/e/9780451463609) by E.E. Knight
11. Jim and the Flims (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Jim-and-the-Flims/Rudy-Rucker/e/9781597802802) by Rudy Rucker
12. Mind Storm (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mind-Storm/K-M-Ruiz/e/9780312673178) by K.M. Ruiz
13. Brave New Worlds (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Brave-New-Worlds/Nick-Gaetano/e/9781597802215) edited by John Joseph Adams
HONORABLE MENTION
• Fuzzy Nation (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fuzzy-Nation/John-Scalzi/e/9780765328540) by John Scalzi
• Leviathans of Jupiter (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Leviathans-of-Jupiter/Ben-Bova/e/9780765317889) by Ben Bova
• Divergent (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Divergent/Veronica-Roth/e/9780062024022) by Veronica Roth
• The Water Wars (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Water-Wars/Cameron-Stracher/e/9781402267598) by Cameron Stracher
• Embassytown (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Embassytown/China-Mieville/e/9780345524492) by China Mieville
• Basilisk (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Basilisk/Rob-Thurman/e/9780451464149) by Rob Thurman
• The Lost Fleet (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Lost-Fleet/Jack-Campbell/e/9780441020379) by Jack Campbell
• Count to a Trillion (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Count-to-a-Trillion/John-C-Wright/e/9780765329271) by John C. Wright
• The Worker Prince (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Worker-Prince/Bryan-Thomas-Schmidt/e/9780984020904) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
• The Apocalypse Gene (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Apocalypse-Gene/Suki-Michelle/e/9781600431029) by Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark
5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 i 12 su totalni zbun. Za ovo ostalo sam jos i cuo.
:shock: čoveče, meni je i više ovde totalni zbun, ko će sve to da pohvata... ima dosta naslova objavljnih tek sad pred kraj godine, Seed je izašao pre nepun mesec dana, to je sve Božićni talas knjiga... koja divota, pa kad izađu liste šireg izbora za nominacije, neću na njima moći ni polovinu naslova da prepoznam... xrotaeye
Weekly Bestsellers, 26 December (http://www.locusmag.com/Monitor/2011/12/weekly-bestsellers-26-december/)— posted Monday 26 December 2011 @ 11:42 am PST
Stephen King's 11/23/63 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?keywords=9781451627282&index=books&linkCode=qs&tag=locusmagazine)reamins in the #1 spot on both the New York Times and Publishers Weekly fiction hardcover lists, and bumps one or more notches on the other three print lists compiled here too.Holiday shopping, perhaps, bumped other titles as well, even after many weeks on the charts. Murakami's1Q84 is as high as #3 on four print lists, and several titles by George R. R. Martin also rose in rankings.
Quote from: Melkor on 27-12-2011, 22:30:07
Evo te liste:
5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 i 12 su totalni zbun. Za ovo ostalo sam jos i cuo.
Ne pratiš moje postove. xtwak Na desetom mestu je jedan od mojih omiljenih pisaca postapokaliptične proze. Doduše, nikako ga ne bih stavio među najbolje pisce u žanru.
Iz honorable mentions čitao sam Turmana, koji piše osrednji urban fantazi, Kembela, koji piše lošnjikav military SF, dok sam Rajta i prevodio.
Sve u svemu, nije to meni ono najbolje što je žanr protekle godine pružio. Daleko od toga.
Uostalom, ko je taj matori jarac!? :wink:
The Power List: 23 Movers and Shakers in Science Fiction and Fantasy (http://io9.com/5871335/the-power-list-23-movers-and-shakers-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/12/20/scifi-books-for-people-who-hate-scifi-a-holiday-guide/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/12/20/scifi-books-for-people-who-hate-scifi-a-holiday-guide/)
I Emerald City (wiki: "As of 2011, Emerald City and Morgan as an individual have been nominated for a total of 10 Hugo Awards, with two wins.") ( http://www.emcit.com/ (http://www.emcit.com/) ) i Kempov fanzin eI (wiki: "Kemp won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for his publication Who Killed Science Fiction.") ( http://efanzines.com/EK/eI60/index.htm#over (http://efanzines.com/EK/eI60/index.htm#over) ) završavaju svoje karijere :(
(navodno)
Svim clanovima foruma zelim srecan danasnji praznik :)
Sv, Bogonosca?
Genre in the Mainstream: Great Crossover Books of 2011 (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/01/genre-in-the-mainstream-great-crossover-books-of-2011)
QuoteThough crossover between mainstream literature and the genres of science fiction and fantasy has been going on for quite some time, 2011 was a big year for books traveling from one genre dimension to another. But as Margaret Atwood said in her 2011 release In Other Worlds, "...the membranes separating these subdivisions are permeable, and osmotic flow from one to another is the norm..." There were a lot of books this year which took that action and Genre in the Mainstream has endeavored to be part of the ongoing conversation about genre divide and crossover. Here are a selection of books published last year which deserve the attention of anyone interested in this phenomenon. They're also all great reads too, regardless of your genre leanings!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b8wgUt5gO24# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b8wgUt5gO24#)!
China Miéville writes Dial H for DC Comics
by Samuel Roberts
Book launches in May, as DC announces revamped JSA, Batman Incorporated and the first New 52 cancellations
Sci-fi novelist China Miéville will write a new ongoing comic book for DC, starting this May. Dial H will be based loosely on the Sixties series Dial H For Hero, and will see the author creating new superhero characters. The concept of Dial H sees an ordinary man gaining extraordinary powers. Artwork will be provided by Mateus Santoluoco.
Meanwhile, Grant Morrison's Batman epic roars back into life during the same month, as Batman Incorporated sees the Dark Knight face off against the all-encompassing villain Leviathan in the final year of the writer's superb run, which started with the story Batman & Son all the way back in 2006. Chris Burnham provides the art.
Earth 2, written by Starman's James Robinson with art by Nicola Scott, sees the JSA reborn in an alternate reality to the rest of the DC Universe. Three other books, G.I Combat, World's Finest and teen book The Ravagers will also launch during the same month. Find more details here (http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2012/01/12/dc-comics-in-2012-%E2%80%93-introducing-the-%E2%80%9Csecond-wave%E2%80%9D-of-dc-comics-the-new-52/).
Meanwhile, the low-selling books O.M.A.C, Men Of War, Hawk & Dove, Static Shock, Mister Terrific and Blackhawks have all been canceled as part of the same announcement.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffrogenyozurt.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F01%2FDistrust-That-Particular-Flavor-Essays-And-Articles-by-William-Gibson.png&hash=d6666a008ea3ceff508ab3691956a6051ba969b6)
Nego, glede ovoga: jedan od prvih rivjua na koji sam naisla kad se knjiga pojavila bio je skroz uzdrzan, ali skroz. No dzaba sad, pojavila se tolika gomila odusevljenih rivjua u kojima se toliko utopio da ne mogu da ga danas uopste nadjem... eh, sto ti je hajp... :lol:
Ovo je verovatno vec negde okaceno na forumu, ali ako! :) Radi se ipak o jednom od mojih najnajnajomiljenijih romana i jednom od najnajnaj SF romana uopste i otkako sam nasla ovaj trejler stalno osciliram izmedju velike strepnje i jos veceg ocekivanja:
Kantikulum za Lajbovica (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MY5-DsYpvs#)
Mislim da to nije for real.
najverovatnije, posto niti jedna scena nema ni malo veze ni sa cim iz romana... :lol:
Hm. I ja sam pročitao taj isti so-and-so review pre dvadesetak dana...
Pa da, hajp je to... no dobro, overiću, ali smem da se na neviđeno danas kladim da je taj rani i sad raritetni rivju najbliži istini... :mrgreen:
nego, nešto novo:
Here's the table of contents for Westward Weird, an original anthology of weird west tales edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes available this month from DAW.- "The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen" by Jay Lake
- "The Last Master of Aeronautical Winters" by Larry D. Sweazy
- "Lowstone" by Anton Strout
- "The Flower of Arizona" by Seanan McGuire
- "The Ghost in the Doctor" by Brenda Cooper
- "Surveyor of Mars" by Christopher McKitterick
- "Coyote, Spider, Bat" by Steven Saus
- "Maybe Another Time" by Dean Wesley Smith
- "Renn and the Little Men" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- "Shadowdown at High Moon" by Jennifer Brozek
- "The Clockwork Cowboy" by J. Steven York
- "Black Train" by Jeff Mariotte
- "Lone Wolf" by Jody Lynn Nye
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by Adam WhiteheadWarner Brothers have optioned (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048854?refcatid=4076) the film rights to Tad Williams'
Otherland sequence of SF novels. John Scott III is writing the script (he's also adapting Isaac Asimov's
Caves of Steel for 20th Century Fox).
From the sound of the press release, the film producers are not planning a faithful adaptation, but will instead compress the 3,300-page story (in paperback) into a single two-hour movie. Expect about 5% of the plot from the books to end up on the screen.
An odd choice, it has to be said. Given Otherland's episodic nature, a 3-4 season TV adaptation is a much more logical way of adapting the series. Whilst the film may be entertaining, it will certainly not be a faithful adaptation of the books.
In the meantime (http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/118/1187781p1.html), a free-to-play Otherland MMORPG will be released later this year by DTP Entertainment.
Mike Resnick (https://www.facebook.com/mike.resnick1) Told you I'd have some news this weekend. Bob Garcia and I will be editing an anthology, THE WORLDS OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS, for Baen Books. All new stories using ERB's characters and worlds, with one exception: we'll be running my novella, "The Forgotten Sea of Mars", which helped ERB-dom become the only Burroughs fanzine ever to win a Hugo back in 1966; this will be its first appearance in 47 years. As for the rest, we've got committments from a bunch truly outstanding writers. More details as they become available.
David Brin's List of Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy Tales (http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2012/01/david-brins-list-of-greatest-science.html).
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Ellen Datlow has posted the table of contents (http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/384895.html) for After, the post-apocalyptic/Dystopia anthology she co-edited with Terri Windling (due in October 2012):- "The Segment" by Genevieve Valentine
- "After the Cure" by Carrie Ryan
- "Valedictorian" by N.K. Jemisin
- "Visiting Nelson" by Katherine Langrish
- "All I Know of Freedom" by Carol Emshwiller
- "The Other Elder" by Beth Revis
- "The Great Game at the End of the World" by Matthew Kressel
- "Reunion" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
- "Faint Heart" by Sarah Rees Brennan
- "Blood Drive" by Jeffrey Ford
- "Reality Girl" by Richard Bowes
- "Hw th'Irth Wint Wrong by Hapless Joey @ homeskool.guv" by Gregory Maguire
- "Rust With Wings" by Steven Gould
- "The Easthound" by Nalo Hopkinson
- "Gray" by Jane Yolen
- "Before" by Carolyn Dunn
- "Fake Plastic Trees" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- "You Won't Feel a Thing" by Garth Nix
- "The Marker" by Cecil Castellucci
Exclusive Interview: Thomas Ligotti on Weird Fiction (http://weirdfictionreview.com/2011/11/exclusive-interview-thomas-ligotti-on-weird-fiction/) Includes Ligotti's top picks for under-appreciated weird fiction!
Thomas Ligotti (1953 – ) is an iconic American writer of weird short fiction whose oeuvre has been as ground-breaking as, if not always as well-acknowledged as, that of Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, and H.P. Lovecraft. His first collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer (1986), is an outright classic in the field, with a subsequent compilation from several collections, The Nightmare Factory (1997), cementing Ligotti's reputation. The influence of workplace experiences infused Ligotti's fiction with fresh energy, resulting in the masterpiece My Work Here Is Not Yet Done (2002). "The Town Manager" (2003), which we reprinted in our The Weird, showcases Ligotti in this phase of his writing. An underlying dark sense of humor is more prevalent in his fiction generally than is acknowledged by most critics, which becomes clear in the interview.
Two of the stories cited by Ligotti below are featured on WFR.com this week: Algernon Blackwood's classic "The Willows" and, in a new translation by Edward Gauvin, the Jean Ferry story on Ligotti's list of under-appreciated weird stories/writers.
Ligotti tells us that this is the first time that he has been asked specifically about weird fiction, "let alone did a whole interview on it." On a personal note, one our most prized possessions is the hardcover "In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land" by Thomas Ligotti, with soundtrack by Current 93, pictured above. - Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Neil Gaiman, Todd McFarlane settle 'Spawn' legal dispute
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Fantasy industry giants Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane have agreed to settle their long-running legal battle over Gaiman's share of the Spawn universe. Gaiman and McFarlane have been fighting for the last decade over Gaiman's claims to a handful of characters created while he was collaborating with McFarlane on the Spawn comic book series. The series features a demon hunted by angels. Their attorneys filed notice Friday in federal court in Madison saying they've reached a deal that calls for declaring Gaiman a 50 percent owner of Spawn issues 9 and 26, the first three issues of a spin-off series on the angels and the issues' contents. Jeffrey Simmons, one of Gaiman's attorneys, declined to elaborate, saying the terms are confidential. McFarlane's attorney didn't immediately return a message.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsubterraneanpress.com%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2FConfessions%2520of%2520a%2520Five%2520Chambered%2520Heart%2520by%2520Caitlin%2520R%2520Kiernan.jpg&hash=93acdbc46a4dd1b83bb2a89dbbf94b6426d2e495)
We're deep into production on Caitlin R. Kiernan's newest collection,Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=kiernan19&Category_Code=PRE&Product_Count=17). The art is done, the book is designed and being proofread, and Caitlin has turned in the material for the second collection that will accompany the Signed, Limited Edition:
The Yellow Book is a hardcover containing 20,000 words of ultra rare and uncollected fiction: the 10,000 word original, "Ex Libris" a tale of Lovecraftiana in which a box of malevolent books turns up at an estate sale, and "The Yellow Alphabet," the third and final installement in Kiernan's The Alphabetos Triptych (which also includes "The Black Alphabet" and "The Crimson Alphabet").
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Changes for the Fiction Department
Posted by Susan Marie Groppi
We're looking to bring new fiction editors into the Strange Horizons team. This might not be much of a surprise, after our announcement in December that Karen Meisner was leaving the fiction department. What might be a surprise, though, is that we're not just looking for someone to fill Karen's old spot.
I'm also leaving the Strange Horizons fiction department. This decision has been a long time coming, and I've been hesitating over it for months. I've been a fiction editor here for over a decade, and it's been a really important part of my life. Stepping down from the fiction department is the right decision for me, though, and now is the right time.
I'm not going away entirely -- I'll be staying around in an advisory role for the magazine, and I'll be actively involved in the process of selecting new fiction editors. Our goal is to put together a strong and fabulous editorial team that will continue to publish groundbreaking fiction from all over the speculative fiction spectrum -- and represent all of the voices in our community. We've already started speaking to a few promising candidates, but we're interested in hearing from applicants who we might not have already considered, so we invite anyone who's interested in what we're doing at Strange Horizons to consider applying for a position as a fiction editor. (Full details about the application process available here (http://www.strangehorizons.com/Jobs.shtml).)
This is a big transition that we're going through, and as a result we're going to have to ask you for a little bit of extra patience -- because we're working through this change in the editorial team, we're going to need another couple of weeks before we can open to fiction submissions.
Everyone here at Strange Horizons has confidence that we're going to find a great new editorial team, and that we'll continue to be the magazine you know and love. Thank you for staying with us through these big changes.
Eto, saznadoh juce da je umro Samuel Youd, nama starijima poznat pod pseudonimom Dzon Kristofer... :( njegov roman Smrt trave je jedan od prvih ozbiljnih postapokalipticnih romana koji su mi ostali u secanju. RIP.
Paul Cornell has a plan for achieving equality of gender representation on convention panels (http://www.paulcornell.com/2012/02/panel-parity.html):
If I'm on, at any convention this year, a panel that doesn't have a 50/50 gender split (I'll settle for two out of five), I'll hop off that panel, and find a woman to take my place.
If I know of a professionally qualified woman (a fellow creator or critic or someone with specific knowledge of the subject) in the room, I'll start by inviting her up. If there's nobody like that, I'll ask for hands up, and hope that bravery counts as virtue enough for them to hold their own on the panel. I will ask such women that they don't spend their time on the panel criticising the convention or the companies I work for. That would make me a very rude guest. I will then stay in the room to listen to the panel, and then, due to the small possibility that someone might have come to the panel purely to see me, make myself available outside afterwards, so no audience member is short-changed.
Comments on his post are mostly positive. alittlebriton links this to the SFX Weekender (http://www.strangehorizons.com/blog/2012/02/what_i_did_at_the_weekend.shtml) panel balance discussion here (http://alittlebriton.livejournal.com/257853.html). Chance is unimpressed here (http://secritcrush.livejournal.com/458855.html). FJM reframes to discuss the problem of "token men" here (http://fjm.livejournal.com/1152261.html).
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Kathryn Cramer has posted the table of contents (http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2012/02/years-best-sf-17-2012-ed-david-g-hartwell-kathryn-cramer-table-of-contents.html) for Year's Best SF 17, the upcoming anthology she co-edited with David G. Hartwell being published on May 29, 2012:- "The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three" by Ken MacLeod
- "Dolly" by Elizabeth Bear
- "Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Raindeer" by Ken Liu
- "Tethered" by Mercurio Rivera
- "Wahala" by Nnedi Okorafor
- "Laika's Ghost" by Karl Schroeder
- "Ragnarok" by Paul Park
- "Six Months, Three Days" by Charlie Jane Anders
- "And Weep Like Alexander" by Neil Gaiman
- "The Middle of Somewhere" by Judith Moffett
- "Mercies" by Gregory Benford
- "The Education of Junior Number 12″ by Madeline Ashby
- "Our Candidate" by Robert Reed
- "Thick Water" by Karen Heuler
- "The War Artist" by Tony Ballantyne
- "The Master of the Aviary" by Bruce Sterling
- "Home Sweet Bi'Ome" by Pat MacEwan
- "For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Lonliness and I'll Not Be Back Again" by Michael Swanwick
- "The Ki-anna" by Gwyneth Jones
- "Eliot Wrote" by Nancy Kress
- "The Nearest Thing" by Genevieve Valentine
- "The Vector Alphabet of Intersellar Travel" by Yoon Ha Lee
- "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Ne znam da li je bilo već reči o ovome, ali Night Shade se sprema da u maju izbaci novi fentezi serijal: Jeff Salyards. (http://jeffsalyards.com/)
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David Moody has posted the table of contents (http://www.djmoody.co.uk/2012/02/10/the-mammoth-book-of-body-horror/) for the upcoming newly released (in the U.K.) anthology in which he appears: The Mammoth Book of Body Horror:- "Transformation" by Mary Shelley
- "The Tell-tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe
- "Herbert West: Re-animator" by H.p. Lovecraft
- "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell
- "The Fly" by George Langelaan
- "Tis The Season To Be Jelly" by Richard Matheson
- "Survivor Type" by Stephen King
- "The Body Politic" by Clive Barker
- "The Chaney Legacy" by Robert Bloch
- "The Other Side" by Ramsey Campbell
- "Fruiting Bodies" by Brian Lumley
- "Freaktent" by Nancy A. Collins
- "Region Of The Flesh" by Richard Christian Matheson
- "Walking Wounded" by Michael Marshall Smith
- "Changes" by Neil Gaiman
- "Others" by James Herbert
- "The Look" by Christopher Fowler
- "Residue" by Alice Henderson
- "Dog Days" by Graham Masterton
- "Black Box" by Gemma Files
- "The Soaring Dead" by Simon Clark
- "Polyp" by Barbie Wilde
- "Almost Forever" by David Moody
- "Butterfly" by Axelle Carolyn
- "Sticky Eye" by Conrad Williams.
[via David Moody (http://www.djmoody.co.uk/2012/03/01/mammoth-book-of-body-horror-out-today)]
A Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction: April 3rd – July 10, 2012 at Universität Hamburg (http://www.aww.uni-hamburg.de/AVirtualIntroductiontoScienceFiction.html). [via Paul Di Filippo (http://www.pauldifilippo.com/)]
dienstags 18–20 Uhr, Hörsaal K, Hauptgebäude, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1
An Online Teaching Project with Video Lectures
Countless stories in books, films, series and games make up the canon of science fiction (sf), the genre of popular literature and media that represents the success of mass culture like none other and has, especially since Hollywood discovered it (in films like "Avatar") for its stunning creation of worlds, been growing in fan numbers by the year. Unfortunately though, even though media presence is growing and students express an interest in sf, the genre has been neglected by academia, especially in teaching. One problem might be that research in sf can mostly been found
abroad and many experts teach at US institutions.
This semester, the Universität Hamburg therefore promotes an innovative teaching project which tries to rectify this situation by gathering experts of sf virtually to teach via video lecture. The project thus combines a lecture series with a classic seminar approach and allows for weekly sessions on specialized topics. Experts will give "live" talks via the net, introduce their fields of study and then answer questions from the audience. In the second part of the session, the given topic will be analyzed via exemplary short stories and the thematic concerns of the lecture brought to a practical reading. Visitors of the lectures can participate in the seminar, if they are interested in further discussion of the topics.
03.04.2012
What is Science Fiction? Some Thoughts on Genre
Prof. John Rieder, PhD, Department of English, University of Hawaii, USA
10.04.2012
Proto-Science Fiction (History of Science Fiction up to the 1900s)
Dr. Brian M. Stableford, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Reading, UK
17.04.2012
The Rise of the Pulps (1900s–1930s)
Dr. Zahra Janessari, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Iran
24.04.2012
Golden Age of Science Fiction (1940s–1950s)
Prof. Gary Westfahl, PhD, College of Arts and Science, University of La Verne, USA
08.05.2012
New Wave of Science Fiction (1960s–1970s)
Dr. Edward Carmien, Department of English, Mercer County Community College, USA
15.05.2012
Cyberpunk (1980s–1990s)
Prof. Pawel Frelik, PhD, Department of American Literature and Culture, University of Lublin, Poland
22.05.2012
Slipstream and Crossovers (2000s)
Ass. Prof. Douglas Davis, PhD, Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts, Gordon College, USA
05.06.2012
Science Fiction as Genre Film (1920s–1960s)
Ass. Prof. Alfredo L. Suppia, PhD, Institute of Arts and Design, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brasil
12.06.2012
Science Fiction and New Hollywood (1970s–2000s)
Mark Bould, PhD, Department of Screen Media and Journalism, University of the West of England, UK
19.06.2012
Feminism in Science Fiction
Ass. Prof. Ritch Calvin, PhD, Department of Women's and Gender Studies, State University of New York, Stony Brook, USA
26.06.2012
Race in Science Fiction
Ass. Prof. Lisa Yaszek, PhD, School of Literature, Communication and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
03.07.2012
Fandom in Science Fiction
Prof. Robin Reid, PhD, Department of Literature & Languages, Texas A&M University, Commerce, USA
10.07.2012
New Media Forms of Science Fiction
Stefan Hall, PhD, Department of Communication Arts, Defiance College, USA
A, onda će da ih uče anglosaksonci. :cry:
Ako ikog zanima Cage Match 2012: Round 1 je poceo na suvudu-u :)
Simpa intervju - Daryl Gregory :) (http://sentidodelamaravilla.blogspot.com/2012/03/interview-with-daryl-gregory.html)
New Stephen King anthology film confirmed
Four classic stories to be included
There aren't many authors who've had as much big screen success as Stephen King. From Carrie to The Shining to Misery to The Shawshank Redemption to The Green Mile to The Mist, his work effortlessly translates to film.
As The Dark Tower continues to take a long, torturous journey to the big screen, King fans can rejoice in some other movie news.
The director of King adaptation The Night Flier, Frank Pavia, is developing a horror anthology film based on four stories from the master storyteller. Dread Central (http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/53624/stories-be-included-mark-pavias-stephen-king-anthology-film-announced?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter) have reported that Pavia has chosen two of the tales while the other two have been decided by King himself.
Stephen King's The Reaper's Image will contain the following four stories:
The Reaper's Image
First published in Startling Mystery Stories in 1969 and collected in Skeleton Crew in 1985, it tells the story of an antique mirror haunted by the Grim Reaper who appears to those who gaze into it.
Mile 81
Released as an eBook in 2011, this follows in the footsteps of Christine and From A Buick 8 as it tells the story of an evil station wagon that wreaks havoc on the Maine turnpike.
N.
Appearing in the collection Just After Sunset in 2008, this novella tells the story of a deadly obsession that threatens a psychiatrist and his patient. It was also released by Marvel Comics as a limited edition series.
The Monkey
First published in Gallery Magazine in 1980 and then revised and re-published in Skeleton Crew in 1985, this one centers on a cymbal-banging monkey toy that's possessed by an evil spirit.
A start date has yet to be announced but if you could choose, what King story would you like to see transported to the big screen?
jedno pitanje da li je mozda prevedena knjiga the thing, pisac John W. Campbell Jr. na nas jezik? mozda nije pravi post za ovo pitanje ali nadam se da nikome nece smetati
ehhhh, to nije u pitanju knjiga nego tek priča, i koliko znam nije prevedena.
FLOGGING BABEL: To do this past weekend justice would require that I put in several days writing an essay. Suffice it to say that when people imagine writers leading glamorous lives, what they conjure up is a pale shadow of what An Evening in Honor of Gene Wolfe was like.
As witness the above video which Bill Shunn posted on YouTube, showing Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Peter Sagal, Jill Thompson, Patrick O'Leary, David Hartwell, and yours truly, among others, riding the fabulous vintage carousel. This was after the private tour, the ceremony, the speeches, Neil's reading of "A Solar Labyrinth," the staged reading of another of Gene's stories by Terra Mysterium (very well done), an organ concert, the presentation of the Fuller Award, dinner, and many, many toasts. (http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2012/03/wolfe-fete.html)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Official Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJnRBUK2_NY#ws)
You can prevent old science fiction books from being forgotten! This is my favorite new e-book project seeking funds on Kickstarter: Save the Scifi! (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/singularityco/singularity-and-cost) A group called Singularity & Co. will scan and publish out-of-print science fiction novels in e-book form — but only after talking to the authors and getting their permission. It's basically a version of what HiLo Books is doing with Radium Age classics (http://hilobrow.com/hilobooks/), but for out-of-print titles whose authors are still alive and kicking.
So many terrific science fiction books could get lost in the transition from print to digital, mostly because they fell out of print (even if they were fabulous books). With the rights reverted to the authors, publishers aren't interested in investing the time and money to scan them. Singularity & Co. to the rescue!
Here's a description of this project and what the fundraisers will do with the money:
Each month we'll choose one great classic, obscure or otherwise fascinating sci-fi book that's no longer in print and not available online, track down the copyright holder and/or author (if they're still around), acquire or otherwise clear the copyright, and publish the title both online and as an e-book, for little or no cost. Our supporters and followers will help us choose which books will be digitally rescued from copyright and publishing limbo via a monthly poll on our website, and we'll share the story behind the story, including with each ebook what we learned about the book, the author and their history along the way . . . This Kickstarter campaign will allow us to rescue our first four neglected works by providing for the following:
* Acquiring and curating the treasures to be found among many, many paper copies of old, out of print sci-fi books
* Expanding our current website to allow us to display and deliver our sci-fi library - physically as well as electronically - and support voting capabilities for fans to help decide the next titles to be rescued
* Building an open source book scanner (see
http://www.diybookscanner.org/ (http://www.diybookscanner.org/) for an example) to aid in turning forgotten paper books into e-books
* Covering costs associated with tracking down rightsholders, authors and/or their estates, as well as clearing or acquiring the electronic publishing rights to our orphaned books
* Spreading the word not only to established fans but also potential supporters who love great books and ideas (may include attending conventions, creating t-shirts, prints and anything else we can think of)
* Covering costs associated with legal work to be done by our attorneys, all of whom are generously contributing their time pro bono (we're trying to keep our costs as low as possible)
This project is already funded, but you can still donate to it and help the group get more books out there. I can't think of a better way to spend a few bucks — you'll be preserving the history of the future.
Learn more and donate on the Save the Scifi! Kickstarter page (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/singularityco/singularity-and-co)
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InterGalactic Medicine Show Awards Anthology, Vol. I (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0075C4NM2/sfsi0c-20) [Kindle Edition]
Kindle Price: $0.00 includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
Koji smarački bug... :-x enivejz, knjiga iz prethodnog posta je trenutno na Amazon besplatnoj listi za Kindle, pa sledite link.
Iju, radi! Hvala :)
... i, eto nama i ovoga!!! :mrgreen: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1Kkn7IMt50#ws)
The first teaser trailer for 'The Host', based on the novel by The Twilight Saga's author Stephenie Meyer, and starring Saoirse Ronan ('Hanna', 'The Lovely Bones'), has been released.
The sci-fi thriller is the story of a young heroine among an alien race that invades earth and inhabits humans, but she fights to keep control of her mind and spirit.
Since the film releases in 2013, there is little film footage in the mysterious trailer, but it is timed for the release of The Hunger Games, another dystopian fantasy based on a young adult book.
Turn It Up To 11: Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books for April (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/science-fiction-and-fantasy/turn-it-11-anticipated-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-ap/)
DeNardov predlog na Kirkusu za aprilske knjige koje navise obecavaju... eto ga najzad i Chuck Wendig sa Blackbirds...
A Clarke For Fantasy? Posted by Niall Harrison 28 March 2012
I know, I know ... the last thing our field needs is new awards, right? At the same time, in the UK, there's a bit of a gap. The British Science Fiction Award is nominally for either fantasy or sf, but in practice almost always goes to sf. The British Fantasy Award, meanwhile, almost always goes to horror. (It remains to be seen how well this year's rules changes corrects this.) The Arthur C Clarke Award has infamously gone to novels that outside observers might consider fantasy a few times, but strictly speaking it's an award for science fiction. Certainly it will never represent the whole range of fantasy.
So what would a Clarke-equivalent look like? The idea is that it would be the same process as the Clarke itself, with a panel of judges who read a large number of fantasy novels -- and a wide range of types of fantasy -- published in a given year. There would be a shortlist of six and, as with the Clarke, the judges would re-read the nominated books before picking their winner.
I don't have the resources to set this up. But I do know the person running the literary programme at this year's Eastercon (http://olympus2012.org/), and as a result I'm moderating the following panel:
>Sunday 2pm, Winchester 41: A Fantasy Clarke Award.
Our panel of fantasy readers and critics discusses what the Fantasy Clarke Award for 2011 might be. Niall Harrison (moderator), Nicola Clarke, David Hebblethwaite, Erin Horakova, Edward James and Juliet McKenna. What we've done is put together a "shortlist", and what we're going to do is discuss it live, in the manner of the yearly Not The Clarke Awards panel, throwing out the books one by one until a "winner" is selected. We haven't, of course, been able to be as rigorous as the real Clarke judges; all the panelists have read widely, but we haven't read everything. But we think the shortlist is still a good cross-section of the fantasy published in the UK last year.
And that shortlist? Here it is:
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Windmill)
Cold Fire by Kate Elliott (Orbit)
The Fallen Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Orbit)
Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan)
Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi (Picador)
Your thoughts?
Hehe, zabavno, VanderMeer lepo sumira radnju (za sada) + Valenteova: http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/674762.html (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/674762.html)
Evil Monkey:
Did you see that Christopher Priest threw his feces all over the Arthur C. Clarke Award (http://www.christopher-priest.co.uk/journal/1077/hull-0-scunthorpe-3/)?!?
Jeff:
Yes. Don't bother me. I'm working.
Evil Monkey:
No, no. You have to respond. You have to blog something.
Jeff:
I'M WORKING, GODDAMN YOU, MONKEY!
Evil Monkey:
I'm not leaving until we talk about this!
Jeff:
I KEEL YOU WITH MY MIND BULLETS!
Evil Monkey:
I SNUFF OUT YOUR MIND BULLETS WITH MAH BUTT MISSILES!
Jeff:
I give up. But what's to talk about? I don't completely disagree with Priest on a general level about always striving for better, always analyzing awards processes and our own writing...but there's little discourse to be had here directly, because he poisoned the waters by dissing his panel-mate Billingham, dismissing Tepper with "it's about horses, man, and horses ain't cool in my book" and calling for the judging panel to be disbanded. His Stross comment also seemed too personal. If he had merely stated his opinion of the nominated books, of which I have read only China's, then it would be different, I think...But also, as someone who has a leg in the mainstream and in genre, it's hard to muster up much energy one way or the other. Newsflash: Mediocre books make awards ballots all the time. I think the only mistake is to set your watch by them.
Evil Monkey:
And then Damien G. Walter set out a psychological profile of Priest (http://damiengwalter.com/2012/03/29/understanding-christopher-priest/)! Priest is just a twisted Gollum gone insane from getting sooooo close to the Ring but never possessing it!
Jeff:
Yes, and then in John Scalzi's very reasonable post (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/03/29/christopher-priest-shouts-at-clouds/) he pointed out we don't need to look for ulterior reasons. Which I tend to agree with. This idea that a writer can't have a controversial opinion without it having to some nefarious underlying reason...well, oy. Then I guess all writers everywhere should shut up as suspect. You can be an curmudgeonly a-hole and still give a decent analytical opinion.
Evil Monkey:
Charles Stross is an internet puppy (http://www.zazzle.co.uk/internet_puppy_t_shirt_tshirt-235730813931635704)!
Jeff:
A long time ago, Marion Zimmer Bradley called me a wet-behind-the-ears puppy! I didn't mind!
Evil Monkey:
Internet puppy! I want to be an internet puppy!
Jeff:
You are an internet monkey. It's almost the same thing.
Evil Monkey:
So, will you now tell me what you really think?
Jeff:
I already said: I'm working!
Evil Monkey:
Not. Leaving. You. Alone.
Jeff:
Oh, all right. Fine. The idea that writers are so unself-aware that they are not already striving to do better is ridiculous. The idea that an awards jury should be disbanded for picking a few un-amazing novels, especially when you're handicapped by the year you're judging and what you're sent...is ridiculous. Here are three more serious scenarios:
—IF YOU ARE A JUDGE AND YOU SET ANOTHER JUDGE ON FIRE YOU SHOULD BE LET GO.
—IF YOU ARE A JUDGE AND YOU SHOOT THE AUTHOR OF A BOOK THAT DOESN'T MAKE THE BALLOT, YOU SHOULD BE REMOVED.
—IF YOU MEET WITH THE OTHER JUDGES AND TAKE OFF ALL YOUR CLOTHES AND PISS ON THE CONFERENCE TABLE, YOU SHOULD BE SACKED (UNLESS THIS WAS ALL AT THE OTHER JUDGES' REQUEST).
Evil Monkey:
Um. Wow.
Jeff:
But I was heartened to see the responses from Scalzi–and Cat Valente's (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/674762.html). It's nice to see there're writers who can take the long view, not feel so invested in genre politics that this isn't just a poke in the personal eye but the communal eye. To some extent, we should try to love our curmudgeons. They're an endangered species. In fact, I am heartened by the sense of humor displayed over this in general...
Evil Monkey:
What will happen now?
Jeff:
Everybody will forget next week when I dress up in a pig costume, slather myself in lard, and attach myself to Lavie Tidhar with superglue while screaming "Bacon bits! Bacon bits!"
Evil Monkey:
But is it true, like Damien G. Walter says? That everyone's part of some social Darwinistic writer-eat-writer vicious eco-system in which there are only two or three winners and the rest are all losers licking their wounds and living in a constant state of frenzied seething envy?
Jeff:
I don't think it's true, at least in the U.S. ecosystem. I mean, you can see it—you can see in the wild staring eye of a person going off on a rant at a convention, as a kind of localized wound, in a way that is instructional. But you don't see it as much as you might expect. In part, too, because not everyone has the same goals with their writing. And some people don't care that much about awards, or don't use them as a barometer of their success in quite the same way as others. Believe it or not.
Evil Monkey:
So you don't sit around being envious of other writers?
Jeff:
I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a twinge every once in awhile, like anyone in any field of endeavor, but in general, no. I am more likely to have angry imaginary arguments while driving in my car with something someone said on the internet. The closest I came to a state of prolonged envy would be before my first major publishing contracts. During that period, when it looked like I wouldn't reach a wider audience, I couldn't pick up Locus or look at its people and publishing section....aaaand, that's about it for anything sustained.
Evil Monkey:
You're not competitive, then.
Jeff:
I'm very competitive, but eventually you realize what's within your control and what's not. And you stop wasting physical or mental energy on what's beyond your control...as much as you are able. You never get it totally right.
Evil Monkey:
So what's under your control.
Jeff:
The work.
upsi dejzi, a i bilo je bas vreme za novi "gejt"... :!:
video sam da se gađaju hejtom, al me uopšte nije zanimalo da se udubim -_-
Zabavno je, pogotovo sto se svi delimicno slazu sa Priestom, sem, pretpostavljam, pisaca koje je opljunuo. A Stross je krenuo da prodaje internet puppy majce :!: Ma koliko se trudili, Briti nece moci da se oprimitive ko rodjaci im preko bare.
To kao ono svađanje kod Dikensa: "Vi ste, gospodine, budala!" :!:
Pa, bogami je Damien bio prilicno drzak, ako se uzme da komentarise tudje komentare... dopala mi se jedna reakcija na njegov post i potpuno se sa njom slazem, a tek sa panclajnom - stvarno i skroz! :evil:
Quote
Thanks Al Reynolds for pointing out Damien's error in the Ballard/Priest
timing (even if his response implies he didn't mean what he wrote).
I agree with others who note that Damien seems to have gone astray in this
article.
For me, Priest's post was an enjoyable read, well written and reasoned. It
made me want to look at some of the books he praised, as well as those he
derided.
Trying to get to the same level of vituperation with the "hissy fit" epithet
or suggesting "he's just jealous" seems to be an act of transference.
I respect Christopher Priest. I've heard of him. Up until today I'd never
heard of Walter, Damien G.
Jeste da sam pre tri nedelje stala na pola Prestiža i nikako da krenem dalje, ali meni je Pristov tekst skroz ok, uz značajan izuzetak ona dva reda o Šeri Teper. I baš je super što mu se očito živo jebe šta će ko da kaže na njegovo mišljenje. A ovo:
QuoteAlthough Miéville is clearly talented, he does not work hard enough.
stavila bih u potpis kad bih mogla dovoljno da se investiram emotivno. :mrgreen:
Ni ja nisam bogznakakav Pristov fan, ali brate, čovek je ispogađao da to nije normalno. Dobro to za Šeri Teper, za nju ama baš ne znam šta da mislim, ali to za internet papije... hokahej. :twisted: S tim što bih ja tu dodala i Vandermera; mislim, eto, zabavno je donekle čitati sva ta i takva glavinjanja, ali nakon nekog vremena čoveku kanda zamre osmejak na licu, pa ostane samo neka vrsta blagog blama i sve nekako postane infantilni cirkus u kom se neki matori ljudi do besvesti glupiraju u slapstik papazjaniji. Kad je Zoo Citz dobio nagradu, pomislila sam da se Klark garant u grobu prevrće, jer koliko god je to odličan roman i vrlo dobro napisan, toliko je i van bilo kojih žanrovskih smernica za koje sam ikad mislila da bi ih žirci nagrade morali slediti. I onda tu dođe baja Prist, i kaže nešto ovako, i digne se kojekakav plankton (hvala, Najti :wink: ) ko ovaj Damien i odmah se nekako otvori mogućnost da je Prist u pravu i više no što se na prvi pogled činilo.
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Huh. Interesting. Orbit will be releasing Rule 35 from Charles Stross. According to Alex Lencicki at Orbit, it's a "limited edition 150-copy remix" of Rule 34, the novel that just made the Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist list.
From the press release: "Stross's futuristic detective novel is being enhanced by the addition of another viewpoint character known as The Cyber Curmudgeon, who has a twitter handle of PissOffMyLawn, infects cyberspace, watching from afar: a voyeur of the action, almost like a one-man Greek Chorus, with a catch phrase of 'I might have a point!' The Cyber Curmudgeon's taunting infuriates another of the novel's characters and complicates the job of DI Liz Kavanaugh. The remix proceeds from there. Here at Orbit we don't want to divulge too much, but we're enthusiastic about this incredibly imaginative new version of Rule 34."
Special features of the limited edition:
—A deluxe hardcover binding made from the pulped remains of only the freshest, most recently remaindered novels by New Wave-era writers.
—A bookmark ribbon designed by Damien G. Walter that he will pre-soak in the tears of writers who never made it to the big table.
—Endpapers featuring Sheri Tepper's whimsical drawings of winged ponies framed by a horrific Boschian-style global-warming tableau.
Rule 35 also will include a foreword by China Mieville entitled "Did Something Happen I Am Completely Unaware of While I Was Busy Writing My Next Mind-Blowing Novel?" and an afterword composed of the recently transcribed cursing of the writer Mark Billingham (a preview of his forthcoming book, tentatively entitled Listen, I Met a Total F—ing W—er At the Lit Fest).
Stross has apparently said he'll split his earnings from the limited edition into contributions to two organizations: The International Foundation for Literary Judges with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Save Our Curmudgeons League.
E ovo je najbolja stvar za prvi april do sada, uglavnom su bile neinventivne gluposti...
As officially promised by the unofficial trailer of the official trailer, the official trailer has offically arrived. This remake stars Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, John Cho and Bill Nighy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAIXkzMCd1E#ws)
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 30-03-2012, 18:28:31
Jeste da sam pre tri nedelje stala na pola Prestiža i nikako da krenem dalje...
Ajde napiši utiske kad pročitaš, meni je to jedna od retkih knjiga koju je film dobro nadmašio, ali ne mogu da se sad setim čime me je toliko razočarala.
Quote from: Dacko on 02-04-2012, 10:40:07
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 30-03-2012, 18:28:31
Jeste da sam pre tri nedelje stala na pola Prestiža i nikako da krenem dalje...
Ajde napiši utiske kad pročitaš, meni je to jedna od retkih knjiga koju je film dobro nadmašio, ali ne mogu da se sad setim čime me je toliko razočarala.
Verovatno objašnjenjem na kraju, Prist ume da razočara tim delom.
^^^ Sta rade ovo idioti u holivudu, koliko god da ga namunje, i sve da ubace 5 kejt bekinsajl ova abominacija nikad nece biti bolja od Svarcijevog Totalnog opoziva, da ne pominjem kako su scene iz trejlera identicne onima iz starog filma, naravno sa vise akcije i efekata.
... ma, nije to ipak toliko strasno kao opcija, nije Svarci upamcen zbog svojih glumackih sposobnosti... ko zna, mozda tu bude i kakvog boljitka. Budi uvek pristupacan novim iskustvima. :wink:
a evo jos jednog hvale vrednog projekta:
Our goal is to fund the preservation of a historic and irreplaceable collection of materials covering the science fiction, fantasy, and horror fields, including author and convention photos, correspondence, and other ephemera, accumulated by Charles N. Brown and Locus magazine over the past 60 years. Help us stabilize the archive, digitize the photos and letters, and make available to fans, writers, scholars, and resarchers the almost 40,000 of pieces of SF/F history we have in this collection. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2040521099/locus-photo-and-ephemera-archive-project)
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Watch 10 min Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/watch-10-minutes-space-battleship-yamato-2199-battle-footage.html)
Night Shade Books 50% off Sale!!! (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/night-shade-books-50-off-sale/)
A sad to lepo prijavi negde gde radi paypal :-x
:cry:
It's been a long time since I've so eagerly anticipated an upcoming film. Prometheus, which is slated for a June 8 release, feels to me like a cultural, psychological, and philosophical landmark even before I've seen it. And its profound resonance with two other cultural, psychological, and philosophical landmarks in the history of science fiction is become more clearly evident with each passing day and each newly released marketing item.First, here are two different trailers for the film, which I can't urge you strongly enough to watch. Although SF Signal readers may well have seen one or both of these already, I encourage you to rewatch them now (or watch them for the first time) and pay attention to the truly apocalyptic feeling they convey. (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/04/ridley-scotts-prometheus-a-lovecraftian-2001/#more-54027)
Official Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sftuxbvGwiU#ws)
International version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGW0LtO59-E#ws)
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The scene is classic Poe: A raven swoops out of an open trunk, and a human heart and loose papers flutter behind the master of the macabre. He could be hurrying to capture one of the famously morbid tales that chill readers to this day.
On a fittingly dark and stormy Monday, the Poe Foundation of Boston said that it had selected the design of a New York sculptor to honor Edgar Allan Poe with a life-size bronze statue. The statue, set for completion by year's end, will grace Poe Square, a brick plaza at the intersection of Boylston and Charles streets. He was born two blocks away, in 1809.
Malko novosti iz horora:
A year ago, This Is Horror was born albeit under its former alias Read Horror. It's been one hell of a journey thus far and we're not planning on slowing down any time soon. In fact, we're stepping things up a notch with a brand new arm – the This Is Horror Premium Chapbook Series. These premium chapbooks will showcase stories from some of the very best names in genre today and will be released every quarter. So, without further ado here's the line-up for the first year.
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David Moody (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/meet-the-writer/david-moody/), author of the best-selling Autumn and Hater (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/book-reviews/hater-by-david-moody/) series, is first up with Joe & Me. This is scheduled to be released at the start of June and will be followed by a very special launch event (more details to follow).
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Next is a collaboration between two heavyweights in the British horror scene – Gary McMahon (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/meet-the-writer/gary-mcmahon/), author of This Is Horror's Novel of The Year (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/features/this-is-horror-awards-2011-the-winners/novel-of-the-year/) – The Concrete Grove (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/book-reviews/the-concrete-grove-by-gary-mcmahon/), and Simon Bestwick (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/meet-the-writer/simon-bestwick/), author of The Faceless (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/book-reviews/the-faceless-by-simon-bestwick/). Their story, Thin Men with Yellow Faces will be released in Autumn 2012.
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We will be publishing The Fox by award-winning author, Conrad Williams (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/read-horror/meet-the-writer/conrad-williams/). His accolades include the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, 2010, the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel, 2007 and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, 2008. The Fox will be released in Winter 2012/13.
To round-off our year is Joseph D'Lacey (http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/interviews/joseph-dlacey-part-i/), leader of the eco-horror revolution and British Fantasy Award winner for Best Newcomer, 2009. His as yet untitled chapbook will be released in Spring 2013.
Pre-orders and prices for both David Moody's Joe & Me and a yearly subscription to the This Is Horror Premium Chapbook Series will be announced shortly.
Joel Goldsmith, Emmy-nominated composer for TV's "Stargate" series, died Sunday at his home in Hidden Hills, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. He was 54.
The son of Oscar-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith, he programmed synthesizers on some of his father's 1970s and 1980s scores including "Runaway." But the younger Goldsmith established his own musical career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, scoring sci-fi and horror films including "Laserblast," "The Man With Two Brains" and "Moon 44."
It was in television, however, that Goldsmith found his niche, composing the music for more than 350 episodes in the "Stargate" franchise alone, including most of "Stargate SG-1" and all of "Stargate Atlantis" and "Stargate Universe." He also scored the "Stargate" videos "The Ark of Truth" and "Continuum."
He received three Emmy nominations: for an episode of "Stargate SG-1," for the theme for "Stargate Atlantis" and for an episode of "Stargate Atlantis."
Goldsmith's other TV projects included the themes and episode scores for "Super Force," the 1990s remake of "The Untouchables," "Hawkeye" and "Witchblade." He also scored episodes of the 1990s remake of "The Outer Limits," "H.E.L.P." and "Diagnosis Murder." His telepic scores included "Helen of Troy," "Haunting Sarah" and "Fatal Desire."
His other feature film scores included "Kull the Conqueror," "Army of One," "Shiloh" and "Diamonds." He scored the videogame "Call of Duty 3," and he contributed about 20 minutes of music (mostly for the Borg characters) to his father's "Star Trek: First Contact" score in 1996.
PAOLO BACIGALUPI:
When I started writing The Drowned Cities, I hadn't planned to write about politics. Typically I write about environmental issues such as global warming or energy scarcity or GM foods, but as I was working on the book, our increasingly divided political dialogue and government paralysis intruded.
These says, I can't help noticing how much time we spend busting unions in Wisconsin or warring over contraception in universities, or checking people's citizenship papers at traffic stops, while our geopolitical situation and future prospects change for the worse. As I've watched this dysfunction deepen, I've started to consider other aspects of where we might be headed.
As much as we invoke Rome and its fallen empire as a metaphor for our present American circumstance, I'm more interested in Greece, and the failures of prototype democracy. I can't help but notice how easily demagogues and rhetoric sway our citizens these days, and how we turn on any leader foolish enough as to tell us that the shadows on the wall are false–whether that's the dream of endless American prosperity, or the mirage of American exceptionalism, or the fairy tale that taxes will never be raised at the same time as our military will never be trimmed.
Democracy is fragile. It takes people working together in good faith to make it function. And yet, these days we celebrate people who profit from undermining it. We bathe ourselves in the rhetorical flourishes of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity (and no, Keith Olbermann doesn't float my boat much either), and it seems like you're either a patriot or a traitor to your country.
Environmentalist just want to kill jobs. Democrats are out to make America weak. The left is stupid, and the right is crazy. The Christians are trying to create a theocracy, and the socialists are hiding under every rock, just waiting to take over the government.
Division. Distrust. Contempt. Hatred.
Ironically, the demagogues who work so hard to deepen our divisions are getting rich at the same time. They hack away at their fellow citizens, and encouraging others to do the same. They devalue half our population's humanity for the entertainment of the other half–and they make massive amounts of money. Rush Limbaugh alone makes $38 million a year from poisoning our political dialogue.
Almost all of my writing asks the simple question: If this goes on, what does the world look like? For The Drowned Cities, I asked: If everyone we disagree with is a traitor, where does that take us? If we can't figure out how to cooperate, and if we always demonize one another, what sort of world do we hand off to our children in terms of politics and prosperity? The Drowned Cities is about the world after Rush Limbaugh and the rest of our talking heads have boarded their private jets and left the wreckage of the country behind. It about a world where we didn't solve the big problems because we were focused on the small schisms.
In The Drowned Cities, warlord factions fight over territory, scrap, religion, and recruits. Two young children, Mahlia and Mouse, have been orphaned by the civil war and fled to the jungle outskirts. They've both lost their families and Mahlia has lost a hand to the war's brutalities. Now, in the village of Banyan Town, they've found shelter, thanks to the protective influence of a humanitarian doctor. But even this fragile safety doesn't last. War is coming Banyan Town. Soldier boys are in the jungles, sweeping the swamps with hunting dogs, searching for something that only Mahlia knows about. Something that the soldier boys will do anything to find, and something that Mahlia can never let them have, no matter what it costs herself, the doctor, or the town.
—-
The Drowned Cities: Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/The-Drowned-Cities-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/0316056243)|Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-drowned-cities-paolo-bacigalupi/1106244225)|Indiebound (http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316056243)|Powell's (http://www.powells.com/biblio/18-9780316056243-0)
By JaymGates (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/author/jaymgates/) | Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 2:00 pm Comments (4) (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/05/review-dancing-with-bears-by-michael-swanwick/#comments)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F1597803340.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=96f015dce36ca0aa36b29acd668054fa10fd0970) (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597803340/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20)REVIEW SUMMARY: A rollicking, weird ride through a vibrant, post-apocalyptic world.
MY RATING: (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2Fstars4p5.gif&hash=b1a21cf2e300a07758070759ef431462a25329df)
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Darger and Surplus are con-men following rumors of a secret library. Their plans hit a few snags, and they end up caught in a vast conspiracy of mad straniks, Russian aristocrazy and human-hating android relics.
PROS: The writing is brilliant; the text has a distinctly Russian flavor, without being colloquial; the setting is one-of-a-kind; tropes are skewered left and right.
CONS: It is intense and decidedly weird; if you like traditional SF, this book is not for you; an erotic scene between a genetically-modified dogman and an engineered human that provokes...some uncertainty.
BOTTOM LINE: This is a love-it-or-hate-it book, the literary equivalent of Turkish coffee: intense, rich and complex.
Quote from: LiBeat on 10-05-2012, 09:31:50
BOTTOM LINE: This is a love-it-or-hate-it book, the literary equivalent of Turkish coffee: intense, rich and complex.
Ovo se zove kulturni jaz na delu :lol: :lol: :lol: Mislim, ja sam sačuvala isečak iz jednog City magazina sa reklamom za espreso mašinu u kojoj je pisalo "tursku kafu piju samo još domaćice i studentkinje iz unutrašnjosti" samo i jedino da me stalno podseća na to zašto mrzim
urbane i
urbanost a ovom čoveku je turska kafa očigledno vrhunac estetske dekadencije.
Ontopik, ovo "the text has a distinctly Russian flavor, without being colloquial" me čini malo sumnjičavom jer... eh... ali dobro, ono malo što sam od Svonvika čitala bilo je prvorazredno.
:lol: :lol: da, da, ne sumnjaj u estetsku sofisticiranost turske kafe, koju i sama negujem preko dekadentno ofucane bakarne džezve i fildžana, recimo da je ovde uzdignuta na nivo japanske čajne ceremonije, uz nemalo forsiranje koje mi drži balans faktu da ne umem ni kajganu pošteno da napravim. :mrgreen:
Nego, kad smo već kod prvorazrednog Svonvika (čiji Dancing with Bears upravo overavam) evo nešto njegovo skroz digresivno kjut:
When I was young, I followed physics closely. Even when it got extremely weird, I was there on the sidelines cheering it on. But then by slow degrees it became unmoored from physical consequence. Branes, dimensions folded in upon themselves, string theory -- famously derided as being "not even wrong" -- and the like were inherently neither provable nor falsifiable. By their very nature, we were never going to know for sure. So I let my level of interest downgrade to "casual."
The CERN Super Hadron Collider, however, is Old School in that it involves actual experimental data. So I was happy to find a short animation explaining the Higgs boson in words so simple that I can follow them.
Mind you, this is not the Higgs boson as physicists themselves know it. But it's nice to have a glimmer.
You can view the video here (http://vimeo.com/41038445).
The Higgs Boson (Sort Of) Explained (http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2012/05/higgs-boson-sort-of-explained.html)
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REVIEW SUMMARY: Despite good casting and one or two promising scenes, Burton's sendup of the classic supernatural soap opera only manages to be an incoherent mess.
MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: After being chained in a coffin by a scorned lover for two hundred years, vampire Barnabas Collins returns to Collinwood manor.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Well, at least it's better than the trailers; a couple of clever scenes; Burton's juxtaposition of Gothic and 1970s stylings; a good cast...
CONS: ...wasted by an aimless script and, despite frantic action, a complete lack of energy.
Dark Shadows does not continue director Tim Burton's artless swan dive into irrelevance but shows him swimming in a shallow pool of it, petulantly splashing and wailing like an unattended toddler upset that his parents are far too busy wrapped up in their own psychodrama to pay attention. Or perhaps he doesn't care that audiences lost interest in his underdeveloped sense of narrative and overdeveloped sense of cinematography some time after Mars Attacks! or Sleepy Hollow, for the problems plaguing his pictures from the beginning exhibit themselves painfully in this adaptation of Dan Curtis's Gothic soap opera. Running at just under two hours, it often feels longer than the ABC-TV series' five-year run.
Although the idea of making yet another movie from a television show often fills me with the kind of dread reserved for trips to the dentist or, worse, a call from relatives, a movie based on Dark Shadows actually seemed like a good idea. The series crawled at a snail's pace, stretching out two minutes of story—often the same two minutes that would run in front of a modern show's opening credits—into thirty, including commercials, so even a little tightening held the promise of forward momentum. That the trailers suggested Burton and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (who co-wrote the story with John August) reimagined everything as a wild comedy didn't bother me, either—yes, those trailers looked awful, but at least they were different from the staid campiness of its source material. Dark Shadows isn't as bad as the trailers suggest, but that only elevates it into a different level of meh.
It starts, as so many movies do, with backstory. In the middle of the eighteenth century the Collins family travels to North America from Liverpool with their son Barnabas (Johnny Depp, who chews scenery to mush), who becomes a playboy in Collinsport, Maine (the town created by his father, played by Ivan Kaye) and ultimately becomes master of Colinwood Manor. When he breaks the heart of servant girl and witch Angelina Bouchard (Eva Green, no less the scene diner), she kills his parents and curses his family and his lover Josette du Pres (Bella Heathcote) before transforming Barnabas into a vampire and burying him in a chained coffin in the woods outside of Collinsport.
200 years later, in 1972, the Collins family, now a shadow of its former glory, occupies the ruined mansion. Barnabas, accidentally freed by a group of construction workers, returns to Collinwood Manor and meets his dysfunctional descendants: Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer), the matriarch, her brother Roger (Johnny Lee Miller), her teenage daughter Carolyn (Chlöe Moertz), her ten-year-old son David (Gulliver McGrath), and her live-in psychiatrist Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), all of whom greet their long-lost relative with more than a little suspicion. Also joining the family is David's governess Victoria Winters (also Heathcote), whom Barnabas recognizes immediately as his long-lost Josette. As Barnabas attempts to restore the Collins name to its former glory, Angelique learns he has escaped from his coffin and hatches a plan to win his love.
Burton introduces interesting, quirky characters in the same Day-Glo Gothic trimmings so common to his movies, but Grahame-Smith's screenplay does nothing with them beyond putting them in a few interesting situations. Victoria sees ghosts, including the ghost of Josette, during her first night in Collinwood Manor. Barnabas, searching for a way to capture Victoria's heart, reads Erich Segal's novel Love Story with Carolyn and discusses his romantic feelings while sitting around a campfire with a group of visiting hippies. ("Love means never having to say you're sorry," he tells them. "However, it is with sincere regret that I must now kill all of you." And then drinks their blood). Upon learning that Barnabas is a vampire, Julia hatches a scheme to transform him into a human with transfusions while turning herself into a vampire using his blood. Any one of these might have produced a compelling story, but as played by the cast and director Burton they trail off without actually going anywhere. Worse still, Burton simply does not have the energy to make it the kind of comedy he would like. Gags fall flat despite their potential. When Barnabas suggests a ball might help boost the family's image, Carolyn suggests hiring Alice Cooper as the entertainment. "Ugliest woman I have ever seen," Barnabas muses when watching Cooper (playing himself) perform.
Dark Shadows wants to be a joyous romp freed from its camp roots. It feels more like a parody performed by a group of poseurs who don't get the joke and wind up intermittent laughs by accident. Reimagining a camp classic isn't a mistake; parodying the camp until it's sapped of all humor is.
:cry:
ALI ima šarma!
Treba da kažeš "Ali ima Džonija Depa, Džonija Li Milera (plavog!) i Mišel Fajfer!!11!" Naravno da je odličan.
Johnny Depp Doesn't Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-3ORYJiPg4#ws)
Elen postaje dečak?
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 13-05-2012, 12:19:20
Treba da kažeš "Ali ima Džonija Depa, Džonija Li Milera (plavog!) i Mišel Fajfer!!11!" Naravno da je odličan.
Otprilike... vrlo je šarmantno i udara u srce darkersko; ali je puno rupa, šteta.
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This project will fund a speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, & horror) anthology devoted to feminist themes. Editing the book will be Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer and World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer. Together respected and successful team has edited such anthologies Steampunk Reloaded, The New Weird, Best American Fantasy, and, most recently, The Weird Compendium, a 750,000-word, 100-year overview of weird fiction including writers from over 20 countries.
Release of the book will be a co-publishing arrangement with PM Press, an independent press devoted to provocative and engaging books, CDs, and DVDs via any means available, including distribution to the book trade (bookstores, libraries, etc.).
The anthology will emphasize women's speculative fiction from the mid-1970s onward, looking to explore women's rights as well as gender/race/class/etc. from as many perspectives as possible. The contributors are not yet established so we hesitate to name names, but rights to reprint stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Joanna Russ, and James Tiptree Jr. would be sought in addition to a wealth of newer voices in the field. Ann and Jeff consider the anthology "to be an opportunity to contribute to the existing conversation about feminist speculative fiction, a conversation that has taken many forms over the years and has a long and established history." Funding covers the editors' fee, contributor fees/advances, book design, printing, as much advertising and promotion as possible. To help the project get off the ground the editors have agreed to take a small honorarium as their fee, with no share of royalties.
Links:
GeekRadical (http://geekradical.org/)
obratiti paznju na bolodovano! xrotaeye
In the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle novel Footfall, as it is clear that the aliens are coming, the U.S. Government whisks away a bunch of fantasy and SF writers to an undisclosed location to wargame and plot out strategies and ideas about what the aliens are like, what they want and how the Earth should deal with them.
I've always thought that was a brilliant conceit, and so my question for this week's panelists is this:Q: The Aliens are coming, and the Secretary-General of the UN, taking a page from Footfall, has decided to gather a group of F/SF writers and genre types together to form a brain trust to deal with the First Contact. Who should the Secretary-General invite? What skills do they bring to the table?
David Louis EdelmanDavid Louis Edelman (http://www.sfsignal.com/www.davidlouisedelman.com) is the John W Campbell nominated author of Infoquake, MultiReal and Geosynchron.(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F1844165825.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=7b6c00381635d0d6e370f77903c1acb2e2b0cfdf) (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844165825/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20)
Clearly we need to have China Miéville on the first contact team, because he has shown a knack for imagining strange and improbable monsters and aliens. If the aliens intend to graft us onto household machinery as fascistic punishment for expressing our innate political freedoms, China's got us covered.
We need Harrison Ford, because the aliens will recognize that he will shoot first. (You hear me, George Lucas? Even aliens from another galaxy know that HAN SHOT FIRST.)
We need Christopher Priest, since his recent rants have demonstrated that he will be immune to any rectal probes that the aliens will attempt to deploy on us.
We need Tom Cruise, because he already knows all about the Emperor Xenu and his plans for intergalactic conquest. You can't get anything past those Scientologists.
We need Joss Whedon, because aliens will need to be put at ease with snappy human dialogue.
We need Nick Sagan, because the aliens will have already heard his voice from the Voyager spacecraft.
We need Cory Doctorow, in case the aliens have come to impose their draconian copyright laws and restrictive DRM software on us.
We need Sigourney Weaver in one of those walking cargo loader things, because the aliens will clearly recognize that you do not fuck with Sigourney Weaver in a walking cargo loader thing.
We need Stan Lee. because he is Stan Lee.
We need Ursula le Guin, because in addition to being a brilliant SF/F novelist with an unparalleled imagination and empathy for the human condition, she is actually an android/wizard/vampire/ninja capable of firing laser beams from her eyeballs, shooting acid from her fingertips and decapitating aliens at thirty paces by throwing pencils, which are not actually pencils but special CIA-designed precision-guided exploding ninja stars.
And we need Newt Gingrich, because the aliens will instantly recognize him as one of their own. And hopefully they'll want him back.
Read the rest of this entry (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/05/mind-meld-science-fiction-and-fantasy-writers-that-should-be-on-earths-first-contact-team/#more-55401)
VIDEO: *This* is Why Neil Gaiman is a Rock Star (#MustSee) (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/05/video-this-is-why-neil-gaiman-is-a-rock-star/#more-55573)
Quote from: LiBeat on 20-05-2012, 21:06:28
VIDEO: *This* is Why Neil Gaiman is a Rock Star (#MustSee) (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/05/video-this-is-why-neil-gaiman-is-a-rock-star/#more-55573)
"And You don't even need all three... two out of three is fine!"
Dobar je!
Nego, kad vec svi ovde citamo Blackbirds, evo i vesti za Chuckove nove naslove:
http://angryrobotbooks.com/press/ARpr-New-Two-Book-Deal-Chuck-Wendig.pdf (http://angryrobotbooks.com/press/ARpr-New-Two-Book-Deal-Chuck-Wendig.pdf)
Mira Grant's Feed and sequels optioned for film (http://aidanmoher.com/blog/2012/05/asides/mira-grants-feed-and-sequels-optioned-for-film/)
Ahem. From today's announcement at Publishers Weekly:
"Film rights: Mira Grant's trilogy, Feed, Deadline, and Blackout, optioned to Rachel Olschan, producer at Electric Entertainment, by Pouya Shahbazian of FinePrint, on behlf of Diana Fox at Fox Literary."
WE OPTIONED THE FILM RIGHTS TO FEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, this doesn't mean this will necessarily be a movie (although I hope there will), but it takes us a huge, huge step closer to that becoming a reality. Everyone I've dealt with has been amazing, supportive, and enthusiastic, and now there's a beautiful chance that maybe, we can see Shaun and Georgia Mason on the big screen.
Night Shade puca od ponosa preko cirkularnog imejla :) :
Three awesome Night Shade novels have been named finalists for the 2012
John W. Campbell Award! Soft Apocalypse, Seed and Dancing With Bears all made the shortlist, have you read them yet? (http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=zy5id4bab&v=001dK288jsKZ5JxEak6v-6mVTGVjk37Ux869lJboOdn_wsvZR1Mkr9A8xS_hgb6Q_PmIIlg9DJvGBhlHc7rLf4VU9x4eMjDp0qYugH7GUnCMZiJf56fqx11lg%3D%3D)
A šta se inače zbiva sa njima? Oni su pre koju godinu već imali problema sa neredovnim plaćanjem pisaca, a vidim da je Ket Valente upravo raskinula ugovor sa njima zbog nepreciziranih ali očito finansijskih razloga... malo strepim.
Pravo da kazem, ne znam za takve frke sa piscima, mada nije novost da svi izdavaci malko grcaju. Ako ista, imaju zestoke naslove u katalogu (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/cart.php?m=product_list&c=4), a i daju vrlo dobre opcije pretplate korisnicima, tako da su mi nekako u vrhu.
Ridley Scott has said the market has become so flooded with monster and action films, that the science fiction genre is becoming tired.
The director of Alien and Blade Runner said he had to work hard to make sure his new space epic Prometheus is something completely different.
Ridley said: "Over the past few decades, we've been 'action filmed-out' and 'monster filmed-out' and almost 'science fiction filmed-out'. So the baseline question is: how original are you going to be?"
The 74-year-old triple Oscar nominee sat down with screenwriter Jon Spaihts and Lost veteran Damon Lindelof to hammer out an original idea which used Alien as a springboard to examine one very simple, universal question: where did the human race come from?
Ridley revealed: "Out of the creative process in developing the picture emerged a new, grand mythology, in which this original story takes place.
"The keen fan will recognise strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, far-reaching and provocative.
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"Prometheus is the singular genre tale I'd been searching for."
He explained: "The film's central metaphor is about the Greek Titan Prometheus, who defies the gods by giving humans the gift of fire, for which he is horribly punished.
"When you talk about the myth on which the title is based, you're dealing with humankind's relationship with the gods - the beings who created us - and what happens when we defy them."
:: Prometheus is released in cinemas on Friday, June 1.
The Horror Writers Association is proud to announce prolific anthologist John Joseph Adams as the Editor Guest of Honor for the World Horror Convention (WHC) 2013. In 2013 the HWA is hosting WHC as part of the Bram Stoker Awards™ Weekend in New Orleans from 13-16 June.
John Joseph Adams is the bestselling editor of the horror anthologies The Living Dead, The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, and Wastelands. He is also the editor of the new horror magazine Nightmare.
His other anthologies include Other Worlds Than These, Armored, Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom, Brave New Worlds, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Way of the Wizard. Forthcoming work includes The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination (Tor Books, Jan. 2013), Dead Man's Hand (Titan Books, 2013), and Robot Uprisings (co-edited with Daniel H. Wilson, 2013).
John is a four-time finalist for the Hugo Award and a three-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He has been called "the reigning king of the anthology world" by Barnes & Noble, and his books have been lauded as some of the best anthologies of all time. John is also the editor and publisher of Lightspeed Magazine, and is the co-host of Wired.com's The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast.
For more information, visit his website at johnjosephadams.com (http://www.johnjosephadams.com/), and you can find him on Twitter @johnjosephadams.
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HWA President Rocky Wood said, "John Joseph Adams is the type of anthology editor readers love – they know each of his books will be filled with well written, interesting tales to captivate them during their precious reading hours. We are very pleased that John has accepted our invitation to be World Horror Convention Guest of Honor, where he is likely to find 300 horror writers, all eager to impress him with their wares!"
Adams joins previously announced Guest of Honor Ramsey Campbell and Toastmaster Jeff Strand on the Guest list. Further Guests will be announced shortly.
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Knjiga je trenutno besplatna na amazonu:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0085HK48I/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0085HK48I/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20)
A spirited game of musical release dates took place in Hollywood on Thursday, as Steven Spielberg's "Robopocalypse" was bounced back a year into 2014, clearing its July 3, 2013, slot -- which Disney quickly claimed for "The Lone Ranger." Twentieth Century Fox also announced that it will release a 3D version of Roland Emmerich's 1996 pic "Independence Day" on that day.
Fox also set Memorial Day (May 23) 2014 for "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," Rupert Wyatt's follow-up to the 2011 hit "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." Studio also announced that it will unspool the next installment in its "X-Men" franchise on July 18, 2014.
Other Fox release dates for next year include the Christmas rollout of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "Walking With Dinosaurs," the latter of which shifts from Oct. 11 to Dec. 20. Chernin Entertainment's untitled Paul Feig comedy will unspool April 5 while "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" hits theaters Aug. 16, 2013 (pushed from March 15). Studio will release toon "Epic" (formerly titled "Leafmen") on May 24. Disney's "Lone Ranger" announcement came shortly after news that Alan Horn had been tapped to head its film studio. Gore Verbinski's live-action adventure will open against Universal's "Despicable Me" sequel. The Mouse House also moved Marvel's "Thor 2" up a week to Nov. 8, 2013 -- a date already occupied by Sony's "One Direction" concert film. Lionsgate has slotted "Ender's Game" for Nov. 1, 2013.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118054867.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118054867.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews)
Grand Opening Celebration!
To celebrate the launch of our new online bookstore, we're giving away books, and offering a limited-time discount on BVC anthologies (http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/genre/bvc-anthologies/). The Grand Opening Giveaway runs from June 1 – June 7; you can enter here and on member sites for multiple chances to win—details below the fold.
- Browse the bookstore and find the book you'd like to win. Eligible works are marked with a gold star.
- Leave a comment here telling us which book you would like and why (both are needed to qualify). Multiple comments will be disqualified. A valid email is required—it will not be displayed.
- By entering, you agree that your comment may be used for promotional purposes.
- You can also visit the member sites listed below and enter in a similar fashion, as specified on that site.
- At the end of the promotion, one winner will be selected at each site (here and on each author site). Winners will get a free coupon for the book of their choice.
http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/grand-opening-celebration/ (http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/grand-opening-celebration/)
Clive Barker Writing Zombies Vs Gladiators Movie!!!
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Unlikely as it may seem, horror legend Clive Barker has been hired by the fledgling Amazon Films (yep, they're making films now) to rewrite – and possibly direct – Zombies Vs Gladiators, reports Shock Til You Drop (http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/167859-clive-barker-at-work-on-zombies-vs-gladiators-film-for-amazon).
Based in ancient Rome, the story kicks off with a shaman – who's about to die in the Coliseum – casting a spell that unleashes the world's first zombie plague. (Were there shaman in ancient Rome? Feel fee to correct us on this point, but wouldn't a druid mystic be more likely?)
"Zombies Vs Gladiators is now in the hands of someone who has written genre-defining material throughout his career," says Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. "We are excited to see how Clive will add his unique narrative to capture the essence of this story and propel the project into something unique and original that could one day be enjoyed by all audiences."
Barker adds, "I'm excited by the opportunity to interweave two very rich narrative threads. One of them concerns itself with the reality of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall. The other is a fantastical narrative element – the living dead. My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before."
He continues, "Amazon Studios offered up the dream ticket with this project. In 25 years of working in this town, I've rarely had people listen to what I had to say as closely and as carefully as they did and then simply give me the freedom to go do it. Amazon Studios is an innovative creative concept. I am looking forward to providing my own perspective to make Zombies Vs Gladiators a highly commercial and entertaining movie."
The Hobbit to premiere in New Zealand in November!!
The world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will take place in New Zealand on 28 November.
The screening at Wellington's Embassy Theatre will take place two weeks ahead of the film's release on 14 December.
Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson said it was fitting to hold the premiere "where the journey began."
Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit is set 60 years before the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films.
In An Unexpected Journey, Bilbo Baggins attempts to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from Smaug, the dragon.
The film's cast includes Sherlock's Martin Freeman, who takes on the lead role of Baggins.
Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett and Sir Ian McKellen, who all starred in Jackson's Oscar-winning trilogy, also appear in the movie.
British actor Andy Serkis has reprised his motion-capture animated role of Gollum.
The film is split into two parts, with the second instalment - The Hobbit: There And Back Again - due for release in December 2013.
The 3D movies were shot at a rate of 48 frames per second, compared with the industry standard of 24 frames.
Following a preview of unfinished footage at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas in April, some critics claimed it "looked like a made-for-TV movie".
Jackson admitted: "It does take you a while to get used to," adding, "Ten minutes is sort of marginal, it probably needed a little bit more."
He wrote the screenplay with partner Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18339087 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18339087)
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Stephen King's IT To Be Made Into Two Films
One of Stephen King's most acclaimed and best loved novels, 1986's IT, is set to be made into not one, but two movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/stephen-kings-be-adapted-by-334899).
Warner Bros has hired director Cary Fukunaga (last year's Jane Eyre) to direct and co-adapt the mammoth, decades-spanning story of a serial killer clown who lives in the sewers of a small town called Derry in... well, you can probably guess where. Chase Palmer will co-write the script.
The book was previously made into a mini-series in 1990.
Considering the narrative structure of the novel it's interesting to speculate on how the story may be divided up between the two films. [Spoilers ahead]
It deals with a group of kids – the Losers' Club – who defeat the killer clown in the '50s, but make a promise that if he ever returns, they will regroup and face him again... no matter where their lives have taken them.
So, one film set in the '50s, the other in the '80s? Because you couldn't have what was the present day stuff in the book set in present of now... the characters would all be pensioners (which isn't impossible but very unlikely considering Hollywood"s general attitude towards old-timers). And that way, both films would have naturally occurring decent climaxes (a face-off with Pennywise the clown... although he takes a rather bizarre alternate form by the end of the novel).
Or could the time period be shifted with the "childhood" sections set in the '80s so the present day stuff could be contemporary? Possibly, but it would be a shame to lose King's wonderful evocation of the '50s.
Or maybe Warners and Fukunaga have another plan entirely. Hollywood works in mysterious ways...
Ovaj Kirkus Indie potez sokirao je mnoge, Elen Datlov pogotovo:
BOOK REVIEWS FROM KIRKUS INDIE:
Since 1933, Kirkus has been one of the most trusted and authoritative voices in book discovery. Our Indie program curates the self-published segment of the industry to help consumers and industry influencers (such as publishers, agents, film producers, librarians and booksellers) discover books they may otherwise never find.
HOW THE KIRKUS INDIE PROGRAM WORKS
- Simply request a review by clicking the link above. You'll give us as much information possible about your book, choose whether you want standard service (7-9 weeks) or express service (4-6 weeks) and pay for your review (standard service $425, express service $575). When you submit your order, you'll get a response from the Kirkus Indie team confirming receipt of your request.
- You'll send two copies of your published book or completed manuscript to the Kirkus Indie office in New York. If you are publishing exclusively in eBook format, you will have the option of emailing a PDF of your manuscript to the editor after completing your order. (You'll find both the physical mailing address and the editor's email address on the order form.)
- Upon receipt of your book or manuscript, our editor will assign your project to a qualified reviewer who will read the complete book and write a full review (approximately 250-350 words). Our reviewers include librarians, business executives, journalists from national publications, PhDs in religion and literature, creative executives in entertainment and publishing industries as well as other professional reviewers.
- Kirkus Indie will send you the review via email, at which point you can use it however you choose—on the back cover of your book, in marketing collateral, on your website or in a letter to an agent or publisher. You may also choose to publish your review on KirkusReviews.com where it can be discovered by industry influencers, agents, publishers and consumers. If it is a negative review, you can request that it never see the light of day.
- If you choose to publish your review on our website (at no extra charge), we will also distribute it to our licensees, including Google, BN.com, Ingram, Baker & Taylor and more. On top of that, our editors will consider it for publication in Kirkus Reviews magazine, which is read by librarians, booksellers, publishers, agents, journalists and entertainment executives. Your review may also be selected to be featured in our email newsletter, which is distributed to more than 50,000 industry professionals and consumers.
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/indie/about/ (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/indie/about/)
Doktorov najzad doktorirao! xwink2 :lol: :lol:
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http://craphound.com/?p=4043 (http://craphound.com/?p=4043)
Announcing The Fierce Reads Anthology: A Tor.com Original (FREE!)
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In support of the awesome collective of YA authors in Fierce Reads (http://www.facebook.com/FierceReads), Tor.com has just released a new, free ebook anthology. Authors from the Fierce Reads tour have published original fiction here on Tor.com, and now you can get all five stories in this ebook anthology. Of course, you can always read the stories for free right here (http://www.tor.com/stories/prose), whenever you'd like, but for those on the go, The Fierce Reads Anthology is available in the U.S. starting today for Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085UCSZC/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb) and Nook (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fierce-reads-anthology-anna-banks/1111398524?ean=9781466820777), iBooks and other e-book retailers.
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REVIEW SUMMARY: A touching romantic comedy supported by a great cast, Derek Connolly's smart script, and Colin Trevorrow's understated direction.
MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Three Seattle magazine reporters cover a story on the man who placed a classified ad calling for time travelers.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Winning performances by all involved, but especially Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass; intelligent, taut, and unpredictable script.
CONS: Directorial missteps at the movie's opening; liminal treatment of genre content might turn off some viewers.
At first glance, Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass) looks like the stereotype of the loner losers populating most American indie fare: tall, somewhat hunched, attractive in a vague way despite a prosthetic ear that keeps slipping from the side of his head. When Kevin talks about multiverses and quantum physics with his grocery store coworker Shannon (William Hall, Jr.), he even sounds like somebody who wound up on the cutting room floor of a pretentious Little Miss Sunshine–inspired strip of celluloid crossed with a forgettable X-Files–obsessed geek making a brief appearance on The Big Bang Theory. He's the kind of character on whom dispassionate hipsters love to bestow affectionate contempt.
But something is wrong with this picture: Kenneth possesses a complete earnestness and utter lack of irony and self-consciousness that makes his eccentricities more endearing than insufferable. Yes, body language and guarded demeanor suggest old wounds that never fully healed, and his paranoia has the potential of being very scary (as when Kenneth pulls a shotgun from the trunk of his car when he believes someone is following him), but his absence of genuine anger and innate honesty betray something those hipsters simply won't tolerate: he's harmless and, as hipster wannabe Darius (Aubrey Plaza) learns, actually quite sweet.
Darius, too, easily could come from an indie picture. An intern with Seattle magazine, young, fresh from college, she blows an interview at Starbucks by giving an elaborate answer to a simple question (in a funny scene that feels out of place), and wraps cynicism around her like a cold, comfortable blanket. She comes to Ocean View, Washington, with reporter Jeff (Jake M. Johnson) and fellow intern Arnau (Karan Soni) to run a story on Kenneth after reading the classified ad Kenneth placed in an alternative newspaper: "WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED." Posing as somebody responding to the ad, she initially confronts him with a caricature of what she believes he must actually be like, and eventually softens as he leads her through "training." She cannot believe he's for real, but falls for him precisely because he is devoid of pretense.
So, in turn, is the rest of Safety Not Guaranteed. Its premise offers screenwriter Derek Connolly (whose screenplay won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival) and director Colin Trevorrow myriad alternatives stories—from archly knowing and self-conscious art flick to slob comedy—yet the movie unfolds in refreshingly unexpected ways, helped by Treverrow's understated direction. Jeff uses the assignment as a pretext to hook up with a high school girlfriend he has never been able to forget; when he sees Liz (Jenica Bergere) again he backs away from introducing himself, though perhaps not for the stated reason. When he finally does arrive at Liz's home for a visit, it becomes fairly obvious that his motives may not be that simple. At one point, Kenneth asks Darius why she wants to travel back in time. Her reason, when given, reveals an inner pain that steers clear of melodrama. Throughout the movie, Kenneth insists people are following him. Jeff and Arnau treat the news relayed by Darius with bemusement...until they discover that Jeff is being followed. The government agents keeping tabs on Kenneth, coincidentally, seem bemused by their assignment.
Is Kenneth delusional? He would seem to be. He watches a faceless office building that might house parts he needs for his time machine; when he enlists Darius's help in stealing lasers, his gimcrack scheme appears rife with amateurishness. "Their security is full of holes," he tells her. His heist (one of the movie's funniest moments) suggests that the building isn't the hotbed of scientific research he thinks...or that, perhaps, he's right about their security. Other revelations point to evidence of his break with reality, but also hint at other possibilities. Genre fans who prefer more overt explanations won't like the seemingly liminal use of time travel tropes. Even the movie's ending, as logically and emotionally satisfying as it is, eludes the typical genre elements.
Yet focusing on Kenneth's sanity and the realities of time travel in the narrative misses the point, in much the same way that focusing on whether or not the title character of Karen Joy Fowler's Sarah Canary is in fact an extraterrestrial is irrelevant. Time travel, real or not, pervades every scene, in dialogue, in motivation, in action. Toward the beginning of the movie, Darius asks Arnau where he would go if he could go back in time. Arnau replies he wouldn't; he's happy, he says, where he is. When Jeff helps Arnau pick up a young woman, Arnau expresses his insecurity about the situation and makes a case for inaction. Jeff argues that, even if Arnau has regrets later, he will have done something. Without action, he seems to imply, time freezes into a perpetual now. Life, like time travel, has no guarantee of safety; with risk comes the possibility of pain, and, sometimes, joy. Safety Not Guaranteed also tells us, as it concludes, that it helps to have a traveling companion.
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http://www.scificool.com/george-orwells-1984-gets-a-remake/ (http://www.scificool.com/george-orwells-1984-gets-a-remake/)
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) firmly positioned himself as the finest Soviet director of the post-War period. But his influence extended well beyond the Soviet Union. The Cahiers du cinéma consistently ranked his films on their top ten annual lists (http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ejohnson/critics/cahiers.html). Ingmar Bergman went so far as to say, "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." And Akira Kurosawa acknowledged his influence (http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Kurosawa_on_AT_obit.html) too, adding, "I love all of Tarkovsky's films. I love his personality and all his works. Every cut from his films is a marvelous image in itself."Shot between 1962 and 1986, Tarkovsky's seven feature films often grapple with metaphysical and spiritual themes, using a distinctive cinematic style. Long takes, slow pacing and metaphorical imagery – they all figure into the archetypical Tarkovsky film. (Watch the scene from Stalker above.)
You can now watch Tarkovsky's films online – for free. Each film is listed in our collection of Free Online Movies (http://www.openculture.com/freemoviesonline), but here you can access each major film in the order in which they were made.
NOTE: if you access the films via YouTube, be sure to click "CC" at the bottom of the videos to access the subtitles.
http://www.openculture.com/2010/07/tarkovksy.html (http://www.openculture.com/2010/07/tarkovksy.html)
J.J. Adams podigao sajt za antologiju OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE:
http://www.johnjosephadams.com/other-worlds-than-these/ (http://www.johnjosephadams.com/other-worlds-than-these/)
Blade Runner: Which predictions have come true?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18026277 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18026277)
(najbolji deo mi je "robot morality" :) )
MakeUseOf has a post discussing how to use (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fund-publish-books-with-unbound-crowdfunding/) UK-based crowdfunding site Unbound (http://www.unbound.co.uk/), which represents itself as a Kickstarter exclusively for books. The site acts as both a fundraider and a publishing house all in one, allowing you to get people to fund your project and then to publish it in one convenient location.
We've mentioned Unbound a few times before, such as here (http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/new-crowdfunded-publishing-project-signs-up-major-names/), and we've talked about Kickstarter (https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=site%3Ateleread.com+Kickstarter) a lot lately. It's good that there are more funding options for people who want to get their books or e-books published. What this article doesn't make clear is why people would want to use this rather than the more widely-known Kickstarter, which has already been used to fund the publication of quite a few books itself. At a guess it's because Unbound handles everything in-house instead of the crowdfundee having to go find a different publisher to produce the actual book, and perhaps UK-based projects would reap benefits from being local. But for people who're more concerned about raising money and already know how they're going to publish it afterward it seems that using the more-widely-known Kickstarter would lead to more publicity.
http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/unbound-is-crowdfunding-site-exclusively-for-books/ (http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/unbound-is-crowdfunding-site-exclusively-for-books/)
The Godless World (http://www.brianruckley.com/books/the-godless-world/) trilogy got optioned for film/TV development a little while ago. That's nice, don't you think?
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So I won't be drinking champagne from gold-plated glasses or anything, but it's a pleasant vote of confidence in the books. And I can amuse myself by wondering what Daniel Craig's filming schedule looks like a few years hence. As also mentioned in the last post, he's the man to play Adam Quire in any adaptation of The Edinburgh Dead (http://www.brianruckley.com/books/the-edinburgh-dead/), but I'm sure he could do a fine job of Taim Narran in Winterbirth (http://www.brianruckley.com/books/the-godless-world/winterbirth/), too.
http://www.brianruckley.com/2012/06/26/news-in-which-we-talk-film-options/ (http://www.brianruckley.com/2012/06/26/news-in-which-we-talk-film-options/)
DeNardo je na Kikrus stavio Guide to Finding the Best SF and Fantasy Collections, sve sa detaljima, kaze "antologije su najbolji nacin upoznavanja novih autora i sticanja novih dozivljaja", a sa time se svako naprosto mora sloziti. :)
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/science-fiction-and-fantasy/sf-signals-guide-finding-best-sf-and-fantasy-colle/ (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/science-fiction-and-fantasy/sf-signals-guide-finding-best-sf-and-fantasy-colle/)
NOTW editor 'spiked paedophilia scoop on Arthur C Clarke for fear of Murdoch'
Ex-reporter claims story never ran because the sci-fi author was the proprietor's friend
The News of the World spiked an exclusive story exposing the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke as a paedophile, according to a new book about life inside the newspaper whose closure was announced a year ago today.
In Hack, an account of his nerve-shredding days as a reporter on the News of the World and then the Sunday Mirror, Graham Johnson claims that although the NOTW prided itself on outing pederasts, editors made an exception for Mr Clarke because he was a friend of Rupert Murdoch.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/notw-editor-spiked-paedophilia-scoop-on-arthur-c-clarke-for-fear-of-murdoch-7920816.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/notw-editor-spiked-paedophilia-scoop-on-arthur-c-clarke-for-fear-of-murdoch-7920816.html)
What happens when dinosaurs have to defend the Earth against alien invasion? That's the premise of the Dinosaurs vs. Aliens Motion Comic, a joint project between director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black) and comic book writing legend Grant Morrison. Here's the trailer for their new project, which will be available July 10th... (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/07/trailer-barry-sonnenfelds-and-grant-morrisons-dinosaurs-vs-aliens/#more-58212)
Evo sta juce Niall Harrison:
So far, 2012 has been a busy year behind the scenes here at Strange Horizons. We've been advertising for new staff in a number of departments, and the response has been tremendous: so much so, actually, that it's taking us a while to sort through the applications we've received. To those who've applied but haven't heard back yet, thank you for your patience.
But bringing in new staff, and therefore new perspectives, also makes it an energizing time to be working on the magazine. Over the last couple of months, it's been a pleasure to announce that Brit Mandelo (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2012/20120319/mandelo-e.shtml) and Julia Rios (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2012/20120430/rios-e.shtml) have joined the fiction department: and today we can confirm the final shape of the new fiction editing team.
That means there are multiple announcements today. First, we are welcoming a third new fiction editor, with An Owomoyela (http://an.owomoyela.net/) joining Brit and Julia. You may well have already read some of An's own stories, which have appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine and Lightspeed, among others (not to mention a couple of Year's Best anthologies), which means you may well already know how widely ser interests range across the continuum of speculative fiction, and beyond. It's safe to say we're all thrilled to have An on board, and have no doubts that se will be a great member of the editorial team.
Second and third are two linked changes. After twelve years as a fiction editor, Jed Hartman is standing down; and in his stead, Brit Mandelo is taking on the role of senior fiction editor.
As Jed relates in his blog post (http://www.strangehorizons.com/blog/2012/07/farewell.shtml) today, his decision has been a long time coming, and it marks the end of an era. During the time (http://www.strangehorizons.com/Awards.shtml) that Jed, Karen Meisner and Susan Marie Groppi were running the fiction department, Strange Horizons had stories nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, Locus, Aurealis, BSFA, and World Fantasy awards, and honor-listed for the Tiptree Award; and had over forty stories selected for reprinting in Year's Best anthologies. Jed, Karen and Susan presented us with astonishing new writers, and exceptional stories from established talents, and I'm sure I speak for everyone reading this when I say I'm profoundly grateful for all they've contributed to the magazine over the years.
And yet I can't feel anything other than excited about completing the transition to a new fiction-editing team. Strange Horizons is among other things about finding the new, finding speculative fiction that embraces the challenges of writing in the twenty-first century; and it's good that we get new guides from time to time. Which means that so far as I'm concerned, the best thing I can tell you about Brit, Julia and An is that I trust their sense of direction.
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2012/20120709/renewal-e.shtml (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2012/20120709/renewal-e.shtml)
Uf, ovo moze na vise topika :)
Terry Goodkind publicly names and shames ebook pirate (http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2012/07/terry-goodkind-publicly-names-and.html) by Adam WhiteheadTerry Goodkind has, for reasons unknown but open to speculation (http://borderlands-books.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/terry-goodkind-publisher.html), chosen to self-publish his latest
Sword of Truth-related novel,
The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus (not the sequel to
The Omen Machine, which will apparently follow next year from Tor, but a new prequel to the series).
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This new book was released as an ebook exclusive several days ago. As an ebook-exclusive, it is little surprise that the book was heavily pirated on release, even after Goodkind posted a message to his website explaining how the economics of ebook publishing worked and politely requested that people refrain from doing so. So, on his Facebook page, Goodkind named and shamed one of the alleged pirates, posting their personal information and several websites where he was active. The alleged pirate apparently withdrew several of his pages and 'attempted' to offer an apology, according to a Goodkind fan monitoring the situation (posting on Westeros.org in this thread (http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/57534-goodkind-51-kahl-scratch-fever/page__st__260)). Apparently, this was after several private overtures to the individual were ignored.
An surprising situation. Sharing someone's personal information on the Internet without their permission, even in this situation, is highly dubious (although Goodkind allegedly took legal advice before proceeding with this move). The individual appears to have admitted culpability, which helps, but it is still a bold step to take. At the same time, 'naming and shaming' can be an effective tactic in discouraging piracy. It could also backfire and result in even more piracy and negative publicity for the author. Seeing how this unfolds over the next few weeks should be very interesting.
:lol: odoh da na brzaka izbrisem isti taj post na drugom topiku, a ovde ostavljam ovo:
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Crack the crypto in Agrippa, win every William Gibson book ever publishedBy Cory Doctorow at 9:23 pm Tuesday, Jul 10
Quinn DuPont writes in with "A cracking challenge to cryptanalyse a William Gibson poem ('Agrippa', written in 1992). The winner will receive a copy of every William Gibson book published. Project is academic (non-commercial)."
Gibson's poem is a beautiful work, and it came on a floppy disk that erased itself after displaying the poem's text a single time. Of course, it was cracked almost immediately (..f. all DRM, ever) but that wasn't really the point. The challenge site includes a System 7 emulator, an image of the floppy, some of the sourcecode for the app (which was apparently written in Lisp?!), and more.
Based on the pioneering work of Alan Liu and his team at The Agrippa Files, working in collaboration with Matthew Kirschenbaum at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and the Digital Forensics Lab, a a bit-for-bit copy of this
application
has been recovered, along with numerous archival documents.
The first person to successfully crack the code will win a copy of every William Gibson book ever published (except Agrippa). Every runner-up will have their name (if provided) posted on this website. To win you must submit a technical description of
your
cryptanalysis below, under Creative Commons usage rights (the results of which will be used to further research on Agrippa). The technical description should explain what kind of encryption is used (if any), how it functions, and how it was reversed or cracked (and what the key is, if there is one). Should there be no encryption at all (a possibility), or should the application merely "scramble" or "destroy" the data, this must be technically demonstrated or proved. Since the plain text is known, the cryptanalysis is purely for fun and academic curiosity, and thus the description should provide technical details.
http://boingboing.net/2012/07/10/crack-the-crypto-in-agripp.html (http://boingboing.net/2012/07/10/crack-the-crypto-in-agripp.html)
Neil Gaiman is returning to "The Sandman," a decade after closing the book on the graphic novel and influencing how the comicbook community tells stories.
The author will pen a comicbook miniseries based on the title; DC Entertainment's Vertigo will publish the books next year to celebrate "The Sandman's" 25th anniversary. J.H. Williams III (DC's "Batwoman") will illustrate the books, which will be available day-and-date in print and on digital platforms.
"There's nothing like a Neil Gaiman story," said Karen Berger, executive editor of Vertigo. "And there's nothing like having Neil back home on 'The Sandman,' his dark, soulful, literary epic that transformed comics and continues to captivate countless new readers year after year."
Announcement was made during Vertigo's Comic-Con panel late Thursday, with Gaiman appearing in a video. Project does not yet have a title. "The Sandman" follows the adventures of the character Dream, who rules over the world of dreams and how he deals with his dysfunctional family Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny. Praised by critics, the books were among the few graphic novels to wind up on the New York Times bestseller list. They've sold 7 million copies worldwide.
"When I finished writing 'The Sandman,' there was one tale still untold: the story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in 'The Sandman #1,' and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining and dressed for war," Gaiman said. "It was a story that we discussed telling for 'Sandman's' 20th anniversary ... but the time got away from us. And now, with 'Sandman's" 25th anniversary year coming up, I'm delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told."
Gaiman has also written "Coraline," which Laika adapted as a stop-motion pic; "Stardust," adapted by Paramount; "Neverwhere"; "American Gods"; and "The Graveyard Book." He's also penned kidlit books "The Wolves in the Walls" and "The Day I Traded My Dad for Two Goldfish."
"As accomplished as Neil Gaiman is in other media -- whether it be novels, film and even music -- he still has an incredible passion and love for comics," said DC Entertainment co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio. "It's exciting to have him back. J.H. Williams will be the perfect complement to Neil's writing. He has a history of creating art that pushes the boundaries of the medium."
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056513.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056513.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews)
I... eto nam ekranizacije filma Horns, iz pera Kingovog sina.
http://litreactor.com/news/daniel-radcliffe-to-star-in-film-adaptation-of-joe-hills-horns (http://litreactor.com/news/daniel-radcliffe-to-star-in-film-adaptation-of-joe-hills-horns)
It was announced today that Daniel Radcliffe (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0705356/)—best known for playing Harry Potter and romping around naked with a horse in Equus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equus_%28play%29)—will be taking the lead in the film based on Joe Hill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill)'s 2010 international bestsellerHorns. Alexandre Aja (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0014960/) (The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D, Mirrors) is directing.
Radcliffe plays Ignatius, a man accused of killing his girlfriend. On the first anniversary of her death, Ig gets completely wasted...as you do when all your friends think you're a murder and rapist. When he wakes up, he has developed horns and the power to make people confess to things they'd rather not say. And by that, I mean serious sin type stuff, not "I can't stop staring at your unibrow" type stuff. In short, his morning-after makes any pain you've ever had after a big night look like Baby's First Hangover by Playskool.
Horns was Joe Hill's second novel. The author, who comes from the solid writerly stock of Stephen and Tabitha King, discusses his book in this video:
Joe Hill Talks Horns (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c0KP707WJo#)
Neil Clarke, editor of Clarkesworld has announced that he suffered an heart attack at Readercon and is currently in the hospital waiting to hear his prognosis.
w00t za Rogove, ijao :( za Klarka
Producer Richard D. Zanuck (b.1934) died on July 13. Zanuck produced the films Sssssss, Jaws, Cocoon, Deep Impact, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Reign of Fire, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows. His non-genre work included The Sting and The Sound of Music. He won an Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. His father was producer Darryl F. Zanuck.
Kazuje DeNardo :) : When John Scalzi (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/07/16/my-w00tstock-4-0-performance-to-sue-the-world-featuring-patrick-rothfuss/) stopped in Houston for his book tour, I made a point see him. In case you haven't been to see Scalzi on tour, you should; he gives a good performance and makes it more than worth your time.
Witness, for example, this video from Comic Con where John and Pat Rothfuss (http://patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp) (and a special guest) gave a reading of a short story aligning with Scalzi's Redshirts book (which you should totally read (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/06/review-redshirts-by-john-scalzi/), by the way). When I saw it, the wonderful Karen Burnham (http://spiralgalaxyreviews.blogspot.com/) did the Rothfuss part.
My advice: Make time to watch this as soon as you can. Life is a little bit better after you do.
Skit ne bi bio isti bez Wheatona!
FIAWOL!
Scalzi u gik elementu 8) :
Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be! The other day CNN let some dude named Joe Peacock vomit up an embarrassing piece on its Web site (http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/24/booth-babes-need-not-apply/), about how how awful it is that geekdom is in the process of being overrun by attractive women dressing up in costumes ("cosplaying," for the uninitiated) when they haven't displayed their geek cred to Mr. Peacock's personal satisfaction. They weren't
real geeks, Mr. Peacock maintains — he makes a great show of supporting
real geek women, the definition of which, presumably, are those who have passed his stringent entrance requirements, which I am sure he's posted some place other than the inside of his skull — and because they're not
real geeks, they offend people like him, who
are real geeks:
They're poachers. They're a pox on our culture. As a guy, I find it repugnant that, due to my interests in comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and role playing games, video games and toys, I am supposed to feel honored that a pretty girl is in my presence. It's insulting... You're just gross.
For the moment, let's leave aside the problem of a mentality that assumes that the primary reason some woman might find it fun and worthwhile to cosplay as one of her favorite science fiction and fantasy characters is to get the attention of some dudes, to focus on another interesting aspect of this piece: Namely, that Joe Peacock has arrogated to himself the role of Speaker for the Geeks, with the ability to determine whether any particular group of people is worthy of True Geekdom. This on the basis, one presumes, of his resume (http://joethepeacock.com/) and his longtime affiliation as a geek.
Well, fine. Hey, Joe: Hi, I'm John Scalzi. I am also a longtime geek. My resume includes three
New York Times bestselling science fiction books, three books nominated for the Best Novel Hugo, six other Hugo nominations (as well as Nebula, Locus, Sideways and other award nominations), one novel optioned for a science fiction film, a stint consulting for the
Stargate: Universe television show, a long history in video games as a player (Atari, yo) and as a writer, including writing for the
Official US Playstation Magazine for six years and currently writing a game for Industrial Toys. I wrote a column on science fiction film for four years and have two books on the subject. I've been writing this blog for fourteen years and was one of the early adopters of self-publishing one's books online; additionally three books of mine (including one Hugo winner) have been of work originally published online. I was a special guest at this year's ComicCon. I am the toastmaster of this year's Worldcon. I am the sitting president of this (http://www.sfwa.org/). Here's a picture of my peer group (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/06/02/if-we-were-a-nerd-supergroup-wed-be-like-bad-english/). Here's another (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/08/11/anticipation-from-the-other-side/).
I outrank you as Speaker for the Geeks.
You are
overruled.
Your entire piece is thrown out as condescending, entitled, oblivious, sexist and obnoxious.
And no, you can't object (well, you
can, but you'll be summarily overruled). You made the decision based on your life experience as a geek that you could tell other people who is welcome as a geek and who is not. Based on
my life experience as a geek, I have made the decision that I am qualified to tell you to suck eggs. You want to slap down people who you don't feel qualify for geekdom? Then I get to slap you down for being
wrong, on the basis of being higher up in the geek hierarchy. You don't like it? Then you shouldn't have played this game to begin with. You played your cards, and I now I've played mine. This round goes to me. I have the conch. And now I will speak.
Who gets to be a geek?
Anyone who wants to be, any way they want to be one.
Geekdom is a nation with open borders. There are many affiliations and many doors into it. There are lit geeks, media geeks, comics geeks, anime and manga geeks. There are LARPers, cosplayers, furries, filkers, crafters, gamers and tabletoppers. There are goths and horror geeks and steampunkers and academics. There are nerd rockers and writers and artists and actors and fans. Some people love only one thing. Some people flit between fandoms. Some people are positively poly in their geek enthusiasms. Some people have been in geekdom since before they knew they were geeks. Some people are n00bs, trying out an aspect of geekdom to see if it fits. If it does, great. If it doesn't then at least they tried it.
Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It's the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "Oh,
crap, now the
wrong people like the thing I love." When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER."
Any jerk can love a thing. It's the
sharing that makes geekdom awesome.
Let's take these women cosplayers, who Mr. Peacock is so hand-flappingly disgusted with and dismissive of. Let's leave aside, for now, the idea that for those of this group attending ComicCon, spending literally hundreds and perhaps even thousands of dollars on ComicCon passes, hotels, transportation, food, not to mention the money and time required to put together an excellent costume, is not in itself a
signal indication of geek commitment. Let's say that, in fact, the
only reason the women cosplayers are there is to get their cosplay on, in front of what is likely to be an appreciative audience.
So what?
As in, so what if their only geekdom is cosplay? What if it is? Who does it harm? Who is materially injured by the fact? Who, upon seeing a woman cosplaying without an accompanying c
urriculum vitae posted above her head on a stick, laying out her geek bona fides, says to him or herself "Everything I loved about my geekdom has turned to ashes in my mouth," and then flees to from the San Diego Convention Center, weeping? If there is such an unfortunate soul, should the fragile pathology of their own geekdom be the concern of the cosplaying woman? It seems
highly doubtful that woman spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars to show up in San Diego just to ruin some random, overly-sensitive geek's day. It's rather more likely she came to enjoy herself in a place where
her expression of her own geekiness would be appreciated.
So what if her geekiness is not your own? So what if she isn't into the geek life as deeply as you believe you are, or that you think she should be? So what if she doesn't have a geek love of the things you have a geek love for? Is the
appropriate response to those facts to call her gross, and a poacher, and maintain that she's only in it to be slavered over by dudes who (in your unwarranted condescension) you judge to be not nearly as enlightened to the ways of geek women as you? Or would a more appropriate response be to say "great costume," and maybe
welcome her into the parts of geekdom that you love, so that she might possibly grow to love them too? What do you gain from complaining about her fakey fake fakeness, except a momentary and entirely erroneous feeling of geek superiority, coupled with a permanent record of your sexism against women who you don't see being the right
kind of geek?
These are your choices. Although actually there's a third choice: Just let her be to do her thing. Because here's a funny fact:
Her geekdom is not about you. At all. It's about her.
Geekdom is personal. Geekdom varies from person to person. There are as many ways to be a geek as there are people who love a thing and love sharing that thing with others. You don't get to define their geekdom. They don't get to define yours. What you can do is share your expression of geekdom with others. Maybe they will get you, and maybe they won't. If they do, great. If they don't, that's their problem and not yours.
Be your own geek. Love what you love. Share it with anyone who will listen.
One other thing: There is no Speaker for the Geeks. Not Joe Peacock, not me, not anyone. If anyone tells you that there's a right way to be a geek, or that someone else is not a geek, or shouldn't be seen as a geek — or that you are not a geek — you can tell them to fuck right off. They don't get a vote on your geekdom. Go cosplay, or play filk, or read that Doctor Who novel or whatever it is you want to do. Geekdom is flat. There is no hierarchy. There is no leveling up required, or secret handshake, or entrance examination. There's just you.
Anyone can be a geek. Any way they want to. That means you too. Whoever you are.
Anyone who tells you different, you send them to me.
xwink2 8) :!: :!: :!:
Statement from the Readercon Board of Directors
July 27, 2012
We want to thank everyone who came forward - both in person and via email - to report a harassment incident at Readercon 23. We followed up those reports with interviews with the target of the harassment, various witnesses, and Rene Walling, the harasser. The information we collected and reviewed was consistent, consequently, we feel the facts of the incident are not in dispute.
When we wrote our zero-tolerance policy in 2008 (in response to a previous incident), we were operating under the assumption that violators were either intent on their specific behaviors, clueless, or both.
During the course of our conversation with Rene it became immediately apparent that he realized what he had done and was sincerely regretful of his actions. It was that recognition and regret that influenced our decision, not his status in the community. If, as a community, we wish to educate others about harassment, we must also allow for the possibility of reform.
Our decision was suspension of his membership for at least two years. In the three years between Readercons 23 and 26 we will actively look for evidence of real and permanent positive change in his behavior. It was made very clear to him that if we receive any substantiated reports of continued inappropriate behavior at any venue - during or after the suspension period - his suspension will become permanent.
Should any other incidents occur, we encourage witnesses to report them to us at info@readercon.org.
We want to reaffirm our continued support for all members of the community who are the targets of harassment, and our continued determination to make Readercon a safer space.
Bob Colby, Merryl Gross, B. Diane Martin, David G. Shaw, Eric M. Van
Readercon Board of Directors
(bogami se zakuvalo... :( )
i nastavlja da ključa, kolko videh
Ključa, ključa... a ovako je počelo:
http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/340623.html (http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/340623.html)
http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/341417.html (http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/341417.html)
Ovoga... ima. Na sve strane.
http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/1087141.html (http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/1087141.html)
Bogami, afera postaje iscrpljujuća za praćenje ali svejedno zurim u sve to ko zec, strašno me fascinira, ali ne toliko rasprava po sebi, nego reakcije koje u meni proizvodi. Recimo, potpuno se slažem i potpuno podržavam GV kada reaguje prijavom na takvo nedopustivo ponašanje RW, potpuno se slažem kada insistira da to ponašanje bude sankcionisano od strane Riderkona, potpuno se slažem sa RC-om kada donesu sankciju koju su doneli ali onda vidim GV reakciju, i, priznajem, tu me ona potpuno gubi i ja uopšte nisam u stanju da je dalje pratim. Ja shvatam da žena u njenoj poziciji može da se tako oseća na nekom subjektivnom i emotivnom nivou, ali nekako sam očekivala da će osoba njene inteligencije i integriteta uspeti da sagleda događaj iz objektivnije perspektive, makar da uvidi kako RC sankcija jeste simbolična, ali upravo zbog toga i ima dublji efekat nego što to na prvi pogled izgleda, a taj efekat je reputacijske prirode. Uopšte nije bitno što je banovan na "samo" dve godine, isti bi učinak ta sankcija postigla i da je na "samo" godinu dana, jer RW od sada neće biti tamo neki tipus iz Hjugo komiteta, nego će biti haraser koji je banovan sa RCona. Čudi me da GV to ne uviđa, ili, ako uviđa, čudi me što i to ne prepoznaje kao deo sankcije, i to upravo onaj deo koji je RWa funkcionalnije kaznio negoli prost ban. I toje ta tačka u kojoj se po pravilu mimoiđem sa aktivistima feminizma, i iskreno, njihove motivacije su mi nedokučive a učinak neprihvatljiv.
Recimo, jasno mi je da je GV razočarana zato što je očekivala doživotni ban. A očekivala je doživotni ban zato što ga je Agasi dobio za realtivno manju transgresiju, I to je isto bila jedna od afera u kojoj nisam mogla da ispratim aktere do kraja, iako sam isprva bila na njihovoj strani: Agasi je banovan kao stalker koji je zurio u jednu članicu RC panela, ujedno prijateljicu GV, koja je u njeno ime i pokrenula disciplinski postupak. I sad, okej, nek je Agasi banovan doživotno, Riderkon ipak nije zakonska društvena struktura i ne mora se povinovati bilo kakvim pravilima sem onima koje je sam doneo, ali brate, bilo je to ipak na stalker nivou, i Agasi je u tu ženu zurio, dakle, sa distance i bez fizičkog kontakta, pa ipak je ta transgresija proglašena za "sexual harassment". I dobro sad, kako to postaviti u okvirima oficijelne terminologije, gde "sexual harassment" ima daleko ozbiljnije konotacije i predstavlja brutalan napad na ženu? Da li GV shvata koliko je taj Agasi slučaj devalvirao terminologiju kada je zurenje, dakle pasivnu transgresiju jednog sociopate, definisao terminom koji podrazumeva brutalni napad na ženino telo i integritet? Šta bi bilo da je Agasi tako zurio u nekog muškarca na panelu, da li bi i to bilo okvalifikovano kao "sexual harassment"? I eto, to je taj domen u kom ostrašćeni pojedinci koriste feminizam kao ideološku alatku za svoje privatne svrhe i ciljeve, degradirajući ga u tom procesu, a sebe otvarajući za mogućnost prepoznavanja isto tako dubokih sociopatskih poremećaja.
I sad, naravno, kad se sruktura obezvredi, onda se i svaki pojedini čin unutar te strukture može lako dovesti u pitanje, jer je gradacija do te mere poremećena da sama struktura nikoga više ne služi kako treba, pa je zato i GV naizgled sa pravom ogorčena što je RW banovan na 2 godine za transgresiju jaču po intenzitetu od one koja je Agasiju donela doživotni ban. Ali GV odbija da sagleda problem objektivno, pa joj promiče da je Agasi banovan doživotno zato što kod njega taj reputacioni deo sankcije ionako ne bi funkcionisao, dok kod RW itekako funkcioniše, pošto je očigledno da bi njemu lakše palo da je banovan doživotno ali da se to ne zna, nego što mu se na reputacionom delu sankcije javno insistira od strane samog RC komiteta.
I to je taj deo koji nikada ne mogu da ispratim i prihvatim, jer smatram da takva ostrašćenost odnosi prevagu nad razumom i šteti apsolutno svima. :(
Samo da dodam da RW-u (koliko sam shvatio) nije prvi put da maltretira nekoga. U tom slučaju, nije li moguće da ova blaža kazna neće da utiče na njegovo ponašanje na nekim drugim "dešavanjima" ili prema drugim osobama?
Osim toga, ako je nulta tolerancija, onda je tolerancija nula, nezavisno od "stepena" maltretiranja ili ma o kome se radilo (pa i da je neznamkakav urednik čega već ili šta sve već nije)?
@Libe: Pa, koliko shvatam, Riderkon bi trebalo da se povinuje pravilima koja je sam doneo, a ta pravila kažu doživotni ban, reputaciju ni ne pominju. Ne spominju ni različite kazne za različite stepene harasmenta, harasuj nekog i popićeš doživotni ban. Zero tolerance. I onda ispadne, kad je u pitanju anonimus, da će pravila biti poštovana, a ako je nešto poznatije ime u pitanju, e, onda sledi "slap on the wrist".
Da je RW trajno banovan, i dalje bi bio haraser koji je banovan sa Riderkona - i to trajno banovan sa Riderkona, plus bi se pokazalo da pravila važe za sve.
EDIT: postovao Gaff
Znam, znam, oboje imate pravo, a da i ne govorim sad kako mi i koliko taj stav strci od svih misljenja koje su ponudili mnogi ljudi koje straobalno cenim. :cry: :cry: :cry:
ali ne stima mi tu nesto, pa da ga andrak nosi. Doduse, to su falinke po kojima je najbolje ceprkati kada situacija nije ovako usijana konkretnim povodom, i kada stavovi nisu ovako polarizovani.
Na koja mišljenja misliš (al' je ovo sročeno...)?
Ne znam da li je sad pravi trenutak za ovo pitanje, ali... da li je Harlan Elison doživeo ikakve reperkusije osim što su ga (još jednom) javno kritikovali, onomad kad je ćapio Koni Vilis za sisu pred silnim svetom?
Pa, na skoro sva, jer se ne secam da sam naisla na ijedno javno izneseno misljenje a da sa ovim mojim nije bilo... pa, eto... ortogonalno. :mrgreen:
a nije da ih je malo bilo... :cry: :cry: :(
- Genevieve Valentine on Readercon: The Bad and the Ugly (http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/340623.html), Readercon: The Verdict (http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/341417.html), Updates on The Readercon Response (http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/341645.html).
- Under the Beret on The Readercon Thing (http://blog.bcholmes.org/the-readercon-thing/).
- Readercon on Statement from the Readercon Board of Directors (http://readercon.livejournal.com/21805.html).
- Matthew Cheney on An Unenforced Policy Is Worse Than None (http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/2012/07/an-unenforced-policy-is-worse-than-none.html).
- Lynne M. Thomas on Why I won't be attending Readercon this year as planned. [rant] (http://lynnemthomas.com/?p=588) and Readercon follow-up: still not going (http://lynnemthomas.com/?p=603).
- Nick Mamatas on The Readercon Creeper (http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1780212.html) and Readercon speaks! (http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1780467.html)
- File 770 on Readercon Bans René Walling for 2 Years (http://file770.com/?p=9777).
- Elizabeth Bear on what is the sound of one heart breaking? (http://matociquala.livejournal.com/2146364.html) and if every angel's terrible why do you watch her sleep? (http://matociquala.livejournal.com/2146695.html)
- Ekaterina Sedia on That Readercon Thing (http://squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com/182775.html).
- Veronica Schanoes on Open letter to the Readercon board (http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/86233.html) and Letter/petition to the Board of Readercon (http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/86558.html).
- Cogitationitis on I don't know what to think... (http://cogitationitis.livejournal.com/326057.html)
- Clarkesworld on Very disappointed (http://clarkesworld.livejournal.com/182975.html).
- Sam Henderson on Are you freakin' kidding me? (http://samhenderson.livejournal.com/196307.html)
- Nicholas Kaufmann on Not Cool, Readercon — Part 2 (http://nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com/737922.html).
- Livia Llewellyn on Oh, Readercon: NO (http://liviallewellyn.com/2012/07/oh-readercon-no/).
- Rose Fox on "This is the opposite of what I wanted" (http://rosefox.livejournal.com/1763288.html).
- Brit Mandelo on Readercon (http://britmandelo.livejournal.com/756746.html).
- Jaym Gates on No Tolerance Doesn't Always Mean NO Tolerance (http://jaymgates.com/harassment/no-tolerance-doesnt-always-mean-no-tolerance/).
- Mike Allen on Readercon (http://time-shark.livejournal.com/560802.html).
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 30-07-2012, 11:24:16
Ne znam da li je sad pravi trenutak za ovo pitanje, ali... da li je Harlan Elison doživeo ikakve reperkusije osim što su ga (još jednom) javno kritikovali, onomad kad je ćapio Koni Vilis za sisu pred silnim svetom?
e, vidis, to je jedna od najbitnijih tacki: fakt da je unutrasnja mehanika fandoma uvek bila vrlo... specificna po tom pitanju.
e sad, probelm je sto je to u sustini bila opsteprihvacena konvencija koja je (nazalost) ostavljala nekakav prostor da se tu slepaju i sociopate koje su u okrilju takve konvencije mogle da lakse "utope" svoju psiho-socijalnu specificnost. To ti je isti onaj instinktivni poriv koji ispoljavaju pedofili kada zavrsavaju u okrilju klera - samo ustrojstvo klera omogucava im da lako i nekaznjeno upraznjavaju parafilije koje bi pod drugim drustvenim i zakonskim okolnostima bile striktno sankcionisane.
ali to je, po meni, potrebno prepoznati i izdvojiti, a ne sankcionisati blanket-manevrima. (ako shvatas sto hocu da kazem)
Argh, mozak mi još uvek ne radi, ja sam te razumela da se mnogi koje straobalno ceniš slažu sa tvojim mišljenjem. :-x
No, hvala za linkove, ima tu nekih za koje nisam znala, a dobra su imena. :)
Nego, kakav bi metod ti predložila za rešavanje ovakvih slučajeva? A da ne ispadne da haraseru malo priprete prstom, pa on nastavi po starom?
Quote from: LiBeat on 30-07-2012, 11:31:14
e sad, probelm je sto je to u sustini bila opsteprihvacena konvencija koja je (nazalost) ostavljala nekakav prostor da se tu slepaju i sociopate koje su u okrilju takve konvencije mogle da lakse "utope" svoju psiho-socijalnu specificnost.
Da, to sam i ja primetila, a pazi, ako je
samo na osnovu blogerskih izveštaja u poslednje dve-tri godine moguće primetiti da sociopate fandom, i posebno konvencije, doživljavaju kao "bezbedno mesto" gde mogu da se iskažu u punom sjaju (open source boob project i tako to) onda... e, meni je dosta jasnija ta reakcija GV. Jer onda ispada da fandom s jedne strane pokušava da bude napredan, tolerantan, politički korektan, a sa druge upravo tom tolerancijom podstiče jednu određenu vrstu agresivnosti, tako da npr. nije prihvatljiv bilo kakav iskaz tipa "žene u kuhinju" ali je prihvatljivo da se žene hvataju za grudi bez pitanja. I u takvom okruženju, meni deluje sasvim jasno, žena koja neće da je hvataju za grudi, umesto da se oseća opušteno i među prijateljima, mora da razmišlja o tome hoće li neko od silne opuštenosti i drugarstva da sa gledanja pređe na pipanje. A to sa vremenom dovodi do, eh, naprasnog izbijanja nataloženog nezadovoljstva.
ali to je, po meni, potrebno prepoznati i izdvojiti, a ne sankcionisati blanket-manevrima
pa tu se potpuno slažem, ali izgleda da je problem što organizatori Riderkona nisu nešto vični tome da unapred razmisle o sprovođenju pravila koja na papiru zvuče lepo: "nulta tolerancija prema seksualnom nasilju" super zvuči, ali nisu stali da se sete kako "seksualno nasilje" nije tačno definisano, i kako i njihovi super drugari mogu nekog seksualno da ugroze, pa će se naći u nebranom grožđu. "Jao, nismo razmislili na vreme, ajde da menjamo pravilo!"
Konkretno u prethodnom slučaju Agasija, izgleda mi da su se tu opredelili za "seksualno nasilje" da prikriju "generalno društveno neprihvatljivo ponašanje" jer bi se onda digla frka kako se neprilagođenim gikovima uskraćuju ljudska prava na neprilagođenost. :mrgreen:
Čekajte, da li ja to dobro razumem da je opšteprihvaćena konvencija da alfa geek vata žene za grudi?
To mi liči na pravila koja služe tome da gikovske ženke drže bezbednim od sociopata sa strane, dok alfa gikovi mogu da rade šta hoće (uz eventualno no-no i pretnju prstom).
Quote from: angel011 on 30-07-2012, 13:20:12
Čekajte, da li ja to dobro razumem da je opšteprihvaćena konvencija da alfa geek vata žene za grudi?
Nije baš opšteprihvaćena, ali se radi na tome:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Source_Boob_Project (http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Source_Boob_Project)
Ja sam samo srećan što nam se na Beokonima nije ovako nešto dešavalo, jer iskreno, tad ne bih znao kako da se postavim. A fandom je intrigantna stvar po pitanju društvenosti pojedinaca, nisu svi baš srećno prilagođeni... To sam zapravo najviše video dok smo držali knjižaru, tad stigneš da osmotriš i popričaš sa raznima...
Ne bih rekao da mi baš možemo da se poredimo sa Amerima glede konvencija i gikovštine uopšteno govoreći. Na osnovu fotki koje ste stavljali na forum, ne bih rekao da možemo da se poredimo ni sa Hrvatima. Sad, viđao sam i kod nas nekoliko provokativno obučenih koleginica - u manga/anima maniru - pa bi valjalo pitati njih da li su ikada imale problema zbog toga. Doduše, možda kod nas ni nema alfa gikova; možda su svi omega gikovi.
Ma nema to toliko veze sa tim kako osoba izgleda koliko sa tim šta je čovek istripovao -_-
Ne znam baš. Mislim da to ipak u nekoj meri zavisi i od izgleda i da nečiji izgled nekoj drugoj osobi može da posluži kao izgovor za ispoljavanje niskih strasti - naročito ako taj izgled ima neku opšteprihvaćenu poruku.
@Nightflier: kad sam rekla "alfa gik", mislila sam na nekog ko ima nekakvo ime, pisac, urednik, preCednik...
Što se izgleda tiče, nema to veze, meni je jednom prilikom rečeno da pokazujem svoje čari, a bila sam u maskirnim pantalonama i širokom duksu dugih rukava.
I koji to izgled ima opšteprihvaćenu poruku "možeš da me pipkaš po volji"?
Quote from: angel011 on 30-07-2012, 14:42:23
@Nightflier: kad sam rekla "alfa gik", mislila sam na nekog ko ima nekakvo ime, pisac, urednik, preCednik...
Aha. Pa dobro, nažalost - moja primedba i dalje stoji. :) Jedini "alfa gikovi" u tom smislu kod nas postali su "alfe" zahvaljujući negikovskim aktivnostima. :)
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 30-07-2012, 12:05:30
Quote from: LiBeat on 30-07-2012, 11:31:14
e sad, probelm je sto je to u sustini bila opsteprihvacena konvencija koja je (nazalost) ostavljala nekakav prostor da se tu slepaju i sociopate koje su u okrilju takve konvencije mogle da lakse "utope" svoju psiho-socijalnu specificnost.
Da, to sam i ja primetila, a pazi, ako je samo na osnovu blogerskih izveštaja u poslednje dve-tri godine moguće primetiti da sociopate fandom, i posebno konvencije, doživljavaju kao "bezbedno mesto" gde mogu da se iskažu u punom sjaju (open source boob project i tako to) onda... e, meni je dosta jasnija ta reakcija GV. Jer onda ispada da fandom s jedne strane pokušava da bude napredan, tolerantan, politički korektan, a sa druge upravo tom tolerancijom podstiče jednu određenu vrstu agresivnosti, tako da npr. nije prihvatljiv bilo kakav iskaz tipa "žene u kuhinju" ali je prihvatljivo da se žene hvataju za grudi bez pitanja. I u takvom okruženju, meni deluje sasvim jasno, žena koja neće da je hvataju za grudi, umesto da se oseća opušteno i među prijateljima, mora da razmišlja o tome hoće li neko od silne opuštenosti i drugarstva da sa gledanja pređe na pipanje. A to sa vremenom dovodi do, eh, naprasnog izbijanja nataloženog nezadovoljstva.
Pa da, ali upravo u tome i jeste problem: mi ovde govorimo o free4all manifestaciji koja ne može (niti bi smela) da skenira sociopate i brani im učešće. To po meni i nije pitanje tolerancije nego prosto grupne bespomoćnosti u kontekstu izostanka legalizovane selekcije učesnika (pomalo kao i patnja na ovom forumu :roll: ). Znači, ostaje sankcionisanje kao opcija. Ali da bi ono funkcionisalo, potrebno je imati vrlo zdrave repere po pitanju procene i potrebe za sakcionisanjem, i vrste sankcija, i njihove primene, i same doslednosti. Ja postpuno stojim iza ovog konkretno sankcionisanja RW ponašanja ali ne mogu nekako da stanem iza kvalifikacije "sexual harassment" za Agasijevo zurenje, to mi zaista deluje preterano. Po meni, da bi se dubina nekog problema adekvatno procenila, potrebno je ne samo meriti aktivnosti transgresora, nego i raditi na uklanjanju te dimenzije histeričnosti iz same viktimizacije. Jer da se ne zavaravamo, koliko god imaš aktivne sociopate, toliko imaš i one daleko opasnije pasivno-agresivne, koji terorišu okolinu invertovanim agresijama glumljenja žrtve.
Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 30-07-2012, 12:05:30
izgleda da je problem što organizatori Riderkona nisu nešto vični tome da unapred razmisle o sprovođenju pravila koja na papiru zvuče lepo: "nulta tolerancija prema seksualnom nasilju" super zvuči, ali nisu stali da se sete kako "seksualno nasilje" nije tačno definisano, i kako i njihovi super drugari mogu nekog seksualno da ugroze, pa će se naći u nebranom grožđu. "Jao, nismo razmislili na vreme, ajde da menjamo pravilo!"
Konkretno u prethodnom slučaju Agasija, izgleda mi da su se tu opredelili za "seksualno nasilje" da prikriju "generalno društveno neprihvatljivo ponašanje" jer bi se onda digla frka kako se neprilagođenim gikovima uskraćuju ljudska prava na neprilagođenost. :mrgreen:
To je istina, vidi se da problemima prilaze "u hodu", što bi se reklo, bez neke konkretnije platforme. Šta ja znam, možda se drugačije i ne može. Treba ipak imati u vidu da se RCon oslanja na sub-kulturnu tradiciju konova uopšte, a to je zaista vrlo vrlo specifična unutrašnja mehanika događaja koja je sasvim dobro funkcionisala za pretodne generacije, dok se sadašnje očigledno ne snalaze u njoj baš najbolje. Mislim, stalkovanje omiljenim žanrovskih pisaca je bio sinonim za konvencije, pobogu, pa šta mislite da su fanovi (a pogotovo ženski) na ondašnjim konvencijama radili? Pročitajte neke od necenzurisanih biografija ondašnjih žanrovskih faca i sve će vam biti mnogo jasnije. E sad, naravno da se vremena menjaju i naravno da današnje generacije fanova (opet, pogotovo žena) nisu više u tom i takvom fazonu, ali onda se sa tim promenama RCon mora drugačije nositi, i mora obavezno uvesti konkretniju filtraciju učesnika.
Doduše, čak i da je takve filtracije u ovom slučaju bilo, RW bi opet prošao.... ne, ne, rešenje se ipak mora tražiti na drugačiji način.
Jonathan Strahan i Gary K. Wolfe podkast #110
Veoma zabavan podkast. ReaderCon-om se zanimaju u poslednjoj trećini emisije.
QuoteThis weekend Gary and I headed to the Waldorf Room to discuss thoughts on Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 and SF set within our Solar System, World Fantasy Award Lifetime Achievement recipients Alan Garner and George R.R. Martin, and recent issues at Readercon.
http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2012/07/29/episode-110-live-with-gary-k-wolfe/ (http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2012/07/29/episode-110-live-with-gary-k-wolfe/)
Hobbit films will be a trilogy Peter Jackson confirms
The Hobbit film project will be extended to a trilogy, director Peter Jackson has confirmed.
In a posting on his Facebook account, Jackson said: "It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, 'A tale that grew in the telling'."
The first instalment is due out on 14 December and the follow-up on 13 December 2013.
Rumours that a third film was in the works surfaced last week. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/18987893)
They followed Jackson's assertion that he wanted to shoot extra footage, just days after announcing the end of principal photography.
"It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made," he said in his Facebook statement (http://www.facebook.com/notes/peter-jackson/an-unexpected-journey/10151114596546558).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19055342 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19055342)
Malo ovoga, malo onoga u vezi s Neal Stephensonom, ali najviše u vezi s njegovim Kickstarter projektom: Clang.
(Preporučam da pogledate zabavni video koji je umetnut u tekst.)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57481004-83/pen-and-sword-equally-mighty-for-science-fictions-stephenson/ (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57481004-83/pen-and-sword-equally-mighty-for-science-fictions-stephenson/)
Chris Wooding calls time on the KETTY JAY series (http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2012/07/chris-wooding-calls-time-on-ketty-jay.html) by Adam WhiteheadChris Wooding has announced (http://www.chriswooding.com/broken-sky-ebux-redux/) that the forthcoming fourth novel in the
Tales of the Ketty Jay steampunk airship series,
The Ace of Skulls, will be the final book in the series. Originally Chris had planned to write a series of self-contained adventures with a few continuing elements, but during the fourth book discovered that the number of continuing storylines he'd built up had become larger than he'd planned. He's chosen to end the story definitively rather than risk it sprawling out of control across numerous volumes.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-_witCZpQ5lA%2FUBaXujiuidI%2FAAAAAAAAFhY%2Ff6J_ZMFXgUQ%2Fs400%2FKetty%2BJay%2Bseries.jpg&hash=e793e1bcf1e285857ba1515ca406d63dd8a8a209) (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_witCZpQ5lA/UBaXujiuidI/AAAAAAAAFhY/f6J_ZMFXgUQ/s1600/Ketty+Jay+series.jpg)
No word on what his next project will be post-
Ketty Jay, but Wooding is also working on a 'remastered' ebook version of his earlier
Broken Sky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Sky) series of anime-influenced short novels. Wooding will be self-publishing these books himself in Kindle and ePub formats, with a date still to be decided.
Good news on the
Broken Sky situation, but the conclusion of the
Ketty Jay sequence will be a sad day. Still, better for the author to finish it on his own terms rather than drag it out for years for financial gain.
Umro je Gore Vidal, autor jednog od najimpresivnijih SF romana ikada. RIP.
Osvrt Damien G. Walter-a na sajberbulizam. (ubacio je u tekst nekoliko interesantnih linkova, pa ako vas zanima overite i njih)
QuoteThe dynamics of aggressive reviewing are very simple. It attracts attention. From readers, and most of all from the author. A determined aggressive reviewer can systematically demand the attention of any given online community by working their way around the significant players in that community and picking as many fights as possible along the way. For a person who has nothing to contribute and no value to add then, a strategy of aggressive negative reviewing is a way of gaining a level of notoriety and a pseudo-status in a community. As there is no end to people's hunger for notoriety and status, there will always be people on the edges of every community who do this.
http://damiengwalter.com/2012/08/03/aggressive-reviewing-is-here-to-stay-learn-to-deal-with-it/ (http://damiengwalter.com/2012/08/03/aggressive-reviewing-is-here-to-stay-learn-to-deal-with-it/)
Evo još malo o ReaderCon-u:
Readercon board resigning (http://con-news.com/?p=8690)
Eh, da, to se moglo očekivati. :( Nakon jednog izrazito obilnog i huškačkog bloga Kat Valente, većina se trudi da se skloni iz centra kontroverze. Vijanje se sad uglavnom preselilo na tviter, to je bogomdan teren za efikasno mahnitanje, podesniji zbog svoje brzine i impakta i od blogova, da sad i ne pominjemo forume.
Tako da, sve u svemu, ima i to svojih prednosti, pošto se tako lakše uočava ko u tom mahnitanju kosi a ko samo vodu nosi, jer svi oni kao da zaboravljaju da reklamiranje ipak može da rezultuje u dva ishoda, i to oprečna, što je vrlo praktično za one ljude koji upražnjavaju barem minimalnu selekciju po pitanju proze koju čitaju. :mrgreen:
http://readercon.org/publicstatement.htm (http://readercon.org/publicstatement.htm)
Uče...
Last night, NBC premiered an extended preview of J.J. Abrams' new post-apocalyptic series premiering this Fall. Revolution is set in a near-future world 15 years after the world loses power.Check it out after the jump and tell us what you think...
Revolution - Extended Preview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHa3nK5_3Us#ws)
Get the First Episode of Scalzi's The Human Division Early
MANAGEMENT SERVICES (http://www.tor.com/Management%20Services#filter)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tor.com%2Fimages%2Fstories%2Fblogs%2F12_08%2FHuman-Division.jpg&hash=c012d1141a015b967a5a8076356af168202564be)
You deserve early science fiction!
Tor Books has debuted a web promotion that will enable fans of John Scalzi and hisOld Man's War series to get a hold of the first chapter/episode, "The B-Team" a week before its December 2012 release.All you have to do is sign up here (http://us.macmillan.com/static/tor/exacttarget/johnscalzi.html?WT.mc_id=10870). That's it. You don't need to bake Old Man's War-themed cupcakes and mail them to Scalzi. Or write a sonnet set in the universe of the books. (Well, you could. No one's stopping you.) It's as easy as giving Tor Books YOUR SOUL email address so they know where to send the episode once the time comes.
Not sure what this is all about? Get the full rundown on The Human Divisionand its unique format here (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/07/the-human-division-by-john-scalzi).
Hardin Valley Academy parent wants "Robopocalypse" taken off reading list!QuoteKNOXVILLE (WATE) - A Knox County parent is concerned about a book students at Hardin Valley Academy are required to read this year.
The book is national bestseller "Robopocalypse," by Daniel H. Wilson.
Sam Lee is trying to get it removed from the required reading list because of the book's language.
Lee's son will be a freshman at Hardin Valley Academy this year. He says his wife was the first to notice the content of the book.
"She decided to read some of it so she could ask him questions and make sure he knew what he was reading," said Lee. "When she started reading we were shocked. We got one chapter in, there was all kind of inappropriate language for minors."
Lee says he is furious his son was required this type of book.
"This should had been brought to our knowledge before assigned and forced on our kids," said Lee, "That's my problem."
Lee personally started counting all the f-words in "Robopocalypse." By the time he got half-way through the book he had already counted 15.
Koji užas! 15! Pola knjige i 15!!!!!!!
http://www.wate.com/story/19243333/hardin-valley-academy-parent-wants-robopocalypse-taken-off-reading-list (http://www.wate.com/story/19243333/hardin-valley-academy-parent-wants-robopocalypse-taken-off-reading-list)
Ma oni nisu normalni.
Kad sam prevodila Graceling, pogledam komentare za knjigu. I kaže jedna čitateljka da se knjiga promoviše kao za one od 14 godina i naviše, ali ona, eto, nije sigurna da bi dala tu knjigu četrnaestogodišnjaku jer se prilično blizu početka pominje bordel. I ima nekih naznaka seksa između dvoje glavnih junaka (ona ima 18 godina, on je koju godinu stariji). Užas, kako neko od 14 godina to da čita!
Pritom, glavna junakinja je od svoje osme godine obučavana da ubija i muči, i po nalogu svog ujaka tiranina je tokom 10 godina onima koji mu se zamere lomila ruke, odsecala prste, ubijala ih. I to ta čitateljka nije pomenula kao problem.
Si opazila krst?
Ona krstača oko vrata?
Otac je očigledno vernik.
A sad nešto sasvim drugačije!
QuoteForbes released its list of top-earning authors of 2011 today, and science fiction and fantasy authors dominate the list, taking nine of the 15 slots. The genre authors are:
1. James Patterson: $94 million
2. Stephen King: $39 million
7. Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb: $23 million
9. Suzanne Collins: $20 million
10. Dean Koontz: $19 million
11. J.K. Rowling: $17 million
12. George R.R. Martin: $15 million
13. Stephenie Meyer: $14 million
15. Rick Riordan: $13 million
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/08/top-earning-authors/ (http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/08/top-earning-authors/)
wrap up readercon.
Links:
- Readercon ConCom Statement (http://readercon.org/publicstatement.htm)
- Genevieve Valentine Readercon Posts (http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/tag/readercon)
- Genevieve Valentine speaks on Episode 112 of the Notes from Coode Street podcast (http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2012/08/11/episode-112-live-with-gary-k-wolfe-and-genevieve-valentine/)
- Captain Awkward Post (http://captainawkward.com/2012/08/07/322-323-my-friend-group-has-a-case-of-the-creepy-dude-how-do-we-clear-that-up/)
(poslednji link bolje preskociti, u pitanju je totalni ritard.)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB006U1C0L0.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=23657fc03fb2546e1796fd0007dd4c2a7f5c78d6)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB006ZMR68Q.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=73a7986d43212ae0d6a2c63172a0141110be8765)
ALL EDITIONS OF THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION TO BE RE-RELEASED BY ST. MARTIN'S PRESS IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT IN OCTOBER 2012
(Gardner Dozois has posted on his facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150781417031798&id=700826797) that he has just released his long out-of-print anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction, First Annual Collection (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006U1C0L0/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20) and The Year's Best Science Fiction, Second Annual Collection (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006ZMR68Q/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20) to the Amazon Kindle store. And you can get them for just under $7 each. That's a steal.)
Kaže Elen Datlov:
SIRENS, ALIEN SEX, AND OFF LIMITS
The above three titles are being released as e-books by Open Road Media September 11th. I'm excited, not just to have these three books out in the world again, but because Open Road actually has a marketing plan. I will be followed around for September 28th and 29th by a video crew--I'm not sure exactly how it'll go (and I admit I'm nervous) but I plan to take a walk on the Highline and perhaps some other favorite places in my neighborhood and talk about the books.
http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/399708.html (http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/399708.html)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fic.pics.livejournal.com%2Fellen_datlow%2F8227324%2F8888%2F300.jpg&hash=1f1fcce7ad7f47d6fd40d5ebf864cc93ec1aa2f7)
skrumpčes! :!:
Quote from: LiBeat on 16-08-2012, 09:29:16
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB006U1C0L0.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=23657fc03fb2546e1796fd0007dd4c2a7f5c78d6)(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB006ZMR68Q.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=73a7986d43212ae0d6a2c63172a0141110be8765)
ALL EDITIONS OF THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION TO BE RE-RELEASED BY ST. MARTIN'S PRESS IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT IN OCTOBER 2012
(Gardner Dozois has posted on his facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150781417031798&id=700826797) that he has just released his long out-of-print anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction, First Annual Collection (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006U1C0L0/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20) and The Year's Best Science Fiction, Second Annual Collection (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006ZMR68Q/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20) to the Amazon Kindle store. And you can get them for just under $7 each. That's a steal.)
odličnan potez za nas piracki naklonjene
... i nadamo se samo da ćeš se dobrostivo setiti svih onih poznanika čiji je pirate mojo skroz slabačak... :wink:
ABC is developing the steampunk adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Yes, really.
:)
With one set of public domain heroes already settling in comfortably at Once Upon a Time, ABC is ready to give a pair of classic American characters a modern update. The network has announced that it is developing Finn & Sawyer, a detective TV series about Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn set in a steampunk version of New Orleans.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Jason Richman and David Zabel (who produced ABC's Detroit 1-8-7) are developing the Finn & Sawyer pilot for ABC, which will revolve around the two troublemakers who meet again as 20-somethings and open up an investigation firm in retrofuturistic New Orleans.
As gimmicky as "steampunk Huck and Tom" sounds, the characters actually may be quite well suited for steampunk. Twain's novel Tom Sawyer Abroad was a play on Jules Verne-style adventure stories, and featured a mad professor and his absurd, futuristic airship. And Tom Sawyer had his own mystery story with Tom Sawyer, Detective. However, Twain was poking fun at the conventions of these genres, not merely using them as vehicles for his characters. If the pilot progresses, we'll have to see if the creators use Huck and Tom to their full satirical effect.
ABC Developing Tom Sawyer-Huckleberry Finn Drama (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/abc-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn-show-pilot-development-363795) [THR via GeekTyrant (http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/8/18/steampunk-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn-tv-show-headed-to-abc.html)]
prica o uklanjanju Ann VanderMeer sa mesta WT urednika je daleko od zavrsene, kontroverza kuva i kljuca da je milina, pa se i NK Jemisin ubacila u volejbol:
This is how you destroy something beautiful.
This is how my Monday morning began: with a slap in the face, courtesy of new Weird Tales editor Marvin Kaye.
If you haven't been following the "controversy" over author Victoria Foyt's self-published novel Revealing Eden, here's a good analysis of it (http://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/racism-revealing-eden-and-stgrb/) with links to others. I put air quotes around controversy in this case because there really isn't one. On the one side of the discussion you've got the author and a handful of defenders — many of whom seem to be sockpuppets of the author herself — insisting that the book isn't racist because... something. On the other side you've got several thousand readers saying OMG WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT RACIST MESS I JUST SAW. That's not a controversy, it's an object lesson in How To Be Wrong On The Internet.
I haven't talked about the Foyt book much because I didn't care. At the start of this I read the first chapter of the book out of curiosity (you can download a sample on Amazon); it's really not very good at all. It also falls prey to the usual problems that occur whenever someone who's not very educated on how racism actually works — and who's clearly unwilling to learn more — tries to address it. Foyt's characters adhere to every racial stereotype you can imagine, for example, in this supposedly not-racist book. But poorly-written books are a dime a dozen, and so are racist texts; I saw no point in giving additional attention to this one versus any of the thousands of others. I also tend not to negatively review other authors' works in general, since there's really no way to avoid the appearance of unprofessionalism and/or grudgewank in the process. There are times when it's worthwhile to burn those bridges, but that one wasn't one of them.
This, however, is. (http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/15/a-thoroughly-non-racist-book/)
Some context here. Weird Tales is a magazine with a long and checkered history. I didn't follow it back in the old days when it was all! Lovecraftian! All! The time!, simply because I wasn't interested in that sort of thing. In its more recent years it published some names I actually cared about, like Tanith Lee; I read an issue or two to sample it, but again — not my thing. In 2007, however, Ann VanderMeer (http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2012/08/ann-jeff-vandermeer-the-weird/), Stephen Segal, and some other folks decided to revive the old Weird Tales brand and evolve it beyond its classic roots. When their issues started coming out, I read a sample and was blown away by the fiction selections, the layout, the sheer collective beauty of the thing. I started buying it, and I also immediately started sending story submissions there. Most of them got rejected, although usually with nice notes encouraging me to keep trying. And I did. Then finally I sold one: "The Trojan Girl", which was published in WT #357 in early 2011 with lovely, eerie illustrations by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein (http://charibdys.wordpress.com/about/). I was so proud, ya'll.
And then last year something bizarre happened. New owners Marvin Kaye and John Harlacher bought the magazine — and promptly fired the team that had earned it its first Hugo award (http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2011/08/23/ann-vandermeer-on-no-longer-editing-weird-tales/). Okay. That was stupid, but businesses do stupid things all the time. The new folks made a vague effort at damage control afterward, so I chose to hope that the new ownership would get its shit together and get back to the business of putting out a high-quality speculative magazine. I didn't have a subscription — I buy on the newsstand, 'cause I actually like browsing newsstands — so it didn't do me any harm to wait and see. They'd bought a magazine with an invaluable reputation that had been years in the building, after all; I figured no one would be stupid enough to piss that all away.
I was wrong. They've shat it away. And pissed on the steaming pile afterward.
It's more than the fact that the editor has chosen to introduce the revamped magazine with a diatribe against evil anti-racists, or evil people with no sense of irony, or something. It's more than the stunningly poor judgment that he displays by hitching his magazine's new applecart to this spavined old horse. It's also the fact that they're going to be publishing the first chapter of this hugely problematic book in Weird Tales. What the hell is that about? In all the furor over this book, no one is defending it as high-quality literature. It's not even "weird", in either the old-school pulp sense or the VanderMeer-era modern sense; it's a slushpile-stock discrimiflip (http://spacehawk.livejournal.com/861602.html) with implausible science and banal writing. This is a book whose author self-published it — perhaps because the publisher of her previous novel (http://www.amazon.com/The-Virtual-Life-Lexie-Diamond/dp/0060825634/ref=la_B001HMPFDW_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345474410&sr=1-2) saw what a mess it was — and then promoted it via self-reviews on HuffPo (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-foyt/) and a bunch of vanity awards (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7479110&postcount=206). Now I'm wondering whether she paid WT to publish this excerpt. Maybe she even bought Kaye's editorial. Or maybe I'm overthinking this. Maybe Kaye just thought it was a great idea to start his new regime with a bang. Any publicity is good publicity, right? Right?
How much does a good reputation sell for, I wonder? Hope Kaye got a good price.
All my pleasure and pride at having been published in WT is gone. Goes without saying that I won't be submitting there again, ever, but at this point I'm ashamed to have my name associated with the magazine at all. And that pisses me off especially, because something I really cared about has been destroyed. I was willing to give WT's new owners the benefit of the doubt after the regime change; sometimes change can be a good thing, after all. But this editorial, and this decision to publish such poor-quality fiction on misplaced principle, makes it clear that WT's reputation is now meaningless. By this gesture Marvin Kaye hasn't just slapped me in the face, he's slapped every author the magazine ever published, every hopeful author who's submitted during and since VanderMeer's tenure, every artist whose illustrations ever graced its pages, and every fan who voted for WT to win that Hugo.
Slap me and I'll slap you back. I can't revoke my Hugo vote and I don't want to; Ann and the gang justifiably earned that award. I'm just sorry the award is now attached to a magazine that's clearly going to be shit from here forth. WT #357 is a print magazine and nothing can un-print it, but here's what I can do: I can do my damnedest to make sure the new owners don't profit in any way from my work. They're still selling back-issues of the magazine, and the story I published there has thus far only been reprinted in audio form (http://escapepod.org/2012/03/29/ep338-the-trojan-girl/). So on the thin chance that anybody reading this was thinking about buying a back-issue in order to read my story in it, no need. I'm reprinting it here now for free. (http://nkjemisin.com/2012/08/the-trojan-girl/) Enjoy.
ETA: The publisher has backtracked (http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/20/a-message-from-the-publisher/) on WT's brave commitment to racism, go figure. Damage done, I say.
Daughter of ETA: Artist Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein (http://www.rhiannonrs.com/) has graciously given me permission to repost her art with The Trojan Girl (http://nkjemisin.com/2012/08/the-trojan-girl/). Yay!
Sister of Grand-niece of ETA: WT has taken down Kaye's initial statement. (Good grief, don't these people have any clue how not to handle an internet controversy?) Here's a cached version. (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Aweirdtalesmagazine.com%2F2012%2F08%2F15%2Fa-thoroughly-non-racist-book%2F&sugexp=chrome%2Cmod%3D2&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)
Friend of Cousin of Oh Fuck It: Jeff VanderMeer weighs in, (http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2012/08/20/weird-tales-ann-vandermeer-and-utter-stupidity/) with some deep-twitch-inducing insider info on how this debacle began.
Interesantno kako se ova cela ujdurma oko Weird Tales-a poklopila (manje-više) sa Lavkraftovim rođendanom.
How to Lose an Audience (http://adamwmills.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/how-to-lose-an-audience/)
(via Caught in the Dreaming)
Gollancz has announced a major two-year publishing project to release the entire science fiction and fantasy back catalogue of Michael Moorcock in both print and eBook editions, as well as a substantial amount of his literary fiction.
Starting in February 2013 , the programme will bring back all of Moorcock's genre works including Hawkmoon, Corum, Von Bek, the Eternal Champion books and, of course, his most famous creation, Elric. At the same time Gollancz will also publish Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novels, The Brothel in Rosenstrasse and other non-genre fiction.
The newly published books are definitive editions, carefully prepared with the author and his long-standing friend, bibliographer and editor, John Davey. The new versions will be particularly important to fans as they will present the Elric stories in a consistent internal chronological order together with associational material never previously published.
The books will be published by Gollancz as print omnibus editions with a matching livery. Individual eBooks will be published by SF Gateway, Gollancz's ground-breaking online SF&F digital library of classic genre fiction. The programme begins with the publication of the last three Elric novels: Daughter of Dreams, Destiny's Brother and Son of the Wolf.
"I am extremely pleased to be continuing a relationship with Victor Gollancz which began nearly fifty years ago," said Moorcock. "This new programme will make available many of my books which have been hard to obtain in any form and will now be available in both print and electronic form in newly revised definitive editions prepared by myself and my long-standing friend and editor John Davey."
A mi kukamo na nas fandom (koji i ne postoji :))
Cheryl Morgan on This Is Not "Fandom" (http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=14603).
evo jedne za Perina :)
The "Star Wars" universe just got a whole lot more interesting! Kevin Hearne (http://www.kevinhearne.com/), author of the Iron Druid Chronicles, has signed on to write a "Star Wars" novel. And not just any "Star Wars" novel. He'll be working within the greatness of the original trilogy! He will be tackling the time period between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back", an interesting time period since Luke has barely brushed the surface of what the Force can do. That has me giddy. Kevin is one of my favorite writers at Del Rey Books right now, his tales of Druid Atticus O'Sullivan always entertaining and some of the best urban fantasy around. Since Kevin really can't talk specifics about the "Star Wars" project, I decided to ask him three simple questions:
Shawn Speakman: Tell fantasy and "Star Wars" fans the big news.
Kevin Hearne: Del Rey noticed that I'm kind of a "Star Wars" nut and asked me if I'd like to write a book for them focusing on Luke Skywalker, set betwixt Episode IV and V. Well, I was seven when the first movie came out and I grew up with this stuff. I couldn't say no—I mean, I was playing with the original action figures and making up new adventures all the time. I'm talkin' "PEW! PEW! PEW!" and "I can't shake him!" and "Copy Gold Leader!" and attempting to sound like James Earl Jones when I hadn't even reached puberty yet. So yeah, I'm thrilled to be on board and my nerd cred has skyrocketed amongst my friends.
SS: Will you be visiting Skywalker Ranch? Meeting George Lucas?
KH: Well, no, they haven't invited me, but that goes to show you how smart they are! They probably realize that I would just slobber on everything. Maybe it would be safe if they bought a whole lot of plastic sheeting first. Or they could hook me up with one of those drool suction things they have at the dentist.
SS: What's your favorite "Star Wars" movie and why?
KH: "The Empire Strikes Back!" It has it all! The wampa! Hologram Ben Kenobi! Admirals failing Vader for the last time! An awesome giant space worm lurking in an asteroid! Lando's mustache! Freezing people in carbonite, which we all secretly wished to do to our enemies! And the immortal line, "Size matters not," which gave hope to a planet full of insecure men! I know every movie has great stuff in it, but for me, ESB has the perfect blend of action, wonder, and humor.
I have a ton more questions for Kevin but they will have to wait a while. Will any of the supporting cast from the end of "A New Hope" be with Luke? Han? Chewie? Her worship? Will Vader be in it? We will have to wait and see! If you haven't read Kevin's work yet, do yourself a favor and do it. Start with Hounded (http://www.randomhouse.com/book/202871/hounded-the-iron-druid-chronicles-book-one-by-kevin-hearne). You will see he is perfect to write a Luke Skywalker tale. More when we know it!
Cast Your Vote: SciFri Book Club September Pick (http://sciencefriday.com/blogs/08/27/2012/cast-your-vote-scifri-book-club-september-pick.html?series=&interest=&audience=&author=)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsciencefriday.com%2Fimages%2Fdata%2FIMAGE%2Fphoto%2F000%2F009%2F9722-1.JPG&hash=518b82461e925ca30d5e945454727f184855dba4)
The Science Friday Book Club (http://www.sciencefriday.com/blogs/?series=25#page/posts/1) will meet again on September 21, 2012. We've decided to tackle another classic this month, but we need your help making our final selection. We've narrowed it down to:
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (http://amzn.to/RosiAH), Arthur C. Clarke
- Brave New World (http://amzn.to/SIx65i), Aldous Huxley
- Flatland (http://amzn.to/RSn2aE), Edwin A. Abbott
- The Andromeda Strain (http://amzn.to/SJkYiW), Michael Crichton
What do you want to read? Cast your vote below. We'll announce the winner on the show this week. (One vote per reader, please.)
Džef Vandermer je juče na fejsu bio van sebe od sreće što mu je žena sad deo Tor tima, i to kao editor za kratku prozu. Mazeltov!
Welcome Ann VanderMeer, New Consulting Fiction Editor for Tor.com (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/08/welcome-ann-vandermeer-new-consulting-fiction-editor-for-torcom)
In celebration of our two September releases, TRAJECTORY by John. S. Barker on 1st September, and MONSTERS ANONYMOUS by Theresa Derwin on 30th September, Anarchy Books is offering a FREE EBOOK every single day of September!
We're also running a competition with our very good friends, GEEK SYNDICATE, to win Anarchy Books' entire digital catalogue of ebooks and their associated specially composed soundtracks, and our Geek Ninja Buddies will also give you exclusive info on where to find some of the hidden links and free books available from Anarchy this September.
For more information during every Sizzling September Promo Day, visit Anarchy Books and Geek Syndicate... and remember to follow the White Rabbit... (http://www.uamag.co.uk/anarchy/summersizzler.html)
Stefan Petrucha on Zombie Noir (with Free Excerpt and Exciting News Announcement!)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F0451464745.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=ba895fa152f49008e6b316017d2e8e0ff7fb54c1)
...
So how do you mix sputtering neon signs and graveyard gore?
Noir and Zombies always seemed natural partners to me (or, if you like obvious jokes, unnatural partners.) Noir means dark (well, technically, black, en français). Noir is ratty, grim, cynical. The world and characters it depicts are more often than not, dead inside, their dreams shattered or forsaken. They go through the motions of life in the best idle-zombie way. Even the noblest noir figures aren't heroes so much as hapless, forced, by fate or circumstance, to take a stand.
Take Sam Spade, who says in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, "When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it."
Difficult words coming from the man who slept with his partner's wife.
Point being, in noir, what good exists doesn't come down to from on high, it's dragged into being by gritty, fallible hands. Watching it play out is akin to watching sausages being made.
...
(http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/09/guest-post-stefan-petrucha-on-zombie-noir-with-free-excerpt-and-exciting-news-announcement/)
Gollancz is to release the entire science fiction and fantasy back catalogue of Michael Moorcock, plus much of his literary fiction.
The two-year publishing project will launch in February 2013, with publication of Moorcock's last three Elric novels, Daughter of Dreams, Destiny's Brother and Son of the Wolf. The programme will go on to bring back all of the author's genre works, including Hawkmoon, Corum, Von Bek and the Eternal Champion books. Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novels will also be in the mix.
The books will be published as Gollancz print editions and as e-books from Gollancz's online SF&F digital library SF Gateway.
The publisher said the new books are "definitive editions, carefully prepared with the author and his longstanding friend, bibliographer and editor, John Davey".
"The new versions will be particularly important to fans as they will present the Elric stories in a consistent internal chronological order together with associational material never previously published," Gollancz said.
Moorcock said: "This new programme will make available many of my books which have been hard to obtain in any form and will now be available in both print and electronic form in newly revised definitive editions."
The project was put in place by Orion deputy c.e.o. and publisher Malcolm Edwards and Caspar Dennis of the Abner Stein Agency, acting for Howard Morhaim.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/major-moorcock-publishing-project-gollancz.html (http://www.thebookseller.com/news/major-moorcock-publishing-project-gollancz.html)
DC Comics hasn't exactly been filling Catwoman fans with hope during its latest series. The first issue of the New 52 Catwoman run has become synonymous with everything people find despicable about the depiction of females in comics. It is within this fiasco that the cover for Catwoman #0 was born. After much Internet criticism, the cover has since been changed to a slightly less cringe-inducing version.
Both are by artist Guillem March, but the second at least conforms to some semblance of reality. That isn't to say that this will calm the clamoring — which is justified — but it's a step in the right direction. The changes between the two are minute for the most part but important.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic02.mediaite.com%2Fgeekosystem%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F09%2Fcatwomanzerocoverredone_550.jpg&hash=ed12e4be8aa9491a05188d1080577d1f52e4f124)
Her body isn't wildly out of proportion, for starters, and she's even apparently grown a bit modest and zipped up. The position she's in manages to include a number of body parts somehow absent from the first image, and her head isn't painfully slanted. Overall, a lovely change to what was a disappointing cover.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.peterharrington.co.uk%2Fcontent%2Fassets%2F2012%2F09%2F78211_6.jpg&hash=bee1b907638890b2ab24695513e176db08cfcdd2)
PETER HARRINGTON WILL BE OFFERING FOR SALE FROM 26 SEPTEMBER
[SHELLEY, Mary.] Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818.
First edition, presentation copy to Lord Byron, with the author's autograph inscription to the front flyleaf: "To Lord Byron from the Author". An unsurpassable association copy of the best known fiction of the Romantic era, perhaps the most evocative presentation copy conceivable in all nineteenth-century literature.
This item will be exhibited at Peter Harrington from 26 September to 3 October 2012.
More details to be released at 20:00 BST, 25 September 2012. These include a video and full description of the history of this unique book.
http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/pages/events-and-fairs-ph/news/ (http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/pages/events-and-fairs-ph/news/)
For those who have not read The Onion today, I have your daily dose of crazy all ready for you.
Jazan Wild, a comics creator who is most well known for suing NBC in 2010 for $60 million over copyright infringement, is now pursuing a different lawsuit against HarperCollins (http://www.nationscourts.com/m6_July/wild.pdf). Wild is claiming that one recent HC title, Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr (http://enterthecarnival.com/), infringes upon his trademark.
Not copyright – trademark.
Wild is claiming that HarperCollins is using the trademarked phrase as the title of a book to intentionally confuse readers into thinking that a fantasy novel (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061659282/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061659282&linkCode=as2&tag=thedigrea-20) which was published last week was related to a comics series which Wild had published in 2006.
Crazy, right? Any sane person would have put a few minutes thought into the matter and realized that such an obvious phrase as Carnival of Souls would likely have been used as a title many times before. In fact, Bookfinder (http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=&title=Carnival+of+Souls&lang=en&isbn=&submit=Search&new_used=*&destination=us¤cy=USD&mode=basic&st=sr&ac=qr) turned up at least a couple dozen different books, movies, TV episodes, and more – some of which dates back to 1962. And if you look inside books, Google says that it found the phrase no less than 5600 times (https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Carnival%20of%20Souls%22&tbs=bks:1&lr=lang_en) (with some duplication, obviously).
But that's not the end of the craziness. No, it's with the book reviewers that the crazy truly begins.
(ostatak imate ovde: http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/09/11/author-sues-book-reviewers-over-trademark-infringement (http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/09/11/author-sues-book-reviewers-over-trademark-infringement) )
http://litreactor.com/news/18-year-old-signs-six-figure-deal-with-harpercollins-for-vampire-series (http://litreactor.com/news/18-year-old-signs-six-figure-deal-with-harpercollins-for-vampire-series)
When Abigail Gibbs (http://www.facebook.com/AbigailGibbs.Canse12#!/AbigailGibbs.Canse12) read the Twilight series, she thought it was great and all, but told the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ydg3j) that her ideal version was bloodier, edgier, and more British. So she did what any 15-year-old would do in that situation: Wrote her own version and posted it on Wattpad (http://www.wattpad.com/user/Canse12). She got to nearly seventeen million readers, at which point she was spotted and signed to HarperCollins by age 18. Wait...what?
Gibbs's new six-figure deal with the Big Six publisher includes her original novel, The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire, as well as a yet-to-be-completed sequel, which she'll write in between her classes at Oxford University. Gibbs describes the book, the story of a teen kidnapped by vampires and the ensuing love triangle, as "the sexiest romance you'll read this year"—slightly disturbing when you consider that it was written by a 15-year-old.
The eBook edition is available in the UK starting today and in the US on September 18th. The paperback will hit stores in October. The times they are a-changin', and the path to success isn't as straightforward as it used to be. Personally, I think it's a good thing because who knows if talented young authors like Gibbs would get picked up through traditional means. What do you think of her route to publication?
On another note, is anybody but me sick of vampires yet? They're sooooo 2009, and zombies are so 2010. Can we get some sea monsters or mummies or ogres up in here, please? I mean, where do we go from here, people?
Actor Kevin Costner has signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster's Atria Books imprint for an adventure series. It begins with The Explorers Guild, Volume One: Passage to Shambhala in 2014. The book is aimed at a broad group of readers, ranging from "young adult to more mature mystery and adventure enthusiasts."
Writer and art director Jon Baird (pictured, left) also worked on the project with Costner (middle), which will be illustrated by Rick Ross (right). Rob Weisbach and Fonda Snyder at Rob Weisbach Creative Management negotiated the deal with publisher Judith Curr. Atria senior editor Sarah Durand and assistant editor Daniel Loedel will edit the book.
Here's more from the release: "Behind the staid rooms of an old world gentlemen's club operates a darker, more mysterious organization: The Explorers Guild, a clandestine group of adventurers who seek out the places where light gives way to shadow and reason is usurped by myth ... Set against the backdrop of World War I, with Western Civilization spiraling into chaos, the first installment in The Explorers Guild series, A Passage to Shambhala, concerns the Guild's quest to find Shambhala, the golden city of Buddhist myth. Each member is driven toward the City for a different reason: one believes that finding it will save his brother's life; another hopes that it will reveal a path to spiritual enlightenment. Some believe the power of the city can be used to restore peace, while others are certain that Shambhala is responsible for bringing mankind to the brink of apocalypse."
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/kevin-costner-lands-book-deal-for-serialized-adventure_b57494 (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/kevin-costner-lands-book-deal-for-serialized-adventure_b57494)
by Adam Whitehead
With publication of Joe Abercrombie's
Red Country just a few months away, review copies have been released into the wild and promotional materials are doing the rounds. Impressively, these have revealed that
The First Law has now sold more than 1 million copies worldwide (though not specifying whether this was just the trilogy or includes the two stand-alone novels as well). An impressive achievement from Joe there.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-ZdLo_Ys2V-s%2FT_3urp_-w3I%2FAAAAAAAAFXQ%2F9rGMdFMfThw%2Fs320%2FRed%2BCountry.jpg&hash=5dda4bdeec534d91c3ccb7f240febc1ab5eeea3c) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZdLo_Ys2V-s/T_3urp_-w3I/AAAAAAAAFXQ/9rGMdFMfThw/s1600/Red+Country.jpg)
Meanwhile, Gollancz has revealed (https://twitter.com/Gollancz/status/243705545918398464) (via Twitter) that the current working release date for Richard Morgan's
The Dark Defiles - the conclusion to the
Land Fit For Heroes series - is August 2013. There are (http://www.richardkmorgan.com/news/842/quest-fellow-blues/) two previews (http://www.richardkmorgan.com/news/876/visitation-rites/) of the book currently up on the author's blog.
Intriguingly, Morgan has hinted that
The Dark Defiles might become too large for one volume, and he and Gollancz are looking at the manuscript to see if it will be one huge book or two merely biggish ones. Watch this space for news on that.
Frederik Pohl has posted the table of contents (http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2012/09/i-warned-you/) for the new ebook version of his 1975 collection
The Best of Frederik Pohl (http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1410-the-best-of-frederik-pohl.aspx?affiliateID=10058):
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2FTheBestOFrederikPohl.jpg&hash=3d91657412b4ef97c1aa52ed5c5357dffccd1e73)
A selection of the cream of the crop from three decades of science fiction stories by one of the field's most honored and popular writers. Includes such classics as "Day Million," "The Midas Plague," "The Day the Martians Came," and sixteen more stories. With an afterword by the author.
Here's the table of contents...
- "The Tunnel under the World"
- "Punch"
- "Three Portraits and a Prayer"
- "Howard Chandler Christie: The Lovely Young Girl"
- "A Time cover attributed to Artzybasheff"
- "Gilbert Stuart: His Late Period"
- "Day Million"
- "Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus"
- "We Never Mention Aunt Nora"
- "The Day the Martians Came"
- "The Midas Plague"
- "The Snowmen"
- "How to Count on Your Fingers"
- "Grandy Devil"
- "Speed Trap"
- "The Richest Man in Levittown"
- "The Day the Icicle Works Closed"
- "The Hated"
- "The Martian in the Attic"
- "The Census Takers" and "The Children of Night"
Your Near-Future Post-Apocalypse Has Arrived: H+ The Digital Series
Humanity goes offline. Survival goes on.
That's the tagline of a cool near-future post-apocalyptic web series called H+ (http://hplusdigitalseries.com/). Produced by Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects), H+: The Digital Series "takes viewers on a journey into an apocalyptic future where technology has begun to spiral out of control... a future where the world's population has retired its cell phones and laptops in favor of a stunning new device by Hplus Nano Teoranta, an innovative technology company that has found a way to connect the Internet to the human mind 24 hours a day."
New episodes every Wednesday.
It's quite well done, surpassing many television shows in terms in quality and concept.
H+ Episode 1: Driving Under (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedLgAF9aEg#ws)
Eclipse is Coming Online! (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/2012/09/17/the-award-winning-eclipse-series-is-coming-online/)
by admin (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/author/admin/) on September 17, 2012 in Eclipse Online (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/category/eclipse/)
The multi-award winning Eclipse series (Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Aurealis) is coming to Nightshadebooks.com! Exact launch date is to come
http://www.johnjosephadams.com/2012/09/new-anthology-wastelands-2/ (http://www.johnjosephadams.com/2012/09/new-anthology-wastelands-2/)
New Anthology: WASTELANDS 2Good news, post-apocalyptic fiction fans: And no, I don't mean the new TV show, Revolution. Even better: I'm going to be doing a follow up volume to my critically-acclaimed anthology, Wastelands, which will be called, at least for now, Wastelands 2.
As I've done with most of my other anthologies, I'd like to solicit recommendations, so if you have any outstanding examples of post-apocalyptic fiction you'd like to point out to me, please feel free to let me know about them by entering them into my post-apocalyptic fiction database (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFRkMGRTM2pnVnpzOUliT05kOWd0Unc6MA#gid=0).
As I did with my previous sequel anthology, The Living Dead 2, for Wastelands 2, I will likely be focusing on very new material, primarily stories published since Wastelands (Vol. 1) was assembled. The first volume was published in January 2008, but since it was mostly edited the year before, basically I'll primarily be looking for material published from 2007-Present.
Since this is an anthology, obviously I'm primarily interested in short fiction, but if you want to recommend novels or novel series, that is welcome too, as I may include a "for further reading" list in the anthology. Note, however, that there is an extensive list of novels in Wastelands (Vol. 1), so again this would primarily be of interest for material published 2007-Present.
:cry: :(
Dr. Sleep (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd2lf88w-8g#)
... i nešto za ljubitelje paranormalnog, mističnog i tako već sličnog im džeza:
Meanwhile, John Llewellyn Probert has written a novel! It's his first! It's groovy, and so is he! It's called The House that Death Built (http://www.atomicfez.com/book-catalogue/9780986642456.html) and is available in three (3!) formats! It's available in eBook format, which is DRM-free as is the case with all Atomic Fez eBooks; there's a paperback edition; and there's a Limited, Numbered, Hardback edition which is signed by both the author and the cover artist! Atomic Fez isn't in the habit of doing 'collector's editions", but as this is John's début as a novelist, it seemed apt to create a special version of this title, just for him. It may also be the final outing for the characters "Mr Massene Henderson" and "Miss Samantha Jephcott", which are the "specialists in paranormal adventure" he created to engage in daring-do against the spirit world, and who have previously only appeared in the short stories collected in Against the Darkness (available from Screaming Dreams through THIS LINK).
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http://www.atomicfez.com/2012/09/17/new-titles-2012/ (http://www.atomicfez.com/2012/09/17/new-titles-2012/)
Just for ONE day only, on September 21, 2012, Stephen Leigh's "The Woods" will be offered free via Amazon. While I apologize that this is only an Amazon promotion, the book is DRM free so should be easy to convert. The book is regular priced at $9.99 for paperback and $5.99 for digital.
You may use this link
http://www.amazon.com/dp/ (http://www.amazon.com/dp/)B008Z915KC?tag=arcman-20
Or search for ASIN B008Z915KC (http://arcmanor.hosted.phplist.com/lists/lt.php?id=ex8HCB4MCh9TUQM%3D) on Amazon.
A new trailer is out for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey!
"...far to the east, over ranges and rivers, lies a single, solitary peak..."
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-hobbit/feature-trailer (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-hobbit/feature-trailer)
одлично, не певају у трејлеру!
I wish this was more than a news clip! Funny how Serkis mentions how people have mimicked the voice back to him in the intervening years since Lord of the Rings. There's a certain someone I know (looks at Tim) who will do the Gollum voice on command. I think I will hand him my copy of The Hobbit and ask him to read the good parts.
Andy Serkis reads The Hobbit as Gollum on stage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c13JFt0LQU#ws)
Warner Bros. has partnered with Kabam to create two free-to-play games inspired by The Hobbit for the web and mobile devices.
Both The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth for mobile devices and The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age for web browsers will be multiplayer strategy games, due out in Autumn 2012.
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth will task players with building and managing their own kingdom in Middle-earth, including joining with other players to engage in war, while The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age will offer gamers strategic combat, whilst controlling iconic characters including Bilbo and Gandalf at the head of an army of Elves, Dwarves or Orcs.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/26/warner-bros-announces-the-hobbit-games (http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/26/warner-bros-announces-the-hobbit-games)
You've probably heard of the risque novel "50 Shades of Grey" since it's now the best selling paperback of all time. But you may not know that it's Twilight fan fiction! It seems shocking that a fan fiction novel has become so popular, but 50 Shades isn't the first book to break through the fan community boundaries into mainstream culture. Over 100 years ago, Sherlock Holmes' popularity created a profusion of well received fan fiction. It allowed authors from amateur to professional to explore the world originally created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and pave the way for other future fan fiction canons, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, and yes, 50 Shades of Grey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=beJdVmiQijM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=beJdVmiQijM)#!
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SCI-FI NOVEL "WORLD ENOUGH, AND TIME" EBOOK FOR 99 CENTS TODAY ONLY
World Enough, and Time by Best-Selling Author James Kahn Available Before Launch for One-Day Promotion
CAMPBELL, Calif. – September 27, 2012 – Today FastPencil announced a special 99 cents ebook promotion for the World Enough, and Time, the first title in the popular sci-fi series "New World Trilogy" by New York Times best-selling author James Kahn. The ebook is available before launch for 99 cents today only on Amazon.com. The book will be publicly available on October 3 for $14.95 in paperback and $7.99 in ebook format.
The "New World Trilogy" is a fantasy adventure trilogy written by renowned sci-fi author James Kahn, who is known for his books "Return of the Jedi" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." The trilogy is being re-released with new illustrations and original content with added plot twists.
World Enough, and Time kicks off the trilogy by explaining a post-apocalyptic setting 200 years into the future where humans are a dying species. Readers will follow Joshua as he faces personal tragedy in the kidnapping of his wife and will witness his willingness to do whatever it takes to rescue her in a surreal landscape filled with science-based mythological creatures.
Kahn is a best-selling author who has worked with filmmaker Steven Spielberg, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and sci-fi editor Judy Lynn Del Rey. His books include "Return of the Jedi," which made the New York Times Best-Seller List, as well as "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "The Goonies" and "Poltergeist." He has also written for numerous television shows including "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Xena: Warrior Princess."
Pricing and Availability
World Enough, and Time is available today only in ebook for 99 cents on Amazon (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008TVPXAO/sfsi0c-20).
World Enough, and Time will become publicly available October 3 in paperback for $14.95 through the FastPencil PREMIERE Marketplace (http://premiere.fastpencil.com/world-enough-and-time), major book chains and distributors – from Barnes and Noble to Baker & Taylor – as well as in ebook form for $7.99 through major e-retailers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Jane Frances Gunn, 87, died September 27, 2012 at Brandon Woods.
Born April 8, 1925 in Phillipsburg, KS, Gunn worked for the KU News Bureau; as the librarian for the KU School of Journalism; as a reporter for the Kansas City Kansan; and as the co-owner and later the sole owner of the Emporium, a Lawrence art consignment gallery.
She is survived by her younger son, Kevin, and her husband, James Gunn. Mr. Gunn, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction (http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/) at Kansas University, is an editor and writer of science fiction, and has won numerous awards in the genre, including the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award in 2007.
Through the magic of Google Play, Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, and Peter F. Hamilton gathered to answer reader questions. Now, through the magic of YouTube (more magic!) you can see the chat session right here.
Warning: great stuff ahead...
Read the rest of this entry (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/09/video-iain-m-banks-alastair-reynolds-and-peter-f-hamilton-answer-reader-questions/#more-62572)
Last week, we reported the news (http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/09/21/guillermo-del-toro-the-strain-tv-series-fx/) that Guillermo del Toro's novel turned comic "The Strain" would be coming to TV. Well, looks like you can watch it a bit earlier than that: starting tomorrow, Felicia Day's Geek & Sundry channel will start serializing a Dark Horse (http://geek-news.mtv.com/category/dark-horse/) Motion Comic based on the book.
The Strain is a modern take on the vampire mythology, pitting an elderly pawnbroker against raging blood-sucking hordes, because kids these days are super into pawnbrokers. You can check out "The Strain" starting tomorrow, but here's a sneak peak at some pics from the episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AGrpvLMAJM#ws]Dark Horse Comics RELAUNCH! - The Strain[/color] (http://[color=rgb(51,%2051,%2051))
Captain Picard ce jos jednom biti profa X, which is nice.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact
: Night Shade Books publicity,
publicity@nightshadebooks.comSAN FRANCISCO (October 1, 2012) — Night Shade Books is delighted to announce that from October 8, 2012, the award-winning Eclipse series will be available to readers online and free of charge at Nightshadebooks.com. Following the lead and success of other short fiction publications, Eclipse will continue its fifth and subsequent volumes as a primarily electronic publication.
Born out of a love for the short story form and a deep appreciation for the work of anthologists such as Terry Carr and Damon Knight, the Eclipse series was launched by Editor Jonathan Strahan and Night Shade Books in 2006. A varietal collection of both science fiction and fantasy, Eclipse has delivered original fiction by some of the genre's most celebrated authors such as Peter S. Beagle, Maureen McHugh, Andy Duncan, Garth Nix, Ellen Klages, Gwyneth Jones, Ted Chaing, Jeffrey Ford, Deryl Gregory, Caitlín R. Kiernan and others.
Hugo award-nominated author Jonathan Strahan says, "We've taken the dream of
Eclipse – that idea of the rare and unusual, the strange and eldritch – and we've stripped it down and rebuilt it for a new decade. Now we're taking it out for a spin. There may be things added to it in the coming months, and things removed, but at its core there will be at least two new stories every month, the best I can find by the most exciting writers in the field."
Eclipse Online will be a free, online publication and does not require a subscription, sign-up or payment with a story released by Editor Jonathan Strahan every first and fourth Monday of the month.
An early publication schedule will be announced shortly.
About the Editor:
Jonathan Strahan has edited more than twenty anthologies and collections, including The Locus Awards (with Charles N. Brown), The New Space Opera (with Gardner Dozois), The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year and The Starry Rift. He has won the Ditmar, William J. Atheling Jr. and Peter McNamara awards for his work as an anthologist and reviewer, and was nominated for a Hugo Award for his editorial work. Strahan is currently the reviews editor for Locus.
Eclipse Online will launch will launch October 8 2012. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.nightshadebooks.com/ (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/), or contact us at publicity@nightshadebooks.com.
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One of the first major blogging events we've done on Tor.com was for steampunk (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/10/steampunk-month-on-tor-dot-com), and every autumn with the turning of the leaves, the H.M.S. Stubbington gets its engines stoked for another bout of gears, cogs, and 19th-century know-how. Now, Year Four into this brass madness, the question comes to mind: "Why does steampunk still matter?"
James Schafer, the co-owner of the Steampunk on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Steampunk/16887121106) page, sent that missive to me and several other steampunk tinkerers, academics, costumers, and event planners several months back, and its been on my mind ever since. Has our love for dirigibles gotten our heads too far into the clouds? Are we wandering, directionless, befuddled about what had brought us here? Are steampunks only good for quirky cameo appearances on reality TV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlPMZyZf0JM#ws) or at the beginning of sitcoms about financially-challenged young women (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL31DCq8Hqs#)?
Everyone had their own answers to Schafer's question, and here's the best one I've come up with:
"Steampunk matters because it's a verb now (or, always has been)."
More than just an aesthetic or a subgenre, it is a movement, with the emphasis on "move." People do steampunk: whether writing it, drawing it, performing it, building it, or dreaming it.
So for Steampunk Week, we're looking at what steampunk does that makes it relevant to the science fiction/fantasy community – and the greater world outside it. You'll get bits of politics, art, literature, music, history, culture, and everything in between.*
*And if this week isn't enough, know that we run steampunk things all year round (http://www.tor.com/tags/steampunk), and browse through the archives for our steampunk blogging events from 2009 (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/10/steampunk-month-on-tor-dot-com), 2010 (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/10/steampunk-fortnight-on-torcom), and 2011 (http://www.tor.com/features/series/steampunk-week).
Posto je Jo Walton trenutno u centru paznje sa Among Others, Guardian se posvetio profilisanju:
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On Sunday night, Welsh-born novelist Jo Walton (http://us.macmillan.com/author/jowalton) hit the hat-trick. Despite not yet having been published in the UK, her book, Among Others (http://www.sfsite.com/04b/ao342.htm), took the British Fantasy award (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/01/jo-walton-british-fantasy-award) for best novel at Brighton's Fantasycon 2012 (http://www.fantasycon2012.org/) – its third major award this year. The novel – which scooped the Hugo award last month (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/04/jo-walton-hugo-award-harry-potter) and tucked the Nebula under its belt in May (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/announcing-the-2011-nebula-awards-winners) – overcame stiff competition for the prize (http://www.fantasycon2012.org/nominees.htm) in the form of The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/08/science-fiction-eric-brown), Stephen King's 11.22.63 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/02/112263-stephen-king-review), Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith and George RR Martin's A Dance With Dragons (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jul/12/a-dance-with-dragons-george-r-r-martin) at the British Fantasy (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/fantasy) Society event. Not bad going for a girl from the valleys.
In addition to the three major prizes it's now won, Among Others has also been nominated for a World Fantasy award (http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/) at November's World Fantasy Convention – one of only a handful of novels ever to get such a grand-slam shortlisting for all the major science fiction (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/fiction) literary prizes. The World Fantasy award will be presented in Toronto, which might have an extra sweetness for Walton if Among Others wins. Although born in Aberdare, Wales, she's now a permanent resident of Canada, and her career has taken place mainly Stateside.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/02/jo-walton-among-others-interview (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/02/jo-walton-among-others-interview)
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Now through December 31st, 2012, you can get the audiobook Legion by Brandon Sanderson (http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B009GJVJC4&qid=1349189651&sr=1-1) for the low, low price of FREE (http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B009GJVJC4&qid=1349189651&sr=1-1)!
Amazon (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/category/amazon)Amazon Studios Has Optioned Its First Novel (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/amazon-studios-has-optioned-its-first-novel_b58500) (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediabistro.com%2Fgalleycat%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F10%2F61-vxjMJFVL._AA115_.jpg&hash=6f107affafbc7096fee507283e87eac4971c1603)Amazon Studios has optioned the rights to the horror novel Seed by Ania Ahlborn. Testing a book as a movie is a first for Amazon Studios. So far, the company has only optioned movie scripts and episodic series projects.
"Our primary objective at Amazon Studios is to develop great, commercial projects that our customers love," explained Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, in a statement. "Ania Ahlborn's SEED has been a top seller for Amazon Publishing's 47North so we already have a sense of the mainstream attraction of the story and are excited to keep the project in-house for movie development."
The book started life as a self-published novel in 2010 which quickly rose up the charts through word-of-mouth popularity. Amazon picked up the book and released it this past July. After success on Amazon's sci-fi imprint 47North, Amazon is testing various big screen adaptations of the Southern gothic tale.
... pošto je ovo jedina igrica sa kojom sam ikad ubijala vreme, smatram da je njuzvorti! :mrgreen:
Rovio teases Star Wars-themed Angry Birds
Rovio Entertainment has just slipped out a cryptic animated GIF of one of the Angry Birds with a lightsaber. Whether that means we'll see a full-blown Android game with little green pigs dressed up like stormtroopers is anyone's guess, but Rovio promises that we'll learn more at an event in Times Square, New York, at 10 AM EST on October 8 (next Monday). They also gently suggest that we hit up Toys R Us at 8 AM EST, so it's entirely likely that this is just some kind of new plushie they're selling.Rovio is no stranger to licensing deals, having scored a fairly big one with Disney for the film Rio last year (http://www.androidcentral.com/angry-birds-rio-now-available-free-android-market). More recently, Rovio is coming off of their launch of Bad Piggies (http://androidcentral.com/bad-piggies-review), a physics-based building game featuring the antagonists of their first hit mobile game. An excess of cross-branding deals like this could make the Angry Birds brand even more stale than the plethora of toys, calendars, and other merchandise have. Then again, if they have a fresh spin on the Angry Birds gameplay and do the Star Wars franchise justice, it could freshen up the birds for another couple of months.Are you guys optimistic about the next Angry Birds, or has it been done to death? Star Wars fans, do you find this kind of cross-licensing tacky or cute? http://www.androidcentral.com/rovio-teases-star-wars-themed-angry-birds
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced on Sunday that it had acquired the United States rights to publish a previously unknown work by J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Fall of Arthur." The book, set for publication in May, chronicles the last days of King Arthur and will be edited by Tolkien's son Christopher, who will also provide commentary and notes. Tolkien, the author of "The Lord of the Rings," died in 1973. This is the first new work by him to be unearthed since "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun" was released in 2009.
Taj Christopher ima 88 godina. :shock:
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Baen Books (http://baen.com/) has created a web-based, science fiction strategy game called
Planet Baen (http://www.planetbaen.com/), where players get to colonize a new world. It incorporates elements from many different Baen series as part of the normal gameplay, often focusing on a particular series in any given month. (October will features Larry Correia's
Monster Hunters International (http://www.baenebooks.com/s-176-larry-correia.aspx) series. November will see more focus on Lois McMaster Bujold's
Vorkosigan saga (http://www.baenebooks.com/s-13-lois-mcmaster-bujold.aspx).)
Here's the coolest part: It's free to play and as you progress in the game, you win free ebooks from Baen's ebook site, Baen Ebooks (http://www.baenebooks.com/)!
So, wanna have some fun and win free eBooks? Then check out
Planet Baen (http://www.planetbaen.com/)!
Adaptation (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/category/adaptation), Deals (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/category/deals) Alan Dean Foster to Write Novelization of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek SequelBy Jason Boog (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/author/jasonboog) on October 11, 2012 4:23 PM
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediabistro.com%2Fgalleycat%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F10%2Fcvr9781439194874_9781439194874.jpg&hash=2ce6455eca71d7e00953b3cd708260d2449fc2ad)Alan Dean Foster will write the novelization of the sequel to
J.J. Abrams' 2009 blockbuster
Star Trek reboot. Gallery Books will publish
Star Trek Into Darkness in May 2013, alongside the film that was written by
Alex Kurtzman,
Roberto Orci and
Damon Lindel.
A veteran of film novelizations, Foster wrote the novel tie-in (http://books.simonandschuster.com/Star-Trek-Movie-Tie-in-Novelization-(2009)/Alan-Dean-Foster/Star-Trek/9781439194874) for Abrams' first
Star Trek film. You can explore his massive bibliography at this link (http://www.alandeanfoster.com/version2.0/frameset.htm). Here's more about Foster, from the release:
Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as
Star Wars, the first three
Alien films,
Alien Nation, and
The Chronicles of Riddick. Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first
Star Trekmovie. His novel
Shadowkeep was the first ever book adaptation of an original computer game.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/alan-dean-foster-to-write-novelization-of-j-j-abrams-star-trek-sequel_b58988 (http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/alan-dean-foster-to-write-novelization-of-j-j-abrams-star-trek-sequel_b58988)
From director Guillermo del Toro and novelist Chuck Hogan, and based on the Dark Horse comics series The Strain, comes a new motion comic on the Geek and Sundry Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/geekandsundry).
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When a Boeing 777 lands at JFK International Airport and goes dark on the runway, the Center for Disease Control, fearing a terrorist attack, calls in Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team of expert biological-threat first responders. Only an elderly pawnbroker from Spanish Harlem suspects a darker purpose behind the event–an ancient threat intent on covering mankind in darkness...
Dark Horse Comics RELAUNCH! - The Strain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AGrpvLMAJM#ws)
Rudy Rucker -H.264 800Kbps.mov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiocMVLax2I#)
Rudy Rucker at the Philip K. Dick Festival in San Francisco "Haunted by Philip K. Dick"
a kad smo vec kod Rudija:
Latest in the treats that we are getting these days from Rudy Rucker is his complete collection of stories which he just put online as an HTML file. Stories are not under Creative Commons licence but rather serve as a free sample and incitement to buy regular books.
This huge collection also includes collaborations with Bruce Sterling, Paul Di Filippo, Marc Laidlaw, John Shirley, Rudy Rucker Jr., Terry Bisson, and Eileen Gunn.
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http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/ (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/)
Table of Contents
Introduction (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc00)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc01)
Enlightenment Rabies (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc02)
Schrödinger's Cat (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc03)
Sufferin' Succotash (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc04)
A New Golden Age (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc05)
Faraway Eyes (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc06)
The 57th Franz Kafka (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc07)
The Indian Rope Trick Explained (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc08)
A New Experiment With Time (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc09)
The Man Who Ate Himself (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc10)
Tales of Houdini (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc11)
The Facts of Life (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc12)
Buzz (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc13)
The Last Einstein-Rosen Bridge (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc14)
Pac-Man (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc15)
Pi in the Sky (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc16)
Wishloop (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc17)Inertia (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc18)
Bringing in the Sheaves (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc19)
The Jack Kerouac Disembodied School of Poetics (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc20)
Message Found in a Copy of Flatland (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc21)
Plastic Letters (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc22)
Monument to the Third International (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc23)
Rapture in Space (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc24)
Storming the Cosmos (Written with Bruce Sterling) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc25)
In Frozen Time (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc26)
Soft Death (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc27)
Inside Out (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc28)
Instability (Written with Paul Di Filippo) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc29)
The Man Who Was a Cosmic String (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc30)
Probability Pipeline (Written with Marc Laidlaw) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc31)
As Above, So Below (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc32)
Chaos Surfari (Written with Marc Laidlaw) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc33)
Big Jelly (Written with Bruce Sterling) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc34)
Easy As Pie (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc35)
The Andy Warhol Sandcandle (Written with Marc Laidlaw) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc36)
Cobb Wakes Up (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc37)
The Square Root of Pythagoras (Written with Paul Di Filippo) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc38)
Pockets (Written with John Shirley) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc39)
Junk DNA (Written with Bruce Sterling) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc40)
The Use of the Ellipse the Catalog the Meter & the Vibrating Plane (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc41)
Jenna and Me (Written with Rudy Rucker Jr.) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc42)
Six Thought Experiments Concerning the Nature of Computation (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc43)
MS Found in a Minidrive (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc44)
Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc45)
The Men in the Back Room at the Country Club (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc46)
Panpsychism Proved (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc47)
Elves of the Subdimensions (Written with Paul Di Filippo) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc48)
2+2=5 (Written with Terry Bisson) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc49)
Visions of the Metanovel (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc50)
The Third Bomb (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc51)
The Imitation Game (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc52)
Hormiga Canyon (Written with Bruce Sterling) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc53)
The Perfect Wave (Written with Marc Laidlaw) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc54)
Tangier Routines (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc55)
Message Found In A Gravity Wave (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc56)
Qlone (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc57)
Colliding Branes (Written with Bruce Sterling) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc58)
Jack and the Aktuals or, Physical Applications of Transfinite Set Theory (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc59)
All Hangy (Written with John Shirley) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc60)
To See Infinity Bare (Written with Paul Di Filippo) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc61)
Bad Ideas (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc62)
Good Night, Moon (Written with Bruce Sterling) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc63)
Fjaerland (Written with Paul DiFilippo) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc64)
The Fnoor Hen (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc65)
Hive Mind Man (Written with Eileen Gunn) (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc66)
My Office Mate (http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/#_Toc67)
Announcing Europa SF Europa SF (http://scifiportal.eu/) is a new portal for science fiction and fantasy news from all around Europe.
Currently on the site is a report on SF/F in Lithuania (http://scifiportal.eu/sff-activities-in-lithuania/); Hungary SF Summary 2012 (http://scifiportal.eu/hungary-sf-summary-2012/); German SF in the New Millennium (http://scifiportal.eu/the-german-sf-scene-in-the-new-millennium/), and much more!
The Europa SF team is:
Ahrvid Engholm – Sweden
Antuza Genescu – Romania
Aleksandar Ziljak – Croatia
Cristian Tamas – Romania
Frank Beckers – Belgium
George Sotirhos – Greece
Jan van't Ent – Holland
Juhan Habicht – Estonia
Lina Kulikauskienė – Lithuania
Marian Truta – Romania
Roberto Mendes – Portugal
SFmag.hu (http://sfmag.hu/) – Hungary
Sven Kloepping – Germany
From their editorial (http://scifiportal.eu/europa-sf-ar-the-beginning/):
You are invited to take part in a project that we consider more than necessary: the building of a European platform dedicated to all SF communities in Europe.
Essentially, this is where things stand currently in Europe: we have no idea what other European communities do. This may sound a tad categorical, but we must admit that to take the pulse of the SF communities in our neighbouring countries is not an easy task to fulfil. What new authors have been published in one country or another? What SF&F events are taking place in one country or another? What conventions will be held on our continent in the near future? And so on...
On a personal level, through direct contacts, things may seem better. If we want to know what's going on in a community from another country, we just send an email to someone we know there and wait for their reply. Then, the information received will reach a small circle of fans. Best case scenario, the person who has requested this information will write an article about it and post it on a site or publish it in a printed magazine in his or her country.
EUROPA SF wants to bring the members of the European fandom together to build a continental-scale data network. Editors, writers, fans, anyone with an interest in SF will be able to see what is happening in any European country and will inform, in turn, the entire SF community about their own major conventions.
Check them out! (http://scifiportal.eu/)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-7AvH52Sf3s4%2FUH1GqcXgqQI%2FAAAAAAAABY4%2F-CmzRVfEjeA%2Fs1600%2Fcubiertatn1-ok.jpg&hash=873ec98e909389f114ad4d83828ed2350da3949d)
Terra Nova (http://novaficcion.wordpress.com/foreword/) is a new anthology of contemporary science fiction stories that will be published simultaneously in Spain and Argentina this December in Spanish language. An ebook edition with English translations of the short stories originally written in Spanish will shortly follow.Recently, the amazing cover art by Ángel Benito (http://www.angelbenito.com/) (shown above these lines) was revealed and the table of contents was announced:
- Foreword, by Luis Pestarini and Mariano Villarreal
- "The Paper Menagerie", by Ken Liu (USA)
- 2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story (winner)
- 2012 Hugo Award for Best Short Story (winner)
- 2012 Locus Award for Best Short Story (finalist)
- 2012 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (finalist)
- 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story (nominee)
- "Deirdre", by Lola Robles (Spain)
- "Memories of a Zombie Country", by Erick J. Mota (Cuba)
- "Light a Solitary Candle", by Víctor Conde (Spain)
- "Bodies", by Juanfran Jiménez (Spain)
- "A Day Without Dad", by Ian Watson (United Kingdom)
- "Memory", by Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría (Argentina)
- "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", by Ted Chiang (USA)
- 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novella (winner)
- 2011 Locus Award for Best Novella (winner)
- 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novella (nominee)
The price of the paperback edition (about 250 pages) will be 15€ for Spain (rest of the world, please contact (novaficcion@gmail.com)), with subscriptions available (http://novaficcion.wordpress.com/suscripciones/) for residents in Spain. Ebook editions in Spanish and English (the latter including only the Spanish and Latin American stories) will be published in early 2013. Please visit the Terra Nova website (http://novaficcion.wordpress.com/foreword/) for further information.
A Federal Court ruled that Joe Shuster's heirs do not have the right to reclaim copyright on Superman, a character co-created by Shuster and Jerry Siegel. The judge noted that a 1992 agreement to receive annual payments from DC Comics in exchange for all rights to the character made by Shuster's sister superseded the Shuster heirs' claim under "termination rights" in U.S. copyright law. In 2008, Siegel's widow was able to successfully reclaim some of the copyright.
For more information... (http://forward.com/articles/164505/superman-creators-heirs-lose-suit-to-comics-giant)
This video features with science fiction author an futurist David Brin talking about the role of science fiction as literature, the merits and hazards of extrapolation in science fiction, cynicism in sf and enlightened optimism in the face of that cynicism.
Science Fiction Horizons with David Brin - It Came From Riverside (Extra) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdPGSS6q4EQ#ws)
:lol: :lol: :mrgreen:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2FFantasyPinUpCalendar1.jpg&hash=fdd9e4fe79a1b065b8854b0af6ae568c755c37d2) (http://thetinkerspacks.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-2013-pin-up-calendar) (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2FFantasyPinUpCalendar2.jpg&hash=2b19dfd8b8b51c4910fd42d6da484475ed29026f) (http://thetinkerspacks.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-2013-pin-up-calendar) (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2FFantasyPinUpCalendar3.jpg&hash=bdf26df95622ef5476a67cd0090097ded815d084) (http://thetinkerspacks.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-2013-pin-up-calendar)
Worldbuilders (http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/09/an-open-invitation/), a non-profit organization founded by
Patrick Rothfuss (http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp), is raising money for their cause by offering a
2013 Fantasy Pin-Up Calendar (http://thetinkerspacks.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-2013-pin-up-calendar). All proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go to Worldbuilders in support of Heifer International.
Each month the calendar will feature a pin-up based on a different author's works and/or characters illustrated by Lee Moyer (http://leemoyer.wordpress.com/). Participating authors include:
Read the rest of this entry (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/10/finally-a-legitimate-reason-for-book-lovers-to-buy-a-pinup-calendar/#more-64390)
Locus Online to Host All-Time Best Polls in November (http://www.locusmag.com/Roundtable/2012/10/locus-online-to-host-all-time-best-polls-in-november/)
— posted by Mark R. Kelly at Sunday 21 October 2012 @ 11:59 pm BST
Locus Online will host a set of all-time best polls, covering both novels and short fiction, beginning November 1st, for one month. These will be the first such polls hosted by Locus since 1998; earlier polls were run in 1975 and 1987. This time we'll do two all-century polls, for 20th century works (1901 – 2000) and 21st century works so far (2001- just to 2010), with five categories in each set:
SF novel
Fantasy novel
novella
novelette
short story
That's the current plan. We split the centuries to avoid pitting relatively recent works against more established works, just as the 1998 polls were limited to works published before 1990. (And, incidentally, it will be interesting to see how our 21st century poll compares to the Tor.com poll last year, which covered 11 years 2000-2010.)
The 20th century categories will allow 10 votes per category, rather than the usual 5. Points will be awarded in a sliding scale analogous to the traditional "Carr" system for ranking five items in a category (worth 8 points down to 4 points); in 10 item categories, 1st place will be worth 18 points, 10th place 9 points, so that a 1st place vote is still worth twice as much as a 10th place vote, and not 10 times as much.
As always with Locus polls, the ballots will be seeded with candidate options, partly to remind voters of works they might otherwise not consider, and partly to make the tallying easier to the extent that those options are used. But write-ins will certainly be allowed, as always. This is one reason we're announcing the polls in advance: if you don't want to be influenced by the candidate options, put on your thinking caps *now*, and start planning what to vote for. You will have lots of choices: again, you will be able to vote for 5 items in each of the 5 21st century categories, and 10 items in each of the 20th century categories, a total of 75.
These plans aren't set in stone, so suggestions for how the polling might be done differently or better will be considered. But we're working to have these online by November 1st, with a target for postings results by mid-December.
Novi "gate" u nastajanju -.-
http://www.pornokitsch.com/2012/10/new-releases-mammoth-best-new-horror-23-stephen-jones.html (http://www.pornokitsch.com/2012/10/new-releases-mammoth-best-new-horror-23-stephen-jones.html)
Eh, Vandermer malko agituje na fejsu, uglavnom zbog zene... sta ja znam, kanda je kjut, ako ostane tako i ne otme se kontroli. A Okorafor je ostala kul kao i uvek, posvetila je tome svega par recenica, taman koliko sve to zasluzuje, mada ja i dalje nisam nacistu da li covek zaista nije shvatio sta je ona rekla povodom Lavkrafta, ili samo sramno provocira. Ali zanimljivo mi sto su komentari na mamuta otkrili jedan mozda novi momenat i sentiment medju tom ekipom - svako malo neko izjavi kako mu je vise muka od Lavkrafta i lavkraftijane generalno. :mrgreen:
Kad smo vec kod Vandermerovih, i ovo ima neke male i periferne veze:
Quote[
The
second page has The Weird review, review by Michael Dirda. Now I want to get the
ghost story volume, too. It's a good paring, since we deliberately didn't
include more than a couple of ghost stories, so there's very little overlap. Gio Clairval's translation of "The Other Side of the
Mountain" is mentioned. To address Dirda's question about Zivkovic, Hershberg,
and Oliver directly: Zivkovic would be in any iconic fantasy or lit volume but
he is not a Weird writer really; Hershberg and Oliver would be in any iconic
volume of horror fiction. Them's the hard decisions you have to make for
classification purposes.
... a referise se na ovaj rivju. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-big-book-of-ghost-stories-and-the-weird/2012/10/24/34388376-148d-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story_1.html?socialreader_check=0&denied=1)
This Friday, well-known science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson (http://kimstanleyrobinson.info/)will join Desert Initiative (http://desertinitiative.org/) Direector Greg Esser, and Portuguese artist Miguel Palma (http://asuevents.asu.edu/trajectory-miguel-palma) in an hour-long panel-style discussion titled "Landscape, Art and Other Worlds."
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2012/10/kim-stanley-robinson-landscape-art-and-other-worlds.php (http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2012/10/kim-stanley-robinson-landscape-art-and-other-worlds.php)
Robot Hall of Fame® Inducts NAO, PackBot, BigDog and WALL-E
More Than 17,000 People Voted Online To Select Winners
PITTSBURGH—The Robot Hall of Fame® inducted four robots chosen for the first time by a popular vote — Aldebaran Robotics' NAO humanoid, iRobot's PackBot bomb disposal robot, Boston Dynamics' four-legged BigDog and WALL-E, the fictional robot of the namesake Pixar movie — during a ceremony tonight at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.
"More than any previous class of inductees, this group of robots selected by popular vote represents contemporary robotics — robots at the cutting edge of technology — rather than older robots of strictly historical importance," said Shirley Saldamarco, Robot Hall of Fame director and a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. "Two of our inductees, NAO and Packbot, are commercially available and BigDog is still the focus of active research. Even our fictional honoree, WALL-E, is from a movie that's just four years old."
Read More » (http://www.robothalloffame.org/news.html#more)
Random House and Penguin Merger Talks (http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/10/random-house-and-penguin-merger-talks/)
A spokesperson for Pearson, the British media company that owns publisher Penguin, has confirmed that Pearson "is discussing with Bertelsmann a possible combination of Penguin and Random House. The two companies have not reached agreement and there is no certainty that the discussions will lead to a transaction." German conglomerate Bertelsmann has declined to comment, referring questioners to the Pearson statement.
A combined Random House and Penguin would account for almost a quarter of the book market in the US, and would generate around $3 billion in revenue annually, based on 2011 earnings.
For more details, see articles in Bloomberg News (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-25/pearson-in-bertelsmann-talks-to-merge-penguin-random-house) and The New York Times (http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/pearson-and-bertelsmann-in-talks-about-combining-random-house-and-penguin/?pagewanted=print).
In this video, Neil Gaiman says, "Give people scary stories." He then goes on to recommend (https://play.google.com/store/books/collection/promotion_neil_gaiman_halloween?feature=banner#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDIwMSwibnVsbC10b3BfZmVhdHVyZWRfbXVsdGlfVVNfXzFfcHJvbW9fMTM1MTMwODcwODY3NSJd) a set of books, films, music and apps that you should try:
Books
- A book by Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061944890/sfsi0c-20/) is offered up by the Google page, as is the rest of this book list)
- Krabat (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3522133501/sfsi0c-20/) by Otfried Preussler
- The Haunting of Hill House (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143039989/sfsi0c-20/) by Shirley Jackson
- The Shining (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307743659/sfsi0c-20/) by Stephen King
- The Time of the Ghost (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0064473546/sfsi0c-20/) by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307745317/sfsi0c-20/) by Susan Hill
Films
- Being There (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001IHJ988/sfsi0c-20/)
- The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000059H74/sfsi0c-20/)
- Life of Brian (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000VE439Y/sfsi0c-20/)
- 12 Monkeys (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0026FCNK2/sfsi0c-20/)
- Harlan Ellison: Dreams With Sharp Teeth (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001NKWLBW/sfsi0c-20/)
- Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004US1EKS/sfsi0c-20/)
- The Bride of Frankenstein (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078323502X/sfsi0c-20/)
- Cat People (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000069HZO/sfsi0c-20/)
Music
- Sunday In The Park With George (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00138H53I/sfsi0c-20/) by Stephen Sondheim
- Theatre Is Evil (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008JFQU4S/sfsi0c-20/) by Amanda Palmer
- Live At Hollywood High (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003159DF4/sfsi0c-20/) by Elvis Costello
- Love at the Bottom of the Sea (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007CMBJEU/sfsi0c-20/) by The Magnetic Fields
- Avalanche (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0012N4OYW/sfsi0c-20/) by Thea Gilmore
He also goes on to recommend some Android apps. I'm not sure that apps like Audible, Google Drive and Yelp really evoke the idea of Halloween...unless maybe you're using them in haunted house? Or something.
Google Play: Neil Gaiman's Halloween (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuDmW6rvvGk#ws)
Quote from: LiBeat on 29-10-2012, 09:07:01
Random House and Penguin Merger Talks (http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/10/random-house-and-penguin-merger-talks/)
Random House/Penguin Merger (http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/10/random-housepenguin-merger/)
— posted Monday 29 October 2012 @ 9:28 am PDT Random House and Penguin have signed an agreement to combine the two companies, forming Penguin Random House, though such a merger is subject to government approval before it can be finalized. If all goes well, the merger will be complete by late 2013.
Under the terms of the agreement, Random House parent company Bertselmann would own 53% of the venture, and Penguin parent Pearson would own 47%. Random House CEO Markus Dohle would be CEO of the new entity as well, with Penguin Group Chairman John Makinson as chairman. Neither parent company could sell any part of their interest in Penguin Random House for three years, and there are protections in place for Penguin as the minority shareholder. The combined company would have yearly global revenue in the range of $4 billion.
Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino says, "Together, the two publishers will be able to share a large part of their costs, to invest more for their author and reader constituencies and to be more adventurous in trying new models in this exciting, fast-moving world of digital books and digital readers."
Random House CEO Markus Dohle wrote a letter to employees assuring them that "my commitment to you and our new colleagues is to retain the distinct identities of both companies' imprints, where authors remain the center of everything we do. Authors and their agents will continue to enjoy an enormous choice of publishing homes, where creative autonomy and great resources will be a defining hallmark."
Penguin chairman Makinson made a similar point to his employees: "I have no doubt that some authors, agents, and customers will express concern to many of us that this merger will reduce choice and competition. I believe, and so I know does Markus, that exactly the opposite will happen.... The publishing imprints of the two companies will remain as they are today, competing for the very best authors and the very best books. But our access to investment resources will also allow Penguin Random House to take risks with new authors, to defend our creative and editorial independence, to publish the broadest range of books on the planet, and to do it all with the attention to quality that has always characterized both Penguin and Random House."
For more, see the story in
Publishers Weekly (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/54536-random-house-penguin-agree-to-merge.html).
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/what-the-new-penguin-random-house-logo-might-look-like/ (http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/what-the-new-penguin-random-house-logo-might-look-like/)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalbookworld.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FRanguin-House-logo-1024x872.jpg&hash=9ec95e148d3adfb7af70a28f24b74bb4eb5d1b50)
:lol: :lol:
nego, istorija Bertelsmanovog njam-njama obecava da ce potez ipak biti koristan za sve upletene:
The major publishers Random House and Penguin have decided to join forces, creating a new entity called Penguin Random House. Random House worldwide CEO
Markus Dohle will be CEO of the new group. Penguin CEO
John Makinson will chair the board of directors.
Bertelsmann (the corporate parent of Random House) will control 53 percent and Pearson (the corporate parent of Penguin) will control 47 percent of the new publisher. The new entity will not include Bertelsmann's German trade publishing business and Pearson decided to "retain rights to use the Penguin brand in education markets worldwide." Bertelsmann CEO
Thomas Rabe had this comment in the release (http://www.randomhouse.biz/media/publicity/):
"With this planned combination, Bertelsmann and Pearson create the best course for the future of our world-renowned trade-book publishers, Random House and Penguin, by enabling them to publish even more effectively across traditional and emerging formats and distribution channels. It will build on our publishing tradition, offering an extraordinary diversity of publishing opportunities for authors, agents, booksellers, and readers, together with unequalled support and resources ... Its significance for our business and for the cultural resonance of our book publishing operations worldwide is on a par with such momentous agreements as the takeover of Goldmann Verlag in 1977; the acquisition of a stake in Bantam Books, our first-ever U.S. investment, that same year; the purchase of Doubleday in 1986; and especially that of Random House in 1998. Each of these steps was aimed at increasing the breadth and quality of Bertelsmann's publishing operations, as our new company will."
HALLOWE'EN SPECIAL!!!
Dark Dragon Publishing is proud to announce that from
Monday, October 29th to Wednesday, November 7th the following titles will be available for $.99 on KINDLE and SMASHWORDS!
On Thursday, November 8th, the following titles go back to their regular prices so make sure you get yours this week!
KINDLE - $.99 each!
http://darkdragonpublishing.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-special.html (http://darkdragonpublishing.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-special.html)
Global leader in high-quality family entertainment agrees to acquire world-renowned Lucasfilm Ltd, including legendary STAR WARS franchise.
Acquisition continues Disney's strategic focus on creating and monetizing the world's best branded content, innovative technology and global growth to drive long-term shareholder value.
Lucasfilm to join company's global portfolio of world class brands including Disney, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel and ABC.
STAR WARS: EPISODE 7 feature film targeted for release in 2015.
http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd (http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd)
Ja ću da kukam sad i odma, možda se obradujem kasnije.
Sto kukas? Sta Dizni moze da uradi a da bude gore od epizode 1? Kupovinom Marvela pokazali su da znaju sta rade a da pritom ne upropaste brend i fransizu - Marvel je sad jaci nego ikad. Nadam se istom scenosledu i za Star Wars.
Potpisujem Melkora. Upravo iznosim iste te stavove po Fejsbuku.
Ovo je trebalo da se desi pre bar 20 godina, pa da unajme istu trojku glumaca.
Quote from: zakk on 30-10-2012, 22:34:39
Ja ću da kukam sad i odma, možda se obradujem kasnije.
Kim Newman:
"The new Star Wars should be made by Stephen Sommers, Len Wiseman and Brett Ratner - keeping them busy & away from material I care about."
zlikovac :!:
Zače, ajde prebaci ovo o SW u zasebnu temu. Ipak se tu prevashodno radi o filmovima a, što reče Lidija, ovo je deo posvećen književnosti. Sem toga, izvesno je da će biti svačega nečeg od vesti i nagađanja u predstojećim mesecima. A i velika je stvar. Zaslužuje svoju temu.
Već ima.
ma, nema više internet udžerice u kojoj se o tome ne zbori... Signal je time otvorio i novu kolumnu:
As John and I were getting ready to launch this, a proverbial earthquake happened: Disney announced that they were purchasing LucasFilm Limited for $4.05 billion dollars in cash and stocks (http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd). Almost immediately, my Twitter and Facebook feeds exploded with people excited, freaking out and everything in between. The noise is going to continue for a while, I suspect, and while I was initially skeptical, I realized that this isn't something that's unexpected.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/11/and-another-thing-well-played-disney/
(a ja i dalje ne kapiram što je to svima toliki big dil... :?: )
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geeksofdoom.com%2FGoD%2Fimg%2F2012%2F11%2F2012-11-01-george_lucas_header.jpg&hash=1b864efec84a31b940ed9e5cdb1ec7b2a2a40152)
The biggest news to come out of Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion isn't the size of the deal (http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/10/30/disney-acquires-lucasarts-for-4-05-billion-plans-to-release-star-wars-episode-7-in-2015/), the number of Star Wars films that will come out in the next few years, or that Episode VII could be an original story (http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/10/31/star-wars-episode-7-will-most-likely-be-an-original-story/). No, the biggest news to come out of this acquisition is how George Lucas will use his $4 billion.
A spokesman for Lucasfilm shares that Lucas plans to "donate the majority of the proceeds to his philanthropic endeavors."
Lucas is currently the chairman of Edutopia, which is part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. It's very likely that his educational foundation will receive the bulk of the donation while other portions, if any, are spread out to various charities. It is also possible that Lucas could start up a new educational foundation to further his philanthropic cause. It should be noted that in 2010, Lucas made a commitment to using his wealth to improving education. Today is the day that the filmmaker stays true to his word.
Below are excerpts from a speech made by Lucas in 2010, which shows just how passionate he is about promoting the bettering of education. You can read a full text version of that press statement in the links below.
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/11/01/george-lucas-to-donate-most-of-his-4-billion-to-education-charity/ (http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/11/01/george-lucas-to-donate-most-of-his-4-billion-to-education-charity/)
Announcing a new blog! (http://voyagerblog.com.au/2012/11/01/announcing-a-new-blog/) Posted on November 1, 2012 by voyageronline
Hi everyone!
We're excited to announce that we're re-launching the Voyager blog with a brand new look, extra features and a Forum! We're working toward making it a really fun, exciting, interesting and useful place you'd like to come to and hopefully hang out with fellow fans. The new blog is live now over at www.voyageronline.com.au (http://www.voyageronline.com.au/) if you want to have a look.
Dok neko ne smisli gde bi blo bolje postovati
Amazon bans authors from reviewing books? (http://teresafrohock.com/blog/2012/11/2/amazon-bans-authors-from-reviewing-books.html)
I haven't seen the official statement yet, but from comments on Twitter and Facebook, it seems that Amazon is going to be deleting authors' reviews of books. The news is creating righteous indignation across Twitter.
Frankly, I have no empathy for Amazon, who brought this down on themselves by "ranking" authors according to the number of reviews and ratings that an author garners. Nor do I think authors have any right to run around screaming about unfairness.
This is what happens when authors game the system in a company the size of Amazon. Amazon doesn't have time to address whether each review is legitimate or not, that would mean hiring people, and people cost money. Instead, it is easier to create an algorithm that "weeds" out author reviews based on whether a name is associated with a published work.
Don't tell me that authors don't game the system. I've seen Goodreads groups that encourage indie authors to go around and five-star and comment on one another's novels with "reviews." There are blogs devoted to how to garner "reviews" and "market" your work.
Traditionally published authors and indie authors had created sock-puppet accounts to promote their own works. Neither side can claim the moral high-ground here.
Reviews on Amazon have become a joke.
So quit running around screaming about how terrible and horrible Amazon is acting right now. Authors have brought this down on themselves by acting like asses.
Authors spend all their time trying to figure out how to promote their novels. It would really be nice if they spent as much, if not more, time on studying how to write a better novel.
So suck it up and move on, people.
Prvi slovenački Con - dobitnici Drejčekove nagrade
http://zvezdni-prah.si/index.php/dogodki/razpisi-razni/71-dobitniki-drejckovih-nagrad (http://zvezdni-prah.si/index.php/dogodki/razpisi-razni/71-dobitniki-drejckovih-nagrad)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quillandquire.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FPenguinhouse-377x300.jpeg&hash=7a0d97e841e55e231950bd1849ba14e24e8cd89a)
Scott Turow, president of the Authors Guild in the U.S., has responded to the Penguin Random House merger (http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/quillblog/2012/10/29/random-house-penguin-confirm-merger/), asking for "close scrutiny from anti-trust officials at the Justice Department or the FTC."
In an open letter on the organization's website (http://blog.authorsguild.org/2012/11/05/scott-turow-on-penguin-random-house/), he writes:
Survival of the largest appears to be the message here ... Penguin Random House, our first mega-publisher, would have additional negotiating leverage with the bookselling giants, but that leverage would come at a high cost for the literary market and therefore for readers. There are already far too few publishers willing to invest in nonfiction authors, who may require years to research and write histories, biographies, and other works, and in novelists, who may need the help of a substantial publisher to effectively market their books to readers.
The Authors Guild statement arrives on the same day as the announcement that Random House owner Bertelsmann will soon own 100 per cent of
Random House Mondadori (http://www.bertelsmann.com/Press.html), its Spain and Latin America trade book publisher, pending approval of Spanish anti-trust authorities.
Europa Report Official Trailer #1 (2013) - Science Fiction Movie HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avzqYgtpdMQ#ws)
Stephnaie Meyer may have risen to fame with the Twilight series, but she has another book called The Host which has been adapted to the big screen.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2FTheHostPoster.jpg&hash=ba40d85c1152a76a3f02568cebce65f994db01c1)
Here's the synopsis:
Based on the best-selling novel by Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer, The Host is a riveting story about the survival of love and the human spirit in a time of war. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact. Most of humanity has succumbed.
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-host-2013/trailer (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-host-2013/trailer)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia-cache-ec5.pinterest.com%2Fupload%2F244179611017916062_0PXB49su_c.jpg&hash=aef41327553a62b098c2a022a365ac64cd112cc2)
Luna je baš surova ljubavnica.
To s Lunom baš nešto ne štima :cry:
A tek sa Vernovih 20.000...
Obvious nonsense about SF sales history
Posted by Patrick at 07:20 AM * 154 comments
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/014559.html (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/014559.html)
The Publishers Weekly Twitter account links (https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/269411010899763201) to a "Book Patrol Infographic" (http://www.bookpatrol.net/2012/11/the-best-selling-sci-fi-books-of-all.html) purporting to show "The Bestselling Sci-Fi Books of All Time." A better title for it would have been "Some Miscellaneous Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels, Decorated With a Bunch of Numbers We Pulled Out of Our Hat."
It notes that Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is "by far PKD's bestseller" (which is probably true) and then asserts that it has sold 32,500 copies, which is absurd. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2103) was initially a Doubleday hardcover in 1968, and was reprinted as Signet mass-market paperback in 1969. Based on what we know about the distribution of midlist SF paperbacks then, it almost certainly sold more copies than that in its first year alone, quite possibly by thousands of copies. Thirteen years later, of course, it was the basis for the movie Blade Runner, and was reissued all over the world in a variety of tie-in editions, some with the original title and some retitled with the name of the movie. It has quite possibly sold over a million copies. If it's sold less than half a million, I will—to quote Princeton Election Consortium poll-aggregator Sam Wang—eat a bug (http://election.princeton.edu/2012/11/03/how-likely-is-a-popular-voteelectoral-vote-mismatch/).
It says that Robert A. Heinlein's Hugo-winning 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress has sold "well over 1,500 copies...to date." In other news, the Empire State Building is "well over" ten feet tall. We've (http://us.macmillan.com/themoonisaharshmistress/RobertHeinlein) sold way more copies than that, and we're not even its first publisher. It notes that Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand League Under the Sea has been "translated into 147 languages" and that it has sold "over 10,000 copies". Ten thousand copies would be about 68 per language. Do you suppose it might actually have sold a few more than that? Did they put this "infographic" together in their sleep? Book Patrol subtitles itself "a haven for book culture." Call me pedantic, but it seems to me that people who care about "havens" for any kind of "culture" ought to also care about facts, and getting them right. The most cursory knowledge of the history of book publishing—for instance, knowledge of the quantities in which mass-market paperbacks were distributed in the 1960s—would tell you that some of these figures are absurd. Shame on Book Patrol for polluting the world with ahistorical baloney, and shame on Publishers Weekly for promoting it.
UPDATE: Shame on the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/11/book-news-heated-arguments-hot-sci-fi.html)'s blog for doing the same thing.
Barnes and Noble, which purchased e-publisher Fictionwise is 2009, has announced that it will be closing Fictionwise in December. U.S. Fictionwise customers will cease to have access to their Fictionwise Bookshelf through the site after December 21, 2012. Customers outside the U.S. will cease to have access to their Fictionwise Bookshelf through the site after January 31, 2013. Fictionwise customers will be notified of this and U.S. and U.K. customers will be given an opportunity to move their customer accounts, including their eBooks purchased at the Fictionwise websites, to a Barnes & Noble NOOK Library.
For more information... (http://www.fictionwise.com/)
Ovo sad već nije ni sveže, verujem da vam reakcije na fb-u nisu promakle, ali nek se nađe:
http://neil-clarke.com/lemons/ (http://neil-clarke.com/lemons/)
Apparently, 2012 has tasked me with making lemonade from big batch of lemons. Heart attack, kidney stone, broken wisdom tooth, defibrillator, hurricane, and having to find a new job... it's exhausting just to think about it. So much so, that I just can't talk about right now. I do want my friends to know that I'm hanging in there and getting the medical attention I need. Health and family are my top priorities at the moment.
People have been asking how they can help, so here are a few things that come to mind:
Clarkesworld Magazine Subscriptions
Looking at the long-term, this has the biggest impact. Obviously, you can subscribe, but like with the rest of these, marketing assistance is also very helpful. By purchasing or spreading the word, you push the magazine a bit closer to becoming a professional business that can pay the staff. We earn even more if you use or direct people to the affiliate links on this page (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/).
Clarkesworld Ebook and Print Editions
The Wyrm Publishing ebook store (http://wyrmpublishing.com/ebookstore) (Amazon, Weightless, Wizards Tower, and B&N (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/staff/#ebookstore)) all have the back issues of the Clarkesworld ebooks that have been made. We've also just created print editions of the 2012 issues of Clarkesworld (2011 and further back are under development). They can be found here (http://wyrmpublishing.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3).
Clarkesworld Print Subscriptions
Now that we have print copies of issues available, people have been asking about print subscriptions. Shipping, however, makes them rather expensive to do issue-by-issue. (about $7 per month) Would there be interest in receiving the print issues on a quarterly basis? (about $16 per quarter) Or in some other creative combo packs like a whole year of back issues? (for $60)
Become a Clarkesworld Citizen (Donate) or use our Affiliate Links
We've been offering a PBS-style donation program that gets you listed as a citizen, burgermeister, royalty or overlord in the census listed at the back of our anthologies. Shopping at Amazon or Weightless? We'll get a cut if you follow the links from our site. Look here to find out more about these options. (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/donate/)
Wyrm Publishing
I am also the owner of the fairly erratic small press, Wyrm Publishing (http://wyrmpublishing.com/). I have an inventory of books that could turn into short-term income. Signed limited editions, chapbooks, trade paperbacks, etc. (Charles Stross, Catherynne M. Valente, Clarkesworld anthologies, Jeff VanderMeer, Tobias S. Buckell and more) I've put a lot of our books on sale, so maybe you can find a nice present for someone (or yourself).
Ebook Design
As some of you know, I do freelance ebook design for Prime, Cheeky Frawg, Lightspeed, Electric Velocipede and a few others. Need someone to build an ebook for you? Use the contact form on this page and let me know what you'd like to do. I have enough time to take on a few new clients.
Clarkesworld Books
I've considered temporarily reopening the bookstore to sell off more inventory at crazy prices, but unlike Wyrm's inventory, the bookstore's isn't easy to get at when you aren't supposed to be moving heavy boxes. I may try to do top-box sales where I look in the boxes I can get at and list those books for sale on this blog. This will take a few days to organize.
-
I have to add that I am simply overwhelmed by all the support I've received in the last 24-hours. Between the retweets, well wishes and independent efforts to start a subscription drive... thank you! It's been very uplifting and I'll never forget that.
Sad news...
Pys.org is reporting (http://phys.org/news/2012-11-russian-sci-fi-author-boris-strugatsky.html) that Russian sci-fi author Boris Strugatsky has passed away.
Boris Strugatsky, along with is brother Arkady, wrote the science fiction classic Roadside Picnic (basis for the Stalker film and game) as well as The Ugly Swans, Hard to Be a God and The Time Wanderers and has been the recipient of many awards (http://rusf.ru/abs/english/). He was born in 1933.
[via Steven H. Silver (http://www.sfsite.com/news/2012/11/19/obituary-boris-strugatsky/)]
Da li je neko citao Chrisa Becketta?
Dark Eden, The Holy Machine, etc.
Ja sam na pola Dark Edena (navukao me Adanko), zašto pitaš? :lol:
dal da kupujem video sam obe u knjizari
Ja zbog Adanka narucio Dark Eden... U kojoj knjizari? Jesi li u zemlji uopste?
@Libeat e ili deadtree? Ako je e kupila ili nasla?
Dark Eden svakako preporučujem, zahtevniji je nego što na prvi pogled to izgleda, i pravo da ti kažem, prija mi veoma što se stila tiče, mada malko strepim po pitanju zapleta, ali za sada imam samo reči hvale.
Melkore, naravno da je e. (i našla sam ga.... :oops: )
E, jebiga. Ja ga trazio, nisam nasao i onda ga kupio :(
Nisam. U Karlsrueu na nekom simpozijumu o integralnom upravljanju vodnim resursima:
http://www.iwrm-karlsruhe.com/en/home/homepage.jsp (http://www.iwrm-karlsruhe.com/en/home/homepage.jsp)
(na kome se mnogo priča o upravljanju vodama u uslovima promene klime: pozdrav Mehu).
Ubedili ste me. Kupiću obe. Već iz blurbova mi se učinilo da mogu da budu zanimljive, mada znaju da zavaraju...
"Always coming home" pročitah juće "The Holy Machine". Hm. Zanimljivo štivo. Beckett nije baš neki vrhunski pisac, Maksimalno je šeprtljav na svakom mogućem spisateljskom nivou. Od detinjasto vođene radnje, do šljampavih rečenica kojih bi se postideo i bolji polaznik naše radionice. Međutim, kad se sve sabere, njegov debitantski roman ipak funkcioniše. Ne bih mnogo da elaboriram, jer svako elaboriranje bi zahtevalo otkrivanje bitnih stvari, ali u pitanju je delo koje, kao i većina drugih Beckettovih dela (ako sam dobro proučio internet) preispituje odnose između čoveka i inteligentnih mašina, usput se osvrćući na sva ona najvažnija pitanja sa kojima smo suočeni: moral, religija, itd. Poređenja nekih kritičara sa Orwelom su možda preterana, ali ima nekih sličnosti. I da, najveći deo radnje odvija se u imaginarnoj državi Iliriji, okruženoj nama poznatim varvarskim narodima koji su i u budućnosti nastavili da se ponašaju kako su se do sada ponašali (što se dobro vidi na pojedinim delovima našeg foruma...).
Bogami, i ja sad za vikend dovrših Dark Eden i drago mi je da su sve strepnje po pitanju zapleta bile skroz neopravdane. Beckett je izbegao sve zamke što se samog finala tiče, a bilo ih je zaista mnogo, jer ovo je pipav zaplet koji je lako mogao kliznuti u parodiju Plave lagune. Isto tako, bilo je jako puno mogućnosti za kojekakvom over-the-top-drag-queen bombastično zabavnom ekstazom u završnici, ali Beckett je ostao odmeren i umeren, što će reći da je odabrao kraj koji će tebi najverovatnije ličiti na antiklimaks :evil: ali meni je zaista bio neophodan, pošto je ovako slobodno imaginativna vrsta SFa nekako više u liniji Bredberija i Vonegata, pa se u rukama manjih majstora lako otme kontroli i pretvori u urnebes. Makar zbog te odmerenosti Beckett zaslužuje 5 zvezdica, iako mi je tokom celog romana uglavnom bio na solidnoj četvorci. Ima nešto malo zanatskih mana, ali zbog odlične procene pisca na tim manama se zapravo izgradio šarm romana i stvarno sam uživala u njemu, tako da Beckett ima da startuje apsolutno visoko na listi čitanja sa svojim novim naslovom.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062724#.ULZuVxY5Rls.twitter (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062724#.ULZuVxY5Rls.twitter)
QuoteNic Mathieu to direct 'Story of Your Life'FilmNation, Lava Bear, 21 Laps to produce sci-fi thrillerBy Dave McNary (http://www.variety.com/biography/1508)FilmNation Entertainment and Lava Bear Films are partnering on sci-fi thriller "Story of Your Life," with commercial director Nic Mathieu on board to helm. Movie will be produced by 21 Laps' Shawn Levy and Dan Levine with FilmNation's Aaron Ryder and Karen Lunder. Lava Bear's David Linde, Tory Metzger, FilmNation's Glen Basner and Eric Heisserer will exec produce.
FilmNation and Lava Bear will finance, produce and handle worldwide sales.
Heisserer is adapting Ted Chiang's short story in which aliens land around the globe and a linguist is recruited by the U.S. government in a race to decipher the intentions of the aliens on Earth. Chiang's story was the winner of the 2000 Nebula Award for best novella.
Producers said Tursday the project is being fast-tracked with casting to commence immediately and a view to start shooting next year.
"Story of Your Life" was developed by Levy, Levine, Cohen and Heisserer. The project was brought in to FilmNation by Patrick Chu.
Heisserer's credits include "Hours," "The Thing" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
FilmNation's production slate includes Jeff Nichols' "Mud," which premiered in competition at Cannes, Mark Tonderai's "House at the End of the Street" and Dan Beers' "Premature."
Lava Bear is in pre-production on David Michod's "The Rover," starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson. 21 Laps is in post-production on "The Internship," which Levy directed for Fox, and the independent coming-of-age story "The Spectacular Now," directed by James Ponsoldt.
The deal for "Story of Your Life" was brokered on behalf of Lava Bear by David Boyle and on behalf of FilmNation by Alison Cohen.
Heisserer is repped by UTA, Julie Bloom of Artwork Entertainment and attorney Marcy Morris. WME reps 21 Laps and Mathieu.
Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com (dave.mcnary@variety.com?subject=Nic%20Mathieu%20to%20direct%20%27Story%20of%20Your%20Life%27)
http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/23665/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-coming-to-the-bbc (http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/23665/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-coming-to-the-bbc)
QuoteThe BBC has announced an ambitious fantasy adaptation of Susanna Clarke's magnificent Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell...
BBC One has announced it's to make a six-part adaptation of the magnificent Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, directed by Doctor Who & Sherlock alumni Toby Haynes.
For those unfamiliar with the book, it's a sweeping fantasy novel set during the Napoleonic Wars where two magicians have emerged in Britain. As well as telling the story of their rivalry, it also details an amazing alternate history where the North of England was the dominion of a magical overlord known as the Raven King, and pulls in many notable historical characters.
If you've never read it, now's the perfect time as it's a real winter reader - you'll easily get lost in the amazing world Susanna Clarke creates.
Rumoured as a film adaptation for years, the sheer scale of the novel and number of effects needed may be somewhat daunting, but Toby Haynes has a strong track record at succeeding with ambitious material, having been responsible for Doctor Who's The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang two-parter, and the Sherlock series two finale The Reichenbach Fall. Adapting Clarke's book will be writer Peter Harness, who penned the third series of Wallander.
No air date has yet been announced, and casting news must surely follow in the near future. Our picks for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell? How about, respectively, Damian Lewis and Derek Jacobi?
SFWA javlja:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfwa.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2Fgenewolfe.jpg&hash=e06e906fc02f94609d7292ede865034108b2acad) SFWA has named Gene Wolfe as the 2012 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for his contributions to the literature of Science Fiction and Fantasy.[/size]Gene Wolfe's fiction first saw publication in the 1960s. He is best known for the novels The Book of the New Sun, Peace, and The Fifth Head of Cerberus, and received many awards, including the Nebula, World Fantasy and Locus.
Neil Gaiman: "It's not that Gene Wolfe is, in the opinion of many (and I am one of the many), our finest living science fiction writer. It is that he is, in the opinion of the Washington Post (and of me, too) one of our finest living writers. He has been our uncrowned Grand Master for a long time, and now the rest of the world will know as well."
In Gene's own words: "There was a time – long ago to most of you, though it seems recent to me – when Rosemary, our children, and I were living from paycheck to paycheck and barely getting by. I'd had three not-terribly-good stories published in a college magazine before I went into the Army, and I thought I might just possibly write on the side and make us a little extra money. I sold a few stories. Then it was time for school to start again, and Rosemary began badgering me for money for school clothes. I would gladly have given it to her if there had been any. Another story, "Car Sinister," sold, and instead of depositing the check I got the manager of the hardware store to cash it for me. I took it to Rosemary: 'Here's every dime I got for that story. That's how much you have for school clothes.' A few days passed, and I was sitting on the kitchen floor trying to mend a chair. Rosemary came up behind me and said, 'Shouldn't you be writing?'
That's when I knew I was a writer.
You'd better watch your step, folks; you're raising me to a height I would never have imagined. If you keep this up I'll start thinking I'm a good writer."
SFWA President John Scalzi, on choosing Wolfe: "You'd have to search far and wide to find a contemporary fantasy writer who has not been directly influenced by Gene Wolfe. His prose is a joy to read, his stories are dense and deep, and his worlds are dark and rich beyond compare. And to top it off, he is a genuinely delightful human being. It is well past time that his stories, his style and his contribution to our genre and to literature in general are recognized and celebrated with a Grand Master award. I am thrilled and humbled that Gene has graciously agreed to be our recipient this year."
Connie Willis, 2011 Damon Knight Recipient: "Oh, how wonderful that Gene Wolfe is going to be a Grand Master, even though of course he already is in the minds of everyone who's ever read his books or who's ever known him! He's one of the loveliest people it's been my privilege to know in science fiction–courtly, kind, frighteningly intelligent, and at the same time endlessly patient with us lesser mortals. I know everybody will be praising his books during the next few days, and deservedly so, but I also want to put in a word for his equally amazing short stories, like "The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories" and "The Death of Dr. Island"–even his titles are brilliant!–and "Golden City Far" and "The Detective of Dreams" and "Memorare." And especially "Seven American Nights," which served as my first–and staggeringly memorable–introduction to him.
Congratulations, Gene! SO well-deserved! And such good news!"
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for 'lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.' Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. LeGuin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
More information on the award's history and the Nebula Award Weekend can be found at: http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/ (http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/)
http://www.sfwa.org/2012/12/2012-damon-knight-memorial-grand-master-awarded-to-gene-wolfe/
http://christopherbarzak.com/2012/12/27/interfictions-goes-online/ (http://christopherbarzak.com/2012/12/27/interfictions-goes-online/)
Another new development for 2013 is that Interfictions (http://www.interstitialarts.org/projects/interfictions.php), the anthology series that Delia Sherman launched first with co-editor Theodora Goss and then with me as co-editor of the second volume, will be moving into an online incarnation, including poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and hybrids forms.
Fiction editors are myself and Meghan McCarron.
Nonfiction and poetry editor is Sofia Samatar.
Vi koji ste bili na SFeraKONima, verovatno znate Mihaelu Mariju Perković. Evo male vesti o njoj sa EUROPA SF portala:
Mihaela Marija Perković won GUFF
Croatian SF fan Mihaela Marija Perković won the Get Up-and-over Fan Fund (GUFF) to represent Europe at Conflux, the 2013 Australian National Convention (NatCon), to be held at the Rydges Capital Hill in Barton, Canberra, on 25th to 28th April 2013.
Mihaela Perković beat Julie McMurray with a tally of 49-30. Perković has been active in the croatian fandom since 1991. Fans from 15 countries participated in the vote. We look forward to hearing about her trip, and we're sure she will be an excellent ambassador for the European fandom. Congratulations to Mihaela on a successful race!
http://guff.lostcarpark.com/news/20130113/201213-guff-race-results (http://guff.lostcarpark.com/news/20130113/201213-guff-race-results)
Oziveo i je Amazing blog: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/ (http://amazingstoriesmag.com/)
The Lifeboat Foundation has announced the creation of the Lifeboat to the Stars award, presented to the best work of science fiction of any length published in 2011 or 2012 contributing to an understanding of the benefits, means, and difficulties of interstellar travel. The inaugural award will be presented at the 2013 Campbell Conference in Lawrence, KS the weekend of June 13-16. Robert J. Sawyer will serve as the coordinating judge and he will act in consultation with Greg Bear and several other science fiction authors and scientists. The winner will receive a $1,000 prize.
For more information about the Lifeboat Foundation... (http://lifeboat.com/ex/main)
For more information about the Campbell Conference... (http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/campbell-conference.htm)
What If? Visions of the future
This year the BBC is looking into the future, finding out what it holds for health, education, transport and even love. The season is called What If? - and we want you to be a part of it.
What does the future look like to you? We want to know and we want you to share your vision of the world as part of our competition - you could even win a laptop worth £2,500.
We asked six artists from around the world to share their vision with us. Now we want you to do the same.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbcimg.co.uk%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2F65473000%2Fjpg%2F_65473412_madoz_the_end005.jpg&hash=1a72ec3327e06e26b7010fa7822de02c5d419f92)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21163117 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21163117)
Sci-fi writer makes $50,000 for charity off of his "troll" (http://www.salon.com/2013/02/06/sci_fi_writer_makes_50000_for_charity_off_of_his_troll/)
When his online nemesis called him a rapist and a "gamma male," John Scalzi mobilized his readership for charity
o inspiracijo, ime ti je keš flou.... xph34
Amazon has the cover art and synopsis of the upcoming reprint novel The Iron King (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007491263/sfsi0c-20) by Maurice Druon, the first book in the
The Accursed Kings
series that "inspired George R.R. Martin's epic work", A Game of Thrones.
Here's the synopsis:
From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin's epic work.
"Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth generation!"
The Iron King – Philip the Fair – is as cold and silent, as handsome and unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men.
A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty...Book info as per Amazon US (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007491263/sfsi0c-20) [Also available via Amazon UK (http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007491255/sfsi0c-20)]:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F51cDbmOsHyL._BO2%2C204%2C203%2C200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click%2CTopRight%2C35%2C-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg&hash=d297d19262043b8f73b4d48772cdfb134730768c)
Toliko topika o Martinu, ne znam gde bih ovo stavio :)
George R.R. Martin expands on HBO deal Not very far, but Martin confirms (http://grrm.livejournal.com/311788.html) that, in the wake of the new deal, he is actively discussing
Dunk and Egg with HBO and will be pitching a
Tuf Voyaging TV series to them as well (note he doesn't say to HBO, but the exclusivity deal means it really
has to be to HBO). He also suggests Conleth Hill (Varys in
GoT)could make an excellent Haviland Tuf, and rules himself out from having any role on the new
I, Claudius TV series.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-AF0nVj1gyRc%2FUReolbdFHpI%2FAAAAAAAAIBk%2F9vwal-J2QJs%2Fs400%2FTuf%2BVoyaging.jpg&hash=81b874bc63305805d6ec5437bece98e94144a75d) (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AF0nVj1gyRc/UReolbdFHpI/AAAAAAAAIBk/9vwal-J2QJs/s1600/Tuf+Voyaging.jpg)
No word on a possibly Ron Donachie-starring version of
Fevre Dream, unfortunately. Martin's comments do confirm earlier supposition that the deal will be used - at least in part - to explore his existing, non-optioned franchises.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages1.variety.com%2Fgraphics%2Fphotos%2F_storypics2%2Fman_high_castle.jpg&hash=8511a628a8032787f4473962f67a4d97c703e16b)
Syfy is adapting Philip K. Dick's book "The Man in the High Castle" into a four-part miniseries, with Ridley Scott attached to exec produce.
Dick's novel, set in 1962, depicts a world where Nazi Germany and Japan were the victors in WWII and occupy the U.S. "The X-Files" vet Frank Spotnitz will serve as primary scribe and as exec producer. Scott will exec produce through his shingle Scott Free Prods., alongside Headline Pictures, Electric Shepherd Prods. and FremantleMedia Intl., which will also distribute the mini globally.
"Alternate history stories are part of an amazing and intricate genre of sci-fi," said Mark Stern, president of original content at Syfy and co-head of original content at Universal Cable Prods. "When done well, there's nothing better; and I can't think of better creative talent to bring Philip K. Dick's fascinating alternate-history thriller to life than Ridley Scott and Frank Spotnitz."
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118066024/ (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118066024/)
MGM has acquired the rights to Richard Matheson's classic sci-fi novel The Shrinking Man with the aim of bringing an updated version of the story that was first adapted on-screen as The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957.
Matheson, who turns 87 later this month, will pen the screenplay with his son, Richard Matheson Jr., keeping the tone of the original story but updating it to modern times.
Matheson is an icon in the horror and fantasy world, responsible for works such as I Am Legend (last adapted into a 2007 Will Smith movie), classic Twilight Zone episodes ("Steel" was turned into the Hugh Jackman movie Real Steel) and Duel, one of Steven Spielberg's earliest works.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimagecache%2Fblog_post_349_width%2F2013%2F02%2Fshrinkingman.jpg&hash=da38d84fa9bbd191a7893722ff5b77a736cdb95f)
The book, written when atomic-bomb fear ran high, centers on a man who is exposed to radiation and insecticide and begins to shrink. The Mathesons will modernize the story to reflect advancements such as nanotechnology.
Describing the new iteration as "an existential action movie," the elder Matheson says, "My original story was a metaphor for how man's place in the world was diminishing. That still holds today, where all these advancements that are going to save us will be our undoing."
Universal held the rights to the book for decades, releasing the original movie and trying with Imagine Entertainment to come up with ways to bring a new adaptation to the big-screen. At one point, Eddie Murphy was attached to star as a magician who shrinks due to a spell. (In fact, the comedy aspect of this concept has surfaced in recent decades in such movies such as 1981's The Incredible Shrinking Woman and1989's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which was not based on the novel but certainly took cues from it. The new Shrinking Man will not be a comedy.)
The rights lapsed last summer and MGM quietly swooped in.
"The themes of The Shrinking Man continue to be relevant," says Jonathan Glickman, president of MGM's motion picture group. "And the Mathesons' cutting-edge ideas for the adaptation will make for a great film that will play all over the world."
"It's one of those fantasy concepts that does not age," echoes the elder Matheson, who continues to write. (He has a book titled Leave Yesterday Alone, due to come out later this year.)
Matheson will act as a producer on Shrinking Man with Matheson Jr. and Alan Gasmer via Matheson Entertainment. The company holds the rights to the combined works of Matheson and Matheson Jr, who also is an author and whose latest novel, Paranoia, is set for release later this year.
Director of development Matt Dines will oversee the project for MGM.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/mgm-rebooting-shrinking-man-richard-421168 (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/mgm-rebooting-shrinking-man-richard-421168)
HC's Guy Gavriel Kay moves to HarperFiction
15.02.13 | Joshua Farrington
HarperCollins is hoping to introduce author Guy Gavriel Kay to a larger audience, with his new book to be published by HarperFiction for the first time.
Gavriel Kay's previous 11 novels have all been published by HarperVoyager, a fantasy and science fiction imprint.
His new novel, River of Stars, is set in the decadent reign of China's Song dynasty, and uses an epic scope to cover themes of culture, power and love.
Emma Coode, deputy publishing director at HarperCollins, bought UK and Commonwealth rights for the book (excluding Canada) in a deal with Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.
Gavriel Kay has previously written about China's Tang dynasty in his book Under Heaven. He said: "I am very happy to be working again with the HarperCollins team, and honoured by the degree of enthusiasm they are showing for River of Stars, and the imagination and energy being applied to help it find new readers in the UK."
Coode said: "Guy has surpassed himself with his latest novel, which seamlessly combines beautiful prose, impeccable historical research and captivating adventure. Publishing Guy on the HarperFiction list, alongside literary historical fiction authors like Tracy Chevalier, places him in esteemed company and feels both natural and exciting."
Čajnin Grad i Grad na daskama... (via Europa SF) (http://scifiportal.eu/the-city-the-city-on-stage/)
The great sci-fi hunt: help us find the best independently published books
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/22/sci-fi-hunt-independently-published (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/22/sci-fi-hunt-independently-published)
The search is on for the best sci-fi, fantasy, horror – or just plain weird – books that might otherwise go unseen and unloved
A year ago I set out on a quest to find the best weird stories on the internet (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/09/weird-fiction-electronic-universe-ebooks). I looked at more than 500 independently published ebooks (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/ebooks), many on Amazon's Kindle store, others on humble blogs and one embedded in status updates on Facebook. I found five excellent stories (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/weird-damien-walter-quest-ebooks) that readers of weird fiction (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/fiction) would love, and a few dozen rough diamonds in need of further polishing. But I also found hundreds of books that were far from ready to publish, or might never be ready. So I wrote a checklist of seven signs to help indie authors find out if their book is ready to publish (http://damiengwalter.com/2012/06/16/7-signs-you-are-ready-to-self-publish-a-checklist/) or not.
Since I started looking, the indie publishing revolution has grown stronger. Even as I was scouring the internet (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet) for self-published weird stories, Hugh Howey's science fictional Wool series (http://www.hughhowey.com/reviews/) was gaining hundreds of thousands of readers, a major publishing deal and the interest of film director Ridley Scott (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/ridley-scott). Howey is only one of a wave of "artisan authors" making full use of new digital publishing technologies to put new writing out there. Like the music industry before it, the publishing industry is now embracing DIY authors who have already attracted a fanbase (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/09/fandom-writers-respect-followers-pay-careers).
So this year I am setting out to hunt down the best independently published sci-fi. I'm throwing the net wide to any and all science fiction (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/science-fiction), fantasy (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/fantasy), horror (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/horror), weird and speculative fiction. Last year I was seeking the weird stories that might never otherwise see the light of day – and I still want to know about these – but this time I'm also searching for the sci-fi blockbusters of tomorrow. I love great storytelling, and I believe the next Game of Thrones (http://georgerrmartin.com/) is already being written and, possibly, self-published. If it is, I intend to find it and share it with you.
But I need your help. Do you know any independently published sci-fi gems? Is there an ebook smash hit you want to shout about? Maybe you are the author of a potential sci-fi blockbuster and you're ready to show it off. Follow the instructions below and tell me all about it.
1. Nominate your weird stories
You can do this in the comments below. Please let me know the title, author and where I can read more (this might be a link to a website or blog, or a listing on an ebook store). Only add one link or your comment will be filtered as spam. You can include the opening sentence of the story if you like, but no more than that. And if you want to include your own review of the story, please do.
2. Help spread the word
You can link back to this article from your blog or website. Or share it on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks.
3. Join the hunt
I would love to know your opinion on any of the stories nominated. I am only one perspective, so if you want to share yours please do so in the comments below. You can follow my responses to the stories on Twitter @damiengwalter (http://twitter.com/damiengwalter).
And, as I'm sure they will be asked, here are the answers to some likely frequently asked questions. If you have any others please leave comments and I will answer as soon as I can.
What qualifies as sci-fi? Your call. Science fiction, fantasy and horror stories certainly do. And I'm open to any kind of writing that is weird or speculative in nature. I'm interested in books with great sci-fi storytelling, and also books that transcend genre all together.
What do you mean by independently published? Ideally published either by the author or an independent publisher. Books from major publishers already get a lot of attention, and this is a search for works that might otherwise go unseen. But if you think there is a neglected masterpiece from a major publisher, please go ahead and nominate it.
Can I nominate my own story? Yes. In fact, I hope you will.
I'll be returning in a few weeks to write about the best stories I've found in the great sci-fi hunt. Let the search begin!
Neil Clarke has announced that Gardner Dozois has joined Clarkesworld magazine as reprint editor. Dozois, who edited Asimov's Science Fiction for twenty years and a best of year anthology for nearly thirty, will select two reprint stories from the last forty years to appear in each issue of Clarkesworld, beginning with the April issue.
For more information... (http://neil-clarke.com/dozois-clarkesworld/)
ooohhhh, evo nam ga i BOWLgate! :lol:
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3952 (http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3952)
Evo kako se to radi:
A Compilation Of the Week's Rabble Rousings on Contracts and Advances (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/11/a-compilation-of-the-weeks-rabble-rousings-on-contracts-and-advances/)
(via Whatever (Scalzi))
da bi se stiglo do ovoga:
Random House Hydra, Alibi, Flirt, Loveswept Contracts Improved Following Writer Pressure (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/12/random-house-hydra-alibi-flirt-contracts_n_2862839.html?utm_hp_ref=books)
(via Huffington Post)
I iako Scalzi ne (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/12/a-brief-note-on-recent-events/)želi da preu (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/12/a-brief-note-on-recent-events/)zme zasluge za ovo (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/12/a-brief-note-on-recent-events/), činjenica je da je itekako uticao da se promeni način na koji Random House sklapa ugovore s autorima.
Quote from: LiBeat on 03-03-2013, 09:59:35
ooohhhh, evo nam ga i BOWLgate! :lol:
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3952 (http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3952)
Moj čovek, statističar!
... a Strange Horizons nudi mali osvrt na distopicne trendove iz pera Eleanor Arnason:
Quote
...
I can understand the writers who create future dystopias. We need warnings,
just as we needed post-nuclear-war fiction in the 1950s. The government then
told us that we could survive nuclear attacks by crouching under grade school
desks or in basement fallout shelters. Modern war was no big deal. Science
fiction—with its vast, glowing, radioactive wastelands—said otherwise.
But there are limits to dark fiction. We need to face reality, but we also
need to imagine ways to change reality. Does contemporary science fiction do
this? A friend of mine wrote recently that she was looking for science fiction
with hope and not finding it.
When I look at the field, and I admit I am having trouble keeping up, I see
Steampunk, YA dystopias, zombie fiction, alternate histories, and the usual
fantasies and space operas.
The critic Brian Attebery has suggested that there is science fiction that
shows a positive future, but it begins in the past. He cites Kim Stanley
Robinson's Galileo's Dream, which starts in the sixteenth century with
the great Italian scientist and then moves into the future. I'm not sure what
this might mean: the present is so hopeless, we have to rerun the past to reach
a decent future?
In 2312, a more recent novel, Robinson gives us a future that has
all kinds of resources and possibility. Humanity has gotten through the
twenty-first century and expanded throughout the Solar System, creating amazing
societies. In his earlier environmental trilogy—Forty Signs of Rain,
Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting—he gives us a
period of transition, when we get to start to get out of our current mess.
I think I turn to Robinson as an example because he thinks about politics and
economics and the process of change. As I see it, our problems are largely
political and economic, rather than technological. We have unimaginable
resources, which are—to a large extent—tied up in the world financial
superstructure and in a consumer society. We can (most likely) save the planet
and ourselves, but this requires that we free up these resources, and that means
changing society.
This is what I'm trying to write about: a society that conserves and shares
and makes survival of the community its top priority. It might seem like a
cramped society to us, with apartments and row houses instead of suburban
McMansions. A person like me might not be able to have a closet full of clothes
and shoes.
...
kolumna je ovde: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2013/20130311/arnason-c.shtml (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2013/20130311/arnason-c.shtml)
Under fire from gay activists, DC Comics shelves Superman project by Mormon 'Ender's Game' author by Kirsten Andersen (http://www.lifesitenews.com/author/kanderson/)
NEW YORK CITY, March 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews (http://www.lifesitenews.com)) – After pro-homosexual activists promoted an online petition (https://www.allout.org/en/actions/dccomics-osc) demanding the firing of award-winning speculative fiction writer Orson Scott Card from an upcoming Superman comic anthology, DC Comics confirmed that Card's portion of the project has been shelved indefinitely.
Card, who is Mormon, sits on the board of the National Organization for Marriage (http://www.nationformarriage.org/site/c.omL2KeN0LzH/b.7980587/k.BF50/Home.htm) (NOM) and has been outspoken about his opposition to redefining marriage to include same-sex couples.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lifesitenews.com%2Fimages%2Fsized%2Fimages%2Fnews%2FOrson_Scott_Card-240x165.jpg&hash=de9664c197096a5449d4a9b741cb7b711109f842) Orson Scott Card
In an opinion piece for the Mormon Times, he wrote, "Marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down."
In another commentary for Sunstone Magazine (http://www.nauvoo.com/library/card-hypocrites.html), he wrote, "[G]ay activism as a movement is no longer looking for civil rights, which by and large homosexuals already have. Rather they are seeking to enforce acceptance of their sexual liaisons as having equal validity with heterosexual marriages, to the point of having legal rights as spouses, the right to adopt children, and the right to insist that their behavior be taught to children in public schools as a completely acceptable 'alternative lifestyle.'"
"It does not take a homophobe to recognize how destructive such a program will be in a society already reeling from the terrible consequences of 'no-fault' divorce, social tolerance of extramarital promiscuity, and failing to protect our adolescents until they can channel their sexual passions in a socially productive way," Card continued. "Having already lost control of the car, we now find the gay activists screaming at us to speed up as we drive headlong toward the cliff."
Homosexual activists said his views should have disqualified him from being hired in the first place. While his Superman short story was not expected to touch on gay issues, activists argued that to give him a paycheck for his work was tantamount to funding NOM directly.
The petition demanding his firing said, "To DC Comics: By hiring Orson Scott Card despite his anti-gay efforts you are giving him a new platform and supporting his hate. Make sure your brand stands for equality and drop Orson Scott Card now."
Click "like" if you want to defend true marriage. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-can-defend-marriage/283510724992776)
DC's decision to shelve Card's portion of the project came after illustrator Chris Sprouse backed out (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/artist-quits-superman-project-after-outcry-over-writers-marriage-views/) of doing the art for Card's short story under heavy pressure from gay advocates and the media. "The media surrounding this story reached the point where it took away from the actual work, and that's something I wasn't comfortable with," Sprouse said.
In a statement, DC Comics said the company "fully supports, understands and respects" Sprouse's decision to abandon the project. They said they would "re-solicit the story at a later date when a new artist is hired." However, most industry insiders speculate that DC will be in no rush to replace Sprouse as an artist, allowing them to let Card's story die a quiet death without actually firing him and opening themselves up to a discrimination lawsuit. (It is illegal in the state of New York to fire an employee for his religious beliefs.)
Homosexual outcry over Card's views is expected to reach a fever pitch in the coming year as the film version of his classic 1985 novel "Ender's Game" is released.
The move toward blacklisting writers who fail to support homosexual causes has caused some controversy in speculative and licensed fiction circles. While many in the publishing industry support same-sex "marriage," some say they are uncomfortable with the idea of banning opposing thought outright.
"I think it is dangerous to support any blacklist of any creative for any reason," John Ordover, former editor of the Star Trek series at Pocket Books and open supporter of gay marriage, wrote on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/john.ordover). "It's validating the entire concept of blacklists. To oppose blacklists, we have to stand against blacklisting those whose opinions we find abhorrent as well as those we agree with." Ordover, who now owns and operates the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art, is hosting a roundtable debate (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/353785) on the issue at the gallery on April 10, called "Superman vs. Orson Scott Card."
Scott M. Roberts, assistant editor at Card's own "Intergalactic Medicine Show (http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/)" online magazine, also took to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/scott.m.roberts.77) to voice his concerns over the apparent blacklisting, but his concerns were much wider than just this single incident's effect on his boss.
Roberts said the obsession with political correctness is ruining the genre by banning entire points of view from existence in fictional universes, making for bland, repetitive storytelling. "This is a plea for the speculative fiction community to stop obsessing over race, sexuality, gender, and political affiliation and which author (and which characters) are on the right side of the dividing line between moral bankruptcy and sainthood," Roberts wrote.
"The obsession with correct political belief and expression in art is stultifying the genre as it is necessarily exclusive. We are losing our voice in artificial, forced homogeny posing as tolerance. Propaganda-disguised-as-story drives readers away as agenda takes the place of wonder, excitement, character, and conflict."
Brad Torgersen, award-winning speculative fiction author, built on Roberts's Facebook musings in a blog post (http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/science-fictions-political-failure-3-han-solo-shoots-first/), saying, "Science fiction is supposedly the 'dangerous' genre, but I've found this to be a largely toothless claim, based on past glory. Science fiction in the 21st century doesn't want to be dangerous. Science fiction wants to be safe – at any speed ... let any author or editor fall foul of the signposted sins – ist and ism — and it's a cause for significant outrage. How dare someone let a scoundrel into our beloved genre!? Someone fetch the smelling salts! Vapors! Gnashing of teeth!"
Added Torgersen, "The quest for tolerance has led us down a very odd road where the proper enacting of tolerance is to be, well, intolerant. To not tolerate the 'intolerable' according to trendy or arbitrary or otherwise assigned values of correctness: correct thought, correct speech, correct action. Not only must the stories themselves hew to this rigid correctness calculus, authors themselves must hew to this rigid correctness calculus."
"There is no room in 21st century science fiction for real people," Torgersen alleged, "(b)ecause sooner or later the ist and the ism are exposed — both real and, as often as not, imagined — and the evil-doer is punished and/or cast out."
Whether Card will be punished and/or cast out from the November release of the long-awaited film adaptation of his best-known work, "Ender's Game," remains to be seen. The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/enders-games-orson-scott-cards-422456) says executives at Summit are dithering over whether or not to include him in the summer's main fan gathering and press junket, San Diego Comic-Con.
"I don't think you take him to any fanboy event," said one unnamed studio executive. "This will definitely take away from their creative and their property." Another insider said the same: "Keep him out of the limelight as much as possible."
Priznajem da ovu knjigu navodim samo i isključivo zbog imena koautorice! :mrgreen:
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F0765334224.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=3e4df66ab24e27e968bc2de3e57161c36f0c59d9)
A sharp, original urban fantasy about a near-immortal secret society's battle to save itself — on the streets of Las Vegas
The Incrementalists — a secret society of two hundred people with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories.
Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else's, has loved Celeste — and argued with her — for most of the last four hundred years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules — not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.Book info as per Amazon US (http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765334224/sfsi0c-20) [Also available via Amazon UK (http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765334224/sfsi0c-20)]:
Obituary: Rick Hautala (http://www.sfsite.com/news/2013/03/21/obituary-rick-hautala/)
Filed in Authors (http://www.sfsite.com/news/category/author-news/), Obituary (http://www.sfsite.com/news/category/obituary/) | Steven H Silver (http://www.sfsite.com/news/author/shsilver/), March 21, 2013 6:54 pm
Tags: A. J. Matthews (http://www.sfsite.com/news/tag/a-j-matthews/), Rick Hautala (http://www.sfsite.com/news/tag/rick-hautala/)
Horror author Rick Hautala (b.1949) died on March 21. He began publishing novels in 1980 and received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writers of America in 2012. Hautala teamed up with Christopher Golden to write the Body of Evidence series. In addition, he published as A. J. Matthews as well as screenplays.
PC strikes again:
http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=16802 (http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=16802)
:-/
http://www.iain-banks.net/2013/04/03/a-personal-statement-from-iain-banks/ (http://www.iain-banks.net/2013/04/03/a-personal-statement-from-iain-banks/)
:( Ali... ali on je relativno mlad čovek... samo što to ovde nema uticaja :( rak je zlo.
Auf! :(
Šta se bre dešava ove godine? :(
al' je potrajalo... steta... je bila jos kad su ugasili papirno izadanje.
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/2013/04/04/eclipse-online-to-close-effective-immediately/ (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/2013/04/04/eclipse-online-to-close-effective-immediately/)
QuoteIt is with sadness, therefore, that we are announcing that Eclipse Online has ceased publication effective immediately. All stories in inventory have been returned to their authors, and no new stories will be considered for publication. All authors have been paid. Any queries regarding other payments should be directed to Night Shade Books.
Kad citam vesti unazad:
Night Shade je kaput! Sto je stvarno steta, bili su mi jedan od drazih izadavaca poslednjih par godina.
http://io9.com/another-indie-publisher-on-the-ropes-night-shade-books-468876511 (http://io9.com/another-indie-publisher-on-the-ropes-night-shade-books-468876511)
http://io9.com/night-shade-books-editor-in-chief-on-the-buyout-this-470262244 (http://io9.com/night-shade-books-editor-in-chief-on-the-buyout-this-470262244)
zanimljiva analiza
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/2013/04/night-shade-books-what-went-wrong.html (http://www.staffersbookreview.com/2013/04/night-shade-books-what-went-wrong.html)
i reakcija:
http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=3288 (http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=3288)
Quote from: Melkor on 05-04-2013, 05:41:06
zanimljiva analiza
http://www.staffersbookreview.com/2013/04/night-shade-books-what-went-wrong.html (http://www.staffersbookreview.com/2013/04/night-shade-books-what-went-wrong.html)
Uh! Komplikovano!
Očigledno su se spotakli na marketingu, al' desi se to.
Nego, meni je ovo...
Quote from: Melkor on 05-04-2013, 05:41:06
i reakcija:
http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=3288 (http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=3288)
... mnogo interesantnije!
A evo šta o ovome misli Foglio (http://girlgeniusadventures.com/2013/04/04/publish-perish/)
via Girl Genius Adventures
https://twitter.com/KameronHurley/status/319510621253152768
A to sto su SFWA preporucili potpisivanje novog ugovora? Vandermeer je bas prso zbog toga ali je, u medjuvremenu, obrisao sve postove na tu temu, izgleda. :)
Pre sam sklon da verujem Majku Stekpulu nego SFWA.
http://www.kameronhurley.com/dealno-deal-writers-arent-totally-stupid/ (http://www.kameronhurley.com/dealno-deal-writers-arent-totally-stupid/)
"I am reminded of Roger Zelazny dying in poverty. I am reminded of how often we are fucked because we're poor."
Zato volim ovu ženu.
Sad već u aferi ima i dosta razumnijih glasova, valjda to znači da je onaj početni uproar donekle splasno ali, bogami, vandermer i dalje ne da prska nego pršti, oni kobajagi isečci iz kobajagi knjige u nastanku su prilično niski udarci, ono o izdavaču koji sjuri svoju izdavačku kuću u dugove zarad negovanja ovisnosti... missim...
A Better Deal for Night Shade Books' Authors (http://io9.com/a-better-deal-for-night-shade-books-authors-471411560)
NS se najverovatnije neće oporaviti ni vratiti na pređašnji status, kako god da se ovaj dil završi. Sa ovako oštećenom reputacijom možda i može da tavori na nekim minornijim imenima koja će dolaziti u NS samo zato što su ih svi ostali izdavači ignorisali, ali ne verujem da će tako skrpiti dovoljno para ni da preživi, a kamoli da se oporavi. Šteta.
Nego, u maloj digresiji van skandala, evo kako Robert J. Sawyer vidi biznis sa serijalima:
Quote
The appetite for the kind of books Sawyer does can be huge. He describes himself as a commercial writer of mystery, science fiction and the like. And fan loyalty can be huge. "And it's at your peril if you fail to feed that hunger as often as it wants to be fed.
"This is particularly the case with the fantasy writer George R.R. Martin, who has slowly been completing his fantasy series A Song of Fire and Ice, which began with the novel Game of Thrones. His fans have been besieging Martin for years about his books.
That has produced, Sawyer says, something he calls the George R.R. Martin effect.
"This is about people who don't want to start a new series — science fiction or fantasy —
until they know that it's complete."
It has had a chilling effect on the industry, Sawyer says.
"When I did Wake, Watch and Wonder, which is my trilogy of hardcovers 2009, 2010, 2011, all kinds of people said to me, 'I waited till 2011 and then I bought all three.'" It sounds great but it
actually depresses the sales for the first two books, Sawyer says.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Books+Robert+Sawyer+breaks+with+hard+boiled+gumshoe+story+Mars/8206252/story.html#ixzz2Pwgxj21z (http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Books+Robert+Sawyer+breaks+with+hard+boiled+gumshoe+story+Mars/8206252/story.html#ixzz2Pwgxj21z)
Nije to digresija, već filozofsko pitanje, čitati ili čekati, uživati sad ili strpljivo odlagati nasladu u očekivanju veće nagrade... :)
The Marshmallow Test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ#ws)
I kod nas je tako. Odnosno, čitaoci su izbegavali da kupuju Mistborn dok trilogija nije bila kompletirana. Međutim, izdavač je tada imao loše pokazatelje prodaje, pa je rešio da ne radi Alloy of Law.
Da trenutno postoji samo par aktivnih trilogija onda bi ljudi hrabrije davali novac, ali narod je poplavljen trilogijama. Toliko ih ima da nema potrebe da sad čita nešto nezavršeno, ako ga već čeka nekoliko završenih. A pisci i izdavači nek vide šta će, sami su sebi ovu čorbu zakuvali.
Quote from: Nightflier on 09-04-2013, 12:54:03
I kod nas je tako. Odnosno, čitaoci su izbegavali da kupuju Mistborn dok trilogija nije bila kompletirana. Međutim, izdavač je tada imao loše pokazatelje prodaje, pa je rešio da ne radi Alloy of Law.
Ovo je definitivna odluka? Nema šanse da se predomisle zbog značajnog poboljšanja prodaje (ako je poboljšanje značajno)?
U narednih godinu dana svakako ne, pošto se radi Way of Kings.
@Nightflier: Jel ti imas cast da prevodis WOK? Ako je tako srecno :lol: Meni se recimo Mistborn nije svideo. Procitao sam samo prvu knjigu. Ali je zato WOK bolje delo. Jedino sto me je nervirala velicina tog dela. Moglo je da bude krace za 300 strana.Covek se previse raspisao. A i nekako mi funcionise bolje na segmente nego kao celina. Moram svakako da pohvalim worldbuilding. Kakvi su tvoji utisci o WOK-u?
Ajde mi postavi to pitanje na odgovarajućoj temi u mom potforumu, da ovde ne oftopičkarimo, molim te.
Quote from: zakk on 09-04-2013, 12:47:53
Nije to digresija, već filozofsko pitanje...
Super onda, da i ja mogu da se pohvalim kako sam jedno takvo u životu rešila - elem, moj stav je da se čeka dok se svi naslovi ne objave. I ne vidim kako je Sawyer tu zakinut, onaj ko je hteo da kupi trilogiju, opet ju je kupio. Sawyer se žali što je na pare morao da
čeka, a to je sasvim druga priča. A što ne bi čekao, zašto baš čitaoci moraju da čekaju? :twisted:
Pre će biti sa Sawyera muči to što serijali po pravilu dobiju manju ocenu nego njihov prvi "navlakuša" naslov, a to znači da ima jako puno ljudi koji zaglave u serijalu samo zato što su se tako upecali. Ja ni dandanas ne mogu da poverujem da bilo koji pisac, ma kako ingeniozan, ima dovoljno
dobrog materijala da iz njega izvuče više od tri ili četiri toma. Vulf, možda, i niko više od onih koji su meni poznati. Sve ostalo je trun & mrvica dobre ideje utopljene i izgubljene u toni praznog hoda.
Zato se priklanjam čekanju, iako imam 2-3 serijala koji su me izvaćarili, ali dobro, na njih ionako gledam kao na mlados' - ludos' investiciju. :mrgreen:
Nisam kapacitet da citam tako na odlozeno. Mozda bih se, kad bih manje citao, vise secao pojedinacnih knjiga, ali ovako... kad se zavrsi. A sasvim dovoljno postoji neprocitanih knjiga da imam cime da popunim taj prazan hod :twisted:
... a obaska sto bi citao upola manje, kao ja, da citas na odlozeno.
evo, recimo, na SFSite Reader's Choice listi (http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best13b.htm) su uglavnom poodmakli serijali i ja nista od toga nisam citala. nista.
Da, tipicno, samo 3 standalone knjige. Al' utesno je sto sam jednu vec procitao a druge dve su u programu za citaonicu u sledeca 2 termina :lol:
Sve Bejnovo, sunce mu žarko...
srecom, izgleda da ce se vecina serijala ionako filmovati, tako da... strpljen = spasen! :mrgreen:
Variety (http://variety.com/2013/film/news/fantasy-book-series-the-morgaine-stories-set-for-bigscreen-adaptation-1200334198/) is reporting that C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine fantasy book series has been optioned for film by producer Aaron Magnani. The plan is to launch a possible franchise called The Gates of Morgaine.
Cherryh's Morgaine Cycle consists of four novels: Gate of Ivrel (1976), Well of Shiuan (1978), Fires of Azeroth (1979), and Exile's Gate (1988). The series is about a time-traveling heroine named Morgaine and her loyal companion Nhi Vanye i Chya. Described as "sword-and-sorcery meets hard sci-fi", the epic story epic story chronicles one woman's mission across time and space to preserve the integrity of the universe.
Screenwriter Peter Arneson has already penned The Gates of Morgaine: Ivrel, the screenplay based on the first novel.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F0886778778.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=f113f7ba1bac289859c0c53b45ac0883bced47cb)
Leva ruka tame na daskama.
via Portland Playhouse (http://portlandplayhouse.org/event/the-left-hand-of-darkness) via Ursula K. Le Guin (http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Calendar/index.html#LHoDplay2013)
da ostane zabelezeno:
Eclipse Online to close effective immediately (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/2013/04/04/eclipse-online-to-close-effective-immediately/)
by admin (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/author/admin/)
on April 4, 2013
in Eclipse Online (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/category/eclipse/), News (http://www.nightshadebooks.com/category/news/)
Seven years ago Eclipse One was published and went on to be part of one of the most respected original science fiction and fantasy anthology series of its time, featuring major awards winners and nominees, stories destined to become classics, and either winning or being nominated for the World Fantasy, Aurealis, Ditmar, and Locus awards.
In October 2012 Jonathan Strahan and Night Shade Books decided to relaunch Eclipse as Eclipse Online, an online magazine featuring two new previously unpublished stories and artwork by Kathleen Jennings each month. Eclipse Online has featured stories by Christopher Rowe, K.J. Parker, Eleanor Arnason, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Lavie Tidhar, Christopher Barzak, Genevieve Valentine, F. Brett Cox, Susan Palwick, Peter M. Ball, E. Lily Yu and An Owomoyela.
It is with sadness, therefore, that we are announcing that Eclipse Online has ceased publication effective immediately. All stories in inventory have been returned to their authors, and no new stories will be considered for publication. All authors have been paid. Any queries regarding other payments should be directed to Night Shade Books.
Editor Jonathan Strahan said today: "While I am disappointed to see Eclipse Online close, I will always be grateful to Jason Williams, Jeremy Lassen, Ross Lockhart, and the team at Night Shade Books for their enthusiastic and energetic support of Eclipse over the past seven years. It was a joy and privilege to work with the authors and with Night Shade to produce such wonderful work, and I am deeply grateful to them all. There are no future plans for Eclipse at this time, but Night Shade will always be a critical, valued part of its past."
MightyMega Launches: Our New Science Fiction Website Goes Online (http://technabob.com/blog/2013/04/08/mightymega-science-fiction-website-launches/)
For those of you who follow Technabob regularly, you might know we have another website, The Awesomer. Now, we've added a third site to our little family, a new science fiction website, called MightyMega (http://www.mightymega.com/).
Disney shutting down LucasArts (http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2013/04/disney-shutting-down-lucasarts.html) LucasArts, the game-making division of Lucasfilm, is being shut down (http://www.polygon.com/2013/4/3/4179334/disney-closing-lucasarts-game-publisher-layoffs-reported) by the company's new supreme overlords at Disney.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-HQqFS6HsReg%2FUVxtrMeEEFI%2FAAAAAAAAIek%2FDg83fXVHq68%2Fs400%2FMonkey%2BIsland.jpg&hash=506f9d99c1b75a50b65d03eea13af7886e8df306) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HQqFS6HsReg/UVxtrMeEEFI/AAAAAAAAIek/Dg83fXVHq68/s1600/Monkey+Island.jpg)
Disney is instead switching video game development of Lucasfilm properties (i.e.
Star Wars) to external companies under a licencing model. The fate of
1313, a new
Star Wars game internally developed by LucasArts and set between
Episode III and
IV, is unclear, although rumours have stated that the game has been on hold since late last year as Disney wants all new
Star Wars games to focus on the time period of the new movies.
LucasArts was founded in 1982 and worked on some very early home video games before the release of its first big hit,
Maniac Mansion, in 1987. That game introduced the SCUMM Engine, which put impressive graphics and a mouse-driven interface into the adventure genre, previously dominated by text inputs. Further games refined this system, such as the brilliant
Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988) and
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the latter of which may still be one of the very best movie tie-in games ever made. LucasArts adjusted their formula in 1990 with the quirky and enjoyable
LOOM, which replaced the typical command system with a music-driven one. In 1990 LucasArts released arguably their best-known, non-
Star Wars game with
The Secret of Monkey Island, following that up a year later with the epic and superior
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was released in 1992, followed by
Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle and
Sam and Max Hit the Road in 1993.
Following this point, the widespread adoption of 3D technology for games left LucasArts feeling that their adventure games looked outdated.
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) was their last adventure game using 2D animation, with both
Grim Fandango (1999) and
Escape from Monkey Island (2000) featuring 3D graphics. Though critical acclaim was still forthcoming (rather less for
Escape), LucasArts wound up its adventure-producing division in 2003. Many of the people working there went on to found Telltale Games, who eventually ended up producing episodic new
Sam and Max and
Monkey Island games. Their most recent hit was
The Walking Dead episodic game series.
Meanwhile, LucasArts branched into other areas of gaming. In 1993 they published
X-Wing, a
Star Wars-themed competitor to Chris Roberts's
Wing Commander series of space combat games. The critically-acclaimed series eventually ended up comprising four core titles:
X-Wing (1993),
TIE Fighter (1994),
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (1997) and
X-Wing Alliance (1999). Disappointing sales for
X-Wing Alliance - accompanying the wholesale collapse of the space combat simulator genre after a decade of success - saw the series cancelled at that point. LucasArts moved into console gaming, working with BioWare to produce the RPG
Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and with Obsidian on the ill-fated
Knights of the Old Republic II in 2004. They also produced the action game
Star Wars: Republic Commando in 2005.
Increasingly, post-2000 LucasArts was working more and more with external companies to produce their games, with LucasArts often only providing oversight. The most recent example of this is the highly troubled MMORPG
The Old Republic, co-produced with BioWare and apparently the most expensive computer game of all time (with rumours abounding about how close the game has come to breaking even). It is likely that these elements also factored into Disney's decision to shut down the company.
Sad news for the once-great games development company which kick-started the careers of, amongst many others, Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer. (http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7703856341303488608&postID=6439690969666439885)
GRRM and Avatar Press
Thanks to Bleeding Cool, we've learned that Avatar Press executive Jim Kuhoric spoke at a panel at C2E2 about various Avatar Press projects, and in the course of it he discussed some of what's coming from George R.R. Martin. First and foremost, of course, is the comic book adaptation of GRRM's World Fantasy Award-winning novella The Skin Trade, to go along with their earlier adaptation of Fevre Dream. Thanks to that, Kuhoric revealed that GRRM will be at San Diego's Comic-Con (which GRRM has previously announced), where he'll make an appearance at Avatar's booth and sign books.
The most intersting item, however, was Kuhoric revealing that there's a "George R.R. Martin original" in the works, which "may" be superhero related. Kuhoric suggests this is a departure, as previously the works they've published have simply been adaptations. They'll reveal more later, but what I suspect this is is a brand new Wild Cards original comic book story, which will almost certainly be scripted by someone other than GRRM (possibly Daniel Abraham, responsible for the adaptation of Fevre Dream and the Dynamic Entertainment comic Wild Cards: Hard Call?).
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fslate%2Fblogs%2Fxx_factor%2F2013%2F04%2F25%2Fstrange_horizons_report_on_woman_authors_is_science_fiction_and_fantasy%2F167119797.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg&hash=a4cb8148a08e084399ef00556969c627e7634a7d)Author Margaret Atwood incorporates elements of both genre and literary fiction in her novels Photo by Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images for LA Times
It's been well established that publishing is not a great place to be if you're a woman. VIDA's 2012 report (http://www.vidaweb.org/the-count-2012) on the proportion of men and women reviewed and reviewing at major magazines was just as bleak as usual. Geek culture can be equally unwelcoming to women, as recent (http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/08/sexual_harassment_in_the_gaming_world_a_real_life_problem_for_female_gamers_.html) events (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2012/11/nerds-stop-hating-women-please) have shown. But what about the intersection of the two—science fiction and fantasy publishing? The online magazine Strange Horizons (http://strangehorizons.com/index.shtml) has just published a study (http://strangehorizons.com/2013/20130422/2sfcount-a.shtml) that applies VIDA's methodology to sci-fi and fantasy publications, and it shows pretty much what you'd expect. Of 14 publications surveyed, only one reviewed books by women more than 50 percent of the time. (That was Cascadia Subduction Zone (http://thecsz.com/), which has the specific goal of "[treating] work by women as vital and central rather than marginal.") Five of the publications devoted less than 25 percent of their coverage to books by women. The ratio of men to women among reviewers was similarly discouraging: Although three of the magazines employed more woman reviewers than men, seven had less than half as many women as men, and two publications had no female reviewers at all. (Admittedly, those last two publications had only four reviewers between them.) These data are similar to what VIDA found in more mainstream publications, where only the literary magazine Tin House (http://www.tinhouse.com/home) had more female contributors than male ones. (The New York Times Book Review (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/review/index.html) deserves note for having 327 female reviewers to 400 male ones). Many of the reasons for and effects of those statistics hold across the genres as well. Male writers submit more (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2007/20070820/0women-publish-a.shtml) short fiction, and are more willing to promote themselves. Most editors are men (http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/02/the_lack_of_female_bylines_in_magazines_is_old_news.html). The most popular and respected authors also tend to be male, as China Miéville, Neil Gaiman, and Brandon Sanderson can attest. But considering fantasy and science fiction writing only as a microcosm of the larger publishing world misses the more complex dynamics that contribute to women's position in the industry. I've so far been lumping together sci-fi and fantasy—and it's true the line between them can be fuzzy. But there's actually a considerable gap between how many women write novels classified as straight science fiction and how many write novels classified as fantasy or some combination of the two. Only about a quarter of science fiction novels are written by women; for fantasy and combination novels, it's closer to half. This gap suggests that women writers are running up against the same division that causes so much trouble for us in other corners of the geek universe: the split between hardcore and casual fans. As Game of Thrones (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IFT1ZA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002IFT1ZA&linkCode=as2&tag=slatmaga-20) has shown, mainstream audiences can embrace even the most labyrinthine epic fantasy. But that's unlikely to be true for hard science fiction, much of which is heavily focused on scientific accuracy and plausibility. Hard sci-fi is not the only kind of science fiction, but the qualities it champions are profoundly important to a vocal subset of fans. Most people unfamiliar with science fiction, on the other hand, are not overly excited to read about the inner workings of a plasma engine. Even Miéville's acclaimed novel Embassytown (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345524500/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345524500&linkCode=as2&tag=slatmaga-20) focuses on how the linguistic differences between races affect their relationship. As fascinating as the challenge of cross-species communication may be to some (myself included), it demands the kind of specialized knowledge you don't need to appreciate, say, royal scheming and swordfights. Just as women struggle to be taken seriously as scientists, they may struggle to be seen as writers of "real" science fiction. But for some, avoiding the bubble of hardcore fantasy and sci-fi has been a major boon. The three most successful fantasy authors of the past decade—J.K. Rowling, Suzanne Collins, and Stephenie Meyer—are women.* Similarly, the science fiction and fantasy writers embraced by mainstream literary culture are often women: Kelly Link, Susannah Clarke, and even Margaret Atwood have made their careers by straddling the line between genre and literary fiction. Of course, as the VIDA numbers show, literary fiction can be an equally challenging environment for women. Whatever the reasons, whatever the genre, woman writers are still at a disadvantage.
The official WonderCon trailer for Pacific Rim has dropped and oh boy, talk about monster mashing goodness, this has Kaiju bashing in spades (and oil tankers). You're either going to love giant robots vs. monster or not, I'm pretty sure there's no middle ground. Maybe Guillermo del Toro can add a bit of depth to what otherwise looks like a giant summer blockbuster. We'll see, but really, when you have Godzilla mixed with Neon Genesis Evangelion, do we really care? Wait, was that GLaDOS? It's official, I don't care if there's any more to the story or not...
Pacific Rim - Official Wondercon Trailer #2 (HD) Guillermo Del Toro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxnQi1qAvdM#ws)
Leva ruka tame na daskama koje život znače (http://stagenstudio.com/2013/04/left-hand-of-darkness/)
(audio snimak: Ursula Legvin, reditelj i glumci o adaptaciji)
via Stage and Studio
The late author Arthur C. Clarke once said, "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."
He was an expert on the matter. Clarke went far beyond the possible in "2001: A Space Odyssey," his classic sci-fi story about humans making contact with intelligent, extra-terrestrial life. The novel was so imaginative that many people didn't grasp its meaning. Some still don't.
It's led more than a few to ask, "How'd he come up with such ideas?"
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.utsandiego.com%2Fimg%2Fphotos%2F2012%2F06%2F10%2Fclarke_r620x349.png%3F75d51d0aea2efce5189afce216053cbc530c46a8&hash=0419827166b81b9346b2b2c010322c87ee2c5b6a)
The question represents the driving purpose of the new Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination (http://imagination.ucsd.edu/) at the University of California San Diego. The center is set to formally open on Tuesday with "Visions of the Future," a public symposium about what the world might be like in 2046, or 33 years from today. The novel "2001: A Space Odyssey" was published in 1968 and focused on a period 33 years into the future. (Speakers/registration (http://imagination.ucsd.edu/inaugural-symposium.html).)
The center's second major symposium will occur May 21-22, when some of the world's best-known authors and scientists will meet at UC San Diego for "Starship Century," which will examine four questions: Is this the century we begin to build starships? Why go to the stars? Can we? Should we?" (Speakers/registration (http://imagination.ucsd.edu/starship/)).
UC San Diego said such symposiums are part of a larger exploration about how imagination can be better applied to problem-solving and nurturing creativity and education.
To highlight the center's debut, we asked four symposium speakers and panelists to answer the question, "What is imagination?" Here's what they said:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/12/imagination-ucsd-science-fiction-clarke-center/ (http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/12/imagination-ucsd-science-fiction-clarke-center/)
SFE Picture Gallery launch 15 May 2013
The
SF Encyclopedia editors have long wanted to add a little tasty eye candy to this website's massive textual presentation. Now at last we have a new page for this purpose, the Picture Gallery, which when visited shows a randomly selected image from our growing visual archive -- mostly book covers, but with occasional surprises. Once on the Gallery page, you can search to reveal everything the archive contains for a particular author, title keyword, illustrator or publisher; you can select Slide Show for an ever-changing presentation of available pictures, more than 1700 of them on launch day; or you can simply click on Lucky Dip for another unpredictable image, to be replaced by further visual serendipity as often as you care to hit the button again.
Gallery links for artists and authors well represented in the image archive have been added under
links at the ends of the creators' entries. More and more of these Picture Gallery links will appear as the months go by and the archive grows.
There are several further entertaining (we hope) Gallery features, some self-explanatory and others described in more detail on the About page which is the second link below. The Gallery itself is the first. Have fun!
- SF Encyclopedia (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sf-encyclopedia.com%2Fstatic%2Fimg%2Fexternal.gif&hash=b4417361b423483c0ffbe999a8d153e7a1ca8d63) (http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/gallery.php) Picture Gallery (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sf-encyclopedia.com%2Fstatic%2Fimg%2Fexternal.gif&hash=b4417361b423483c0ffbe999a8d153e7a1ca8d63) (http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/gallery.php)
- About the Gallery (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sf-encyclopedia.com%2Fstatic%2Fimg%2Fexternal.gif&hash=b4417361b423483c0ffbe999a8d153e7a1ca8d63) (http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/?p=aboutgal)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdyn4.media.forbiddenplanet.com%2Fevent%2F2013%2F04%2F23%2FRocketship.jpg.size-230.jpg&hash=2813641b5ce499b375bfce58af2c068afe8c6e21)
Thursday 16 May 2013 18:00 - 19:00
London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR
Join Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Lavie Tidhar as they launch the ADVENTURE ROCKETSHIP at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Thursday 17th May from 6 – 7pm.
Blasting off for the first time this May, Adventure Rocketship! is a new anthology series steeped in science fiction and geek culture. Mixing interviews, essays and fiction, each book is themed, with the first issue, Let's All Go To The Science Fiction Disco, exploring the interface between SF, music and the counterculture.
That means, among other subjects, it look at how JG Ballard invented post-punk (sort of...), the strange vistas of cities daubed with digital street art, how jungle changed the trajectory of China Miéville's King Rat and David Bowie, the alien connection... Cover art is by Stanley Donwood, famous for crafting Radiohead's album sleeves.
Issue one of Adventure Rocketship! will include: • New fiction from Lavie Tidhar, Liz Williams, Tim Maughan, Martin Millar and Nir Yaniv. • New essays by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, David Quantick, Sam Jordison, NK Jemisin and Jason Heller. • Interviews with China Miéville, Michael Moorcock, Mick Farren, The Orb and Bill Nelson.
Adventure Rocketship! will initially be available in a limited-edition print run. It's edited by Jonathan Wright, who has written about science fiction literature for SFX for more than a decade now.
When Publishers Weekly finally reviewed the dystopian sci-fi thriller "Wool" last month, its assessment was lukewarm. The reviewer called Monroe native Hugh Howey's characters bland and his writing immature.But it didn't much matter. By the time the review came out, Howey already had sold more than half a million copies of his "Wool" stories, the saga of a post-apocalyptic civilization that lives in a giant underground silo. He even missed the review, because he was busy meeting fans on a book tour in Australia and New Zealand.
Howey's self-published sci-fi hit, which took off as an e-book, demonstrates how digital technology continues to transform publishing. But his particular story has made headlines for another reason: When he parlayed his success on Amazon into a mid-six figure print deal with Simon & Schuster, he negotiated to keep the e-book rights.
It's rare for a publisher to let an author keep those lucrative rights. But the deal shows that, at least in some literary genres, authors, not publishers, now hold the upper hand.
Howey's personal story is as unusual as his publishing deal.
As a young man, years before becoming a New York Times bestselling author, he fixed computers at Computer City on Independence Boulevard, waited tables dressed as a court jester at a Charlotte restaurant, captained yachts, shingled roofs and worked in Appalachian State University's bookstore.
He quit his bookstore job just over a year ago, after his e-book sales took off.
Howey, 37, who now lives with his wife in Jupiter, Fla., said in a telephone interview that he didn't expect this success. In fact, he doubted "Wool" was marketable. It is a dark story, and it doesn't end happily.
A dream at 99 cents
Howey grew up in Union County. His dad, Hamp Howey, who now lives in Colorado, was a farmer. (Perhaps the farm's grain silos subconsciously inspired his son's fictional subterranean silo.)
His mom, Gay Murrill, taught at Monroe's Piedmont High School. She now owns a yarn shop in Charleston.
Howey graduated from Piedmont, then went to ECPI, a for-profit university in Charlotte, where he learned to repair computers. He graduated in 1994.
Later, rebounding from a failed marriage, he sold most of his possessions and enrolled at the College of Charleston, where he lived not in a dorm, but on a sailboat.
"I'm pretty impulsive, I guess," he says.
Though he'd always been a voracious reader, Howey says he was a lazy student. He finally got serious, he says, during his sophomore year at Charleston. But he was also becoming a serious sailor, enamored of Joshua Slocum's 1900 memoir, "Sailing Alone Around the World." He ended up leaving college to pilot yachts.
More jobs followed. After moving to Virginia with Amber Lyda, his wife, he worked as a roofer for a couple of years while she worked on her PhD in psychology. Roofing was a "perfect daydreaming job," he says. Perched on roofs, he thought up ideas for his books.
When Lyda took a job at Appalachian State, Howey got the bookstore job and wrote in his spare time.
In 2009, he published the novel "Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue," the first of a series. It's the story of a spaceship pilot who travels the galaxy in search of her father.
He put his first "Wool" story on Amazon in July 2011 for 99 cents, opening with a sentence designed to grab readers: "The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do."
The original story, a longish short story at about 12,500 words, describes a society forced by a toxic atmosphere to live in an underground 144-story silo. Every so often, someone is sent outside to clean dirt off sensors that bring in light. That's where the book gets its title. The cleaning is done with industrial-grade wool. The downside to the scrubbing job? No one has figured out how to get the person back into the silo alive.
Within a couple of months, to Howey's surprise, his sales began climbing. He sold about 1,000 copies in October 2011 alone. Readers posted glowing reviews – and told him they wanted more.
He got busy. Three months later, he had published four additional "Wool" stories and was selling thousands of e-books a month on Amazon. "It was just an incredible trajectory," he says.
Once sales began climbing, Howey used Facebook and his website, hughhowey.com (http://www.hughhowey.com/), to publicize the books.
By March 2012, less than a year after selling his first "Wool" story on Amazon, he was earning enough to quit his bookstore job. He generated more buzz by hosting an "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit.com (http://www.reddit.com/): "I'm a self-published author who quit his day job," he wrote, and invited people to ask him anything.
For 12 hours, he sat with his laptop answering questions and giving self-publishing advice.
As sales rose, literary agents offered to represent him. After the BBC contacted him about making "Wool" a television show, he says, he hired an agent and ended up selling film rights to 20th Century Fox. Director Ridley Scott is interested in adapting "Wool" to the screen.
$100,000 a month
Howey was determined to retain e-book rights. Publishers offered seven figures for a print and e-book deal, but he turned them down.
Howey says it simply made no sense to sell those digital rights. His e-book sales were bringing in more than $100,000 a month. A publisher, he suspected, would double the $5.99 e-book price of his "Wool" five-story omnibus, a move sure to dampen sales. In the U.S., Howey says about 90 percent of his book sales are in e-book form. Abroad, that number is about 55 percent.
Eventually, Simon & Schuster agreed to buy print rights only. Asked by the Observer why the publisher agreed to make the deal, a spokeswoman declined comment.
But the deal seems certain to make the publisher money – just not as much as it would make with digital rights. Though e-book sales are growing – they accounted for 20 percent of publishers' revenues in 2012, up from 15 percent in 2011 – print still dominates. A Bowker Market Research survey of regular book buyers found about 75 percent bought a print book only while 17 to 20 percent bought an e-book only. About six percent bought a print and e-book.
In March, Simon & Schuster published "Wool" in paperback and hardback, and Howey embarked on a book tour that began in Europe and ended in New Zealand. He didn't make it to North Carolina, but says he plans to do an N.C. tour in July, when he returns home for a family reunion.
Howey is modest about his success. "Wool," he says, has probably received more attention than it deserves. "I read better books all the time."
Why did it succeed when most books don't? There are many possible reasons. The stories, priced at 99 cents, encouraged impulse buys. The cryptic title, "Wool," didn't sound like science fiction and may have attracted non-sci-fi fans. And the fact that five "Wool" stories were showing up at the same time as Amazon top sellers may have piqued readers' curiosity.
Undoubtedly, glowing reader reviews were key. "There's nothing you can do that replaces reader word of mouth, which nobody knows how to generate," Howey says.
Breaking out
Howey's success offers more proof that e-books – and self-publishing – are in their ascendancy, says Danny O. Snow, a senior fellow with The Society for New Communications Research (http://www.sncr.org/), based in Palo Alto, Calif.
These days, self-published authors such as Bella Andre and CJ Lyons regularly appear on New York Times bestseller lists. Self-published titles made up 25 percent of the top-selling books on Amazon last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. "The stigma of self-publishing," Snow says, "has largely vanished."
Howey believes self-published authors are succeeding because traditional publishers aren't meeting readers' demands for certain literary genres, particularly science fiction, romance and erotica. E.L. James' three-volume erotic novel, "Fifty Shades of Grey," is a prime example. Random House has sold more than 70 million print, e-book and audio copies of the trilogy, which began as a self-published book.
Howey understands why publishers are reluctant to lard their catalogues with these genres. "It would be jarring if half the Penguin catalogue was erotica," he says. "I think their self-respect is more important than the bottom line."
He says he also knows that many authors – more than the literary establishment realizes – are making a good living through self-publishing. Months ago, he did an informal survey, posting a message on an Amazon Kindle forum asking for examples of self-published writers earning $100 to $500 a month.
He got at least 1,000 responses, he says, with many people noting they were earning a lot more than the range he had posted. "I've heard from people making tens of thousands of dollars," he says, "and I've never heard of their books."
Rising above the noise
Snow believes Howey was smart to retain e-book rights. In fact, he argues that an author whose e-books are selling briskly would make more money by self-publishing print books and bypassing traditional publishing completely.
That's exactly what Howey is doing now. He doesn't regret his foray into traditional publishing, but in January, he self-published "The Shift Omnibus," a prequel to "Wool." He's writing "Dust," the third and final part of the saga, and he has no immediate plans to publish either of those books traditionally in the United States.
You can now get his first "Wool" story on Amazon for free, by the way. "I'm of the idea that it's so hard to rise above the noise, free is a good way to break out."
Howey argues that more traditional publishers should allow self-published authors to retain e-book rights, as he did. "It's only fair," he says, "if you've already published with e-books and are successful."
Though Publishers Weekly wasn't crazy about "Wool," other reviewers have raved. "The characters are well drawn," the Washington Post wrote, "with a rousing protagonist and antagonist, and the plot races forward without resorting to melodrama."
Most importantly, readers have raved. Howey's "Wool" now has more than 4,700 Amazon reviews. They average 4.7 out of five stars. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/19/4045290/monroe-native-becomes-sci-fi-publishing.html (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/19/4045290/monroe-native-becomes-sci-fi-publishing.html)
:mrgreen:
While fixing up a house he purchased in Elbow Lake, MN for $10,000, David Gonzalez ripped out a wall and discovered an original copy of Action #1, which introduced Superman being used for insulation. Although its condition has been ranked at only 1.5 on a 10 point scale, the comic has already achieved a bid of $127,000 with 19 more days to go before the auction ends. While most known issues of Action #1 have changed hands many times, this issue has not, which adds to its mystique. The auction ends on June 11.
For more information... (http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=499550)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F05%2Fcongress-218x300.jpg&hash=7bcaadcf8514d563e7c4e2954485132ac13f9888)
The Congress is a film based on Stanislaw Lem's novel
The Futurological Congress. I say based, because the plot of the book, as given by Amazon, and the synopsis of the film share similar themes, but that's about it:
Robin Wright, playing the role of herself, gets an offer from a major studio to sell her cinematic identity: she'll be numerically scanned and sampled so that her alias can be used with no restrictions in all kinds of Hollywood films – even the most commercial ones that she previously refused. In exchange she receives loads of money, but more importantly, the studio agrees to keep her digitalized character forever young – for all eternity – in all of their films.
(http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/05/trailer-the-congress-a-film-based-on-stanislaw-lems-the-futurological-congress/#more-76782)
Almost Human (http://www.fox.com/almost-human/) is a new J.J. Abrams TV series set to debut on Fox at some, as yet to be specified, time.
Almost Human stars Karl Urban as a cop forced to partner with a very human-like android. Synopsis follows:
Almost Human - "FOX" Trailer [HD] official (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzvlr8)
The year is 2048. Meet JOHN KENNEX (Urban), a cop who survived one of the most catastrophic attacks ever made against the police department. After waking up from a 17-month coma, he can't remember much. Suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD and the "psychological rejection of his synthetic body part," John returns to work at the behest of longtime ally Captain Sandra Maldonado. By mandate, every cop must partner with a robot. And despite his passionate aversion to androids, John is paired up with a battle-ready MX-43.
Hmm, tri meseca od poslednjeg gejta... Vidi, Warrior Woman skandal! :roll:
O cemu se radi (na kraju al' je podugacko):
http://radishreviews.com/2013/05/31/linkspam-53113-edition/ (http://radishreviews.com/2013/05/31/linkspam-53113-edition/)
Sta kaze raja:
http://jimhines.livejournal.com/682063.html (http://jimhines.livejournal.com/682063.html)
Sta kaze SFWA:
http://www.sfwa.org/2013/06/sfwa-bulletin-task-force-announced/ (http://www.sfwa.org/2013/06/sfwa-bulletin-task-force-announced/)
mrzi me dalje da kopam
:roll: ma FB zuji i bruji, sharuje se i lajkuje, neki iz uverenja, neki iz opreznosti a neki bogami i iz profita, jer sve je to u velikoj meri i soubiz marketing dreka, E. Catherine Tobler je eno napisala javnu & dirljivu ostavku na sfwa clanstvo, a ja se ne mogu cuda nacudit kako neki ljudi zive samo da bi mogli neke genericke kontroverze na srce priviti kao duboke licne & personalne uvrede. I jeste da Resnik opasno preteruje kad cima taj 'liberalni fasizam' lejbel, ali brate, samo zato sto olako cima etiketu ne znaci da siromaj uopste nije u pravu.
Ima li neko link za dijalog iz biltena, onaj kad njih dvojica pričaju o urednicama i spisateljicama, i više pominju koje od njih su dobre ribe nego šta su konkretno uređivale/pisale?
Umesto Warrior Woman trebalo je da na naslovnicu ture Warrior Black Jewish Gay osobu. Sa velikim mačem.
Problem je sto je na internetu masovna histerija postala default reakcija na bilo sta, nebitno ima li, i kolikog, razloga za nju. I svima koji ne budu uvuceni u tu histeriju sve to, naravno, deluje sumnjivo. Liberalni fasizam i tiranija politicke korektnosti ne deluju previse neverovatno kad se pokrene internet linc gomila. Kazem, opet, bez obzira ko je u pravu i ima li realnog povoda.
@Angel Nisam naleteo na isti, al' nisam ni preterano trazio :)
Ok, hvala. Masovna histerija je svakako neprimerena reakcija, ali me je interesovalo da vidim taj tekst oko koga se podigla frka.
Ponekad se pitam koliko takva masovna histerija ima efekta (osim onog da sa strane izgleda sumnjivo). Da li se nešto pozitivno postigne tom histerijom, da li bez tolike frke ništa ne bi bilo urađeno, ili su neki tiši metodi efikasniji.
Slazem se to za histeriju kao difolt i jeste da sve to izgleda drugacije iz perspektive onoga ko nije direktno u sve to uvucen... ali sve mi se cini da ima jako puno ljudi koji u ovakvim kontroverzama reaguju kao po duznosti, uz tonu i po ubedjenja ne samo da su apsolutno u pravu, nego i iz nekog skroz bizarnog ugla zastupanja mnostva, neka vrst samozvanih 'branioca' celokupne 'uvredjene strane'... neke od najgrlatijih su mlade autorke, i ima vec par imena koje po pravilu skrolujem, nemam vise snage da ih citam ni u uzgrednom fb komentaru, a kamoli nedaj boze u prozi.
Endzi, koliko ja znam sfwa bilten je striktno papirni, mada, kako je krenulo, neko ce garant da okaci makar sken.
Ovo njakanje se vuče još od Biltena 199.
Ako sam dobro shvatio, pobesneli su zapravo kada su Malcberg i Reznik okarakterisali kriticizam njihovih seksističkih izjava kao pokušaj cenzure u broju 202.
Tu na početku su linkovi prema skeniranim stranicama iz Biltena 202 (označeni kao 1/2/3...)
http://file770.com/?p=13115 (http://file770.com/?p=13115)
Lavie Tidhar o svemu tome: http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/editorial-in-a-global-economy-what-place-for-the-sfwa/ (http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/editorial-in-a-global-economy-what-place-for-the-sfwa/)
J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot To Develop Rod Serling's Final Screenplay Into Event Series (http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/j-j-abrams%e2%80%99-bad-robot-to-develop-rod-serling%e2%80%99s-final-screenplay-into-event-series/)
Thirty eight years after Rod Serling (http://www.deadline.com/tag/rod-serling/)'s death, his final screenplay is heading to the screen. J.J. Abram (http://www.deadline.com/tag/j-j-abrams/)s' Bad Robot Prods. has acquired the rights to The Twilight Zone creator's unproduced last feature script The Stops Along The Way. The project will be developed into an event limited series through Bad Robot's deal at Warner Bros. TV and taken out into the marketplace. Details about the premise are being kept under wraps. Serling talked about the project in his final interview four months before his death when he was asked if he had a script he has special feeling for. "I just wrote The Stops Along The Way, which is, I think, a lovely script," he said.Related: '101 Best Written TV Series': Hammond On What Series Were Snubbed (http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/sopranos-named-best-written-series-of-all-time-by-wga-tv-guide-list-of-top-101-shows-what-was-snubbed/)
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Serling wrote and produced a number of TV and feature screenplays, including Rod Serling's Night Gallery, Planet Of The Apes, and Requiem For A Heavyweight, but he is best known for his Twilight Zone anthology series, which was just named (http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/wgas-101-best-written-tv-series-of-all-time-complete-list/) one of the top five Best Written TV Series of all time by the Writers Guild of America, West. A reboot of the TV classic is in the works (http://www.deadline.com/2012/12/bryan-singer-to-spearhead-twilight-zone-series-reboot-for-cbs-tv-studios/) at CBS TV Studios with X-Men director Bryan Singer (http://www.deadline.com/tag/bryan-singer/) at the helm.Event/limited series are red-hot at the moment, with four greenlighted in the past month alone, Fox's 24: Live Another Day (http://www.deadline.com/tag/24-live-another-day/) and Wayward Pines (http://www.deadline.com/tag/wayward-pines/), FX's Fargo (http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/adam-bernstein-to-direct-fxs-fargo/) and HBO's (http://www.deadline.com/tag/criminal-justice/) Criminal Justice (http://www.deadline.com/tag/criminal-justice/). Bad Robot has four series on the air next season, returning Revolution and Person Of Interest and upcoming Almost Human and Believe. Code Entertainment, which reps the Serling Estate, made the deal with Bad Robot.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fclubjade.net%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2Frickster-245x169.jpg&hash=e09100510055137e3a5639102de3e4148f64344a)Producer Rick McCallum, who worked on the Star Wars prequels and Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, has revealed his next project to The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-producer-rick-mccallum-564236): R'Ha, a "high-concept sci-fi feature." The film's script is being written by Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham, who THR says was one of the lead writers on the shelved Star Wars live action series. (He was reported (http://clubjade.net/?p=28506) as working on the show in 2011, but it was never, to my knowledge, confirmed.)
R'Ha was created by Kaleb Lechowski, who will be directing the film based on his short of the same name.
A walk in memory of Iain M. Banks is scheduled for June 29. The walk will take place in London and will follow the chapter titles used by Banks in the Graham Park portion of Banks's second novel, Walking on Glass. Participants will meet up at the corner of Southampton Row and Theobald's Road at 1:00 PM on June 29, the day after the thirtieth anniversary of the walk that occurs in the book.
For more information... (https://www.facebook.com/events/509809792407615/)
A new day brings a new trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's Giant Robots vs. Giant Monsters movie. This trailer focuses more on the humans involved in the fighting and tones down the sound effects and dials up the dialog. What you get is awesomeness. This one screams to be seen on the big screen, if you know what I mean.
Pacific Rim - "At the Edge" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssjFfDi6mc#ws)
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F1594744769.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL300_.jpg&hash=db69825a21edf9e3c37a0aa0c85f948e3059c76e)
Hollywood Reporter says (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/independence-day-2-peregrines-home-572665) that not only will there be an adaptation of Ransom Riggs' debut novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but that it will also be directed by Tim Burton, have a script written by the scribe of X-Men: First Class, Jane Goldman, and will hit theaters July 31, 2015. They describe the story as one that "follows a teenage boy who is transported to an island where he must help protect a group of orphans with special powers from creatures out to destroy them."
Knjiga je izašla kod nas 2012 kod Orfelina
http://www.orfelin.info/page12.html (http://www.orfelin.info/page12.html)
Ransom Rigs
Dom gospođice Peregrin za čudnovatu decu
TAJANSTVENO OSTRVO
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NAPUŠTENO SIROTIŠTE
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NEOBIČNA ZBIRKA VEOMA
ČUDNOVATIH FOTOGRAFIJA
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Sve to čeka da bude otkriveno u knjizi Dom gospođice Peregrin za čudnovatu decu. To je nezaboravan roman koji, kombinujući prozu i fotografije, stvara uzbudljivo čitalačko iskustvo. Naša priča počinje užasnom porodičnom tragedijom zbog koje će se šesnaestogodišnji Džejkob otisnuti na sudbonosno putovanje do udaljenog ostrva u Velsu, gde će pronaći ruševne ostatke Doma gospođice Peregrin za čudnovatu decu. Dok Džejkob istražuje napuštene sobe i hodnike postaje mu jasno da su štićenici gospođice Peregrin bili više nego čudnovati. Možda čak i opasni. Možda su bili zatočeni na tom ostrvu sa valjanim razlogom. A možda su i nekako – mada je to delovalo nemoguće – još uvek bili živi.
Ovo je čudesno delo mašte od kojeg će vam žmarci krenuti niz kičmu. Dom gospođice Peregrin za čudnovatu decu oduševiće i odrasle i tinejdžere, kao i svakoga ko nalazi zadovoljstvo u senovitim avanturama.
Veoma neobična knjiga koja je prevedena na preko dvadeset jezika i koja je već stekla kultni status. 20th Century Fox je otkupio filmska prava na ovu knjigu, a film će režirati Tim Barton, čovek koji nam je podario Edvarda Makazića, Noćnu moru pred Božić i Mrtvu princezu.
Dom gospodjice Peregrin za čudnovatu decu - Ransom Rigs trejler za knjigu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLkq1rClAb8#ws)
Osim Doma gospodice Peregrin, evo jos nekoliko naslova kojima su otkupljena prava, pa DeNardo smatra kako bi trebalo pozuriti sa citanjem pre no sto ih se filmuje:
Still More SF/F Books to Read Before You See Them on the Screen
The Shining Girls (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lauren-beukes/shining-girls/) by Lauren Beukes
Lauren Buekes burst onto the literary scene relatively recently. In 2008, she released Moxyland, a high-tech fable set in an alternative futuristic Cape Town, South Africa. In 2010, she released Zoo City, a modern fantasy whose characters are magically partnered with animals, which went on to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award. This year she released an exciting time-travel thriller called The Shining Girls and not only is it turning heads in literary circles, but it's also been acquired by MRC and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way for the purposes of a television adaptation. The Shining Girls tells the story of a serial killer who escapes the authorities using time travel, at least until one of his victims survives and begins to figure out the truth. The surprising thing about this particular adaptation is that it was announced nearly simultaneously with the book's release. How's that for a fast-tracked project?
The Moon and The Sun (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/vonda-n-mcintyre/the-moon-and-the-sun/)by Vonda N. McIntyre
Some films take longer to percolate through the mysterious machine that we call Hollywood. Vonda N. McIntyre's historical fantasy novel The Moon and The Sun, for example, was originally published back in 1997. It went on to win the Nebula Award the following year...and it's only now been optioned for film. Pierce Brosnan is the actor set to play Louis XIV and Sean McNamara (whose credits include Soul Surfer) will direct the adaptation. The story of The Moon and The Sun is one inspired by legendary tales of ancient sea monsters. It's an alternative-history fable that's set at the 17th-century court of King Louis XIV, and the shows the desperate efforts of the so-called "Sun King" to achieve immortality. His plan: stealing the life force from a captive mermaid. The King's efforts are hampered by his own 18-year-old illegitimate daughter, Marie-Josephe, who has fallen in love with the mermaid's keeper and wants to set both of them free.
American Gods (http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/neil-gaiman/american-gods/)by Neil Gaiman
There are few rock superstars in the world of science fiction and fantasy. Neil Gaiman is one of them. It is perhaps no surprise that his book American Gods(published in 2001), is now being adapted into a series for HBO. Gaiman's work is not new to Hollywood; his wonderful book Coraline was adapted by Henry Selick and made into a beautifully animated feature film in 2009. But American Godsmade such an impression that HBO is planning to run it for at least 6 seasons of 10-to-12 episodes each. The first two seasons will cover the novel, but by then Gaiman hopes to have published a sequel. The central premise of American Gods is that mythological gods exist in our everyday, modern world, but their power and influence comes from humans' belief in them. Against this backdrop is the story of a man named Shadow, his tragedy and his dealings with his enigmatic employer.
Izašao odlomak
Doma gospođice Peregrin..., celo prvo poglavlje, u Zabavniku, prenosim ABNov komentar sa AA:
Quote from: ABNНа стр. 56-58 имате фантази причу, скоро сигурно српску, али потписану псеудонимом ,,Рансом Ригс", под насловом ,,Дом госпођице Перегрин за чудновату децу". То није жанр којим се бавимо, али, утисак је слаб, на крају се све претвара у политички пледоаје. У сваком случају, ако то прочитате, биће вам (претпостављамо) сасвим јасно зашто многи фанови СФ не желе да се њихов жанр помеша са фантази жанром.
Mogu da potvrdim da je tekst na stranama 56-58.
San Diego (CNN) -- For actor Harrison Ford, who is starring in a movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card's heralded and popular novel "Ender's Game," statements against same-sex marriage by the science-fiction author "are not an issue for me."
At a Comic-Con news conference on Thursday, Ford responded to concerns that Card's comments have overshadowed the production of the movie.
The author of the 1985 novel professed his opposition to same-sex marriage in 2009 when he joined he board of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex unions.
Although Card released a statement declaring the same-sex marriage issue "moot" (http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/09/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/enders-game-author-gay-marriage-ew) after last month's Supreme Court ruling striking down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act (http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/26/politics/scotus-same-sex-doma), the film has continued to be plagued by controversy.
Ford told reporters that while he fundamentally disagrees with the author's stance, the film stands separate from the issue.
"I think none of Mr. Card's concerns regarding the issues of gay marriage are part of the thematics of this film," Ford said. "He has written something that I think is of value to us all concerning moral responsibility. I think his views outside of those that we deal with in this film are not an issue for me to deal with and something I have really no opinion on.
"I am aware of his statements admitting that the question of gay marriage is a battle that he lost and he admits that he lost it. I think we all know that we've all won. That humanity has won. And I think that's the end of the story."
For Ford, "Ender's Game" addresses its own social and political concerns.
The film is set in the future, depicting a child military trained by the government to wage interplanetary war.
Ford plays Col. Hyrum Graff, a military commander who trains the titular character of Ender Wiggin, played by Asa Butterfield.
Even though the movie is set in a science fiction universe, Ford said he has found many contemporary comparisons to the moral concerns of the story.
"This movie is very prescient, and I think the novel was prescient in recognizing something that we now have as a reality in our lives, which is the ability to wage war at a distance," Ford said.
"So the morality of that military commander and the military command structure, the morality of a society which raises a military and wages war are the moral concerns of this film and something we are wrestling with daily.
"The issue of interplanetary warfare is the science fiction aspect of it, but what gives it such emotional tone and reality is that these are the concerns of our everyday lives.
"Drone warfare and the capacity that we have technologically is one part of the moral package. The other is the use of young people in the business of war, which has always historically been the case. Our youngest and fittest of our cultures have always been the ones who are first in line for warfare."
Ford, who noted that it was particularly compelling to work with "talented young actors" such as Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld, as well as Sir Ben Kingsley, was also asked whether he found any comparison between Col. Graff and his famed "Star Wars" character, Han Solo.
"Graff is a very complex character that's charged with an awesome responsibility," Ford said. "The complex moral issues are part of Graff's story. Ender doesn't really face so much the issues of morality until the end of the film until he knows what's happened to him.
"Graff is aware of his moral responsibilities all through his part of the story. I was just delighted to be involved in a film of such high ambition with such talented people. I think Graff is a much more complex character than Han Solo, which doesn't mean that I regret Han Solo."
"Ender's Game" is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 1. Summit, the film's studio, released a new viral clip from the film Wednesday in honor of its presence at Comic-Con, and they also premiered atrailer for the film at the fan panel that followed the news conference.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/18/showbiz/comic-con-enders-game (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/18/showbiz/comic-con-enders-game)
The Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society,
Robert D. Clark Honors College, and Knight Library
Special Collections and University Archives
As part of the Center for the Study of Women in Society's 40th Anniversary Celebration, and as a way of honoring the role that Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) played in the founding of CSWS, we are collaborating with the University of Oregon Knight Library and the Robert D. Clark Honors College (CHC) to create the Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship.
Purpose: The intention of the Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellowship is to encourage research within collections in the area of feminist science fiction. The Knight Library houses the papers of authors Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm, Suzette Haden Elgin, Sally Miller Gearhart, Kate Elliot, Molly Gloss, Laurie Marks, and Jessica Salmonson, along with Damon Knight. SCUA is also in the process of acquiring the papers of James Tiptree, Jr. and other key feminist science fiction authors. For more about these collections, visit http://library.uoregon.edu/node/3524 (http://library.uoregon.edu/node/3524).
Fellowship description: This award supports travel for the purpose of research on, and work with, the papers of feminist science fiction authors housed in the Knight Library. These short-term research fellowships are open to undergraduates, master's and doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, college and university faculty at every rank, and independent scholars working in feminist science fiction. In 2013, $3,000 will be awarded to conduct research within these collections. The fellowship selection committee will include representatives from CSWS, CHC, and the UO Libraries.
Funding: CSWS is accepting donations to permanently endow the Le Guin Science Fiction Fellowship. To contribute to the endowment, please visit https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1540/ (https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1540/)
foundation/index.aspx?sid=1540&gid=1&pgid=408&cid=1095. Click on "additional options" and enter "CSWS – Le Guin Fellowship" in the box marked "additional gift instructions."
http://www.hastac.org/opportunities/le-guin-feminist-science-fiction-fellowship (http://www.hastac.org/opportunities/le-guin-feminist-science-fiction-fellowship)
The Biggest Fantasy Series of All Time is... (http://www.pornokitsch.com/2013/08/the-biggest-fantasy-series-of-all-time-is.html)
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books#List_of_best-selling_book_series):
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (7 volumes, 3 supplements) - 450m
- Star Wars (300+ volumes) - 160m (missed this the first time around, whether or not it is fantasy or SF, I'll leave to you...)
- J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - 150m (Wikipedia classifies it as a single volume)
- C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia (7 volumes) - 120m (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe alone - 85m)
- Stephanie Meyer's Twilight (4 novels, 1 novella, 1 guide) - 116m
- J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit - 100m (Not a series - unless you're Peter Jackson)
- Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (12 volumes) - 80m
- E.L. James' 50 Shades of Gray trilogy (3 volumes) - 70m (For comparative purposes)
- Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' Left Behind (16 volumes) - 65m
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld (39 volumes) - 55m (65m according to the author's note in Unseen Academicals)
- Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan (26 volumes) - 50m
- Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games (3 volumes) - 50m [The Hunger Games alone - 23m)
- Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time (14 volumes) - 44m
- Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle (4 volumes) - 33m [40m now]
- Stephen King's Dark Tower (8 volumes) - 30m
- Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth (12 volumes) - 25m
- Terry Brooks' Shannara (20 volumes) - 21m
- Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl (20 volumes) - 21m
- Isaac Asimov's Foundation (3 volumes) - 20m
- Brian Jacques' Redwall (22 volumes) - 20m
- Dragonlance (150+ volumes) - 20m
- Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Hootenanny (21 volumes) - 20m
- Douglas Adam's (and Eoin Colfer) Hitchhiker's Guide (6 volumes) - 16m
- Raymond Feist's Riftwar (25 volumes) - 15m
- George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (5 volumes) - 15m
Continue reading "The Biggest Fantasy Series of All Time is..." » (http://www.pornokitsch.com/2013/08/the-biggest-fantasy-series-of-all-time-is.html#more)
50 Shades of Gray je fantasy? Mislim, jeste nekakva fantazija, al' nisam sigurna da su na to mislili. xrotaeye
ma, to im je izgleda samo za benefit poređivanja... :)
Book View Café (http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2013/08/22/book-view-cafe-signs-deal-with-audible/) has signed a deal with Audible.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfsignal.com%2Fmt-static%2Fimages%2FBookViewCafeLogo.jpg&hash=28aee7246071dfa4a904d64a0ee80fc5a51a734c)Book View Café Signs Deal with Audible
Audible acquires audio rights to more than 100 works by award-winning and nominated authors in multiple genres
Book View Café (BVC), the author-run publishing company, today announced an agreement with Audible, Inc., the world's largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content. The worldwide English-language audio rights deal, which includes a substantial part of BVC's rapidly growing catalog, will make more than 100 works of romance, science-fiction, fantasy, young adult, mystery, as well as nonfiction titles available as audiobooks to a global readership. Book View Café's impressive line-up of author-members includes Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick award winners and New York Times bestsellers.
"Having our titles available at Audible is further evidence of the momentum Book View Café has gained in the past year," says Pati Nagle, BVC president. "In that period we've launched our new online bookstore, signed distribution agreements that are getting our ebooks into libraries and online booksellers worldwide, published 113 works, taken on six new members, and seen our first New York Times ebook bestseller for a BVC original." She adds, "It's a huge win for BVC, enabling us to outsource our audiobook services and give our authors immediate access to a vibrant and growing market segment."
BVC's business development manager Chris Dolley agrees. "This is the first of more such deals," he says. "We look forward to making other titles we acquire available at Audible going forward. We want all of our authors to benefit from more exposure to Audible's engaged and increasingly significant audience of book lovers. "
"We are delighted to add titles from this strong group of Book View Café authors to the Audible catalog," said Audible EVP and Publisher Beth Anderson. "Our members, who download an average of 18 books a year, will especially welcome this increased selection among many of their favorite genres."
More details at the Book View Cafe site. (http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2013/08/22/book-view-cafe-signs-deal-with-audible/) This is excellent news for independent book writers and readers!
DeNardo dopunjava listu naslova kojima su otkupljena prava za ekranizaciju:
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Although not really marketed as science fiction, Kurt Vonnegut's beloved satire nonetheless contains elements of the fantastic, easily seen in how the book's protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, experiences several episodes of time displacement in which he travels back and forth across his life span. Oh, there's also the alien Tralfamadorians. The book, which is partly about Billy's World War II experiences, explores themes of fate, free will and the illogical nature of the human race.
If this project sees the light of day, it will be something to behold...not just for the novel's mind-bending story coming to life, but also since it's being written by Charlie Kaufmann (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan's Labyrinth). We can only imagine how those visionaries will interpret the imagination of Vonnegut.
The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicles is a trilogy of books written by Patrick Rothfuss comprised of The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/patrick-rothfuss/wise-mans-fear/) and a forthcoming conclusion to the trilogy (tentatively titled The Doors of Stone). This wondrous fantasy is the story of Kvothe, who tells the story of his life to Devan Lochees (known as Chronicler). The books themselves are largely comprised of flashbacks of Kvothe's life told over three days (one book for each day of the narration). The narrative occasionally switches to the present day, where faerie folk (known as demons to the locals) are showing up more frequently than usual.
The Kingkiller Chronicles was recently optioned for television adaptation by New Regency Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. It's still too early to know much more than that, but if the popularity of the books is any indication, this one will be a hit with viewers.
CyberStorm by Matthew Mather
Matthew Mather's self-published book CyberStorm just recently came on like gangbusters earlier this year, with sales coming close to those of A Game of Thronesand World War Z. Hollywood took notice and then scooped up the film rights. Besides being an author, Mather is a cybersecurity expert, and Cyberstormleverages his experience to create a thrilling, near-future New York disaster story that uses the idea of online information and security in its depiction of a man trying to save his family from the surrounding collapse.
It was 20th Century Fox that acquired the film rights to CyberStorm—not a bad deal for a previously unknown author whose books had only been on the market for a few months. What bodes well for this project is that a story set against a technical backdrop was written by someone familiar with technology. Hopefully, Hollywood will keep it grounded in reality as much as possible.
Westlake Soul by Rio Youers
Westlake Soul is the name of a 23-year-old former surfing champion who suffers a catastrophic accident. Although he wakes up in a permanent vegetative state, he discovers that he can nonetheless read minds, mentally communicate with animals and project his consciousness anywhere in the world. In this neo-superhero novel by Rio Youers, Westlake discovers that great power comes with great responsibility—namely to use his newfound powers to go up against an equally new archenemy: Dr. Quietus, the nightmarish embodiment of Death itself.
Westlake Soul was optioned for television and film by Stephen Susco, screenwriter for the horror film The Grudge. It's too early to tell how this one will play out, but hopefully the film will play up the book's non-superhuman element.
Nexus by Ramez Naam
In this near-future thriller, a new high-tech drug called Nexus allows people to link up, mind to mind. The applications are huge, but like any new game-changing tech, there are those that are for it and those that are against it...and those that seek to control it at any cost. In Nexus, a young scientist with only the best intentions for mankind gets caught up in the dangerous world of international espionage.
Nexus was optioned for both television and film by Paramount Pictures, to be adapted by Ari Handel (co-writer of Darren Aronofsky's upcoming Biblical epic Noah) and Mark Heyman (whose credits include Black Swan).
The Postmortal (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/drew-magary/postmortal/)by Drew Magary
Magary's "pre-apocalyptic" near-future envisions a world where effective immortality has been achieved after a cure for aging is found. The trouble with this seemingly good news is that it comes with strings attached, namely: government-instituted euthanasia programs, evil green people, and never-ending moral and political debates. It's a fertile topic for some thought-provoking ideas, and the book is not afraid to address them as it evolves from fable to morality tale.
Very little is known about the adaptation of The Postmortal beyond the author's letting-the-cat-out-of-the-bag tweet on Twitter. But don't let that stop you from enjoying the book's meaty ideas.
LiBeat
QuoteSlaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Although not really marketed as science fiction, Kurt Vonnegut's beloved satire nonetheless contains elements of the fantastic, easily seen in how the book's protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, experiences several episodes of time displacement in which he travels back and forth across his life span. Oh, there's also the alien Tralfamadorians. The book, which is partly about Billy's World War II experiences, explores themes of fate, free will and the illogical nature of the human race.
If this project sees the light of day, it will be something to behold...not just for the novel's mind-bending story coming to life, but also since it's being written by Charlie Kaufmann (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan's Labyrinth). We can only imagine how those visionaries will interpret the imagination of Vonnegut.
Uljepša mi dan, mjesec i godinu. Meni je žao što je vjerovatno propala adaptacija "Robapokalipse" (aka - "World War Z" sa robotima), ali ja sam baš uživao dok sam je čitao. To je trebao da radi Spilberg koji je sarađivao sa Vilsonom još dok je ovaj pisao knjigu, ali odustalo se početkom godine, iako su imali spreman scenario. Zato i ovo uzimam sa rezervom, čisto da se ne radujem previše.
aha, pa ti si znaci overio Robokalipsu. I jos ti se i dopala... pa sto to krijes kano zmija noge? :)
inace, osim Postmortala, mene ovde jako zanima i CyberStorm, jos jedan ultrauspesni self-published fenomen u rangu Hugh Howey Wool serijala, ne samo po parama koje je zaradio, nego i po pametnom cuvanju autorskih prava, sto verovatno i znaci da ce sami autori blisko nadgledati i kontrolisati ekranizaciju, a to me uvek raduje. (Istanjilo mi se strpljenje za kasapljenja dobrih romana kroz nemastovite ekranizacije. :( )
Hej Libe, pa čitam ja mnogo toga što ti preporučiš na forumu (i Nightflier, za koga se nadam da će se vratiti), tako da sam ti prećutno zahvalan (sada i napismeno!). "Robapokalipsu" sam pročitao čim si je preporučila, jer mi je djelovalo kao dobra ideja. Mada, taj roman ima sve što volim: AI koji se oteo kontroli, hidraulične robote + post-apokalipsa, tako da je to za mene bio čisti iz 1-1. A ovaj "Cyberstorm" zvuči super zanimljivo, to bi valjalo da se pročita.
Trenutno bistrim "A Once Crowded Sky: A Novel", isto na tvoju preporuku (negdje prije dvije-tri sedmice). Dopada mi se, jer imam utisak kao da čitam novelizaciju stripa. Doduše, više mi se sviđa kao koncept, da Tom objavi nastavak ne bi bio oduševljen. Ali super mi je to gdje imaš novelizaciju stripa, ekranizaciju knjige, pa onda strip po filmu... sve to ide iz medija u medij, utiče jedno na drugo, a to su fine stvari kad neko zna da piše.
Postmortal jurim - odlična, odlična ideja, za čistu desetku. Mislim da je to na tragu socijalno osvješćenog SF-a, mada pomalo razvodnjenog (nije svako Ursula). Nego, znaš kako je već - dobrih knjiga mnogo, a slobodnog vremena malo. I još sad kad si ubacila "Cyberstorm"... :cry:
Pozdrav.
The Postmortal, Drew Magary - 978014311982 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JzgVVpqX58#ws)
Dobro zvuči Postmortal, dodat u gigabajt stvari za čitanje...
giga, a? pa dobro, tu smo negde, s tim što sam ja starija pa otud i startujem sa hendikepom. :mrgreen: ali Postmortal je debi roman a ja uvek gledam da takvima dam bolju šansu, valjda baš zbog toga. :lol:
@Blejd: e pa, uzvratio si mi sa ulepšavanjem meseca, a možda i cele godine, ko zna... :) Ja sam već bila na pola puta da batalim ove topike, nekako mi se činilo da malo koga ovde više sve to uopšte zanima... ruku na srce, ima tušta i tma stranjskih blogova na kojima se ovakav info lako može naći, pa sam mislila da tamo i idete, vas par koji ste (ako ste) preživeli ovaj sagitaz del-judž... :cry: :cry: :( ajde pa javi ako ti ustreba kakav linkić, vidim zakk je ovaj već okačio, a i baja dejann je tu, pa... slobodno cimaj sve redom kad štogod slično ustreba i javljaj kad štogod slično nađeš. Poz.
Ne bataljuj, mene zanima!
Dobro. :)
Elem, iz prvih pedesetak strana reklo bi se da je Postmortal vrlo moderan, pisan u formi blogerskih unosa, stil odličan, introspekcija ležerna i prijemčiva, karakterizacija isto tako, humor suptilan i osvežavajući, tema dobro odabrana i još bolje obrađena, sve u svemu biće to prava čitalačka uživancija.
a na malko neobaveznu notu, evo malko posrednog uvida u teškoće koje čak i dobre knjige imaju u probijanju na ovom varljivom i teškoj komercijali orjentisanom tržištu:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/business/cuckoos-calling-reveals-long-odds-for-new-authors.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&hp
[/size] (http://[size=78%)
[size=78%]"The Cuckoo's Calling" became the publishing sensation of the summer when word leaked that its first-time author, Robert Galbraith, was none other than J. K. Rowling, the mega-best-selling creator of Harry Potter.[/size]
[size=78%]
Mystery solved? Maybe not. It's no surprise that "The Cuckoo's Calling," a detective story set in a London populated by supermodels and rock stars, shot to the top of best-seller lists once the identity of the author was revealed. But if the book is as good as critics are now saying it is, why didn't it sell more copies before, especially since the rise of online publishing has supposedly made it easier than ever for first-time authors?
"It makes me sad," Roxanne Coady, founder of R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn., and the online retailerJustTheRightBook.com, told me last week from Maine, where she said she was sitting near a stack of unread new books. "Because not everyone turns out to be a J. K. Rowling. It reminds me how difficult it is for even good books to succeed."
It's not entirely clear why Ms. Rowling decided she wanted "to fly under the radar," as she put it on the Robert Galbraith Web site, other than to say that "being Robert Galbraith has been all about the work, which is my favorite part of being a writer." Writing under a pseudonym obviously ruled out any tedious book signings or publicity appearances, but Ms. Rowling doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to.
And it wasn't about money, since Ms. Rowling is donating all royalties to charity. "If sales were what mattered to me most, I would have written under my own name, and with the greatest fanfare," she said. (A spokeswoman in London for Ms. Rowling responded to my questions by directing me to the Galbraith Web site, and said Ms. Rowling would have no further comment.)
Ms. Rowling's last book, "The Casual Vacancy," an adult comedy of manners published under her name and the first since the end of the Potter series, was met with high expectations and withering reviews from prominent critics. Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times, "the real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly clichéd that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not only disappointing — it's dull." The Los Angeles Times faulted "Rowling's inability to engage us, to invest us sufficiently in her characters."
Still, with hardcover sales of just over 1.3 million copies, it was the No. 1 hardcover fiction title of 2012, according to Publishers Weekly's annual ranking, outselling John Grisham, James Patterson and Danielle Steel.
Ms. Rowling may well have felt that the reaction, both critical and commercial, was distorted by her fame, and hence decided on a pseudonym for "The Cuckoo's Calling." It's not clear exactly who was in on the secret: her agent, of course, and at least someone at Little, Brown & Company, her publisher, including her editor, who also edited "The Casual Vacancy." ("The Cuckoo's Calling" was published by Mulholland Books, a Little, Brown imprint.) "Few people within the publishing house knew the true identity of Robert at the time," Nicole Dewey, a Little, Brown spokeswoman, told me, declining to be more specific about who knew.
But that already distorted the experiment to some extent. Given how difficult it is for first-time fiction authors, especially in a crowded genre like mystery, to find both an agent and publisher, it's not clear "The Cuckoo's Calling" would have made it off the slush piles. At least one other publisher, Orion Books, which like Little, Brown, is a subsidiary of the Hachette Book Group, rejected the manuscript. An editor there told The Telegraph in London that the book "didn't stand out."
In any event, a publishing contract is hardly a guarantee of critical or commercial success. Much depends on how a new manuscript is treated by the publisher. Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove Atlantic, is widely viewed as a master at introducing new literary talent to the marketplace. He published "Cold Mountain" by then first-time novelist Charles Frazier, which went on to win the National Book Award and sell over 11 million copies.
"There's no question, if a publisher decides to get behind a book, to invest its publishing capital, to use its traction with the chains, with Amazon, fight for the promotion money to get the book into the front of stores, you can do a lot to bring attention to a worthy first novel," he said.
Mr. Entrekin cited "Matterhorn," by first-time novelist Karl Marlantes, which he published in 2010. The author "worked on the book for over 20 years and couldn't find a publisher," Mr. Entrekin said. Then, as the book was about to be published in a tiny first edition, Mr. Entrekin got a copy from a buyer at Barnes & Noble, loved it, and bought out the first printing.
He re-edited it, cut 300 pages, got advance quotes from prominent authors, introduced the author to booksellers and hosted a media lunch in Manhattan. Amazon.com gave the book a glowing review, chose it as a best book of the month, and got an exclusive review from Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down." " 'Matterhorn' is a great novel," his review began. It sold over 400,000 copies.[/size]
[size=78%]"I invested tens of thousands of dollars and a lot of publishing capital over nine months because I believed in that book," Mr. Entrekin said. "This is what publishers can do to add value. It's not slapping on a name like J. K. Rowling."[/size]
[size=78%]
Of course, most new books don't get that kind of support. Suffice it to say that "The Cuckoo's Calling" didn't, even though Ms. Dewey told me it "was treated like any new novel by a first-time writer. Little, Brown sent out bound galleys and talked it up to retailers, as they do with all new titles. We aim for all of our books to reach the widest possible audience and make every effort to market and publicize each title in a way that connects it with that audience."
I spoke to several book retailers, at both large chains and independent stores, and not one could recall seeing an advance reading copy, or hearing anything from the Little, Brown sales representatives.
"There was absolutely no buzz," Ms. Coady said. "There was no direct correspondence from the editor or a publicist. We didn't hear anything from the sales representatives. They'll usually tell us that there are five to 10 books on their list that we want to make sure you read. They know our customers and what they like, so we trust them. This book wasn't one of them. I don't know if we bought any copies. Maybe one."
The publisher procured two quotes, or blurbs, for its news release, one from the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid, the other from the English novelist and actor Mark Billingham, who said, perhaps all too presciently, that the book was "so instantly compelling it's hard to believe this is a debut novel." Booksellers said Little, Brown could have rustled up more prominent authors, including at least one American.
Nor did "The Cuckoo's Calling" get much critical attention. I asked Little, Brown for reviews that appeared before the identity of the author was known, and the only examples it provided were from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist, all trade publications. Several newspapers reviewed it in London, but no mainstream American book critic did. The early reviews were positive — far more so than those for "Casual Vacancy" — which must have been heartening to Ms. Rowling. But those in Publishers Weekly and Booklist were a single paragraph, and they failed to generate much buzz or help it stand out from the masses of genre fiction published each year.
It's not clear how many copies had sold by the time Mr. Galbraith's identity was revealed in July by The Sunday Times of London. The BBC reported that it had sold just 1,500 printed copies. Ms. Rowling, on the Galbraith Web site, maintains that the book had sold 8,500 copies across all formats and received two offers from television producers. "Robert was doing rather better than we expected him to," she wrote. Ms. Dewey said it had sold an additional 5,000 copies in the United States, for a total of 13,500, which is "a great achievement for any unknown author." Still, from Ms. Coady's perspective as a bookseller, "It would have stayed on the path it was on, which is towards oblivion."
If Ms. Rowling had been paid the traditional 15 percent of the $26 hardcover price in royalties, and less on e-books, that would amount to less than $50,000.
The experiment, of course, was over. It's safe to say that "The Cuckoo's Calling" has gotten more media attention than any other book this year, thanks to Ms. Rowling's celebrity and her unmasking. "The Cuckoo's Calling" was immediately reviewed pretty much everywhere. Ms. Kakutani called it "a highly entertaining book that's way more fun and way more involving" than "The Casual Vacancy."
"I read it," Ms. Coady said. "It's pretty good. Is it brilliant? No. It's a classic detective story, better written than most."
Little, Brown told me this week that "The Cuckoo's Calling" has sold 1.1 million copies in all formats, and is still on best-seller lists. "It's the power of the author brand," Mr. Entrekin said. "It transformed the exact same text into a far more salable book. It got media attention all over the world. That's a level of attention you can't buy at any price."
What's clear is that without the aura of celebrity, "The Cuckoos' Calling" would have been just another work of debut crime fiction. Its author might have gotten a modest TV deal, and maybe another book contract, while working another job to make ends meet. "Most books come out and do nothing," Ms. Coady said. "There are still too many books being published. We can only get behind so many books, and then hope they take off on their own. It worries me that so many slip through the cracks."
New authors can still make the best-seller lists, as Ms. Rowling herself did with the Potter books, or E. L. James with the erotic "Fifty Shades of Grey." But they are extreme exceptions. Mr. Entrekin agreed that many good books don't achieve the success they deserve. "There's no formula," he said. "A publisher can only do so much. A book's fate is ultimately in the hands of the book gods."
[/size]
Hugo Rising -- The nominees for science fiction's best novel of 2013 find a new guard challenging the old (http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2013-08-30/hugo-rising/)
LiBeat
QuoteDobro. (https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/Smileys/znaksagite/icon_smile.gif)
Elem, iz prvih pedesetak strana reklo bi se da je Postmortal vrlo moderan, pisan u formi blogerskih unosa, stil odličan, introspekcija ležerna i prijemčiva, karakterizacija isto tako, humor suptilan i osvežavajući, tema dobro odabrana i još bolje obrađena, sve u svemu biće to prava čitalačka uživancija.
Zvuči kao knjiga godine :). Jedva čekam da počnem.
Quote from: angel011 on 30-08-2013, 18:40:06
Ne bataljuj, mene zanima!
+1
Uvek se nešto zanimljivo može naći na ovakvim temama.
Iako ne postižem da svaku preporučenu knjigu odmah i pročitam, pribeležim one koje mi zvuče zanimljivo. Moja lista za čitanje, doduše, neprestano raste, tako da je pitanje kada će, i da li će, neke od njih doći na red. Deril Gregori je čekao godinu dana pre nego što sam mu dao šansu.
Ne bataljuj, LiBeat. Ima nas koji pratimo ovakve teme, iako se ne oglašavamo tako često.
Quote from: LiBeat on 30-08-2013, 18:24:36
giga, a? pa dobro, tu smo negde, s tim što sam ja starija pa otud i startujem sa hendikepom. :mrgreen: ali Postmortal je debi roman a ja uvek gledam da takvima dam bolju šansu, valjda baš zbog toga. :lol:
@Blejd: e pa, uzvratio si mi sa ulepšavanjem meseca, a možda i cele godine, ko zna... :) Ja sam već bila na pola puta da batalim ove topike, nekako mi se činilo da malo koga ovde više sve to uopšte zanima... ruku na srce, ima tušta i tma stranjskih blogova na kojima se ovakav info lako može naći, pa sam mislila da tamo i idete, vas par koji ste (ako ste) preživeli ovaj sagitaz del-judž... :cry: :cry: :( ajde pa javi ako ti ustreba kakav linkić, vidim zakk je ovaj već okačio, a i baja dejann je tu, pa... slobodno cimaj sve redom kad štogod slično ustreba i javljaj kad štogod slično nađeš. Poz.
xjap - iskreno. I naravno da se javljam ako nešto ne uspijem da nabavim, bilo na PM, bilo ovako. I što kažu Angel i Grimjack, naravno da nas ima koji to i te kako pratimo i čitamo. To smo mi, tiha snaga Sagite. Even though we walk through the valley of the (SF) shadow of death, we fear no evil :)
a quiet force to reckon with! :wink:
a evo i gomile septembarskih gudiza:
(http://[/size)
211 Reasons To Read Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in September 2013 (Our MASSIVE Monthly SF/F/F Cover Gallery) (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/09/211-reasons-to-read-science-fiction-fantasy-and-horror-in-september-2013-our-massive-monthly-sfff-cover-gallery/#more-81525)
"Jumper" author Steven Gould will pen four stand-alone novels that will expand on the universe created in the hit 2009 film.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimagecache%2Fthumbnail_570x321%2F2013%2F08%2FAvatar_a_l.jpg&hash=109f20c74ab736f6a565273eaf9bc719d1553ce3)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-cameron-spins-avatar-book-612326 (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-cameron-spins-avatar-book-612326)
:mrgreen:
nego, da malko proberemo kroz onih 211 septembarskih predloga:
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Lakin-Smith ima kod mene silni kredit koji joj je obezbedio njen odlični Cyber Circus.
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šta reći - ovo ime podrazumeva da će se overiti svako slovce koje ikad igde objavi. :!:
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Daglas je prikupio pristojne rivjue, sinopsis je intrigantan (! psihopate i kako sa njima izaći na kraj -- možda od svega toga ispadne koristan priručnik tipa WWZ :mrgreen: ) pa time zaslužuje makar i minimalni ulog visokoobdarenog prelistavanja :?: prvih nekoliko poglavlja.
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red je, a i valja se. :)
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moderišem očekivanja, ali u pitanju je debi roman, pa je fer i pošteno svrnuti pogled kad i ako se ima vremena.
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!već dve godine čekam ovaj naslov. dve godine!
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debi zbirka sa umereno pozitivnim preporukama.
to je to. :) ko ima vremena i dobre volje, neka svrne na: http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php/topic,10791.0.html (http://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/index.php/topic,10791.0.html)
Izdvojio bih i ovo:
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Sad, sad news, folks. Another legend has left us.
Emily Pohl-Weary, Frederik Pohl's granddaughter, is reporting (https://twitter.com/emilypohlweary/status/374628088791175168) that Frederik Pohl (http://www.frederikpohl.com/) has passed away. He was 93 years old.
Frederik Pohl is a science fiction Grand Master the author of numerous science fiction novels, including the Gateway series, Man Plus, The Years of the City and most recently, All the Lives He Led.
Besides winning numerous awards for his novels throughout his career, he also won the 2010 Hugo Award for best fan writer.
He will be missed.
Saznao sam pre oko dva sata, zaista tužna vest. Reklamokratiju, prvu Kapiju i Milioniti dan ubrajam među najznačajnije knjige i priču koje sam pročitao u mladosti. Nadam se da ga čeka neki sf raj sa druge strane.
Doživeo je lepe godine, ostavio dosta...
Svejedno je baš tužno, posebno što je do pre par dana prilično redovno vodio blog/memoare, iako se na slikama što je kačio baš videlo da je star, onako savijen nad laptopom.
Kaze Strahan:
Quote
Frederik Pohl has died. If you're reading this and wonder why this is
important, there's a clue or two here. (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/pohl_frederik)
Pohl started publishing in 1937, attended the first Worldcon in 1939, and was
part of pretty much everything interesting in science fiction for the next 60
years.
As a writer he co-wrote some of the best
satire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants) the field has seen with C.M. Kornbluth, and one of the greatest space adventures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_%28novel%29)
too. His fiction was sharp and smart and dark and sometimes sly. There's a
taste of what he could do in his short
fiction (http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1410-the-best-of-frederik-pohl.aspx). He was also an incredible editor, editing Galaxy and
If magazines, the influential Star anthology series and novels like
Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren and Joanna Russ's The Female Man.
He was instrumental in publishing Cordwainer Smith, R.A. Lafferty and many
others. Pohl was an influential literary agent, a Hugo Award winning blogger (http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/),
and even wrote for the Encyclopedia Brittanica back when that really
meant something.
I had a chance to talk to Pohl once. I was at the launch for Scot
Edelman's SF Age at the 1993 WorldCon in San Francisco. The event was
held in a large room with big circular ottomans that people were sitting
on. I was sitting on one with Jeremy Byrne, when I noticed an elderly
couple sitting on the other side of the ottoman (about six or eight feet away).
It was Pohl. I was so overcome I couldn't say anything. I remember whispering in
an awed voice to Jeremy "that's Fred Pohl!". I couldn't imagine
actually talking to him. I wish I had, because then I could have thanked him for
the many hours of pleasure his work gave me, how much I'd loved The Space
Merchants and Gateway and Man Plus and The Years of
the City. It's a mistake I won't make again.
My old friend Charles Brown said the thing that made Fred Pohl so impressive
was that he constantly interested in and engaged by the world. He travelled
extensively, often with Charles, and that was reflected in his work. With his
passing, I think the first great Golden Age of Science Fiction has finally
ended. Vale.
Welcome!
3,129 views 2 weeks ago
Welcome to Ellison Wonderland, the Harlan Ellison Youtube Channel. This is the home of all things Ellisonian. Lectures, TV appearances, mug shots, film clips, and anything else we or Harlan can think of to throw at you on a regular basis. Some of the stuff here has been floating around the interwebs for a while, but a lot of it will be making its first appearance ever here. And who knows? Harlan himself may provide us with some new material from time to time. Keep checking in to find out!
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w)
Omatoreo... :(
To je. Ali za čoveka koji je još pre godinu dana izjavio da je na samrti - dobro se drži.
Jes, vala...
Quote from: LiBeat on 10-09-2013, 21:08:46
To je. Ali za čoveka koji je još pre godinu dana izjavio da je na samrti - dobro se drži.
Sinoć smo ga baš pominjali u kafani -_-
Lynne M. Thomas has announced that she is stepping down as the Editor-in-Chief of Apex, two years after she replaced Catherynne Valente in the position. Along with her, Managing Editor Michael Damian Thomas will also be stepping down. Both will work closely with the incoming editor as the magazine continues to be published by Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications. The Thomases' resignations will be effective following the December 2013 issue.
For more information... (http://www.apex-magazine.com/an-announcement-from-the-editor-in-chief-lynne-m-thomas/)
John Clute profiles Frederik Pohl (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/frederik-pohl-science-fiction-author-famed-for-the-sharp-and-precise-satire-of-his-writing-8798809.html), an author famed for the sharp and precise satire of his writing.
Simon & Schuster to Launch Science Fiction, Fantasy Imprint (http://publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/59674-simon-schuster-to-launch-science-fiction-fantasy-imprint.html)
By Jim Milliot | Oct 24, 2013
Simon & Schuster is preparing to up its presence in the science fiction, fantasy and horror market with the launch of a new imprint dedicated to the category. The as yet unnamed imprint will be overseen by Jon Anderson, executive v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, but will, S&S said, publish books "for readers of all ages." Anderson told PW the audience for the new imprint is seen as "YA and above."
Although S&S has published a range of science fiction and fantasy authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey, it doesn't have a dedicated imprint for the genre in either its adult or children's departments. "A lot of content comes our way that we find compelling, but which won't work in teen sections [of bookstores]," Anderson said. "We don't want to use that as an excuse to not publish books for a growing market."
Anderson has appointed Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher of S&S Books for Young Readers, Atheneum, and Margaret K. McElderry, publisher of the imprint and has hired Joe Monti as executive editor. Monti has a varied industry background with stops at Barnes & Noble where he was the children's fiction buyer, Houghton Mifflin where he worked in national account sales, and in editorial spots at Little, Brown. He is currently an agent at Barry Goldblatt Literary. During his career, he has worked with a number of authors in the sci fi/fantasy market. Also tabbed to work on the imprint is Navah Wolfe, who was appointed editor. She has been at S&S Books for Young Readers for six years.
Anderson expects to publish 12 to 15 hardcovers annually starting in spring 2015, although he said he hoped to be able to release a few titles by fall 2014. In addition to publishing in traditional print formats, the imprint will publish in a variety of digital formats, including e-only and serial publishing. A "handful" of titles from existing S&S authors will likely be moved under the imprint, Anderson said, and that "most" new sci fi/fantasy at S&S will be published under the imprint. Titles will be sold by both the adult and children's sales forces.
The Missouri State House is running an internet poll for inductees into the Missouri Hall of Fame. Science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein is one of the ten names up for consideration. The list includes politicians, artists, golfers, musicians, doctors, and suffragettes. The Missouri Hall of Fame was begun in 1982 with the induction of Mark Twain. In 2012, three individuals were inducted into the Hall. Inductees are represented by a bust in the Missouri Capitol.
http://www.openroadmedia.com/blog/2013-09-16/Open-Road-Media-to-Publish-Nine-Ebooks-from-Award-winning-Science-Fiction-Author-Samuel-R-Delany.aspx (http://www.openroadmedia.com/blog/2013-09-16/Open-Road-Media-to-Publish-Nine-Ebooks-from-Award-winning-Science-Fiction-Author-Samuel-R-Delany.aspx)
Open Road will publish the following titles:
Dhalgren
Babel-17
Nova
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Tales of Nevèrÿon
Neveryóna
Flight from Nevèrÿon
Return to Nevèrÿon
The Motion of Light in Water
Neil Gaiman has been appointed to the faculty of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, where he will be part of the Theater and Performance faculty. Gaiman will begin teaching during the Spring 2014 semester, with his first class being an advanced writing workshop exploring the history of the fantastic, approaches to fantasy fiction, and the meaning of fantasy today. Gaiman's classes will be taught across the Division of the Arts and the Division of Languages and Literature.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2487 (http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2487)
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NEW MUSEUM OF SCIENCE FICTION PLANNING WASHINGTON, DC PREVIEW SITE
Crowdfunding Campaign Sets Stage for First-of-Its-Kind Destination for Science Fiction Fans as Real Estate and Exhibit Construction Firms Line Up to Support Concept
Washington, DC – November 4, 2013 – The new Museum of Science Fiction (http://museumofsciencefiction.org/) today announced plans to develop a storefront preview museum in the nation's capital, a forerunner to the first standalone museum dedicated to science fiction and how it inspires people of all ages and walks of life. Today, the Museum of Science Fiction is an all-volunteer non-profit organization, with a group of more than three dozen professionals working to turn the dream of a museum devoted to science fiction into reality.
"We believe Washington, DC is an ideal location for a museum dedicated to science fiction, based in part on the remarkable draw the District's museums have for people from all over the world. Indeed, one of the most popular museum destinations worldwide is the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, and those who took humanity into orbit were inspired by science fiction, from Jules Verne to Star Trek," said Greg Viggiano, the museum's executive director. "If the project stays on schedule, a full-scale facility could open by 2017. In the meantime, we are planning to launch a small preview facility in late 2014. This 'pop-up' site will be the place to test exhibit concepts and share an insider's look into the process of building the museum itself."
Organizers envision the Museum of Science Fiction as home to an array of objects and experiences that share the history of science fiction. Because the genre is so encompassing, the organization's goal is to have a diverse collection of artifacts, display objects, and interactive exhibits that span many varieties of art forms. Visitors will be able to look at cherished manuscripts and interact with exhibits. There will be robots, time machines, aliens, and creatures, as well as costumes, sets, props, and model spaceships. Fans Unite to Create Science Fiction Museum"Over the past six months, a diverse team of 38 volunteers has come together to develop a long-term plan that will make this museum a reality," Viggiano explained. "We've made significant progress on everything from curatorial aspects such as gallery design and visitor experience, to the non-profit management areas of development, project management, education, information technology, public relations, marketing, finance, accounting, and legal compliance."
"Just among science fiction fans in the area, I've found people from all walks of life who are willing to share their professional expertise, time, and drive to move this idea forward," said Viggiano, himself a veteran of the satellite communications industry. "We have museum curators, lawyers, accountants, communications people, and other volunteers who have stepped forward to bring the Museum of Science Fiction from dream to reality."Crowdfunding Kickoff"You need look no further than the popular fan conventions that occur almost every weekend to see that the power of the science fiction fan is undeniable. No other genre enjoys the same level of loyalty and support, and this campaign is a statement of support directly from the fans," Viggiano said.
To bring this institution to life, the Museum of Science Fiction today launched a crowdfunding campaign, allowing the public to join in the building of this innovative museum dedicated to human imagination and its ability to shape our future. The goal of the campaign is to raise $160,000 in 38 days, but the real value in the campaign will be its statement of support and enthusiasm from one of the world's greatest fan bases. Contributions to the crowdfunding campaign can be made here: scificrowdfund.com. Conceptual renderings of the preview museum are available at the Museum of Science Fiction's website: museumofsciencefiction.org.Preview Museum Wins SupportThe Museum of Science Fiction will start with a 3,000-square-foot proof-of-concept preview museum to demonstrate the potential and capabilities of the full-scale facility. This will allow the general public to help the organization fine tune its ideas and plan in accordance with their expectations.
The preview museum will house a sample collection of artifacts and display objects from film, television, literature, and art, along with prototype analog and digital interactive exhibits. The preview space will also host the museum's first public lectures, education programs, film screenings, and donor events.
Commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is working with the Museum of Science Fiction to identify an ideal site for the preview museum, with a focus on securing a highly visible location accessible to the 50,000 visitors who come to Washington, DC each day.
"We're excited about the opportunity to work with the Museum of Science Fiction, since this project has the potential to become another powerful magnet in the District for tourists and residents alike," said Scott Johnston, principal at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. "A well-chosen temporary space for the museum will go a long way toward helping the final, full-scale facility become a reality."
Virginia-based museum design and construction firm Color-Ad is already working on concepts for the preview museum, which is planned to open in late 2014.
"We believe this is a great opportunity for us to work together on the preview museum, through the design and fabrication of the permanent exhibition and then a continued partnership as the museum grows and evolves," said Glen Zook, senior project manager at Color-Ad. The firm has built exhibits for the museum at George Washington's Mount Vernon, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the White House Visitors Office, among many other projects.
"The preview museum is designed to give people a sneak peek of what's coming. It will allow us to collect visitor opinions and validate our planning activities and design assumptions to make sure we 'get it right' when the full-scale museum is built," Viggiano said. "The preview museum will also allow us to begin our programming with evening lectures and film screenings and also coalesce support for the concept from fans all over the world."The Museum VisionOnce fully realized, the Museum of Science Fiction will be the world's first comprehensive science fiction museum to cover the history of the genre across the arts and provide a narrative on its relationship to the real world. The museum's mission is to be a center of gravity where art and science are powered by imagination. It is through this intersection that the museum will reach visitors both young and old. The museum will also host educational programs that encourage and inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics.
"Many franchises have contributed to and influenced science fiction whether in film, television, comics, or even radio," Viggiano said. "In telling the story of science fiction, our galleries will certainly include works from those franchises and commentaries on their influence on the genre and society. The connection of science fiction and franchises is a fascinating one that we may also explore in our programming. Certainly franchises like Alien, The Twilight Zone, The Matrix, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, and Dune are a few that we think are important to mention-but there are many, many more."Celebrating Fiction and Fact Through EducationThe Museum of Science Fiction is committed to using science fiction as an educational tool to encourage interest in science, engineering, technology, math, art, history, literature, philosophy, and-ultimately- imagination. Organizers believe science fiction is rich with ideas that serve as a springboard for curiosity and learning, from understanding how warp drive might function to how cyborgs could affect people's daily lives.
"The story of science fiction is very interesting," Viggiano said. "We're looking to explain how it began, how it has evolved, and how it influences us. While other museums and exhibitions have highlighted certain aspects of science fiction, our museum will look at it from all angles: its themes, contributors, artifacts, and messages. We hope the Museum of Science Fiction will become a comprehensive resource for learning more about the genre."
# # #
MEDIA CONTACTS
Leo Imperial: leo.imperial@museumofsciencefiction.org
Braulio Agnese: braulio.agnese@museumofsciencefiction.org
Dave Arland: dave@arlandcom.com
Telephone: (657) 215-1701
For a full press packet on the museum's vision, renderings of the preview museum, and other
information, visit museumofsciencefiction.org/presspacket.
Museum of Science Fiction
P.O. Box 88
Alexandria, VA 22313-0088
Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
museumofsciencefiction.org (http://museumofsciencefiction.org/)
'Ender's Game' author Orson Scott Card welcomes attacks on his homophobic beliefs because 'my sales go up'
(http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/01/enders-game-author-orson-scott-card-welcomes-attacks-on-his-homophobic-beliefs-because-my-sales-go-up/)
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Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card responded to threats of a boycott in an interview with the Deseret News in which he says that while his views on same-sex marriage are unchanged, his words have been taken out of context.
He claimed that he's had "no criticism. I've had savage, lying, deceptive personal attacks, but no actual criticism because they've never addressed any of my actual ideas."
a Mamatas reaguje: http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1861143.html (http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1861143.html)
Fans of sci-fi TV want to steer their own spaceship (http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Fans+want+steer+their+spaceship+Space+Opera+Society/9128073/story.html)
Space Opera Society aims to set up production studio for online series
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MONTREAL - When the TV series V was cancelled by ABC in 2011, Eric Bernard was upset.
"For me, I think it's unacceptable to see a show like V, at the end of the second year it ends with a cliffhanger — that's great — but a week later they announce it's been cancelled. They do not respect their audience when they do that," Bernard said.
Fans started a letter-writing campaign urging the producers to revive the series. But it hasn't worked yet.
Bernard has a better idea: rather than try to convince the bigwigs at network television to fund the series fans want to see, the post-production director and video editor wants to start producing them himself. He's part of a group that is trying to crowdsource startup money to get a production studio off the ground that will produce new, original series and distribute them online.
It's called the Space Opera Society. It's based in Montreal, and Bernard is its executive director, but it has about 20 people from around the world contributing to it, including actors, writers and visual effects artists whose credits include shows in the Battlestar Galactica, Stargate and Star Trek franchises.
"It all started in early 2000 when I was (re-editing) a Space: 1999 episode, and I went to a convention," Bernard told The Gazette. "I met people there who work on the show and started to chat and thought: 'Wow, wouldn't it be great if we could start a new series?' "
Bringing back Space: 1999 or V is complicated because of the cost of licensing the rights to an existing series, Bernard said. But he believes that a non-profit studio funded directly by fans could get enough money to produce some quality science fiction series whose content wouldn't be handcuffed to the whims of network executives, because the fans, not the suits, would be calling the shots.
Bernard compares his business model to New York's Metropolitan Opera and PBS, which run mainly on private donations. They have loftier goals than just making money.
"Non-profit doesn't mean that everyone is a volunteer," he said, to ward off any misconceptions. "It means that profit — and we want to make profit — is always reinvested in shows."
In September, the group launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo, setting a goal of $202,099. (The figure is a reference to Space: 2099, the name Bernard originally gave to his re-editing of Space: 1999.)
Targeting hard-core fans with a crowdfunding campaign has worked in the past. In March, screenwriter Rob Thomas launched a campaign on Kickstarter to turn his TV series Veronica Mars into a movie. The project hit its $2 million funding goal in under 10 hours and reached $5.7 million by the time its funding window closed. Actor Zach Braff raised more than $3 million for a movie project. And another group of sci-fi fans raised more than $100,000 to produce an unofficial fourth and fifth season of the original Star Trek series with a new cast.
But those are exceptions. Most projects have much more modest goals and don't raise nearly as much money. Three-quarters of successfully funded projects on Kickstarter raise less than $10,000.In the fundraising model used by Kickstarter and Indiegogo, projects set fundraising goals, and get a month or two to try to reach them. People who contribute toward projects get access to rewards for different funding levels. For the Space Opera Society project, they range from a mention on their website's thank-you page ($5) to a T-shirt ($45) to a seat on the board of directors ($20,000).
With less than a week to go in the campaign, the results have been disappointing, with only $6,905 raised. Bernard blamed this on a lack of publicity about the campaign, which began during Montreal Comic-Con.
"That's probably the biggest mistake we made, was not promoting it first," Bernard said. "The challenge was not to convince people in the business to be part of it, but to reach the viewers and convince them that they can be more than viewers."
Still, he believes the model will work. He thinks a worldwide audience with a niche interest will pay a bit of money to produce original shows if the company's finances are transparent, if it creates a community where fans and producers can interact with each other, and if it commits to respecting those fans.
"When you think about it, you're paying 60 bucks a month for cable," he said. "Imagine if you would pay $1 for 60 shows that you love, for exactly the shows you want to see."
And if it's successful, he thinks it's a model that can, and should, be copied.
"I hope this will lead to other genres doing the same thing," he said.
For more information on the Space Opera Society, visit spaceoperasociety.org.
Quote from: LiBeat on 10-09-2013, 20:51:54
Welcome to Ellison Wonderland, the Harlan Ellison Youtube Channel. This is the home of all things Ellisonian. Lectures, TV appearances, mug shots, film clips, and anything else we or Harlan can think of to throw at you on a regular basis. Some of the stuff here has been floating around the interwebs for a while, but a lot of it will be making its first appearance ever here. And who knows? Harlan himself may provide us with some new material from time to time. Keep checking in to find out!
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w)
Nažalost, ovaj kanal je pre par dana ugašen. Izgleda da je jutub/gugl nešto zasr'o, i sada ovi ne mogu da im dokažu da je Harlan Elison stvarna osoba.
Quote
Josh Olson
- Friday, November 15 2013 12:29:40
ATTENTION FLYING BLUE MONKEYS!
I need to get in touch with someone at Google. As in, directly, on the telephone, person to person. They persist in refusing to acknowledge the existence of one Harlan Jay Ellison, and until I can talk to a human being, the situation won't change. The Google Contact line is - shocking - an endless recording that never goes anywhere. Anyone with any connection over there, PLEASE pass the info along. It's either that, or kiss the H.E. YouTube Channel goodbye.
http://harlanellison.com/heboard/unca.htm?num=100 (http://harlanellison.com/heboard/unca.htm?num=100)
Robert J. Sawyer notes that his 2012 novel Triggers has been optioned for film by Toronto's Copperheart Entertainment, a company best known for the science-fiction thriller Splice and for the Ginger Snaps series of horror films.
More good news: Sawyer also notes that he has been commissioned to write the screenplay based on his book. How often does an author get to do that? Rarely.
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On the eve of a secret military operation, an assassin's bullet strikes President Seth Jerrison. He is rushed to the hospital, where surgeons struggle to save his life—and where Professor Ranjip Singh is experimenting with a device that can erase traumatic memories.
Then a terrorist bomb detonates. In the operating room, the president suffers cardiac arrest. He has a near-death experience—but the memories that flash through Jerrison's mind are not his own. The electromagnetic pulse generated by the bomb amplified and scrambled Professor Singh's equipment, allowing a random group of people to access one another's minds.
One of those people can retrieve the President Jerrison's memories—including classified information regarding the upcoming military mission, which, if revealed, could cost countless lives. But the task of determining who has switched memories with whom is a daunting one—particularly when some of the people involved have reason to lie...
Harlan Ellison Youtube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w) je ponovo onlajn.
I, u nastavku listi sa prethodne strane, evo jos naslova koje Holivud otkupljuje za nadamo se skore ekranizacije:
Read Them Now, Watch Them Later: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Adaptation Watch
You have to give Hollywood credit. It seems that, now more than ever, producers of TV and films are turning toward written science fiction, fantasy and horror stories to use as the basis for new television and film productions. This trend is a genre-lover's dream come true. For years, we've bemoaned the lack of quality with the majority of sf/f/h films being served up in theaters and living rooms across the country. Sure, there have been many notable bright spots over the years, but more often than not, disappointment reigned supreme. The solution, as we saw it, was to pick up a book and turn it into a television show or film. Not only is that happening now, but it's happening so fast it's hard to keep up. Here's the latest batch of sf/f/h adaptation news, with the usual caveat that just because a story is optioned does not mean a TV/film production is a sure thing. Even so, it's fun to see which stories are being noticed.
Nod by Adrian Barnes
In Nod, a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, author Adrian Barnes poses a question: What would happen if most of the world's population suffered from chronic sleep deprivation? The answer is that it would lead to mass psychosis and quite possibly a new world order. In this harrowing thriller, the few people who can sleep share the same dream.
This is still in the superearly stages of development. What is known is that both the film and the television rights have been optioned by media giant Fox. It's interesting that they are leaving themselves open to the idea that this could be a series.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Maze Runner is the first book in James Dashner's young-adult dystopian science-fiction series, and a New York Times best-selling series at that. The story is about a teenager named Thomas who wakes up in the "Glade" with no previous memories. The Glade is a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls (to keep out the creatures) with no way out except for an elevator. The next day, a girl arrives in the Glade (the first one ever) and she has a mysterious message about the nature of the world in which they live.
Based on premise alone, the film version of The Maze Runner will no doubt appeal to the Hunger Games audience. It's being directed by Wes Ball, written by Noah Oppenheim and will star Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Sangster and Kaya Scodelario. It's set for a September 2014 release date.
Broken by A.E. Rought
Broken is a reimagining of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It concerns a young girl named Emma Gentry whose boyfriend, Daniel, becomes the latest victim in a series of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town. Of course, Emma naturally becomes depressed, but then she meets town newcomer Alex Franks, who she is strangely drawn to. Even stranger: There are eerie similarities Reviversbetween Alex and Daniel.
The author of Broken, A.E. Rought, reports that her novel has been optioned for an hour-long dramatic television series by ABC Family. This is good news, as the longer format leaves more room to explore the ideas of the novel, which mimic those of Shelley's classic novel.
Reviver by Seth Patrick
Seth Patrick's Reviver imagines a world where raising the dead is not only possible, it's an integral part of society. In fact, forensic revival (pulling the recently deceased back into their bodies for a short period of time) helps capture more criminals: The recently-revived are witnesses to their own deaths and their courtroom testimonies help lawyers put the bad guys away. The thrust of the book itself concerns one particular reviver, Jonah Miller of the Forensic Revival Service, who encounters a terrifying presence while investigating an otherwise routine murder.
Hollywood obviously found the "CSI meets The Sixth Sense" elevator pitch of Reviver compelling and an interesting alternative to the zombie premise. It was optioned by Legendary Pictures, the company behind the blockbusters Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Watchmen.
"Six Months, Three Days" by Charlie Jane Anders
Not all adaptations come from novels. "Six Months, Three Days" by Charlie Jane Anders is a police procedural novelette with an interesting, fantastical twist. It's about a man and a woman who can both see the future, but in different ways. Doug sees the future as predetermined, while Judy sees the several branching possibilities for the future. Both of them know their antagonistic relationship is destined to blossom into love, but only if they can both stop Doug from being killed in six months and three days.
NBC has optioned this for an hour-long drama project, with Eric Garcia (author of Matchstick Men, and the novel The Repossession Mambo) set to write it. It's not clear whether this is a one-off production or pilot, but the premise is terrific and really lends itself well to being a weekly series.
"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang
Another short story that caught Hollywood's attention: Ted Chiang's Nebula Award–winning novella "Story of Your Life," which can be found in Chiang's excellent collection Stories of Your Life and Others. In the story, aliens land on Earth and a linguist is employed by the U.S. Government to decipher their complex language in order to discover their intentions. In doing so, the linguist develops an ability that brings a unique perspective to her life, particularly regarding her unborn daughter.
FilmNation Entertainment and Lava Bear Films are partnering to finance the film, which is being written by Eric Heisserer (2011′s The Thing; Final Destination 5). The director attached to the project is Nic Mathieu.
Posle Širlija, NightShade se baca na opus G.R. Dicksona. Najs. (http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=zy5id4bab&v=001kSkfsfL4g8gPzon7XNr-cCsK9BkIxxp1TQoVLaP7KmSn4th19LSF8DLbRkzaREwgXqazuM2c7aSb4L05xq4DvFc9RHnRIispJ7piqgvmgQj3MlJD40-Crg%3D%3D)
| | | | | | BREAKING NEWS!Gordon Rupert Dickson is one of the most influential Science Fiction and Fantasy writers in American history. Dickson is known by some as the father of military space opera for his Dorsa series, he has published over 100 short stories and 55 novels. Dickson has been honored for multiple awards including The Hugo and Nebula. He served as the Science Fiction Writers of America President from 1969 – 1971. In 2000, he was added to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.[/color]
[/color][/size]We say all of this to say it is the greatest honor to have added the Gordon Ruper Dickson legacy to the Night Shade eBook catalog for the first time in the United States!
[/color][/size]
Night Shade Books
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Jupter Ascending is shaping up to be the big space opera blockbuster of Summer 2014. It's the next project of the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix) and stars Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, and Sean Bean.
Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born under a night sky, with signs predicting that she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning toilets and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along – her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/jupiter-ascending/trailer (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/jupiter-ascending/trailer)
Here's the synopsis of the upcoming Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt film Edge of Tomorrow:
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The epic action of Edge of Tomorrow unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop, forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
The film is based on All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, which is described like this:
When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor called a Jacket and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On his 158th iteration, he gets a message from a mysterious ally–the female soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch. Is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death?
http://youtu.be/vw61gCe2oqI (http://youtu.be/vw61gCe2oqI)
a evo i ekranizacije koju su mnogi zeljno ocekivali:
MTV Nabs Series Adaptation Of 'Shannara' Fantasy Novels With Jon Favreau Directing, Al Gough & Miles Millar Writing
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In one of MTV's most ambitious moves on the scripted side since Susanne Daniels became president, the network has given a script-to-series commitment to Shannara, a drama series based on Terry Brooks' popular fantasy books. The project, from Sonar Entertainment and Farah Films, has Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau on board to direct and will be written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. The trio will executive produce with Brooks and Dan Farah (The Crow remake). If MTV likes the script, it is expected to give the project a straight-to-series order.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/mtv-series-shannara-novels-jon-favreau-directing-al-gough-miles-millar-writing/ (http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/mtv-series-shannara-novels-jon-favreau-directing-al-gough-miles-millar-writing/)
Ok, moram da priznam, ovo je prvi Simons koga bih stvarno uzela da čitam posle ne znam koliko godina otkako sam odustala od njega. (Lažem. Znam. Pet godina. Fakin Endimion.)
The Fifth Heart
by Dan Simmons
Simmons must own a T-Shirt that reads "I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie." He wouldn't know the underside of a 200-page novel if it came up and gave him a papercut. His Drood and The Terror take up a lot of real estate on my bookshelf. But hey, there's nothing wrong with this. I cannot lie: I like big books, too. And now along comes The Fifth Heart, clocking in at 624 pages and with a story just as big: In 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James come to America together to solve the mystery of the 1885 death of Clover Adams, wife of the esteemed historian Henry Adams. If I don't already have your attention, you may as well just move along. Further intriguing me is this snippet from the publisher's synopsis: "Holmes is currently on his Great Hiatus--his three-year absence after Reichenbach Falls during which time the people of London believe him to be deceased. Holmes has faked his own death because, through his powers of ratiocination, the great detective has come to the conclusion that he is a fictional character. This leads to serious complications for James--for if his esteemed fellow investigator is merely a work of fiction, what does that make him?" The First Line, though wordy, is still pretty hook-y: In the rainy March of 1893, for reasons that no one understands (primarily because no one besides us is aware of this story), the London-based American author Henry James decided to spend his April 15 birthday in Paris and there, on or before his birthday, commit suicide by throwing himself into the Seine at night.
Dođavola, zbilja zvuči intrigantno.
izrazito sam nezaintrigiran.
Sasvim na mestu. Još jedan dokaz totalne neinventivnosti u tom delu fantastike. Samo mu kralj Artur fali.
Žodorovski je pre, pa ima već 30 godina, a možda i više, napisao odličan strip na temu lika iz fantazijskog stripa koji iznenada shvata da je lik iz fantazijskog stripa. To je jedina obrada ovakve teme koja mi se zapravo dopala. Simons, ako je ostalo išta od starog pisca u njemu, mogao bi da naškraba drugu. Ideja svakako nije orginalna, kao ni uzimanje Holmsa za glavnog lika, ali izvedba može izvući sve.
Može, ne mora.
Mnjah. Od Simonsa sam digao ruke još od onog trilera sa saobraćajkama.
ovo je toliko ofucano da je čak i doktor zoća to već obradio...
Malo je imbecilno da u trenutku kada tvrdi sf pokazuje kakve-takve znakove povratka na scenu, a horor (u raznim formama i pojavnim elementima) zauzima bezmalo trećinu tržišta, pisac koji se proslavio hororom i tvrdim sfom piše nekakv meta-alternativnu istoriju.
Moguce da je ovo neko vec postovao:
Uglavnom, Penguin Galaxy edicija: The Once and Future King, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Left Hand of Darkness, Neuromancer. Sve do kraja godine. Oko 25e po (HC) izdanju.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/04/12/take-an-exclusive-look-at-cover-art-for-the-new-penguin-galaxy-book-series/ (http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/04/12/take-an-exclusive-look-at-cover-art-for-the-new-penguin-galaxy-book-series/)
Nisam znao gde ovo da stavim, pa ajd ovde, a Boban ako mu nadje bolji topic, nek prebaci. Za ljubitelje Paladinovih izdanja, na sajtu http://www.makart.rs/akcije (http://www.makart.rs/akcije) je trenutno u toku akcija 3 fantasticne knjige za 999 dinara, a spisak naslova ukljucuje vecinu stvari izdatih do sada u Paladinu. Dakle, za maestralno male pare mozete kupiti fenomenalnog Ijana Mekdonalda, Kim Njumena, Kurt Vonegata ili mnogobrojne horor majstore objavljene u Paladinu. Naravno, tu je i gomila zbirki domacih autora, a po ceni od 333 dinara po knjizi, prosto je zalosno ne uzeti nesto.