Novosti iz sveta Fantastike

[PTY]

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.             

[PTY]

We're deep into production on Caitlin R. Kiernan's newest collection,Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. 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").



[/font]

[PTY]

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.)
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.

[PTY]

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. 

[Melkor]

Paul Cornell has a plan for achieving equality of gender representation on convention panels:

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 panel balance discussion here. Chance is unimpressed here. FJM reframes to discuss the problem of "token men" here.

[PTY]

Kathryn Cramer has posted the table of contents 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
• 
  
  

[PTY]

Ne znam da li je bilo već reči o ovome, ali Night Shade se sprema da u maju izbaci novi fentezi serijal: Jeff Salyards.

[PTY]

David Moody has posted the table of contents 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]

[Melkor]

A Virtual Introduction to Science Fiction: April 3rd – July 10, 2012 at Universität Hamburg. [via Paul Di Filippo]

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

[scallop]

A, onda će da ih uče anglosaksonci.

[Melkor]

Ako ikog zanima Cage Match 2012: Round 1 je poceo na suvudu-u

[PTY]

Simpa intervju - Daryl Gregory 

[Melkor]

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 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?

[cepa87]

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

[PTY]

ehhhh, to nije u pitanju knjiga nego tek priča, i koliko znam nije prevedena.

[PTY]

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.

[PTY]

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Official Trailer

[Melkor]

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! 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, 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/ 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

[PTY]

InterGalactic Medicine Show Awards Anthology, Vol. I [Kindle Edition]

Kindle Price: $0.00 includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet

[PTY]

Koji smarački bug...  enivejz, knjiga iz prethodnog posta je trenutno na Amazon besplatnoj listi za Kindle, pa sledite link.

[Melkor]

Iju, radi! Hvala

[PTY]

... i, eto nama i ovoga!!!


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.

[PTY]

Turn It Up To 11: Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books for April
DeNardov predlog na Kirkusu za aprilske knjige koje navise obecavaju... eto ga najzad i Chuck Wendig sa Blackbirds...

[Melkor]

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, 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?

[Melkor]

Hehe, zabavno, VanderMeer lepo sumira radnju (za sada) + Valenteova: 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?!?

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! 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 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!

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. 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.

[PTY]

upsi dejzi, a i bilo je bas vreme za novi "gejt"...  

[zakk]

video sam da se gađaju hejtom, al me uopšte nije zanimalo da se udubim -_-

[Melkor]

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.

[angel011]

To kao ono svađanje kod Dikensa: "Vi ste, gospodine, budala!" 

[PTY]

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! 

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.

[Mme Chauchat]

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:

Although Miéville is clearly talented, he does not work hard enough.

stavila bih u potpis kad bih mogla dovoljno da se investiram emotivno. 

[PTY]

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.    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  ) ko ovaj Damien i odmah se nekako otvori mogućnost da je Prist u pravu i više no što se na prvi pogled činilo.
   

[Melkor]

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.

[zakk]

E ovo je najbolja stvar za prvi april do sada, uglavnom su bile neinventivne gluposti...

[PTY]

 

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.

[Dacko]

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.

[angel011]

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.

[filip_serbon]

^^^ 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.

[PTY]

... 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. 
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.

[PTY]

Watch 10 min Space Battleship Yamato 2199

[PTY]

Night Shade Books 50% off Sale!!!

[Melkor]

A sad to lepo prijavi negde gde radi paypal 

[PTY]

 

[PTY]

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.




Official Trailer

International version

[PTY]

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.

[PTY]

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.



David Moody, author of the best-selling Autumn and Hater 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).



Next is a collaboration between two heavyweights in the British horror scene – Gary McMahon, author of This Is Horror's Novel of The Year – The Concrete Grove, and Simon Bestwick, author of The Faceless. Their story, Thin Men with Yellow Faces will be released in Autumn 2012.



We will be publishing The Fox by award-winning author, 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, 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.

[PTY]

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.

[PTY]

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|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's

[PTY]

By JaymGates | Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at  2:00 pm   Comments (4)REVIEW SUMMARY: A rollicking, weird ride through a vibrant, post-apocalyptic world.

MY RATING:

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.

[Mme Chauchat]

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    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.