BLOG.INNERWORLDSBHM.COM

How do you do this?

Brandon — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:14:00 GMT

Wow! This has gotten away from me. Quick one today and something more over the weekend, maybe even the one I've been drafting in my head for this past April 12 touching on the 150th anniversary of the start of the War Between the States, the 50th of human spaceflight, and the 30th for the Space Shuttle program. Busy day.

For today, just something quick. Here's the first video blog for the filming of The Hobbit.

Hobbit filiming blog #1

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Pretty doggone awesome. You can follow all of the blogs at The Hobbit Movie Blog. Jackson's right, it is very much like time travel. Good thing he's shooting in New Zealand and not China 'cuz they don't allow time travel no more: China bans time travel on TV. This, of course, is the most certain evidence the PRC has already developed time travel and doesn't want to give anyone any ideas.

April showers...

Brandon — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:18:00 GMT

...blood!

Or so would have been my introduction to this post had our original selection, The Greyfriar, (Vampire Empire Book 1) by Clay and Susan Griffith,* remained April's selection. However, circumstances arose which led us to shift it to the May 19th meeting. Into the gap created by the move is A.E. van Vogt 's Slan , a classic of the genre from 1946.

We're growing and changing, looking for ways to expand our activities. Check the links above. I shuffled the header around to add buttons for a Facebook page and to our Goodreads group. Already there's been a little uptick in hits on the site. Look to add April and May listings to Birmingham365 , successor to activeculture.org, tomorrow.

One note of SF/F news: Nicholas Courtney, best know for his role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on Doctor Who, died today. Short of one of the actors who portrayed the Doctor himself, it difficult to imagine a more important loss from the Who acting family. Condolences to his family and fans.

*My apologies to Clay Griffith. Here, on the main page and on the Library page, I mistakenly wrote "Clark" instead of "Clay" as his name. That was damn sloppy and again I apologize for the error.

With a whimper...

Brandon — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:01:00 GMT

That’s how Imagicon, Birmingham’s latest science fiction/fantasy convention died last Friday. Curious as a fortnight earlier in January, everything was still go. The bare-bones announcement was posted on their home page, Facebook, and forum around 8:30 AM. The organizers announced the cancelation and their intention to move the con to Columbus, Georgia next May. That word wasn’t a shock. A couple of Saturdays before, a post about purchasing memberships was deleted rather than answered by the admins of the IC board. That set off the ol’ Spidey-sense and made the cancelation announcement no surprise.

What is a surprise is despite being read nearly one hundred times over the next couple of days, the post elicited no replies. Not one. No lament of IC’s end or anger at its flight from the city. My own reaction was mixed, a blend of “Doggone it” and “Don’t let the door hit you”. But why post that? It’s easy to point a finger at the organizers what could be seen as their weak efforts to promote the event. No updates on their MySpace page or Twitter since last August. A Facebook page accessible only to those on FB. Contrast that with the upcoming Deep South Con 50 ’s page, visible to all. Do you want people to know what’s going on or not? Forget about getting folks to “like” the page. Get the word out. Whether they were victims of circumstance or simply been in over their heads, I never got the impression the people behind Imagicon were anything but sincere in their efforts. They stepped into the breach after the disastrous Omega*Con in 2008 and put on flawed but enjoyable shows over the next two years and are to be commended for the effort. Both cons drew the better part of 1500 people and despite the problems (expenses with the BJCC for IC1, the split venue for IC2), IC seemed to be on a shaky, though positive, track. Guess not. I wish them success in the future, I just wish it were in Birmingham and not Columbus.

The efforts of the organizers are one side of the Imagicon story. The other is the regional fan base. While they showed up for the cons themselves, one has to wonder if there’s enough give-a-damn in the city and region’s fan base to support such efforts. There’s not enough to comment on the con’s passing. All in all there was a rather passive reaction to the effort. Some of that passivity, perhaps most of it, came from a lack of trust. Omega*Con burned a lot of people in Birmingham and within the SF/F community. While they were two distinct organizations, the cons were linked in the minds of many, making the hill Imagicon had to climb to earn trust in its own right all the steeper. If you’re a publisher or an agent, do you want to hang your authors or actors out to dry at some half-assed con? If you’re a fan, do you want to volunteer for one? Uh, no.

What about Inner Worlds? Why didn’t we get involved? It never came up, largely because I never raised the issue. Inner Worlds was created to discuss a book every month, not as a “full service” science fiction fan club. The two years of the con we were still pretty small, less than half our current number (@ 22). Might we have gotten involved? Possibly. But it wasn’t something on the radar. Volunteering to work the con would’ve been something for individuals to decide, not the group. As for myself, the thought crossed my mind. I might’ve squeezed out the time, but feared what impact it might have in other areas, particularly on Inner Worlds. That said, as we’ve grown, it’s possible areas of expansion are opening for the group. There’s some discussion of them now, nothing concrete, so there’s no reason to put those ideas out here, though suggestions are welcome. Which ever direction we choose, that Third Thursday sit down is in my eyes the heart of the group and will remain so.

Okay, that's a little heavy, so here's some dessert. B-Metro, a local magazine has a cover feature on steampunk this month. There's a bigger picture of the cover photo on their Facebook page. I didn't know steampunk was both a fashion trend and a lifestyle. Next thing you know someone will make a something that's a floor polish and a dessert topping. Num-num.

Check out Rene's work on the Pyr blog by reading the first of their Author Round Tables. Featured this time out are Mark Chadbourn (whose The Silver Skull we read in March 2010), James Barclay, and Jasper Kent.

Lastly, what's one of these posts without a reference to GRRM or A Song of Ice and Fire? A refreshing change of pace? Ha! That's funny. While you're laughing, dig these screenshots from A Game of Thrones: Genesis , the upcoming PC game based on the series. Now you can set the game to the state of affairs at the end of A Feast for Crows and play the rest of the series out for yourself. What can I say? Who needs Dance?

[Khan] Give me Genesis! [/Khan]

Dribs and Drabs #4

Brandon — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:30:00 GMT

February's meeting is upon us, though I've felt as if it should've already taken place. Perhaps because I finished The World Inside so long ago. My usual practice is to be polishing off the current selection only a few days beforehand. The book's come up as I've crossed paths with some of the gang over the last week and I'm now wondering if the discussion's going to follow the path I'd anticipated. Thursday will tell.

In the meantime, let's clean out the inbox and roll out a few tidbits from here and there. First, the last post (This one goes to eleven ) mentioned the new fantasy book group moderated by Holley at the Emmet O'Neal Library. The first meeting was small but the discussion of GRRM's A Game of Thrones was interesting. As I understand, the next couple of meetings will be devoted to discussing the other three novels (Clash, Storm, Feast). That way, the group will be caught up and ready to Dance... whenever that happens. Below are their tentative meeting dates for the rest of the year. It's a good idea to check with the library to confirm the dates and times (should be 6:30 pm).

March 24
April 28
May 26
June 23 (may be moved)
July 21
August 25
September 22
October 27
November 24
December 22

Word came Tuesday (2/8) that Brian Jacques, author of the popular Redwall series, had died of a heart attack at 71. While considered a children's series, B&N has always shelved editions of the Redwall books in the science fiction and fantasy section of the stores, a recognition of their broad appeal.

On the lighter side, Mary Anne passed along this mash-up of Star Trek and Monty Python's Holy Grail. It's pretty funny, as is the A-Team one and this one which is based on an old 1950's educational film. Darn that Pete! Heck, while you're wasting time, here's the Fellowship as the A-Team as well.

Just a couple of tidbits on The Hobbit. First is this article about the casting process and second is the announcement of the start of filming on March 21 . Originally, I'd seen reports it was to begin lensing this week, but Peter Jackson's tummy didn't cooperate. Dude had a perforated ulcer. This has been a troubled production off the set for a long time. Let's hope all the major glitches are out of the way and that filthy Bagginses can get about his business at last, Precious.

On the book business front, all signs point to Borders declaring bankruptcy , possibly as soon as Monday (2/14). That's a mixed bag for B&N, who ain't showin' no mercy for their embattled rival. Borders going bye-bye is less competition for them, but its also a sign of the increasing vulnerability of bookstores themselves in the evolving market. Of course, Borders has brought a lot of this on themselves. They were slow to get into the digital market and then did so in a craptacular way. Here's a link to a SF Signal podcast featuring Lou Anders, Sue Lange, Mike Resnick and John Picacio discussing ebooks, their future and impact on the industry, touching on the Borders issue as well. One change is the way publishers are handlng audio rights and distribution. HarperCollins is eschewing CD releases of audio books and amended their contracts to bundle audio rights with digital which could complicate the relationships between authors, agents, and publishers in the future.

A few weeks back, I finished Robert J. Sawyer's Flashforward , which is an interesting book and well worth seeking out although as it features a smoothly running LHC in April 2009 when it didn't carry out its first proton-proton collisions until nearly a year later, it's a bit of a Flashback. One thing I thought Sawyer got wrong was his portrayal of 2009's bookstores. They're essentially cafes where people wait while an onsite machine prints and binds a copy of whatever book they want. Hah!, he missed the whole ebook development completely. Well, sorry, Mr. Sawyer. You may well be right. Meet the Espresso book machine which can cough up a physical copy of any book in its digital files in ten or fifteen minutes. The emergence of this technology alongside the ebook makes the ultimate demise of chain bookstores a real possibility.

I should thank TeleRead for being my new favorite site since I linked to damn near everything on there except Neil Gaiman's thoughts on book piracy being a good thing.

Oh, what the heck. Here you go: Interview with Neil Gaiman about piracy .

This one goes to eleven

Brandon — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:06:00 GMT

January's meeting has come and gone and with it, Inner Worlds begins its twelfth year. 2010 was a year which saw an infusion of new blood and growth for the group and was an excellent start to IW's second decade. With new faces at this month's meeting, 2011 looks to continue the positive trends.

With that growth comes the possibility of change. This month's attendance was seventeen and save for illness and circumstance, would have been twenty-one. We're pushing the space available at Barnes & Noble. Add to that, there is no Community Relations Manager in the store, leaving book groups, Story Time, etc. under the supervision of booksellers alone with (one hopes) only benign indifference from management. While a critical mass hasn't yet been reached, the idea of a possible relocation should be in the group's collective mind. At the moment, the best alternative is a move to the Hoover Library, though other options might exist and none have been investigated. Suggestions and discussion on the point are encouraged.

Speaking of libraries and book groups, Holley, one of our four librarians, reports a nascent fantasy book group forming at the Emmet O'Neal Library in Mountain Brook. The first meeting is this Thursday, January 27 at 6:30 pm to discuss George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones , first of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Let's hope they have a good turn-out and an enjoyable discussion.

Two quick IW related book notes. December's selection, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder and edited by Lou Anders has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award . The award is to be presented at NorWesCon 34 , April 22, 2011. Secondly, Crossed , third in J.F. Lewis ' Void City series slipped in the Hoover B&N a few days early. J.F., a local author who's joined our band of misfits this year, graciously autographed the stock on hand so, if you hurry, you might be able to snag a copy of all three titles.

Lastly, February's selection is Robert Silverberg 's The World Inside and March's The Abhorsen Chronicles by Garth Nix.

Jar Jar Hijinks

Brandon — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:38:00 GMT

Yoosa guys gonna love this. Itsa bombad random!

Based on Cooper's suggestion, let's make a revision to the pool of titles we're picking from. Rather than draw from a huge list of hundreds, everyone picks a book for the Jar. That's up to nineteen titles (if everyone currently active in IW participates) to choose from. A number of balls equal to the titles offered up go in the Jar and we draw from those. When a pick is picked, the picker picks another pick. Rinse and repeat. I'll keep the monster list and get it up on the website for folks to peruse for ideas. It might get up this week as I'm off, but there's a couple of projects ahead of the website in the queue.

I vastly prefer this as it winnows down the choices to those the group wants and increases the odds of each title being selected while keeping things random. So think about it and send me your choice, say, by January 19th. If there happens to be a duplication, say Julie and Robert both suggest The Silmarillion, first one in gets it.*

*No purchase necessary to enter. Need not be present to win. Open to legal residents of the Gould Belt** only.

**Gould Belt? As in System Lords? No wonder SG-1 was able to pick so many off, we're right in the heart of their territory.

I'm curious if anyone can access the ImagiCon forum? The front looks normal, but all I get is a blank page when trying to read a thread. Tried on two machines. Is there anything new on their Facebook page? (I don't want to sign up for FB just to check.) There's only one little bit on the front of their homepage about the artist guest-of-honor for this May's (supposed) con, but that's the only sign of life. They've not even begun selling memberships yet. Smells like they've gone tango-uniform and like Borders, just haven't dropped to the ground yet. C'est la vie.

Looks like a sizable chunk of the cast of The Lords of the Rings will be returning for The Hobbit. The latest addition is Elijah Wood reprising his role as Frodo Baggins in a framing sequence for the films. Peter Jackson's definitely working to tie all five(!) films together as a single piece. I know there's been some issue about Christopher Lee returning as Saruman, but if the dude can take a role in Season of the Witch ("Oh no!"), he can come back for this. Just shoot his stuff in jolly old England and splice it together in post.

Digging up the link for the Wood bit, I saw on Collider that HBO has set a premiere date for A Game of Thrones, April 17. They also have a post with 28 images from the series. Winter's coming... apparently Sunday night here in Alabama. Eight inches of snow and ice!

Okay, I lied about the graphs, but let me pass along the year-end stats for both the main Inner Worlds page and the blog for 2010. You can see the website's had well over 100% growth in the number of visits and while I don't have the 2009 numbers for the blog at hand, it's seen an even greater percentage of growth.

InnerWorldsbhm.com -- Page Requests
Yearly
2009       1189 (4.2 per day -- this number is inflated because I hit the site a lot during the set-up)
2010       3064 (8.39 per day)

Quarter
            Q1        Q2       Q3        Q4
2009    67      252      397      473
2010    454      698      833      1079

blog.innerworldsbhm.com -- Total Visits
1/07/10 - 1/07/11:      4055 (5.42 per day)

As I mentioned in the last post about this, there's no way we'll see the same percentage of growth in 2011 and beyond, but as long as we don't slide backwards, things will be fine.

"Nothing is ever truly lost..."

Brandon — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:11:00 GMT

So Commander Adams (Leslie Nielson) tells Altaira after the death of her father and the destruction of Altair IV in Forbidden Planet. Perhaps that is true. Let's hope so for this past Sunday (1/2/11), ironically and far too soon after the death of Nielson, Anne Francis died . Best known for her role as Altaira, Francis made two notable appearances on The Twilight Zone ("The After Hours" and "Jess-Bell"). She also played the title character in the Honey West TV series for a season on ABC (1965-66). We may not have the Krell plastic educator, but Anne Francis remains alive, microsecond to microsecond, in our memories thanks to her wonderful performances over the years.

Christmas Presence

Brandon — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 04:29:00 GMT

Just a short post to wish one and all a Merry Christmas and hope everyone has a knockout Boxing Day or at least wins on the scorecard. We're closing in on the end of the second year of the revamped Inner Worlds web site and the hits keep coming. We've had our first 1000+ hit quarter and are now over 3000 for the year. For the blog, there've been almost 4000 hits and the daily average is now over five. The visits have trebled this year over last. No way that'll happen next year, but I'm curious to see what does.

Here's a couple of amusing links: Five Sci-Fi Children's Books and some Steampunk Star Trek and for equal time, a few Star Wars steampunk-themed action figures.

Following up on the cancellation of Stargate Universe. There's a wafer-thin chance the cancellation may be a near-death experience for the show rather than a fatal one. At least for the moment. As noted in this article at Gateworld, the show's producers are working along several avenues to find some way to complete the series overall storyline, be that shifting the series to another network or a DVD movie. Let's hope things work out.

Regarding SyFy, here's an article on the channel from a few days ago at TV.com. A lot of fans get kinks in their tails about how the channel operates and has operated over the years. I still hold a grudge for the knee jerk cancellation of FarScape and its replacement by the miserable Tremors series. (Yes, I know that's somebody's favorite show and they love it the way I love Star Trek but they'll get over it.) The network's executives are tasked with making it as successful as possible. They aren't in the business to make science fiction. They're in the business to make money. Science fiction's just the product they chose to sell. And yet, as evidenced in this article and many others over the years, the TV merchants over at The Sci Fi Channel/Sci Fi/SyFy don''t like the product they market and would rather be shed of it and their principle market. It's as if ESPN decided sports fans with their obsession with stats and customs and language all their own--

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--were to be shunned rather than embraced and chose to fill their schedule with home make-over shows and reverse mortgage infomercials instead of sports. What sense would that make? About as much as Hammer and Howe's management of Sci Fi has. If you're invited to a party, don't go, crap in the punch bowl, then complain about the frelling punch. Yet that's the farbot strategy H&H employ.

The changes are worse than the increasing generalization seen across television where History Channel's are History and show less and less of the same, airing a show like The Universe which belongs on Discovery or TLC except there's no room due to the crab-catching and hoarding on those channels. A move to Tuesdays and the fall has cut the ratings of an otherwise successful show (SGU). Move it back to Fridays and the summer rather than cancel it. Oops! Can't do that because there's a wrestling show NBC's gotta find a home for in the old slot and its pulling $olid number$. So, they're doing business with that move and aren't gonna change it. And though some folks grumble, wrestling actually kinda fits on Sci Fi. The entire milieu is that of a comic book (think X-Men with all the soap-opera) and comics are SF/F, no? Even Dragon*Con has wrestling demos, so the crying about that's a bit much. Still, if they're going to have sports, I'd prefer something more SF/F oriented. Rollerball, anyone?

In my opinion, continued erosion of the channel's genre origins is inevitable until it undergoes a complete transformation into something else, much like Discovery Health is about to become the Oprah channel. Either NBC/Universal or someone else will then create another channel to be a "real" Science Fiction channel, much as M2 was developed to be a music channel in the vein of MTV in the beginning, and the process begins again. The only way to stop it is to watch the best genre shows on the channel while shunning the garbage. Let them know you're watching. If you're not a Nielson house, email them to let them know. Don't timeshift with the DVR. Networks make money by selling advertising and if the +3 and +7 numbers look great it's worthless to them because the folks watching them have skipped the commercials. If I'm selling soap, am I gonna by a spot on a show where no one's gonna see it? No. My money's going to ESPN or CBS where college football's doing crazy numbers and people'll see my ads because they're watching live. The nerds can find their own damn soap.

Eight hundred and seventeen words. I must have a different definition of "short" than I do.

Dialing up February...

Brandon — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:19:00 GMT

The Jar of Doom offered up Robert Silverberg's The World Inside . Originally published in 1971, it was a Hugo nominee in 1972. Reading the plot description, the book's very much part of the wave of works arising from the concerns about overpopulation so prevalent in the late-1960's and early 1970's which include Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!, John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar and "The Mark of Gideon ", a third season episode of Star Trek, among others. HBO reportedly began development of a series based on the book last year with former X-Files producer/writer Frank Spotnitz at the helm, but I couldn't track down any information beyond the initial announcement from last August.

Thanks to Laura for the new Jar, well, can actually. It's red and slanted and looks like a magnified firecracker, particularly when filled with a hundred gunpowder-colored balls. Hopefully more bang than bust comes out over the years.

On the television front, Sci Fi Channel announced, or rather tweeted, it had canceled Stargate Universe with half of its second season left to air. Truth be told, I far preferred Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to SGU. The light action-adventure format of those series was well suited to the underlying concepts of the fictional universe, particularly SG-1 which featured aliens parading as ancient gods, primarily Egyptian, fighting for control of the galaxy. That's not to say the show couldn't be dark or heavy (see "The Other Side" or "2010"), but those elements never overwhelmed the series' overall upbeat nature. SGA largely repeated that formula and while enjoyable was too often "more of the same".

That couldn't be said of SGU. The series very consciously broke with the traditional Stargate mix of humor and action within plot-driven stories for a darker, character-driven approach. Conceptually, it's the original SGA premise, a team trapped far from Earth coping with unknown Ancient technologies and a hostile environment, with the volume turned up. I almost wrote "to eleven", but the presence of an Ancient communications device which gives the characters the ability to swap minds with others on Earth undercuts the sense of isolation the crew might otherwise suffer, though arguably, a little contact with home might actually worsen those feelings rather than none at all. The tonal shift between SG1/SGA, and SGU was off-putting to a large segment of a fan base already irritated by what was seen as the unceremonious cancellation of SGA. That series' ratings had fallen from SG1's and the network dropped it in favor of something more in line with its successful and soon-to-end reworking of Battlestar Galactica. The appeal of that approach is readily apparent. Keep a significant percent of the Stargate base audience while hoping to draw a like percent of BSG's fans looking for something of a similar flavor. Unfortunately in many eyes, including mine, the effort to replicate the look and feel of that show was too on the nose. A lot of hand-held camera work, musical interludes, deeply flawed even functionally broken characters. For the first time, we encounter an SG team leader in Young who is incompetent, so twisted up by his failing marriage and the affair which damaged it he provokes an cameo by hardcore Jack O'Neill, unseen for years in any SG show ("Incursion" pt. 2 ). And the lead scientist character rather than being an attractive blonde or humorously arrogant, is a cold-blooded self-serving egotist who would make the original Dr. Zachary Smith blanch. None of those elements are bad and one can empathize with the producers' desire to stretch the concept of the Stargate universe if for no other reason than to challenge themselves creatively. A third series of "Smartasses in Space" might've been a safer bet, but if you're gonna go back to that well, why cancel SGA? Just retool it after the fifth season finale and keep rolling.

Another problem cited by many in the postmortem analysis of the series is its pace. This was something which annoyed me early on. SGU was slow. Much of the first season was scene-setting and world-building. A novelist's approach. That's not a bad way to go, but if you're gonna make me wait for the real fireworks to start, you gotta throw me some crumbs. SGU's first season dropped too few, for me. Few of the characters were appealing and too often there wasn't enough intellectual or emotional reward for sitting through the hour. Another series with a similar approach was Babylon 5, unfolding its story over five seasons. But J. MIchael Straczynski mixed the character and series mythology plot threads on a broad canvas with enough bang and zip to give the proceedings a sense of forward momentum even if all he was doing was shuffling the pieces into place for later use. In SGU's second season, the set-up in its first had begun to pay off. More was revealed of the characters and their universe, and rather than being lost, they had gained some control of their own destiny, no pun intended. With those developments, I'd warmed to the show. Too late it appears.

Regardless of whatever creative issues some in the audience might've had with the series, I think the real nail in the coffin was the move to Tuesdays. For years, Sci Fi's viewers had expected to see a big naquadah gate dialing up a wormhole. This year, wrestling was in its place and SGU went head to head with one of if not the top rated show on cable, Deadliest Catch, during a season when everyone's tuning in waiting for poor Phil Harris to drop dead on Discovery and Glee on Fox. I doubt Sci Fi wanted to kill the show, but with the shaky fan support already, that move was the third zat blast. Poof. It's too bad. I feel for those who had enjoyed the show from the start and regret that for the first time, a Stargate series won't be given the chance to, if not bring its major plot threads to a conclusion, at least make it to a reasonable stopping point. Maybe they'll get a bite at a movie or two to tie things up but with MGM's financial issues, even coming out of bankruptcy, and Sci Fi's limited budgets, I wouldn't bet on it. Barring a miracle, it appears the Gate's shut down for now.

Close the iris.

Jar of Doom

Brandon — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:18:00 GMT

After a protracted debate via email, we're going to start selecting titles by drawing from the Jar of Doom. Not Doom as in Mount or Doctor, but as in "fate".

As the current Jar is a simple plastic container with a flip-top, we need something more suitable. Laura has begun construction of a new one which should be unveiled at this Thursday's meeting so all may revel in its Doominess. Meanwhile, I am painting 100 balls black and numbering them for the book lotto. One hundred titles currently in the JoD (and available) as well as suggestions and Out of the Box posts will go on a list alphabetized by author. A ball is drawn from the JoD. The book on the list with the matching number is our selection. Another from the pile of suggestions/OotB replaces it on the list. Rinse and repeat monthly. To keep things fresh, the list will be recycled at least annually with older titles going back into the reserve pile. I'm also thinking about making two lists, one for even numbered months, the other, oddly enough, for the odd, provided there are enough titles. Also, there will be one white ball in the Jar, a wild card to allow

However, so we could have copies on hand for this week, I took the liberty of drawing from the old skool JoD to determine January's book. What we got is Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds . All future drawings will be done at the meetings, starting with February's choice this week.

Please feed the beast with suggestions for titles. I want folks to have input into the process. If something shows up on an Out of the Box we feel isn't worth putting in the Jar, please bring it up. Some of the current explosion of paranormal/SF/fantasy romances show up there, books I personally don't think are worth wasting our time on. The same will be true for the broader lists. Those will be up on the site once I go through the Jar to cull the deadwood and blend the survivors with the OotB titles and any suggestions. Let me know if there's a stinker on the lists and we'll put it to a vote, on the blog preferably.

Please offer your suggestions here and for certain, this will be a topic for Thursday as well.

Arsenic in Old Lakes

Brandon — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:04:00 GMT

No doubt most have either heard of or read about the recent discovery of GFAJ-1 , a bacterium which can substitute arsenic for phosphorus in its biochemistry. Found in California's Mono Lake, the discovery marks the first time any life form has been seen using an element other than one of the "Big Six"--carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur--as a key component in its biochemical make-up. While not as radical
as finding a creature swapping silicon for carbon or if it were arsenic-dependent as opposed to simply making do with a poison in its system, if the findings hold up , GFAJ-1's existence widens the possible forms life might take and the environments where they might develop.

Once thing struck me after the announcement. As interesting and important as it was, it wasn’t terribly exciting. Oh, it was intellectually stimulating, but at some level I felt as if an item had been checked off a list. Science reached a mark only to find science fiction had already been there and gone. I wondered: Does a steady diet of science fiction dull one's appreciation for real scientific discoveries? Any SF fan has been educated in the possibility of alternate biochemistries for decades. That silcon could be the foundational
element for a life form has been familiar to me since my first viewing of Star Trek’’s “The Devil in the Dark”. The show got most of the details wrong--the high temperatures beneath Janus VI’s surface would break down any silicon-based molecules analogous to the normal carbon-based DNA, RNA, etc.in life as we know it, but the root concept is correct. We’ve read about creatures made of gas, crystal, energy; ones feeding on emotion or radiation. Larry Niven featured a living blob of helium II in his short story “Wait it Out”. The thought
really crystallized when I read a number of posts on SF message boards people criticizing NASA for hyping the announcement. All that fuss for this?

Of course, NASA did no such thing. When the press conference to present a discovery with implications for the search for extraterrestrial life was announced, space bloggers rapidly spun the event into a revelation of life being discovered on Mars or Titan. That the discovery’s complete details were embargoed until the publication of the paper by Science magazine aggravated the situation and expectations spiraled out of control. Welcome to the Twitterverse, where a stampede down a blind alley is just one hundred forty characters away.

Proclamations about life Mars or Titan didn’t make sense. We don’t have the instruments in place to make such a discovery. If we did, the source of the seasonal methane variations on Mars could have been sussed out by now. But what else could it be? We expect the announcement of a extraterrestrial life on Mars to come any time. If anything, it’s past due. So's a radio message picked up by SETI. But if a verifiable one is received will even this announcement comes across as small potatoes, met with an anticlimactic shrug and "What took you so long? Why aren't they here yet?" Every time science checks off an item the sci-fi list of "what outta be", the reaction in some circles is it should have been done years ago and the whole process is running well behind. Maybe I ran across some malcontents (On the internet? Say it ain't so!) and had a "familiarity breeds contempt" moment myself. Some disappointment after a highly anticipated event is a natural human reaction. People expect a lot out of the world, most of which ain't gonna happen. Certainly not now, not in their lifetime and maybe not ever. Those expectations are born from aspirations high and low. We want a better world or we're just bored and want to be entertained. Living through those expectations, absent any action to realize them, is a short trip to disappointment. Worse, the scope and reach of our imaginations is far greater than the possibilities of the real world, it is a shame when reality does equal them and goes unrecognized and unappreciated.

The Krell Strike Back!

Brandon — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:16:00 GMT

This past weekend saw the passing of two very significant figures in the history of science fiction cinema, Leslie Nielson and Irvin Kershner. Nielson is going to be remembered by most for his roles in Airplane! and The Naked Bun films, based on the short-lived (six episodes) TV series Police Squad. For me though, he will always be Commander J.J. Adams, C.O. of United Planets Space Cruiser C57-D in Forbidden Planet.

I'm blocking out a couple of hours tomorrow to watch it again.

Best known as director of The Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kershner in 1994 was scheduled to direct one of the many attempted remakes of Forbidden Planet, this one with Syd Mead as production designer. Props were built, but the production stalled and nothing more came of it. I've long been against a remake, but would have liked to have seen what they produced.

Rest in peace, gentlemen, and thank you.

Looking Forward--

Brandon — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:46:00 GMT

I had a much longer post--witty, erudite, filled with surprising and transformational insight into the human condition--which was eaten by the revised blogging software and resulted in a heated feedback message addressing in detail why things should be let the heck alone. But, you know engineers, they love to change things. Of course, in this case, the god damned computer center feel is appropriate.

November's behind us. As the first rankings came in on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I thought it might surpass the current leader, The Hunger Games (9.29 out of 10), but the second half of the voting pulled it down. December's title is The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. It's also the last of our tradition of members picking a book for their birth month, at least to be read in that month, thanks to this year's growth in attendance. A couple of ideas are floating around about how to proceed (back to the Jar of Doom, hand-to-hand combat, etc.) including a couple which would give everyone a chance to select a title, in birth order, not by month. Some of that we'll hash out via email this week and get a selection for January as well. That'll give me a chance to get copies on hand in the store before December's meeting.

While looking forward to all that, what else? There's always the Green Lantern movie, as well as Captain America. 2011 should bring A Dance with Dragons, though nothing's guaranteed on that front. What is, however, is the premiere of HBO's adaptation of A Game of Thrones. A pictorial preview was in last week's Entertainment Weekly magazine and on their site.

Speaking of magazines, Realms of Fantasy has survived another near-death experience and will continue publication. One begins to wonder if they shouldn't switch exclusively to zombie stories.

The Eternal Doctor -- an OotB special report

Brandon — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:38:00 GMT

Upon seeing a fresh title from a box this afternoon, I immediately made a note to post the discovery as I knew there are folks who read this blog interested in either (a) a book written by Michael Moorcock and (b) Doctor Who. By happy coincidence, the book was Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles by Michael Moorcock. Yeah! Something for everyone! Here's the description:

Miggea - a world on the very edge of reality. The cusp between thisuniverse and the next. A point where space-time has worn thin, and is indanger of collapsing. And the venue for the grand finals of thecompetition to win the fabled Arrow of Law. The Doctor and Amy havejoined the Terraphiles - a group obsessed with all aspects of Earth'shistory, and dedicated to re-enacting ancient sporting events. They aredetermined to win the Arrow. But just getting to Miggea proves tricky.Reality is collapsing, ships are disappearing, and Captain Cornelius andhis pirates are looking for easy pickings. Even when they arrive, theDoctor and Amy's troubles won't be over. They have to find out who is sodesperate to get the Arrow of Law that they will kill for it. Anduncover the traitor on their own team. And win the contest fair andsquare. And, of course, they need to save the universe from totaldestruction.

You'll have to read the book itself to see how it all works out. Enjoy.

Dribs and Drabs #3

Brandon — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:55:00 GMT

Just a few quick bits, a few things spotted here and there or passed to me.

We'll start there first. Lou sent me a link to an interview conducted by Gilian Pollack with three Pyr authors over at BiblioBuffet. The authors are James Enge, Kay Kenyon, and Joel Shepherd and the interview is wide-ranging touching on how they came to be published by Pyr, the nature of their works and places within the genre at large, and the writing process itself. One bit which amused me was reading how Joel Shepard received a letter from an agent's assistant explaining to him why the lead character in his fantasy novel, Sasha wasn't really fantasy because the characters and settings weren't those one would find in a "real" fantasy novel.

Do huh?

We're back to the definitions of a genre or sub-genre from the Swords & Dark Magic discussion. "What qualifies as 'real' sword-and-sorcery?" "What is real fantasy?" Anything that's not science fiction or traditional fiction, except for those stories which are. Why get hung up on the minute qualities of a piece in order to shove it into the proper sub-genre pigeonhole? It's literature, not a letter. The classification doesn't have to be that precise. Just decide if the book's any good.

On a disc included with the latest Vorkosigan novel, Cryoburn , by Lois McMaster Bujold, Baen is offering the whole series along with interviews with Bujold and other materials related to the series. We've read several of the books in the group and they are uniformly entertaining, Getting all that for the purchase of a single book is a great value and if you haven't read the series, one to which I"d recommend giving serious consideration.

NASA researchers have discovered two massive bubbles of gamma and X-rays extending from the core of the Milky Way. At present they have no explanation. Uh, the galactic core exploded . That's what happened. Why else would the Puppeteers be moving their homeworld?

No one will forget, but I'll remind everyone about the meeting next week with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the topic. Pureblood, mudblood, or muggle, drop by to check things out. We don't bite or at least those that do have had all their shots.

Check innerworldsbhm.com for details.

Out of the Box #11

Brandon — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:02:00 GMT

A short one this round. (Ha! Ha! You funny, Dr. Jones!). No links either. Between NaNoWriMo and the job, time's squeezed. I'd be farther along but every night this past week I've passed out at the keyboard.

But first, a couple of links of interest (thanks, Mary Anne). "Muggle quidditch, anyone? For those interested, there's a tournament at the University of Alabama next Sunday. No word if the winning coach will receive a statue among those of the national championship winning football coaches, but I doubt it. It's difficult to imagine Coach Bryant sharing a space with someone who played with quaffles and bludgers.

Now this: "Henry5 makes Shakespeare Sci-Fi." is almost what I'm talking about. There've been several attempted remakes of the classic Forbidden Planet, all of which have so far died or been stuck in Development Hell. Right where they belong, to my mind. FP is a classic (did I mention that?) and was done right the first time. As FP was based on The Tempest, if a continuation had to be done, I've long thought the way to go would be to follow the original and adapt another of the Bard's plays. Titus Andronicus has long been my joking example, but Henry V would be an excellent choice. I'm looking forward to seeing how this effort plays out.

And now the list:

Hardcover

Surface Detail by Iain M Banks. The latest Culture novel.
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
Against All Things Ending - The Last Chronicle of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson

Trade Paperback

Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics by David Kendaly
Legends of the Dragon Realm Vol.2 by Richard A. Knaak
Version 43 by Philip Palmer
At The Queen's Command by Michael Stackpole
Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes.

Mass Market

Enginemen by Eric Brown

Other

Star Wars: Visions. An art book with various interpretations of the characters and settings of Lucas' universe.

"BAGGINS AVOIDS FORECLOSURE"

Brandon — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 01:04:00 GMT

Looks like Bilbo Baggins will be home at Bag End when Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, and the rest of their compatriots arrive at his doorstep for an unexpected party in just over two years. One doesn't know whether to be happy or sad for him. I'm happy for me, that's for certain.

Someone you can be sad for is any fan of Caprica as Sci Fi cancelled to struggling series today. Its ratings had been on a downward trend, averaging less than one million for recent episodes. The move may bode ill for Stargate Universe as its ratings have been only slightly better than the nuBSG prequel's Still, the SG franchise has been the channel's flagship for nearly a decade now and they may not be as quick to kill it. Still, any struggles "Sy Fy" has don't hurt my feelings overmuch as their cancellation of FarScape remains an open wound. They're farhbot if they think that dren's forgotten.

Weak Effort

Brandon — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 14:13:00 GMT

The non-Out of the Box posts here have been sparse lately. Sorry about that. First, I want to thank first-timer Jared for pointing out a couple of issues on the main site, particularly one glaring and embarrassing omission. Who says authors don't need editors or at least a proofreader. It's fixed and if you hadn't spotted it before, I'll never tell. Good to see another new face, have a old one rediscover us and encounter another interested party as well. Our growth over the last year has been astounding and has really given our second decade a great start. I'm curious to see how things go during next month's discussion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling and December's with Mark Hodder's The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack .

Fortunately for me, my weak effort hasn't cost me or hundreds or even thousands of people their jobs. The same can't be said of the wrangling between the New Zealand actors' union and the studio over The Hobbit. Despite the union having rescinded its call for performers to boycott working on the soon to start production duology, the incident has Warner Bros. looking very hard at moving the project to Eastern Europe rather than risk more disruptions once they start spending the balance of the $500 million budget. Here's an interview with Sir Peter Jackson and Phillipa Boyens as well as officials from the New Zealand government:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoUN2AGxrnA />
There's a lot of squabbling back and forth. The actors wanted more money, the studio's just trying to make as much as they can regardless of who they screw, etc., etc., etc. Guess what, everybody's trying to make as much as they can off these films. The two Hobbit films will cost half-a-billion and likely bring in the better part of two billion. Without all the cash flowing, I'm of the opinion none of these dogs would've fought over this bone. It'd be easy to kick the union or the studio alone, but both carry a share of the blame. Is an Australian union inserting itself into a New Zealand union's business? Yes. Did New Line screw with both the cast and Sir Peter financially on the original films? Yes. Should everybody back down before they kill the dragon sleeping on the golden eggs? You bet.

Wait. That's right. They want to kill the dragon in this pic. And who might voice Smaug? I've seen Bill Nighy's time mentioned. I guess that's okay since Richard Boone's not available to reprise the role. The rest of the cast is shaping up. In addition to the returning Ian McKellan, Hugo Weaving, and Andy Serkis (Magento and Red Skull teaming up with King Kong! Look out True Believers, it must be some X-Men/Captain America/Ka-zar mega-crossover!), Martin Freeman (The Office) will take over from Sir Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins. Seven has been strongly rumored for Radagast the Brown while Ten is in the running for a role though I haven't seen which. Oh, Seven and Ten. That'd be Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor and David Tennant, the Tenth. More cast info can be found in this article from Stuff.com.nz and this one from io9.com. As of now, the Battle of Five Armies only about three years away. Start sharpening those axes now 'cuz Khazad Ai-menu, bitches.

The Hobbit's a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, but the long-rumored, commented on, denied third Star Wars.trilogy's a sequel to the original trilogy. Is it happening? Both IESB.net and TheForce.com have posts suggesting it might, though the link on TFN.com is simply a repeat of iesb.net's blurb. Will it happen? Do we want it to happen? Here's the Wookieepedia article on the Sequel Trilogy and the various conflicting reports over the last thirty years or so. I won't be surprised if it does, especially if George Lucas does plan to include any of the original cast. They've aged into their fifties and sixties, now suitably seasoned to play roles decades after the Battle of Endor or for Hamill as Luke, possibly centuries considering a Jedi's Force-lengthened lifespan.

And would one of these posts be complete if I didn't do some flogging for the Green Lantern film? Uh, no. Check out IGN's latest preview which has a couple of nice new pieces of promotional art. One thing missing from their image gallery and that's the recently released shot of Hal's power battery. While still recognizable as a lantern, it's suitably alien no longer resembling something 1940's railroad engineer Alan Scott might have carried.

Lastly, so there might be something at least tangentially literary. Rumors are swirling about a Nook with a color screen coming out soon, cleverly called Nook Color, rumors I was unaware of until Lou asked about it. No one in the know I could speak had any details but a little Dogpile-digging turned up a number of articles like this from CNET . We knew something was up a couple of months ago, but not what, just like we know something's up for the spring, but not what. I suspected a new device because Amazon wasn't standing still with the Kindle and the I-Pad's greater flexibility was a danger to simple e-readers viability over the long term. I think we'll see a convergent evolution with e-readers becoming more like the I-Pad with fully functional browsers and email and texting access so while reading A Dance with Dragon's one might Tweet, "OMG! JAMIE KIA! GRRMs crazy! Cersee'll get herz!".

Hopefully OoTB'll go up tomorrow afternoon.

Out of the Box #10

Brandon — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:29:00 GMT

This catches us up on the newest releases coming through my hands at Barnes Noble. So far, this upcoming week looks to be light, but Friday will tell the tale. Next week is also the October meeting, the topic of which will be Suzanne Collins ' The Hunger Games.

This past weekend, New York ComicCon was held, appropriately enough, in New York. Lots of stuff happened and lots of companies announced lots of cool things to see, read, and buy, but perhaps of most interest to a significant fraction of the Inner Worlds blog was the announcement at the Dell Ray/Spectra panel was that GRRM's only five chapter's away from completing A Dance with Dragons. The goal is to have a publication date set by January. Winter is Coming... next fall maybe? In the meantime, perhaps something below will be of interest.

Hardcover

1635: The Eastern Front by Eric Flint
Kill The Dead by Richard Kadrey . A Sandman Slim novel.
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

Trade Paperback

Entangled by Graham Hancock.
Intrigues by Mercedes Lackey
Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay . New Edition. The Sarantine Mosaic, book two.
Makers by Cory Doctorow New in trade paperback.
Memories of Envy by Barb Hendee
Myth-Interpretations by Robert Asprin on of old stories as well as some previously unpublished pieces.
Never After by Laurel K. Hamilton, Sharon Shinn , Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie Liu .
Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K. Paul
Undead by John Russo, a novelization of the films, Night of the Living Dead and Return of the Living Dead.

Mass Markets

Grave Witch by Kalayna Price
Gwenhwyfar - The White Spirit by Mercedes Lackey. New in mass market.
Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier. New in mass market.
Hunting Memories by Barb Hendee. Second in the Vampire Memories series.
The Book of the Living Dead edited by John Richard Stephens.
The Dead City by Joe McKinney New in mass market.
The Magickers Chronicles by Emily Drake . Second in the series.
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
The Silent Army by James Knapp
Treason's Shore by Sherwood Smith. Fourth and final book in the series.

Angry Robot Dumps

Angel of Death by J.Robert King
Bookman by Lavie Tidhar
The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe
Edge by Thomas Blackthorne
Kell’s Legend by Andy Remic
King Maker: Knights of Breton Court, Vol. 1 by Maurice Broaddus
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
Nekropolis: A Matt Richter Novel by Tim Waggoner
Sixty-one Nails by Matt Shevdon
Slights by Kaaron Warren
Triumff by Dan Abnett
Winter Song by Colin Harvey

Other

The Making of Avatar by Jody Duncan (editor of Cinefex magazine ) and Lisa Fitzpatrick
Trailblazing Mars by Pat Duggins

Early fourth quarter score

Brandon — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:40:00 GMT

This incarnation of the Inner Worlds site was thrown up in late March 2009 just before ImagiCon to give us a better web presence than the old Angelfire site. Really ought to take the head off that zombie. That site's been up since November 2001 and has had only 403 hits, many of those coming from me verifying the infrequent updates look. The current site got nearly that many in September, as evidenced by the charts below.

Month		Number of requests	Number of page requests
1.	March 2009	107	67
2.	April 2009	351	85
3.	May 2009	162	54
4.	June 2009	318	113
5.	July 2009	285	136
6.	August 2009	397	113
7.	September 2009	370	148
8.	October 2009	570	229
9.	November 2009	273	120
10.	December 2009	239	124
11.	January 2010	394	148
12.	February 2010	356	135
13.	March 2010	487	171
14.	April 2010	753	217
15.	May 2010	867	216
16.	June 2010	949	265
17.	July 2010	789	238
18.	August 2010	1,236	292
19.	September 2010	1,057	303
20.	October 2010	222	99

I track the page requests and not the middle column which tracks all requests involved in loading a page - images, etc. March and April '09's stats are best ignored as the site took a lot of hits as I worked on it. You can see some of that on the weekly chart.

See the huge spike on the right side? Confusion and mayhem that is. But as with the monthly chart, the uptrend in traffic especially after the first of 2010 is evident. The blog sides yearly chart shows the same:

Unfortunately it shows only the last twelve months. Before last October, the blog was largely flat. Which is no surprise as there were only six entries and none later than August. October '09's bump in traffic is another outlier. As it stands, the main page averaged about 5.7 hits a day and the blog 3.8 over the last year. Not great, but if growth continues next year at anything like this year's pace, it might get to 10 or even 15!

Whoa, made myself dizzy. Quarterly might be too frequent, but once every six months to a year, I'll throw these stats up so y'all can see where things stand in terms of the site's activity. There's much more info available in the stats, referring sites, bandwidth use, etc. so if anyone's curious about something specific, let me know and I'll see if I can dig it up.

Out of the Box #9

Brandon — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:09:00 GMT

A light selection for entry #9.

Mary Anne warned me in time about Wednesday's PBS' Great Performances presenting a modern day adaptation of Macbeth featuring Patrick Stewart in the title role, but I didn't warn anyone else. However, it repeats 10/11 on APTV at 2 AM. Stay up late! Get up early! Use a DVR or even a VCR!

Also, is The Hobbit delayed or greenlit? If the tag to that LA Times article's correct and MGM and Warner have dropped $45 million on the production, something needs to happen. Warner might be able to take a hit, but even more debt makes MGM an even less attractive buy.

Trade Paper
Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker
The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett

Mass Market
The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe . First in the Wall of Night series
Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson . Yet another telling of Batman and Superman’s first meeting. New in MM.
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
Masques by Patricia Briggs
Patricia Briggs Double Cross by Carolyn Crane . The Disillusionist trilogy booj 2.
Afterlife by Merrie Destefano . Ressurection Chronicles series.
Quatrain by Sharon Shinn. A collection of four novellas.
At Empire's Edge by William C. Dietz. First part of the Uman Empire duology.
Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss. Here's the Wiki article on this title. Note that Edison endorsed it, but not Wells. Well, heck, if somebody wrote a book about how me and my awesome inventions conquered all those heat-ray wavin' AC-usin' Martians you bet I'd endorse it, too.

Out of the Box #8

Brandon — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:01:00 GMT

Running a week behind. Sorry about that. Already have the list for OotB #9 and plan on having it up in the next day or so. It's fairly labor-intensive and I'd look at dropping the posts, but the OoTBs draw more hits than darn near anything else on the blog. Well, except for "Well, There's Your Problem... ". Must be pulling in all the junior Mythbusters looking for a T-shirt or a mug.

Also, I'll be putting up the website/blog's stats for the last year-plus so y'all can get a look at its growth. This past week was the website's most active with 88 hits with September having 303 total, the most ever. For the year, we're up almost 60% (2009 page requests in nine months versus 1189 for twelve). At nearly 700 a quarter, we've got a reasonable chance of getting to within striking distance of 3000 for the year.

Consider that a teaser. It doesn't have the graphs and those are the website's numbers, not the blog's. And now for the reason we're all here:

Hardcover

Out of the Dark by David Weber . Modern Earth is invaded by aliens. With a twist. I know what it is because I skimmed the last pages of the book.
Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist , author of Let the Right One In.

Trade Paperback

Dragons of the Valley by Donita K. Paul
Werewolves and Shapeshifters: Encounters with the Beasts Within edited by John Skipp . Anthology categorized as fiction, but c’mon, man!
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest . Part of her Clockwork Century series.
Twilight Forever Rising by Lena Meydan . A Vampire Clans novel.
Siren Song by Cat Adams . A Blood Singer series novel.
Hungry for YOUR love edited Lori Perkins . Anthology of zombie romance.
Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth . More zombies.
Blood Lite II: Overbite edited by Kevin J. Anderson . Vampire anthology.

Mass Market

Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw
Of Berserkers, Swords, and Vampires: A Saberhagen Retrospective by Fred Saberhagen . New in mass market.
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
ReVamped by J.F. Lewis New in mass market. Book Two in the Void City series.
The Gathering Storm (The Wheel of Time #12) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson . New in mass market.
Jumper Cable by Piers Anthony
The Stars Blue Yonder by Sandra Mcdonald
Left for Undead by L.A. Banks . Part of her Crimson Moon series
Imager's Challenge by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Book 2 in the Imager Portfolio
Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge . Seasonal horror fun.
Poison Kissed by Erica Hayes . Shadowfae Chronicles Fantasy/Romance
The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin . New in mass market
Monster Hunter - Vendetta by Larry Correia
Venom by Jennifer Estep . Elemental Assassin series.
Fangs for the Mammaries edited. by Esther Friesner
Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews . Book 2 of the Edge series

Other

The Wildlife of Star Wars by Terry Whitlatch and Bob Carrau

Out of the Box #7

Brandon — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 01:08:00 GMT

The next in the series. Collect them all!

A few of these are stragglers from previous weeks off a Post-It note found in a pocket or titles that came in while I was on vacation.

Hardcover

What Distant Deeps by David Drake. Eighth in the RCN series featuring Daniel Leary.
Ragnarok by Patrick A. Vanner
Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Trade Paper

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
Rocket Girls by Housuke Nojiri
The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard
Twelve, Russia 1812 by Jasper Kent . This should have been on OotB #6 but was written on a sheet of paper, not on my "official" list.
He is Legend . edited by Christopher Conlon . An anthology honoring Richard Matheson
The Ragged Man by Tom Lloyd. This one got by me.
Transition by Iain M. Banks New in TP

Mass Market

Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey

Other

Avatar 2011 Calendar . Not in 3-D!
The Wonderful Future That Never Was by Gregory Benford & the editors of Popular Mechanics. Science, but another opportunity for those who desire to lament the paucity of flying cars in our civilization.
Zombies vs. Unicorns, an anthology edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier of stories addressing the quesiton of which is better, zombies or unicorns. Zombie Night Before Christmas. When will it end?

For October

Brandon — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:48:00 GMT

Just a quick note to mention October's title. We'll be reading The Hunger Games , the first in Suzanne Collins recently completed trilogy. The meeting's on the 21st.

Here's a link to The Solo Adventures. It's a student film produced at the DAVE School in Orlando which reveals how Han Solo ran afoul of Jabba and exactly what was in the cargo he dumped before the beginning of Star Wars. Very well done and aside from one point, I'd be perfectly willing to accept it as part of the canon. Hopefully, we'll see more of these shorts.

Lastly, the winners of the British Fantasy awards have been announced. They are as follows:

Best Novel: the August Derleth Fantasy Award: One, Conrad Williams (Virgin Horror)

Best Novella: The Language of Dying, Sarah Pinborough (PS Publishing)

Best Short Fiction: "What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night", Michael Marshall Smith (Nightjar)

Best Anthology: The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20, edited by Stephen Jones (Constable and Robinson)

Best Collection: Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Robert Shearman (Big Finish)

The PS Publishing Best Small Press Award: Telos Publishing, David Howe

Best Comic/Graphic Novel: "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?", Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert (DC Comics/Titan Books)

Best Artist: Vincent Chong

Best Non-Fiction: Ansible, David Langford

Best Magazine/Periodical: Murky Depths, edited and published by Terry Martin

Best Television: Doctor Who, head writer: Russell T Davies (BBC Wales)

Best Film: Let the Right One In, directed by Tomas Alfredson (EFTI)

Best Newcomer – the Sydney J. Bounds Award: Kari Sperring, Living with Ghosts (DAW)

The British Fantasy Society Special Award: the Karl Edward Wagner Award: Robert Holdstock

Barring the extraordinary, the next "Out of the Box" should be up tomorrow night.

Dribs and Drabs #2

Brandon — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:29:00 GMT

Cleaning out some tips from the inbox and a few bits from the web before tomorrow night's discussion of Swords and Dark Magic .

By now I'm certain most folks have heard about the Spider-Man Broadway show with music by U2. I don't know about the rest of it, but the song and the Witchiepoo Green Goblin costume seen here are enough for me to swing clear of this neighborhood, friendly Spider-man or not. While we're discussing show tunes, a Klingon opera has opened in the Netherlands. Scroll down the page for an article on a "tractor beam " of sorts as well. At the moment, it promises to revolutionize the bead-moving industry.

Harking back, or perhaps dating back to the original Dribs and Drabs entry, here's the web famous Cleolinda's thoughts on the delays to George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. Of course, football season(s) has nothing to do with it. GRRM's New York teams split this weekend (G-Men won, Gang Green not so much, which of course I like 'cuz my Dolphins swim atop the division at the moment). There's a couple of clips related to the HBO series around and a new blog on the making of the series, http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/

A couple of deleted scenes surfaced, one in script form from Neil Gaiman's Dr. Who script . Continuing with the Doctor for a moment, Seven (Sylvester McCoy) may be in line to play Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit. Ha! Like that's gonna happen. The second deleted scene to be unveiled is the original introduction of Luke in Return of the Jedi. Leaving it out was best. The information's repetitive and it gives away a fun moment later.

A couple of Hobbit notes. Martin Freeman, currently playing Dr. Watson in the BBC's Sherlock may be the next Bilbo Baggins . And I'll be damned if I knew both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had been adapted as a live-action Finnish mini-series Guess it's only fair they got first crack at it since the Kalevala was such an influence on Tolkein's work and through him, so many others..

io9's recent Science Fiction 101 was an interesting series of articles. Particularly the one on ideas, an examination of the issues our culture will confront in the future or perhaps today: see Humanoid Rights from this month's The American Prospect magazine.

Lastly, actor Kevin McCarthy recently passed away at 96. A fine actor, he's by far best known for his role in the original The Invasion of the Body Sntachers. Dr. Bennell can sleep at last.

Victors Hugo

Brandon — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:00:00 GMT

As posted at Locus Online here are the 2010 Hugo Award nominees and winners. Congratulations to all. While being disappointed Lou Anders came in second as Best Editor, Long Form, I'm thrilled Moon took the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form against such stiff competition as District 9 and the style-over-substance " " * and the beautiful but empty Avatar.

Winners of the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were announced at a ceremony during Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Melbourne, Australia, September 5, 2010.

Best Novel (tie)

The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
Wake, Robert J. Sawyer (Analog 11/08-3/09; Ace; Gollancz)

Best Novella

“Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless)
“Act One”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (Subterranean)
Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow (Tachyon)
“Vishnu at the Cat Circus”, Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette

“The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
“Eros, Philia, Agape”, Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
“It Takes Two”, Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
“One of Our Bastards is Missing”, Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
“Overtime”, Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”, Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

Best Short Story

“Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
“The Bride of Frankenstein”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
“The Moment”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints)
“Non-Zero Probabilities”, N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
“Spar”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

Best Related Book

This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)
Canary Fever: Reviews, John Clute (Beccon)
Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees, Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children’s and Teens’ Science Fiction, Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
On Joanna Russ, Farah Mendlesohn (ed.) (Wesleyan)
The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms, Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)

Best Graphic Story

Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm, written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, written by Neil Gaiman; penciled by Andy Kubert; inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State, written by Paul Cornell; penciled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages, written by Bill Willingham; pencilled by Mark Buckingham; art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Moon, screenplay by Nathan Parker; story by Duncan Jones; directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Avatar, screenplay and directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9, screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Star Trek, screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up, screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars”, written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: “The Next Doctor”, written by Russell T Davies; directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: “Planet of the Dead”, written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: “Epitaph 1″, story by Joss Whedon; written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: “No More Good Days”, written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

Best Editor, Long Form

Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Liz Gorinsky
Juliet Ulman

Best Editor, Short Form

Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams

Best Professional Artist

Shaun Tan
Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Daniel Dos Santos

Best Semiprozine

Clarkesworld, edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Ansible, edited by David Langford
Interzone, edited by Andy Cox
Locus, edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fan Writer

Frederik Pohl
Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Lloyd Penney

Best Fanzine

StarShipSofa, edited by Tony C. Smith
Argentus, edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings, edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
CHALLENGER, edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Drink Tank, edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
File 770, edited by Mike Glyer

Best Fan Artist

Brad W. Foster
Dave Howell
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer [Not a Hugo]

Seanan McGuire
Saladin Ahmed
Gail Carriger
Felix Gilman *
Lezli Robyn *

*(Second year of eligibility)

The Big Heart Award went to Merv Binns.

* Note " " isn't a mistake. Perhaps one of the cognoscenti will fill in the blank?