SF Signal has a page collecting links works from this year’s Hugo nomination list that are online for free. This is a great chance to read some of the year’s best speculative fiction - nearly all the nominated novellas, novelettes and short stories are online, and Harper Collins has even put up a substantial preview (71 pages) of Michael Chabon’s alternate history novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.

Out of the stories I’ve read so far, I particularly enjoyed Ted Chiang’s The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate (time travel, Arabian Nights style - also available as a free mp3 podcast episode from Starship Sofa) and Nancy Kress’ The Fountain of Age, a clever and affecting piece of science fiction.

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The Guardian has an exclusive excerpt from Philip Pullman’s latest book, Once Upon a Time in the North, which takes place in the same world as his acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy and a few decades earlier.

The most interesting thing was the bears. The first time Lee saw one slouching casually out of an alley he could scarcely believe his eyes. Gigantic, ivory-furred, silent: the creature’s expression was impossible to read, but there was no mistaking the immense power in those limbs, those claws, that air of inhuman self-possession. There were more of them further into town, gathered in small groups at street corners, sleeping in alleyways, and occasionally working: pulling a cart, or lifting blocks of stone on a building site.

The townspeople took no notice of them, except to avoid them on the pavement. They didn’t look at them either, Lee noticed.

“They want to pretend they’re not there,” said Hester.

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The official shortlist for the Hugo (one of the top awards for science fiction and fantasy books, stories, movies, TV shows, art and more) has just been released. Here are the candidates in the best novel category:

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Halting State by Charles Stross

Link to the full list of nominations

From the Hugo award site:

You do not need to attend Denvention 3 in order to participate in the Hugo Awards. A “supporting membership” will be sufficient to make you a member of the World Science Fiction Society and get you voting rights for both the nomination stage and the final ballot. A supporting membership costs US$50 and you can buy one here.

From the New York Times article:

Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.

Rohan de Silva, an aide to Mr. Clarke, said the author died after suffering from breathing problems, The Associated Press reported.

From his detailed forecast of telecommunications satellites in 1945, more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight, to his co-creation, with the director Stanley Kubrick, of the classic science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Mr. Clarke was both prophet and promoter of the idea that humanity’s destiny lay beyond the confines of Earth.

Full story here.

According to the LA Times, Warner Brothers plans to split Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two movies. Part one will arrive in cinemas in November 2010 and part two will follow in May 2011. It might seem an obvious ruse to add a little more value to the richest franchise in movie history - which has brought in £2.2bn around the world thus far - but those involved insist the decision has been made to serve a story that cannot be properly adapted any more briefly.

Daniel Radcliffe, the series’ star, is quoted as saying “it’s the only way you can do it, without cutting out a huge portion of the book”. He explained that subplots in earlier books could be excised for adaptations, but “the seventh book doesn’t really have any subplots. It’s one driving, pounding story from the word go.”

Link to full Guardian article

SF blog io9 has a list of 8 rules for writing short stories (mostly from a science fiction perspective, but valuable for all short fiction writers).

World-building should be quick and merciless. In a novel, you can spend ten pages explaining how the 29th Galactic Congress established a Peacekeeping Force to regulate the use of interstitial jumpgates, and this Peacekeeping Force evolved over the course of a century to include A.I.s in its command structure, etc. etc. In a short story, you really need to hang your scenery as fast as possible. My friend and mentor d.g.k. goldberg always cited the Heinlein line: “The door dilated,” which tells you a lot about the surroundings in three words. Little oblique references to stuff your characters take for granted can go a long way.

Make us believe there’s a world beyond your characters’ surroundings. Even though you can’t spend tons of time on world-building, you have to include enough little touches to make us believe there’s stuff we’re not seeing. It’s like the difference between the fake house-fronts in a cowboy movie and actual houses. We should glimpse little bits of your universe, that don’t necessarily relate to your characters’ obsessions.

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From Guardian Unlimited:

The Tolkien community was in hysterics yesterday. At least that was the verdict on one of the leading Hobbit websites following the announcement in Los Angeles that Peter Jackson, director of the $3bn-plus trilogy The Lord of the Rings, had signed up to produce two films based on The Hobbit, expected to go into production in 2009.

Story here. The Hobbit will be split into two films, tentatively scheduled to release in 2010 and 201. No director has been chosen yet - Peter Jackson is too busy with other projects, according to an article in stuff.co.nz. Presumably, the leading website mentioned is TheOneRing.net.

Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing writes:

Vernor Vinge has put the entire text of his magnificent, prescient, mind-alteringly good novel Rainbows End online as a free download. This was one of the best books of 2006, a book that practically defines what “post-cyberpunk” really means: stories about what happens when the world (and not the street) finds its own use for technology.

The book is in html format, which means that it can be converted to any number of formats (.txt, .pdb, .pdf…) and read on any open platform - palm pilots, phones, computers, ebook readers et cetera.

Link to html file; link to Rainbows End’s Amazon page