Category Archives: Science fiction/fantasy

Kurt Vonnegut, RIP

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Keren

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the top science fiction writers of the twentieth century, died yesterday of brain injuries suffered from a fall. He was 84.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic.

“He was sort of like nobody else,” said Gore Vidal, who noted that he, Vonnegut and Norman Mailer were among the last writers around who served in World War II.

“He was imaginative; our generation of writers didn’t go in for imagination very much. Literary realism was the general style. Those of us who came out of the war in the 1940s made it sort of the official American prose, and it was often a bit on the dull side. Kurt was never dull.”

Rest in peace.

Link to the Yahoo News article

Posted in Authors, Obituaries, Science fiction/fantasy |

Hugo Award nominees announced

Posted on March 29, 2007 by Keren

The nominees for 2007′s Hugo Award (also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award), one of the top science fiction and fantasy awards of the year, has been announced.  The winners will be elected and announced at this year’s Worldcon in Yokohama, Japan this September.
Here are the nominees in some of the main categories:

Novel
Michael F. Flynn, Eifelheim (Tor)
Naomi Novik, His Majesty’s Dragon (Del Rey; also, Voyager, 1/06, as Temeraire)
Charles Stross, Glasshouse (Ace)
Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End (Tor)
Peter Watts, Blindsight (Tor)

Novella
“The Walls of the Universe” by Paul Melko (Asimov’s, April/May 2006)
“A Billion Eyes” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, October/November 2006)
“Inclination” by William Shunn (Asimov’s, April/May 2006)
“Lord Weary’s Empire” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s, December 2006)
Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson (PS Publishing)

Novelette
“Yellow Card Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Asimov’s, December 2006)
“Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth” by Michael F. Flynn (Asimov’s, December 2006)
“The Djinn’s Wife” by Ian McDonald (Asimov’s, July 2006)
“All the Things You Are” by Mike Resnick (Jim Baen’s Universe, October 2006)
“Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter” by Geoff Ryman (F&SF, October/November 2006)

Short Story
“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” by Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things, William Morrow)
“Kin” by Bruce McAllister (Asimov’s, February 2006)
“Impossible Dreams” by Timothy Pratt (Asimov’s, July 2006)
“Eight Episodes” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, June 2006)
“The House Beyond Your Sky” by Benjamin Rosenbaum (Strange Horizons, September 2006)

Link (via BoingBoing)

Posted in Awards, Contests, Reading, Science fiction/fantasy |

Win a trip to the Nebula awards

Posted on March 20, 2007 by Keren

AbeBooks is offering speculative fiction fans a chance to win tickets to this year’s Nebula awards. The Nebulas are one of the biggest speculative fiction events of the year, and they’re a great chance to hear and meet authors and publishers in the SF business.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and AbeBooks.com have teamed up to give a pair of lucky speculative fiction fans the chance to attend the Nebula Awards ceremony and banquet on May 11-12 2007 in New York. The Nebulas acclaim the best science fiction / fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years.

Anyone interested in buying tickets or getting more information about the event can do so at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website www.sfwa.org . However, you can win a pair of tickets (each worth $125) to the awards ceremony and banquet plus a two-night stay in the Marriott New York where the event is being stayed. Just answer this simple question:

Who was awarded the Nebula for “Best Novel” last year (2006) in Tempe Arizona?

Know the answer (or got Google)? Enter to win here (via Futurismic).  US and Canada residents only, unfortunately.

Posted in Awards, Contests, Events, Science fiction/fantasy |

Steampunk Magazine

Posted on March 4, 2007 by Keren

Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.
Even if we had to make it all up.

SteamPunk Magazine is a publication that is dedicated to promoting steampunk as a culture, as more than a sub-category of fiction. It is a journal of fashion, music, misapplied technology and chaos. And fiction.

The magazine is available in print for only $3, and as a free pdf download. Since it’s published under a Creative Commons license, it’s free to copy, share and distribute.

The first issue is already available, and the magazine is accepting submissions content (fiction, illustrations and more) for future issues.

Link (via BoingBoing)

Posted in E-books, Reading, Science fiction/fantasy |

Oort-Cloud: new sf "social publishing" site

Posted on February 18, 2007 by Keren

Oort-Cloud is a new writing site that lets readers and writers be part of a “social publishing” experiment. It uses web 2.0-style features, such as tag clouds, rss feeds and post rating that makes it easy to keep track of a favorite author and find other good writers.

…authors create and distribute their work, and readers, individually and collectively, including fans as well as editors and peers, review, comment, rank, and tag, everything.

For writers, Oort-Cloud offers….

A place to share experiences in writing, publishing and help one another in dealing with the challenging decisions associated with copyright.

A place to reach out to readers, develop stronger ties to them, find new ones, and keep them up-to-date about new and coming works.

A place to learn what ideas and issues readers are interested in.

A place to help readers understand the issues concerning writers, especially in light of intellectual property issues.

A place to share opinions about trends in science-fiction and encounter new ideas that might inspire new creativity.

Oort-Cloud is geared mainly toward science fiction and fantasy writers, but genre definitions are flexible: “there’s nothing to say your science-fiction or fantasy contribution could not also be, in part, a romance, mystery, horror story, or even a western.”

Link (via BoingBoing)

Posted in Resources, Science fiction/fantasy, Websites |

Article at IGMS details the pros and woes of book to movie adaptations

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Heidi Kathleen

Here’s how it works: a producer or production company “options” a book — that is, buys the rights (typically for several thousand dollars) to adapt the book for a period of time (typically from eighteen months to two years). If the producers have not adapted the book when agreed-upon the period of time lapses, the rights revert back to the author. [3] Books are optioned far more than they are produced, and some books have been optioned more than once. But sometimes, a book manages to slog its way through the development process and get filmed.

Is this a good experience for an author?

The rest of the article can be read here.

Posted in Articles, Film, Movie Adaptations, Science fiction/fantasy |

Director hopes Tolkien approves of Lord of the Rings musical adaptation

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Heidi Kathleen

“That was a magical moment,” director Matthew Warchus told reporters on Thursday when presenting to the press the 50-strong cast of what is being billed as the most expensive musical ever staged in London.

“I visited his grave in Oxford to apologize and get his seal of approval. I apologized in case he didn’t like the idea of a stage show,” the British director said.

Link to the rest of the Yahoo! news article.

Posted in Articles, Plays, Science fiction/fantasy |

Harry Potter 7 date announced

Posted on February 1, 2007 by Keren

Anticipation over the ending of the best-selling Harry Potter series reached new heights today as J. K. Rowling announced today on her site that:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on Saturday 21st July 2007 at 00:01 BST in the UK and at 00:01 in the USA. It will also be released at 00:01 BST on Saturday 21st July in other English speaking countries around the world.

BBC News says:

[Bloomsbury] said it would publish a children’s hardback edition, an adult hardback, a special gift edition and an audio book on the same day.

As well as making Rowling a dollar billionaire, the books have been credited with bringing children back to reading and reviving the British film industry.

Posted in Articles, Authors, Book Release, Children's books, Reading, Science fiction/fantasy, Upcoming releases, Young Adult |

Song of Ice & Fire to be adapted for TV

Posted on January 20, 2007 by Mark

From Variety:

HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy series “A Song of Fire & Ice” into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

“Fire” is the first TV project for Benioff (“Troy”) and Weiss (“Halo”) and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

View the full story here.

Posted in Movie Adaptations, Science fiction/fantasy |

British science fiction award shortlist released

Posted on January 16, 2007 by Keren

The shortlist for the annual British science fiction award had been released.  Awards will be given in three categories: novel, short fiction and artwork.  The awards will be presented at Eastercon on April 7.

There’s also a recommended reading list of non-fiction works.
Link to the shortlist (via BoingBoing)

Posted in Awards, Contests, E-books, Reading, Science fiction/fantasy |