Sharing Goodies from My Inbox

The finale of the first season of The Minister of Chance, my favorite audiphonic sci-fi series, will be available for public consumption in a week.

For now, here's a message from Clare Eden which includes cast and crew profiles and interview snippets with Julian Wadham and The Hobbit's Jed Brophy.

*****

I have to admit I had to agree with the angle posed to me in this review request - where's the sci-fi with black female protags? Indeed! The digital series, Jayde, looks promising, though not as sci-fi for my tastes - unless they're leaving the more sci-fi bits out of the trailer. The About page speaks more to a tale of a woman with supernatural visions who uses them to help others. Can you say Medium? But they do hint at her discovering answers to her past, though it's not clear whether that will be more sci-fi or just more supernatural. But give the trailer a look and decide if it's worth throwing some money at to see more. 

***** 

Here's a sci-fi entertainment podcast from Down Under.

Hosted by Sophie Lapin and Topher Willis, Go Pop provides a unique take on the latest sci-fi and pop culture topics that the SF audience and broader sci-fi fans are talking about. The show will go live every Friday afternoon. SF has commissioned ten shows.

“Go Pop is an evolution of the content available on the SF website and social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,” said Peter Hudson, CEO of SF.

“Go Pop will promote discussion, interaction and connection for our SF audience online as Sophie and Topher present a fresh take on science fiction and the latest television, film, gaming and comics”, said Mr Hudson.

Go Pop can be viewed at www.sftv.com.au/GoPop [if you're in Australia] and www.youtube.com/sftvau [if you're not].

Or right here...

*****

Phoenix Picks is featuring a Nancy Kress book this month! I might just have to get that one myself! Nancy Kress’ AI Unbound: Two Stories of Artificial Intelligence can be had for the coupon code
9991976 through May 31st. Pop the code into Phoenix Picks' online catalog.

“Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-two novels and numerous short
stories. She is perhaps best known for the Sleepless trilogy that began
with Beggars in Spain. Her fiction has won four Nebulas, two Hugos, a
Sturgeon, and the 2003 John W. Campbell Award (for Probability Space)."

The second issue of Galaxy's Edge is out and includes Gregory Benford as a new regular columnist!

*****

Finally, who's the bigger sell-out? Zachary and Leonard for jumping in bed with Audi or me for posting it? But it IS amusing.

DIY Time Machine, Nostalgia and Comedy Relief

I surfed YouTube, so you don't have to. :)

Have you always wanted your own DeLorean Time Machine? Why not build one? Personally, I think some people have too much time on their hands. I'm waiting for the working version. I can think of a lot of cool things I could do with a time machine. History beware!



And here's a bit of nostalgia for those who remember, and a funny look into the past for those who don't.



Finally, a little comedy relief from the original Star Trek.

STNG celebrates a birthday - at the movies

This just in from Pure on behalf of Fathom:

“Boldly go where no one has gone before” and don’t miss the only opportunity to see two of the most popular Next Generation episodes, Ep. 106 “Where No One Has Gone Before” and Ep. 114 “Datalore” on the big screen.

NCM Fathom and CBS TV are coming together to present a special one night event to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This special event will include exclusive looks at the massive restoration of season one, never-before-seen interviews with the original cast members and behind-the-scenes looks at the artists who created the original FX elements and photography during the making of the show. Audiences will also be privy to an unseen sneak-peak of “Measure of a Man.”

Set in the 24th century, The Next Generation was created by Gene Roddenberry over 20 years after the original Star Trek series. The Next Generation became the longest running series of the Star Trek franchise, consisting of 178 episodes over 7 seasons.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 25th Anniversary Event is the first opportunity to see this transcendent digital presentation like no man before, in movie theaters, on Monday, July 23rd at 7:00 PM (local time) with additional late night showings at select movie theater locations.

If you have any questions, please let me know. For more details and ticket information, visit www.fathomevents.com

We’ll see you at the movies!

The July Free Phoenix Pick is here! 

Joan Slonczewski’s Daughter of Elysium

The coupon code is 9991545 and will be good from July 2 through July 31.
Links for downloading the book (as usual) from our online catalogue,
www.PPickings.com

Brief description of the book:

The pristine city of Elysium floats on the water world of Shora, inhabited
by 'immortals' who have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of life.

Outsider Blackbear Windclan wants to share the secret of immortality with
his own people, but can he, and the City of Elysium, survive the
corruption and decadence that immortality has bred into the ageless
society?

And what of the consciousness of self-aware nano-sentient servitors and
their quest for vengeance?

"An enormously impressive achievement...A marvelous array of cultures
presented in astonishing depth"—Kirkus Review

And this is just too fun.

Happy Anniversary Star Trek!

On Sept. 8, 1966, the first episode of Star Trek ("The Cage") aired heralding a new era of science fiction TV. Star Trek was every bit as ground-breaking as "All in the Family". It touched on social issues in ways like only science fiction can. Creator Gene Roddenberry often put humans, or even aliens, in situations that challenged their morals, tested their beliefs and shined a spotlight on their shortcomings. In Star Trek, Roddenberry dared to imagine humanity rising above greed, materialism and racism.

Forty-five years later, his influence continues. The Science Channel is paying tribute to Roddenberry in Trek Nation, a documentary airing Nov. 30th that follows Roddenberry's only son, Rod, as he "explores his family legacy and the crusade his father’s passion and curiosity for exploration."

Here's a sneak peek:



And because we can never get enough, here are three of my favorite scenes. Enjoy!

Renovation revisited and more con news

I find, several days later, refreshed and regrouped, I have more to say about Renovation, the Worldcon in Reno last weekend. I mentioned getting a chance to meet all kinds of cool authors face to face whom I had only virtually met. Well, what do you care? Let me tell you now, why you should care.

I have promises of interviews from:
Madeleine Robins
Steven Gould
Scott Edelman (editor)
David Boop
Harry Turtledove

Look for those to roll out soon.

I also scored copies of The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley and Brenda Cooper's Mayan December. You should check out the cover of Mayan December. The woman on the front looks like Zoe from Firefly. Not exactly, but the expression is what does it. I'm looking forward to reading them both.

I let slip that I review books while in the dealers room and before I knew it, was inundated with books. Yikes! I'm sure some of them will be worthy of a review at Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys. One guy, however, was so desperate for a review that he insisted his self-published historical fiction was alternate history. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

I requested Harry Turtledove's latest from the publisher as it's silly SF. I can definitely go for that.

I didn't make the Hugo Awards, but heard about this highlight and found the video. Chris Garcia - best acceptance speech ever!

Scholastic emailed me when I got back requesting reviews of their titles, so you may see some YA reviews in the near future here at SFOO.

And in other con news, FOGcon is back! I went to the first one in San Francisco last year and they just announced their plans for 2012 after Renovation. The second annual Friends of the Genre Convention will be held in Walnut Creek, CA (East Bay) March 30 - April 1. The theme for 2012 is The Body. Registration is open and memberships are $60/adult.

From their first progress report, here are their Guests of Honor:

Nalo Hopkinson, Honored Guest

NALO HOPKINSON, born in Jamaica, has lived in Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana and for the past 30 years in Canada. She is the author of four novels and a short story collection (_Brown Girl in the Ring_, _Midnight Robber_, _The Salt Roads_, _The New Moon's Arms_, _Skin Folk_). She is the editor of fiction anthologies _Whispers From the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction_, and _Mojo: Conjure Stories_. She is the co-editor of fiction anthologies _So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction_ (with Uppinder Mehan) and _Tesseracts Nine_ (with Geoff Ryman). Hopkinson's work has received Honourable Mention in Cuba's "Casa de las Americas" literary prize. She is a recipient of the Warner Aspect First Novel Award, the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for emerging writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the Locus Award for Best New Writer, the World Fantasy Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the Aurora Award, and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. She was the Guest of Honor at the 2011 WisCon.

Shelley Jackson, Honored Guest

SHELLEY JACKSON is a writer and artist known for her cross-genre experiments, including the groundbreaking hypertext _Patchwork Girl_ (1995). Her works deal with issues of the body, displacement, touch, and desire. Born in the Philippines, Shelley Jackson grew up in Berkeley, California. She is the author of several hypertext novels, including _Patchwork Girl_, a non-chronological reworking of Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_, as well as the autobiographical _My Body_ and _The Doll Games_, which she wrote with her sister Pamela. In 2001 she received the Electronic Literature Award. Shelley Jackson's short story collection, _The Melancholy of Anatomy_, appeared in 2002. A year later, she launched the "Skin Project", a novella published in the form of tattoos on the skin of volunteers. Her first novel, _Half Life_, won the 2006 Tiptree Award.

Mary Shelley, Honored Ghost

MARY SHELLEY is best known for her pioneering novel _Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus_ (1818), often considered the first science fiction novel. She wrote the book while she was 18, unwed, and pregnant with her first child. Given that her own mother had died in childbed when Mary was only 11 days old, the terrors of pregnancy and childbirth are a powerful theme in the text. Her second novel, _The Last Man_, is also science fiction: it is a portrait of the end of the world from a plague in the 21st century. Mary Shelley moved in the first intellectual circles of her day. Her father was the political theorist William Godwin; her mother, the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, author of _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_; family friends included Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Leigh Hunt. Before she turned 17 she eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was married and the father of two children. Their friends included Lord Byron. She traveled widely and wrote several books about her journeys. Although her later books are overshadowed by the fame of _Frankenstein_, she continued writing novels, essays, poetry, and criticism throughout her life, as well as editing her husband's papers. She died, aged 53, of a brain tumor.


And two more tidbits...
Gameforge, which just hit 300 million registered players, launched a new ommunity-based, free-to-play Star Trek Q&A game. More information at www.keengames.com.

Kindle users can now download the digest edition of Fantasy and Science Fiction for free. That's the good news. The bad news is that you get all the editorial goodies but only one story. You can get the full edition for $12/yr.

PBS's "Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction"

Check out this PBS show, featuring several of our perennial favorite science fiction television creators and stars. The show, an episode of season two of Pioneers of Television series about television history, aired earlier this week. It will be showing again tonight (Thursday, January 20th), at least on my local channel and probably on yours, and will likely show at other times in the near future. Check your local listings or favorite on-line television schedule for details.

The focus of the show is on breakout programs of the 60's, including The Twilight Zone, Lost in Space, and of course Star Trek. Interviews with several of the stars of those shows are included, as are posthumous interview clips of Rod Serling. I especially enjoyed the comments from Bill Mumy (of "Lost in Space", "The Twilight Zone", and my personal favorite, "Babylon 5").

At the end of the show, there is an interesting "extra feature", a timeline of key science fiction television milestones of interest, from the fifties through the seventies.

While not All Inclusive, this show is interesting, fun, and respectful, not only of the shows and their creators, but of the challenges of the times. Die hard science fiction historians will probably not make any bold discoveries watching this program, but the show is still well worth watching. Kelsey Grammer's narration is masterfully soft-spoken, unobtrusive and sincere.

You can try playing the TV Guide clip or the original PBS preview play of the show on your browser if you need more convincing to check this out.

- D. E. Helbling

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To Remake or Not to Remake

That is the question. A friend on a totally unrelated channel (some whimsical fad site called Facebook) complained recently that "they" were doing a remake of True Grit, the classic John Wayne western. Said friend and his armada of cohorts suggested that only The Duke is The Duke, and that this movie (and by implication ALL John Wayne movies) should definitely not be remade. Since I abhor controversy, I quietly stepped away from the thread. (lie lie lie)

The whole "discussion" did get me thinking, though, about what is and is not a good remake, and just what is it that makes a science fiction movie a good candidate for a remake? I had to ask myself: are the rules any different? Are there any of my favorites that I would cringe to see redone? Would someone want to or dare to remake Fritz Lang's 1927 classic Metropolis (pictured here)?

These questions required raw data for further analysis. Yes, I am afraid that it just begged for yet another list, the D. E. Helbling Top Ten Favorite Science Fiction Movies List, of course! That list is, in order from Mostest Loved:

• Deep Impact (1998) (IMDb)
• Independance Day (1996) (IMDb)
• When Worlds Collide (1951) (IMDb)
• Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (1986) (SEQUEL) (IMDb)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996) (SEQUEL) (IMDb)
• The Matrix (1999) (IMDb)
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) (IMDb)
• Soylent Green (1973) (IMDb)
• War of the Worlds (2005) (REMAKE) (IMDb)
• Minority Report (2002) (IMDb)

"What!?" You ask: "Where is Star Wars?" Oh, now what? Now you are demanding more DATA to support my guidelines? The list is not long enough to impart great wisdom on the proper science behind making science fiction remakes? Dang you all to purgatory ... you are forcing me to cough up more information just to prove my point. OK, OK, here is the rest of what now constitutes The D. E. Helbling Top Twenty Five Favorite Science Fiction Movies List:

• Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) (IMDb)
• The X-Files (the movie) (1998) (IMDb)
• The Omega Man (REMAKE) (1971) (IMDb) (Original: 1964's "Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price)
• Outland (1981) (IMDb)
• Johny Mnemonic (1995) (IMDB)
• Dr. Strangelove (1964) (IMDb)
• Men in Black (1997) (IMDb)
• Jurarassic Park (1993) (IMDb)
• The Postman (1997) (IMDb)
• The Man in the White Suit (1951) (IMDB)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) (REMAKE) (IMDb) (Original : apparently 1905's version, with several other remakes before and after)
• War of the Worlds (2005) (REMAKE) (IMDb) (Original: 1953's version, all of them of course derivative of the radio play version)
• Altered States (1980) (IMDb)
• This Island Earth (1955) (IMDb)
• 2010 (1984) (SEQUEL) (IMDb)

Now before you flame me on the content of the list, remember I did not say these were The Best. They are my Favorites. This is indisputable, and subject to change on a sometimes hourly basis. How does this play into the whole to "To Remake or Not to Remake?" question? Thanks, straight man on the sidelines, for asking. Let's assume for the moment that the reason a movie studio would do a remake is to make money. This will be the Business Motivation. But what about the the actual moviegoer, the science fiction fan? Do the producers and studios care? Surely some do. There are many such film projects where the love shines through. Assuming all the business and marketing concerns were already assessed, here are some reasons why I imagine Hollywood movie producers might go for a remake and presume the fans will come along for the ride:

1. The original movie has a really good story, but is largely unknown to current (under 30 years old) audiences, barring uber-nerd science fiction movie historian types, so it would seem new to these current ticket buyers. And we would not have to come up with a new idea!


2. The original movie was quite popular, even successful. With a cast of recognizable faces, backed by more current special effects technology, this cow could be milked again. And we would not have to come up with a new idea!


3. The original movie sucked quite badly, but it made a few bucks. With a cast of recognizable faces, backed by more current special effects technology, this cow could be milked again. And we would not have to come up with a new idea!


4. Few people heard of and no one cared about the original movie, but with a cast of cheap actors and a few cheesy effects, this cow might be milked more successfully this time around, even if it goes straight to video and cable TV. And we would not have to come up with a new idea!


5. The original movie was great over in Finland/Serbia/UK/Australia/Russia (insert favorite film-producing non-US country name here), and with some recognizable faces and some quantity of effects, we can make it seem like we did it first. And we would not have to come up with a new idea!

Sensing a theme? Let's hope you are not lactose intolerant, cuz yes, it sure tastes like there is a whole lotta milkin' goin' on. Sorry, no seriously harsh intent here. I sincerely love most of the new movies that are coming out. From my list of faves above, you can see there are number of remakes and sequels in the lot. So I am not by any means Remake Hostile. I am particularly interested in seeing certain movies remade, with fresh cast, with updated PC-ness or lack of PC-ness, with better effects. In a few cases, I have found previous remakes to be vastly superior to the originals, but never because of the effects ... usually because the script updates and the actors made the story more relevant or more real to me than the originals. So, what are my go-nogo rules for remakes?

1. If the original movie was done in the last twenty five years, or any direct sequels were done in the last twenty five years, wait another five years and ask the the questions again ... OR ... make another sequel .... OR ... make a prequel.


2. If the original movie sucked, but the story was good, do the remake!


3. If the original movie was good, but the story sucked, do the remake!


4. If the original movie sucked and the story sucked, do NOT do the remake unless you need a financial loss project for tax purposes.(How else can you explain The Langoliers ?)


5. If the original movie was good or bad or indifferent and the story was or was not good, but the project keeps my favorite actors, writers, and producers employed (sorry, that's another list for another day), do the remake!

Given these criteria, which of the above list are actually eligible for remakes? Only these:

• When Worlds Collide *
• Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
• Soylent Green *
• Outland *
• Dr. Strangelove
• This Island Earth
• The Man in the White Suit
• Altered States

A perhaps interesting coincidence ... IMDb suggests that at least a few of them (see *) actually have a remake "in development". Even Metropolis appears to have one such movie bun in the studio oven. Since I have no IMDb Pro account, I cannot see the details on these movies of the future, but I can certainly look forward to them, with anticipation, anxiety, and perhaps a bit of outright terror. Or not.

This whole dissection process had me scratching my head, trying to see patterns where there were none, to sort out the chaos where there were too many patterns. Then I went back and read the original thread on that Facebook fad website page thingee ... and I finally got it. They didn't care about the movie True Grit per se ... they objected to the idea of someone else playing a character that they so firmly pictured in their minds, a character they had come to love, as he was portrayed by The Duke.

Now it all made sense.

I tried to picture Dr. Strangelove without Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones. Even if I did substitute a Jeff Bridges, a Matt Damon, a Josh Brolin, all of whom I thoroughly enjoy as actors (and all of whom are in the new True Grit), I could not imagine them replacing Peter Sellers' Captain Mandrake, or his President Muffley, or his Dr. Strangelove. Same for George C. Scott's General 'Buck' Turgidson, Slim Pickens' Major Kong, or James Earl Jones' Lieutenant Zogg. And who other than Stirling Hayden could so aptly convey General Jack Ripper's keen obsession with "vital fluids"?

I will have to face this same struggle with any remakes of When Worlds Collide, as I cannot easily picture a more suave, yet sincere David Randall than the one delivered by Richard Derr. And Barbara Rush as Joyce Hendron ... no, there cannot be another! Someday, when I am older and greyer and more round, I will be bemoaning the replacement of Will Smith, Tom Cruise, and Keanu Reeves, because it is actors who bring our wonderful science fiction characters to life. It is actors who make the just OK stories interesting and the great stories unforgettable. But that doesn't make the remakes bad. Every generation can and should lay claim to their own list of Favorites.

Someday my children and my grandchildren will, if all is right with the world, form their own lasting, unerasable memories of outstanding acting portrayals in future remakes of remakes of truly awesome science fiction movies, including Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and yes, even Star Wars.

May we all live long enough to see 'em ...

- D. E. Helbling

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Fantastical coastal scenes, fantastical shows coming

We've just returned from a lovely vacation in Pt. Arena. It rained off and on the whole time we were there, but it's so much more dramatic and scenic at the ocean when it storms: the crashing waves, the waving cedars, the circling gulls. Some of the things we witness were a bit fantastic. Don't these things look alien? They reminded us of Kolob & Sylvia from Star Trek's "Cat's Paw" episode.

Photo by Patrick Wilkes

Watch this video and see what you think.

On the way home I wasn't able to get my camera out fast enough for the bird cloud. They actually made three different shapes while we watched. One looked like shmoo. And then shmoo lost his head, then it went back into an ovoid. It was the biggest, most fantastically orchestrated one I've seen. I just wish I could have shared it with you all. But fear not, I found an even more impressive one to share with you.

Don't know what I mean by Shmoo? Here you go:

I'm excited about the new U.S. Being Human. I love the UK one and don't think this one will be better, but at least I can double my pleasure.

TNT is getting into the whole spec fic scene with a new Steven Spielberg series premiering in June of 2011. From the description of the show, Falling Skies sounds like fans of Jericho and Invasion got together and collaborated. I miss them both. The only problem here is the commercials. My nickname for TNT is Too Nany Tommercials. But for Stephen Spielberg, I can make an exception, especially since I can record it on the DVR and zap through them. For now they're building a web comic and have a journal written by one of the characters.

FALLING SKIES opens in the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an insurgency campaign called 2nd Mass against the occupying alien force.

Written by Paul Tobin and illustrated by Juan Ferreyra, the Falling Skies Web Comic will bridge the gap between the 12-page Falling Skies comic released at New York Comic Con. Be sure to check back every two weeks for a new chapter.

Paul Tobin is a writer from Portland, Oregon, who works on Marvel Comics titles such as Spider-Girl and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, among many others. In addition, Paul works for Dark Horse (Predators movie adaptation, Conan) and DC Comics, and has an upcoming graphic novel (Gingerbread Girl) from Top Shelf, created in collaboration with his wife, artist Colleen Coover. Paul is also very bald and works on novels.



Juan Ferreyra began drawing comics with Small Gods for Image, and then Emissary and Lazarus for Image's imprint Shadowline. He worked on Dark Horse's Rex Mundi while at the same time coloring Conan and the Midnight God and Solomon Kane: Death's Black Riders. Now he's working on a creator-owned book called La 6ème heure for French publisher Soleil. He lives in Argentina.



Andrew Dalhouse made his first appearance coloring comics with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for Avatar Press. Andrew followed this macabre masterpiece with such books as Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution, Lady Death, and Hack/Slash, to name but a few. Mr. Dalhouse's work currently can also be found in Disney's Darkwing Duck, Boom's The Incredibles, and Dark Horse Comics' The Occultist.



Nate Piekos, AKA Blambot, graduated with a BA in design from Rhode Island College. Since founding blambot.com, he has lettered comic books for Marvel, DC, Oni Press, and Dark Horse. Nate's designs have also been featured worldwide in print, on television, and in feature films.



For more information visit www.TNT.tv

Trekkie giveaway and NaNo kudos

First of all, my heartfelt congrats to all those who participated in NaNoWriMo, whether you stayed the course or not. I didn't, but I did learn something. I'm a short story writer. At least for now. I love writing them, especially flash. Maybe I should rejoin Other Worlds Writers' Workshop, so I can do their semiannual SSIAWs (Short Story in a Week challenges). I wrote some really good stories with those. Well I think they were. And most of them were published.

And the winner of the copy of Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall is... Shauna Roberts. Congrats!

Alas, no one guessed the bonus question. I guess I get to keep another Quirk poster. Darn! ;) What was the question, you say? Who was the talkative, blue crew member on Star Trek Next Gen? That's the Bolian barber, Mr. Mott. Captain Picard even posed as him - in name, not color - on the "Starship Mine" episode.

Here he is, a little more than 3 min. into this clip from "Schisms".

The Gift of SF – It’s Not Just for Birthdays, Arbor Day, and Easter Anymore

Today is, of course, the day we in the US celebrate Thanksgiving. The Canadians, ahead of us in so many more things than we willingly admit, already did theirs, Jour de l'Action de grâce, last month. But it's never too late for a party. After we finish the turkey (or ham), the fixin’s, the pie (or pies), the football game (or marathon Risk game), and the perfunctory family chats about holidays of yesteryear, eventually our minds turn toward the other part of this weekend’s traditions: Black Friday. Tomorrow, some of us will be up at pre-dawn, joining the rest of the “Open Open Open!” crowd for that great bargain price on the latest electro-high-def-wonder-spiffy-amazing gizmo. Still others of us will be at home, cowering in fear for what our significant others are doing to our cumulative credit card debt.

Yet there are other ways to gather your holiday gifts, ways that say “Enjoy!”, “Live life!”, and “Celebrate!” without busting the bank or forcing you to merge with the larger herd of shopping frenzied humanity. Yes, my dearest daughter / son / wife / husband / girlfriend / mom / dad / Barely Acquainted Facebook Friend (BAFF), you can learn the ways of the shopping force and become an SF shopping master like your “person of interest” before you. Just buy me something from the Science Fiction gift tree.

Other than making me happy, which of course is a virtue with its own rewards, there is all the good it does to support our beloved authors, artists, and creators of all these wonderful, inspiring, imaginative worlds and characters. No facetiousness here: they feel the tough times just like we do. So throw them a bone and spare me the usual trip to Goodwill to donate all those "imaginative" sweaters.

Don’t know what to buy me? Hmmm, lemme think. Oh, yeah! Here’s a short list:

• Cool stuff from Bradley W. Schenck’s Retropolis line of inspired SF art wares. These include T-shirts, coffee mugs, and the usual Café Press fare, but with some outstanding illustrations. And yes, there are Bradley’s books, too. My favorite item has got to be the Space Piracy poster, though it would make a great coffee mug, too. And the clocks, boxes, and blank books are also pretty cool. Other favorites of mine include Don’t Trifle with the Big Brain and Ask Me about My Death Ray. It would not be fair to skip over Bradley's gorgeous Celtic art works, either. The style, design, and color choices are just very wow indeed.
  


• A copy of Digital Domains, edited by Ellen Datlow. I heard good things about this anthology and it speaks to my love of the fine stories that appeared in OMNI under her watch back in the day. (See Ann Wilkes’ intereview of Ellen here: http://sciencefictionmusings.blogspot.com/2010/09/editor-ellen-datlow-anthology-queen.html )
  


• A copy of New Model Army, by Adam Roberts, mostly because I want to see what the fuss is about and see if I can detect ‘literary scifi’ within.
  


• A copy of the Inception DVD. Yeah, I know I saw it in the theater, but my DVD player really wants to play it!
  


• A copy of the DVD set for the original Invaders TV series, seasons 1 and 2.
  


• Tickets to Tron Legacy! But at the theater with the good seats and the popcorn made the same day we see the movie. ( Catch Ann Wilkes’ “TRON Legacy – First Glimpse” article here: http://sciencefictionmusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/tron-legacy-first-glimpse.html )
  


• A decent copy of the entire Star Trek TOS on DVD. It’s not too late for me to step into the 90’s. Buy me something slightly newer, even if you get it used off of eBay. My old, crusty VHS-conversion copies are frail and pale compared to the DVD versions.
  


• A subscription to Analog, Asimov's, Locus, or Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine.

That’s all I can think of for now. But hey, you know what I like. There are literally hundreds of very awesome sites out there with amazing fiction content, art content, even SF-inspired music. If you are having trouble figuring out the whole on-line purchase thing, I know at least a couple of close friends/relatives who can help you. And yes, Holiday SF shopping can also be green, or at least greener. You can always drop by my favorite bookstore if you want to think globally but shop locally.

This year, I promise not to peek.

- D. E. Helbling

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Image courtesy of Bradley W. Schenck. Any plugs for Bradley's wares and those of other authors, artists, and enterprises are unencumbered, "for the love" recommendations.

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Lincoln Note: Last week I mentioned the Time Lincoln comic from Antarctic Press, which I inadvertantly ordered in hardcopy, thinking I had ordered access to on-line copy. Well, the magazine arrived in just 3 mail days and I really enjoyed the issue. I don't really need more reasons to buy stuff, given that half or more of my volitional spending is already on books, but this could lead me to a new comic buying habit. Hey, fun is fun!

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Happy Thanksgiving! Shopping or no, a sincere wish to you all for a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend, no matter how much snow, ice, wind, bad stuffing, and airport probing you have to endure.

Night of the Living Trekkies

Night of the Living Trekkies

Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

2010 Quirk Books

Trekkies and geeks and zombies, oh my!

Jim Pike, an emotionally wounded war hero, has only one mission in life - to not be responsible for anyone. That way he can't let anyone down or let anyone die because he wasn't there to keep them safe. His job at the Botany Bay Hotel and Conference Center in Houston is well below his abilities and potential, but he likes it that way.

Strange things always happen at sci-fi conventions. It's part of their charm. But an attacking mime? And a beheading by bat'leth? In Night of the Living Trekkies, a zombie epidemic breaks out in the Botany Bay just as it is filling up for GulfCon.

Authors Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall kept my attention throughout with unexpected twists and turns to an otherwise standard "attack of the undead" book. It reads like a spoof of a 70s horror movie and is clearly intended for a young adult audience.

Jim, his sister and a handful of unaffected congoers are quickly outnumbered and on the run. They all look to Jim to get them out alive. Our reluctant hero has to get his geek on if they have any hope at all of not becoming undead.

GulfCon being a strictly Star Trek convention, Star Trek references and trivia abound. This is a fun, quick read - especially if you appreciate, as I do, both Star Trek and zombies.

Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for your own copy of Night of the Living Trekkies. If you also tell me the name of the talkative, blue crew member on Star Trek Next Gen, I'll throw in the poster. Winner will be announced on November 30th.

Mining and Science Fiction: Great Companions

This week the news feeds are all about the great Chilean rescue of the miners, who have been trapped a kilometer underground for several weeks. This is a great human interest story with an outstanding ending. Yet what is being referred to in many articles as the “miracle rescue” might also be considered a testament to the limitations of our technology, at least as far as penetrating terra firma is concerned. The miners’ stories will no doubt be full of inspiration, once we get to hear them ... which is once they all decide which media outlets will pay the most to hear their tales.

The whole situation reminded me of just how many great stories and films have been done with miners as characters and mines as a setting. The Video Hound's Movie List of films with or about miners and mining has literally pages of such movies.

On the Science Fiction movie front, there is the biggest box office smash of recent history. What was Avatar if not a big mining SF movie? (OK, some might say it is also a big whining SF movie, too, but I still loved it, thin story, heavy-handed message, and all.) There are lots of other examples of SF movies with a mining theme or at least a mining environment, including but absolutely not limited to Moon 44, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, The Abyss, and one of my personal favorites, Outland. I know a lot of people nitpicked Outland to death for its ready defiance of several of the laws of physics, but hey, it had Sean Connery! In similar company, another hit movie of recent years which also included miners was Armageddon. Of course oil drillers are miners. And they are still miners when they are drilling on a giant rock flying towards Earth at ridiculous speeds. I regard the scene with space-happy super-brain geologist Rockhound (Steve Buscemi) shooting up the drill site with a big space Gatling gun as one of the funniest, most preposterous SF movie scenes of the last twenty years. Outrageous fun, if you don't demand that your SF come exclusively in credible packaging.

Dozens of science fiction television episodes featuring mining and miners have also made their appearance. Classic Star Trek had several of them, including "The Devil in the Dark" (written by Gene L. Coon), "The Cloudminders" (written by Margaret Armen), and "Mudd's Women" (witten by Steven Kandel). Even Red Dwarf, home to the last human alive, was a mining ship.

More recent and arguably more artistically engineered movies such as the 2009 Moon, (story/direction by Duncan Jones, screenplay by Nathan Parker) come closer to grips with some of the core issues that make mining such a rich landscape we can mine for story. (Sorry, I couldn't resist). Whether the underlying theme is isolation, human vs. hostile environment, individual safety vs. corporate greed, environmental responsibility vs. corporate greed, etc., there’s lots to work with here.

Written SF has also paid due homage to mining as an extreme setting, a hostile environment, a challenge, for person and machine, and for the machined creature as well. An article from Technovelgy.com reminded me of this, the notion of the engineered miner, who is not human. The article mentions Love Among the Robots, Emmett McDowells' 1946 story of mining worms, and Larry Niven's 1968 A Gift from Earth, yet another mining worm story. And of course there is the original Dune, Frank Herbert's story of mining for stuff from worms (because what is the Spice Melange, if not worm doodoo?).

There are dozens more great SF stories and novels where miners and mining play a significant role. I believe that this trend will continue throughout the life of science fiction because of the nature of the universe, of which the nature of mining is a microcosm. So long as there are substances with unique, valuable properties, which are difficult to create or obtain, there will be some group of women, men, and machines ready to seek those substances. For reasons of personal profit, family survival, or mere satisfaction, they will push the barriers of technology and the human spirit and, perhaps, the boundaries of ecological responsibility, to acquire, possess, process, and sell these magic materials. And in so doing, they will inspire future writers.

Let the mining continue ... let the stories continue!

(article image courtesy of ShareYourWallpaper).

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Trolling the Venusian Atmosphere - It's a Drag

An interesting Gizmag article on some ingenious applications of physics and adaption of sensory gear originally designed for other purposes.

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Gliese 581g - 100 Percent Chance of Life?

U of C Santa Cruz astronomy professor speculates on the chance of life on a recently discovered planet.

(Thanks to conspiracy collector Aaagghhh for the link)

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Saturn Auroras - Intriguing Photography from the Cassini-Huygens Mission

Some truly stunning images.

(Thanks to game coding guru QwazyWabbit for the link)

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World Fantasy Life Achievement Winners Announced

This year's Life Achievement winners to be awarded at the WFC are Brian Lumley, Terry Pratchett, and Peter Straub.

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Corey Doctorow Talks about Proprietary Things

Interesting discussion at Locus on what is and is not public domain

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Sci-fi vids to make your Friday brighter

I'm making preparations for BayCon. I have my Indiana Jones hat, which I'll catch heck for not wearing. And my steampunk goggles. But where do I get a Dr. Who mile-long scarf? I'm still undecided about the new Doctor and am watching his first episodes a second time, since I'm on a Dr. Who panel again.

For your viewing and listening pleasure, Dr. Who clips set to Rocky Horror Show's Double Feature song.



I loved this video. Of course Dr. Who would have plenty of appropriate clips for this. I think it's the longest, continuously running science fiction show ever.

Here's two of my favorites - Queen and Dr. Who!



While I'm sharing videos, here's a sneak peek at the new Predators movie coming in July.


You have to wait till December for this movie. Remember TRON? I think I'll have to watch that again. I only vaguely remember it now.



And here's an oldie, but a goodie: Star Trek Meets Monty Python.



That's all folks. It's so way past my bedtime. zzzzzzz



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Left coast con updates and other tidbits

As I begin to gear up for BayCon Memorial weekend, in San Jose, I thought I'd bring you some science fiction convention news.

First of all, the latest for BayCon:
The Celtic folk band, Tempest, will playing.
Unfortunately, little else has been updated there. I'm sure they'll pull everything together soon for another amazing convention. Author guests of honor are: Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

FiestaCon (WesterCon) is in Tempe, AZ July 2-5, 2009. And they have Alan Dean Foster! I'll be giving a talk at an East Bay library instead. It's a bit far afield for me here in the North Bay.

And this just in from World Fantasy Convention 2009 in San Jose, October 29th to November 1st:
More guests of honor announced as follows:
* Lisa Snellings
* Michael Swanwick
* Ann VanderMeer
* Jeff VanderMeer
And Jay Lake will be Toastmaster.

Have you purchased your ticket yet? Do so here.

I received my official invite to SpoCon 2009 today in Spokane, WA. It's a new little con with lots of class.

Here's a handy convention finder to find a con near you.

I know you're wondering why I haven't blogged about the new Star Trek movie yet. Well, I haven't seen it yet. :( I put it off until Mothers Day and ended up letting my son beat me at pool instead. Ah well, much more sociable. I'll see it this week for sure, and there's no shortage of reviews for the movie anyhow.

Make sure to scoot on over to sfsignal for this fun little video showing George Lucas' reaction to the Star Trek movie.

I just finished WAKE and can only say WOW! Now that's an ending. I know I've said this before, but darn it, this is MY blog, and I'm going to say it again (perhaps better this time). When a reader picks up a book to read, he or she expects at least three things from that book: a beginning, a middle and an end. Just because it's a volume of a larger work, does not mean you can cheat the reader out of a satisfying ending. I understand the need for a bit of a cliffhanger to have them come back for more, but when they have to wait a year or two for the next volume, you can't leave them with next to nothing resolved.

Robert J. Sawyer's WAKE had a superb ending. The full review will be forthcoming at Mostly Fiction soon.

More news from Rob. ABC purchased 13 episodes of the series Flash Forward, an adaptation his book by the same title. He's a National Post article with more info.