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Howard & Lawrence review Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Cory Doctorow: Think Like a Dandelion	Locus Awards Finalists — Winners announced June 21st — Be there!

Sunday 1 June 2008

•   Monitor: New Books: last week May

Saturday 31 May 2008

»   Awards News: Lambda Literary Awards Winners

Winners of this year's Lambda Literary Awards, for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender literature, include Lee Thomas' The Dust of Wonderland (Alyson Books) in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror category, plus Richard Labonte & Lawrence Schimel's First Person Queer (Arsenal Pulp Press) in the Anthology category, and Nicola Griffith's And Now We Are Going to Have a Party (Payseur & Schmidt) in the Women's Memoir/Biography category.

»   Awards News: Sunburst Award Shortlists

Shortlists for the 2008 Sunburst Awards, for Canadian writers of novels or short fiction collections in adult and young adult categories, include adult books by Michelle Butler Hallett, Amber Hayward, Nalo Hopkinson, William Neil Scott, and Robert Charles Wilson, and young adult titles by Deborah Lynn Jacobs, Carrie Mac, Kenneth oppel, Joanne Proulx, and Drew Hayden Taylor. Winners will be announced this Fall.

•   Locus Magazine: June Issue

The June issue of Locus has interviews with Jeffrey Ford and Daniel Abraham, listings of forthcoming books through March 2009, a report on Nebula Awards Weekend 2008 and reviews of new books by Greg Bear, Marie Brennan, Daniel Abraham, Damien Broderick, Steven Brust, and others, plus Graham Sleight's "Yesterday's Tomorrows" column about Algis Budrys.

• Table of Contents
    Interviews, Data File, Forthcoming Books, Reviews...
• Locus Bestsellers
    Banks, Butcher, Erikson, Traviss, Staten
• New & Notable Books
    Card, Clare, Doctorow, Dozois, Steele, Strahan, Williamson...

Friday 30 May 2008

•   Locus Magazine: Sample Reviews

Gary K. Wolfe reviews Walter Jon Williams

Locus Magazine features over two dozen reviews in its May 2008 issue. Here's Gary K. Wolfe on Walter Jon Williams' novel Implied Spaces.

Williams is asking what good the singularity is purely as a literary device — what possibilities does it open up for the SF novelist, and how do these possibilities relate to earlier traditions? Williams's answer is interesting and often delightful, if not always fully worked out, and his angle of approach harks back to classic ludenic SF writers like Zelazny and Farmer...

Russell Letson reviews Elizabeth Bear

And here's Russell Letson on Elizabeth Bear's novel Dust.

Dust is the opening volume of a new three-book sequence by Elizabeth Bear, a genre- and gender-bending mixture of fantasy motifs overlaid on a very-high-tech lost-starship scenario that had me thinking of Karl Schroeder and Roger Zelazny right away.

»   Death: Joseph Pevney

TV and film director Joseph Pevney, born 1911, died May 18, 2008, in Palm Desert, California. He frequently worked on the original Star Trek series, directing 14 episodes including Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever" and David Gerrold's "The Trouble with Tribbles".
» New York Times obituary
» Los Angeles Times obituary

Wednesday 28 May 2008

»   Death: Alexander Courage

TV and film composer Alexander Courage, born 1919, died May 15, 2008, in Pacific Palisades, California. He was best known as the composer of the original Star Trek theme music, including the eight-note brass signature for the starship Enterprise, which the Film Music Society obituary says "may be the single best-known fanfare in the world".
» Wikipedia entry
» Los Angeles Times obituary

•   Locus Magazine: Theodora Goss: Shifting Ground

Excerpts from Locus Magazine's May Issue interview.

As a fantasy writer, I see literature as a line between the two poles of realism and fantasy -- not as literary genres but as ways of perceiving the world. Since I was a child, I've always felt the fantastic impulse more strongly, but I think realistic representation is important, because that's how you make fantasy convincing.

•   Locus Magazine: Catherynne M. Valente: Playing in the Garden

Excerpts from Locus Magazine's May Issue interview.

Fantasy is my heart and my love. It's a huge playground, the biggest genre there is, and it contains possibly all of the genres. And I just want to play in that garden for the rest of my life.

•   Monitor: New in Paperback: May

Tuesday 27 May 2008

•   Monitor: This Week's Bestsellers

Troy Denning's Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible debuts strongly on print lists; Stephenie Meyer's The Host still ranks #1; Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence debuts.

Monday 26 May 2008

•   Feature Review:

Howard Waldrop and Lawrence Person review
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Not only is this a sequel to Raiders, in many ways it's an homage to it. Certainly part of the appeal is nostalgia for a film now a quarter-century old. And certainly this sucker is going to make a mint. But there's still enough of the old magic, and heart, left in to leave no doubt that this was a film that everyone involved really wanted to make for the characters and story, not just for the paycheck.

•   Monitor: New Books: fourth week May

•   Monitor: Other Magazines, fourth week May

Sunday 25 May 2008

»   News: SF Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Ticket are now on sale for this year's Science Fiction Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which will honor publisher/editors Betty and Ian Ballantine, writer William Gibson, artist Richard Powers, and film/TV writer Rod Serling. Presenters include Charles N. Brown, Jack Womack, David G. Hartwell, and Marc Scott Zicree. The event is Saturday, June 21, 2008, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, Washington. See 2008 Science Fiction Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony for details.

Friday 23 May 2008

»   Death: Robert Asprin

SF and fantasy writer Robert Asprin, born 1946, died yesterday, May 22, 2008, at his home in New Orleans. Asprin's first novel was SF The Cold Cash War (1977) but he was best known as creator and editor of the Thieves' World series of braided anthology/novels, and as author of numerous comic fantasy novels including series beginning with Another Fine Myth... (1978) and Phule's Company (1990). His latest book is Dragons Wild (2008), first book in another new series. Asprin won a Locus Award in 1982 for anthology Shadows of Sanctuary and he won two Balrog Awards, for that book and for anthology Storm Season the following year.
» Wikipedia entry

»   Awards News: Compton Crook Award Winner

the winner of this year's Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award , for best first SF, fantasy, or horror novel written by a single author, is Mark L. Van Name's One Jump Ahead (Baen). The award, voted by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, includes a cash prize of $1000, and will be presented in a ceremony tonight, May 23, 2008, at Balticon in Baltimore, Maryland.
» Compton Crook Award Winners official site

•   Monitor: Classic Reprints