Star-crossed Heroes: Arley Sorg and Josh Pearce Discuss The Suicide Squad

A motley crew of costumed characters with highly questionable morals is compelled – upon pain of death – to undertake a covert military mission in the “island nation of Corto Maltese.” What they uncover is much larger than any of them expected….

The Suicide Squad is exactly the over-the-top bloody, just-ridiculous-enough not-a-superhero movie you need. It’s pretty rare for sequels* to be better films than the originals, but James Gunn’s ...Read More

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Dawn of Injustice: A Review of Suicide Squad

by Gary Westfahl

It is not a critical term that often comes to mind, but David Ayer’s Suicide Squad strikes me as a very meh kind of film – a hodgepodge of characters and moments that work, and characters and moments that don’t work, tossed together in a story line that sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn’t. Further, the film cannot escape the perception that it is a stopgap measure,

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Homicide Squad: Josh Pearce and Arley Sorg Discuss Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Infamous DC Comics character Harley Quinn (née Harleen Frances Quinzel) changes out of her manic pixie dream girl role for Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. This latest film in the DC Universe begins immediately after the Joker dumps Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). The end of their relationship marks the end of her protected status in the criminal underworld. Her singular goal — to ...Read More

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A Working Model for Superhero Films: A Review of Wonder Woman

Without a doubt, Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman is the very best of the recent “DC Extended Universe” superhero films – yet the praise doesn’t mean as much as it should, inasmuch as its undistinguished precursors – Man of Steel (2013 – review here), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016 – review here), and Suicide Squad (2016 – review here) – set the bar very low, to put it mildly.

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The Sanitation Worker is a Hero in Your Neighborhood: Arley Sorg and Josh Pearce Discuss Samaritan

Today’s major-brand superheroes have an onscreen lineage going back at least to the ’40s, including iconic serials starring Superman, Batman, and Captain America. But Marvel and DC aren’t the only cinematic superhuman universes. During the great superhero revival of the 1980s, wedged between memorable Christopher Reeves films Superman and Superman II, came 1981 television series The Greatest American Hero. Standing alongside the tradition of filmmakers and TV showrunners ...Read More

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Witchcraft & Wizardry: Arley Sorg and Josh Pearce Discuss Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

It’s the third major movie this year premised on a fundamental misinterpretation* of quantum theory! (We also reviewed this one and this one, and there’s at least one more scheduled for later in 2022.) It’s also the third comic book/superhero movie we’ve reviewed this year (with many more on the way), and a sequel to a pretty average film in its own right. So, does Doctor Strange in the Multiverse ...Read More

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My Tapeworm Tells Me What to Do: Josh Pearce and Arley Sorg Discuss Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is washed up. Worse, he and his alien symbiote, Venom (also Tom Hardy), aren’t getting along too well. In classic serial killer movie fashion, incarcerated murderer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) declares that he’s willing to reveal where the bodies are buried but will only talk to Brock, who seizes the opportunity to try to get his career back on track. During one of their visits, ...Read More

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Great Clown Pagliacci Is in Town Tonight: Arley Sorg and Josh Pearce Discuss Joker

Simply put, Joker is the story of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and his transition from sadsack to supervillain.

Josh: Need we say more? Everyone already knows the gist of the Joker.

Arley: It’s important for people to know that this is not a Batman movie. You should not expect supervillain fights.

The film mostly delivers on what’s promised in the trailers: a one-man show about a violent clown. With striking ...Read More

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Six Characters in Search of an Auteur: A Review of Justice League, by Gary Westfahl

Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed watching Justice League, which can be appreciated as unpretentious fun, featuring likable characters and some moments of genuine humor. To be sure, it is not an ideal film, but the concept of bringing together popular superheroes to battle against common foes is appealing enough to overcome the recurring infelicities that have marred almost all of the recent films in the DC Extended ...Read More

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2017 Scribe Awards Winners

The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers announced the winners of the 2017 Scribe Awards July 21, 2017 at Comic-Con International, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego CA. The Scribe Awards honor excellence in licensed tie-in writing. Recipients of genre interest follow.

Speculative Original

  • Assassin’s Creed: Heresy, Christie Golden (Ubisoft)
  • Warhammer 40,000: Warden of the Blade, David Annandale (Castellan Crowe)
  • Supernatural: Mythmaker, Tim Waggoner
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2017 Scribe Award Nominees

The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers announced the nominees for the 2017 Scribe Awards, honoring excellence in licensed tie-in writing. Nominees of genre interest follow.

Speculative Original

  • Warhammer 40,000: Warden of the Blade, David Annandale (Castellan Crowe)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Heresy, Christie Golden (Ubisoft)
  • Supernatural: Mythmaker, Tim Waggoner (Titan)
  • Star Trek: Elusive Salvation, Dayton Ward (Pocket)

Adapted Speculative

  • Assassin’s Creed, Christie Golden (Ubisoft)
  • Suicide Squad
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Paul Di Filippo reviews Ken MacLeod

The Corporation Wars: Dissidence, by Ken MacLeod (Orbit 978-0316363655, $9.99, 384pp, mass market paperback) US edition November 29 2016

The Corporation Wars: Insurgence, by Ken MacLeod (Orbit 978-0316363693, $9.99, 384pp, mass market paperback) December 20, 2016

I just missed celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Ken MacLeod’s debut, the publication of The Star Fraction in 1995. I make out that he’s issued nearly that many books in the two

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Another Day, Another Dinosaur: A Review of Shin Godzilla (aka Godzilla Resurgence)

by Gary Westfahl

Because the Japanese film Shin Godzilla (also known as Godzilla Resurgence) was unexpectedly given only a limited American release, beginning on October 11, it is inevitably a film that will take quite a while to achieve its full audience, as it gradually becomes more accessible via Netflix, cable television, DVDs, and network television; in this case, then, a promptly posted, day-after-release-date review did not seem important.

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Mercury Rising by R.W.W. Greene

Mercury Rising, R.W.W. Greene (Angry Robot 978-0857669728, trade paperback, 400pp, $15.99) May 2022.

Greene’s third novel is, overarchingly, a counterfactual tale of what happens in the several decades after the year 1961, when Earth is threatened by invaders from Mercury. But that over-simplified description ignores a host of other themes and virtues and plot contrivances which render the book a jam-packed action-adventure tale centered around a lovable anti-hero. The ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, May 2020

Milestones

Actor and writer AYDREA WALDEN will be Toastmaster for the 2020 Nebula Awards, to be pre­sented online May 30, 2020.

Brothers and video game devel­opers CHRIS & TIM STAMPER have joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency and will work on multime­dia projects.

ROBERT MARCHBANK is now represented by the John Jarr­old Literary Agency.

ANDY LIVINGSTONE is now represented by the John Jarrold Lit­erary Agency.

Awards

RICHARD POWERS‘s The ...Read More

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2017 Directory: Page 2

Books are original 2017 publications, except first-US editions of books that earlier appeared in the UK, Australia, or elsewhere (indicated by +).

Page 1 2017 Novels (sorted) (first novels) Page 2 2017 YA novels | Novellas & short fiction | Collections | Anthologies Nonfiction & Art | Media & Gaming Related Page 3 2017 New in Paperback Classic Reprints Page 4 Magazines Young Adult Novels • Aguirre, Ann • Vanguard
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John Langan reviews Joe Hill

The Fireman, Joe Hill (William Morrow 9780062200631, $28.99, 768pp, hc) May 2016.

The Fireman, Joe Hill’s big new novel, is a freight train of a book. Long, composed of many sections, it’s already in motion on the first page, and it does not let up until the very end. Its premise is straightforward: a plague is spreading around the world. The infection’s scientific name is Draco incendia trychophyton,

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The Fogeys of July: A Review of Independence Day: Resurgence

by Gary Westfahl

Since I was recently complimented at a conference for writing “honest” film reviews, I feel obliged to begin this one by conveying my honest reaction to Independence Day: Resurgence: although I was bored and appalled by the original Independence Day (1996), and utterly baffled by its tremendous popularity, I somehow found its belated sequel to be surprisingly engaging, even moving, despite some obvious issues in its

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Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, mid-August

Just two works here this time: the September issue of F&SF and a cyborg anthology from the publishers of the ezine Clarkesworld, which adds up to just about as many stories as usual, or maybe more.

 

Publications Reviewed
  • F&SF, September/October 2014
  • Upgraded, edited by Neil Clarke

 

F&SF, September/October 2014

Back to the regular lineup of suspects here, after the last, guest-edited issue that offered some rare fresh author

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Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early August

Here are two anthologies along with the regular first of the month ezines. Also a new start for an established poetry zine, now offering fiction as well as verse. Best stories are in Clarkesworld and Lightspeed this time.

 

Publications Reviewed
  • Starship Century, edited by James Benford and Gregory Benford
  • Clarkesworld, August 2013
  • Lightspeed, August 2013
  • Apex Magazine, August 2013
  • Mythic Delirium, 0.1 July-September 2013
  • Pathlight: New Chinese Writing; science
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