May 15, 2013
The Button Man and the Murder Tree
An all-new Wild Cards story
May 14, 2013
Shall We Gather
When one world brushes another, asking the right question can be magic…
May 8, 2013
Fire Above, Fire Below
The dragon below our city has died. What is to be done?
May 7, 2013
We Have Always Lived On Mars
They've never seen the sky. Or the sun. Or the stars. Or the moons.
DC Comics recently debuted a prequel comic for the new Superman movie Man of Steel, in theaters on June 14, which focuses on Krpytonian society and its efforts to explore the galaxy and better itself as a species. It also offers some overt and thematic hints about what we might ultimately see in Man of Steel.
A special five story preview of Shawn Speakman’s epic fantasy anthology Unfettered will be released at Phoenix Comicon this Memorial Day weekend. This week, we’re taking a look at all five stories, many featuring new glimpses of our favorite fantasy worlds.
There’s something incredibly engaging about the Arthurian story of the knight-errant. I always perk up when I know that a knight is leaving court, the location of his target unknown, with the commandment to quest, to do right, to slay evil and maintain his honor. I grew up on T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, and have long loved the mystique of the isolated knight questing through less civilized lands. That’s the structure Kevin Hearne chose for “The Chapel Perilous,” his new short story in the Unfettered anthology. Although it stars Atticus O’Sullivan, the star of Hearne’s urban fantasy Iron Druid Chronicles, “The Chapel Perilous” sees O’Sullivan looking back on days long gone in Britain, days when there were more knights, and more druids, too. Indeed, he looks back to the most Arthurian tale of all, the quest for the Holy Grail. Apparently that was O’Sullivan’s quest, he’s the one who found the thing. Who knew?
It occurs to me that this year I’ve spent plenty of time on fantasy, while neglecting science fiction. A trend likely to continue until 2014 at least....
So for today, let’s spend a little time redressing the balance, and talk about hard SF by women.
Defining hard science fiction, rather like defining epic fantasy, is a tricksy business. (Or hobbit.) The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction itself acknowledges the potential impossibility of any rigorous definition, concluding only:
“[T]the most important thing about it is, not that it should include real science in any great detail, but that it should respect the scientific spirit; it should seek to provide natural rather than supernatural or transcendental explanations for the events and phenomena it describes.” [Link.]
Good news! The new trailer for The Wolverine, which hits theaters on July 26, is all about being driven insane by your own life while having to fight huge samurai robots and snake women anyway. In fact, we hear that the working title for this movie was Wolverine: Goin’ Crackers.
Seriously, the premise is that X-Men: The Last Stand was so bad that it drove him crazy, which actually sounds like a pretty solid premise. Check out the trailer below.
Tor.com’s ongoing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey-esque attempt to define Neil Gaiman and/or his work has read his most well-known epic, made a mixtape out of another, and looked at his habit of creating his own world inside of the worlds of others. Now, we look at his penchant for constant collaboration with other artists, writers, and musicians. Collaborations that more often than not end up further honing the author’s unique style.
They say that behind every great writer, is that writer’s bro. And by “bro,” we mean an artistic equal whose work brings new definition to yours and a friend who otherwise has your back. A bro can be any gender and the bonds between you can feel like they were always meant to be. Neil Gaiman has a lot of bromances, and though we love the man and his writing, where would he be without these seven essential bros?
Enjoy this reprint of Daniel José Older’s “Skin Like Porcelain Death,” a short story that was originally published in his collection Salsa Nocturna by Crossed Genres Publications, available here.
In “Skin Like Porcelain Death” a half-resurrected cleanup man for the bureaucracy of death confronts a sorcerous collection of chipped porcelain dolls in an attempt to save the soul of a horny young man who chose the wrong girlfriend.
Is there anything Sherlock wouldn’t do...for...a new...violin? The above image was of course inevitable, and may somehow spoil Sherlock and Star Trek Into Darkness, and maybe is also your future nightmares.
Your daily collection of offsite links contains stuff you may or may not want to know about your favorite fictional worlds. Oh, whatever. The summer has been spoiled!
Hi-ho, Tor.com! Leigh Butler here, of The Wheel of Time Re-read!
As dictated by my accidental semi-cornering of the hilariously specific niche market of Commenter on All Things Wheel of Time, it is my pleasure to bring you a spoiler-free advance review of “River of Souls”, Brandon Sanderson’s (and Robert Jordan’s) contribution to the epic fantasy anthology Unfettered, due out this month.
Pretty cool, eh? Why, yes, yes it is. Click the jump to find out what I thought of the story in particular, and why this anthology is awesome in general. Hooray!
Perfect for fans of archaeology and Egyptian discoveries, take a look at The Millionaire and the Mummies by John M. Adams, out on June 25:
Egypt, The Valley of the Kings, 1905: An American robber baron peers through the hole he has cut in an ancient tomb wall and discovers the richest trove of golden treasure ever seen in Egypt.
At the start of the twentieth century, Theodore Davis was the most famous archaeologist in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science. Using six of Davis’s most important discoveries—from the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus to the exquisite shabti statuettes looted from the Egyptian Museum not too long ago—as a lens around which to focus his quintessentially American rags-to-riches tale, Adams chronicles the dizzying rise of a poor country preacher’s son who, through corruption and fraud, amassed tremendous wealth in Gilded Age New York and then atoned for his ruthless career by inventing new standards for systematic excavation. Davis found a record eighteen tombs in the Valley and, breaking with custom, gave all the spoils of his discoveries to museums. A confederate of Boss Tweed, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, and rival of J. P. Morgan, the colorful “American Lord Carnarvon” shared his Newport mansion with his Rembrandts, his wife, and his mistress. The only reason Davis has been forgotten by history to a large extent is probably the fact that he stopped just short of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, the discovery of which propelled Howard Carter (Davis’s erstwhile employee) to worldwide fame just a few short years later.
It would seem that River Song’s arc on Doctor Who has come to an end in “The Name of the Doctor” (Although as always that will remain to be seen.) so Doctor Who Online’s senior art editor Will Brooks put together this nifty infographic that illustrates how her twisty timeline matches up with the Doctor’s. The full hi-res version is up on Photobucket (it’s gigantic, so follow the linky-link to see the whole chart) but we’re not sure we’re convinced yet. Does this timeline work for you? Can we ever be certain if we don’t get direct confirmation from the characters? After all, those season 6 “First Night / Last Night” minisodes were never given precise dates....
Space.
The final frontier?
For now, that searching question stands an unfortunate fact. We want to know more, of course, but there is no clear need for the revelations we may or may not gain from our desired endeavours, or none that we can easily see.
And so we wait, painfully aware that—even if the Powers That Be see reason—we are lamentably unlikely to see a man on Mars in our lifetimes.
Maybe our children will. I want that for them.
But neither you nor I nor they, in their day, will find out what awaits on the other side of the interstellar space NASA’s lonely Voyager probe is on track to chart; the odds are simply not in our favour, I’m afraid. But we can wonder, can’t we? We can imagine. We can read and write and damn it, we can dream.
So for the foreseeable future, space may indeed be the final frontier in fact, but fiction, by its very definition, need not be held back by what is. Instead, its pioneers ask: what if? And occasionally, incredibly, what if is what is.
My standard spoiler warning for this series: Antiagon Fire is the seventh novel in L.E. Modesitt, Jr.’s Imager Portfolio series, and the fourth one following the adventures of Quaeryt Rytersyn. The first three novels in the series had a different protagonist and were set in the same fictional world but several centuries after the events portrayed in the Quaeryt novels.
In other words, you may want to stop reading this review if you haven’t at least read the first three Quaeryt novels: Scholar, Princeps and Imager’s Battalion. If you’d like a refresher, you can find my reviews of those novels here, here and here. (You can also find my look at the initial Imager trilogy here.)
So, in summary: if you’re not familiar with this series yet, please check it out because it’s excellent—but stop reading this review here to avoid spoilers.
“Spiral,” by Steven S. DeKnight
“Spiral” is one of those episodes that starts right where its predecessor left off. Dawn’s secret has been exposed, and so Buffy scoops her up and runs like a terrified antelope. It shouldn’t work, but Willow slows Glory briefly. Then, after running at super-blurry cheetah speed to catch up with them, she foolishly pauses for the traditional pre-victory exchange of taunts... in the middle of a busy road.
This turns out badly for Glory when a big truck smashes right into her, and very well indeed for Buffy when the impact then causes Ben to take over custody of the shared BenGlorious bod. It’s nice for us because we get Ben in a dress again. There are worse things, though it’s not a fabulous dress.
A special five story preview of Shawn Speakman’s epic fantasy anthology Unfettered will be released at Phoenix Comicon this Memorial Day weekend. This week, we’re taking a spoiler-free look at all five stories, many featuring new glimpses of our favorite fantasy worlds.
I read Terry Brooks’s Shannara trilogy when I was pretty young, and if I’m being honest, I don’t remember them all that well. But I do remember how much I enjoyed reading them. I remember liking Allanon best and imagining that he would appear at my house one day and tell me that I was descended from a magical line of elves. I remember being inspired by the idea that a magical world could be our distant future, rather than a mythic past, and using colored beads as my elfstones.
I wish I had gotten my hands on Terry Brooks' short story “Imaginary Friends” back then, too, because I would have adored it.
Before we start I want to say this about Star Trek Into Darkness: I’ve seen it in both 3D and 2D, and I urge you not to waste your money on a 3D ticket. Seriously, there is nothing in this movie that requires 3D, and it does bupkuss to enhance the experience.
Mind you, this movie is a visual feast, but 3D doesn’t really add anything to the feast except for maybe that piece of parsley that is used as a garnish that you throw away and never eat.
Enough of the tortured food metaphor. I went into STID with very low expectations. As I’ve said in the past, Star Trek is not at its best in movie format, especially in our post-Star Wars world where science fiction movie must equal BIG-ASS ’SPLOSIONS! in order make its box office requirements. At its best, Trek is about the exploration of the human condition, something not remotely on display in either of J.J. Abrams’s films. I figured we’d get what we got four years ago: a visual feast (as long as you don’t mind lens flares), excellent acting, and a script that doesn’t hold together upon scrutiny. My expectations were, sadly, met.
If you want a spoiler-free review, Tor.com’s own Chris Lough wrote an excellent one here. For this review THERE BE SPOILERS HERE!!!! LOTS OF ’EM!
After the conclusion of The Clone Wars, and the general restructuring of Lucasfilm under Disney, the future of Star Wars animation was in question. Until now! Star Wars.com has just revealed that a new series called Rebels will air beginning in 2014. Focusing on the years between Episode III and Episode IV, Rebels will (shockingly) deal with how the rebels got their groove on as the Empire was rising. Below is a video from Star Wars.com featuring some of the creators talking about the project.
“First comes smiles, then lies. Last is gunfire.”
—Roland Deschain, of Gilead
Welcome to A Read of the Dark Tower series. Join me each week as I, Constant Reader, tackle the magnum opus of Stephen King’s career for the first time. If you want to discuss in general terms or talk about these first sections, join me by commenting here.
We last left our story with the town meeting our ka-tet holds with the folken of Calla Bryn Sturgis, setting up Ben Slightman and slowly doing the prep-work for whatever Roland has planned.
Why, hello, Daario.
“Second Sons” is fine for a title, but it doesn’t leave much room for the women of Game of Thrones, many of whom also had a difficult time performing their duties this week. So much duty this week. And boobs. And leeches and lechers.
Gendry bled, Tyrion wed, Davos read, and... Samwell got to not be a big fat stupid for about five minutes.
Note: episode reviews are largely spoiler-free for the books, but spoilers are fair game in the comments. Be warned.
[Do not trust men who fight for gold. Unless they have killer cheekbones...]
Even before Game of Thrones first season debut, fans of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series have quietly wondered if the author could have the final two books out by the time the HBO television adaptation caught up with him. Recent statements from HBO producers at this past weekend’s BAFTA Awards reveal that there is now a defnite timeline they’re expecting the story finished by, leaving us to wonder... will Game of Thrones reveal the ending of the series before it’s actually ended?
Thanks, all, for joining me on this trip to Khatovar. Those of you who have made this trip before know what’s coming and are probably as excited as I am about travelling to familiar locales and meeting old friends (and enemies...) once again. Those of you who are making the trip for the first time... Well, keep your eyes open and you should be fine. Just be wary of the talking menhirs, they like to play tricks on unwitting travellers.
Here’s the thing though. We’re not going to set off just yet.
