Up until this point, the Freddy books have been — what is the word I’m looking for? — fluffy. Oh, certainly, author Walter Brooks had not hesitated to satirize various features of American culture: political speeches, courtroom trials, and capitalism, casting gentle zingers at venerable institutions. But for the most part, the books remained lighthearted romps.

In Freddy the Politician (1939; originally published as Wiggins for President) however, Brooks took his satire to new levels, using his animals to create a thinly veiled allegory on the fall of the Weimar Republic, the rise of fascism, and the takeover of Austria and Czechoslovakia, as well as aiming some zingers at American politics and Washington DC. It’s almost as if Brooks had developed a certain, how shall I put it, cynicism regarding American politics, and outright fear about the world stage.

[Don’t let any Wall Street bankers near this book. They might get ideas.]

As we mentioned last week, this past Tuesday, May 15, marked the official launch of Blizzard’s Diablo III, and the Internet, as always, runneth over with feedback that runs the gamut from praise, to complaints, to out-and-out trolling. Good times for all! Sadly, as a victim of a delayed pre-order, I am one of the many gamers still waiting to set foot onto Blizzard’s servers; however, at least my wait isn’t due to Blizzard’s server issues, so I won’t belabor the point. With that said, if you, like me, are stuck at work and are looking for a way to satiate your clicking finger, here’s some news to tide you over.

[Click. Clickclick. Clickclickclickclickclick.]

I know that’s a strong claim for children’s cartoon on the Disney Channel. But seriously, the show about two brothers who spend each day having an insane adventure, their sister Candace, who spends each day trying to bust them, and their pet platypus Perry, who spends each day thwarting the mad schemes of the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz, is one of the best depictions of science fiction on television today.

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Welcome to the last post of the Patrick Rothfuss re-read in which we’ve gone through all of The Wise Man’s Fear and The Name of the Wind with lots and lots of attention and speculation.

A couple of weeks ago I asked everyone to ask Pat questions without spoilers, and we asked a ridiculous number of questions and I split them into the different schools of the University and he has answered... lots and lots of them. And there are some really exciting answers — well, answers that I’m really excited about. Well done everyone who had a question picked!

The first part of this “admissions interview” is being posted on his blog, and the second part is here, below the cut. (I’m going to be on a train all day tomorrow, heading south to the Nebulas, so that link is just to his blog generally for now. When I have internet again and the interview is posted, I’ll edit and link directly to it.)

[Read more: Artificing, History, Medica, Chemistry, Rhetoric, Arithmetic]

Spring has sprung, and with the turning of the seasons comes… a new edition of Kobold Quarterly! KQ Spring #21 is their “Divine Magic” issue, and as usual, I’m going to give you a quick rundown of what is inside the issue, whether it is Pathfinder/Third Edition, Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition, Dragon Age, or general purpose, and whether it’s good, bad, or ugly. As an added bonus, I’m going to be talking about Open Design “Party of One” adventures by Matthew Hanson. These are Choose Your Own Adventure-style adventures in the vein of the Lone Wolf paperbacks that haunted my childhood bus rides. Adventures for a single player; all you need are a couple of dice, a pencil and the adventure, and you are all set. Great fun; I was having flashbacks to balancing a book on my knees while rolling dice on the seat of the schoolbus while I was… balancing the pages on my knees, hitting a random number generator on the subway ride to work. You’ve come a long way, kid!

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Remedy’s original blockbuster franchise gets the Rockstar treatment with its latest installment, Max Payne 3. It’s been almost nine years since we last encountered the titular hard-boiled mess of a man, but he’s clearly returned with a fresh look for today’s consoles and a few new tricks up his blood-stained sleeves. Reviews are pouring in and, as is expected of a new Rockstar title, they’re glowing.

Read for yourself at Polygon, IGN, Kotaku, and wherever ex-cops sit in smoky bars, popping pills, and waxing existential.

Also in this week’s news: we discover who was really behind Diablo III’s error 37 fiasco.

[Kingdom Hearts, The Last of Us, and haunted videogame stories within...]

Fighting with literal monsters is the cornerstone of not only fantastic literature, but some of the oldest stories ever. If Hercules isn’t beheading some creature, then he’s at least thinking about it. His bros Beowulf and Perseus were into that sort of thing, too. But when one switches from myth to modern, post-modern, and what we call literary fiction, then they’ll find the literal dragons, monsters, and beasts have been banished into the past or other genres.

Except for every once and while, when beasts are famously at the forefront of great works of literature. Here are five beasts seemingly at home in fantasy or science fiction that instead occupy works of literary fiction.

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Season 4, Episode 7: “Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man”
Original Air Date: November 17, 1996

So what’s it going to take for you to not take the Cigarette-Smoking Man seriously? Because this guy, he is serious. He’s been serious since day one, lurking in the shadows while Scully delivered some pro exposition. He’s been serious every single time that Mulder has shoved a gun in his face. He’s been serious when the Consortium didn’t believe him, he’s been serious when Krycek didn’t die, and he’s serious when Mulder didn’t die, either. So what’s it going to take? How about: a Lone Gunman.

[No more enemies.]

On May 24th, we’ll get our first bit of Doctor Who since the Christmas special last December. This is set to be a mini-episode like “Time Crash” or “Space” & “Time.” It is airing as part of Blue Peter’s Script-to-Screen contest, so it might be similar to the fan-written “Death is the Only Answer.” However, it has been reported the episode will be Olympic themed. Will Chloe Webber return?

Also with the invention of Draw Something, will Chloe Webber’s alien friends be more dangerous than ever? 

[News via io9 from Life, Doctor Who and Combom]

Battleship is not a good film. It is, on the other hand, a ridiculously awesome one.

I realise this is something of a contradiction in terms. Bear with me.

It doesn’t open promisingly. To be honest, one could skip the first ten or twenty minutes of the film and lose very little by it. In the first scenes, we learn that our protagonist, Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), is a dudebro screwup with an ego who’ll do anything to impress a girl, whose brother (Alexander Skarsgård) inveigles him into joining the U.S. Navy — at which point, we learn that Mr. Hopper also has a temper and some impulse control issues. Meanwhile, scientists are sending out signals to a newly-discovered planet in the Goldilocks zone, far, far away. If someone chooses to stop by Earth in answer to such signals, says one scientist — who seems to have a greater sense of self-preservation than the others — it’ll be “like Columbus and the Indians. And we’re the Indians.”

[That sound you hear in the background is the Ominous Foreshadowing Drumbeat of Doom.]

Welcome to Journey to Planet JoCo, an interview series where science fiction and sometimes fantasy author John Scalzi talks to musician Jonathan Coulton about science fiction and science fiction songs.

Every morning at 9 AM, for the next two weeks, John will talk to Jonathan about one of JoCo’s songs, getting in-depth — and possibly out of his depth — about the inspiration and construction behind them. Which ones? You’ll have to come back every morning to see!

There’s more, but we’ll let John and Jonathan themselves further introduce the concept, the details, and the sparkly prize at the bottom of this particular cereal box.

[Read on]

Did you know Hawkeye’s original name was Night-Hawkeye, in honor of the Norman Rockwell painting? Well it was. [Citation needed.] Also did you see what we did with shawarma last week?

Your offsite links contain true facts, but no more shawarma.

Highlights include:

1. The Yutani corporation figures into Prometheus as well as Weyland.
2. How geeks should date.
3. Sybok was almost Spock’s twin brother. Nimoy wanted to play him.

(Avengers/ Nighthawks via Gizmodo)

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Serving as both a trailer and a behind-the-scenes feature for the new American version of Sherlock Holmes; Elementary finds Sherlock coming to New York City for rehab.

First impression: Jonny Lee Miller seems to be channeling a bit of Matt Smith rather than Benedict Cumberbatch. Also, Holmes’s father is alive? (Will he be played by Alan Rickman?) The music isn’t doing it much favors, but we’ll reserve full judgement until the fall. What did you think? (News via Bleeding Cool)

Hurry, Pac-Man! Speedy the ghost is heading straight for the Tor.com offices! Stop dawdling on 30th St. and set your power-pilled fury upon him!

The above image was created by artist Jamie Sneddon and photographer Kevin Rozario-Johnson as part of their larger 8-bitscapes series. You can see more of them (and buy portraits) at their site linked above.

SAVE US!

Stubby the Rocket would save you, Tor.com, but its lasers don’t affect ghosts.

I want a world where we can play, it’ll be by invitation only
You and you and me, that’s us, and you know that’s the way it should be
We’ll work on our social chemistry in a place that is bright and airy
Our dreams will come true in our little place and our powers extraordinary

This is the rap that starts off the New York Neo-Futurists’ latest full-length show, a hip-hoperetta exploring video games and identity. You are in an open field is an infectiously fun romp through video-game nostalgia, equally contained and unrestrained within the archetypal basement hideout/prison that slowly transforms into a digital playground.

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How great are the White Falls Wolfbats? Come on, you may love to hate Tahno, but their entrance was one of the best set-pieces I’ve seen in a while. They came out in those masks and I was already at the edge of my seat making metal horns with my fingers…and then they lit the fireworks. Just glorious spectacle…sincerely rivaled by the existence of Fire Ferrets cosplayers. Three of the fans in the stadium are dressed up like Korra, Bolin and Mako, and it is such a great little nod towards the real world fans that I couldn’t help but be charmed.

The meta doesn’t stop there, either; the announcer of the match is the same voice as the recap narrator, and there is a sequence that is just one big wink at the duality of both in-story and out-of-story elements. The post-modern angle of it is hidden underneath a little bit of slapstick, but that is the internal logic of The Legend of Korra; it isn’t a pretentious collection of cinematic sleight of hand but a much more complicated and fun weaving of a story. Heck, even the use of slow motion and rewind is a repurposing of sports tropes…in order to tell a tale of reincarnation and social justice.

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“Jeremiah Crichton“
Season 1, Episode 14

1^st US Transmission Date: 30 July 1999
1^st UK Transmission Date: 20 March 2000
1^st Australian Transmission: 30 September 2000

Guest Cast: Natalie Mendoza (Lishala), Kevin Copeland (Rokon), John O’Brien (Kato-Re), Deni Gordon (Neera), Tania Mustapic (Maid)

Synopsis: Do I have to? Oh well, here goes… Crichton throws a wobbly and goes for a drive in his module to cool off. While he’s away Moya’s pregnancy causes complications and she has to StarBurst away, stranding John.

[”Desperately trying to pretend he has more hair than he does, our hero wades out in to the lake."]