With Wolverine and Star Trek out, we’ve launched 2009’s summer blockbuster season. And every year this is more synonymous with big-scale sci-fi and fantasy movies.
To help out, Tor.com has prepared a Movie Sell-Out Survival Guide for your reference. Key tips include choosing night school over Land of the Lost and budget tricks to pay for gas money to reach a theater showing Moon.
I saw an ad, and I clicked on it. Not an exceptionally rare occurrence, but not something that happens every day. Turns out Tor.com has posted chapter one of Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether to read the preview, but the description itself is reason enough to check out the post. Highlights:
The NorseCODE genome project was designed to identify descendants of Odin. What it found was Kathy Castillo, a murdered MBA student brought back from the dead to serve as a valkyrie in the Norse god’s army. Given a sword and a new name, Mist’s job is to recruit soldiers for the war between the gods at the end of the world—and to kill those who refuse to fight.
SciFiWire.com recently interviewed Anton Yelchin about what it’s like playing Kyle Reese, a character created by another actor 25 years ago.
For me, it’s exciting to hear about all the thought a talented actor is putting into his role. For example, on the “Come with me if you want to live” line:
I might be overanalyzing it, because I watched it so much. You need to really watch it a lot to get the little [nuances], and I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate. It was just the take that they used, but that’s part of the hero of Kyle Reese. There’s an objective that he needs to achieve, and there’s an intensity to it, but there’s also a masculinity and a strength to it. So having watched all that and kind of getting to set and trying to kind of use those things and incorporate them into the performance, it’s a lot of work for one line, but it’s a hell of a line.
If you’re like me, you’ve already got a stack of “to-read” books and a long list on Goodreads. If you’ve got some free time, though, you might be looking for some reading material about now. io9 has a list of May sci-fi book releases here.
The Federations anthology sounds interesting – they’ve certainly put together a very strong set of writers. The description of Tony Ballantyne’s Twisted Metal, about a theological/philosophical war between robots, is intriguing. And A. Lee Martinez’s Monster is going on my Goodreads list – it sounds like The Dresden Files meets the Buffyverse.
It’s been reported on many and diverse sites, but if you haven’t heard you should know that Dollhouse has been renewed for a second season. Which is pretty awesome news, in our humble opinion.
You can check out our review of Dollhouse’s first season here.
We’ve just got a couple days left before Terminator: Salvation hits theaters, which by my estimation means Judgment Day has already happened twice and is due to come up again next month.
As everyone’s getting ready, there’s quite a bit of Terminator related posts showing up around the web. The most useful for me so far is probably FSR’s Guide to Terminator. This quick reference guide to the Terminator movies, models, and quotes is a handy read if you need to brush up on your continuity.
On a more playful note, io9 has a list of Science Fiction’s 10 Most Murderous Robots. Since they’re going by straight-up kill counts (and not including cyborgs), you might be surprised by who did or did not make the list.
The movie adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is coming out in October. While it’s exciting to see the movie being made at all, that’s still five long months away. In the meantime, though, Cory Godbey has something to pass the time.
Godbey started Terrible Yellow Eyes, a collection of paintings about Where the Wild Things Are (the book). The site features art by Godbey and others, some based on scenes in the book and others just suggested or inspired.
The paintings posted so far are beautiful. If you’re a fan of the children’s book or have fond memories of bedtime stories, it’s well worth checking out.
Webcomics Warp is going to be a feature where we recommend and review comics with fantasy or sci-fi themes. Hopefully you’ll find something you’ll like.
Starslip by Kris Straub, our first recommendation, has been a favorite of mine for a few years now, telling a great science-fiction story that is heart-touchingly hilarious. Straub’s plays works on several levels, simultaneously working within the genre and poking at its familiar tropes.
The strip follows the crew of an explorer vessel, the Paradigm, as they search out new and intelligent life and drive each other crazy. Memnon Vanderbeam, the captain, used to be curator of a museum ship. The security chief Cutter is a former pirate. Mr. Jinx, the science officer and general assistant, is a Cirbozoid and channels the best comedy of C-3PO, Spock, and every other being that doesn’t understand human behavior.
What I love about Starslip is that while it consistently makes me laugh, the jokes almost never feel forced. In many comics the characters become a mouthpiece for the author in the last panel, and while they might say something funny it could be said by anyone in any situation. Straub’s humor is character driven – it comes from the absurd ways each character sees the world, instead of making jokes and trying to be funny.
If you’re new to Starslip, a good place to start would be the New Reader Guide. You can also just jump straight in – I’ve really enjoyed the most recent storyline, Worst Contact, or you can find today’s strip at www.starslip.com.
Starslip updates weekdays, Monday – Friday.
Every year, Christmas items start appearing on store shelves a bit earlier (by my calculations, you should start seeing pine trees in about two weeks). Similarly, when networks announce their fall schedules in May many sites and publications will start writing about upcoming shows that are still several months away.
Well, we don’t have a whole lot to say about the new schedules, that’ll come closer to the time the shows are actually launching. But, if you’re interested, here are a couple preview guides for next season.
First up, SCI FI Wire has a network-by-network breakdown of this fall’s sci-fi and fantasy series. It also includes a short description of each series, so you’ll have something to go on besides the show name.
If you’d like a more chronological breakdown, io9 goes through the future-week day-by-day, walking you through when and what to watch.
Like we said earlier, we don’t have a lot to say about fall TV right now. As the new seasons get closer, though, we’re looking forward to checking out the new shows and getting back into the returning greats.
Yes, today is Memorial Day. It also happens to be Towel Day, a holiday dedicated to Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And so, we bring you our list of our twelve favorite holidays.
12. Penguin Awareness Day – January 20. We don’t know a whole lot about this day, but c’mon, penguins are always awesome, right? If nothing else, take it as a Linux Pride Day. But seriously, penguins win.
11. National Pancake Day - February _. We don’t know of a single breakfast that would not be improved by the addition of pancakes. For that matter, pancakes should probably be added to most lunches and dinners just to be safe.
10. Panic Day – March 9. For March, many people would have gone with pi day (3/14). And that’s a great day, it’s just so well known. We thought we’d give a little love to Panic Day, instead. After all, it’s just been so stressed out lately.
9. Yuri’s Night – April 12. It’s the anniversary of the day Russia put the first human in space (Yuri Gagarin, 1961) and the first Space Shuttle launch (1981). The road to Star Fleet and the Federation begins here.
8. No Pants Day – First Friday in May. We don’t really need to explain this one, do we?
7. Pee on Earth Day – June 21. I knew a guy in college who made a point to pee on every building on campus. This day is for everyone who has that no-limits attitude.
6. National Ice Cream Day – Third Sunday in July. Think about July: hot, humid, and generally uncomfortable weather-wise. But ice cream makes it all better, doesn’t it? Take this day and put the cool back in summer.
5. Girlfriends Day – August 1. Either you’ve got one, or you know a guy who claims he did at one point. Take this day to thank them for loving your geekdom.
4. International Talk Like a Pirate Day – September 19. Yar, this be the most terrible holiday of the Seven Seas! Aye, yar.
3. National Grouch Day – October 15. Sometimes you’ve just got to let it out, you know? We put on a happy face the rest of the year (or not), but this is the day we’re free to mope about and be more than usually surly and irritable. (Don’t be a dick, though. Just a Grouch.)
2. Underdog Day – November 15. We all like rooting for the underdogs, whether they’re hobbits or a feisty little rebellion determined to take down an evil empire of some sort. On this day, watch a movie or read a book and enjoy the improbability of this literary law of nature.
1. Festivus – December 23. Made popular by a TV show you may have heard of, Festivus is a “non-denominational holiday to be celebrated by those frustrated or jaded with the commercialism and pressure surrounding the Christmas/Hanukkah season.” There are a few traditions, but it’s mostly about spending time with friends and family.