We say this all the time, but: ours is a science-fictional world. Those Democratic debates? Staged like the Thunder Dome, sponsored by Facebook, with candidates talking marijuana and the finer points of Democratic Socialism? Couldn’t have made that up. As for Bernie Sanders railing against the catastrophic effects of corporate personhood, well—have we got a story for you. —The Eds.
I finally got to see The Martian this past weekend, and if you’ve been following the reviews at all my reaction will come as no surprise: it was great. What’s that, you’ve been busy/off the grid/media fasting? Here’s a trailer.
I read Andy Weir’s book last year so the specifics weren’t a surprise, but in this case knowing the story did nothing to detract from the experience. The execution, whether in terms of writing, acting, directing, or visuals, was a delight. The movie compressed the story in exactly the right ways, maintaining dynamism and tension in what could have been a dull one-man alone setting.
Also, no stupid characters were required to move the plot. Yay! You may not agree with every decision, but at no point did the script make some hapless individual look down at a big red button under glass and say, “Gosh, I know they told me not to touch anything but I wonder what this does,” literally or otherwise. Also times two, smart, strong characters, women included. How refreshing is that?
A lot has been written about the movie, and about Weir’s journey from self-published indie author to Hollywood hit, and it’s both interesting and well-deserved (see here and here and here and here, for examples).
As an entertainment consumer both versions scored high for me. As a writer, I was impressed by Weir’s concrete attention to detail, his willingness to dig himself into seemingly impossible holes, and his facility at getting out of them in realistic ways. Drew Goddard did an excellent job translating the book into a screenplay (I’d expect nothing less from this Buffy/Angel/Alias+ alum) for Ridley Scott.
I came out of the theatre kicking myself for not studying more math in school. Astronauts are awesome, and while most of us will never make that exalted level, there’s nothing to say we can’t try. (Ok, fine, my eyesight is bad and I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that astronauts need to be able to do more than 10 pushups, but you get my point.)
Helping kids (and everyone else) see that science is about exploration, discovery, innovation, capability and (in this case) freaking outer space?
That’s exactly the kind of story I can get behind. Recommended.
Sci-fi writer Charles Stross has two of his works available as free ebooks, including the Hugo-nominated-novellete-series-turned-book Accelerando:
It’s the definitive Singularity novel, covering three generations of a highly dysfunctional posthuman family as humanity itself is rendered obsolescent by the blistering pace of technological change.
Granted, I’d rather not be rendered obsolete just yet but it’s good to be prepared, right?
If you’re looking for more Stross to sample, a free ebook of Stross’s collaboration 2012 with Cory Doctorow The Rapture of the Nerds is also available. Thank you, Creative Commons!
BBC Radio 4 is producing a radio drama of Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. The BBC is known for its adaptations, including Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens last December. I read a lot of Le Guin as a teen but I haven’t revisited this classic novel in a long time, and I’m looking forward to hearing what they do with it.
Adapted for radio by Judith Adams and released one episode per week, the series has just begun. Find it and supporting material, including a documentary with author interview, at BBC Radio 4.
Each episode will be available for 30 days, so if this interests you, don’t wait!
I am happy to announce that I will have a story coming out in the Summer quarterly of Mad Scientist Journal. “Just Like [Illegible] Used to Make” originally appeared in Perihelion Science Fiction, and I’m quite pleased that this story has found another venue.
More information is included in the linked article, and full details will be posted at the SFWA site in March. Given the shifting landscape of publishing and the multitude of ways authors now have to reach an audience, this is great news. If you write and are paid at a professional level, you will be eligible for SFWA membership regardless of venue. All the more reason to keep at it:)
In it, the author details the terrors, trials and triumphs that went into the making of his latest series. Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance make up the Southern Reach trilogy, about “a dysfunctional secret agency called Southern Reach and its efforts to solve the mysteries behind Area X, a strange pristine wilderness.”
I’ve had this series on my books to read list and now plan to bump them up to the top. For more on the books, including sample chapters and links to retailers, or on the author, check out the links above.
Want more UFO-logy in your life? Look no further, because almost 130,000 pages of declassified files on UFOs from the U.S. Air Force are now archived and searchable online:
Exciting news via Locus, folks, CC Finlay has been named the new editor at Fantasy & Science Fiction. He succeeds the excellent Gordon Van Gelder, who became the magazine’s editor in 1997 and will continue as publisher.
Will this mean a permanent shift from F&SF’s traditional snail-mail submissions process to e-subs? @ccfinlay sheds some light on the question, and it’s shiny:)
This means that electronic subs are going to be preferred. The online form will stay open after January 15.
Update: CC Finlay has posted answers to some of our more pressing questions in a new blog post. TL:DR version: e-subs forever! As an international author in favor of increased diversity, this makes me very happy. Also (via Twitter), no simultaneous subs, and currently a minimum 15 days between submissions.
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