Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts

6.29.2011

The Future As Predicted in Film - A Video Timeline

Cinematic History of the Future from Handshake Magazine on Vimeo.

10.30.2010

All Hollow's Read

Image by The COM Library via Flickr
Award winning Science Fiction & Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman made a modest proposal on Twitter and in a blog post a few days ago: "This year make Halloween All Hallow's Read." He suggests giving someone you love or your Trick-or-treaters a scary book on the 31st. I think it's a great idea. Check out the details. All Hollow's Read.

Here are some book suggestions for kids from Candlewick Press.

Six Word Stories

Image by s!znax via FlickrOver on Tor.com, they’ve asked their readers and twitter followers to write a Science Fiction or Fantasy story in only six words! Here's the twitter hashtag thread.
Via: A Dribble of Ink

10.20.2010

Star Trek Remastered Bonus - The Birth Of A Timeless Legacy

1.06.2010

My Favorite Book of 2009 – A Review (with Steampunk Zombies)

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

My rating: ★★★★★

This book contains all the standard tropes of Steampunk, including airships, goggles, and mad scientists but makes something fresh of it by adding in alternate history and Steampunk Zombies. It's primarily entertainment -- the literary equivalent of an action movie. But, a very good book and a very good action movie.

In this tale, the American Civil War has bloodily dragged into the late 1880s, the Klondike Goldrush happened earlier, and Seattle (Washington Territory) is home to tens of thousands of settlers. Due to an experimental earth-drilling invention that went awry, (the Boneshaker) a vein of gas (known as the Blight) has infected downtown Seattle. The town has to be walled off from the Outskirts. Within the walled city are roaming bands of rotters (think zombies), and some people crazy enough to venture inside and eke out a living among the rotters and Blight gas. When 15-year-old Zeke sneaks into the city to clear his father's good name. His mother, Briar, heads in after him and that's when things get really interesting. The Mother and son combination reminded me a bit of Sarah and John Connor (minus the world-saving destiny part), and the subsidiary characters were plentiful, clearly realized and interesting. As always, Preist's women are three-dimensional and strong. Tor's printing and book design (cream paper with sepia-brown ink) shows real care and thought. Priest's storytelling shows the same. She has, as proven by her Civil War tales, a wonderful grasp of the American Victorian Era, and being somewhat knowledgeable of that time myself, only added to my enjoyment of it.

My very favorite book of 2009. Not the best book I read, but absolutely a wonderful, fun and even interesting diversion. View all my reviews >>

12.12.2009

Quick, Go Give Fantasy Author Patrick Rothfuss Your Money

Last year, author Patrick Rothfuss and his fans across the Interwebs raised more than $100,000 dollars for his, and one of my favorite charities, Heifer International. Pat actually friended me last year on Facebook, and after you read his posts and his blog, you quickly learn, not only is he a fellow Midwesterner, but a really really kind and sweet man. Pat has has used his success since writing, The Name of the Wind, for much good and only bits of evil.

What’s that you say? You’d like to make the world a better place while simultaneously winning fabulous prizes?

Well today is your lucky day.

Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. All over the world Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry.

They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat.

(Are you ready? I’m so ready. Let’s do it.)

This year we’ve got a couple different options for donating.

Option 1 – The Lottery.

This is the option most people will want. It’s simple. You hop directly over to the page I’ve set up at Team Heifer, and donate.

When you donate using my page at team Heifer, two things happen.

1. Worldbuilders will match 50% of your donation. That means your ten-dollar donation becomes fifteen dollars. If you donate two goats, it becomes three goats. And so on.

2. You’ll be entered in the lottery.

After the fundraiser is over on January 15th, we’ll have random drawing for all the swag that’s been donated by authors and publishers over the last couple months. More than a thousand books, DVD’s and CD’s.

For every 10 bucks you donate, your name will get entered into the drawing once. If you donate thirty bucks, your name goes in three times. Think of it as buying tickets, if you like.

We’ve had *way* too many books donated for me to post them all up at once. It’s a prize-rich environment, with over a thousand books.

So I’ll be putting up a new blog full of donated books pretty much every day or so, just to keep people from being overwhelmed with all the awesome. Make sure to check back often.

Pat’s books, and the Golden Ticket

300 Books from Subterranean Press

A Plenitude of Signed Books [Coming Soon.]

A Plethora of Signed Books [Coming Soon.]

Cool Music [Coming Soon.]

A veritable Cornucopia of Signed books [Coming Soon.]

The Glory that is Joss Whedon [Coming Soon.]

Books from Gollancz [Coming Soon.]

Books from DAW [Coming Soon.]

Books from Bad Moon Press [Coming Soon.]

Books from Peter S. Beagle [Coming Soon.]

Last year, people donated over 53,000 dollars on the Team Heifer page, and I’m hoping this year we can do even better.

But let’s start off by trying to hit 10,000 dollars. That seems like a good place to begin, as our lovely sponsor has agreed to match 50% of the first $10,000 donated. Let’s all take advantage of their generosity, shall we?

Click Here to Donate

Option Two: The Sure Thing.

Or, as I like to think of it, the Christmas Present option.

For those of you who aren’t interested in the lottery, I have some stuff you can just buy. All the proceeds will go directly to Heifer International.

Personalized books from Patrick Rothfuss.

Name of the Wind posters. [Coming Soon.]

Worldbuilders T-shirts. [Coming Soon.]

Option Three: Auctions.

This year we’ve decided to auction off some of the rarer items and specialized services people have donated.

We’ve got industry professionals willing to read your fledgling manuscript and give you feedback. We’ve got a limited edition Stardust ARC signed by Neil Gaiman and a copy of The Gathering Storm signed by Brandon Sanderson and the production team at Tor. We’ve got original manuscripts, software, and a rockstar’s guitar. Stay tuned for details.

Rare Books and Manuscripts. [Coming Dec 6th.]

Professional Editorial Advice and Critiques. [Coming Dec 13th.]

Miscellaneous cool. [Coming Soon.]

A Quick Plea For Sanity

Lastly, I’d like to ask everyone to please read the instructions/directions carefully before they donate.

I know you’re excited. I’m excited too. We’re going to raise some money, make the world a better place, and end up with big warm fuzzy feelings.

But here’s the problem. If you’re *too* excited, you’ll end up clicking buttons all higgledy-piggledy, forgetting vital steps and leaving things out. (Especially when buying things with Paypal) Then you’ll send me an e-mail that says something like: “I’m sorry, but I forgot to include my shipping address/t-shirt size/signing instructions. Could you please fix it for me?”

I know I’m bound to get one or two e-mails like this. No biggie. But each one is like a cold drop of water eroding my warm fuzzy feeling. If I get, say, a hundred, I’ll have no warm fuzzy left at all. I’ll be left with nothing but a cold prickly feeling.

You don’t want to give me a cold prickly, do you?

I’m sure you don’t. And I’m sure that you’ll read the instructions carefully.

FAQ.

Have questions about the fundraiser? Most of them are probably answered over in the FAQ. Even if your question isn’t answered, I talk about Batman a bit, so it won’t be a complete waste of your time.

And, just in case you missed it, here’s the link to the Team Heifer donation page.

Rock on,

pat

Special thanks to our sponsor: Subterranean Press.

(Huzzah for Subterranean Press! Double Huzzah!)

Head on over to Pat’s blog. The Worldbuilder fundraiser ends on January 15th, 2010

Pat Rothfuss photo: memesisvirtualis' photostream

6.20.2009

Spock, Obama, the Kwisatz Haderach, and decriminalizing evolution. It's a great time to be a geek!

The brilliant John Hodgman (@hodgman, Author, Daily Show commentator and PC in the Apple ads) headlined the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner. Hodgman roasted the president for being a "nerd", referencing his place in popular culture and passion for comics (both Spider-Man and Conan) and science fiction (Star Trek and Dune).

7.07.2008

I Love Good Book Covers

It's the cover from George Mann's new book. It's got a great Late Victorian, steampunk, playbill, circus poster look to it. It's not released yet, but can be pre-ordered through it's independent publisher, Snowbooks.
According to the website, it's the first in a series hoping to appeal to fans of steampunk, alt-history SF, Jim Butcher fans and Dr. Who fans:

The Affinity Bridge is the first novel in a projected series detailing the adventures of Victorian special agent Sir Maurice Newbury and his delectable assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes. The novel is set in an alternative version of Victorian London in which the industrial age has come early and steam technology has revolutionised the British Empire. Victoria is kept alive on the throne by a primitive life support system and her agents do battle with the enemies of the Crown, both physical and supernatural. The Affinity Bridge follows Newbury and Hobbes as they investigate the wreckage of a crashed airship and its missing automaton pilot, whilst attempting to solve a string of strangulations attributed to a mysterious 'glowing policeman' and deal with a zombie plague that is ravaging the slums of the capital.