Welcome back to another round up of the best SFF news and links from the web this past week. What a crazy week this one has been! If you’re anything like me then you will have been glued to all things Obama V Romney so I’ve been sure to include a segment on elections. But while the leader of the free world was chosen the world kept on ticking with fun news. So, for your enjoyment I’ve included everything from the banning of the word hobbit in science to Cybermen to Harry Potter with Horns.
Enjoy.
Books
EXTRACT & WIN! Gollancz have given us a sneaky extract from The Red Knight and also given the chance to win one of ten copies. Get yourself over there to get involved.
Jeff Noon is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his novel VURT. The TOR BOOKS BLOG has a great interview with the man himself.
Voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards closes really soon! If you want to see your favourite authors win then you’ve gotta vote people. Click here to go cast your vote. I’ve done mine. GO MARK LAWRENCE!
Lavie Tidhar’s book Osama won the best novel award at the World Fantasy Awards. Other winners include the illusive K.J. Parker and Ann & Jeff Vandermeer. Head over to LocusMag for the full list of nominees and winners.
Joe Hill
I seem to be mentioning Joe Hill a lot lately so apologies but it’s all good stuff.
It’s been announced that the Locke & Key series is going to be turned in to a trilogy of movies. Fans of the series will know how potentially cool this is. Check out the article over at DigitalSpy for more information and also for a link to the trailer for the cancelled L&K television pilot.
Did you know that Harry Potter himself, Mr Daniel Radcliffe is playing Ig Perrish in the forthcoming HORNS movie? No? Well you do now. I shouldn’t like it… but I do and I think Radcliffe will rock that pitchfork harder than any Nimbus 3000. More info over at MTV.com.
Lord Of The Rings
http://youtu.be/5vWnwPdZ3Oc
The LOTR films had some of the best scores ever set to film (in my opinion anyway) so I’m really excited to see what The Hobbit films brings us. A new track to the upcoming film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been revealed and you might not be surprised to know it’s by the LOTR maestro Howard Shore. This piece is the orchestral theme for the wizard, Radagast The Brown. Excited much?
Apple fans of the world rejoice! The free to play, online MMO Lord Of The Rings Online is now available for Mac users.
(via CultOfMac)
Air New Zealand have released a Hobbit inspired safety video. Definitely the way to make people pay attention rather than bury their heads in the SkyMall magazine.
(via Youtube)
Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Scientists are banned from referring to ancient humanoids as hobbits by the Tolkien estate. The full story’s here at The Guardian.
Dr Who
“Cybermen were always the monsters that scared me the most! Not just because they were an awesome military force, but because sometimes they could be sleek and silver and right behind you without you even knowing.”
– Steven Moffat
It has been confirmed that Neil Gaiman’s next Dr Who episode (due next year) will feature the Cybermen! A tenner says he’ll make them scary again.
(via IO9)
The Presidential Election.
Ah the election. Obama vs Romney, Blue vs Red, good vs evil, Gandalf vs Sauron. Unless you’ve been stuck in suspended animation for the past year and a half, there is no way you could have missed this thing. It’s the biggest news of the week and so it is obvious that the memes and videos would flow. I’m not going to overload you with things as a quick Google search will bring you everything you could ever need but here are a few interesting bits.
I love this. Although Romney probably has the money to pull it off, I’d back Obama for Batman any day.
(via lethaltare.)
Paul Cornell has a new comic book coming out via Vertigo called SAUCER COUNTRY which fuses alien abductions with the crazy political climate of a U.S presidential campaign. Click here for more information and for an interview with Mr Cornell himself.
(via Newsarama)
The ever brilliant Mira Grant, author of the Newsflesh trilogy, has posted an article on the Orbit Books blog detailing the greatest politicians in genre including everything from Stephen King to the excellent Transmetropolitan.
(via Orbit Books.)
I suppose it’s a little irrelevant now that the election is over but this is still a fascinating read. Science Fiction author David Brin talks over at RedGreenBlue.org about what was at stake this election and the ‘sorry state’ that his party (Republican) has become. Worth a look I think.
(via RGB)
Star Wars
http://youtu.be/3rBpliHAVOQ
Now that Obama’s in (Oh yeah, SPOILER ALERT – Obama won!) people are starting to look at the next big decision to make… who shall direct the forthcoming Star Wars films. Here’s the case for Brad Bird.
(Via Youtube)
Terminator Arm
It’s not genre but a few years ago this would have been considered pure science fiction. This is truly brilliant and makes you feel proud to be part of a human race that can develop such amazing things. The full story is here at Geekologie.com
Right, that’s it. That’s me done for the week.
Catch you in seven.
Ciao.
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins