The Week In The World Of SFF

Happy Thanksgiving World! So this week we’ve seen the release of the final Twilight movie. I hear it’s awful… I mean, brilliant. In fact, I hear it’s soooooo good that everyone should go and see it. Oh, you have seen it? Excelllent. Well you’re probably now in need of a quick hit of something wonderful to wash away the thoughts of  terrible, terrible sparkly vampires. Look no further my friends, as like any good superhero I am here to save you with a healthy dose of SFF wonderment. Today we have everything from Star Wars to a Batman Moustache to… Oh look at that cover…

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What better way to open this weeks news than with one of the greatest things to be bestowed upon the world since, well, The Desert Spear. That’s right, we all know Arlen and Co are coming back soon and now it’s just got a whole lot closer. Peter V. Brett has revealed the official cover for the US release of The Daylight War. Look at Inevra! Look at what she’s casting…  AND, as if that wasn’t enough, EW have given us a sneak peak inside the book. I hope you’re excited because I bloody am!

Did anyone see the SF Masterworks appear on University Challenge this week? To celebrate, Gollancz have thought up their own Masterworks quiz and offer you the chance to win a whole bunch of Masterworks titles. More info here!

A Red Country, by the one and only Joe Abercrombie, has just made the New York Times Bestseller list! To celebrate, Orbit books have given us a great excerpt from this truly excellent novel.

Empire State by Adam Christopher won the best book of 2012 prize at Sci-Fi Now Magazine’s annual awards. To celebrate, Angry Robot are giving you 25% off both Empire State and the follow up Seven Wonders. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out! The offer goes until Sunday. 

I’ve argued for a long time that London is possibly the most perfect setting for Urban Fantasy you could ever wish for. There is history, a sprawling population and many, many dark shadows for scary things to lurk within. It seems that I’m not alone in this thinking. Check out this brilliant article over on the Guardian (a rather highbrow website/newspaper don’tcha’know) which points to everyone from Mieville to Gaiman to my friend Tom Pollock.

GoodReads

   

The Goodreads Choice Awards 2012 have entered the final stages of voting and just look at the books that are still in the running for the crowns and grandeur! Nick Harkaway’s AngelMaker, Pratchett and Baxter, Mark Lawrence’s brilliant King Of Thorns, The Walking Dead, Batman, Locke & Key. Even if you’ve voted before, get yourself over there and vote again because your old vote means nothing now. VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Graphic Novels

If you saw my post last week then you would have seen my glee at Headline publishing putting out a graphic version of Claudia’s story from An Interview With A Vampire. Well, the hot news is that the Costa Book Award (UK) has revealed it’s 2012 shortlist and it has a Graphic Novel on it for the first time, called Dotter Of Her Father’s Eyes. Hurrah for artwork and speech bubbles!

Fancy getting your grandma a graphic novel to try and persuade her that comics aren’t just for kids? Not too sure what to get her though? Then look no further than IO9, where the ever brilliant Charlie-Jane Anders gives us her list of top graphic novels that even non-comic fans will love to read.

Comics

The Amazing Spider-Man series is set to end on number #700 and just look at this stunning cover art done by none other than Marvels Creative Office, Joe Quesada. I’ve collected this series since I was nine years old so it’s a sad day, but still, I think you’ll agree that this cover is sexy stuff.

Star Wars

Whisper has it that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will be writing Star Wars installments 8 and 9… So… Sorry, does that not excite you? What? Okay, let me tell you who they are… Kasdan wrote Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi while Kinberg wrote X-men First Class. Excited now? Good, because you should be. Otherwise you’re dead to me. You hear that? Dead to me.

“Luke you have a new lightsabre for Xmas.”
“How do you know that Darth… I mean Dad?”
“I have felt your presents…”
Ah ha, ha ha ha ha ha.
Look at this Xmas ornament! I mean, seriously, look at it. How incredibly wow is that! Click on over to Hallmark (of all places) for more amazing SFF Xmas decorations.

When I’m bored, my favourite thing in the world to do is to sit and fold paper. Usually I just fold it in half, then in half again and again until I can’t fold it anymore and I am happy with what I’ve achieved. It seems that some brught buggers have figured out a way to fold my precious paper in to wonderful shapes. They call it origami (silly name) and here it is in Star Wars shapes. Enjoy.

LOTR

One Hobbit trailer to rule them all!
All the released footage of The Hobbit has been edited in to 8 minutes of sheer wonderment. I really cannot wait until this movie comes out. Ian McKellen, Tim from The Office and every one of Snow White’s lovers in one movie. Brilliant!

The Tolkien estate are suing the producers of The Hobbit for copyright infringement as they have licensed The Hobbit-themed gambling machines. And how much are they suing for? Try $80 Million… Yikes. More here. 

Stuff.

Ho-Leee…. The house from UP is real! Seriously, check this out!

Back to IO9 who have a brilliant article summing up the history of Science Fiction in 21 pictures. It starts in 1902 and goes up to the modern day. The picture above (in case you don’t recognise it, in which case, shame on you) is from somewhere in the middle. Click here for the full run down. 

The first proper look at Bryan Singer’s Jack The Giant Killer is now out for the world to see and I must admit, (as much as I don’t want to) that I may now be looking forward to this movie… Let’s just hope Kirsten Stewart doesn’t turn up somewhere. I won’t be able to handle all the ‘Giant… still has more facial expressions than…’ memes.

Writers

Seven signs it’s time to scrap your writing project courtesy of the ever brilliant Litreactor.

So you want to become a blogger… Have you ever wondered what a terrible, awful life it is for us bloggers? Here’s an insight from the ever-brilliant Graeme at graemesfantasybookreview over on the TOR Books blog. 

 Movember!

Some of you may know that I’m doing MOvember this year, which is a world wide event where men grow moustaches to raise awareness for mens health and specifically prostate cancer. Even now, over half way through I’m been umm-ing and argh-ing about what design to go for as right now I currently look like a twattish version of Tony Stark. Well, today I discovered what I want to cultivate and it’s this bad boy. It’s the moustache my face deserves. The Bat-Mo! 

The Oh Wow For The World Moment…

And finally to something so cool and crazy that there’s no way it can be real, but it really is!
Scientists have successfully given paralysed  dogs the ability to walk again. They took olifactory cells and implanted them in the spine which… well, read the article, watch the video and say with me, ‘man, I love science!’ Via BBC and Sky News.

Ciao and catch y’all in seven.

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