The Week In The World Of SFF

Welcome back ladies and gents. How’s your week been? Good I hope. Here’s the week in the very best SFF news and fun from around these fine interwebs of ours. Today I bring you everything from running with dinosaurs and a pervy Spiderman to the Culture universe, juggling robots and Warp Drive – it’s real! Enjoy.

BOOKS

25 Years Of Culture!

We start today off with celebratory dates. 114 years ago today Mr C. S. Lewis was born. 26 years ago today I was born… And 25 years (roughly) today the Culture series was born with the publication of Consider Phlebas by the great Iain M. banks. So to celebrate, here are a bunch of cool links.

First off we have SF Signal who have asked some of the best authors out there what they think sets the Culture universe apart from any other.

Next, those fine chaps and chappesses over on the Orbit Books team have a fresh blog up with not only a link to a Banks interview but also giveaways for Culture books. Definitely worth a look! 

And it just wouldn’t be cricket for an egomaniac like myself to pass up the opportunity to link to my recent two-part interview with the Banks himself where we talked everything from drug glands and Gravitas ships to his porno name.

Tor books have spoilt us this week with two great interviews. We have one with the ever wonderful Cherie Priest  and one with the excellent Alden Bell on writing. Great stuff!

Sticking with the Tor site, you need to look at this! Next year brings us the very last in the stellar Wheel of Light series and with it, those lucky Americans across the great pond are getting a book tour with author Brandon Sanderson. 

Every day this week, Gollancz are giving us a piece of the latest Discworld compendium – Turtle Recall – and promise that come Friday we’ll be given a competition too. Now that sounds like an offer not even CMOT Dibbler could beat.

The Scottish Book Trust have listed their top ten books with really good bad guys and there are quite a few fantasy books in there including Philip Pullman and Mark Lawrence.

Vampires and porn but isn’t Twilight?

The lady who simultaneously turned on your girlfriend, mum and grandmother, Ms E L James, has told the Guardian newspaper that her favourite book of the year is… Shadow Of Night by Deborah Harkness. Hurrah for genre fiction in the main stream. Hurrah for Mummy Smut. Hurrah.

The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction

The Science Fiction Encyclopedia has hit the Twitter-verse with a bang this week and I can’t believe I had never heard of it before. Seriously, it’s brilliant and I highly recommend you give it a look. 

X-Men

It’s nothing new that the next X-Men film will be based on the fantastic comic-book story arc, Days of Future Past which will feature a jump in time for the blue and yellow clad warriors of the First Class film. But this week it was announced that both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen will be reprising their roles as Professor X and Magneto respectively. Coupled with McAvoy and Fassbender, that’s some serious acting chops for a comic book movie. Seems like Mark Millar’s pulling out the stops over at Fox. More over on the BBC. 

March 2013 is bringing us a brand new X-Men arc called X-Termination. Whoever picked the title probably needs to be given a new set of crayons to chew but damn, look at that cover!

Could you outrun a dinosaur?

Have you ever got drunk and bragged that sod the jeep, you could have outran the T-Rex in the chase scene in Jurassic Park? No? Neither have I… But anyway, head over to Io9.com who have this brilliant piece which details the speeds of some of John Hammond’s most dangerous beasties.

The Hobbit

Ol’ Hairy Toes and the Seven Dwarves are almost here and to just tease us that little bit more, Peter Jackson and his merry band of film makers have given us this excellent 15 minutes of behind the scenes footage as they toil away in the goblin mines to get the movie finished.

And on the point of goblin mines, look at Dame Edna herself (A.K.A everyone’s favourite Aussie, Barry Humprhies) as the Goblin King. And if that isn’t enough, we’re heading back over to Io9 for what is possibly the motherload of all Hobbit picture motherloads. I gawked for twenty minutes when I saw these together.

Game Of Thrones – Manga Style

I think you’ll agree that this is very sexy stuff. Come on Studio Ghibli. Make this for realz. Click here to go to Nerd Approved for the entire image – IT’S HUUUUUGE.

The Ultimate Cosplay!

I don’t know where to begin on this… It’s Voltron Cosplay. ‘Nuff said. (via Instructables)

Go Science! Robots that can play catch.

Disney, one of the biggest and most powerful companies on the globe have just revealed their latest project. Robots that can catch. Truly incredible!  Next stop, go back in time and kill John Connor!

Double Go For Science! Warp Drive Theory Is More Feasible Than Ever

Scientists have announced that Warp Drive are now closer to reality than we might have thought. A few years ago it was announced that warp was theoretically viable by rapidly expanding the space behind an object, thus propelling it forwards. The bugger was that the energy required to do this was astronomical! But, this week it’s been announced that new theory could reduce the energy required to relatively tiny numbers. If there’s one thing you read up on today make sure it’s this!

Finally.

Did you have a good Thanksgiving last week? Good. I bet it wasn’t as good as Spidey’s though…

Have a great week and I’ll catch you in seven.

Ciao.

Print Friendly