WWednesday: October 7, 2020

Lois McMaster Bujold. Image by Kyle Cassidy

Last week interesting enough for you all?

Books and Writing: 

Lois MacMaster Bujold fans, especially those who like the Penric stories, will be pleased by this announcement on Bujold’s Facebook page. (Thanks to File770.)

The Illinois Science Fiction in Chicago organization (ISFIC)  is holding its annual writing contest even though WindyCon has been postponed to 2021.

The Speculative Literature Foundation continues its Portolan Project with help from the Illinois Art Council.

Thanks to Kat for the link to this event; Sarah Kosloff, Brian Naslund  and Lavie Tidhar join in a Zoom webinar that starts today at 12:00 Central time.

There is a forthcoming Doctor Who comic, scheduled for November, in which once again Doctors 10 and 13 team up.

Namwali Serpell found out she won an Arthur C. Clarke award, and learned an hour later that no murder charges would be filed in the death of Breonna Taylor. Serpell is donating her prize money to a group helping those who were arrested for demonstrating and demanding justice for Taylor.

Gizmodo reviews Hannah Abigail Clarke’s The Scrapegracers.

Nerds of a Feather reviews the latest Laundry Files book by Charles Stross, Dead Lies Dreaming. This looks good!

Dead Lies Dreaming Cover

Streaming, TV and Movies:

Ars Technica was not happy with the finale of HBO Max’s SF Thriller Raised by Wolves, and they explain why in this spoilery review. It sounds like Android Mom is really Black Canary.

Shadowy, creepy atmosphere? Check. Ominous music? Check. Eerie portraits? Check. Enjoy the opening credits for a new Netflix series The Haunting of Bly Manor. Loosely based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.)

IO9 shares a micro-trailer for Monster Hunter, supposedly being released in theaters in December. It looks like the genetically altered dinosaurs from Jurassic World took lessons from sandworms, on the Pitch Black planet. Always nice to see Mila Jovovich working.

Warning, spoilers for Amazon’s The Boys, as Syfy Wire takes us on a visit to the set and a shocking scene in Season Two.

No Time to Die, the latest James Bond film, has delayed release until April, 2021. The studio announced that this was so that people could see it in theaters.

I don’t know if we needed another remake of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, but this one has Octavia Spencer, so I’m happy about it.

The Walking Dead franchise seeks to be the Law and Order of the paranormal TV world, and it launched yet another spinoff this week. The Walking Dead: the World Beyond, follows teenagers, as (I guess) the showrunners try to grab the YA viewership. Here’s a review.

Shameless self-Promotion/Giveaway:

My novel Copper Road should be coming out from Falstaff Books before the end of the year, so I am giving away two copies of the first book in the series, the novella Aluminum Leaves. This way, you’ll know what the characters are trying to do and why it matters.

Tech and Science:

Here is a detailed review of Microsoft’s Surface Duo, the new fold-phone. Expensive but worth it, except for the camera, seems to be the conclusion.

Liquid water under the surface of Mars?

Internet:

One congressional representative thinks tying the rate of pay to speed of test results will get Covid results back more quickly. Many labs disagree.

Video:

Voces8 sing “The Road Home.” About 3.18 minutes long. This one is very soothing.