Awards:
Nnedi Okorafor was named 2018’s Person of the Year by the Society for Africans in Diaspora. Thanks to File 770.
Books and Writing:
The anthology Unfettered III directs the proceeds to writers needing health care. File 770’s article talks about the history of great stories for a good cause.
On The Mary Sue, Princess Weekes talks about Riri Williams, whose superhero name is Ironheart. She was a new one for me.
Prince Ivan on the Grey Wolf by Viktor Vasnetsov. Image courtesy of wikipictures
The UK Guardian has some books to look forward to in 2019. The start of a fantasy trilogy by Marlon James? Sign me up! By the way, the Tana French novel is already out in the USA with the title The Witch Elm. “Wych,” according to the internet, is a variant spelling of “witch,” or a type of elm tree with pliant branches, able to be bent or shaped.
The Washington Science Fiction Association announced that the nomination window for its Small Press Award, for stories that appeared in small presses in 2018, is now open.
Crime Reads delivers 2018 in Sherlockmania.
Locus shares some new releases for January, 2019.
TV and Movies:
The Mary Sue reports that Amazon is adapting the movie thriller Hanna, about a child assassin, into a series. Really? Did anyone watch the movie? I’m curious.
Aquaman topped the box office for the third week in a row, but its special effects were snubbed by the Academy Awards. Sigh. Such is life.
National Geographic has placed Neil Degrasse Tyson’s show Star Talk on haitus pending a thorough investigation of charges against him of sexual misconduct.
Here’s a review of Syfy’s Deadly Class, a show that purports to be set in 1987 in a school for assassins, with a nihilistic homeless teen as our viewpoint character.
Roald Dahl’s The Witches set in the USA’s 1960s south? Um, okay.
What did you think of the Doctor Who New Year’s special? Fortress of Solitude liked it.
Nanazin Boniadi plays the brilliant and deceptive Clare on Starz’s alternate universe show Counterpart. Here is her interview with the LA Times.
Space:
As you all know, China has landed a rover, the Chang-e4, on the moon.
New Horizons sent back some fun information about Ultima Thule, a binary Kuiper Belt object, on New Year’s Day.
Science:
Crossroads by Viktor Vasnetsov. Image courtesy of Amazon
In this case, Science? I cry out to our fearless leader Kat for an opinion on this article about an experiment that connected three people via an electroencephalogram to… solve the mystery of Tetris. Is this real? And is it as cool as the article makes it sound? Here is more detail.
Internet:
Here are the best bugs to befriend in 2019.
Sue the T-Rex has a new suite and a makeover for the new year. More importantly, Sue the T-Rex has a twitter account and you should definitely follow them! (Sue uses “they/them” because the scientists do not know the exact gender of the fossil. Sue is named after one of their discoverers.)
January 5 is the birthday of Studio Gibli founder Hayao Miyazaki.
Gizmodo shares the best upcoming action figures of 2019. I thought my Snape-loving friend might like that one for her birthday; I can see I need to start saving my pennies if that’s going to happen.
I’ll start off by saying that Salon is not my favorite site, either for its journalism or its site design, but I liked this article about a woman who started off researching psychics, astrologers and Tarot card readers. Whether you’re a true believer or a complete skeptic, you’ll find something to take away from this interview.
Earth:
Well, “ocean,” actually. This link leads to the otter camera at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. All times for the active camera are Pacific Time. Feeding times are listed; when the cam is not active they often run videos about the critters. Enjoy.
Art:
Viktor Vasnetsov was born in 1848, and was educated in the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts. He drew heavily on Russian folklore for his subjects and is credited with co-creating the Russian Revivalist movement. Today’s images are courtesy of Wikipaintings.
Hey–we have both death feigning beetles and hissing cockroaches! No way I’m letting those dermestids near my books though!
I saw Hanna in the theater when it came out. I liked it. It was quite different. A critic said it had “a dreamlike sensibility” and I’d agree. If they make a series of it, it will have to be exceptionally well-written to be anything like the film. Otherwise it will just be another ‘assassin-on-the-run’ story and won’t fly at all.
I think it DID have a “dreamlike sensibility” and I liked the surrealistic ending in the defunct amusement park. I just don’t know how well it will translate, and the Child Soldier theme has been done and done.
I’m not optimistic. It would be far too easy to fall into writing the action end of the story. Which would be missing out on what made the film interesting.