Welcome dear readers to the first World Wide Wednesday of 2011. 2011? That sounds so..futuristic. In 2011 we should have cars that fly, and robot dogs that do our laundry. My car only flies briefly when driven off a cliff, and my dog is still very much biological. I wish to apologize for the lack of WWW last week. I was overcome with the Holiday Spirit *blackberry wine if you wish know the precise spirit* and I missed Wednesday completely. Not to worry though, I stowed away the Santa hat and got back to work searching for items of interest. Hope you all enjoy, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or two. In the coming weeks if you find something interesting you think everyone should read, drop me a line via the contact form and let me know, or just post it as a comment below. Let’s get started:
1) How to blow up a planet: Handy information in case you ever wish to explode our planet, or someone else’s.
2) New site for SFF news: A nice looking news site for all things SFF.
3) The Face of Syfy: Howe to Hammer Away a Channel: Not so happy with SyFy channel lately? This is an interesting article about the force that is the root of all the changes. The Science Fiction Channel was beloved to SFF nerds everywhere, but slowly over the years it has become less and less endearing to its core audience. I can’t tell you the last time I tuned in.
4) Stanley Kubrick directs Lord of the Rings, starring The Beatles: This movie was being seriously considered before the plug was pulled. The folks over at SuperPunch have put together a collection of what the promotional poster may have looked like if this had actually happened.
5) The David Gemmell Legend Awards for Fantasy is open for voting: Click, vote and prepare to expand your TBR pile. So many amazing works…so little time.
6) Stage and Studio interviews Ursula Le Guin: Linked from the SFWA website is Dmae Roberts’ podcast/audio documentary of Ursula Le Guin
7) Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die: An interesting article at Wired by comedian Patton Oswalt on geek culture, and its death.
8) Firstborn: A space opera short story by Brandon Sanderson. If you click the listen button on the left you can have it read to you by Mr. Sanderson and his wife Emily.
Author Chum
In this section I’ll post bits and pieces of news from various fantasy authors:
- China Mieville: New worlds of play
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Happy Birthday!
- Isaac Asimov: Happy Birthday!
- Harlan Ellison: Sells his first typewriter
That wraps it up for this week. Thank you for joining me! Feel free to post your own links in the comments below, or submit them to me for next week via the contact form.
I don’t want my dog doing my laundry. I lose enough socks as it is. :D
Nice article about the SyFy channel.. I rarely ever watch that channel either. Sometimes it looks like it might be turning around, but I always thought changing SciFi to SyFy was a dorky idea.
And whatever became of the “Essential SciFi books” – a selection of books that SciFi or SyFy was was endorsing? I kinda liked that idea, kinda like a Oprah book club for sci-fi/fantasy fans.
If I could pay my dog in socks to my laundry, I would gladly do so. It would be about time for him to start contributing around the house.
I haven’t watched the SciFi channel (I refuse to call it SyFy) since BSG. They make some of the most bizarre movies ever, too. There was one about a giant shark versus a killer octopus or something and it starred Debbie Gibson.
Our mind is so techie! I could not imagine having cars that fly, and robot dogs that do laundries and all the things that you could only seen in sci-fi movies. I rather watch sci-fi movies and read this books than having it real. I love your list of books, I would surely have fun reading it. Thanks!