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.

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews4) 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.fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews

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

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews

In this section I’ll post bits and pieces of news from various fantasy authors:

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.

Author

  • Justin Blazier

    JUSTIN BLAZIER (on FanLit's staff since September 2009) is a Cyber-Security Analyst/Network Engineer located in Northern Kentucky. Like many fantasy enthusiasts, Justin cut his teeth on authors like Tolkien, Anthony, and Lewis. Due to lack of space, his small public library would often give him their donated SFF books. When he is not reading books he is likely playing board games or Tabletop RPGs. Justin lives in a quiet neighborhood with his wife, their daughter, and Norman the dog.