Here at FanLit, we want to wish all of our American readers (and anyone else, too!) a Happy Thanksgiving!

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews

Happy Cyborg Turkey Day!

Writing, Editing, and Publishing:

In this Suvudu article, several SFF writers discuss writing advice they would give their younger selves.

Ursula K. LeGuin’s acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters manages to fit inspiration and incisive cultural criticism into just a few paragraphs. This is one of the many reasons we love her.

Cory Doctorow talks about the way stories reach inside to push our empathy buttons, while also discussing some of his favorite rides at DisneyWorld.

The Washington Post introduces their picks for the five best sci-fi books of the year.

Gaby Wood from the Telegraph interviews Neil Gaiman about his new book, The Sleeper and the Spindle. This interview also provides a nice thumbnail history of the 20th and 21st century work on fairy tales.

Tantor Media, a great online audiobook store, is having their holiday sale right now. From today through Sunday 11/30/2014 their Audio CDs will be $14.99 and MP3-CDs will be $9.99 (preorder CDs can be bought at these prices too). Also, their CyberMonday sale on 12/01/2014 will feature all of our downloads for $4.99 (no preorders on downloads). Available at www.tantor.com

Movies and Television:

A review in the Telegraph of the first installment of the BBC’s 5 part series on the history of science fiction.

Emily Asher-Perrin from Tor.com argues that McCoy is essential to StarTrek, the third leg of the tripod, and offers to fight anyone who doesn’t want character development in the new films. (I’m in her corner on this one.)

Internet Stuff:

The question Marvin Minksy set his graduate students in the 1960’s, called the Summer Vision Project, finally being solved. This io9 article explains how a computer can do this task, and shows some images that computers have accurately identified.

Fodder for your next creative writing project: I dare you to flesh out a story around number 9 or 10 on this list of the greatest and weirded JFK assassination theories.

 

Author

  • Kate Lechler

    KATE LECHLER, on our staff from May 2014 to January 2017, resides in Oxford, MS, where she divides her time between teaching early British literature at the University of Mississippi, writing fiction, and throwing the tennis ball for her insatiable terrier, Sam. She loves speculative fiction because of what it tells us about our past, present, and future. She particularly enjoys re-imagined fairy tales and myths, fabulism, magical realism, urban fantasy, and the New Weird. Just as in real life, she has no time for melodramatic protagonists with no sense of humor. The movie she quotes most often is Jurassic Park, and the TV show she obsessively re-watches (much to the chagrin of her husband) is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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