Science Fiction
jdupuis | August 20, 2010Ah, zombies. I found myself feeling a certain, ah, nostalgia for the good old days when I used to post non-stop about shambling dead, decaying wrecks. The good old days, way back at the beginning of July and even earlier.
I seem to be obsessed.
So, from Cracked: 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly):
They Have Too Many Natural Predators
They Can't Take the Heat
They Can't Handle the Cold
Biting is a Terrible Way to Spread a Disease
They Can't Heal from Day to Day Damage
The Landscape is Full of Zombie-Proof Barriers
Weapons and the People Who Use Them. As we touched on…
jdupuis | August 16, 2010I actually read the freely downloadable version of Cory Doctorow's novel Makers on my Kobo ereader, even though I did buy the hardcover when it came out last year. Mostly, I wanted to check out the experience of reading a long text on my reader. Overall, the Kobo reading experience was terrific, not much different from reading a paper book. I tried it on both long inter-city bus rides and my regular commute as well as just sitting around the house. The Kobo is pretty bare bones, as these readers go, but it was good enough to consume fairly simple text. The Makers text was in epub format…
drorzel | August 14, 2010I don't believe the actual book is out yet, but you can get an electronic Advance Reading copy of the Nth Miles Vorkosigan book, Cryoburn already. Kate picked up a copy, and while she hasn't gotten around to it yet, I read it this week while putting SteelyKid to bed.
The book is another "Lord Auditor Vorkosigan" story, with Miles on a mission to Kibou-Dani, a half-terraformed planet with a positive fetish for cryopreservation. A quirk in local laws gives the "cryocorps" that preserve millions of frozen citizens the right to proxy vote for their clients, and control of their property, so they…
drorzel | August 6, 2010In comments to yesterday's post about my favorite Many-Worlds story, a couple of people mention "All the Myriad Ways," a Larry Niven short story. I don't think I've ever actually read the story, but it gets brought up all the time, so I'm familiar with the concept. It's an angle on Many-Worlds that I don't like, and has something in common with the central conceit of Inception, which is also not high on my list of literary tropes, though my reaction isn't anywhere near as negative as Scott's.
If you're not familiar with it, here's the summary from Wikipedia:
A police detective, pondering a…
drorzel | August 5, 2010Today, Tor.com has posted the complete story "Divided by Infinity" by Robert Charles Wilson. This remains probably the best science fiction story ever using the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics (though it doesn't call it that explicitly), and also the creepiest:
In the year after Lorraine's death I contemplated suicide six times. Contemplated it seriously, I mean: six times sat with the fat bottle of Clonazepam within reaching distance, six times failed to reach for it, betrayed by some instinct for life or disgusted by my own weakness.
I can't say I wish I had succeeded,…
drorzel | August 1, 2010The voting for the 2010 Hugo Awards closed last night. I sent in my ballot yesterday, but I'm trying to limit my computer time this weekend, so I didn't post about it until today.
The following lists are my votes, with miscellaneous commentary. The Hugos use a complicated vote-counting scheme, including a "No Award" option to distinguish between works you wouldn't mind seeing win, even if they're not your first choice, and works you consider so bad you would rather see them cancel the award than win.
Best Novel
The City and the City by China Mieville
Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson…
cevans | July 29, 2010
Earlier this year, I received a charming email from a pair of Helsinki-based artists and designers who work under the name of OK DO. OK DO is a socially-minded design think tank and online publication; they dug Universe and wanted to know if I'd contribute to a new publication and exhibition project they were working on. The project, Science Poems, was perfectly up my alley: a variety of articles and work loosely structured around the "poetry and multi-sensorial aesthetics of natural sciences rather than their functionality and logic."
For the occasion, I wrote a short piece about the…
jdupuis | July 5, 2010Ok, ok, this is the last zombie post, I promise.
Here are some exmples of my favourite OTT, badass, crazy zombie fiction!
The Book of the Dead is a classic collection of short stories that's well worth reading.
Monster Island: A Zombie Novel is the first in a trilogy. It's one of those trilogies with significantly diminishing returns as it goes on, but the first book is great.
The Rising is well done and creepy.
Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan Maberry is top notch, the best horror/sf/technothriller I've read in a long time.
Pet Sematary is one of Stephen King's best novels,…
jdupuis | July 2, 2010Noted zombie novelist Jonathan Maberry as a two part post on his blog, Why Zombies? and Why Zombies? - Part 2.
The second post, btw, has one of the classic blog sentences of all time: "When I reached out to the zombie community to ask 'WHY ZOMBIES?' I got so many terrific responses that I broke the blog into two parts." Zombie community. Only on the internet!
Anyways, I digress. Maberry's researches with the zombie community include short bits from a ton of zombie novel authors.
Here's his initial question:
We kick off our rolling series of ZOMBIE PANEL DISCUSSIONS by addressing the…
jdupuis | June 30, 2010Rather like a normal Friday Fun post, I'm going to highlight some fun stuff I've found around the web on zombies in higher education. And I'm not talking about undergrads at 9am classes either. Note that a couple of these I've highlighted before.
BTW, first I thought I'd point out a couple of pop cultural items on zombies.
The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the SoullessZombies, Vampires, and PhilosophyBook of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie CinemaGospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on EarthZombie Holocaust: How the Living Dead Devoured Pop…
drorzel | June 30, 2010I have now finished all of the short fiction on this year's Hugo Award ballot (links to most nominees are available here), and I have to say, the pickings here are pretty slim. The stories that aren't forgettable or preachy are deeply unpleasant, leaving me wanting to put a lot of stuff below "No Award." And there's one story that makes me want to bleach my frontal cortex.
More detailed comments, category-by-category, below the fold:
Best Novella
“Act One”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
The God Engines, John Scalzi (Subterranean)
“Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace, Orbit)
Shambling…
jdupuis | June 29, 2010Following up on my post from a few days ago, a short appreciation of Alan Turing by noted sf author Frederik Pohl:
The close of Pride Month seems an apt time to talk about Alan Turing, inventor of the famed Turing Test for identifying independent intelligence in computers, worked for the British code breakers in World War II, and was one of the leading figures who successfully cracked the secret German messages, a feat which played a considerable part in the victory over Hitler.
Pohl is one of my all-time favourite sf authors and his blog The Way the Future Blogs is an excellent updating of…
jdupuis | May 28, 2010I've been slowly dipping my toes into the manga universe, trying to expand my comics/graphic novel horizon. Moyasimon, for example -- the 1st volume was very good. Beyond that, I've only read a couple of titles here and there.
Of course, like any good librarian I've been looking for lists to help me in my explorations.
Here's a nice list from Robin Brenner via Jeff Vandermeer:
Antique Bakery by Fumi Yoshinaga
Clover by CLAMP
Death Note by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike
Monster by Naoki Urasawa
Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa
Planetes by Makoto Yukimura
Yotsuba…
elerner | May 11, 2010Tony Stark, the man behind the mask in the blockbuster Iron Man movies, doesn't have any super powers, but he is supernaturally gifted in terms of intelligence, ingenuity, and sarcasm. His most amazing ability, however, may be the ability to make movie audiences suspend their disbelief regarding the science at the heart of his adventures. The hotly anticipated sequel released last Friday taxes those powers to the limit, with Tony building something even more ridiculous than an indestructible flying suit of armor powered by a pocket-sized cold fusion reactor. If you don't mind spoilers, check…
vlicata | May 9, 2010Going to a party at Tony Stark's house would be awesomely fun, and Iron Man 2 has its fair share of highly enjoyable scenes, though not as many as Iron Man 1, but it definitely could have used some science consulting help. Despite Tony Stark's apparently scientifically flawless use of a soldering iron in #1, here in #2 he constructs what appears to be a cross between a laser and a small synchrotron (which shot light in the wrong direction, inward instead of outward - or possibly looked like it might have been diverting the whole beam, which wouldn't work for more than about a nanosecond -…
nisbetmc | May 5, 2010Chiwetel Ejiofor as geologist Adrian Helmsley in last year's blockbuster 2012 is one of the many emerging "hero" images of scientists in popular film and television.
In graduate school, I published with several colleagues a paper examining the portrayal of scientists in film and television and the relationship to audience perceptions. At last week's workshop on science and art in Alberta, I had the opportunity to return to this topic, one that remains much debated by commentators and scientists.
Contrary to conventional wisdom that entertainment media portray science and scientists in a…
jdupuis | April 16, 2010If you love sword & sorcery books and stories (and who doesn't!), SF Signal has one of their Mind Meld features in which they ask a bunch of writers and editors to name their favourites of the genre.
Here's a taste:
Lou Anders
"Ill met in Lankhmar" tops any list. How could it not? Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser defined sword & sorcery for me as a child, and I'm thrilled that, having just started rereading their adventures they are thus far holding up. Michael Moorcock's "Stormbringer" is tied or a close second. I haven't read that since I was 15 but the Moorcock I have read hasn't dated.…
cevans | April 15, 2010
A large part of my affection for science comes from the thrill of terror I get when a particularly insane piece of science news hits the presses. When an article begins with a sentence like, "there is something strange in the cosmic neighborhood," or "all the black holes found so far in our universe may be doorways into alternate realities," my pulse quickens and a dormant paranoia is roused from deep within my breast: a sensation of joyful panic. I used to call this the "fourth-grade nightmare fantasy." This might be because as a long-time science fiction adept, I tend to read science news…
jdupuis | April 9, 2010This is sick, sick stuff. But actually quite funny, really, in a very black humour sort of way.
It's a web comic about the creatures from the Alien films invading the Hundred Acre Wood and basically turning all our most beloved childhood characters into monsters. The comic probably goes on a tad too long, stretching out a rather amusing concept to somewhat pointless length. This is the kind of thing where you have to hit the high points immediately and then run for cover.
There are, however, a couple of really good lines, like, "Suddenly Pooh found himself in the middle of a gastronomic…
milhayser | March 3, 2010
On Universe, Claire L. Evans interviews sci-fi world-builder Ursula K. Le Guin. Their conversation centers on the Google Books Settlement, which seeks to "circumvent existing U.S. copyright law." While Le Guin hopes her books will become more accessible in the future, she says "the vast and currently chaotic electronic expansion of publishing should not be controlled solely by corporations." On Uncertain Principles, Chad Orzel reviews China Mieville's new novel The City and the City, which is about two cities that enforce very strict boundaries despite being "co-located" on the same real…