Science Fiction News & Recent Science Review for the Autumn 2007

This page builds on the seasonal science fiction news previously posted.

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

EDITORIAL MATTERS

Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation cyber attacked. The attack took place in June and for around a day visitors to this site were re-directed to a Russian site that then attempted to download a virus that (would if not prevented by a reasonable firewall) facilitate further infection. At first we were worried that this was a specific attack targeting just this site, however it transpired that our server -- the large US company DreamHost -- had a security breach with (reportedly) 5,000 passwords revealed. Herculean efforts of our webmaster (Alan) repeatedly re-installing our key index files meant the hackers went after easier prey. Throughout it all our 'alert service' data base was secure. Our IT guy (Dan) developed our site update alert service with added security measures which include it being run quite separately on a separate site and maintained by both a different protected network and independent PC with no connection to DreamHost. Consequently at no time were any e-mail addresses of those registered to receive our site alerts exposed. (Also the Concat office computer is protected by a sound firewall and additionally has other anti-spy-ware measures.) In short, be assured we have built-in measures to protect 'site update alert' user confidentiality. +++ Meanwhile Estonia was cyber-attacked by Russians. This time it was personal. +++ A similar (same?) gang used Google blogs in August for spyware propagation.

New Nature 'Futures' stories to come back to Concatenation Plus 'Futures' returns to Nature. -- click here for details

Concat' Site Update Alert Service: Don't forget that now you can receive e-mail alerts (only every other month) letting you know when this site has an update. This alert service is free and your e-mail addresses will not be passed on to other parties. For details see the bottom of this news page. SF to your computer at near the speed of light. :-)

In-house project news: Essential Science Fiction is also available from Amazon.co.uk. Do your bit to spread the genre word. Makes for a great birthday present. Help support Concat. See also news of signed copies from Porcupine Books (who can send you copies cheaper than Amazon...).

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

MAJOR HEADLINE LINKS

Space man and co-Hugo Award winner dies -- click here for details

The Galaxy Awards, Locus Awards and the Hugo Awards for 'SF achievement' are out.

News of other SF Awards/Prizes given include: Australia - Ditmar, Germany - Kurd Lasswitz, Italy - Urania (new unpublished novel), Japan - Seiun, New Zealand - Vogel, Russia - Bronze Snails, UK - Clarke (SF books), UK - Eagle (comics), Ukraine - Portal, US - Eisner (comics) and US - Nebula.

News of Science Awards can be found here: Spain - international science communication, UK - Clarke (space science) and UK - COPUS (popular science books).

New SF on-line film and TV channel -- click here for details

New life for Nature's 'Futures' stories -- click here for details

Multiverse has a 50th anniversary. One of many (obviously) -- click here for details

Sov Bloc SF fan interest revealed by Mir Fantastiki reader survey

Links to a few of the latest fantastic film trailers and a couple of shorts including films based on the following SF & fantasy writers' works: Arthur Clarke (British), Neil Gaiman (British), Sergei Lukyanenko (Russia) and Richard Matheson (US American) -- click here for details

Dan Dare coming back! -- click here for details

Science Fiction Writers of America go European -- click here for details

SF fan and Concat team member Tony Bailey swims the English Channel for charity and very nearly makes it to France -- click here for details

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

NEWS

MAJOR SCIENCE & SF NEWS

The 2007 Galaxy Award winners have been announced. Rarely heard of outside of China but these are arguably the most democratic SF awards in the World as they are determined by a vote of Kehuan Shijie [Science Fiction World], China's leading SF magazine that has a reported half a million print run! The Chinese writer Liu Cixin won the big category Galaxy for his novel Tri-Body. Other category winners included, Wang Jinkang for his short Ultimate Explosion and Chang Jia a promising young writer for the Best SF Story for his book Kunlun. Canadian SF author Robert Sawyer received a Galaxy for the 'Most Popular Foreign Author'. On receiving the transparent (and, in his case vaguely, flame-shaped) award Robert Sawyer commented: "The great thing about science fiction is that it transcends national boundaries. It's wonderful to be at a conference along with writers from the Canada, China, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, and United States. Science fiction really is the literature of Planet Earth." The award was presented at a gala ceremony at the Chengdu Museum of Science and Technology as part of this year's International SF & Fantasy Conference that was of rival size to the Japanese Worldcon held the following week.

The 2007 Locus Award winners have been announced. The 'Best SF Novel' goes to Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. The good news for us lot in western Europe is that Tor (UK) now have a paperback edition out see below. The 'Best First Novel' category went to Naomi Novik's Temeraire (which in the former colonies appears as His Majesty's Dragon). The paperback is being re-issued in the UK -- see below so if you are into fantasy and missed it now's your chance before Christmas. For details of the other 2007 Locus wins see the Locus website. Apparently the award gathering went well, though not many of the winners were present, but this was made up for by many Hawaiian shirts. (Don't ask, it's a Locus thing.)

The Hugo Awards for SF achievement were announced at the 2007 Worldcon in Japan on September 1st (or 2nd depending on where on the Earth you live). The principal category wins were:-
Best Novel - Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) - Pan's Labyrinth
Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) - Dr Who 'The Girl in the Fireplace'
J. W. Campbell Award (for Best New Writer): Naomi Novik (for Temeraire).
Among the other categories Dave Langford narrowly won Best Fan Writer and Patrick Neilsen Hayden narrowly won the Best Editor (Long Form). See 'Hugo win comment' below.
Full details of all the categories are on the newly formed Hugo Awards site.

Hugo win comment. Well we previously commented on the Hugo nominations back in the Spring and there is little further to add on the actual wins now the results are out save to remind you that us Brits have been hampered by not having a number of the novels published this side of the Pond. Since then a couple have made it over here including Vinge's Rainbows End in August. We did though mention Charles Stross and Glasshouse without having reviewed it and this ended up coming second in both the nomination vote and the final ballot.
          This year the book awards, both the 'best novel' and Campbell were the same as the Locus. This is probably because there were a couple of strong SF nominations and this year the Hugo novel win was actually SF (the Locus has a separate 'best fantasy' category to its 'best SF novel') and that the Campbell and Locus best 'new writer/'first novel' (respectively) are both open to works of SF and fantasy. (Though the Campbells are not Hugos, they are voted for at the same time as and by those voting for the Hugo and so for purposes of selecting SF excellence can be considered equivalent.)
          The suggestion might be tentatively made that in years where two strong SF (as opposed to fantasy) novels are 'nominated' then the winner will reflect the Locus SF novel win and when they aren't they won't. Also that the Campbell might be considered to be synonymous with the Locus Best First Novel. Alas this is very difficult to prove statistically. (You'd have to do a similar population multivariate analysis -- Ian Stewart help!!!) Also the nomination voting for the Hugo short list is only released after the final ballot win has been announced so even if this hypothesis could be proved it could not be a predictive tool (and of course there would be confidence error in significance). Yet should someone do such an analysis it would be indicative of whether there was a need for both awards or alternatively whether the Hugo needed to make a distinction between SF and fantasy excellence should it wish to garner the voter interest the Locus has accrued in recent years. Some serious points for those heavily into Hugos.
          The surprise came with the films with Pan's Labyrinth for Dramatic Presentation (Long Form). Yes, Pan's has really stunning photography, and great acting, but such a basic and limited plot (child retreats to -- a possibly -- imaginary world to escape adult horrors in the real one) that was only carried by (contrasting) the horror of its revolutionary war setting. Of course, once again the Worldcon constitution Hugo fantasy loophole allows a film with no SF content to win the award. This even though the constitution equally says (section 1.2 Objectives) the Hugos are the 'Science Fiction Achievement Awards'. No wonder the year-on-year trend continues to be of increasing, and (since last year) greater, support for the Locus Award for books. Alas there is no comparable fan voted award for films. Still we have discussed this before so no matter. Folk will put their voting effort to where it can best count and as soon as the WSFS realises this the better.
          The other surprise was the Best Editor (Long Form). Now, leaving aside that the creation of this new category a couple of years ago was highly debatable, the surprise this year was that Patrick Nielsen Hayden won it. This is not because he was one of the original proposers of the category split that created this award, or because he is not a good editor (he does do very worthy work) but that he beat James Patrick Baen (albeit it narrowly in the first round voting). Jim Baen, as some of you may recall, sadly died last year after decades of work in SF so this was the World SF Society's chance to honour him. Having said that Hugo voters have been stung in the past by some of the nearest and dearest of those who have posthumously received a Hugo as posthumously is too late, so maybe this year's events are understandable? Yet conversely there was Science Fiction Five-Yearly's win for Best Fanzine as Lee Hoffman has died. So who can tell the psychology of Hugo voting.
          Of tiny surprise was the storm in a tea cup some raged over John Scalzi being nominated for Best Fan Writer. (For a taster and an early Scalzi view see here). Some view Scalzi as an SF professional and so not eligible for this category. This, of course, is utter pish if not, dare we say it (yes, upon due reflection we dare) complete piffle. (Strong words we know, but they really had to be said!) A professional writer can write unpaid and for fun as a fan and equally a fan can write a book published by a professional publishing house. What is the problem? Scalzi only lost by one vote to Dave Langford on the first voting round. Both these two have behaved impeccably and Scalzi has politely and clearly justified his stance with logic, while Dave has been gracious in his win. Exactly why a few fans have grumbled is a minor mystery, but then so are lost socks, the timing of busses, and quantum entanglement.
          Well that is it for another year. Meanwhile our Spring posting (that goes up in the early New Year) will have our best book and film recommendations of 2007, so that later (summer posting) we can compare these with next year's Hugo nominations. Of course we are limited in that we largely look at books published this side of the Atlantic but then that is our charm. (No tittering now: it's all we have.)

The Prince Asturias Award winners have been announced. Wins go to Bloomsbury and former Vice-President Al Gore for An Inconvenient Truth as well as both the World's leading multidisciplinary science journals, and rivals, Nature and Science.   The Spanish Award was established by His Royal Highness Heir to the throne of Spain. It is the best-known cultural prize in the Spanish speaking community. The awards honor individuals, groups or institutions whose creative work or research represents a significant contribution to universal culture in the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanistic fields. The arch rival journals both get the Award in its category for Communication and Humanities.
+++ An Inconvenient Truth attempts to explain the climate science and that the Earth's climate really is warming due to human activity.
+++ Aside from research papers, Nature (Britain) has an excellent 'News and Views' section that puts the latest research into context of other specialist developments in that field (so making the relevance of highly specialist paper accessible to other scientists). Nature is also currently the home of the European SF Society Award-winning 'Futures' series of SF short stories (exemplars of which are carried on this site - see latest news of this elsewhere on this page). (Nature also recently had an SF-themed issue - see latest news of this elsewhere on this page within the 'Interface: Science and SF' section.)   Meanwhile Science (US) also carries some interesting research papers and has (according to one of us) the best damn science reporter currently living on the planet - Richard Kerr.

The 2007 Nebula Awards for 2006 from the SF Writers of America have been announced. Jack McDevitt picks up the 'Best Novel' Nebula for Seeker. The awards were announced at the beginning of the summer (May) in New York. For details of the other categories see the SFWA site. +++ In 2005 Jack McDevitt had Omega nominated for a Nebula but it did not win. Indeed up till now McDevitt had the most (11) Nebula nominations of any writer without winning. Other McDevitt novels reviewed on this site include: Deepsix, Moonfall, Polaris and Slow Lightning.
The toastmaster for the Awards ceremony was Ron D. Moore, the executive producer of Battlestar Galactica.

Nebula nominees locked out! Shock, drama probe!!! The Nebula 'nominee' ceremony is where all the nominees get their pins and nomination certificates (as opposed to the 'awards' ceremony where the winner gets announced), however the hall in which it was to be held was locked. And so it was that this year the nominees got their pins and certificates in the foyer. Apparently only one writer this year had their name incorrectly announced Kristen Karina Sumner-Smith. She also suffered because her publisher had no presence (hence a table) for the ceremony and banquet. (However a kind soul found her a place at one of the tables near the front.) +++ One of the 'state of the genre' pre-award panels at the Nebula Weekend created a few blog comments as it, reportedly, pretty much turned into debate between Norman Spinrad and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor US). Spinrad seemed to be more pessimistic and appeared to be of the opinion that SF writers could not easily get their non-genre work published than non-genre writers writing SF. +++ The Nebula hospitality suite stayed open till around five in the morning.

Germany's 2007 Kurd Lasswitz prizes have been awarded -- the best translated (into German) prize goes to Robert Charles Wilson's Spin. Among the various categories of the 2007 prizes for 2006 works, Herbert W. Franke wins the 'Best Novel' for On the Track of the Angel [translated title] and Christian Pree a special prize for his bibliography of German-language Science Fiction stories and books. The prize-giving took place at a Dresden convention in September. +++ The prizes are Germany's equivalent to the US Nebulas as they are voted on by SF professionals. They have been awarded since 1981 and are named after the late 19th century SF author and historian of science (Germany's H. G. Wells).

Japan's 2007 Seiun prizes have been awarded at the 2007 Worldcon (this year in Japan). The principal category wins were:-
Japanese Long Fiction: Japan Sinks, Part 2 by Sakyo Komatsu and Koshu Tani (Shogakukan)
Translated Long Fiction: Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve (Translated by Rei Anno, Tokyo Sogensha)
Media: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time directed by Mamoru Hosoda (with animation production by Mad House, production by Tokikake Film Partners)
          Among the other categories there were a couple that were science related.

New Zealand's 2007 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel 2006 went to The Assassin of Gleam by James Norcliff. The novel is a slightly dark sword and sorcery fantasy. Among the other categories the 'Best Fan Writing' went to Alan Robson who has won it a few times before and this year for his column in the fanzine Phoenixine (other of his fan writing can be found at The Bearded Triffid). The Phoenixine editors, John and Lynelle Howell themselves received a 'Services to Fandom' Vogel. The Best Dramatic Presentation went to the children's SF series Maddigan's Quest. Sir Julius Vogel was a New Zealand Prime Minister and author of arguably the first full length SF novel by a New Zealander. +++ The award has been given since 2002 and is voted on by SF & Fantasy Association of NZ and members of that year's natcon, which this year was Conspiracy II in Wellington. Details of other Vogel categories wins here.

The 2006 Eagle Awards for best comics were presented at the Bristol (UK) International Comic Expo on Saturday, May 12th 2007. The winners in the principal (out of 28) categories were:-
          Favourite British (Colour) - 2000AD (again which is why it got its entry in Essential SF: A Concise Guide)
          Favourite American (Colour) - All Star Superman
          Favourite Comics Writer - Warren Ellis (see reviews of some of his graphic novels under 'E' in our review index.)
          Favourite Artist - Mike Mignola
          Favourite European Comic - Asterix and the Vikings
          Favourite Comics-Based Film or TV - Heroes
          Favourite Web-Based Comic - Penny Arcade
          Roll of Honour - Warren Ellis
Of note, though not winning, Tom Frame was nominated for both 'Favourite Letterer' and the 'Roll of Honour'. +++ The Eagles have been going, albeit with a couple of hiccoughs, since 1976 and are currently voted on by tens of thousands of fans so making them one of the most democratic fan-based awards hence most valued by the comics profession.

The winners of the Will Eisner Award for comics were announced at the US Comicon in San Diego. The winners of the principal categories were:-
          Best Continuing Series: All Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
          Best Limited Series: Batman: Year 100, by Paul Poper
          Best Graphic Album-New: American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
          Best Graphic Album-Reprint: Absolute DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke
+++ See also news of an Eisner film.

Australian romantic SF or fantasy sought. The Australian SF Bullsheet reports that The Kiss of the Lily will be a speculative fiction romance anthology focusing on the sacrifices of love. Sexual content allowed if it is integral to the development of the story. This anthology is open to Australians & Australian residents only. Original work only, no reprints. Authors of accepted stories get 1 Australian cent a word. Stories' word limit is 5,000 words. Submissions open 1st October, and close 31st December. E-mail submissions to donna [at] austspeculativefiction [dot] com [dot] au in 12 pt Courier, double spaced RTF as an attachment. Submitters names & contact details are not to be put on the submissions, but in the body of the e-mail instead as editors want to read stories blind. In the subject line of the e-mail write 'Submission' and title of your story.

Dan Dare is set to return courtesy of Virgin. Dan Dare the space pilot of the future was a British comic strip character created in 1950 and primarily associated with the Eagle comic in the 1950s and '60s and at that time vividly brought to colourful life through the artwork of Frank Hampson (and later in a similar style by Keith Watson). Now a new Dare comic series is to be launched in November written by Garth Ennis. Ennis' previous credits include: some of The Authority stories; Bloody Mary, numerous Judge Dredd stories including Judgement Day and Goodnight Kiss; and Preacher. Virgin Comics is behind the venture. Apparently this new incarnation sees Dare come out of retirement in a future where the US and much of East Asia has been wiped out by nuclear war leaving Great Britain as the World's super-power.

Another new Brit SF magazine also out early in the summer. SciFi Now (Imagine Publishing) is also vying for a place in the tough market. Like Starburst, SFX, Dreamwatch and Death Ray it is a full colour, prefect-bound glossy with a heavy TV and Hollywood film SF focus. Its premiere issue carried less coverage of genre books than its competitors, if this continues then it could be a sign of marginal differentiation from its competitors, though as books are a minority interest in the big five this may not be enough to grant it sufficient difference to be meaningful in competition terms. +++ SciFi Now should not be confused with Alan Frank's 1978 large format and full colour book of the same title that reviewed 10 years of SF film between 2001 and Star Wars.

Meanwhile the recently launched The Hub ceased print and moved to the internet. Launched at Christmas, despite apparently nearly selling out two issues of its print run, it made a loss and has gone to a free weekly on-line mode: see www.hub-mag.co.uk. Presumably either the print runs were not large enough to sustain meaningful economic savings and/or the advertising revenue was not great enough. Covering a reasonable range of SF matters its content is now a little skewed to UK publisher Orbit material as they are the principal sponsors.

The 'Futures' series of one-page SF stories written by scientists and SF authors returns to Nature. The series of stories were originally published in 2000 on the back page of the weekly multi-disciplinary science journal Nature by way of introducing the new millennium. The stories relate to possible futures, new science and technology and implications thereof. The series finished at that year's end.   Then in the Spring of 2005 they returned. In the late summer that year the series won Nature's publishers a Eurocon Award (Best Publisher' category) at the European SF Convention.
          Yet while SF-loving scientists had the latest science spiced up with a dollop of SF each week, those who do not subscribe to Nature or who do not work at a university or research institute with an institutional subscription and so cannot log on to the Nature website, could not get these stories. What was needed was a website largely run by scientists and technologist who enjoy SF, so step up Concatenation. In 2006 Nature and Concatenation came to an agreement whereby Concatenation would select a short story from the preceding four months and, with the author's consent post it for free access. The sole difference with the PDF Concatenation posts being the artwork in Nature would be covered by an agreed joint logo as obtaining artist's copyright would be harder. And so in the Spring last year we announced our seasonal posting of a 'Futures' story. The stories can be found here.
          But life is never that simple and at the end of 2006 the run of stories ceased in the weekly Nature but continued in one of Nature's less frequent companion journals that specialises in physics. What we then agreed with Nature was that we would go back to the original 2000 run and reprint some of these taking one from each season of the year. All of which brings us on to the latest news...
          Due to the series' popularity it returned to the weekly Nature in July 2007. (Hooray!) So Concatenation will once again be posting what we consider to be one of the best (there are always a handful of really good ones) of the autumnal season in July 2008. Before then, in November 2007 and February 2008 (as we did in the summer), we will post one from the original run in 2000.   Scientists into SF who consider themselves possible SF writers can have a go and submit a story. Furthermore the series will also continue in the specialist journal with each run having its own character. Currently we are not sure how we (Concatenation) are going to manage this split, but we will sort something out.
          Concatenation wishes to thank 'Futures' editor Henry Gee (Nature biology editor) for assisting with our coming to an agreement with Nature's publishers. We must also thank all the 'Futures' authors that we have published for their permission. Let us be clear, 'all the Futures authors' means all that we have approached: to date not one author has declined giving their permission! Fingers crossed that this continues.   Having said that we always feel a little guilty that other stories are not included in our selection. We do each season choose two or three in addition to the one we consider best (a high tech selection processing involving the very latest in real ale technology) in case our initial choice does not grant us one-off copyright. The order of runners up is then decided on the type of story compared to those already posted so as to ensure variety. Though we have never (yet) had to draw upon this back-up, these runner-up stories are also really great. But do not despair, even if you do not have access to Nature's website or the journal, as the US publisher Tor is releasing an anthology of 100 past 'Futures' stories this November. So one way or another you can access the very best the 'Futures' have to offer. Enjoy.

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

PEOPLE: MAJOR SF & SCIENCE AUTHOR AND ARTIST NEWS

Margaret Atwood was in Great Britain following Easter explaining her views on the future of the book in the digital age. Is the world of paper turning virtual? "Not quite yet," she said on national BBC Radio 4. Aside that you cannot take a book into the bath or easily the bed, neurologically the brain does not absorb information from the less visually defined and flickering screen as highly defined, non-flickering print. Further, while line and electronic versions are good for students (who can 'search' texts with ease) they also lend to bad habits such as cutting and pasting without reading the text. +++ However she returned to Toronto (Canada) and then had a telephone interview with BBC Radio 4's Front Row. This revealed that the prospect for up-coming Canadian authors in the 1960s was bleak with just five books a year from Canadian authors (the rest published were mainly of US and British works). SF only briefly mentioned. Atwood herself is a little restrained as to her genre enjoyment and interviewer Mark Lawson himself is a little sniffy. (Atwood, some might say, is considered a mainstream author who happens to use SF tropes.) Consequently while Atwood admitted to enjoying genre authors she only cited those with whom the mainstream could identify, namely George Orwell and Conan Doyle. +++ Meanwhile her LongPen had a commercial launch by Dean Koontz.

Ray Bradbury won a Clarke Award but not for a book but his body of speculative fiction work. Sending a message to the Awards ceremony Ray said, "It is a great honour to receive the Sir Arthur Clarke Award because it is more than an award from Sir Arthur: it is the soul of a young man named Arthur, who came to my house for lunch fifty years ago. Our friendship began when both of us were little known in the world and had only published a book or two. We were both souls giving our heart out to writing and immediately taking to one another's personality because we got on so well on that day so long ago. +++ He also received a special citation in this year's Pulitzers. +++ See also Cormac McCarthy later. +++ Ray Bradbury is also set to speak to future human colonists on Mars -- see here +++ New Illustrated Man film forthcoming.

The late John Brunner makes an appearance on YouTube with this short vid-clip of part of an autograph session at FreuCon (the 1992 Eurocon) in Freudenstadt (Germany).

Arthur C. Clarke will be 90 in December. As this is before our next seasonal upload (in the New Year) we give our congratulations in anticipation. +++ There is also a new short film of one of his stories now out. +++ Clarke is also set to speak to future human colonists on Mars -- see here.

John Crowley was the first recipient of Ukraine's Bulgakovskaya Prize. He was given the prize at the country's national convention. It was in the form of a 10 pound weight (4.5 kg) black cat statue (there's a connection with Bulgakov's work). For one heart-wrenching moment John Crowley thought that he would have to wrestle this monstrosity through three separate flights on his return journey. The Ukrainians let him believe this for a short while before saying that they would post it to him..

Stephen Donaldson will be holding a signing session for Fatal Revenant at London's Forbidden Planet SF shop, Shaftesbury Avenue (between Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road and Covent Garden underground stations) on Saturday 27th October, 13.00 - 14.00.

Neil Gaiman is moving into film with his first job as solo director. To make life easy his first film will be his script adaptation of his own graphic novel Death: The High Cost of Living. Meanwhile you can see a trailer for his Stardust film on the title link of alternatively the link on YouTube given later on this page. +++ Neverwhere may come to the big screen. +++ Neil also attended a pre-Worldcon (Japan) SF conference in Chengdu, China. +++ Neil is also to be a GoH at the 2009 Worldcon.

Henry Gee has had his latest novel, By The Sea serialised over the summer on LabLit.com. (He has also edited a collection of Nature's 'Futures' stories (mainly hard SF) which is out from Tor (US), and of course this site has Futures tasters.)

Robert Heinlein would have been 100 over the summer having been born on 7th July 2007. The centenary was marked by a number of events including one with some 750 fans in his home town of Kansas City, US. See http://www.heinleincentennial.com.

Diana Wynne Jones has been interviewed for a BBC programme on Fantasy. Philip Pullman and Terry Pratchett are also in the mix. This will be broadcast this autumn on BBC 4. BBC US viewers may also get to see it shortly after. +++ She has also won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.

Paul Kane the fantasy critic, has found out that there is another Paul Kane active in British fantasy scene. The other Paul Kane is apparently getting some of Paul Kane's correspondence and there has been some confusion as to who is whom. Paul Kane would like the new Paul Kane to add some distinguishing feature to his by-line (perhaps a second initial or some such might be in order?). This would benefit them both. The 'original' Paul Kane' already has a volume of material out as 'Paul Kane'. He is based in Chesterfield and on-line at www.shadow-writer.co.uk.

Dean Koontz combines his first autograph session for the British public with the commercial launch of the LongPen. The LongPen is a device developed by Canadian author Margaret Atwood that enables an author in one place sign autographs in another. Dean Koontz signed copies of The Good Guy using LongPen technology from his Californian home for readers at the Piccadilly branch of Waterstone's (in London). It operates over the Internet, incorporating video conferencing to facilitate trans-Atlantic conversations between writers and readers. It is billed by Atwood's PR folk as being 'carbon neutral' (by which they presumably mean 'low fossil' as the author does not have to travel for signings but the device undoubtedly has oil in its plastics and probably fossil energy helped its manufacture not to mention the transport of the device itself so it is certainly not 'carbon neutral').

Ursula K. Le Guin is noted in Ansible that Jon Carroll reprinted her previous Ansible piece in the San Fransisco Chronicle without asking permission.

Sam Lundwall, the Swedish SF author, editor and translator, makes a correction in Ansible. The previous issue had it that the US American John W. Campbell held a record by being an editor for the same SF magazine for 34 years. Sam gently announces that earlier this year he broke this having been editor of Jules Verne-Magasinet since January 1972 and he is still fulfilling that role.

Cormac McCarthy wins this year's Pulitzer for fiction for his post-apocalyptic novel The Road. +++ See also Ray Bradbury earlier.

Patrick Moore, BBC TV astronomy broadcaster, whose show recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, has been commenting on SF but possibly offended a good number of his viewers. While for over half a century he has been informing the public of the latest astronomical developments, his personal views have not kept so up-to-date. He is reported as saying, "I used to watch Dr Who and Star Trek, but they went [politically correct] making women commanders, that sort of thing. I stopped watching."

Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Greg Bear are still writing in the US national interest. They are part of a group called Sigma that began in the late 1990s that advocated the so-called 'star wars' space defence initiative. Reported in USA Today paper Sigma has a new assignment. Now, the Homeland Security Department is calling on the group to help with the US government's latest top mission of combating terrorism. The newspaper article quotes Pournelle as saying, "We're well-qualified nuts."

Terry Pratchett OBE had a June visit to Russia. He met with readers at bookshops in St Petersburg and Moscow before reading extracts to an audience at the Moscow Book Fayre. His visit was organised by his Russian publisher EKSMO together with the British Council. +++ See also Colour of Magic to be a film below. +++ October book signing Terry will be signing copies of his latest Discworld book Making Money at London's Forbidden Planet bookshop, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue (near Leicester Square tube station and north of Covent Garden), on Saturday 13th October between 13.00 and 14.00. We suggest you get there a little early.

Alastair Reynolds at the summer's start talked to the BBC about meta-materials and the possibility of using them to cloak a space craft as well as his latest novel The Prefect. He relates these to his work as an astronomer for ESA. See BBC News Science & Nature.

J. K. Rowling gave a rare TV interview on BBC TV's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross show to mark the launch of the 'last'(?) Harry Potter book and the World premiere in London of the latest film. She said she had not given many interviews up to now but was as it would not matter if she crashed and burned now that all the Potter books are written and the film series has a momentum of its own. With regards to the films, she had at first turned the American studio down but they -- thinking it was a money thing -- offered her more. What swung it was that Rowling kept control of the characters and sold just the story. Also the films had to be made with British actors. With regards to writing fantasy, she said the problem was to establish limits to the magic, hence boundaries as to what was possible. As to the future, she hinted that she would like to write for adults but said if she was only ever known as a children's author then that was fine: she would never think of it as second best. Regarding more Harry Potter stories, she said that none were planned and that Harry had long had a set destiny, but she also said that she had agreed with herself that she would never say never.   One thing to emerge from the interview was that Jo Rowling's publishers decided on the inclusion of the 'K' to give her name a 'manly' feel... +++ She also appeared on BBC's Blue Peter children's show. (What folk will do for a Blue Peter badge.) +++ She gave a reading at the Natural History Museum (Kensington, London) the night (20th July) of the book's launch.

Robert Sawyer has been given an honorary dungaree at the Laurentian University (Ontario, Canada) for his SF writing. In his acceptance speech he gave the Chinese chess illustration of the power of exponential growth as well as told an amusing anecdote about his agent's comments as to why he was not getting the income of Crichton. His bit starts 27 minutes 30 seconds into the video of the graduation ceremony which can be seen here. +++ Robert Sawyer has also won a Galaxy Award at the International SF & Fantasy Conference in China.

John Scalzi given money to go to creationist museum. US author John Scalzi resisted the suggestion to check out and report back on the creationist museum near where he lives in the US. However a fund was created and reached four figures. Read all about it on Scalzi's blog here.

Norman Spinrad launched his channel on YouTube at the end of spring with a 9 minute introduction.

For SF author websites click SF author links.

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

FILM NEWS

How come the film Things To Come (1936) had a new World Premiere in 2007? This year's Sci-Fi London film fest screened a new version of the film 71 years after the original. Last time we wondered why? Now we can say courtesy of the fest's organisers.   Reportedly the original rough-cut delivered to the studio was around 130 minutes in length. This was trimmed to 117 minutes for certification. Then the initial UK cinema ran to 108 minutes 40 seconds before being further cut to 98 minutes 6 seconds. All of the trimmed footage had, sadly, been lost and for many years the only version available to the public was the 92 minute 42 second edit produced for television broadcast. Nearly 37 minutes shorter. However the DVD archivists at Network unearthed the most complete edition known to exist and loving restored it for your viewing pleasure and Sci-Fi London screened this digitally-remastered print. Network released it on a two disc DVD back in May 7. Yet this deserved to be seen on the big screen for which it was originally created. So well done Sci-Fi London.

Sci-Fi London launches internet TV & film channel. The free-to-view channel will not just feature trailers, and short interviews but also films (albeit each film will only be available for a short time) The channel uses Adobe's FlashPlayer which 98% of the World's computers utilize. The films are all arranged by category to facilitate browsing. Sci-Fi London's main homepage remains www.sci-fi-london.com while the new film channel is www.sci-fi-london.tv.

Full review of this year's Sci-Fi London is here.

Other Sci-Fi London news -- We could have put the news here in the film news section but did it later with fan events.

Small British cinemas do well as multiscreen plexes do poorly. The UK Film Council's latest statistical report for 2006 show that for the second year running cinema attendance fell. However those small cinemas (four screens or less) did better. The market share of the top 50 films (mainly Hollywood blockbusters) fell from 76% in 2005 to 71%. Meanwhile the top 51 - 150 was up from 21% to 24%. Those 151 onwards got 5% of the audience (up from 3% in 2005). Less structured evidence from focus groups revealed that cinema-goers were disenchanted with big multiplexes due to audience noise and mobile phones and wanted ushers back to sort out troublesome audience members. DVD piracy and the internet were also contributing to cinema's decline. However specialist screenings were doing well. Such trends possibly explain the longevity of things like the Festival of Fantastic Films (Manchester') (mainly 1950s - '60s) vintage and recent independent horror and SF) and the increasing popularity of Sci-Fi London (mainly premieres and less common recent independents). Though this does not explain why mainstream SF British conventions have since the 1990s increasingly turned away from film screenings.

Forthcoming: A sequel to I, Robot and a new version of The Thing being scripted by Ronald (Battlestar G.) Moore. Of course the Wil Smith starring I, Robot film was only loosely inspired by Isaac Asimov's classic story and should be viewed independently as more of a romp. (It was not meant to be a film version of the book.) So any sequel should not be compared to any initial inspirational source. Meanwhile John (Dark Star) Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing is closer to the original John W. Campbell classic short story 'Who Goes There' (1938) and stands well on its own right. So will the remake be worth it? Moore's re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica has been highly successful both in commercial and critic terms.

The Dark is Rising film due October. Based on one of Susan Cooper's fantasy novels, the film called The Seeker: The Dark is Rising stars Ian (Lovejoy) McShane and Christopher (Dr Who) Ecclestone. The story concerns Will Stanton who discovers that he is the 'Seeker' and one of the last remaining 'Old Ones' who are guardians of the 'Light'. The director is David Cunningham. Film website is www.seekthesigns.com.

New Conan film stalls due to lack of confident script and then loss of rights. (We were right to include a distinct note of caution with our last autumn's science fiction news.) Warner had already had three rights extensions from Paradox, but had not managed to get a script written with which they were confident. Boaz Yakin's screenstory presumably had not be turned into a script about which Warner execs were positive. New Line may well be interested in picking up the film rights but if so they will need to develop their own screenstory as Warner owns the drafts of work to date.

More 'Lord of the Rings grievance against New Line Cinema. Now 15 actors from the films are suing for 5% of the estimated US£100 million (£50 m) made from film merchandise. +++ In the autumn it became clear that Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, would not work with New Line until a payment dispute had been sorted. Also see next item...

New Line Cinema may be trying to rebuild bridges with director Peter Jackson for The Hobbit film. As previously reported New Line failed to deliver Jackson's expectations as to what he was owed from the profits following the success of the Lord of the Rings films. Now, if Hollywood gossip is to be believed, New Line is trying to patch things up. The word is that New Line has not been faring as well as it might.

Blade Runner the final, definitive, cut... 'Final', honest! There has already been a director's cut in 1992 of director Ridely Scott's 1982 film. Now, on the film's 25th anniversary, there is another version. It will have a limited screen release (October) and then there is to be a time-limited DVD release (December before Christmas.). Then (yes, there is more) later there will also be a compilation DVD set package with the previous two versions included. With regards to this last version there will apparently be a high definition DVD and Blu-ray versions but only a limited stock made (so expect to pay for this). The story (and please do not take this a gospel) is that near completion the film rights went to financial guarantors. Apparently back in 1992 they would not give Ridely Scott the time or money to do the first cut properly. This time he has done the version he wanted to do. (So apparently it is not a cynical marketing ploy for Warner Brothers to squeeze more money out of fans. Apparently.) There is a website to promote the new version.

The leads for forthcoming Time Traveller's Wife have been chosen. Further to previous news of the film New Line have announced that Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Bana's previous genre involvement was with Ang Lee's Hulk. Shooting of Time Traveller's Wife started in August.

More Marvel superheroes to transfer to the big screen. Further to the Iron Man spring news, a new film version of The Incredible Hulk will be next. This in turn will be followed by production beginning on a new version of Captain America. Meanwhile the new Marvel Studios is engaged in pre-production development on Punisher 2, Sub-Mariner and Thor. The probable expectation (assuming Marvel Studios thrives) is for these last to be released 2009 / 2010.

Aliens vs. Predator forthcoming??? No surely this is wrong as AVP: Alien vs. Predator came out back in 2004? True, but now there is a new film due out whose title suggests many Aliens versus one Predator. However the plot rumours (note the 'rumours' bit) at the end of the summer suggest that it actually concerns many Predators and many Aliens fighting in and around a small US town whose residents must work together to survive. Later gossip suggests that the film might concern a hybrid between the two creatures... The film may be released in the US at the end of 2007 with a UK release in January 2008. However we think slippage may take place. +++ Stop Press: We understand that the film has been re-named Alien vs. Predator 2: Requiem. +++ The provisional promo tag line is In Space - No one can hear you scream. On Earth - It won't matter.

Jurassic Park 4 has script teething problems. Another JP film? Well following JP II fantastic film buffs had a right to be sceptical but straight-to-video JP III was actually quite good. Now JP IV is in the offing. However the original plot premise was worrying: that the military had developed dinosaurs as weapons and they were even to carry guns. This last has -- the gossip has it -- been dropped.

Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic is to be a film. Following the success of last Christmas' The Hogfather, Sky One is to adapt the Colour of Magic Discworld book. Christopher Lee will reprise his voice role for Death and David (Only Fools and Horses) Jason who starred in The Hogfather will also star in The Colour of Magic but this time as the wizard Rincewind. Tim (Rocky Horror) Curry will also appear. We do not yet know if Terry Pratchett himself will have a small cameo as he did with The Hogfather. Filming of The Colour of Magic has begun and a 2008 broadcast is expected. Other Terry P. news here.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere may come to the big screen. Gaiman originally wrote Neverwhere (1996) for TV Neverwhere tells the story of Richard Mayhew who helps a young woman one night and finds that his entire life and world around him has disappeared. He is transported to another world where this woman is leading a battle, a battle he must face if he is to find his way home. David Slade may be directing. Let's hope this new film version keeps the same location as the mini-series.

The Illustrated Man is to return to the big screen. The 1969 film drew on the Ray Bradbury collection of shorts (see the title link). For the new version Alex Tse is to write the screenplay. It concerns a heavily tattooed man. Gazing into his tatooed images allows you to enter into episodes of other people's lives in the future and on other worlds. Alex Tse is of recent genre note having written the screenplay for the forthcoming Watchmen. The director is to be Zach Snyder who also directed Watchmen. The venture is coming courtesy of Warner Brothers, who are also behind Watchmen. Anyone notice a trend?

Descent 2, or De2cent, sees things looking up. Sequels can be dire and plumb the depths, especially if made without due regard to the original. However things are looking up for this one. Neill Marshall, who wrote and directed The Descent, is the producer and he is keeping an eye on the scripts coming his way. Though he will not be directing this sequel, Descent's editor will instead. So De2cent may not be at all an abyssal monster.

Watchmen is slated for a March 2009 release. A tale of unwanted superheroes and murder of one of them, from the Alan Moore graphic novel. There is now a production blog (Yes a blog, and one of the first of its kind.) It can be accessed from the Watchmen film site.

The film of Will Eisner's The Spirit is being scripted and directed by Frank Miller. Eisner's The Spirit (1940) is commonly recognised as the first graphic novel and Eisner's name lives on in the form of a major comics award in the US. Frank Miller is a comics writer and artist perhaps best known for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns but he also co-created the Robo-cop character. The Spirit concerns a man who fakes his own death so that he can fight crime from the shadows. This is Miller's solo-directorial debut. The film is slated for a 2009 release.

Harry Potter bust up. There has been a stir in some of the UK tabloid press over the photographic breast enlargement of 15-year-old Emma Watson (the actress playing Hermione Granger) in a promotional picture for Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. (For example see here.) The picture shows that her chest has been made ever so slightly more curvaceous. (To be honest you'd hardly notice and it is a storm in a literal tea cup). The photo used at London's IMAX cinema has been replaced.

There will be films after Harry Potter. Warner has acquired the film rights to wizard-filled Septimus Heap series of seven books by Angie Sage as well as the British fantasy boo series Tunnels. +++ More Potter news in the books section below.

SF and fantasy dominates top films with special effects, but top ten mainly from the 1970s and 80s. The Visual Effects Society has surveyed its members to ascertain the best special effects films. Not surprisingly all in the top 50 are speculative fiction from SF through to fantasy. Perhaps what is unexpected is that six out of the top ten are from the 1970s and 1980s. The top ten are:-
          1. Star Wars (1977)
          2. Blade Runner (1982)
          3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
              joint with
          3. The Matrix (1999)
          4. Jurassic Park (1993)
          5. Tron (1982)
          6. King Kong (1933)
          7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
          8. Alien (1979)
          9. The Abyss (1989)

28 Weeks Later is packed with special effects but is unlikely to win any prizes for them. The post apocalyptic sequel (to 28 Days) sees the recolonisation of a dead London. While much filming was done very early on Sunday mornings there were still some people and movement around. So special effects were needed to expunge such sights. Two different two-and-a-half minute trailers for the film can be seen here and here. Could this film be in next year's annual top ten?

Forthcoming Babylon V film to have stunning effects. As we reported back in the New Year there is to be a direct to DVD Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. Apparently not only will the effects be better but the show's fans have helped. Pictures of models from fan sites have been used by the film's computer graphic effects folk to such effect that better 'pane-scraper' close-ups are possible. It was thought that the work would have to start again from scratch as the show's props and computer-generated models discs were turned over to Warner Brothers but the graphic discs were then lost. The other factor improving the effects is that better computers are being used.

Star Trek New Voyages 'World Enough and Time' is now on-line. The fan actor faces take some getting used to but once past that hurdle this production is very accomplished with effects that are far better than the original Trek series. The only major flaw (aside from undue bon home that is sickly) is Scotty's accent which is so mangled as to be unrecognisable! To many this is simply funny but those from Celtic lands may find it too much to bear. Other than this, the fan production is surprisingly good and this episode is a real weepy, so get your tissues on stand-by. Further to our previous reporting of this being made this fan-episode, that features one of the original stars, is now on-line and free at www.magictimeonline.com. Alternatively you might find it here. The episode was written by one of the (many) Next Gen and Deep Space Nine script writers. Currently the demand has been heavy so you may not succeed in downloading it first time.

Film download tip!: Trailer for I am Legend. This is the third time Richard Matheson's excellent (1954) novella has been adapted for film and this promises to be the closest adaptation so far. A plague wipes out mankind but one man survives (in the book due to having previously been bitten by an infected bat so giving him immunity to the plague). However some humans have been transformed into light-sensitive creatures. They roam the deserted cities at night. The film premieres in the UK on 4th January 2008. -- The 2 minutes 3 seconds trailer is here.

Film download tip!: Trailer for Stardust. The film based on Neil Gaiman's graphic novel. A young man manages to get by someone who claims to guard the entrance to another world. The thing is he really is guarding such a portal and the young man finds himself in a magical land. The film comes out this autumn. -- The 2 minutes 27 seconds trailer can be found here.

Film download tip!: Trailer for the film Day Watch. This is the film of Sergei Lukyanenko's The Day Watch [Dnevnoi Dozor] (the alternate European and US DVD title is Night Patrol 2) which itself is the second in the The Night Watch trilogy. The film, which premieres in October, also is the second and follows the 2004 film Night Watch. For those of you who have read the books you will be familiar with the set-up (which is faithful) but the story has been liberally adapted (and so is not faithful but you will recognise elements of it). Wizards, were-wolves and vampires exist and are simply humans with fantastical powers (called 'others') and able to harness natural energies that normal humans cannot detect. However there are 'others' who work for the light (the good of many) and some who belong to the dark (work for the good of the self). The two groups have been at war. To prevent ravaging the Earth (which is neither in the interest of the light or the dark) there has been an ancient truce. Two watches police this treaty: one for the light (the Night Watch) and one for the dark (the Day Watch). The books sell in the Russian states like Stephen King's do in Anglophone nations. The film was apparently made for less than US$5 million but that goes a long way in Russia where it was made and came out last year. As you can see from the trailer, the effects are very good. -- The 2 minutes 35 seconds trailer is here.

Film download tip!: Arthur C. Clarke's short story, Maelstrom II, is now on the web at www.distant-galaxy.com/maelstrom2/MaelstromII.html.

Film download tip!: Reflets is a short (9 minutes) modern ghost or reality bifurcation animation (you decide) by Suki. In French with English sub-titles. Click on the title link.

Film download tip!: Batgirl fights for equality. Did you know that the US has the least maternity benefits of all developed nations and that economic equality in other areas is also poor. Well SF Signal has drawn our attention to an on-line video clip that demonstrates that decades ago Batgirl was fighting for equal opportunities. See here.

For a reminder of the top films in 2006/7 (and earlier years) then check out our top Science Fiction Films annual chart. This page is based on the weekly UK box office ratings over the past year up to Easter. You can use this page if you are stuck for ideas hiring a DVD for the weekend.

For a forward look as to film releases of 2007 see our film release diary.

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

SF BOOK TRADE AND RELATED TRADE NEWS

The 2,400th Perry Rhodan novella has been published in Germany! First published in 1961 this series of space opera yarns has just run and run. Dismissed by many as two-dimensional sci-fi, it has equally been embraced by many others who say that the novella series (and the paperback novels that help bring it all together) when taken together depict a rich universe. To mark this edition's round number, issue 2,400 is over 80 pages long and as such is the lengthiest of the novellas to date (not counting the bridging novels of course). It also sees the start of a new Perry Rhodan story arc. +++ Perry Rhodan is now available in German books for the blind, audio versions. +++ Way back in the Spring we also reported on an old Perry Rhodan film available for viewing on YouTube -- see here.

Gollancz re-releases SF future classic novels August saw Gollancz re-release 8 amazing SF novels of the past couple of decades:-
          Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
          Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan.
          Blood Music by Greg Bear, a cracking tale of an artificial microbial plague that becomes intelligent -- we will review this for next season but those of you who have got Essential SF will see that this has an entry as the 1983 short story on which this was based was voted by SF fans for a Hugo Award (novelette) in 1984.
          Fairyland by Paul McAuley about the GM creation of a new species. It also has an entry in Essential SF and won both the Clarke and John W. Campbell Memorial awards.
          Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It also has an entry in Essential SF due to its popular fan acclaim as denoted by winning both the Hugo for 'Best Novel' in 1990 and the Locus awards.
          Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.
          The Separation by Christopher Priest which is a literary style story of twin brothers and an alternate history around the time of WWII.
          Evolution by Stephen Baxter which follows DNA developing through time.
As you may see from the reviews off the above title links, we gave up each of these a hearty thumbs up when previously reviewed at the time they originally came out. It is good to see our reviews reflecting that of sales and re-printability. Good on Gollancz for giving them another airing. Each of these titles is quite different and so unless your SF tastes are broad you may not enjoy all of them. Having said that if you are an SF reader, and no matter how catholic your leanings, two or three are bound to send your synapses firing. Do check out any you have not come across before. +++ Gollancz have a new SF promotion early in 2008. More news next time (early in the New Year).

Orbit, one of Britain's SF publishing imprints, is launching a US counterpart. Orbit(US) will not just publish Orbit(UK) titles but some of its own. Reportedly among its early titles there will be Jeff Sommers' The Electric Church concerning a near-future order of cyborg monks. There is also to be a lot of fantasy too as apparently there is 'an opportunity'... 'in the marketplace'.

Canada's biggest SF publisher to be created. Three publishers are coming together to form the new SF imprint: Edge, Tesseracts, and Dragon Moon Press.

The Simon & Schuster operation in the USA has successfully upset authors and their agents twice! It all began with S&S (US) announcing that it would in future put in authors' contracts a clause for it to retain the rights to books for its copyright lifetime and that these would then be available using print-on-demand technology. This would mean that years following original publication authors would be unable to have a new edition with another publisher. Traditionally once a publisher has given up promoting a book and sales are low, the publication rights revert to the author. S&S (US) new proposal gives all the benefit to the publisher who will make money if there happens to be demand for a book but does not encourage the publisher to actively promote and market titles. Most books normally sell during the period of publisher marketing. The SF Writers of America described the move as a 'massive rights grab' and 'an attempt to take advantage of authors'. Nor was the Authors Guild in the US impressed. S&S (US) then sent an open letter to authors suggesting that the Authors Guild may be "perpetrating serious misinformation" and made out that they (S&S) were acting in publishers' and authors' mutual interests...! You can imagine how this went down.
          Then later in the summer Simon & Schuster climbed down so that their standard contract returns the rights to the author once sales dip below a minimum threshold. The Association of Authors' Agents and the Society of Authors have welcomed the move.

The final Harry Potter book, Deathly Hallows has to be the publishing event of the season. (Remember, we already established back in the Spring that Children of the Hurin was likely to be the genre book event of the year.) By the time of the book's launch -- midnight 20th July or first thing 21st July -- the number of all the 'Harry Potter books sold globally had reached 400 million. The HP brand is now worth an estimate £7.3 billion (US$14.1 billion) -- and you can buy a lot of sauce with that! As for the Deathly Hallows title itself, well advanced orders were up 47% on the number of pre-launch copies of the previous book and the number of copies of the English language print run is some 12 million. To date Harry Potter books have been translated into 65 languages and this final book is being launched in 93 countries. +++ See also Rowling's news earlier.

Selling the final Harry Potter book, Deathly Hallows, has caused a few ructions. First off the independent booksellers are finding it impossible (or at least very difficult) to compete with the heavy discounted copies that the book chains and supermarkets can offer due their bulk purchase ability. (See also last time's price wars news, and since then ASDA has been taking the Michael by late paying its bill (which is partly why the chain is able to keep its prices down). They did eventually cough up on threat of not getting their 500,000 copies.) Quite simply if you are an independent book dealer operating in a town with a bookselling chain then there is little motivation to sell the book other than for customer loyalty.   Secondly the 300 independents that received a free promotional package from publishers Bloomsbury as a kind of compensation were not impressed. The package apparently contains little more than some balloons and photocopyable display material. Meanwhile...
          Charles Walker (Conservative Member of Parliament (Broxbourne (Herts))) has called for an enquiry into Potter pricing.
          A survey of independent bookshops by the Booksellers Association asked whether, as part of the promotion for Deathly Hallows, they had organised a signing session? One can imagine really J. K. Rowling dashing around hundreds of independent bookshops doing signings. And...
          Finally The Bookseller's Bent notes that the Bloomsbury website had guidelines for bookshops holding Potter launching parties. Apparently the event must be 'local, non-commercial, not-for-profit and non-political'. This at least clarifies matters for independent bookshops that they are not meant to make money out of selling the latest Potter books. Glad that's settled then. Now, which independent bookshop will close next...? (See item below the next two.) +++ Harry Potter film news within the film section above.

Bloomsbury has best UK publisher website. Bloomsbury may not be independent UK booksellers' favourite publisher right now due to Harry Potter, but The Bookseller rates its website as the best of the UK major publishers. It is good for author information and searchability. You can check it out on www.bloomsbury.com.

UK independent bookshops continue to decline. The first half of 2007 saw British independent bookshops close at a rate of one a month. Though not all independents belong to the dependent wing of the Bookseller's Association, its membership of 1,424 as of Easter, is indicative of the sector's size, so the rate of decline maybe nearly 1%. +++ This comes further to last time's news of a number stories of UK closures.

More book trouble for UK sales to Asia as US trade grows. Further to last times news the sustained fall of the US dollar against the UK pound has meant that Asian distributors are increasingly transferring their regular business onto a longer-term footing with US publishers. Five years ago the a pound got you 1.5 dollars but for nearly a year now it has been up to (and sometimes over) 1.9 dollars: the pound is over a quarter stronger than it was. For Asian distributors it is therefore as proportionally cheaper to buy dollars and so books from US publishers (despite their non-English spelling) are economically more attractive.

Planet Stories is a new N. American SF book imprint from Piazo reprinting works of past decades. Authors whose works see new life with the initial releases include leigh Brackett, Robert E. Howard, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore and Michael Moorcock. 'Planet Stories' itself springs from the title of a US magazine whose own run ended in 1955. One or two books a month are currently scheduled.

The UK newspaper The Guardian, shortly after Easter, came up with a list of books that purportedly define the 20th century. OK, so this list is eclectic as well as pointless (other than mildly interesting) and they do not reveal how the list was compiled (unlike Concat duo's Essential Science Fiction), but it is still of passing curiosity.   There are only 100 titles across all of fiction and non-fiction, so the list is tight. Of genre interest there is: Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles with its lethal monster of a dog let loose on the moor from the 1900s; from the 1930s there is Huxley's Brave New World (which is also in Essential); from the '40s there is Orwell's 1984 (again in Essential); from the 1950s there is Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (again in Essential); and the '70's and Stephen King's Carrie. Genre author Iain Banks has his non-SF The Wasp Factory included.   Science is also represented by: Sigmund Freud's Interpreting Dreams from the 1900s; Einstein's Relativity; and the 1980s Hawkings A Brief History of Time. Just three science titles which is arguably odd for a list books that is supposed to 'define their era' given that the 20th century unlike any other was arguably more defined by science and technology than anything else. As said, 'eclectic' and no doubt chosen by artists.   (Note, in case you are interested. The reason many of the afore SF books are cited in Essential is due to their longevity of being (nearly continually) in print for over 50 years. Just one of the guide's strict criteria for being considered 'essential SF'.)

Beccon Publications has a new website and contact details. Beccon Publications -- which like Concatenation grew out of the 1980s BECCON series of London region conventions -- provides specialist publications for die-hard SF book readers and collectors. The new website is at www.beccon.org. Check it out and bookmark if appropriate.

British women buy more books than men. Women bought 188 million books in the UK in 2006 nearly 47% more compared to men's 128 million books. Both men and women bought more books in 2006 than 2005, according to the research agency BML.

Annette Thomas win's women in publishing award. She is this year's Kim Scott Walwyn Prize for outstanding achievement in publishing. She is head of the Nature Group that publishes science journals and worked her way up through the ranks. Starting as a biology editor for Nature she then became the founding editor of Nature Cell Biology before moving into a publishing role with the launch of the Nature Review journals.

A final bit of book fun. This two-and-a-half minute video clip should delight all book folk. It is taken from Norwegian TV and has English subtitles. Clip here.

More book trade news in our next seasonal news column in the New Year. Meanwhile check out the forthcoming SF and forthcoming fantasy book lists sections (see the mini-index immediately below...).

[The other key sections within this seasonal newscast are: Major Headline Links |
News which contains: Major Science & SF News, People: Major SF Author, Science Writer and Artist News; Film News; SF Book Trade News; TV News; Eurocon/Worldcon News; Fandom & Other News; and Net Watch |
Last Season's Science News Summary including: General Science, Astronomy and Space and Natural Science |
Forthcoming Book Releases including: Science Fiction Forthcoming Fantasy & Horror Forthcoming Science Fact and Non-Fiction and Forthcoming TV & Film Tie-ins Book Releases | Selected Recent DVD Releases |
R.I.P | Interface: Science and SF | End Bits.]

Autumn 2007

TV NEWS

Lost clip download!: Lost plane crash and events on the island at that time edited together from clips across three seasons edited into around 7 continuous minutes can be viewed here.

Battlestar Galactica's forthcoming 4th season will be its last. The 22-episode season will air early in 2008. Executive producers Ronald Moore and David Eick said that it was a creative decision (this was a few weeks later affirmed by the network. They added that: "While we know our fans will be saddened to know the end is coming, they should brace themselves for a wild ride getting there: We're going out with a bang." Ron Moore already has future projects. +++ Devotees of the series on-line fans sites will know this but if you are not and don't want a spoiler then don't read on.... a number of the stars you least suspect turn out to be cylons.

Battlestar's 4th and final series launches in N. America November (so depending on when you read this in the autumn you may already know that it is...) with a two-part TV film called Razor that will premiere on the N. American SciFi Channel on 24th November and later on its UK-European counterpart. Then there will be a gap and then the final 20 episodes will be shown early in 2008. Razor tells the story of the Battlestar Pegasus several months prior to it finding the Galactica. +++ The YouTube trailer is here.