Ellison at Eighty

 

You read that correctly!  Harlan Ellison, as of May 27th, is eighty years old!  Talk about something making you feel ancient!

Ellison really defined my appreciation of the science fiction genre, in the late 60s and early 70s, with works like the Dangerous Visions that he edited, "Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman", I have No Mouth and I Must Scream, "A Boy and His Dog" oh and one of my all time favorites the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".  (I am not alone on this one.  Many people consider this episode of Star Trek, the best one of the 79 episodes produced. 

Oh you have got to read the Wikipedia article on Ellison HERE

RIP: Author Richard Matheson Passes

Listener Nelson sends in a heads up on the passing of one of the pillars of the science fiction entertainment field.  Author Richard Matheson, who's works include classics such as the 1954 sf/horror novel I Am Legend, which has been adapted to film no less than three times.  

Other film adaptations of  Matheson's works were The Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come among others.  Matheson also wrote for Rod Serling's  The Twilight Zone, with classic episodes "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel" which the movie Real Steel was based in part on.  

Matheson  adapted his 1971 short story "Duel" as a screenplay which was promptly selected by a very young director  Steven Spielberg. 

Richard Matheson's pen was forever stilled on Sunday the 23 of June, at his home in Calabasas, Calif. He was 87.

RIP: Harry Harrison

r Harry Harrison passed away Wednesday 8/1512 at the age of 87.

Wiki reports that Harrison wrote more than 50 novels, but he will always be best known for the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! which was the basis for the film staring Charlton Heston called Soylent Green.

He is survived by his two children two children, Todd and Moira

Happy Birthday Richard Matheson

Nelson was good enough to jog my memory and send me one of the quintessential moment in television history.  As you can see Mr. Shatner cringes in fear as the horror that is slowly destroying the plane he is riding in.  Yes, the Twilight Zone's "Terror at 20,000 Feet".  This episode was responsible for a phobia that still haunts me to this day.  That of pulling aside a curtain on a dark night.  I still get this little thrill of fear at what might reside on the other side of cloth barrier.  

 

Richard Matheson is 86 as of February 20th.  Incredibly prolific, Matheson's work is well known in many genre including my favorite Science Fiction.  Besides his television work many of his novels have been adapted to the big screen.  Two of note were The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Am Legend, both ground breaking in their scope.  I Am Legend alone has been done several times, latest of note stared Will Smith, with an earlier version staring the great Charlton Heston.  Plus who can ever forget Steven Speilburg first outing in the 1971 "Duel"!

The Wikipedia has a great article here  and writer Dayton Ward has a nice tribute on his blog The Fog Ward

SFWA announces the 2010 Nebula Award Nominees

Here are the nominations for the 2110 Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA)

The awards will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet on Saturday evening, May 21, 2011 in the Washington Hilton, in Washington, D.C..

Short Story

* Arvies, Adam-Troy Castro
* How Interesting: A Tiny Man, Harlan Ellison
* I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno, Vylar Kaftan
* The Green Book, Amal El-Mohtar
* Ghosts of New York, Jennifer Pelland
* Conditional Love, Felicity Shoulders

Novelette

* Map of Seventeen, Christopher Barzak
* The Jaguar House, in Shadow, Aliette de Bodard
* The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara, Christopher Kastensmidt
* Plus or Minus, James Patrick Kelly
* Pishaach, Shweta Narayan
* That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made, Eric James Stone
* Stone Wall Truth, Caroline M. Yoachim

Novella

* The Alchemist, Paolo Bacigalupi
* Iron Shoes, J. Kathleen Cheney
* The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang
* The Sultan of the Clouds, Geoffrey A. Landis
* Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance, Paul Park
* The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window, Rachel Swirsky

Novel

* The Native Star, M.K. Hobson
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin
* Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
* Echo, Jack McDevitt
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor
* Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis

Gustavo Bondoni's Tenth Orbit collection now out!

Cyberwizard Productions just sent in a note concerning Gustavo Bondoni's newest collection Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places. Here is what was said:

• Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places, Gustavo Bondoni's debut collection, has just launched from Altered Dimensions press. This is a collection of amazing, thought-provoking, and most of all entertaining science fiction stories from this modern master of short fiction. These stories have been published all over the genre - from mags to anthos to websites - and are together in book form for the first time. Also included are new stories written specifically for this collection, making this book a must-have for all fans of short-form SF.

Gustavo last appeared on BMU with The Elcano Syndrome which played in episode 193, Evasion is an excellent exciting story that is on the schedule and we hope to have more of his great stories to read in the very near future!

RIP: James P. Hogan

From SFScope: Author James P. Hogan was found dead at his home in Ireland on 12 July 2010. According to his own bio, he'd been writing science fiction as a hobby since seeing the movie 2001 and not understanding the ending. Hogan won three Seiun Awards and two Prometheus Awards.

Hogan is survived by his wife, Sheryl and his six children.

more here

RIP: Author JG Ballard

BBC News is reporting that science fiction author J.G. Ballard has passed away at the age of 78. Famed for novels like Crash and Empire of the Sun, Ballard had been ill for some time. Though Ballard was categorized as a science fiction author, he said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".

For more on Ballard and his works, check out the BBC article here

Sha'Daa is coming......

Crystalwizard at cyberwizard productions wrote me to give us a heads up on their newest project. Based on a story by Michael Hanson The Sha'Daa Tales of the Apocalypse are different stories by different authors based on Hanson's end of days tale.

What really caught my initial attention was the "trailer" that comes along with the book description. It is certainly an interesting way to promote the volume. Check it out, inventive.

Sha'Daa Tales is scheduled for official release on May 1, 2009






check out the complete listing here

RIP: John Kennedy

SFscope is reporting that author John Kennedy died March 18 2009 at the age of 63. Kennedy had stories published in Galaxy, Galileo, and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

He was an active member of Science FIction and Fantasy Writers of America and Northern Colorado Writers Workshop.

John wrote his first science fiction story at the age of 17. His second story wasn't started for 12 more years. That story, "Toward the Fullness of Fate," appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction in July 1976. He went on to write another story about every 5 years. They appeared in Chapbooks, Galileo Magazine and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

His long time friend Ed Bryant writes:

• .....in his wallet, John kept not only three different eras of Science Fiction Writers of America membership cards, he also had a slip of paper tucked away with the formulae for calculating both escape velocity and the event horizon. It's not unlikely he's using them now.

RIP: Philip José Farmer

Philip José Farmer passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of February 26th.

From Farmer's official site:

• He will be missed greatly by his wife Bette, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and countless fans around the world.
• January 26, 1918 - February 25, 2009. R.I.P.

My exposure to P.J. Farmer came in the form of his "River World" books. Maybe not in the same league of Asimov's Foundation series, Farmer's creation was awe inspiring in its scope and cast of characters. The very idea of Sam Clemens traveling on a riverboat with a gigantipithicus is an image that will be with me always.

February 8, 1828 Jules Verne's Birthday

Make Magazine pointed out today that Jules Verne was born February 8th 1829 in Nantes, France. The article points out, and I have tried to emulate:

• Verne pioneered, and much of the sci-fi to follow has emulated, was writing about the fantastic upon a foundation of real science and engineering.

I have stated all along that true hard core science fiction has to have a grounding in science to make it believable.

Also Make describes just how right Wells got an Apollo moon trip in his story From the Earth to the Moon. Its worth popping over to the make site to check out the article.

Jules Verne wiki

Would You Boycott Science Fiction Writers Because Of Their Politics?

From IO9 blog - who loves to live on the edge - comes a really interesting poll. The poll has one question - "Would You Boycott Science Fiction Writers Because Of Their Politics?"

Made ya stop and think didn't it.... Would you not buy or read a writer's work because you disagree or dislike their political ideology?

For me it is more or maybe less complicated. My choice would be a bit more than left right independent, republican, democrat or what have you. At different times, I know that I have abandoned a writer when their belief set or religious beliefs ran counter to my own. It really is more to it as you might suspect. When this set of beliefs bleeds into the writings, when the income from those writings help support them and when finally aggressive and negative tactics are used to control public opinion as such - when something along those lines takes place then yes, I would "boycott" a writer. But then, I may have added to many qualifiers into the mix. Because I think "politics" tries to simplify the question. It is in truth, it should read, if you found a writer's ideology objectionable or repellent, would you support them through purchasing of their writings?

Still - you might read it different. Take a trip over to the IO9 questionaire and weigh in.

RIP: Forrest J. Ackerman

Forrest J Ackerman, the pioneering science fiction fan, editor and writer who coined the term "sci-fi," founded Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, passed on December 4, at 92, after a long illness. of heart failure at home at the legendary Ackermansion in Los Feliz in Los Angeles.

<- via boing boing ->

Transcriptase

In July 2008, Helix editor William Sanders stirred up controversy in the community with remarks that many found offensive. As the controversy continued, several Helix writers asked to remove their work from the magazine. Which in and of itself started another blaze of controversy. Those that took their fiction off Helix or those that left theirs up on Helix but wished another forum started the web site Transcriptase which hosts reprints of their stories and poems originally published at Helix. One of the driving motivations for Transcriptase is as the writers state:

• so that you can enjoy our work away from Helix, if you choose.

<- read more of the controversy and the authors words and works on Traanscriptase ->

RIP, Thomas M Disch

Ok, this goes down as you have got to be fuckin kiddin me! Thomas M. Disch, who's closest acquaintances said he was troubled and difficult as well as brilliant, passed away July 4th 2008. If you want sensationalism, go somewhere else, I ain't playin. Cory Doctorow writes about his life and passing as best as anyone can be expected to. That's worth reading <here>

Disch's wiki lists: Hugo Award for best related book in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award,

The most notable works by Disch that come to mind is the Hugo winning The Brave Little Toaster which for some reason just continues to stick with me and his computer game Amnesia which was my first foray into text adventure in the late 80s. I would like to say that I liked Camp Concentration but the book was so very dark and disturbing in places that one couldn't read it in one go, but it pieces after you steel yourself for another go.

His last blog entry raved of sticker shock about the cost of meals and speculated on how teens must have to get by with such high cost. His listed website is down though.

photo speculative fiction database

Howard Waldrop Hospitalized

SFScope reports that Howard Waldrop has been admitted to the Seton Medical Center in Austin and is in the ICU. According to SFScope Michael Swanwick said - He was having trouble breathing, which seems to have been pulmonary edema brought on by high blood-pressure. His heart catheterization showed that he has multiple blockages, and some heart damage from a prior heart attack that he didn't even know he'd had, what they call a "silent heart attack."

Howard will be undergoing bypass surgery Monday.

Dreams With Sharp Teeth

In Andrew O'Hehir's blog Beyond The Multiplex there is a really fascinating interview with writer Harlan Ellison. The main topic of which is Eric Nelson's new film Dreams With Sharp Teeth, a film about Ellison that just premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Andrew sat down with Ellison in Austin the day after the film's premiere. He described him "as unfailingly gracious and polite, answering the awkward questions about his relative obscurity and his relationship to posterity alongside the softballs." However O'Hehir mentions that Ellison often managed to twist the interview around to such a degree that Andrew was often finding himself answering personal questions about himself.

The post transcribes much of the interview but also links to an audio of the interview itself.

Harlan Ellison interview in Beyond the Multiplex


Dream with Sharp Teeth trailer

Thanks to Nelson Cole for the post

RIP Robert Asprin (1946-2008)

On May 22, 2008, Bob Asprin passed away quietly in his home in New Orleans, LA. He had been in good spirits and working on several new projects, and was set to be the Guest of Honor at a major science fiction convention that very weekend. He is survived by his mother, his sister, his daughter and his son, and his cat, Princess, not to mention countless friends and fans and numerous legendary fictional characters.

From the mythaventures.net site

Robert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he's written some stand alone novels such as Cold Cash War, Tambu and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan and Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule’s Company novels, and, more recently, the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves’ World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. His most recent collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans where he now lives) and several new Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye

Indian science fiction -- past and present

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 47, Dated Dec 08 , 2007 Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing is a link to a facinating article about the roots of Science fiction writing science fiction writing in Indian languages.

From the article:

DNA-ALTERING experiments, moody robots, strange mutations from failed cloning projects, wonder machines and nano-gadgetry, and, of course, aliens playing peek-a-boo with humans — science fiction writing in Indian languages has this all and more.

Click here for the complete article