Fall 2009 new SF TV shows

Mark Wilson on the About sci-fi/fantasy blog, posts about some of the new programs that are due to start during the 2009 fall premiere season. Here are some of the highlights:

• FlashForward Premieres Sep. 24, 2009 ABC - What would you do if you were given a glimpse of the future? Would you accept your destiny, or try to change it? In this case the whole world is being given a glimpse of their future.....

• The Prisoner Premieres Nov. 2009 AMC - In the 1967 British series, of the same name, Patrick McGoohan never quite knew what was going on or why. The miniseries was filmed extensively on location in Namibia and South Africa, all as part of the show's skewed reality.

• Stargate: UniversePremieres Oct. 2, 2009 Syfy - Instead of being planet-based and hopping through stargates to random strange worlds, SGU strands its team on a spaceship built by the Ancients, far from human civilization. (hasn't this been done by the Star Trek? Anyone remember Voyager?)

Check out the sci-fi/fantasy blog for more shows, information and cast photos here

Saturn's Rings to Disappear!

Tim Sayell sends in an article from Yahoo News that proves that just when you think you have things figured out, the Universe throws in a curve.

I did not know that Saturn's rings disappear! It's true and it's one of those things that you say to yourself...damn I should have known that! DUH!

Here is how it works. We know Saturn's rings are mostly made up of stuff that reflects light. Now the rings are truly odd creatures. The are 170,000 miles wide but only 30 FEET thick. Why is that important? Well consider, at 170,000 miles wide, they can reflect a serious amount of sunlight as long as they are at right angles to the sunlight. But at 30 feet thick, were there ever a time in Saturn's 29.7 year orbit around the sun that the rings are edge on, they would reflect almost no light. Well guess what, Saturn has an inclination (Like Earth's that causes the seasons) and so every 15 years Saturn's rings present themselves edge on and effectly disappear!

When will it happen? Well it starts August 11th when the rings will appear to fade until they are for all intents invisible and reappear by September 28.

Read more here from the article that Tim sent in

There is quite a lot more about some of the science that will be going on throughout this process by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and some interesting science info.

Thanks Tim!

New Pestworld Links!!!!

Anyone that is following the podcast knows that we have been doing material by Colin P. Davies over the past year. We started off with stories from his excellent collection Tall Tales on the Iron Horse and as of late we have been doing a specially rewritten Pestworld series. The series is wildly entertaining, plus Colin has been been adding to the the Pestworld milieu with new creatures, more topography in Pestworld and expanding on the wildly funny "reference" Pest and Pestilence"

To keep track of all the additions, Colin has added a page to his regular home page colinpdavies.com with a Pestworld page here.

As Mr. Davies puts it:

• This includes Pests and Pestilence, links to the show and scripts and the obligatory map.

Check it out!

Review: Tesseracts 13

Tesseracts 13
edited by Nancy Kilpatrick & David Morrell
Trade PB 315pp $16.95 usd Edge www.edgewebsite.com
release date 09/15/2009

23 really top notch stories. The math says that this is less than 75 cents per story. I don't care what market you're in, that's a good deal. If you're not familiar with the Tesseracts series, all the authors are Canadian and the theme is speculative fiction. Not any outright fantasy but no hard core science fiction either. Now that is not a complaint. I think the editors have a bold strategy in accepting stories that could play as fantasy, while others would be comfortable in horror or science fiction. Something for everyone is too well worn for Tesseracts when in truth the reader that feels comfortable reading say "Stone Cold" is going to feel equally comfortable with "An Abandoned Baby Carriage" where one story is about a possible contagion has the infected feel like they are slowly freezing and another spins around a baby carriage left in an deserted playground. All the while the protagonist's reality is so warped that until the end, one wonders if they or the carriage is a figment or both. Either could be fantasy and either could be science fiction. Most of the stories tread the boundary very masterfully. But then others will boldly plant their stories well within a field. An excellent example is Rebecca Bradley's "Kids these Days". Bradley's tale takes you to a world where there is an absolutely devastating illness that destroys the chances of a future generation, and Bradley finishes with a brilliant twist that leaves you smiling at how deftly you were handled all the while you are breathless at the scope of the reality. Or Belkom's "Quints" is a masterful weave of history and a possible future and a doctor caught between his oath and knowing what is in store for all involved is asked to choose. Here I was astounded by the level of research that is usually only afforded to those that would read a novel and we are given great history, science, medicine and a possible future, told at a breakneck pace but in an environment of quiet and desperation. Mark my word....Quints or something like it next year, Hugo or Nebula... and do you remember Silvia Moreno-Garcia with her story Maquech earlier on BMU? Oh wait until you read Bed of Scorpions!

Hey, hands down recommendation from me on Tesseracts 13. Whatever it takes to get this collection in your hands....you will not be disappointed!

Surrogates, what would it be like to go anywhere and do anything?

Have you heard about the movie Surrogates? Well here is a semi promo and a bit about the future of telerobotics. The info is good, but it's the movie that looks wild!