Author name: shaunduke

Dr. Shaun Duke is an instructor at DMACC and the Director of the Portolan Project at the Speculative Literature Foundation. He received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Modern Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He studies science fiction, digital fan cultures, Caribbean literature, literary canons, postcolonialism, and digital rhetoric. In addition to his academic work, he wears many hats. He is a writer of genre fiction and a freelance editor at The Duke of Editing. His fiction has appeared in Curiouser Magazine, Stupefying Stories, and elsewhere. He also hosts and produces The Skiffy and Fanty Show, a four-time Hugo Award finalist podcast dedicated to examining the literary, cinematic, and cultural world of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His podcast work has sent him around the world to participate in conventions, conduct interviews, and more. When he's not podcasting, he can be found on his Twitch channel, AlphabetStreams, or Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and other social media places.

Blog Posts

Flick Bits: Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom For Sale Optioned!

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From the man himself: Warner Brothers has optioned Terry Brooks’ best-selling MAGIC KINGDOM OF LANDOVER series of books for Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures and Andy Cohen’s Grade A Entertainment. Goldsman and Cohen will produce with Weed Road’s Kerry Foster and Alex Block overseeing for Weed Road. Warner Brothers’ Matt Cherniss brought the book series into the studio and will run point. Brooks was represented by Anne Sibbald of Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Weed Road is in preproduction on A WINTER’S TALE written and to be directed by Goldsman. Recent credits include PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 and FAIR GAME. Cohen last produced UNTRACEABLE starring Diane Lane. He’s currently working on the stage show, HEATHERS – THE MUSICAL and the indie film, IN SIGHT. I’ve said it before:  this kind of news always makes me grin.  Brooks is a widely read author.  While I haven’t read any of his novels, I did read his book about writing, which I found incredibly fascinating (more autobiography than writing text).  If you’re of the writing persuasion, I’d recommend it. And since I haven’t read Brooks’ novels, I have to ask: Have any of you read them?  If so, what did you think?  Do you think Magic Kingdom For Sale will make a good movie? The comments are open to all of you!

Viking Amoeba

A New Viking Amoeba Recruit from Myke Cole

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We just interviewed him (episode goes live tomorrow), but nothing tides you over like a little bit of art and geek humor! Here you go: The Taephus Commando — Dictavian Scoidius Strength 7; Intelligence 5 Special Ability:  Reinforcements (If Dictavian is outnumbered in combat, you may draw enough Viking Amoebas from your Consumed pile to even the odds, starting from the top) (Shadow Ops:  Control Point by Myke Cole)

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Flick Bits: Tad Williams’ Otherland + Warner Bros. = Feature Film (Your Thoughts?)

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If you haven’t heard already, Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Tad Williams’ science fiction series (Otherland).  From Variety: Warner Bros. is heading to “Otherland,” acquiring feature rights to Tad Williams’ sci-fi book series and setting it up with Dan Lin to produce. Studio has tapped John Scott III to script the film, based on the four books published by DAW-Penguin USA between 1996 and 2001 as “City of Golden Shadow,” “River of Blue Fire,” “Mountain of Black Glass” and “Sea of Silver Light.” Good news?  You bet.  Some of the folks attached to this project have been involved in Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes:  Game of Shadows, Gangster Squad, Terminator Salvation, The Departed, etc.  John Scott III is currently penning an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel, which better turn out great if he knows what’s good for him… The good thing about this is that it shows how valuable SF/F has become to the Hollywood community.  There have been so many announcements for pending or currently-being-produced adaptations in the last five years that it’s rather surprising there are any properties left to snatch up (hyperbole police, anyone?).  And if we’re really lucky, maybe Philip K. Dick won’t be the only classic SF/F author to have over 10 of his works adapted for the small or big screen (I’ve intentionally taken H. G. Wells and Jules Verne out of the equation because, from a generic standpoint, they are only SF/F authors in retrospect; science fiction was not codified as a generic tradition until decades after Well and Verne had released their most popular genre works.  But you can ignore me on this point and include Wells and Verne as high contenders for the SF/F-author-with-the-most-film-adaptations Award.) In any case, Tad Williams is a fairly recent author.  I haven’t read any of his work, but I’m told he’s quite good.  Have any of you readers/listeners read the Otherland series?  Do you think it will make a good movie?  Why or why not? More importantly:  what do you all think about all these film adaptation announcements?

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The 2011 Google Reading List

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Since August of 2011, we’ve been running a special feature on Google+ called “What Are You Reading?”  All sorts of people have left their responses, which I’ve taken and entered into a Google Form for everyone to see. Here are some of the relevant statistics: 292 entries since August, not including double entries for individuals who were still reading the same book for several weeks (including myself) George R. R. Martin was the most popular author with 7 entries overall; R. A. Salvatore was a close second with 6 Runner-ups were Anthony Brandt, Jim Butcher, C. J. Cherryh, Larry Correia, Thomas Friedman, Neil Gaiman, Laura Ann Gilman, Mira Grant, Anne McCaffrey, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, and Connie Willis, each of which had 3 entries each The most popular books were That Used to Be Us by Thomas Friedman and The Man Who Ate His Boots:  The Tragic History of the Search for the Northeast Passage by Anthony Brandt with 3 entries each The most popular series was A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin 98 books written by women were mentioned; that’s 33.56% of the entries (to be honest, I expected a worse percentage than this) And there you have it.  I was going to put up a gallery of the cover images, but that would take so damned long I’m not going to bother.  If anyone else wants to take up that project, let me know. Thanks to everyone who told us what you were reading!  Here’s to another year of the same thing! Now a question for everyone: How as 2011 as a reading year?  Good?  Bad?  Why?  Leave a comment!

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