Blog Posts

Geekomancer Under Glass – Fall 2014 TV (Part One)

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It’s that time of year again — New TV time! Here’s a short run-down of some early thoughts about the Fall 2014 TV season based on a few pilots and season openers. Gotham Let me start by saying that I’m a big Batman fan. You might already know this. I should also say that I love the comic series, Gotham Central. Gotham, however, is is not the TV show I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be a Gotham Central show, where GCPD cops try to keep the peace in an un-governable city cursed with larger-than-life villains and a guardian angel who is more terrifying than most of the villains he fights. But it’s not that show, and it’s not trying to be that show — it seems like it’s trying to be the story of Gotham before Batman and the story of the various villains and how they become who they are when Batman emerges.

Blog Posts

Mining the Genre Asteroid: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

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Eddi McCandry is the guitarist for a band that has just broken up. Her career in rock’n’roll is going nowhere; she’s broken up with her boyfriend; and she is more than a little adrift. Luckily for Eddi, a twist of fate makes her the one selected as the talisman for the conflict between two warring factions of faerie:  Seelie and Unseelie. They need a mortal present in order to be able to actually war against each other and physically battle, and Eddi has gotten the job. Add in a Phouka keeper to shepherd her through the runup to the Faerie confrontation, Eddi’s attempts to form a new band and find herself and her musical voice, and a gigantic helping of late 1980’s Minneapolis. And did I mention the Unseelie are trying to kill her?

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Metropolis (1927), Feminism, and Influence

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Since there seems to be so much noise these days about the Golden Age of SF, I decided to begin rewatching (or in some cases, watching) classic genre films in order to get a more sound foundation in my chosen genre. If I do this with novels, why not films? In this case, I’m glad that I did. One of my graphic design professors had us watch Metropolis in class. I’d vaguely remembered it as stylish — it’s a fine example of Art Deco design — and only a little coherent. At the time, I wondered why anyone would sit through the whole thing. It made no sense. The professor didn’t mention that the film had been censored. I’m not sure she was aware of how much it’d gotten cut as she didn’t mention it in the introduction. When I looked for it on Netflix, I found two versions. The first claimed to have restored footage and an 80s soundtrack. The second also had restored footage. What I failed to notice was that the first print was one hour and fifteen minutes long. The second? Two hours and fifteen minutes. I recall the version I saw in class was less than an hour. Wow.

Blog Posts

The Disquieting Guest — Calvaire and the Tyrannies of Desire

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There is no denying that extreme horror, at its worst, fulfils pretty much every outside observer’s worst surmises about quote-unquote torture porn. But at its best, it has a merciless rigour that pushes viewers into places they may not wish to go but are important for them to confront. Fabrice Du Welz’s Calvaire (2004) is a case in point. Calvaire is a Belgian film and not, strictly speaking, part of the New French Extreme trend in horror films (Inside, High Tension, Martyrs, etc.). But if we reconsider the term slightly as the New French-Language Extreme, then it fits in very nicely with its dark cousins (and Martyrs, a France-Canada co-production, becomes a better fit as well). While not as gory as some, its unblinking willingness to explore the heart of darkness marks it, for me, as part of that loosely defined movement.*

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

223. Robert Jackson Bennett (a.k.a. Stairmaster) — City of Stairs (An Interview)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode223InterviewWRobertJacksonBennett/SandF%20–%20Episode%20223%20–%20Interview%20w%20Robert%20Jackson%20Bennett.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSFallen gods, city steps, and one-eyed warriors, oh my!  The award-winning author Robert Jackson Bennett joins Shaun, Paul, and Rachael to discuss his newest novel, City of Stairs.  We tackled the development of Bulikov, the city at the center of City of Stairs, gender, empire, religion, and more! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 223 — Download (MP3)  Show Notes: Robert’s Website Robert’s Twitter City of Stairs  Explore the city of Bulikov! Paul’s review of City of Stairs Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Announcements and Errata

Review Doors Open: Authors/Publishers/Creators — Bring It On!

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If you didn’t hear the cool news, we’ve added four lovely people to our blogging crew:  Trish Matson, Cecily Kane, Daniel Haeusser, and Ciaran Roberts.  They’ll primarily review books, comics, and other things here, and they’ll help us fill the gap that poor Paul has been unable to fill on his own!  You can learn more about each of them on our contributors page. That means we’re opening our doors to more reviews, which is a fairly new thing for us.  Full guidelines are listed here, but you might also be interested to know that our reviewers are happy to cover a wide variety of formats, including: Novels and novellas Anthologies and collections (we have one dedicated reviewer to this category) Comics Movies UK authors will also be happy to know that one of our reviewers is located across the pond.  If you have a book releasing in the UK, do get in touch! International Authors:  our 2014 theme is “the World SF Tour.”  If you’re a non-U.S./U.K. author, don’t hesitate to contact us, whether for a review or to participate in a podcast episode. If you’d like to have your work reviewed, send a description of the book(s) (press release or pitch) to at skiffyandfanty[at]gmail[dot]com.  Additionally, it is helpful for our reviewers if you provide a link to the publisher’s site for the book and to an excerpt (if available).  Intended release date is also useful for determining the urgency for a review. As the title says:  bring it on!

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