Blog Posts

Mining the Genre Asteroid: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

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A mysterious source of energy from another universe and the emergence of particles that should not exist according to principles of modern physics and chemistry. And thus, when they decay, they release free, clean energy. Who cares about the motives of the para-men in the parallel universe who are sending the atoms of impossible Plutonium 186 to us in exchange for atoms of Tungsten 186 (equally unstable in their world), right? The Electron Pump is a benefit to both sides, right? Or is it? Is the Electron Pump really that benign, or is it a devilish energy trap designed to foster dependency on it, or worse, be actively harmful to both humans and aliens alike? Once the Pump is in operation, can a source of limitless free energy that threatens the survival of two civilizations even

Blog Posts

The Disquieting Guest — Hannibal, Horror and Television

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I’m dreadfully late to this party, but over the course of the last few weeks, I finally had the chance to catch up on the first season of Hannibal. By and large, I enjoyed it very much, especially Mads Mikkelsen’s incarnation of the title character. I was very struck, too, both by how stylized the series is and how committed it is to bringing full-on horror to the small screen. In this respect, it is a pretty rare animal.* In his chapter about horror on television in Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes that horror has not been well-served by the medium. One of the big problems is that “television has really asked the impossible of its handful of horror programs — to terrify without really terrifying, to horrify without really horrifying, to sell audiences a lot of sizzle and no steak.” This is back in 1981, and the television landscape has, of course, changed radically since then. There were exceptions to this rule that King could point to then, and there have been even more since, but I think there is still a fair bit of

Announcements and Errata

Ancillary Justice Giveaway Winner

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I’m a bad person.  I said I’d tell everyone about this on Monday.  It’s now Friday.  So be it. So without further delay, here’s the winner of a copy of Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie: Joseph Benincase His favorite science fiction novel was The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester! So, congrats!

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

181. SF/F and Music w/ Peter Orullian and John Anealio

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode181PeterOrullianAndJohnAnealio/SandF%20–%20Episode%20181%20–%20Peter%20Orullian%20and%20John%20Anealio.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSDeath metal, the fantastic, and ruuuurrrrrrrrr, oh my!  Author Peter Orullian and geekninja musician John Anealio join Paul and Shaun to discuss the intersection of music and science fiction and fantasy, recommendation politics, and much 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 181 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Peter Orullian’s Website Peter’s Twitter Peter’s Writing John Anealio’s Website John’s Twitter John’s Music You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0).  Additional music from “Coffin Ships” by (Peter DiPhillips) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Daniel Ionson

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Daniel Ionson to talk about how his power of making nothing happen relates to After Life. In the game of Paper-Rock-Scissors, my superpower trumps all of the Supermen, X-Men, Whatever-Men, every time… in the most boring way possible. It’s the “Non-Event Sphere.” Wherever I go, there, nothing happens. How did I get such a plain cheese-sandwich superpower? Because the Universe and I made a pact: I decided that I was willing to forgo anything like an “adventurous life” so long as I can have an entire expanding series of multiverses in my head.

Blog Posts

Confessions of a Comics Junkie: Identity, Obsessions, and Everything

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I buy quite a lot of comics — probably not as many as some, but enough that my collection has started to get a little overwhelming.  There are currently two long boxes of comics in my closet.  Full.  And on top of those long boxes are two stacks of comics that are likely to fill a third long box.  That’s a lot of comics to have collected in only a few months.  Lucky for me, I am good at finding deals, and my local comic guy gives me a discount on new comics if I pre-order them.[1] On top of that, I easily read fifty or sixty comics a month when I’m busy.  Right now, I’m 11 comics into Marvel’s The Ultimates, which I mostly read during the shortest third leg of my flight from Florida to California.[2][3]  On a good month, I can go through a crossover event or two in a week — Flashpoint and Avengers vs. X-Men events took me less than a week each. [4] So not only am I buying the heck out of comics, I’m also reading them

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