A Darkling Sea has a tie-in blog!
Last week, Paul Weimer reviewed A Darkling Sea by James Cambias. It turns out the good folks at Tor have more to offer than just the book: We at Tor have done something a little extra for A Darkling Sea and created tie-in websites for readers to engage with. IlmatarMission.com is a prop website for the “United Nations Interstellar Cooperation Agency” which features in Cambias’s novel. The website includes information on the space mission, aliens, and characters of A Darkling Sea as well as a link to the personal blog of one of the characters. We believe this will be an exciting opportunity for fans to learn more about the universe Cambias created. Starting on January 28th we will begin posting a series of “log entries” from both the station and one of the characters. January 28th? That’s today! Click on the link above or the banner below to go check out the Ilmatar Mission website!
The Disquieting Guest — Some Notes on Gore
A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a brief Twitter conversation with Teresa Frohock and Fred Kiesche that touched on the virtues of the suggested versus the explicit in the creation of terror. If memory serves (and my apologies if it does not), Robert Wise’s The Haunting (the 1963 adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House) was invoked. That film is, without a doubt, a powerful argument for the virtues of subtlety. So is the CGI-laden 1999 version, which proves just how good Wise’s approach (faithful to Jackson) was by doing the precise opposite and failing in spectacular (if entertaining) fashion. That being said, I would like to mount a bit of a defence of explicitness here. More particularly, I would like to say a few words about the value of gore. Back around the end of the 80s, and the start of the 90s, there was a sometimes-heated debate on this subject. We had “quiet” versus “loud” horror, and this was when the term “splatterpunk” had its greatest currency. While the debates were interesting, the
189. Our Favorite Things from 2013 (A Roundtable Discussion)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode189OurFavoriteThingsFrom2013/SandF%20–%20Episode%20189%20–%20Our%20Favorite%20Things%20from%202013.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSBooks, movies, TV, and more, oh my! In a fit of profound genius, most of the crew got together to discuss all the lovely stuff they read, viewed, and experienced in 2013. 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 189 — Download (MP3) Show Notes (all the things we mentioned):
#13 — Babylon 5 Re-Watch (S1D2: Eps. 5-8) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB13Babylon5ReWatchep58/Shoot%20the%20WISB%20%2313%20–%20Babylon%205%20re-watch%20%28ep%205-8%29.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSAssassins, space racists, secret pasts, and alien politics, oh my! Mike, Paul, Shaun, and Stina offer their thoughts on episodes 5-8 of Babylon 5 in our second ever re-watch session. We also really want to hear what you think! So feel free to watch along with us! Next up, the third disc of the Season One box set! Spoiler Alert: the following podcast contains spoilers for the film being reviewed; if you wish to see the film without having it ruined for you, download this podcast and save it for later. Download the episode here. Show notes (info about our contributors can be found on the about page): Babylon 5 (IMDB) Episode 5: “The Parliament of Dreams“ Episode 6: “Mind War“ Episode 7: “The War Prayer“ Episode 8: “And the Sky Full of Stars“ Comment away!
188. Shimon Adaf (a.k.a. Revelationator) — Sunburnt Faces (An Interview: the World SF Tour)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode188InterviewWShimonAdaf/SandF%20–%20Episode%20188%20–%20Interview%20w%20Shimon%20Adaf.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThe World SF Tour continues…with an interview with Shimon Adaf, author of Sunburnt Faces from PS Publishing. We discuss violence and children, religion, the influence of reading, and so 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 188 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Sunburnt Faces on PS Publishing PS Publishing 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). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
The World SF Tour: A Comics and Graphic Novel Reading List?
Since I’ve been the one blogging about comics here (Mike Underwood doesn’t count), I figured I could do something special for the World SF Tour: read more SF/Fish work by creators from elsewhere. I already read tons of Marvel titles, with a few indies and DC titles tossed in, but most of the folks behind those works are from the U.S. So I went a-googling for works by people from elsewhere…and didn’t come up with much at all (a few things here or there). Short of searching every single country on Earth, I haven’t the foggiest where to find new or upcoming comics by people from outside the U.S. in English (translated or otherwise). The only exception is Japan, whose comics industry is so large that there are entire magazines dedicated to discussing it (manga rules, by the way). This is where the Internet comes in. I’m interested in reviewing or discussing SF/Fish comics by creators from all over the world, published whenever (slight preference for newer-ish works). And if you have a way to find this stuff OR you’ve got suggestions OR you can share this with folks who might have some information, I’d appreciate the help. So…what should I be reading?
