732. S&F Clacks #1: Borders, Fixing Books, and AI Art, Oh My!
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-732-clacks-1/SandF_732_Clacks_1.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSBorder trouble, editing bad stuff out of books, and AI fiction run amok, oh my! Shaun Duke, Brandon O’Brien, Paul Weimer, and Trish Matson join forces for the 1st ever S&F Clacks, our brand new SF/F/H current events and listener questions live show! Together before a live audience on our Twitch channel, they discuss Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s recent visa struggles, the recent discussion about editing older works to remove offensive content, the wild world of AI-produced fiction, and much more. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Welcome to 2018: New Website, New Feeds, New Annual Theme, and New Everything!
2018 has arrived, and it brings with it gifts a-plenty! We’ve left 2017 behind, strapped to a thermonuclear teddy bear bomb on a one-way trip to Hell. All its friends were quietly dispatched by an army of invisible badgernauts. In its wake, the Joyous Interdimensional Fleet of Happypants Space Wizards brought us a new year of new things. A new website (see the shiny!), a new annual theme, new podcast feeds, new design, and new everything. And we’re here to tell you all about how 2018 is going to be a year of ch-ch-changes and joy. So strap in, folks. This post is going to be a doozy! Here’s all the stuff in this post:
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!
#124. Anticipating 2013 — What We’re Looking Forward To (w/ Stina Leicht)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShowseasonFourEpisode124–Anticipating2013–/Sandf–Episode124–WhatWereLookingForwardToIn2013.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSScience fiction and fantasy galore! For our first episode of the year, author Stina Leicht joins us to talk about the movies, television shows, and books we’re looking forward to this year. There’s some bickering, the giggling, and a whole lot of SF/F love. 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 124 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 1:01:20) 2013 Movies Mentioned: The Host Ender’s Game World War Z Warm Bodies Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters Odd Thomas This is the End Epic Gravity Elysium Oblivion After Earth Pacific Rim Oz, the Great and Powerful Iron Man 3 Star Trek Into Darkness Monsters University Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Riddick Thor: The Dark World The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Upside Down The Last Stand A Good Day to Die Hard The Great Gatsby Mad Max: Fury Road (comes out in 2014) The Forever War (supposedly coming out this year) The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 Television Shows Mentioned: Doctor Who The Newsroom Castle Bones Downton Abbey Games of Thrones Once Upon a Time Fringe Defiance Sherlock Warehouse 13 S.H.I.E.L.D. The Following The Americans Ripper Street Orphan Black Hemlock Grove Arrested Development 2013 Books Mentioned: Great North Road by Peter Hamilton The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord London Falling by Paul Cornell Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead Tyrant’s Law by Daniel Abraham Abaddon’s Gate by James S. A. Corey The Ocean At the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman Neptune’s Brood by Charlie Stross The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond ID by Madeline Ashby The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes The Fall of Arthur by J. R. R. Tolkien Ghost Spin by Chris Moriarty Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson On the Razor’s Edge by Michael Flynn Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell The Childhood of Jesus by J. M. Coetzee Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Bio-Punk: Stories from the Far Side of Research edited by Ra Page The Curve of the Earth by Simon Morden Unknown Book by Paolo Bacigalupi Unknown Book by Charles Stross Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris 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.
Linda Nagata Reaches For Twenty Reviews: Can you help?
Nebula Award-winning author Linda Nagata wants to hit twenty reviews on Amazon.com for The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher, the first two books in her Puzzle Lands series. From Nagata’s website: Author Stephen Harper Piziks, a fellow Book View Café member, says that: “Amazon makes recommendations based on the number of reader reviews a book gets. When a book reaches 20 reader reviews, Amazon’s computer starts recommending it. The content of the reviews doesn’t matter–only that the book got reviews.” To test Stephen’s theory, I’m following his example and launching a contest to encourage you to help me by writing an Amazon review of either The Dread Hammer or Hepen the Watcher, or if you’re really into it, of both! The review doesn’t have to be elaborate. A couple of sentences conveying your general opinion should do it, though of course longer coverage is fine too. To sweeten the pot, she’s going to give away free books to one international and one U.S. reviewer. All you have to do is leave a comment with a link to your review! In the pot: The selected USA commenter will receive EITHER a print copy of both Puzzle Lands books OR a print copy of any ONE of the Nanotech Succession books OR the Tor® hardcover of Memory. The selected non-USA commenter will get to select any two of Mythic Island Press LLC’s ebooks. Admit it. That sounds pretty awesome, right? You can find free samples here. Both books are available on Booktopia, Powell’s, Book View Cafe, Amazon and Barnes and Noble in print and/or ebook editions. You can find links to all these places here. The ebook is only $4.99! Have at it, folks!
Episode 93 — Defining Urban Fantasy, Plus Doctor Who Companions and Dying American SF
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShowEpisode93–DefiningUrbanFantasyPlusDoctorWho/Sandf–Episode93–DefiningUrbanFantasy–PlusDoctorWhoCompanionsAndDyingAmericanSf.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThis week’s episode is an impromptu discussion about some fantastic topics (thanks a lot, Stina Leicht, for making us ramble like buffoons). On today’s show: Paul Weimer forces us to attempt, albeit at the last minute, urban fantasy; Doctor Who finally has a new companion, about which we feel like bitching; and apparently science fiction in American TV is dying (yes, we’re not playing the “SF is dying” game; specificity is everything). 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! Note 2: Because we only briefly covered defining urban fantasy in this episode, we are going to bring it into our interview this week with Stina Leicht. Expect more discussion then! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 93 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 33:44) “New Doctor Who Companion is Jennifer-Louise Coleman” by Stubby the Rocket (Tor.com) “10 Better Choices for the Next Doctor Who Companion” by K. Tempest Bradford “The Death of American Sci-fi” by Russell Holly (Geek.com) 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.
