Episode 92 — The Amazing Amazon and the ‘Problem’ of Faith in Science Fiction
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow92seasonThree–TheAmazingAmazonAndThe/Sandf–Episode92–TheAmazingAmazonAndTheproblemOfFaithInScienceFiction.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSWhen do we draw the line in Amazon’s publishing war? Who really suffers from the battle? And why is Faith so important in science fiction? Is Faith necessary for realistic SFF? These questions are our focus for this discussion episode. If you have any opinions on these topics, leave a comment! 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 92 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 32:26) “Amazon Removes Kindle Versions of IPG Books After Distributor Declines to Change Selling Terms” by Michael Cader (Publishers Marketplace) “The Importance of Faith as an Element in Realistic SFF Worldbuilding” by Bryan Thomas Schmidt (AISFP) 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.
Lit Bits: Adam Christopher Signs Two Book Deal w/ Angry Robot
Here’s the press release: Following the hugely successful launch of his debut novel Empire State earlier this year, Angry Robot has signed Adam Christopher for another two titles. Christopher revisits the world of the Empire State in a sequel, The Age Atomic, to be published in May 2013, with Hang Wire – a tale of ancient gods and serial killers – to follow within a year. The deal included world English rights in physical and electronic formats and was negotiated by Angry Robot editor Lee Harris and Christopher’s agent Stacia Decker of the Donald Maass Agency. New Zealand-born Christopher, who now lives in the UK, said: “I’m delighted to be back for another visit to the Empire State! Rad Bradley is a character close to my heart, and as soon as he reappeared on the page and started throwing punches, I felt like an old friend had returned… albeit one I’m obliged to put through the wringer again! Angry Robot continue to impress with a kick-ass roster of authors and titles, and I’m thrilled that The Age Atomic and Hang Wire will be part of it.” Editor Lee Harris said: “I couldn’t be happier to have more of Adam’s books on our list. Adam joins a very exclusive club – he is now one of only three authors to have placed four books with Angry Robot. We’re thinking of getting them membership cards.” Empire State was launched in January to widespread acclaim. Adam’s second novel – Seven Wonders – will be published worldwide in September 2012. This is incredible news indeed! I haven’t had the opportunity to read Empire State, but it is on my list of “must reads for 2012.” If anyone would like to leave a quick opinion about the book, feel free to do so in the comments. I should also say how lovely it is to receive emails from Angry Robot that are almost always positive. Every time they send me something, it is either about new books, new deals with authors, or new imprints. That tells me that they’re doing something right over in their UK offices. Congrats to Adam and everyone else involved at Angry Robot. Here’s to 10,000 more books from them all (yes, I mean that; you hear me, Adam Christopher? 10,000 books. Start writing…). Go Kiwis!
Flick Bits: Darkover to Hollywood! (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
From CominSoon.net: Producers Ilene Kahn Power and Elizabeth Stanley have secured the rights to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s renowned “Darkover” novels and are currently developing a multi-platform television series around the saga, the pair announced today. A gifted and prolific science-fiction and fantasy writer, Bradley, who garnered the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000, was the author of over 66 books and 105 short stories. More good news, right? Of course, this news is far from the real news we want to see: Darkover to the screen! But it’s a big jump in the right direction! Marion Zimmer Bradley is one of the most important authors in SF/F and one who well deserves a debut on our television screens. Let’s hope this comes true! And Darkover does seem to be in good hands: Ilene Kahn Power is perhaps best known for producing TV Movies and miniseries, such as Traffic, Gia, Buffalo Soldiers, and Roswell. Elizabeth Stanley produced The Dark Path Chronicles and Trailers From Hell. We wish them all the success in the world for bringing this to the small screen! ComingSoon.net has some quotes from Power and Stanley, which might be of interest to you all, in part because they demonstrate a certain love for the books on the part of the now-producers. I think it takes a bit of love to make something like this work, don’t you?
Flick Bits: Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom For Sale Optioned!
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!
A Special ToC: Years’ Best Dark Fantasy & Horror (2012) from Prime Books
You might notice something a little “special” about the following table of contents for the 2012 Years’ Best Dark Fantasy and Horror collection from Prime Books. But you’ll have to look at the list to find out what it is: “Hair” by Joan Aiken (The Monkey’s Wedding & Other Stories / F&SFJuly/August) “Rakshashi” by Kelley Armstrong (The Monster’s Corner: Through Inhuman Eyes) “Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin” by Adam Callaway (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #73, July 14, 2011) “The Lake” by Tananarive Due (The Monster’s Corner: Through Inhuman Eyes) “Tell Me I’ll See You Again” by Dennis Etchison (A Book of Horrors) “King Death” Paul Finch (King Death) “The Last Triangle” by Jeffrey Ford (Supernatural Noir) Near Zennor by Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors) “Crossroads” by Laura Anne Gilman (Fantasy, Aug 2011) “After-Words” by Glen Hirshberg (The Janus Tree and Other Stories) “Rocket Man” by Stephen Graham Jones (Stymie, Vol. 4. Issue 1, Spring & Summer 2011) “The Colliers’ Venus (1893)” by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Naked City: New Tales of Urban Fantasy) “Catastrophic Disruption of the Head” by Margo Lanagan (The Wilful Eye: Tales from the Tower, Vol. 1) “The Bleeding Shadow” by Joe R. Lansdale (Down These Strange Streets) “Why Light?” by Tanith Lee (Teeth) “Conservation of Shadows” by Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld, August 2011) A Tangle of Green Men, Charles de Lint (Welcome to Bordertown) “After the Apocalypse” by Maureen McHugh (After the Apocalypse) “Lord Dunsany’s Teapot” Naomi Novak (The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities) “Mysteries of the Old Quarter” by Paul Park (Ghosts by Gaslight) Vampire Lake, by Norman Partridge (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2) “A Journey of Only Two Paces” by Tim Powers (The Bible Repairman and Other Stories) “Four Legs in the Morning” by Norman Prentiss (Four Legs in the Morning) “The Fox Maiden” by Priya Sharma (On Spec, Summer 2011) “Time and Tide” by Alan Peter Ryan (F&SF, Sept/Oct 2011) “Sun Falls” by Angela Slatter (Dead Red Heart) “Still” by Tia V. Travis (Portents) “Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear” by Lisa Tuttle (House of Fear) “The Bread We Eat in Dreams” by Catherynne M. Valente (Apex Magazine, Issue 30, November 2011) “All You Can Do Is Breathe” Kaaron Warren (Blood & Other Cravings) “Josh” by Gene Wolfe (Portents) Okay, so figuring out the special thing in the list shouldn’t be too hard, since I put it in bold and all… Congratulations to Adam both for his publication in BCS and his first anthologized “Best of” story! We’re sure his career will soon collapse under his mounting alcoholism… (we kid, of course — love you, Adam!) It might also interest folks to know that Maureen McHugh has a wonderful story in here, which is also in her collection of the same name from Small Beer Press (which I just finished and loved to death). And since I played a crucial role in getting Adam’s story published (yeah, I’m taking credit), that means this collection has not just one amazing story, but two. That alone is almost worth the entry price.
Flick Bits: Tad Williams’ Otherland + Warner Bros. = Feature Film (Your Thoughts?)
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?
