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S1m0ne, or another predictive movie about AI

S1M0NE movie poster shows a large manifestations of a computer-generated woman looking down at Al Pacino.

Niccol’s films, almost universally, are obsessed with the idea of artificial realities. This can be a mundane sort of affair … Or it can be something like S1m0ne, where an actress and her whole career and presence, are digital creations. It is notable that Niccol is a cautionary tale sort of director. In each of these, the artificial realities break or are broken, showing the cogs and the gears of what is behind them.

755. S&F Clacks #6: Writing Events, Tangents, and Q&A!

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-755-sfclacks-6/SandF_755_SFClacks6.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSWriting seminars, strange tangents, and NanoNonsense, oh my! Shaun Duke and Daniel Haeusser join forces to discuss online writing seminars, Orbit’s NaNo events, NanoWriMo’s history, and live audience questions! We promise that we stayed on target the entire time *wink*! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Book Review: INVERSION by Aric McBay

Cover of Inversion, by Aric McBay, from the Black Dawn series from AK Press. Picture of a natural landscape, with a bird flying, encircled by technology and a hand reaching to grasp it.

Though relatively slim compared to most space operas at only 240 small-sized pages, Inversion packs a narrative punch along with rich world building and engaging thematic threads of ecology, collectivism, and resistant to militaristic colonization. 

752. S&F Clacks #5: Short Fiction, Private Equity, and Enshittification!

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-752-clacks-5/SandF_752_Clacks5.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSInternet shenanigans, bad companies, and library problems, oh my! Shaun Duke and Trish Matson join forces to discuss the encroaching influence of private equity on publishing and books, the future of libraries and problems that face them, the state of short fiction in SFF, and more! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!

751. Karen Lord (a.k.a. Captain Civilization) — The Blue, Beautiful World

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-751-karen-lord/SandF_751_KarenLord.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSPop stars, embargoes, and first contact, oh my! Shaun Duke and Brandon O’Brien are joined by the wonderful Karen Lord to discuss her latest novel, The Blue, Beautiful World. Together, they explore the novel’s treatment of violence and culture, alien conspiracies and colonialism, Shakespeare and the art of writing, and so much more! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Book Review: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN SISKO by Derek Tyler Attico

Cover, The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko, by Derek Tyler Attico

I’m now very glad that I did decide to read this; I’d encourage any other Star Trek fan who has read the licensed fiction to also check it out, even if one hasn’t seen all of DS9. Ardent fans of DS9 should particularly appreciate it. On the other hand, I wouldn’t recommend it to readers who have no familiarity with the series and its characters.