Best-Selling Authors Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear, With Subutai Corporation, Announce The Mongoliad on World’s First Social Book Platform

via PR Newswire

Bestselling authors Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear, along with Subutai Corporation, announced today the launch of The Mongoliad, the first digital novel on a social book platform. A speculative fiction novel set against the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century, The Mongoliad follows a small band of warriors and mystics in a ripping tale of action and adventure set at a time when the Mongol horde’s conquest of Europe seemed inevitable.  Key to the development of this tale is the unique collaboration between the authors and the audience through PULP, Subutai’s new platform, which provides a participatory experience only possible in today’s connected digital world. To experience The Mongoliad, visit www.mongoliad.com.

“PULP is what Gutenberg would have come up with if he hadn’t jumped the gun and released 600 years early,” said Stephenson. “Kindles and iPads were little better than expensive drink trays until we came up with this.”

The Mongoliad’s heroes fight, plot, spy, and maneuver the politics of royal courts, the church, merchant empires, and secret societies in an attempt to defeat their would-be conquerors, and to preserve the knowledge that is in their charge.  Each week a new chapter is delivered via custom applications for handhelds and the web, starting with iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

Greg Bear said, “This is one of the most exciting and interesting projects I’ve worked on in a long while. Collaborating with Neal and our crack team on a magnificent story and a new business model for publishing and media is a real privilege.”

Read More here

When times get tough, science fiction pulls us through

By Being Ruth at io9

Scifi Pulls Us Outside Ourselves

One reason I mostly use pictures of the universe as my wallpaper is that whenever I look at it, I find myself doing my own mini-scifi. I wonder whether or not there’s any life or consciousness that we’d recognize in any of them.

As a rule, science fiction pulls us outside of our own worlds and concerns. Whether it takes us to another galaxy, to another solar system, to another planet on our solar system, or even to an alternate/future version of our own Earth, it makes us think about a different kind of life and society. And it helps us realize that our way of doing things may not be the only way they could be done.

Scifi Often Revolves Around People Fighting Against Long Odds

Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Ender’s Game, much Doctor Who, most Star Trek films and many episodes-whether it’s the future of humanity/the universe itself, the attempt to overthrow an oppressive regime, or the goal of saving a single planet/team/person from destruction, sci-fi often revolves around people who have to fight long odds for high stakes. Sometimes they don’t win, sometimes their victory involves a loss of another kind.

Read More here

Sci Fi Writer to Explore Fear of Human Obsolescence

from the University of Texas, Dallas

As smartphones get smarter and computers get faster, humans, who err and just get slower with age, seem to be almost superfluous at times.  But award-winning science fiction novelist Robert J. Sawyer isn’t overly worried.

The winner of Nebula and Hugo Awards for best science fiction writing will explore the issue of human obsolescence in a lecture at UT Dallas. The program, “Forget About Killer Robots: How Humanity Will Continue to Prosper After the Advent of Super-Intelligent Machines,” is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Conference Center.

Sawyer is the only writer in history to win the top science fiction awards in the United States, China, Japan, France and Spain. He has written more than 20 sci fi novels, including Hominids, The Terminal Experiment and Mindscan.  His latest, Watch, is the second in his “WWW” trilogy, which began with Wake. The TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name.

Read More here

Comic-Con and Beyond: “The Jedi Path”

by Lynette Mong at Omnivoracious

Having a page on Wookieepedia is good. Receiving a glowing book review from Jeff VanderMeer is even better. Having your book unboxed on Techland? Very cool. And getting everyone from Tommy Lee Edwards to Darth Vader to read your book at Comic-Con? Pretty memorable. Back in July, Daniel Wallace shared his newest book, The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force, with a wide array of Comic-Con attendees–and gave us the photos to share with you (check them out after the jump).

Jedi Path has already generated lots of buzz among Star Wars fans after it was previewed on starwars.com. Daniel provided some more information on why The Jedi Path is such a unique edition to the Star Wars mythology:

The Jedi Path was conceived as a textbook that was carried by young Initiates and Padawans to guide their instruction in the Jedi Temple. It’s supposed to look like an in-universe artifact that fell through a rabbit hole from the galaxy far, far away. In fact, this copy is ostensibly the last one in existence following Order 66 and the destruction of the Jedi Temple.

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Author Leo wins book deal Aged 6

By Andy Crick at The Sun

A BOY aged SIX has landed a multi-book publishing deal after writing a mini-novel about his pet dog.

Now little Leo Hunter says he wants to be “more famous than JK Rowling”.

And he could pocket a fortune like the Harry Potter writer if his books take off.

Leo penned Me And My Best Friend to tell the story of his alliance with pet Alsatian Kugar.

His impressed mum Jamie, an author, contacted publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. US firm Strategic Book Publishing liked it so much they agreed to take it – and signed Leo to write TWENTY-THREE more.

He will get 20 per cent from early sales of the £10, 25-page books. But this will rise to 50 per cent if more than 500 are sold.

Read More here

What do you think of an interactive book? Do you think Sci Fi gets us through hard times? What was your favorite news story today?

Ridley Scott’s Western + More New Info on His Alien Prequel!

We already know quite a bit about the prequel, from an update in April, but Scott confirmed a few details. He explained: “I sat thinking about the franchise, which now has died… And I always thought, ‘no one has ever asked… who the hell is the Space Jockey?’ So it’s written and I’m prepping it now.” So it’s about the big alien who was found dead in the chair in the spaceship in the first Alien. Ridley added that it takes place “way before” Alien because he’s going to try and “squeeze in” two prequels, as we already know. But why?

“Because if you explain who he was and where he comes from, then that will deal with the savagery of this version [the 1979 Alien], which is pretty savage. Then you may want to find out where they came from, so you may want to go to him, and go to there place where his people come from.”

Source

No ‘Tranformers 3′ shooting near White House

Director Michael Bay has been denied permission to film action sequences for the third instalment of his successful sci-fi ‘Transformers’ near the White House.

Imdb.com reports that the filmmaker wanted to stage a car-chase sequence in and around the National Mall, an open-area national park in downtown Washington, but his request has been turned down by city officials and security experts.

more here

The Aliens Prequel sounds pretty cool. Would you see the prequel? Or does it feel like they’re trying to resurrect an old movie?

I am not surprised that Transformers can’t blow shit up near the White House. Are you?

The 7 highest-grossing summer sci-fi films of all time

Summer’s almost here, bringing with it the roller-coaster thrills of summer movies. (We told you about this year’s just the other day, remember?)

Hollywood.com took a look back at the 10 highest-grossing summer films of all time, and guess what? Seven of them were sci-fi!

According to their chart, which has been adjusted for inflation to avoid all that arguing, here’s how sci-fi stacked up:

1. Star Wars
2. E.T. the Extraterrestrial
4. The Empire Strikes Back
5. The Return of the Jedi
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark
7. Jurassic Park
8. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

Read more HERE

Michael Bay plans to KILL some of the Transformers

Okay, he didn’t EXACTLY say that, but it seems like director Michael Bay and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura are really, truly going to off some of our beloved Autobots, based on what we learned from a new Transformers 3 article in USA Today.

Here’s what the piece had to say:

While Optimus Prime, Megatron and even Sam all have died and been resurrected, di Bonaventura says this film will have no do-overs: Die,and that’s it.
Bay hints that there may be a lot of that. “As a trilogy, it really ends,” he says. “It could be rebooted again, but I think it has a really killer ending.”

There are other changes afoot for the third Transformers flick, which is filming now for a summer 2011 release. Bay and di Bonaventura acknowledge that there were problems with last year’s Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which was blasted by critics and even some fans despite earning $836 million worldwide—second last year only to Avatar.

Read more HERE

Del Toro left The Hobbit to direct … Van Helsing 2?

With The Hobbit now firmly behind him, director Guillermo del Toro has a stack of backlogged projects he can dive into. And one of the projects the acclaimed filmmaker is developing is a new Van Helsing movie, according to pajiba.

Now before we all scream, “He left The Hobbit for this?”, let’s take a closer look. The project is apparently NOT a sequel to the (let’s just say it) wretched Van Helsing movie from 2004 that starred/embarrassed Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. Instead, Universal Pictures wants to take an entirely different approach to the famous vampire hunter and archenemy of Dracula, and has enlisted del Toro to write a treatment for what is described as “an action horror story.”

Read more HERE

Fantastic Four ready to be reborn

Lost in all the hoopla about the X-Men and Spider-Man reboots? Let’s talk about the other franchise that Marvel is resurrecting. Yes, Fantastic Four begins again, with a new director, writer, and now a title.

Reports indicate that the reboot will be called Fantastic Four Reborn. This is partially based on Fox reserving the URL for www.fantasticfourreborn.com, which isn’t exactly confirmation (studios tend to reserve the web addresses for a lot of potential titles), but it does give some indication of the direction the new film will likely take.

Much like the title Batman Begins tacitly made it clear that Christopher Nolan was going back to the start of the Batman mythos and completely erasing the four previous movies, Fantastic Four Reborn suggests an acknowledgment the franchise need a complete do-over after two movies that really didn’t work. “Reborn” also evokes Marvel Comics events like Ed Brubaker’s recent, well-received “Captain America Reborn” (and some other, earlier miniseries that weren’t nearly so well received.)

Read more HERE

What did you think about today’s movie news? Do you think that Michael Bay should kill off some of the Transformers, if so which ones? What are your thoughts on a Van Helsing 2, and Guillermo del Toro directing? Should Fantastic Four be remade, and what do you think about all these Marvel comic reboots, is it necessary – or just another way to make a quick buck?

IS VAMPIRE DIARIES’ PAUL WESLEY REALLY A BLOOD SUCKER? NINA DOBREV SURE THINKS SO!

Source: eonline.com

It could be worse. A report could be going around that Paul Wesley will embark on a rap career.

But that’s not the kind of story his Vampire Diaries costar Nina Dobrev is trying to spread. And after hearing the reasons, we can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some truth to those vampire rumors…

“First, I have fangs,” Paul explained at the Monte Carlo TV Fest. “Second, I am kind of an insomniac. And third, in the first season, I was always able to beat everyone to wherever they were going even though they left before me. Somehow I’d get there ahead of them and I’d be standing there in a black rain coat. And they were like, ‘How’d you do that? How did you get here so fast?’ And so I started playing on that and purposely started trying to do things to freak them out a little,” he joked.

Funny. If we turn around and he’s suddenly standing behind us as we type this…

READ MORE HERE

SCIFI SHOW FINDS SACTUARY IN VANCOUVER

Source: montralgazette.com

VANCOUVER – Ian Tracey’s face is black, blue and bloody, but he’s not getting any love from a stone-faced Amanda Tapping. Dressed in black leathers and knee-high boots, the veteran actor is getting tough with this alien brand of Cybil – an “abnormal” with multiple personalities – because, well, the survival of humanity depends on it.

Welcome to the Vancouver set of Sanctuary – “the little show that could.”

A special-effects and character-driven series recently picked up for its third season by Canadian and US networks, Sanctuary is just the latest Sci-Fi skein to call Vancouver home – carrying on a legacy forged nearly 20 years ago with the birth of X-Files and the eventual installation of the Stargate spin-off family.

READ MORE HERE

Anything you’d like to comment on in today’s tv news?

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FIREFLY AND SERENITYFANS GET A SHINY NEW BOOK

Source: C. Robert Cargill at film.com

One of my favorite parts of travelling to Minnesota for sci-fi/fantasy/comic book conventions is a room run by the Minnesota Browncoats, a group of diehard Firefly fans who decorate hotel rooms into spot-on replicas of the Serenity galley. They have a beautiful fiddle player who, dressed as a member of the crew, plays the many songs from the Firefly canon as the rest of the crew hands out leaflets with lyrics and leads the visitors in song. It’s a fantastic experience that captures and illustrates both the magic of Firefly and the love present in its fandom. For them, and those of you now wishing you could experience things like the browncoats’ galley for yourself, there is a new book: Firefly: Still Flying.

Firefly: Still Flying is a collection of essays, production art, biographies, and supplemental bits of fun that manages to perfectly capture the spirit and essence of Firefly. The show, a healthy mix of adventure and comedy, had its own sense of style — and, sadly, had far too short a life on television. Getting new bits, even fragments, of that magic is really something special — which is why I am so fond of this book.

READ MORE HERE

June Books: Airships, smart bombs, and a rampaging Kraken!

Source: io9.com

June brings speculative fiction for every taste. Priest returns to the world of Boneshaker, and Miéville offers up a giant-squid epic. And whet your scifi appetite with some adventurous new short stories.

Clementine, Cherie Priest (Subterranean Press)

Cherie Priest returns to the steampunk world of her Hugo-nominated Boneshaker with this new novel about two dangerous, notorious, and thoroughly American characters. Mara Isabella Boyd, a former actress and Confederate spy turned Pinkerton detective, is charged with seeing the airship Clementine deliver its cargo safely, but former slave/current sky-pirate Croggon Hainey wants his property back. But there’s bigger game afoot, and the two quickly find themselves on the same side. Shady postbellum types have been an American trope since Jesse James, but it should be a blast to see what the ultra-sharp Priest does with it.

READ MORE HERE

Are you a Firefly’verse fan? What do you think of the books? What book are you looking forward to this Summer?

Join us in the forum to discuss!

It’s launch day for new science fiction magazine Lightspeed

By Annalee Newitz at io9

Indie SF publisher Prime Books is publishing a new online magazine of science fiction and essays called Lightspeed. Edited by John Joseph Adams, formerly of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed aims to “push the envelope.” Now you can read it!

Every week, Lightspeed will publish a free story online, along with essays that explore themes related to the stories.

Writes Adams in the inaugural issue:

Lightspeed is a new online magazine that will focus exclusively on science fiction. Here you can expect to see all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject will be considered off-limits, and we encourage our writers to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope. We will bring you a mix of originals and reprints, and will be featuring a variety of authors-from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven’t heard of yet.

Read More here
Check out the Magazine here

Literary Novelist Turns to Vampires and Finds Pot of Gold

By Julie Bosman at the New York Times

Justin Cronin is the author of an epic, multimillion-dollar, 766-page novel that stars bloodthirsty creatures that run in packs and savagely kill people at night. And he’s planning to turn it into a trilogy.

So he is prepared for the inevitable comparisons — another vampire book? — that could accompany the publication on Tuesday of “The Passage,” the sprawling saga of a girl named Amy who is one of the victims of a covert military experiment that went horribly awry and its bloody aftermath.

“The Passage” is appearing at a time when publishers are still snapping up books in the paranormal genre, a category that has evolved beyond vampires to include zombies, shape-shifters and dark angels who have fallen to earth. (Mr. Cronin’s vampires are called virals.)

Read More here
Read an Excerpt from The Passage here

Audioslice: Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker

Liz Maverick at Tor

Today’s feature is a custom audioslice of Boneshaker from Nebula award finalist Cherie Priest.  And it’s not just because I wanted an excuse to contact her for inside scoop on her follow-up, Dreadnought.

“The number one piece of begging-disguised-as-feedback I received after Boneshaker was that people wanted to see more of this world-setting. Seattle as a zombie-plagued wasteland was cool and all, but what about this big fat war going on back east? What about the wild, wild west?”

Well, Dreadnought won’t be out until September, but you can get your steampunk on post-haste via Priest’s June novella, Clementine, from Subterranean Press.  (Yes, it’s set in the same world.  Bonus!)

Without further ado, here’s narrator Wil Wheaton from a special cut of the digital audio version of Boneshaker…

Hear the sample here

Award-winning 1986 Novel Predicted Oil Spill

via SFWA

The transformation of 1986’s science fiction to 2010’s ugly reality has fiction lovers reaching once again for award-winning author Kathryn Lance’s near-prophetic Pandora’s titles. The new relevance of her book Pandora’s Genes and its sequel Pandora’s Children has prompted e-reads, the leading reprinter of out-of-print genre fiction, to feature the books nearly 25 years after their original publication.

When Lance first envisioned how attempts to clean up a massive oil spill could go wrong, she never dreamed that she would one day see some of her cataclysmic imaginings come to life. Unfortunately, with the Gulf oil spill disaster, she has. Like everyone else, Lance wishes the Gulf oil spill had never happened. “The book was something of a cautionary tale,” she says. “But no one listened.”

Read More here
Read the First Chapter here

Lightspeed sounds amazing; I love that they’re going to have stories and articles about the topics. Saves me time with googling. It seems like Wil Wheaton is in everything now! Boneshaker is on my list of things to read, and I should get to it before the next one comes out. The new vampire book sounds interesting too, I love the idea of scientifically created vampires, rather than having them be paranormal.

Do you think there are enough vampire books around? What do you think of the 80′s prediction of the oil spill? Do you prefer audio books or physical books?