Must Read Sci-Fi and Fantasy News 7

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Genre News from Offworlders.

1-30-2019

Stephen King’s The Stand TV Series on the Way

Great news for fans of Stephen King and his novel “The Stand” as it’s being adapted into a ten-episode TV series by CBS All Access. Dangnabbit! I have so far resisted signing up for the CBS streaming service, but my resolve is wearing thin. First off, I am number 121 in line for the First Season of “Star Trek Discovery” at the library. Now, this new King series chronicling a scattering of survivors on Earth after a plague wipes out most of the population. Josh Boone and Ben Cavell to direct the project.

Read the article here: King’s The Stand Gets TV Series

1-29-2019

AI Reading List

Want to read some fascinating science fiction stories featuring AIs? This Verge, “AI Reading List,” may just be what you are looking for. Recommendations include “Weapons of Math Destruction” by Cathy O’Neil, “Machine Learning for Humans” by Vishal Maini And Samer Sabri, “Profiles of The Future” by Arthur C. Clarke, and “The Diamond Age – A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer,” by Neal Stephenson, to name but a few. Check out the article to see more recommendations and a detailed synopsis of each title.

Read the article here: AI Reading List

1-29-2019

Historical Novels with Famous Authors as Characters in the Story

If you are like me, you love it when a work of fiction uses historical figures as a character in the tale. This short article suggests the following titles: “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain, “The Book of Salt” by Monique Truong, “King of Shadows” by Susan Cooper, “Vanessa And Her Sister” by Priya Parmar, and “Mr. Dickens and His Carol” by Samantha Silva. A book I read not on this list is “The Map of the Sky” by Félix J. Palma, a part of The Map of Time Trilogy. Palma’s trilogy features the authors H. G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Lewis Carroll as characters.

Read the article here: Famous Authors in Historical Fiction

1-28-2019

Another Wandering Earth Trailer Released

“The Wandering Earth” – a Chinese Sci-Fi movie based on a story by author Liu Cixin, will release in China on February 5th. There are predictions that this will be the Chinese film that breaks into the international film market. I believe this to be true as well. Liu Cixin first showed up on my radar at the 2015 Hugo Awards where Ken Liu’s 2014 translation of his novel “The Three-Body Problem” took the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel. If you have not read “The Three Body Problem,” the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, you are behind on your required reading!

Fun fact about Liu Cixin:
In a New Your Times interview in 2014 Liu said he was writing for “beer money.”

1-28-2019

“Memory: The Origins of Alien”

Heads Up: A documentary is in the works to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic “Alien.” This will be a love letter to the movie celebrating the collaborative process of making films. “Memory” will explore the symbolism found in the movie and bring to light never seen goodies from the Dan O’Bannon (Alien screenwriter) and H. R. Giger archives. There is no release date announced. The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Below is a great article on the film and a video of an interview with the film’s director Alexandre O. Philippe.

Read a review here of the film here: The Origins of Alien

1-28-2019

Judging a Comic Book by its Cover

Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover? I have, and I bet you have too! I remember John Scalzi speaking about the importance of the cover artwork in drawing people to your title in a bookstore. So, you would think this news bulletin is about book covers? Fooled You! This featured news snippet is a cool article by Eric Cline of AIPT featuring comic book covers that captured the eye of publication contributor Forrest Hollingsworth and Manga Editor Eric Cline.

Read the article here: Covers That Caught My Eye

1-27-2019

Amazon’s Wheel of Time Series

About frickin’ time–so say we all. Sony Pictures Television has scheduled production of their “Wheel of Time” series to begin in September 2019. It will be interesting to see how the director translates fourteen massive novels into something that will fit on the small screen. The show will follow Moiraine, “a member of the shadowy and influential all-female organization called the Aes Sedai,” and five men and women, one of which may be the reincarnation of an ancient power that can save the world.

1-27-2019

Is Sci-Fi Correct About Wormholes?

Interesting technical article on wormholes by Forbes contributor, astrophysicist, and professor Brian Koberlein. To make a long story short, Einstein and Rosen’s bridges are too unstable to work reliably as ways to travel between two locations in space. That’s why science fiction writers are looking at Kerr black holes that rotate and twist space around them and have a different composition than Schwarzschild black holes. Models in two-dimensional space have shown it’s possible to create stable traversable Kerr wormholes that don’t collapse. The theory is there, now we need to make it work in a three-dimensional universe.

Read the article here: Stable Wormholes

1-26-2019

Build a New Solar System by Marko Kloos

In my humble opinion, this is the best article of the bunch as it features self-made author Marko Kloos who started as a self-published author with his book “Terms of Enlistment.” Reviewers compare his books to Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” and John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” series. After Amazon purchased his novel, he wrote five sequels. He will set his new series in a different universe from his previous six books. This article discusses how Kloos built the universe from the ground up for his next series of novels which will open with “Aftershocks” set to release this July.

Read the article here: Building a New – Marko Kloos

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1-24-2019

Tales From the Loop

This Amazon TV series will be based on the artwork of Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag who mixes high tech imagery with visions of rural life. The production is said to have a large budget and will require constructing many intricate sets. I know that ain’t saying squat, but if you are a fan of the art, you are jumping up and down right now saying, “Please let this TV series come to life.”

Make it so!