SFcrowsnest.com science fiction, fantasy, scifi and horror.

Feature articles from Issue 192. November 2009.

Where the Wild Things Are
01/11/2009. A boy with emotional problems finds himself on an island with large fluffy animal people. Spike Jonze co-writes and directs this adaptation of the popular 1963 children's book. While the book works fine for the younger set, the film tries to be too much an Alice-in-Wonderland-class story for all ages, but it rarely works for both young and old at the same time.

Joe 90
01/11/2009. Uncle Geoff takes a look back at the curious case of Joe 90. These days if you took a school kid and brainwashed them with advanced equipment into becoming an assassin or super-spy, the least you could expect is a visit from social services... but what do we get? The Dollhouse and Chuck borrowing the concept!

Exhibit
01/11/2009. A very short - but solid - scifi story by GF Willmetts.

Minimalists don't make good collectors
01/11/2009. As a somewhat collector, as many SF fans including you the reader actually are, do you feel somewhat appalled at the prospect of going totally digital or haven't you given it much thought for where we might be in a decade's time?

Defying Gravity: an inside peek
01/11/2009. Actor Ron Livingston (last seen in Sex And The City, and Band of Brothers) stars in Defying Gravity, a new science fiction drama series from producer James Parriott (of Grey's Anatomy fame) and Michael Edelstein (aka Desperate Housewives). The thirteen part scifi series has already started to broadcast on BBC Two in October 2009.

Ron Livingston interviewed
01/11/2009. Actor Ron Livingston of Band of Brothers fame is interviewed about about his lead role in the new scifi TV series, Defying Gravity, where he plays ship's engineer Maddux Donner on a mysterious mission to space which is being controlled by an alien intelligence known as Beta.

Tamzin Outhwaite talks scifi
01/11/2009. In the BBC's new scifi thriller, Paradox. DI Rebecca Flint is a high-ranking detective who always goes the extra mile to solve a case. However, when she is shown images by space scientist Dr Christian King of a disaster that appears not to have happened yet, her world and belief system is thrown into turmoil. Actress Tamzin Outhwaite, who recently starred in ITV's The Fixer, explains to SFcrowsnest what drew her to a science fiction thriller like Paradox and the part of feisty police officer Rebecca.

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Book, Comic, Magazine & DVD Reviews from Issue 192. November 2009.

x marks the conversions

Witches And Wiccans by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Waging The War Of The Worlds by John Gosling

Flashforward by Robert Sawyer

The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by Douglas Adams

Twelve by Jasper Kent

Dead Deep by Justin Somper

Orphan's Destiny by Robert Buettner

Avilion by Robert Holdstock

Doctor Who Monthly Series: Paper Cuts by Marc Platt

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles - The Stealers From Saiph by Nigel Robinson

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles - The Drowned World by Simon Guerrier

The Very Best Of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Gordon Van Gelder

Lost Ate My Life: The Inside Story Of A Fandom Like No Other by Jon DocArzt and Amy Johnston

Your Heart Belongs To Me by Dean Koontz

Doctor Who Companion Chronicles: The Glorious Revolution by Jonathan Morris

Robin Hood: The Siege by Simon Guerrier

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

The Red Men by Matthew De Abaitua

Doctor Who (TV Milestone Series) by Jim Leach

Modesty Blaise: The Scarlet Maiden by Peter O'Donnell and Neville Colvin

Red Claw by Philip Palmer

The Ultimate Illustrators: Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell

Triangulation: Dark Glass edited by Pete Butler

Doghouse DVD (2009)

Death's Head: Day Of The Damned by David Gunn

The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone 4: The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street by Rod Serling, Mark Kneece and Rich Ellis

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone 3: The After Hours by Rod Serling, Mark Kneece and Rebekah Isaacs

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone 2: The Odyssey Of Flight 33 by Rod Serling, Mark Kneece and Robert Grabe

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone 1: Walking Distance by Rod Serling, Mark Kneece and Dove McHargue

Troy: Fall Of Kings by David Gemmell and Stella Gemmell

The Solaris Book Of New Science Fiction Volume Three edited by George Mann

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (volume 1 in the trilogy of five) by Douglas Adams

Aliens Rule audio short stories edited by Allan Kaster

Mythophidia: A Collection Of Stories by Storm Constantine

The Masterworks Of Technology: The Story Of Creative Engineering, Architecture And Design by E.E. Lewis

Spaceship Away Part 19 Autumn 2009

Daredevil # 500 by writers Ed Brubaker, Andy Diggle, Ann Nocenti and artists Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudino, Klaus Janson, Chris Samnee and Paul Azaceta

Strontium Dog: The Kreeler Conspiracy by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra

The Secret History Of Science Fiction edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel

Spider Star by Mike Brotherton

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Daily sci-fi and fantasy news.

Prince of Persia the movie
03/11/2009. Trailer for the new Prince of Persia movie. It's based on the old game and with the usual Disney flourish, puts us here at the Nest in mind of a Sinbad-style Pirates of the Caribbean. The original good one, rather than the cashing-in milk-my-teats sequels.

A warning from Bowie Base One
02/11/2009. Mars, 2059. Bowie Base One. Last recorded message: "Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop..." Yes David Tennant is joined by Lindsay Duncan and Peter O'Brien on their second special episode of 2009, Doctor Who The Waters Of Mars. Bowie Base One? It's the freakiest show!

David Gemmell Legend Award expands
02/11/2009. The David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy have reported two new, additional awards, to be presented at next year's ceremony. They are The David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Newcomer and The David Gemmell Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art.

Et Tu, scifi publisher?
02/11/2009. Editorial Director Stacy Whitman is the founder of Tu Publishing, a new publishing company with its sights set firmly on the YA science fiction and fantasy market.

How to Train Your Dragon
02/11/2009. Trailer for a new fantasy movie called How to Train Your Dragon: a geeky viking kids chums up with a wild dragon for some myth-adventures (apols to Robert Lynn Asprin).

The Road - trailer II
02/11/2009. Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall and Molly Parker star in this miserable post-apocalyptic tale of eating your neighbours to keep your kids alive. Nice (not). See you after the meteor hits.

SciFi authors Le Guin and McIntyre going it alone for e-books
02/11/2009. Traditional publishing, new media and e-books, the publishing world is gripped by unprecedented upheaval. In the middle of industry revolution, what's a working sci-fi author to do? For authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre, and their sci-fi and fantasy writers co-op, Book View Cafe, the answer is to band together and take charge. This group of twenty-six authors have elected to bypass traditional publishing and bring out their latest work directly on Amazon's Kindle and Sony's eReader. A new steampunk anthology is also planned to test the water… titled The Shadow Conspiracy.

Stephen Hunt to appear at SFX Weekender
30/10/2009. SFX have an exciting announcement for fans of modern fantasy literature: Stephen Hunt - author of the Jackelian fantasy/scifi series - has confirmed he'll be joining SFX for a weekend in Camber Sands. And not just any old weekend, he's joining them for the British equivalent of Comic-Con, the SFX Weekender taking place 5th-6th February 2010.

JJ Abrams Star Trek deleted scene
29/10/2009. A first look at the new klingons in this deleted scene from the last Star Trek movie. Bad guy Nero is held on the klingon prison planet of Rura Penthe in the future before he escapes to take his revenge on the Federation in the past.

New AVATAR trailer
29/10/2009. A new trailer for the AVATAR scifi movie from James Cameron. The whole plot could have come from the Aliens universe, complete with aliens and suffering colonial aborigines for the corporation to abuse.

Being Human returns in 2010
29/10/2009. There’s a new series of BBC3’s supernatural drama-comedy series Being Human on the way to your TV set in the new year - three apparently twenty-something characters sharing a house in Bristol, trying to live a normal social life, despite being a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire respectively.

Jasper Kent goes state-side
29/10/2009. Helen Edwards, Rights Director at Transworld UK, has sold US rights in two historical vampire novels by UK novelist Jasper Kent for a good five-figure sum in US dollars.

Mark Gatiss goes steampunk
28/10/2009. Mark Gatiss (League Of Gentlemen, Doctor Who) is to star in his own TV adaptation of HG Wells' scifi steampunk classic, The First Men In The Moon, alongside Rory Kinnear (Waking The Dead, Silent Witness), in a one-off 90-minute BBC Four drama.

Director's cut of Terminator Salvation
27/10/2009. Christian Bale of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight fame, and Sam Worthington (as seen in the new Avatar movie) are coming onto Blu-ray and DVD with Terminator Salvation at the end of November 2009 - yes, just in time for your Xmas present list. The Blu-ray edition of the film will include McG's Director's cut of the film with additional footage.

Avatar trailer
23/10/2009. Here's a trailer for the new Cameron scifi flick - Avatar. It looks fairly similiar to the concept of Midworld, a novel by Alan Dean Foster, crossed with the firepower of the Aliens movie.

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