Features
Terry Gilliam's new film is a lot like his previous imaginative films, only perhaps more so. A small tacky traveling show in a caravan hides real magic. It has a gateway to a subjective land created by the visitor's own imagination. The show's owner is also genuinely immortal do to a pact he has made with Satan himself. The actual story is muddled, but the imagination of the visual imagery is very good. And Gilliam deserves admiration for having brought this film to fruition in spite of nearly impossible circumstances. Radical unorthodox thoughts to ponder by: GF Willmetts. Having watched the UK BBC ‘Horizon’ programme about the problems of quantum gravity back in November 2009 explaining how black holes and the universe works stumping theoretical physicists with a desire for radical thinking for a new way to approach the subject got me thinking. A story by GF Willmetts. You know how it is. You ponder on a problem for years and then over night you come up with a solution.
Just in case anyone was missing it in the UK, we’ve recently had some heavy snows in January which our media has been comparing to the snowfalls of 1963 and 1981. In celebration, Geoff looks at scifi movies that rely on snow.
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FEATURES ...
VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
Charts and Secrets
Lots to talk about this issue, so let's start with
some SFcrowsnest enhancements.
You can now get SFcrowsnest as a pick-up-and-keep
Adobe PDF file for your e-book reader, iPhone, iPad,
whatever. Also, all the book
and movie
reviews are now votable by you, counting towards
our annual charts of the best fantasy and science fiction
of the year.
On the personal front, my fourth novel is hitting the
streets in hardback in the UK from HarperCollins. It's
called 'Secrets
of the Fire Sea' and is the 4th novel in the Jackelian
fantasy series. It's meant to be out next week on the
4th February, but both Waterstones and Amazon.co.uk
seem to be selling it early in an attempt to steal a
march on the competition.
In it, Commodore Black transports the private investigator
Jethro Daunt (and his trusty steamman assistant, Boxiron)
on his u-boat to the Isle of Jago, slap-bang in the
middle of the magma-flows of the Fire Sea. Jago survived
the ice age with its civillization more or less intact,
living in underground cities. But safe, the land isn't...
yes, there's a whole heap of murder and trouble afoot
again!
Anyone who's attending the upcoming SFX Weekender in
Camber Sands in the UK (think the Brit version of ComicCon)
on the 5th February, or the UK Eastercon in London (2nd-5th
April), I'm guesting at both of these events, so feel
free to nab me after/before the various panels and interviews
on stage, and I'll be happy to sign your books. Check
their programmes out at www.sfxweekender.com
and www.odyssey2010.org
for exact times in the ever-shifting mosaic of these
conventions' fabric!
As many of you may have read, last month we were attacked
by Chinese-based hackers trying to steal the site's
code and plant dodgy attack software on our server.
The attempt was foiled before it began, thanks to some
security stuff I'm not going to talk about, for the
obvious reasons. These attacks have been fast and furious
recently, and I've had to take the sad, but necessary
step, of banning all Chinese IP addresses from accessing
the site (along with some other dodgy nations which
have been the hacking bane of my life, which I'm also
not going to disclose, for the self-same reasons).
Next, greed isn't just good, it's legal!
I know it's not sci-fi, but... check this new trailer
out over at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi875627545/
- it's Oliver Stone's upcoming Wall Street movie follow-up,
with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) emerging friendless
from prison into today's credit crunch with a phone
the size of a brick.
He's soon back to his old tricks, corrupting his daughter's
young money manager boyfriend, Shia LaBeouf.
I remember watching the original movie at college with
a bunch of cheering business studies students. We all
wanted to be Gordon. We were all straining at the bit
to go out there and f%^&* the world (not the point
Oliver was trying to get across, I suspect). Guess what,
23 plus years later, staring out across the globalised,
job-outsourced (yours?), internet-frenetic ever-evolving
wreckage of our climate changed economy... we did!!
Consider yourself well and truly frakked.
Now go and buy 'Secrets
of the Fire Sea'. I'm a struggling artist.
Stephen
www.StephenHunt.net
EVENTS
The Weekender
5th-6th
February 2010 - Cambersands, Sussex, UK
Fantasy and sci-fi author Stephen Hunt will be
guesting at the SFX
Weekender early next year.
The Weekender is the Woodstock of science
fiction and fantasy, a two-day event so con-fabulous that it might just
make Comic-Con look like a car boot sale in rainy Luton.
Other luminaries of the sci-fi scene attending alongside
Stephen Hunt include actors such as Tom Baker (Dr Who)
and Gareth David-Lloyd (from the BBC's Torchwood
TV series), James Marsters (Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, Smallville
etc), Lis Sladen (Doctor
Who's Sarah Jane herself) and a number of the
world's other best-selling scifi authors and comic-book
creators... Robert Rankin, China Mieville, Mark Millar,
Peter F Hamilton, Richard Morgan, Joe Abercrombie etc.
Be there, or you'll plumb such depths of
unhappiness you'll make Marvin the Paranoid Android look
like Comic Book Guy finding a mint-condition issue of Batman
#1 for 50 cents at a yard sale.
www.sfxweekender.com
REVIEWS
Reviews of fantasy, science fiction and horror
books, comics, magazines, DVDs and any other sci-fi
genre gear we've laid our grubby hands on this month.
pub: Albedo One Productions, 2 Post Road, Lusk, County Dublin, Ireland. 64 page A4 magazine. Price: £ 3.95 (UK). 4 issue subscription: £19.50 (UK), 36.50 (US). Consult their website as IRCs no longer valid in Ireland. pub: Albedo One, 2 Post Road, Lusk, County Dublin, Ireland. 64 page A4 magazine. ISSN: 0791-8534. Price: 5.95 euros. pub: Titan Books. 208 page graphic novel. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84856-668-2. pub: McFarland & Co Inc. 685 page illustrated indexed hardback. Price: £63.95 (UK), $75.00 (US). ISBN: 978-0-7864-3480-0. pub: Corgi. 512 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-552-15756-8. pub: Big Finish. 100 minutes 2 CDs. Price: CD: £14.99 (UK), download: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-444-3) cast: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, David Bailie, Matthew Noble, Andrew Fettes, Louise Faulkner, William Whymper, Toby Longworth and Duncan Wisbey. pub: Big Finish. 120 minutes 2 CDs. Price: CD: £14.99 (UK), Download: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-430-6) cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, John Sessions, Joe Thomas, Richard Cotton, Susan Brown, Teddy Kempner and Trevor Cooper. pub: Big Finish. 120 minutes 2 CDs. Price: CD: £14.99 (UK), Download: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-431-3) cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Mark Williams, Pam Ferris, Roger Hammond, Susan Brown, Nick Brimble, Abigail Hollick, Barnaby Edwards and Nicholas Briggs. pub: Big Finish. 240 minutes 2 CDs. Price: CD: £30.00 (UK), download: £25.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-332-3) cast: Mark McDonnell, Hannah Smith, Barnaby Edwards, Jo Castleton, Ian Brooker, Ian Hallard, Andrew Dickens, Toby Hadoke, Martin Trent, Cal Jaggers, Jess Robinson, Stuart Crossman and Nicholas Briggs. pub: Big Finish. 60 minutes 1 CD. Price: CD: £10.99 (UK), download: £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84435-401-6) cast: Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith, Helen Lederer, David Schofield, Jon Glover and Harriet Kershaw. region 2 DVD: pub: BBC 1033. 1 DVD 97 minutes 4 * 25 minute episodes with extras. Price: about £ 5.00 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney and Hugh Burden. region 2 DVD: pub: BBC BBCDVD 1800. 3 DVDs 10 * 25 minute episodes with loads of extras. Price: £11.88 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Edward Brayshaw and Philip Madoc. pub: Macmillan Audio. 9 hours 9 CDs. Price: $39.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1-4272-0777-7) read by Stefan Rudnicki & Orson Scott Card . pub: Macmillan Audio. 11 hours 9 CDs. Price: $39.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1-4272-0681-7) read by Scott Sowers . bi-monthly magazine: UK publisher/editor address: Andy Cox, TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB6 2LB. Price: £ 3.75 (UK) $ 7.00(US). ISSN: 0264-3596. pub: Ian Redman, 19 Bedford Road, Yeovil, Somerset BA21 5UG, UK. 56 A5 magazine. ISSN: 1740-2069. Price: £ 2.75 plus postage (UK). £4.99 PDF for 4 issues (requires 1.5mb in mailbox). pub: La-La Land Records LLLCD 1121. 51 minutes 25 tracks. Price: $17.99 (US), £16.49 (UK). region 2 DVD. pub: Anchor Bay Entertainment ABD4651. 2DVDs 255 minutes 6 * 43 minute stories. Price: these days I pulled it for about £ 3.00 (UK)) cast across the six stories: Judy Davis, John Hurt, Terry O'Quinn, Sam Waterston, Elisabeth Röhm, James Denton, Brian Dennehy, Ann Heche, James Cronwell, Malcolm McDowell, Clifton Collins Jr and Sean Aston. pub: Duckworth Overlook. 284 page hardback. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-7156-3710-4. pub: Orbit. 488 page enlarged paperback. Price: £10.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-632-0. pub: Big Finish. 120 minutes 2 CDs. Price: CD: £14.99 (UK), download: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-184435-455-9) cast: Roger Llewellyn. pub: Marvel Comics. 40 page comic. Price: £ 4.00 (UK.Siege#1_thumb.jpg pub: Solaris. 227 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84416-490-5. region 2 DVD: pub: Paramount PHE 1179. 2 DVDs 201 minute film with extras. Price: £ 15.00 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Chris Pine, Bruce Greenwood, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder and Zachary Quinto . pub: Simon and Schuster. 353 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK), $ 7.99 (US), $ 6.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-84739-277-0. pub: Rebellion/2000AD. 336 page softcover black and white graphic novel. Price: £13.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-905437-15-3. pub: TOR/Forge. 317 page enlarged paperback. Price: $14.95 (US), $16.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1834-3. pub: Corgi. 395 page paperback. Price: £5.99 (UK), $11.95 CAN). ISBN: 978-0-552-55126-7. pub: TOR/Forge. 303 page small hardback. Price: $25.95 (US), $28.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1251-8 TOR/Forge. 303 page small enlarged paperback. Price: $15.99 (US), $20.50 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1252-5) . pub: Orbit. 463 page paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-655-9) . pub: Quercus Publishing Plc. 535 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84724-778-0. pub: TOR/Forge. 235 page enlarged paperback. Price: $14.99 (US), $18.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1915-9. pub: Marvel Comics. 22 page comics. Price: £3.10 (UK). pub: St. Martin's Press. 246 page small hardback. Price: $24.99 (US), $31.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-312-38111-0. Only one conversion this month but the publishers are just gathering their breath. It also gives me a chance to point out where to get a boxset really cheap.
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Got a scifi book, video or game review for
us? Send your submissions to reviews@sfcrowsnest.com
NEWS
Marc Webb is to direct the next chapter in the Spider-Man movie franchise, set to arrive in the cinemas summer 2012, SFcrowsnest has been told by Columbia Pictures and Marvel. Julie Crisp, Senior Commissioning Editor at Tor UK at Pan Macmillan has concluded a second two-book world rights deal for UK fantasy author Mark Charan Newton, for an undisclosed five-figure sum. The agent was John Jarrold. Due to author Dan Abnett’s health issues, the Horus Heresy novel Prospero Burns will now be published in Jan 2011. Albedo One, Ireland’s magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, tells us their fifth International Aeon Award short fiction contest is on the horizon. Grand prize is 1000 Euros and publication in Albedo One. Second and third place stories win 200 and 100 Euros respectively, alongside publication in Albedo One. Vincent Chong came onto the horror and fantasy scene several years ago with a sequence of artworks. Since then he has gone on to provide cover artwork for authors such as Stephen King. Now some of his artwork is collected in Altered Visions. Jasper Fforde switched to writing from a career in the film industry and has been publishing his novels since 2001. His first book, The Eyre Affair, kicked off the Thursday Next series, which is still ongoing and include Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten (which was nominated by the British Fantasy Society for Best Novel in 2005) and First Among Sequels. Here are 2 new episode preview clips from Episode 4 of BBC3’s ‘Being Human’ series, which airs this Sunday at 9pm on BBC3. Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner are, we are told, set to return for a third series of BBC Three horror drama Being Human, as the supernatural friends trying to live normal lives despite their unusual afflictions. Guy Ritchie's recent Sherlock Holmes film has been accused by many as being steampunk. You think? The movie critics oddly missed the 'other' Sherlock Holmes film of the time - which has dinosaurs, steam droids, and evil monsters. Video footage of the new iPad being unveiled by my old boss, Steve Jobs. We'll be seriously looking at getting SFcrowsnest onto the new iPad, and I understand that most of my fantasy novels will be available as e-books on the new iBookStore via HarperCollins too. Now you know why I was posting pad-a-lad-a-ding-dong yesterday! The editorial crew over at Weird Tales send in word that their Spring 2010 issue is going to be dedicated solely to steampunk. A tale of what's left of humanity fighting off alien invaders in the USA, Resistance Zero will have actor Noah Wyle appearing in the new science fiction series from DreamWorks, with Steven Spielberg producing. Resistance Zero will appear on TNT in an initial 10-episode run. Robert Rodat of Saving Private Ryan fame has been giving the job of lead writer for the series. The Reduced Shakespeare Company theatre troupe have condensed five seasons into a fast-paced flight through the scifi story of the Oceanic plane crash survivors, aka Lost Reduced. The world premiere is to be held in London on Thursday 28th January 2010. The production will also be filmed for internet broadcast as well as on Sky cable. First big trailer for the fantasy/horror film Season of the Witch, in which Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman play knights escorting a possible witch to trial for the crime of releasing the black plague. Our chums at the Beeb have sent us over a clip from episode two of the new season of Being Human, and it would be rude not to play it! The BBC is set to produce a new science fiction series called Outcasts with the same team that produced such spy-fi masterworks as Spooks and – the con is on – Hustle, not to mention time travelling cop series Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes. Get ready for some French film-style steampunk adventures in the The Strange Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Based on the Franco-Belgian comic-strip adventures of a female reporter. Here's a trailer for Luc Besson's new movie. Genre fans interviewed in an online video about what steampunk means to them. A trailer for this steampunkish remake of HG Wells' First Men in the Moon. Not to be confused with the BBC reboot which is also in the pipeline, the company behind it stresses. Some Footage from the Steampunk Exhibition Ball - including three steampunk bands (Bakelite 78, Toy-box Trio, and Scarlet Room ), and a look at the exhibition hall. Paloppa Pictures has taken an option on film rights to Brandon Sanderson Mistborn fantasy trilogy. Sanderson is a fantasy writer and the Mistborn series, published by Tor Books, is his most commercially successful series to date. Here's a list of some of the best fantasy and science fiction novels coming out in 2010. They include Secrets Of The Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt, The Ruling Sea by Robert V S Redick, City Of Ruin by Mark Newton, and The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas. The fun - if rather superviolent - superheroes with no powers movie, Kickass, now has a second trailer up on the Nest. If this doesn't get you wanting to see the movie, then you are no fan of the genre! Well, it's kind of fantasy (that many bullets and nobody gets hurt?), plus, it's a slow news day, plus, who doesn't love it when a plan comes together? Yes, here's the first trailer for the rebooted A-Team movie. Do you remember that classic fantasy series on TV, Monkey (based on the Chinese legend of Monkey)? Here come's a video of the steampunk version of it... meet... yes, Steam Monkey! Trailer for the science fiction film Repo Men, with Jude Law as a repossession agent in a dark bio-engineered future - the twist? He's coming to rip out your custom gene-spliced replacement liver if you can't keep up payments. More from this animated fantasy film about a young viking lad who discovers that dragons aren't the evil enemy they've been painted out to be. Now that David Tennant has bitten the dust as the Timelord, it's time to run the trailer of the new season of Who with the youthful Matt Smith in the Tardis. There's a big budget Japanese live action movie of Space Battleship Yamato coming your way for fans of the anime original. Looks good, doesn't it, in this trailer. Our Japanese is a little rusty, though.
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Do you like curling up and reading a book?
Do you have a preference for fantasy, SF or
horror? Do you find it the greatest pastime you have next to being on
your computer?Are you very vocal about what you like and don’t like in
what you read? Would you like to share your thoughts with others about
books? Would you like an endless supply of books to do this with? Do
you live in the UK?
If you’ve been nodding your head up to this
point then link in below and see if you have what it takes to be a
reviewer at SFCrowsnest. If you have that special knack to read and
write or want to develop said skill then the only way you’re going to
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out. Check out our recruitment procedures through the following link
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