News Archive: October 2005

Your ConQuest is coming
25/10/2005. One for you SFF fans who are also gamers, or interested in learning more about games, there will be a gaming convention with a science fiction twist in April 2006 in the USA's Sacramento.

Geffen 2005 winners
25/10/2005. The winners of the Israeli SF 2005 Geffen Awards were announced in Tel Aviv during the annual ICon science fiction convention

Eos Books up to January 2006
25/10/2005. Forthcoming SFF books from science fiction imprint Eos (aka HarperCollins).

The Da Vinci Code trailer
25/10/2005. And here's a trailer for the film of the book - The Da Vinci Code.

Doom the film
24/10/2005. If you can't beat them, join them. Here's the latest trailer for the film of the game, Doom.

Trailer Trash - Slither
24/10/2005. The horror movie Slither has a new online trailer to download.

Doom movies no. 1 film in USA
24/10/2005. What a spectacular victory for bad taste. The movie of the game Doom grabs the number one slot in America. Groan.

Reflections, Lovecraft as Science Fiction
23/10/2005. Science fiction author Robert Silverberg ponders a story he read when he was twelve years old, in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology Portable Novels of Science.

Feel the Evilution
23/10/2005. To celebrate the launch of his redesigned website, Shaun Jeffrey, author of Evilution is offering a free serialised copy of his novel Dark Seduction to anyone who signs up to his newsletter.

SFSFC awards this year's SMOFCon scholarships
23/10/2005. San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions (aka SFSFC) has awarded scholarships of $300 each to Michael Higashi and William Warriner to help them attend the SMOFCon convention-runners convention in Portland OR this year over the weekend of December 2nd-5th, 2005.

Clarion Foundation is formed and names 2006 instructors
23/10/2005. Rumors to the contrary not withstanding, The Clarion Writers Workshop for science fiction authors will return next year to Michigan State University.

Terry Pratchett is unwell
22/10/2005. News just in. Due to an unforeseen virus, Terry Pratchett has been obliged to cancel his signing at London's Forbidden Planet Megastore this Saturday ... 22nd October 2005.

Orson Scott Card goes comic
22/10/2005. Science fiction and fantasy comic-book publisher Dabel Brothers has announced that they will be continuing work with fantasy and science fiction writers such as Raymond E. Feist, George R. R. Martin, Robert Silverberg and Tad Williams into 2006 with several new titles adapted from these authors' most popular works.

New Wolverine TV series
22/10/2005. Twenty-six half hour episodes of new X-Men series headlined by the Wolverine character to be broadcast Summer 2007.

Orson Scott Card sells some SFF snake-oil
21/10/2005. Science fiction author Orson Scott Card has just launched a new online science fiction magazine, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show.

Narnia, just don't do it
21/10/2005. Fantasy author Philip Pullman rips into the Narnia Chronicle novels and upcoming film, calling the CS Lewis' books racist and misogynistic. Ouch.

City at the End of Time sold
20/10/2005. SF author Greg Bear has just sold his new science fiction novel City at the End of Time.

A taste of mini-manga
20/10/2005. Del Rey release micro-web sites for manga titles Gacha, Sugar, and Ghost Hunt.

Del Rey science fiction books Oct 2005 to Feb 2006
19/10/2005. Forthcoming SFF novels from the US science fiction publisher Del Rey.

Doctor Who spin-off for Captain Jack
19/10/2005. Russell T Davies is to write what he describes as a paranoid science fiction thriller in a major new drama commission for BBC 3, Stuart Murphy, Controller of BBC 3, told SFcrowsnest.com.

Venus Express ready for lift-off
19/10/2005. ESA's Venus Express spacecraft is to be launched on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday 26th October 2005.

Where's the Ministry of Space gone
18/10/2005. The Royal Astronomical Society Commission assigned to investigate The Scientific Case for Human Space Flight has recommended that the British Government re-evaluates its long-standing opposition to involvement in human space exploration.

Goodbye Howard. Hello Howard.
18/10/2005. Universal Pictures has confirmed that James Newton Howard will compose the original score for the new King Kong movie which is directed by Peter Jackson. Mr. Howard replaces Howard Shore, who is leaving the project.

Clarion SF Writer's Workshop is back
17/10/2005. SF newspaper Locus reports that the favourite proving ground for science fiction authors is back from the dead.

Scotty's last journey
17/10/2005. The date has been set for Scotty's ashes (aka James Doohan) to be blasted into space.

New Bond video
16/10/2005. A little video treat featuring the new James Bond, Daniel Craig.

X-Men 3 movie web site
16/10/2005. New web site for the third X Men film launches.

Archimedes Death Ray
16/10/2005. Road-testing the first energy weapon from pre-history.

Klingon Disruptor pistol, going cheap
15/10/2005. Meet the prop-master to the science fiction community.

Quill Book Awards announce winners for 2005
15/10/2005. Readers vote fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book of the year. No surprise there, then.

Spielberg goes science fiction gaming
15/10/2005. EA and Steven Spielberg team up to develop three original SFF videogames.

The ultimate Chinese take-away
14/10/2005. China launches more taikonauts into space. Move over NASA.

John Berkey Observed Exhibition opens
14/10/2005. The second exhibition of SFF illustrator John Berkey's seldom-seen works, titled John Berkey Observed, will open on Friday, Nov. 4, at ArtOrg's Moving Walls Gallery, 200 Division St. S. in Northfield USA.

Space life is as common as muck
14/10/2005. A team of NASA exobiology researchers have revealed that organic chemicals that play a crucial role in the chemistry of life are common in space.

NASA and X-Prize bods buddy-up
14/10/2005. NASA has announced its intent to collaborate with the X PRIZE Foundation on two planned Centennial Challenges prize competitions.

More hobbits found
13/10/2005. Pouring cold water on the nay-sayers of the micro-sized branch of humanity, more hobbit bones are uncovered.

Charles Harness obituary
13/10/2005. An obituary of Charles Harness by SFF lit-critic John Clute.

Wallace and Gromit burn
12/10/2005. Cartoon favourites Wallace and Gromit burnt to cinders in unfortunate warehouse fire. Their space ship sadly gets fried too. That's no grand day out.

New Bond to be Daniel Craig
12/10/2005. The actor star of the British gangster movie Layercake swaps his shell-suite for the James Bond tuxedo. Hmmm, come in Mr Craig, we have been expecting you.

Highlander the Toon
11/10/2005. New online trailer for the animated version of the Highlander film series.

Abaddon Press - more details
11/10/2005. More on Abaddon Press's plans to launch a new genre imprint dedicated to publishing high-action science fiction, horror and fantasy. Abaddon Press will be an imprint of Rebellion, the publishers of the comic 2000AD and its sister publication The Judge Dredd Megazine.

Pratchett lands with a Thud
10/10/2005. Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett is interviewed on this month's episode of Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction. Pratchett discusses his latest Discworld novel, Thud!

Ansible fights odd legal action
10/10/2005. Editor Dave Langford dishes the dirt on the odd shut-down of his science fiction zine Ansible as the alleged lawyer's e-mail fly.

The Voyage Home
09/10/2005. The Finnish fantasy short film Domoi - The Voyage Home, premieres at Austin's Fantastic fest Film Festival in October 2005.

Rebellion launch new SFF imprint
09/10/2005. Games and comics publisher Rebellion - of 2000AD fame - are launching a new SFF imprint. And they need authors. Nice.

Kim Newman does serial murder
09/10/2005. Fantasy-horror author Kim Newman publishes some original fiction with The Serial Murders.

Book of Lost Souls brings dark fantasy element to Marvel
09/10/2005. In a comics marketplace dominated by super-heroes, J. Michael Straczynski's new comic-book, The Book of Lost Souls, is looking to deliver a taste of fantasy.

John Carter of Mars film version
08/10/2005. The movie version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic John Carter of Mars novels is getting a little more real every day with the appointment of Jon 'elf' Favreau to run the film.

Nightwatch
08/10/2005. New Russian-made fantasy-horror film comes to the UK and USA.

Telos learns to Breathe
08/10/2005. David Howe, editor over at SF publisher Telos is delighted to report that Christopher Fowler's zombie-horror novella Breathe, published by Telos last year, was the overall winner of the Best Novella category in the 2005 British Fantasy Awards, presented on Sunday 2nd October at FantasyCon, held at the Quality Hotel in Walsall.

Peter Jackson to make HALO movie
08/10/2005. Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox have announced that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as the executive producers of HALO, the upcoming feature film based on Microsoft's video game from Bungie Studios.

Star Wreck
07/10/2005. Star Wreck In the Pirkinning, is a feature-length sci-fi parody, seven years in the making. See the trailer here.

Film adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu released
07/10/2005. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has announced the release of its new motion picture adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. This new silent film will be available on DVD beginning October 1st 2005.

Go rocket racers, go
06/10/2005. Entertainment and sports took a step into the future today with the launch of the Rocket Racing League. Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, founder of the X PRIZE, which inaugurated the age of personal spaceflight, introduced the RRL as an aerospace entertainment organization that combines the competition of racing with the excitement of rocketry.

Serenity rocks, says Orson Scott Card
06/10/2005. Orson Scott Card reviews the new sci-fi movie Serenity.

Cosmos dreams
05/10/2005. Dreamed of going into space? Now you can. The October 2005 issue of Cosmos, Australia''s glossy science magazine, looks at the coming age of holidays in space: where to go, what to do, and what it will cost.

NASA selects team to build lunar lander
04/10/2005. NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Doug Cooke today announced the selection of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., and Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., to lead a team in the development of a lunar lander spacecraft.

Quantum computing gets real
03/10/2005. Australian physicists slow laser light to save information on it.

Emerald Eye
02/10/2005. A natty new line in Irish imaginative fiction.

Winner of the first Aeon Award
01/10/2005. The winner of the first Aeon Award short fiction contest 2005 was announced during the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday the 5th of August 2005 in the Hilton hotel.

Arthur C Clarke still looking forward, says BBC
01/10/2005. The BBC Radio Science Unit takes a look at the life and times of science fiction author Arthur C Clarke.