Simon Bradshaw

Yes, 2016. Strictly speaking, Bujold's new Vorkosigan novel, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, won't be published until February next year. However, Baen has made an e-book advanced reading copy available for $15 and other than the odd punctuation error I spotted it seems to be the final text.

( Spoilers for previous books in the sequence and a plot point set out early on. )

I wouldn't recommend this as a good place to start reading the Vorkosigan series - it's very atypical and has far too many call-backs to earlier books - but it makes a pleasant if differently-styled continuation for those familiar with it. Not quite 'for completists only' but those who like Bujold for her characters rather than her plots will probably get most out of it.

attimes_bracing commented a little while back that she'd seen very few classic sf movies, and wondered about catching up. So, last night, we started with Forbidden Planet.

Now, I hadn't watched FP for literally decades. I have a dim memory of us showing it at a video night at the SF club at university, and I'd definitely seen it before I first went to see Return to the Forbidden Planet (the stage musical) in London in 1989 or so. So my briefing to attimes_bracing was that this was very early in the 'humans explore space' genre (1956), that bits of it would seem familiar because it had been very influential on a number of TV series, and that she should expect it to be, well, a product of the 1950s.

Ouch. I'd forgotten how much a product of the 1950s it was.

We have an all male, all white crew. Well, the C-57D is clearly a military ship (we twice see Commander Adams holding discipline sessions with crewmen) and that would have been typical for small US ship of the era. The real problems start when Altaira, Dr Morbius' daughter, turns up. Everyone from the C-57D, its captain included, immediately start drooling over her to the point of begin blatantly distracted from what they are meant to be doing, and within a very short time one of them is manipulating her into kissing on the grounds that it's meant to be good for her.

Frankly, the more interesting twist the movie could have used would have been to have it turn out that the monster assaulting the crew had been generated by the Krell Machine not from Morbius' subconscious, but from Altaira's.

(Of course, that's not how 1950s scriptwriters would have done it, and if they had it would no doubt have led to a very misogynist denouement.)

Putting that aside for the moment, FP still stands up well in some areas. Morbius' tour of the Krell Machine is one of sf cinema's great visual scenes, and was echoed by Babylon 5; the effects work is surprisingly good for the time, although I'd be interested to know how much it was influenced by pulp sf-magazine covers of the 30s and 40s. The crew's battle with the Id Monster is also done well, and I suspect that any modern CGI remake would actually be less effective by probably being tempted to show more.

Next up: probably 2001, which at least has less creepiness.

I was initially a bit sceptical when I heard about Nine Worlds (very ambitious plans from a group seemingly without major con-running experience) but saw that the organisers were getting a lot of writers and fans I knew on board and was impressed by some of the ideas they seem to have. So I've joined, as has S, and we look forward to seeing how a fresh attempt at conrunning works.

But... I've had a look at the @worldsnine twitter feed. It does rather look as if they are openly inviting everyone remotely well-known in the geek/sf world who has a twitter account to come along as a guest, including quite a few actors. I take it the organisers do appreciate that when you invite a guest to a convention that person will expect to be accommodated and have their travel paid for - and, if he or she is a pro actor, to get an appearance fee?

I'm just a bit concerned that Nine Worlds already has 23 announced guests and are actively soliciting more, and wondering if they actually have a plan for paying for them all given that the website promises that (unlike the sort of commercial conventions that feature lots of actors) the membership price is all-inclusive and we won't be paying additional fees to see guests.

... the typeset proof for this:



(Amazing artwork by peteyoung)

It's been a long time in preparation but seeing the text as it will (subject to corrections) appear on the page is a huge relief, and makes me finally believe that come January we'll have an actual book to sell.

More details here.

If you read nwhyte's journal (and is there anyone left who doesn't?) you'll be aware from this post that Irish fan slovobooks has been banned at short notice from attending Octocon this weekend, seemingly on the basis of unspecified conduct or comments relating to his criticism of the current committee.

Can they do this? More importantly, should they?

( The legal position... )

( ...and the practical con-running one )

Now, all the above is in legal terms based on my professional knowledge of English law. But I believe that in many jurisdictions the legal position is broadly similar, and the moral and practical considerations ought to apply everywhere. In the Octocon case, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the committee are being very thin-skinned and grossly over-reacting. As other people have pointed out, the best response to complaints that you are running a poor convention is to demonstrate that you can run a good one. And by the accounts of several of my friends who are regular Octocon attendees, it does sound as if there are at least some grounds for criticising the way it's been run over the last few years. Irrespective of the rights or wrongs of what slovobooks has said or done, the Octocon committee's ill-judged and excessive reaction is only going to damage Octocon's reputation still further. And this is a point that all con-runners should remember: reputation is the currency of fandom, and it takes years to build but only seconds to lose.

EDIT I am very pleased to see that there has been an amicable resolution.

A lovely article on that neglected but important bit of background world-building detail in TV and film science fiction - the corridor.

If you're a BSFA member or are attending Eastercon, you're eligible to vote in the BSFA Awards. All four short story nominees are available online:

'Exhalation', Ted Chiang

'Crystal Nights', Greg Egan

'Little Lost Robot', Paul McAuley

'Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account', Mary Rickert

( Slightly spoilery comments )

So, for me it will be Chiang, Egan, McAuley and Rickert in the 1 to 4 positions. I'll see if I can comment on the novels later, although I can't see that I'll get to read The Gone-Away World in the next week, seeing as how I have The Margarets and House of Suns lined up first.

An expanded version of the second trailer, with additional commentary by director Zack Snyder.

( behind a cut as it auto-runs )

(Alt: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=48917596)

Again, it looks like a lot of scenes taken directly from the graphic novel. I'm still not at all convinced by the casting of Matthew Goode as Veidt/Ozymandias - he just doesn't come across as having Veidt's combination of charisma and gravitas. It remains to be seen how well it will work for Jeffrey Dean Morgan to play Blake/The Comedian from teenager to sexagenarian, and I don't think we've seen any footage yet of Jackie Earle Haley as (unmasked) Kovacs rather than (masked) Rorschach. But the look and feel of the film itself continues to appear spot-on.

There is of course the question of when we will actually get to see the film. I have no idea how a US court will rule; if this had happened in the UK, I would have thought that the American Cyanamid guidelines would mitigate against an injunction barring distribution on the basis that any loss to Fox would be made good by subsequent damages if it won its case. (The principle is that you only get an interim injunction to prevent damage to you that won't be sufficiently dealt with by money damages in the longer term when your full case comes to court.)

A few weeks ago I picked up the 2-disc DVD set of the remastered and restored version of 2001. As well as improved quality and a host of extras, this is the 143-minute version (i.e. the 148-minute cut converted to TV frame rate), complete with intermission and lead-in and post-credits music. Yes, play this and you may wonder why the first chapter of the DVD has no picture. That's because it's how the film originally played!

It had actually been years since I'd seen 2001, and most of my memory is still from Clarke's novel, which I think I first read at around the age of 10. So, how does the film stand up both to the 'real' world and in comparison with the book?

( 2001, 40 years on )

Patrick Barkham interviews Peter F Hamilton.

There's an audio interview here. I am amused to see that the Grauniad is living up to its reputation (at least, I am assuming that 'Triolgy' is a typo.)