A German TV show based on the most off the wall character Stanislaw Lem ever wrote about? Yes, there is, and it is called Ijon Tichy, Raumpilot, or Ijon Tichy, Spacepilot in English. The animation on the home page says it all, but here is a trailer to go with that image. You can also watch the 15 minute long episodes online, either on the home page or over on YouTube.
It has been a while since I have posted about reading, mostly because all the flashy visuals kick me into “Shiny, Pretty…” mode, and I get distracted. But two of my favorite authors, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling, have written a story together that you can read online: Good Night Moon. This is a tasty little story that the two of them obviously had a good time writing, and they do poke more than a little fun at themselves in the course of it. Thanks to the authors and to TOR books for making it a free online read.
A book series I have been enjoying recently is the Parasol Protectorate, a Steampunk treat that has a field day turning the classic Victorian era Gothic novel on its ear, and presenting us with a world that should have been. The creation of Gail Carriger, I tend to think of them as the Less group, since the titles are Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless, with Heartless and Timeless coming soon. The writing is wonderful, the humor is intense, and the attitude is spot on. The description I have read that fits the best to me: They are either Jane Austen doing urban fantasy, or PG Wodehouse doing steampunk. The first novel in the series, Soulless, has already been turned into an Audio Book (you can listen to the first chapter here), and is now in production to become a graphic novel. I would love to see this become a miniseries in the UK; I have seen what they have done with Terry Pratchett, I know they would do these stories justice. You can find out more at Gail’s Blog, or at any of her many online interviews.
The title of this entry is accurate but not true; William S. Burroughs’ wrote Ah, Pook Is Here with Malcolm McNeill creating the artwork back in the late 60s and early 70s, so it is not exactly new. However, the first part of Burroughs only graphic novel evaporated from the face of the earth not long after it was released, so the recently resurrected and soon to be released 2-volume set will be brand new to pretty much everyone. It started as a comic strip that came out once a month in the UK magazine Cyclops, and when that folded they created the rest of the story, 120 pages of amazing words and images. But they couldn’t get anyone to publish it, so no one has ever actually read the entire story. Finally, Fanta Graphics will publish the entire science fiction lost masterpiece, with all the time travel, mind control, and eternal life subtext that only a collision between the Mayan and Western cultures could produce, when filtered through these two amazing communicators.
They are going to turn Steven King’s Dark Tower into three feature length movies and a TV series, they being Universal Pictures and NBC, with Ron Howard in charge initially, directing the first feature film and the first season of the TV show. That’s a lot of screentime, but The Dark Tower is a lot of story, with 7 novels (and an eighth in the works), short stories, tie ins and appearances with most of his other books, a series of comic book prequils, and an online RPG. This one could be a true monster.
Be warned, this one is NOT work friendly, but it is a whole lot of fun! The original lives at the Rachel Does Stuff directory on YouTube (owned and created by Rachel Bloom), and I was passed the link by Neil Himself. Just after that he posted the famous Kurt Vonnegut quote: What Science Fiction & Pornography had in common was their vision of an impossibly hospitable world. Only fitting, considering what the final T-Shirt of the video says. And for those who were wondering, this video is by the same woman who Tweeted: Promo line for the new season of Weeds: “The plot deepens.” How much deeper can it get? Nancy f*cks a Martian and invents the flying car? 10:40 PM Jun 5th via web.
How could I avoid mentioning it? It is not quite a Sci-Fi con, but some of the same people will be there. SETI Con is a convention centered around the question of where everybody is… everybody that didn’t evolve on this planet, that is. It is coming up August 13th through the 15th in Santa Clara, CA., and will be running four tracks: Main, Science, Education, and Q&A. The panelists and speakers lean heavily to the sciences (with a whole subsection just for the astronauts), but includes Sci-Fi Authors, some of whom are scientists, and Sci-Fi actors, one of whom is also an astronomer. And if it wasn’t already obvious to you, this party is put together by the SETI Institute, and yes, SETI does stand for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Thanks to the bloggers at Discovery for the heads up on this one.