Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Ultimate X-Men #97
Writer: Aron E. Coilete
Artist: Mark Brooks
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Well it’s not Brooks fault. The art isn’t exceptional but it’s certainly serviceable. The plot and scripting though is just plain terrible. It’s barely coherent with no flow at all. Any sort of recognisable characterization is thrown out the window. As is logic, since there’s no way the team could come back from this in the space of a few pages.

Horrible,…

Several weeks ago I saw one of my favorite bands play live, the Raconteurs. At the show I bought a limited edition tour poster created by the artist Rob Jones.

His work is quite striking, and I especially like the steampunk look he’s applied to the Raconteurs. Check out the posters here and also here, and you can begin to imagine a story for these brash young lads in the…

News for science fiction fans who like video games of all sorts.

• How to build a better being on the National Geographic Channel will be showcasing Spore
• How You Can “Save” PC Gaming
• New Star Wars Videogame Unleashes the Force in You
• Games Demystified: Portal, on Gamasutra, goes into the science behind the game.
• SFSignal begins a Game Bits column

Upcoming games? Videogames meta-discussion? News about the intersection of videogames and science fiction? If you…

News about science fiction on the Internet.

• The Con Anti-Harassment Project is a grass-roots campaign to encourage conventions to create anti-harassment policies
• Zombie CSU website launched in conjunction with the book launch. Zombie CSU includes over 250 interviews with real-world experts ranging from Law Enforcment and the Military to Psychology and Medicine to present the first ever look at how our real world would react, research and respond to a zombie uprising.
• Lonelygirl15…

I’m pleased to announce the winners of our Masters of Science Fiction DVD competition. Thank you for all the entries. The following lucky people will be receiving the DVD set in the mail:

• Chris W., FL
• Kat S., NH
• John B., UT
• Carl J., PA
• William J. R., MN
• Mook H. K.,NJ
• Patrick T., CT
• Maria P., IL
• Catrina C., TX
• Keith H., WA

I’m very pleased with the success of this giveaway so if I receive further opportunities to offer…

I’ve written some less than complimentary things about modern Star Wars recently and I’m hardly the only one (though to be fair there are a number of defenders too). Over at SF Signal JP Frantz has announced that Star Wars Must Die! Don’t get too upset, he doesn’t mean it literally. What he’s looking for is a fresh new direction for Star Wars.

By coincidence this is a topic I’ve been…

The other day I posted the claim that There Is No Such Thing As Science Fiction Fandom. It was as I acknowledged in the article, an over-reaching claim. But I basically stand by the point I was making that fandom has splintered into many specialized form and there really isn’t an overall fandom at this point.

Over at dashPunk, C. E. Dorsett posted a rebuttal of sorts suggesting that it’s not…

I’m a little late to the game on this one, but I think it’s worth a moment of your time. The Deadbooks Project is described as a Hyper-Serialization of the Dead Books SF/Horror series by Hasso Wuerslin. The project launched last week (thanks to N. E. Lilly for linking to it in last week’s Internet News).

And what is Hyper-Serialization exactly. Well the intent seems to be to combine narration, actors, sound…

Guardians of the Galaxy #4
Writer: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Paul Pelettier
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The Guardians of the Galaxy gets a Secret Invasion tie-in this month. Which is a little odd because it’s not set on earth. But they make it work, sealing off the station and ramping up the paranoia. I’m still not quite sure what to make of Major Victory’s arrival. Is he part of the team or just…