Today, news hit that Stephen Spielberg and Stephen King will attempt to bring King’s most recent novel to the small screens. But I feel like I’ve already seen it.

Who can forget the much anticipated Simpson’s Movie released in the summer of 2007 with a blizzard of promotional tie-in products. (I still have my Krusty-O’s box)

While most of the tie-in merchandise from the movie release has long since disappeared from 7-11 store shelves* Steven Kings book of the film entitled “Under The Dome” was released earlier this month. As with the movie the book details the sudden appearance of an impenetrable clear dome which cuts off an average American town from the rest of the world and the resulting character drama as neighbor turns against neighbor within.

It is not clear how the novel interprets the significance of Spider Pig.

Do to the delay in release King’s publishers have attempted to market this book as a stand alone work separate from the 2007 Simpson’s Movie. Going as far as to claim that King has been working with this story since the late 1970′s. The ruse has been continued by King, remarking on his personal site that “I can’t speak personally to this, because I have never seen the movie”. Despite these claims King himself has admitted that he began writing the bulk of this work in 2007 obviously to coincide with the ‘summer of Springfield’ sparked by the movie’s release.

*a notable exception being those suspect frosted sugar cookies bearing the likenesses of our familiar friends from Springfield which for some reason still seem to be available.

by Irma Arkus

In an unprecedented move, Atwood coughs up the truth – she does write science fiction: “I have written two works of science fiction or, if you prefer, speculative fiction: The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake,” Atwood says in her Guardian article.

But the address by Atwood is also a plea, reminding critics and readers alike as to why science fiction is complex, more so than mere fiction writing: “They can explore the consequences of new and proposed technologies in graphic ways, by showing them as fully operational. We’ve always been good at letting cats out of bags and genies out of bottles, we just haven’t been very good at putting them back in again.”

The science fiction allows us to explore nature of humanity, in relation to itself as well as the universe and the “other”: “explore the relationship of man to the universe, an exploration that often takes us in the direction of religion and can meld easily with mythology – an exploration that can happen within the conventions of realism only through conversations and soliloquies.”

Moreover, they are often complex, enticing us to recreate social orders, building new perspectives on what we have, or could potentially have.

Do read Atwood’s insightful article on why science fiction, or even speculative fiction is worthy of note. [Guardian]

C. June Wolf has a free book giveaway on her site. Free book! You can win a copy of Finding Creatures and Other Stories, prefaced by Charles de Lint and signed by C. June Wolf herself, by merely posting a comment. A comment! That takes like…a second or something.

yeey.

by Irma Arkus

George R. R. Martin’s incredible series of books will see the light of day on the small screen. Or so he says on his blog.

“A Game of Thrones” is coming to HBO, and the pilot will be shot in October in Northern Ireland.

For the most part, the readers of the George R.R. Martin will probably say: “it’s about damn time!” And they would be right, too.

Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” was nominated for a Nebula, a World Fantasy Award and won a Locus. And that’s quite the roster.

Once it made the splash, back in 1966, it immediately inspired six sequels to the storyline, a board game, some trading cards, a role-playing game, and now *pheew* a TV show.

Like all fancy fantasy, George R. R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” is set in Medieval times. The setting is complex, as it encompasses not one, but seven kingdoms that are naturally prone to war.

I consider myself generally allergic to fantasy, am cheering for the albino direwolf, and am actually looking forward to seeing the pilot.

by Irma Arkus

Tor Books publishing had a brilliant idea, and since 2008, they decided to throw us a bone. A literary bone. Their occasional short stories, available for free on site, prompt readers to a) read more brilliant short stories, and b) get introduced to new, brilliant writers they would never have heard of, and finally c) visit Tor Books and glance at their latest offerings.

This is, in my humble opinion, a win win win win for everyone involved, and all it took was a little digital magic, and some “open source reading.”

Latest offering is that of Stephen Gould’s “Bugs in the Arroyo,” a short story about a society confronted with a sudden metal scarcity, due to a metal-eating invasive species. A la “Creature of the Pit” with Tom Baker, if you may, Stephen Gould writes some fine, imaginative stuff.

Responsible for writing the ever popular “Jumper” (yes, the movie with the one we dare not speak his name) Gould has been enchanting us for a while. Nice to see his flexed muscles on some rather smaller bit, like “Bugs in the Arroyo.” Illustration is by Mark Zug, a master of fantastic meets cool, whose illustrations are quite frankly, breathtaking (yes, yes! like the baby!).

by Irma Arkus

David Brin, master of all scifi, has a new novella “Shoresteading.” The novella is available online, as Baens Universe decided to publish it for free (accepting donations of course,) split into a few precious pieces.

Most consider Brin to be an author leading the scifi pack these days. One of my professors had a saying – BearBrin – and it provides for a decent summary of what most fans consider the best of contemporary science fiction.

So, read on!

We got to meet C. June Wolf during V-Con and she is not only an incredible author, but an amazing human being to boot! Wolf travels and often work in Haiti, which is of course, why so many of her stories are filled with the myth and voodoo of foreign lands.

Tune in and check out her upcoming book: Finding Creatures & Other Stories
HiSciFi @ VCon: C. June Wolf, author of Finding Creatures & Other Stories

Mere days ago, Michael Crichton passed away at age 65. Upon many occasions, I’ve expressed a severe disagreement in regards to often offered commentaries on Crichton’s literary contributions, and I would like to use this opportunity to clarify these, as well as remember an entertainer and writer.

It is undeniable that Crichton’s contributions to literature have dazzled and entertained us all. From Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park to ER, Crichton has managed to infuse his works with facets of science that amuse, frighten and most importantly, conjure up some of the best of 20th century entertainment.

While some of his works can be classified as science fiction, I would never categorize Crichton’s works as such, because his real strength was in creating Hollywood dazzle in print, weaving techno-thriller stories that touch upon science.

While this cannot be considered works in science fiction genre, Crichton was undoubtedly a master who excelled in bringing much of it to small and big screens. Director of Westworld, screenwriter of Jurassic Park and creator and screenwriter for ER, Crichton has undoubtedly left a mark.

There have been many critiques that I have offered in the past regarding Crichton’s creations, and I firmly stand by them. Crichton has in many ways represented everything I resent from the world of entertainment, and yet his reach was so wide that it is difficult to dismiss his contributions, or easily summarize them.

Handsome, wealthy, Harvard educated, specializing in thrillers that are meant to frighten audiences with voices of new technologies, or discoveries that are barely reaching out of labs, Crichton’s novels appealed to our lizard brains, often appreciative of simplistic storytelling. Yet, I cannot in my own conscience define all Crichton’s works as such, because he delved into cinema, and techno thrillers, and fantasy, and sometimes even simplistic science fiction.

He represented all we expect to visualize from Hollywood, and ultimately, all we despise in Hollywood at the very same time. There goes an artist I didn’t love.

by Irma Arkus

The fourth century bible written between year 300 – 350, and the oldest known example of Christian scriptures in Greek, will be available for public viewing as the British Library is to make the valuable pages widely available online.

The bible contains scriptures omitted from the KJ version, including Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. Additionally, scans show that the text has been heavily amended over centuries.

The version of the Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark will be available as of July 24th, with subsequent release of the remainder.

The effort to release the text into public domain view is an initiative to make the text internationally available to scholars. Until now, the Codex was only available for viewing to select clerics.

One interesting fact about Codex Sinaiticus is that one of Christian cornerstone beliefs, the story of resurrection of Jesus is not mentioned. Instead, the story simply describes disciples finding an empty burial tomb, and leaving in fear. This implies that the “resurrection” was addended by later generations of followers.

View the Codex Sinaiticus HERE.

This is Jevon in Europe again, somewhere in the Bay of Biscay or the Atlantic or whatever. They all tend to clash into one another after a while. Last time I was writing about the comic and manga availability over in the Euro neighbourhood, and in trying to get back to that comic shop in Barcelona that was right by the old seat of the Catalan Royal family, I ended up wandering the Gothic Quarter. All around are castle walls that could be mistaken for something out of Castle Greyskull, and up I went to La Ramblas and it reminded me of the Joseph Virek character in William Gibson’s “Count Zero.” In the novel, Virek projects himself to Marly within the Barcelona of her Art School days and there is the wonderful description of the many famous images of the city. Gaudi in particular, who is a genius IMHO. I love Gibson’s use of place and setting in his novels and they are always unbelievably evocative and being within that image was particularly evocative for me as I am a big admirer of Gibson’s work. Nevertheless, from what I learned about Barcelona as a city, and especially in terms of its growth, is a pretty apt choice of a place considering the idea and the setting of the Sprawl, which of course is where the trilogy of novels that “Count Zero” gets its name from is a part. Barcelona was originally Barcino, and was developed by the Romans as a trading port. The Romans put walls around the city as defenses, and it was those walls that were added to, enlarged, shaped and enlarged through out the centuries, which can be seen in the old Gothic Quarter, which is the part of the town that lied behind those city walls. Once the 19th Century began, Barcelona’s city planners began a plan of enlargement that finally knocked down the centuries old city walls. The city expanded outwards in earnest; swallowing up what were once autonomous villages and towns and incorporating them into the fold, much as the Sprawl in Gibson’s novels did. The tour guide I had that day described this process of enlargement as the smacking down of man made barriers and undergoing the process of enlargement into more natural ones. Those natural ones are the mountains and hills that hem in the current day Barcelona. However, with the Olympic games and with some recent building, the process of enlargement outwards onto those mountains is seeing the city even sprawling out onto those natural barriers that the tour guide described. The Olympics for example, saw the building of park space, stadiums, and facilities on top of Montjuic, which had served as a spot of fortifications for the military through much of Barcelona’s history. It had also been the site of an old Jewish settlement, but the Jewish population flocked down into the walled city and into that same man made enclosures and barriers that had previously kept the city contained. The point is that even these so-called natural barriers are now becoming conquered, and the city is able to sprawl outwards even more. Monaco has also done something similar in that they have piled rocks into the sea in order to expand their land outwards as they have been faced with the problem of even less space. Of course with the current problem with gas prices and the environment, movement becomes an issue, as it was speed of movement coupled with an expanding population that facilitated sprawling cities, as it did in Gibson’s novels. The question is now about the sustainability of these sprawling metropolises that is again imposing a barrier upon us. Will we continue sprawling outwards, overcoming the barriers that Barcelona has overcome? Or will we like a stretch elastic, grow outward to a state in which the band can no longer take the stress, and collapses, and breaks apart into fragments? Of course it is what becomes of those fragments and how they join back together again through interstitial communities that is apart of another one of Gibson’s trilogies, but perhaps I will write about that another time. Barcelona as a city though does offer a bit of a solution in that everything is kept useable. For example, even here in the old Gothic Quarter, people still live, work, play, and lounge about amongst what by all rights is an pen air museum. Even as the city has sprawled outwards, swallowing up cities and villages and stretching out as far as the eye can see, there is still a sense of keeping things, but also keeping them for usage. Just as the people in the Bridge Trilogy, another of Gibson’s series, would do with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Anyways, I am starting to ramble and I really should get back to work, as that is what I am technically on this floating hunk of pollution to do. In the meantime though, merci beaucoup.