Alma Alexander’s Worldweavers

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Alma Alexander

Alma Alexander

By Carl Slaughter: Alma Alexander’s Worldweavers series is about the transformation of Thea from a magicless girl in a magic filled world into a powerful woman mage. In book #1, she is shuffled off to Wandless Academy, where students are dubbed ‘magicdims’. In book # 4, she comes to the rescue when an alien race steals the source of human magic. Worldweavers turns the Hogwarts trope on its head. Throw in Nikola Telsa.

THE WORLDWEAVERS SERIES

WORLDWEAVERS #1

GIFT OF THE UNMAGE

gifts-of-the-unmageGreat things have been expected of Thea, the seventh child of two seventh children. Sent back in time to learn from Cheveyo, an Anasazi mage, Thea begins to weave herself a new magical identity, infused with elements of the original worlds.

But back home, Thea keeps her abilities hidden and is sent to the Wandless Academy, the one school on Earth for those who have no apparent magical talent. It is there that Thea realizes that her enemies are hungrier and more dangerous than she knew. What’s more, her greatest strength may be the powerlessness she has resisted for so long. It will be needed to save her world.

WORLDWEAVERS #2

SPELLSPAWN

spellspam21What if an email spam promising a clear complexion carried a magic spell and gave you  transparent skin, or an offer to help you lose weight made you anorexic?

In a desperate battle against a dangerous mage, Thea must make a soul-searing decision in order to save the world.

WORLDWEAVERS #3

CYBERMAGE

cybermagexWhy is the spirit of Nikola Tesla hidden inside a magical cube that only Thea can enter?

Why is she raiding the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Magic?

Why is everybody chasing pigeons in New York?

WORLDWEAVERS #4

DAWN OF MAGIC

dawn-of-magicThea WInthrop – now Elemental Mage – is marking time at Amford University… when a new catastrophe threatens her kind. The ancient and powerful core of human magic has been STOLEN – and now Thea must face her greatest fears in confronting the Alphiri, with her friends Nikola Tesla and Corey the Trickster at her side.

This is the fourth and final book in the Worldweavers saga, which began with a young and very frustrated girl-mage. In the first three books, readers watched her grow and change and make hard choices. Now, finally, she accepts the full weight of her destiny while Nikola Tesla finds the reasons behind his own fateful choices.

A story told on a canvas both huge and incredibly intimate, this is the climax of a story of a young girl’s journey into womanhood and into power.

Charles Beaumont’s Perchance to Dream Anthology

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By Carl Slaughter:

PERCHANCE TO DREAM: SELECTED STORIES
By Charles Beaumont
Penguin Classics

perchance-to-dream

The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer, with a foreword by Ray Bradbury and an afterword by William Shatner.

It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone—for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont’s finest stories, including seven that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.

Beaumont dreamed up fantasies so vast and varied they burst through the walls of whatever box might contain them. Supernatural, horror, noir, science fiction, fantasy, pulp, and more: all were equally at home in his wondrous mind. These are stories where lions stalk the plains, classic cars rove the streets, and spacecraft hover just overhead. Here roam musicians, magicians, vampires, monsters, toreros, extraterrestrials, androids, and perhaps even the Devil himself. With dizzying feats of master storytelling and joyously eccentric humor, Beaumont transformed his nightmares and reveries into impeccably crafted stories that leave themselves indelibly stamped upon the walls of the mind. In Beaumont’s hands, nothing is impossible: it all seems plausible, even likely.

“This fresh collection of Beaumont’s weird fiction is rife with fantastical tropes and twist endings…Twist endings get a bad rap in our oh-so-sophisticated millennium, but in Perchance to Dream, they’re in the hands of a master…Throughout the book, Beaumont challenges perception, norms, and our smug reliance on appearances, using supernatural and science-fictional elements to drive home his points — sometimes gently, sometimes jarringly…[Beaumont’s] imagination, as Perchance to Dream amply shows, was more than most writer’s enjoy in the longest of lifetimes.” — NPR

Pixel Scroll 10/2/16 The Sorcerer’s Appertainment

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(1) DISENCHANTED. Sharon Lee responded to the Best Series Hugo announcement in this “Sunday Morning Award Rant”.

There’s never been a Hugo for Best Series, which might strike some as odd, seeing as series is, and has always been, the backbone of science fiction and fantasy literature.  The thought, for many years, was that A Good Book Will Out, no matter if it was part of a series, or a standalone, and, indeed, many books which were parts of series have won the Novel Hugo (*).  In any case, the system kinda sorta worked most of the time, for most of the works involved.

Sort of like Ankh-Morpork under the Patrician’s rule, really.

However, the idea of a Series Hugo had been kicked around for a number of years, and the Collected Wisdom of the Business Meetings decided to go for it, despite the very real difficulties in administering — or even voting on — such an award.

What difficulties, you may ask?….

(2) ANIME CASHES IN. Makoto Shinkai’s latest movie is the highest-grossing film in Japan this year. The Guardian has the story.

Themes of body swapping, the search for love and a frantic quest to save a town from imminent destruction have combined to propel a Japanese animated film to box office gold, and prompted talk that the country has found its successor to the globally acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki.

Your Name, Makoto Shinkai’s fantasy about two teenagers drawn together by gender-swapping dreams, has been seen by more than 8 million people since its release in August, beating the hugely popular Godzilla Resurgence to become the highest-grossing film in Japan this year, and the ninth highest of all time.

It has earned more than 10bn yen (£77m) in box office receipts, an anime milestone previously achieved only by Miyazaki’s films.

(3) PUPPY CENSUS. Greg Hullender’s “Slate Voting Analysis Using EPH Data: 2014-2016” at Rocket Stack Rank confirmed that what I expected would happen actually did.

Look at Best Fanzine! Very few of the Rabid puppies were able to bring themselves to vote for File 770, even with Vox urging them on. I’m less clear on why almost half rejected “Penric’s Demon.”

rocketstack-slate-graphic

(4) HANDICAPPING TAKEI. When the animated Star Trek series premiered on a Saturday morning in the fall of 1973, the episode seen in the rest of the country was barred from being aired in Los Angeles because of local election politics.

Tom Bradley had been elected mayor of Los Angeles, the city’s first African-American mayor, on 29 May 1973. He’d been the City Councilman for its Tenth District prior to becoming mayor. The city had a special election held on 18 September 1973 to fill Bradley’s vacated position. Bradley had endorsed political consultant David Cunningham, Jr. to fill his seat. A few other men and women also campaigned for it. One of them was George Takei.

Nineteen years after the special election, Cunningham was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying, “If you don’t exercise political muscle by voting, you are not part of anything but a nondescript group.” Apparently he knew something about the use of political muscle. Complaints were raised during the 1973 campaign for the Tenth District seat—possibly by Cunningham, possibly by a nondescript group: there was no published list of named complainers found at this point in time—regarding Takei’s recognition level within the voting population being higher than for other candidates because of his portrayal of Sulu on ST: TOS.  As a result of the Federal Communication Commission’s equal-time rule regarding political candidates on television, reruns of the original series were not broadcast in Los Angeles until the special election had ended.

Which brings us, once again, to 8 September 1973. The Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC didn’t broadcast “Beyond the Farthest Star” on that date like every other network affiliate in America; instead, it broadcast the episode scheduled to follow it, “Yesteryear”, because Takei-as-Sulu had no dialogue, nor was his character a part of the plotline, which his above-mentioned political opponents were convinced would be a factor in the election. The following week, KNBC broadcast “Yesteryear” again. “Beyond the Farthest Star” wasn’t shown in Los Angeles for the first time until 22 December 1973.

suluanimated

(5) LOOK UP. Here are the prime viewing dates for the Orionid Meteor Shower – and what luck, you don’t need premium cable for this.

In 2016, the Orionid meteor shower will be visible from October 2 to November 7. The shower is expected to peak on the night of October 20 and early morning of October 21.

When Can I See the Orionids?

Orionids tend to be active every year in the month of October, usually peaking around October 20. At its peak, up to 20 meteors are visible every hour.

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • October 2, 1950 — The “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz was published for the first time.
  • October 2, 1955 — Alfred Hitchcock Presents made its television debut.
  • October 2, 1959 — The Twilight Zone, with host Rod Serling, premiered on U.S. television.

(7) TELL IT TO GROUCHO. And three years after Twilight Zone launched, Rod Serling was enough of a celebrity to receive a spot on Groucho Marx’ show.

(8) NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON’S GAME. “Expand your universe with Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s new video game” invites this Digital Trends article.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is entering the video game business. His new game, Neil deGrasse Tyson Presents: Space Odyssey, is an educational title developed to encourage players to explore space and science.

Although in early development, it’s being designed as a building game. Space Odyssey asks players to create their own galaxies. While there are elements of MineCraft and Civilization baked into the experience, Mark Murphy, co-creator and developer of the game from Whatnot Entertainment, said it’s something unique.

(9) AMAZING STORIES’ FICTION SCHEDULE. Starting October 5, Amazing Stories will begin posting the fiction comprising its Special Edition issue:

  • Jeremy Lichtman (“Bob the Hipster Knight”); October 5
  • Alex Shvartsman (“How Gaia and the Guardian Saved the World”); October 12
  • Vince Liberato (“Parental Guidance Recommended”); October 19
  • Stephen Power (“The Sounding Cataract”); October 26
  • Karen Skovmand (“The Mesmerist”); November 2
  • Trent Walters (“Awake the Snorting Citizens With the Bell”); November 9
  • James Gordon Harper (“A Clean Start”) ; November 16
  • Matt Downer (“The Size of the Fight”); November 22
  • Stuart Barton (“Lost Phoenixes”); November 23
  • Sean Monaghan (“Penny of Tharsis Montes”); November 24

We will be publishing two additional stories in addition to those Gernsback award winning stories:

  • Kermit Woodall (“We’re all Here in the Future”); November 30
  • David Gerrold (“The Great Milo”); December 7

The above will also be compiled into a special edition issue of the magazine and released in electronic and POD formats.

(10) KEEP ON CASTING. In “Fishing for Contracts”, Brad Torgersen tells Mad Genius Club readers the similarities between a writing career and sport fishing.

I think it’s much the same with the new world of indie publishing, too. In this case, you’re not selling to an editor, as much as you’re selling to the world at large. You’re still casting — each book or individual product is equivalent to throwing out a line. Whether or not your item(s) reel back the customers, is a calculated gamble. Having more item(s) on the market is much more likely to get you action, than having few, or one. More casting with more lures is upping your chances of getting strikes. If you happen to hit the right thing at the right time for the market, you may have the fish practically jumping out of the water at you. But you can’t have a moment like that, unless you can produce first. And production comes down to having a plan, sticking to that plan, and not letting the “skunked” days — when the fish aren’t biting — throw you off your game.

Also, don’t be fooled into thinking accouterment is a replacement for either craft, or effort. I have known some writers who devote far, far more time to attending writing workshops and using the latest software, or creating the perfect home office for themselves, than they do actually putting words down on the blank page. I think they mistake the trappings of the writerly life, for actual writing. An all-too-easy mindset to fall into, I know from experience! Believe me.

But then, all I have to do is look at my little, abused, green-plastic Flambeau box — with its attendant bargain-shopper no-name pole and reel — to be reminded of the fact that you don’t need a $2,000 laptop with the latest genius manuscript program, to haul in a lunker. My first award-winner for Analog was written on a hand-me-down POS computer from work — during nights I hunched at my daughter’s vinyl-padded play table in the unfinished basement. Because it was the only quiet spot I could find, when the family was fast asleep.

(11) NATHAN FILLION AT MOSCOW COMIC CON. This is news to me – a comic con in Russia.

Actor Nathan Fillion has been cracking us up since his role on the TV show Castle — and we couldn’t be more excited for him to keep us laughing in his new role on Modern Family as a weatherman named — wait for it — Rainer Shine.

But lately, his Instagram is where the jokes are at. Nathan is currently in Moscow attending Russia Comic Con 2016, and following along has been a feast of comedic delights. See for yourself:

I keep hearing about gremlins in Russia. Been here all day and haven't seen one gremlin.

A photo posted by Nathan Fillion (@natefillion) on

(12) FRAUD AT BAT POLLS? Me TV ranked all 37 villains from the Sixties Batman TV series. I can’t believe The Riddler is Number One! I was always partial to Burgess Meredith squawking it up as The Penguin.

1. The Riddler

(No. 1)  Frank Gorshin

Gorshin appeared in nine episodes, far fewer than Meredith; however, he did earn an Emmy nomination for his work. As the only actor singled out for such an honor, he deserves a place at the top.

[Thanks to Dawn Incognito, Steve Davidson, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]

Swedish Fantastic Short Story Competition

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By Ahrvid Engholm: The Swedish Fantastiknovelltävlingen (means “The Fantastic Short Story Competion”), organized by the country’s oldest writers’ E-mail list SKRIVA (est 1997), reached a record 125 entries in its 17th incarnation. The jury, authors Karolina Bjällerstedt Mickos, Pia Lindestrand and Niklas Krog, decided that the following three shall split the prizes (consisting of ca €210 in money and free subscriptions to the writers’ magazine Skriva).

  • 1st prize: “Rickard erövraren” (“Rickard the Conqueror”) by Gustaf Grandinsson
  • 2nd prize: “Riten” (“The Ceremony”) by Eva Häggmark
  • 3rd prize: “Skyskraporna i Densai” (“The Skyscrapers of Densai”) by Joakim Broman

Honorable mentions went to stories by Tobias Alfredsson, A R Yngve, Liv Vistisen Rörby, Oscar Westerholm Ulf Lidsman, Joakim Szczypinski and Jenny Eriksson.

Some words from the jury citations about the winners.

“Rickard Erövraren”: A romantic comedy with an unhappy ending, told from two different perspectives. He is a ship computer which has obtained emotions and she is a somewhat unsensitive ship’s captain. A really well told and twisted version about Artificial Intelligence which would pass the Turing Test, and what would happen then? (Pia Lindestrand)

“Riten”: A primitive village on a distant planet, the bond between mother and son, and the exotic environment – it’s all delightful. The reader wanders together with the characters towards a fantastic goal: the see ther Saviour. When the end comes it erupts with a laughter and you feel exhausted when the story is finished. (Karolina Bjällerstedt Mickos)

“Skyskraporna på Densai”: Diary notes from a life as a slave labourer on an alien planet. An almost Intolerable description of hopelessness that eats into the reader. There is longing, also dreams. But nothing indicates that those will become a reality. A genuine dystopia. (Niklas Krog)

The competition is supported by the Novellmästarna (“Short Story Masters”) society, the publishers Wela and Zen Zat, and the magazine Skriva. Stories from this competition have previously been translated and published abroad. If you run a publication that may be interested, contact the competition administrator (me, ahrvid@hotmail.com) and something may be worked out.

Kickstarter for California Mythos Anthology

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strange-california-coverEditors J. Daniel Batt and Jaym Gates have opened a Kickstarter appeal to fund publication of Strange California, their anthology featuring sf/f stories inspired by the complex mythologies of California.

Weirdness exists and is perceptible because it deforms our familiar reality. Strangeness, on the other hand, suggests a more lasting difference: that reality in the strange place has always been like that, and it is you who are out of place. This combination of distance from existing societies and the quest for (often commercial) dreams is far from isolated in California’s history; it could even to be said to be the modern state’s defining story….

Strange California is 26 tales of strangeness, lavishly illustrated, that will pull you into another world, a world where migrant girls stand up to witches who live in orange groves, where trickster magpies try to steal souls from Russian sisters in the early days of Fort Bragg, where water is both currency and predator, and Gold Rush-era ghosts wander the streets of San Francisco alongside panther ladies.

strange-calif-deeds-pull-quoteThe anthology will include 26 original stories from award-winning authors including Chaz Brenchley, Tim Pratt, Laura Anne Gilman, Seanan McGuire, Christie Yant, and more. Strange California also features artwork from celebrated artist Galen Dara.

The appeal has brought in $3,253 of its $14,000 goal as of this writing, with 25 days to go.

strange-california-toc

Lunacon 2017 Artist Guests

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Marianne P;umridge and Bob Eggleton in 2008.

Marianne Plumridge and Bob Eggleton in 2008.

The New York Science Fiction Society – the Lunarians (2), Inc. – has announced Bob Eggleton will be Artist Guest of Honor and Marianne Plumridge will be Special Guest Artist at Lunacon 2017. They join others already on the marquee, Ben Bova as Writer Guest of Honor, Roberta Rogow as Fan Guest of Honor, and the Boogie Knights as Musical Guests.

Bob Eggleton is a multiple Hugo, Chesley and Locus Award-winning artist who first came to prominence for his awe-inspiring spacescapes. (Asteroid 13562 was named Bobeggleton in his honor.)

Over the years, Bob has done art for comics, collectible card games, and book covers for many well-known authors, as well producing as his own illustrated books and art books. “Publishers love artists that slam out the work and sell their books,” he says. Appropriately, his work will be featured on the cover for the upcoming novel by our Writer Guest of Honor, Ben Bova. The Lunacon 2017 Art Show will be exhibiting his work throughout the Convention weekend.

Marianne Plumridge, Special Guest Artist, and Bob’s wife, works mainly in the fields of fantasy and adventure, with occasional forays into science fiction. “When I embarked on a creative career,” she relates, “I started out as a writer. When I found that I could tell the story in paint, the writing sort of fell by the wayside.” Her art history started in her native Australia, where she honed her black and white illustration skills for fan magazines, and earned her the Australian Science Fiction Media (ASFMA) Award for Best Australian Media Fanartist.

Lunacon 2017 will be held on the weekend of April 7 – 9, 2017 at the Westchester Marriott Hotel, 670 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591-5104.

D. Douglas Fratz (1952-2016)

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douglas-fratz

D. Douglas Fratz

Doug Fratz, a five-time Hugo nominee for Best Fanzine and a well-known sf/f book reviewer, died September 27. It turned out that by missing MidAmeriCon II (while in the hospital) I also missed my last chance to see him: he moderated the retrospective panel about the first MidAmeriCon (1976) that I was supposed to be on. He is survived by his wife and two adult children.

A prolific reviewer, Fratz was one of the pillars of sercon fanzine fandom in the 1970s, which was my own interest in those days. He founded Thrust in 1973, renaming it Quantum in 1990, and finally merging it with Science Fiction Eye.

thrust-13His signature column title was “The Alienated Critic” (a passing salute to Richard E. Geis and The Alien Critic, the dominant reviewzine of the Seventies.)

According to the SF Encyclopedia —

Fratz also wrote numerous book reviews for other venues during that period and afterwards, including Washington Post Book World, Fantasy Review, and Science Fiction Eye, and entries for numerous academic reference books. In the 1990s he wrote book reviews for Science Fiction Age, and in the 2000s reviewed primarily for Science Fiction Weekly (on the then Sci-Fi Channel web site), continuing to write reviews and articles for the site when it was renamed Sci-Fi Wire and then Blastr. In the 2010s, his primary venues for book reviews and interviews have been SF Site and The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Doug Fratz’ first fannish contacts were in comics fandom in 1966. He published several well-known comics fanzines in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Comicology, Potpourri, CriFanAc, and Comicology Fan Review.

Professionally, Fratz was an internationally-respected environmental scientist serving as Vice President of Scientific and Technical Affairs for the Consumer Specialty Products Association  in Washington, DC, a trade association. He worked for CSPA for more than 35 years, and for the past 25 years much of his work focused on science policy and regulations related to air quality and atmospheric issues in California, nationally, and globally.

In fact, there has been an outpouring of tributes from his professional colleagues, indicating the depth of loss they feel at his passing, including this video posted by CSPA.

[Thanks to Steven H Silver and Moshe Feder for the story.]

Book ‘Em, Danno

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Forbidden Planet $50, movie tie-in

Forbidden Planet $50, movie tie-in

By John King Tarpinian: We spent the better part of the day at the Pasadena Antiquarian Book, Print, Photo and Paper Fair, aka The Bustamante Show. I was with friends who are mainly paperback collectors.  When I say collectors and it is a lowball guess that between the two of them they have a quarter of a million paperbacks between them.  There are friends or associates in attendance who also attend our Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Show, March 19, 2017.  There were discussions galore about next year’s new California COA law.

The most important thing to remember when one attends these shows is to make sure the mortgage is paid for the month.  For me, a fun part of the show is seeing what dealers want for books I already own.  Some of mine are in better condition than what I saw, others were in better condition that what I own.

I have given Mike bazillions of photos of books that should be of interest to File 770 readers.  The seven-volume set of C.S. Lewis was a bargain at $600…if I’d have offered $500 I probably could have walked home with them.  There were a number of my friends I could have given Flying Saucers and Scripture to.

Flying Saucers and Scripture $50
CS Lewis seven-piece set $600

This was the first time I had seen the movie tie-in paperback edition of Forbidden Planet.  If I still had free wall space I’d have bought two photos of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, brought them home….and then suffered the wrath of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.  The Left Hand of Darkness also beckoned to me, at only $175, signed.

Bela in costume $1000
Boris in makeup $800

It always makes one feel good when books one bought for a small sum have dealers asking large sums for them.  I’ve already told my 26-year-old-baby-girl that she will be able to buy herself a nice home when she sells my 300-plus signed Bradbury editions when I am six feet under.

Now it is time to put my feet up and read Bubba Ho-Tep.

Stephan King double signed by King and Gaiman $750
October Country unsigned $450
Martian Chronicles $2250
Rocketship signed $125

Pixel Scroll 10/1/16 Scrolls from The Times of Darkness

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(1) GORGEOUS ART. After yesterday’s link to a website that posts a hideous sf book cover every day, it’s time to balance the score.

On Facebook, Mike Resnick shared the beautiful cover of the Chinese edition of Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge, a collection which uses his story as the title.

seven-views-of-olduvai-gorge-cover

(2) ABOUT WRITING. Bertie MacAvoy can’t say enough nice things about those folks — “The Major Importance of Minor Characters”

Just this morning I realized how very grateful I am to have what I had thought to be a minor character in a novel blossoming into something unexpected…..

(3) THE END IS NOT NEAR. Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time is scheduled to go off the air – eventually.

Horrible news: Cartoon Network just announced the impending series finale of Adventure Time, the sci-fi/fantasy post-apocalyptic musical fairy-tale rom-com coming-of-age sitcom epic starring Jake the Dog and Finn the Human.

Great news: Adventure Time won’t end until 2018.

In an official statement, Cartoon Network promised the final run of Adventure Time episodes will encompass ”142 half-hours of content,” which includes new episodes, miniseries, specials, and some mysterious “more.” (By comparison, the complete run of Game of Thrones so far only represents about 120 half-hours of content.)

(4) RIDDLE NOVEL. Departure. A time travel mystery thriller romance.  Out this month in paperback from A.G. Riddle, author of the Origin/Atlantis trilogy.  Described as Quantum Leap meets Bridget Jones’ Diary.

En route to London from New York, Flight 305 suddenly loses power and crash-lands in the English countryside, plunging a group of strangers into a mysterious adventure that will have repercussions for all of humankind.

Struggling to stay alive, the survivors soon realize that the world they’ve crashed in is very different from the one they left. But where are they? Why are they here? And how will they get back home?

Five passengers seem to hold clues about what’s really going on: writer Harper Lane, venture capitalist Nick Stone, German genetic researcher Sabrina Schröder, computer scientist Yul Tan, and Grayson Shaw, the son of a billionaire philanthropist.

As more facts about the crash emerge, it becomes clear that some in this group know more than they’re letting on—answers that will lead Harper and Nick to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy involving their own lives. As they begin to piece together the truth, they discover they have the power to change the future and the past—to save our world . . . or end it.

A wildly inventive and propulsive adventure full of hairpin twists, Departure is a thrilling tale that weaves together power, ambition, fate, memory, and love, from a bold and visionary talent.

(5) POP WARFARE. Stephen Dedman’s May the Armed Forces Be with You: The Relationship Between Science Ficttion and the United States Military is out from McFarland. Dedman is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Western Australia and the author of five novels and more than 100 short stories.

Science fiction and the United States military often inhabit the same imaginative space. Weapons technology has taken inspiration from science fiction, from the bazooka and the atomic bomb to weaponized lasers and drones. Star-spangled superheroes sold war bonds in comic books sent to GIs during World War II, and adorned the noses of bombers. The same superheroes now appear in big-budget movies made with military assistance, fighting evil in today’s war zones.

A missile shield of laser satellites—dreamed up by writers and embraced by the high command—is partially credited with ending the Cold War. Sci-fi themes and imagery are used to sell weapons programs, military service and wars to the public. Some science fiction creators have willingly cooperated with the military; others have been conscripted. Some have used the genre as a forum for protest. This book examines the relationship between the U.S. military and science fiction through more than 80 years of novels, comics, films and television series, including Captain America, Starship Troopers, The Twilight Zone, Dr. Strangelove, Star Trek, Iron Man, Bill the Galactic Hero, The Forever War, Star Wars, Aliens, Ender’s Game, Space: Above and Beyond and Old Man’s War.

(6) EARWITNESS TO HISTORY. At ThePulp.Net you can listen to a recording of Ted White’s PulpFest guest of honor speech. Ted White, science-fiction author and editor of Amazing Stories from 1968 through 1978, discussed his career in writing and editing. His presentation was recorded on Saturday, July 23, at PulpFest 2016.

(7) MILESTONE ISSUE. Clarkesworld Magazine’s 10th Anniversary Issue is now online.

Congratulations to Neil Clarke and the staff!

(8) STUDYING THE IMPOSSIBLE. In “A Nonlinear History of Time Travel” by James Gleick in Nautilus, Gleick, in an excerpt from his forthcoming book Time Travel: A History, gives a look at time travel paradoxes, but also explains that Robert Heinlein’s classic story “All You Zombies—” was not only pioneering transgender sf, but very accurate physics.

For Einstein’s 70th birthday, in 1949, his friend presented him with a surprising calculation: that his field equations of general relativity allow for the possibility of “universes” in which time is cyclical—or, to put it more precisely, universes in which some world lines loop back upon themselves. These are “closed time-like lines,” or, as a physicist today would say, closed time-like curves (CTCs). These are circular highways lacking on ramps or off ramps. A time-like line is a set of points separated only by time: same place, different times. A closed time-like curve loops back upon itself and thus defies ordinary notions of cause and effect: Events are their own cause. (The universe itself—entire—would be rotating, something for which astronomers have found no evidence, and by Gödel’s calculations a CTC would have to be extremely large—billions of light-years—but people seldom mention these details.)

(9) WEIR CRITIQUES MUSK. Andy Weir on Elon Musk’s Mars plans. You could say Weir had already thought about this a little bit: “The Martian’s Andy Weir talks to Ars about the science if Musk’s Mars vision”.

Musk’s rockets are methane-powered, and, as John Timmer discusses in detail, creating methane on Mars actually isn’t complicated. Take some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, mix it with hydrogen (which you can crack out of water molecules, which Mars has in surprising abundance), add energy, pressure, and a catalyst, and boom, you’ve got methane and water.

“It turns out that Mars is very cooperative when it comes to the Sabatier reaction,” said Weir in a long conversation earlier this week with Ars. “All you need to do it is carbon dioxide, water, and energy. And presumably you’re bringing some energy source with you if you’re going to colonize Mars—like either a reactor or just tons and tons of solar panels, though the correct answer is reactor.”

(10) THE PESSIMISTIC VIEW. Vox.com would prefer to dwell on “The top 7 ways a trip to Mars could kill you, illustrated”

6. You could get poisoned by the toxins in Mars’s soil

In the movie The Martian, a mighty sandstorm leaves astronaut Mark Watney stranded on Mars after high winds rip out an antenna and destroy most of his camp. That scene was a little exaggerated. Because Mars’s atmosphere is so thin, 60 mph winds don’t produce nearly as much force as they do on Earth.

But sand and dirt on Mars is definitely a problem. Mars periodically gets massive sandstorms that spread out across the planet and can last for days or weeks at a time. You don’t want to be outside in one. All those little particles flying around could conceivably tear a hole in your spacesuit. Or, more prosaically, they could clog door seals, mess up machinery, or even cover up solar panels, depriving astronauts of power for extended periods.

A related concern is the fact that Martian soil is toxic. It contains very high concentrations of perchlorates — salts that can do serious damage to the human thyroid gland. “If your backyard had as much perchlorate as Mars does, it’d be a Superfund site,” McKay says.

It’s okay to touch Martian dirt with your bare hands. But you really don’t want any to get into your drinking water or food when you tramp it into your habitat. You also don’t want to grow plants using Martian soil.

McKay also brought up another related risk: Right now we’re pretty sure there’s no life on Mars, no strange microorganisms lurking in the soil. But we’re not absolutely sure. So it might be a good idea to test out any proposed landing site in advance, in case there’s anything harmful lurking.

And that worry goes both ways: We’ll want to be careful about contaminating or killing any Martian life, too. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids the “harmful contamination” of alien worlds with our earthly microbes.

(11) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • October 1, 1968: Night of the Living Dead has its first screening in Pittsburgh.
  • October 1, 1974: Dallas hosts the premiere of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

(12) AXANAR SUIT CONTINUES. CinemaBlend reports “The Star Trek Lawsuit Is Trying To Pull J.J. Abrams And Justin Lin In Deeper”.

Last December, the producers of a Star Trek fan film, Star Trek Axanar, were hit with a lawsuit from Paramount after they raised $1 million for funding from Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns. Many fans were upset that the studio was citing copyright infringement after years of the fan films being released without any problems, and eventually, J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin, directors of the reboot movies, became involved, and Abrams implied that the lawsuit would go away. Well, it didn’t and now both men could find themselves pulled deeper into this legal mess.

For those who need a refresher, last May at the Star Trek Fan Event, J.J. Abrams told attendees that he and Justin Lin had spoken with paramount bigwigs and “pushed them to stop this lawsuit.” He then said there would be an announcement in the coming weeks of the lawsuit “going away,” but in June, it was confirmed that Paramount is still seeking to continue with it. Now THR has learned that Axanar Productions has brought forward a motion to compel discovery, and one of the things it demands is to learn what Paramount discussed with Abrams and Lin about the lawsuit and fan films in general.

[Thanks to David K.M. Klaus, Mark-kitteh, JJ, Andrew Porter, Cat Eldridge, John King Tarpinian, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day snowcrash.]