Weekend Update!

Welcome to the end of the world!  Now.  Everyone back to their lives.

I've recently been hearing a lot about the unexpected success of Kickstarter projects.  It's a remarkable phenomenon, and strikes me as more of a paradigm shift within the publishing industry than e-books; it represents capitalism in its truest, simplest form.  As such, it allows creators the opportunity to assess the market before they've committed capital to create it.  It's a game-changer.


Tobias Buckell created a Kickstarter recently to publish the fourth book in a five-book series.  Even though Buckell found fame with Crystal Rain, the first in a proposed five-part series, I first heard of his eco-science fiction book Arctic Rising, which I reviewed early in my blog history.  The first three books of his Xenowealth Universe were published by Tor, but when sales weren't as strong as either party hoped, Buckell opted to head in a different direction.

But he always wanted to finish the series, and this is his chance.  The project is completed, and you can purchase the book at either his website or amazon.  But he took the time to do a post-project debrief, and like his collection of short stories Nascence, he contemplates what succeeded, what failed, and what he might do differently in the future.  

Macmillan Publishing is continuing its suit against the DOJ for price-fixing.  John Sergeant explains in a letter to authors, agents and illustrators why Macmillan is sticking it out when the giants have already settled.  The crux of the issue is that Macmillan believes it creates an unfair marketplace and that settling ultimately harms authors and customers.  I'm not sure I entirely agree, but I'm proud of him for sticking to his guns.  It all boils down to the basic fact that he doesn't think its right to settle when they haven't done anything wrong, and you have to applaud him for that.

It's been 22 years, and The Wheel of Time is set to wrap up in January 2013.  I'm excited and can't wait to see how everything ends.  Brandon Sanderson, Harriet McDougal and Tom Doherty reminisce:

A new photo of the interior of the TARDIS was recently released.  In addition to a new companion, new outfit for the Doctor and a brand new direction, the TARDIS has been fully re-designed.  It looks a little depressed, but that might just reflect the Doctor's feelings about losing the Ponds.  Also, it has the weird steampunk vibe that's been popular recently.  Let me know what you think.

The best and the worst at io9.com

A lot of really good sci-fi and fantasy movies came out this year.  A lot of really bad sci-fi and fantasy movies came out this year.  io9.com broke it all down and announced the top ten best and worst of 2012.  Not surprising, Prometheus made #9 on the the "worst" list.  Surprisingly, Cloud Atlas made both the best and worst list.  While the best movies seemed to follow an indie trend (markedly interrupted by The Avengers), the sequels and continuations of franchises comprised the worst sci-fi and fantasy movies of 2012.

In movie news, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey continues to pull in huge numbers, after an opening weekend of $84 million in the United States and has since grossed $222 million worldwide.  Despite generally milquetoast reviews, it continues to elicit a positive response from movie-goers.  Zero Dark Thirty and Jack Reacher are both opening this week and Lincoln, Skyfall, and Life of Pi are still pulling in respectable box-office revenues.

I'll leave you with two trailers this week.  The first is for John Dies at the End, a gory, vicious movie based on the novel by the same name; the second is Storage 24, what seems like a paint-by-numbers get-out-alive monster horror.  But some of the premise and setting looked interesting; let me know what you think.