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.

Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell

Just finished Arctic Rising by Tobias Buckell.  Gotta say it.  Pretty good book.  I was a little worried for the first half or so; it seemed like a run-of-the-mill chase/mystery.  Mostly the mystery of why our protagonist is being chased.  But then he pulled it out of the fire and I realized that he was doing something really interesting with both the story and the characters.

In writing classes, you hear about the stereotype of the protagonist a lot.  What that means is that, in general, you imagine the hero of the story to be a lot like you.  I think Buckell blew up every stereotype I have with Anika, the star of the story.  Female, Nigerian, lesbian . . . you name it.  Yet Buckell never let those things overwhelm the character; she was her own voice within the story.  And don't get me started with the Russian druglord (sounds like a cliche, doesn't it?  But it ISN'T!), the Caribbean spy (who would've thunk it?) and the strippers-with-guns.  Suffice it to say, his characters are rarely cardboard cutouts.

And the story.  Whew.  The STORY!  I have never really rooted for the end of the world the way I have in this book, and Buckell makes that okay, because this is eco sci-fi, a new niche in the genre popularized by Paolo Bacigalupi (of Windup Girl fame).  The world is a different place; the ice caps have melted (yep, they're gone) and most of Canada has opened for exploitation.  This has made a lot of the smaller, northern countries a lot wealthier and a lot more powerful.  Where wealth and power combine, there is some serious interest in keeping the status as quo as it can be.  So what happens when someone wants to put the world back the way it was?  That's what you're going to find out in Arctic Rising, and I think (no, I'm pretty sure) you're going to love finding out.

What's Sci-Fi Got To Do With Global Warming?

Tobias Buckell's "Arctic Rising" has been on my radar for a while now, and I recently got his book so when I saw the below review, I figured it was fate telling me something.  Also, recently taking a class that was basically "Geography of How People are F*cking Up the Planet" got me thinking along this vein.  Take a look.

MIND MELD: Ecological Sci-Fi