The Open Page: Book & Print News – 4/7/08

1) The popular Larklight children’s fantasy book series by Philip Reeve is being turned into a big-budget feature film. Set in an alternate history version of the Victorian era, Larklight is about a brother and sister who live in a large, rambling house and are soon plunged into unusual travels. Warner Brothers has hired Shekhar Kapur to direct the film adaptation with Steven Knight as screenwriter.

2) Australia’s 2008 Ditmar and Tin Duck Award winners were announced at Swancon, Australia’s national SF convention. They are:

DITMAR AWARDS

Best Novel
Saturn Returns by Sean Williams (Orbit)

Best Novella/Novelette
"A Lady of Adestan" by Cat Sparks (Orb #7)

Best Short Story
"The Dark and What It Said" by Rick Kennett (ASIM #28)

Best Collected Work (tie)
The New Space Opera, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Gardner Dozois (HarperCollins)
Fantastic Wonder Stories, edited by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications)

Best Art Work
Nick Stathopolous for the Rynemonn Cover (Coeur De Lion)

Best Fan Writer
Robert Hood

Best Fan Art
‘Exterminate!’ Dalek Postcards – Kathryn Linge

Best Fan Production
2007 Snapshot Project, by Alisa Krasnostein, Ben Payne, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Kathryn Linge, Kaaron Warren and Rosie Clarke.

Best Fanzine
Not If You Were the Last Short Story on Earth, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Ben Payne, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Best Professional Achievement
Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-Operative Ltd

Best Fan Achievement
Alisa Krasnostein for ASiF! (Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus!)

Best New Talent
Tehani Wessely

William Atheling Jr Award
Grant Watson for “The Bad Film Diaries” (Borderlands #9.)

TIN DUCKS

Best WA Professional Long Work
Hal Spacejock: Just Desserts, by Simon Haynes (Fremantle Press)

Best WA Professional Short Work
“The Sun People,” by Sue Isle (Shiny #2)

Best WA Professional Production
The New Space Opera, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Gardner Dozois (HarperCollins)

Best WA Fan Production
ASiF!, edited by Alisa Krasnostein

Best WA Fan Written Work (tie)
Alisa Krasnostein, Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth
Sarah Parker, Blog Like It's The End Of The World

Best WA Professional Artwork
Sarah Xu

Best WA Fan Art (tie)
John Parker
Sarah Xu

SPECIAL AWARDS

Peter MacNamara Achievement Award
Bruce Gillespie

Marg Hughes (Mumfan) Award
Alicia Smith and Rob Masters

Silver Swan Award
Danny Oz

3) The winners of the Bram Stoker Awards (for superior achievement in horror) have also been announced:

• NOVEL: The Missing by Sarah Langan
• FIRST NOVEL: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
• LONG FICTION: "Afterward, There Will Be a Hallway" by Gary Braunbeck
• SHORT FICTION: “The Gentle Brush of Wings” by David Niall Wilson
• ANTHOLOGY: Five Strokes to Midnight, edited by Gary Braunbeck & Hank Schwaeble
• COLLECTION (Tie): Proverbs for Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen and 5 Stories by Peter Straub
• NON-FICTION: The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre edited by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer
• POETRY (Tie): Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison and Vectors: A Week in the Death of a Planet by Charlee Jacob & Marge B. Simon

4) Dan Simmons’ award-winning, much revered SF book series Hyperion Cantos is finally getting a shot at the silver screen. Produced by Graham King/GK Films from a script by Trevor Sands for Warner Brothers, the film will cover two books – Hyperion, which won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1990, and the second book The Fall of Hyperion. The books deal with an inter-planetary, inter-dimensional war across time and space, focused on the strange planet of Hyperion.
 
5) Best-selling author/screenwriter Neil Gaiman and screenwriter Michael Reaves are bringing out Interworld, a YA novel with Subterranean Press, about a boy who discovers he can walk between alternate Earths. Interworld will be published as a Limited Edition with a small number of collectors’ quality printings. The project is a fundraiser for Reaves, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Visit Subterranean Press’ website for more information.