SFFWorld News – 4/6/2010
(2010-04-06)SFFWorld News – 4/6/2010
1) Wil Wheaton sightings: Actor and SFF pundit Wil Wheaton will be returning to the television series The Big Bang Theory to once again play himself, as the nemesis of Jim Parsons’ Sheldon Cooper. The episode is called “The Wheaton Recurrence” and will air April 12th on CBS in North America. It involves bowling. Wheaton will also guest star on the SF series Eureka on the SyFy Channel as Dr. Isaac Parrish, a scientist who designs non-lethal weapons in the town of geniuses. That episode, entitled “All the Rage” will air July 23rd in the U.S.
2) Speaking of Big Bang Theory, that show’s star Kaley Cuoco will be starring in the movie I Hop with James Marsden and Russell Brand. The Universal movie is a mixture of live action and CG-animation. Marsden plays a guy at loose ends, and Cuoco plays his sister. The two of them have to take in the son of the Easter Bunny (voiced by Brand,) after Marsden’s character accidentally injures E.B. Jr. The comedy is being directed by Tim Hill.
3) Apex Publishing in the U.S. will be reissuing J.M. McDermott’s first novel Last Dragon, a Crawford Prize nominee, and a new dark fantasy novel from the author called Maze, about a group of people who have to scratch out a life among a maze of stone. Both novels will be coming out in the first part of 2011.
4) Carrie Vaughn, author of the best-selling Kitty Norville contemporary fantasy series, is moving houses from Grand Central (Hatchette,) to Tor Books (Macmillan.) Tor will be bringing the next novel in the contemporary fantasy series, about a werewolf who runs a radio talk show, called Kitty Goes to War, out in July of this year. Tor will also be publishing a non-Kitty novel from Vaughn in July called Discord’s Apple, about a woman who returns home to her dying father and discovers a family magical legacy that can effect the entire world.
5) SF author Neal Asher has just inked a large, five book contract with Tor Macmillan. The deal involves two sequels, Zero Point and Jupiter War, to Asher’s up-coming novel The Departure, to be part of the Owner Sequence series based on the short stories in Asher’s collection, The Engineer ReConditioned, and three books yet to be determined.
6) Actress Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) will be starring in the movie The Dark Fields with Bradley Cooper. Friel will play the wife of Cooper’s character, a writer who begins taking a drug that makes him smarter but puts his life in danger. It also causes time to begin to move for him in stop-motion. The film also stars Robert De Niro and will be directed by Neil Burger.
7) Samuel R. Delany’s iconic novel Dhalgren has been adapted for the stage by the Kitchen in New York City, called Bellona, Destroyer of Cities. The adaptation was written and directed by Jay Scheib. The play begins where the original novel ends, with a new main character, but uses the world and issues of identity of the novel. Delany’s new novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, is due out in November.
8) Tis the Season for Awards:
A) The winners of the 2010 British Science Fiction Association Awards are:
Best Novel: The City and the City by China Miéville (Macmillan)
Best Short Story: “The Beloved Time of Their Lives” by Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia, published in The Beloved of My Beloved (Newcon Press)
Best Art: Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald by Stephan Martiniere
Best Non-Fiction: “Mutant Popcorn” by Nick Lowe (Interzone)
B) The nominees for the Arthur C. Clarke Award are:
Spirit, Gwyneth Jones (Gollancz)
The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan)
Yellow Blue Tibia, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Galileo's Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperCollins)
Far North, Marcel Theroux (Faber & Faber)
Retribution Falls, Chris Wooding (Gollancz)
C) The winner of the 2009 Philip K. Dick Award, for best original paperback published in the U.S.:
Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson (Ballantine Books Spectra)
A special citation was given to Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
D) The 2010 Hugo Award nominees:
BEST NOVEL
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
BEST NOVELLA
“Act One” by Nancy Kress (Asimov's 3/09)
The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
“Palimpsest” by Charles Stross (Wireless)
Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow (Tachyon)
"Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker (Subterranean)
BEST NOVELETTE
“Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
“The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
“One of Our Bastards is Missing” by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
“Overtime” by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest: Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)
BEST SHORT STORY
"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's 12/09)
“Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh (Asimov's 1/09)
“The Moment” by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints)
“Non-Zero Probabilities” by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
“Spar” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)
BEST RELATED WORK
Canary Fever: Reviews by John Clute (Beccon)
Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
On Joanna Russ edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I") by Jack Vance (Subterranean)
BEST GRAPHIC STORY
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM
Avatar -- Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9 -- Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Moon -- Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Star Trek -- Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up -- Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM
Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1" Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)
BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM
Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Juliet Ulma
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM
Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Daniel Dos Santos
Shaun Tan
BEST SEMIPROZINE
Ansible edited by David Langford
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
BEST FAN WRITER
Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Lloyd Penney
Frederik Pohl
BEST FANZINE
Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith
BEST FAN ARTIST
Brad W. Foster
Dave Howell
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne
THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Saladin Ahmed
Gail Carriger
Felix Gilman
Seanan McGuire
Lezli Robyn
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