Scifi Watch » Anders

Tor.com Launches New Online Bookstore

David Halpert — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:24:09 +0000

Tor.com, a blog for news and discussion on “science fiction and fantasy books and other related topics,” expands its digital reach this June 17th with the launch of a new online bookstore.

The Tor Store opens with a selection of titles that span a wide range of publishers. The only requirement for books to appear in the store’s inventory is that they relate to the science fiction or fantasy genre in some way, this way popular science titles, art texts, and comic books share shelf space with classic and modern SF/F novels.

The online bookstore also capitalizes on the blog’s vocal and well-read community of writers by tying the titles on display on the store’s homepage to hand-selected lists from the site’s bloggers. These uniquely curated lists provide new readers with windows into particular niches of SF/F novels, or just highlight titles that the Tor.com blogging team are passionate about. Current Tor.com bloggers include John Joseph Adams, Lou Anders, and Mur Lafferty, among others.

Tor.com launched one year ago in July as a joint project of Tor Books and the Macmillan group of publishers. Since then, the blog has evolved into a publisher- and format-agnostic space for commentary on all things science fiction and fantasy related, including publishing, video games, movies, and comics. The site also features original short stories, sequential art, and extensive art galleries.

Visit Tor.com directly, or go to the Tor.com store.

2009 Chesley Award Nominations Announced

David Halpert — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:25:15 +0000

The nominees for the 2009 Chesley Award were recently announced and the list is impressive. For those unaware of this award, the Chelseys are given for excellence in science fiction and fantasy art or illustration. The award began in 1985 and is run by the Association for Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA). The award was named after the artist Chesley Bonestell after his death in 1986 and are present at the World Science Fiction Convention.

Best Cover Illustration: Hardback Book
• Dan Dos Santos: Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight by Mike Resnick (Pyr, August 2008)
• Scott Fischer: An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe (Tor, September 2008)
• Donato Giancola: A Book of Wizards edited by Marvin Kaye (SFBC, April 2008)
• Stephen Hickman: Ghost Quartet edited by Marvin Kaye (Tor, September 2008)
• Todd Lockwood: Quofum by Alan Dean Foster (Del Rey, October 2008)
• Stephan Martiniere: The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick (Tor, January 2008)
• John Picacio: Viewpoints Critical: Selected Stories by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (Tor, March 2008)

Best Cover Illustration: Paperback Book
• Dan Dos Santos: Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs (Ace, July 2008)
• Michael Kormarck: Dragonforge by James Maxey (Solaris, June 2008)
• Todd Lockwood: The Stormcaller by Tom Lloyd (Pyr, November 2008)
• John Picacio: Fast Forward 2 edited by Lou Anders (Pyr, October 2008)
• J.P. Targete: The Turtle Moves! Discworld’s Story Unauthorized by Lawrence Watt Evans (Benbella Books, August 2008)
• Paul Youll: Hell and Earth by Elizabeth Bear (ROC, August 2008)

Best Cover Illustration: Magazine
• Bob Eggleton: Asimov’s, August 2008
• David Hardy: Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2008
• Maurizio Manzieri: Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 2008
• Matts Minnhagen: Clarkesworld, April 2008
• John Picacio: Asimov’s, September 2008

Best Interior Illustration
• Donato Giancola: The Wraith by J. Robert Lennon (Playboy, November 2008)
• Alan Lee for Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 2008)
• John Picacio: Elric: The Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock (Del Rey, 2008)
• Adam Rex: Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex (Harcourt, September 2008)
• Shaun Tan: Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin, May 2008)

Best Color Work: Unpublished
• Julie Bell: The Wave in Her Heart, Oil
• Simon Dominic: The Gift, Digital
• Donata Giancola: Progeny, Oil
• Omar Rayyan: Gizmo, Watercolor
• Raoul Vitale: Lorca’s Cave, Oil
• Michael Whelan: The Seawall, Acrylic

Best Monochrome Work: Unpublished
• A.L. Ashbaugh: Counterfeit, Graphite
• Simon Dominic: Kraken, Digital
• Rebecca Guay: Gweneuere, Pencil
• James Jean: Hare, Oil
• Kate Lebherz-Gelinas: Chiroptera, PencilBest Three-Dimensional Art
• Brian Chan: Wall-E, Paper/Origami
• Akihito Ikeda: Heart of Art, Mixed
• Laura Reynolds: The Mushroom Gatherer, Mixed
• Forest Rogers: Dark Harpy, Polyclay, Copper Foil & Gold Leaf
• Vincent Villafranca: The Celestial Itinerant, Bronze

Best Product Illustration
• Volkan Baga: The Name of The Rose game box & promotional art, Ravensburger Spielevelag
• James Christensen: False Magic LE Canvas Print, Greenwich Workshop
• Dan Dos Santos: Hellboy II promotional art, Dark Horse & Universal Pictures
• Patrick Jones: Cyber Angel poster, IlluXCon 2008
• Justin Sweet: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian concept art, Walt Disney Studios

Best Gaming – Related Illustration
• Volkan Baga: Stoic Angel, Magic Card, Shards of Alara, WotC
• Tom Fleming: Firestorm, VS System, Upper Deck
• Michael Kormarck: Angelic Benediction, Magic Card, Shards of Alara, WotC
• David Palumbo: Cancel, Magic Card, Shards of Alara, WotC
• Matt Stewart: Invincible Hymm, Magic Card, Shards of Alara, WotC

Best Art Director
• Matt Adelsperger: Wizards of The Coast
• Scott Allie: Dark Horse Comics
• Lou Anders: Pyr Books
• Irene Gallo: Tor Books
• Jeremy Jarvis: Wizards of The Coast
• Bill Schafer: Subterranean Press
• David Stevenson: Del Rey Books

Award for Artistic Achievement
• Julie Bell
• Roger Dean
• Dan Dos Santos
• James Jean
• Stephan Martiniere
• Shaun Tan

“No Exit”: Battlestar Galactica Reivew

David Halpert — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:58:35 +0000

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WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!

Without a doubt last Friday’s episode entitled “No Exit” was one of the best acted, best directed, and best written episodes of Battlester Galactica in the series. I think this episode requires a second or third watch to fully absorb all of the information. Now I’m not going to ramble on about every little detail explained during the episode, if you want that then Wikipedia has a fairly straightforward explanation here. It would be easy to critize the show’s writers for info-dumping, however, the fact that there’s only five episodes left in the series and the perfect pacing alongside Ellen’s storyline made this a very enjoyable episode to say the least.

Firstly, we get the true state of the Battlestar Galactica. Internally we get bulkheads at the point of collapse and micro-fissures too minute to be seen with the naked eye all along the ship’s exterior. The tension on the show is hightened when Tyrol (now promoted back to his position as Chief) warns that another FTL jump has the potential to rip the ship in two, killing everyone on board and leaving the Colonial Fleet defenseless. In the end, Adama gives in to having biologoical cylon resin used to repair the interior hull after observing a large crack in his cabin’s washroom. A decision that wasn’t made lightly.

Then we get the storyline of Ellen from the point where she’s resurrected on a basestar after dying on New Caprica. These scenes, both brilliantly acted by Dean Stockwell and Kate Vernon, play out over the eighteen months as we learn more about how the Cylons came to be. Among other things we learn that John (Cavil) is a little more than mentally unstable, and that he was first Cylon model created by the final five. Ellen confesses that she needs the other final four in order to recreate the resurrection technology. John doesn’t believe her and just as she’s being prepped for surgery, Boomer sneaks her off the baseship and they head for the Colonial fleet.

In the meantime, Anders is being prepped for surgery of his own to remove a bullet lodged in his brain from the attempted coup on the Battlestar Galactica. As a result, he sees everything that happend regarding Earth’s history and the Cylons clear as day. In the end, they manage to remove the bullet and Anders is alright. We also get a restructuring of the Colonial government. Instead of having twelve representatives from the Twelve Colonies, Roslin and Lee decide to have a delegate be elected from each ship, with Lee taking over when the president should meet her ultimate demise.

If this episode doesn’t get an Emmy nomination for best writing (other than the finale) I’ll be very surprised. There was absolutely no filler here. This is science fiction done right. Brilliantly written, superbly acted, and masterfully executed.