Monthly Archives: October 2012

Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur Coming in 2013

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur, a never-before-published poem over 200 pages in length, will be released by HarperCollins in May 2013.

HarperCollins says Tolkien set aside this work to write The Hobbit and it was left untouched for 80 years:

The Fall of Arthur recounts in verse the last campaign of King Arthur who, even as he stands at the threshold of Mirkwood is summoned back to Britain by news of the treachery of Mordred. Already weakened in spirit by Guinevere’s infidelity with the now-exiled Lancelot, Arthur must rouse his knights to battle one last time against Mordred’s rebels and foreign mercenaries.

Christopher Tolkien edited the manuscript and wrote three essays for the book, (1) about the literary world of King Arthur, (2) the deeper meaning of the verses, and (3) his father’s work to bring it to a finished form.

The poem’s opening lines appeared in The Guardian:

Arthur eastward in arms purposed
his war to wage on the wild marches,
over seas sailing to Saxon lands,
from the Roman realm ruin defending.
Thus the tides of time to turn backward
and the heathen to humble, his hope urged him,
that with harrying ships they should hunt no more
on the shining shores and shallow waters
of South Britain, booty seeking.

John Lundberg observes how different this verse form is from that of 15th century poet by Thomas Malory in his piece for Huffpost Arts & Culture:

Tolkien, who passed away in 1973, took the Arthurian legends so far back, in fact, that he passed over hundreds of years wherein blank verse was the standard form of English epic poetry. That means his new poem won’t feature the rhythms you’d recognize from most English language epics, like translations of Dante’s The Divine Comedy … Tolkien instead embraced the Old English tradition of alliterative verse — the language of Beowulf and much of the medieval poetry he loved.

The stock question at times like this, against all sense, is whether Tolkien’s latest posthumous work will live up to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or even “Leaf by Niggle.” Despite what’s known about Tolkien’s procrastination and perfectionism, I believe it speaks for itself that any manuscript he left in the drawer is one he knew he was capable of improving if he chose to invest the effort. So Tolkien fans should be delighted to get a peek at The Fall of Arthur – which was by no means certain to happen – and be pleased if it is readable and appealing.

LoneStarCon 3 Partners with SF Signal

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LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 Worldcon, will partner with SF Signal, mirroring the blog on both the LSC 3 website and Facebook page. LoneStarCon 3, in turn, will contribute guest columns and articles to SF Signal.   

“SF Signal was founded in 2003 by two Texas science fiction fans with a desire to share their love of the genre with the world. That’s been our mission goal ever since,” said John DeNardo. “It must have b een well-received; what started as two fans sharing stuff online grew into web-based fanzine with expanded content (including news, reviews, interviews, a twice-weekly podcast and more), dozens of regular contributors, a continual stream of sf/f/h author guest contributors, and an average readership of 5,000 people every single day. SF Signal was also the recipient of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.”

The full press release follows the jump.

Continue reading →

2013 GUFF Race Begins

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Voting is now open to choose the GUFF delegate Conflux, the 2013 Australian National Convention. Anyone can vote who was active in fandom prior to January 2011, and who contributes at least GBP5 or AUD8 (or the equivalent in other currencies) to the fund. Candidates for the Europe to Australasia race are: Julie McMurray and Mihaela Marija Perkovi?.

Julie McMurray: I’ve been in Fandom since 1989 starting out in media fandom. Then I went to Novacon 23 and was completely drawn in by the diversity of the conventions and amazing people I met. I volunteered from my first convention doing all sorts of fun and exciting stuff. My passion is travelling and meeting people and I’ve always dreamed of going to Australia. Some of my favourite authors include Shaun Tan & Garth Nix. I love reading, larping and volunteering. I’d love to travel to Australia and have an active trip meeting fans, promoting European fandom and worldcon/loncon3 in London 2014.

Julie’s nominators are James Bacon, Emma King, Jim Mowatt, Dave Cake and Richard Crawshaw

Mihaela Marija Perkovi?: A Croatian fan who is downright crazy about Australia; she earned her degree with a paper on “SF tropes in Peter Carey’s short fiction”. Active in fandom since 2004, she has participated at Croatian conventions as lecturer, moderator and GoH host. She runs the SFERA Award Jury and writing workshops, is PR manager of SFera and SFeraKon, and coordinated Kontakt Special Track at Eurocon 2012. Enthusiastic, cheerful and chatty, she is an active blogger and lousy photographer. She plans to attend Swancon and Conflux, visit Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand. Her report will be fun to read.

Mihaela’s nominators are Cheryl Morgan, Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf, Cristian Tamas, Anna Hepworth and Adrian Smith.

You can vote via PayPal (the online ballot is available here) or use the print ballot (see link below) and send cheque (made out to ‘GUFF’) or money order or cash in person to James Shields. 7 The Way, Highlands, Drogheda, Co. Meath, Ireland (email james [at] lostcarpark [dot] com); or Kylie Ding, 80A Forrest Street, FREMANTLE WA 6160, AUSTRALIA (email kylie_ding [at] hotmail [dot] com).

GUFF_2013_ballot

Benford, Niven Signing Bowl of Heaven

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Gregory Benford and Larry Niven will launch their new novel, Bowl of Heaven in San Diego on October 16 and follow with signings at bookstores all the way up the West Coast. (A list of dates and locations follows the jump.)

When they come back they’ll go back to work on the sequel, Shipstar.

Benford talks about Big Dumb Objects vs. Big Smart Objects on his blog,and in the same post Larry Niven pitches the basic idea:

With Greg Benford I was willing to take a whack at a Dyson-level civilization. Greg shaped the Bowl in its first design. It had a gaudy simplicity that grabbed me from the start. It was easy to work with: essentially a Ringworld with a lid, and a star for a motor. We got Don Davis involved in working some dynamite paintings.

Greg kept seeing implications. The Bowl’s history grew more and more elaborate. Ultimately I knew we’d need at least two volumes to cover everything we’d need to show.

Continue reading →

2012 Smofcon Scholarhip Winners Named

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CanSMOF has awarded Danielle MacDonald (Ontario, Canada) and James Shields (County Meath, Ireland) scholarships to the 2012 SMOFCon.

MacDonald has worked a number of art shows, and is also interested in masquerades and food and hospitality services. This will be her first Smofcon.

Shields has worked in programming, and is interested in developing uses of web technologies to further aid conventions and their memberships with their online experience. This will be his first Smofcon in North America.

The winning applicants were selected based on a demonstration of their potential for contributing to their local fandom and Canadian fandom. The 2012 selection committee was Terry Fong, Diane Lacey and Kevin Standlee.

CanSMOF Inc., is parent non-profit organization of Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon, The first scholarship was open to a Canadian citizen or resident, while the second was open to anyone involved in running conventions, regardless of their place of residence or citizenship.

Smofcon 30 will be held Philadelphia from November 30-December 2.

Talk Like a Word Pirate

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Alex Williams must be on the verge of clapping both hands over his ears, going by his lengthy complaint about American use of Britishisms in the New York Times:

MITT ROMNEY is not the “bumbling toff” he’s made out to be, wrote Daniel Gross, an American journalist, in a recent Daily Beast article. The latest iPad is a “lovely piece of kit,” in the words of John Scalzi, an American science-fiction author writing in his blog, Whatever. The Chicago Bulls were mired in uncertainty less than a “fortnight” after their star player Derrick Rose went down with a knee injury, according to an article in The Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, last spring.

Crikey, Britishisms are everywhere. Call it Anglocreep. Call it annoying.

Call it traditional. If a 19th-century American could afford to own two books, they most likely were the works of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. The way things are said in England is assumed to be high culture and worthy of imitation – a bias that holds true even if the speaker is Liza Doolittle or Ringo Starr.

Also, as James Nicoll says, English is the language that rifles others’ pockets for vocabulary. The American branch of the family has maintained the habit and sometimes the English branch is its prey. Nor are these newfound idioms taken to be locked a vault, they’re to be used.

The article’s citation of John Scalzi reminds those of us in the science fiction field that no one surpasses our admiration for English as it is used by the English. Start with the 25 Best Fan Writer Hugos won by Brits. Then proceed to the long list of fiction Hugos voted to them: Eric Frank Russell, Arthur C. Clarke, Brian W. Aldiss, John Brunner, J. K. Rowling, David Langford, Susanna Clarke, Charles Stross, Ian McDonald, and China Miéville. (Possibly even Jo Walton — surely no less British than Henry V?)

[Thanks to David Klaus for the story.]

Hannes Bok: A Life in Illustration

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John King Tarpinian says of Hannes Bok: A life in Illustration, “My copy arrived yesterday. Beautifully done. Anybody who loves the artwork from old pulps will love this beautiful book.”

The book features over 600 illustrations. The publisher, Centipede Press, avows:

Our color section features all of Bok’s known dustjackets and the largest collection of Bok paintings ever published, including many works that have never before been printed. Key works also feature detail views.

The 200-copy limited edition is signed by Joseph Wrzos, Stephen Fabian, Bob Eggleton, Jill Bauman, Jason Eckhardt and Stephen Hickman. There are also facsimle signatures by Ray Bradbury and Hannes Bok.

Your change, sir: two gandalfs and a gollum

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New Zealand Post is issuing official legal tender commemorative coins celebrating the trilogy of films based on The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins will appear on the $10 gold coin, and in a set of six $1 silver coins along with Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, Gollum, Radagast and Elrond. The rim of each of these coins is inscribed in both English and Dwarvish with the words ‘Middle-earth – New Zealand’

There also an ambitious US$900,000 plan to mark the first Hobbit movie’s premiere in Wellington, NZ as part of the country’s larger tourism campaign to rebrand the country under the tagline “100% Middle-earth.”

Every DVD and download of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” will feature a Jackson-directed video promoting New Zealand as a tourist and filmmaking destination.

From the release of the first Lord of the Rings movie until 2006, New Zealand tourism increased 40%. They’re determined to capitalize on a similar opportunity with The Hobbit trilogy.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Hertz: Cave Canem

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By John Hertz: Fans of our Publius and fans of WOOF might like to see what he almost got into No. 37 at Chicon VII, reprinted by permission from Always Going Home 10:

I started a contribution for the World Order Of Faneditors collation, but proved unable to finish it in the time available. Herewith is presented the opening paragraph, in Latin as seemed fitting. I am not satisfied with the quality of the language, but it should be clear enough, I think.

Vero felix est congredere septimo in hanc Chicago, urbem alabastron carminae. Felix est autem amor philosofabularum atque amicitia communa, quia annuale a partibus remotis mundi conveniamus. Nonne est hoc congressum nostrum rei publicae litterarum pars plusquam benedicta? Et quis plus benedictus quam nos amateditores, cordes & venae illius corresponsus quae circulatio sanguis huius corporis est? Quapropter, donec rationem melioram habeamus, gaudiamus & iubiliamus.

It may be seen that I forebore to decline “Chicago”. I thought to render “World Science Fiction Convention” by Congressum Universale Philosofabularium, & “World Order Of Faneditors” by Ordo Amateditorium Mundi, which I hope will prove at least not terribly displeasing. For aught I know, there may be standard equivalents, as I suspect there are in Esperanto, given the well-known association of that language with fandom.

At the moment that’s the extent of my permission, though I believe I may say you can get “The Airship, a Summary for Writers” (12 pp. including glossary & a note on “lifting gas”), adapted from the standing-room-only panel he moderated “Airships, the Reality” with Howard Davidson, Lisa Hayes, David Malki, Joseph P. Martino – in case you were attending the Nielsen Haydens’ Kaffeeklatsch, or the Murray Leinster panel, or “The Secret History of Science Fiction”, or Mary Robinette Kowal’s reading, or “Fans and Academics” with Betty Hull, or my Art Show tour – it was a Worldcon, right? – from him at P.O. Box 1035, Fort Worth, TX 76101 U.S.A., or [email protected].

“From The New World” TV Series

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From the New World, a past winner of Japan’s equivalent of the Nebulas (the Nihon SF Taishou Award, given by the SF Writers of Japan) is being adapted into a TV series which is available with subtitles to most of the English-speaking world.

The origin story is briefly related in a press release at Crunchyroll.com:

Five children living in the future are the protagonists. The story begins when they are 12 years old and starting their lives at an advanced school to learn the ‘cursed power’ of telekinesis. They also learn of humanity’s bloody history and set out upon epic adventures that place their very lives on the line. The age of 14 brings them still greater trials and heart-wrenching events, and finally, in the summer of their 26th year, a tragedy like nothing history has ever seen befalls mankind…

The stream itself is here.

And the Anime News Network has translated some Japanese promotional material including a Q&A with the book’s author Y?suke Kishi:

Could you please tell us what made you decide to write this book?

I first had the idea for it over 30 years ago when I’d just entered university. It came to me after I read the book, On Aggression, published in 1970 by Australian ethologist Roland Lorenz. In his book he wrote that because humans were weak creatures to begin with, the checks against intraspecies aggression were also very weak. I took my idea from that description, and spent the next 30 years refining into this novel.

What were your reasons for setting the story 1,000 years in the future?

I was considering many time periods as possibilities, but 1,000 years in the future was the only compromise I could reach. One of my main reasons is that I wanted to depict plants and animals which had undergone an irregular evolution. To do that, 1,000 years honestly isn’t enough time. It would take ten or a hundred thousand years for that, and I wanted to place it in that future, but if I did so, then elements of the story, such as the ruins of modern civilization, would not be around anymore. I researched many things, like the longevity of concrete, and 1,000 years was about the only point where they might all come together, so that’s the time period I set it in.

[Thanks to Petréa Mitchell for the story.]