Eunice Wong does an outstanding job of narrating this combination of dystopian fantasy, historical fiction, and sci-fi. First, the listener meets Maida in 2106; she has the ability to perceive the history of objects. Second, the listener is introduced to Li Nuan, a sex-trafficked 16-year-old girl from 1906. Third, there is Nathan, a tech designer who is living the good life in 2006. All are connected through a jade teacup. Wong captures the atmosphere of each of the three timelines, and the result is an intimate, thought-provoking performance.
Narrator Daphne Kouma wows in this epic fantasy/murder mystery/political thriller. In a society built around eight powerful animal spirits, a new emperor is chosen every 24 years when those vying for the throne compete in a series of trials. When the Raven palace’s contender is found dead, scholar Neema Kraa finds herself simultaneously taking her place in the trials and investigating her murder. Kouma expertly leads listeners through the lush world-building and the twisting, action-packed plot.
A DROP OF CORRUPTION: Shadow of the Leviathan, Book 2
by Robert Jackson Bennett | Read by Andrew Fallaize
The talented Andrew Fallaize reprises his narration of THE TAINTED CUP, the first in this series. Fallaize aptly narrates this imaginative and suspenseful story in which older, experienced Ana and young Din investigate the unsettling murder of a treasury officer. Through Din’s perfect memory and Ana’s brilliance, they discover a plot that runs deep, threatening the empire’s future. A wonderful, satisfying listening experience for lovers of mysteries and fantasy.
Jefferson White shows remarkable skill balancing a youthful cast with the sobering reality they must face. Twenty-four years before Katniss’s games, Haymitch, from District 12, must compete in the Hunger Games—with twice the tributes. White’s perfect pacing adds intensity to the brutality of the games and lingering melancholy as Haymitch struggles to maintain his integrity as the people around him keep dying.
Gem Carmella narrates a magical novella inspired by traditional ballads. Sisters Esther and Ysabel use their musical talents to tend the enchanted willow their family has honored for generations. When an unwanted suitor appears, everything they love is suddenly at risk. Carmella’s narration perfectly blends the fantastical elements of fairy tales with the macabre elements of traditional murder ballads. A stunning performance.
To subscribe to AudioFile’s newsletter subscriptionclick here.
(1) WALDROP AND WINDS NEWS. George R.R. Martin says a feature-length adaptation of Howard Waldrop’s A Dozen Tough Jobs is on the way in “Howard Meets Hercules” at Not a Blog. GRRM also has a little message for everyone who complains when he works on anything besides The Winds of Winter.
For all you Howard Waldrop fans out there… if you enjoyed our short films, the adaptations of MARY-MARGARET ROAD-GRADER, NIGHT OF THE COOTERS, and THE UGLY CHICKENS that we’ve been showing at film festivals over the past couple of years, we have big news a-coming. A Waldrop feature is on the way. All animated, from Lion Forge.
It’s an adaptation of Howard’s novella A DOZEN TOUGH JOBS, his take on the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Joe Lansdale, the Sage of Nacogdoches, father of Hap and Leonard, and creator of Bubba Ho-Tep, did the screenplay, and no one could have done it better except maybe Howard His Own Self.
(I know, I know. Some of you will just be pissed off by this, as you are by everything I announce here that is not about Westeros or THE WINDS OF WINTER. You have given up on me, or on the book. I will never finish WINDS, If I do, I will never finish A DREAM OF SPRING. If I do, it won’t be any good. I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me… I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I don’t give a shit about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money. I edit the Wild Cards books too, but you hate Wild Cards. You may hate everything else I have ever written, the Hugo-winners and Hugo-losers, “A Song for Lya” and DYING OF THE LIGHT, “Sandkings” and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, “This Tower of Ashes” and “The Stone City,” OLD MARS and OLD VENUS and ROGUES and WARRIORS and DANGEROUS WOMEN and all the other anthologies I edited with my friend Gardner Dozois, You don’t care about any of those, I know. You don’t care about anything but WINDS OF WINTER. You’ve told me so often enough).
Thing is, I do care about them.
And I care about Westeros and WINDS as well. The Starks and Lannisters and Targaryens, Tyrion and Asha, Dany and Daenerys, the dragons and the direwolves, I care about them all. More than you can ever imagine….
Science fiction is the business of imagining the future, but reading Han Song, one of China’s leading writers of the genre, can sometimes feel like reading recent history.
In 2000, he wrote a novel depicting the collapse of the World Trade Center. In 2016, another book imagined the world transformed into a giant hospital, with doctors taking people from their homes — as would happen at times during China’s coronavirus years.
For Mr. Han, 59, this means only that he had not gone far enough in imagining how dark or strange modern life could become.
“I thought I was just writing, but that it was impossible for it to happen,” he said of his novel “Hospital,” in which everyone is reduced to being a patient. “It actually happened just a few years later,” he said, referring to the pandemic. “This is an example of reality being more science fiction than science fiction.”
How the unthinkable can become reality has been Mr. Han’s subject for the past four decades. By day, he is a journalist at China’s state news agency, recording the country’s astonishing modernization. At night, he writes fiction to grapple with how disorienting that change can be.
His stories are bleak, grotesque and graphic. Some scrutinize the gap between China and the West, as in “The Passengers and the Creator,” a short story in which Chinese people worship a mysterious god called Boeing. Others imagine that China has displaced the United States as the world’s leading superpower. Many take ordinary settings, like subway trains, as backdrops for wild scenes of cannibalism or orgies….
… Mr. Han estimates that about half of his writing has not been published in China because of censorship. That includes “My Country Doesn’t Dream,” though it has circulated widely online….
Less than a year after SFWA founder and President Damon Knight created the Nebula Award, the first Nebula Awards Ceremonies were held on March 11, 1966. Why “Nebula?” The name was first introduced without explanation in the inaugural ballot mailed out to SFWA members. According to Robert Silverberg, SFWA’s second president, “Far as I know, Damon just liked the idea of calling it a Nebula. None of us saw any reason to object.”
The ceremonies were held in two locations: one in New York City and the other in Beverly Hills, CA. The New York ceremony was held in what Knight later characterized as a “grungy” upstairs room at the Overseas Press Club on 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The California Nebulas were presented at a more upscale location: McHenry’s Tail O’ the Cock, a large, English–tavern style restaurant on Beverly Hills’ Restaurant Row…
…Ninety attendees were present in New York, and seventy attended the ceremony in California. On the way to the New York Nebulas, both Knight and SFWA Secretary-Treasurer Anne McCaffrey were involved in “minor” automobile accidents. In the Bulletin account, there was no indication of who was at fault, but both accidents involved trucks and both cars, Knight’s Dodge Dart and McCaffrey’s VW, were totaled….
(4) CLARION WEST BOOK SWAP IN SEATTLE. Get ready for the Clarion West Book Swap @ Octavia E. Butler Birthday Bash at the Langston Hughes Performing Art Institute in Seattle on June 22 from 12:00-3:00 p.m. Free RSVP at the link.
Bring a book, take a book: the Clarion West book swap is back. This time, we’ll join Langston’s creative arts team to celebrate science fiction luminary Octavia E. Butler. Come for the live performances, food, and refreshments. Stay for the community and celebration!
And don’t forget to bring a book to share (and a reusable tote to take away your new finds!)
Location: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave S Washington 98144.
It’s nearing 9 p.m. in London and the sky is turning black in the window behind Bella Ramsey, but the Last of Us star lights up as we go on a long tangent about the massively multiplayer online game Club Penguin. “Club Penguin is where I explored my gender identity,” they tell me with a proud smile.
The 21-year-old actor, who leads the hit HBO series based on the wildly popular video game series, publicly came out as nonbinary in an interview with The New York Times in 2023, but their gender evolution began long before then, with early exploration happening online. “My penguin was called Tomboy Bella and was red. I did karate on the freaking Karate Hill. I was loving life in Club Penguin world,” they tell me emphatically. “You can be whoever you want behind that avatar.”
The family-friendly Club Penguin game is perhaps the antithesis to The Last of Us, a critically acclaimed pair of survival horror video games intended for mature players. Every avatar was a penguin, uniform in shape and size, only distinguishable by the player’s color choice and username. Identifiers like gender, race, or class were deprioritized. Although children’s online games can often be poorly monitored and even muddled with Call of Duty-level slurs, otherworldly characters and anthropomorphic animals allow players to imagine an existence outside of the gender binary. In fact, video games have been sites of possibility for Ramsey more generally.
“When you get to choose a girl character or a boy character, I would pick the boy one because I could,” they tell me. “Gaming is such an amazing place to explore. I think there is often a narrative of it not being a safe space, and in some cases, yes, but in so many others, it is such a free and open space.”
Ramsey owes much of their current star power to the medium. The character of Ellie — a hard-headed, big-hearted, vengeful teenager surviving a dystopian world — catapulted the actor, who had previously starred as crowd favorite Lyanna Mormont in the final few seasons of Game of Thrones, to the top of the call sheet. It was a role to which they felt an immediate draw. “Even the description that I got in the email of the self-tape, I knew her, and I connected to her. She always felt like someone who was already inside of me.”
Though Ellie has identified as queer since season one of The Last of Us, we see her fall — or plummet, perhaps — into her first real lesbian relationship in the recently concluded second outing. The follow-up, much like the video game sequel on which it’s based, moves away from the often patriarchal and heteronormative post-apocalyptic horror genre and invites the viewer to fully step into a young masculine lesbian’s perspective. “I’d seen an article about Dina and Ellie’s kiss in the second game being the first lesbian kiss in a video game or something. Their relationship was my first introduction to the world of The Last of Us. It was really special to get to play that out with Isabela Merced,” Ramsey tells me….
A stout black jar of Bovril with a cheery red top lurks in many a British kitchen, next to tins of treacle and boxes of tea. The gooey substance, made of rendered-down beef, salt and other ingredients, can be spread on toast or made into a hot drink, but what many people don’t realise is that this old-fashioned comfort food has a surprising link to science fiction.
The “Bov” part of the name is easy enough to decipher – from “bovine”, meaning associated with cattle. But the “vril” bit? That’s a different story, literally.
In 1871, an anonymous novel was published about a race of super-humans living underground. The narrator of The Coming Race, who has fallen into their realm during a disastrous descent into a mine shaft, is shocked to learn that they are telepathic, thanks to the channeling of a mysterious energy called vril.
“Through vril conductors, they can exercise influence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, to an extent not surpassed in the romances of our mystics,” the narrator realises. Vril gives them strength, as well, rendering them capable of incredible feats. The people call themselves the Vril-Ya, and their society seems in many ways superior to that of the surface dwellers….
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
May 28, 1984 — Max Gladstone, 41.
By Paul Weimer: I slept on Max Gladstone’s first book, Three Parts Dead, for nearly a year. It wasn’t until it had hit paperback that I finally decided to dive into the first of the Craft Sequence, and then started and have been reading them as quickly as they come out. It’s his big conceit, his big series, and necromancy, accounting, magic, old gods, and social systems lets Max play with all of the themes and ideas that he wants, and make it into a fascinating fantasy universe. He’s also written a couple of text games set in the verse, too.
I’ve enjoyed a heck of lot of his other work, too. There’s the serial Bookburners, which he collaborated with Mur Lafferty, Andrea Phillips, Amal El-Mohtar, and others. Occult operatives dealing with magically empowered objects is not a new idea in the main, but he brings lots of invention and ideas to the table with the serial.
I am also a big fan of possibly the best road trip SF novel out there: Last Exit. It’s Gladstone’s own love letter to Zelazny and shadow walking and traveling through multiple worlds, but not realizing you are bringing yourself along into those worlds. It’s a stunning construction and deconstruction of the concept. I do really need to re-read it…but as a listen, in an audiobook, and see how it does on an actual road trip. Someday!
I should probably mention This is How You Lose the Time War, but that is such a sui generis collaboration with the aforementioned Amal El-Mohtar, that it is impossible to determine what parts are his and which ones are hers, and I bet I’d be wrong if it tried. It certainly has given life and power to science fiction poetry, and I think its existence is why poetry has risen, at least for the 2025 Worldcon, to the level of a Hugo Award.
James Gunn’s Superman movie is facing another lawsuit as the Man of Steel co-creator’s estate has reportedly filed a new lawsuit that could affect the DC Universe movie’s release. After a long wait to see the character back on the big screen, the Superman movie is approaching its summer release, with David Corenswet starring as the next live-action version of the DC icon. While the previousSuperman movie lawsuit was dismissed in April, Warner Bros. Discovery is facing another round of litigation.
In Matthew Belloni’s latest Puck Newsletter, Eriq Gardner writes that attorney Marc Toberoff has reportedly refiled his copyright case, on behalf of the estate of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, in New York state court. Toberoff is additionally seeking an injunction to block Warner Bros. from “exploiting Superman” in the U.K., Ireland, Canada, and Australia – where the estate is disputing copyright ownership due to the countries’ specific copyright laws.
According to Gardner, Warner Bros. Discovery had been ordered by the New York Supreme Court to “submit opposition papers by Friday,”before appearing in court on June 4 where they would have to explain why an injunction shouldn’t be granted. At the time of this story’s publication, Warner Bros. Discovery has not commented. Gardner writes that the suit is “theoretically jeopardizing the global rollout” of Gunn’s Superman movie….
(10) ALEX ROSS ART EXHIBIT. In Southern California, the Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center is hosting the exhibit “Marvelocity: The Art of Alex Ross”. Location: 241 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, CA 92805
On display May 16 through August 17, 2025. In a world where comic art traditionally exists in a realm beyond reality, allowing for fantastical narratives and impossible feats, Alex Ross boldly bridges the divide between fantasy and realism.
Ross’s revolutionary approach transcends conventional comic art. His technique—a fusion of Norman Rockwell’s authentic Americana with Jack Kirby’s dynamic imagination—achieves what many thought impossible: making the extraordinary feel real. Featuring over 50 original artworks from his landmark 2018 book Marvelocity, this exhibition invites you to experience the magic where artistic craftsmanship meets superhero mythology.
(11) SLITHER WARNING. Starship Sloane Publishing Company released another David Gerrold novel today — The Boy Who Was Girl.
Whatever you do, don’t piss off Slither. That’s the only warning you’re going to get. Slither is an augmented, shapeshifting assassin with a hair-trigger temper. Hurled across space to a world of violence and treachery, a place where no one can be trusted, Slither can’t get home until she (or maybe he?) stops an interplanetary invasion. What happens next is a ferocious, fast-paced brawl where revenge is a dish best served NOW. Fasten your seatbelt! This is David Gerrold at his best!
The print edition with cover art by Marianne Plumridge titled Bolo Observation Platform is available from Amazon (the ebook isn’t out yet).
Another SpaceX Starship prototype broke up over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, capping the latest bumpy test flight for the rocket central to billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of colonising Mars.
The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built lifted off at 6.36pm local time from the company’s facility near a southern Texas village that earlier this month voted to become a city also named Starbase.
The first signs of trouble emerged when the first-stage Super Heavy booster blew up instead of executing its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
A live feed then showed the upper-stage spaceship failing to open its doors to deploy a payload of Starlink satellite “simulators”.
Though the ship flew farther than on its two previous attempts, it sprang leaks and began spinning out of control as it coasted through space on a suborbital path before re-entering the atmosphere out of control and eventually breaking apart.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” SpaceX posted on X, using a familiar euphemism for failure, adding it would learn from the setback….
I use AI a lot, but not to write stories. I use AI for search. When it comes to search, AI, especially Perplexity, is simply better than Google.
Ordinary search has gone to the dogs. Maybe as Google goes gaga for AI, its search engine will get better again, but I doubt it. In just the last few months, I’ve noticed that AI-enabled search, too, has been getting crappier.
In particular, I’m finding that when I search for hard data such as market-share statistics or other business numbers, the results often come from bad sources. Instead of stats from 10-Ks, the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) mandated annual business financial reports for public companies, I get numbers from sites purporting to be summaries of business reports. These bear some resemblance to reality, but they’re never quite right. If I specify I want only 10-K results, it works. If I just ask for financial results, the answers get… interesting,
This isn’t just Perplexity. I’ve done the exact same searches on all the major AI search bots, and they all give me “questionable” results.
Welcome to Garbage In/Garbage Out (GIGO). Formally, in AI circles, this is known as AI model collapse. In an AI model collapse, AI systems, which are trained on their own outputs, gradually lose accuracy, diversity, and reliability. This occurs because errors compound across successive model generations, leading to distorted data distributions and “irreversible defects” in performance. The final result? A Nature 2024 paper stated, “The model becomes poisoned with its own projection of reality.”
Model collapse is the result of three different factors. The first is error accumulation, in which each model generation inherits and amplifies flaws from previous versions, causing outputs to drift from original data patterns. Next, there is the loss of tail data: In this, rare events are erased from training data, and eventually, entire concepts are blurred. Finally, feedback loops reinforce narrow patterns, creating repetitive text or biased recommendations.…
[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Paul Weimer, Justin Sloane, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]
Author Mia Tsai has announced ConCurrent Seattle, a one-day SFFH con intended to be an alternative program to Worldcon, will be held Thursday, August 14 at the ACT Theatre in downtown Seattle across from the Sheraton.
“ConCurrent was created as a response to Worldcon’s use of ChatGPT in the panelist vetting process,” says Tsai. “The use of ChatGPT at Worldcon has been a breach of trust in an industry of writers whose work has been stolen to train genAI.”
The ConCurrent website contends, “The event is not intended as a replacement for WorldCon, and it is the organizers’ hope that people will be able to attend both without judgment in the spirit of the connection and discovery that has helped the SFFH community thrive.”
And, “ConCurrent’s aim is to provide programming only, with a focus on what is currently happening in the SFFH genre.”
Two participants already advertised are Rebecca Roanhorse and Andrea Stewart.
A crowdfunding appeal has been launched to raise $5,000 to pay for the venue and other expenses. At this writing $1,770 of donations have come in, of which over $500 was contributed by author David Levine.
Chris Barkley Photo (circa 1975) by Diana Duncan Holmes; Chris Barkley Photo (May 2025) by Juli Marr
A Long Time Ago, At A Convention Far, Far Away…STAR WARS!
By Chris M. Barkley: If you are a hardcore cinephile like myself, I have no doubt that you remember when a film burned itself into your memory bank so hard that you vividly remember exactly when and where you were when that magical moment happened.
For instance, I saw It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in the early 1970’s in a now extinct theater that nowadays is a popular skating rink.
I had the privilege of seeing 2001; A Space Odyssey during a seven-day limited run in August 1974 at the now defunct Carousel Theater in all of its 70mm glory.
I first viewed Casablanca during exam week at the University of Cincinnati in 1975 in the Tangeman Student Center auditorium.
I saw Citizen Kane for the first time in a very small viewing room of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Main Library one winter morning during the same period.
I somehow missed the first run of The Matrix in the spring of 1999 but by the time August rolled around it was in a second-run, two dollar movie house in Norwood, Ohio near the hotel Midwestcon was held for many years. I was so dazzled by the story, characters, music and visual effects I went back and saw it two more times before it left town for good.
But there was one particular, unforgettable film that I remember above all others.
Forty-eight years ago, on the evening of May 27th – 28th 1977, I first encountered George Lucas’ monumental and epic movie, Star Wars (as it was simply called until 1981, when it was permanently dubbed “A New Hope”.
And while my first viewing of Star Wars during the spring of 1977 was inevitable, I can say in hindsight that my initial time was not only incredibly fortuitous but historic as well.
In May of that year, I was eleven months into my journey in sf fandom, which, in itself was also highly coincidental; I and my best friend Michaele had the good luck to stumble upon a legendary science fiction convention called Midwestcon (the 27th gathering that year) hosted by the Cincinnati Fantasy Group, who had hosted the 7th World Science Fiction Convention, Cinvention, in 1949.
In those ancient days before the internet, any word of a noteworthy sf fan activity, books, art or films was generally spread by word of mouth, magazines, radio, print newspapers or, on rare occasions, television.
As far as I was concerned, anything about Star Wars was well off my radar. If I had attended the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City in 1976 (which I could ill afford to go to at the time) I would have seen a spectacular exhibit sponsored by Lucasfilm Limited, laden with costumes, models, props teasing what the film was all about. Also present was a then little known actor named Mark Hamill, who reportedly lamented the fact that he had starred in this fantastic movie that no one had heard of or will see until next year.
Of course, Hamill, his castmates, the production crew and George Lucas himself had no idea of what they were about to unleash upon the world.
Lucas, who had some first-hand knowledge of sf fandom himself, knew instinctively that if other fans got behind this effort and spread a viral word of mouth campaign, there was a chance this might be a successful film.
This is not to say I was totally unaware of the movie; over the winter Del Rey/Ballantine Books had issued the novelization of Star Wars, which I saw and for the most part ignored because I had no idea what it was all about and looked like dozens of other space opera novels of that period.
(It should be duly noted that those first edition paperbacks, published in December of 1976 with a cover illustrated by Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie and ghost written by Alan Dean Foster, go for A LOT of pretty pennies nowadays.)
That spring, I heard from other members of the CFG of another well known science fiction convention in Washington D.C. called Disclave, which was that area’s premiere fan events. Several people from the Cincinnati group attended on a regular basis and I decided to go as well.
I was twenty years old at the time and I wanted, for the first time in my life, to plan my own trip and travel alone. I booked a train ticket through the national rail system, AMTRAK and a hotel room at the sprawling Sheraton Park Hotel on Connecticut Avenue.
After a splendid overnight trip, I arrived at the hotel on a beautiful Friday afternoon and the first thing I heard about from friends and fans alike was about the film playing up the street at the Uptown Theater, Star Wars. I also heard that showings were sold out that day so I was not inclined to go see it initially.
Little did I know at the time that the Uptown was one of ONLY thirty-two theaters in America that had premiered Star Wars two days earlier on May 25th. Before the end of that weekend the number would grow to forty-four.
Original Star Wars Poster: 20th Century Fox
By Saturday morning, I had heard enough so I decided to find out what all of the hullabaloo was all about myself. Setting out early that afternoon, I started walking up Connecticut Avenue.
The Uptown Theater was approximately 3/4 miles away from the hotel. As I got closer, I began to see that there were a great number of people gathered in the distance. When I reached the site I was astonished to see that the line of people stretched from the box office ticket window, south down the sidewalk and up Newark Street N.W., and astoundingly, past the urban neighborhood houses.
I have never seen a longer line for a film since then.
Grandparents Seeing Star Wars Meme: Unknown
There were a great deal of people milling about the theater. As I surveyed this swirl of humanity a miracle occurred; as I was standing there a man and a woman were profusely apologizing to another man, who was holding two red tickets.
As the couple left, he turned, saw me and held up the two tickets. “They couldn’t make the midnight show. Would YOU like to buy them?”
Well, of course I said, “SURE!”
He explained that he was one of the Uptown managers and was outside basically for customer service and to handle the crowd.
“How much?” I asked eagerly.
“Three dollars each.”
And with that I handed over a five and a single dollar bill to witness history.
I walked back to the hotel somewhat surprised at my luck. I gave away one ticket upon my return but for the life of me I cannot remember who the lucky recipient was.
The rest of the day went by in a blur; I can’t remember a single thing I did between then and attending the film.
I returned to the theater by 11:30 p.m. to ensure I got a good seat. There were only a few dozen people ahead of me. Since the Uptown seated 850 people per showing, I was wise to turn up early.
The Uptown Theater: Washington City PaperUptown Theater Interior: Washington City Paper
When the doors opened, I hustled and quickly snagged a seat right towards the middle of the fifth or sixth row from the back of the theater.
When midnight came, the lights went down and there were no preview trailers. The audience spoke in low murmurs. I had no idea of what I was about to see.
I sat back as Alfred Newman’s familiar 20th Century Fox theme tolled. And after this evening, I would forever associate it with this particular film.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…the Star Wars logo burst into existence for the very first time!
With an incredible clash of instruments, composer John Williams, doing the opposite of what he did two summers ago with his masterful and epic score for Jaws, had a stranglehold on my imagination immediately.
Next came the serial-like expositional screen crawl followed by the camera panning down to the planet of Tatooine and came the first of many splendors; Princess Leia’s cruiser under fire from Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, which thundered over our heads with astounding effect. With the four-track Dolby sound system, it seemingly put everyone there seemingly in the middle of the space battle!
And then, a cacophony of thrills; the deserts of Tatooine, the Jawas and their transport, the captive robots, the twin suns, the lightsaber, Mos Eisley spaceport, the Millenium Falcon going into hyperspace, the dreaded Death Star utterly obliterating Alderaan, the rebel’s escape and the climactic battle…
And two hours and one minute later it was all over.
The crowd rose in unison to applaud and scream their approval. A majority of them stayed for the credits as they rolled, something else I had NEVER seen before! For the record, I had no intention of leaving either. There was a very enthusiastic cheer for the Dolby sound system credit as well.
And so, with the last note of Williams magnificent score ringing in our ears, we exited the hall. I stood outside on the sidewalk, still quite stunned at what I just witnessed. The crowd was abuzz with many animated conversations and wildly exaggerated hand gestures.
And then I turned and saw one of my new fannish friends, a Baltimore area fan named Michael Walsh (who went on to become the Chair of ConStellation, the 41st Worldcon in 1983), in a similar state of mind.
We locked eyes, spontaneously joined our hands together and began to dance like two madmen.
(I also have the satisfaction of personally conveyed that scene to C3PO actor Anthony Daniels as he signed my copy of his book I Am C3PO, during his 2019 book tour. He gave me a generous, wide eyed smile in return.)
Star Wars newspaper review: The Washington Post
And the rest, as they say frequently, is history. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed many of the series’ spin offs and sequels (with the possible exception of the Ewoks) and especially after the now concluded prequel series Andor, which I rank among the best of all of the iterations.
As far movie going experiences go, there are very few fantastic or transforming experiences as seeing Star Wars for the very first time on a 70mm screen in a full house of unsuspecting moviegoers.
I haven’t forgotten that evening and I’m willing to bet that very few of those who were there haven’t either.
(2) FAIR PAY. Steve Davidson urges sff readers to commit to pay a fair price for short fiction in a post on Facebook. Davidson begins by telling what the market rates of the Thirties would translate to after factoring in 90 years’ worth of inflation. Then he makes this appeal —
…Authors need to LIVE in order to be able to write and, I’d venture to guess, authors who are not stressing over whether or not they’ll be living in their cars next month will write more and better than those who have no such concerns.
To put a finer point on it: magazines would have to pay a word rate of 67 cents per word if the sale of that one short story is to have the same economic power today as $150 bucks did back in 1930.
On the other hand….
I’m betting that readers actually DO value authors and their works (well, at least those readers who read anyways). And I’m betting that they are willing to step up IF they’re given the opportunity. Oh, maybe not quite yet to covering sixty-seven cents per word, but certainly more than 8 cents per word.
I think the evidence is all around us that they are. I mean – go look at what a paperback costs these days! Me, I choke whenever I see the cover price because my baseline is what it cost me to buy those first Heinlein novels from the Bookmobile back in 1968 – 45 cents to 60 cents. Those same books now go for $13 – or more!
Anyway, the point is this:
We KNOW you all are willing to pay something close to what modern science fiction is actually worth, because you’re already doing it everyday when you plunk down ten bucks for an ebook or fifteen bucks for a paperback (or forty+ bucks for a hardback).
Now all you have to do is extend that same calculus, that same perceptual handwavium when it comes to magazine issues and their close cousin companions, theme anthologies….
(3) LOCUS FUNDRAISER LOOKS TO FINISH STRONG. The “Locus Mag: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror 2025” appeal at Indiegogo has four days to go. It had raised $44,671 when I checked this afternoon. Among reasons for you to click over, the Indiegogo paid includes links to videos of Connie Willis, Daniel Abraham, and Tobi Ogundrian reading from their work.
We are incredibly grateful for every penny donated and we’ll put it all to good use, but this is a moment to be honest about the urgency of our fundraiser. We’re just 4 days from the close of this fundraiser and we haven’t raised even half of the money we need to keep Locus running.
Being an indie non-profit press, we’ve been running on a skeleton crew for years. A larger budget means paying writers and artists a better rate, adding more short fiction and long form reviewers to cover all the amazing stories that are being written, and enough budget to cover all the amazing events out there and to stay connected with the community. Please help keep Locus alive, as the independent voice of the field and the guide to the world’s imagination!
If we don’t reach our funding goals, we will have to contract even further – you’ve seen your favorite magazines and newspapers shrink or disappear… There’s no part of what Locus does that we can imagine giving it up, reviews, interviews, cons, obits, the Locus Awards, the recommended lists – remembering people, pushing the news out, evening out the playing field. We don’t want to give any of it up. And we want to get back to a full schedule of writing workshops, reach more people on different platforms about our amazing genre, host readings… so much more.
We’re particularly concerned about the loss of short fiction reviews. Locus is one of the only venues that reviews short stories and makes a concerted effort to cover the small and independent press. Locus wants to help level the playing field for emerging writers and everyone in general. Without those efforts it feels like the only SFF writers getting attention out there are NYT bestsellers…
A full en banc ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned both a lower-court decision and a Court of Appeals ruling that had found a Texas library’s removal of books was a violation of the First Amendment, in a 10-7 decision.
Last year, a regular three-person Court of Appeals panel ruled that the Llano County Library could not remove books based on their content, writing that, “Government actors may not remove books from a public library with the intent to deprive patrons of access to ideas with which they disagree.” The titles at issue included books about sexuality and racism, and “butt and fart books.” Eight of the original 17 removed titles were returned to the library.
Now, the court reversed that preliminary injunction and dismissed the free speech claims of the plaintiffs—seven library patrons.
In the decision, Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan writes that the right to receive information from “tax-payer funded library books” is not protected by the First Amendment.
“That is a relief, because trying to apply it would be a nightmare,” the decision continues. “How would judges decide when removing a book is forbidden? No one in this case—not plaintiffs, nor the district court, nor the panel—can agree on a standard. May a library remove a book because it dislikes its ideas? Because it finds the book vulgar? Sexist? Inaccurate? Outdated? Poorly written? Heaven knows.”
The decision also states that “a library’s collection decisions are government speech and therefore not subject to Free Speech challenge.” Judge Duncan asserts that libraries have always made decisions about what books to shelve, just as government-funded museums decide on which paintings to include.
“That is what it means to be a library—to make judgments about which books are worth reading and which are not, which ideas belong on the shelves and which do not.
“If you doubt that, next time you visit the library ask the librarian to direct you to the Holocaust Denial Section.”…
(5) LETTING THE DOGS IN. [Item by Daniel Dern.] In chatting with one of the (local) librarians about some catalog quirks (mentioning my not-yet-replicated search within WorldCat/OCLC showing a library/book location of “outer space”), they noted that the CountWay library in the (Harvard) medical center area had a dog in their catalog — a “library” dog, e.g., for “Read with a Dog,” “schedule cuddle time”…
The Short: I read Invasion from Mars: Interplanetary Stories, Orson Welles “editor”, 1949 Dell (there is controversy about the actual editor). Including the 1938 “Invasion from Mars: A Radio Adaption” radio play adaptation, it includes ten stories and an Introduction. My favorite story is the well reprinted and superlative Ray Bradbury story “The Million Year Picnic“, a Martian Chronicles short story, Planet Stories Summer 1946. My overall average rating of the stories was 3.76/5, or “Very good”. I have mixed feelings about recommending it, see below. You can find links to the stories here.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
May 27, 1911 — Vincent Price. (Died 1993.)
By Paul Weimer: Vincent Price. My first voice and face of horror. But especially, his voice.
I’ve mentioned WPIX many times in these birthday reminiscences and in comments at File 770. And so it was on NY’s movie station that I first encountered the work of Vincent Price. It was one of the Dr. Phibes movies, gory, weird and a lot of fun. That voice was unmistakable. Imagine my surprise when the very different looking Dr. Egghead (played by Price) showed up in an episode of the 60’s Batman cartoon. Although Egghead and Phibes couldn’t be more different, the voice was what keyed me, even with my amusia, that the same actor was at work here. That oily, horror fueled voice. He was the voice of terror, of nightmares, of the dark descent.
And that’s kind of how I kept running into him, by accident, again and again. For a while it seemed I could not escape the Master of Horror. Oh, here he is in a movie based on the “Pit and the Pendulum”. How very droll. Oh, and here he has shown up randomly on an episode of Columbo. Oops, here he is again in a Roger Corman horror film. All with That Voice. Although I still think the Jeff Goldblum version is better, the haunting image of his version of The Fly, where a part of him is trapped in a fly’s body, caught in a web, with a spider coming to eat him, is enough to give me the chills.
Even with all of his other work, again and again, what Price comes down to is the voice of horror. And so I ask you, who else could have been the narrator voice for the music video Thriller?
Vincent Price
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY, TOO.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
May 27, 1934 — Harlan Ellison. (Died 2018.)
By Paul Weimer: Harlan Ellison. No trademark symbols, if he wants to come back from the dead and harangue me, he’s welcome to do so.
To talk about him as a broken step will be taken as read, it turns out he did behave very badly indeed, and that mars his reputation. Not being ever to finish the Last Dangerous Visions is another stain on his record, too. He seems to have forgotten his own maxims and advice on that one. He was a writer’s writer and an editor’s editor, and while he had the juice for the first Last Dangerous Visions, he never could see through to the last.
My older brother had plenty of collections of his stories, so his stories, both genre and only near-SF was an early part of my reading. Included in those collections were both volumes of The Glass Teat, so along with lots of Ellison stories, I also got a healthy dose of his film and television criticism, and his unyielding personality. I may have never gotten to meet him personally, but his ferocious reputation by his writing was enough. When Heinlein has him show up in the end of The Number of the Beast as simply “Harlan”, I had read enough to know what Heinlein meant with that one word.
Three stories of his always come to my mind and you can guess them. “’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” which for even though the titular Harlequin is captured and his rebellion ended, is still a story of hope, because his spirit of chaos cannot and will not be permanently stilled. “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”, one of the most ultimate horror stories, with four people and a deranged computer at the end of the world. And, “Paladin of the Lost Hour” which is the best “Rage against the dying of the light” story I’ve ever read. When he wasn’t a raging a-hole, Harlan Ellison could and did write.
(10) DEADPOOL/BATMAN CROSSOVER. Wade Wilson has been hired for a job in Gotham City, but will the World’s Greatest Detective help him or destroy him? Entertainment Weekly today revealed Marvel’s Merc with a Mouth will meet DC’s Dark Knight this September in Marvel/DC: Deadpool/Batman #1, the first of two crossovers between Marvel and DC more than twenty years in the making. It will be followed by DC’s Batman/Deadpool #1 in November.
Deadpool/Batman #1 will be written by prolific Spider-Man comics writer and co-writer for Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine Zeb Wells and drawn by industry superstar Greg Capullo, an artist with an incredible legacy at both legendary comic book companies, with influential work on Batman and X-Men titles.
“After writing Amazing Spider-Man for 60 issues, I told Marvel I needed a break. Marvel told me I could do that or I could write a comic starring Deadpool and Batman with the best Batman artist of our generation. I no longer needed a break,” Wells shared with EW. “In Batman we’ve found someone who has even less time for Deadpool’s antics than Wolverine, but a city-wide threat from the Joker makes strange bedfellows (literally, if Deadpool had his way). It’s been a blast letting Deadpool loose in Gotham City and watching what happens.”
“Am I dreaming? This crossover is likely to be the high point of my career…and, I’ve had a great career,” Capullo added. “Some of my earliest work (many years ago) was on X-Force, so Deadpool and I go way back. More recently, I spent 10-plus years drawing Batman at DC. The idea that I get to do a crossover event with Deadpool and Batman…If I am dreaming, please don’t wake me!”
Check out Capullo’s main cover and stay tuned for more news about Deadpool/Batman #1 in the weeks ahead.
The fabled Schumacher cut of Batman Foreverhas hit a major snag as Warner Bros. has decided to scrap a planned screening of the hotly anticipated film.
A screening of the Schumacher cut was supposed to take place at Cinefile Video in Santa Monica, California. But according to The AV Club, the event was canceled following a legal request from Warner Bros. “Our planned screening of Batman Forever has been canceled,” the store said in an email to its members. “This follows a legal request from Warner Bros. regarding the rights to the version of the film we intended to show. While this was a free, members-only event meant to celebrate a unique piece of film history, we respect the rights of studios and creators, and have chosen to withdraw the event accordingly.”
The news came as a major blow for Batman fans as the Schumacher cut has long been considered a Holy Grail of sorts….
The year was 2013, and the release of a hotly anticipated zombie-apocalypse video game was on the horizon.
The game, called The Last of Us, invited players to explore what then seemed a fanciful scenario: a world devastated by a pandemic in which a pathogen kills millions of people.
Unlike in many apocalypse fictions, the pathogen responsible wasn’t a bacterium or a virus, but a fungus called Cordyceps that infects humans and takes over their brains.
The writers at game studio Naughty Dog, based in Santa Monica, California, were inspired by real fungi — particularly Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, known as the zombie-ant fungus. The fungus infects insects and releases chemicals into the animals’ brains to change their behaviour. Ahead of the game’s release, Naughty Dog turned to scientists, including behavioural ecologist David Hughes, a specialist in zombie-ant fungi (he named one after his wife), to field questions from the media about the fungal and pandemic science that inspired the story. Hughes, who is at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, has since moved to studying climate change and food security….
(13) BALTICON SUNDAY SHORT SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL 2025 WINNERS. [Report by lance oszko.] Audience scores were from 0 to 5, with sum of values divided by number of votes.
Best Live Action
Stephen King’s The Reach (2024) Italy Luca Caserta 167 points in 41 votes cast = 4.0731 *
Best Animation
Dad in the Echo (2023) China Jacky Heng SUN 315 points in 82 votes cast = 3.8414 *
Scores of all entries:
An Old Friend 2024 USA Nuk Suwanchote 198 Points in 57 Votes cast = 3.4736.
Akashic Spheres 2021 USA James Scott 150 points in 69 votes cast =2.1739
Researchers at a university in Taiwan believe a Neptune-sized object could be wandering roughly 46.5 to 65.1 billion miles from the sun.
Their fresh findings are based on two deep infrared surveys taken more than two decades apart, with equipment sensitive enough to detect a faint planetary glow.
Infrared data from 1983 and 2006 offered a rare chance to see if something moved slightly between observations.
A possible candidate popped up, and the group thinks it might take 10,000 to 20,000 years to orbit the sun….
…Researchers estimate that if this object exists, it could weigh between seven and seventeen times as much as Earth. That puts it in the ice giant category, similar to Uranus or Neptune, rather than a rocky planet like Earth or Mars….
(15) 48 CHALLENGE 2025. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Sci-Fi London Film Fest has just posted its latest 48-hour film challenge’s 10 finalists for 2025.
This challenge is where amateur film makers are given a line of script and told to include a particular prop (it could be anything from a top hat to a candle stick) and then they are given two days to complete a short SF film.
Meanwhile, this year’s Fest runs June 19– 22, 2025 at the Picture House in Finsbury Park (just north of central London).
(16) ESA BLUE DANUBE BROADCAST TO SPACE, [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] To mark ESA’s 50th anniversary, ESA’s Cebreros station will broadcast “The Blue Danube” to space on Saturday, May 31, 2025.
The Cebreros station has been used to communicate with deep space missions including: BepiColombo, Euclid, Juice, Hera, Rosetta, Mars Express and NASA’s Perseverance rover.
The Blue Danube was famously (for us SF buffs) in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Cebreros station can, in theory, communicate with current-technology deep-space probes up to 3.5 light years away. However, it could communicate further with bigger dishes than those aboard current deep space probes and so in theory anyone listening around nearby stars should pick the microwave (S-band) broadcast up.
The European Space Agency is planning to beam Johann Strauss’s ‘Blue Danube’ waltz out into the cosmos to celebrate a series of key anniversaries in the history of spaceflight.
2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency and its ‘Estrack’ satellite tracking network.
It also marks the 20th anniversary of its ‘Cebreros’ space antenna and, coincidentally, the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II himself, composer of the Blue Danube.
[Thanks to Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Daniel Dern, lance oszko, Paul Weimer, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Mark Roth-Whitworth for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Cyril Simsa’s cat breaks all the rules! (Who knew there were so many?)
I thought you might appreciate this picture of our youngest, Mouseslayer, on an inspection visit to the bookshelves we like to call Baikonur (because they were once the favourite hiding place of the now sadly departed Valentina…) Of course, I realise that Mouseslayer is not actually sleeping, and that there’s no SF in the shot, but at least there’s a space exploration theme, so I’m hoping we can get a pass. Hope you enjoy!
Photos of your felines (or whatever you’ve got!) resting on genre works are welcome. Send to mikeglyer (at) cs (dot) com
… Of course, there were also plenty of Steampunks about, ranging from cosplayers in full Steampunk gear via historical costumers and goths (I spotted a Wednesday Addams) to people who borrowed grandpa’s old suit and regular folks who accessorised their outfits with a few Steampunk piece such as an elderly lady in regular street clothes with a Steampunk necklace. Naturally, the Aethercircus attracted cosplayers who wanted to show off their costumes, but it was also heartening to see how many regular non-fannish folks made an effort to fit in. So enjoy these photos of great costumes…
…Even now — 15 years since Lucas first proposed a museum, and eight years after ground was broken in Los Angeles — many questions remain about an ambitious but somewhat amorphous project that is now slated to be completed next year.
There has also been turbulence as the museum nears its final approach. In recent weeks the museum has parted ways with its director and chief executive of the past five years and eliminated 15 full-time positions and seven part-time employees, including much of the education department. Lucas is now back in the director’s chair, installing himself as the head of “content direction” and naming Jim Gianopulos, a former movie studio executive and Lucas Museum trustee, as interim chief executive….
… The museum recently said it could not give figures for the size of its staff or its projected operating budget. “As the museum is now in the process of moving from completion of construction to implementation of exhibitions and opening to visitors,” the museum spokeswoman said in an email, “both the staffing and operating budget are currently in transition and can better be addressed as we conclude our pending budgeting process.”…
…What has not changed is the fact that the core of the institution’s collection would be items amassed by Lucas over the years. Beyond Hollywood memorabilia from his films and digital animation, his collection includes book and magazine illustrations assembled over 50 years, including those by R. Crumb and N.C. Wyeth; comic books; and Norman Rockwell’s paintings — such as the artist’s 1950 cover for the Saturday Evening Post, “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,”purchased from the Berkshire Museum in 2018….
… Some of those involved in the institution’s development say they believed that Jackson-Dumont came up against Lucas’ role as the ultimate decision maker with a long history of creative control as well as his bottom-line, where-the-buck-stops primacy as founder and underwriter of the 300,000-square-foot museum. The filmmaker has had a hand in every detail of the museum’s development, former staffers say, from architectural details to exhibition layout to wall text.
Robert Storr, an art historian, critic and former dean at the Yale School of Art, said it is important for major collectors to understand the need for curatorial expertise and experience to shape exhibitions and give them scholarly context.
“If he thinks he’s the single arbiter, then he’s just like all these megalomaniacal patrons who think they know more than anyone they can hire,” Storr said. “They don’t have any methodology for how they talk about the evolution or digestion of ideas. It’s a serious intellectual problem that’s at the heart of all this.”
Conscious of his age (he turned 81 on May 14) — and the escalating construction bill — Lucas is eager to get the museum finished and open, those interviewed said, seeing it as his legacy and a long-awaited chance to share his collection with the public….
…Tchaikovsky writes a lot of books and I’ve enjoyed each one I’ve read but this is one of the strongest of his, although structurally one of the simplest. It has a relatively small cast of characters and it mainly (aside from one part) proceeds as a first person linear account by Arton Daghdev of his experiences as a prisoner on Kiln. I suspect, part of Tchaikovsky’s secret to his prolificness actually is mirrored by how life on Kiln works. Tchaikovsky’s books rework and remix a variety of recurring ideas in new settings and new combinations….
(5) COVERT FANAC. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] “The CIA Secretly Ran a Star Wars Fan Site” says 404 Media (article is behind a paywall). A screenshot of the site can be seen at the link. The headlined Star Wars fan page was only one of many such CIA communication sites.
“Like these games you will,” the quote next to a cartoon image of Yoda says on the website starwarsweb.net. Those games include Star Wars Battlefront 2 for Xbox; Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for Xbox 360, and Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes for Nintendo Wii. Next to that, are links to a Star Wars online store with the tagline “So you Wanna be a Jedi?” and an advert for a Lego Star Wars set.
The site looks like an ordinary Star Wars fan website from around 2010. But starwarsweb.net was actually a tool built by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to covertly communicate with its informants in other countries, according to an amateur security researcher. The site was part of a network of CIA sites that were first discovered by Iranian authorities more than ten years ago before leading to a wave of deaths of CIA sources in China in the early 2010s….
An entertaining chinwag with a first-rate writer of the fantastic (and other genres), Paul Di Filippo. We discuss Paul’s latest short story collection, THE VISIONARY PAGEANT AND OTHER STORIES. He also reveals he’ll be doing a novel set in a John Vance universe! Recorded May 6, 2025.
(7) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
May 26, 1995 — Johnny Mnemonic
Ok, I’m assuming that most of you have read the Nebula-nominated story that the film Johnny Mnemonic was based off of? It was originally published in the May 1981 issue of Omni magazine but it has been reprinted quite a few times in the forty years since then. I could’ve sworn it got nominated for a Hugo but the Hugo Awards site tells me it wasn’t.
Well the film had its premiere thirty years ago on this date. I for one did not see in theatre, indeed did not know it existed until maybe a decade later. My opinion of it will be noted below.
The screenplay was supposedly by William Gibson as it says as IMDb so we can’t fault the script here being crafted by others, can one? Well it was as you’ll see below.
Was it at all good? Well, the critics were divided on that. Roger Ebert in his Chicago Sun-Times review said “Johnny Mnemonic is one of the great goofy gestures of recent cinema, a movie that doesn’t deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis but has a kind of idiotic grandeur that makes you almost forgive it.”
Caryn James of the New York Times has the last word: “Though the film was written by the cyberpunk master William Gibson from his own story and was directed by the artist Robert Longo, ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ looks and feels like a shabby imitation of ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Total Recall.’ It is a disaster in every way. There is little tension in the story despite the ever-present threat of an exploding brain. The special effects that take us on a tour of the information superhighway — traveling inside the circuits of Johnny’s brain, or viewing his search for information while wearing virtual reality headgear — look no better than a CD-ROM. Visually, the rest of the film looks murky, as if the future were one big brown-toned mud puddle.”
Now let’s talk about numbers. It’s generally accepted that a film needs to make at least three times what it cost to produce to just break even in the Hollyworld accounting system. Johnny Mnemonic didn’t even come close to that. It cost at least thirty million to produce (the numbers are still are in dispute even to this day as the Studio stored them in a file cabinet in a basement guarded by very hungry accountants) and made just double that and that’s not even taking into account that the Studio got at best fifty percent of the ticket price.
There were two versions of this film. The film had actually premiered in Japan earlier on April 15th, in a longer version, well six minutes longer, that was closer to the director’s cut that came out later (yes there was a director’s cut — there’s always a director’s cut, isn’t there?), featuring a score by Mychael Danna and different editing. I doubt any version makes it a better film.
I haven’t discussed the film or the cast, so NO SPOILERS here. It’s possible, just possible, that someone here hasn’t seen it yet.
I have. Shudder. Just shudder. Bad acting, worse story and that SFX? The lead actor who I shall not name here was so wrong as being cast that role as to defy comprehension as to why he got cast for it. Well this unfortunately was due to a common occurrence in Hollywood that the studio decided to make the casting calls so the person that I won’t mention was picked up by the studio, so we can blame them for him. Frell.
Then there were the numerous script rewrites were forced upon them by the studio, so Gibson, the producer and the writing staff who had a great script, at the beginning according to Longo, ended up with a piece of shit again according to him. Now that piece of shit was one that the studio loved. Idiots. Obviously not science fiction fans there, were they? Turning into what it became proved that.
A black-and-white edition of the film, titled Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White was released three years ago. Robert Longo, the producer, says it is closer to what he and Gibson envisioned. It is available on Blu-Ray.
Now y’all are free to give away as much as you want for spoilers. That’s on your heads. Or memory chips.
Someday I’m hope for a better interpretation of a Gibson film. I’ve hopes for the soon to be Neuromancer series on Amazon. Really I do. I’m even to once again going to break my long standing stance of not seeing anything made off a work I liked a lot. I did with Johnny Mnuemonic and I’m still regretting it.
I didn’t see The Peripheral series on Sci-Fi as I don’t subscribe to that streaming service. Who watched it? Opinions please.
It wasn’t at all liked by the audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes Neuromancer who gave it a rating of just thirty-one percent when I originally wrote the first version of this but there’s no pages for it there now. Interesting…
The most excellent Burning Chrome collection which has this story is available in dead tree format from your favorite bookseller but not for purchase on Amazon though it available if you have Kindle Unlimited; iBooks also known as Apple Books has it available but not Kobo.
Yes, it’s true, Stephen Colbert has just been officially canonized in DC Comics lore, thanks to his appearance on an upcoming variant cover, which features Superman sitting at the iconic late night host’s desk for an interview. Notably, Colbert’s introduction into DC lore follows suit with his long-time canon status within the rival Marvel Universe.
Colbert and DC Comics shared a clip from his show on Instagram, in which the host revealed artist Dan Mora’s special variant cover for Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #40, written by Mark Waid, with art by Adrián Gutiérrez, which features a broadly smiling Superman holding up a copy of his new self-help book, alongside a beaming Stephen Colbert.
John Carpenter has been responsible for some of the greatest movies of the 70’s/80’s, including Halloween, the Thing, Assault on Precinct 13, They Live, Big Trouble in Little China, and of course – Escape from New York. This sci-fi action flick was a hit for Carpenter, and it made Kurt Russell an action star.
There have been a few attempts at recreating the protagonist Snake Plissken in action figure form, but the success has been questionable. I have the sixth scale version done by Sideshow, and it left a lot to be desired. Now Asmus is releasing a new, very high end version complete with ‘rooted’ hair and moving eyeball, all for the high end price of about $350. This is part of their Crown Collection, their top line series.
There’s actually more than one version – there’s a version with sculpted hair that will run $280, one with rooted hair that runs around $350 at retailers, and an exclusive version (reviewed here) only available through the Asmus website, that includes a diorama base and costs $375…
Polish company Volonaut claims have to invented an “Airbike flying motorbike” that hovers and can fly at speeds up to 200kph. The compact flying machine takes us a step closer to the world imagined by Star Wars, where everyone seems to have some type of personal hovering transport.
While hover bikes are common across the Star Wars universe, the best known is the Aratech 74-Z, the speeder bikes used by the Empire’s scout troopers on the Endor during Return of the Jedi.
The person who sent File 770 the link is certainly skeptical: “First, 200 KPH on that thing? You’ve got to be kidding, right? There’s not even a windscreen. Second, there are no wheels on this sucker. Which might seem OK and I can see why they absolutely need to avoid the mostly parasitic weight and drag of those. But if you come in for a landing with a significant forward speed left and those skids catch on something, you’re gonna be eating a lot of dirt. Not from the dust being kicked up, but from your face slamming into the ground as you flip over the front of the bike. Third, there’s a long tube sticking out in front. This does sort of enhance the resemblance to the Star Wars Storm Trooper speeder bike. But I don’t think that’s the point. It looks to me like it could be a pitot tube, which makes it a piece of functioning equipment as it’s the way the bike will sense forward speed. That actually plays together with the previous point in that bending that tube could cause speed to be read incorrectly and a moderate tipping forward on landing could make the tube contact the ground or other obstacle. Depending on the overall flight control system, I’m not sure how much of a serious effect that would have. But, I could see trust vectoring having an issue balancing hover and propulsion if it got an incorrect speed reading. I’ve never been a motorcycle rider (heck, I don’t even ride bicycles) but I think even very experienced recreational motorcyclists might want to let somebody else try this out for a while first.”
(12) YOU HAVE TO GO BACK. Saturday Night Live 50th season-ending episode includes this parody of a teen time travel adventure: “Will and Todd’s Radical Experience”. (And their phone both is not bigger on the inside.)
Two time-traveling students (Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández) try to return historical figures (Quinta Brunson, Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Emil Wakim) back to their own timeline.
[Thanks to Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, announced the finalists for the 2025 Anthony Awards on May 7. Winners will be revealed at the event, being held in New Orleans this September.
Best Mystery Novel
Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
Alter Ego by Alex Segura
California Bear by Duane Swierczynski
Best First Mystery
The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee
Ghosts of Waikīkī by Jennifer K. Morita
You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
Good-Looking Ugly by Rob D. Smith
Holy City by Henry Wise
Best Paperback/E-book/Audiobook
The Last Few Miles of Road by Eric Beetner
Echo by Tracy Clark
Served Cold by James L’Etoile
Late Checkout by Alan Orloff
The Big Lie by Gabriel Valjan
Best Historical Mystery
The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King
The Witching Hour by Catriona McPherson
The Bootlegger’s Daughter by Nadine Nettmann
The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan
The Courtesan’s Pirate by Nina Wachsman
Best Paranormal Mystery
A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke
Five Furry Familiars by Lynn Cahoon
Exposure by Ramona Emerson
Lights, Camera, Bone by Carolyn Haines
Death in Ghostly Hue by Susan Van Kirk
Best Cozy/Humorous Mystery
A Cup of Flour, a Pinch of Death by Valerie Burns
A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron
ll-Fated Fortune by Jennifer J. Chow
Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson
Cirque du Slay by Rob Osler
Dominoes, Danzón, and Death by Raquel V. Reyes
Best Juvenile/Young Adult
The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui by K.B. Jackson
Sasquatch of Harriman Lake by K.B. Jackson
First Week Free at the Roomy Toilet by Josh Proctor
The Sherlock Society by James Ponti
When Mimi Went Missing by Suja Sukumar
Best Critical or Nonfiction Work
Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft edited by Phyllis M. Betz
Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers by Chris Chan
On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson
Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly
The Serial Killer’s Apprentice by Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman
Best Anthology or Collection
Murder, Neat: A Sleuthslayer’s Anthology edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman
Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson
Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir edited by Tod Goldberg
Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024 edited by Heather Graham
Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead edited by Josh Pachter
Best Short Story
“A Matter of Trust” by Barb Goffman, Three Strikes—You’re Dead
“Twenty Centuries” by James D.F. Hannah, Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir
“Something to Hold Onto” by Curtis Ippolito, Dark Yonder, Issue 6
“Satan’s Spit” by Gabriel Valjan, Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024
“Reynisfjara” by Kristopher Zgorski, Mystery Most International
CRIMEFEST AWARD WINNERS 2025
CrimeFest, a British crime fiction convention in Bristol, presented the 2025 CrimeFest Awards on May 17. These prizes “honour the best crime books released in 2023 in the UK.”
SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD
In association with headline sponsor, the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award is for debut authors first published in the United Kingdom in 2024. The winning author receives a £1,000 prize.
The Night of Baba Yaga byAkira Otani (and translator Sam Bett) (Faber & Faber)
H.R.F. KEATING AWARD
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the United Kingdom in 2024. The award is named after H.R.F. ‘Harry’ Keating, one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, crime reviewers and writer of books about crime fiction.
Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness by Mark Aldridge (HarperCollins)
LAST LAUGH AWARD
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the United Kingdom in 2024.
Mr Campion’s Christmas by Mike Ripley (Severn House)
eDUNNIT AWARD
For the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the United Kingdom in 2024.
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Faber & Faber)
BEST CRIME FICTION NOVEL FOR CHILDREN
This award is for the best crime novel for children (aged 8-12) first published in the United Kingdom in 2024.
Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker by Sufiya Ahmed (Bloomsbury Education)
BEST CRIME FICTION NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS
This award is for the best crime novel for young adults (aged 12-16) first published in the United Kingdom in 2024.
Heist Royale by Kayvion Lewis (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA
This award is for the best television crime drama based on a book, and first screened in the UK in 2024.
Slow Horses (series 4), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple TV+)
THE CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
The Crime Writers of Canada have announced the 2025 shortlist for their annual Awards of Excellence. The winners will be revealed on May 30.
The Miller-Martin Award for Best Crime Novel
Sponsored by the Boreal Benefactor with a $1000 prize
Colin Barrett, Wild Houses, McClelland & Stewart
Jaima Fixsen, The Specimen, Poisoned Pen Press
Conor Kerr, Prairie Edge, Strange Light, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada
John MacLachlan Gray, Mr. Good-Evening, Douglas & McIntyre
Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf, Minotaur Books
Best Crime First Novel
Sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize
Suzan Denoncourt, The Burden of Truth, Suzan Denoncourt
Peter Holloway, The Roaring Game Murders, Bonspiel Books
Jim McDonald, Altered Boy, Amalit Books
Marianne K. Miller, We Were the Bullfighters, Dundurn Press
Barry W. Levy, The War Machine, Double Dagger Books
Shane Peacock, As We Forgive Others, Cormorant Books
Greg Rhyno, Who By Fire, Cormorant Books
Kerry Wilkinson, The Call, Bookouture
The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery
Sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize
Cathy Ace, The Corpse withthe Pearly Smile, Four Tails Publishing Ltd.
Raye Anderson, The Dead Shall Inherit, Signature Editions
Susan Juby, AMeditation on Murder, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Thomas King, Black Ice, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Jonathan Whitelaw, Concert Hall Killer, HarperNorth/HarperCollins Canada
Best Crime Novella
Sponsored by Carrick Publishing with a $200 prize
Marcelle Dubé, Chuck Berry is Missing, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
Liz Ireland, Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper, Kensington
Pamela Jones, The Windmill Mystery, Austin Macauley Publishers
A.J. McCarthy, A Rock, Black Rose Writing
Twist Phelan, Aim, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Best Crime Short Story
Catherine Astolfo, Farmer Knudson, from Auntie Beers: A Book of Connected Short Stories, Carrick Publishing
Therese Greenwood, Hatcheck Bingo, from The 13th Letter, Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem, Carrick Publishing
Billie Livingston, Houdini Act, Saturday Evening Post
Linda Sanche, The Electrician, from Crime Waves, Dangerous Games, A Canada West Anthology
Melissa Yi, The Longest Night of the Year, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Best French Language Crime Book
J.L. Blanchard,La femme papillon, Fides
R. Lavallée, Le crime du garçon exquis, Fides
Jean Lemieux, L’Affaire des montants, Québec Amérique
Guillaume Morrissette, Une mémoire de lion, Saint-Jean
Johanne Seymour,Fracture, Libre Expression
Best Juvenile / YA Crime Book
Sponsored by Superior Shores Press with a $250 prize
Sigmund Brouwer, Shock Wave, Orca Book Publishers
Meagan Mahoney, The Time Keeper, DCB Young Readers
Twist Phelan, Snowed, Bronzeville Books, LLC
David A. Poulsen, The Dark Won’t Wait, Red Deer Press
Melissa Yi, The Red Rock Killer, Windtree Press
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book
Sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton) with a $300 prize
Denise Chong, Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur’s Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse, Random House Canada
Nate Hendley, Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War, Dundurn Press
John L. Hill, The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, AOS Publishing
Dean Jobb, A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Tanya Talaga, The Knowing, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author
Sponsored by ECW Press with a $500 prize
Robert Bowerman,The Man in The Black Hat
Luke Devlin,Govern Yourself Accordingly
Delee Fromm,Dark Waters
Lorrie Potvin,A Trail’s Tears
William Watt,Predators in the Shadows
SPOTTED OWL AWARD
The winner of the 2025 Spotted Owl Award was announced in May by the Friends of Mystery. The award is for a mystery published during the previous calendar year by an author whose primary residence is Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or the Province of British Columbia. The winner is:
Marc Cameron, Bad River
The other finalists were:
Baron Birtcher, Knife River
Rene Denfeld, Sleeping Giants
Warren Easley, Deadly Redemption
J.A. Jance, Den of Iniquity
Phillip Margolin, An Insignificant Case
Katrina Carrasco, Rough Trade
Frank Zafiro & Colin Conway, The Silence of the Dead
The Fantastic Four are about to embark on new adventures, but they’ll have to find each other first!
This July, writer Ryan North and artist Humberto Ramos kick off an all-new era of Fantastic Four that begins with Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny scattered across time by their archenemy, Doctor Doom. The new volume serves as both the fascinating next chapter in North’s current work on Fantastic Four and a perfect jumping on point for readers who want to experience one of the most acclaimed super hero titles of today. The debut issue hits stands just weeks before the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps film on July 25, and today, fans can see all the covers that will be available at their local comic shop.
Series artist Humberto Ramos’ delivers the main cover while variant covers come from a lineup of superstar talent including Alex Ross, Alan Davis, Jerome Opeña, Cliff Chiang, and Jeehyung Lee. Fantastic Four #1 also features a special Foil Variant Cover by Mahmud Asrar, a Remastered Hidden Gem Variant Cover by industry legend John Buscema, a Wraparound Variant Cover by Claudio Castellini, and the first of a five-part connecting cover by Skottie Young. Plus, Leo Romero takes inspiration from the Silver Age with one of the month’s eye-catching Retrovision Covers and Lorenzo Pastrovicchio provides the title’s latest Disney What If? Fantastic Four Homage Variant Cover.
Fantastic Four will also feature more Marvel Rivals Variant Covers by NetEase Games that spotlight artwork from the hit video game, starting with a connecting cover for issues #1 and #2. A Marvel Studios Variant Cover that showcases concept art from the upcoming film will also be available and will be revealed at a later date.
The Fantastic Four return with a new issue #1, kicking off all-new adventures through time, space, science and the human condition! When the Fantastic Four take on Doom, things go well until they suddenly go catastrophically wrong – and they’re sent to four different eras in Earth’s history! Alone and isolated in wildly different time periods, Reed, Johnny, Ben and Sue all have to fight to survive and hope that their shared brilliance will guide them back together!
“I still want each issue to stand alone, and I want every issue to be a place for someone to jump on and get a fully satisfying story with every issue they pick up, but I am turning the dial a little bit more towards larger and crazier stories for that larger narrative. I’m not changing the special sauce – as Ben would say, ‘I’m just adding a couple cloves of garlic – not because it’s not delicious, I just wanna add a little bit of zip,’” North explained in a recent interview with IGN.
See the Fantastic Four variant covers following the jump. For more information, visit Marvel.com.
(1) A DISCWORLD TOUR. Olivia Waite picks “The Essential Terry Pratchett” for New York Times readers (link bypasses the NYT paywall.)
…Book by book, Discworld expands and deepens, pulling in elements from our world that Pratchett tempers in surprising ways: Shakespeare, vampires, police procedurals, musicals, Australia, high finance. Then come even bigger ideas: war, revolution, justice.
By the time we reach Book 29, “Night Watch,” Pratchett is writing comic fantasy the way Martin Luther offered theological critique to the Catholic Church: sharp and tough as nails, with a hammering moral force….
… Discworld is not about how to be good, but about how to do good, and why even the smallest acts of kindness matter. Empathy — like humor or creativity or hope — is a muscle. You don’t train for a marathon by running around the world: You start with small distances and work your way up….
Waite recommend this book as the place to start:
…If you find the flow charts daunting — and who could blame you? — “Monstrous Regiment” (2003) is your best bet for a stand-alone, as it happens far away from Ankh-Morpork or the witchy Ramtop Mountains. We meet young Polly Perks, from a small country forever at war with its neighbors, as she cuts her hair, dons trousers and joins the army in hopes of finding her missing brother. The troops are untrained, the fields are barren, and the government insists it’s treasonous to even ask which side is winning the war. The only authority is Sgt. Jack Jackrum, a jovial nightmare in a coat “the red of dying stars and dying soldiers” — as if Falstaff were reborn as a god of war.
Polly soon discovers she’s not the only soldier in disguise. Everyone has their reasons for fighting, and they’re being tracked by more enemies than they know. It’s trench humor at its blackest, and burns like a wound being cauterized…
The Short: I recently read Atomsk: A Novel of Suspense by Cordwainer Smith, 1949 Duell, Sloan and Pearce. It’s not SF, but today it would be called a techno-thriller, with an engaging story of USSR atomic bomb program spying and espionage. I enjoyed it and thought it was very good. It’s available in e-book format at a very reasonable price….
(3) SKILLS FOR MODERATING PANELS. Frank Catalano tells how to navigate the hardest easy job in public speaking in “A call for moderation (of panels)” at Franksplaining. He has 10 tips.
… I’ve moderated, conservatively, more than two hundred panels (I started as a teen at science-fiction conventions). Since those early nerdy gatherings, I’ve hosted professional panel discussions at events ranging from technology trade shows and summits to book and education industry conferences over several decades.
But being a good moderator requires a different skill set than being a good public speaker. Overlap? Yes. With a major difference: the audience’s attention should be focused on the entirety of the panel, not only the moderator….
… So, for the sake of a perky panel and a rapt audience, here are 10 things I’ve learned about being a good moderator (if you’re ever called to serve, for reasons personal or professional):
1) You’re the glue. Your mission as moderator is to create a coherent whole out of disparate, and sometimes feuding, parts. As a result, you should be the panel’s audience surrogate — even asking for definitions of terms and clarification of statements which a panelist may state as though everyone already knows. Many times, people attend panels to learn, so they may not….
(4) TEN YEARS LATER. The Daily Dot takes us back to “The 11 most important fandoms of 2015”. You were probably a fan of more than one of these. The list includes Star Wars, Max Max: Fury Road, and Back To The Future. Yet the most irresistible is the number one entry –
1) Hamilton
If you’d told us while we were writing last year’s top 10 list that another fandom—much less one for a Broadway musical—would unseat Star Wars in 2015, we’d have probably sent for the doctor to see if you were feeling OK. But if last year in fandom was the year of diversity powered by feminism and social justice activism, then it only makes sense that this year, the fandom that took everyone by shock and storm was one that took all those conversations to the next level—and several levels beyond.
Put simply, Hamilton is the story of a single founding father, retold through a modern lens with a cast mainly composed of black actors. Nothing about Hamilton is simple, though—starting with the music, a stunning, stirring hip-hop language that crams three times more text into its run time than the average Broadway musical. In addition to being inherently modern, Hamilton is also an inherently fannish text—a kind of AU (Alternate Universe) fanfic that also serves to critique its canon, which in this case is the historical narrative we’re all taught. That narrative all too frequently leaves out marginalized voices, and evades the messy politics of a revolution carried out by white men, many of whom distrusted urban industry and had no intention of freeing their slaves. Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda inserts his own viewpoint as a hip-hop fan born to Washington Height’s immigrant Latino community into that of Alexander Hamilton, who immigrated to New York in poverty from St. Croix. Hamilton typified the revolutionary spirit Miranda reclaims on behalf of #BlackLivesMatter and other current political movements.
Rarely has theatre seemed to loom as large over the cultural landscape as Hamilton does, but rarely has theatre managed to intersect so neatly with both the immediacy of current political issues and the constant cries for representation from fans who expect more from the media they consume. Hamilton began a season-long siege on social media upon the release of the long-awaited cast recording, taking over Tumblr and Twitter and ultimately winning a stint as the bestselling rap album in the country.
Fans responded in legion forces, annotating hundreds of thousands of words on the show’s category on the lyrics website Genius, and churning out fanworks and critical analysis in droves. Renewed interest in Alexander Hamilton was so intense that the Treasury is now delaying his removal from the $10 bill. Additionally, Miranda’s social media savvy, his genius #Ham4Ham pre-shows, and his appearances all over pop culture from Colbert to Star Wars, have all made him an instant celebrity. And the fandom just keeps growing. History is still happening in Manhattan—all you have to do is look around, look around at the Hamilton movement to see it.
…How did a trilogy of novels about wizards and elves and furry-footed hobbits become a touchstone for right-wing power brokers? How did books that evince nostalgia for a pastoral, preindustrial past win an ardent following among the people who are shaping our digital future? Why do so many of today’s high-profile fans of “The Lord of the Rings” and other fantasy and sci-fi classics insist on turning these cautionary tales into aspirational road maps for mastering the universe?…
… A similar taste for kingly power has taken hold in Silicon Valley.In a guest essay in The Times last year, the former Apple and Google executive Kim Scott pointed to “a creeping attraction to one-man rule in some corners of tech.” This management style known as “founder mode,” she explained, “embraces the notion that a company’s founder must make decisions unilaterally rather than partner with direct reports or frontline employees.”
The new mood of autocratic certainty in Silicon Valley is summed up in a 2023 manifesto written by the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who describes himself and his fellow travelers as “Undertaking the Hero’s Journey, rebelling against the status quo, mapping uncharted territory, conquering dragons and bringing home the spoils for our community.”
Andreessen, along with Musk and Thiel, helped muster support for Trump in Silicon Valley, and he depicts the tech entrepreneur as a conqueror who achieves “virtuous things” through brazen aggression, and villainizes anything that might slow growth and innovation — like government regulation and demoralizing concepts like “tech ethics” and “risk management.”
“We believe in nature, but we also believe in overcoming nature,” Andreesen writes. “We are not primitives, cowering in fear of the lightning bolt. We are the apex predator; the lightning works for us.”…
(7) PETER DAVID (1956-2025). Acclaimed comics writer Peter David died May 24 after a long illness.
Peter David is best known in the comics world for his legendary 12-year run on Incredible Hulk in the 1980s that fundamentally transformed the character. He is also synonymous with Spider-Man, and has penned other major heroes for both Marvel and DC, including Captain Marvel and Aquaman. Most recently, David wrote Symbiote Spider-Man.…
… David is survived by his wife, Kathleen O’Shea David, and his daughters Ariel, Shana, Gwen, and Caroline.
… A prolific and versatile writer, David’s career began not in comics, but in prose and journalism. His keen wit and sharp storytelling earned him a position in Marvel’s sales department during the 1980s, a foot in the door that led to his first published comic story in The Spectacular Spider-Man #103 (1985). From there, his voice became unmistakable: funny, humane, and layered with deep characterization….
…His 12-year tenure on The Incredible Hulk is legendary, turning what could have been a simple monster book into a psychological epic exploring identity, trauma, and redemption. That run, frequently cited as one of the best in Hulk’s history, cemented PAD’s status as a master craftsman of serialized storytelling.
But his legacy didn’t stop with the Hulk. PAD’s fingerprints are on some of the most enduring titles and characters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries…
…David also ventured beyond comics, contributing to television, video games, and an extensive bibliography of novels—both original works and media tie-ins, including memorable Star Trek stories that made him a fan favorite across fandoms….
(8) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
May 25, 1983 — Return of the Jedi
By Paul Weimer: As I have said before, Return of the Jedi is the first Star Wars movie I ever saw in a theater, and the second movie I ever saw in a theater, period. I don’t quite remember if it was opening weekend or a couple of weeks later that my brothers and I went to go see my first Star Wars film. I had only seen commercials, had some shared Star Wars Toys (I *still* have a stormtrooper bobblehead, I’m looking at it right now, the thing must be over 40 years old). But Return of the Jedi was my first time seeing a Star Wars film, in theaters or otherwise.
It was an interesting place to begin. I had vague ideas on what had happened in the first two movies (from cultural appropriation, such as it was, and my older brother). So having an opening crawl…and then having the droids go to Jabba’s Palace…that was the first moments of Star Wars on a screen for me. For a long time, it held pride of place, even when I saw Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back on video, mainly because I had seen it first. It was “my Star Wars movie” for a very long time. Boba Fett, introduced, and thrown into a pilot. An imperial shuttle (I later had a toy). A whistle stop tour to see this Yoda person I had no idea what his deal really was. The terrifyingly incomplete and dangerous Death Star. My first exposure to Vader, to the Emperor, to our heroes of the Rebellion.
And of course the Ewoks. Yes, the Ewoks are for kids. But the Ewoks are terrifying. Sure their defeat of imperial forces en masse makes no sense (I immediately got a defensive like of AT-STs that would finally pay off when I saw Rogue One. But notice just how dangerous the Ewoks are to individual storm troopers, it’s clear they have been fighting them for years…and, well, yes, eating them. Those cute Ewoks are carnivorous and merciless. I couldn’t buy them defeating an entire garrison with rebel help, but bushwhacking lone soldiers for a meal? Yeah, that definitely was plausible.
Also, of course, Return of the Jedi was my first intro to Lando Calrissian and I had no idea the Falcon used to be his. So yes, the first Star Wars film I saw was Lando flying the Falcon. Go figure. And, also, I saw the Han-Leia romance at its culmination. So when I did see Star Wars, and saw Luke Kiss Leia, having seen it in Return of The Jedi…boy was I confused. But the dogfight into the superstructure is rather satisfying.
And of course the big space battle. If not for the Death Star, the Imperial fleet was clearly on the ropes. I took it to mean the Empire was vastly underestimating the rebellion. With their smaller and more nimble fleet, and better fighters, the Empire was a dinosaur compared to the Rebellion. Maybe had I seen Star Wars I would have felt differently, but I started watching Star Wars when the Empire was ready to fall, not at its height.
I am not a fan of the retconning that has Hayden Christensen’s force ghost appear in newer versions of Return of the Jedi. It also goes to the whole problem of timelines and timeframes in the Star Wars universe. But the movie itself? Solid still.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Paul Weimer.]
May 25, 1939 — Sir Ian McKellen, 86.
By Paul Weimer: Sir Ian McKellen came to my consciousness in his twin roles in the late 90’s: Magneto, and Gandalf. It was quite the coup for both Peter Jackson and for Sony to land an actor of McKellen’s magnitude and make it work so that I could watch him chew scenery with Patrick Stewart (each one of them the other’s equal) and then the ensemble cast of the best adaptation of Middle-Earth I will likely get in my lifetime. The idea that he was doing these two iconic roles, basically, at once, is amazing.
Also, McKellen makes the Hobbit movies almost watchable for me. Almost.
And yes, while we have seen Magneto and Gandalf with other portrayals, other actors, other media, they feel like they stand as reaction, or preparation, to McKellen’s performances. That’s his power as an actor. People half a century now will study his takes, if only to do it differently.
He doesn’t quite rescue the 2009 Prisoner remake from utter oblivion, although he does try. It is when he is so brilliantly affably evil. “Of course it’s a trap” that he really gets the role of Number Two right. But he’s saddled with a script and a setup that just doesn’t jell together. A pity.
I think his best genre piece outside of Magneto and Gandalf is one that is only mildly genre, and this is his adaptation of Richard III. It counts as genre because it takes place in a 1930’s version of Richard III, with the Wars of the Roses taking place as a conflict much more like the Spanish Civil War, between Royalists and Fascists. McKellen plays the title character, addresses the audience throughout, and is absolutely captivating in it.
Not content with simply being Ken again after his guest appearance in the Barbie movie coincided with the news that he would be Doctor Who‘s latest Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa is going full circle with his very own 15th Doctor Barbie doll.
Revealed by the BBC this morning, Mattel Creations will release new Barbie dolls of the 15th Doctor and his first companion, Ruby Sunday. He’s Ken no more!…
… Gatwa isn’t the first Time Lord to be Barbie-fied–Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor had that honor back in 2018–but Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday will mark the first time a Doctor Who companion has entered the Barbie world….
Time mirrors sounds like a concept straight out of a sci-fi film. But physicists confirm that time mirrors exist—and it’s not as mind-boggling as it sounds.
Instead of a regular mirror that bounces light back at the person looking in, letting them see their reflection, a time mirror is caused by waves reversing their flow in time. In other words, this reaction causes a signal to reverse, Earth.com reports.
To demonstrate, physicists attach a metal strip to an “electronic component” to create a “metamaterial.”
Then, by carefully adjusting the electronic component, a burst of energy flips the direction of the wave in time.
While it sounds complex to the layman, scientists anticipate that time mirrors could have tangible applications. No, not just for time machines.
According to Earth.com, this discovery may create new ways to transmit data or create advanced computers. However, the scientists note that further research and experiments are needed to figure out the limits of time mirrors….
A massive streak of white, aurora-like light recently appeared in the night sky above several U.S. states after a Chinese rocket released half a dozen satellites into orbit. The light show was triggered when the rocket dumped a new type of fuel into space before reentering the atmosphere, experts say.
The luminous streak appeared at around 1:24 a.m. ET on Saturday (May 17), hanging in the air for around 10 minutes before eventually fading away. It was photographed in at least seven states — Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington and New Mexico — but may have been visible even further afield, according to Spaceweather.com.
Photographer Mike Lewinski snapped stunning shots of the streak from Crestone, Colorado (see above) and also managed to capture timelapse footage of the entire event….
…In 2021, [prison inmate] Johnson filed a lawsuit against Alabama prison officials for failing to keep him safe, rampant violence, understaffing, overcrowding and pervasive corruption in Alabama prisons. To defend the case, the Alabama attorney general’s office turned to a law firm that for years has been paid millions of dollars by the state to defend its troubled prison system: Butler Snow.
State officials have praised Butler Snow for its experience in defending prison cases – and specifically William Lunsford, head of the constitutional and civil rights litigation practice group at the firm. But now the firm is facing sanctions by the federal judge overseeing Johnson’s case after an attorney at the firm, working with Lunsford, cited cases generated by artificial intelligence – which turned out not to exist.
It is one of a growing number of instances in which attorneys around the country have faced consequences for including false, AI-generated information in official legal filings. A database attempting to track the prevalence of the cases has identified 106 instances around the globe in which courts have found “AI hallucinations” in court documents.
Last year, an attorney was suspended for one year from practicing law in the federal middle district of Florida, after a committee found he had cited fabricated AI-generated cases. In California earlier this month, a federal judge ordered a firm to pay more than $30,000 in legal fees after it included false AI-generated research in a brief.
At a hearing in Birmingham on Wednesday in Johnson’s case, the US district judge Anna Manasco said that she was considering a wide range of sanctions – including fines, mandated continuing legal education, referrals to licensing organizations and temporary suspensions – against Butler Snow, after the attorney, Matthew Reeves, used ChatGPT to add false citations to filings related to ongoing deposition and discovery disputes in the case.
She suggested that, so far, the disciplinary actions that have been meted out around the country have not gone far enough. The current case is “proof positive that those sanctions were insufficient”, she told the lawyers. “If they were, we wouldn’t be here.”…
[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Paul Weimer, Frank Catalano, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rob Thornton.]
