SF/F updates

Happy birthday to ithildyn and ruinithil, and happy early birthday to travels_in_time. May all three of you have fantastic days and wonderful years to come!

Apologies for being quiet of late. I've been chin-deep in work, but I hope to catch up with everyone soon! However, I did manage to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I came away with a very mixed impression; it accomplished some things extremely well and then completely fell apart in other areas. It certainly won't be my favorite HP film, but I don't think it will be my least favorite, either. I must mull it over some more, I think, and quite likely see it again, as well.

In other news...

* R.I.P. to two science fiction pioneers:
-- Charles N. Brown (1937-2009), father of Locus
-- Phyllis Gotlieb (1926-2009), mother of Canadian science fiction

* SF Signal continues its Mind Meld series with its "Guide to International SF/F" Part III and Part IV.

* Fantasy and science fiction author Martha Wells (a.k.a. marthawells) has made two new short stories available on her website: "The Potter's Daughter" (first published in Tor's Elemental) and "The Forest Boy" (available for the first time).

* Those of you who are Harry Potter aficionados should check out John Granger's latest work, Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures, which is hot off the press this month!

* The World in a Satin Bag offers a list of the "Top Six Lesser Known or Forgotten Fantasy Series."

* The Galaxy Express discusses a "Future Trend: Young Adult Science Fiction."

* Maria Lectrix has begun posting segments of her unabridged reading of "The Were-Wolf" by Clemence Housman. I discussed the significance of this 1896 story in my "History of the Genre" segment on StarShipSofa's Aural Delights show #44, which you can listen to or download here.


"You don't go after poetry, you take what comes."
- Phyllis Gotlieb