Links, links, linkety links....

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to cherylmmorgan, and happy early birthday to muuranker. May you both enjoy many happy returns of the day!


* My most recent StarShipSofa "History of the Genre" segment, which this month is about the young adult science fiction author David Severn, a.k.a. David Storr Unwin (1918-2010), is now available in the latest episode of the podcast. You can download it or listen to it here. If you listen, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)

* Here's an important article from Cory Doctorow in The Guardian. To quote Doctorow, "Baking surveillance, control and censorship into the very fabric of our networks, devices and laws is the absolute road to dictatorial hell."

* You may recall that I previously posted about Sherry Kelly's fascinating biography of Michael Dunn (the Academy Award-nominated actor of lasting Wild Wild West, Star Trek, and Get Smart fame). My friend Tim O'Shea of Talking with Tim has just posted a new interview with Kelly about her book.

* From Genevieve Valentine at Fantasy Magazine: "What YA Fantasy Means for Movies."

* From Brainz: "The 10 Greatest Apocalyptic Novels Of All Time." While there are some great novels on the list, other key titles are missing, perhaps most notably the haunting Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald.

* Speaking of post-apocalyptic fiction, I just finished This World That We Live In, the third book in Susan Beth Pfeffer's "Last Survivors" trilogy. If you liked Life As We Knew It and The Dead and The Gone, you'll want to read this, as it brings together the characters from the other two books. This latest installment seems to have missed some important opportunities, but it's still very compelling reading. Kudos to Pfeffer for refusing to take the easy way out with her ending (which I won't spoil for you here).


I'll leave you with Neil Gaiman reading from his children's book Instructions over images of Charles Vess's wonderful art.

After a while you get used to being cold, and hungry, and living in the dark.

But you can’t get used to losing people. Or if you can, I don’t want to. So many people in the past year, people I’ve loved, have vanished from my life. Some have died; others have moved on. It almost doesn’t matter. Gone is gone.

- Susan Beth Pfeffer, This World We Live In

Comments

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Cory Doctorow is always coming up with important articles. It's got to be a coincidence!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Or... a conspiracy.

[greenhoodloxley.livejournal.com]

You know, I've never been tempted to read any of Susan Beth Pfeffer's books. This is mostly due to our library having more of her Little Women series and things like that, instead of her later dystopian novels. But that quote sort of makes me want to. I might have to investigate her. Thanks. :)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

My pleasure! I've never read anything by her except her dystopian novels, but those (I think) are quite compelling. I'd be interested to know your reaction, if you read them!

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

Interesting Valentine article. This caught my eye: "Twilight’s smashing box-office success helped quick-track a Hunger Games movie, aiming squarely for all the teens who had proved their willingness to provide that ever-elusive moviegoing quality: repeat business. If Hunger Games pans out, expect a flood of post-apocalyptic, underage antiheroes." Reminded me of that screenwriter's panel I attended last year, all heavyweights, at which the point was made that studios today want only to make films for teen boys who will see a film three times. Perhaps many stories in a series (this decade's Hardy Boys?) is part of the answer to the question, "why so popular?"

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

studios today want only to make films for teen boys who will see a film three times. Perhaps many stories in a series (this decade's Hardy Boys?) is part of the answer to the question, "why so popular?"

Excellent point! *light bulb moment* I hadn't thought of that.

I worry about how The Hunger Games (which I very much liked) will be adapted to the silver screen. So much of what makes it a good novel is rather subtle and not particularly visual. I wasn't as concerned about Twilight, since I'm not exactly a fan of the book. ;)

I see that John Marsden's wonderful Tomorrow, When the War Began series is also headed for theaters, too. It's significantly older and a rather late import in the U.S., so in that case, I'm just hoping that a film will encourage people to discover the books. We'll see.

OT

[mmarques.livejournal.com]

I'm slowly making my way through a backlog of podcasts (catching up now that gardening season is here). Anyway, I finally heard your editorial on the sofa episode asking to be nominated.

I had been wondering for a while if you had been on the Podcast panel at Worldcon. It's your mention of the sofa back then that got me listening! I was asking even back then if the change in rules meant that podcasts could be nominated. :-)

Re: OT

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Hi there! Yes indeed, I was on the Podcast panel at WorldCon. :) I can't thank you enough for getting the ball rolling by asking (and then posting) about the possibility of podcasts being nominated. You're the "prime mover" behind all of this, really, and I can't help but hope that now StarShipSofa has made it on the ballot, others will soon in the upcoming years.

And I'm so glad you're listening and enjoying. Thank you!

Re: OT

[mmarques.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool about my little action getting the ball rolling and having this great effect. I'm probably going to buy a supporting membership so that I can cast a vote for StarShipSofa (as well as a couple of other categories I care about).

This year, StarShipSofa is getting even better! I hope all the fans who haven't tuned in yet give it a listen.