Bag of Beans » scifi

Futurama Renewed For 7th Season

author-unknown — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:44:00 +0000

An anonymous reader writes "During the video for the 3rd International Talk Like William Shatner Day, Futurama voice actor Maurice LaMarche revealed that the show had been renewed and he'd received his contract for the show."

When Words Collide

Beanbag — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:55:25 +0000

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Geek Culture Will Never Die…or Be Popular

author-unknown — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:36:00 +0000

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adeelarshad82 writes "Last year CNN wrote an interesting article on how geek culture is now a big part of pop culture, while Patton Oswalt gave his own opinion on how he thinks pop culture has outright co-opted and diluted it. These articles gave birth to a completely different view, which is that geek culture can never truly be part of pop culture. The movies and t-shirts might sell, and everybody might use Facebook, but there will still be a small percentage that loves comics, imports video games, and can build their own computers. In other words, true geeks are much different from the stereotypes we learn about in the movies. The geek culture is not just playing D&D or watching V for Vendetta but also having a bookshelf full of D20 system manuals as well as reading all the Alan Moore material one can find. The fact of the matter is that while geek culture is far from dead, it's not exactly a part of the pop culture either. So, no matter hard media outlets try to make the concept catch on, no matter how many studios try to capitalize on the cultural waves of comic book movies and best-selling video games, there is no such thing as pop culture geekdom."

Plinkett Reviews – Red Letter Media

Beanbag — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:05:05 +0000

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baencd at the Fifth Imperium

Beanbag — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:24:08 +0000

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Basic Science Fiction Library

Beanbag — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:50:04 +0000

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Salon Futura

Beanbag — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:06:15 +0000

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Crossed Genres

Beanbag — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:22:04 +0000

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Crossed Genres

Beanbag — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:22:04 +0000

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BULL SPEC

Beanbag — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:27:55 +0000

Bull Spec is a magazine of speculative fiction -- roughly, science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and a few other bits around the edges -- published quarterly from Durham, North Carolina. Continue reading →

BULL SPEC

Beanbag — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:27:55 +0000

Short Story: “The Cockroach Hat”, by Terry Bisson

Beanbag — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:35:23 +0000

“The Cockroach Hat”, by Terry Bisson. 6/10

Robert J. Sawyer’s talk at Google’s Waterloo office

Beanbag — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:25:48 +0000

Robert J. Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction author, gave a fascinating talk at Google’s Waterloo office. He discusses how the world wide web might gain consciousness, the subject of his latest trilogy. The talk touches on several topics related to theories of consciousness, and is worth watching.

I would also recommend picking up his latest novel, Wake, the first book in the WWW (Wake, Watch, Wonder) trilogy. I’ve read the book and the trilogy is off to a great start. I will definitely be picking up the other books when they come out.

Link

Hugo Award winners for 2008

Beanbag — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:40:41 +0000

Here are the winners for this year’s Hugo Awards. There are links to some of the nominated and winning stories, including the winner for best short story, “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear.

Link

The Wizard in the Space Station: A Look Back at the Works of the Late Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Beanbag — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:03:38 +0000

Great retrospective looking back at Clarke’s most influential works.

But relatively little space has been devoted to Clarke’s writing—the notable exception being the essays of his collaborator and friend, Gregory Benford, an astrophysicist and author of many science fiction novels including Timescape, the Galactic Center Saga, and Beyond the Fall of Night (a collaboration with Clarke).

In many of Clarke’s obituaries, there is a subtext (occasionally text) suggesting that while his way of seeing the future was extraordinary, his writing was perhaps not very good. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though he wasn’t known for vivid character portraits, his prose was always elegant, and its style precisely suited to his purposes: prompting readers to think and to wonder.

Link

New York Times article on the life of Arthur C. Clarke

Beanbag — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:04:49 +0000

The New York Times has an article commemorating the life of science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who just passed away.

The author of almost 100 books, Mr. Clarke was an ardent promoter of the idea that humanity’s destiny lay beyond the confines of Earth. It was a vision served most vividly by “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the classic 1968 science-fiction film he created with the director Stanley Kubrick and the novel of the same title that he wrote as part of the project.

His work was also prophetic: his detailed forecast of telecommunications satellites in 1945 came more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight.

Other early advocates of a space program argued that it would pay for itself by jump-starting new technology. Mr. Clarke set his sights higher. Borrowing a phrase from William James, he suggested that exploring the solar system could serve as the “moral equivalent of war,” giving an outlet to energies that might otherwise lead to nuclear holocaust.

Link

Fiction: Wikihistory

Beanbag — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:54:26 +0000

This is a pretty funny piece of fiction on what could happen when nearly anybody can time-travel and change history.

At 14:57:44, SilverFox316 wrote:
Back from 1936 Berlin; incapacitated FreedomFighter69 before he could pull his little stunt. Freedomfighter69, as you are a new member, please read IATT Bulletin 1147 regarding the killing of Hitler before your next excursion. Failure to do so may result in your expulsion per Bylaw 223.

At 18:06:59, BigChill wrote:
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their first trip. I did. It always gets fixed within a few minutes, what’s the harm?

Link (via Bureau 42)

The Compleat Gamer Geek’s Guide to Futurama

Beanbag — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:40:14 +0000

Wired’s Game|Life blog has just finished a series of articles on Futurama. Check them out for another look behind the scenes.

This week on Game|Life, Wired magazine senior editor Chris Baker took us through the crazy videogame-obsessed brains of the creators of Futurama, the geekiest show on television.

In case you missed any of the in-depth reports on how Futurama and games have and will continue to intersect, here is the complete set of links. Please waste your entire Friday reading them! I will.

Link

Related:

Wired Magazine on the resurrection of Futurama

Beanbag — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 02:40:08 +0000

Wired has a great series of articles on the new season of Futurama, and the story behind it.

Cohen has another reason to be happy. The segment he’s watching is from Futurama, the show that he codeveloped back in 1999 with Simpsons creator Matt Groening. (Cohen wrote and produced some of the animated sitcom’s most popular episodes.) With that pedigree, Futurama seemed like a can’t-fail proposition, but it was canceled five years ago. This footage, however, is new: Futurama is back in production, and the unexpected return is as curious as the story of its abrupt cancellation.

Top 10 science fiction novelists of the ’00s — so far

Beanbag — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:27:55 +0000

This is a great list of some excellent science fiction authors of this decade.

We are blessed so far this decade with an amazing crop of new science fiction novelists.

Writing in a variety of styles, this crew is arguably more insightful, more interesting, higher intensity, and bolder than many (but not all!) of their predecessors — and in my view revitalizing the genre at a time when more new technologies that will radically reshape all our lives are incubating and percolating than ever before.

So, taking nothing away from authors like David Brin who have long been established and continue to produce top-notch work, here are my nominations for the top 10 new science fiction novelists of — more or less — the decade, plus one bonus.

And, they’re not all British.

Link (via Digg)