The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

• io9 found these amazing silhouettes showing comic book characters at recess. They are now my desktop background. Which one is your favorite?
• Tor.com wants to know: what are your favorite Wheel of Time quotes? Mine: “Blood and bloody ashes!” From Mat, of course.
• Another great link from io9, this time an incredibly comprehensive list of upcoming sf/f movies that aren’t sequels or prequels.
• Over at SF Signal, there’s a new MIND MELD post: Has Space Opera lost its luster?
• Ursula K. Le Guin tackles the Literature vs. Genre debate.
• A fun music video from the New York State Reading Association.
• William S. Burroughs was an exterminator, and the odd jobs of 23 other famous writers.
• And finally, the beautiful cover of Marie Brennan’s upcoming A Natural History of Dragons has been revealed!

And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Summer Manga Sweepstakes (Ends 7/1)
• Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 7/3)
• Seed Seeker by Pamela Sargent (Ends 7/6)
• Farseed by Pamela Sargent (Ends 7/6)
• An Echo Through the Snow by Andrea Thalasinos (Ends 7/9)
• The Eye of the World Graphic Novel, Volume Two by Robert Jordan (Ends 7/13)
• The Eye of The World trade paperback edition, by Robert Jordan (Ends 7/13)
• The Great Hunt trade paperback edition, by Robert Jordan (Ends 7/13)
• Kitty’s Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 7/17)
• Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero written and illustrated by Fred Chao (Ends 7/18)

The Week in Review

 

• Mark, of Mark Does Stuff, reads John Scalzi’s story “Shadow War of the Night Dragons.” He has no idea what he’s in for, and the result is hilarious for all of us.
• The Suicide Girls have an excerpt up from Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross’ upcoming book The Rapture of the Nerds.
• The blog She-Wolf Reads has an interview with artist Chris McGrath, who does the covers for the Dresden Files and D. B. Jackson’s upcoming novel Thieftaker.
• Mary Robinette Kowal is a reluctant runner (and so am I). But, she’s found an excellent way to motive herself: Zombies, Run!
• An interesting essay on colonialism from critic and genre fiction author Nisi Shawl.
• Tor.com’s Lee Falin continues his look at the science behind allomancy in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy. This time, he examines pewter.
• Over on BoingBoing, there’s a lovely mash-up of the X-Men and Picasso.

And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Kitty’s Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 6/19)
• The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla (Ends 6/19)
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Ends 6/22)
• Earthseed by Pamela Sargent (Ends 6/22)
• Blackmail Earth by Bill Evans (Ends 6/25)
• The Lincoln Letter by William Martin (Ends 6/25)
• New Spring: the Graphic Novel by Robert Jordan (Ends 6/29)
• Summer Manga Sweepstakes (Ends 7/1)
• Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 7/3)
• Seed Seeker by Pamela Sargent (Ends 7/6)
• Farseed by Pamela Sargent (Ends 7/6)
• An Echo Through the Snow by Andrea Thalasinos (Ends 7/9)

Goodreads Giveaway: Seed Seeker by Pamela Sargent

We are offering the chance to win a copy of Seed Seeker on Goodreads.

About Seed Seeker: An adventure in colonization and conflict from acclaimed SF writer Pamela Sargent

Several hundred years ago, Ship, a sentient starship, settled humans on the planet Home before leaving to colonize other worlds, promising to return one day. Over time, the colony on Home divided into those who live in the original domed buildings of the colony, who maintain the library and technology of Ship, and those who live by the river, farming and hunting to survive. The Dome Dwellers consider themselves the protectors of “true humanity” and the River People “contaminated,” and the two sides interact solely through ritualized trade: food and goods from the River People in exchange for repairs and recharges by the Dome Dwellers.

Then a new light appears in the night sky. The River People believe it might be Ship, keeping its promise to return, but the Dome Dwellers, who have a radio to communicate with Ship, are silent. So Bian, a seventeen-year-old girl from a small village, travels upriver to learn what they know. As she travels through the colony of Home, gaining companions and gathering news, Bian ponders why the Dome Dwellers have said nothing. Has Ship commanded them to be silent, in preparation for some judgment on the River People? Or are the Dome Dwellers lying to Ship, turning Ship against their rivals?

Whatever the answer, life is about to change radically on both sides of the divide.

Enter for a chance to win here!

(Ends July 6)

Plus, we offering the chance to win Earthseed (Ends 6/22) and Seed Seeker (Ends July 6) on Goodreads.

Also, don’t forget to check out our other sweepstakes!

YA Collection Sweepstakes

Sign up for the Tor/Forge Newsletter for a chance to win the following collection:

About our newsletter: Every issue of Tor’s monthly email newsletter features original writing by, and interviews with, Tor authors and editors about upcoming new titles from all Tor and Forge imprints. In addition, we occasionally send out “special edition” newsletters to highlight particularly exciting new projects, programs, or events.

If you’re already a newsletter subscriber, you can enter too. We do not automatically enter subscribers into sweepstakes. We promise we won’t send you duplicate copies of the newsletter if you sign up for the newsletter more than once.

Sign up for your chance to win today!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins April 30, 2012 at 12 a.m. ET. and ends June 8, 2012, 11:59 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. For Official Rules and to enter, go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

More giveaways:

• John Scalzi Collection Sweepstakes (Ends 5/4)
• Island Apart by Steven Raichlen (Ends 5/4)
• Redshirts by John Scalzi (Ends 5/4)
• Existence by David Brin (Ends 5/4)
• Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica (Ends 5/4)
• Blue Magic by A.M. Dellamonica (Ends 5/4)
• A Game of Lies by Rebecca Cantrell (Ends 5/8)
• Earthseed by Pamela Sargent (Ends 5/25)
• Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (Ends 6/8)
• The Coldest War by Ian Tregellis (Ends 6/8)
• Dark Companion by Marta Acosta (Ends 6/8)
• Thieftaker by D.B. Jackson (Ends 6/8)
• Queen’s Hunt by Beth Bernobich (Ends 6/8)
• The Hollow City by Dan Wells (Ends 6/8)
• Wake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe (Ends 6/8)
• A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell (Ends 6/8)
• A Dog’s Journey Sweepstakes (includes $200 PetSmart Gift Card) (Ends 6/15)

My AI and Miss Jean Brodie

By Pamela Sargent

Ship, the artificial intelligence that unites the three volumes of my Seed trilogy—Earthseed, Farseed, and the just-published Seed Seeker—is the mind inside the space-faring vessel sent out by a far-future Earth to seed other worlds with human life. In Earthseed, Ship is the only parent the young people growing up inside it have ever known. In Farseed, Ship is absent until the last chapter of the book, although still remembered by its children, who have settled the planet they call Home but are still caught in the conflict among them than began aboard Ship. In Seed Seeker, Ship returns to find out what has become of the descendants of its earthseed, who now recall it only as a legendary part of their distant past.

The obvious science-fictional antecedents of Ship include, to mention only one, Robert A. Heinlein’s Universe. What isn’t apparent is that the creation of Ship was also inspired by Muriel Spark’s short novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, originally published in 1961. There were times when I imagined Ship speaking in tones similar to those of, say, HAL in 2001, but maybe just as many when I would hear the voice of Maggie Smith, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Jean Brodie in the 1969 movie based on the novel, or Vanessa Redgrave, who first played the role on the stage, reciting Ship’s lines of dialogue.

A number of my novels and stories were influenced by sources that might seem eccentric. One early novel of mine, Watchstar, was fueled by the writings of both Arthur C. Clarke and Carlos Casteneda (one an sf writer rooted in rationality, the other a self-proclaimed shaman and occult thinker whose supposed anthropological studies were probably fiction). My Venus novels grew out of wanting to write a generational novel like Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, unlikely as that sounds; using a terraforming project as background provided the appropriate scope for a story of generations, and my fictional family, unlike the Buddenbrooks of Mann’s novel, turned out not to be a family in decline. The characters led me to the story, while the science-fictional elements pushed it in a very different direction from what I had originally intended.

The same thing happened with Ship, who turned out to be not at all like Jean Brodie, the passionate and devoted schoolteacher who is betrayed by one of her students. But without Jean Brodie’s (and Muriel Spark’s) aid in imagining and shaping Ship, I might not have realized (not to give too much away to anyone who hasn’t read my novels) that Ship has been misled by its own creators and is also in danger of being betrayed by them even as it inadvertently misleads the children it carries. Farseed went in another direction, given Ship’s absence, while Seed Seeker depicts two very different and divided human settlements that fear what they think of as Ship’s judgment, but the story had its roots in the mixture of idealism, devotion, and deception that Muriel Spark depicted so well.

Pamela Sargent’s Seed Seeker, third in a trilogy that includes Earthseed and Farseed, is just out from Tor. Her other books include the science fiction novels Venus of Dreams and The Shore of Women, the anthologies Women of Wonder, The Classic Years and Women of Wonder, the Contemporary Years, the alternative history Climb the Wind, and Ruler of the Sky, a historical novel about Genghis Khan that Gary Jennings called “formidably researched and exquisitely written.” She has won the Nebula and Locus Awards and been a finalist for the Hugo.

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From the Tor/Forge December newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.

…………………………

More from our December newsletter:

• Empress of Eternity—Science Fiction Yet? by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
• To Read, or Not to Read, that is the Question by Melissa Ann Singer
• “Keep Away from the Keep”* by F. Paul Wilson
• The Green Bird by Kage Baker

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Related links:

• SF Signal interviews Pamela Sargent
• SciFi Chick interviews Pamela Sargent

Science Fiction Library Sweepstakes

Sign up for the Tor/Forge Newsletter for a chance to win a set of these hardcover sf books for you and a set for your local library:

Every issue of Tor’s monthly email newsletter features original writing by, and interviews with, Tor authors and editors about upcoming new titles from all Tor and Forge imprints. In addition, we occasionally send out “special edition” newsletters to highlight particularly exciting new projects, programs, or events.

If you’re already a newsletter subscriber, you can enter too. We do not automatically enter subscribers into giveaways. We promise we won’t send you duplicate copies of the newsletter if you sign up more than once.

Sign up for your chance to win today!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins November 13, 2010 at 12 a.m. ET. and ends December 16, 2010, 11:59 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. For Official Rules and to enter, go to www.tor-forge.com/tor/promo/sflibraryprizepack. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

New Releases: 11/9

AND

Wicked City: The Scarlet Clan by Hideyuki Kikuchi

See what titles are releasing over the next 3 months.