The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log » Joe Gordon

Ragnarok

Joe Gordon — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:27:00 +0000

The highly unusual mixture of electronica, synths and sitar from Ragnarok, who played to great acclaim at the recent Eastercon SF event in Glasgow, can be heard via the magic of MP3 on their own web site.

P-Con IV announces GoH

Joe Gordon — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:09:00 +0000

That’s Guest of Honour if you’re not familiar with convention-speak; ‘GoH’ is also the sound certain SF writers make at 3am in the convention bar when informed it is their round. Kim Newman, writer, journalist, broadcaster and master of sculpted facial hair will be the Guest of Honour for P-Con IV, which is gearing up already even while memories of P-Con III are warm. Kim is well-known to genre and film fans from his novels, articles (including regular spots in Empire movie mag) and his non-fiction (I still swear by the BFI Companion to Horror he edited a few years ago and wish they would publish a new edition).

Also signed up to appear are the most excellent Juliet E McKenna who will appear with her performing pterodactyls (performing budgies are for wimps, she says) and my good mate and star editor of the Alien Online and tireless promoter of good SF, Ariel, who, rumour has it, will chair a panel about home extensions and DIY in parallel dimensions. Both Charlie Stross and Charlie Stross’ beard are also on board, with Charlie’s beard and Kim’s whiskers giving a talk on the role of facial fuzz in fantasy; P-Con IV is scheduled for the weekend of 10th-11th March 2007 at Wynn’s Hotel in the fair city of Dublin.

New Emerald City online

Joe Gordon — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 11:50:00 +0000

The latest issue of Emerald City, number 128, has just hit the virtual newstands and includes a cracking review of V For Vendetta by Moore-expert Pádraig Ó Méalóid, an essay on style by that sultan os linguistic sartorialness Hal Duncan, Victoria Hoyle reviewing the Clarke-shortlisted Never Let Me Go, Cheryl reviewing Mike Carey’s Devil You Know and a review of the first two Judge Dredd Complete Case Files volumes by your humble blogger among a plethora of other fascinating items.

Black Hole

Joe Gordon — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:39:00 +0000

Not the graphic novel by Charles Burns but the astronomical feature which gets Stephen Hawking so excited – NASA has managed to create a mathematical script to describe how the gravitational waves from two merging black holes would look animated on a computer (previously the maths simply crashed the programmes). Scientific theory and science fiction coming together in a beautiful piece of rippling animation which belies the sheer energies it represents.

Author talks to author

Joe Gordon — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:39:00 +0000

Padraig over at Irish SF News directs my attention to the transcript of an interview between to excellent fantasy novelists as Juliet E McKenna interviews Susanna Clarke over at Fractal Matter. There are also some other damned interesting interviews available on the main page, including Colin Greenland and Mike Carey – well worth a visit.

Pilot of the future

Joe Gordon — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:13:00 +0000

Digital radio station BBC7 is repeating the first Dan Dare tale Voyage to Venus, which sees Dan and crew captured by the evil Mekon of Mekonta and his Treens while exploring Venus to see if crops could be grown there to feed the hungry Earth. Check out the Listen Again button on the left-hand side of the BBC7 menu.

Supernatural Law gets mainstream praise

Joe Gordon — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 10:13:00 +0000

Tales of Supernatural Law, the latest volume by the delightfully monikered Batton Lash, is picking up mainstream praise and approval. The Beat reported that Tales is a finalist in the graphic novel category for the Publisher’s Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards (which reward independent publishing) and ForeWord magazine’s Book of the Year Awards. Way to go, Batton! I wonder if Wolff & Byrd, ‘Counsellors to the Macabre’ influenced Joss Whedon’s creation of Wolfram and Hart in Angel? Nancy Drew: the Demon of River Heights and North Country are also on the final shortlist for the Ben Franklin. Batton’s work has also been nominated for inclusion on the American Library Association’s recommended reading list.

SFX

Joe Gordon — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:43:00 +0000

SFX magazine has a chat with Billie Piper and David Tennant available on their webpage. The new print edition of the UK’s biggest SF magazine also gives a thumbs up to Mike Carey’s The Devil You Know debut prose novel and includes a nice freebie in the shape of a ‘fascinating facts’ type book. For comics fans there is a plethora of X-Men articles and it is to their credit that the SFX crew have decided that while the imminent new movie requires covering they also need to discuss the long comic book history of mutant power.

Chaykin’s Power & Glory

Joe Gordon — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:11:00 +0000

Howard Chaykin‘s old mini-series Power & Glory has had the film rights picked up by New Line, reports Variety. Being one of Howard’s works you may expect it to be a slightly unusual superhero (if I’m still allowed to use the term without infringing trademarks!) tale and you would be right: it sees a US government programme to create their own superhero. Except the person they end up with may look and sound the part but he is an utter wuss, frightened to use his powers and rather poor at combat, so his former CIA agent-turned-hero-handler ends up doing much of the dity work the superpowered half of the team was meant to do.

In other genre movie news Warner Bros and IMAX announced that around twenty minutes of the forthcoming Superman Returns will converted to IMAX 3-d for the IMAX screenings, which will open on the same day as the more conventional cinema release this summer. Word is that these scenes are visually stunning. Dare I say it? You’ll believe a man can fly. There, I said it.

Lord of the Rings – the musical

Joe Gordon — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 08:30:00 +0000

After more than four years in production and a cost (over £14 million) which makes it the most expensive stage production ever, the musical version of Lord of the Rings will make its debut bow this evening in the fine city of Toronto. If it is successful there are plans to bring it to London and a touring version for the US. As well as the music, audiences are promised some astonishing stage special effects. Personally I’m just left wondering what a singing Gandalf will be like. And will the Hobbits sing in a barbershop style? We can only hope there will be no homage to Leonard Nimoy’s The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sorry, Len, we love you, but please, ever, ever sing that again).