Around the Net

R.I.P.

Unfortunately we had a death in the genre this past week:

Peter Fernandez may not be know to everyone. He is not a household name but his work is very well known. Fernandez is the voice of Racer X, Speed, and a few other characters on the show Speed Racer. He also rewrote the Speed Racer theme song for the US version of the show. His voice was also used on such classic cartoons as Astro Boy and Star Blazers.




BOOKS

Free Reads

If you head on over to Subterranean Press you can read a free short story by K.J. Parker entitled "Amor Vincit Omnia." Not sure how long the link will be up and there are a few more stories available as well from authors Lucas Shepard and Corey Doctorow.

From Harry Markov's Temple Library Review he is offering a free download of the debut novel The Choir Boats by Daniel Rabuzzi. According to Harry the book is being described as Gulliver's Travels crossed with The Golden Compass with some Pride and Prejudice thrown in for good measure. The free book can be found at Wowie.com. Offer is good through July.

The BBC had an interesting article online recently regarding the future of 'traditional books.'

from the BBC:

Traditional books 'may not survive electronic age'

Books may not survive in their current form as reading habits change during the electronic age, an expert has said. Dr Bill Bell, from the University of Edinburgh, said the book format was going through a "seismic shift". Books may need to be adapted to include technology, he said, as new devices now encouraged different reading styles. Dr Bell will join historians and IT experts at a conference in the city which will look at how new forms like iPads are changing the way people read.

The academic from the university's School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures said books appeared to be enjoying a boom at the moment. But he believes traditional texts may eventually be superseded by electronic books. Dr Bell suggested they may need to become easier to navigate, with more information links to satisfy people who are used to flicking between different programmes on computer screens.
'Hybrid experience' Readers may also be less inclined to read texts straight through from start to finish and instead be diverted by links on screen, he said.

Dr Bell added: "There's an older generation who might complain about shorter attention spans but there is a new literacy which has emerged among younger users and readers who are incredibly adept at multi-tasking. "The older generation might want to read a book from beginning to end but it takes a different type of skill to multi-task and keep all of those things going simultaneously.
"It's about having a hybrid experience, it's no longer sitting and reading linearly from beginning to end, it's about developing new kinds of skill. "A new generation of authors are starting to think in more multi-linear ways about the way they can structure narrative." The three-day "Material Cultures" conference, which starts on Friday, will focus how electronic books and media devices might influence the world of publishing.

Life after Twilight?

There have been a few forum discussions as what will be the new fad after vampires are put to rest. Mummies, witches, and my personal favorite, minotaurs. However, over at Grasping for the Wind suggests that the answer just might be robots.

INTERVIEW

Ari Marmell

Apex Book Company has a great interview with Conquerer's Shadow author Ari Marmell. It is worth checking out.

MOVIES


Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon may be coming to a screen near you soon. While 2012 is just around the corner and the first movie will be a standalone there are plans for a franchise.

From Blastr:

Director Breck Eisner is continuing work on a new Flash Gordon movie for 2012, but his plans don't end there by any means. He said he's writing the film as an origin story that will be the start of a new Flash franchise.

"It'll be a franchise for sure," he told Airlock Alpha. "It will be a stand-alone story. It definitely won't be left open for more, but the ultimate goal is to turn it into a franchise. It will be an origins story for Flash. He's going to Mongo, he's gonna save the planet, and it will have a superhero buy-in and will be unique. It is very much a superhero origins story."

He also said that his version will be based on the original comic strips from the 1930s but that he'll "update those and shoot the movie as if the strips were drawn today. It will be an action and adventure sci-fi." Unfortunately he can't use any material that was unique to the 1980 Flash Gordon film, which means no Queen song.

Although he wants the show to be edgy like Syfy's remake of Battlestar Galactica, he wants to stay away from the recent short-lived Syfy Flash TV series, which he called "total crap."