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Frederik Pohl’s Gateway on Your TV?
The late great Frederik Pohl‘s most famous novel may be coming to the small screen soon. The film rights to Gateway have been purchased at auction by Entertainment One Television in collaboration with De Laurentiis Co. who plan to develop and produce a TV drama series adapted from the book. Details seem to be a bit sketchy at this point but you can read a bit more about it on Pohl’s site: The Way the Future Blogs. Hopefully we’ll get more info soon to whet our appetites.
I think Gateway lends itself pretty easily to an episodic television show. It’s pure adventure and there’s plenty of room to build stories around desperate crews risking their lives on the HeeChee ships. You could even frame the show around Robinette Broadhead recounting his adventures to his holographic shrink!
I think it will be interesting to see what they can do with a Hugo, Nebula, Locus SF and Campbell award winning novel that’s also a SF Masterwork and shows on seven other best of lists! Of course, there’s a huge downside to attempting to make a show based on a fan favorite like Gateway but, like Bob, the show runners think it’s worth a roll of the dice.
Songs of the Earth, Trinity Rising and The Raven’s Shadow Contest Winners!
We’ve just had our re-tweet contest prize drawing for the first three books of Elspeth Cooper‘s Wild Hunt Quartet! There were 142 entrants this time and here are our 5 random winners:
Donna(@donnak4)
Brianne Reeves(@reev2550)
Christopher(@Halfhippy77)
Matthew Stevens(@matt_the_writer)
J.C.(@castleruins)
Congrats to all our winners! If you are one of our prize winners please send your full name and snail-mail address to us at “info [at] worldswithoutend [dot] com” so we can send your prize right away. Be sure to mention Wild Hunt Quartet in your email so we know which prize you’re claiming.
Our thanks to Tor and Elspeth Cooper for the excellent prizes and to everyone who participated! We’ll be back with another giveaway soon so keep one eye open. Like, tomorrow maybe….
RYO Review: Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
I’m not a big fan of C. J. Cherryh. I know she has a huge fan following, but I find her books a tough read. Downbelow Station was no exception. It started out interestingly, with a chapter summarizing Earth’s early space colonization activities. As space stations were built farther away, the more remote stations and merchants, which formed the Union, began to rebel against domination by the Earth Company. Chapter Two begins the story in the middle of the war between the Union and the Company at Downbelow Station, the first station built around a planet inhabited by sentient, although primitive beings. That’s where it fell apart for me.
As many of my readers know, I don’t care for space operas. This is first of the operas to win a Hugo. It’s full of anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, gangs, riots, assassins, and greed. No one is really happy and it takes a long time to figure out if any of the characters are even likeable. The book is divided into five parts, and Cherryh spends a lot of the first three inside the characters heads. They’re low on action, and high in exposition and setup. I found this unbearably tedious. All the characters are flawed. I don’t mind flawed characters, but was sad was that most of them were cardboard and unredeemable.
RYO Review: Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock
Have you ever read a book and wished you could chat with the author to find out what they meant at a certain part? To learn what went into the crafting of a character or plot line? Well I’ve been chatting with Teresa Frohock a bit on Twitter for a while now, with the intent to read her book. Then I was struck with the idea of actually livetweeting my read the way I livetweet TV shows. Ms. Frohock loved the idea and as a result, I got to have the most wonderful reading experience with a great book and a fantastic author.
[View the story “MisLT: The Miserere Livetweet” on Storify]
Miserere is a tale of hope and redemption, of love and of faith. But it is not a tale involving pretty flowers (in fact, there is one not-so-pretty flower that would make an interesting Valentine’s Day gift) nor is it a sweet love story. Frohock delves into the darkest emotions and desires with Miserere and, perhaps the only flaw I have with this book is that she could have gone even deeper.
RYO Review: Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Beggars in Spain won a number of awards when it was first published, including the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella, so I was expecting quite a lot going in. I was not disappointed. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I devoured this book and was constantly delighted by the ‘hard’ Science Fiction on display.
The premise sounds very intriguing: an exploration of the strains placed upon American society by the development by a group that is unquestionably not “created equal”. I mention the Declaration of Independence here, because it is a cornerstone for much of the political and sociological debate in the book. The concepts of freedom, responsibility, equality and community are explored in depth throughout the story and the characters repeatedly refer to the Declaration of Independence as well as the writings and speeches of Abraham Lincoln. I found this far more interesting than I would have imagined, because it sounds like it would be rather dry and dull. However, the author keeps such discourse to a minimum and presents the arguments in such a way that they hold the attention and provoke contemplation of the issues involved rather than causing the eyes to glaze over and the mind to skip over these sections. I feel educated by this book, and that is not something that I can say very frequently.
RYO Review: Titan by John Varley
During an exploration expedition to the planet Saturn, Cirocco “Rocky” Jones–captain of the space vessel, Ringmaster–and her crew encounter an anomalous satellite revolving around the planet. The closer they get to the anomaly, the more they begin to realize that it’s actually a habitat of some sort. While trying to report their findings back to NASA, they are pulled into the satellite. The Ringmaster is destroyed, and Cirocco and her crew are rendered unconscious.
After spending some time in darkness, with no idea of how much time has passed for them in that unconscious state, the crew wakens naked, hairless, and separated (at first) in this strange habitat. The descriptions used during their time unconscious and their eventual awakening sort of seems to be some analogy to birth. However, their time in the darkness is terrifying for them, and instead of coming into this new world innocent, they still have much of their personality and memories intact.
RYO Review: Astra by Naomi Foyle
A couple of weeks ago I won a copy of this novel from Worlds Without End. The nice things about book giveaways is that you tend to take a chance more easily on books that you wouldn’t have purchased or the release of which you most likely wouldn’t have noticed. This is one such book. Although the premise appealed to me I probably would have missed it without the giveaway. Naomi Foyle is a relatively new name in genre fiction. As far as I have been able to determine, this is her second published novel after Seoul Survivors (2013). Astra is the first novel in the Gaia Chronicles and it doesn’t appear to be related to Seoul Survivors. It set in a post apocalyptic world, with a generous helping of genetic engineering and social experiments mixed in. The premise and style of the novel are very interesting but I must admit that at times, the book tried my patience.
Growing up in Is-Land, seven year old Astra’s greatest wish is to do service in IMBOD, the agency that defends Is-Land’s borders against intruders an terrorists. To do that she needs her Security Shot, a serum that will make her more receptive to the training she will have to follow, more resistant to doubt and closer to the children she grows up with. One of her shelter mothers, Dr. Hokma Blesser, disagrees with Is-Land’s policies in this regards and fears that it will take away something of Astra’s intelligence and curiosity. To excel in science, she needs these qualities in tact. She offers Astra a choice to conspire to refuse the mandatory shot. Reluctantly Astra accepts.
RYO Review: Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
I’m voting for the Hugo Awards this year (for the first time – yay!) and, in order to make informed decisions, trying to catch up on some of the best 2013 titles. This, however, means that I sometimes have more than one volume of a series to catch up on. But Elizabeth Bear has been on my finally-read-something-by-that-author list for a while, so I gladly dove into this epic fantasy.
RANGE OF GHOSTS
by Elizabeth Bear
Published by: Tor, 2012
Ebook: 336 pages
Series: The Eternal Sky #1
My rating: 8/10
First sentence: Ragged vultures spiraled up a cherry sky.
Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather’s throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin.
Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.
Book Giveaway: Talus and the Frozen King by Graham Edwards
How about another giveaway? This time we have a brand new book coming out from Solaris on March 26th: Talus and the Frozen King by Graham Edwards.
Meet Talus – the Bronze Age Detective! Even at the dawn of society, murder is an ancient habit. But Talus is the first man who understands that the identity of an unknown killer can be found, if you can start asking the right questions.
Neither historical fantasy nor crime fiction has ever seen anything like Talus before. Edwards brings a unique character to the world of crime fiction while blending myth, legend, and fantasy into a rich tapestry about a bright light amidst humanity’s darkest dawn.
A Bronze Age Holmes and Watson? Sounds like a lot of fun and the cover art is just awesome. Join our re-tweet contest for your shot at getting one of five autographed paperback copies before it’s released to the public. All you have to do is re-tweet this tweet:
ANOTHER giveaway: Talus & the Frozen King by Graham Edwards: http://t.co/1rYZcGZnLQ RT to enter, blog comment x2 odds pic.twitter.com/IFQK2Hd5TD
— Worlds Without End (@WWEnd) March 12, 2014
…or comment here in the blog to enter the contest. Do both and double your chances! It’s about as easy as we can make it. We’ll have a random drawing from our re-tweeter pool and announce the winners next Wednesday so tweet away and don’t forget to tell your friends.
Talus and the Frozen King
by Graham Edwards
Meet Talus – the world’s first detective.
A dead warrior king frozen in winter ice. Six grieving sons, each with his own reason to kill. Two weary travelers caught up in a web of suspicion and deceit.
In a distant time long before our own, wandering bard Talus and his companion Bran journey to the island realm of Creyak, where the king has been murdered. From clues scattered among the island’s mysterious barrows and stone circles, they begin their search for his killer. But do the answers lie in this world or the next?
Nobody is above suspicion, from the king’s heir to the tribal shaman, from the servant woman steeped in herb-lore to the visiting warlord whose unexpected arrival throws the whole tribe into confusion. And when death strikes again, Talus and Bran realise nothing is what it seems.
Creyak is place of secrets and spirits, mystery and myth. It will take a clever man indeed to unravel the truth. The kind of man this ancient world has not seen before.
What people are saying:
“A close cousin to the writings of Conan Doyle, Christie, and Marsh… Mystery fans will look forward to Talus’s future investigations.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“I think both mystery and fantasy readers alike will feel right at home with this one. A very entertaining and fast read.” — The Bibliosanctum
“It all makes for a pretty fast, intense mystery as shadows thicken, nothing is as it seems and men start to die all around.” — Drunken Dragon Reviews
Our thanks to Solaris and Graham Edwards for the excellent prizes and best of luck to everyone. Help us spread the word and be sure to come back next Wednesday to see if you’ve won!
RYO Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger
Snowpocalypse. Again. This one I celebrated by drinking copious amounts of tea and reading Gail Carriger‘s Changeless, the sequel to her delightful absurdist steampunk fantasy mystery romance Soulless, which I read over the summer (in a delightful rustic lakeside cabin in Maine. God, I can’t wait for summer again).
In Changeless, our soulless heroine, formerly Alexia Tarabotti, now Mrs. Alexia Maccon, Lady Woolsey, is just settling in to her multiple new roles as a married woman, the female Alpha of Woolsey pack, and Queen Victoria’s muhjah, when chaos strikes, in the form of an entire regiment of werewolves camping out on her front lawn. Well, that happens, but it’s not the real chaos, unfortunately. The real chaos is a peculiarly exactingly defined area of London in which all supernatural have ceased being supernatural, as if a preternatural (a soulless person, like Alexia) were continually touching everyone within a certain radius at once. Needless to say, the vampires and werewolves are rather panicked. The ghosts, unfortunately, have been exorcised, and as such have nothing to say about the matter.
