The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
To round out our trifecta of movie trailers we have The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Loosely based on The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, this is the third film to tell the story of Thorin Oakenshield and some other dwarves. Oh, yes. There’s a Hobbit in there somewhere too…
Horns
Based on the 2010 Stoker nominated book, Horns, by Joe Hill. Looks like the film will have more action than the book, which has been described to me as “a bit of a slog.” I like the trailer and Harry Potter looks pretty good in it.
Mad Max: Fury Road
I had no idea they were making another Mad Max movie but I can’t say I’m surprised. I will say that I’m surprised it’s taken this long. Looks like the action and stunts are going to be spectacular at the very least. What do you think?
Horror Manga 101: Another
I must say up front that delving into the Horror manga genre is very new to me. I’ve simply never paid any attention. But since I’m doing these blogs for WWEnd and the site covers SF, Fantasy, and Horror, I feel that I must expand my own horizons.
And I’m very glad that I’ve done so.
Here is what Yen Press has to say about Another:
In the spring of 1998, Koichi Sakakibara transfers into Class 3-3 at Yomiyama North Middle School. But little does he know…his new class has a horrible secret. When he takes his seat in class for the first day of school, Koichi is unsettled by his fearful classmates. Despite this atmosphere and warnings from fellow students, Koichi is drawn to the beautiful, distant Mei Misaki, another classmate. But the closer he tries to get to her, the more mysterious she and their class become. And when a fellow student dies a disturbing death—the first of a long chain of deaths—Koichi seeks to learn the truth behind the curse of Class 3-3. But can he get answers before the curse kills him?
Right from the start line we have some horror standards: young people and young people dying. These are interacting with manga standards: young people and a school setting. So the plot equation looks like this: young people, plus a school setting, plus a curse, plus secrets, equals lots of people dying.
Steampunk Girl Video
I like this song from John Anealio and the lyric video by Joshua Westbury is a lot of fun.
2014 World Fantasy Awards Finalists
The finalists for the 2014 World Fantasy Awards have been announced. The nominees in the Novel category are:
- Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes (Lethe)
- A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan (Tor)
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
- A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (Harper)
- The Land Across by Gene Wolfe (Tor)
See the full list of nominees in all categories on the Locus blog. The winners will be announced at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention held in Brighton, England on November 6th-9th.
Our congrats to all the nominees! What do you think of this lineup? The Ocean at the End of the Lane has garnered a 4th award nomination while The Golem and the Jinni is doing well with 3 noms.
2013 Shirley Jackson Award Winner!
The 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented on Sunday, July 13th at Readercon 25, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts, hosted by Readercon 25 Guests of Honor, Andrea Hairston and Kit Reed.
The winner in the novel category is American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett.
See the official press release for complete results in all categories.
Congratulations to Robert Jackson Bennett and all the nominees! What do you think of the results? Anyone read American Elsewhere yet?
Pretender: Saving Luke Giveaway Winners!
Time to give out some more books! For our Pretender contest we had 81 re-tweets and 25 blog comments. Here are our 5 lucky winners:
Congrats to our winners! If you are one of our prize winners please send us your full name and snail-mail address to info@worldswithoutend.com so we can send your prize right away. Be sure to mention Pretender: Saving Luke in your email so we know which prize you’re claiming.
Our thanks to Steven and Craig and everyone at The Centre Universe for the great contest and prizes and to everyone who participated! We’ll be back with another giveaway soon come on back!