SF Manga 101: Eden – It’s an Endless World
In an earlier blog, I mentioned that it was my intention to peruse the endless manga bookshelves to find the best SF and bring it to your attention. And by doing this, hopefully some quality SF manga would earn places right next to their top level USA SF counterparts.
To my own chagrin, I’ve discovered I didn’t need to look any further than my own bookshelves for this title. For a variety of reasons, none of which are any good, Eden made it’s way onto my shelf, but not onto my reading pile. That has changed. Eden is a manga we should pay attention to.
This is what Dark Horse has to say about the first volumes of Eden: It’s an Endless World.
Eden Volume One is both a brilliant love song to the post-apocalyptic survival genre and the beginning of a deep exploration on man’s role in the natural order. In the near future, a large portion of humanity is wiped out by a brutal, new virus that hardens the skin while dissolving internal organs. Those who aren’t immune are either severely crippled or allowed to live with cybernetically enhanced bodies. Taking advantage of a world in chaos, a paramilitary force known as the Propater topples the United Nations and seeks world domination. Elia, a young survivor searching for his mother, travels towards the Andes Mountains with an artificially intelligent combat robot. When he encounters a group of anti-Propater freedom fighters, a maelstrom of unique characters unfolds. Graphic, cyberpunk, and philosophical, Eden is a place where endearing heroes face a constant struggle for survival and violent surprises wait around every corner!
Clarkesworld: Chinese Science Fiction Translation Project
There’s a whole world of great science fiction published in other languages. Help us translate and publish them in Clarkesworld!
I heard about the Clarkesworld KickStarter project on The Coode Street Podcast and was reminded of it by SF Signal this morning. Clarkesworld is seeking funding to make translated fiction a part of every issue going forward. Thev’re reached their initial goal already so the Chinese fiction is a go. Now they’re stretching out to add fiction from other countries as well so they still need more funds. Check out their Kickstarter page for full details and to pledge!
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Trailer – “The Mockingjay Lives”
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 arrives in theaters in 11/21 and the ladies in my house are breathless with anticipation. My 13 year old daughter has gotten my wife hooked on the series and I have to admit I did enjoy The Hunger Games film quite a bit more than I expected. We’ll be watching Catching Fire this weekend for sure now that this trailer has dropped. What do you think of this series? The books and the movies?
The Entire SF Masterworks Series Reviewed
We do love our lists on Worlds Without End and I think it is fair to say that the Gollancz SF Masterworks series stands out among the ones we’ve added so far. You can argue with the selection of course, and many of us probably have, but it is a remarkable series of books, with numerous award winning novels and books that changed the direction of Science Fiction.
In honour of LonCon 3, which was held last month, Peter Young, editor of the electronic fanzine Big Sky launched a project to get reviews, in the widest sense of the word, on each individual title and collect them in a special edition. Well, two special editions. The list was simply too long to contain in one volume.
These books are among the most discussed novels in the genre and this gave him plenty of material to choose from. In fact, I don’t really want to think about how much material he had to wade through to make his selection. What he was looking for, in his own words, was this:
Plenty of words have been written about all the titles on the SF Masterworks list. In compiling this fanzine, I probably read thousands of reviews, in magazines, fanzines, websites and blogs. Quickly, a form of mental shorthand was set in place for the kind of reviews I wanted to showcase here. I knew instinctively what I particularly didn’t want: the kind of nonanalytical review that fills almost every corner of Goodreads; similarly, at the other extreme, when a reviewer takes pains to come across as exceedingly academic, I just kinda… zoned out.
What I was looking for can be summed up as well-written ‘opinion / context / commentary’ as opposed to something resembling a ‘formal review’ template, and something akin to a ‘four star’ rating rather than a gushing ‘five’. And of course, the more original, the better.
The result is a collection of opinion form authors, editors, critics and bloggers in a wide variety of styles. The list of names in the table of content is impressive and among them are several Worlds Without Ends regulars. Peter put in a lot of effort to collect some of the most interesting stuff that is out there. The result is something I highly encourage you to check out.
Both issues (numbers 3 and 4) are available for free download here.
Monsters: Dark Continent Trailer
So, after the success of Monsters, the budget for the sequel apparently went through the roof. I have to say I think it looks pretty good but what I liked about the first movie was that your didn’t really see the monsters until well into the film. I suspect that was a budget constraint as much as it was an artistic decision to heighten the anticipation and horror but heighten the anticipation and horror it did. This trailer makes it look like it’s going to be all monsters all the time. Monsters on the horizon. Monsters up close. Monsters racing alongside a jeep reminiscent of Jurassic Park. Giant monster eyeball peering through a window. Even a monster vs. junk yard dog fight. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Perhaps they should have called it “Monsters: In Your Face!”.