Alex Carnevale

We Are In Dire Need of a Scifi Sitcom

CBS’ Two and a Half Men, with 14,073,000 viewers last week, crushed Heroes (which reeled in only 8,198,000 viewers). Plus Heroes’ lead-in, the dorkcom The Big Bang Theory, also destroyed the 112-character Tim Kring serial. When television ratings decline, the incentive to invest in hour-long series with multiple locations generally goes with it. That’s why…

The Best Collaborative Novels in Science Fiction

Collaborative novels are often frowned upon — literary types consider them the stuff of movie tie-ins or ghostwriters. But why exactly should that be? When you have one exceptional mind, why not double or even triple your pleasure and/or fun? The tighter-knit circle of SF masters hasn’t embraced working together en masse, but there’s a…

Cultural References You Need to Know Before Experiencing Watchmen

Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen will attempt to simulate the look and detailed feel of the graphic novel, but where did that look and feel originate? The multilayered original comic book by Alan Moore and collaborator Dave Gibbons is packed with references to everything from British scifi TV to Mayan death gods. And Snyder threw…

Robert Heinlein Explains How to Write for Money

The aspiring SF writer goes through many crises of confidence. Even Robert Heinlein asked himself “Am I good enough?” and “Is a tesseract just goofy stoner bullshit?” After he began publishing in the journal Astounding Heinlein wrote to editor John Campbell about what his rules for writing were, and under what terms he’d continue writing…

You Can Feel Up Pierre Cardin’s French Villa

Pierre Cardin’s space-age designs thrilled fashion runways this fall, but we’re equally impressed with his bling-bling French villa. Designed by genius architect and designer Antti Lovag in the mid 70s, Cardin was walking around Cannes when he came upon the construction site of the architect he was about to employ to create a bubble house.…

Imagining the Chuck Klosterman Space Elevator

As Japan Space Elevator Associated contemplates building a space elevator, Esquire writer Chuck Klosterman sees one on the horizon in his “A Brief History of the 21st Century.” Artist Bruce Irving conceptualizes the elevator to the stars above, and Klosterman gives us the details below. Klosterman writes: As predicted by Arthur C. Clarke in 3001:…

The Superheroes of the Far East Are About To Get Really Good

The Busan International Film Festival in South Korea wrapped yesterday, and everyone was buzzing about two major superhero flicks hitting Asian countries this winter. The sequel to 2003’s Cicak Man from Malaysia will hit theaters in early December. And audiences eagerly anticipate Jeon Woo Chi, a Harry Potter superhero flick budgeted at $12 million. Want…

Are You 24 Pages Away From a Multi-Book Contract?

When the struggling writer is pitching a book to an agent, he or she had better have a book, right? Well, Finnish SF author Hannu Rajaniemi sold three of them to classy UK-based Orion imprint Gollacz based on a mere 24 pages. Could you also be 24 pages away from selling your book? Find out…

We love wasting hours at the Speech Accent archive at George Mason University. Where else can you listen to the English accents found on the Mortlock Islands in Micronesia? The mad linguists behind this archive’s recordings found someone to say, “We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids”…

Cormac McCarthy is Huge in Spain

Spain announced the results of its fan-voted scifi awards Los Premios Ignotus over the weekend, and nabbing the prize for best Spanish novel was Alexander the Great and the Eagles of Rome by Javier Negrete. The Spanish author was previously a university professor of Greek, and his classical alternate history asks where Alexander the Great…

iPhone Apps from Science Fiction

Inspired by the fantasies of SF writers, we’ve made a shortlist of applications that developers need to build for the iPhone right now — and all of them will make your phone more powerful than a light saber. In fact, the whole iPhone-light saber conversion process is completely retro. In the brave new iPhone future,…

Blade Runner Started, And Ended, As A Comic Book

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner has claimed inspiration from many sources, but these mid-1970s panels by legendary French illustrator Jean Giraud (pseudonym Moebius) from his collaboration with Dan O’Bannon for The Long-Tomorrow are particularly evocative of the final product. Scott’s artistic talents also emerge in the brilliant storyboards for the film, and Sci-Fi-O-Rama collects both here.…

The Moscow That Never Was

As America descends into anarchy and destruction, the Russian president has declared the era of the U.S. over. So what are we in for? Soviet architecture in the 1930s and 1940s was cloud-touching stuff, as this exhibit of unrealized Soviet architectural fantasies proves. With the tables turning, can we expect to see the result of…

The Mystery of Dan Simmons

We once asked who would replace Philip K. Dick as the most adapted SF writer, and Peoria’s own prolific Dan Simmons is definitely a credible candidate. Bringing an educated, literate eye to whatever he writes – be it historical fiction or sci-fi, short story or novel cycle – Simmons is one of the most imaginative…

Mercury, We Love You But You’re Bringing Us Down

NASA’s Messenger space capsule is aiming to photograph Mercury as it swings by, a prelude to putting the first spacecraft in orbit with the planet in 2011. The Messenger will fly 124 miles above the planet’s surface to grab snapshots of an un-photographed part of Mercury the size of South America. The astrological community has…

Tonight’s Sanctuary Premiere Is Green, But Green’s Good

Sanctuary, the new series from Stargate producers Damian Kindler and Martin Wood premieres tonight at 9 p.m. the SciFi Channel. Starring Amanda Tapping, the show concerns itself with all the creatures you were afraid to see in your bedroom when you opened those cute little eyes of yours. We got a sneak peak at the…

Is The Starlost The Worst Science Fiction Series Ever Made?

This week marks the release of the Canadian SF series The Starlost on DVD. Initially conceived by Harlan Ellison, the show ran for one miserable season. With laughable sets, terrible dialogue, acting that was simply beyond the pale, and a strange Amish theme, The Starlost doesn’t rate a purchase, but you will derive considerable pleasure…

America: It Had To End Sometime

With America’s economic future looking bleak, now’s the time to read up on what to expect after the country fails altogether. Luckily, there are a whole host of stories about the fall of America, and the ravaging of our nation is a crime with many potential culprits. Here’s the definitive list of suspects who might…

A New President Needs A New White House

When construction began on the White House on October 13, 1792, no one could have envisioned we’d have the historic race of 2008. A lot has changed since the late 1790s, and the Storefront for Art & Architecture decided to hold the White House Redux competition to solicit ideas: a new White House for a…

12 Splash Pages Will Convince You Frank Miller Shouldn’t Adapt The Spirit

Most of the people eagerly awaiting the Frank Miller-ized movie of Will Eisner’s amazing comic The Spirit have never actually read the original comic. So they probably don’t have a sense for the difference between the comic and Miller’s campy Sin City-esque vision for the film version. So as a public service, we’re presenting the…