Over the last few years, there have been many different high quality, character-based TV shows. Some have run for many years; others have only lasted for a short time, but have managed to remain in the public consciousness owing to their own cult followings. Two of my favourite shows, Farscape and Firefly, managed to survive after their small screen cancellations and were reincarnated as a mini series and a movie, respectively.

Television with Bite

Vampires are, of course, popular again, thanks to 1997′s launch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Currently, The Vampire Diaries caters to a younger audience, with its focus on romance, sibling rivalry, and relationships. Then we have the more mature True Blood, which explores a darker side of vampires and werewolves, and features a less inhibited main character and raunchier storyline.

These new vampire shows are pretty solidly built around great, original novels  by L.J. Smith and Charlaine Harris, whose much-loved characters were just made for the screen. The shows not only expand on an already popular universe, but also reach a wider viewing audience who might not already be familiar with the books.

Past is Proof

Shows like Smallville and Supernatural continue to fascinate and impress, despite having being around for so long;  although, I’ve detected some signs of their slowing down in more recent storylines.

Unfortunately Sci-Fi shows seem to disappear a lot more quickly lately. No-one seems to be able to break the mold and push the boundaries as much as they used to, instead relying on remakes (Battlestar Galactica), short-lived shows (like Galactica’s own prequel Caprica, which has now been cancelled for a sequel of its own – much to the confusion of fans), and yet more spin-offs (Stargate Universe).

So much has been covered by Sci-Fi TV that I sometimes wonder whether there’s any truly new ground left to cover. But then a show like Eureka comes along and reminds me that anything’s possible and that there’s no shortage of ideas.

Look to the Future

Everybody loves a superhero. It doesn’t matter if it’s Superman, Spidey, or even Kick-Ass, and it seems that the networks have caught on to this. The latest innovation is the superhero family show. As well as Smallville, we now have No Ordinary Family, with the familiar faces of Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four) and Julie Benz (Angel, Dexter); and The Cape, due to start next year, is about a man becoming his son’s favourite superhero.

Quality Counts

As I said earlier, an obsessive cult following can be a powerful thing, and this has definitely proven to be the case with one of the most impressive shows on television lately – Chuck. The geeky loser, who works in an electrical store and becomes a spy (somewhat against his will), is the very essence of what fans of these shows are looking for. It’s well written, it’s funny, and it has actors and characters that you can relate to (not to mention some rather over the top and laugh out loud moments).

Buttering Up the Sponsors

Sadly, Chuck was cancelled after just two seasons, due to low ratings and what is becoming known as ‘The Curse of DVR’ (where people prefer to record shows and skip the advertisements). A campaign was started by fans, cast, and crew alike to get the show renewed by NBC.

Zachary Levi, who plays Chuck on the show, led what can only be

Sub Solidarity

described as an army of fans to a local Subway (the show’s main sponsor) in Birmingham, England, and ordered foot-long subs for himself and his hundreds of devotees. This started the ball rolling as fans and, more importantly, Subway’s financial input, convinced the network execs to change their minds and agree to a third season.

Happily, Chuck has now begun its fourth season. What further proof could we need that the power of a popular show and its followers cannot be denied? Let’s hope that there are many more like this for years to come.

Music: TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me

Nerf Herder – Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme

Check out Kim’s website for further info.

Once Dead, Twice Shy – Kim Harrison

June 7th 2010 by HarperCollins Australia

Paperback, 256 pages

ISBN: 9780061441684

ISBN: 0061441686

And you thought it was a passing phase… Steampunk is still piping hot and continues to fascinate and enthrall spec fic fans everywhere. A quick Google of the term will provide you with a mountain of info, sites, fashion tips, new music, and dedicated blogs. Following on from Bel’s recent Steampunk 101 post, I thought I’d update you with further info about this fascinating sub-genre.

From October 20-November 3, the sci-fi/fantasy blog Tor.com will focus on steampunk: its place in mainstream culture and where it appears to be heading in future. Check it out for guest bloggers, news about steampunk events, and some tasty giveaways. You can also download a nifty steampunk timeline.

Newteevee has news about the independent web series, Riese. If you’re interested in checking out this new steampunk series, episode 1 is being relaunched on SyFy.com. Catch their tweets here.

Gamers: Head here for BioShock Infinite updates or check out the following trailer (it looks incredible):

The Steampunk Tribune (‘reporting on Steampunk since 2007′) is a fantastic source of regularly updated news and trivia. For instance, I just learned that the League of Victorian Imagineers are holding an exhibtion entitled Steampunk: Tomorrow as it Used to Be, from 23rd. October – 5th. December 2010, in Oamaru, NZ.

For a very entertaining read, check out the Exhibition Hall Fanzine here. It includes writing art/literature/articles/updates from all over the world. PDFs of past issues are also available for download.

Beautify your boring old desktop with a bit of help from the steampunk wallpaper folks.

(Steam)pimp Your Desktop

Visit Parliament and Wake and prepare to be inundated with amazing imagery, ideas, and attitudes.

Have your say and interact with other steampunks at the Brass Goggles forum. And Brass Goggles is only one of many, many, many, MANY Steampunk blogs, let me assure you!

Interested in new steampunk releases? This November, check out The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers. The fifth book in Stephen Hunt’s Jackelian series—Jack Cloudie—can be pre-ordered on Amazon.  Heartless, the latest instalment in Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, is set for release in July, 2011. If you haven’t read any steampunk yet, this list of 20 core titles from Library Journal is a good place to start.

Bands such as Vernian Process, Abney Park, and Unextraordinary Gentlemen are making amazing retrofuturistic steampunk sounds that you really must investigate. You can also listen to live steampunk streaming via The Clockwork Cabaret, a weekly radio show featured on WCOM 103.5 (NC, USA). Hear what the show’s hosts have to say here: 

Finally, check out some fab art from worth1000.com‘s recent Steampunk:Nature comp.

Steampunk Fly from worth1000.com

Steampunk Music:  Rasputina – Gingerbread Coffin

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing – Goggles

Abney Park – Sleep Isabella

Johnny Hollow – Boogeyman

Come Here Often?

I’ve been looking up survival guides on getting through Zombie invasions. You know what I’ve noticed?? Not one of the sites has a list on what to do if you fall for one of them.
I mean c’mon, there is a SERIOUS drought of single, well mannered, genteel, people of the male persuasion. Surely one of the rambling dead has to be a better bet than one of those drunk losers in the Valley, late on a Friday night. He would even open a car door for his lady friend. Yes, he may want to do it so he can get to you, but at least he opened the door. In today’s society, that’s classed as manners, which in my books shows higher brain function than the moron who tells you to shake that sweet ass on the dance floor at 3am.
So, I’m going to go through and reword the meanings of some of the more pertinent warnings or suggestions from a couple of the lists I found so that, if you do happen to be looking to fall for a Zombie, you’ll know what to do.
10. Don’t be a hero — The hero is the most irritating person in the room, thinking every Zombie is a bad guy, and trying to separate all the ‘damsels in distress’ from their possible hook ups. You may push people out of the way, but only in the pursuit of your one true love.
9. Think before you act — Always a good tip. Pick the freshest Zombie in the room. A gas mask isn’t exactly on the fashion must have list for summer.
8. The buddy system — Stick with your buddies, but avoid his.
7. Choose your weapons wisely — Glade is the key word here. The guy is a rotting corpse—you’ll need a wide range of deodorizers to aid in masking his musk. Avoid scents based on food. This may turn you off your favourite dessert if the relationship doesn’t last.
6. Be ready to move — Not everyone is going to be thrilled for you and your betrothed, you may have to take an extended leave to avoid those pesky lynch mobs.
5. Stay in Shape — Catch and ‘kiss’ may be his favourite game, so be ready to run… for your life.
4. Silence is golden — He’s lacking in the higher brain functions ladies—he’ll be the strong, silent type. The less he says, the less stupid he’ll sound.
3. Duct tape is silver — If anything like a finger or an arm falls off, you can’t get much better for reattachment than duct tape. Strong, durable and, as long as he’s not a gangster who wears lots of gold, he’ll be accessorized perfectly.
2. Fire — Why? Mainly because it’s romantic, but if he goes in for the kill and doesn’t take no or a good walloping for an answer, at least the best cure for a Zombie attack is close at hand.
1. Distance is key — Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so don’t let him near your brains and he’ll want you all the more for it.
Hope these tips helped. Good luck!

Music: White Zombie – More Human Than Human

Leslie finds solace in the thought of getting “inked”, but little does she know that this will tie her to the dark court king, Irial, and that she will once again be be used for someone else’s gain. At the same time, she finds herself being drawn to Niall, a fae who is addictive to mortals.

Ink Exchange is the second title in the Wicked Lovely series, but the storyline is easy to grasp if you’re a newcomer to Marr’s work.

The characters are richly woven and easy to visualize. And the scenes are written in such a way that make you truly feel like you’re there and that, if you look out the corner of your eye, you might just see the fae hiding in the shadows. The tattoo scenes had me feeling as if it was my own skin being marked; I could almost smell the ink and feel the needle.

Ink Exchange gripped me from the beginning and didn’t let go. At times, I found myself holding my breath; at other times, I found myself wanting to jump through the pages and throttle both Irial and Niall. I just wanted to protect Leslie and find her a solution.

There are another three novels in the series, Wicked Lovely, Fragile Eternity, and Radiant Shadows, as well as a short story collection: Stopping Time parts 1 and 2 (which focuses more on Leslie’s continued journey).

Fans of Laurell K Hamillton’s Merry Gentry series will also enjoy this novel.

Ink Exchange – Melissa Marr

April 29, 2008 by HarperCollins, Australia

Hardback, 336 pages

ISBN: 9780061214684

Read Amy’s review of Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

http://www.monsterhigh.com

Monster High – Lisi Harrison

September 1, 2010 by Poppy

Hardcover: 272 pages

ISBN:  9780316099189 ISBN-10: 031609918X  ISBN-13: 978-0316099189

Arthur Suydam cover

They smell of rotted flesh and fetid breath. They shuffle and moan. They’re scary and disgusting. Anita Blake and Alice Parks make them quiver in their puss-sodden boots. Well, perhaps they would if they had a mind of their own.
Zombies are the bane of many a hero’s clean getaway. Low budget films have been known to be some of the biggest hits when it comes to Zombies. One drive-in theater in Tucson, Arizona had a 6-mile traffic backup on the opening night of Carlton J. Albright’s film The Children of Ravensback back in the 1980’s.
Then there’s the typical creep out movie, which the Irish Film Classification Office banned… would it be classed as a love story? Boy Eats Girl by Stephen Bradley. Boy commits suicide and comes back to life. Definitely a Minties moment; even if just for the bad breath.
The classics, as in books, aren’t even safe from the re-animated folk. Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice having been rewritten by Seth Grahame- Smith in 2009. Pride Prejudice and Zombies may also become a movie, perhaps in 2011. The rumor mill on IMBD says it’s in the pre-production faze and David O. Russell could step up as Director.
Michael Jackson made a good Zombie in the music clip for Thriller. If you haven’t had the chance to head to the Gallery of Modern Art to see the photographic work of Douglas Kirkland, get onto it. They’ll only be there until October 24th. I had so much fun looking through the photos he took during the 1983 filming of Thriller. The amount of work that goes into the makeup was just mind boggling.
While you’re in the CBD checking out those photos shuffle on over to Wickham Park Brisbane at 3pm Sunday 24th of October. Zombies are going to be taking over Brisbane to help rains funds for the Brain Foundation. http://www.brisbanezombiewalk.com/ Head on over to their website and register to participate in the Zombie walk.
And if you are going, but not in your Sunday best zombie garb, you may need The Zombie Survival Guide, written by American author Max Brooks, published in 2003. I saw a copy last weekend at ACE Comics in the Queen Street Mall, and couldn’t help giggling.

I will NOT be seeing any of you at the Zombie walk, or at any of the latest zombie movies because, well, frankly they scare the living crap out of me.
If you do go to the Zombie walk on Sunday, send us photos of yourself all Zombiefied. We’d love to see. Though I may end up peeking through my fingers at all the scariness.

Paul Collins

Paul Collins has written over 130 books and 140 short stories. He is best known for The Quentaris Chronicles (The Spell of Undoing is Book #1 in the new series), which he co-edits with Michael Pryor, The Jelindel Chronicles, The Earthborn Wars and The World of Grrym trilogy in collaboration with Danny Willis. Paul’s latest book is The Glasshouse, which Jo Thompson illustrated.

The Glasshouse

He is also the publisher at Ford Street Publishing.

Paul has been short-listed for many awards and won the Aurealis, William Atheling, and the inaugural Peter McNamara awards. He has had two Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.

He has black belts in both ju jitsu and taekwondo – this experience comes through in both  The Jelindel Chronicles and The Earthborn Wards.
1.        Your latest novel, The Slightly Skewed Life of Toby Chrysler, has received fantastic reviews. What was your inspiration for this novel and is Toby based on a real person?

Toby isn’t anyone I know. I’ve met several autistic kids, though. I sometimes wonder if kids I knew when growing up were autistic. Long before we had a name to account for certain behaviour, of course. I rarely write books with anyone in mind, although someone did inspire my current picture book, The Glasshouse.

Wardragon

2.        Paul, you’re not only a prolific writer of books for both adults and children but you also run Ford Street Publishing. You must be incredibly busy! How do you maintain a balance between the two careers?

The fact is, I don’t. My writing has taken a backseat for some time now. I have Maximus Black, the first book in a trilogy, just waiting for final polishing touches, but I can’t get to it. I also have a six part chapter series called Broken Magic that is just sitting here, but I can’t devote the time to do anything with it. All I’ve managed this year are a few chapter books that I’ve been commissioned to write. I think gone are the days I could write on spec. Publishing books is one thing, but publishing successfully is a whole new ballgame. Major publishers have six plus departments to handle every facet of their business, from commissioning through to accounts, but a small press has to be all of those departments rolled into one. The publicity/marketing of books is a full-time job in itself. Having said that, I’m in my element publishing books. There’s less doubt in doing something where you’re in control than doing something where other people dictate whether you’re successful or not. The writer’s life is fraught with uncertainty.

3.        You’ve packed so much into your career, including writing, publishing, editing, and running creative workshops. Along the way, you’ve also won a number of prestigious awards and received widespread critical acclaim. Which of your many professional achievements has given you the greatest satisfaction?

I published Australia’s first adult heroic/high fantasy novels back in the early eighties, long before the major publishers got in on the act. Not many people would know that David Lake, Keith Taylor, and Russell Blackford wrote Australia’s first fantasy novels.
It was only lack of distribution that saw the demise of my publishing house in the mid eighties.

The Earthborn

I think, too, that The MUP Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy was another milestone in my career. My contributors and I spent about eighteen months putting that book together, and it stands as a written history of this country’s spec fiction. Last but not least, I edited the country’s first fantasy collection, Dream Weavers (Penguin Books). I look back at the collection and pause to think that back then, I had to look very hard to find fantasy authors to fill it. That book came out less than 15 years ago, but look at the Australian fantasy authors that have sprung up since then. The encyclopaedia would double if anyone were to update it now.

4.        Which of your fictional characters Burns Brightest in your mind and why?

I’d choose two, because they have similar characteristics. First I’d go for Sarah, from The Earthborn Wars; second I’d pick Jelindel from The Jelindel Chronicles.
Both of these characters were inspired by Peter O’Donnell’s crime fighter, Modesty Blaise. Both are indomitable, striving hard for justice in very hostile environments; they have their flaws, too, and aren’t adverse to bending the “rules” if needs be.

Like all main characters in fantasy, they start out quite naïve – especially Jelindel – and through trial and error, they finally triumph. During their rite-of-passage, they save their worlds from devastation, but at great cost to themselves and others. Both lose their families, and due to their circumstances they must either grow up really fast, or perish.

These characters fight on against seemingly insurmountable odds. Neither loses her integrity, nor do they take the easy options that are offered. I feel as though both of these characters are real and are people I’d like to know in real life.

Visit Paul’s websites: www.paulcollins.com.au, www.quentaris.com, and www.fordstreetpublishing.com.

Double tickets are available for the first 2 who facebook/tweet the following “Me and my (insert your imaginary animal/human/friend) are going to see her Royal Madness, Yunyu play on Venus Envy.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158744704157949&ref=mf

Simply print screen your facebook/ tweet and send the image to spiders(at)yunyu.com.au to claim your tickets. with the subject title <Marianne De Pierres sent me here.

Cyborgs and robots and mutants, oh my!

Technology, like fiction, evolves at a rather rapid pace. And when you have a group of authors with a curiosity about the future, it is inevitable that you are going to get something at the very least entertaining, and, at most, philosophically special.

The term “Cyberpunk” was coined in a short story of the same name by Bruce Bethke published in 1983, about a group of teenage software hackers. This was really the first example of people using their new-found computer skills to subvert the system.

Cybernetic Punks, “Cyberpunks”, were those outsiders who lived in a kind of moral blind spot, using their talents for either the good of the world, or just for their own benefit.

Before Cyberpunk was published, however, a movie by Ridley Scott hit the cinemas. Showing the world a bleak future, where man had already settled on distant worlds and the rise of technology had given birth to robots that were identical to man in almost every way, Blade Runner was one of the first (and still finest) examples of future life where technology rules above all else. It also asked the question “What does being human mean?”. This question has become fundamental to a genre where people upgrade themselves with bionic body parts, artificial brains and the ability to plug themselves into the net.

Not long after, an author by the name of William Gibson set in motion what would become a great movement in speculative fiction by publishing Neuromancer; a tale of a “console jockey” whose lifelong career as a hacker has been all but destroyed by the company he stole from.

This is where the Punk from Cyberpunk really became recognised. It was seen for a long time, and still is by many people, that for the fiction to be CP it has to have not only advanced technology but also an oppressive atmosphere.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, published in 1992, became what was hailed as the end of Cyberpunk and the beginning of the Post-Cyberpunk genre. There was seen to be some kind of emotional evolution between what had come before and what was new. It may have been because Stephenson had used the technology of the day to predict a different kind of future than the earlier writers had envisaged; it may have been because his main character was not only a hacker and the world’s best sword fighter, but also a pizza-man.

The protagonists of Cyberpunk fiction are usually outsiders: people who don’t fit in, hackers, couriers, revolutionaries, loners. They become anti-heroes: people you would never picture saving the world, but who become monumentally important for a brief moment.

Now, I have left out many, many of the important works of CP fiction that have helped build this genre. This is not because I don’t recognise them as part of CP, nor because I have a grudge against them or think them unimportant; but, this is a Cyberpunk 101 article, and if I were to cover this topic properly, I would be typing for hours. That’s not what I’m here for.

I’m here to get you reading Cyberpunk… to make you love Cyberpunk. Even  if I’ve made you hate Cyberpunk, I’ve done my job, because then you will tell other people about it, and maybe one of them will become curious enough about it to read one of these great books.

And the future is not only written by Americans and Europeans. Australia  has its own Cyberpunk authors. Marianne de Pierres is a Queensland-based author who has dreamed up one heck of a future for this great land.

Movies like The Matrix, Japanese anime including Ghost in the Shell and games like Mirrors Edge have brought Cyberpunk to the attention of audiences that Sci-Fi books can’t get to.

It is an all-encompassing kind of fiction.

Visit The Cyberpunk Project site for more info.