Science Fiction, what HAVE you done…?

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Christian

Besides writing science fiction, I’m a longtime fan and cheerleader for the field. I’ve always thought that SF was, all things considered, a “Good Thing” for people to read. It offers a fresh perspective on human/non-human nature and behavior played out in a whole range of possible realms/worlds/societies/big honkin’ spaceships. It’s great at presenting all sorts of rarely considered angles/satire/parody/what-ifs re: the human condition refracted thru all sorts of mirrors. What could be cooler?

Merchants of DOUBT.jpg

But I recently came across a really intriguing post from Auxilliary Memory that considers a deeply interesting question about the entire genre, and one that I’d never thought about before: is science fiction damaging the impact of REAL science in our lives and on our planet?  It’s a provocative, very well thought out piece. I’m still thinkin’ it over.

The post’s writer (Jim Harris) cites The Merchants of Doubt as a good overview of how junk science is being promoted, to decidedly ill effect, in our society, and how SF feeds into that. The book may have to be my next read… 

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Strange Chemistry brews up star-studded reviews for its debut books

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Christian
Strange Chemistry Books, the new Young Adult imprint cloven from the titanium husk of parent Angry Robot, has a slew of recently reviewed, upcoming SF&F titles. What’s even shinier, the books have garnered a smorgasbord of fresh-off-the-skillet five star reviews from a handful of lucky early review blogs & readers.  The first of these must-have titles will become available to us mortals via brick-and-mortar & e-download beginning this September, when Strange Chemistry officially launches. Till then, savor the 5-stellar excellence of these reviews & maybe add the entire line up to your 2-b-read-at-all-costs list. Disclaimer: Strange Chemistry is also publishing my novel. Bias? Hey, I’m just posting links to the source, nothing else to see here, move along.The novels so gloriously reviewed include:Gwenda Bond’s Blackwood (debuts 9/12))

Kim Curran’s Shift ( 9/12)

Sean Cummings’ Poltergeeks, (10/12)

Cassandra Rose Clarke’s The Assassin’s Curse (10/12)

and Jonathan L. Howard, Katya’s World (11/12)

Even the cover art thoroughly rocks…  All the reviews are compiled at the Strange Chemistry site. Drop by, leave a comment & give these authors some “Whoa! This book thing of yours packs so much muchness I must integrate it into my life-stream at earliest opportunity” love. I’m pretty sure they’ll love ya back.

 
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Thanks, existence. Well done.

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Christian

 

True color image captured by NASA'S Cassini spacecraft before a distant flyby of Saturn's moon Titan

South Pole vortex, Titan.                                       Image: NASA/Cassini

 

… aaaaaand…. here’s the weather report from Titan.  The weather. On Titan. Just an amazing thing to casually run across online while having morning tea. That’s all.

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T. Rex meets Klaatu. Fisticuffs ensue.

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Christian

So…here we have…the Dinosaurs vs Aliens Motion Comic. Hmmm.

It’s Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld and comic book great Grant Morrison’s unlikely mash up of what has to be two of the surest bets in the realms of pop-culture/kid-in-all-of-us entertainment icon-ery. No idea what the concept part of the high concept is here… like, why would dinos go to the trouble of defending Earth from alien invaders (other than eating any that went walking around poking allosaurs with sticks). And then beyond that, what sort of advanced-techy sort of alien culture would be likely to cobble together starships but then forget to bring their giant, disruptor-ray-spouting howitzers with them? You know, nit-picky stuff like that. Anyway, here’s the minimalist trailer via sfsignal. Doesn’t answer my questions… So, can they pull off this “Hey! You spilled aliens on my tyranosaurus!” confection? Guess we’ll see.

 

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Strange Chemistry Books adds Zenn Scarlett to their seething spec fiction mix…

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Christian

Was able to start my day today with the news that editor Amanda Rutter has announced the acquisition of my Zenn Scarlett young adult science fiction series by Strange Chemistry Books.  I alluded to this in an earlier post and one or two (OK, eighteen or nineteen…) places on the blog, but couldn’t reveal specifics until now, lest I draw the laser-eyed attention of Strange Chemistry’s darkly-brooding parental unit, Angry Robot, with who-knows-what repercussions (actually, they all seem quite pleasant at both AR and SC. Strange and angry, but pleasant). Here’s the news-flash from the Strange Chemistry site:

 

ANOTHER ONE JOINS THE FAMILY!

Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, is delighted to announce the signing of seriously talented debut science fiction author Christian Schoon. Christian has been signed in a two book deal for World English Rights, negotiated between Strange Chemistry’s Amanda Rutter and Adam Schear of DeFiore & Co. in New York. The first of these two novels will be called Zenn Scarlett and will be published in the Spring of 2013, with a second book in the same series to follow.

About Zenn Scarlett

Zenn Scarlett is a bright, determined, occasionally a-little-too-smart-for-her-own-good 15-year-old girl training hard to become an exoveterinarian. She’s specializing in the treatment of exotic alien life forms, mostly large and generally dangerous.

Her novice year of training at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars will find her working with alien patients: from whalehounds the size of a hay barn to a baby Kiran Sunkiller, a colossal floating creature that will grow up to carry a whole sky-city on its back.

After a series of inexplicable animal escapes from the school and other near-disasters, the Cloister is in real danger of being shut down by a group of alien-hating officials. If that happens, Zenn knows only too well the grim fate awaiting the creatures she loves.

Now, she must unravel the baffling events plaguing her school, before someone is hurt or killed, before everything she cares about is ripped away from her and her family forever. To solve this mystery – and live to tell about it – Zenn will have to put her new exovet skills to work in ways she never imagined, and in the process learn just how powerful compassion and empathy can be.

About Christian Schoon

Christian has a life-long affection for animals and deep appreciation for science (fictional and actual) and says he’s constantly surprised to find himself living a universe where he gets to spend his time thinking and writing about exactly those subjects. His writing career includes several years as an in-house copywriter/scriptwriter for Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, followed by freelance copywriting for the entertainment industry and scriptwriting for live-action and animated T.V. Currently, he writes from his 150-year-old farmstead in Iowa, which he shares with a fluctuating number of horses (generally less than a dozen, but not always), 30 or so cats, an Aussie mix canine, three ferrets and “…a surprisingly patient wife.”

Christian is represented by Adam Schear of DeFiore & Co. in New York. When Adam informed him that Strange Chemistry, daughter-spawn of the almighty Angry Robot, was interested in publishing his work, Christian reports his pleasant sense of incredulity concerning the universe was ratcheted up several notches.

He can be found online at his blog: www.christianschoon.com

Strange Chemistry’s Amanda Rutter says: “When I read Zenn Scarlett I was astonished at the depth and breadth of imagination on display. Even better, Christian has written a breathtaking story about compassion and truth, featuring a teen character that people will really take to their hearts.”

Unquote… and that’s the news, film at 11. Will report updates as the publishing process moves forward.

 

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Alien contact: “Howdy, let’s be friends!” or “Oh my, these human things are naaaasty.”

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Christian

A number of soft, easily-captured-immobilized-broasted-and-eaten humans with a vested interest have been thinking, furiously it seems, about the down-in-the-weeds details of how our first contact with an alien intelligence might go. And some of our sage-est of sage elders (as in S. Hawking) think things could go very pear-shaped. Really fast.

Let’s review: first, get the in-depth overview from the boffins (love that word) at NASA and a couple of leading American universities in this exhaustive paper, with the no-nonsense-whatsoever title: “Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis.”

For a handy general consideration of the issue, there’s this at Discovery.com: “Do Aliens Exist? If So, Will They Kill Us?” Always a pertinent question. So, you’re wondering, other than simply because they’re voracious, predatory, vaguely-insectoid-or-squidlike-bad-asses-with-no-moral-compass-and-an-appetite-for-hairless-monkey, why would any advanced, star-tripping, alien race WANT to do unto us  in such an ill-mannered manner? Well you should ask. Discovery again has a nice, bite-sized (so to speak) summary for you. Turns out, there are several very good reasons an otherwise benign, enlightened gaggle of off-worlders would want to smoosh us Earthers before we spread beyond the Solar System. Jeesh. And E.T. seemed like such a swell little guy….

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Oh, the drama…

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Christian

So… what’s been unveiled as the hottest-yet-coolest category of books we’d all be ever-so-sorry to miss out on this summer? According to the velvet-voiced and very bright people at National Public Radio (jazzy drum roll, please), it’s…

…Young Adult Fiction, of course.

In fact, this coveted shelf in your library/ bookstore/Kindle-screen is so very smokin’ hot that NPR has selected YA fic as the spotlighted focus of their annual summer readers’ poll. A poll? you say. Yes. With voting and all. So, if you’ve got a favorite readable,  zip on over to the NPR Books zone and express yourself (you can nominate five faves, either single titles or series). You’ll note that even the exalted wise-guys at NPR struggle, as do many of us, with a nailed-down definition of just precisely what constitutes YA, but they promise to herd together a scrum of experts and elbow-patch-wearing-know-it-alls to pin that semantic sucker down.  So, go on with ya, head over to NPR and tell the world what title(s) rule your 12-to-18-year-old reading realm. Then, check back here later & I’ll let you know if the rest of the YA-book-loving-universe agrees with you. (You are curious, aren’t you?)

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Cast members of this show in it for the long run. Long as in pretty much forever.

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Christian

 

 

A Dutch company has been formed to send volunteers to establish a settlement on Mars by the year 2023.  The company’s recent press releases inform us that the colonists’ adventure would be filmed and broadcast back to Earth as part of a new reality TV series. Profits from the global airing of the show would help fund the project. One detail: these settlers would not be coming back to Earth, but would stay permanently on Mars.  Hoax? Delusion? Strange PR stunt for some other undertaking entirely? Hard telling, but  here’s the website for Mars One, the group of people that includes among its number a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.  The company spokesperson, with a very straight face, says they’ve put together a business plan that will let them accomplish this multi-billion-buck interplanetary Exo-Big-Brother in a series of steps that culminate in landing the first four Earthlings on the Red Planet within the next dozen years.

After the initial “what the frack?” response, the scheme  conjures up eerie echoes of a short-lived TV series called Defying Gravity – wherein a small group of astronauts is launched on a mission to the planets. En route, they have their every act recorded for a documentary film that’s vital to the funding of the mission. By the time the series got yanked, most of the crew was hallucinating like mad and no one was getting much science done. There was also an odd plot device about some kind of libido-suppression drug they were all issued which, of course, certain scoff-law astronauts refused to use-as-instructed.

In any case, it’ll be entertaining to see if the Mars One gang is serious, and if they can actually line up partners for their epic, aka crazy-as-over-caffeinated-weasels, idea. We’ll be thrilled… and stunned… to report on any progress.

 

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Launch your brain into “The Living Cosmos”

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Christian

The Living Cosmos

by Chris Impey

Cambridge University Press

393 Pages, Paperback Edition Updated 2010The Living Cosmos

I write fiction that speculates about life on other planets, and while my attention to scientific nuts and bolts is far from exhaustive, I take pains to make my creatures and their biology believable. To do that, I read lotsa books about what astrobiologists consider likely in the way of potential alien critters and their could-be worlds. Then, I make stuff up…. (hey, it’s fiction). I especially enjoyed a recent read on the subject: The Living Cosmos by Professor Chris Impey. It’s dense with information, but Impey has a great gift for making data easy to digest.  It also covers all the bases in what is a richly interdisciplinary field, drawing on biology, geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. etc. The book deals roughly with a trio of important areas: the population of habitable planets out there, what it takes for biology to get started and thrive on those possible planets, and just how tough is it for bacterial-level life to get its act together and evolve into something we’d recognize as intelligent.  You’ll get a very sound intro to how we think life came about here on our home planet, and then see how that knowledge can be used to think about alien life, in a wide and fascinating array of possible ecologies. There’s also a companion website with plenty of additional stuff to take you farther. All in all, it’s a highly readable, very cool introduction to all things astrobiological for those willing to spend some quality time poking around the nooks and crannies of (fingers crossed!) The Living Cosmos.

 

 

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The art of the as-yet unreal.

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Christian

Science fiction & fantasy book covers, magazine illustrations and film posters are some of the most reliably awesome well-springs of  artwork that, well… that you just won’t see anywhere else. Every year, the Chesley Awards spotlight the alien/elvish goodness of the artists who fire up our imaginations (and our consumer impulses…) with their creations.  The Chesleys are divvied out by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists – and here are some of last year’s nominees over at i09.  A gorgeous assortment of unearthly strangeness and beauty!

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