Category Archives: On the TV

Scalzi on TV & in Print

Science-fiction author John Scalzi is having a big year. Just a few weeks ago he inked a multi-book multi-million dollar publishing deal. And his new book The End of All Things will be out August 11.

You can read excerpts from the first four chapters (Chapter 01, Chapter 02, Chapter 03, Chapter 04) of The End of All Things, which is the second book of the Human Division, set in the Old Man’s War universe.

EndofAllThings_Scalzi_cover

The whole Old Man’s War universe/storyline  revolves around John Perry, a 70+ man who who enlists in the army and transfers his consciousness into a younger, more battle-ready body.  So the wars rage on among the stars with troops in enhanced bodies while having the wisdom and humor of “old men”. Parts of it borderline on cute. But the books are fast paced and just plain fun to read.

Which is why I think it’ll make a great TV show on SyFy. At the end of last year, it was announced that the Ghost Brigades TV show was in development. It gets its title from the 2006 book by Scalzi.

So a new book, a new contract, and a new TV series. No doubt John Scalzi is staying super busy this year.

Have you read any of John Scalzi’s books?

The Expanse is Expanding

The universe of the duo-author team, James S.A. Corey, is expanding with more books and a planned television series (this is all a good thing, as the books rock).

Corey_Expanse_series

There is a certain vein of science fiction called ‘space opera’. These are usually pretty lengthy story arcs (running multiple books) and are driven by a strong plot. You get to know all the spacemen and aliens because you spend so much time with them. All this to say – you have to get involved. So it takes a special kind of story to keep you going book after book after book. The books making up The Expanse series are just such books.

cibola_BurnI’ve only read books one through three. The fourth book, Cibola Burn just came out and new books have been announced that will take the series through nine books. I hope they keep the same cover artist as well. They’re done by Daniel Dociu and are wonderful.

And if that wasn’t cool enough, the SyFy channel is planning a television series based on The Expanse books. Sounds like the pilot is already written, but I can’t find when they think the show would start shooting. I’m always nervous when the folks at SyFy get their hands on a good book. These books deserve to be done right and I hope they will take the time to do so. Hopefully they’ll go more Battlestar Galactica and less Sharknado with it. I’m excited to see what they do.

So if you haven’t picked these up yet, check them out. I’m willing to bet that the books will be better than the show anyway.

Rare Print Discovered in Library Book

I love stories like this… The NY Times published the recent account of a Brown University archivist finding, what is believed to be one of only five copies of a print done by revolutionary heavyweight Paul Revere himself. No doubt the chance of this happening increases if your job is handling books from the 1700’s. But it’s still pretty cool to think that such a unique rarity was just stuck in the back of a book on physics. Revere was quite the engraver and printer, flooding the colonies with pamphlets and political information. He’s certainly not known for any kind of iconic or religious art, which ups the “cool factor” of the find. Be sure to click through to read the article on the library archivist and see the photos.

If nifty old archives of historical significance interest you then you should tune into Book TV (on CSPAN2) this weekend. At noon, on Saturday, they will be touring old bookstores and the Nichols Collection at the University of Oklahoma. They have books going back as far as the 15th century! They also have a History of Science Collection with papers and books from Galileo, Copernicus and other famous people in white lab coats. I think it’ll be fun to watch.

Helvetica: The Movie on PBS

Set your VCR’s and DVR’s! Depending on where you live, you will get a chance to catch Helvetica, on your local PBS station, either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. The full-theater release was about 80 minutes long, but they have condensed it to 50 minutes and are airing it as part of their Independent Lens series.

You can go here to see when it’s showing in your area. If I’m reading the schedule correctly, it first will air, in my little corner of Birmingham at midnight, Wednesday, January 7th.

BTW, I took the quiz and it turns out that the internet thinks I am Times New Roman. Not sure how I feel about that. It could have been worse I guess (can anyone say Comic S***?).