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Science Fiction

Animorphs in Space

So, your humble ed-otter returns from the 2012 edition of Further Confusion in Northern California, with lots of stuff to report. Including such items as…

John Van Stry is a science fiction author whose works tend to involve a lot of scientifically-created animal-people characters. Many of his novels and novellas began appearing in both paper and electronic form in 2011. A good place to start in his universe is Children of Steel, published for the Kindle last March. Here’s the description from Amazon: “Raj is just your average everyday genetically modeled and artificially created anthropomorphic worker for one of the many corporations of the future. Extensively trained and conditioned from birth he’s now indentured for the next fifty years of his life; assuming he doesn’t die first, or somehow manage to pay off his creation and training debts. Created by the corporations to deal with the harsh labor shortages of the twenty second century when humans will no longer take on the dangerous jobs Raj finds himself now in the harsh world of space exploration, trading, corporate maneuverings, and sometimes the even more dangerous fanatics that hate Raj and his fellows. No longer in safe confines of the training academies he must learn how to live and deal with both his fellow workers and the humans he encounters and not get saddled with extra bills or fines because he’s screwed up or worse yet, get ‘put down’ because he’s lost his temper one time too many. After all, it’s not like he’s human…” Other stories in the same universe include Danger Money; Lead, Follow, or Suffer the Consequences; and Dialene, the story of a female fox-morph who hooks up with the wrong crew. Here’s a current list of John Van Stry’s books that are available on Amazon in e-book format.

image c. 2011 John Van Stry

An Ape Classic Returns

From 1974 to 1977, Marvel Comics (through their Curtis Magazine imprint) published a black & white tie-in comic for the Planet of the Apes movie and TV series.  It featured not only adaptations of the five original movies, but also new adventures as well as background stories on the creation of the films.  [Full disclosure: Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter grabbed every issue he could get a hold of!] Many of the stories were written by Moonknight co-creator Doug Moench (as well as Gerry Conway) and illustrated by Ghost Rider co-creator Mike Ploog (as well as Mike Esposito and George Tuska). Now, BOOM! Studios have secured the rights to re-publish those 1970’s classics under the title Terror on the Planet of the Apes, coming this February.

image c. 2011 Boom! Studios

 

A Future of Many Deadly Species

Our thanks to Fred Patten for pointing this out to us: “Death Drop is a science fiction novel by Sean Allen. The last known human was exterminated over 400,000 years ago and the known universe is ruled by the savage race known as the Durax, keeping control with their compelling mind powers. War rages against this vehement race and the free people have two choices: either join the Dissension Army and fight against the Durax or struggle to survive in the cutthroat world of outlaws the war has created. Dezmara Strykar can’t remember anything before the moment 8 years ago when she woke up in a space freighter, abandoned and alone. Since that date she has come to realize three things: she’s the best pilot and smuggler in the universe, she can handle herself in a fight, and she’s Human.” The other notable thing about Mr. Allen’s self-published science fiction novel is the number of anthropomorphic species and characters that make an appearance in it! You can check out the web site for his D-Evolution series to find out more. Also check out the review of his first book at SFBook.com. The book is available in several downloadable formats and also on dead trees.

image c. 2011 by Sean Allen

The Dragons are sad…

Word has come out of Ireland that Anne McCaffrey, one of the grande dames of science fiction writing, passed away on November 21st after suffering a stroke at her home. She was 85. Ms. McCaffrey was of course best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, likely the first science fiction stories to treat dragons as serious characters. Not to mention telepathic dragons who shared everything, even their love lives, with their human riders! But furry fans should also know Ms. McCaffrey for her Decision at Doona series, which featured humans interacting with the cat-like Hrubban species. On a personal note, your humble ed-otter had the honor of visiting Ms. McCaffrey at her home in County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1996. One of the great ones has left us. Read her obituary here from the Los Angeles Times.

image c. 2011 by Michael Whelan

Dinosaur Defenders of the Universe

Jurassic Strike Force is a brand new full-color comic book series from Zenescope Entertainment. Written by Joe Brusha and illustrated by Julian Aguilera, it’s the first original title in Zenescope’s new Silver Dragon Books imprint of all-ages comic book titles. Here’s the publisher’s description: “For over 165 million years dinosaurs ruled the earth, until the alien overlord Zalex discovered the planet 100 million years ago. In search of an army to conquer the universe Zalex finds the perfect candidates to mutate into his ultimate soldiers in earth’s Jurassic reptiles. With his new army nothing can stop Zalex from ruling the galaxy and the universe beyond it… nothing but a team of mutated dinosaur heroes”. A special preview issue #0 is scheduled for release later this month, with issues #1 and #2 set to follow in December.

image c. 2011 Zenescope Entertainment

Godzilla’s Friends and Foes

Are you a fan of Kaiju — giant monsters from Japan? Are you a fan of monster match-ups in glorious city-wrecking battles? You might want to check out Godzilla Legends, a new full-color 5-issue mini-series from IDW, starting this November. Each issue will feature a self-contained stories of various monsters from the Godzilla universe taking on one another to the explosive end. In issue #1 (by Matt Frank and Jeff Prezenkowski), Anguirus — the spiny four-legged “perpetual underdog” of kaiju-dom — takes on one of the deadliest monsters of all, Destoroyah! The first issue also features special variant covers by fantasy artist Bob Eggelton and comic book legend Art Adams.

image c. 2011 Bob Eggelton

Animal Land

An interesting black & white manga that we somehow missed last year… Now it’s being re-published in English by Kodansha Comics and Random House. In Animal Land (written and illustrated by Makoto Raiku) we are introduced to an alternate earth inhabited by only non-human animals. After losing her family to vicious predators, a tanuki (raccoon dog) named Monoko makes an amazing discovery in a river: A human baby! Now this strange, unknown creature will grow up among the animals and will soon begin to display amazing powers. Volume 1 was released in August, and Volume 2 is coming up soon in October. Here’s a review at Good Reads.

image c. 2011 Kodansha Comics

Think Like A Pack

Science fiction fandom has been buzzing with the news that Vernor Vinge has finally written a sequel to his trail-blazing, award-winning 1991 novel A Fire Upon the Deep. In that book, we were introduced (among many other star-spanning concepts) to Tines World, a planet with dog-like inhabitants, where humans have taken root. The natives of this world are “intelligent” only in combination: Named “individuals” are actually small packs. Now, after 20 years, we return to Tines World with the new novel The Children of the Sky, coming this October from Tor Books. Here’s the publisher’s description from Amazon: “Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them—and among the humans—who seek power…and no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization that has taken root since the humans landed.”

E-Books with Furries

Elizabeth Hirst is a science fiction and fantasy author taking full advantage of the recent explosion of e-book publishing — stories on-line for purchase and download. Several of her stories feature non-human creatures, and two recent e-novels are of particular interest to furry fans. Flood Waters Rising is a space opera starring members of an anthro-canine species. “Heir to a blood condition that can help heal the sick and even raise the dead, Sithon Flood finds himself trapped in a web of lies and manipulation at the hands of his stepfather, a tyrant who desires an undead army. Can Sithon escape Wardan’s evil schemes in time to save his parents’ lives and redeem his family name?” Then there’s Teddy Bear’s Picnic, in which a young boy named Deanie “wakes up one evening to see his favourite teddy bear, Jack, running into the woods, evidently alive. Deanie runs after him, thinking that the Teddy Bears’ Picnic he has heard about in stories had finally come to pass, but he is about to discover that not all children’s stories tell the truth”. You can find these and other works by Ms. Hirst at Smashwords, or at her publishing site.

image c. 2011 Pop Seagull Publishing