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Science Fiction

Dinosaur Defenders of the Universe

Nov 5th, 2011
by rodney.
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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

Oct 12th, 2011
by rodney.
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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

Sep 25th, 2011
by rodney.
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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

Sep 1st, 2011
by rodney.
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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

Aug 20th, 2011
by rodney.
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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

Furry Androids

Aug 4th, 2011
by rodney.
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Rick Griffin is, of course, the author and artist of Housepets!, winner of the Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip in 2009 and 2010. Now he’s recently published a new science fiction novella called Argo in e-book form on Smashwords. The story is sort of sneaky-furry: Many of the main characters are from a group of furry robots called “ani-droids”. Here’s the description: “In the distant future, the easy paths to artificial intelligence have been outlawed. Mira McAllister, dismayed at the lack of progress the engineering community has made in recent years, determines to find the answers for herself when she comes across a strange, discarded android. Repairing her to full function, she discovers the android is unlike any she’s ever dealt with before–and the answers she was searching for only lead to more questions, and more secrets.” Argo is available for download from Smashwords and Amazon.

image c. 2011 Rick Griffin

Cats vs. Lizards

Jul 29th, 2011
by rodney.
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Exiled: Clan of the Claw is a new series of connected science fiction novellas, edited by Bill Fawcett and coming this August from Baen Books. The writers collected in Book One include S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, John Ringo, and Jody Lynn Nye. An alternative history of ancient Earth, the series tells of a race of evolved cats fighting against the descendants of dinosaurs. Hmm, is it just us or does that echo the new Thundercats animated series on Cartoon Network? Well, here’s the description from Amazon: “After the extinction asteroid doesn’t strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving – but so do the mammals.  We mammals have achieved human-like shapes, but now it’s cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats.  In a heroic, bronze-age world similar to 300, the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands are expanding their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic.  It’s mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and will that will determine which line shall inherit the Earth.” Read it next month and decide for yourself.

 

image c. 2011 Baen Books

Fuzzy Nation

May 12th, 2011
by rodney.
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By far one of the Grand-Daddies of anthropomorphic science fiction (as opposed to furry fantasy or children’s stories) is the Fuzzy series by the late H. Beam Piper. Beginning with Little Fuzzy in 1962, Piper introduced us to the short, fur-covered in inhabitants of the planet Zarathustra, and what happens when humans colonizing the planet stumble across them. (Yes, we’re certain that George Lucas read the book as a young man, too.) Piper wrote a second Fuzzy book (Fuzzy Sapiens), but then he committed suicide in 1964, seemingly bringing the series to an end. However, the books continued to grow in popularity, becoming nearly required reading for up-and-coming science fiction fans in the 1970’s and 80’s. Eventually, Ace Books hired William Tuning to write a third book in the series, and Fuzzy Bones was the result. Some time later, Ardath Mayar wrote a book called Golden Dreams: A Fuzzy Odyssey, which told of the planet Zarathustra from the point of view of the fuzzies themselves — and postulated that they were actually a space-fairing race.  Then, strangely enough, H. Beam Piper’s missing third Fuzzy book turned up, Fuzzies and Other People, and the history of Zarathustra was changed all over again. So, why are we telling you all this now? Well, it seems that author John Scalzi has decided to “reboot” the Fuzzy series all over again with his new book, Fuzzy Nation. It’s available now from Tor Books. According to the press release, it tells the story of one Jack Holloway, who discovers a wealth of gems on the planet Zarathustra. They belong to company that hired Jack, so long as there are no sentient species on the planet.  Then, these fuzzy little aliens show up in Jack’s camp…

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Apr 18th, 2011
by rodney.
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As we noted recently, 20th Century Fox is once again taking us to the Planet of the Apes — this time, in what is essentially a re-make of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Once again, it tells the story of Caesar, a chimpanzee who comes to lead a rebellion of apes against humans in a battle for supremacy. In the new Rise of the Planet of the Apes, however, he is not the child of apes from the future, but the result of a brain-enhancing drug experiment “gone wrong”. The new film is directed by Rupert Wyatt. It stars Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) as Caesar (via motion-capture technology), and James Franco (127 Hours) as the scientist who brings about Caesar’s advance. Fox Studios seem to have a little bit of trouble settling on a release date though: IMDB.com still lists it as August 5th, but other sites have mentioned release dates as late as Thanksgiving. Meanwhile as you figure that out you can look for the official trailer, currently making the rounds on YouTube.

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