Sci-Fi Storm

We knew about the cast changes in store for Children of Dune – now we find out Susan Sarandon has signed on to play new character Wensicia, described as a “ruthless princess eager to restore her deposed family to the throne.” This lends a big name back to the production. Among the replacement cast: Alice Krige (the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact) will play Lady Jessica, and Edward Atterton (Arthur in Mists of Avalon) will play Duncan Idaho.

It is tradition on the Internet for false news stories – clever, uninspired, or just dumb – to proliferate on the Net on April 1st. It’s amazing how many are taken for the truth, but sometimes its hard to tell. Take for example the quite clever stuff at Coming Atractions, some of which I almost reported on before the caffeine kicked in.

Anonymous Coward writes “R. A. Lafferty, the prolific SF writer has died. He was 87. Obituaries appear in the LA Times and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Most of his stuff is out of print these days but he was the author of quite a few good novel and shorts stories including Eurema’s Damn which won the Hugo award in 1973.”