Sci-Fi Storm

BaronMoritani writes ” Since the Santa Cruz, California booksigning for Dune prequel authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson was changed at the last minute, Byron Merritt, fellow author and grandson to the late Frank Herbert, was asked to help prepare the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson booksigning.

The booksigning was rescheduled due to Amtrak delays, and finally took place on Sunday, September 22nd.

Mr. Merritt writes, “It was packed! Standing room only! So….your’s truly stepped up to the microphone and introduced Brian and Kevin!”

News update along with pictures of the booksigning is here:
http://groups.msn.com/TheLandsraad/_whatsnew.msnw

Thanks to Byron Merritt for the update and great luck to him with his new novel Monterey Shorts!”

Michael Crichton, author or The Andromeda Strain and Jurrasic Park and creator of the hit series er, was tied up and robbed at gunpoint by two men on 9/23. Some items were taken, but not a lot of information has been released yet.

Dr. Robert L. Forward, Physicist and SF author, died on Saturday 9/21 at the age of 70. He’s known as a pioneer in the field of gravitational radiation astronomy, and as a “hard” SF author in which he “taught” physics through storytelling. His best-known work was Dragon’s Egg. You can read his self-prepared obituary.

A reminder about the SF video releases this week – Lexx Series 3 Volume 4 is up on Tuesday, as is the somewhat-expensive Space: 1999 Mega Set – but hey, it’s 16 DVDs featuring ALL the episodes plus extras. Up next week is the complete Doctor Who: Key to Time Gift Set, along with the individual episodic DVDs. See the Sci-Fi TV Store for a complete listing.

A federal court in New York, hearing the case of Nancy Stouffer’s lawsuit against J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Press, and Warner Brothers over the “theft” of the term “Muggles” and other things, has thrown out the case – and apparently given Ms. Stouffer a bit of the smackdown. The court ruled not only against her, but that she lied and doctored evidence, fining her $50,000 and ordered to pay partial court costs of the defendants.

Actress Kim Hunter, best known for her roles as Dr. Zira in three of the Planet of the Apes movies and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire (for which she won a Best Supporting Oscar), died on Wednesday at the age of 79.

Locus Online (which won the Hugo for best Web Site) has additional news coming from ConJose: Glasgow will host WorldCon in 2005; the nomination breakdown for the Hugos (not even a single vote? :^( ); and the Dramatic Presentation Award is to be split into separate awards form Film and Television.

This years Hugo Awards were given out last night, and Cinescape has the list. Here is an abbreviated version:

• Best Dramatic Presentation: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Best Short Story: ?The Dog Said Bow-Wow? by Michael Swanwick
• Best Novelette: ?Hell is the Absence of God? by Ted Chiang
• Best Novella: ?Fast Times at Fairmont High? by Vernor Vinge
• Best Novel: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I’m sure a full list will appear at the ConJose site later.

I heard about this prank a while back – apparently they went through with it. 70,509 people declared Jedi as their religion on the official Australian census, in the face of a AUS$1,000 fine for providing false information. Authorities say they don’t actually have any plans to collect the fines though.

Some genre movies have had their DVD dates announced (and some Amazon pre-order pages too): Scooby-Doo will be release October 11th in Widescreen and Fullscreen; Spider-Man will be released on November 1st in Widescreen, Fullscreen, and a Widescreen Collector’s Gift Set; and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones will be released in Widescreen and Fullscreen on November 12th. Men in Black II is reported for November 26th.