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Welcome to the spring edition of the MiC Newsletter. Lots has happened over the last few months as you will see by the size of this issue. This months "Reaching Critical Mass" review talks about Gibson's new contribution to the genre while Edo van Belkom talks about publishing "The One" in the guest editorial. The Media Watch is packed with all kinds of SF news from the film and TV world. There's also lots of News, a few Updates, and some additions to the Upcoming and new releases lists. I hope you enjoy the issue! On an unhappy note, I am sad to report that Ken Basarke, one of MiC's official authors, passed away from cancer on April 1st 2003. I just learned of his passing over the Easter weekend. His friends in the SF community are deeply saddened by this news. I have created a memorial page for Ken and would appreciate contributions from those of you who knew him. The page is at www.geocities.com/canadian_sf/basarke/basarke_memorial.htm. Please email your contributions to mic-newsletter@rogers.com. |
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After a successful eight-week test run, Robert J. Sawyer's weekly radio column "Science FACTion: The Cutting Edge of Science" has been picked up as a regular weekly feature by CBC Radio. Sawyer's three-minute commentary will be heard on local CBC morning shows across Canada starting July 1. Specific air dates and times will vary; check local listings. |
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Internet history is being made at www.craphound.com where Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross are blogging their collaboration on a short story for ReVisions, an alternate science fiction history anthology from DAW books, edited by Isaac Szpindel and Julie Czerneda. For those unfamiliar with a blog, it's basically a series of posts in sequence on a website. To share the adventure, go to www.craphound.com/unwirer/ MiC Official author Robert Charles Wilson has a featured interview in the April 2003 issue of Locus Magazine. Excerpts from the interview are available at Locus Online. Robert J. Sawyer has an essay entitled "Science & Salvation" rebutting the bleak view of the future in Margaret Atwood's new novel Oryx and Crake in the April 28, 2003, issue of Maclean's. The text of the essay is online here. The print version features a one-third page color photo of Sawyer. The Leacock Museum in Orillia Ont. is hosting a Book Launch for Julie E. Czerneda and her newest work Hidden in Sight, the third title in her Web Shifter series. Julie will be introduced by Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award finalist Robert J. Sawyer. The event takes place on Sunday, April 27 from 2 - 4 pm at the Leacock Museum, 50 Museum Drive, Orillia Ont. Canada. If you would like driving directions, please email me at mic-newsletter@rogers.com Matt Hughes has delivered the ms of a new Archonate fantasy to David Hartwell at Tor. The working title is Black Brillion, and it will be out in hardcover in the summer of 2004. Warner Aspect plans to re-release Matt's two earlier paperbacks -- Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice -- at the same time. Black Brillion takes place in the same milieu as the first two books but with new characters. It's also less comical. A.M. Dellamonica has two new stories out: "The Riverboy" in Candas Jane Dorsey's Land/Space: an anthology of prairie speculative fiction, and "Cooking Creole" in Nalo Hopkinson's anthology, Mojo: Conjure Stories. Both titles are now available. On April 14, the Canadian government's Canadian Television Fund awarded Cdn$2,300,000 to help fund production of Charlie Jade, an hour-long science-fiction film-noir detective series. Executive Producers are Robert Wertheimer, formerly of the series Due South, and SF novelist Robert J. Sawyer; Sawyer will also serve as head writer. The series is in pre-production for Canada's Space: The Imagination Station, with a September 2004 target air date. R. Scott Bakker will be reading from his new book, The Darkness that Comes Before at Bakka-Phoenix (formerly Bakka Books) on Friday April 25th, at 7pm. Bakka-Phoenix is located in Toronto at 598 Yonge St., just north of Wellesley. The nominations for the 2003 Hugo Awards have been announced. Four Canadians made the ballot this year; Robert J. Sawyer's novel Hominids is a finalist for best novel, Pat Forde's story "In Spirit" is a finalist for best novella, Judith Merril & Emily Pohl-Weary's book Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril is a finalist for best related book, and Karin Lowachee is a finalist for the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The Torcon website has a web page with links to many of the nominee's works and websites. (what a great idea ;-). ITS PRIX AURORA NOMINATION TIME! The deadline for mailing in nominations is April 30, 2003. The 2003 Prix Aurora Award nomination form, is now available at the Prix Aurora web site in both html and .pdf format. If you don't yet know who you want to nominate, check out the 2003 Eligibility lists also at the Prix Aurora web site. The Made in Canada Newsletter is eligible for a Prix Aurora Award in the Fan Achievement: Fanzine category. Please consider nominating the MiC Newsletter for an Aurora Award.
APRIL 26 - 7th ANNUAL FANTASTIC PULPS SHOW & SALE, Lilian H. Smith branch of Toronto Public Library, Toronto, ON. Pulps show. Admission: $2. For more information, www.girasolcollectables.com , and click on "Events and Shows". MAY 16-18 - ANIMÉ NORTH 2003, Regal Constellation Hotel, Toronto, ON. Animé convention. Guests and memberships: Mark Hildreth, Scott McNeil, Kirby Morrow, Brad Swaile, Ted Cole, David Kaye, Brian Drummond, Stan Sakai; Jem Project. For more information, www.animenorth.org. JULY 11-13 - TORONTO TREK 17, Regal Constellation Hotel, Toronto, ON. SF media convention. Guests: James Marsters, Julie Caitlin Brown, Erin Gray, Gil Gerard. Memberships: See website. For more information, www.tcon.icomm.ca. AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 1 - TORCON 3 / WORLDCON 61, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Royal York Hotel, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Renaissance Toronto Hotel at Skydome, Toronto, ON. World SF convention. Guests: George R.R. Martin, Frank Kelly Freas, Mike Glyer, Spider Robinson, Robert Bloch as GoHst of Honour. Memberships: see website for breakdown. For more information, www.torcon3.on.ca . Visit Lloyd Penney's Cancon list for a much more detailed list of Canadian and close-to-the-border U.S. conventions. Note to publishers, authors and
editors: Please send your news, press releases and updates to |
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Media Happenings Opening May 2 is X-Men 2, filmed in Vancouver. Opening May 15 is The Matrix Reloaded, starring Vancouver's own Carrie-Anne Moss as well as Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and thousands of special effects. A word of warning: the movie ends abruptly in a cliffhanger, as Reloaded and its sequel, The Matrix Revolutions (opening in the fall), were shot as a four-hour movie and then chopped into two movies. Opening May 23 is Bruce Almighty, a fantasy comedy starring Jim Carrey as a man who's allowed (by Morgan Freeman) to play God for a week. Director David Cronenberg says his next film, Painkillers, will have an SF theme about "performance artists in the near future." Out now on DVD: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?; Ringu, the original Japanese horror film about a haunted videotape; Ghost Ship; Red Dwarf, season 1; Futurama, season 1; Star Trek: DS9, season 2; Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, season 2; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; and Relic Hunter, season 1 (orders accepted from and shipped to Canada and the US only). Out April 29 are Babylon 5, season 2, and Xena: Warrior Princess, season 1; out May 13, Star Trek Nemesis; out May 20, A Bug's Life. The world premiere of A Wrinkle in Time, based on Madeleine L'Engle's book of the same name, will kick off the sixth annual Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, April 25–May 4. Wrinkle is about children on a quest to rescue a physicist whose experiment with time travel has gone wrong. Director James Cameron says he has put plans on hold for a fictionalized film about a manned expedition to Mars until NASA gears up space exploration again. In other news, Arnold Schwarzenegger will present Cinescape magazine's Dr. Donald A. Reed Award to James Cameron in recognition of his contributions to SF filmmaking at the Academy of Sci Fi, Horror and Fantasy's 29th Saturn Awards, May 18 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. Production begins June 9 in Vancouver for the SF film The Chronicles of Riddick, which continues the adventures of actor Vin Diesel's character, Richard Riddick, from Pitch Black (2000). Also in the cast are Karl Urban, Judi Dench and Colm Feore. Radar Pictures and One Race Productions are producing the film for Universal Pictures. Author Robert Sawyer's weekly radio column "Science FACTion: The Cutting Edge of Science" has been picked up as a regular weekly feature by CBC Radio after an eight-week test run, Locus Online reported on April 8th. The three-minute commentaries will be heard on local CBC morning shows across Canada, starting July 1. In other Sawyer news, on April 14 the Canadian government's Canadian Television Fund awarded Can$2.3 million (US$1.58 million) to help fund production of Charlie Jade, an hour-long SF film-noir detective series. Executive producers are Robert Wertheimer (Due South) and Robert Sawyer. Sawyer will also serve as head writer. The series is in preproduction for Space: The Imagination Station, with a September 2004 target air date. Directors, actors and writers are demanding that the federal government immediately restore $25-million to the aforementioned Canadian Television Fund, warning that government cutbacks are placing the domestic television industry in a position of "catastrophic collapse" and "freefall." Among the pile of Oscars won by the musical Chicago in March was the best-picture award, thus making Chicago the first film shot in Toronto to win the Oscar for best picture. When the movie was nominated in February, the mayor of the real Chicago, Richard Daley, had a few things to say about runaway productions that receive generous incentives from various governments in Canada, especially the federal government. "We do the creative work," said Daley. "We do the financial work. Why should we send the production work overseas?" A spokesperson for Mr. Daley later said the mayor was certainly aware that Canada is not in fact overseas. American studio executives frequently praise Toronto and Vancouver for their high-quality film crews and for a citizenry who tolerate the logistical difficulties of hosting large film productions. Some American cities, notably New York, are famous for the drastic measures residents take to obstruct filming, such as honking their car horns. [Source for this and the preceding item: The Toronto Globe and Mail, February 14, 2003, pp. A1, A16.] On the Box
NEWS WANTED!
Please send your Canadian media news clips, tips and rumours to |
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"REACHING
CRITICAL MASS" Pattern
Recognition
Upon closer examination of a cross section of these disputations, they seem to be split evenly between two camps. Those who grew up reading the "New Wave" authors are desperately seeking "the Next Wave" authors, supposedly given a kick-start in the pants by Al Sarrontonio’s anthology Redshift. The nightmarish demonspawn who grew up reading cyberpunk (I count myself as one, I add, so put that flamethrower down before you hurt yourself) are calling every innovative comic book that comes along the "post-cyberpunk", which to be brutally honest with you, isn’t very. Both camps, regardless of their political affiliations and marketing theologies, seem to be coming up empty-handed when it comes to saying exactly what SFF literature in the world today represents the Next Best Thing. Science fiction fans and interested bystanders alike, may I present Exhibit A: Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson. Unless you’ve been living as a castaway since 1983, it does not need to be said that Pattern Recognition is a good book, product of the mind of a very good writer. With solid, documentary-like narrative, this book is as believable as if the events within had actually happened. It reads like a science fiction novel, but the events of the story took place in the very present past of the year 2002. What needs to be said, loudly, is that Gibson achieves a mainstream novel that reads like science fiction. Or a science fiction novel that reads like "straight" fiction. At least according to the marketing hype which, in an irony-imitating-art maneuver, is not to be believed. Better to trust what Gibson appears to be doing, which is write bleeding-edge mainstream literature utilizing the tropes of science fiction. What results is the creation of a novel that is unlike any other. Understand me, please: This is not a grown-up version of that battered, tattered, dog-eared and well-weathered, nicotine- and coffee-stained copy of Neuromancer that still gets dragged off your bookshelf every couple of years and reread. You certainly wouldn’t want the hardcover copy of Pattern Recognition to be subjected to such abuses, because it is a beautiful book, in every sense of the word. The typeface and the colour choices make it an incredibly easy book to read, or more properly, easier to imprint the ideas contained therein directly onto the brainstem. Similarly, the content bears little or no relation to the Sprawl or Bridge trilogies, unless you want to shoehorn it in as being on the same timeline. Do whatever you want, just buy the book and read it. You will not be disappointed. Remember those dialectic testimonies I mentioned above that concern themselves about the state of the future of science fiction? Most of them end on a sour note, bemoaning the fact that science fiction writers can’t write "traditional" science fiction anymore because present-day society is living science fiction in the moment that it occurs, and the "future is now" syndrome is all around us. What exactly the traditional science fiction writer can write, however, is never clearly elucidated by those who moan and wail about the overwhelming dearth of media tie-ins and serial retreads. The answer is a book that clearly scans like science fiction, but is so obviously set in the present, it can’t be marketed as anything other than a mainstream novel. Pattern Recognition meets that criteria as neatly as if the place for the book in the timeline of literature was just waiting to be filled. As with Neuromancer, Gibson is in the right place, at the right time, with the most appropriate words. Oh, what words they are. Long-gone are the "eyeball kicks" of the cyberpunk heyday, to be replaced by a crisp view of our current reality, brought into focus with a migraine-inducing intensity. Gibson’s flair for description has always been notable, but it is a talent that has been lovingly cultivated in the two decades since Neuromancer, and has borne some very impressive fruit indeed. As with any Gibson novel or story, the layers-within-layers of context and meaning and plot ensure that Pattern Recognition is as likely to be reread by its proud owners as many times as Neuromancer, and still remain as compelling, engaging, and intelligent as it did on the first pass. To attempt to describe the plot, or any of the characters, will of course defeat the purpose, since the book contains enough subtext that it is virtually guaranteed no two readers will have read the same book when they are through. Ironically, this is similar to the footage the protagonist Cayce Pollard chases after through the bulk of the plot, where every "follower of the footage" brings their own experience and background to the mysterious Flash segments released randomly around the Internet. The Internet is the ubiquitous access point for the present-day setting, and even drives the plot, in a way. The Internet of the present is not the cyberspace of the past, however, and Gibson demonstrates this clearly. Instead of multinational dataspheres, consensual hallucination, and a deck-riding cowboy, we have a thirty-something protagonist who has perpetual contact with the Internet, no matter where she is, whether it’s through her cellphone, her iBook, or an internet café, but still doesn’t talk to her mother. That is only a small portion of the rich tapestry that makes up the book, however, which courses from marketing trends, and the industry behind them, to the sale and purchase of post-WWII mechanical calculators, to the future of the fossil fuels industry as powered by Baltic oil instead of the Middle Eastern oil fields, to the artifacts of the Cold War that lie just beneath our forgotten histories, to a documentary being shot in a forest of Siberian mud where WWII artifacts, including a completely-preserved WWII-era plane, are being unearthed, to the vagaries of post-traumatic stress disorder relating to 9/11, to the Internet as a means of facilitating human connection and even human destiny, to the recessive trait of "apophenia", seeing meaning wherever you want it to appear, and many other points in between, which would take a book of its own to list in entirety. All of these things are delivered up to the reader as micron-thick slices of the world we actually occupy in the here and now. Pattern Recognition. It’s the Next Best Thing.
Velvet Delorey is the MiC Newsletter's first regular review columnist. This is her first "Reaching Critical Mass" review. For more information on Velvet, visit her contributors page. For review requests please email mic-newsletter@rogers.com |
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I am pleased to introduce this issues guest editorial by Edo van
Belkom. Edo is principally a horror writer. His first novel, Wyrm Wolf, was nominated for
The Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a first novel.
His short story "Rat Food" (with co-author David Nickle) won the Bram Stoker Award for
best short story.
Edo's other works include Lord Soth, Mr. Magick, Martyrs,
Teeth and the non-fiction Northern Dreamers, which
proved to be a valuable resource for the creation of Made
in Canada. Edo has two short fiction collections, Death Drives a
Semi and Six Inch Spikes, and has edited four
anthologies, Aurora Awards, Northern Horror, Be Afraid
and Be Very Afraid. For further information about
Edo, visit his MiC entry and his
Website.
I
Scream You Scream We All Scream For Scream Queen
Whew! Talk about pressure. |
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Did I miss listing your book? Please send me the info and I'll add it to the list. mic-newsletter@rogers.com |
Readers Writes"READERS WRITES" SUBMISSIONS WANTED!!
This space is your opportunity as an MiC reader to have your say. Book or
movie reviews,
author profiles, interviews, essays, rants, whatever. This is your soap
box. Send
me your Readers Writes in about 250 - 500 words. I'll print the best ones here. |
Made In Canada is designed, developed and maintained by Don Bassie at mic-newsletter@rogers.com
Contributors this
issue: Don
Bassie (editor) - Edo van Belkom
- Velvet Delorey - Karen Bennett
- A.M.
Dellamonica - Mici
Gold
- Robert J. Sawyer
Julie E. Czerneda
- Matt Hughes -
Douglas Smith - Lloyd Penney