Weekly Roundup
–The ALA has come out with its Romance Essentials list and its 2007 recommended reading list for several genres, including Science Fiction. I’d love to see their Science Fiction Essentials list if anyone has access to it. I haven’t been able to find it.
–Might the Dresden Files return to the SciFi Channel? One letter writer outlines why the stars are in just the right alignment.
—Dear Author reviews GRIMSPACE by Ann Aguirre I’ve had this book on my wish list for a while, but it’s another month before its release. The premise sort of reminds me of a favorite of mine, Kay Kenyon’s SEEDS OF TIME.
—Cthulhu vs. Cloverfield. (Is that like Alien vs. Predator?) You know He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is gonna win (oh please, not Voldemort). Just accept it.
—STARGATE’s Replicators among us? U.S. researchers are developing a shape-shifting robot that forms from a magnetic swarm.
—Seasonal Affective Disorder Mood Ring Potential: Scientists at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have discovered that “the brain’s circadian clock causes a gene called Bmal1 to be more active in the body’s other cells during the daytime” and they infused firefly cells into human skin cells via a virus. The result? The skin cells glowed in a 24-hour cycle.
—Radio GaGa: Radio-controlled sperm ‘tap’ turns off vasectomies. This is one remote control a man will never let anyone else use.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I inadvertently started a meme. Yes, I have web progeny now. The Vintage Reader was so inspired by my Thursday Thirteen geek post that she came up with her own list. And she’s not even a TTeener. I mention in the comments a few I neglected to list originally and to that I’d add Alton Brown. Oh AB, please forgive me for leaving you off the original list.
Well… the ALA has published a readers’ advisory for SF, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers’ Advisory: The Librarian’s Guide to Cyborgs, Aliens, and Sorcerers. Here it is at Google Books. It looks pretty good. Just to give it a test, I checked out the recommendations for time travel novels and found that one of my all-time (snicker) favorites, Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book, is the author’s pick. Seeds of Time, which I had never heard of until this post–and have now heard of twice in half an hour, so I must read it immediately–is also on the list. 🙂
Oh, I am going to have to buy (used, it’s $50) that Readers’ Advisory book — two pages that I want to see in the Romance chapter aren’t included in the preview (and neither was the Cyberpunk section included). From what I could preview, I was happy to see they included Catherine Asaro’s PRIMARY INVERSION and CATCH THE LIGHTENING (the latter was in the telepathic mutant chapter). I think it’s great that they included a Romance section at all.
How often is the Readers’ Advisory published? I see it came out in 2002. I’d love to see how their lists might have changed since then.
As far as synchronicity of book titles popping up recently, the book listed THE DEMOLISHED MAN by Alfred Bester, which I was just looking into yesterday.
I’ll have to check out the Willis’ book now as well. SEEDS OF TIME was Kay Kenyon’s first book. MAXIMUM ICE was great too.