Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One [Blu-ray]

Promo copy:

For the first time ever, you can experience all 25 season one episodes in glorious 1080p high definition, with true high definition visual effects and English language digitally remastered 7.1 sound – or with the original audio. You’ll witness new picture detail and depth and enjoy spectacular visual effects that have been painstakingly re-created from the original film elements… not upconverted from videotape! Join Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the entire crew of the Enterprise on a voyage to the next generation… of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Features:

95 Minutes Of New Documentaries Features All New Cast and Crew Interviews
Energized: Taking the Next Generation to the Next Level
Stardate Revisited: The Origin of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Original Episodic Promos
Archival Launch Footage
Featurettes

Seeking Justice

Promo copy:

This action-packed thriller stars Nicolas Cage as Will Gerard, a happily married family man whose quiet life is turned upside-down when his wife, Laura (January Jones), is brutally attacked one night while leaving work.

At the hospital, waiting for news about his wife’s condition, Will is approached by Simon, (Guy Pearce) who proposes an intriguing offer: Simon will arrange to have a complete stranger exact vengeance on Laura’s attacker, in exchange for a favor from Will in the near future. Distraught and grief-stricken, Will consents to the deal, unwittingly pulling himself into a dangerous underground vigilante operation. While continuing to protect his wife from the truth, he quickly discovers that his quest for justice could lead to frightening and deadly consequences.

Directed by Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job, The Recruit), with story by Robert Tannen and Todd Hickey and screenplay by Robert Tannen, Seeking Justice also stars Harold Perrineau (ABC’s “Lost,” upcoming Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story) and Jennifer Carpenter (Showtime’s “Dexter,” Quarantine).

The Super Hero Squad Show: The Infinity Gauntlet Vol. 4

Promo copy:

The final stand of the Super Hero Squad is upon us! Join your favorite Squaddies (Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, Ms. Marvel, Falcon and the Hulk) as they take on the Dark Surfer once and for all in the battle that determines the fate of the universe! Action! Laughter! Tears! Laughter resulting in tears! These final chapters in the hilarious superpowered saga of The Super Hero Squad Show has it all! Squaddies, hero up!

Featuring the special guest voice talents of Ty Burrell (Modern Family), Jane Lynch (Glee), Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation), James Marsters (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee!

DVDs received 7/27/12 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

The PBS History Detectives story about a “found” Bettie Page image that includes an interview with me will be airing TOMORROW Tuesday, July 24th – 9 PM Eastern/Pacific, 8 PM Central, as one of the segments in Episode 1003.

My interview on History Detectives, tomorrow was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

It’s time once again for ArmadilloCon.

As per usual, I’ll be speaking on several panels and even having a reading.

Hope to see everyone there!

Best SF/F Movie Series of the all time
Fri 8:00 PM-9:00 PM San Antonio
A. de Orive, R. Klaw*, B. Mahoney, R. Rogers, J. Rountree, H. Waldrop
Hobbits vs. Avengers? Star Wars vs. Star Trek? Aliens vs. Predators vs. Terminators? Our intrepid panelists attempt to ef the ineffable and address the truly deep questions: What constitutes not just a great SF/F movie, but an outstanding series?

Apes and Zeppelins
Fri 9:00 PM-10:00 PM Trinity
C. Brown, B. Crider, S. Cupp, M. Finn*, R. Klaw, J. Lansdale, J. Nevins, D. Webb
Last year Joe Lansdale tossed down the gauntlet at the Apes in SF panel, challenging all comers to produce a story worthy of a classic cover from Zeppelin Tales: “The Gorilla of the Gasbags”. Our valiant panelists discuss their responses.

Fringe: Why We Like It — or do we still?
Sat 11:00 AM-Noon San Antonio
B. Hale, R. Klaw*, G. Oliver, D. Potter, R. Rogers
How did this show become so watchable and interesting? Has it maintained its promise, or jumped the shark?

Reading
Sat 2:00 PM-2:30 PM Pecos
Rick Klaw

(I’ll be reading either my apes in film essay from The Apes of Wrath or if I finish it in time my “Gorilla of the Gasbags” challenge story.)

Signing
Sat 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Dealers’ Room
B. Crider, S. Cupp, M. Finn, R. Klaw, D. Webb

Sequels, Reboots, & Prometheus
Sun Noon-1:00 PM San Marcos
A. Allston, A. de Orive, R. Klaw*, A. Martinez, J. Perez
Summer SF Spectaculars: the good, the bad, the re-done and the over-done

Future Sex: The Shape of Things to Come
Sun 2:00 PM-3:00 PM Trinity
C. Brown, M. Maresca, R. Klaw, J. Nevins, P. Roberts*, F. Stanton
As humans reshape their society, their bodies, their culture, how will the most intimate of activities change?

Movies, Gorillas, Fringe, and Sex: ArmadilloCon 34 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Shocked ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
A Facebook friend commented on the blaming for the horrific events in Aurora on the Joker. A discussion ensured and these were my thoughts. I wanted to capture them somewhere more permanent than Facebook, so I pasted them here.

[  Mood: Amused ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
You want to know what Alan Moore was thinking about as he was writing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier?

Sex.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex.

Oh yeah, and sex.

This book is supposed to be the hidden history of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Gathered as a series of different clippings, such as articles, postcards, and "boys comics", by the government in a Black Dossier to document the actions of the league. These clippings are stolen by Mina Harper and Alan Quartermaine, and it is their story of escaping with the dossier that weaves the book together.

As they read the dossier, so do we, and a very interesting story it presents. We get the altered history of England, a place where literary characters are real, with various incarnations of the League working to bring down enemies of the Crown. We also see how much the government changed under an Orwellian inspired government after the war, and how our once heroes are now fugitives from Justice.

Did I mention there was lots of sex? Almost every piece of work has sex and nudity woven through it. The comic story of Orlando, the gender switching companion to Prospero and Sinbad who literally had sex with ever character of historical significance they encountered. The further adventures of Fanny Hill who also seems to have sex with everyone she encounters. There is even some totalitarian pornography tucked in with an exert from a pulp novel. Even Mina and Alan are lying around in various positions involving nudity, bathing, post-coital bliss.

I get that many of the memorable female characters in literary history that would be likely to take up with the league are the sexually scandalous ones, but I wonder if Moore was not attracted to them because of sexual promiscuity rather than their tendency to take risks. Would he have chose chaste Elizabeth Bennett for the league, even though she is seen as an early feminist heroine by many readers.

This is the most sexual of Moore’s works that I have read, and I have to wonder if he was going through Andropause at the time of crafting this.

The better parts of the book are the cartoons, as Moore shows his ability to tell story and create character. Some of the articles are interesting, but others seem at times to be a chance for Moore to write like Shakespeare.

It’s a good read, but not to the same level as the earlier volumes.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Editing a Podcast ]
The RevolutionSF books editor, Peggy Hailey, is attempting to beat all the children in her town in a reading contest. You can send letters of encouragement to the children, known as Team Everyone Else (rungepubliclibrary_a@yahoo.com). You could probably send Peggy encouragement, but, really, who roots for the little guy?

Do it for the kids!

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Glimmering
by Elizabeth Hand
Introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson
Cover by Heidi Whitcomb

Promo copy:

It’s 1999 and the world is falling apart at the seams. The sky is afire, the oceans are rising—and mankind is to blame. While the spoils of the 20th Century dwindle, Jack Finnegan lives on the fringes in his decaying mansion, struggling to keep his life afloat and his loved ones safe while battling that most modern of diseases—AIDS.

As the New Millennium approaches, Jack’s former lover, a famous photographer reveling in the world’s decay, gifts him with a mysterious elixir called Fusax, a medicine rumored to cure the incurable AIDS. But soon, the “side effects” of Fusax become more apparent, and Jack gets mixed up with a bizarre entourage of rock stars, Japanese scientists, corporate executives, AIDS victims, and religious terrorists. While these larger players compete to control mankind’s fate in the 21st Century, Jack is forced to choose his own role in the World’s End, and how to live with it.

Originally published in 1997, Glimmering is a visionary mix of fantasy and science fiction about a world in which humanity struggles to cope with the ever-approaching “End of the End.”

Year Zero
by Rob Reid

Promo copy:

In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.

Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.

The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.

Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.

Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.

The McSweeney’s Book of Politics and Musicals
Edited by Christopher Monks
Cover by Brian McMullen and Jason Fulford

Promo copy:

Ever since John Hancock broke into song after signing the Declaration of Independence, American politics and musicals have been inextricably linked. From Alexander Hamilton’s jazz hands, to Chester A. Arthur’s oboe operas, to Newt Gingrich’s off-Broadway sexscapade, You, Me, and My Moon Colony Mistress Makes Three, government and musical theater have joined forces to document our nation’s long history of freedom, partisanship, and dancers on roller skates pretending to be choo choo trains.

To celebrate this grand union of entrenched bureaucracy and song, the patriots at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (“The Iowa Caucus of humor websites”) offer this riotous collection (peacefully assembled!) of monologues, charts, scripts, lists, diatribes, AND musicals written by the noted fake-musical lyricist, Ben Greenman. On the agenda are …

Fragments from PALIN! THE MUSICAL

Barack Obama’s Undersold 2012 Campaign Slogans

Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Financial Crisis

Your Attempts to Legislate Hunting Man for Sport Reek of Class Warfare

A 1980s Teen Sex Comedy Becomes Politically Uncomfortable

Donald Rumsfeld Memoir Chapter Title Or German Heavy Metal Song?

Noises Political Pundits Would Make If They Were Wild Animals and Not Political Pundits

Ron Paul Gives a Guided Tour of His Navajo Art Collection

Classic Nursery Rhymes, Updated and Revamped for the Recession, As Told to Me By My Father

And much more!

Supergods
by Grant Morrison

Promo copy:

What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. They are on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and in our dreams. But what are they trying to tell us? For Grant Morrison, one of the most acclaimed writers in the world of comics, these heroes are powerful archetypes who reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, archetypes, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of our great modern myth: the superhero.

Now with a new Afterword

Books received 6/18/12 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

A Guile of Dragons
by James Enge
Cover by Steve Stone

Promo copy:

It’s dwarves versus dragons in this origin story for Enge’s signature character, Morlock Ambrosius!

Before history began, the dwarves of Thrymhaiam fought against the dragons as the Longest War raged in the deep roads beneath the Northhold. Now the dragons have returned, allied with the dead kings of Cor and backed by the masked gods of Fate and Chaos.

The dwarves are cut off from the Graith of Guardians in the south. Their defenders are taken prisoner or corrupted by dragonspells. The weight of guarding the Northhold now rests on the crooked shoulders of a traitor’s son, Morlock syr Theorn (also called Ambrosius).

But his wounded mind has learned a dark secret in the hidden ways under the mountains. Regin and Fafnir were brothers, and the Longest War can never be over…

The Skybound Sea (The Aeons’ Gate Book Three)
by Sam Sykes
Cover by Paul Young

Promo copy:

After the misadventures of the first two books Lenk and his companions must finally turn away from fighting each other and for their own survival and look to saving the entire human race. A terrible demon has risen from beneath the sea and where it came from thousands could follow. And all the while an alien race is planning the extinction of humanity. The third volume in the Aeon’s Gate trilogy widens the action out dramatically. TOME OF THE UNDERGATES was based mainly on a ship, BLACK HALO moved the action to an island of bones, THE SKYBOUND SEA takes us out into a world threatened with a uniquely imagined and terrifying apocalypse.

Reaper
by K. D. McEntire
Cover by Sam Weber

Promo copy:

Reaper is set in a world a breath away from our own. After the death of her mother, Wendy is attempting to fill her mother’s shoes and discovering that the prospect is far more difficult than she ever imagined. Learning that she is part of a powerful and ancient family of Reapers that her mother had forsaken is just the first surprise—Wendy soon discovers that the San Francisco Bay Never is filled with political powers and factions both previously unknown and completely mysterious to Wendy. Since both her mother and Piotr are gone, Wendy must struggle to maneuver between the machinations of the dead and the dark intentions of her living Reaper family.

Eventually betrayed and made sick unto death, the clock is ticking before Wendy will fall—she has only a matter of days to unravel the mysteries her mother left behind and to convince her wary family to accept her as one of their own.

Part II

Books received 6/18/12 Pyr edition Part I was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

False Covenant
by Ari Marmell
Cover by Jason Chan

Promo copy:

A creature of the other world, an unnatural entity bent on chaos and carnage, has come to stalk the nighttime streets of the Galicien city of Davillon. There’s never a good time for murder and panic, but for a community already in the midst of its own inner turmoil, this couldn’t possibly have come at a worse one.

Not for Davillon, and not for a young thief who calls herself Widdershins.

It’s been over half a year since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to Davillon. And in all that time, Widdershins has truly tried her best. She’s tried to take care of Genevieve’s tavern and tried to make a semihonest living in a city slowly stagnating under the weight of an angry and disapproving Church. She’s tried to keep out of trouble, away from the attentions of the Davillon Guard and above the secrets and schemes of the city’s new bishop.

But she’s in way over her head, with no idea which way to turn. The Guard doesn’t trust her. The Church doesn’t trust her. Her own Thieves’ Guild doesn’t trust her.

Too bad for everyone, then, that she and her personal god, Olgun, may be their only real weapon against a new evil like nothing the city has ever seen.

Hunter and Fox
by Philippa Ballantine
Cover by Cynthia Sheppard

Promo copy:

In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plainsand then to lakes, Talyn is the Hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who destroyed her people. All unknowing, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power. However, she has lost the ability to communicate with it.

She must also deal with the machinations of Kelanim, the mistress of Caisah, who out of fear will do anything to bring Talyn down.

Little does the Hunter know that salvation is looking for her, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength. Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret. He sets out to find answers to his path but ends up in the city of Perilous and Fair where he meets Talyn. He knows the danger and yet is drawn to her. Their fates are bound together.

Meanwhile, the Hunter’s lost brother Byre is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse placed on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, which will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn.

The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.

Destroyer of Worlds (Kingdom of the Serpent, Book 3)
by Mark Chadbourn
Cover by John Picacio

Promo copy:

A quest of epic reach spans the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures

It is the beginning of the end… the end of the axe-age, the sword-age, leading to the passing of gods and men from the universe. As all the ancient prophecies fall into place, the final battle rages, on Earth, across Faerie, and into the Land of the Dead. Jack Churchill, Champion of Existence, must lead the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons in a last, desperate assault on the Fortress of the Enemy to confront the ultimate incarnation of destruction: the Burning Man. It is humanity’s only chance to avert the coming extinction. At his back is an army of gods culled from the world’s great mythologies—Greek, Norse, Chinese, Aztec, and more. But will even that be enough? Driven to the brink by betrayal, sacrifice, and death, his allies fear Jack may instead bring about the very devastation he is trying to prevent.

Part I

Books received 6/18/12 Pyr edition Part II was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Thanks to a scheduling snafu, The Apes of Wrath will be swinging your way a month earlier than originally announced. The book is now slated for a February 2013 release.

Major APES OF WRATH Announcement was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon