MetaFilter posts tagged with fantasy and sciencefiction

Inspiration

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:36:49 -0800

Concept Art World - For example: Michael Kutsche, Marek Okoń, 25 Inspiring Examples of Spaceships and Aircraft, Star Trek XI Concept Art by Ryan Church plus lots more.

Sci Fi Songs

gemmy — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:47:37 -0800

John Anealio records songs inspired by science fiction and fantasy. Sing along about Cylons, Summer Glau (Firefly/Serenity), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and about how "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch" (previously).

Inner Space

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:37:49 -0800

Where I Write 'Fantasy & Science Fiction authors in their creative spaces' Photography by Kyle Cassidy

"Magic missile!"

Artw — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:05:54 -0800

The New York Times profiles Jack Vance (but fails to mention Vancian Magic. (Curse you Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition!)

New Worlds and Old

Artw — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:16:08 -0800

The Readers of Boing Boing interview Michael Moorcock

Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere!

shoesfullofdust — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:27:54 -0800

How Science Fiction Found Religion

Speculative Poetry

cupcakeninja — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:08:53 -0800

When we think of contemporary poetry, what comes to mind is difficult footnotes, scorching confessions, bardic combat, or maybe a new translation of a classic. Look to the land of children and you spy the sidewalk's end or a pack of Thneeds. Somewhere between the gravid and the childlike is the realm of speculative poetry. Speculative poetry has little in the way of defined form, though the SciFaiku has its adherents, but it focuses on speculative subject matter: fantasy, horror, science fiction. How is it? Sort of like all poetry: some great, some horrible, and much in between. Rhyme and meter seem a bit more common than in poetry generally these days, but not universal. Many speculative poets belong to the Science Fiction Poetry Association, as well as an annual award. If you want an idea of who writes this stuff, click that last link, and you may see names of SF writers you know. Who else writes this stuff? Well, did you know Robert E. Howard wrote poetry, and rather a lot of it? Conan's creator wrote many volumes of weird, wonderful verse, all worth hunting down. One of Howard's contemporaries, Clark Ashton Smith, was a prominent poet in the earlier part of the 20th century who lived a typically poetic life of penury, wrote many volumes, was well reviewed, and is today best known for association with matters tentacular. Joseph Payne Brennan came along a bit later, but was likewise prolific. Many SF aficionados remember his stories, but I've always preferred his verse to his fiction. Sadly, ~~a few minutes poking around on Google~~ an exhaustive search revealed none of it online. Get thee to a library if you care about fantastic and subtly disturbing poetry. The audience for speculative poetry is, as you might guess, not humongous. The web has allowed for much flowering and greater publicity, however, from online publications to online symposia. Poets give interviews about their work, and there's help out there for those who want to learn how to write it. Finally, where do you go to read more of it? Check the online symposia links in the previous paragraphs: lots of links in there. Also, check the Wikipedia entry for speculative fiction for online venues for speculative poetry.

Rosenbaum, The Plausible-Fabulist

ninebelow — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:13:41 -0800

Like others before him Benjamin Rosenbaum is making his debut short story collection, The Ant King And Other Stories, available from his publishers, Small Beer, as a free download. More than this though, he is holding a competition to find the best derivative work inspired by it. These include "translations, plays, movies, radio plays, audiobooks, flashmob happenings, horticultural installations, visual artworks, slash fanfic epics, robot operas, sequels, webcomics, ASCII art, text adventure games, roleplaying campaigns, knitting projects, handmade shoes, or anything else you feel like." Benjamin Rosenbaum is not a character from The Scarlett Pimpernel, a poet or a writer of children's books as 'Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes', by Benjamin Rosenbaum' makes clear.

Database of free speculative fiction online

Kattullus — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:52:07 -0800

Free Speculative Fiction Online is a database of free science fiction and fantasy stories online by published authors (no fan-fiction or stories by unpublished writers). Among the authors that FSFO links to are Paul Di Filippo (14 stories), James Tiptree, Jr. (4 stories), Connie Willis (3 stories), Eleanor Arnason (3 stories), Bruce Sterling (5 stories), Robert Heinlein (7 stories), Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stories), Jonathan Lethem (5 stories), Michael Moorcock (6 stories), Chine Miéville (2 stories), Samuel R. Delany (3 stories), Robert Sheckley (8 stories), MeFite Charles Stross (33 stories) and hundreds of other authors. If you don't know where to start, there's a list of recommended stories.

Two interviews for 'Blade Runner' fans

Rajamadan — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:59:30 -0800

This link goes to an discussion with 'Future Noir' author Paul Sammon... then this one goes to a Q&A with 'BR' director Ridley Scott, talking about the upcoming re-release.

Kerwin Mathews, RIP

Chinese Jet Pilot — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:08:35 -0800

Kerwin Mathews, 1926-2007. The genre actor may be best remembered as the title character in one of my favorite movies, the classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

Imaginary Homelands

blahblahblah — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:44:12 -0800

Imaginary places in detail: Start with a wonderful overview of megastructures in science fiction and examine a dictionary of 76 locations from recent fantasy novels. Then move on to the interactive maps: Mordor, Narnia, the Simpson's Springfield, England as seen in many stories, New York in fiction, Lovecraft's New England, maps from almost any video game, Star Trek, the Marvel Universe, and the DC Universe.

Rare Science Fiction

starscream — Mon, 24 Nov 2003 10:43:22 -0800

Looking for that rare science fiction first edition? The Barry R. Levin Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature store just might have the volume you seek.

Robot sculptures, rayguns & sci fi artworks

madamjujujive — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 05:50:23 -0800

Lawrence Northey's portfolio of robot sculptures. Meet the charming Teen Tokyo, the elegant Robot Queen and her entourage, and others in a delightful cast of characters. The artist creates some very cool rayguns too! Northey's works are in the spirit of Clayton Bailey, the robot artist extraodinaire. (via La Petite Claudine)

The 50 Most Significant Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Past 50 Years

sassone — Wed, 05 Mar 2003 13:38:38 -0800

50 Most Significant Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books. Not sure what their criteria was, but this is a nice list. Lots of obvious, gotta-be-on-such-a-list choices, but also some surprises that should have people buying some books they might not have thought of before. (The URL is rather cumbersome, but that's the only one I could find).

realjanetkagan — Sun, 17 Feb 2002 00:55:04 -0800

Book-A-Minute SF/F--- Their "minute" is so spot-on a review for those books I've read that I'm off to find some books I haven't, just on this site's odd say-so.

chrimble — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 02:18:09 -0800

Josh Kirby has Died Perhaps best known for his artwork on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Josh was a well known science fiction and fantasy cover artist. He was 72.