Sci-Fi related

Mike Resnick has a new short book about a second attempted future African utopia among the stars. Click for the prologue and ordering information for Kilimanjaro.

Ten years after the publication of Kirinyaga, the most-awarded science fiction book in history, comes this companion novella by 5-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick.

The Kikuyu tribe of East Africa attempted to create a Utopia on the terraformed planetoid Kirinyaga, which was named for the mountain where their god lives. Things went wrong. Now, a century later, the Maasai tribe has studied Kirinyaga’s history, has analyzed their mistakes, and is ready to create a Maasai Utopia on the planetoid Kilimanjaro, named for the mountain where their god lives. You may order a copy of the signed limited edition hardcover here.

Cordwainer Smith has a new tribute website managed by his daughter. If you haven't read The Ballad of Lost C'Mell and The Game of Rat and Dragon and other stories of the underpeople, Norstrilia, scanners, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, the rediscovery of man, and the Instrumentality, you are missing a unique part of science fiction. The real life rat brain powered robots, another video news clip, related to the rat brain controlled planes, made me think of Think Blue, Count Two. I believe Robert Silverberg Frederik Pohl once confessed he made up the odd titles of many of Cordwainer's stories when he was editor of Galaxy.

Correction - Wow, Robert Silverberg quickly corrected me that it was Pohl, not him, who edited Galaxy. With the right editor's name I find the confession with the note that the stories almost titled themselves with their unusual vivid language.

Another classic SF digression - the odd language of E.E. Doc Smith. I believe we share some grammatical construction oddities.

Baen Books is reissuing all of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories in seven books. The New York Times did a reasonable obituary of Poul Anderson. He was a founder of Society for Creative Anachronism, confirming the overlap between science fiction, fantasy, costuming and role-playing.

A current noted SF author Greg Bear married Poul's daughter Astrid Anderson. They both serve on the advisory board for Seattle's Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame. She is an expert costumer.

Elizabeth Bear, not related to Greg Bear that I know, has her award winning Tideline complete on her website. It won this year's Hugo award for short story. Elizabeth gave a recent interview to Nuts and Bolts. The Hugo Awards has a voting system that ensures the winners have over 50% support that I am a fan of. Elizabeth is one of the writers for Shadow Unit, currently a web only, literary only, TV show production. The first season is complete and they are having a video contest for a trailer for the second season.

SELECTIONS FROM H.P. LOVECRAFT'S BRIEF TENURE AS A WHITMAN'S SAMPLER COPYWRITER

The incredible The Amazing Screw-On Head pilot - complete video. Audience feedback was not good although the comic it was based on won an Eisner.

Since I updated this from Robert Silverberg's email let me add a bonus link to a story - Cordwainer's Scanners Live in Vain and another to a classic Robert Silverberg - The Pope of the Chimps. Two of Silverberg's latest novels are Roma Eterna and Gate of Worlds. The first novel I read of Silverberg was Revolt on Alpha C that I purchased from a Scholastic Books school program in one of its numerous reprintings. It has a copyright from the year I was born. Many of his older works are now being reprinted by small presses.