ciencia-ficcion.net

Out today, from Will Pfeifer and Germán Torres, we present an excerpt from their new graphic novel, The Advance Team:

Zack McKinley was just another twenty-something pizza delivery boy before he discovered that his pop culture idols are actually the advance team of an alien invasion.

Now, encouraged and aided by his (probably insane) uncle, Zack must track them down, one by one, and kill them before the invasion can begin. But the advance team has no intention of letting Zack get in their way, and soon the authorities are hunting for a celebrity serial killer in a pizza delivery jacket.

As his life slips out of control, Zack finds only more questions. Why are the aliens here? What do they have to do with him? Is it too late to stop them before the Earth is conquered? And what if he has simply lost his mind?

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tor.com / frontpage_full

Last summer’s Torchwood-goes-to-America series (more formally titled Torchwood: Miracle Day) had an interesting premise:  what would happen if people stopped dying?

Plenty of science fiction stories involves humans who have become immortal or whose lifespans are so long that they seem immortal. But unlike fictional future societies like Ian Banks’ “Culture”, where genetic engineering and advances in medicine have allowed humans nearly unlimited lifespans, the living in Miracle Day live despite suffering unhealed grievous injuries and unchecked diseases. People suffer and yet they live on.

The crude global death rate is about 8.4 deaths per 1000 in the population in 2009. Given a total world population of 6.7 billion that is about 56 million deaths per year or 154 thousand deaths per day.  Without death to intervene Earth’s human population grows unchecked.  And many of those who survive are sick and hurt and unable to care for themselves.  The results are horrifying, as are the measures deemed necessary to stave off the possibility of overpopulation.

While Torchwood often seems closer to fantasy than SF, there is, in fact some science behind the fiction. As show writer Jane Esperson described it:

The amazing writer Bryan Fuller told the Torchwood writers room about the species of immortal jellyfish that Christina Colasanto talks about here [in Episode 8] — and we obsessed over it in the room. The idea that some creature here on Earth works in this way is amazing. That line, “Consider the jellyfish…” started echoing around the room, and here it is, in the episode. For a while, we joked that that should be the title of this episode.

The jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula is essentially immortal, as long as it doesn’t get eaten or succumb to disease.

As the jellyfish matures it takes on several different physical forms. Fertilized eggs develop into planula larvae which settle on the sea floor. The larvae develop into colonies of polyps which bud off free-swimming medusa jellyfish.  When those jellyfish reach sexual maturity after a few weeks they spawn to create a new generation of jellies.

All animals are able to reproduce and create new offspring, that’s not what makes Turritopsis special.  Turritopsis adults are actually able to revert back to the juvenile polyp form through a process known as transdifferentiation. This process renders the tiny jellyfish biologically immortal. See the video above for an overview.

But besides the concept of immortality that nifty bit of jellyfish biology isn’t referenced in Miracle Day at all. I suppose having  Gwen Cooper, Captain Jack, and Rex Matheson revert to their juvenile forms in a sort of Torchwood babies episode wouldn’t work very well. At the least it would preclude having the usual sex scenes (at least I hope it would).

Miracle Day unfortunately doesn’t completely live up to its original premise. The plot is slow to develop, the flashbacks to Jack’s early 20th century relationships are long, and the world-wide conspiracy that sets the Miracle in motion I found more confusing than convincing.  I think it could be much better if the 10 episodes were trimmed in half.

Torchwood: Miracle Day will be available on DVD in the US on April 3rd. You can preorder a copy at Amazon.com or at Barnes&Noble.

Biology in Science Fiction

Pioneer 11 Encounters Saturn: A simulation of Pioneer 11’s flyby of Saturn created by computer graphics pioneer (sorry, I couldn’t resist) Jim Blinn while working for Nasa. (2:16 minutes)

The Adventures of Andre and Wally B: Pixar’s first animated short, while the company was still part of Lucasfilm. It created a huge splash when first screened at Siggraph. (2:05 minutes)

[Watch the films after the jump]

Pioneer 11 Encounters Saturn
by James F. Blinn

The Adventures of Andre and Wally B
by John Lasseter

For more animation, visit our Saturday Morning Cartoon Index.

René Walling is a fan of SF, animation and comics, this has led him to co-chair Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon, be involved with fps magazine for more than a decade and start Nanopress, a Canadian small press. He looks forward to living on Mars where he would benefit from having more than 24 hours in a day.

tor.com / frontpage_full

Last week a group of over 100 environmental and watchdog organizations released a report proposing increased government regulation of synthetic biology, which they consider “extreme genetic engineering”. The report calls for a moratorium on the release and commercial use of synthetic organisms until such regulations are in place. Their position is a that drastic measures are necessary to protect both the public and the environment.

Not surprisingly, not everyone agrees with that assessment. Representatives of the biotechnology industry have pointed out that synthetic biology is part of the ongoing development of genetic engineering technology that is already covered by rules and regulations. And in 2010 a presidential bioethics commission concluded that no new regulations covering the use of synthetic biology were necessary.

One concern expressed by all parties is that “synthetic” organisms could escape into the environment.Where the disagreement lies is whether current technologies are sufficient for containment.

The presidential commission’s report suggests that such organisms could be designed to have limited lifespans or to be dependent on nutrients only available in the laboratory. Such biological barriers to the spread of genetically engineered organisms have been part of the earliest recommendations for safe use of recombinant DNA technology.

The groups calling for a moratorium on the development of synthetic organisms claim that such measures are likely not sufficient and further study is required to ensure that such biological barriers work outside the laboratory.

So what is the lesson that can be learned from science fiction? If creatures are unable to synthesize all the compounds necessary for their growth and sustenance – auxotrophs – can indeed be contained if their nutritional requirements are alien enough.

“Look, we’re not fools. We understand these are prehistoric animals. [...]They might have no predators in the contemporary world, no checks on their growth. We don’t want them to survive in the wild. So I’ve made them lysine dependent. I inserted a gene that makes a single faulty enzyme in protein metabolism. As a result, the animals cannot manufacture the amino acid lysine. They must ingest it from the outside. Unless they get a rich dietary source of exogenous lysine – supplied by us, in tablet form – they’ll go into a coma within twelve hours and expire. These animals are genetically engineered to be unable to survive in the real world. They can only live here in Jurassic Park….”

Take, for example, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. As noted in the quoted text, they were designed to only be able to live on a diet with high levels of the amino acid lysine. Since the local plants and animals in the Park wouldn’t be able to supply the necessary nutrients, they could only survive on a diet provided by their handlers. That worked, at least for a while, but the setup had a fatal flaw.

Lysine is an amino acid, one of the twenty standard building blocks of protein. If an organism cannot synthesize one or more of those building blocks in its own cells, then it must eat foods that contain those amino acids to survive.

Humans normally require nine such essential amino acids in their diet, including lysine. That means that a balanced human diet must include foods rich in lysine, such as meat or beans. And that also meant that when a few dinosaurs were able to escape their island in Jurassic Park, they were able to survive on lysine-rich crops and meats on the farms managed by the local human population.

A dietary restriction that can be easily filled by eating the local produce is not a great way to contain your engineered critter. A better approach would use a nutritional requirement that cannot be so easily filled by Earthly plants or animals.

You can find that scenario in science fiction as well. In Michael Flynn’s novel Eifelheim alien travelers – Krenk – were stranded in 14th century Germany where they eventually begin to starve. One of the alien scientists explains the problem to the local priest:

“There are certain . . . materials – acids is your alchemic word–which are essential for life. Perhaps four score of these acids befall in nature–and we Krenken need one-and-twenty of them to live. Our bodies produce naturally nine, so we must from our food and drink obtain the others. That food which you have shared with us holds eleven of those twelve. One is lacking, and our alchemist found it nowhere in all the foodstuffs he proofed. Without that particular acid, there is one . . . I must call it a ‘firstling’, as it is the first building block of the body, though I suppose it shoudl wear one of your Greekish terms.”
“Proteios,”Dietrich craoked. “Proteioi.“
“So. It puzzles me why you use different ‘tongues’ to speak of different matters. This Greekish for natural philosophy; the Latinish for matters touching your lord-from-the-sky.”
Dietrich seized the Krenk by his forearm. The rough spines that ran its length pricked his hand, drawing blood. “That makes nothing!” he cried. “What of thisprotein?”
“Without this acid, the protein cannot be formed, and lacking it, our bodies slowly corrupt.”

Earth foods, it seems, don’t contain the full range of amino acids essential to the Krenk diet. They try to sustain themselves by extracting the essential nutrients from their dead companions. And even so they died, because their lives depended on a diet with truly alien components.

So the science fictional lesson is to engineer organisms that require amino acids or other nutritional building blocks that found nowhere in nature if you want to make sure that they are truly unable to live outside the confines of a laboratory. And that may eventually become a reality.

Scientists have successfully been able to engineer microorganisms, animal cells, and even nematode worms  that are able to incorporate several different unnatural amino acids into their proteins. And, more recently, bacteria were engineered to incorporate a normally toxic modified nucleic acid base in their DNA. So the research looks promising.

But scientists are not yet able to create animals or plants that we can be reasonably certain would be unable to live in the wild. And life is so adaptable, there may always be the possibility that biological containment will ultimately fail.

So the question remains whether escaping organisms represent a high enough danger to the environment that current research should be more tightly regulated or put on hold. Or do the potential benefits of synthetic biology – novel sources of energy, more effective drugs, improved crops – outweigh the risks? I’m hoping for the latter.

Background reading:

• “The Principals for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology” (2012) (pdf)
• “New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies“, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010)
• Berg P. et al “Summary Statement of the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules” PNAS 72;1981-1984 (1975) doi:10.1073/pnas.72.6.1981 (pdf)
• Wang, Q; Parrish, AR; Wang, L. “Expanding the Genetic Code for Biological Studies”. Chemistry & Biology 16 (3): 323–36. (2009) doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2009.03.001.
• Young TS and Schultz PG “Beyond the Canonical 20 Amino Acids: Expanding the Genetic Lexicon” J. Biol. Chem. 285: 11039-11044 doi:10.1074/jbc.R109.091306
• Freie Universitaet Berlin. “Bacterium engineered with DNA in which thymine is replaced by synthetic building block.” ScienceDaily, 28 Jun. 2011.

Biology in Science Fiction

It’s the season finale this week, wherein we might finally get some damn answers about what Emmet was looking for. Oh and Jahel decides to ask for help from beyond the grave. Sounds like a party, doesn’t it? The episode opens on the Magus back in June 1988. Young Lena crawls into bed with young [...]

Read original article at: ‘The River: Row, Row Row Your Boat’ – Season Finale Recap

Science Fiction

ScienceFiction.com

Welcome to the Malazan Re-read of the Fallen! Every post will start off with a summary of events, followed by reaction and commentary by your hosts Bill and Amanda (with Amanda, new to the series, going first), and finally comments from Tor.com readers. In this article, we’ll cover Chapter Two of The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson (TB).

A fair warning before we get started: We’ll be discussing both novel and whole-series themes, narrative arcs that run across the entire series, and foreshadowing. Note: The summary of events will be free of major spoilers and we’re going to try keeping the reader comments the same. A forum thread has been set up for outright Malazan spoiler discussion.

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Chapter Two

SCENE ONE

Ammanas, Pust, and Cotillion meet in Shadow. After some silence, broken by Pusts “inner” thoughts, Shadowthrone tells Pust he’ll have to do and dismisses him. Cotillion comments on how insubstantial Ammanas looks. Shadowthrone asks if Cotillion thinks Pust will arrive in time and be sufficient and Cotillion says no to both. Shadowthrone disappears and Cotilion walks through Shadow, thinking of how much it changes and worrying if Shadowthrone is overextended, or if he himself is. He is joined by Edgewalker, who tells him the Hounds, like Edgewalker, see paths in Shadow Cotillion does not. He adds he’s come to listen to Cotillion’s forthcoming conversation and when Cotillion bridles reassures him that he is not (yet) Cotillion’s enemy. They enter a ring of standing stones where three dragons are chained. Edgewalker says his experience is what allowed him to conclude Cotillion would speak to the dragons of freeing them. Cotillion figures out Edgewalker wants to know what Cotillion knows and bargains to speak to them if Edgwalker tells Cotilion some information. Edgewalker gives him only the dragons’ names and says their crime was ambition. Cotillion tells the dragons a war is coming and wants to know which side they’ll fight on if freed. They give him some information about Shadow, dragons, the Crippled God. When Cotillion leaves, Edgewalker admits he underestimated Cotillion and offers possible assistance as an “elemental force.”

SCENE TWO

Mappo has been turning over stones and finding the fossilized bones of Jaghut children beneath them as Icarium wades on the Raraku Sea. Exiting the water, Icarium tells Mappo he thinks he is close to finding the truth. Mappo tells Icarium the cities he recalls are all gone but one, long dead due to natural and mortal-made changes, though new ones have sprung up. Icarium recalls doing something in the city of Trebur and they decide to head to its ruin, with Mappo thinking they did this 80 years ago and fearing that unlike then, Icarium will now remember what happened there.

SCENE THREE

Cutter’s group (Scillara, Felisin Younger, Greyfrog, Heboric)are encamped in the desert on their way to the coast to take passage to Otataral Island. Greyfrog tells Cutter he has yet to hear from L’oric and is troubled by that. Cutter goes to find Heboric and tells Greyfrog to guard the women as he worries about the riders they recently passed. Heboric tells Cutter he still sees the ghosts of the land, but only those who fall in battle. They had back to camp.

SCENE FOUR

Scillara wonders why she is the only one Greyfrog doesn’t speak to telepathically. She bemoans the annoyances of pregnancy and wonders what she’ll do with a child. The riders from earlier show up armed and Scillara tells them to leave Felisin alone and she’ll do what they want. Greyfrog kills them all quickly and violently, horrifying Felisin.

SCENE FIVE

Cutter and Heboric arrive and figure out what just occurred though Greyfrog at first tries to pretend nothing happened.

SCENE SIX

Smiles and Koryk spar in camp and Smiles eventually stabs his leg — representative of the misery and tension in the Fourteenth as they chase Leoman’s army. Bottle has notes lots of messages back and forth between Dujek and Tavore but doesn’t want to get too nosy, worried Quick Ben will sniff him out. Cuttle arrives. Bottle heads out for a walk.

SCENE SEVEN

Fiddler and Kalam are off a ways, Kalam thinking of the bad news re the Bridgeburners and the oddity of their ascension, partly pleased and partly uneasy over it. Fiddler tells Kalam bad things are coming and the two discuss Pearl and Lostara, the Empress, Tavore. Quick Ben arrives via the Imperial Warren from a meeting with Tavore and says he can’t figure her. He adds someone was spying and that Tavore has plans for Kalam. The discuss how shaky the army is and worry over Cuttle’s attitude. They’re joined by Tayschrenn and Dujek and two bodyguards (Kiska and Hattar). Quick Ben tells his friends their earlier suspicions of Tayschrenn were misplaced, though he and Tayschrenn spar verbally a bit until Dujek calls an end to it.

SCENE EIGHT

Pearl and Lostara are spying on the meeting. Lostara leaves and Pearl thinks they are made for each other.

Amanda’s Reaction to Chapter Two

Well, I’ve never quite heard it put like that before — but I quite fancy being a tyrant!

Oh my, I know that some of you dislike Iskaral Pust, but I loved meeting him here again. That way he has, of speaking every single thought that goes through his head, really tickles me.

I’m intrigued by the way that Shadowthrone is described initially: “Insubstantial, fading in and out of sight, smoky and wisp-threaded, Ammanas fidgeted on the ancient Throne of Shadow.” First off, it doesn’t seem as though Cotillion is similarly afflicted. It’s also interesting that he is called Ammanas rather than Shadowthrone (although that could be the sentence structure). Finally, he is fidgeting on the throne — is it not comfortable for him?

This really make me laugh! “My lord? Flick eyes away! This god is insane. I serve an insane god! What kind of expression does that warrant?”

Hmm, one of the rare occasions we see Ammanas and Cotillion conversing together — does it seem as though they’re not quite pulling in the same direction?

So this jumped out at me, concerning the plans of Ammanas and Cotillion: “So be it. After all, we have done this before. And succeeded.” Now, one of the things that they were successful at was entering the Azath and ascending to the Throne of Shadow. So what are they planning to do now?

And I think that this might indicate that the Shadow Throne is not in the hands of its rightful owner: “So much in this realm had lost its rightful…place. Confusion triggered a seething tumult in pockets where shadows gathered.”

Hmm, if it were me I reckon that I would have made more of an effort to become mates with Edgewalker…

Here’s something we’ve seen touched on before (as well as the shoreline): “Standing stones are always half-buried, Cotillion. And the makers were rarely ignorant of the significance of that. Overworld and underworld.”

This is a BIG encounter and conversation, between Cotillion, Edgewalker, and the three Eleint. It is one of those conversations where you feel absolute trust in the author — where various hints from previous novels are realised and new questions are raised. My main question now is regarding Edgewalker… He as much says that he is an Elder God here, by using Cotillion’s words back at him (“an elemental force”). We’ve now seen him a few times and we have no clear idea about who he is, what side he’s on (although, really, we have no real idea which side is the good and which side is the bad!); he sees Cotillion and Ammanas as usurpers, which suggests that he sees the Shadow Realm as something rightfully his?

This is certainly true within the series! “Their crime was…ambition. It is a common enough crime.” The creature turned back to Cotillion. “Perhaps endemic.”

And the actual conversation with the three dragons is equally illuminating and frustrating, in terms of what information is given. First we hear that Cotillion suspects there is a big war coming, the biggest, one that will involve all of the parties that we’ve heard of and more we’re yet to meet. He’s talking sides — but which side does he fall on? And he is seeking allies.

I think we already knew that the Tiste Andii had a hand in the destruction of the Shadow Realm, in an effort to prevent the Edur from taking the Throne (and now we might know more as to why, considering Rhulad Sengar rules the Edur!) — here it is made explicit the destruction that was done. And we get a hint that Anomandaris — Anomander Rake — might not be quite the good guy we’ve seen him as so far. I mean, sure, you don’t want an immortal madman in the employ of the Crippled God sitting on the Throne of Shadows, but destroying the whole realm to prevent it? Pretty drastic steps…

We learn that Kurald Emurlahn is still suffering sundering, which implies that there is something occurring to keep the problem happening. And, if something has happened to sunder that warren, is there equally something that could cause sundering in all the other warrens?

Cotillion shows just how kickass he is with just a single statement here:

“You believe that Ammanas is sitting on the wrong Shadow Throne.”

“The true throne is not even in this fragment of Emurlahn.” [Does beg the question where it is! - Bill]

Cotillion crossed his arms and smiled. “And is Ammanas?”

The dragons said nothing, and he sensed, with great satisfaction, their sudden disquiet.

Wow. “And I should now presume that for each of the warrens, Elder and new, there is a corresponding dragon? You are the flavours of K’rul’s blood?” WOW. This is new! And here’s something… I see K’rul as one of the good guys and the fact that the dragons were doing K’rul’s bidding sort of makes them good guys as well. And, since they were imprisoned by Anomander, does that make him a bad guy? Perhaps the Malazan series really is above good guys and bad guys?

Eep. I forget who did this to Scabandari Bloodeye: “The one whose fist shattered his skull and so destroyed his body holds no allegiance to us, nor, we suspect, to anyone but herself.” Another dragon?

K’rul sent the dragons to try and heal Emurlahn — since the warrens are part of him, maybe he has just selfish reasons for fixing up the Elder Warren of Shadow?

Okay, so the Soletaken have the blood of the Eleint within their veins because they drank of Tiam’s blood. And they have not been held in a warren like the rest of the dragons. So it is the Soletaken who have caused the warrens to weaken? Here we have: “After spilling draconean blood in the heart of Kurald Emurlahn! After opening the first, fatal wound upon that warren! What did he think gates were?” Does that mean that any mage who uses the warrens is wounding them one tiny step at a time?

We hear that Silanah and Eloth share the power of Thyr — not sure whether that will prove to be important later!

Heh, I feel a little bit like Cotillion at this point: “…and had made discoveries along the way — so much to think about, in fact, that his mind was numb, besieged by all that he had learned.”

I feel stupid in that I can’t comprehend completely what information Ampelas gives Cotillion when he says: “A sundered realm is the weakest realm of all! Why do you think the Crippled God is working through it?” Is that confirmation that the Crippled God is an Elder God?

“Very well, Cotillion, I will give the matter some consideration.”

“Take your time.”

“That seems a contrary notion.”

“If one is lacking a grasp of sarcasm, I imagine it does at that.”

Oh yay! From one of my favourite characters to one of my favourite duos — The Bonehunters is an embarrassment of riches so far. It is simply awesome to encounter Mappo Runt’s particular brand of thoughtfulness again. “When the conflagration consumed children, then the distinction between the sane and the sociopath ceased to exist. It was his flaw, he well knew, to yearn to seek the truth of every side, to comprehend the myriad justifications for committing the most brutal crimes.”

Is anyone else desperately amused by the image of ICARIUM gambolling like a puppy in this new sea?

Icarium almost seems to represent the idea of Alzheimer’s, especially with sentences like this: “Some nightmare the night before had scoured away Icarium’s memories. This had been happening more often of late. Troubling. And…crushing.”

It’s neat how once you’ve identified one theme you can see various occasions where it is casually inserted into the novels Erikson writes (whether he intended this one or not is questionable but I still enjoy the way it builds things in my head): “Look at this freshwater sea, Mappo. The new shoreline burgeons with sudden life.”

Nice to see Icarium and Mappo, but this interlude is mostly reintroducing readers to this tragic duo, rather than producing anything new. Erikson does it gracefully though — no info-dumps from him about what has gone before!

My memory is failing me… I can’t remember how Cutter ended up with the Felisin Younger gang! Help?

Nice to see Greyfrog again *grins* “Declaration. It is said that the wasps of the desert guard gems and such. Query. Has Cutter heard such tales? Anticipatory pause.”

Crokus/Cutter is really all about choices, isn’t he? He sort of represents the Sliding Doors principle — one tiny decision can have massive repercussions. “What I was is not what I am. Two men, identical faces, but different eyes. In what they have seen, in what they reflect upon the world.”

So sexy… “Mounds of flesh, water storage vessels, there on the hips and behind. On the chest-”

Anyone else a tad uncomfortable with Greyfrog’s weird obsession with Felisin?

What a sad, sad idea of motherhood from poor Scillara: “What was it mothers did anyway? Sell their babies, mostly. To temples, to slavers, to the harem merchants if it’s a girl. Or keep it and teach it to beg. Steal. Sell its body.”

The scene involving the four men coming for Scillara and Felisin is traumatic in many ways — from the way that Scillara reaches to tug at her tunic and offers her body, to the fact that Felisin sits mute and white at the idea of being taken against her will again, to the deaths of the four men by Greyfrog. Despite the fact there is a lot about these men to hate, their deaths are dark and unpleasant.

Intriguing also to feel happily inclined towards Greyfrog purely because of the manner in which he talks. It’s fairly cutesome, as far as these things go in the Malazan books. But then we know what Greyfrog is capable of doing — it’s Erikson confounding expectations again.

And now a quick pitstop with Smiles, Bottle et all. I am liking this method of stopping off at all of what will presumably become the main players to remind us where they are and what they’re up to.

This here sort of gives me visions of what it must have been like for those soldiers in Iraq once the actual war was supposedly over: “The Fourteenth Army was tired. Miserable. It didn’t like itself, much. Deprived of delivering fullest vengeance upon Sha’ik and the murderers, rapists and cutthroats who followed her, and now in slow pursuit of the last remnant of that rebel army, along crumbling, dusty roads in a parched land, through sandstorms and worse, the Fourteenth still waited for a resolution.”

Man, this is poignant and almost brings me to tears, with the depth of knowledge we have now of events: “Fiddler and Hedge had been as close as brothers. When together, they had been mayhem. A conjoined mindset more dangerous than amusing most of the time. As legendary as the Bridgeburners themselves. It had been a fateful decision back there on the shoreline of Lake Azur, their parting.”

The conversation between Fiddler, Kalam and Quick Ben is quick and smart, and talking in shorthand to a great extent. But why wouldn’t they? They’ve known each other for years and worked together well. They wouldn’t need to slow things down just so that a reader can keep up. We’ve got mentions here of Tavore and Laseen and what they’re up to, musings on Tavore’s abilities, fooling Pearl so that he takes different stories back to Laseen (no wonder she has trust issues!), and the idea that Tavore wants to build a cadre of assassins. I’ve probably missed absolutely loads of little hints in amongst that!

Hey, lots of reunions in this little lot — Tayschrenn (and, boy, look at that resentment bubbling between him and the Bridgeburners!) and Dujek Onearm, and two old faces from Night of Knives.

Set up, set up, set up — but with that immense scene with Cotillion and the dragons. The Bonehunters is still only grinding into first gear, and I’m looking forward to more!

Bill’s Reaction to Chapter Two

Not a lot to say about the opening scene save I enjoyed the humor of Pust (an acquired taste for some, I know) and also liked how we are seeing Shadowthrone as more attenuated and incorporeal with a little hint that maybe he literally isn’t “all there.” And a nice little tease of something important and seemingly dangerous going down soon with the do you think he’ll get there on time and will he suffice conversation once Pust leaves.

Now, that Cotillion scene.

Once again, as in the earlier scene with Apsalar, I love this mercurial nature of Shadow, the way it ever shifts (as of course, would befit a realm of Shadow), the way things appear far away one time and close the next. I also like how the “rulers” are pretty much ignored.

It’s also of interest with all the looks we get in this world of brutality, cruelty, war, and so on, that our few glimpses into other realms show us more of the same — that’s a pretty wide-ranging and harsh condemnation of the “human” condition I’d say.

And more tease of what’s to come, as Cotillion muses on how the stakes are far greater this time (and they haven’t been exactly low before).

Good old mysterious Edgewalker. I love how Cotillion talks to him like the old guy in your house whose stories you’ve hear a billion times: “Yes, I know . . .you walk paths unseen…”

But I also like how each of them surprises the other here and that leads to them forging if not an alliance at least a mutual respect and a possibility of working together for shared goals (not that those goals are ever clear of course). And then, as you say Amanda, that’s pretty big if he is indeed an “elemental force.” If.

“Dragons are at the heart of all that will come.” Yes. Yes they are. Remember.

There is a war coming. Yes. Yes there is. Though not necessarily the one thought.

Amanda’s right — that revelation by Cotillion that Shadowthrone isn’t as empty-headed as he looks (sometimes literally) is a great scene. And yet again, gains some respect. As does his mention of Scabandari Bloodeye. Always key when negotiating.

Bloodeye’s soul is still out there and alive. We sort of thought that but good to have confirmation.

I won’t tell you here Amanda, but I will say who smashed in Bloodeye’s face is one of those questions that will actually be concretely answered. I will say the wound isn’t very dragon-like though.

Speaking of questions, just what did Draconus do that makes him the “most reviled of all”?

More respect for Cotillion, this time when he reveals he knows something of Olar Ethil’s aspect. As a big myth fan, I have to applaud the use of the civilizing myth of a god (or some “force”) bringing fire to “humanity.”

“Unlike Tiam, when we’re killed we stay dead.” File.

“How do you kill an elemental force”?

I’m realizing how hard it is to discuss this scene without spoilers, so I’m going to hold off and see what develops in the forums and what the comfort level is. If not much, it’s definitely a scene we will revisit down the road.

After all that info, it’s a good bit of comic relief to end the scene.

Mappo is just a great tragic figure in this series. It might be a good idea here since we go at such a glacial pace, to remind as we meet Mappo here that the prologue colors this scene for the careful reader. From our discussion earlier:

“We have chosen one current, a terrible, unchained force — chosen to guide it, to shape its course unseen and unchallenged. We intend to drive one force upon another, and so effect mutual annihilation.” Think of what great force with a “guide” that we’ve seen, one associated with the Nameless Ones.

And from the Fourth: “We must acknowledge grief for the impending demise of an honourable servant . . . “ And whom have we met that serves the Nameless Ones? Put that together with “guide” and “terrible force” (not to mention “annihilation”) and I think you can figure out the intended victim(s?) of Dejim.

I just talked above of how the series reveals brutality not only this world but seemingly in a myriad, possibly infinite number of realms. And here we have Mappo with his own reflection on brutality’s ubiquitous and self-spawning nature, how it goes on “one incident leading to another, until a conflagration burgeoned.” File. I also like how he compares it to a crystal — something hard-edged.

And as with the economic aspects of our last novel, it’s hard to read that line Amanda cites: “When the conflagration consumed children, then the distinction between the sane and the sociopath ceased to exist,” and not look at our own world and be horrified.

And from crystals we make this nice linguistic move to how Mappo tries to see every side, since what is a crystal but a multi-faceted/faced object?

And then another nice move from the almost existential angst of Mappo’s awareness to the blissful oblivion of Icarium: “eyes bright with pleasure” as he strides out of cleansing, purifying water.

We know the great fear of what Icarium can do if unleashed. What was the thing he did in Trebur, the City of Domes? What does Mappo dread will be revealed?

And from one journey to another, as we rejoin more old friends in Cutter, Heboric, and the others.

It’s a bit sadly funny that we see both Apsalar and Cutter performing tasks as each thinks themselves unworthy of affection/love/adoration.

Hmm, is someone in this book the spider? (Sudden flash to When Harry Met Sally “Is one of us supposed to be a dog in this scenario”)

You’re right Amanda. This scene with the thwarted attack is disturbing on so many levels: Scillara’s numbness/jadedness, Felisin’s horror, and Greyfrog’s brutality — Mister Comic Relief Ain’t He Cute just a moment ago.

Bottle and the Eres’al — don’t forget about her.

I like the quick way Erikson reminds us of a few things in this scene — what happened to the Bridgeburners, the ones split off in Darujhistan, the ascension, etc.

Like you Amanda, I do love this repartee between Fiddler, Kalam, and Quick. Just another example of how good a job this series does with friendships. And what do Quick Ben and Kalam know that makes them tell Fiddler to maybe consider heading to Daru?

Love too that moment between Quick Ben and Tayschrenn (especially coming after Quick tells the other to cool their jets) when he reveals he was once a High Mage. And how can you not love the name: Rule the Rude?

Just like old times indeed. And good to be back with old friends….

Amanda Rutter is the editor of Strange Chemistry books, sister imprint to Angry Robot.

Bill Capossere writes short stories and essays, plays ultimate frisbee, teaches as an adjunct English instructor at several local colleges, and writes SF/F reviews for fantasyliterature.com.

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by Cat Rambo

Jason Heller is the nonfiction editor of Clarkesworld Magazine. His nonfiction has  appeared in The A.V. Club, where he’s a regular contributor, as well as Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Tor.com. His debut novel, Taft 2012, was published in January by Quirk Books; it will be followed later this year by the first book in a middle-grade horror series (to be announced). He’s also the author of The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook, and his short stories have appeared in Apex Magazine, Sybil’s Garage, Brain Harvest, Polluto, M-Brane SF, and many others.

Writing about Taft was not your idea, but Stephen Segal’s. What anxieties did you have about writing a first novel based on someone else’s idea?

There were definitely some worries on my part, but they were far outweighed by the positives. Stephen, then an editor for Quirk, approached me his concept for Taft 2012 after I’d written The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook for him (and before that, done some nonfiction for him at Weird Tales). Captain Jack taught me a couple encouraging things: A) that working with someone else’s idea and/or an established property could still be an opportunity to be creative, and B) that Stephen and I had great synergy, work-wise.

As reassuring as those things were, my first reaction was to turn the project down. I’d already been working on an original, dark science-fantasy novel of my own, one couldn’t be more different than Taft 2012, and I was concerned that I might be giving the world the wrong first impression about my identity as an author.

At the same time, I feel I’m pretty versatile as a writer—and in fact, unknown to Stephen at the time, I’d previously written a couple of lighter, somewhat satirical speculative-fiction stories involving contemporary electoral politics and the presidency. Taft 2012 wasn’t outside my wheelhouse, just over in a far corner of it. Of course, I was also thrilled by this unique opportunity; in essence I was given on-the-job training while completing my debut novel.

My biggest worry, though, was the most obvious one: That I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a novelist since the original idea for my debut wasn’t mine. But as the project evolved, and I began to expand Stephen’s core concept into so many different dimensions, I felt a lot more comfortable owning Taft 2012. Still, if it had been up to me, Stephen’s name would have been on the front cover along with mine. He’s a brilliant guy, and I can’t thank him enough.

What did Stephen end up thinking of the book?

Oh my god, I can only hope he likes it… I mean, he says he does, so I have to take his word for it!

I felt a great obligation to make Taft 2012 live up to the spirit of his vision. I mean, this isn’t Crime and Punishment here, but there’s no denying how clever and savvy an idea Taft 2012 is (and I say that with all due credit aimed at Stephen). Fleshing out his page-long proposal into a 260-page book wasn’t easy—and I can’t stress enough how vital and extensive Stephen’s input was throughout the entire process—but I think he’s proud of this weird little book.

In writing Taft 2012, you researched Taft era politics – what similarities did you notice to our own political scene?

The parallels are downright eerie. Ideological tensions within the GOP. Battles over taxes (Taft was in office when the 16th Amendment establishing the federal income tax was ratified). Fears about corporate influence over the political process. Preservation of the environment versus the interests of commerce. Race relations. The pros and cons of regulation. How active a role the U.S. should take in world affairs. These were all dominant issues during Taft’s time, as they are today.

The more I researched, the more it seemed that Taft was going to find 2012 to be very similar to 1912—even as he obviously was going to struggle in the attempt to adjust to all the radical changes that have occurred over the last century. In the book, I was definitely trying to make a subtle point about things changing, things staying the same, and whether we as a society are perceptive enough to realize that our problems are not in any way new.

That said, we’re talking satire here, so I wanted to make sure this was all done with a wink and a poke. Believe it or not, I’m actually more optimistic about the American political system after writing Taft 2012 than I was beforehand.

How worried were you about the 2012 election season proceeding in a way that would somehow make the book less pertinent to today’s politics?

That was a huge concern. I wrote the book between the summers of 2010 and 2011, yet the bulk of the story takes place in late 2011 and 2012. I decided to make the story, well, fuzzy in certain ways in order to avoid the glaring omissions that were sure to pop up in the real-world 2012 race.

For instance, in the book, Taft doesn’t name any of his competitors in the presidential race—after all, in the summer of 2011, I had no way of knowing exactly who would be in the race by the time 2012 rolled around. Besides President Obama, of course.

But even then, it would have been lopsided if Taft constantly mentioned Obama by name without mentioning the GOP candidates by name. In a sense, I’m glad this limitation popped up. It gave me the chance to be little less of a political wonk, which I think would have made Taft 2012 a less fun read, and turn the book into more of a character-driven romp.

Are there other historical figures that may pop up in your forthcoming fiction?

Hell no! As proud as I am of Taft 2012, my natural inclination has always been toward secondary-world fantasy (and science-fantasy). I love worldbuilding. I love using symbolic and metaphorical social constructions to exaggerate and concentrate the issues we deal with in the real world. I love being able to craft a setting from scratch—and then use that setting to be simultaneously escapist and relevant to the here and now.

More importantly, though, I hate having to stick to the facts. When you build your own world, you play by your own rules. Granted, you have to maintain an internal logic and continuity in a world of your own device. Actually, screw that, you don’t really have to do that either! If my hero Michael Moorcock can break that rule, maybe there’s a slim chance my barely talented ass can get away with it too.

If not, I’ll have a fun time failing in the attempt. But no, no more alternate history for me. That is, unless another great editor happens to approach me with a particularly promising idea…

The book’s made up of a combination of documents, including the Twitter stream of a Taft still mastering the 140 character limits, Craiglist discussions of Taft spottings, Secret Service Incidence Reports as they accompany their assignment “Big Boy,” and Fox News polls. What were the hardest to write?

The hardest were probably the transcripts of the Department of Home Security surveillance footage. More specifically, the covert recording of the men using the public urinals at one of Taft’s major campaign events. And it was difficult mostly because I was really cracking myself up while writing them.

Who are the fiction writers who influenced you and helped shape Taft?

When it comes to the darker speculative fiction that I write, my influences are more along the lines of J. G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, and M. John Harrison. Of course, those authors had zero influence whatsoever on Taft 2012.

Honestly, I’m not sure where all this goofy stuff came from. Certainly I grew up reading satirists like Joseph Heller (no relation), Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut, although I have to admit I haven’t read any of those authors in ages (Taft does get a mention in Bluebeard, however, if I remember correctly).

Maybe the one writer that ties everything together is Douglas Adams, whose sense of the morbid and absurd played irreparable havoc with my 13-year brain.

Does Taft have an accompanying music playlist/Taft mixtape?

I’m a huge music fan, and I usually do make playlists for pieces of fiction I’m writing. (In fact, in one of my earlier presidential-SF stories, a disgraced, fictional former president in the future joins the teenage punk-rock band that practices in her basement.)

With Taft 2012, though, it was hard to think along those lines. I love music of all genres and eras, but the popular music of Taft’s time goes beyond even my wide threshold. Ragtime was huge.

But the commerce and culture of recorded music didn’t operate the same way then as it does today; songs were more famous than the artists who sang them, and music fans were more apt to buy sheet music (and play the song themselves at home) than a gramophone record. The vast majority of the innovations in jazz happening at the time were criminally undocumented. I’m not much of a classical guy, but surely Taft enjoyed some of the contemporary composers of his day. Personally, I probably listened to a lot of death metal while writing the book.

What prompted you to come up with the presidential ID code that allows Taft to identify himself, and how nervous are you about exposing government secrets like that?

If I remember correctly, that was Stephen’s idea—one of the many brilliant ones he had during the book’s gestation. A lot of liberties had to be taken with things like presidential procedures and protocol (for instance, in Taft 2012, the government apparently and inexplicably had the incredible foresight to preserve a sample of Taft’s tissue, enabling a DNA test in 2011 confirming his identity).

I love these weird little details that pop up throughout the book—the less plausible, the better. Not only do I get a mischievous joy out of the ridiculous (again, thank you, Douglas Adams), I think it helped establish the baseline of weirdness and unreality that Taft 2012 was going to follow.

Tell me about Irene and her real life model.

In the book, Irene Kaye is a woman born in 1906 who wrote Taft a postcard just before his disappearance in 1912. When he returns, she’s still alive and living in a retirement village. They reconnect—and she becomes Taft’s only living link to his own time, as well as his moral compass to a certain degree.

I dedicated Taft 2012 to my late grandmother, Margaret Smith, and the character of Irene is based on her. My grandmother was a lovely, generous, incredible woman, and she raised my brother and I just as much as our mom did. She just breathed history, and my fascination with the past definitely came from her.

She also was the first person to encourage me to write; at the age of five I was scribbling poems for her. Sadly, she didn’t live long enough to see any of my achievements (modest as they are) as a writer. But I believe she knew all along that I needed to be pointed in that direction, and in that sense, Taft 2012 wouldn’t have existed without her. Nor, of course, would I.

(After the book was finished, I realized this tidbit of synchronicity: My grandmother was born November 3, 1912, the week Taft lost reelection to Woodrow Wilson. Neat, that.)

Where can fans of Taft 2012 find more of your work?

I keep a blog at www.jasonmheller@blogspot.com and a website at www.jason-heller.com. I usually update them with news of recent publications (and a list of previous short stories, including stuff in Apex Magazine and Sybil’s Garage). Most of my pop-culture journalism runs at www.avclub.com. Also, I’m on Facebook way, way too much, obsessively leaving a breadcrumb trail of neurotic rambling that some shrink ought to have a field day with someday.

What’s upcoming and is it equally politically loaded?

I’m working on two book-length projects right now, and each is politically loaded in its own way: One is a post-apocalyptic YA series that explores class hierarchies in a vast, biomechanical, walking city; the other is a standalone novel for adults that’s kind of a post-steampunk pastiche of Moby-Dick and Dune. The latter focuses far more on organized religion than politics, but of course the two are inseparable. No real-world stuff, though!

After the 2012 election cycle runs its course, I hope to retreat into my twisted psyche to dwell in the weird worlds of my own creation for a couple years. If not forever.

•••

Find Cat Rambo’s fiction, which includes over a hundred published stories, at her website. She teaches at Bellevue College as well as via online workshops and serves as a volunteer with Clarion West. Her most recent publication is her short story collection for Kindle and other e-readers. She is the editor GoH at MidSouthCon this March.

SFWA

The Guardian is reporting that His Dark Materials trilogy author Philip Pullman and Penguin Books will release Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version, a retelling by Pullman of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, in the fall.

Pullman will retell 50 of the tales, “from the quests and romance of classics such as Rapunzel, Snow White and Cinderella to the danger and wit of such lesser-known tales as The Three Snake Leaves, Hans-My-Hedgehog and Godfather Death” with additional commentary on the history of each story. The project has been Pullman’s main focus in the last two years.

This release, currently scheduled to hit shelves on November 8, will mark the 200th year since the publication of the original.

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Some of the science and SF links originally posted on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook  this week:

• Guest Essay: ‘Machine’ Author Jennifer Pelland on Mechanical Immortality « Suvudu – Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, Comics, and Games 
• No Pulse: How Doctors Reinvented The Human Heart | Popular Science
  Life without a pulse! 
• The Funny Thing About Research
  CT Adams and Cathy Clamp explain how Mycobacterium leprae became a “magical” bacterium. 
• Cyborg snails power up : Nature News & Comment
  “Cyborg snails! The dozen or so brown garden snails crawling around the plastic, moss-filled terrarium in Evgeny Katz’s laboratory look normal, but they have a hidden superpower: they produce electricity.” 
• Nancy’s Blog: Jane Austen and Gregor Mendel
  Nancy Kress on genetics, families and science fiction 
• Shady scientists head up mission to clone woolly mammoths
  If this were a SyFy movie of the week, the formerly disgraced scientist would use this opportunity to show every he was legit by making mammoths that take over the world. 
• CDC – Blogs – Public Health Matters Blog – Disaster Movies: Lessons Learned
  The lesson from Contagion: “The chef should have been more careful about washing his hands so that he could have avoided spreading the animal virus to humans.”
  That wouldn’t have been much of a movie, though. 
• Planarians and the New Battlestar Galactica
  How Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica are like planarian flatworms 
• Daniel Wolpert: The real reason for brains
  Why do we have brains? It’s all about movement 
• Precognition studies and the curse of the failed replications
  Not too surprisingly, scientists had difficulty replicating an experiment that appeared to demonstrate precognitive abilities. A bit worrying, though, is the difficulty they had getting the replicated study published in a peer-reviewed journal. 
• DVICE: Should we re-engineer our species to save our planet?
  If we humans can’t learn to live sustainably as we are, should we genetically engineer humans to use less environmental resources? Some of the suggestions DVICE proposes are bit silly, but I can’t argue with providing more general education to women, since that has been shown to correlate with lower birthrates.
  Based on the suggestions in an article by philosopher S. Matthew Liao and colleagues:
  http://www.smatthewliao.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/HEandClimateChange.htm
• Stuffed in a vacuum and bombarded by electrons, a tick waves hello | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine
  Ed Yong writes that ticks can endure “being dried and slathered in metal, starved of air, and bombarded with a high-energy electron beam”. No wonder they are so hard to get rid of. 
• Neuron – brainawarenessweek
  Brainbows, dancing parrots and sex differences: free content from Cell Press to celebrate Brain Awareness Week. 
• New Scientist TV: Fruit fly trapped in ‘holodeck’ fooled by the illusion 
• Alien Plants May Thrive on Many Wavelengths of Light
  Alien plants may be able to use the light from red dwarf stars for photosynthesis. Another place to look for life!
• Despite the Dark, Giant Squid Eyes See All : Discovery News
  Giant squid eyes can be the size of basketballs – the better to spot predatory sperm whales..
• ‘Luck’ raises stakes on animals’ use
  Should live animals in films and television shows be replaced with CGI? Or will that only work on science fictional productions where the depicted creatures aren’t expected to look “real” anyway.

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