Category Archives: Art

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Links of the Week

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It’s Friday! And a long weekend for many of you. Let’s celebrate with a few fun links I found this week.

  • How about we start with a giveaway? Tor is giving away 60 copies (yes, 60 — that’s not a typo) of David Weber‘s Midst Toil and Tribulation (#6 in the Safehold series). Deadline is September 10, 2012.
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  • Over at For Books’ Sake, they’ve posted a list of the Top 10 Women Writers of Fantasy. Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2 of the post. Which of them have you read?
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  • Ok, this is kind of creepy in a cool kind of way. Wait…is that possible? Disney is now cloning human faces to make life-like robots. Well, maybe it is possible. Check it out and see what you think.
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  • On the serious side, here’s a bit of science fiction come to life. Oxford professor Julian Savulescu considers it a “moral obligation” to genetically engineer babies to screen out personality flaws. Sounds like a slippery slope to me.
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  • Back to the fun stuff. Have you considered buying handmade Legend of Zelda soap? There’s the Triforce symbol (it comes in small and large versions), the Heart Container (my personal favorite), or maybe you’d just like a handful of rupees. I know my daughter would LOVE it! They’re not that expensive either.
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  • Another giveaway: 10 copies of Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow. Here’s the link: Deadline is September 14, 2012.
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  • Tor is continuing its Wheel of Time giveaways. This time it’s 5 copies of Book 3, The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan. Deadline is September 5, 2012.
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  • SciFi Chick is giving away one copy of The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis. Deadline is September 7, 2012.
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  • You can download free wallpaper from The Wheel of Time series, featuring the ebook art for Winter’s Heart by Scott M. Fischer. I wish I could post a copy but I’d hate to get my virtual hands slapped for copyright infringement. That seems to be going around lately. Anyhoo, here’s the link. I think you just need to register for the Tor.com website, if you haven’t already.

I also found a new teaser trailer for the upcoming LEGO Lord of the Rings game. As usual, they’ve thrown their own quirky brand of LEGO humor in. Cracks me up.

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That’s it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful, marvelous, long Labor Day weekend. Cheers!

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Links of the Week

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It’s been a couple of weeks since I sat down to bring you my favorite links, so I decided it’s past time to post a few more. For one thing, I love contests and found a few to pass on to you.

  • Giveaway: The Dragon Reborn is book 3 in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and Tor is offering 5 copies over at Goodreads. The entry deadline is July 27, 2012.
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  • Giveaway: Janalyn Voigt, is offering one autographed copy of her DawnSinger novel, Book 1 in the epic Tales of Faeraven series. The entry deadline is August 3, 2012. You can click on over to her website to see a trailer for the book and the first chapter here.
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  • Have you ever wondered what the musculoskeletal structure of a dragon looks like? Artist Todd Lockwood has drawn just such an anatomical study for the cover of Marie Brennan‘s book coming out next February, The Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent. Tor has posted copies of the artwork that you can download as wallpaper for your desktop. Click here.
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  • I admit it, I’m a sucker for any gallery display of giclee artwork. Over at the Dreamworks Animation web site, you can purchase copies of your favs. A friend just sent me a link to a limited edition of a frame from the studio’s How to Train Your Dragon movie. So cool.
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  • One book that I enjoyed some time back was R.A. Salvatore‘s The Highwayman, Book 1 in The Saga of the First King. Now Graphic Audio has produced and is offering for sale the book in a dramatic reading format. Let me tell you, these guys do a great job. To listen for yourself, here’s a link to hear the first 8 minutes of the book, along with more information on the production. (I don’t get any commission if you buy it. I’m just passing it on because I think it’s amazingly well done.)
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  • If you’re looking for new reading material, author Michael J. Sullivan has put together a list of 20 of his favorite indie fantasy and science fiction novels. I see a couple of the e-books are currently offered free of charge. Check it out over at The Ranting Dragon here. While you’re at it, you might want to visit Michael’s web site. I found some gorgeous artwork there for some of his novels by the amazing Marc Simonetti.

To wrap it up, here’s the official trailer for the upcoming Oz the Great and Powerful. The trailer was just released yesterday (Friday, July 12) at the awesome San Diego ComicCon. Enjoy!

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Have a great weekend, everyone!

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

New Wallpaper for Upcoming Wheel of Time Book, A Memory of Light!

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Not only is one of my favorite artists (Michael Whelan)  illustrating the cover of one of my most-anticipated books (A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson), now you can download the painting as wallpaper for your desktop computer, phone or mobile tablet-type of device! I’m so there. Below you can see a tiny copy of the image, but don’t use that one. Click through to the Tor web site to get a copy customized for the size of your screen. Here’s the link.

Michael Whelan cover art for "A Memory of Light"

You can find a pic of the final book cover here: A Memory of Light book cover

You can find Michael Whelan’s web site here: http://www.glassonion.com/

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Links of the Week

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Happy Friday, everyone! It’s time to give you my favorite links from this week. So many to choose from this time. Well, here goes…

  • I stumbled across http://www.thetatteredscroll.com this week. There you can find many current fantasy ebook deals, including two RA Salvatore ebooks currently priced at $4.99 (that’s $3 off the usual digital price). It’s nice to have someone willing to go through what’s out there and find the cream of the crop.
  • http://www.starwarsuncut.com/ has released a remake of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, comprised entirely of 15-second fan clips. I watched a few minutes and have to shake my head at the originality of some of the submissions.
  • I love beautiful artwork. Naomi Novik has posted a beautiful piece of fan art by Daniel Govar, a dragon based on her Temeraire series.
  • MIT unveiled In Europe the Hiriko electric car, a windshield mounted car that folds up to take up one-third the parking space of an average size car. A pilot program for the little sci-fi looking buggy is set to begin next year.
  • I see Steven Spielberg is considering creating a Moses epic for Warner Bros. Will it going to be more fantasy or faith? I guess we’ll see.
  • Last year, Tor Forge gave away copies of Templar One (EVE, #2) by Tony Gonzales. Well, they’re at it again. Five copies are available on Goodreads. Deadline is February 24, 2012. (The book is based on the MMORPG game, http://www.eveonline.com/) For a peek at the action-packed trailer for the game see the publisher’s book page.
  • Here’s one that cracked me up: The 10 most undignified deaths in SFF, according to the Facebook followers of io9.com.
  • Care to contribute to one man’s attempt to list the family tree of every character in Lord of the Rings? http://www.lotrproject.com/. I wish him luck.
  • Giveaway: To kick off the Year of the Dragon, Tor is giving away four copies of the Wheel of Time prequel, New Spring: The Graphic Novel by Robert Jordan, Chuck Dixon, and Mike S. Miller. Speaking of WOT, the publisher is also offering 10 copies of the first book in the series, The Eye of the World. The deadline for both is February 24, 2012.
  • Giveaway: Another offering by Tor on Goodreads — The Stolen Throne by David Gaider, the prequel to Dragon Age: Origins, the role-playing video game from Bioware. Deadline is February 24, 2012.
  • Here’s some geek news: University of Washington researchers have created a game, Foldit, where players can decode and create protein shapes to help scientists learn how proteins work and help with drug research for HIV and Alzheimer’s cures. Gamers, go forth and save the world! More on this story on CNET.
  • Minecraft and Zelda unite! Here’s a video showing the Hyrule Temple built in Minecraft. Now that must have taken quite some time.
  • Want to up your geek-cred points a tiny bit? Tell people you know where to find the video showing the Lego Man in Space, footage shot by 17-year-olds Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammad using a weather balloon and makeshift Styrofoam spacecraft to send a Lego man 15 miles up into the stratosphere. To make it easy, here you go:
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I think that’ll do it for now. Have a great weekend, everyone! If I missed any good links, leave a note in the comments. I love to hear from you.

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Cover Art Released for “Way of Kings”

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One of the things I love about fantasy fiction is the artwork. There are some incredibly gifted artists out there that create works for this genre. One of the most respected is Michael Whelan, who has been commissioned by Tor to create the cover art for Brandon Sanderson’s upcoming book The Way of Kings. Wouldn’t you agree with me that this is an absolutely stunning painting?

For the author’s thoughts on having a Michael Whelan cover for his new book, click on over to a post on the Tor.com website.

Disclosure of Material Connection: At times, some of the links in my posts are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”