SFcrowsnest.net: The genre media magazine

Christopher Tolkien gave his first ever press interview with Le Monde, shedding light on his father's vision and sharing his own deep dismay with Hobbit director Peter Jackson.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-father-039-s-quot-eviscerated-quot-work-son-of-hobbit-scribe-j.r.r.-tolkien-finally-speaks-out/hobbit-silmarillion-lord-of-rings/c3s10299/#.UTHKyDd5IXt

Captain Lana Fiveworlds has a hell of a lot of problems. She's sliding void in an ageing seven-hundred-year-old space ship, scrabbling around the edges of civilised space trying to find a cargo lucrative enough to pay her bills without proving so risky that it'll kill her. She's got an alien religious freak for a navigator, an untrustworthy android for a first mate, a disgraced lizard for a trade negotiator and a deserter from the fleet acting as her chief engineer.

And that was well before an ex-crewman turns up wanting Lana to rescue a barbarian prince from a long-failed colony world.

Unfortunately for Lana, the problems she doesn't know about are even more dangerous. In fact, they just might be enough to destroy Lana's rickety but much-loved vessel, the Gravity Rose, and jettison her and her crew into the void without a spacesuit.

But there's one thing you can never tell an independent space trader. That's the odds...

currentluy free on...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005V2H54G

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005V2H54G

Thinking about going to university? Then here’s a place you might consider. Watch this promo for Monsters University, then feel free to apply… if you have three arms… or green skin… or a furry tail… or look like Boris Johnson…

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/01/02/monsters-university-campus-promotional-video/

Loved it. Now, serious question, when is the 3rd novella in the series coming out? Soon I hope! Don't keep me waiting here!

NASA has some amazing new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now

'Fated' by Benedict Jacka is the first outing for his new lead character, Alex Verus, who runs a magic shop in London. However, it's not exactly the kind of place you'd visit to pick up your standard card tricks. Verus is a probability mage, a diviner who can see the most probable course the future will take after a range of actions. For instance, he knows that he'll be getting a visit from the Mages Council soon and that probably won't lead to anything good.

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/books/2012/Fated-Alex-Verus-novel-book-1-by-Benedict-Jacka-16795.php

The 'ThunderCats' cartoons of the 1980s were one of a number of twenty minute animated shows that tied together adventures on screen with all sorts of spin-off merchandising. While some of these shows have sunk without trace, 'ThunderCats' has retained a certain degree of popularity, but not nearly as much as, say, the 'Transformers'. But with a new series of cartoons released in 2011, it's probably about as good a time as any to look back at the original show, which is where 'Hear The Roar!' comes in.

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/books/2012/Hear-The-Roar-The-Unofficial-And-Unauthorised-Guide-To-The-Hit-1980s-Series-Thundercats-by-David-Crichton-16765.php