This is Sci-Fi, Issue 21 is a sampling of science fiction news across the mediums. From movies to books, to real life, and any bits in between that I can think of to list. This is by no means a comprehensive list of what’s happening, but it should whet your appetite!
This is Sci-Fi’s Weekly Quote
-“A learning experience is one of those things that say, ‘You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that’.”
– Douglas Adams
Science Fiction Movies
New Science Fiction Releases (October 13th)
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Coming Soon
Geostorm
Science Fiction Books
Featured New Science Fiction Release
Children of the Fleet is a new angle on Card’s bestselling series, telling the story of the Fleet in space, parallel to the story on Earth told in the Ender’s Shadow series.
Ender Wiggin won the Third Formic war, ending the alien threat to Earth. Afterwards, all the terraformed Formic worlds were open to settlement by humans, and the International Fleet became the arm of the Ministry of Colonization, run by Hirum Graff. MinCol now runs Fleet School on the old Battle School station, and still recruits very smart kids to train as leaders of colony ships, and colonies.
Dabeet Ochoa is a very smart kid. Top of his class in every school. But he doesn’t think he has a chance at Fleet School, because he has no connections to the Fleet. That he knows of. At least until the day that Colonel Graff arrives at his school for an interview.
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Other New Science Fiction Releases
The Genius Plague – David Walton
Elites of Eden (Children of Eden #2) – Joey Graceffa
Giveaways
Science Fiction Trivia
Ghost Hunting
It’s that time of year when a person’s fancy turns to things like pretty leaves, pumpkins (and spiced lattes) and…ghost hunting. “But wait!” I hear you say (or it could just be the voices in my head) “Shouldn’t this be in the horror section?” Why, no, my good readers! Perhaps if I were going to talk about the ghosts themselves but today I’m talking about the tech that the brave and intrepid ghost hunters use to ‘catch’ ghosts.
Back in the day when spiritualism first gained traction in the 1840’s there were a few options to contact spirits. You could use a ‘spirit board’ (we don’t need Milton and/or Bradley on our backs for using their copyrighted words) or call upon your trusted medium. The first tool used in documenting the afterlife was the camera. Thereafter, spirit photographs became very popular, if not an absolute necessity. They are still used today but now the pictures are digital.
Video recordings are also de rigueur for today’s ghost hunters. We’ve progressed from tapes and recording equipment the size of a small car to more sleek and stylish digital recordings. Night vision has also become a must for today’s modern hunter as we all know that ghosts only come out at night…because…reasons.
EMF (Electromagnetic Field) meters. These always seemed to be a bit chancy to me. In a thorough investigation you would check all areas for already existing EMF levels. That way it’s easier to spot fluctuations. But, again, these could be perfectly natural fluctuations in the area so you would only really be able to tell is to make multiple trips, consistently and at the same times. There has been a proven link between EMF and ‘psychic’ manifestations. It’s pretty much been written off as high EMF causing the phenomena and/or hallucinations. However, another way it could be read is that the spirits are using these frequencies and energies to do their thing.
EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena to the uninitiated. Although anyone who’s watched a few episodes of Supernatural should know this. This has also undergone a dramatic change. It started with reel-to-reel tapes in 1956, mutated into cassette tapes (which were a little smaller) and we thought we were done when we got to digital. but no, some intrepid soul decided to create (or modify) a box into actually interpreting what the ghost is trying to say and uses it’s smart computer things to create the word.
I always wondered (supposing there are ghosts or spiritual beings) don’t people ever wonder if the reason they never get results is that the spirits don’t know how to work the damn things? Although I have noticed newer shows explaining the equipment to the entity they’re trying to reach. It could also be that maybe that particular spirit doesn’t speak English, or the English they do speak is an older dialect and they have no clue what these crazy people with boxes are asking them to do.
This probably has been more fiction than ‘science’ but it’s nice sometimes to explore the fringes if only to make sure your mind is still open to the unique and wonderful in nature.
Science Fiction on the Web
Looks like there is going to be a sci-fi version of Paperbacks from Hell – The Verge
Why does Sci-Fi love Asian Culture, but not Asian Characters? – Slashfilm
Fembots in Film and how it talks about female representation in Hollywood – Syfy Wire
Rosario Dawson talks about narrating Andy Weir’s Artemis – Space
Bored? Check out this List of Fictional Doomsday Devices – Wikipedia
Hi Lilyn.
For the past 5 years, I have worked production and acted in a Birmingham, Alabama haunted house attraction. It is at a real life haunted site; Sloss Furnace. Sloss Furnace is a blast furnace from the late 19th century. It is the epitome of an Age. It is the site of the worlds largest steam engine. This place was incredibly dangerous to work at. There are over a hundred confirmed fatalities and probably many more unconfirmed. It was closed in 1972. There has always been talk of ghosts there. It is consistently ranked in the top ten haunted sites in the U.S. It is has been the location for many ghostbuster type tv shows and their equipment is used, but we who work there are the ones that experience the supernatural, not the film crews. We wake the site up with the excitement of the haunt. We think there are many ghosts of different types, here. Some are mean and angry, but others are mischievous. Some people the ghosts don’t like. They will get pushed, scratched, and even thrown. I like and respect the site, so they leave me alone. I have seen smoke coming from the chimneys before, but that is the only thing I have seen.
Happy Halloween!
~Icky. 🙂
I’ve read about Sloss Furnace, it sounds like it would be a fascinating place to visitm even without the ghosts. I believe I also saw it on Ghost Adventures.