Brandon Sanderson To Finish Wheel of Time

A flurry of postings today and confirmed by the author's own website, Brandon Sanderson has been tapped to finish up the Wheel of Time series by Tor. This is the series started by the late Robert Jordan.

All I can say is, Thank you Tor for not picking Kevin J Anderson.

An Out of Work Cylon

...in Toronto apparently.

Cory Doctorow's Talk at Roboexotica

Cory Doctorow gives a really great talk at Roboexotica that delves into why science fiction isn't about predicting the future but rather examining the present.

Halting State

Halting State is the latest brilliantly conceived novel by uber writer Charles Stross.

The book description from the dust jacket reads as follows:

In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. A daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates, a dot-com startup company that's just been floated on the London stock exchange. The suspects are a band of marauding orcs, with a dragon in tow for fire support, and the bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four. For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But she soon realizes that the virtual world may have a devastating effect in the real one-and that someone is about to launch an attack upon both.

The kernel of the story is the virtual bank robbery which may seem far fetched to some is a very real problem. We now live in a society where virtual items have a very real value. Just check out the plethora of sites where you can buy items from World of Warcraft. Also recent news reports describe a vulnerability in Second Life where malicious hackers can steal your Linden bucks (Second Life curency). It's only a matter of time before someone goes for the big score.

The narrative continues on being told from three vantage points, Sergeant Sue Smith the initial responder to the crime scene, Elaine Barnaby a forensic accountant and Jack Reed a video game programmer who has been brought in to be a guide for Elaine in the world of Avalon Four.

Through these characters the story opens up to take on such heady topics as global economics, privacy, and terrorism in an entertaining and thought provoking manner. I can't recommend this book enough!

Additional Links:

• Charlie Stross's Halting State: Heist novel about an MMORPG
• Opening chapters of Charlie Stross's "Halting State"
• Video: Charlie Stross reads HALTING STATE at Google

Vernor Vinge makes Rainbows End available for free download

Cory Doctorow reports on Boing Boing that Vernor Vinge has made his latest novel Rainbows End available for download.

Read it and loved it.

Guy Gavriel Kay's World Fantasy Awards Toastmaster Talk

Canadian fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay recently gave a presentation at the World Fantasy Awards. The full text of the presentation can be found from a link off of SF Scope.

Check out my review of Kay's latest novel Ysabel.

I Am Legend

So I finished reading I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. It is a rather quick read as the entire story checks in at 170 pages. In it we follow the protagonist, Robert Neville, through his daily life where he putters around the house, works in the garden and disposes of vampires. As you see Neville lives in a post-apocalyptic future in which a plague, to which Neville is immune to, has descended upon humanity turning everyone seemingly into mindless vampires.

Much of the novel deals with Neville's research into the cause of vampirism. The author gives you a scientific, not supernatural, explanation for the vampire infection. Some of these are biological and some of them are psychological. None of them make the bleak future in which Neville inhabits any less horrific.

All the while Neville is doing his research and doing his level best to stay alive the vampires are forming a society of their own.

Without giving too much away the novel really holds a mirror to the struggle between humans and vampires. Is Neville more or less of a monster than the vampires?

On December 14th the third movie based on I Am Legend will be released starring Will Smith.