Club Jade

What’s on TV these days? This weekend has a full blast of stuff for genre fans, and Monday kicks off the new season of Warehouse 13

Let’s check out the sci-fi and fantasy forecast for the weekend and beyond…

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Continuing TV weekend, tonight sees the beginning of the third season of Game of Thrones, based on on the third book in the series, A Storm of Swords.

Debuted on Kimmel tonight; The first episode premieres on March 31st. (via)

Awards. The finalist list for the Nebulas was released yesterday, and I’ve read… Exactly one of the novels. (The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin. It was okay, but I found the sequel much more engaging. Still, not a bad book at all.) So, no idea who will win, and I won’t even guess at the rest. I am likewise ignorant on the Andre Norton nominees, but I do have two of them on my to-read shelf.

I’m not much one for short fiction, but if you are, the SF Signal link above has links to the lions share of novelette and short story nominees.

As for the Bradbury (Dramatic Presentation,) the selections are The Avengers, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Cabin in the Woods, The Hunger Games, John Carter (?!?) and Looper. Alrighty then.

Controversy. With the Ender’s Game adaptation on the horizon and author Orson Scott Card’s anti-gay views in the news news due to protest of his involvement in a Superman anthology, Summit has a bit of a marketing challenge on their hands.

Game of Thrones. The season two Blu-rays of the HBO series are out now – what lurks in the extras? And is a second Westeros series in the cards?

Adaptations. SyFy is aiming for Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle, while Heathers and Mean Girls alums are taking the reins of the Vampire Academy movie. One of these projects is doomed, and sadly it’s not the one about a vampire academy.

Oh hey, books! io9 lists the SF/F books you can’t afford to miss this month, and writer Charlie Jane Anders is really into Karen Lord’s maybe-ex-Star Trek-fanfic The Best of All Possible Worlds. If you’re thus intrigued, here’s 50 pages to read right now.

Oliver Queen fans, take note: The CW has picked up Arrow for a full season of 22 episodes. The show’s premiere was the network’s most-watched show in three years, and the best premiere since Vampire Diaries in 2009. The CW also picked up three more episodes of their Beauty and the Beast remake, which stars Smallville alum Kristin Kreuk.

Moving onto less basic broadcast news, Neil Gaiman confirmed on Tumblr that the new Doctor Who episode he wrote (announced at the Hugos, where he won for ‘The Doctor’s Wife,’) will be the 12th of the current season.

And finally, it’s hard to read a genre news site and not trip over news and pictures from Game of Thrones as they shoot S3, but if you’ve somehow managed to miss them, try Winter is Coming. As always, possible spoilers!

What genre shows have you been watching this year?

Awards. The Hugo Award winners were announced at Worldcon this past weekend. Taking Best Novel was Jo Walton’s Among Others, beating out George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons and works by China Miéville, James S. A. Corey and Mira Grant. (Walton also won the Nebula for the book.) Other writing prizes went to Kij Johnson, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu and more.

The dramatic presentation awards went to Game of Thrones S1 and Neil Gaiman for his Doctor Who episode ‘The Doctor’s Wife.’ (Gaiman took the opportunity to announce he’s writing another episode for the show.) Also noteworthy to us, SF Signal winning for Best Fanzine!

Tolkien. With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit adaption now being three films, the second has been retitled The Desolation of Smaug, with There and Back Again now being the third installment. I fully expect it to contain at least an hour of various slow-motion endings. But seriously, it looks like there was a lot of hints dropped at DragonCon.

A Song of Ice And Fire. A hilarious Storm of Swords ‘It Gets Better’ PSA. Yes, of course there are spoilers. Or, you can read what GRRM has revealed of the Targaryen conquest of Westeros from the upcoming The World of Ice and Fire.

Lists. io9 picks fall’s must-read SF/F books and explores the mermaid trend in YA.

Records. The Hunger Games series has outsold Harry Potter – at least on Amazon.

Also: Ray Bradbury’s FBI file / Lev Grossman interviews Terry Brooks / Ursula Le Guin’s Noble Prize odds / Dark Tower adaption not so dead after all?

The Emmy nominations are out this morning, and yet again, there’s little love for any genre TV that’s not on HBO. Game of Thrones is up for 2 major awards: Repeat nominations for Peter Dinklage (who won Supporting Actor in a Drama Series last year, though shouldn’t he be Lead for this season?) and Outstanding Drama.

There’s also American Horror Story, which is tied with Mad Men for the most overall nominations. Fandom-favorites Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia also got nods.

Nickelodeon has a hit on their hands. Legend of Korra may have been beat by the NFL Draft and Pawn Stars in the ratings last week, but it was still cable’s #1 scripted program last week with 4.08 million viewers.

Yes, more people watched Legend of Korra last week than Game of Thrones, which had a not-at-all-shabby 3.9M viewers. Of course, Game of Thrones is on a premium channel and Nickelodeon is basic cable, but still… I’m damn impressed.

The night is dark and full of terrors. The second season of the hit series based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire debuts tomorrow! (I’m so excited, even though I can’t actually remember where A Clash of Kings ends and A Storm of Swords begins.) Among the must-reads is this interview with showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. There’s also been a lot of attention paid to the shows’ female characters. And is the mainstream finally paying attention to fantasy? Well, sort of.

If you want to gorge on more Thrones news, reviews, and interviews ahead of the premiere, head over to the dedicated fan blog Winter is Coming.

Authors behaving badly. Christoper Priest, author of The Prestige, is not very happy with the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist. Take it, Cleolinda.

Preach it. I haven’t been much impressed with his books, but I think Patrick Rothfuss hits things right out of the park on how fantasy needs to move past aping the Tolkien elves-and-dwarves formula.

The Hunger Games. Everyone loves it! Except the people who somehow missed that Rue was black in the book, and think that diminishes the character’s impact. (Um, spoilers.) Not enough facepalm in the world. Actress Amandla Stenberg said in a statement: “It was an amazing experience; I am proud of the film and my performance. I want to thank all of my fans and the entire Hunger Games community for their support and loyalty.”

Will The Hunger Games mark a sea change in Hollywood’s willingness to greenlight more female-lead action movies? The experts are skeptical.

And finally, here’s something not-so-serious: Capitol propaganda posters.

The Lame Files. Is 50 Shades of Grey taking fan fiction mainstream? Considering what what I got in my mailbox yesterday… Yes. Yes it is. Here’s a look back at the book’s fanfic past.

Also: Ten books every fantasy author should read – Why the Wheel of Time series is so long – Highlights in the history of space opera – Harry Potter genderswap – Stakes in fantasy novels – Why old books smell so good

This one is fantastic (I can’t help it, I love Florence and the Machine) with a lot of new scenes (Tyrion in armor! The ‘ashes’ line!) I have to say I really appreciate that the TV series is rounding out Cersei.

Also noteworthy: The Simpsons’ couch gag last night spoofed the Game of Thrones opening titles.