Club Jade

Elsewhere, in the spirit of Father’s Day… Vader gets the lowest grade in Scalzi’s ratings of science fiction fathers, while Mary Robinette Kowal takes a look at the fantasy dads.

Star Trek reviews are starting to flow in, and the Tomatometer has dropped to a stunning 93%. Huh.

• But Ebert was not blown away. (Though I doubt anyone will get ranty at him for it.) However, both my local guy Tom Long and Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman are both impressed.

• Burger King’s Trek-themed ads are awesomely bizarre.
• Five reasons to love Kirk, and six Trek technologies that are already here.
• Spock artwork made from spools of thread.
• John Scalzi recaps the previous Trek movies in haiku form.

• Photo fun Adventures in Stormtrooping with a little help from The Simpsons, Cobra Commander, Hellboy and a very naughty Wall-E.

• The blogside: John Scalzi theorizes that George wants to release Star Wars in 3-D to beat Gone With the Wind in the all-timers. Seems a bit of a reach to me: If that was the case, why all this waiting? Has George seen Coraline?
• Cake: Bearded Obi-Wan is full of… Strawberry jam? I’m sure there’s a Spaceballs joke in there somewhere.
• Travels: Yoda sees the world.

Author Vonda McIntyre writes about her experience with Star Trek novels at Book View Cafe. It draws some interesting responses at Metafilter, including a lengthy one from John Scalzi.

McIntyre is not well-loved among Star Wars EU fans – her one book in this franchise, 1994′s The Crystal Star, is a regular on worst-of lists. (And let’s face it, we all overuse the Waru jokes.) But her post is certainly worth reading, and an interesting look at the early days of tie-in fiction.

Joe Mallozzi has announced that author John Scalzi (Old Man’s War, The Android’s Dream) will now be a creative consultant to the new Stargate Universe series.  (Plus, the announcement includes a really delicious-looking trip to Vancouver restaurant Fuel… except for that foie gras… yuck.)

If you have read his books (and if you haven’t, why not?), this certainly hints at an interesting direction for the show.

Random House is among the publishers doing some housecleaning and restructuring right now. I’m not seeing Del Rey get any mentions, even in the blogs, but the Star Wars line is a massive cash cow, so maybe the folks there will weather it out. (Wizards of the Coast, however…)

But my point: I’m going to echo Scalzi and say that now is a good time to go buy some stuff that doesn’t have the safety net of a massive franchise and a 4-year contract, i.e. all those other books. Remember, science fiction and fantasy is a niche market, and thus likely to get caught up in cuts along the bottom line. So go out and support your favorites: Every paperback helps, and the bookstores aren’t doing that hot, either.

UPDATE: Scalzi is having a suggest-a-thon.

I’m a total grinch about the holiday season, but John Scalzi isn’t. He’s included Darth Vader in his SciFi Thanksgiving:

I’m thankful for Darth Vader. In the last 30-some years, has there been a better villain in all of film — not just science fiction film, but film in general? I tell you, there is not (Hannibal Lecter comes close, but dude. Vader could use his Force powers to feed him his own liver with a nice Chianti). Vader is so badass that he survived George Lucas turning him into a whiny loser in the prequel trilogy. Think about that.

Heartwarming no? Hey, at least we’re not in space. UPDATE: Underwired puts The Clone Wars on their list.

But there’s something out there to cure even me: puppies. (LFL has a shiba connection?) Though no word if the puppycam will be up and running today.

Scalzi is hosting fan-favorite Matthew Stover in his Big Idea feature today – Stover is talking about his latest book, Caine Black Knife. Which, coincidentally enough, is in stores today.

John Scalzi takes a look at Star Wars success when compared with Speed Racer’s failure – and how blockbuster culture has changed in the last thirty-some years. (A great companion to this piece is the NYT’s impressive box office chart from February.)

John Scalzi mines Technorati to bring us the top 51 personal blogs in science fiction and fantasy. Neil Gaiman is first, BECAUSE IT’S THE LAW.