The Force Awakens evening report: Oscar Isaac praises Star Wars experience, fans

sw-xwing327→ We heard from him briefly the other day, but Oscar Isaac talks more about The Force Awakens over at IGN, including advice from Harrison Ford, working with practical effects, the “emotional aspect,” the broadsaber and even the racist backlash to co-star John Boyega:

“What’s great about it is, it’s like, ‘Are you a racist? Here’s a perfect way of revealing that to everyone!’ [Laughs] What I loved about the trailer too is, like, the giant middle finger of the first thing you see, right off the bat: John’s face — BAM! So it is, yeah, ‘Just deal with it.'”

Adding, “ultimately, it’s not even about race at all. It’s about a story, and it’s about these characters. [Boyega’s] a great actor, and he’s so good in this movie. And, you know, why not? But what’s great about it too, even more so, is that the huge majority have come out so vocally, the people that are real, true fans in support. [Laughs] They come out and defend it and make themselves heard. They really drowned out that negativity pretty quickly. I think that was really wonderful, to see that.”

How much dumb luck do you think it was that he happened to be on the publicity circuit for A Most Violent Year just as the trailer hit?

Andy Serkis calls the reaction to the trailer “extraordinary.”

→ Did The Force Awakens trailer inspire George R.R. Martin? Will The Winds of Winter really be out in 2015? Who actually expects a gossip blog to have a ‘source’ on George R.R. Martin in the first place? What times we live in.

→ Still running with The Force Awakens on Tumblr, including tons of fan art.

Other worlds: Walton, Gaiman win Hugos

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?

Other worlds: Game of Thrones returns Sunday with S2

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 readWhy the Wheel of Time series is so longHighlights in the history of space operaHarry Potter genderswapStakes in fantasy novelsWhy old books smell so good

Brief blurb for Zahn’s upcoming Han Solo novel

Knights Archive spotted that the Random House fall catalog is out, and it contains a listing for Timothy Zahn’s yet-untitled Han Solo novel – with a small blurb that gives a few more plot details:

The Death Star has just been destroyed and Han Solo still needs the money to pay off the bounty on his head. Now the opportunity to make that money and then some has walked into his life in the form of the perfect heist. With nine like-minded scoundrels, he and Chewbacca just might be able to pull it off and live to tell the tale!

The listing also mentions a wraparound cover featuring the eleven (ha) scoundrels, and calls it the “perfect” entry for casual fans.

(Also, we now have a tag for the book. It’ll change when we get an actual title, but thanks to StarWars-Union.de ‏for the MUPPETS suggestion.)

Also in the catalog was an entry for Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Annihilation, but no new details.

And here a few other entries that might also be of interest: The Lands of Ice and Fire, a map book to the world of ASoIaF and Game of Thrones, and Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st Century Families, from the folks who produce the blog.

Game of Thrones gets 13 Emmy nominations

The Emmy nominations came out this morning, and HBO’s fantasy series is among most nominated. Game of Thrones received 13 nods, most notably Best Drama and a Supporting Actor nomination for Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion.

For Best Drama, the show is up against Boardwalk Empire, Friday Night Lights, Dexter, The Good Wife and last year’s winner Mad Men. Dinklage’s competition includes John Slattery of Mad Men and Alan Cumming in The Good Wife.

Thrones other nods include writing (for ‘Baelor,’) direction, casting, costumes, hairstyling, visual effects and Main Title Design.

Meanwhile, A Dance With Dragons is actually selling better in print than in eBook.