While everything is calm on the surface, the world of Lunar is slowly devolving into chaos. The legendary Dragonmaster Dyne and his faithful companions have faded into obscurity only to have a shadowy figure known as the Magic Emperor begin to wreak havoc on the world created by the Goddess Althena. Meanwhile, in a small, humble village far removed from the turmoil in Lunar, lives a young man named Alex. As one who idolizes the legendary Dyne, Alex dreams of one day becoming the next Dragonmaster and matching the accomplishments of his life-long hero.

Egged on by his childhood friend Ramus and with his adopted sister Luna in tow, Alex heads off on what seems to be a meaningless adventure, unaware that it would be the first step in an epic journey with the fate of the entire world at stake.

Since it debuted over a decade ago, Lunar: Silver Star Story has continuously captivated fans with its timeless tale of love, betrayal and redemption, expertly woven into its involving gameplay and cinematic presentation. The classic masterpiece has now been reborn on the PSP as Lunar: Silver Star Harmony with all new graphics, added gameplay features, and a re-mastered soundtrack so a whole new generation of fans can experience this legendary first entry of the Lunar universe, while added story elements are sure to intrigue returning fans alike. This title is being developed by Game Arts and is scheduled to be released Fall 2009 exclusively for the PSP.

The last remake of Lunar on the GBA wasn’t as well received by fans as the Sega CD and PlayStation versions. What aspects of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will appeal to new fans? Long-time fans?

Masato Dobashi: I really think the opinions of Lunar fans towards the series is very important. For this PSP remake, I really wanted to use the Sega Saturn version as the basis to create a solid title because it was also what everyone was hoping for [in Japan].

For the new fans, I would love for them to experience an adventure full of dreams and hopes. Don’t you feel like we’re lacking those types of RPGs lately? I really wanted to show why Lunar has been loved for 17 years with this new PSP version.

For the old time fans, I would first like to say thank you to everyone. The reason Lunar can be played on the PSP now is because of their long time support and love for this series. For this version, Kei Shigema has put extra effort into the scenario and created a new episode to make it a more complete version of Lunar.

How does XSEED plan on handling the game’s quirky humor and sexual innuendos? That was one area that really stood out for me in the prior releases.

Jimmy Soga, XSEED Games: We’re still in the early stages of translation so it’s hard to say how we will handle it, but it would be a fine balancing act between keeping the original Working Designs English translations as is or to retranslate some of the stuff to be more true to the original Japanese. Working Designs did an excellent localization job, but their text has a lot of 90’s pop culture references and possibly some copyright issues that might have been okay when the original was released, but something we need to be more careful about today (such as “Tootsie Rolls”, “M&M’s”, “Wheaties,” etc.)

Tyler and Lucinda have to spend summer vacation with their ancient uncle Gideon, a farmer. They think they’re in for six weeks of cows, sheep, horses, and pigs. But when they arrive in deserted Standard Valley, California, they discover that Ordinary Farm is, well, no ordinary farm.

The bellowing in the barn comes not from a cow but from a dragon. The thundering herd in the valley? Unicorns. Uncle Gideon’s sprawling farmhouse never looks the same twice. Plus, there’s a flying monkey, a demon squirrel, and a barnload of unlikely farmhands with strange accents and even stranger powers.

At first, the whole place seems like a crazy adventure. But when darker secrets begin to surface and Uncle Gideon and his fabulous creatures are threatened, Lucinda and Tyler have to pull together to take action. Will two ordinary kids be able to save the dragons, the farm – and themselves?

Our mission is to celebrate everything positive, funky and exciting in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Universe!

The SFFE is a core platform, a hub of authors who have banded together with the aim of celebrating all that is positive in genre fiction. We aim to leave cynicism and negativity at the door, and concentrate on what makes us smile, what entertains us, and what brings light and joy to our SF, fantasy and horror universe.That’s not to say there is no place for criticism— there’s plenty bad in the world. However, this little digital corner is a place for positive progression, somewhere you will (hopefully) come if you want to smile.

The new Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics project, aimed at highlighting all the positive and enjoyable aspects of the SFF community, has now got a full-fat no preservative fully-sugared editorial line-up as described below. All, many or none might contribute to articles, reviews and mad missions in the context of this project, depending on personal work commitments, but if nothing else the whole thing promises to be a damn fun bit of, err, fun…

EDITORIAL

Tony Ballantyne
Eric Brown
Mark Chadbourn
David Devereux
Ian Graham
Paul Kearney
Tim Lebbon
Tom Lloyd
James Lovegrove
Gail Z. Martin
James Maxey
Juliet E. Mckenna
Mark Morris
Andrew Oldham
Sarah Pinborough
Andy Remic
Brian Ruckley
Tim Stretton
James Swallow
Jeffrey Thomas
Jetse de Vries
Danie Ware
Conrad Williams

WRITERS

Nik Butler
Sissy Pantelis
Claire Ralph
Sharon Ring
Mark Smith

‘But I hear it’s so good!’ he replies.

‘Oh it is! None better.’

‘Then why shouldn’t I read it?’

‘Don’t rush into it,’ I say, ‘because Fantasy won’t be the same for you afterwards.’

Cyanide, an independent video game studio, and George R. R. Martin today announced their partnership to create the first-ever video games inspired by the author’s award-winning, international bestselling ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ fantasy series. Under the terms of the agreement, Cyanide has obtained the exclusive rights to develop ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ video games for next-generation consoles and PC, and in collaboration with George R.R Martin, development has begun.

“We are all huge fans of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, so it is a true honour for our teams to be entrusted with creating the first video games inspired by this masterpiece” stated Patrick Pligersdorffer, Managing Director of Cyanide. “The twists and turns of the plot will allow us to deliver an experience which can be enjoyed by both long-time fans as well as gamers new to the series.”

Published most notably by Bantam Books in North America and Voyager Books in the United Kingdom, the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novels have been translated into more than twenty languages (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian) and have been nominated for numerous prizes. Set in a world where nothing is simply black and white, the rich web of characters makes it an ideal background for numerous genres of video games.

‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ has already been adapted into a card game and a board game. More recently, HBO acquired the rights with the intent of turning the novels into a television series.

About George R. R. Martin

George R.R. Martin is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He started writing in the early 1970s and his first novel ‘Dying of the Light’ was published in 1977. More information on the author is available through his website -www.georgerrmartin.com

Regarding Cyanide Studio

Cyanide is a private French video game development studio founded in 2000. Based in Paris, France and in Montreal, Canada, 70 employees are working on the two continents. Well-known for its sports sim such as the popular Cycling Manager® Series or Pro Rugby Manager® Series, Cyanide is also responsible for the famous Chaos League®, and the recent Hack’n’Slash Loki® released in end-year 2007. In 2009, Cyanide will release Blood Bowl®, an adaptation of the famous Games Workshop’s board game, already awaited as a potential great hit, the annual edition of Pro Cycling Manager – Tour de France 2009®, and finally its first online free-to-play fast action MMOG, Dungeon Party®!

Guy Gavriel Kay’s World Fantasy Award-winning novel Ysabel has been optioned for feature film development by Maryke McEwen of Kinetic Productions and Jeanne Strømberg and Alan Hausegger of StrømHaus Productions in Toronto, Ontario. Kinetic Productions is an independent production company, and StrømHaus Productions specializes in feature film adaptations of literary works. Debbie Wood of Westwood Creative Artists negotiated the deal.

When he eventually decides to post a review or the occasional interview, Aidan always gives his most and his best. As most people know reviewing isn’t an exact science, so every reviewer is unique in one way or another and what Aidan seems to specialize in is length and intellectual nitpicking. Most of the times I am not able to sit through very long reviews, ironic as it would seem that I write them relatively long, but when the proper state of mind is at hand I always leave “A Dribble of Ink” with a sense of satisfaction that I learned a lot about the essence of a book without knowing much about the plot. This is a quality that I value in a review as a reader, since I do wish to know without spoiling the surprises, and respect as a reviewer. As far as the personal treatment that Aidan hands out to his readers, a most important criteria in my list, I can say that he is moderately active at replying at reader comment. You won’t get the individual treatment, but you won’t go unnoticed either given circumstances.

PRESS RELEASE – TWO-BOOK US RIGHTS DEAL FOR NEW BRITISH FANTASY WRITER

Margaret Halton, Rights Director at Pan Macmillan, has sold US rights in two fantasy novels by UK novelist Mark Charan Newton to Chris Schluep for a good five-figure sum in US dollars.

World rights in the novels, which open with Mark’s mainstream debut NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR (to be published in hardback in the UK in June 2009), were acquired by Peter Lavery at Tor UK from John Jarrold in 2008.

Chris Schluep said: ‘I am so excited to be publishing NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR, which is an absolutely wonderful book, and I’m very much looking forward to launching the U.S. career of an important and talented new writer in the field. I’m convinced that Mark has a bright future ahead of him; he’s one of those writers that you come across only on occasion . . .’

‘Chris acted quickly and with great enthusiasm. Mark and I are delighted, and looking forward to working with him and his colleagues at Del Rey, who I know well,’ said John Jarrold.