Dune by Frank HerbertYesterday, I hooked into the twitter hivemind and posed a question:

Let’s pretend I’ve never read a Science Fiction novel. What novels would you suggest?

Now, of course, that’s not entirely true. I have read Science Fiction, but my experience in the genre is, well… lacking. Rather, I was curious to see what people would consider the staples and foundations of the genre. Would we see a lot of recommendations for contemporary Science Fiction? Or aging classics? Space Opera or Dystopian Fiction? It’s an incredibly varied genre, and, predictably, the responses were just as broad, with a few authors/series popping up with some regularity.

The results:

@JasonBakiForge of God by Greg Bear is a favourite of mine

@ALRutter — When I asked my housemate the same question a few years back, he said Pandora’s Star [by Peter F. Hamilton]. Never looked back since.

@EwaSRI, Robot [by Issac Asimov] and any [John] Wyndham. And I’d want to recommend the Forbidden Planet film as well.

@BookwormBlues — The first scifi book I read was The Reality Dysfunction [by Peter F. Hamilton], but I have a feeling most people wouldn’t start w/scifi there.

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Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

Artwork by Beth White, design by Peter Lutjen

Irene Gallo, Art director at Tor.com, on the cover:

In a way this was a tough one—if only because all the cool-kids of Tor kept telling me how much they loved the book. The pressure was on.

The story is a reimagining of the Russian folk-tale of Koschei, the Deathless, set in Stalinist Russia. I remembered seeing (and being jealous of) Beth White’s cover for The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate for our sister company, Henry Holt. I thought the story-book quality of Beth’s artwork and the bold use of graphic shapes would due well to set Deathless apart in our catalog and in the stores.

Awesome. You can never go wrong with black and red and the iconic silhouettes stand out amongst all the generic photo manipulation and CG art that floods bookstore shelves these days. I also appreciate how the design gets more distressed as the eye moves down the image. Tons of characters, and you immediately get the sense about what you’ll find between the pages. I hadn’t heard of Deathless before I saw this cover, but count me now among the curious.

You can read more about the process and see more early designs at Tor.com.

Via Winter is Coming:

Nikloaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister

Jaime Lannister

Jon Snow and Bran Stark

Jon Snow and Bran Stark

Tyrion Lannister and Catelyn Stark - HBO'S GAME OF THRONES

Tyrion Lannister and Catelyn Stark

Sean Bean as Eddard Stark - HBO'S GAME OF THRONES

Eddard Stark

Tyrion Lannister - HBO'S GAME OF THRONES

Tyrion Lannister

The colour palette of the show is fantastic. Lots of browns and greys, absolutely perfect for the northern reaches of Westeros, where much of A Game of Thrones takes place. I’ll be interested to see how that palette changes as the show moves locations to King’s Landing, Dorne, The Dothraki Sea, The Iron Islands, etc… it should be a great opportunity to show the variety and depth of Martin’s world.

Several more photos, including Cersei Lannister, Danaerys Targaryen and Samwell Tarley, can be found on Entertainment Weekly’s Game of Thrones Photo Gallery.

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Banner

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy is hosted by io9, and this episode features an interview with Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead

Robert Kirkman, author of The Walking Dead, joins us this week on io9’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast to talk about zombies, comics, and AMC’s The Walking Dead television series.

Episode #25 — Robert Kirkman

Some of my favourite snippets from the show notes:

4:26 Don’t use The Walking Dead as a manual for survival for medical school or during a real-life zombie apocalypse

7:34 The origins and development process of The Walking Dead television series

11:20 Jumping the shark and Ryan Ottley’s color story issue of The Walking Dead

24:37 Kirkman’s other (non-The Walking Dead) projects: Invincible, The Astounding Wolf-Man and Haunt

30:14 How would Kirkman fare during a zombie apocalypse?

39:26 When does Luke Skywalker gets a chance to use the loo?

47:07 Does The Walking Dead rip off 28 Days Later? Or stay true to the roots on the sub-genre? Dave talks about The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

56:31 Sex during the zombie apocalypse? Really?

So head on over and listen to Episode #25 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.