Smugglers’ Stash & News

Happy Sunday, one and all!

We hope you’ve had a good weekend. Before we delve into yet another week of book mayhem, we’ve got some assorted tidbits to share… (I apologize in advance, as this post is kind of long)

Arthur C. Clarke Award:

Last week, the Arthur C. Clarke Award – the most prestigious SF award in the United Kingdom – was bestowed on China Miéville (again), for his novel The City and the City. (He had previously won the award for Perdido Street Station in 2001, and Iron Council in 2005. This win is the kick in the pants we’ve needed to read The City and the City – we’re planning a Miéville Day in June (Thea is dying to read Kraken). We’ll keep you posted.

Hark! Is That A Flying Pig?

A release date – a final, carved in stone release date – has been set for the long awaited second novel in the Kingkiller Chronicles. That’s right folks. Patrick Rothfuss has announced that The Wise Man’s Fear will be completed by the end of the year, with a release date of March 1, 2011. Time to start marking those calendars…

Trailers All Over The Place:

Have you seen these bad boys? I really like the new “Birth of a Spartan” Halo trailer (here’s the extended cut):

There’s this new SF/horror film called Splice coming out soon too, and it looks awesome (I adore Sarah Polly & Adrian Brody):

Speaking of horror, there’s also the second trailer for the new George A. Romero film (to be released Video On Demand) that looks like awesome fun too:

And finally, if you missed it on PBS this Wednesday, you can still watch it online for free – David Tennant (aka the 10th Doctor Who) and Patrick Stewart (aka…well, Patrick Stewart needs no introduction) starred in a new rendition of Hamlet. And it is awesome. Just check out Tennant’s delivery of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.

To Me, Gunslingers!

After sitting on the adaptation rights to Stephen King’s magnum opus, his Dark Tower series, the LOST team of JJ Abrams, Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse apparently have returned those rights to Stephen King….

And now Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman are looking to pick up them up. As much as I love LOST (and believe me, I love LOST a lot in spite of its many missteps and ridiculously cliched dialogue), I was nervous about the Darlton/Abrams take on my favorite series of all time. Ron Howard has an awesome track record with book to film adaptations, so I’m stoked on that front, at least. Akiva Goldsman has won an Oscar for his adaptation of A Beautiful Mind…but he’s also written some pretty bad films. See Batman and Robin. I’m scared. But I really hope this works out.

A Suckfest on Elm Street:

This weekend, I saw the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street – generally, I try to stay away from Michael Bay’s shameless, soulless remakes of horror films, but because of the stroke of brilliance casting of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, I was guardedly optimistic about this movie. Holy piles of steaming dog poop, Batman, but this was TERRIBLE. I’m talking, gouge-my-eyeballs out with splintered chopsticks bad. It was poorly acted, retardedly directed (apparently Mr. Bayer ONLY knows how to shoot extreme closeups and nothing else), and utterly NON-scary. I mean, they couldn’t even get a single “BOOM!” scare. Now how exactly does one screw that up?.

Jackie Earle Haley’s performance as Fred Krueger is the only high point of the film – he’s ridiculously creepy, and his Rorschach-voce totally works. I also liked the new backstory they gave Freddy, which makes the town’s coverup (and children’s lost memories) much more plausible.

Bottom line: I actually FELL ASLEEP in the theater during the movie’s climactic scene. In a movie about a man that kills you in your dreams, how’s that for ironic?

Free Comic Book Day & Thor:

This Saturday was international Free Comic Book Day (the first Saturday in May, each year), and my shop was having an awesome gathering. Folks dressed as assorted superheroes stood soliciting customers from the street (Gambit, Rogue, and Green Lantern (John Stewart, represent!) were my favorites), there was a Superman bounce house, a DJ, and hotdogs grilling outside the store. Inside it was a madhouse too, but in a good way. Along with my bag of free comics, I also got a couple of SWEET posters. Case in point:

And on the comic book (and oddly, Star Trek) note, the first image of Thor has been revealed (via io9 and Yahoo Movies). Ohoho! We likey.

(If you’re wondering who the actor is playing Dr. Blake/Thor, it’s Chris Hemsworth, you might remember him from Star Trek last year – George Kirk, who met his ill, heroic fate in the movie’s opening scene.)

(Does anyone else get teary just thinking about that scene? It gets me every time. That and the opening of Up.)

This Week On The Book Smugglers:

It’s another busy one here (lolz, like, when is it not?)! On Monday, Ana reviews The Prince of Mist by one of her most beloved authors, Carlos Ruiz Zafon – a young adult novel that has just been translated to English.

On Tuesday, Ana reviews Shade, Jeri Smith-Ready’s newest novel and the first book in her young adult UF series. Later in the day, Thea reviews one of her most highly anticipated books of the year – Lies by the ever-so-talented (and seriously twisted) Michael Grant.

Wednesday, Devon Monk is our guest author of the day! To celebrate the release of Magic on the Storm, the fourth novel in the Allie Beckstrom series, Devon will be talking Inspirations & Influences. AND you’ll have a chance to win a copy of her latest release.

On Thursday, Thea reviews Feed, author Mira Grant’s take on the zombie apocalypse, presidential elections, and the new media (seriously!). And, later in the day we’ll have Mira Grant (a pseudonym for UF author Seanan McGuire) over with an Inspirations & Influences post of her own.

We close out the week with a joint review of military science fiction novel In Her Name: First Contact by the awesome Michael Hicks.

And…that’s about it from us today! As always, we remain…