While catching up on some Wheel of Time news, including the announcement that Universal Pictures, in partnership with Red Eagle Entertainment, purchased film rights to produce live action movies of the entire series, beginning with The Eye of the World, as well as the recent release of the 2009 Wheel of Time Calendar, I meandered into Dragonmount's fan art gallery page, which in turn led me to the artwork of Seamas Gallagher.

His work has a very brutal, graphic tone that showcases his fantastical and often whimsical themes very effectively.  He does quite a bit of Wheel of Time artwork, including the portrait of Uno shown above.  I think you'll find that an hour or so perusing his excellent blog is time well spent.

Stephen Hunt, webmaster of SF Crowsnest.com and author of The Court of the Air and The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, recently announced the premiere of Hivemind, a social networking website dedicated to fans of science fiction and fantasy.  Think Facebook, but with better "Interests."

The Bard is a proud member.  So friend us already.  Or is it "hive us"?

Already much-cited around the SFF blogosphere, Suvudu reported from Comic-Con in San Diego last week that a panel was held on the long-rumored television series based on Terry Goodkind's fantasy series The Sword of Truth.  Renamed 'Legend of the Seeker,' the main roles have already been cast.  Here's Suvudu's initial report on the panel:

Terry Goodkind, the author of the bestselling The Sword of Truth series, visited Comic-Con today with director Sam Raimi and those who produced the television shows Xena and Hercules. Together as a panel, they laid out their plans for adapting Wizard's First Rule into a 22-episode season to air on ABC via Disney.

I will be posting a lot more news on this in the forthcoming days, but I wanted to share with Goodkind fans that the name of the ABC series is Legend of the Seeker and it will begin November 1, 2008. Richard Cypher and Kahlen have been cast, but today Sam Raimi announced the casting of Zedd. The actor playing the wizard Zedd is Bruce Spence, who had minor roles in LOTR: Return of the King and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith but who has decades of acting experience.

More to come in the next few days!

Bruce Spence played the Mouth of Sauron in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and the Utapau representive (the weird alien Obi-Wan talks to after arriving on the planet in search of General Grievous) in Episode III.  He also played the Trainman in The Matrix Revolutions, in case you were wondering.  The other two main leads are relatively unknown, at least to me.

The fact that Sam Raimi is directing seems promising, but the Disney/ABC thing still bothers me.  I'm not a Terry Goodkind fan, but I don't like to see fantasy done badly, and it still seems unlikely that as massive and graphic a novel as Wizard's First Rule could be done well on network television, even in 22 episodes.  The rumor that the title was changed to "Legend of the Seeker" from "Wizard's First Rule" to avoid offending religious viewers who have a problem with "sorcery," if true, confirms my fear that the writers and the network are all too willing to compromise story for the sake of avoiding potential brouhaha.  The Sword of Truth, as a series, is potentially offensive from start to finish: even putting the overt Objectivist theme of the books aside, the storyline regularly includes graphic violence, often at the same time as sexual content.  Wizard's First Rule alone, if I remember correctly, involves a scene featuring Darken Rahl, the primary antagonist, participating in a dark ritual too disgusting to mention this soon after lunch.

Take away every part of these books that is likely to offend someone seriously and you're left with a derivative fantasy story unlikely to be improved upon by being adapted for network television.

But I'm willing to be proven wrong, and of course I'll be watching.  I'm going to make CJ sit down and watch it with me, whether she wants to or not.  We'll keep you updated on this, as we have in the past, complete with scathing commentary.

Update: Cinemablend.com has a fuller report of what took place on the Legend of the Seeker panel at San Diego Comic-Con, including Terry Goodkind's comments and Sam Raimi's intentions for the show's format and style.

Update: My friend Bill pointed out that I'm more familiar with the casting than I thought.  The official website states that Craig Parker, who you might know as Haldir from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, has been cast as Darken Rahl, the main villain.  The guy who played Captain Typho, Queen Amidala's bodyguard in Star Wars Episodes II and III, has also been cast to play Chase.

Douglas C. Kane, a civil rights attorney and Tolkien scholar better known to readers of TheOneRing.net as Voronwë_the_Faithful, posted an excellent primer and explanation of the real facts and allegations of the ongoing lawsuit between the Tolkien family and New Line. 

The article summarizes the nature of the parties, allegations, and desired results of the lawsuit, explaining legal terms for the lay reader as it goes.  Mr. Kane also makes his own educated predictions as the the likely outcome of the suit.  The verdict?  The case will probably be resolved in mediation and the assorted plaintiffs probably don't have a shot in hell of actually getting the upcoming Hobbit movies shut down.  Read the full text of the article here.

So there it is, fanboys and -girls.  We can all stop our precious hearts a-fluttering, now.

George Martin himself posted the latest on the proposed HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones:

The latest news on HBO front is that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have turned in the second draft of the pilot script for A GAME OF THRONES, and their rewrite is presently being read and evaluated by the powers-that-be at HBO. In other words, it's the normal process, which is long and often slow. So far, the reports are good, and HBO seems to like what they're seeing... but no, there's no greenlight yet, A GAME OF THRONES remains a script in development, not a series in production.

Read the full post here.

Disney-ABC Domestic Television is producing Wizard's First Rule, the first book of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth fantasy series, and the first of a planned TV adaptation of the entire series.  The series is being offered in syndication, so it's unclear at this point what networks/channels will be airing it.  Read more about it on Goodkind's website and on IMDB.

No series has polarized the fantasy-reading world as much as The Sword of Truth; Terry Goodkind's persistent Objectivist philosophy and forceful moralizing have drawn as many fierce fans as they have alienated less partisan readers.  Accusations of plagiarism and Mr. Goodkind's unfortunate tendency toward what seems to many detractors like arrogant self-importance (particularly on his website) have also created more controversy.

That said, it will be interesting to see what television does with (or to) an epic fantasy series of this length and depth.  And whether or not it succeeds.  Unlike the rumored HBO production of George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Sword of Truth is a done deal -- the two main leads have already been cast.  It will also be interesting to see how Disney (of all people) plan to adapt what is a very graphic, violent story for public broadcast.

Thanks to Bill M. for the heads up.

Remember that post we put up the other day, the one about a blogger named Bidisha and her entry on The Guardian's Comment Is Free blog about alleged sexism amongst reviewers of fantasy and science fiction ("Speculative Sexism: J.K. Rowling, Scapegoat for a Larger Problem")?

Well, there's a very lively discussion going on over at OF Blog of the Fallen about that very same Guardian article.  Read it here, and don't forget to read the comments.

Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, long rumored to be at philosophical odds with New Line Cinema and the makers of the Lord of the Rings movie franchise, will ask a Californian judge to stop production on the upcoming Hobbit films on June 6 in an effort to secure profits he claims are owed the Tolkien Estate by the production company:

He claims the Tolkien family is owed £80m by New Line Cinema under a deal for a 7.5% share of profits that was signed in 1969, when his father reluctantly sold film rights to pay a tax bill.
...
[A]t a hearing on June 6 Christopher Tolkien will ask a Californian judge to back his claim that he can "terminate" film rights to The Hobbit. He is said to be furious with the New Line studio, which earned £3 billion from the Rings trilogy. Tolkien's lawyers accuse New Line of "accounting chicanery". Warner Bros, owner of New Line, declined to comment.

One thing I've always wondered was whether Christopher Tolkien ever saw the Rings films and, if so, what he thought of them. It seems now that we have something of an answer:

Tolkien Jr, described by his biographer as "cantankerous", is unlikely to allow thefilm-makers free access to The Silmarillion. He has always been sceptical of Hollywood. Even now relatives are unsure whether he has watched The Lord of the Rings, which won a total of 17 Oscars.

The Silmarillion is relevant to the second planned film in the Hobbit film duology, which is said to chronicle the intervening years between Bilbo Baggins's return home to the Shire and the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring.  Producer Peter Jackson and Director Guillermo del Toro likely plan to draw heavily on the material contained within the final book of The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in order to write and produce the second Hobbit film.

Photo copyright Tolkien Gateway.

Bidisha, of The Guardian's Comment is Free, is angry: she feels that the critical press has slighted female authors of speculative fiction, and that the comfort with which critics have torn down J.K. Rowling is part of the problem:

"[B]ut the issue doesn't stop with her. It extends to all female fantasy writers, world-creators and myth-makers. According to the backlash, Rowling is swell for dim kiddies, along with Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne Jones (but none are as good as CS Lewis or Roald Dahl, of course), while Philip Pullman and Philip Reeve are worthy of adult analysis. Critics ignore the tough heroines created by Tamora Pierce and Trudi Canavan, but acclaim Lewis Carroll's creepily pliable Alice, who obediently consumes whatever cupcakes and potions she finds in Wonderland. Darren Shan and Garth Nix are rising stars thanks to the Potter-fuelled fantasy bandwagon, but there's no casual namedropping of female speculative authors Robin Hobb, Mary Gentle or Malorie Blackman, whose Noughts and Crosses is a modern classic."

If Bidisha is referring to the mainstream literary press, then the fact that female writers have been sidelined probably has more to do with the fact that only the most commercially successful, accessible genre fiction even makes it to the review section of your favorite newspaper.  The names "Robin Hobb" and "Joe Abercrombie" produce no results in a search of the New York Times Books section, for instance. 

Mainstream reviews of fantasy fiction in particular are almost always dull to read and filled with the same dull comparisons: Tolkien, Lewis, Carroll, etc.  This is almost certainly due either to a dearth of serious readers of the genre in the ranks of the literary press or to an inexplicable need to dumb down reviews of genre fiction by going light on comparative analysis.  Either way, all the more reason for the amateur genre critics (the Bard included) to start correcting these problems.

Edward James, Professor of Medieval History at Universty College, Dublin, is presenting two lectures at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The first of the lectures, and the most interesting for the Bard's purposes, is titled "J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: Friendship, Religion, and Fantasy."  Professor James plans to discuss the shared Christian values of Tolkien and Lewis and how those values found their way into their writing, as well as the marked differences between the authors' work.

James had some interesting things to say about the different, but equally Christian, themes of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia:

He says Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is a more subtle expression of Christianity than Lewis' Narnia series, in which Christian allegory is clearly portrayed through the Christ-like Aslan the Lion.

"Tolkien described The Lord of the Rings as a 'Catholic epic', but the author was more interested in representing Christian values than Christian allegory," says Professor James, who notes Tolkien was instrumental in converting Lewis to Christianity. "Of course, there are Christ-like figures in the trilogy-- most notably, Gandalf and Frodo. And it's no accident that the Ring is destroyed on 25 March, the traditional medieval date for the original crucifixion. But Tolkien and Lewis approached Christianity very differently in their fantasy works," he says.

I had never heard (or noticed, I should say) the bit about the March 25th date and its Christian significance before reading this article.  It's probably not news to CJ, who has a background in medieval history.

The Catholic/Christian symbolism is, superficially, fairly obvious: Frodo sacrifices (or intends to) his life (for all intents and purposes -- he's never the same afterward) on the same date medieval scholars associated with Christ's messianic crucifixion.

The fact that Frodo actually becomes consumed by the Ring's power and is only able to get the job done with Gollum's help makes the interpretation more interesting, of course.  The fact that Tolkien sometimes referred to Middle-Earth as a primeval age of our old world also portends a larger picture -- are such sacrificial events merely history repeating itself? 

Professor James's other lecture concerns the differences in perception of barbarians between the Roman Empire and modern society and is titled "How to Recognize a Barbarian."

I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we wish our own respective colleges had seminars like this.  Go Auckland!

The Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Spectra Pulse Magazine features an article by Scott Lynch titled "Be Thou Familiar, But by No Means Vulgar: The Worst Cliches in Fantasy and Science Fiction." 

A brief look at a subject that could (and most likely has) filled entire doctoral theses, the article nonetheless contains a few worthy chestnuts:

And don't even get me started on Mysterious Mentors who possess the power to blast planets into atoms with a single fart, yet spend all their time wandering in the woods or being uselessly cryptic to the hero when they could just go deal with (Insert Dire Threat to All That is Bright and Wholesome Here) themselves and be back in time for a three-martini lunch. The desire to have it both ways with this sort of character, to withhold vital information or prevent obvious action for the transparent purpose of prolonging a flimsy plot, kills plausibility dead.

A quick, fun read, perfect while eating lunch at one's desk.

According to the Irish Independent, Dublin-based author Sarah Rees Brennan is on her way to filling the much-lamented vacuum left by the ending of the Harry Potter series:

Similar to the Harry Potter books, [Brennan's novel] The Demon's Lexicon tells the story of a teenage boy living with a magical secret.

Nick (16) is from London and he has been on the run from magicians for his whole life because his mother stole a powerful charm from them. The teen's father is dead and when his older brother's life comes under threat, things get more serious and a cat and mouse chase ensues.

Sarah's books are not for kids but are aimed at the young adults market. She hopes to tap into the growing appetite for fantasy books like the Lord of the Ring series, and Artemis Fowl.

The most identifiable aspect of the Harry Potter books was the fact that each book was a  bildungsroman in the most literal sense of the word: each book followed the moral and academic development of a young character, specifically through a fantastical version of a very English school.  Absent his distinctive schoolboy identity, Harry Potter would be a fairly lackluster fantasy character.  To truly be a successor to Potter, a novel has to have that scholastic, after-school aspect to it.  Not to mention v-neck sweaters, huge scarves, and repp ties ever-so-fashionably askew.  

Either way, we look forward to Ms. Brennan's debut.

Nothing says "post-apocalyptic cyberpunk mercenary" like a bulletproof bed.  As this post on Switched.com points out, it's ideal for those of us who routinely bunk down in war zones.  I suppose it's easier to conceal from your neighbors than a bunker, but that's about its only selling feature.

Even assuming you have about 160,000.00 to spend on a bed--and what self respecting post-apocalyptic cyberpunk mercenary doesn't--it's not very practical.  The bed weighs about 2,000 pounds, which means it's hardly mobile.  If you want to sleep in it, then you have to sleep in the same place every night.  As fans of the post-apocalyptic genre know, mobility is the key to sustainability.  People who hole up in one place usually don't stay alive very long.  Terry Brooks makes the point, in The Elves of Cintra, that whatever safety a fortress offers is illusory.  The very walls you hide behind advertise your location to your enemy. 

Moreover, although the bed comes with a DVD player, PC hookup and microwave, it doesn't come with its own power source.  WTF?  How, exactly, do you power up these gizmos?  Assuming your current home is so war torn that you really, genuinely need to sleep in a bulletproof bed, and conditions are so unsafe that you can't even walk a few feet to heat up your canned stew, Con Ed probably isn't making a cameo. 

The chemical toilet isn't such a hot option, either.  I mean, come on--chemicals or no, its still a toilet and, in the long term, a health hazard.  Hell, in the short term.  And, do you really want to sleep with your head next to your toilet, night after night?  Come on, whoever designed this bed was on crack. 

Sure, bunkers are sort of outré.  And, if you build one, you're going to be "that" brother in law, the one your family loves but also sort of avoids.  But, when it comes to hardcore preparation, a bunker is the only way to go.  You need adequate storage and living space, way more than any bed--even one this expensive--can provide.  And, hey, if the apocalypse comes, you're going to become the belle of the ball really quickly.  You can tell them all, "I told you so" over canned stew.

Speaking of George Martin, A Dribble of Ink put up a link last week to an article on A Game of Thrones written by up and coming British fantasy author Joe Abercrombie for SFX Magazine. 

The late Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney) was just inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors Hall of Fame.  Dragonmount has full coverage of the event, including complete video coverage via YouTube. 

In the context of speaking about the author Jordan (as opposed to the man Rigney), Mike Livingston, an English professor at Rigney's alma mater the Citadel, gave a stirring address about the fantasy genre ranging from its origins in medieval epics to The Wheel of Time itself.

Just to pass the word, Neil Gaiman's now-classic 2003 novel American Gods is available for online reading here.

Gaiman had offered to post the complete text of one of his books online, and allowed fans to decide which one by vote in an online poll.  American Gods won, apparently resoundingly.

You can read Gaiman's blog here, by the way.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, died this morning.  Much more than just a visionary science fiction author--although he certainly was that--Clarke was a true futurist.  He gave us a glimpse of a brilliant future, one which undisputedly inspired some of the best scientists of our time.  Some people laugh at futurists, understanding them only as pseudo-scientists who waste our time with prophecies so impossible as to be all but meaningless.  What these people fail to grasp is that futurists hold scientific discovery in trust for us all.  It is they who give it its core, its heart, its moral compass.  Clarke, the best of the best, left us with a vision that not only inspired our minds but also shaped our future.

He created the concept of the communications satellite, he commented on the Apollo series of moonshots, he researched the dynamics of the Great Barrier Reef.  And, he did it all from a wheelchair.  Clarke battled Polio his entire life, first as a child and later as an adult.  He won his first battle with Polio as a child, but his enemy returned several years later in the form of Post Polio Syndrome, a debilitating chronic condition.  His physical trials, however, never dampened his optimistic spirit.  He continued to explore the world around him, from the deepest crevices of the ocean floor to the nether regions of space, sharing his observations as he went. 

We owe this wonderful man a huge debt of gratitude, not only for his incredible mind, but also for his generosity in letting others share in the beauty of his ideas.  Ninety years was far too short a time.  I hope that, wherever he is, he's still exploring.

Beloved British fantasy author Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, was diagnosed last year with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.  The Guardian has a great story on Pratchett, how he's coping, and the news that he has just donated half a million pounds to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Pratchett seems in good spirits, however, and finds that one of the biggest problems he has is determining what is a symptom and what is plain old reality for a professional writer:

"When I was going in for the tests, they asked my wife and PA to say what they had noticed in my behaviour. They jointly wrote a letter saying, 'Like any author who's in the throes of writing a book, Terry probably shows all the signs of dementia: he's unworldly, he doesn't pay attention to things, he's antisocial, grumpy.' I'm a typical bloody writer. Maybe all of us have had Alzheimer's for years without realising it.

Science Fiction Quarterly (SFQuarterly.net) is a brand new online science fiction magazine that is currently accepting submissions for its premier issue, scheduled for a March debut.  They are looking for short stories, reviews, and "think pieces" -- essays on the genre.  The magazine, in the classic sci-fi "short story tradition," is especially interested in working with new and inexperienced writers to bring their vision to publication.  The submissions guidelines are worth reading for any aspiring writer.

I emailed the editor, Glover Wright, and asked whether they were interested in stories in the fantasy genre.  He responded by saying that while they were not interested in straight fantasy, they would be willing to publish fantasy with science fiction elements and "fantasy that relies more on hypotheticals than, say, magic."

For aspiring writers in these genres, it doesn't get much better than an up-and-coming publication ready and willing to make room for new authors.

Be sure to read their blog for the latest news.

During a SXSW seminar in which he and Steven Johnson "laid out their agenda defending the youth of America as a sophisticated, information literate generation with the power for democratic change," Henry Jenkins described Harry Potter as an impetus for social good.  From the Guardian:

Did you know that Harry Potter is a source for social good? It has inspired fantasy fiction and role playing, but also political engagement, said Jenkins, talking about the Harry Potter Alliance which raises support for child-related issues like child soldiers in Uganda.

"The premise is that Harry Potter is a young man who stood up to want he believed in, and so young people inspired by Hogwarts can go forward and do things to try and change the world. In an information society, kids play with information. Young people as they become adept at processing this information will become a powerful social force."

The Harry Potter Alliance is "dedicated to using the examples of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore to spread love and fight the Dark Arts in the real world."  They ask you to join them in creating "the real Dumbledore's Army."  Awesome.

I propose a vigilante group to be called the Night's Watch, whose mission shall be the quick and merciless tarring and feathering of violent terrorist leaders, who shall then be hung off the side of a glacier to cool off.  But maybe I'm missing the point.