SF Gateway (Press Release)

SF Gateway Press Release

Gollancz, the SF and Fantasy imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, announces the launch of the world’s largest digital SFF library, the SF Gateway, which will make thousands of out-of-print titles by classic genre authors available as eBooks.

Building on the remarkable success of Gollancz’s Masterworks series, the SF Gateway will launch this Autumn with more than a thousand titles by close to a hundred authors. It will build to 3,000 titles by the end of 2012, and 5,000 or more by 2014. Gollancz’s Digital Publisher Darren Nash, who joined the company in September 2010 to spearhead the project said, “The Masterworks series has been extraordinarily successful in republishing one or two key titles by a wide range of authors, but most of those authors had long careers in which they wrote dozens of novels which had fallen out of print. It seemed to us that eBooks would offer the ideal way to make them available again. This realization was the starting point for the SF Gateway.” Wherever possible, the SF Gateway will offer the complete backlist of the authors included.

The SF Gateway will be closely integrated with the recently announced new online edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which provides an independent and definitive reference source of information on the authors and books included. Direct links between the Encyclopedia and the Gateway will provide easy access to eBook editions, for sale through all major online retailers.

The Gateway site will also act as a major community hub and social network for SF readers across the world, allowing them to interact with each other and recommend titles and authors. The site is planned to include forums, blogs, regular promotions, and is envisaged to become the natural home on the net for anyone with an interest in classic SFF.

Authors featured in the launch include such names as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Alice B. Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr), Robert Silverberg, Kate Wilhelm and Connie Willis. A full list of authors so far under contract is appended to this announcement; negotiations are in an advanced state for many more.

The SF Gateway was conceived by Orion Deputy CEO and Publisher Malcolm Edwards, who commented: “It’s clear that publishers need to show that they can respond to the challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution imaginatively, particularly when it comes to backlist. The SF Gateway is just such a response, creating what we hope will become a destination website which will promote the books and authors it features in an active way. We hope it will not only be a success in its own right, but that it will provide a model for future developments in backlist publishing.”

Built to the latest standards of HTML5 and CSS3, the SF Gateway site will use responsive web design to ensure a rewarding user experience across a range of mobile and desktop platforms and operating systems. Both the SF Gateway and the previously announced Encyclopedia of Science Fiction are being developed by STEEL, a London-based full service digital agency with over 15 years experience, whose clients include
AOL, BBC Worldwide, Debenhams, FT.com, Greggs and TalkTalk.

The project has been praised by authors for connecting new generations of readers with classic stories they may not, until now, have been able to enjoy.

British Science Fiction Award-winner Alastair Reynolds said: “When I first started reading SF seriously, as a teenager growing up in Wales, one of the first walls I hit was the realisation that many classic and influential works of the field were either out of print or so hard to obtain that they may as well have been. SF is a forward-looking genre but its past has always been as fascinating as its future, and for that reason the SF Gateway is an exciting and groundbreaking venture, which should prove an enormous asset to the
field.”

Double Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner Pat Cadigan added: “This is exactly what I've been hoping for now that the digital book is becoming more widespread. I have always said that the eBook will not be the death of the physical book – the eBook will save so many wonderful books from being lost. We have to remember that what we read is the book – what we read it on, whether ink and paper or pixels on a screen, is just the interface. I'm honestly thrilled about this new project and delighted to be on the list.” The SF Gateway will be officially launched by Gollancz in September as part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of its SF list. For more information, please go to www.sfgateway.com, where updates on the project will also appear.

SF Gateway is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SFGateway and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/SF-Gateway/171262786268228
Please direct enquiries in the first instance to Jonathan Weir on 020 7520 4314 or jonathan.weir@orionbooks.co.uk

SF GATEWAY AUTHORS
as at 20th July 2011
Poul Anderson
Barrington J. Bayley
Gregory Benford
Michael Bishop
James P. Blaylock
James Blish
Marion Zimmer Bradley
John Brosnan
Fredric Brown
John Brunner
Algis Budrys
Kenneth Bulmer
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pat Cadigan
John W. Campbell, Jr
Terry Carr
Arthur C. Clarke
Hal Clement
D.G. Compton
Michael G. Coney
Edmund Cooper
Richard Cowper
John Crowley
L. Sprague de Camp
Samuel R. Delany
Philip K. Dick
Gordon R. Dickson
Christopher Evans
Philip Jose Farmer
John Russell Fearn
Alan Dean Foster
Mary Gentle
Mark S. Geston
Joseph L. Green
Colin Greenland
Nicola Griffith
Joe Haldeman
Harry Harrison
Frank Herbert
Philip E. High
Robert Holdstock
Cecelia Holland
Robert E. Howard
Raymond F. Jones
Leigh Kennedy
Garry Kilworth
Damon Knight
Henry Kuttner
Tanith Lee
Murray Leinster
H.P. Lovecraft
Katherine MacLean
Barry N. Malzberg
Phillip Mann
David I. Masson
C.L. Moore
Ward Moore
Edgar Pangborn
Frederik Pohl
Rachel Pollack
Tim Powers
Mack Reynolds
Keith Roberts
Eric Frank Russell
Josephine Saxton
Bob Shaw
Robert Silverberg
Clifford D. Simak
Dan Simmons
John Sladek
Cordwainer Smith
E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
Norman Spinrad
Olaf Stapledon
Theodore Sturgeon
William Tenn
Sheri S. Tepper
James Tiptree, Jr
E.C. Tubb
George Turner
Harry Turtledove
Jack Vance
Ian Watson
Ted White
Kate Wilhelm
Connie Willis
Robert Charles Wilson
Gene Wolfe

The Time Tunnel: An Irwin Allen Megadungeon of Unspeakable Horrors

The Time Tunnel was a 1964 TV Series produced by Irwin Allen.
Here's an excellent introduction:


The Internet Movie Database site provides a decent overview of each episode of The Time Tunnel. There's more detail in the episode guide made available at The Time Tunnel site, including details on the FIVE made for TV movies that recycled some of the episodes, and it gives you an idea of which episodes were recycled into which made-for-TV-movie out of the five that were made.
You can see more Time Tunnel images over at the Irwin Allen Vaults.
You can find a lot of Time Tunnel stuff over at the Irwin Allen News Network site which also features an animated tour of the Time Tunnel complex. You might want to play the Theme Music while you check out the tour. It helps.

You can find episodes of The Time Tunnel at Xfinity, or at TVdotCom, or you can watch a few episodes of The Time Tunnel at Hulu. Including the unaired original pilot episode: Rendezvous With Yesterday, which they allow folks to embed on their blogs, so here, grab some popcorn and watch it for free right here.



The Time Tunnel is probably one of Irwin Allen's best shows. It at least had a major impact, considering that it only ran for one season. 30 episodes. Five Made-For-TV-Movies were eventually edited and compiled from recycled sections of some of those episodes, but really all this show was able to put out was 30 episodes and an unaired pilot that you might have just watched above. And still it haunts people. Those of us who grew up in the Seventies got to watch re-runs of this show. It must have some weird mutagenic effect, because it affects a lot of people. It was dorky, corny, cheesy and all the usual stuff that goes along with Irwin Allen's stuff, but it remains fascinating nonetheless.

The Time Tunnel isn't just a honking big set of nested alloy rings that hums away with electrical power coursing through it--it's part of a massive U.S. Government ultra-secret underground complex -- a super-scientific Megadungeon that owes more than a little to the Krell complex on Altair 4. Perhaps there was a clandestine expedition to Altair 4 back in the Sixties? Could the U.S. Government have received the secrets of Time Travel from the Krell? Each of those buried towers have 800 floors and they hold 12,000 personnel per tower, and there's much more to see below. This is a big, big place. And it costs a lot of moolah to keep it going. But how do you keep a place that big, with that many people working in it any kind of a secret?

Mind Control. Brutal, efficient, and probably alien-derived or reverse-engineered from alien technology, possibly from that crash that never happened in Roswell? That'll let you control all those thousands of government employees and civilian contractors. Might keep them from forming unions or asking for pay-raises as well. Hmmm...what other types of projects are these people working on down there under the desert?

Maybe they just insert parasites into the workers to keep them in line. Like that'd be any less creepy.

Maybe...

...oh, wait a moment.

Yeah. This place, this massive buried complex with the Krellish blinky-lights and the Time Tunnel and all those government personnel are out in the middle of a desert.

A Desert out in the American Southwest.

Didn't August Derleth write about some sort of desert dwelling species, like in The Gable Window?

Yeah.

He did.

And he claimed H. P. Lovecraft co-authored the story.

“Then out of one of the caves came a Sand-Dweller, rough-skinned, large-eyed, large-eared, with a horrible, distorted resemblance to the koala bear facially, though his body had an appearance of emaciation. He shambled toward me, manifestly eager.”

The Gable Window, by H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth

What a goofy-sounding description. A Koala Bear face? Really?!?

That's about as scary as some of those creatures that have been featured through out all of Irwin Allen's TV shows, and especially the guys in silly silver hats, or silly silver face paint like in The Time Tunnel...

Could there be some sort of connection between the koala bear faced sand dwellers and Irwin Allen's production company? Was Irwin Allen secretly under the influence of ridiculous-looking Mythos entities who sought to use his TV series to desensitize humanity to their intrinsically silly appearances? Not all horror comes from revulsion or disgust. What if a nefarious bunch of evil aliens found themselves getting laughed at every time they tried to pick up a few lonely hitch-hikers for a little light vivisection?

They'd get royally steamed.


They would.


You know they would.


Perhaps even now these little gritty douchebags are sitting in their linoleum-lined cavern-offices, smoking imported cigars and planning out the next round of what programs will get greenlit for American TV.


They may not look like much, but these little bastards are scary...

The Time Travelers (1964)

The Time Travelers is a movie originally done in 1964. I first saw it in black and white as a kid watching late night monster movies in the Seventies. Perhaps that explains a few things.

Unlike the Irwin Allen classic TV series that came after it, The Time Travelers were only trying to open a window into the past. But like all good vintage SciFi-Bmovies, the lead scientist is an arrogant snot full of hubris and vinegar, just like they still make 'em.

Dr. Erik von Steiner pushes things to the limit like any good German Engineer.

Then he pushes it farther.

Harder.

Until something breaks.

And it does, it does. Something breaks, others things fuse, and a few sparks fly. It's not Irwin Allen-level pyrotechnics, but this is 1964 and they're on a budget.

Ahem.

Their window into time comes into focus. It shows a seemingly endless desert landscape. It was supposed to show the campus grounds.

It does.

The Time Window is looking out on the site of the campus in the year 2071.

After a devastating nuclear war. But not just any nuclear war--this war literally blasted the survivors back into the stone age, complete with tribes of nasty, brutish degenerate mutants. They're probably cannibals, but it isn't really expressly stated. One doubts that they'd still be finding cans of peaches or beans out in the wastelands, but who knows.

But wait a moment, we're getting ahead of things.

Let's take a step back.

The intrepid Herr Doktor Steiner and his associates discover that their Time Window is actually a gaping Time Barnyard Door. Their fly is down and wide open, technologically speaking. The disposable technician-kid discovers that the 'window' is really a door way when he practically falls through it. One wonders if the stodgy guys in white lab coats would have noticed it was a portal until after a mutant came at them through it. Like when a pair of degenerate mutants come after the obligatory blonde left behind when the two scientists go running off after the Technician-kid who ran off before them.

Who knew that fire extinguishers could be so lethal. At least to degenerate mutants.

The scientists, their half-wit Technician-kid and their obligatory blonde (literally a Playboy Playmate) find themselves stranded on the wrong side of the Portal when it collapses.

Then the mutants come running after them--probably attracted by the noise made when the portal collapsed.

The Doktor Steiner, the other scientist and the blonde run away, chased by mutants until they meet-up with the Technician-kid who has gathered a bunch of ammo--throw-able stones. They drive off the mutants by throwing stones at them. Then they run away some more, until they find a cave.

The mutants figure out where they are fairly soon and come running again.

But this time they are stopped by an invisible force field. The same force field that did not stop the player characters Scientists, Technician and Centerfold from entering the cave just moments before.

The force field belongs to a group of survivors who wear cool white outfits, obviously descended from the not so cool white lab coats of the Scientists.

The survivors are totally certain that the Earth can not support life very much longer. But luckily they know how to build a spaceship and plan to cart off all their women-folk to a planet around another star (Alpha Centauri IV). Oh and these survivors also build flesh-tone rubber-covered sex-doll androids that look like mostly naked humans with leather shoulder pieces, numerical tattoos on their chests and weird non-faces. And they use a modification of the Laser Beam Drill that shrinks matter in a gobbledygook sort of handwavium-activated manner that just sounds stupid, but looked cool.

Herr Doktor Varno, the resident Aryan super-scientist kindly explains everything to the Time Travelers. He uses a handy video display to demonstrate the end of the world.

These survivors claim to be the last 'normal' inhabitants of the Earth. They were obviously underground when the nuclear war took place. Deep underground. They are descended from scientists and their families who were deep underground in a secret complex. Hmmm...what sort of secret complex might they have been hiding-out in? Could it be the one that The Time Tunnel was built within? That would explain the presence of spare parts that the Time Travelers could use to rebuild their Time Portal.

Nah. That'd be just plain weird.

The intrepid Herr Doktor Steiner and his crew help the survivors to complete work on their spaceship that they hope to use to escape the mutant-dominated Earth. But then the really advanced people of the future announce that they will not take the Time Travelers along with them to Alpha Centauri IV. So sorry. Too bad. There's a schedule and a deadline to meet. The spaceship will depart on schedule. Even a second of delay would be disastrous--or so it is claimed. The fact that the Time Travelers were not of good Aryan stock isn't directly mentioned, but there is an uneasy implication that kind of hangs over this sequence that carries a very creepy undercurrent.

Anyhow.

The Time Travelers don't have a lot of choice. They keep working on re-building their Time Window/Portal, but they do it sullenly. Resentfully. Maybe they were really looking forward to suspended animation or the new android-servants that were going to be theirs in the New World.

But it was not to be.

Those degenerate mutants with the bad breath come storming in and wreck everything. Bastards. If only the survivors had hired Carson (Yul Brynner's character in The Ultimate Warrior), they could have driven off the smelly pseudo-caveman mutants. Heck, Andre the Giant would have been really helpful in that regard, even on his most off day, unless the mutants offered him some irradiated booze. But that's a tangent for another day.

The crew from the Time Window/Doorway rebuild their Temporal Portal using the newfangled technology of the post-apocalyptic Home Depot and a lot of old fashioned baling wire, spit and ingenuity that only a Scientist with a Heidelberg Scar (he keeps it in his wallet, don't ask) can bring to bear. They open the new Portal/Window and manage to escape from the nuked-out wasteland of 2071 with a few new friends, and manage to do so just before the degenerate nuclear mutants burst in and try to eat them.

One of the group tosses something back through the Portal/Window and causes it to collapse. Maybe those mutants will figure it out someday and re-open the Portal/Window. All they need is one smartass Mentally-Enhanced mutant and they're two-thirds of the way there.

Once back in their lab--what luck! Someone was rolling really well that night--the group finds out that they're still sort of screwed anyhow--the GM is a real jerk after all.  They are all aging rapidly. The passage through the Time Window/Portal has caused them all to speed up drastically in relation to the rest of the world.

Yeah. It doesn't make a lot of sense. If you were going to balk at something why did you wait until now?

Ahem.

The brilliant Herr Doktor Steiner determines that they have only one option left to them. They must go 100,000 years into the future. He comes to this realization through very, very scientific means. He is a Top Man after all. Good thing he stayed out of archaeology.

They go into the empty black screen of the year 100,000+ and ta-daa! They all fail their save versus bad writing and wind up trapped within an ever-accelerating time loop. They've invented the Groundhog Day from hell years before Bill Murray made it fun.

If all that hasn't turned you off, you can watch this extravaganza, just like I did all those years ago.

The horror.

Part One:


Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five   (Features a Lumigraph, an actual odd-ball musical instrument similar to a color organ...)

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

It's an interesting movie, more for the assumptions and the early special effects than for the writing or dialogue. A lot of the sets and sound effects really do evoke the classic original Star Trek series. There might well have been some some sort of recycling going on--Dr. Varno/John Hoyt certainly did appear in Star Trek later on.

The mutants in this movie are really shown as having a lot of messed-up genes more than the Gamma World craziness of extra limbs or eye-blast powers, etc. They are lacking fingers, seem to be somewhat impaired in their mental functions, and are really sad, tragic non-survivors, really. One wonders if they are really the left-overs of the war, or just throwbacks and those deemed unfit and thus summarily ejected from the bunker redoubt of the scientifically-oriented survivors and their sex-doll androids and the silver spaceship that is supposed to take them all off to a brave new world...

Postmodern and Apochryphal Barsooms

...being a short compilation of resources associated with Mars/Barsoom and how it has evolved into a shared world within the Public Domain and beyond...

Last Updated: April 20, 2011

Postmodern Barsoom, by Den Valdron
A good introductory article that opens the way to Mr. Valdron's more detailed and far more engaging two-parter on all things fictionally martian--

H. G. Well's Barsoom, by Den Valdron

Another rather fine article by Mr. Valdron that further investigates the ongoing admixture and adulteration of Barsoom with Wellsian bits, or is it Well's Mars with Burroughsian pieces? Either way it's a lot of fun and now an established literary tradition, so why not muck about with it a bit yourself?

Apochryphal Barsooms, Part 1, by Den Valdron
Apochryphal Barsooms, Part 2, by Den Valdron
Den Valdron essentially states up front that he considers Barsoom to be a shared world. He backs this premise up with a two-part article that will give you a lot to mull over. He opens some intriguing doors and makes a lot of interesting connections concerning the various fictional approaches to Mars. Very useful stuff if you're at all interested in the roots of the Sword & Planet genre, and would like an expanded palette of literary references with which to experiment and work with on your own Sword & Planet projects.

What We Know of Mars, by Edward S. Holden
This article at ERB-zine has newspaper clippings, picks a fight with Tesla and gives us some nice old fashioned maps of Mars. Well worth taking a look.

Invasive Techniques: An Analysis of the Sarmaks and Other 'Martian Invaders' by Dennis Power and Dr. Peter Coogan.
This is a very wide-ranging article that veers wildly across a wide array of literary universes in its effort to nail down just who, what and where the Martian Invaders from Wells' novel came from--and how they fit into Burrough's Barsoom and other fictional versions of Mars. It's quite a tour de force.

The French Wold Newton Universe: Mars in the Shadows, a Hundred Year Retrospective by Jacques Garin
This is a wonderful reference and resource for getting started with the impressive accumulation of French fictional explorations of Mars. Edgar Allen Poe on Mars is the least of the wonderful oddness involved.

Prisoner of Mars/ War of the Vampires by Gustave Le Rouge
Erloors=bat-winged vampires from Mars who serve a Great Brain. The hero builds a psychic-powered rocket-ship with the help of a friendly Hindu who might or might not have been Captain Nemo in disguise. This is one of those bizarre books that combines science, mysticism, and pulp adventure in equal proportions. A quick review of the combined edition is available at Vintage Pop Fictions, and Black Coat Press has brought out a very nice edition that combines both The Prisoner of Mars and The Vampires of Mars as translated by Brian Stableford. It's $15. Come on.


The Red Star, by Alexander Bogdanov
Introduces the 'etheroneph', a nuclear photonic rocket. Yep. Socialists on Mars, nuclear rockets, murder in space, extreme apathy, and androgynous doctors to help you sleep better on the rocket to Mars. How'd this never set the literary world on fire? This one might have to wait a while. Even advanced insomnia has it's limits...

Principles of Martian Technology (Some Invasion Ideas...)

We recently discovered a rather detailed and wonderfully well-done bit of speculative engineering analysis concerning the technology of the Martians featured in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. You can find it here. We highly recommend it. Unfortunately, this seems to be an archived fragment of something a bit larger in scope. If anyone knows any further details about this seemingly orphaned project, please contact us: netherwerks (at) gmail (dot) com. We'd very much like to find out more about this rather nicely done investigation into the technical aspects behind Mr. Wells' Martians and their technologies. The handwavium-esque 'Viridigen' powersource itself is a touch of genius.

Viridigen not withstanding, there are a few other aspects of Martian Technology that seem to have been lost, forgotten or overlooked in the rush to the Tripods, Cylinders and Heat-Rays.

The Martian Flying Machine(s)

Of a night, all over there, Hampstead way, the sky is alive with their lights. It's like a great city, and in the glare you can just see them moving. By daylight you can't. But nearer--I haven't seen them—' (he counted on his fingers) ‘five days. Then I saw a couple across Hammersmith way carrying something big. And the night before last’--he stopped and spoke impressively—‘it was just a matter of lights, but it was something up in the air. I believe they've built a flying-machine, and are learning to fly.’I stopped, on hands and knees, for we had come to the bushes.‘Fly!’
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘fly.’

H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

 It wasn't just something that George Pal dreamed up in his classic 1953 movie. The Martian Flying Machine is in the book. But it only gets mentioned in passing and never really seems to do much more than spread some Black Smoke before the war is over. In fact, the Flying Machine only gets mentioned after the War in an issue of the Daily Mail. And in the version of the story that ran in Pearson's Magazine, it is conjectured that the Martians might not have flown more than 50 miles from London. It is supposed that perhaps the Martians were not able to adapt their Flying Machines to Earth's gravity, air pressure, atmosphere or something like that. It is also possible that the Invaders were caught-up in the throes of an on-going scientific-industrial revolution and only invented the Flying Machines en route to Earth. That opens the door to some wonderful What If? lines of conjecture, such as what else might they have come up with, given more time to fiddle with their slide-rules, erector-sets and lens assemblies?

The Black Smoke
The Black Smoke was delivered by explosive rockets. It is an almost viscous, ink-like vapor that supposedly bonds with Argon in the atmosphere to produce a horribly toxic gas that is almost instantly fatal to all forms of terrestrial life that come into contact with it. The gas is extremely dense, almost fluid-like in its characteristics, and is definitely much heavier than air. One can sometimes escape it by climbing upwards, out of the way of its billowing mass. It forms a nasty black scabrous-scum whenever it comes into contact with water and the Martians were able to clear it away with jets of compressed steam, which reduce it to a soggy gelatinous mass that dries-out into a granular black powder.

We only have Mr. Wells' theory to go on that the Black Smoke actually binds with Argon, but the evidence is grimly clear that the Black Smoke most definitely causes a terrible chemical reaction within its victims that is extremely lethal. This is a terrifying form of chemical weapon that kills on contact, not by inhalation. The primary component of the Black Smoke is unmistakably some heretofore unidentified element that terrestrial science has yet to successfully identify, let alone synthesize. Though there are those making great efforts in this area in numerous locations.

It is possible that some of the 'black tubes' used to launch the rockets carrying the Black Smoke could be recovered from a Cylinder Crash-Site by an intrepid group of adventurers who perhaps were lucky enough to discover a Cylinder that landed poorly, killing its crew. It is also conceivable that a group of freedom fighters might topple a Tripod and be able to strip away some of its armament, such as the black tube rocket launchers (plus the rockets themselves...) or the heat ray mechanisms (parabolic mirror, focusing crystal, power source...), but doing so poses a number of secondary problems such as jury-rigging some means to actually operate the weapons without the intrinsic control mechanisms within a Tripod. But such engineering problems are the meat and drink of stalwart Scientists and Adventurers in the mold of Professor Challenger, Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage or even a Moriarty or Fu Manchu...

The Red Weeds
An often overlooked component to the Martian Invasion is the Red Weed, a biological weapon that was derived from the ultra-dense red weed that grew abundantly on Mars as seen in The Crystal Egg. This fast-growing red plant spreads like super-kudzu, reproducing almost explosively on contact with water and quickly clogging-up rivers, lakes and streams. The Red Weed practically engulfs those areas it is able to take root within, and tends to choke-out the native vegetation. It glows a soft purple at night and can be eaten, but has a metallic taste that tends to discourage most potential grazers or any but the absolutely most desperate diners.

The Red Weed effectively blocked shipping and all waterborne transport. It also could very easily have infiltrated reservoirs and municipal water supplies, cutting off any form of resistance from their supply of water. That makes it a very effective weapon, and more of a threat than even the Black Smoke. Without water, there is no resistance. Perhaps the Martians had some way of extracting the water from the Red Weed, or they had no need for water in the same way that terrestrial biology does, as they tend to be of more sanguinary tastes or proclivities...

The Big Gun on Olympus Mons
The Martian Cylinders have no propulsion units, only a few maneuvering jets at best. They are a one-way delivery vehicle. Each Cylinder is fired out of a massive giga-cannon erected atop Olympus Mons. In certain respects this huge gun resembles the Railway Guns of WWI, only ridiculously more massive and powerful. Later sources have taken to designating the Big Gun as a form of mass driver, but that just doesn't fit with the rest of the technology--it's probably a gigantic cannon. The idea of a gigantic Space Gun isn't just something limited to old science fiction--this is something that very real military money has been spent on and Top Men have investigated on behalf of the United States. But that's getting into the whole black projects end of the conspiracy-nutjob pond and we'll come back to that another day.

Once the Invasion succeeded, the Martians would most likely have built another such mega-cannon on Earth and used it to invade the Moon and possibly Venus, as well as go back to Mars. It would be most unfortunate if the Martians were to discover Cavorite in the course of their depredations and inhuman activities on the Earth. One also has to wonder how they would manage the invasion of the Moon and the attempted subjugation of the Selenites...

The Cylinders

The Thing itself lay almost entirely buried in sand, amidst the scattered splinters of a fir tree it had shivered to frag- ments in its descent. The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge cylinder, caked over and its outline softened by a thick scaly dun-coloured incrustation. It had a diameter of about thirty yards. He approached the mass, surprised at the size and more so at the shape, since most meteorites are rounded more or less completely. It was, however, still so hot from its flight through the air as to forbid his near approach. A stirring noise within its cylinder he ascribed to the unequal cooling of its surface; for at that time it had not occurred to him that it might be hollow. 

...And then he perceived that, very slowly, the circular top of the cylinder was rotating on its body. It was such a gradual movement that he discovered it only through noticing that a black mark that had been near him five minutes ago was now at the other side of the circumference. Even then he scarcely understood what this indicated, until he heard a muffled grating sound and saw the black mark jerk forward an inch or so. Then the thing came upon him in a flash. The cylinder was artificial--hollow--with an end that screwed out! Something within the cylinder was unscrewing the top!

H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

Big, thermally-insulated bullets approximately 90 feet in diameter, the Cylinders were fired out of a big Space Gun on Olympus Mons and they came to a very abrupt, hard landing just like interplanetary artillery-shells.

The Heat-Ray

It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay men so swiftly and so silently. Many think that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the parabolic mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light. But no one has absolutely proved these details. However it is done, it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. Heat, and invisible, instead of visible, light. Whatever is combustible flashes into flame at its touch, lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water, incontinently that explodes into steam.

H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

Whether it is a carbon dioxide laser, a maser, particle beam weapon, or some sort of flame-thrower or babble-onium death-ray, the Heat-Ray used by the Martian Invaders (not the one invented by Archimedes),  is an iconic Directed-Energy Ray Weapon. (But you definitely have to use the sound effect from the 1953 movie!)

In the interests of enhanced gaming mayhem, why not randomize the type of weapon each Tripod has equipped?

Random Ray Weapon

1. Laser
2. Maser
3. Particle Beam Weapon  (See this article as well...)
4. Directed Energy Ray Weapon (as seen on The Six Million Dollar Man...)
5. Death-Ray
6. Tesla-esque Teleforce Ray Weapon
7. Heat-Ray
8. Charged Particle Beam
9. Super-heated Plasma
10. Hydrogen Fluoride Laser
11. Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon
12. Electrolaser (Lightning Bringer!)
13. The Obligatory Ray-Gun, only much bigger
14. Phaser
15. Disintegrator Ray (...it was good enough for Edison to Conquer Mars...)
16. X-Ray Lasers
17. Gas Dynamic Laser
18. Carbon-Dioxide Laser
19. Chemical Laser
20. SASER

For more ideas, go look over the list of fictional Rayguns at wikipedia.

The Fighting Machines / Tripods

Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine-tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me. And in an instant it was gone.

H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

Some of the very first Mecha or Land Ironclads/Dreadnoughts in fiction, the hundred-foot-tall Tripods from Wells' novel are iconic harbingers of interplanetary malevolence. Every adaptation and movie has revised and re-imagined the Tripods until now there are dozens of competing, conflicting and sometimes complimentary versions floating about all over the place. Wells describes them as having a brazen hood over the top and they tend to move along at a very speedy clip, out-pacing flocks of birds, for example.

As a bonus--click HERE to go get the plans for building your own paper-miniature version of a Land Ironclad based off of H. G. Wells' story The Land Ironclads.

The Handling Machine

Besides the Tripod-Fighting Machines, the Sarmak/Mucoid/Martian invaders also employed five-legged 'Handling Machines' that are alternately described as being "spider-like," or "crab-like,"  with many jointed levers and tentacles with which to move things, manipulate things and build the other machines such as the Tripods. They have the uncanny appearance of being almost alive, possibly they are some form of symbiotic or cybernetically-enslaved lower life form domesticated/enslaved and employed by the invaders for brute labor, and as the hands that they lack. If some enterprising group of adventurers were to hijack acquire one of these machines from their masters, it could quite possibly reveal a great number of things about the Sarmak/Mucoids/Martians...

The Embankment or Digging Machine

A gigantic machine used to excavate the pits around the Cylinders and to form earthworks for the Martian invaders. These machine may have been automatons as they are explicitly described as having no pilot or drivers. These machines were often abandoned when the Tripods moved on, though a few were re-directed to work on various secondary projects. They are not described in any real detail within the original novel. Subsequent interpretations seem to favor the form of massive centipede-things, but there is no reason that they couldn't be more along the lines of one of Jules Verne's drill-like machines from Journey to the Center of the Earth. In fact, it might make a very interesting scenario where the Sarmak/Mucoid/Martians are actually trying to invade the Hollow Earth and the surface-world is just something that they need to pass through to get where they are going.

Ulla-ulla-ulla

Fubar: Episode One of Trenches

Trenches is a 2008 SciFi webisode-series available via Crackle, and at Hulu, and at Trenches-online.  Unlike a lot of other webisodic efforts that have frankly bordered on the painful, Trenches manages to be rather enjoyable.  It's a good quality military SF series of web-broadcast episodes in the best tradition of Starship Troopers, which looks like the very real story-DNA that the writers stole pay respectful homage to in the first few episodes.  Later on, around Episode 5: Shallow Graves, it looks like they're diving for the Starship Troopers Two and Three direct-to-dvd franchise territory at times, but all-in-all it works. I really liked the first few episodes a great deal.  They are fun.  Grim, gritty and with loads of explosions and mayhem, but with a bit of that something special that makes it far more watchable than more pretentious crap.  The characters are promising.  Almost on a par with the Colonial Marines from Aliens in likability. It's not Roughnecks, nor even Space Viking, but it'll do for now and if Trenches gets some support, some viewers and a bit of feedback, especially now that it is being carried by Sony's Crackle, maybe the folks involved with this project will get a chance to deliver on some of the very promising potential.  It'd be nice to see just what happens next after the big reveal/cliffhanger at the end of Episode 10.  I just wish that Trenches, as with the Starship Troopers film(s) had brought in the powered armor, but maybe that's just me.  With the run-away success of Iron Man, maybe we'll finally get a real Starship Trooper movie...

Check out Trenches. 

From Crackle: Fubar

The Production Company behind Trenches has made a bunch of Concept Art, Stills, and other fun stuff available through the official Trenches website.  This is a very cool project.  I would like to see more of this sort of thing, especially in terms of developing fresh new science fiction, fantasy and Sword & Sorcery properties.  Maybe we'll see someone develop a credible and entertaining webisode series for Carson of Venus, Elak of Atlantis or Eric John Stark...that'd be a Lot of Fun.  Maybe with the Disney John Carter of Mars and the renewed interest in Buck Rogers, Green Hornet, and other classic/Pulp heroes/series, maybe that's just a bit closer to reality than ever before.

Space Viking

LibriVox offers a set of downloadable installments of an audiobook for H. Beam Piper's excellent Space Viking.  You can also download a zipped copy of the book via the nice people at LibriVox, or get it from Project Gutenberg.  Just so long as you get it and read it.  Piper packs more ideas into a single page than most modern writers can manage in their whole book.  Who knew that macro economics could be both Shakespearean and full of high-risk action-adventure?  The book remains eminently readable, loads of fun, and filled with ideas that you can use/explore to your heart's content in any SciFi setting.  It would make an excellent movie as well...so long as the producers/director avoided trying to 'Star Wars it up', or make it more 'relevant' to modern audiences (read: dumbed down for morons).

Like Herbert's Dune, the original not the posthumous-pastiche-things, there are some intriguing anachronisms at work in Space Viking, anachronisms that are inherently tied-into the setting and that make eminent good sense once you follow along the author's train of thought and the chain of consequences logically following out of their world-building process.  Just as Herbert acknowledged the pre-eminent utility and enduring presence of the Knife, so Piper uses submachine guns and not lasers, 'blasters,' or light sabers.  This choice is not because of any failing in terms of the settings' technology or military prowess, but rather an outcome dictated by the way the various cultures responded to interstellar travel, and how things developed as they expanded outwards.  He was a shrewd character H. Beam Piper was, very shrewd and quite clever.

(Space Viking available at Mobipocket)

The faux-medieval trappings of Space Viking, especially in the Sword Worlds that each developed along a heroic pseudo-Scandinavian cultural dynamic, actually makes sense, as much sense as any other derivative post-colonial culture makes any sense after the fact.  Technology remains discrete but integrated along practical lines amongst the Sword Worlders.  They like the good things in life and they freely partake in the very best that technology has to offer--on their own terms.  This sets them apart from the more decadent, welfare-state worlds of petty tyrants and Orwellian beauracracies surrounding them that were once part of the Federation and who've now regressed into savagery, barbarism and bizarre and often untenable political experiments.  In some respects Space Viking feels like Robert E. Howard in space, almost.  The Neo-Barbarians are a major threat to the established order, but even so, quite ironically, they are also the one real hope that true civilization has of being revived/restored from out of the ashes of the lingering dark age that was brought on by failed social policies, bad choices, entrenched incompetence, mollycoddled decadence and just the hint of inferiority/weakness in the old way compared to the gloriously efficient and superior (fascist?) mode of getting things done that survives, even thrives amongst the Sword Worlders.  The political ramifications and implications within Space Viking could serve as the basis of very hearty discussion regarding fascism, tyranny and imperialism...possibly equal to or even moreso than Heinlein's Starship Troopers.  At least Piper avoided questionable eugenics and controversial genetic engineering programs unlike Herbert and Cordwainer Smith...though those things could get squeazed into the milieu fairly easily, especially amongst one of the planetary societies that has fallen into barbarism.

One really interesting and quite excellent synopsis/review/critique of Piper's Space Viking has been done by Joseph T. Major.  He really does the novel justice as he goes into incredible detail in his erudite and thorough analysis.  It's very well done and really takes the novel apart step by step.

Piper's use of Toynbee's and Spengler's theories is well known and you can look into that via careful clicking through the Wikipedia page on Piper and following the digital breadcrumb trail by doing a simple Googlesearch on Piper and Toynbee and/or Spengler.  The theories of Toynbee and Spengler might take a while to sort through.  Toynbee alone published a considerable number of works based upon his theories.  You could look into the Toynbee Convector blog that David Derrick is doing as a possible jumping-off point into the murky, turgid waters of Toynbee's work...or not.  I leave that up to you.  It is fascinating stuff, if you're into the study of history...

What is more interesting to me right now, is how Piper developed his Neobarbarians, to quote:

"These are homemade barbarians. Workers and peasants who revolted to seize and divide the wealth and then found they'd smashed the means of production and killed off all the technical brains. Survivors on planets hit during the Interstellar Wars . . . who lost the machinery of civilization. Followers of political leaders on local-dictatorship planets. Companies of mercenaries thrown out of employment and living by pillage. Religious fanatics following self-anointed prophets."

What a very Pogo-like moment.  We have met the enemy and they are us.  The neobarbarians in Space Viking are as post-apocalyptic as you can get, and most of them are reduced to this state by their own actions rooted in fear and ignorance, the two pillars of modern marketing and political demagoguery.  Piper fairly heavy-handedly puts it right out there: barbarism is its own reward.  We either act to preserve civilization or we bring on the Long Night...hmmm...there are some very interesting political theories interspersed throughout this book, and not just jug-headed crypto-fascist rhetoric either, as some have claimed wrongly.  Quite wrongly, I feel.  Piper wasn't necessarily advocating a Heinleinian authoritarianism, but rather a quasi-Libertarian-esque policy of enlightened capitalistic self-interest that harks back to Adam Smith, but with feudal overtones.  Or at least that's my take on it at the moment.  I'll certainly reconsider my position in the light of any truly illuminating discussion or facts that suggest otherwise.

As we develop the Monarchist Worlds surrounding Aegron for the Riskail setting, H. Beam Piper's take on a capitalistic-industrialist-royalist hybrid-form of government (as well as a few other strange political structures) will definitely serve as a guiding light and an inspirational touchstone.  The whole commerce-raiding thing that Piper explored in Space Viking deserves to be more fully developed and fleshed-out, and the airships that spread outwards through the Sea Gates from Aegron are definitely ideological heirs of Piper's Sword Worlders in several respects, though not all.  At this point anyone writing about any form of futuristic feudalism in a SciFi context is inevitably going to get compared to Piper, Tubbs, Herbert, etc. so it's better to just accept it and do your best to get past the comparison by taking things farther out into unexplored territory where those predecessors didn't go before.  At least that's our approach, and our goal, in our personal efforts.

But this is post is about Space Viking, so we'll deal with Aegron another day.

One of the more intriguing aspects of this novel is that Lord Lucas Trask doesn't start this story off as a bright-eyed youngster.  He's a man in the prime of his life, coming from a fairly well-to-do Ranching Family.  He doesn't 'go up levels' in the course of his adventures, but rather makes the most of his opportunities, learns a great deal about his region of the old Federation, and exerts a powerful influence on things as he re-kindles the fire of Civilization from deep amidst the post-apocalyptic wreckage of the Federation worlds --and eventually his own people's worlds as well--that have slid into the decline of barbarism.  This approach was the one adopted for the Traveler RPG.  It also resembles the so-called 'End Game' in OD&D quite a bit.  Especially once Trask realizes that hunting down his enemy Dunnan just isn't very likely and that he'll need to ambush him instead, and to do that effectively will require a base.

Setting up a base is the start of Trask's transformation from a vengeance-driven man to a leader, ruler and ultimately monarch in his own right.  The political intrigues and machinations that develop in respect to his dealings with petty nobles who sieze the planetary throne back home and the not-so-slow (de)evolution of Trask's relationship with the new King of Gram and the implications of Trask's rise in relative power in proportion to his King gets complicated and is a riveting and memorable part of the story.

As Lucas Trask gains titles, recognition and patents of nobility, he also builds up his personal base of power and the economy of his base-world.  He plots raids in the early part of his efforts to kick-start the process, to grab some easy capital, and in the course of those raids Trask realizes a very important opportunity that leads into his establishing a network of mutual trade amongst his neighbors.  His small effort quickly escalates and the process of recovering the old Federation technology of the neighboring worlds leads to Trask creating a mutual defense treaty amongst his initial raiding-targets, and consequently becoming a major political figure in terms of more real power than the King he has sworn allegience and fealty to...and who now is growing distrustful, resentful and jealous of his success.

Finally the King of Gram goes too far and Trask declares independence...and he has the power and backing of his allies to discourage the King of Gram from launching any retaliatory raids.  In fact, it is Trask's allies who begin to prey upon the now declining Sword Worlds.  It's an ironic turnabout that follows logically, consistently and smoothly from the situation as established early on in the book.  The whole trajectory of Trask becoming a King in his own right is far more interesting than the pursuit of vengeance that set him upon this path in the first place, but that does get settled as well, and in a very satisfying manner.

I can't recall another rip-roaring adventure yarn that delivered as much in-depth and detailed socio-political commentary and that featured economics so prominently and yet readably.  Even the throw-away bits of exposition are filled with wonderful nuggets of information that show the incredible depth to which Piper developed his setting.  It truly is a crying shame that he decided to end things early, and his suicide leaves a gaping hole in SciFi that will never be filled, not even by Jerry Pournelle.

At heart, Space Viking is built-up around an idea: self-reliance.  Both individually and societally.  It's just an idea.  An idea used in a work of fiction that reflects one guy's opinion and vision and worldbuilding.  I'm not sure what I think about the full implications of his set-up, or his conclusions, but I do find Piper's writing engaging and his imagination entertaining and his ideas thought provoking.  Not bad for a 'Space Opera.'

Piper also wrote a number of stories set in his Federation, Empire, and Paratime settings, including the much beloved Little Fuzzy...which is very much worth reading.  If you've never heard of Piper previously, definitely give Space Viking some consideration.  It's easily one of the ten best SciFi novels ever written, at least as far as I'm concerned...

Some interesting H. Beam Piper sites to check out:
Zarthani An excellent first-stop on the road to discovering H. Beam Piper and his works, especially the TerroHuman Future History, Paratime, Little Fuzzies and his other works.

The very nice H. Beam Piper Memorial site.

Hostigos offers some support for Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, including the sequels by John F. Carr.

A great many H. Beam Piper eBooks are available via ManyBooks, including Day of the Moron, Ministry of Disturbance, and Omnilingual (which leads into Space Viking...)

Mark Damon Hughes has produced an Unofficial H. Beam Piper website.

There is a Summary Bibliography of H. Beam Piper at the Internet SF Database site.

Frederick Pohl remembers H. Beam Piper.  (Warning: If you don't already know the fate of Piper, this is heartbreaking to read.  Heck, it's heartbreaking to read even if you do already know how the story ends.)

and

Thousand Suns: The Piper Transmissions is a supplement for the Thousand Suns SciFi RPG from Rogue Games...which I haven't had a chance to look over in any real depth as of yet.  Thousand Suns looks very interesting, and sounds like a lot of fun, delivering an Imperialist/old school take on space opera that is obviously very closely allied to the sorts of fiction that H. Beam Piper wrote.  It reminds me a little of the early days of the Little Black Books for Traveler, before the Imperium took hold and it wasn't quite the free-for-all for anyone desiring to design their own SciFi setting any more.  That could be a lot of fun.

Speaking of the Little Black Books and Marc Millar's RPG-classic Traveler, you can check out the Traveler Wiki, explore the Traveler Web-Ring, give the Mongoose Traveler a look-see, or join-up at the Citizens of the Imperium forums.  The Traveler RPG is very much alive and well and going strong.  There are even a couple of efforts at converting it into aFantasy-context RPG, which are interesting and could be a lot of fun.

A Sidetrack Excursion into an Alternate Version of Traveler
If you want to examine the ongoing real-time efforts of a dedicated designer trying to convert Classic Traveler into a Fantasy-context RPG, check out Doc Grognard's blog, it's an idea that keeps re-surfacing from tie-to-time, especially since Mongoose announced the Traveler OGL license.  There's just something inherently appealing about adapting Traveler to a more Fantasy-oriented environment.

Return of the C57D

Monday September 20, 2010, The Heights Theater is showing the 1956 Classic SciFi movie Forbidden Planet.  One show only (7:30PM).  Advance tickets are available via The Heights Theater website.  All seats are $8.00.  We've already reserved ours.

This is part of the Before CGI: Six SciFi Classics series being co-presented by The Heights and the local Take Up Org.  More details about this series can be found on the Heights site or at TakeUp Production's site.  They'll be doing a War of the Worlds/Invasion of the Body-Snatchers double-feature!  Plus The Invisible Man, The Incredible Shrinking Man and the original King Kong are all slated to be part of this series of incredible, classic movies.  Fun, fun, FUN!

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In the meantime, you can catch Forbidden Planet at Youtube, as long as you don't mind the lower quality image and having it chopped into 10 parts. You can also find some Out-takes and if you're really pressed for time you can just watch the highly memorable Monster Attack scene.

Here's Part One to get you started:
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And for Christmas...there's the Ultimate Collector's Edition box-set of the Forbidden Planet DVD.

Then there's the reproduction of the movie poster: which you used to be able to find at All Posters dot com, as well as a few other sites/services. 

This is a truly Classic movie.  The sets are well-done, the costumes have been ripped-off for decades by both TV and other, lesser movies, and the special effects are tastefully done despite being top of the line for 1956 are still decent, still effective, and the interior shots of the alien Krell Labs have been ripped-off borrowed by such gems of TV-dom as The Time Tunnel amongst others.  Then there's the theramin used in the soundtrack.  Hmmm...what other Classic SciFi franchise used a theramin in their soundtrack?  Duh! 

Robby went on to guest star in two episodes of Lost in Space (War of the Robots & Condemned of Space), the 1957 movie The Invisible Boy, a cameo on The Twilight Zone, The Thin Man, Love Boat, Ark II and other TV shows.  Robby The Robot has really and truly become the hardest working robot in Hollywood.  He even did a Charmin commercial back in the Seventies with Mr. Whipple.

An interesting bit of trivia: Robby was designed by Robert Kinoshita, the guy who also designed GUNTER the Lost in Space robot nearly a decade later.  You can find a far more exhaustive list of Robby The Robot trivia at Goremaster's blog, or check out Fred Barton's website. (Both links are defunct, sorry).

Getting back to Forbidden Planet itself, It's rather interesting how much influence Forbidden Planet had on many, many other productions and in particular, Irwin Allen's TV Series Lost in Space -- just take a look at the suspended animation tubes from the unaired episode No Place To Hide which are shown on the Wikipedia page.  If you take a few minutes you'll be able to find a few more points of similarity/convergence.  Irwin Allen always stole borrowed from the best, despite whatever he wound up doing with it...which almost always involved explosions and things shaking around a lot.  They sure blew up a lot of stuff on all of Irwin Allen's shows.  It still didn't make up for the generally lousy scripts and overly cheesy acting(?) that tended to dominate those shows, though every now and then something cool would filter through.

John C. Snider includes Forbidden Planet in his accounting of the Ten Movies That Changed Science Fiction.  J. Michael Straczynski paid a nice homage to the Krell Machine of Forbidden Planet with his own Great Machine on Epsilon 3 in the episode "A Voice in the Wilderness" of Babylon 5.  Gene Roddenberry claimed Forbidden Planet as an influence, something that is fairly obvious if you just watch the re-vised pilot The Cage which became the episode The Menagerie.  The influence and impact of Forbidden Planet goes deep and lingers on to this day, in a very, very positive way.

When I first got my hands on the Little Black Books for the Traveller Box Set, I was happy to see the H. Beam Piper influences, but I was sad to see Forbidden Planet get short shrift.  I have always wanted to see a SciFi RPG based on the core assumptions and tropes of Forbidden Planet.  Hyperdrive saucers, autonomous robots that can distill extra-fine whisky on demand, alien relics that would have given Lovecraft bad dreams...isn't it about time that someone developed an RPG rooted/based upon Forbidden Planet?