George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 44

The Starport Is Open

Hey, hey, hey.   It’s March 12… publication day!

STARPORT is now available for order from your favorite online bookseller, and it should be on the racks at your local comics shop or brick ‘n mortar bookstore.   Buddy Lohb, the Topman, Staako Nihi, and children of the endless night  await you in Starport Chicago.

(For those who missed my earlier blog post, I am of course talking about the new graphic novel from Bantam (in the US) and HarperCollins Voyager (in the UK), adapted and illustrated b...

Yay for Captain Marvel

The newest Marvel movie, CAPTAIN MARVEL, is a lot of fun.

As an old (very very old) Marvel fanboy, I am a little saddened that they dropped the original Captain Marvel (not counting Fawcett’s Big Red Cheese), the Kree warrior Mar-Vell, from the continuity.   THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL was one of Marvel’s classics, way back when.   Maybe that’s just me, though.   I am kind of a purist when it comes to adaptations.

Considered just on its own terms, the movie is hugely entertaining.   I look fo...

Season Eight Approaches

The eighth and final season of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES will be upon us in April.

HBO has just released a new trailer.

Enjoy.

Offseason

It is offseason for the NFL.  The combine is done, and free agency is about to open.

The Jets should be well positioned to be big players in free agency.   They have more than $100 million in salary cap space, more than any other team except the Indianapolis Colts.   They also have the third pick in April’s draft, which should allow them to add a monster edge rusher to the defense.   That is, assuming they pick the right one.   The last time they tried, they got Vernon Gholston.  Let’s hope t...

STARPORT Is Coming

A million years ago when the world was young and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I spent the best part of a decade working in Hollywood.   In television, mostly, though I did a few feature scripts as well, for films that never got made.   My television career began on the CBS revival of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, along about 1985-1986.   After that I wrote a couple of MAX HEADROOM scripts, but they never got made either.  The show was cancelled when one of them was still in pre-production.   Then I spent...

Hugo Recommendations – Editing (Redux)

For Best Editor, Short Form:

GARDNER DOZOIS

Of course.

 

We lost Gardner last May.   A lot of love and laughter went out of the world when he died, and a tremendous amount of talent as well.   He was a gifted writer who did not write nearly enough… and an amazing editor, the single most important and influential editor in our field since John W. Campbell Jr.   It was my privilege  to co-edit half a dozen anthologies with him.   That was a joy and a pleasure, and I will always regret that we...

Hugo Eligibility – Best Series

I have seen here and there that some people are suggesting A SONG OF ICE & FIRE (by that name, or as GAME OF THRONES) as a possible nominee for the new(ish) Best Series category of the Hugo Awards.   It fits worldcon’s very broad definition of a series, I agree… but as I said below in my post about FIRE & BLOOD, I don’t consider A SONG OF ICE & FIRE a series, and even it was, FIRE & BLOOD is not really part of it.   More a Related Work, the category where it fits best.

WILD CARDS, however, IS...

Hugo Recommendations – Best Professional Artist

Nominating for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist is always especially difficult.   There are so many terrific talents working in science fiction and fantasy just now, it is next to impossible to settle on just four or five as being worthy of a nod.   Nonetheless, that’s the way it works, so…

Once again, I’ve had the honor of working with some astounding artists during the past year.   Let me bring a few of them to your attention.

MICHAEL KOMARCK, who has been the cover artist for mo...

Hugo Recommendations – Fan Writer

Best Fan Writer.   That’s a clear cut category.

My recommendation is ADAM WHITEHEAD, for his work on his blog THE WERTZONE.

He’s come close a couple times, but has yet to make the ballot.   Maybe this is the year.

Take a read, and judge for yourselves:

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/

I’d also love to suggest KATY RASK, who writes the marvelous Wild Cards Reread posts for Tor.com.   However, my understanding is that Tor.com pays her for those columns, which makes her ineligible.   Which is a...

Sharing A World

Back in the 80s, when Wild Cards was born, shared worlds ruled the racks.   THIEVES WORLD, ITHKAR, WAR WORLD, LIAVEK, HEROES IN HELL, GREYSTONE BAY, and on and on.  New series were popping up every month.  Today, only Wild Cards remains, still going strong after thirty-one years and twenty-seven volumes.

Writing for a shared world has some unique challenges, however.   In August 2017, a large group of Wild Carders assembled at my Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe for a mass signing, and we inte...