Tag: Science Fiction

DNA Podcast 136 – Classic Doctor Who

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 136 - Classic Doctor Who
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LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 01: English actor Tom Baker in his role as the fourth incarnation of Doctor Who in the British science fiction television series of the same name, circa 1975. With him are two of his arch-enemies the Daleks. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In this episode, Rob and Don are joined by Jack Ward to discuss the 20th century versions of the iconic staple of U.K. science fiction – Doctor Who. The trio discuss how they first met The Doctor, the various incarnations and evolutions of the series, and how it affected their lives. All this, and which Doctor is Don’s favorite, is waiting for you in this episode of The Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Closing Music:
Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt

Things Discussed:

Doctor Who
The Sonic Society
Magic Shadows Documentary
“Couch Jumping”
Professor Quatermass
ITV
Space: 1999
Professor Kitzel
Trickster God
Sixties Spy Craze
The Master
FASA DR.WHO RPG
Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer
Interview with Tom Baker from 1981
Hammer Horror
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Genesis of the Daleks


DNA Podcast 112 – Science in Popular Culture

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 112 - Science in Popular Culture
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In this episode, Rob and Don explore the ways that science is presented in popular culture, for better and worse. Along the way they discuss what science is, how our views of it have shaped society (and how our society has shaped science), and the shifting view of science in the United States. All this, and statistics on who is more scientifically literate republicans or democrats (the answer may surprise you), is waiting for you in this episode of The Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Closing Music:
Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt

Things Discussed:

Edward Bernays (or this link.)
Terrorists Take Action Figure Hostage
The Movie Titanic Changed the Constellations
Startalk Podcast
Dr. Stone
Shonen JUMP
MacGyver
The Deadly London Fog
PEW Research Poll on the Public and Science
Granny Weatherwax


DNA Episode 086 – Interview with Lee Gold

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Episode 086 - Interview with Lee Gold







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In this episode, Don and Rob sit down with the incomparable Lee Gold to discuss her life as an early RPG designer, editor of the long-running APA Alarums and Excursions, and filk songwriter. Along the way, the trio discuss the history of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), how she started her APA, and some of Lee’s memories of the early days of fandom. All this, and a sample of Lee and her husband Barry’s singing, are waiting for you in this episode of The Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt

Things Discussed:

Lee Gold Wikipedia
Alarums and Excursions
Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS)
APA-L
DRAGON Magazine
Amazon Cannot Ship to Australia
Chivalry and Sorcery
Steve Perrin
Fanzines
Worldcon
Westercon
Gary Gygax
Jackals Fattening on a Lion’s Kill by Gary Gygax
Could you repeat that in Auld Wormish? by Lee Gold
ORGINS Convention
Issac Asimov Foundation Trilogy
SLAN by A.E. Van Vogt
Lensmen by E.E. Doc Smith
Doomed Lensmen by Sybly Whyte
Skylark of Space
Filk Songs
Tunnels and Trolls (or here)
Superhero 2044
Toyo 2000 Basic Kanji Characters
Lands of Adventure RPG
Fantasy Games Unlimited
GURPS Japan
You Bash the Balrog and I’ll Climb the Tree
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Liaden Series by Sharon lee and Steve Miller
In The Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
Lois Bujold’s Vorkosigan Series


DNA Podcast 078 – We Robots with Jack Ward

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 078 - We Robots with Jack Ward







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Image result for historical robots

In this episode, Rob, Don, and their friend Jack Ward attempt to delve into robots in popular culture, but what was intended as a light jaunt into robots and their place in entertainment turns into a deep existential discussion about what it really means to be human. Along the way, the trio explore possible definitions of what a robot is, how robots might truly be the children of men, and questions of our relationship with the machines around us. All that, and naturally sex robots, are waiting for you in this episode of the Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt

Things Discussed:

Hero of Alexandria
The Turing Test
The Golem
Talos
George Carlin First Appearance on SNL
Bicentennial Man
A.I. by Speilberg
Ex Machina (movie)
Maria from Metropolis
Robby the Robot
The Three Laws of Robotics
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
A Mexican Mystery by W. Grove
Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy
The Questor Tapes
Lost in Space
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō (this might be the one about the robot girl after the apocalypse, not sure)
The Uncanny Valley
Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (comet wipes out civilization)
The AD Police
Red Dwarf
Rick and Morty
D20 Gamma World
The Monkey Sphere
City Story by Clifford D. Samack
The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks


DNA Podcast 073- UFOs in Popular Culture

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 073- UFOs in Popular Culture







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In this episode, Don and Rob explore the place of UFOs in our popular culture with the help of Jack Ward. The trio explore the earliest UFO reports, talk about how UFOs have changed with the times, and what our ideas about aliens say about us. Along the way, Jack tells the story of his father’s UFO encounters, and they talk about their favorite alien-related movies. All this, and the 82 kinds of aliens, are waiting for you in this episode of the Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt

Things Discussed:

UFO on Wikipedia
In Search Of Remake (It’s down near the bottom)
Twilight Zone (Night of the Meek)
Chinese UFO Cave Paintings
Ancient Egyptian UFO Sightings
Project Blue Book TV Series
Ezekiel UFOs in the Bible
UFOs in Rennaisance Art
The Gospel According to Saint Thomas
The Vedas

Six Million Dollar Man Bigfoot
Airship Scares
The Tomato Man: (I may have mixed this with this)
The Nazi Bell
The Monsters are due on Maple Street
HG Welles’ War of the Worlds Movie 1953
Watch the Skies by Curtis Peebles
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
US Military Has Plans for UFO Invasion
Kenneth Arnold sees Flying Saucers
Maury Island Incident
UFOS by Leslie Kean
Project Disclosure Videos
Red Planet Mars
The Three Body Problem
Silver Screen Saucers
Mysterious Universe
The X-Files
Fire in the Sky
Betty and Barney Hill
Billy Meier
Traveller RPG
Rendezvous with Rama
Edgar Michelle NASA Astronaut
I Married a Monster from Outer Space
Night of the Blood Beast
Who Goes There by John W. Campbell (The Thing)
Devilman
The Abyss
Project Serpo (it’s down a bit)
Dulce Base New Mexico
Outer Limits Episode “The Architects of Fear” 
The Five Kinds of UFO Encounters
DR and Quinch from 2000 AD
James Forrestal
Shag Harbour Incident
Phoenix Lights
Predator
District 9

The Abyss alternate end
Mars Attacks
Cloverfield

The Arrival
It Came from Outer Space
Earth vs. The Flying Saucers
The Mysterians
Plan 9 From Outer Space
U.F.O. TV Series
Terrorvision
They Live
The Girl with All the Gifts
The Powers of Matthew Starr
Mork and Mindy
The First Wave
Torchwood: Children of Earth
Dark Conspiracy RPG
The Eternals
ROM: Spaceknight
I Come in Peace (Movie)
Dark Skies
The Hidden
V: The Series

 

Jack’s UFO Notes:

Dr. Edgar Mitchell (who passed away in 2016) was a NASA astronaut who traveled to (and walked on) the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, he once completed a record-breaking nine-hour, 24-minute EVA on the surface of the moon. In addition to his distinguished scientific career with NASA, he was a strong believer in metaphysical phenomena. He was a strong believer in the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and claimed Earth had frequently been visited by aliens. Among the many times he made these assertions was in a 2009 interview with the Guardian:

“We are being visited,” [Mitchell] said. “It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence. I call upon our government to open up … and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilisation.”

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Leslie Kean- UFOs
Before writing UFOs, Kean co-founded the Coalition for Freedom of Information, an independent alliance advocating for greater government openness on information about UFOs. In this capacity, she was the plaintiff in a successful, five-year Freedom of Information Act federal lawsuit against NASA, which had withheld information concerning a crash of an object in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in 1965. In 2007, Kean co-organized a landmark Washington DC international press conference on official UFO investigations, which received media coverage around the world. She was also a producer for the 2009 independent documentary I Know What I Saw directed by James Fox. She co-organized a 2013 international conference providing a platform for scientists, government officials and journalists studying UFOs to present data, and she lectured at American University in 2014.

Previously, Kean worked as a freelance writer and radio producer. In the 1990’s she was an on-air host for a daily investigative news program on KPFA radio, a Pacifica station in California. She contributed articles to dozens of publications here and abroad including the Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Providence Journal, International Herald Tribune, Globe and Mail, Sydney Morning Herald, The Nation, and Journal for Scientific Exploration.. Her stories were syndicated through Knight Ridder/Tribune, Scripps-Howard, New York Times wire service, Pacific News Service, and the National Publishers Association. While spending many years reporting on Burma, Kean coauthored Burma’s Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity (Aperture, 1994). She contributed essays for a number of anthologies published between 1998 and 2009.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/201625/ufos-by-leslie-kean/9780307717085/

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American Government (Pentagon) admits
The Pentagon has officially confirmed that there was, in fact, a $22 million government program to collect and analyze “anomalous aerospace threats” — government-speak for UFOs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/18/the-government-admits-it-studies-ufos-so-about-those-area-51-conspiracy-theories/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2a60d2feba11

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Lists of Governments investigating UFO’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_investigations_of_UFOs_by_governments

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Silver Screen Saucers- Sorting Fact from Fantasy in Hollywood’s Movies

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5 Most Credible Sightings
https://www.history.com/news/ufo-sightings-credible-modern

8 World’s Best Places to Search for ET’s
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2018/01/28/the-worlds-8-best-places-to-hunt-for-extraterrestrials-and-search-for-ufos/#7abe67822ddb

Alien visits? UFO survey says 1,101 sightings across Canada in 2017

Alien visits? UFO survey says 1,101 sightings across Canada in 2017

Falcon Lake incident is Canada’s ‘best-documented UFO case,’ even 50 years later
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/falcon-lake-incident-book-anniversary-1.4121639

Phoenix Lights A Sleptic’s Discover That we are not alone
https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Lights-Skeptics-Discovery-Alone/dp/1571746323

Rendlesham Forest Incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident

Aliens Shutting Down Nuclear Sites
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8026971/Aliens-have-deactivated-British-and-US-nuclear-missiles-say-US-military-pilots.html

POP Culture
Of Course Spielburg Believes in UFO’s
https://io9.gizmodo.com/of-course-steven-spielberg-believes-in-aliens-1818519987

http://mentalfloss.com/article/63198/15-things-you-may-not-know-about-close-encounters-third-kind
– Spielberg partly based his idea on the research of Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a civilian scientific advisor to Project Blue Book who eventually admitted that 11 percent of the study’s findings about unidentified flying objects could not be explained using science. Hynek has a cameo
– Hynek, who also served as a technical advisor on the movie, makes an uncredited cameo in the final scene of the movie. You can spot him pretty easily—he’s the goateed man smoking a pipe and wearing a powder blue suit who pushes through the crowd of scientists to get a better look at the aliens.
-Spielberg approached French actors like Lino Ventura, Yves Montand, and Jean-Louis Trintignant to play Claude Lacombe—who was based on famous UFO researcher Jacques Vallée—before settling on director and sometimes-actor François Truffaut.
– Close Encounters was a forerunner for ET.
Puck would help inspire E.T. after Spielberg asked himself, “What if this little guy didn’t get back on the mothership?” Rambaldi would also go on to design the character of E.T.

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The situation on U.S. Navy Flight 19, from which the airplanes that appear in the Mexican desert came, disappeared off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in December 1945. No trace has ever been found of “the Lost Flight 19,” which left the Naval Air Station near there in 1945.

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Rumours of dropping hints

Spielberg, Close Encounters, and Conspiracy Theories

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Project Serpo—an alleged human/alien exchange program between US military personnel and a race of extraterrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system. The story goes that, in July of 1965, twelve astronauts were taken to the planet Serpo aboard an alien spaceship and remained there for thirteen years. In exchange, the aliens left one of their own in the custody of the US government. This story didn’t emerge until 2005 in the form of a string of anonymous emails that were sent to selected UFO researchers, including Project Camelot/Avalon’s Bill Ryan, who created a website dedicated to the “leaks.”

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Ufology

Don’t Forget UFOlogy: The Influence of UFO Lore in Pop Culture


Indeed, the first reports of flying saucers in the modern UFO era pre-date Hollywood’s first feature film about UFOs by three years. It was in 1947 that pilot Kenneth Arnold’s famous sighting gave rise to the “flying saucer” term, but it wasn’t until 1950 that Hollywood produced The Flying Saucer, a cheap attempt to cash-in on the UFO hysteria then sweeping America—a hysteria incited not by cinema, but by numerous reports nationwide of disc-shaped objects intruding upon America’s airspace.

Ever since 1950, the movie industry has been grabbing hold of UFOlogical concepts and popularizing them through the science-fiction genre: “Men in Black,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “The Fourth Kind,” “Area 51.” Hollywood didn’t create these terms, they were all part of the common language of UFOlogy decades before Hollywood lifted them. The same is true of the now-iconic image of the “Gray” alien—a form that has its roots in pre-existing UFO literature and which has since has found its way into some of the most popular science-fiction movies and TV shows of all time.

Travis Walton had described such entities as early as 1975. It wasn’t until two years later, in 1977, that Hollywood produced its first fully crystalized cinematic image of the Grays in Spielberg’s proudly UFOlogical Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The Grays in the movie were based directly on first-hand testimonies gathered by Spielberg’s production designer, Joe Alves.

Communion was adapted for Hollywood in 1989; its poster featured a full-face image of a Gray, staring hypnotically into the eyes of millions of creeped-out cinemagoers worldwide. Then followed Intruders (1992), a miniseries based directly on real-world descriptions of Grays as documented in abduction literature. More Grays would then appear in The X-Files (1993-), Babylon 5 (1994-1998), Dark Skies (1996-1997), and others. By the late-1990s, the image of the Gray had supplanted almost all other pre-existing cultural imaginings of what an alien might look like.

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Jupiter Ascending esoteric meanings
The Esoteric and Extraterrestrial Meaning of Jupiter Ascending

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11 Musicians who have seen UFO’s
https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/d09fdaf6-ca65-427d-8177-25f209ad9c3b

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Top Ten Songs about UFO’s
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/songs-about-ufos/

DON NOTE: They forgot a couple:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOigyGHPV8

 

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https://www.ranker.com/list/best-movies-about-ufos/ranker-film
Best Movies about UFO’s

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Best TV Shows about Aliens
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-tv-shows-about-aliens/ranker-tv

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Close Encounters
1st Kind- When a person sees a UFO within 150 metres
2nd Kind- Leaves evidence such as scorch marks
3rd Kind- Visible aliens in or out of craft
4th Kind- Taken and experimented on
5th Kind- Mutual Bilateral Communication
http://new.cseti.org/ce5initiative.html

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Dad’s experiences

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James Forrestal’s Death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal
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NASA Friend

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UFO Themes
– Government Conspiracies
– Brother from another Planet
– Evil Aliens eat humans/ want resources
– Aliens from another universe
– Aliens are truly the Earth People
– Aliens think we’re unimportant
– Aliens are future humans
– Saviors/Heroes from the Stars
– Animal Experiments
– Alien Bases on Earth
– Breakaway Civilization
– Hybrids
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hellyer
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Foo Fighters
Ghost Rockets

82 Aliens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Fsn0B3ti8&ebc=ANyPxKoJCmungN49nLp2F4I609hQQVyeUiEqhzoB1lzB4Klfj7dF21_L89TU7IgZeLgVJb6VFvxAbyhkO_bKNzu5Y3s5eDq_PA

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The Girl with All the Gifts
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/


DNA Podcast 072 – Time Travel in Popular Culture

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 072 - Time Travel in Popular Culture







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In this week’s episode, Rob and Don sit down to talk about time travel! The pair discuss the past, present, and future of time travel stories, how time travel seems to have developed fictional “rules” that everyone agrees on (but have no basis in fact), and what some of their favorite time travel stories are.  All this, and a voice from the future drops by, in this episode of The Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt

Things Discussed:

BBC Online Time Travel Possible
Doctor Who
HG Wells: The Time Machine
Asmiov’s Three Rules of Robotics
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Natsu no Arashi
Doctor Strange (Movie)
Memoires of the 20th Century
The Warp Drive
Star Trek
The Fey Folk
John Carter of Mars: A Princess of Mars
Ano 7603
Mysterious Universe Podcast
Jack Ward’s Borrowed Time Audio Drama
List of Time Travel Stories from Wikipedia
Edge of Tomorrow (movie)
Daylight TV Series (Day Break, actually.)
The Sound of Thunder
Lest Darkness Fall
The Door Into Summer
All You Zombies
Captain Z-Ro
Mr. Peabody and His Boy Sherman
Max the 2000 Year Old Mouse
The Ghost of Slumber Mountain
Once Upon a Time Man…
Frequency
Steins Gate
The Time Traveller’s Wife
About Time
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Back to the Future
Somewhere in Time
Time Bandits
The Undead by Roger Corman
Journeyman TV Series
A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Unidentified Flying Oddball
The Shadow out of Time
12 Monkeys
Travellers TV Series
Quantum Leap
Legends of Tomorrow
Twilight Zone: Walking Distance
Twilight Zone: The Execution
Twilight Zone: The Incredible World of Horrace Ford
Terminator
Timelapse


DNA Podcast 064 – Russian Science Fiction with Simon Vale

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 064 - Russian Science Fiction with Simon Vale







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In this episode, Don and Rob sit down with Simon Vale of Magic Dome Books, a company which specializes in translating Russian science fiction into English. The trio discuss Russian geek culture, Russia’s fascination with litRPGs, and the nature of the Russian book markets. All this, and why the Strugatskie brothers are the greatest Science Fiction writers you’ve probably never heard of, is waiting for you in this episode of The Department of Nerdly Affairs.

Things Discussed

Magic Dome Books
Balder’s Gate
Stanislav Lem
Issac Asimov
The Lexx
The Witcher
Litnet.com
Peter Watts (author)
Perry Rhodan

 

Simon’s Notes:

What first Russian S/F should someone who wants to check them out read?

There are some great authors, Strugatskie brothers for example:

Roadside Picnic – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1613743416

The Doomed City – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N7SVFC4

Hard to be a God – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TONTAFK

This is Russian Sci-Fi classic. Unfortunately many of their books including some amazing stories aren’t translated or as in this case (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0026151200) are only available for a great deal of money.

Then there are modern authors:

Vasily Mahanenko (LitRPG)

The Way of the Shaman – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VQRW14E

Galactogon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012B9L0DI

Michael Atamanov  (LitRPG)

The Dark Herbalist – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9F1AM7

Perimeter Defense – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015JMSSJS

Dmitry Gluhovskiy (PostApocalypse)

Metro 2033 – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003774XKG

Sergei Lukyanenko (Vampire Fantasy)

The Night Watch – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0031RSB5U

Pavel Kornev (steampunk)

The Sublime Electricity – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J1WY2U6

Zotov (ironical Sci-Fi, dystopia)

Moskau – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IWR5R32

 

  •        What distinguishes Russian Science Fiction/Fantasy from English Novels? Style? Audience? Attitude?

Speaking about Fantasy I think that there is no big difference. Russian Fantasy is having the same roots as every other Fantasy in the world – books by John Tolkien and Joanna Rowling, Dungeon & Dragons tabletop games and old computer games like Baldurs Gate or Eye of Beholder.

There is also some national material based Fantasy in Russia and it is relatively popular. Some authors do specialize on it.

It is much more complicated with Science Fiction. The way I see it is – in the end of XIXth century world Science Fiction was mostly positive. You know, human progress, improving medicine, magic of electricity. On that positive basis people once again tried to build the ideal modern society but ended up building two horrible dictatorships – Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. That’s why world Science Fiction of the second half of the 20th century is all about disappointment. Disappointment in progress which is not helping to solve every problem as it seemed before.

But since Russia was one of those ideal societies we couldn’t afford such a view. With censorship and all that. So when Polish author Stanislav Lem wrote about how we can’t communicate with any other alien forms because all we’re looking for in space is a mirror and when Isaac Azimov wrote about danger of artificial inteligence and when Heinlein wrote about hunger of the outgrown human population, all that time we kept writing about how great and kind people of the communistic future will be. It was a little naive but Soviet censorship just wouldn’t allow anything else to be published.

Maybe this is why PostApocalypse and cyberpunk genres are still popular in Russia. Dark Science Fiction, you know, to balance things up with our inheritance. Maybe this or else maybe because many Russian Science Fiction writers are former military people.

For a few years now Russians are reading YA Fantasy mostly. I see many young women writers coming up on stage with that genre.

  •        Where does most modern Russian S/F come from? (Websites? Print companies?)

I have to say that Russian publishing market had seen better days. In 90-s average number of copies for a fantasy novel easily could be 25-50 thousands of copies. Even more! Today it’s more like 5000 copies. I mean paper editions of course.

Our big problem is the market itself. We have one big publisher which is publishing like two-thirds of all books in Russia. Up until recently we had two. But they merged together and now we have one. It is very hard to work on that market first of all because Russia is very big. Most books are printed in western part of Russia. So when you need to deliver them to the east – it costs a fortune.

People do read digital books and here we’re across another big problem of the market – piracy. Still there are ways to make some money on this market, but it’s not very well developed. Many authors in Russia are having their own online shops.

  •        Is there a typical Russian Novel reader in English? What are they like?

Russian literature on English market is mostly represented with classics. Dostoevskiy, Chekhov, Tolstoy. So I guess typical Russian novel reader in English would be a person who studies foreign literature in university. Russian Fantasy and Sci-Fi are represented much worse. But we’re working on it! Since we’re publishing LitRPG, our readers are mainly gamers. At least many of them are. MMORPG games are the same everywhere – World of Warcraft or Eve Online. So readers are familiar with all the references inside books.

Unfortunately, books from Eastern Europe and Russia aren’t very popular in US in general. There is a splendid series from Polish author Andzhey Sapkovsky. The Witcher. Even if u didn’t read it, u probably know the computer game. And also as you might know – there is Netflix series coming up soon. In Russia it has a huge fandom!

The Witcher (book 1 – Classic Fantasy) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0043M6712

 

  •        Is there a typical Russian hero? What are they like? How are they different from an American one?

In modern literature I think typical Russian hero is strong and silent. He’s a loner and he is irregularly shaved. But that’s modern Sci-Fi. There is a classic hero from Russian fairy tales. A fool. Brilliant idiot who gets lucky all the time. Some Sci-Fi author do borrow him for their books.

 

 

 

 


DNA Podcast 049 – Star Trekking with Jack Ward

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 049 - Star Trekking with Jack Ward







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Leonard_Nimoy_William_Shatner_Star_Trek_1968

In this episode, Don and Rob are joined by Jack Ward to go where no man has boldly gone before! The past and future collide as the three discuss the history of Trek and whether or not it’s still relevant in today’s world. All this, and Jack and Rob’s big throwdown on Star Trek Enterprise, is waiting for you in this episode of the Department of Nerdly Affairs.

    Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt 

Things Discussed:

Star Trek
Star Trek the Next Generation
Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Star Trek Voyager
Star Trek Enterprise
Star Trek Discovery
Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry Crashlands Plane
Lucille Ball Star Trek Pilot
Inside Star Trek The Real Story Herb Solo
Star Trek was first TV show that started in Colour
Nichelle Nicols meets Martin Luther King
Solarpunk
Land of the Giants
Gene L. Coon
Gold Key Star Trek Comics
Leonard Nimoy Billboard Story (I can’t find the story, but I can find the ad)
Star Trek Phase II
Free Enterprise
Earth Final Conflict
In Defense of the Male Miniskirt Post on Rob’s Blog
Starlog Magazine
Babylon 5
The Origin of the BORG
Manny Coto
China Bans LGBT Content


DNA Podcast 037 – Death and the Nerdly Arts

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 037 - Death and the Nerdly Arts







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BillandTedBogus

Rob, Don and Jack Ward explore the place of death in the nerdly arts. From superheroes who never die, to the real life celebrities who do (for now), and how our own fears of death shape our entertainment of choice, the trio head down a funerary rabbit hole. It’s an episode of grave humour, and sober considerations about the future of the kind you’ll only find on the Department of Nerdly Affairs.

    Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt 

Things Discussed:

The Princess Diarist
Nicholas Hammond
Rocket Robin Hood
King Arthur
Edward Snowden
Bill and Ted play Chess with Death
Millenial Problems
Japanese Don’t Have Sex
Japanese VR Sex Toys
The Venus Project
Basic Minimum Income
Randi Cartier


DNA Podcast 028 – The Nature of Nerdliness

The Department of Nerdly Affairs
The Department of Nerdly Affairs
DNA Podcast 028 - The Nature of Nerdliness







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nutty-prof

In this episode, Rob and Don sit down with guest Jack Ward to discuss what it means to be a nerd. The trio discuss exactly what nerds are, where they came from, and whether nerds as a concept is even still relevant in modern culture.  All this, and why The Nutty Professor was the great nerd hero of the 20th century are waiting for you in this episode of the Department of Nerdly Affairs.

    Closing Music:

Ode to Joy performed by Oliver Eckelt 

Things Discussed:
Nerds
The Anarchist movement
The IT Crowd
Oscar Wilde
The Nutty Professor (trailer)
Trekkie
Science Fiction Conventions
Our Gang
Otaku
Zines
Fanzines
Fanfiction
Starfleet Command Fan Organization
Mysterious Universe
Snake Theory of Human Evolution
Metal- A Headbanger’s Journey (trailer)
Led Zeppelin and Tolkien
Star Wars and Flash Gordon
Easy Riders – Raging Bulls
Howard the Duck (movie review)
C-3PO’s Cereal (video review)
B.A.D.D.
Heavy Metal Magazine
Custer’s Revenge (video review)
The Nintendo Power Glove (video review)
Oliver Twist
The Picwick Papers
Hammy Hamster’s Adventures on the Riverbank (video)