Some people like to take walks in the wood to clear their heads.
But you probably shouldn’t ask writer Elliott Gish to take a stroll among the trees if relaxation is your objective. At least not if what she says about her haunted forest horror novel Grey Dog (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) in the following email interview is any indication.
When we think of artificial intelligence, we usually expect it to be, well, intelligent.
But in his new “sci-fi that’s a bit cyberpunky” novel Mal Goes To War (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), writer Edward Ashton gives us an AI who, well, let’s just say he’s perfectly capable of making bad decisions.
In the following email interview about Mal, Ashton talks intelligently about what inspired and influenced this smart story.
When it comes to the configurations of jazz groups, trios with a piano player, a bassist, and a drummer are as common as, well, quartets with a saxophonist, and quintets fronted by saxophonists and trumpet players.
It’s why the last thing I need is another common jazz trio.
An uncommon one, however…
This brings me to New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz (CD, digital), the new and promissory album by the Matthew Shipp Trio. Which, for the record, is comprised of Shipp on piano, Michael Bisio on bass, and Newman Taylor Baker on drums.
It’s always interesting to consider who and what had an influence on something.
Take Leela Corman’s new graphic novel Victory Parade (hardcover, Kindle), which, as she says in the following email interview, was influenced by such seemingly disparate influences as the iconic experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, the sitcom M*A*S*H, author Primo Levi, singer Josephine Baker, and painter Otto Dix, to highlight a few.
As part of the newly released Season 3 content for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Call Of Duty: Warzone, and Call Of Duty: Warzone Mobile, Activision, Sledgehammer Games, and Legendary Pictures have announced that the game will include some fun add-ons connected to the new monster movie Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, including skins with abilities for the two stars (and two co-stars that I won’t spoil for people who haven’t seen this monster mash).
At an event held last week at the offices of IMAX — during which people got to see the Season 3 trailers, play Modern Warfare III on an IMAX screen, and then see the movie — I had the chance to speak to Sledgehammer Games’ Senior Development Directors Adam Iscove and Michael Liu, who oversee the Multiplayer team and the Live Operations Team, respectfully, about this monstrous collaboration.
The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer once said something to the effect of “all good things must end.” And while the exact wording of what he said has been lost to time, it doesn’t make the sentiment any less true.
Which brings me to Disquiet Gods (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) the sixth and penultimate novel in Christopher Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series.
Though as Ruocchio explains in the following email interview, Disquiet Gods isn’t actually as close to the end of this epic science fiction space fantasy series as you might think from a penultimate entry.
For more than 20 years, senior managing editor Emily Hockaday has overseen the poetry sections of the iconic science fiction and fantasy magazines Analog Science Fiction And Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.
Well, now she has a new (ish) role: editing the new anthology The Heartbeat Of The Universe: Poems From Asimov’s Science Fiction And Analog Science Fiction And Fact 2012–2022 (paperback, Kindle).
In the following email interview, Hockaday discusses how she decided which of the poems published on her watch to include (and which not to include), what forms they take, and why none of them start with the line, “Oh 3PO, oh 3PO, wherefore art though, 3PO?”
Sometimes the best character in a story isn’t the one the story is about. Sometimes, there’s someone just as interesting in a supporting role. Or someones, as the case may be with Aaron Rosenberg’s comedic urban fantasy novel Yeti Left Home, in which the titular cryptid wasn’t the only interesting supernatural person.
Which brings us to Setting His Cap (paperback, Kindle), a prequel to Yeti centered around one of the interesting characters the yeti met when he left home.
In the following email interview, Rosenberg discusses why he decided to write this prequel, as well as his plans for more yeti-related stories.
Critics often say that bad movies seem like they were made by committee.
Well, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is so bad that it not only seems like it was made by committee, but that the people on that committee have the worst taste in monster movies.