Category Archives: Solar Sci-Fi

Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Festival announces early submissions

Here’s the latest announcement from the Philip K. Dick Film Festival:

The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival
Announces Early Submissions for First International Event

John Alan Simon’s Award-Winning Radio Free Albemuth To Headline Opening Night
Numerous Groundbreaking Films And Shorts Set To Be Screened

Brooklyn, N.Y. July 18, 2013 – The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the earliest submissions of films and shorts to be screened at its first international event which will honor one of the most respected writers within the literary world. The three-day experience will mark the first of many worldwide gatherings in the beautiful and historic Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013 at the famous L’Hybride Cinema venue. The films which are adapted or inspired from the works of Philip K. Dick will entertain and enthrall the innumerable fans who have continued to honor his enduring legacy within the genre of science-fiction.

The festival will launch with the highly anticipated screening of Radio Free Albemuth (2010) on Friday, October 25. Written and directed by John Alan Simon the film adaptation of Dick’s final novel stars Jonathan Scarfe (“Perception”), Shea Whigham (“Boardwalk Empire”), Katheryn Winnick (“Bones”) and Grammy Award-winning singer Alanis Morissette. A Q&A session with Simon is also scheduled to follow. The evening will continue its science fiction theme with the shorts Exit (2013), L’Esplanade (2012), Singularity (2013) and Meddlers (2011) which was adapted from Dick’s short story. The following night on Saturday, October 26 takes on a horror supernatural theme with Thanatomorphose (2012). Written and directed by Éric Falardeau the film stars Émile Beaudry, Eryka Cantieri and Roch-Denis Gagnon. On Sunday, October 27 the event concludes with science fiction works including Daniel Abella’s The Final Equation (2009), a highly conceived film inspired by Dick’s artistic genius and stars Robert Harriell, Cassandra Cooke and Paul Weissman. A Q&A session with Abella is also scheduled to follow. The night will commence with sci-fi shorts Dissent (2011), Un Monde Meilleur (2013) and Years in Bardo (2012).

The festival will screen all films with French subtitles and is currently accepting submissions into late September in science fiction and horror features and shorts. Admission at L’Hybride Cinema is currently by membership only and by purchasing tickets with five euros for one month or 30 euros for one year of the program. If not part of membership visitors can pay five euros on the first day of the festival to attend the three-day event and receive a pass for the next 30 days of subsequent venue events. Doors open at 7pm on Friday and Saturday and 6pm on Sunday.

As further details become available the festival anticipates a successful event in its first global outing. The first New York City festival saw record crowds of over 1,000 participants for the exclusive screening of Radio Free Albemuth which was based on Dick’s 1985 novel posthumously published three years after his death. The weekend-long festival also held numerous film screenings and panels with Simon, esteemed professors Ronald Mallet and Enrique Ricardo Miranda, distinguished writers Angela Posada-Swafford, Walter Mosley and Dennis Paoli and science fiction experts Richard Dolan and Peter Robbins. The team behind the annual festivities will also pioneer its second annual Brooklyn event in December 2013 for a record five-day gathering and a Spring 2014 cyberpunk festival in Tokyo.

The Philip K. Dick European Festival of Science Fiction, Science, The Fantastic, Horror and The Supernatural will delight its attendees with its entertaining and visually captivating themes which have made the event a favorable and continued success. The event will take place at L’Hybride Cinema at 18 Rue Gosselet 59000 in Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013.

Contact the venue at www.lhybride.org. For film submissions, deadlines and contacts please visit www.philipkdickfilmfestival-europe.com and www.withoutabox.com/login/12654 and always be sure to stay informed of all ongoing announcements on the festival’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival and Twitter page at twitter.com/ PhilipKDickFest.

About The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival:
The Second Philip K. Dick International Film Festival of Science, Science Fiction, Fantastic Film and the Supernatural and the first of its kind to grace the screens of New York City is organized by filmmakers who understand the difficulties and challenges of telling a unique story in a corporate environment. The year 2013 marks the second year of the festival which will expand it’s genres of films, panels and venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan and its first international event in Lille, France. Guest speakers and writers that best represent the goals of the festival will attend the opening ceremonies. We look for original voices and visions in works submitted. Lastly, this is a festival by filmmakers for filmmakers.

About Philip K. Dick:
“Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.” – Philip K. Dick Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was one of the 20th century’s most profound novelists and writers within the science fiction community. His exploration, analysis and beliefs led to the publishings of 44 novels and 121 short stories. Dick’s enormous library of works led to several film developments including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck (2003) and most recently Radio Free Albemuth (2010), The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and the successful remake of Total Recall (2012). The film industry is also awaiting the release of King of the Elves in 2014, which will surely be yet another prosperous depiction of Dick’s literary contribution to science fiction. Dick’s enormously effective views comprised of fictional universes, virtual realities and human mutation foresaw an exaggerated version of the current state of government and contemporary life. Though he is gone in the physical form his philosophies live on in the techniques applied to modern stories and films and generate large displays of appreciation and understanding.

For more information please contact:
Daniel Abella, Festival Director
Program Office: 917-362-9337
Email: info@thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com

Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/The-Philip-K-Dick-science-fiction-Film-Festival/
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/philipkdickfilmfestival
Fractured Atlas Donation Page: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/6853

“The Expanse” – a solar sci-fi book series

Patrick Chiles, author of Perigee, recommends the series The Expanse as a good addition to the Solar Sci-Fi book list. He says it “is fantastic and well-grounded in familiar and believable technology”.

The books are written under the pen name  James S.A. Corey but actually come from a collaboration between Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

The first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes:

Welcome to the future. Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer, Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

Two others in the series include:

LeviathanWakesCover_223x350

Spaceship book cover art for 1970s British paperbacks

Check out this great collection of spaceship cover art works for 1970s British sci-fi books: Mind-Blowing Spaceships from 1970s British Paperbacks – io9.com

Cover art by Tony Roberts for the book Beyond Apollo, by Barry Malzberg
Cover art by Tony Roberts for the book Beyond Apollo, by Barry Malzberg

Find links to more galleries of classic sci-fi cover art and illustrations in the HS Space Art section.

The Rocket Company: Chapters 11-14

In the continuing serialization of the updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz.  This week you can obtain the following chapters of the book:

Download these within the next week. Only four chapters will be available at any one time.

See also the electronic version of the updated book is available at  The Rocket Company eBook by Patrick Stiennon, David Hoerr, Peter Diamandis, Doug Birkhol: Kindle Store/Amazon.com.

Videos from the Starship Century Symposium

Via Rocketeers comes a pointer to the gallery of videos of lots of interesting talks and discussion panels at the recent Starship Century Symposium. The symposium was a gathering of scientists, engineers, and science fiction writers to discuss the future:

See, for example,

Panel: The Future Of New Space
moderated by Peter Schwartz
Freeman Dyson
Neal Stephenson
Allen Steele
Geoffrey Landis