Sci-Fi Stories: A New Murderbot Book Arrives, Captive’s War Planned for Prime, and Somewhere Our There Coming to Netflix

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Tor Books

Here are a few sci-fi stories of interest.

—Winter is Coming: “Book review: Platform Decay is Exactly What We Wanted from Martha Wells’s Murderbot Next“

Platform Decay is the eighth book in Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries series, and it gives fans exactly what they love while taking the story in some new directions. If you’ve been following Murderbot since the first book All Systems Red you’ll find plenty to enjoy here...The book picks up after System Collapse (2023). Murderbot gets asked to help with what should be a simple rescue mission. Dr. Ayda Mensah, the person who freed Murderbot and is basically its closest friend, needs help getting some family members off a dangerous space station.

—Polygon: “The Expanse Creators Admit Their New Sci-fi Series will be ‘So Freaking Hard to Adapt’ for TV“

When Syfy began adapting Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck’s space-opera novels The Expanse for television, the authors (who write together under the name James S.A. Corey) were closely involved in the process. Over six seasons and a shift to Prime Video, Franck and Abraham served as screenwriters, producers, media ambassadors, and even walk-on actors. Abraham and Franck are set to have an even bigger role in the developing adaptation of their current book series, The Captive’s War. In 2024, they formed a production company, Expanding Universe, to produce the show, and they already have a development deal with Amazon. But the duo tells Polygon that knowing they’re writing for the screen as well as the page this time around didn’t change their plotting or process at all — which is going to cause a lot of problems in adapting the series for TV.

—Screenrant: “Shawn Levy Confirms New Arrival-Like Netflix Sci-Fi Movie“

Shawn Levy and Netflix unite for an original sci-fi epic.The project, titled Somewhere Out There, is reportedly an “emotional sci-fi” story that is similar to Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, which stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. It also apparently resembles Levy and Netflix’s The Adam Project, featuring Mark Ruffalo, Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, and Zoe Saldaña. The plot follows a widowed father who, while struggling with the loss of his wife, sends a message into outer space. To his surprise, he receives a mysterious response from something or someone. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has acquired the script for Somewhere Out There, a science fiction film written by Max Taxe, and Levy has signed on to direct the project. The Deadpool & Wolverine director will also serve as a producer for the project through his 21 Laps banner with Dan Levine.

A Day in Astronomy: The Death of Eugène Michel Antoniadi

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): E.M. Antoniadi’s 1930 book La Planete Mars. (Linda Hall Library)

On this day in 1944, Greek-French astronomer Eugène Michel Antoniadi passed away in Paris, France.

Mr. Antoniadi was one of the astronomers that battled the idea of a civilization creating canals on the surface of Mars, putting him at odds with American astronomer Percival Lowell. While he was initially open to the idea, he later believed the canals to be an optical illusion.

You can learn much more about the Martian controversy in David Baron’s book The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America. You can also hear an interview with the author on the Planetary Society’s Planetary Radio podcast.

Credit: Liveright Publishing

Space Quote: Should We Worry About Space Monopolies?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Jim Cooper from Pixabay

“The comparison I often like to make is with the East India Company: a private British enterprise that became so powerful it could shape the politics of nations and at times had an army twice the size of Britain’s. It began as trade; it ended in domination. Could a similar dynamic unfold locally in our solar system, where a handful of today’s tech giants and billionaires control access to orbit, communications, and eventually, extraterrestrial resources? A monopoly in space would be dangerous for humanity. The challenge is to encourage innovation and investment without ceding ownership of the cosmos to a few individuals or organisations.”

-Taken from a Guardian article titled “There’s a New Space Race – Will the Billionaires Win?” by Maggie Aderin-Pocock. One only needs to read the book series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, starting with Leviathan Wakes, or watch the televised version, The Expanse, to have some idea of what the future may hold.

More Holiday Gift Ideas

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA Artemis Space Launch System. (Lego.com)

If you are still looking for the right gifts for that special space enthusiast, I have a few more ideas.

First, if this person likes to build things, how about something from Lego such as the NASA Artemis Space Launch System shown above?

If that is a little to much work, here are a few more suggestions:

If you are still looking after all of these options, I wish you good luck.

Credit: Vintage

Video: Reasons to Settle Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000

If you are interested in the idea of settling Mars, and the book A City on Mars has not scared you away, then you should plan on tuning into the upcoming 25-part video series by the Mars Society.

In a news release, the Mars Society defines the new series in this way:

Created for a broad public audience, each video offers a clear, accessible look at how Mars exploration drives scientific discovery, technological innovation, economic growth, and long-term planetary resilience.

I recommend you view the series, but also read the book cited above. The authors of that book seem to think we should have a Mars plan that will settle humans in the next few centuries rather than they next few decades. Or maybe we should be settling on a space station or asteroid, as suggested in the book The Giant Leap, though I expect that a society with “Mars” in its name might disagree.

I’m just trying to keep an open mind.

Stay tuned.