2009: The New Frontier [Sounds like a movie]

In the spirit of renewal and starting on a clean slate, I am posting another side note on what the New Year will bring for the blog. I am all in the mood for changes and experiencing more from the fantasy and sci-fi world, not restricting my horizons to literature only.

Events: January 1st – February 28th, two whole months to experience sci-fi with the “Sci-Fi Experience” 2009, hosted by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings. The great thing about this event is that it isn’t a reading challenge, but as pointed out in the name an experience. Time of the year, when it’s cold to sit by the fireplace [if you are lucky enough to have one] and travel through space and drink tea with aliens. For some reason I have been neglecting my sci-fi, which isn’t healthy and although that means that there will be some rescheduling of my review list, I am determined to get in touch with my inner sci-fi fan. Within two months I doubt I will tackle as many novels as I hope to, but here are the four must reads:

“Old Man’s War” by John Scalzi [because any Hugo Award nominee is worth reading, plus this one came highly recommended]
“Dispossessed” by Ursula LeGuin
“The Word for World is Forest” by Ursula LeGuin [because these are the only novels that remained from the Hainish Cycle that I didn’t read already]
“Crystal Rain” by Tobias Buckell [because I liked the cover art...]

Reviews: I have been meaning to change the format of the reviews themselves. Freestyle is the best solution, when you can remember everything you want to say and when it comes to me writing, the universe likes to interrupt me. More structured reviews aren’t a bad thing, even though everyone will start pointing fingers that I stole Robert’s formula. In my opinion it should be widely use by people with short attention spam. Depending on the genre the structure will be different, but you will have to wait and see until the premiere.

Features: Mihai and I have been talking about interviewing fantasy artists and showcasing fantasy art on our blogs, since we are both very fascinated with this kind of craft. He actually beat me to it and his interviews are entertaining and are rich in information about the style and the artist themselves. It’s pleasant to read. My Artist Corner project is probably going to launch next month, but it’s pretty much the same with me posting some of my favorite art and commenting of course.

Interview-wise I have another pet project that premiered a few posts back: The Six Shooter promo interviews. I like human contact with authors [more like stalking, but that is a variation of interpretation] and hopefully the trend will catch on with the blog. They are short and straight to the point in introducing the reader to the work of the author or the author as an unbiased bystander.

Misc: In and Out, more and more ideas will surface to test the ground for possible interest, but I am certain that the themed weeks and rank lists will be in the constant mix. You can expect everything and anything. 2009 will be the official year to experiment.