Right now, actually, for the past several years, my absolute favorite author, no exceptions, has been Alastair Reynolds. He's a British (well, Welsh) science fiction author of notable popularity. In case all have forgotten, he signed a $1,000,000 deal a year or so ago (actually, I think that should be in British pounds, which is significantly more than USD right now) and generally writes great tales with very deep science fictional themes. The guy, in a word, is awesome.
He also was a speaker at TEDx, I don't know what the 'x' stands for, but whatever. Ted talks are one of the things that makes the internet awesome.The reason I find him so compelling is because all his fiction, or most of it anyway, deals with a lot of the same questions most of have asked when we're sitting around and pondering the universe in all of its vastness. Of course, he was a working scientist with the ESA for a number of years and was writing his first several novels while working on some pretty cool science at the same time.
If I were a master of my craft in my own mind, I would probably be churning out books quite similar to what he does. If you have 20 minutes or so to kill, please sit back, relax, and have your mind blown by my writing hero, discussing my philosophical hero, as he discusses my favorite conundrum of all: The Fermi Paradox.
Now, if that just got a bit 'too real' for you, then please enjoy a new feature I'm going to include from time to time, which I will call my comment of the week, or month, or year, whatever. Because let's all be honest. Most of us just blow into a blog, skim the post, make a short, sweet, comment and move on. I get it, I really do. I wish I could spend more time interacting with everyone, but there just isn't enough hours in the day. It usually makes me sad. But I do what I can, as we all do.
But every once in a while, something happens and that comment is beautiful in a way no one could have expected.
Unfortunately, my first comment of the week comes from an anonymous user. Too bad, as I'd like to meet this person and hear more of their thoughts. Check it out:
"Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to assert that I acquire in fact enjoyed account your blog posts. Anyway I will be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you access consistently rapidly. <link deleted>"
Wow. That's all I've got, wow. Thank you good sir, I'll be clicking those links you provided right away, just after I forward them to all my friends.
It seems to me that the whole concept of book trailers has taken the world by storm in the past couple of years. I wonder where the concept even came from. I do recall seeing TV commercials for L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics, when I was a kid. But I either never noticed others, or that was pretty much it. Well, unless you count the thing the Latter Day Saints used to do. But I'm having a real hard time figuring out the origin of non religious books as trailers.
Regardless, I've heard a few marketing professionals chime in on the subject and say that they aren't so sure that even the very best ones are that effective in pulling in prospective readers.
Me, I think it's much more likely to make the book being marketed come off as corny. And me being one of those creative types, I would absolutely love to put one together. If I had the time, I would spend a good couple of months putting it together - and as one of those people that really wants to do everything myself, I'd also probably try to do everything from creating the background music, to shooting the footage, to adding the special effects. I would probably end up pouring my heart and soul into a 60 second thing that a few dozen people would actually watch, and even fewer would appreciate.
Which is why I hope I never get it in my mind to make one.
But, thankfully, other people do that sort of stuff. Like I mentioned before, I think the vast majority of book trailers are embarrassingly bad. A small percentage are fine, but do little to peak my interest beyond what I might have already felt about the book being marketed, and just a very, very few, are pretty damn good.
The voting ended, and our intrepid hero, Alex, finished in third place. There appeared to be a late rush in voting that allowed him to rise in rankings and place third in order to receive his award for excellence. My humble opinion is that he should have won the darn thing, as his trailer is just amazing - not to take away anything from the others that entered, I did spend time this week trying to watch them all, and some of the others were also pretty good. But it is rather subjective, I just think Alex's is pitch perfect. Why? Well, let me give you an example of one that is by all accounts, amazing, yet still somehow manages to be corny:
That was about as big of a production as I've ever seen for a book trailer. Complete with pretty cool fx, slow motion filming, choreographed fight scenes, excellent costuming, and even live animals. That was not cheap to make - there was an investment of real money in this. My first impression was that it was a stunning achievement. But a repeat viewing made me think of those straight to SyFy movies that are a bit awkwardly acted and somehow always find a way to miss the mark. And when I think of it in those terms, I realize that is what I'm looking at here. I'm disappointed. Yes, it is unbelievably awesome, but it's still cheesy.
Because once you start involving actors things get real complicated - and most book trailers rely on volunteers or very cheap people to get the production done, I don't think you'll find many award winning performances as a result . Here is, in my opinion, the best book trailer I've ever seen that involved a real person:
And I thought it was stunning, not the same level of production as the previous one. But in a lot of ways it was more effective on me (of course, Alastair Reynolds is my favorite author, so I am biased because I geek out about anything that has his name attached).
Scott Sigler managed to create a pretty good trailer for his sci fi/horror novel Ancestor using (I think) a lot of volunteers. I'm sure his publisher chipped in something, but I do recall during the lead up to filming his open requests for fans that had video production experience to be a part of this trailer.
So even though I think the level of money involved in each production went way down with each successive one I've listed so far, I don't think there was any real drop off in quality, and in some cases, the effectiveness was better.
This brings me to Alex's trailer for CassaFire, which has been out for a little while. The direction chosen for his trailer (as the previous one for his novel, CassaStar) is to go all CG. Doubly impressive considering that unlike the other book trailers, this one isn't from one of the Big Six publishers, or from NY Times bestselling authors. This is from a small press and considering the level of difficulty involved - and the resources available (I assume), this is one amazing achievement:
If I were to nitpick, the voiceover was perhaps a bit too mechanical sounding, but that's a pretty small thing over all. This is something that is up there with the very best book trailers I've ever seen. Well done to everyone involved.
Funny though, what I think is the single greatest book trailer ever, bar none, isn't a book trailer. However, if what I've read is to be believed, it is actually a short film, again, a labor of love for everyone involved, with a budget of $0. Well, if you consider it's done by Hollywood professionals in their spare time, using Hollywood equipment and talent for every facet of the film, then you can say that it really isn't a $0 dollar production. But still, if this is the sort of thing folks can turn out in their spare time then I think writers ought to be courting film students and Hollywood folks looking to add something to their resume for future book trailers. Watch the short film below and tell me that wouldn't easily be tweaked into the best book trailer in the history of the world:
And by my count, that's five videos I've asked you to watch. If anyone actually takes the time to watch them all let me know in the comments below. I'll be sure to make a big deal about it in my next post.
Are there others out there that are also amazing that I've missed? What are they?
Today was a beautiful day in the city, and I went for walk downtown to get a burger at one of my favorite places, a restaurant with remarkably bad service and great food. It's sort of a Spanish inspired place I suppose, but again, they do serve burgers, so they clearly aren't so highbrow as to refuse slumming it with the likes of me.
I'm sitting at the bar with my nose in my book and my waiter stops by to check what I'm reading, not so interested in taking my order, but interested in my book. That's a-ok with me. I can get service anywhere, but rarely do I find a person who wants to talk books with me.
I sheepishly admit I'm reading a fantasy novel, but I don't really read fantasy. "What do you read?" he asks.
"Science fiction," I say.
His eyes light up and we have a short conversation about Asimov, Haldeman, and Card before he whooshes away to do something that doesn't involve taking orders. I read.
Sometime later he returns, he reluctantly takes my order and asks me a simple sounding question.
"What one Science Fiction book should I read that I haven't?"
I felt my cheeks grow hot before the question was even out of his mouth, "Um," I say, "Ah..., let's see... er... wait... I know this. Let's see. Hmmm, damn. Geez, can you give me a minute?" Yes, it was a rough 30 seconds.
What the hell? I can rattle off every major sci fi book of the last 70 years. Clarke? Bester? Niven? Stapleton? No. I say nothing besides, "give me a minute." I'm such a moron. He takes off and I can no longer read my book. He didn't even bring me a drink!
The place had a staff of around six that I could see. Including myself there was maybe four customers. I don't know what they had going on, but that guy was pretty scarce for the next 45 minutes or so. I did get back to my book, but I couldn't focus. What one book do I recommend that a science fiction fan must read to be in the club?
Dune? No, I like it, but it's the Lord of the Rings of Sci fi, everyone's read the thing. I don't want to be too obvious. Verne? Wells? No, those are classics and aren't really the sort of thing I'm trying to pass out as a tract for my genre. Besides, the guy has read several sci fi classics anyway, he isn't a nube.
I settled on House of Suns, by Alastair Reynolds, and I threw in Scalzi's, Old Man's War as a bonus. Modern books, but two that I think will age well. I wrote them on a small piece of paper and handed it to him as I left. By the time I gave it to him he seemed to have forgotten our conversation. But I insisted he take it. He probably thought I was getting weird and too much in his space. I told him to look at it and he recognized that I'd only written books and authors down and he got real excited again, swearing that he'd hadn't read either of them. I gave my best wizened, all-knowing look, and said nothing.
The teacher had left the building - totally redeemed.
Hard to believe it's already mid August. It seems like just yesterday that I was jumping for joy that the winter solstice had past and the days were getting longer again. I still have a week or two before my fall semester at school begins again. As I mentioned in my last post, after mastering all there is to know regarding the cosmos and the meaning of life during my summer - look for a brand spanking new unified field theory to come your way on this page at some point during the fall. That's right Physics, you are about to get owned.
While I'm at it, I'll be pretty well prepared to fix the world's financial problems as well, since that also promises to be one of areas of study in the coming months.
But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, I promised that the other book I read last weekend would get a mention here as well, and I don't intend to disappoint.
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds.
Best. Book. Ever.
This is one of those books that you just can't do justice to with a quick synopsis. In fact, I seriously doubt I would have purchased this thing if Mr. Alastair wasn't already my favorite writer. The blurb inside the jacket can't do much to explain how great this is.
What really happens in this story? I'll just say that a group of near immortals meet for a family reunion and are the victims of mass murder. What follows that is 450 pages of awesome.
As always, this is a science fiction story, don't read this thing and get mad because the characters are whizzing around in spaceships and killer robots are on the loose - oh yea, looks like Mr. Reynolds agrees with me regarding evil robots - if you don't like reading that sort of stuff then don't read this book.
But if you are a fan of awesome, then please read. It'll change your life.
