• Amazing homemade Star Trek Shuttlecraft Clubhouse
• Sweets: Dalek Wedding Cake

Film

• Interview: Alex Pappademas examines the increasingly complicated legacy of Stan Lee in light of the release of The Avengers movie.
• Interview: NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour discusses The Avengers, among other topics, and gives Andrew Wheeler’s “Gayness of Batman” piece a shout-out.
• Interview: Sense of Wonder interviews Gavin Rothery, VFX Supervisor on Moon
• The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb has a new Twitter account, which he’s so far used to tease images of Peter Parker chillin’ on a street light.
• The Ghostbusters Tour of New York
• Taken from the Studio Stories series included on the Blu-ray versions of Toy Story 1 & 2, here’s a short story about how Toy Story 2 was almost erased before the film could be rendered for theaters.
• “We stuck your girlfriend on an island” 22 main characters dismissed in sequels

Internet

• We’re all mutants now: There are a lot of us now, and most of us are a little bit off.

Literature

• Interview: Black Gate speaks with Kai Meyer of the Arabian fantasy The Stormkings.
• Interview: Here’s a Q&A with Alethea Kontis, author of Enchanted.
• Interview: Odyssey Workshop talks to this summer’s guest lecturer, Barbara Ashford, author of the upcoming fantasy novel Spellcrossed
• Interview: Samuel R. Delany talks about Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders
• Interview: Stina Leicht discusses her novels, Of Blood & Honey and And Blue Skies From Pain, with the Civilian Reader.
• ‘Game of Thrones’: George R.R. Martin fights the genre wars
• Infographic: Paper Book vs. Digital Book. Who reads which, where and why?

Science

• New Planet Found in Our Solar System?

Technology

• One week ago, anonymous engineer “BTE Dan” put up a website called Build the Enterprise. He envisions a $1 trillion spaceship modeled on the USS Enterprise being built inside twenty years. There are highly detailed plans for constructing and funding it. It quickly spreads to GizMag, DailyMail and other places.
• Russian researchers want to replace your physical body with a holographic avatar
• Why The Scariest Sci-Fi Robot Uprising Has Already Begun

Television

• Interview: Jason Segel tells Jon Stewart his idea for a post-apocalyptic How I Met Your Mother ending. I’d watch it!
• Interview: Talking Game of Thrones: Interview with Amrita Acharia
• Check Out the Low-Budget Russian ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Remake
• ‘Game Of Thrones’ Running Out Of Unkempt Old Men To Cast
• More gossip on the upcoming season of Doctor Who. No spoilers, just guess work.
• On June 7th, the Disney XD channel will premiere a new, 10-part miniseries: Tron Uprising. The series will feature the voices of Elijah Wood, Lance Henriksen, Bruce Boxleitner and more. Combining 2D and CGI animation, it is set between the events of the first and second Tron movies. Trailers: 1, 2. 2011 ComicCon Preview. Disney released a full-length “prelude episode” yesterday evening (US Only): Beck’s Beginning.
• Watch the first trailer for Revolution, the new post-apocalyptic fantasy / science fiction show from J.J. Abrams and Supernatural’s Eric Kripke
• Why The Star Trek Universe is Secretly Horrifying

Writing

• The Rule of Threes: Expressive Character Design
• What 50 Famous Authors Want Us to Know About the Writing Process
• When do you give up or start over?

Want more? Check out Geek Art Gallery for more art links and eye candy. Visit Oneironomicon for more on book trailers, reviews,and writing links.

The sole purpose of the latest clip from Prometheus seems to be to show off the movie’s titular spaceship.  It looks great and all, but I have my fingers crossed in the hope that this movie isn’t just an hour and a half of special effects.

I’m loving this new storyline, but that costume is a major downgrade from the Tobey Maguire version. It looks cartoonish. That’s not going to stop me from buying a ticket, though.

Whilst the pain of finding a parking space will dissipate into the cloud, the cloud will hide other, less apparent costs. The concepts of the “smart” car, “smart” parking and payment systems, and “smart” cities are interesting enough. But all are really just a smoke screen for a much deeper set of political and even philosophical issues that will impact urban dwellers in the near future, especially as more than half’s the world’s population will soon be living in cities. That set of issues centers around the delicate dance between public and private ownership of space, both in the cloud and on the ground.

- “The Networked Urban Environment” by Jan Chipchase, May 3, 2012.

So when digital evangelists prognosticate about the future of publishing, as they love to do, and about what “needs” to go away, serious nonfiction is now one of the first things I think about. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and want to read more of it and notice twentysomethings have little perceived patience for weighty tomes. Maybe it’s because I’d rather have pragmatic conversations about what categories are best suited to digital — genre fiction obviously, certain commercial strains of literary fiction, basically any book that needs to have a completed manuscript done before it’s shopped around, or can be finished very quickly post-proposal — and which ones won’t be. Maybe it’s because the very institutions that support serious nonfiction are themselves in more financial trouble than they used to be.

- “Serious Nonfiction in the Digital Age” by Sarah Weinman, May 10, 2012.

• 5 Rules for Comic-Con Cosplay
• Colossus of Hattin Papercraft
• Amazing Dragon Cake
• Black Widow cosplay [More and more]
• Mass Effect Cake

Comics

• Interview: In an interview at ICv2, IDW Publishing CEO Ted Adams discusses the growth of digital comics to 10% of the publisher’s overall direct market sales, and how contrary to the expectations of some critics, print sales have actually increased 25% as digital sales soared.
• The Spandex Closet: Ten Superheroes Who Need To Come Out
• Top 5 Unsung Marvel Avengers
• Top 20 Avengers Comic Book Covers

Film

• News: ‘Avengers’ on track for $1 billion worldwide … as ‘Avengers’ crosses $1B worldwide; Depp has soft debut. [More]
• Child acting’s new golden age: From Chloe Grace Moretz to “Shameless,” kids aren’t just getting more roles — they’re actually good. What changed?
• Marvel needs to re-hire Joss Whedon for The Avengers 2
• The MPAA is outraged and offended by The Pirate Bay “seeking to justify profiting from digital theft” by referring to Hollywood’s founders as pirates. Instead, they claim they were freedom fighters who saw no other option than to infringe patents for the sake of creativity.
• What next after Joss Whedon’s miracle year?
• Why Hollywood is no longer afraid to tackle 9/11

Internet

• Fungible: A treatise on fungibility, or, a framework for understanding the mess the news industry is in and the opportunities that lie ahead. “The younger the person you ask, the less likely it is you’ll find that link between wanting to know what’s going on and grabbing a paper or opening up a news website.”
• Game of Thrones is currently the most pirated TV show on the web, with episodes from its second season being downloaded an estimated 25 million times.
• Is Fandom A Way Of Life?

Literature

• Interview: Award winning author Ellen Datlow chats with Anna Kashina
• Interview: A brief Q&A with Mark Teppo, co-author of The Mongoliad: Book One
• Interview: Kim Stanley Robinson talks 2312 and saving the planet
• Interview: Far Beyond talks to Lev Grossman, author of The Magician King
• Interview: Making the Ordinary Meet the Extraordinary With Piers Anthony
• Interview: Mark Teppo plugs The Mongoliad
• Interview: Publisher’s Weekly Talks With Garth Nix of A Confusion of Princes
• 9 Signs Self-Publishing Is out of Control
• Fantasy Novels That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity
• Stephen King Reveals Plot For Shining Sequel Novel
• Tor.com asks Who Would Make Up The Epic Fantasy Version Of The Avengers?

Technology

• SpaceX Announces Joint Inflatable Space Station Plans

Television

• Interview: Kevin Smith, Producer of Comic Book Men, discusses his new book, Tough Sh*t: Life Advice From a Fat Lazy Slob Who Did Good.
• 5 things we learned from 4 new clips for J.J. Abrams Revolution
• Listen to the Game of Thrones Theme being played on a pair of electric harps.
• Nail-on-the-head: “HBO Has Only Itself To Blame For Game Of Thrones Piracy.”

Video Games

• Interview: Author Iain M. Banks talks about his favorite games.

Writing

• Fandom matters: writers must respect their followers or pay with their careers
• In E-Reader Age of Writer’s Cramp, a Book a Year Is Slacking
• Tolkien’s 10 Tips for Creating Epic Heroes

Want more? Check out Geek Art Gallery for more art links and eye candy. Visit Oneironomicon for more on book trailers, reviews,and writing links.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Author: Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear
Series: The Foreworld Saga, Book 1
Publisher: 47North
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release: April 24, 2012
Length: 442 pages (Paperback)

Book Rating: B (85 / 100)

Verdict

If Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead had been written by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Mongoliad would have been the final result.

Fans of historical fiction are certain to count The Mongoliad as a staple of the genre, and hardcore Neal Stephenson won’t be disappointed, either. However, The Mongoliad suffers from the same shortcomings as most books of the historical fiction genre. It is a bit dry, due to the historical tone of the narration, a bit overly cerebral, due to the necessity of explaining the details of medieval living, and a bit slow due to the sheer volume of exposition required by those explanations. The overall effect is the The Mongoliad is not a heavy piece of reading, but that much is obvious simply by virtue of Neal Stephenson’s name on the cover.

Pros: Highly authentic historical detail. Frequent, inventive battle scenes.

Cons: Unpronounceable character names. Little-to-no suspense. Slow start. Story pacing drags a bit. Sudden ending leaves the book feeling incomplete.

Synopsis

In Brief:
During the height of the Mongol conquests, twelve knights from an ancient order known as the Shield Brethren set out to prevent the invasion of Christendom by assassinating Khagan Ögedei, the Khan of Khans, in the hope of igniting a war of succession between the factions of the Mongol hordes. Told from the point of view of Cnan, a young woman acting as guide, the story follows the group’s journey through enemy territory into the heart of the Mongol empire.

Official: The first novel to be released in The Foreworld Saga, The Mongoliad: Book One, is an epic-within-an-epic, taking place in 13th century. In it, a small band of warriors and mystics raise their swords to save Europe from a bloodthirsty Mongol invasion. Inspired by their leader (an elder of an order of warrior monks), they embark on a perilous journey and uncover the history of hidden knowledge and conflict among powerful secret societies that had been shaping world events for millennia.

But the saga reaches the modern world via a circuitous route. In the late 19th century, Sir Richard F. Burton, an expert on exotic languages and historical swordsmanship, is approached by a mysterious group of English martial arts aficionados about translating a collection of long-lost manuscripts. Burton dies before his work is finished, and his efforts were thought lost until recently rediscovered by a team of amateur archaeologists in the ruins of a mansion in Trieste, Italy. From this collection of arcana, the incredible tale of The Mongoliad was recreated.

Story Elements

Atmosphere / Emotional Impact: C- (65 / 100)
Character development: B+ (90 / 100)
Pacing: B- (80 / 100)
Plot: B+ (90 / 100)
Prose: B+ (90 / 100)
World-building: A (100 / 100)

Review

Usually, where there are seven names on a cover, you’re about to read an anthology. In the case of The Mongoliad, it a sign of a new media experiment in progress. You see, The Mongoliad isn’t so much a book as a bound collection of chapters that have been serialized online. Readers can subscribe to receive the chapters as they’re posted or wait for them to be published in three parts.

Don’t let that put you off, though. Despite being written collaboratively by seven of genre’s most distinctive voices, The Mongoliad is a Neal Stephenson novel through and through. That means you can expect a long, richly detailed read fraught with nerd-worthy minutia, protracted exposition, and action sequences that read like they were shot in bullet-time. In short, this is historical fiction for geeks and nerds. All others turn back.

Like most Neal Stephenson novels (and most books of historical fiction in general), The Mongoliad starts slowly as the world-building commences. Though the story itself is a simple read with a straightforward plot, it take some time to establish the 13th century mindset. Once the cast is assembled, though, the story moves along at a brisk pace. Far brisker than one might expect from a book build around the story trope of a group adventurers on an epic quest. (As signified by the Iliad reference in the title.)

The book is divided between the journey of a small band of knights as they make their way through Mongolian territory and the struggles of a young Mongolian warrior sent to court to save Genghis Khan’s heir from his on-going battle with alcoholism. Both stories are told in the kind of educational detail only found in a Stephenson novel. The descriptions are crisp, the characters are distinct and interesting, and the setting is stunningly authentic.

Due to the heavy historical detail and enormous cast of unpronounceable names, it takes a concerted effort to work through some of the book’s narration. On the whole, The Mongoliad is a much more pleasant experience if you listen to it as an audiobook to save yourself the effort of puzzling out the names while keeping an electronic copy on hand to assist with spelling out the terms you need to Google. The effort of deciphering the authors’ archaic terminology and tracking the movements of the characters through the geography of the ancient world are part of the book’s charm, and the sort of reader attracted to Neal Stephenson novels will consider the side trips of the internet to be a labor of love.

Meanwhile, there are five major action sequences and three chase scenes interspersed through the book to keep readers’ interest high. The exquisite authenticity of these martial sequences are the raison d’etre of The Mongoliad.

Character development is a bit austere in this first installment in the series, but the lack of interior character development is largely in keeping with the historical tone of the book. The authors’ eschew such modern conventions as protracted internal reveries and snappy dialogue for the sake of the book’s atmosphere, the solemnity of which sets the book apart from many other pieces of historical fiction.

The biggest shortcoming of the book is it’s abrupt ending. Readers should prepare to be frustrated. The book doesn’t end with a cliffhanger; it just ends. Subscribers to The Mongoliad project can continue reading. The rest of us just have to wait for the next book to hit shelves in September. Personally, I would advise readers to wait until all three books have hit the market before testing the waters. The anticipation is likely to be excruciating.

Disclaimer

Wunderkind PR sent The Great Geek Manual a copy of an advance review copy of The Mongoliad at no cost. We extend our sincere thanks to them. However, the free copy did not influence the opinion of this reviewer.

Similar Books

If you enjoy this book, you may also enjoy these similar titles:

• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
• Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead
• Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

Further Information

• Read an extract from The Mongoliad at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.
• Read more about this project at Venture Beat.
• Visit The Mongoliad Facebook page.
• Visit the official The Mongoliad website.
• Visit the official website of author Greg Bear.
• Visit the official website of author Neal Stephenson.
• Watch a group video interview with the authors of The Mongoliad.

There are currently two major revolutions occurring: the enlightenment of man and the awakening of computers.

What’s incredible is that they are intertwined in their quest for information and knowledge. The more powerful computers become, the easier it is for man to access information. The better information we have, the better computers we make, and so on. [...]

1) We have no way of knowing precisely what will happen with our brains. We may lose all feelings, or we might gain extra-human senses that allow for beauty to be not only recognized, but lived within. [...]

It’s looking ahead that allows us to create effective constructs for living. In a time where many things are uncertain, we must individually live with an openness to change in order to feel secure in our lives. Learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

- “The Future Is No Place for Fear” by Zach Puchtel, May 7, 2012.

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848.

“We may not be sexy, but we have fresh uniforms nonetheless! We Trekkies and We Know It!”

• Fans of The Princess Bride will appreciate this design concept.
• Portal Cake is not a lie!
• Someone needs to make this into a real stained glass window
• Terrible Yellow Eyes: A papercraft tribute to the late Maurice Sendak
• Versus/Hearts is a playful project that combines two characters that strongly dislike each other into heart-shaped images.

Comics

• Superman: Stuffy Boy Scout, or Charming Folk Hero?

Film

• News: The second JJ Abrams Star Trek movie has wrapped production. Now, it’ll only take another six months to work in all of the requisite lens flares.
• Avengers 2 in the Works: 10 Ways to Prep For the Superhero Sequel
• The Avengers isn’t just a hit, it’s impacting the pop culture.
• Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg reveal ‘The World’s End’ plot
• How the Hell Do You Top The Avengers?
• io9 lists 10 Things You’ll See in Almost Every Tim Burton Movie. (Only ten?)
• Implosions in The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus: Are Hollywood explosions turning inside-out? Yep, it’s another case of monkey see, monkey do.
• The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies names its picks for The Top Ten Best Science Fiction Movies, which, ironically, have nothing to do with ethics.
• The Most Human Moment in The Avengers: An interesting essay about one of the most human moments in the movie. Joss didn’t just make giant tentpole movie; he made a giant tentpole movie with his passions and interests intact.
• The Pentagon Does Not Approve of S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Avengers
• Secret ‘Avengers’ cameo: Lou Ferrigno helped voice the Hulk
• Someone has done some number crunching and concluded that Manhattan suffered $160 billion in damage in The Avengers… Here’s a flash game that “simulates” what it’s like to deal with Marvel U catastrophes.
• What is really lurking underneath the film The Cabin in the Woods? Is it about the horror movie industry or the rise of torture porn in the genre? Maybe you should ask co-writer/producer Joss Whedon or co-writer/director Drew Goddard.
• Wikipedia Founder Says Irrelevance, Not Piracy, Will Doom Hollywood

Internet

• Disney Reveals That Every Disney Movie Takes Place In Single, Unified Universe
• Dominic Deville, An Evil Birthday Clown, Stalks Your Child For A Fee. The perfect gift for any parent who wants to guarantee their child requires therapy for life!
• George Lucas Does Something Likeable For a Change: Revenge on Rich Neighbors

Literature

• Interview: Jakob Waitekus mixes sci-fi, fantasy and faith in hist first novel
• Interview: Lev Grossman of The Magicians chats with Far Beyond Reality
• Interview: Sword & Laser chats with the many authors of The Mongoliad
• Interview: Tansy Rayner Roberts on Urban Epic Fantasy and Feminsim
• Interview: Treasured Tales interviews Alethea Kontis of Enchanted.
• Interview: Watch Stephen Colbert interview Maurice Sendak
• News: ‘Harry Potter’ Series Will Be Free in Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library
• Authors pick the wisest Sci-Fi & Fantasy author via Twitter.

Science

• Deep Space Mine: The crazy, awesome plan hatched by billionaires to mine asteroids for platinum. Sounds like science fiction.

Technology

• Giant robot puts you in the driver’s seat: Gundam-style robots of Japanese science fiction are coming to life. About damnn time!
• How To Survive A Robot Uprising (aka Robopocalypse)
• Warzone Robot Makes Wedding Super Cute

Television

• Interview: Leonard Nimoy talks with LA Times Reporter Geoff Boucher about his work as an actor, director and photographer. In part one of a two-part interview, Nimoy reveals what he first thought of the original Star Trek series and details about the making of Star Trek IV.
• News: Community Renewed With 13-Episode Order
• A Dark Shadows crash course
• The Fairy Tale in the TV Age
• Game of Thrones is on pace to become the most pirated show of 2012.
• Joss Whedon picks top 10 ‘Buffy’ eps for LOGO marathon

Video Games

• The Portal 2 Infinite Testing Initiative has gone live on Steam, and it’s free if you already have or purchase Portal 2. Even better, it’s got more of Cave Johnson to listen to. While you download it, you can read a memo from Mr. Johnson to you, his employee. So get to work. Science is depending on you.

Writing

• You may want to consider this spreadsheet from a professional genre magazine before deciding to launch your own magazine.

Want more? Check out Geek Art Gallery for more art links and eye candy. Visit Oneironomicon for more on book trailers, reviews,and writing links.

In many ways, Facebook’s story is the most modern example of the American dream gone right. Some would argue that those who have gotten rich from the company should pay some dues back into the system that enabled that success. As billionaire Mark Cuban has written on his blog, the ‘most patriotic thing you can do’ is ‘bust your ass and get rich. Make a boatload of money. Pay your taxes.

“Just In Time For A Facebook IPO Tax Break, Eduardo Saverin Renounces U.S. Citizenship” by Colleen Taylor, May 11, 2012. Quoting “The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do” by Mark Cuban, September 19, 2012.

“Five children, scions of the frosty bite
Dire wolves that hunt in the dead of the night
House of Stark, Winterfell, now the winter’s come
King in the North, bow down, now a war is on”

In the future, not getting any imagery or story line or content is going to be the equivalent of silence because people are so filled up now with streaming video. Paying attention to anything will be the missing commodity in future life. You think you’ll miss nothing, but you’ll probably miss everything.

- Ed Schlossberg, as quoted in “Silence Is Golden” by Maureen Dowd, December 6, 2011.
Originally published by The New York Times.