Results tagged “twilight”

Here are some of the new book, DVD, game and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover
First Lord’s Fury (Codex Alera, Book 6) by Jim Butcher
Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe by Tobias S. Buckell et al.
The Power of Tolkien’s Prose: Middle-Earth’s Magical Style by Steve Walker
The Cardinal’s Blades by Pierre Pevel
Hidden Currents by Christine Feehan
Luna Park by Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj

Paperback
Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Princeps’ Fury by Jim Butcher
Beyond the Wall of Time, Book Three by Russel Kirkpatrick
Black Ships by Jo Graham
Dark Side of Dawn: The Nightmare Chronicles by Kathryn Smith
Definitely Dead: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris
Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow
Immortalby V.K. Forrest
Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo
The Knight of the Red Beard by Andre Norton and Sasha Miller

Video Games
Assassin’s Creed II
Left 4 Dead 2
God of War Collection
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Call of Duty: Word at War: Zombies
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
Elven Legacy: Siege

DVD Release
Stark Trek
Farscape: The Complete Series
Galaxy Quest [Blu-ray]
Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone - Movie

In Theaters
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Planet 51

Because we couldn’t get the cast of New Moon (in theaters this Friday!) on Suvudu, we decided to do the next-best thing. We’ve spent the past two Mondays honoring our current, favorite vampires from True Blood and Vampire Diaries.

The wait is over. Today’s feature is all about New Moon.

We had to limit ourselves to just 10 but there are endless reasons why we love New Moon. Feel free to add your own reasons.

10. It’s all about the werewolves, baby.

[Credit: Clevver]

9. It stars improbably beautiful people in high school, who seemingly never attend class.

8. The worst break-up scene in history. Worse than: Britney and Justin, Jen and Brad, and yes, even worse than Nicole and Paris.

7. Road trip: Benvenuto in Italia. Ciao, Bella!

[Credit: ThinkingOfRob]

6. Victoria’s back. And she’s crazier than ever.

[Credit: TwilightMoms]

5. Taylor Lautner: have you seen the 17 yr-old shirtless? Can we even legally say that?

[Credit: GossipTeen]

4. Bella almost hallucinates herself to death.

3. Because we truly believe in Edward and Bella’s love.

[Credit: Fanpop]

2. Superhot Edward Cullen: Robert Pattinson. Sigh.

[Credit: davidarchuletanetwork]

And the #1 reason why we love New Moon…

Steamy, vampire-human love connections. Need we say more?

In The New Vampire’s Handbook, we devote a chapter to the topic of diversity among vampires.

That’s because until recently, vampires were almost always portrayed in the popular conscience as pasty, old, Romanian men. While this provided excellent cover for non-white, non-male vampires of all ages, it’s an absolute falsehood. Vampires come in every color of the rainbow, of every gender and nationality imaginable.

So while India may not be the first place you think of when you think “vampire”, it’s no surprise that a rich and varied vampire tradition exists there. This link to the 1990 film Bandh Darwaza (thanks to Blog of Dracula, where they took the time to find the fantastic film poster) features a western style vampire in a decidedly Bollywood setting. While the real vampires of India can be quite different from those of the West, there are plenty of unmistakeable similarities to remind us that at the end of the day, we’re all part of one big, happy blood-drinking, undead, vampire family.

Which of these creatures do you think best resembles the traditional “Western” vampire? And which would you non-vampires least like to meet along a rural Indian roadside?

If you’re in NYC, please come on out to Brooklyn TONIGHT for a performance and reading from The New Vampire ‘s Handbook: A Guide for the Recently Turned Creature of the Night!

When: Thursday, October 8th, 7:30 pm
Barnes and Noble (Park Slope)267 7th Avenue, Brooklyn NY

The Vampire Miles Proctor will dispatch his slaves, culled from the likes of the Onion, The Daily Show, and Important Things with Demetri Martin, to entertain the audience with truly indispensible information for new and soon to be vampires, just like you.

Illustrators Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man) and Carolita Johnson (The New Yorker) will also be on hand, as well as the book’s photographers. There are rumors that the Vampire Miles Proctor may even make a special guest appearance himself!!

Please come by if you live in the area, and spread the word if you don’t. We would love to meet the Suvudu ranks.

If you can’t make the reading, but still want the book, you can pick it up here, and from finer bookstores conveniently located all over the material world, and the internet.

Thanks, and hope to see you there!

* note: the following blog was submitted in the evening; however, the author requested it be published this morning.

Good Evening. I am the Vampire, Miles Proctor.

As someone who’s lived through more than his share of fads (pantaloons, the telegraph, the hula hoop and the Hustle were just a few of my favorites), I can tell you that we are in the midst of a full-blown craze for all things fanged. From soft drinks to understated and tasteful pictorials in gentleman’s publications, that certain vampire je ne sais quoi has been co-opted for most every purpose you can think of.

But many of these new fictional vampires aren’t actually vampires at all. They never sleep in coffins, they don’t drink human blood - some of them even walk about in the day, their greatest fear not death from exposure to the sun, but being caught in the act of sparkling.

One of the most liberal, modern interpretations of the vampire ethos is of course Edward Cullen, the troubled teen vampire hero of the exceedingly popular and wildly inaccurate Twilight series. Cullen is so handsome, delicate and sensitive that one might mistake him for a particularly toothy, excruciatingly pale mumblecore filmmaker, rather than a fearsome, powerful creature of the night.

Not that the glittering creatures of Twilight are the first ones to get it wrong. Bela Lugosi’s theatrical Dracula was just another end of the stereotypical spectrum, albeit from an era of cartoonishly ghoulish vampires. In reality, neither portrait is definitive or entirely accurate.

I have laid out the truth, once and for all, in The New Vampire’s Handbook, about the habits and characteristics native to the true vampire. As it was written and edited by an actual handsome and successful vampire, there can be no doubt as to its accuracy —though I invite your comments as to how the reality squares with your notion of all things vampire.

Personally, I find the whole phenomenon mildly amusing, and await its passing. But I am curious as to what others think of the genteel, approachable, considerate, “new vampire” that’s so en vogue. Is the rise of vampire-lite in popular culture good for actual vampires like myself? Is it an affront to all of vampirekind? Will it outlast the popularity of Nu Metal, the Tamagochi, the Rubik’s Cube, or the Internet? I encourage you to speak freely.

I remain eternally yours,

The Vampire, Miles Proctor.

I’m a guy.

I’ve read Twilight.

Would adding a conjunction to combine those two sentences make this a false statement:

I’m a guy and I’ve read Twilight.

Or, would the right conjunction help it retain its truth:

I’m a guy or I’ve read Twilight.

I’m a guy, but I’ve read Twilight.

If I had to guess, most guys (and some girls) would point to the latter two as being more plausible—the “or” statement being the closest to reality. The “but” would also be acceptable.

The thing is, though, that I’m one of those who is in the “and” statement group.

I’m a guy.

I’ve read Twilight.

This isn’t about shame, though. Sure, I did none of this reading in a public place. But that’s beside the point. Or maybe it’s exactly the point. Regardless, the deed is done, and opinions have been formed. Here’s what I’ve decided:

This book was exactly as good as I expected it to be.

That’s about as diplomatic a statement as one could make, and yet, it is the most accurate description of what I felt about Twilight.

I can, for example, see exactly why a teenage girl (or even a grown woman who enjoys romance novels) would like it: because that’s really what it is. Twilight is a teen romance, with all the angst and awkwardness that comes from a real-life encounter with a similar situation.

It just so happens that one of these teens also is a vampire.

But that Edward is a vampire really wasn’t a compelling feature for me (especially as his vampire-ness comes with the unfortunate “sparkling,” which I’m sure you’ve heard derided from here to Forks). His being a vampire is pretty much the equivalent of him being African-American, or poor, or some other social/ethnic minority-class that would seem out of place in an all-white community—and therefore taboo for a girl from the “right side of the tracks” to be with. Except, Meyer doesn’t play it this way (which I think would have been an interesting play on the standard trope, albeit a bit like Buffy and Angel/Spike). Instead, Edward just comes off as the angsty kid—the bad-boy—that of course Bella is attracted to.

And it helps that his breath smells like delicious, delicious candy.

Last week, my friend on this site wrote a post that posed the question: what’s next after Twilight? Well, as a guy, I’m pretty much going to say anything (which isn’t exactly true—more about that in a different post, though), but it got me thinking:

While it’s great to look towards the future, I’m curious about our reading pasts.

As such, I decided to throw out this little query to the twitter followers of bantamspectra: What was your favorite YA sci-fi growing up (YA being a rather loose term that I figured would cover both middle-grade and teen offerings—and then realizing almost all my selections were in the middle-grade range)?

The response made me realize I need to read more.

Personally, I had a few favorites in mind when I asked this question, and clearly I was hoping for vindication of my choices. In no particular order:

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster—My mother used to make us watch this movie all the time, as it was one of her favorites, and I always used to hate the live-action stuff in the beginning. But the cartoon—the bulk of the movie—really caught my imagination, and when I realized that it was first a book, I was excited. I remember reading this on a long bus trip with the Cub Scouts to the Franklin Institute in Philly and finding out for the first time that no matter how good a movie is, the book is almost always better.

(These are in no particular order)

1. Tithe by Holly Black

Instead of vampires, we’ve got faeries in Holly Black’s Tithe, a gripping tale of sixteen-year-old Kaye, whose journey into the fey world begins when she rescues knight Roiben. As she explores the Seelie and Unseelie faerie courts, she finds out more than she ever bargained for. I know, I know, there will be cliffhangers galore in this post. Don’t want to ruin any of the fun for you guys.

Tithe also has a sequel, Ironside. For more info, check out Holly Black’s website.

Okay, okay, I can’t resist doing this.

Mostly because I just like hearing the high-pitched squealing or sudden gasping of women all over the world!

They love them some Edward!

Even my mother. Ugh!

Here are some photos taken from the set of the forthcoming vampire movie New Moon, the sequel to the über-successful Twilight by Stephenie Meyer—put into a video montage!

What a use for bandwidth!

At least the ladies are happy…

Happy Friday!

“An animated corpse that lusts after your blood… breaking and violating our safety with a sense of dread and horror.”

“A plague of creatures where you did not recognize their humanity… but our own inhumanity in them.”

These two quotes come from Guillermo Del Toro about his upcoming vampire book, The Strain. The Strain is his response to the rash of tween vampire love stories. Simply put, Del Toro isn’t a fan, and he wants to put out some literature featuring bestial, demonic creatures much closer to the original vampires of folklore and mythology than those found in the pulpy yarns every 12-year-old girl buries her nose in on the subway.

For more quotes, a video, and excerpts, click over to io9.com.

The barrage of fantasy and science fiction movies continues!

This time on television.

Laurell K. Hamilton, the bestselling author of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series, will have one of her creations brought to live action telefilm in Summer 2010!

IFC, the Independent Film Channel, has greenlit Hamilton’s Anita Blake series into production. Lionsgate and After Dark Films will produce and the series will be adapted by Glen Morgan (“X-Files,” “Final Destination”), who also serves as executive producer. The movie begins production this summer.

The telefilm will center on the character of Anita Blake, a street-savvy, down-to-earth vampire hunter with a lousy dating life and a penchant for bringing dead people back to life.

For those Twilighters out there who are craving more blood-sucking storytelling, it is time for you to go to the beginning and either go out and buy Guilty Pleasures or wait until Summer 2010!

Read the entire press release HERE!

Let the sucking begin!

When I had lunch with Stephenie Meyer in August, one of the things we talked about was how avid (rabid?) her readership is about her and her books. Teen girls primarily make up the bulk of that readership, and as we have seen since the time of the Beatles young women can be a screaming tidal wave of force to be reckoned with!

Well, Robert Pattinson, UK star who plays Edward in the forthcoming Twilight movie adaptation, found out first hand about the power of Stephenie Meyer’s young readership! Click HERE to watch a San Francisco news cast about a 3000 strong mob at a mall—and how passion for reading can be a powerful, daunting thing!

So, in case you haven’t heard already, Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, is setting her latest project, Midnight Sun, aside indefinitely.

It turns out that one of the very very few advanced work-in-progress scripts was posted to the internet, where it’s gained quite a bit of readership. Too bad it isn’t at all the readership the author was looking for.

In a blog post to her fans, Stephenie Explains:

So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn’t like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn’t dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely.

I’d rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting? It has taken me a while to decide how and if I could respond. But to end the confusion, I’ve decided to make the draft available here (at the end of this post). This way, my readers don’t have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward’s head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That’s what inspired me to write it in the first place.

It turns out Twilight is all that and a bag of chips. I know, I know, I’m like 2 years late to the snack machine, but better late than never, right?

So after 2 days of non-stop reading (substitute swimming with Twilight and my life was not so different from Michael Phelps’s Olympic regimen: eat, read, sleep a little, get up in middle of the night to read, eat some breakfast, read some more on morning commute, eat some lunch, sneak a read in at work…etc. etc.) I finish it and immediately set out as a veritable one-woman publicity machine, telling everyone to get their hands on a copy, under the promise that this is “vampire love, at it’s finest”.

Fast forward a few days and I see my good friend - let’s call her “Gemma” - at dinner. Apparently, Gemma had taken me up on my endorsement, literally verbatim, and asked a bookseller for a copy of “Vampire Love”. Unbeknownst to Gemma (and a slightly perplexed bookseller), she is taken to the paranormal erotic section and handed copies of “I Only Have Fangs for You” and “Love Bites”. Poor girl. And the saddest bit of all, she has yet to read the book! Oh well, I guess she can get in line and borrow my copy, embarrassment-free.

How many of you have read the series? Did you devour it (pardon the pun) the same way I did?

If you’re a Stephenie Meyer fan looking for a way to pass the time between the final book release in the saga last week (Breaking Dawn) and the Twilight movie in December (although it’s never too early to grab that sleeping bag and start forming a line outside the theater), check out the Breaking Dawn game that was hooked up to celebrate the latest release.

Just a little over 24 hours into the con and in this atmosphere of pure geek energy, we’re already going seriously native: publicist April and I just had a very intense discussion about the exact shade of Edward Cullen’s hair (we settled on deep bronze), as an addendum to the more usual debate about the suitability of Robert Pattinson for the role (I’m quite happy, whereas, for April, he shall always dearly be Cedric Diggory.) Over at the Summit Pictures booth, they’re handing out Twilight movie posters; I settled for gawking at the lovely life-sized cutouts of Edward and Bella. And over at Hachette, a rep is greeting Twilight fans with the most controversial question of all: “Ed or Jake, who do you love?” Weigh in with your answer in the comments.