Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I’m not a big fan of all the creepy and spooky stuff. And you know why I don’t need Halloween? Because I have science!
fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews

Meet Promachoteuthis sulcus, a bizarre creature straight out of your nightmares.
As you can see, this thing looks like it has freakishly human looking teeth. It’s a species of promachoteuthid squid and only one specimen has been found to date. It was captured in the Southern Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 2,000m in 2007.

Just imagine what else is lurking in our oceans! Real life is creepy enough for me!

In honor of Halloween, I have a bunch of spooktacular links for you, though. A disproportionate number of them seem to feature Neil Gaiman for some reason.

First, Neil Gaiman put together a list of games, books, and movies that he recommends for celebrating Halloween. Over here, he’s selling an audiobook of a short story to raise money for charity. And over here he is featured in The Moth’s storytelling celebration.  And finally, today is also All Hallows Read, a holiday that Neil Gaiman created.

Tor is hosting Ghost Week.

The Book Smugglers guested at Kirkus where they recommended their favorite Halloween reads. They also hosted author Stant Litore who wrote about the relevance of zombie fiction.

And then if you want some weird Halloween pictures, take a gander at this vintage meme, horsemanning.

And then, in non Halloween related news, Tor has started a new series called “Something Else Like” where the Hugo award winning Jo Walton will be sussing out the essence of famous authors and then recommending out something else to read that is similar. She starts with Heinlein. Someone who has read some Heinlein should look at her recommendations and tell us what you think.

And finally, Disney bought out Lucas Films and announced they are going to make Star Wars VII. I’m pretty sure this is not going to end well. Not that anything Lucas has done in the last several years has been good. Han shot first!  I wonder if we can convince Disney to put Jar-Jar in the vault and never let him out again.

On the other hand…

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviews

And finallyfinally, if you didn’t vote on last week’s column about which book I should give a second try, make sure to do that today. I’ll post the results next week.

Author

  • Ruth Arnell

    RUTH ARNELL (on FanLit's staff January 2009 — August 2013) earned a Ph.D. in political science and is a college professor in Idaho. From a young age she has maxed out her library card the way some people do credit cards. Ruth started reading fantasy with A Wrinkle in Time and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — books that still occupy an honored spot on her bookshelf today. Ruth and her husband have a young son, but their house is actually presided over by a flame-point Siamese who answers, sometimes, to the name of Griffon.