315 Winter 2016 Editor Chris Pak SFRA [email protected] A publicationRe of the Scienceview Fiction Research Association Nonfiction Editor Dominick Grace In this issue Brescia University College, 1285 Western Rd, London ON, N6G 3R4, Canada SFRA Review Business phone: 519-432-8353 ext. 28244. Prospect ............................................................................................................................2 [email protected] Assistant Nonfiction Editor SFRA Business Kevin Pinkham The New SFRA Website ..............................................................................................2 College of Arts and Sciences, Ny- “It’s Alive!” ........................................................................................................................3 ack College, 1 South Boulevard, Nyack, NY 10960, phone: 845- Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities ....................................................3 675-4526845-675-4526. [email protected] Feature 101 The New Cosmic Horror: A Genre Molded by Tabletop Roleplaying Fiction Editor Games and Postmodern Horror ..............................................................................7 Jeremy Brett Cushing Memorial Library and Sentience in Science Fiction 101 ......................................................................... 14 Archives, Texas A&M University, Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, 5000 TAMU College Nonfiction Reviews Station, TX 77843. Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction ........ 19 [email protected] Body, Soul and Cyberspace in Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema: Media Editor Virtual Worlds and Ethical Problems ................................................................ 20 Leimar Garcia-Siino They Live ....................................................................................................................... 21 Department of English, 19-23 Modernism and Science Fiction ........................................................................... 23 Abercromby Square, School of the Arts, University of Liverpool, L69 7ZG. Fiction Reviews [email protected] The Collected Stories of Frank Herbert ............................................................ 25 Il sangue e L’impero .................................................................................................. 29 Media Reviews Daredevil and Jessica Jones – The Future of Superheroic Storytelling? 32 The Man in the High Castle: Season 1 ............................................................... 34 Submissions The SFRA Review encourages submissions of Advantageous .............................................................................................................. 36 reviews, review essays that cover several related texts, interviews, and feature articles. Submis- sion guidelines are available at http://www.sfra. org/ or by inquiry to the appropriate editor. All Announcements submitters must be current SFRA members. Call for Papers—Conference ................................................................................. 40 Contact the Editors for other submissions or for correspondence. Call for Papers—Articles ........................................................................................ 43 The SFRA Review (ISSN 1068-395X) is pub- lished four times a year by the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), and distributed to SFRA members. Individual issues are not for sale; however, all issues after 256 are published to SFRA’s Website (http://www.sfra.org/). PB SFRA Review 315 Winter 2016 SFRA Review 315 Winter 2016 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE SFRA Review Business EDITORS’ MESSAGE The New SFRA Website Prospect Craig Jacobsen Chris Pak JUST AS 2015 ENDED, the SFRA website took a nose- dive. This sometimes happens. Unfortunately, this 2016 PROMISES to be an important and exciting time we were not easily able to recover the site from year for the SFRA and sf scholarship. The Museum of a recent backup and go about our business. As the Science Fiction’s new Journal of Science Fiction has Executive Committee and Matt Holtmeier (our SFRA been launched. This year is the 50th anniversary of Web Director) looked into it, it became clear that Star Trek, which is to be commemorated by the 2016 perhaps it was time to give up on our old model of Star Trek Symposium at Malta, organised by our reg- website and look at new options. Like a lot of small ular contributors Victor Grech and Mariella Scerri, organizations, SFRA has depended upon a handful of and David J. Zammit. As Craig elaborates in his col- members with the technological knowledge neces- umn, the SFRA also has a new website with features sary to keep us online, updated, and secure. Frankly, that will assist us in communicating more effectively that’s just not a sustainable model anymore. with each other. And of course, the deadline for pro- We were running a site built on Drupal, with a posals for the annual SFRA conference is drawing number of plugins that allowed us to do things like near. Preparations for the conference are underway, manage memberships, with a custom theme. The and for those of you who would like to extend your company that hosted our site had nothing to do with visit to the UK, the Tenth Science Fiction Foundation putting it together. The people who put it together Masterclass will be held from the 23rd-25th June were hired for a one-time job, not ongoing mainte- in London, while the Global Fantastika conference, nance and troubleshooting. We needed to update held near Liverpool at The University of Lancaster, our plugins and Drupal to be sure that we had the will be running from the 4th-5th July. As you can see, latest, most secure and stable versions. Too big of a 2016 promises to be an eventful summer! job for volunteers. And a few months down the road We have two Feature 101 articles in this issue of we’d likely need that again. And again. the SFRA Review: Travis Gasque discusses tabletop So we’re moving to a 2016-style solution that will - combine all of the technological infrastructure of the acy of Lovecraftian cosmic horror in his piece, “The organization (well, almost all) in one place. The new Newand computer Cosmic Horror: games thatA Genre are influenced Molded by by Tabletop the leg site is built around a Member Management System, Roleplaying Games and Postmodern Horror,” while so we’ll be able to do a number of things we haven’t Mariella Scerri and Victor Grech write about “Sen- before. The jobs of the SFRA Treasurer and Secretary tience in Science Fiction.” Anna MacFarlane explores will be made more manageable (that’s incentive for the domain of the Medical Humanities in her report those of you who might consider holding those posi- about the Wellcome Trust-funded project, Science tions), and the new site will facilitate putting some Fiction and the Medical Humanities, on which she things behind a member login. It is very much still a works as a Research Associate at the University of work in progress, as we reconstruct what was on the Glasgow, and to which I will be presenting a paper old site and build new features. A few new things we at a workshop later this month. If you would like to hope members will like: report on a project or event, I want to hear from you! - • tion and media reviews. Finally,I would we like have to our end regular this column series byof non-fiction,congratulating fic searchA searchable for you memberby shared Directory. interest or If geographical you fill out our Vice-President on her recent birth, which she re- proximity.your member Not profile, all of the your information fellow members you share can with the association will be public, though. We want your fellow members to know what city flects upon in science-fictional terms in her column. 2 SFRA Review 315 Winter 2016 SFRA Review 315 Winter 2016 3 and country you live in, and what your scholarly child to the self-performed caesarean of Prometheus, interests are, not your phone number and street clones, body-farming, or cyborg building, making life address. The only contact information available is a weird science indeed. Today we are witness to will be the email address you list. You can upload a photo to help people recognize you when you test many of the most far-reaching ideas imagined byscientific the SF researchworld. Dolly and applicationsmay be old news which but put innova to the- • Member discussion forums. Not meant to take tions, ranging from implanting a uterus in a man’s thefinally place meet of inthe person. listserv, but discussion forums body to recent CRISPR/Cas techniques which enable provide a more stable and durable way to com- localized shifts in the very genetics of an organism, municate. You can subscribe to a forum if you shake the foundations of any perceived natural or- der of things. As I once again turn to my bookshelf a few categories that we think members might want to be notified of new entries. We’ve created a time of uncertainty and excitement – on levels that It’ll be a good place to hang a CFP or look for a for the comforts and discomforts of science fiction at- roommatefind useful, for and a conference.more can be created as needed. mental – I can only wonder what brave new worlds • Research and teaching resources. We had some await.are personal, scientific, political, economic, environ of these on the old website, but we’re rebuilding to provide members with curated and annotated lists to the most helpful resources for scholar- SFRA Business ship and teaching.