Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, werewolves nipping at your... Nothing says happy holidays like a shapeshifter or werewolf, obviously, as shifter romance takes top billing for December’s 2011 paranormal romance releases. Vampires, aliens, psychics, goddesses and unspecified immortals are also represented as popular series by Joey Hill, Lora Leigh, Marjorie M. Liu, and Sarah McCarty continue (gotta love a vampire cowboy).

Fiction Affliction details releases in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and “genre-benders.” Keep track of them all here.

[Read about December releases in paranormal romance]

The second batch of answers has come in from Steven Erikson regarding your House of Chains questions! This time around we’ve broken out the lengthy answers into their own series of posts. You can read the first batch of answers right here.

All answers include their originating questions. A big thank you to Steven Erikson for taking time out to answer over the past couple weeks! As always, you can find Bill and Amanda’s original recap and reread of House of Chains in the Malazan Reread index.

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Almost two centuries from now, the human race endures, broken but not beaten. After a laundry list of disasters — floods, famine, plagues, nuclear war, super volcano eruptions — what’s left of humanity has clawed its way back from the brink of extinction, setting itself up in new tribes, and new societies. Down in Central America, the Territory of New Victoria thrives, mixing the technology of the future with the idealized fashions and morals of the past. Computers and holograms exist side-by-side with genteel manners and high fashion, creating a unique blend of old and new. Unfortunately, while it might be something of a new golden age, it’s not perfect. New Victoria’s been at war with the so-called Punks for years, pitting their military might against the rag-tag rebels who’ve rejected the aristocratic system and its inherent corruption.

Enter Nora Dearly, a young woman whose interest in military history and war documentaries sets her apart from her status-obsessed peers. She has little to look forward to beyond being married off to help secure her family’s dwindling finances and mounting debts. That is, until she’s kidnapped by zombies.

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While enjoying some culture, how about sitting down and getting a tattoo to commemorate the experience? Recently, I attended the opening of “Mobilis in Mobili: An Exhibition of Steampunk Art and Appliance” at the Wooster Street Social Club in Manhattan, and scoped out a selection of artists that are highlighting the punk sensiblities of steam.

The opening reception for this exhibit, sponsored by ModVic and TLC’s reality show NY Ink, featured 26 artists and had the special perk of tattoo artists working on-hand to tat one of the attendees, Kayte Moseley.

[Steam-inking it up]

Welcome back to A Read of Ice and Fire! Please join me as I read and react, for the very first time, to George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire.

Today’s entry is Part 34 of A Game of Thrones, in which we cover Chapters 71 (“Catelyn”) and 72 (“Daenerys”).

Previous entries are located in the Index. The only spoilers in the post itself will be for the actual chapters covered and for the chapters previous to them. As for the comments, The Powers That Be at Tor.com have very kindly set up a forum thread for spoilery comments. Any spoileriffic discussion should go there, where I won’t see it. Non-spoiler comments go below, in the comments to the post itself.

Before we start, a quick note on scheduling: I am going to be taking a bit of a sabbatical from my blogs during the Christmas/New Year’s season – this one a tad more so than my Wheel of Time Re-read owing to timing, since we so fortuitously happened to reach the end of this book just now.

Next Friday, therefore, I will be posting my wrap-up review of/ruminations on A Game of Thrones as a whole, and after that the ASOIAF Read will be on hiatus until January 6, 2012, at which time I will begin my Read of the second book in the series, A Clash of Kings.

So that’s what that is. And now, the post!

[She will control the horizontal/She will control the vertical]

Jack Davis, one of the founding cartoonists for Mad Magazine and cover-artist pioneer of Tales From the Crypt celebrates his 87th birthday today. From Greg Manchess:

“Jack Davis is such an icon of cartooning that when you think of  humorous art, you immediately think of his characters. They are almost like familiar actors onstage. Cracks me up just to look at them.”

From Arnie Fenner, founder and editor of Spectrum Fantastic Art:

"Whether he was adapting Ray Bradbury’s stories for EC Comics, contributing manic satires to MAD, providing covers for TIME, or producing energetic film posters, Jack Davis has always left me awe-struck, enthused, and clamoring for more.”

Here’s to you Jack! Check out this tribute to Jack’s work over on Monster Kid.

[Check out more iconic Jack Davis work below the cut]

Welcome to the Malazan Re-read of the Fallen! Every post will start off with a summary of events, followed by reaction and commentary by your hosts Bill and Amanda (with Amanda, new to the series, going first), and finally comments from Tor.com readers. In this article, we’ll cover Chapter Five of Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson (MT).

A fair warning before we get started: We’ll be discussing both novel and whole-series themes, narrative arcs that run across the entire series, and foreshadowing. Note: The summary of events will be free of major spoilers and we’re going to try keeping the reader comments the same. A forum thread has been set up for outright Malazan spoiler discussion.

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I watched Akira (1988) for the first time at an LAN party at a friend’s house, sometime around the turn of the century. Then as now, I was a terrible shot and more concerned with cels than polygons, so I stretched out in front of the household’s last tube TV, and watched a copy of Katsuhiro Otomo’s film taped from cable. It ghosted across the screen like the Ring video, blurry and beige and riddled with tracking errors. A year or two later, my dad rented it on DVD. He wanted to see it, and I wanted to see a good print.

[I watched it for the next three days.]

Like a submarine racing a huddle of penguins inside of a hollowed-out iceberg, you’ve made it the finish line of your week. Good job! Now it’s time to use your flippers/propellers for other uses. Like getting in line to see Marina Sirtis as the Evil Queen. Check out that and other great off-site links now. (Video above is a commercial of a play version of the classic story Snow White. The video is a present for you.)

Other Highlights include:

1.) Have a character named after you in A Memory of Light!

2.) Star Trek casting and Doctor Who movie tidbits.

3.) College Humor’s Troopers returns.

4.) Zombie attack Barbie.

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At first glance, birth control doesn’t seem to figure much in dystopian novels. Most of the characters we meet in dystopias these days are more likely facing a problem of infertility than a dread of pregnancy, and few of the novels take us into the privacy of our heroes’ bedrooms to see what protections are at hand. On closer look, though, we find that the most invasive dystopian societies don’t stop at controlling their citizens’ public behavior. They enforce systems to stymie reproductive freedom, and that leads to forced abstinence, bedding rituals, drugs, and implants. Such controls threaten our favorite characters where it matters most, and once pushed too far, they find a whole new way to rebel.

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The forces of evil don’t take holidays, so neither do the kickass heroines of urban fantasy (okay, there might be a few heroes, too, but not many—put that on your wish-list for Santa). And did we mention how absolutely terrifying high school is these days, what with all the students uncovering heretofore-unknown powers and the cute new guys being secretive monsters? Twenty-seven new adult and YA urban fantasy releases in December include a new outing in the popular Infernal Devices prequel to the Clockwork Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, new installments in the Horngate Witches and Spellcrackers series from Diana Pharaoh Francis and Suzanne McLeod, respectively, and, just in time for the holidays, the definitive guide to Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series.

[Read about December releases in urban fantasy]

In addition to being an author, I’ve been a part of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom for 25 years. SFFH readers, writers, and fans are like family in many ways. 

After meeting an interesting variety of Hunger Games fans on the internet, I began wondering what drives them. What is it about the Hunger Games that they love so much? What do they think about the upcoming movie? I had a lot of questions, and so I decided to ask Kira and Matt. During the past few months, I’ve been delighted to meet many Hunger Games fans, including the amazing Kira and Matt, who run three fansites devoted to the Hunger Games trilogy.

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Sometimes, one of the very hardest things about growing up is finally seeing your parents for who they really are. Sometimes, that process just happens to intersect with another hard part of growing up: falling in love for the first time.

Camilla was Madeleine L’Engle’s fourth novel and third work for young adults. Published in 1951, and set in the late 1940s, it tells a painful and joyful tale of three weeks in the life of Camilla Dickinson, a wealthy New York City teenager, and represents a major shift in focus and tone from her previous book, And Both Were Young.

[A touching love story amidst horrible parenting.]

Welcome to my no moon left unturned re-read of Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles. This week’s post covers chapters 66—70 of The Wise Man’s Fear but also contains extensive spoilers for the whole book and the whole of The Name of the Wind — these discussions assume you’ve read all of both books. These posts are full of spoilers please don’t venture beyond the cut unless you want them.   

[Read more: spoilers, speculations, flowers and poetry]

Recently, this vintage interview from 1980 surfaced featuring the cast of The Empire Strikes Back as well as director Irvin Kershner. Beyond raw nostalgia, the segment is interesting for a lot of reasons. For one, all the cast seems to have some kind of idea of how the prequels will unfold, complete with a depiction of why Vader will be forced into a breathing mechanism. Mark Hamill mentions a eight-year-old Luke, and young Anthony Daniels jokes about the notion of playing C-3PO in his 60s (which basically happened)! But beyond these nerdy tidbits is something else sort of sweet from a recently bygone era: all the cast appear to have dressed themselves in dorky charming outfits. No stylists were doing Carrie Fisher’s make-up or hair here, or telling her what outfit to wear! They all look like regular, likeable people. See for yourself below. (Video via AtombombTV)

“The Price”
Written by Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Robert Scheerer
Season 3, Episode 8
Production episode 40273-156
Original air date: November 13, 1989
Stardate: 43385.6

Captain’s log: Troi comes back to her quarters after a long day. She’s tired and cranky and in the mood for some chocolate. Picard invites her to come to Ten-Forward for an impromptu reception. Several delegates have reported on board to negotiate with Premier Bhavani of Barzan II for control of an apparently stable wormhole that has been discovered in Barzan space. Barzan’s atmosphere is inhospitable to most lifeforms, so the Enterprise is hosting negotiations. The Barzan don’t have the ability to exploit the wormhole, so they’re taking bids for various nations to take control—in this case, the Chrysalians, the Caldonians, and the Federation.

[“I was tense! I protest!”]

Season 1, Episode 13: “Beyond the Sea”
Original Airdate: January 7, 1994

So we’ve had aliens, UFOs, a liver-eating mutant, Arctic worms…man, what is missing, here, what’s next, anyone, does anyone even—wait. Wait, hold up, I got it, here we go. “Beyond the Sea” features one of the scariest villains an FBI agent could ever face, a monster that can get you so turned around you’re not even sure what you believe anymore, an evil that cuts to the most fearsome of fears: grief. Also a serial killer. But mostly grief.

[Do I detect a hint of skepticism?]

(Cthulu Christmas Brass Tentacle Ornament by RockLove)

Having trouble wrapping your arms around what to get your friends and family for the holidays? Turn to your favorite cephalopods for help. Who isn’t romanced by the squiggly arms of a squid or the suckers of a many-limbed sea creature? From neckties, to jewelry, to classic Christmas ornaments, tentacles are wrapping everything in holiday spirit. So embrace the Cthulu, the octopus and the giant, man-eating squid, and get Kraken on purchasing gifts that will inspire many two-armed embraces.

[More Lovecraftian gifts below]