Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Spec-Fic Friday, Sept 30th

Normally I don't watch Deadliest Warrior, but the one airing last week caught my eye:

Vampires versus Zombies

If you've never seen the show, the premise is the old comic book chestnut: if Spiderman and Superman fought, who would win? But the show takes it to the next level and pits even historical warriors together (ninjas versus pirates, that sort of thing). In the episode that caught my eye, it was "If vampires and zombies went head to head (fang), who would win?"

I think the whole thing is a moot point. I don't think vampires and zombies would battle. Vampire lore generally says that they need live blood; zombie lore says that they need live flesh; thus they would never feed on each other and wouldn't need to battle.

Maybe vampires would be threatened or annoyed by zombies, and they would attack them (competition for food, for example). But the zombies would have little reason to fight back.

When faced with a fight, creatures fight back for three reasons:
1) competition (for food, mates, etc.);
2) survival instinct (the "fight" part of "fight or flight");
3) anger;

If you stick with the generally accepted principles of zombie lore, zombies don't feel anger. I've never seen or read a story where zombies have a competitive response (sometimes there's some snapping at each other while feeding, but no real competitive behavior). And how much survival instinct can they have? You can mow them down with a machine gun and they just keep shambling onward, never trying to dodge, duck, or run away. They clearly have zero "flight" instinct. I'd say they have no "fight" instinct, either. It's just eat, eat, eat.

So would zombies and vampires ever have reason to face-off in battle? If they did, wouldn't the vampires have a tremendous upper hand since they DO have a fight/flight instinct?

I only caught the end of the show, so maybe they covered all this earlier in the episode and I missed it. You can watch the full episode here:
Deadliest Warrior: Vampires vs. Zombies


Okay, back to our regularly scheduled spec-fic news, lol.


These blew me away!
Amazing Wizard of Oz Fan Art

Joe Allen Billy Bob Alvarez . . . Priceless!
Infographic: If Star Wars Characters Lived in the Real World

I actually (gulp) liked Battlefield Earth. Nothing about it was even remotely Oscar-worthy, but it was fun and interesting. And believe me, I've seen worse.
Alex J. Cavanaugh on The Worst Movies Ever
My own list would include Skyline and the Watchmen (or is Watchmen more fantasy than sci-fi?)

Who doesn't love free reads?
Free fiction

Kirkus Reviews:
The Genre Trap and How to Avoid It

Love, love, LOVE Shatner!
William Shatner sings Iron Man

Star Trek: The Next Generation heading for Blu-Ray

And to continue the unintentional Star Trek-themed news,
Shatner blasts Takei in new book

And last but not least,
Awesome flowchart helps you pick through NPR’s Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy books

Have a good weekend!