Prometheus is the science fiction movie event of the summer. Directed by Ridley Scott and suggested to be a prequel to Alien, the expectations were set very high from the beginning. The viral marketing was well done and included Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland giving a Ted talk in 2023. I finally got a chance to see it this past weekend and enjoyed it. I had a ton of questions afterwards (most of them have already been asked), but would willingly see it again. Let’s see why.
Author Archives: Mark S
Hitchers by Will McIntosh
I’d heard of Will McIntosh from his award winning debut novel Soft Apocalypse, but I never got around to reading it. So, when I saw his new novel, Hitchers, in the library, I decide that I should check it out. And I am so glad that I did. McIntosh has created a funny, thoughtful, exciting story that makes me want to check out everything that McIntosh has written.The story has a great premise, wonderful characters and a plot that keeps you wanting to turn the page. So, let’s check out why there are hitchers.
1985 by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards
I really need to stop reading Mark Millar comics. I never enjoy them and am always left thinking that it should have been much better. The reason I keep getting sucked in is that Millar has such wonderful ideas. But he can’t execute them worth a damn. In Marvel 1985, Millar has a great idea about a boy of divorced parents who gets into comics and then notices that the strange abandoned house down the street is being occupied by Marvel super-villains.
But the story moves in fits and spurts. The setup is annoying and the climax is fairly silly. There are plot threads left all over the place (where did Hulk go after his fight with Juggernaut) and the characters are too predictable. And once again I’m left with a sense of longing for a better story to go along with this idea.
Tommy Lee Edward’s art is good.
The characters are well drawn, the backgrounds are good, the pacing serves the story well. But, it’s a good effort on a losing story. Not Recommended.
The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski
In David Kowalski’s debut novel, The Company of the Dead, you have the Titanic, time travel as well as future Kennedy and Lightholler* families. The book juggles between the original Titanic story and a future caused by a change to the Titanic’s fate. The future looks a lot like Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle with America split between the Germans and the Japanese.
For those of you not familiar with Titanic history, Charles Lightholler was the second officer and the highest ranked officer to survive and tell his story (including how due to his late demotion from first officer to second officer, the original second officer was no longer on the ship and had the only keys to the binocular case on the Titanic).
While the book spends a little too much time in the future (and gets bogged down in places), it’s still a fun read and as fast-paced as a 750+ page novel can be. So, let’s see what happens when you let the Titanic’s watch have high-tech binoculars before the crash.
RIP Ray Bradbury
My introduction to Ray Bradbury was the Martian Chronicles TV series in 1980 starting Rock Hudson, Nicholas (Spude-Man) Hammond and Roddy McDowall. From that introduction, I had to read the book and then Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Ray Bradbury was a poet who wrote science fiction. He never went for the science side of things, but delved underneath for the soul of the people inhabiting his stories. In this way, he touched several generations of readers and writers.
Goodbye Mr. Bradbury. The world has lost a master storyteller.
New Project Itoh boook
The late, celebrated Japanese science-fiction writer Satoshi Itō (who went by Project Itoh) is finally having his first book, Genocidal Organ, translated into English and will be published in August. His other book, Harmony (my review), was interesting and full of great ideas, so I’m looking forward to this book.
Sherlock Season 2 review
Season 2 of Stephen Moffat’s Sherlock is done and over with. And, while it didn’t end on a cliffhanger, it is still a bit of a mystery that needs to be revealed. The stories that were adapted for this set were A Scandal in Bohemia, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Final Problem. As with the first season, the first and third were the strongest with a disappointing second episode and the final episode is focused on Moriarty. So let’s discuss what went right and what went wrong with Season 2 after the jump.
David Brin’s Kiln People
I love science fiction detective novels. They are a mashup of two of my favorite genres. Most stories try to put a noir feel into the science fiction setting, but there are some that aim for a straight forward detective story. And that is close to what Kiln People is. David Brin has brought us a detective story that is the setting for a wonderful novel full of ideas. The ideas don’t come fast and furious, but fall into the story in logical places and the impacts of the ideas are discussed along with the story. So, let’s see what Kiln people is all about.
Fall 2012 TV shows
It seems a little weird to be talking about the new Fall TV schedule when it’s not even officially summer yet. But this time of year is when the major networks tell everyone what their preliminary schedule is going to be. Then they wait all summer to see how good or bad their shows are and then go through and change everything again. And then a few shows bomb out of the gate and they change everything again. I guess what I’m saying is don’t get too excited about the new shows or upset that you want to watch three things in a timeslot and your DVR only records two. So, let’s check out a few interesting new shows for next season after the jump.
Mongoliad Book 1 review
It’s hard to review The Mongoliad: Book 1 without going into any of the supplemental material available online, but I will try to limit this review to strictly what happens in the book. With the number of authors listed on the book, it’s easy to think that this is some sort of anthology. But this is on novel with three linked storylines going through the book. It isn’t listed who worked on which sections, so it is somewhat assumed that everyone had some sort of hand in the whole novel. So this doesn’t seem to be like one of the Tom Clancy books where he comes up with an idea and farms out the writing to others. So, lets head back to 1241 and see what is going on with the Mongols.