Category Archives: science fiction

Dr. Who’s coming back (to America)

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BBC America has announced that Dr. Who is coming back:

BBC America will launch Doctor Who on Saturday, April 23 at 9 p.m ET. That’s Part One of a two-part opener penned by showrunner Steven Moffat (who also did the BBC’s Sherlock reboot — rent it if you’re a Holmes & Watson fan and haven’t seen it yet). This season also includes guest star Mark Sheppard (Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica). Alex Kingston (ER, Flash Forward) is returning for this round too.

Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley

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I often like to give authors whose first book I didn’t like a second chance. There are many times that authors I like write books I don’t like. For instance, I just can’t get into Charles Stross’ Bob Howard series, but I enjoy several of his other books. When I read Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War, I liked the ideas, but felt the story just didn’t work (my review). So when I say McAuley’s latest book, Cowboy Angels, I decided that I should give McAuley another try. So was my second try at McAuley any better than the first try?

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Movie Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

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I was always a Star Wars kid. I loved Star Wars and had little interest in Star Trek. My Dad and older brother were both into Star Trek, so I saw a lot of the episodes (including the Animated Series). I went to see the first Star Trek movie and wasn’t that impressed. It wasn’t bad, but nothing to get excited about. Then the second movie came out. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a movie to get excited about. There was action, ideas, characters and growth. This movie made me a Star Trek fan. So lets go back to the future and rediscover Khan.

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2011 Arthur C Clarke nominations

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The nominations (shortlist) for the 2011 Arthur C Clarke awards have been announced:

The annual award was originally established by a generous grant from Sir Arthur C. Clarke with the aim of promoting science fiction in Britain, and is currently administered by the Serendip Foundation a voluntary organisation created to oversee the ongoing running and development of the Award. It is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a list of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year. A prize of £2011 will be awarded to the winner along with a commemorative engraved bookend.

RoboCop Movie Review

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The Kickstarter project to get a RoboCop statue in Detroit amused me enough to go back and re-watch the movie. There were some critics when the movie came out who criticized the violence, but that’s missed the forest for the trees. The violence is used in the purpose of the story, not just to have violence. But my favorite story about Robocop is the sequels. After his success in comics, Frank Miller was approached to work on Robocop 2 and (as the rumor goes) his story idea was changed so much before being filmed that he was able to re-use the story proposal for Robocop 3. So, let’s revisit the future Detroit and find out who was RoboCop.

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The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

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I’m back to Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. I finished volume one and realized that I had another book that was due back to the library very soon and couldn’t renew it. So I finished that book before jumping back to the tales of Severian the journeyman executioner and The Claw of the Conciliator. Volume Two picks up almost right after Volume One and we find Serverian alone away from his group and in a new city. Let’s find out what happens.

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Firefly back on Cable

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EW is reporting that the Science Channel has picked up reruns of Firefly and will be airing…with some extras.

The Science Channel has acquired the rights to the cult-hit and will air the series in its short-lived entirety, plus some new extras. Science Channel will wrap each episode with interstitial segments starring renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, who will discuss the theoretical science behind the show’s sci-fi concepts.

The article also has a nice, brief interview with Nathon Fillion.

The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

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I’ve heard a lot about Gene Wolfe over the years, but I’ve never read anything from him. I’ve heard several modern writers (including Neil Gaiman) praise Wolfe as being one of their favorite writers as well as their inspiration for becoming authors. So, I decided to start reading Wolfe with his best known work, The Shadow of the Torturer (Book one of The Book of the New Sun). The book split into four volumes, but currently is collected in two books (each collecting two volumes). Now, one thing to realize before starting, the books are very linked together and when you finish The Shadow of the Torturer, the story abruptly ends, waiting to be picked up in Volume 2, The Claw of the Conciliator. So who is the titular torturer?

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