Known mainly for his work in Japanese, this is the first English translated book of Hiroshi Yamamoto which I have read. MM9 is the set of semi related stories about the Monsterological Measures Department (MMD). They track and handle all the kaiju (giant monsters) which are present in Japan. The title refers to the monster magnitude (MM), which is a scale similar to the natural disaster scales we use (earthquake, hurricanes, etc) that is based of the size and destructive capability of the the kaiju being tracked. The stories are all stand-alone with a repeating cast and different monsters. Except the final story builds on a couple previous stories and is easily the best one of the bunch. Let’s check out what happens.
Category Archives: science fiction
Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch
One quibble I need to get out-of-the-way first. Despite the name Alexander Outland: Space Pirate, Captain Outland is not a Space Pirate. The book does have a Space Pirate in it (just in case you were worried), but Captain Outland and his crew are there to fight them (eventually), not turn into Space Pirates themselves. I’ve seen this book compared to the Stainless Steel Rat books and that makes a good comparison for tone and basic plot. Although not nearly as good as Harry Harrison, it is a fun read with a decent story. So, let’s see what happens.
Twelve Monkeys review
The movie Twelve Monkeys is an interesting movie are my favorite science-fiction, time travel story. Loosely (very loosely) based on Chris Marker’s experimental short film La jetée, the time-travel romance is a movie that shows you exactly what’s going to happen, convinces you that it can be changed and then shows you that it can’t, while still giving you hope at the end. The performances, along with Gilliam’s notoriously skewed vision of technology, captures the ideas perfectly and makes Twelve Monkey’s a can’t miss movie. So, let’s see what happened. NOTE: Spoilers if you haven’t seen the movie. But it’s been 17 years, so you should have seen it.
Misc Reviews
I’ve read a few things that don’t really call out for their own full reviews. So I’ll just touch on them here. Not that I didn’t like them (although I wasn’t fond of 2 of the books), but it’s just easier than creating a new blog post to say 2-3 sentences about it. Here we go.
Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow is one of the better YA science fiction writers being published today. His books are intelligent, thoughtful and do a great job capturing youthful thoughts and actions. The characters come across as actual teens, instead of miniature adults. And this is the root of why his books consistently piss me off. The writing and characters are so good and the plots so interesting, that the book just grinds to a halt when characters climb up on Doctorow’s soap box and rant. This problem happened, again, in Doctorow’s latest novel Pirate Cinema. The story gets completely derailed by Doctorow’s rant (which he inserts into the various character’s mouths) and makes the story a lot less interesting. It’s almost as if Doctorow doesn’t trust his writing to get the point across without ham-handedly inserting rants that distract from the narrative and do a worse job getting the point across. Let’s see what happens.
Clean by Alex Hughes
As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite sub-genres is the science fiction mystery. I love the interplay between the gritty detective story and the fabulous future. But it’s not always a fabulous future. In Alex Hughes new book, Clean, the world has gone through some wars and is slowly getting better. The technology is not trusted and now there is a serial killer who might be protected by the powerful Telepath’s Guild. It’s an interesting premise and one that mostly delivers. Let’s see what happens.
The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis
Walter Tevis was not an extremely prolific writer. Over 22 years he only published 6 novels and a couple dozen short stories with the late 60s and 70s being a virtual wasteland of publications for him. But what he did write was extremely well received and half of his novels were made into movies, including the classic The Hustler, its sequel The Color of Money and the science fiction classic The Man Who Fell To Earth. The movie version of the book starred David Bowie as the main character and wasn’t that well received when it came out, but has since attained a cult status. So, let’s check out the book and see what happened.
Existence by David Brin
I’m not a huge David Brin fan. I’ve really only read a couple of his books, although I did enjoy them. But when Brin’s newest book, Existence, came out, it looked interesting enough to put on my reading list.. And it did not dissappoint. The book deals with a first contact scenario unlike any other and contains some interesting ideas. Let’s see what happens.
The Map of the Sky by Felix J Palma
I loved Felix J Palma’s first US published novel, The Map of Time (my review), where we followed the adventures of Jack the Ripper, HG Wells and a man who advertises journeys to the year 2000. It was a fun book with a lot of twists and turns and an inventive story and structure. Palma’s new novel The Map of the Sky, is a direct sequel that features several players from the first book. Only, where the first book dealt with Wells’ The Time Machine, this book is more focused on Wells’ The War of the Worlds. So, let’s check out what happens.
Revolution Pilot review
So, the big new network science fiction show is Revolution. It has decent backend support with the creator, Eric Kripke, who was the creator and producer for Supernatural and the pilot directed by Jon Favreau. The basic concept is interesting and there is a bit of a mystery behind the scenes. So, on the surface, it looks like it has some potential. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Lets check out what happened.