Dr. Who – Eleventh Doctor

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The new Dr. Who series with the Eleventh Doctor started in the UK on two weeks ago. It’s finally appearing on BBC America now. Never having watched Dr. Who before (Hi. My name is Mark and I’m a science fiction fan who’s never seen a Dr. Who episode), I thought this might be a good place to start with a new entry point. So, how is it?
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Red Lightning by John Varley

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Red Lightning by John Varley is the sequel to Red Thunder (reviewed previously) and follows on with the next generation 20 years after the events of Red Thunder. This book has some of the same flaws as the original, but it’s strengths aren’t quite as good. By following up 20 years later, we can see some of the effects from the end of previous book and allow us to see how the events played out. The change in narration is handled well, but be still have too much exposition at times.

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DVD You Should Own – Firefly

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Firefly was Joss Whedon’s 3rd TV series (after Buffy and Angel) and was the first one set in a different universe. The basic concept was a science fiction western (which was based on Whedon’s reading the book The Killer Angels), but was never appreciated by the TV executives. The episodes were aired out of order when they were not rejected. But, in an unprecedented turn of events, a TV show that was cancelled for low ratings mid-season sold so many DVDs that a feature film was created about it. What was it that made the fans so excited?

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The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

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The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson is a wild ride of conspiracy, sex, violence and a anarchy loving midget named after a mathematical tool used in statistical analysis. The best description of the book comes from a Rolling Stone blurb: “A hundred pages in  I couldn’t figure out why I was wasting my time with this nonsense…after three hundred I was having too much fun to quit and by the end I was eager to believe every word”

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the BBC Series

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the BBC Series was my first introduction to Douglas Adams’ famous story. It came after the radio series and novel and plays and record, but for some of us, it was the introduction to a comic masterpiece that is as funny today as the day we first read it. PBS showed it here in the US in late 1982 and I still remember dying laughing at the comic situations. And when I found out there was a novel, I was beyond ecstatic about reading it. But does the series stand up almost 30 years later after 7 novels and a Hollywood movie?

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Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury

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Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury is an unofficial Foundation book. Kingsbury goes out of his way to make sure you know that he’s talking about Foundation without ever explicitly mentioning it. The novel is set later in the thousand year interregnum and a knowledge of the Foundation books s critical to enjoying the book.

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WWW:Wake by Robert Sawyer

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WWW:Wake by Robert Sawyer (author of FlashForward whose TV show is probably canceled for good reason) is about an emerging consciousness in the Internet. The main thing it reminded me of was Jane from Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead. The idea is a network gains enough nodes(the Internet or the ansible) that it starts becoming conscious. Where Jane is a fully formed being, this is the beginning of one and the first part of a trilogy that will follow it.

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Red Thunder by John Varley

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Red Thunder by John Varley is a cross between The Astronaut Farmer and Salvage 1. It’s a story about a group of kids who work with an ex-astronaut and his genius (and slightly mentally challenged) cousin to develop a new power source into a trip to Mars. If you look at the cover and the title, it would appear to be more of a Tom Clancy book, but this is a homage to Robert Heinlein’s juveniles.

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Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam

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Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam reads like someone trying to write their own version of The Road. And I don’t mean that in a good way. The characters didn’t fit into the post apocalyptic scenario. We start before the apocalypse and then move on with little to no warning or clues to how far forward we have jumped. I spend the beginnings of several chapters trying to figure out if I was reading about a new character or an existing one. Highly not recommended and not worth a full review. Go read The Road instead.

Hepcats by Martin Wagner

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Hepcats by Martin Wagner is a amazing story featuring anthropomorphic animals that was never finished due to real-life intrusions. And the sad part of the story is that the best parts of the story were never collected. It’s a strange tale of how art and reality collided in unforeseen ways and killed off one of the best self-published comics of the 1990s.

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