Pages Tagged “SciFi”
Blog Posts
- Comic-Con Quotes: Twisting Genres
Authors China Mieville, Naomi Novik, Scott Westerfeld, Daryl Gregory and more discuss mixing things up with books that defy classification.
- Rereading FlashForward
I’ve been re-reading Robert J. Sawyer’s original Flashforward novel…for obvious reasons. It’s been interesting to compare the TV adaptation…
- Conventions and Distance
You can commute to nearby conventions, drive to others, and fly to even more. Once you have to fly anyway, destination matters more than distance.
- Completing the Series
Yesterday I finally had time to finish reading To Trade the Stars, the final book in Julie E. Czerneda’s “Trade Pact Universe” trilogy. Now I’m ready to pick up The Briar King again, since the final book of Greg Keyes’ fantasy quartet, Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, comes out at the end of the month. […]
- Skiffy Links
Comic-Con 2008 hotel post-mortem at The Beat, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Starship Captains at IO9, and Computer Love Day from Mandriva.
- Those Glowing Red Eyes
So, how appropriate is it that Lee Thompson Young, who played Cyborg on Smallville, would show up in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? (Not, as far as we can tell, as a cyborg this time.)
- Golden Compass, Tin Man
Saw The Golden Compass. Enjoyed it a lot, though it felt very rushed, and I think it would have benefitted from having the actual ending instead of cutting it off early. Here’s hoping they do well enough in the long run to greenlight the next film. Now I can re-read the books. Also watched Tin […]
- Legality Links
Organization for Transformative Works – dedicated to protecting the expression of fan fiction, fan art, etc. (via Naomi Novik) Open Standards, One Web, and Opera – Just why are standards important, anyway? (via Opera Watch) Speaking of Opera, their EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft has been making waves. Responses at CSS3.info, Web Standards Project, Slashdot […]
- Cylon Sighting
Hmm, does anyone else think that the logo on this sign…. …looks a bit like a Cylon Basestar?
- BEM: Ladies Man
A bizarre PSA I found in a 1967 comic book: Brains, Emotions and Muscles each try to chat up a girl at a party, but only BEM will convince her to dance!
- Saw Transformers
I finally got out to see Transformers today. Yes, I grew up with the cartoons, the toys and the comics. Yes, I even collected every comic book from the original Marvel series through the Generation 2 series (including the prologue in G.I. Joe) through the first round from DreamWave. But somewhere along the line I just lost […]
- Lost Finale
That makes two very good season finales this week. Lost was more plot-focused, while Heroes was more character-focused. And we learned some very interesting things about the fate of the islanders. Spoilers follow.
- Thoughts on Heroes: “How to Stop an Exploding Man”
The Heroes season finale was excellent. They did a good job of resolving the main story arc established at the beginning of the season (the bomb threatening New York City), balanced action and characterization, answered some questions while still leaving things open—and set up a really interesting situation for season 2. It’s also nice to see […]
- Exit stage left, pursued by a Claire.
Yeah sure, Heroes X-Men blah blah blah, but wait, there’s more. I’m getting a distinct vibe from the latest episode that has less to do with mutants than with good TV. This makes me very happy, all the more because I didn’t pick up on it until the third-to-last ep of the season. Of course, […]
- The Secret Life of the Invulnerable Cheerleader
I was browsing the DVD releases at Target this weekend, and saw the box for Bring it On: All or Nothing. I did a double-take, because right there on the cover was Claire Bennet from Heroes: Yes, shortly before Hayden Panettiere played a cheerleader with super-powers on Heroes, she played a cheerleader in a direct-to-video […]
- Scifi Question
For some reason, the plot device of Time Travel via Massive Head Trauma seems familiar, but I just can’t place it. Any ideas?
- Dear George: Why I’m not buying the Star Wars Limited Edition DVDs
I already own the DVD edition of Star Wars, and what I want from the theatrical edition is the original substance *with* the remastering you did in 1997.
- Mary Shelley’s Bride of Frankenstein
I’ve been working my way through the classic Universal Frankenstein movies, some of which I’m sure I’ve seen before, and some of which I’m sure I haven’t. Of course, they get filtered through having read the book at least three times and having watched Young Frankenstein many times. Last weekend I watched Bride of Frankenstein. […]
- Stargate: The Gatekeeper Wars?
Apparently Stargate: SG-1 has been canceled after 10 seasons. I wasn’t a fan, but you’ve got to admit, 10 seasons is a serious accomplishment. But I found one remark interesting: Ironically, this is the first year since Season Four that plans were already in place, both creatively and in signed actor contracts, for another year. […]
- Offline in Crotheny
Sorry I haven’t posted much here lately. The main reason is that I’ve been re-reading Greg Keyes’ Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series before picking up The Blood Knight. (I’ve also been spending time at the Comic Bloc Forums discussing the Flash relaunch.) Re-reading The Briar King and The Charnel Prince both followed the same […]
- Six of one, half a dozen of another
Last night we went to see a screening of Twelve Monkeys, still one of my favorites. There was an odd moment in the middle, though. In the scene in which Bruce Willis and Madeline Stowe are attacked in the abandoned theater, just after Willis’ character kills the attacker, is this exchange: “You killed him!” “All […]
- Bad Science. Good Sci-Fi.
There are certain ideas that I find completely acceptable in the context of science-fiction, but completely looney in the context of actual science. Take, for instance, Erich von Däniken’s premise that gods were really ancient alien astronauts. It’s an interesting idea, but it’s way out there in terms of science. It assumes that (a) myths […]
- Lost on the Internet
CNET has an article on various websites related to Lost. Among them are official sites for Oceanic Airlines and The Hanso Foundation and fan sites for Mega Lotto Jackpot and Charile’s band, Drive Shaft. I’d seen the Drive Shaft site last year (or at least a Drive Shaft site), though it seems to have exceeded […]
- Serenity and MirrorMask: Worth the Wait!
It’s refreshing when a movie you’ve anticipated for years actually lives up to your expectations. It’s unprecedented when it happens twice in one weekend. MirrorMask and Serenity were both amazing. The MirrorMask theater listing looks like a tour schedule, with the film opening in a few more cities each week. Unfortunately, at least some theaters […]
- Technicolor Wheel
The first issue of the New Spring comic book was surprisingly good. I wasn’t sure how well Robert Jordan’s writing would translate to the medium, and of course a lot of details are lost, but Chuck Dixon has done a good job adapting the story, and Mike Miller’s art is incredible. The book opens with […]
- Star Wars: Meditations on the Sarlacc pit
A collection of comments, thoughts and images, some highly spoilerish and not all of them canon. 1. I framed through the end of the Vader vs. Obi-Wan battle in A New Hope after being a bit confused by it last night. Watch closely, and you’ll notice two things. First, Vader’s lightsaber appears to go through […]
- Cancellations: Fallen Angel & B5
Fallen Angel is ending with #20, and Babylon 5: The Memory of Shadows has fallen through. However, JMS has always said, “If they can do a Brady Bunch movie, you can be sure that sooner or later, somebody’s going to do a B5 movie.” Even better, it turns out that while Warner Bros. owns the […]
- New meaning to PDA
OK, this is bizarre. Apparently a Hong Kong software company is preparing to release a Virtual Girlfriend for high-res mobile phones. It—or I suppose I should say “she”—is structured as an online game, on the virtual pet model. (Remember the tamagotchi fad?) You hold conversations with “Vivienne,” give her virtual gifts, even work up to […]
- Philosophy of Time Travel
We went to see the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. I walked out of there wishing The Philosophy of Time Travel was a real book.
- Pining for the Fnords
I’m about halfway through The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and the most apt description is, if you’ll pardon the language, a mindfuck. Once the writing settles into a coherent structure (or perhaps once the reader is attuned to it), the mind starts noticing connections. Everywhere. It’s as if it was written specifically to induce apophenia. The most […]
- Speaking of Synchronicity
As the topic has come up frequently in The Illuminatus! Trilogy (which I am reading right now), I thought I’d post a good quote I read recently about the human tendency to find patterns where none exist. The only problem is I can’t find the quote. I don’t remember the exact phrasing, I don’t remember […]
- Not where I was expecting it!
The mystery of where the Farscape miniseries will air has been answered! From Sci-Fi Wire [archive.org]: SCI FI announced it will be bringing back Farscape with an all-new miniseries — called Farscape: Peacekeeper War — slated to air in the fourth quarter of this year. WTF? OK, it’s not the last place I’d expect – […]