Monday Book Pick: Citadel
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
This is the second in his “Troy Rising” series and it doesn’t fail to deliver! The first book in the series was a pick last year. He said he was going to go old school SciFi Space Opera with this series, and my hope what he would go E.E. “Doc” Smith big. Let me just say that my faith in Mr. Ringo was not misplaced. A very fun read. I recommend this series to long term Ringo fans, like me, and to those who haven’t sampled his particular brand of reader crack yet.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Timecop
A Van Damme classic from 1994. A good SciFi Time Travel adventure with really good fight scenes.
Quote of the Day
“To translate it into UNIX system administration terms … the post-modern, politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz. society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules with a kind of neo-Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. Whereas people who were wired into a church were like UNIX system administrators who, while they might not understand everything, at least had some documentation, some FAQs and How-tos and README files, providing some guidance on what to do when things got out of whack. They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability.” — The Cryptonomicon
Sunday SciFi: Firefly and Serenity
Joss Whedon’s SciFi/Western series and feature film. IMNSHO, one of the best SciFi series since Babylon 5.
A really top notch cast and great writing produced a series that the fans loved and the network execs just couldn’t grok.
The result a single season, with four episodes never being aired, followed by rather brisk DVD sales and a feature film.
If you haven’t seen Firefly, do yourself a favor, block out a weekend and watch the entire season.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Runaway
Yes, B-Movie Fans, the 1984 Michael Crichton classic starring Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons, and nicely, but not overly, rounded Kirstie Alley. Household robots are being programmed to kill by an evil genius. I picked this one because I got one of my kids a Roombra for Christmas.
Monday Book Pick: Out of the Dark
Out of the Dark by David Weber
Weber takes a look at a near future Earth invaded by a ruthless alien species. Raw meat for Weber fans right up to the surprise ending. An ending which horked off some fans, but not me. I took at a hat tip to the late Fred Saberhagen.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Predators
The latest in the francise, and probably the best since the original. Decent cast portraying hardened killers up against Alien Predators. Honestly, better than I expected.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Hot Tub Time Machine
This movie was better than I expected, mostly because of good actors, including John Cusack and Crispin Glover. That and a complete irreverance for just about anything. Craig Robinson pretty much played the same character he did in Zack & Miri do a Porno, but he did it well. I watched the unrated version, so there was a fair amount of gratious nudity, which added to the mindless enjoyment of this B-Movie.
SciFi Quote of the Day
“If San Diego Comic Con is your handsome older brother with a Phd wearing a fancy suit and driving a Prius, Dragon*Con is your loud-mouthed sister who’s dressed just a tad inappropriately and most likely coming off a bender in Vegas.”
Crunchy SciFi Goodness
On the last episode of Warehouse 13, H.G. Wells’ Time Machine had a Flux Capacitor!
I’m waiting for the oscillation overthruster to show up.