Monday Book Pick: The Sixth Column
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
The Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein
The first published work by Robert Heinlein, originally as a serial in the pulps of the 1940s. Based on an outline by John Campbell, Heinlein took some of the edge off the overt racism in the outline. Keep in mind that was written in the 1940s and incidents such as the Rape of Nanking were know. It’s good Heinlein, not great Heinlein.
Monday Book Pick: Perigee
Perigee by Patrick Chiles
A near future novel about the way we should be traveling now! A ripping good yarn with steely eyed Missile Men and Women doing the Right Stuff. To make it even better, the science is so hard it throbs.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Colossus – The Forbin Project
HT to my friend John for reminding me of this Cold War era classic. A 1969 spin on the classic Frankenstein story, except this time it’s with highly “intelligent” super computers running the nuclear arsenals of both the United States and the Soviet Union.
Another Edition of Dungeons and Dragons is in the works
Here is the executive summary. The 4th Edition rules were a bad business decision and resulted in decrease in market share.
This new edition is supposed to be a return to their “roots” in a effort to win back their core fan base.
For more details, try Ace’s take on the Forbes story.
HT to Mr. Reynolds, and oh BTW, there have been several Traveller movies. Namely Serenity and Dark Star.
Marc Miller and Loren Wiseman never made a dime off those however.
Monday Book Pick: Princess Valerie’s War
Princess Valerie’s War: A Space Viking Novel by Terry Mancour
The second in a series that follows on to one of my favorite books, Space Viking.
This is follow up book to Prince of Tanith, which was my pick back on 12/12/11. There is clearly at least one more book after this one.
Monday Book Pick: Prince of Tanith
Prince of Tanith: A Space Viking Novel by Terry Mancour
A well written sequel to one of my favorite books, Space Viking. Like most of H. Beam Piper’s work, Space Viking is in the public domain, so sequels like this are fair game. Luckily this one is well written. It takes place after Lucas Trask marries his new love, Lady Valerie, and picks up the action pretty fast. It has all of your old friends and enemies, plus a few more. Fair warning. It ends in a cliff hanger. More about the ‘third’ book in the Space Viking Series later.
Sunday SciFi: A Middleman/Doctor Who Crossover story
Written by Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach!
Friday B-Movie Pick: Genesis II
Dipping into the mid-70s well again, we find this 1973 SciFi flick by none other than Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Set post-apocalyptic where humankind nuked the crap out of the planet, and people are digging out, rebuilding, and empire building. Mariette Hartley provides some nice eye candy, and ya, Roddenberry gets a bit preachy. No surprise there.
Monday Book Pick: The Dark Design
The Dark Design by Philip Jose Farmer
The third book in his epic Riverworld Series.
Sunday SciFi: UFO
UFO was live action SciFi show from the puppet master himself, Gerry Andersen, that ran for a single season of 23 episodes back in 1970.
Great actors, dark thoughtful scripts that always didn’t have a happy ending, sharp miniature work, and a late 60s sense of style and fashion made this show really stand out. Oh and the purple haired moon chicks in silver miniskirts. The cast included Michael Billington, who, according his wikipedia entry, was screen tested for the role of James Bond more than any other actor.
The show also other cool eye candy, including the gull wing door cars, nuclear submarines with a jet fighter mounted on their bow, space interceptors and S.I.D. (Space Intruder Detector). What really made the show was the dark, thought provoking scripts, complex characters and some fine acting by Billington, Ed Biship and Gabrielle Drake.
There is a UFO movie, based on the series in the works. Currently scheduled for a Summer 2013 release.