Friday B-Movie Pick: Six String Samurai
A fine B-Movie Martial Arts classic that combines Rock and Roll, post-apocalyptic SciFi, and Martial Arts. Oh ya, sprinke in a bit of Elvis Presley and Las Vegas for seasoning. It’s gritty, tounge in cheek, and very low budget. Our hero is stalked by non other than Death himself (who is the Heavy Metal counterpoint to our hero’s classic Buddy Holly style Rock and Roll).
Monday Book Pick: Forge of the Elders
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
Forge of the Elders, by L. Neil Smith
In world where Communism won, a team from the World Soviet, in old American Space Shuttles, go to visit an asteroid called Eris. Predictably, chaos is the result, when they find other Earthly intelligent beings, from more Libertarian realities, have gotten there first.
Reynolds & Ringo meet at last
Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, interviews NY Times best selling author John Ringo.
John Ringo is known for writing Military SciFi mostly, but he has also written fantasy and won an award as romance author.
The main topic is John Ringo’s book, The Last Centurion which was my Monday Book Pick for October 24, 2008.
Stray SciFi observations
I admit it, I have watched all three seasons of Heros. Not a great show, but not horrible either. Good acting and engaging characters. Plot holes you could drive a semi through, but hey you can’t have everything.
Ok, fair warning, I’m going to discuss plot points, so there be spoilers here.
First off, the writers must have figured out that time/space powers shared by Hiro & Peter were just too unstablisling and was giving them headaches in the writers meetings, so those had to go.
There was that little trick with a transfusion of Claire’s blood. That is how the Company brought back Noah from the dead. I’m not talking about pining for the fiords type “mostly dead” either. This was a “bullet entrance wound in eye, tunnel through the brain and blow out the back of the head” type dead. If you have Claire, you don’t need to screw with Sylar’s brain after he just cut Nathan’s throat. Ok, maybe they are going to pull some crazed crap like Noah never knew, or asked, how he was brought back to life, and Nathan’s body is on ice somewhere, ready to be reanimated through the magic of Claire’s blood after Sylar figures out that he is Sylar. I expect Parkman to be rather pissed off if he finds out, unless he’s moved on from Daphne and is back on track with his ex-wife, who was cheating on him with his best friend.
Ok, I’ve got that out of my system.
Let’s move on. The SciFi channel’s new show Warehouse 13. Ya, I know know the idiots there changed the spelling, but that is their little episode of idioticy.
I like Warehouse 13, and ya, Steve Jackson Games did a GURPS book about it first, so go collect your geek cred somewhere else. They admit they got the idea from the first Indiania Jones movie anyway.
The characters are fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it is more serious than the Librarian movies. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch all the episodes aired so far at Scifi.com.
Star Trek Nerd Punditry
I never was much of a Star Trek:Voyager fan. Just didn’t like it. Janeway was cool, because she was seriously hardcore, but the rest of cast/crew just never passed passed cardboard cutout stage.
I finally saw the final episode of ST:Voyager, it was in the “Best of Time Travel” set. If that was the best they could do, then the entire series was set on Lame. Except for Janeway, who was still hardcore.
The third season of Enterprise had better episodes, including several multiple episode arcs, that were much, much better than that epic fail of a series final episode the Voyager cast and crew foisted on their much abused fans.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Running Man
An Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1997. California in 2017 has become a police state in the wake of the world’s economy’s total collapse. The hero is wrong accused and tossed in a brutal prison along with Yaphet Kotto’s character, who is there for teaching kids about the Constitution of the United States of America. Ya, I know, it sounds like where America is heading under the reign of our Dear Leader. Besides that, it’s a fun film with added bonuses like Jesse Ventura, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mick Fleetwood, and great performance by Richard Dawson. It was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, From the Starsky and Hutch TV show, and choreography by Paula Abdul.
Monday Book Pick: A Hymn Before Battle
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
John Ringo’s first novel, and the first in his Posleen War Series, also know as the Legacy of Aldenata series. A ripping good yarn. It has back stabbing alien “allies”, really bad bad aliens, and ends with a massive battle on an alien planet.
Ya, I know it’s Tuesday. I’m late.
Monday Book Pick – Altered Carbon
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
A delightful murder mystery wrapped in some really good SciFi. The hero, who really is not a nice man, finds himself back on Earth in a new body. A bit of suprise, since his last one was killed on another planet, involved in crimes that should have kept his consciousness in storage for quite a bit longer. It proceeds to get weird from there, but in a good way for the reader.
Monday Book Pick: Eye of the Storm
Eye of the Storm by John Ringo
The latest by best selling author John Ringo. It’s the next book in his Legacy of the Aldenata series. “Iron Mike” O’Neil is back, and boy is he pissed!
Friday B-Movie – Trekkies
A way funny documentary of rabid Star Trek fans. I’m talking serious fans. Worse than me, and I own a Bat’leth. Great movie if you are into Star Trek.