Saturday, June 30th, 2012
So every four years we elect a king. Since people like consistency, we tend to elect the same king as many times as we can get away with. (See previous paragraph.) And the king, especially in any sort of emergency, has a lot of power. They don’t always, or even most of the time, have enough to fix things right away. But they’ve got a lot of power.
Including the power to totally screw things up.
…
For the kids reading this, this is a very important point. When you choose your king, forget most of the reasons you think you should vote for the king. Mostly, the king can’t do much about the economy but ruin it. They can’t make you richer or smarter (although they can manage the reverse). If you want one suggestion, think about all the contingencies under which that king (or queen in this case) may hold your lives in his or her hands. And choose wisely.
— Bandit Six
Tags: Baen, Bandit Six, John Ringo, Military Science Fiction, Politics, quote, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Friday, June 29th, 2012
Total Recall
Let us set the WayBack Machine to 1990, when Arnold Schwarzenegger ruled the action movie kingdom. Total Recall draws its SciFi roots from the Phillip K. Dick short story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” From there, it jams the action meter up to 11. The special effects were ground breaking and Oscar winning for the time. With the remake coming out this summer, take the time to check out the original film. Oh, and take the time to read some Phillip K. Dick as well.
Friday B-Movie Pick Archives
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Friday B-Movie, Movie, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 25th, 2012
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
Mr. Newman starts with the premise that the so-called “heros” of Bram Stoker’s Dracula screwed the pooch and were slaughtered like the incompetent buffoons they appeared to be. With them out of the way, Dracula pretty much has his bloody way with England. This includes having his bloody way with Queen Victoria. Yup, Prince Consort Dracula. Being a vampire becomes fashionable in Jolly Old England. Causes a bit of an upheaval to the social order. Yup, the Vampires are out of the closet for good. I really enjoyed this book and even better, it is the first in series.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Alternate History, Dracula, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, Vampire
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Monday, June 18th, 2012
Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels by David Drake
A pair of Cold War with Aliens thrillers sharing the same hero/anti-hero, Tom Kelly. Tom Kelly is a spy, and not the sauve, Vodka martini drinking type of spy that that era made famous. Nope, Kelly is a roll up your sleeves and get the job done, regardless of where the chips may fly type of spy. The ladies still love him, probably because is a seriously “bad boy.” Ok, not a bad “boy”, he is a man who lives by his rules, not the rules of the agencies that employ him. If you are looking for gritty action with a healthy dose of aliens, settle down in a comfortable chair and get to know Tom Kelly.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Bae, Baen, book, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi, Technothriller, Thriller
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Sunday, June 17th, 2012
Tor publishing has created a list of The 10 Most Memorable Trek Redshirts Not Dressed in Red
10.) Crewman Green (Uniform Color: Gold), “The Man Trap”
9.) Joe (Uniform Color: Blue), “The Naked Time”
8.) Robert Tomlinson (Uniform Color: Gold), “Balance of Terror”
7.) Lee Kelso (Uniform Color: Beige?), “Where No Man Has Gone Before”
6.) Karen Tracy (Uniform Color: Blue), “Wolf in the Fold”
5.) Latimer (Uniform Color: Gold), “The Galileo Seven”
4.) Sam (Uniform Color: Pink Bathrobe), “Charlie X”
3.) D’Amato (Uniform Color: Blue), “That Which Survives”
2.) Arlene Galway (Uniform Color: Blue), “The Deadly Years”
1.) Sam Kirk (Uniform Color: Civilian Orange Colored thing), “Operation—Annihilate!”
Tags: Science Fiction, SciFi, Star Trek, Sunday SciFi
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Friday, June 15th, 2012
Gattaca
This 1997 film is best known for where Uma Thurman meets the man who would become her ex-husband. Other than the ex-Mr. Thurman, it really has a pretty good cast. Uma Thurman, who went on to fame in the Kill Bill movies, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Jude Law and Alan Arkin give the movie some serious acting chops. SNL’s Maya Rudolph had a brief scene as well, one of her early “serious” acting jobs. The movie focuses on an old SciFi concept, when science allows parents to start editing their children’s genes to create “perfect” humans, what happens to those who didn’t have their genes tweaked? A good film, but not a great one.
Friday B-Movie Archive
Tags: Friday B-Movie, Movie, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, June 11th, 2012
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I saw this book in the “New Science Fiction” section at a local bookseller. So “new” means published in the last 100 years, since this book was originally released in 1912! It is a classic, well worth the reprinting. One of the favorite early childhood books of both my brother and myself. I still have that hardcover edition with the Ape-English dictionary in the back.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, ERB, Monday Book Pick, Pulp, Science Fiction, Tarzan
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Friday, June 8th, 2012
The Wrath of Khan
Let us set the Way Back Machine to 1982. Yup, 30 years ago, the best Star Trek movie ever was released. This one had the original TOS cast, with Leonard Nimoy directing, a fine looking Kirstie Alley as the Vulcan Lt. Saavik, and Ricardo Montalban as Khan. One of the reasons this movie was so cool was that they took it away from Roddenberry and put in more military style uniforms, and modeled the space battles after Age of Sail naval battles instead of cold war submarine battles. If you grew up on TNG, DS9, or Lord have mercy, Voyager, do yourself a favor and check The Wrath of Khan out.
Friday B-Movie Pick Archive
Tags: Friday B-Movie, Movie, Science Fiction, SciFi, Star Trek, William Shatner
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Monday, June 4th, 2012
The Monster in the Mist (A Chronological Man Adventure) by Andrew Mayne
Executive Summary: Steampunk version of Doctor Who, with a bit of other pulp references tossed in. I give it a thumbs up for being a fun read and definately worth the $0.99 for the ebook download. It’s the first in a series, with the second book also out in the wild. The hero is clearly based on the 11th Doctor, who only travels forward in time. He spends long periods in storage beneath a building he owns in Boston, coming out only when the clockwork computer that monitors events decides that there is something worth cracking him out of cold storage. This time, it is a rash of disapperances in the fog that brings him out in 1890. He even has a companion. A young woman who maintains the office and keeps up on current events. The hero Smith, just Smith, also has a warehouse of gadgets that would make Doc Savage proud, but he won’t show up for a few more decades.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Doctor Who, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi, Steampunk
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Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
Ok, William Shatner never really left. The man best known for his Role as Captain James T. Kirk, of the Starship Enterprise, is 80 years old and still rocking.
He has a new album out, Seeking Major Tom is space themed collection featuring his return to his cool defining cover of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin hit Rocketman.
The people who helped lay down the tracks, complete with bumpers of actual space radio traffic & cuts from Shatner’s version of Major Tom, is amazing. Johnny Winter, Lyle Lovett, Steve Miller, Brad Paisley and Peter Frampton plus a bunch of others.
It really is a fun album, and Shatner’s unique vocal talents stand out on tracks like Mr. Spaceman, Space Cowboy, and She Blinded Me with Science.
Check it out!
Tags: Music, Science Fiction, SciFi, Star Trek, William Shatner
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