A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
Scroll down a little to see the list. There are 23 “top ten” stories because of ties. The 12 I’ve read were all excellent!
I’ve recently been playing SWG, along with Scott and a few other people, and I thought I’d post some thoughts that I have concerning it. When SWG was first announced, my initial reaction was: “Great, EverQuest in space. I never got in to EQ and dropped out after playing only for a few hours. Since SWG is developed by the same people, well company anyway, as EQ , my expectations were so low that I decided I wasn’t going to play.
Over here…
So no one thinks I haven’t done anything with the site recently, I have!
Each entry on the main page now has its category displayed, and it is also a link to the archive page for that category.
And! Each entry has a Discuss button which will take you to (drum roll!) our new forums! There is a forum setup to correspond to each category we use for entries. Woo hoo! There is still some Javascript cleaning to do, but it works. I’ll get to it between sessions of Star Wars Galaxies…..
REVIEW SUMMARY: A dark near-future with tough characters highlights this light but enjoyable read.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The latest patient of a doctor with empathetic abilities leads her into intrigue and conspiracy
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Dark; quick read; interesting and engaging future society.
CONS: Slow buildup; balance between background and action could be better;
BOTTOM LINE: An quick, enjoyable way to pass the time.
An interview with David Brin.
Briefly noted at SciFi Weekly:
Stan Lee has partnered with Playboy to develop a cartoon TV series starring Hugh Hefner as the leader of an elite crime-fighting team of various Playmates of the Month, called Hef’s Superbunnies, Variety reported.
An online short story from Philip José Farmer. I read this last April and though it was pretty good (regardless of the somewhat predicatble ending).
The Spiderman 2 website is up…one year before its release.
Sorry to muck with your post but the picture doesn’t work the comments apparently….
Holy bad ‘singing’ Bat Man! This is horrific. But, like a train wreck, you can’t help but watch…
Is it possible to replace the poor comments section of the blog with a real forum? I’d recommend PHPBB if possible.
REVIEW SUMMARY: Thought-provoking classic SF
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In the future, all books are outlawed and burned by firemen.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Some interesting concepts
CONS: Slow moving at times
BOTTOM LINE: An enjoyable classic. A good read.
Encrypt, from the SciFi Channel, is on tomorrow night. Parts of this sound interesting, although the whole ecological disaster motif annoys me, but I guess they needed something to replace the nuclear holocost as the catalyst for a post-apocalyptic movie. Anyway, its sounds intriguing, but this is from the same people who brought is that horrible abomination that is Riverwrold. Still, I may catch the second airing, unless someone would kindly Tivo it…
We bought Aaron a GameCube for his birthday, an early birthday present. We also bought a few games for him, a couple of which are interesting in a SF way.
Interesting article by John Clute about the genre of SF
I just finished up the first two Harry Potter books, in about 3 days total, and I have to say, they are rather good. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I got my money’s worth from them. Having said that, I can’t figure out why these books have people standing in line, in costume!, at the local bookstar at midnight just so they can buy the next book. Have the Trekies moved on to books now? While I admire Rowlings imagination, I don’t find her writing style to be anything special. In fact, her style seems to be brusque, functional, and rather simple. The characters are sympathetic but there’s really not a lot of development of them. I’d say they are great reads for the time investment, but I don’t think they warrant weirdos standing in line, yelling “First!”.
Second Life is a Massively Multiplayer Online…World. It looks interesting, with the best feature being that people, in game, can build, not only their own houses, but just about anything else. Including terrain. Including flying carpets. It looks very interesting. They have a 5 day free trial and I’d be interested in trying it. If anyone else is, lets sign up at the same time and check it out.
REVIEW SUMMARY: An emotionally charged book with a slow, too-fantastic middle.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Six lone survivors of a Nuclear War are put on trial for their crimes against humanity.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Interesting writing style; striking scenes;
CONS: A bit slow in the middle; hard to suspend disbelief;
BOTTOM LINE: An OK post-apocalyptic “modern fantasy” book
I remeber playing this waaaaay back in 1980. At that time, the game was one of those that game in a re-sealable plastic bag and had cardboard punch-out pieces. It was still fun and you had the ability to design your own ships. Looks fun today too!
