A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
Netscape revealed the newest version of their web browser which runs on a user’s choice of 2 (count ‘em) browser engines: The Gecko engine and the Microsoft IE engine(!).
Noah Robischon of Entertainment Weekly serves up another batch of sf reviewlettes this month.
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| Pros: | Awesome graphics; good game play (with exceptions, see below); plenty of questing; voice-overs; nice storylines. |
| Cons: | Only 4 characters allowed; instanced zones are not truly private; bad guild system; no mission system |
| Bottom Line: | I quitted before my trial period is over. If they want my patronage (read: money), they shouldn’t make it difficult for me to enjoy the game. |
UK site The Guardian tells gives us Scientific Things to Do Before You Die.
[Link via /.]
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.
QUESTION
Have you ever continued reading a sf/f series even after reading a bad installment?
RESULTS
79% (19 votes) – Yes. I hope the author can recreate what I liked so much in the first place.
8% (2 votes) – Nope. One strike is all it takes for me to say “bye-bye”.
0% (0 votes) – I never read a bad book in any series.
13% (3 votes) – I never read any sf/f book that was part of a series.
(Total votes: 24)
It comes to me as no surprise that a clear majority of respondents cling to the hope that a series will redeem itself. We’re a loyal bunch. I’m sure this makes publishers and authors very happy. 2 folks are way less lenient – one strike and the series is history. I guess that the assumption is that it is all downhill from then on. 3 voters haven’t read any sf/f that was part of a series. No small feat, that, considering the unwritten law that seemingly exists which says “thou shalt only create series”. I wonder, is that a conscious decision to avoid a series? Few are those who have not read a sequel!
REVIEW SUMMARY: 6 standouts + 20 good stories – 3 losers = one heck of a collection.
MY RATING: 
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Anthology of 29 sf stories from the year 2003.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Most of the stories were well-written and memorable
CONS: 3 stories failed to impress.
BOTTOM LINE: Better than most anthologies. 2003 was a good year for short sf.
For those of you who may care, Mike Bullock at Broken Frontier takes a look at 3 new science fiction comics. They look quite interesting, I may have to pick up a copy of each and check them out. Not enough SF in comics for me, although I know there has been some in the past. And for Kevin, how is MegaCity 909?
Thanks to Jeff at Gravity Lens for the link!
Adrienne Martini has some not-so-nice things to say about trilogies in her article Bad Things Come in Threes (Careful, the BookSlut name and logo may be considered not work-safe).
I agree with her on many counts. Rarely today is a trilogy about the story. Instead, it seems to be about the almighty dollar. (Heck, publishers are even forcing writers to break single books into multiple volumes to up the cost of the complete story. See Westerfeld’s The Risen Empire and John C. Wright’s The Golden Age and its sequels) This week’s poll (still in progress) indicates three readers who have never read a sf/f book that was part of a series. That’s got to hard to do when it seems like every released book is #X in a series. (OK, Adrienne’s article distinguishes between a single-story trilogy and a series of independent books. But still…) The standalone feature of Tad Williams The War of the Flowers is part of what drew me to the book. I could get a sample of the author’s writing without committing to a trilogy.
Of course, there is still the sf geek in me (Help! Let me out!) who gets excited about an unread trilogy or a series, even if the idea of committing to one is sometimes daunting.
Sigh. I am torn.
[Three sequential thank-yous to Locus Magazine for the link.]
Just wondering. This article (via Sci Fi Ranter Girl) has Jolene Blalock trash talking Berman. A little TnA may not help ratings, but if Pete knew what T’Pol wasn’t wearing last season, he may have tuned in. Jolene has some nice things to say about the new show runner, Manny Coto. Manny seems to have a lot of ideas for moving Enterprise forward, including an ending to series. Which may be this season. All I know is I haven’t watched it. In fact, I haven’t watched any Star Trek series religiously since about season 6 of The Next Generation. Bad and/or recycled stories just don’t cut it for me. And once they lose me, I don’t typically go back. I’ve got too much else to do. Too bad, since I once was a Star Trek uber-geek…
Check out these sweet A-Team robots. Sadly, they are one-offs and not available for sale. Too bad ’cause I really want a robot that will roll up to someone and say: “I love it when a plan comes together!”
All they need now is a Murdock robot that will careen wildly around, crashing into everything.
And speaking of The A-Team, where the heck are the DVDs?
This being Thanksgiving and all, I though it would be interesting to inquire about turkeys. Not the gobble-gobble kind…I’m referring to the definition meaning “the worst of something”. Specifically:
What was the worst science fiction book/movie you’ve ever read/seen?
One qualifier: you had to actually read/watch the entire book/movie.
Big Dumb Object points to Engadget points to Red Ferret Journal points to Custom Phone’s $75 Universal remote control in the form of a light saber. Every time you press a button, it makes the lightsaber sound.
Yawn. Now a Jar-Jar Cuckoo Clock, that’s where the money is…
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From /. via wirenh.com comes a very interesting story about a company called Holo-Deck Gaming that offers cyber-cafe style PC and console gaming on the internet with some awesome equipment. The games are played on 73-inch high-def projection TVs – one for each player! They are also working on a 180-degree monitor system and something they call The Sphere. Very cool. |
photo by Dave Karlotski |
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I don’t personally go to my local game center (titled NetZone) but it’s just a collection of PCs with regular monitors. Would I go to this sort of place? Not sure – the systems sure do look cool, but I generally prefer the convenience of my home PC. Of course, my kids might feel differently, and I do enjoy a good LAN party now and then. What if me and 10 of my friends could rent the place for the night – now that might work out. |
As part of Target’s ongoing celebrity tie-ins, they are offereing a wake-up call a celebrity of your choice. Of particualr interest to to Star Wars fanboys is the Darth Vader wake-up call.
[Link from TheForce.net]
Space.com has a quiz testing your knowledge of spacey-like things. Can you get a perfect score of 10?
I’m sure some people would find this T-Shirt interesting.
[cough-cough...looks at JP]
[Link via TheForce.net]
Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.
QUESTION
Have you ever been unable to complete a Hugo or Nebula Award winning book because you disliked it so much?
RESULTS
64% – Yes, what were they thinking?
14% – No, I liked all the award winners I read.
21% – No, I haven’t read any award winners.
(Total votes: 14)
I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one who was unable to finish an award-winning book. For me, it was Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. I just couldn’t get into it at all. Three of the fourteen voters haven’t read any award-winning fiction at all. And I’m curious to know how many award-winners were read by the folks who liked ‘em all.
Our favorite bargain bookstore, BookCloseouts, has finally redesigned their website.
Improvements: Search refinement links; book pictures; nicer look and feel; Also-by-this-author links; New scratch & dent section.
Still Needs Improvement: Can only sort by author or title and not price; Cannot customize number of search results per page.
Some scattered bits floating around in the ether…
Wanna know what people are saying about the latest movie, DVD or game release? Head on over to MetaCritic for a moderated collection of reviews. They use a weighted scoring system called MetaScores to rate the movie, game or DVD on a scale of 0-100 where more reputable review sources carry a higher weight. Items are also color-coded so you can thell at-a-glance the good (green) from the not-so-good (red) and everything in between (yellow).
As an example, the game Halo 2 has a metascore of 96 whereas the film Bio-Dome got a score of 1.
This LA Times mentions about an upcoming Tivo feature that displays ads when fast-forwarding through commercials. The ads offer “see more info” and “send me more info” options. Early customer reaction is miced. Some say it betrays the customers (Tivo is no longer “TV your way”) and some say no big deal (FF still works and it helps Tivo stay afloat).
My first reaction is: what a bummer. One of the things I like most about Tivo is the compressed viewing time. I rarely watch live TV anymore. But realistically, I think this just may be no big deal. It may seem intrusive (and it is), but I still get the compressed viewing. Just as long as it doesn’t take more buton presses to glide past the ads. I guess I’ll wait and see.
[Link via PVRBlog]
There are many different lists of SF Movies that can be found on the Internet, or even using the search feature here on the big SFS. Most of these lists are someone’s TOP X (where x is anywhere from 10 – 100+) movies. They could be “Best SF”, “Most Overrated”, “Most Underrated”, and so on. So we (ok me) decided to do something a little different. There are a lot of movies available and not enough time to watch them all. Knowing this, I asked the guys here what they thought were some good SF movies they’ve seen that most people probably haven’t. Hence the title of this post.
Apparently this question was a little too confusing for John who wondered how was he supposed to know what movies somone else has seen. I don’t believe John as really gotten past his anal fixation on over-analyizing the question, but he did manage to contribute to the list. We’re not going “Top X-number of Movies” here, we’re just suggesting some movies that we’ve seen and liked and think you, our readers, may too. We’re also not suggesting that the movies listed are great cinema and must be part of every “Top SF Movie” list. No. We are saying, though, that these movies are entertaining and will appeal to fans of SF everywhere. So, without further ado, our list.
In the wake of the Disney/Pixar breakup, Disney announced plans to forge ahead with Toy Story 3.
In other animated Disney news, the webiste is up for Chicken Little, the popular story of a chicken who claims the sky is falling. The movie is scheduled for a July 2005 release and features the voices of Zach Braff (TV’s Scrubs, which I have only recently started watched, sadly, because it’s a very funny show), Garry Marshall, Joan Cusack, Don Knotts, and Harry Shearer. The animation in the trailer looks great. Very accessible.
No spoilers…
Besides the 5 CD’s, the game comes with a coupon for $20 off the latest ATI graphics card and a small Quick Ref card – no manual.
I had a little trouble getting it up and running properly. First, you must activate the game in order to play. The activation/registration servers were bogged down last night given that everyone in the country was trying to activate their game. Eventually (10 minutes later?) the program came back saying it was gave up and to just go ahead and play until the server could be reached.
