SF Signal: September 2005 Archives

Friday September 30, 2005

I Am A Leaf On The Wind Or, Review: Serenity

REVIEW SUMMARY: This is what a SF movie should be. Anyone who enjoys a good movie should see Serenity, not just Firefly fans.
MY RATING:
PROS: Strong characters, believable dialog, snappy humor, answers some questions about the 'Verse.
CONS: Weak-ish ending, lackluster music, cheap SFX.
BOTTOM LINE: See it. Now.

MY REVIEW

I won't bore you with a re-hash of the plot as you most likely know it or have seen the movie. Does Serenity live up to the TV show and was it worth the wait? Most definately.

We get everything that the TV show had: interesting and strong characters, great dialog, humor and the interesting 'Verse iteself. In fact, right off it feels like the hiatus never happened. The crew interacts like old times and Whedon's snappy, witty dialog is in full force withing the first few minutes. We learn how Simon managed to spirit River away from the Alliance and we come face to face with the best villain in a long time, the completely amoral 'Operative'. Ruthless doesn't begin to describe him, yet his demeanor onscreen hides that trait very well.

The action starts as The Operative begins tracking River to Serenity and slowly ratchets the tension up between the crewmembers to the point where you can see the stress of running has frayed everyone's nerves and Jayne and Mal almost come to blows over River. Very believable and well executed.

Whedon manages to combine River's story with the origins of the Reavers in a manner I didn't see coming until almost the last minute before the reveal. Again, well done and unexpected. In fact, I liked everything story-wise about Serenity. Whedon knows how write interesting characters who use believable dialog and interact as real people do. We can only hope Lucas is watching, but he may be too busy lighting his cigars with a roll of $100 bills. But I do have a new tag line for old George: "Mal would have shot first!", 'cause, well, he would have. I'm not going to delve deeper into the meaning of the movie or the motivations for the characters actions. Other reviews do that better than I could. I will say I bought into everything that happend, except for the ending. Well, the final confrontation between Mal and The Operative.

From what we know about The Operative, I didn't buy into his actions at the end. They didn't feel right given what type of person he supposedly is. It could be that he changed during the movie, but I didn't see any clues that he did. That bugged me. There were also a few scenes/results that I didn't buy either, but they were very few. I also found the music to be lackluster, and missing the psuedo-Chinese sound from the show. And the SFX were barely adequate. I'm surprised that $40 million doesn't buy better effects. I will say I really likes the opening scene onboars Serenity that is basically one long take that traverses the ship. Outstanding.

All in all, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes good movies, not just SF or Firefly fans.

Arr! Here there be spoilers! Ye've been warned. Arrr!

And yes, there is one big surprise that no one saw coming. You know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie and your reaction was probably the same as John's: "WTF?!". I was speechless and Tim basically entered a state of catatonia. I believe I know the reason why. Spamalot. Don't go looking unless you've seen the movie, otherwise it will spoil the surprise.

A Little Smallville Never Hurt Anybody

I watched the season premiere of Smallville last night. (The wife Season-Passes it on Tivo - that's my story and I'm sticking to it.) A coworker (Dan's mom's son) once called Smallville "Dawson's Creek with super powers". (As an aside, months later I saw the same phrase in print in Entertainment Weekly. Litigation is still pending.) I'm afraid I'll have to agree with Dan's assessment. There is a teen-soap-opera-ish quality to it all.

But there's also the Superman mythos part of the show and I find that part very entertaining. Last night's premiere featured the Fortress of Solitude, super-criminals (I assume Ursa and Non from Superman II), the Phantom Zone, and a new criminal who I thought would be General Zod but have since learned is Braniac. In the past, they showed a young Barry Allen (the Flash) and Perry White. For the uber-geek in me, I also like it that one of the show's stars (Annette O'Toole) played Lana Lang in one of the Superman movie (the horrid Superman IV ) and that the occasional voice of Jor-El is that of Terence Stamp, who played Zod in the excellent Superman II.

Anyhow, the Superman mythos part of the show is interesting to me, an avid reader of the comics when I was growing up. (If it says anything about me, I was a DC Comics kid, not a Marvel kid.) While some of the comic book elements are presented the show, they are in no way silly. In much the same way Battlestar Galactica has worked to earn the "re-imagining" label, so, too, has Smallvile . Although the teen soap aspect of the show is a drawback, and one that keeps me from watching every week, when I do catch it, I find the mythos aspect to be a welcome element of the show.

Just thought I'd share.

Thursday September 29, 2005

SF Tidbits Part XIV

Welcome to another installment of SF Tidbits!

SciFi has an interview with the cast and creator of Serenity.
A Time magazine article, The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth, features Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman. With interview! [Links via Chris Roberson and Eternal Golden Braid]
Bruce Sterling interviewed on J.G. Ballard [Link via Locus Online]
Michael Crichton testifies against global warming. [Link via Locus Online]
AintItCool news has posted a set of eleven screen cpatures of the deleted scenes that are to be included in the DVD release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. [Link via TheForce.net. NTITSWSOA.]

Foxit PDF Reader

I'm not saying that the PDF document format sucks, but it does. OK, maybe I am saying that. The point is that my biggest gripe with PDF is the slow load times and Acrobat Reader loitering around in memory long after the doc is closed.

The solution? Foxit PDF Reader.

It's small (I found it listed as a USB drive utility) and quick and kicks Acrobat's a@@. A one-time file association fix made when it first runs and now PDF files load in an eye blink. Take that, Adobe!

Orson Scott Card's New Web Mag

Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, due in October, is a new web-based magazine put together by the sf author himself. The mag proposes to "really use the power of the web" and will feature audiobook fiction. The mag also proposes to break the limitations of a print magazine by adding content to any given issue up until the next issue is published.

Tuesday September 27, 2005

Top 50 SciFi Shows

Boston.com ran a list of Top 50 SciFi TV Shows of All Time.

Save yourself the Next-Button-thon...here's the list:

Star Trek (Original)
Battlestar Galactica (New)
Star Trek: The Next Generation
The X-Files
Babylon 5
Stargate SG-1
The Twilight Zone
Dr. Who
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Sliders
Lost
Xena: Warrior Princess
The Outer Limits
Star Trek Voyager
Logan's Run
Flash Gordon
Firefly
V
Dark Angel
The Hitchhiker
Quantum Leap
Andromeda
Tales from the Crypt
Wonder Woman
The Jetsons
Stargate Atlantis
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Adventures of Superman
The Six Million Dollar Man
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Alien Nation
My Favorite Martian
Lost In Space
The Avengers
Battlestar Galactica (Original)
The Bionic Woman
Space 1999
Batman
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Thunderbirds
Futurama
Science Fiction Theatre
Nowhere Man
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
The Greatest American Hero
That Was Then
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
3rd Rock From The Sun
The Wild Wild West
Earth - Final Conflict

Monday September 26, 2005

REVIEW: Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds

REVIEW SUMMARY: Another excellent book by Alastair Reynolds.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: 23rd century archaeologist Verity Auger meets up with Detective Floyd in an alternate Earth to solve a mystery or two.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Captivating blend of hard science and engrossing mystery; engrossing story; cool settings; lots of action; fast and evenly paced .
CONS: One or two minor questions left unanswered.
BOTTOM LINE: An excellent ride.

Alastair Reynolds is known for his dark, science-based space operas (see his Revelation Space sequence and the related Chasm City) but his latest book, Century Rain, is a fast-paced hard science adventure mixed with an old-style murder mystery.

The Earth of 2266 is vastly different from what we might expect it to be. For one thing, it's uninhabitable. Back in '77, the Earth was rendered unlivable thanks to a swarm of nanotech machines released by the Slashers, descendents of humanity that rely heavily on nanotech to the point where their personal cloud of nanotech machines blur their appearance. The Nanocaust didn't completely wipe out humanity, however, since people living in space stations orbiting the Earth remained unaffected. The remaining humans, known as the Threshers, have since rejected nanotechnology and use advanced technology just on the threshold (hence their name) of nano. (Incidentally, the Slashers are named after a greeting gesture where they make the mark of a slash and a dot on their chest.)

A Thresher named Verity Auger is an archaeologist who makes dangerous trips down to the frozen wasteland of Earth to retrieve precious pre-Nanocaust artifacts in an effort to learn the truth about man's now-unrecorded history. When one of Auger's missions goes awry (see excerpt), she attempts to salvage her reputation and prevent legal recourse by going on a mission to retrieve a lost artifact. The artifact is a set of papers left by Susan White back in 1959 on a alternate Earth.

Meanwhile, in an alternate Earth of 1959 in which the 1940 German attack of France failed and did not lead to World War II, detective (and musician) Wendell Floyd is hired to investigate the mysterious death of Susan White, whose actions appear to indicate she is a spy.

In the first fifty pages of Century Rain, the reader is introduced to several components of world-building that include a Nanocaust, the remnants of humanity populating space habitats in geosynchronous orbit with a frozen Earth, a genetically modified race, a murder mystery, a courtroom scene, alternate worlds and time travel (of sorts). All of this could have been dumped on the reader with a long, historical-sounding prose that might have reminded the reader of a high school history lesson. Instead, it's built into a compelling mystery that's smoothly delivered. Reynolds is clearly on top of his game as he delivers the goods with a much more accessible writing style than Revelation Space, admittedly a first novel.

The mixing of mystery and sf has been done before (see Asimov's Caves of Steel and other Robot novels) but Reynolds uses his signature hard-science to prop up the science and the mystery. It should be obvious that the two threads of Auger and Floyd converge and, thankfully, it is not put off for long. In fact, just when the reader thinks he can predict the outcome of any turn of events, the story immediately proves or disproves the prediction, preventing the all-too-common feeling of "Oh, I know how this is going to end." That's a good thing.

Both of the story's threads have wonderful settings. The 23rd century is filled with scientific marvels like nanotech and mechs. (Some snake-like robots are dangerous and are marked with an appropriate warning: a circled "A" with a slash through it - an indication that the robots are not "Asimov-compliant". Heh.) The setting of the alternate Earth is perfectly dark and depressing. The scenes with the race of childlike creatures and the underground Metro are downright creepy.

By story's end there were still one or two unanswered questions regarding the history of the alternate Earth. I can only hope the answers to those are forthcoming in a sequel as these are worlds I want to visit again.

POLL RESULTS: 2005 Fall TV Season (Part 1)

Here are the results of the latest SF Signal poll.

QUESTION
Which of the following 2005 TV shows pique your interest?

RESULTS

(475 total votes)

Price Waterhouse has verified that there may have been some form of ballot-stuffing with this poll. For those who took the time to stuff, thanks for showing we were worth the effort.

Thursday September 22, 2005

SFSignal Update

Just a quick update to let all our readers know what is going on regarding posting over the next week or so. As you may or may not know, the majority of posters to this site live in the Houston metropolitan area. Hurrican Rita is expected to make landfall just east of Houston sometime Friday night or Saturday morning. As a result, I haven't been looking for neat SF info to bring you. I'm assuming the others have been busy as well. I'm also expecting us to lose power sometime in the next day or two so posting will be light if not non-existant until things return to normal.

I know that myself, Tim and Scott are all staying. I think Kevin is as well and I'm not sure about John. Things looked very scary last night as the hurricane track had Rite coming right over Galveston and on into Houston. The tracks now have Rita coming ashore further east, which is decent news for us in the NW Houston area. We're hoping it keeps going that way so as to spare us the brunt of the winds.

So, I may be able to post something later on today or tomorrow once I've gotten all our preperations taken care of and it's become a waiting game. Until then, stay safe everyone.

Update: For a really cool Google Earth hack using hurricane location info, check out FLHurrican.com. Very cool. But don't trust their projected paths. I'm not sure how they do that, but it doesn't fit with the NOAA guys.

Currently the storm is projected to make landfall east of us, nor forecasted to be near Port Aurthur, along the TX/LA border.. That's good news for us in NW Houston as it means less high winds, according to one local weather guy, Harris county can expect sustained winds of 45+MPH with gusts upwards of 60 MPH. We'll see if the storm keeps moving as it is.

Wednesday September 21, 2005

Firefly Soundtrack

Has now been released by Fox. It's a downloadabe 'ealbum' and costs $10. You can also listen to each track. I will say that, aside from the opening theme, I can't remember any of the music. That's either good or bad, I can't decide.

The music didn't strike me as being a disappointment, like Sky Captain's did, but it wasn't that memorable either. In fact, I don't think I've ever bought a soundtrack for a TV show. It's just been movies. Hmm, I smell a poll for John....

Thanks to the A Quick Word From The Farside Of The Galaxy for the link.

Google Sued for Copyright Infringment

From Yahoo:

An organization of more than 8,000 authors accused Google Inc. Tuesday of "massive copyright infringement," saying the powerful Internet search engine cannot put its books in the public domain for commercial use without permission.

The lawsuit asked the court to block Google from copying the books so the authors would not suffer irreparable harm by being deprived of the right to control reproduction of their works. It sought class-action status on behalf of anyone or any entity with a copyright to a literary work at the University of Michigan library.

The Author's Guild, a New York-based non-profit organization, said its primary purpose as the nation's largest organization of book authors was to advocate for and support the copyright and contractural interests of published writers.

Free Audio Excerpts

Holtzbrinck Podcasts is offering free audio excerpts of some Tor titles as well as titles from other publishers. This week's 26-minute podcast features the science fiction titles Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and The Precipice by Ben Bova.

[Link via Locusmag]

Saturday September 17, 2005

REVIEW: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

REVIEW SUMMARY: A modern-day Alice in Wonderland story with solid imagery and interesting plot.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Richard is a young office worker in London who goes on a mystical adventure when a strange girl falls bleeding onto the sidewalk in front of him. She ends up taking him into a world of in-betweens and undergrounds - the people between the cracks of modern society.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Neil does a great job painting a picture of the underground world and drawing the reader in. He also has some innovative ideas on what goes on there.
CONS: Unfortunately it was hard to identify with any of Neil's somewhat one-dimensional characters. Richard supposedly grows and changes as a result of his experiences, but because I never believed he was a real person it was hard to notice. The ending is a bit ackward as well.
BOTTOM LINE: Neil's debut novel isn't up to the high standards set by later works such as American Gods and the masterful Good Omens (co-authored with Terry Pratchett) but is still an enjoyable read.

REVIEW: The War with Earth by Leo Frankowski and Dave Grossman

REVIEW SUMMARY: A quick and fun read with some plot pacing issues.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The real wartime adventures of a soldier symbiotically connected to an intelligent super-tank with virtual reality capabilities.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Easily digestible writing style; interesting blend of military sf and virtual reality.
CONS: Pacing issues caused failure to deliver on-time the promise on the title.
BOTTOM LINE: Worth the read if you liked A Boy and His Tank.

The War with Earth by Leo Frankowski and Dave Grossman is the sequel to Frankowski's A Boy and His Tank. When last we left Mickolai Derdowski, he had become a hero in his battles on New Yugoslavia where he worked as a mercenary. Equipped with a super-intelligent battle tank capable of immersing its owner in a virtual reality Dream World at thirty times normal speed, Mickolai kicked some butt, met a girl and got married. Only now we find out it was all a dream. (Not a spoiler - this much is given in the first part of the book and on the back cover.) Or, more precisely, it all happened in virtual reality. The trouble is that now Mickolai's home planet of New Kashubia is on the verge of a war with Earth. Will Mickolai be able to recapture his VR glory?

Although this novel will work as a standalone novel, having read the previous book greatly helps in understanding the characters and technology. The coolest part of the book was the interesting blend of military science fiction and virtual reality. In Dream World, Mickolai, his wife Kasia and his team of elite generals could essentially do whatever they wanted. Aside from the VR training enforced upon them by their super-intelligent tanks, Mickolai (with the help of his tank Agnieshka) also manages to amass a huge fortune, build a city in his own personal valley and construct an army of human-like drones. Not bad for a mercenary pretending to be a general to placate the masses.

Mickolai's character, though ultimately likable, is at times annoyingly flawless in his morals, military acumen, and financial wizardry. His perfection (and his VR escapades - mostly sexual) makes the story seem to be a bit of a wish-fulfillment fantasy. But it's still a fun read thanks to the reader-friendly writing style. I found myself whipping through the pages faster than one of Agnieshka's rail gun rounds. This was fortunate as it took nearly 175 of its 400 pages before the advertised war with Earth started. During that time, Mickolai and Kasia used their super-intelligent tanks to rake in huge fortunes and convert a valley into a city obscenely decadent. While this was interesting, there was ample time to wonder when the so-called war would actually commence. When it finally did kick into high-action mode, the book was more enjoyable. (I especially enjoyed the tunnel battle scenes on New Kashubia, Mickolai's home planet where people live underground in the metal-rich planet.) The ultimate reason for the war at book's end was a pleasant surprise and somewhat explained the lackluster pacing of the first half of the book, but not enough to justify it.

Still, I would recommend this quick and fun read to anyone who liked the former outing and is interested in military science fiction and virtual reality.

Friday September 16, 2005

Book Store Splurge

Half Price Books is having a 20% off sale this weekend, which means, mathematically speaking, that it's more like 60%-Off Books. As if I needed another reason to dump money in their coffers.

Tonight I stumbled across the Easton Press Collector's Edition of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. For those who don't know, Easton Press publishes hoity-toity, leather-bound version of books with gilded pages and a built-in bookmark ribbon. Mmmmmmm...biblioholic goodness.....

I carried it around the store in a biblioholic fugue for a while even though I had no intention of buying it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) I have never read Hyperion so it was questionable to me that I needed a Collector's Edition. I remembered that both JP and Kevin swear on their mothers' knickers - which, creepily, is the same pair - that it is a very good book, so I I started thinking. (Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!) The price tag on the book was $10, meaning it would ring up at $8 + tax post-sale. Surely, 8 beans is but a pittance to pay for a book recommended by both JP and Kevin. The new mass-market paperback sells for the same price so why not get a leather-bound, gilded-paged, bookmark-ribboned hardback that I know sells for $40 or more?

Not that I needed the nudging but I splurged and bought the book. Actually, I ran from the store, book clutched to chest, giggling like the school girl that I am.

Is biblioholism covered under medical insurance?

New SF On TV

I finally decided to post my impressions of the new crop of upcoming SF TV shows, if no other reason than to stop John's incessant whining about when I would write this. I'll be using SciFi's SF TV Review Pt. I as a guide.

And now, on with the show!

Ghost Whisperer - looks like a cross between The Sixth Sense and John Edward's Crossing Over, only Love Hewitt looks better than Bruce Willis or the eponymous John Edwards. Looks like JLH is the only reason to watch this show, maybe. At least she doesn't suck (or maybe she does, I don't know. Maybe Pete knows...)
Verdict - Meh.

Invasion - The aftermath of a hurricane leaves the residents of Homestead, Fla. experience odd events. The immediate conclusion is, of course, ALIEN INVASION! AAAAAHHHHHH! Still, this is produced by Shaun (Da Doo Ron Ron) Cassidy who produced American Gothic which I liked, even if it did have the commander of the Excalibur as the bad guy. SciFi compares Invasion to Lost which is good, but it sounds like there will be more SF to Invasion, which is gooder.
Verdict - Cautious interest.

Masters of Horror - An anthology series focusing on, surprisingly enough, horror stories. Since I don't get Showtime, nor want to, I won't be watching this. Verdict - Big Meh.

Night Stalker - A remake of the original which begs the questions: 'Why?' and 'Is this SF?'
Verdict - No way.

Supernatural - Already premiered on The WB. We already know what Jeff thinks about this show. I'll go with him. Verdict - Nope. Is this SF?

Surface - What happens when you bring home a sea monster as a pet? We'll find out on Mondays. This one seems mildly interesting, possibly worth recording (or bittorrenting maties!).
Verdict - Possibility,

Threshold - New, from the mind that brought you the destruction of Star Trek, Brannon Braga, comes this tale of alien invasion on the cellular level. Sort of a cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and 'Hard Rain' from Bowfinger (yes, I watched Bowfinger, don't look at me like that). As much as I detest Braga for what he did to ST, this one looks interesting, as does (for Tim) Carla Gugino. At least this one wears its SF on its sleeve for all to see.
Verdict - I'll be recording this one!

There we go, but how many are actually SF? 3-ish, and all dealing with aliens in one form or another. We'll see how they fare.

Thursday September 15, 2005

Paperback Swap

A new website called PaperbackSwap promises to build the largest library in the world.

It's an online book club where you list books you want to trade to get credits which you in turn use to get books from other members. You don't pay for anything except postage - when another member requests your book, you mail it to them (~$1.50 in postage). There is currently no fee for this service, but there will be one eventually. The video and small print on the website explains it in more detail.

SF Tidbits Part XII

Welcome to another installment of SF Tidbits!

John Scalzi has completed writing The Ghost Brigades, the sequel to the outstanding Old Man's War.

Neil Gaiman was recently interviewed at Book Standard.

Cory Doctorow is interviewed at Double Filtered.

Kim Stanley Robinson was recently interviewed at Strange Horizons. KSR is also featured in The Guardian where he is asked about environment and politics.

Reason Online offers the article Dhalgren in New Orleans: What an old science-fiction novel can tell us about the Big Easy.

UPDATE: Some more recent interviews are out for Alastair Reynolds, Garth Nix, Sarah Ash and John Marco.

Kitabe: NetFlix for AudioBooks

Kitabe is applying the NetFlix model to AudioBooks.

Like NetFlix, subscriptions levels are based on the number of audiobooks you can have checked out at one time even though you can repeat the process as often as you like each month. According to their FAQ, it's $12.75/month for one audiobook, $19.75/month for two audiobooks and $26.75/month for three audiobooks. However, they have a promotion going until the end of October where prices are $9.95, $18.95 and $24.95 for 1-, 2- and 3-audiobook rental levels. The FAQ makes no mention of DRM. Audiobook CDs are shipped to members in MP3-CD format because it means fewer CDs than normal audiobooks. Their SF/F selection offers 170 titles at the moment.

[Link via MobileRead]