SF Tidbits for 7/26/06

4 Comments

1. Jose says:

   July 26, 2006 at 5:33 am

   The USA Today article was actually interesting, cheers for the linkage. Personaly I’m glad that the Island tanked. We don’t need more high profile Science Fiction that sets out to milk the public misconceptions of science (in this case cloning is evil). Personaly I welcome the idea of science fiction on tv and in film that speaks to issues that are relevant to us today (Battlestar Galatica does a great job of this).

   Cheers for the links guys.

   Reply
2. Yaron says:

   July 26, 2006 at 5:45 am

   Just what we need, a Sword of Truth series…

   Wizard’s First Rule was pretty good, with just one big flaw. But this flaw kept getting bigger and bigger the more the series progressed. I’m talking about the fact that all the major characters seem terribly reluctant to talk with each other, and to share their knowledge or intents. Almost all of the problems, difficulties, and terrible side effects that kept killing many thousands of people throughout the series would have been avoided if on the usual gathering of characters they sat down and actually talked.

   The first few times I could understand. New experiences, and new people they don’t trust. And it’s a natural human trait to believe you know more, and are smarter, than people who actually deal with your new problem on a regular basis and have lots of experience with it. But as things kept progressing, they were still at it, time after time, refusing to learn from experience.

   Now, there would have been a downside to them talking, sure. Had these open conversations taken place then the world would have been sorted out in the first book or two, and there wouldn’t have been a reason for a series. Everyone would be happy. But I can’t avoid thinking that in a decent epic fantasy it should be possible to find reasons for fighting beyond the close mouthed stupidity of the protagonists.

   And then he had Faith of the Fallen that was mostly anti-communist propaganda, of a type that would have been a little over the top even if published in the US during the McCarthy era. not something I really expect in books these days.

   And it was followed by Pillars of Creation which managed to get me to care so much that I added it to the very short list (less than 10, ever) of books I ever stopped reading in the middle.

   Maybe they improved since then, but I wouldn’t know.

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3. Fred Kiesche says:

   July 26, 2006 at 7:51 am

   Alas, I did not see anything in that USA Today article that leads me to think that Hollywood won’t continue to (to quote Jose) “…milk the public misconceptions of science…”

   And what is with renaming a classic tale (“Mismy Were the Borogroves” as “Mimzy”? No doubt they’ll screw the rest of it up.

   And let’s see…two movies that sound like they are firmly grounded in pseudo-science, one movie that sounds like it’ll be more horror than SF (and also pseudo-science) and two remakes of concepts that are tired beyond belief.

   Oh yes, SF is baaacccccckkk in the cinema. Looks like I’ll still be spending more time with literary SF than filmed SF for the forseeable future!

   :O

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4. John says:

   July 26, 2006 at 4:30 pm

   See also: JP’s take.

   Reply