SF Signal: May 2006 Archives

Wednesday May 31, 2006

SF Tidbits for 5/31/06

Trailer: Ghost Rider starring Nicholas Cage.

The release date of Superman Returns has been moved up to Wednesday, June 29. Also, there's a new trailer.

Joss Whedon will be writing a Spiderman story. [via Whedonesque]

A CRACKED Guide to Futuristic Supe Drugs. [via Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing]

Brothercyst interviews John Crowley, author of Little, Big.

Jason Nahrung interviews Justine Larbalestier [via Talking Squid]

SFF Audio podcast interviews Harlan Ellison. (Favorite snippet: When looking for assistance in trying to recall something, Ellison says to the interviewer, "You have access to the Internet. I don't.")

REVIEW: Castleview by Gene Wolfe

REVIEW SUMMARY: Classic Wolfe - a story set in modern times that manages to brings in tons of fantasy elements and still pulls off an amazing read. It's part thriller, part fantasy, and all Wolfe.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The town of Castleview, Illinois is in for a wild night as a vision of a phantom castle pushes Will Shields, the new owner of the local car dealership, into an adventure involving werewolves (sort of), vampires (maybe), and faries (definitively.) Oh, and there's some Arthurian legend to boot (I'm almost 100% positive.) Oh and the book mentions Sasquatch, but he's not in it really (at least, I don't think so.)

MY REVIEW:
PROS: An intricate and engaging story - Wolfe always makes you pay attention throughout. If you're tired or watching TV you best not try to read it. But the rewards for reading carefully are involvement in a rich narrative that just seems better than most works today.
CONS: You have to have your thinking cap on - Wolfe is a demanding author. If you're looking for a quick read at bedtime this isn't it.
BOTTOM LINE: Fun, interesting, and somewhat enigmatic, the story makes you want to read it and figure out what is going on. Fans of Wolfe should make sure and pick this one up.

EXTENDED REVIEW: Wolfe always reminds me that sometimes symbolism and complex plots are worth the time to read. I don't need everything I read to be this way, but I always feel I'm reading at college level compared to the high-school (or lower) level writing done by most.

Definitive Bladerunner DVD to release from Warner Home Video

I know you SFSignal readers love you some Bladerunner. (Sarcasm) So you all should be pleased to know that Warner Home Video is is planning to release a 25th anniversary version of the movie which they claim is the "final cut" of the film. This new DVD will have all previous edits of the film on it to cater to your personal favorite version of the film. I think the big draw here is that the "directors cut" that seems to be the crowning favorite was never released in an optimal aspect ratio and format that is common to most collectors edition DVD's today. This "breaking news" (chuckle) comes courtesy of The Register: Definitive Bladerunner heads for DVD.

NOMINEES: 2006 Aurora Awards

Finalists for the 2006 Aurora Award, given to Canadian works in both French and English, were announced. Here are some of the nominees:

BEST LONG-FORM WORK IN ENGLISH

Migration (Species Imperative #2) by Julie E. Czerneda

Cagebird by Karin Lowachee

Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer

Silences of Home by Caitlin Sweet

Lone Wolf by Edo van Belkom

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson [SF Signal review]

BEST SHORT-FORM WORK IN ENGLISH

"She's Such a Nasty Morsel" by Julie E. Czerneda

"Transubstantiation" by Derwin Mak

"Identity Theft" by Robert J. Sawyer [SF Signal review]

"Alexander's Road" by Karl Schroeder

"Going Harvey in the Big House" by Douglas Smith

"Like Monsters of the Deep" by Hayden Trenholm

"Mayfly" by Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy

The awards will be presented at TT20, July 7 - 9.

Tuesday May 30, 2006

SF Tidbits for 5/30/06

Batwoman is returning to the comics after a decades-long absence. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Dragon page interviews John Meaney, author of The Nulapeiron Sequence: Paradox, Context and Resolution. [via Pyr-o-mania]

Geodesica author Sean Williams has some things to say about a recent SFWA bulletin that says "time travel is fantasy." [via Emerald City]

Why Science Fiction is like Diabetes.

A brief look at the science fiction scene in China. [via SFBC blog]

Battlestar Galactica goes comic.

SciFi Ranter Girl is back online!

REVIEW: Flaming London by Joe R. Lansdale

REVIEW SUMMARY:

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Ned survives the ending of Zepplins West, and meets up with Mark Twain and Jules Verne to deal with pirates, martians, and time travel.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Ned's narration is fantastic; Excellent mixing of some classics of Science Fiction; Some truely funny moments.
CONS: The ending feels a bit rushed.
BOTTOM LINE: An excellent follow up to Zepplins West with alot more humor. A fine homage to pulp novels of the past.

Ned the seal returns from the end of Zeppelins West, and he is quite the smart seal. I will admit that the concept of an adventuring seal with intelligence to be quite interesting. Add to this Samuel Clements and Jules Verne and time travel and that is a formula for a great read. This book is just that - a great read. Mr. Lansdale has a unique gift to mix characters (especially the Martians - its worth reading just for the them) from both fiction and non-fiction to weave a wonderful pulp fiction tale. This book is (in my opinion) a much better than Zeppelins West.

Much like the previous book, the action is fast and furious, and the collection of characters are well done. They are drawn from both the authors and the fiction he leverages in the book, and it is that interaction that I enjoy so much. Where else can you have Jules Verne be bitter when his wife runs off with Phileas Fogg? Or a time travelling Steam Man? I am going to go with nowhere darned it!!! Now it is not without at least a single fault and that is the fact the book seems to end a bit quickly, and I do understand part of that is an homage to War of the Worlds. But it was still a bit quick for me. This is only a minor ding in the overall experience. Is this a literary work of art? A resounding no, but it is a fun book and that was the goal.

This book ends with a statement of a third and concluding book in the Ned the seal adventure, and I look forward to seeing that one. I will be honest and say that I like Ned as a character and I find myself giggling when I hear my wife say things that "Ned wrote" in the book, and that has to be an indication that the book has left an impression on me. If you enjoy pulp fiction and can handle some questionable language (this book is not for kids - even if it has a seal in it), I think you will be rewarded with the experience.

REVIEW: Evolution by Stephen Baxter

REVIEW SUMMARY: Non-traditional story that is still interesting and worth reading.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The narrative surveys the most important steps of primate evolution from the earliest primates at the time of the dinosaur extinction through the current day (and then beyond.) There is a short story along with each one that helps describe the type of life they may have lead. The book finally ends with the destruction of Earth due to the demise of the sun.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Very interesting and realistic look at primate evolution.
CONS: Not a true story with a single set of characters and plot - more a series of vignettes. The ending seems over the top.
BOTTOM LINE: I enjoyed it overall and appreciated the science and fiction present in the story. The speculation on evolution in a post-holocaust Earth at the end of the book just seems too fantastic, but Baxter is unapologetic about it, stating upfront that he's being a bit crazy.

A Book on a Stick

File under: Useless Devices.

Numley, a "Web 2.0 copyright and DRM (digital rights management) corporation", has created a BookFob, a USB stick that contains eBooks and the software to read them. The idea is that you could carry around a digital library and plug it into any windows-based PC to read your books. And, in accordance with their DRM roots, the eBooks are protected from copying, printing and distribution.

Is this a good idea? Methinks someone was asleep at the money-making machine. I think MobileRead says it best:

That's exactly what we've craved for ages: crippled e-books that can expire, are not printable and have the copy and paste feature disabled - provided that you are using Microsoft Windows, because otherwise the reader won't work at all. And if this isn't enough to make fresh milk sour, check out their BookFob Library, where you can buy excellent public domain books such as Around the World in 80 Days, assuming that the "buy it now" link would actually work.

REVIEW: The Destiny Mask by Martin Sketchley

REVIEW SUMMARY: Flawed but fun.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The two heirs of the Seriatt Royal Household race to claim their rightful position of power.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Brimming with action; relentlessly fast paced.
CONS: Some moments broke suspension of disbelief; Delgado character less likable than in previous book.
BOTTOM LINE: Read this with a reinforced suspension of disbelief.

At the end of The Affinity Trap, the first book in Martin Sketchley's Structure series, the reader was presented with a nice, juicy, soap-opera-style ending regarding the birth of male twins, offspring of Seriatt Royalty.

The Destiny Mask picks up the story about twenty years later. Unknowingly separated at birth, Cascari was raised by ex-military intelligence officer Alexander Delgado while Michael was raised by General William Myson, leader of the tyrannical government known as Structure. Mortal enemies Delgado and Myson think that their respective "sons" are the rightful heir to the position of Monosiell in the Seriatt Royal Household. The untimely death of the current Monosiell means it is time for Delgado and Myson to make their moves. Each one sees the installment of his own son as Monosiell as an opportunity to further his goals; in Delgado's case, a way to strike back at Myson and in Myson's case, a way to achieve even more power. The race is on for each to claim what is rightfully theirs. Meanwhile, a Seriatt oracle foresees the coming of a savior thanks to the fortune-telling capabilities of the Destiny Mask, a mysterious artifact which is also used by the Seriatts to create an as-yet-untested time travel device.

Readers of The Affinity Trap should be prepared at the refocus of The Destiny Mask. While the former was clearly space opera, the latter shifts gears a bit and settles comfortably into action/adventure - at least until the last two chapters where it gets back to its operatic roots.

The Destiny Mask follows attempts of Delgado - with half-breed son Cascari and Delagado's rebel partner Ash - to stop Michael from reaching Seriatt. The narrative is broken into a series of fast-moving mini-adventures as they try to achieve their goal. The book is thus comprised of a 90%-10% split between action and plot. While this will satisfy hardcore action fans, it sometimes comes at the expense of common sense displayed by the Delgado character. For example, after commandeering an escape ship, rather than quietly leave the planet, Delgado decides to test the ship's weapons while still inside the hangar, thus alerting security to his presence. Such moments made it difficult, if not impossible, to believe in what was happening.

Delgado, once the honorable hero, now seems to wantonly kill people who are in his way regardless of their innocence or involvement with Structure. At one point later in the story, Ash - Delgado's partner in rebelliousness who is mostly relegated to window dressing - jokes about Delgado's unnecessary ruthlessness. It was as if the author was suddenly aware it was an unlikable character trait but did nothing more than note it as such. It was therefore hard to like Delgado as much as I did in the previous novel. Thus the potentially dramatic moment of Delagado's realization as to the true relationship of Cascari and Michael (no surprise to the reader of either book1 or book 2's back cover) left me feeling indifferent.

That said, if you can maintain your suspension of disbelief through plot points like these, then The Destiny Mask reads like a high-octane roller coaster ride of adventure. The pacing is relentlessly fast and the story skips across multiple planets with dramatic and dangerous situations. Unfortunately for Delgado, most mini-adventures end with him captured, unconscious or both. But there's no rest for the weary reader as the next adventure starts almost immediately. There are shootouts, hand-to-hand combat, narrow escapes, prison breaks and coliseum battles. There's even a glider race which is used in Seriatt culture as a rite of passage for the rightful Monosiell heir. Yep, this definitely reads like action/adventure. But will it stay the same for book 3? Don't be too sure; the cliffhanger ending promises to refocus the story yet again. And there is still the unanswered question as to the identity of the savior foreseen by the oracles...

So, while The Destiny Mask is not perfect, in the end it does provide some fun summertime escapist reading.

Saturday May 27, 2006

REVIEW: The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

REVIEW SUMMARY: An extremely compelling love story that happens to involve a librarian and his artist wife. I can see why it was a bestseller and why it was critically acclaimed. The sci-fi is overall lighter than most sci-fi books, but the implications of uncontrolled time travel are relevant and dealt with well. Niffenegger demonstrates that you can have a great story involving real, deep characters that also has a pretty massive sci-fi element to it at the same time.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Henry is a dashing, punk-rock loving librarian who also happens to be one of the chrono-displaced. Clair is a debutante artist that falls in love with him throughout their 30+ year relationship. Their life together extends from Clair's childhood - as Henry travels back and meets here - through Henry's whole life. The love story is powerful yet subtle as the characters deal with adversity and death along with the joys of life. Henry can't control his journeys through time - he's pushed out by stress, and travels to destinations without knowing where he is (and the fact that he always arrives stark naked often have disastrous consequences.)

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Great story, fantastic characters, and a strong sci-fi element that matters. It also contains a message about the importance of living in and enjoying the present.
CONS: The adversity might be a bit contrived, and the sci-fi explanations are a bit on the soft side. Some time travel paradoxes don't seem to be adequately explained, for example. None of the characters really recover from the loss of love and it wears thin a bit.
BOTTOM LINE: While I can certainly see some members of the 'he-man woman-haters club' dismiss this book as a pure romance novel, it really deserves a read if you can appreciate the complete scope of the work. And don't be confused, there is real sci-fi here in the personal paradox issues of time travel and an explanation for what turns out to be a growing number of chrono-displaced people. The love story is very strong and palpable - you can feel what Henry feels for his wife, his mother, and ultimately his child despite his travels through time to different parts of their lives. I recommend reading this one.

EXTENDED REVIEW: I really enjoyed this book. Without going into all aspects of it, there are a few things that really deserve comment. The characters in this book are real and their motivations make sense - even with Henry's time travel. His character is one you can empathize with - we've all been a 'fish out of water' on occasion and don't always know how to react or behave when confronted with a strange situation. Henry meets his much-younger self, his daughter at age 11, and his mother well before his death and each time we see him act much like a real person would act. He's a bit fatalistic, but then I figure even the most optimistic of us might come to that in the face of such inscrutable time travel.

The time travel here is Henry's curse - he can't change anything in the past or future, despite desire to do so on many occasions, and can't control it (reminiscent of the TV show Quantum Leap.) This is what makes the story sci-fi and Niffenegger handles it well. I was worried a little bit in the beginning that it might be a mere contrivance or minor plot device but it isn't.

W. R. Greer wrote in a review that the one issue with the story is that none of the characters recover from loss. Henry's Dad never recovers from his wife's death, Clair's Dad suffers a similar fate, etc. I agree largely and this drags the book down a bit. But in one case Greer isn't quite accurate - Henry's Dad does recover ultimately and grow beyond it (but this doesn't happen until the end of the book.)

Finally, the book isn't just a sappy romantic love story. It is certainly quite sentimental and has several tear-jerker moments. But the plot moves along, the characters grow, and the time travel makes a difference; often at the saddest moments the story turns light thanks to an inadvertent travel forward or backwards through time.

Henry's trials remind us all that the present matters - we can too often get caught up in the past or the future and ignore what is here today (our children, our spouses, our parents, etc.) Anybody who has lost a loved one can appreciate the desire for more time with them. Henry sometimes gets this extra time and thus learns to take advantage of every moment his malady give him. I defy you to read this book and not feel the immediate need to reconnect with the important people of your life.

SF Signal Site Update

SF Signal. Tweaking ad-infinitum for your viewing pleasure!™

We tweaked the website a bit today. We moved the newsfeeds to a more visible location inside its very own widget. We also moved the SF Signal Frappr Map image to the Meta-Signal widget, thus allowing us to do away with the Miscellanea widget.

On to even less important stuff, waxy.org pointed to a website that will display your own website as a graph. Here's what SF Signal looks like. It's much cooler to watch it draw in real-time, though.

Pretty, isn't it? Here's the decoder ring for what the colored nodes represent:

blue: for links (the A tag)

red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)

green: for the DIV tag

violet: for images (the IMG tag)

yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)

orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)

black: the HTML tag, the root node

gray: all other tags

Check out the source site - aharef - for other cool-looking website maps or build your own.

SF Tidbits for 5/27/06

The Book Standard reviews Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. It's not pretty.

Gamer John Scalzo thinks John Scalzi's Old Man's War would make a great video game. [via Whatever]

Jonathan Strahan unveils the cool-looking John Picacio cover art for his upcoming anthologies Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005 and Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005.

There's yet another version of Blade Runner coming out in 2007.

This weekend is Balticon, the convention staged by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Special guests include Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe.

Literary Kicks interviews Steve Aylett.

I'm speechless. Sci Fi Channel to air Pro Wrestling.

Friday May 26, 2006

REVIEW: Macrolife by George Zebrowski

REVIEW SUMMARY: Zebrowski has great ideas and you can instantly tell they are well thought-out and advanced. Unfortunately there is no real story and as a result it reads like a non-fiction book.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Because resources on planets are inherently finite, life must expand beyond its sunspace and move throughout the galaxies and ultimately the universe. To do so is to become Macrolife - taking it up a level beyond merely a single world. Zebrowski's example of this are hollowed asteroids turned into starships that are really worldlets.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Collection of well-conceived and well-constructed ideas on the future.
CONS: Little that engages the reader beyond pure theory; lack of any relevant story.
BOTTOM LINE: Given that Zebrowski's ideas permeate the rest of the science fiction world you have to give him the nod for creating an extremely compelling set of theories. Unfortunately it feels more like a non-fiction book and is thus somewhat hard to read - be aware before picking this one up and hoping for a piece of pulp-fiction for the summer.

Superman Returns Thoughts

So I was flipping through channels last night and happened to settle on INHD's In Theaters trailer program. They happened to be showing a trailer (trailer #1 at the link) for Superman Returns. That's when I realized they were using the John Williams music from the original movie and how much @$$ that music kicks. I'd say the original Superman score is in the top 3 Williams scores, right with Star Wars and Raiders. It looks like they will be using a mix of Williams' music and new music by John Ottman (he did the music for the X-Men movies). Could be good or bad, depending on how much Williams they use.

I am impressed by their web presence. They have a lot of interesting stuff for webmasters use. I think all movie website should follow this lead.

As for the movie itself, I'm not sure. Brandon Routh looks like a girly-man, too smooth and 'perfect'. I'm just not fired up for this movie. But the music (Williams), makes me want to see the orignal again. Hello Netflix!

Thursday May 25, 2006

SF Tidbits for 5/25/06

Anne McCaffrey's The Dragonriders of Pern will be adapted for the big screen.

Neil Gaiman's Coraline, still headed for the big screen, now has Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher providing voices.

SFFWorld interviews Kit Reed.

The Associated Press interviews the women of X-Men: The Last Stand.

The inaugural Heinlein Prize award of $500,000 will go to Peter Diamandis, who spurred the global competition that produced the first privately financed human spaceflight.

Are You a Literary Snob?

An Asimov's forum post pointed me to an interesting essay by Peter Watts called Margaret Atwood and the Hierarchy of Contempt in which he talks about Atwood's aversion to the science fiction label.

The very first paragraph grabs your attention:

Start with a metaphor for literary respectability: a spectrum, ranging from sullen infrared up to high-strung ultraviolet. Literature with a capital L (all characters, no plot sits enthroned at the top. Genre fiction, including science fiction (all plot, no characters) is relegated to the basement. Certain types of fantasy hover in between, depending on subspecies: the Magic Realists get loads of respect, for example. Tolkein gets respect. (His myriad imitators, thank God, do not. Down in the red-light district, science fiction's own subspectrum runs from "soft" to "hard", and it's generally acknowledged that the soft stuff at least leaves the door open for something approaching art - Lessing, Le Guin, the New Wave stylists of the late sixties - while the hardcore types are too caught up in chrome and circuitry to bother with character development or actual literary technique.

Leaving the Atwood issue described in the rest of the essay aside, this description of the literature landscape resonates with me because it adequately portrays the attitudes some people have for science fiction; "contempt" as Watts points out. ("Here is a woman so terrified of sf-cooties that she'll happily redefine the entire genre for no other reason than to exclude herself from it." I love that line.) It's the reason science fiction is still considered by many to be a lower-class citizen.

Call me impartial if you will. Although I like literature all over the spectrum, I tend to spend most of my reading time at the "lower" end. Yep, I can enjoy sf adventure that minimizes character development. I call it "fun". I can also enjoy a good literary novel. That's fun, too. It depends on my mood. It also depends on what I'm looking for in a book. I mainly read fiction for entertainment, wherever it resides in the spectrum. I'm not usually reading fiction specifically because it's a Highly-Regarded Work of Literature.

I jokingly refer to those folks who look down on "un-Literary" books as Literary Snobs. There's nothing wrong with preferring books written in literary style. It's the contempt of anything else that seems unfortunate.

Tuesday May 23, 2006

2005 Campbell/Sturgeon Award Finalists

Finalists for the 2005 John W. Campbell Memorial Award, honoring the best science fiction novel of the year published in the U.S., are:

Transcendent by Stephen Baxter

The Meq by Steve Cash

Child Of Earth by David Gerrold [SF Signal review]

Mind's Eye by Paul McAuley

Seeker by Jack McDevitt

Learning The World by Ken Macleod [SF Signal review]

The Summer Isles by Ian R. Macleod

Counting Heads by David Marusek [SF Signal review]

Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer

Accelerando by Charles Stross

The World Before by Karen Traviss

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson [SF Signal review]

Finalists for the 22005 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, honoring the best short fiction story of the year published in the U.S., are:

"The Calorie Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi

"Second Person, Present Tense" by Darryl Gregory

"Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link

"Keyboard Practice" by John G. McDaid

"The Little Goddess " by Ian McDonald

"Little Faces" by Vonda McIntyre

"The Blemmye's Stratagem" by Bruce Sterling

"Panacea" by Jason Stoddard

"The Inn at Mount Either" by James Van Pelt

"Inside Job" by Connie Willis

Winners for both awards will be announced at the annual Campbell Conference and Awards Banquet, July 6-9, 2006.

[via Locus Online]

RESULTS: SF Signal Challenge #2 - A Kid's Introduction to SF/F

Here are the results of SF Signal Challenge #2: A Kid's Introduction to SF/F.

As I feared, the question was too broad and resulted in many different titles with few votes. There were, however, some titles that got more than a single mention. They are:

The Iron Giant (3 votes)

Star Wars, Episodes IV-VI (3 votes)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis (2 votes)

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (2 votes)

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (2 votes)

Dr. Who, SciFi Channel version (2 votes)

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (2 votes)

Even with the low voting density, this is still a fairly decent list of books movies and shows that kids will probably like.

Good News on the Frappr Front

A while back we enabled moderation on SF Signal's Frappr Map because a@@-clown spammers set their sites on Frappr maps. Frappr has addressed the situation by adding a captcha verification system that will prevent automated programs from doing their dirty work. Therefore, we have removed the moderation.

Thanks, Frappr!

Pollus Interruptus

Seems like SnapPoll is offline and has been for a while, so this week's poll is not working at the moment. Bummer.

We are now using FreeBlogPoll, which is not only working but is snappier than SnapPoll. (Translation: Those responsible have been sacked.)

If you already voted in this weeks poll "Your Favorite Marvel Superhero", please take a brief moment to re-vote.

Monday May 22, 2006

REVIEW: Zepplins West by Joe R. Lansdale

REVIEW SUMMARY: Adventure western that meets pulp science fiction with a bit of humor mixed in.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West show find themselves wrecked on the Island of Dr. Momo and then things get really strange.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: A great combination of classic real and fictional characters put together in a quick paced adventure.
CONS: A few too many sexual references, and a plot that is more pulled together to take advantage of the characters versus something that may have been planned ahead of time.
BOTTOM LINE: If you like adventure westerns and looking for a unique take on pulp fiction, look no further.

Where does one begin when reviewing a book like this, and I guess I should start with the key point made right at the beginning of the book. Buffalo Bill Cody is a disembodied head kept alive in a modified battery jar using activated pig urine. Now think about that one line and you start to have the makings of an interesting book. Throw in Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Wild Bill Hickock and you have the makings of an exciting western with SF elements, but he does not stop there. Mr. Lansdale manages to meld in elements from The Wizard of Oz, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. He also introduces Ned the seal who I think best represents the intelligent reading/writing seal readership of the world. While I would love to give all the details of this book, I am afraid that it is best experienced by reading what Mr. Lansdale has crafted.

The action is extremely fast paced in this book, and it is quite the page turner. I know I have seen comparisions of this book to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I like the spin that Mr. Lansdale has given to the characters and thier environments. This book is quite short and I originally picked it up after finding a copy of the sequel (Flaming London) in the science fiction section at my public library. It includes a great many illustrations of the characters and that adds to the overall experience. It is not a perfect book in a couple of ways, and although its is billed as having comedic elements they were subdued in my opinion. Furthermore, there is alot of discussions about sex and the size of certain male body parts, and while these are not offensive, there seemed to be a few too many for such a small book.

Overall, the experience was good and I look forward to reading other Lansdale books (starting with Flaming London) to see what else he has to offer.