SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: Inventive, pulse-pounding space opera infused with action, intrigue and an intense sense of wonder.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The Empire sends war hero Laurent Zai to rescue the Child Empress, taken hostage by the nefarious and powerful Rix, a group of machine-augmented humans bent on seeing an AI hive-mind as ruler of the Eighty Worlds.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: Engrossing; action-packed; interesting story; strong characters; political intrigue.

CONS: Political intrigue leaned too much towards politics at times.

BOTTOM LINE: An excellent example of space opera done to perfection. Highly recommended.

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Filed under: Book Review

Bowing to pressure by certain members of the SFSignal author community, a new category has been created to help us proudly display our Star Wars fanboy status: Star Wars Univerese. This new category is for all things Star Wars. So, on to the actual content of this post. All links here are from the cool Joystiq blog, which is dedicated to video games. From there, a list of upcoming Star Wars games!

• Republic Commando is a game in the Ghost Recon mold, where you command a squad of 3 members. It looks cool and you get to use the Star Wars weaponry. Sweet! PC and Xbox.
• Mercenaries is a GTA-clone set in the near future, in Korea it looks like. If it truly follows GTA, then you’ll be able to do some unsavory things. A first for Lucasarts? PS/2 and Xbox.
• Joystiq’s hands-on impressions of the upxoming Jump to Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies. Flying around in space is cool, but does it address the ‘fun-factor’ lacking in SWG? I don’t know. PC only.

Filed under: Star Wars

We should bite the bullet and add the damned category already, and I shouldn’t add more posts on this topic. But, CNN has an article talking about the movies and offers a little bit more of a lighter side view to them. Also, I got to see VH1 When Star Wars Ruled the World which was also a great view of what it was like making the original three movies. It was really enjoyable and had most of the actors being interviewed about making the movies and how life was after they were released.

Filed under: Star Wars

Not that I got the Star Wars DVDs the first day they came out or anything, but I just got a chance tonight to watch Episode IV. It’s been quite a while since I saw Episode IV. I first saw it in waaaay back ’77 at a drive-in (for those who are too young to know what a Drive-in is, it’s the same thing as a single-screen, outdoor multiplex). I saw pieces of it again when it played on the tube (I think I skipped the video release). I took my own kids to see the 20th anniversary “A New Hope” remix back in ’97 and that was the 2nd and last time I saw it from start to finish. Until tonight. The last thing the world needs is another Star Wars review, so here are my brief first impressions.

• Fun movie! Yes, there were flaws. Yes, the acting wasn’t oscar-caliber. But, damn it, it was fun! And it had good story elements, too (good vs. evil, hero-in-training, character drama, aliens, space battles). Also, it had a lot more charm than I remember it having. It’s almost enough to make me want to be a fanboy.
• On the “new stuff” for the DVD – Generally speaking, no big whoop. What with JP’s legendary tirades, though, I paid close attention to the Greedo scene and it was rather silly how Greedo’s shot left his gun at an angle from the barrel. Oh well.
• With all the extra CGI work that LucasFilm put into this release, could someone please tell me why the annoying matte-finish cut marks still remained around the TIE Fighters in some scenes? That’s so ’70′s.
• Yet another THX 1138 reference this month (the first being the address of the Doctor’s office in Sky captain and the World of Tomorrow): When Luke and Han, dressed as StormTroopers take the handcuffed Chewbacca to the brig to rescue the Princess, Luke says he’s a transfer from cell block 1138. I’m sure this has already been noted on thousands of Star Wars sites, but, not being a fanboy, it was the first time I noticed.

Any negatives are severely outnumbered by the positives.

Bottom Line: This DVD is a worthy addition to to any SF fan’s library.

Filed under: Star Wars

Campus Life Comes to Second Life, from Wired, is a quick hit piece about several college professors who are using Second Life as an online classroom to teach their classes. Sounds intriguing, but how in the world can the teacher hope to hold the class’ attention when you have flying people and giant robots roaming around? The Univeristy of Texas prof, Anne Beamish, is an architectural professor and it makes a lot of sense that she would use Second Life. SL lets you build whatever the heck you want, and I can see a prof using the SL building tools to teach architectural concepts to their class. Actually, pretty cool. If this had been around when I went, instead of, say, Trek War, I might have at least taken an architecture class…

Despite what the article says, SL does not cost a monthly fee to ‘play’, if you don’t want to build. If you’re just interested in messing with your avatar and interacting with other people, then SL costs a one-time charge of $10, then free thereafter (owning land, which allows you to build, costs $10 a month). I have an account (Severian Twilight) and I may muck around in game just to see what’s new.

Filed under: Meta

The Reading Group Guides website offers a bunch of reading guides (duh) for books, including a bunch for science fiction and fantasy.

Filed under: Books • Web Sites

UnderGround Online shows the best of the best in Sci-Fi Comics.

Filed under: Books

Since the number of Star Wars posts already exceeds the number of Cthulhu posts, the following link won’t make a damn bit of difference.

The Wired news article A New Reason to Love Star Wars reviews Empire of Dreams, the documentary that is on the bonus disk of the recently-released Star Wars Trilogy DVDs.

Filed under: Star Wars

James Lileks (you do read him right?) today takes a trip down memory lane and discusses the musical cues behind the classic Trek episode, The Doomsday Machine. As always, funny and insightful. Read it, if for nothing else, the really, um, expressive header graphic. Classic.

Oh, and his piece has Nazis too. You can’t lose.

Update: Thanks to the (former) raving Star Trek fanboy, the episode name has been changed to the correct title, The Doomsday Machine. Although how a giant, void-sucking space worm can be considered a machine is beyond me. Unless its some sort of bio-machine built to drive starship captains insane, then I get it.

Filed under: TV

In his weekly Lab Notes column for Sci Fi Weekly, Wil McCarthy looks at the science behind the giant airships and ornithopters in Sky Captain. Its a very interesting read.

Personally, I like zeppelins and would love to see them make a comeback, probably as cruise ships of the skies. Now that would be really cool!

Filed under: Science and Technology

You know what sucks? I’ll tell you what sucks. What sucks is being at work and mis-typing a URL. You know, when your intention is type a harmless URL and instead you mis-type some other URL that some ass-clown has reserved for just such an occasion, so you can be redirected to a porn (or other not-work-safe site).

So for the record, it’s:

• www.cartoonnetwork.com, not cartonnetwork.com.
• Gutter Man, and not gutter.com.
• www.daypop.com, not daypoop.com. (today’s whoopsy)

I know I’m not the only one. A coworker “accidentally” (that’s his story and he’s sticking to it!) mis-typed Google as Booble.

Anyone else have any other similar mishaps? And if so, will you admit it?

Filed under: Computers

Ever tried PopCap games? They offer lots of fun, attractive games for you to purchase or play online for free. Ones I’ve played and enjoyed are Bejeweled, Bookworm and Zuma (a spiral Tetris clone).

Filed under: Games

As the Star Wars saga turns and everybody gets thier proverbial vents out about the movies and the changes, we now see the way things really will be going for SF in the future. Musicals – the only real way to enjoy SF is through music, and as such The Last Starfighter has been converted into a musical.

Filed under: Movies

Like Bill at Leaning Toward the Dark Side, who is putting Lucas on trial.

Or Frank J. at IMAO who brings us the future changes Lucas has in mind.

Or the guys at Penny Arcade who bring us George discussing the changes.

On a lighter note, I received my DVDs today (the box is chincy, come George, spend some of your fortune and give us a decent box…) and immediately popped in Star Wars, no bloody IV, no bloody A New Hope, just Star Wars, as nature intended. Still a good movie, although some of the effects are dated. “But!”, I hear you ask, “what about the whole Han/Greedo thing?!”. Ah, good question Padawan. Actually, having seen the new version, I like the fact that Han and Greedo shot at the same time. It makes Greedo more menacing and less of a poofta. However, someone needs to take the computer away from Lucas. Because, in the new version, Han apparently has a new joint in his waist which allows him to bend, very quickly, to his right to dodge Greedo’s shot. Which he didn’t even need to do since Greedo’s bolt doesn’t come close to hitting Han, even if he didn’t move. I said it made Greedo more menacing, not more accurate. Otherwise, thumbs up, but some of the new CGI was very noticeable, but since I’m a Star Wars fanboy, I’ll give it a pass. Happy John?

Filed under: Star Wars

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are making a low-budget sf film tentatively title Invasion Iowa. Iowa is the hometown of Cap’n James T. Kirk, who would never let someone get away with calling him “Cap’n”. [Link]

Filed under: Movies

NetFlix and Warner Brothers are testing a video-on-demand service allowing the downloading of movies onto Tivo. [CNet link]

Filed under: Science and Technology

No, not Fran Tarkenton, the new The Incredibles trailer at Yahoo! Movies. Its not the one in theaters, so I think it’s new. Another movie on the ‘must see’ list, along with Kevin’s long hoped-for movie, Spongebob.

Filed under: Movies

Today being the day Star Wars is finally being released on DVD, here’s a trip down memory lane. It’s Triumph the Wonder Dog ripping into a bunch of Star Wars fans.

Filed under: Humor • Star Wars

Even if you miss the BBC Radio 4′s broadcast of its new Hitchiker’s Guide radio series, not only will they rebroadcast each episode, they will also be available for week after their original air date. May be worth checking out!

Filed under: Web Sites

The Star Wars post for today will cover the new PC/Xbox game, Star Wars: Battlefront. GameSpy has a PC preview and an Xbox review for your viewing pleasure. It looks decent, but it seems the multiplayer is where its at, much like Battlefield 1942. If others around here are going to get it, I may pop on over to BestBuy and get it, where it’s on sale for $43.

And an update on my DVDs, as of 11:25 am CST, they are still on a truck, no doubt stuck in traffic on I-45, somewhere between Dallas and Houston…

Filed under: Star Wars