SF Signal

With the Tabula Rasa interview at RPG Vault. Actually, there is little new informatin about Tabula Rasa, but on the mindset behind the decisions. The combat certainly sounds interesting, as does the rest of the game itself….

Filed under: Games

This has nothing to do with SciFi – so sue me.

As an American, a Texan and a former resident of Austin, I’ve always taken special pride in Lance Armstrong. After all – he’s pretty much got ‘Hero’ tatooed right on him. He’s a cancer survivor, he’s a dedicated athelete, he’s won 5 straight world championship events, and he dated Sheryl Crow (yow!)

I’ve followed the Tour de France because of him – and I’ll likely never watch it again after he gives it up.

And in the past when allogations of drug use surfaced around Lance, I always looked on it as sour grapes. The French are mad that an American is winning their race so he must be on steroids or some other illegal drug.

But now, things have gotten a little worse. A new report by ESPN shows that there really might be something there. I sure hope it isn’t true – however its going to be hard to prove that. Aired yesterday, ESPN’s Outside the Lines segment pretty much made the case that while there isn’t definitive proof yet, there sure is a lot of smoke around Lance. It is possible that all these people have axes to grind against him – I’m sure he’s pissed off his share. I just wish thing didn’t look so bad. The worst for me was the video footage of one of his teammates driving 100 miles to throw away some garbage from the team apartments – garbage that contained syringes and animal blood (apparently used to give extra energy.)

First Barry and now Lance – yikes! All the more reason to look up to people who succeed due to hard work, dedication, and brains, like say Ken Lay, rather than atheletes!

Filed under: Events

Executive producer Brannon Braga thinks so. Am I tired of Star Trek? No, I’m tired of the Braga version of Star Trek that can’t come up with anything new or interesting. Recycled plots from TOS and TNG don’t count. Rehashing time travel doesn’t count. Making hash of Trek continuity doesn’t count. I think Berman and Braga need to relinquish the creative reins and let some real SF writers get their hands on Trek. Then we’ll see something truely new and exciting. Until then, I won’t watch anythig they produce.

Filed under: TV

CNN writer Todd Leopold asks: Do summer sci-fi films have to be so dumb?

Filed under: Movies

REVIEW SUMMARY: Excellent, richly detailed story that raises the bar for space opera.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Security operative Tanner Mirabel seeks revenge on Argent Reivich; Generation ship captain Sky Haussmann rises to a seat of psychotic power on the journey to settle a planet in the Cygnus star system.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: First-rate world building; fantastic sense of wonder; excellent and captivating storytelling filled with intrigue, deception and twists.

CONS: This book took a lot of calendar time for me to read because a vacation got in the way.

BOTTOM LINE: Highly recommended and, as a stand-alone novel, this is an excellent introduction into Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe.

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Filed under: Book Review

The fallout between the SciFi Channel and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan that we reported earlier, is, apparently, a hoax perpetrated to generate buzz about the “documentary”. Hmmm…I don’t see the truth about this lie plastered all over SciFi Wire like the hoax was.

Shame on you, SciFi Channel. Maybe your energy is better spent producing new quality sf instead of re-running the old cheap crap.

Filed under: TV

Looks like I, Robot is getting some favorable reviews. I suspect if Asimov fans go in thinking of this as a robot rebellion movie, as opposed to a direct adaptation of Asimov’s short stories, they will like what they see. Maybe then the Asimov references (the 3 Laws, Susan Calvin) will seem more like an homage or an in-joke rather than a poor ripoff.

Filed under: Movies

The NY Times offers