Directed By: Boris Sagal

Written By: John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington

Starring:  Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash

What do Vincent Price, Charlton Heston and Will Smith have in common? They all played Robert Neville in different film versions of Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend". It's also no coincidence that none of these actors are known for their subtly but rather their eccentric personalities. Why does it matter? Well you basically need to watch this one guy on the verge of insanity for 2 plus hours fighting zombies or vampires or mutants and a boring actor like Hugh Grant can't possibly carry it.

I love these post apocalyptic movies because they get my brain flowing. I sit there wondering how I would handle being the last man alive better, what things I would do, shit like that. Sometimes because of this, I secretly want to be the last man alive. The film posses all types of questions. You watch Robert Neville have access to everything, able to do anything and have no responsibilities. As this idea of complete freedom starts to convince you that it wouldn't be so bad  nightfall occurs and your like "oh, well shit". But even the nighttime reminds us that we are all just animals and that this weird society we've created around ourselves has almost devalued a lot of things. Some guy that's mowing your lawn could have been a god damn Gladiator or famous gun slinger if he was born in another era. Watching The Omega Man brings all of that out and more. Maybe it's just my nerdy sense of ways but if given the option to watch a drama involving a standard love triangle in high school or watching the last man alive battling who knows what to survive, I don't even think it's an option, I go with the high school drama. I mean who does she pick Joey or Jimmy?

Seriously though, The Omega Man has it's own twist on the story as all 3 versions do. In this version of the universe, chemical warfare ensued and all that's left are these infected mutant type things. They have pale skin, fucked up eyes and yes, can talk. What's great about watching movies later is you can see that their decisions were clearly made on the ideas of their time. Is technology really helping mankind? This Cold War thing can't end good, can it? How can we have Charlton Heston shirtless for an hour? These are all things that were subconsciously being thought when creating The Omega Man and what they succeed in doing is creating a memorable, fucking awesome post apocalyptic movie and the best version out of the 3.

If I was forced to boil down the one trait that makes Heston so awesome it's his ability to say "My God" with such fervor. Try and say it as good as he can, I dare you. I think he lets out 3 "My God"''s in The Omega Man and each time is great. Heston rolls around carrying a machine gun killing the mutants during the day, talking to himself, sniping mutants from his fortress and keeping himself from going insane. The film has a lot of empty city shots to really accentuate his alienation and they are always good. The first shot of this however was a corny zoom out/fade. In fact, a lot of this film is very corny and campy. For the first half-hour it turned me off because I wanted to see a dead serious "Twilight Zone" type movie about the last man alive but then I just gave into the camp and it was great. The biggest example of sort of out of placery is the music which is almost classical funk. It's seriously one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard but curiously the music doesn't really match a lot of the sequences but it works overall.

While part of me really loves great execution, a greater part of me loves just straight up ideas. I love that they made a movie with Heston toting a gun, making Eve a black power chick, shooting up mutants, living as the last man alive and trying to save humanity. That's just awesome and it can't be rationalized. Either you love that shit or you don't.

• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois (GD)
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two, edited by Jonathan Strahan (JS)
• Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2008 edition, edited by Richard Horton (RH)
• Year's Best SF 13 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (HC)

What's truly strange is how little overlap there is, with only 12 stories out of 87 getting in more than one book.  This made me feel good about wanting to buy all four volumes, but on the other hand, I wished there were more obvious stand-out stories.  We know that the Ted Chiang and Karen Joy Fowler stories won Nebula awards this year, and  these stories are nominated for the 2008 Hugo Awards:

• "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe (novella) (HC)
• "The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham (novelette) (JS)
• "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (novelette) (GD, JS) (Nebula winner)
• "Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (novelette) (RH)
• "Glory" by Greg Egan (novelette) (GD, JS)
• "Finisterra" by David Moles (novelette) (GD)
• "Lost Contact" by Stephen Baxter (short story) (GD, JS)
• "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear (short story) (GD)
• Who's Afraid of Wolf 359" by Ken MacLeod (short story) (HC)

Greg Egan and Nancy Kress got in all four best-of-books with multiple stories, and 12 other writers got into more than one volume with one or more stories.

Directed By: Robert Wise

Written By: Nelson Gidding

Starring: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid

I have a love hate relationship with The Andromeda Strain. I love that it has a complex story, a not so Hollywood science feel (although it partly was) and is a rarely seen mystery sci-fi flick that was overall awesome. I hate that the film is a beacon to film makers that emphasis on special effects can really hurt your film.

The film is based on a Michael Crichton novel about a downed satellite that must've carried either a microorganism or disease from space. It kills off everyone in a town with the exception of the town drunk and a baby. The movie has all kinds of cool shit. It's basically a nerdy dirty dozen and they have the best of the best in the field of science and medicine get together to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from spreading. They go into this giant underground facility that is disguised in the desert as a crop growing farm. There a whole sequence where they have to go through 5 stages of quarantine with all sorts of intrusive procedures. The facility is bad ass and really unique. I'm not sure if it's film and tv but because of them I really believe the military has all this crazy secret shit somewhere and that idea to me is sweet. What doesn't make sense is we've all been to the DMV and Post Office yet believe that somehow the government run military is smooth as hell. Kinda strange and I'm guilty of this thinking.

If you took Michael Bay's philosophy of how to present science, The Andromeda Strain is at the opposite end. One of the major decisions Robert Wise made (director of the classic and great The Day The Earth Stood Still) was to make everything sort of ultra realistic. The characters and the actors that play them aren't the usual charismatic charming or quirky people but just scientists who want to get shit done and because of this a lot of the dialogue goes far enough to make you feel this realism. Sure, there are hokey computer screens and what not but it all makes the idea of a outer space germ/organism coming down to earth feel real. Of course, because it was made in the 70's there is the slight notion that our government wanted it to happen to have some sick germ warfare stuff but whatever.

Lets talk about the bad because it really bothered me. The first half of this film concentrates an extraordinarily long time showing off what was probably amazing special effects at the time. The story would be completely halted and I would be forced to watch a robotic arm grab a cage and bring it down. There was no point in any of it except "hey look at this dope shit we can do in teh hollywoodz" It was driving me nuts because when they weren't doing it, I would get really immersed in the story, I'd become emotionally attached then Bam "lolz look guyz!" Wise also seemed obsessed with split focus lenses as he must've used them a minimum of 8 times. They also did these split screens trying to permeate cool that weren't really working for me either. It was again, frustrating because Wise is a good enough film maker not to have to rely on gimmickry or emphasis on special effects. How do I know? Well because the second half of this film is interesting, suspenseful, engaging and memorable.

I like a lot of the scientific ideas that came out the film like how our first contact with an alien species might be a micro organism. I also liked whenever they were talking about science stuff like alkaline acids or crystalline structure because it made me feel smart and stupid at the same time. Smart because there has to be a human out there who is smarter than this fictional character and heck, I'm human. Stupid because I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. I love science but unfortunately was a straight up "C" science student. My favorite was when we had to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and see whose could hold the most weight. I think I was dead last but god dammit my bridge looked cool.

You can buy it here.

You can buy it here.

Five stars!

A reread of Parable of the Sower reveals a dark vision of the near future that is eerily reminiscent of the pictures we all saw on TV following Hurricane Katrina, a frighteningly realistic portrayal of poverty and anarchy that is all too easy to imagine following on the heels of global warming's devastation. The follow-up, Parable of the Talents, is even more grim and harrowing than its predecessor in its depiction of an America plunged into chaos. Butler deftly picks up the threads of the major issues facing us today -- climate change, the widening gap between rich and poor, the privatization of education and social services -- and follows them to the inevitably disastrous results if these problems aren't addressed. Most frightening of all is the depiction of an America in the grips of Christian extremists who murder and enslave people and separate children from their parents, just because they do not hold the same beliefs.

But Butler's story is one of hope too: of a prophet leading her people toward a better future, following a spiritual practice that makes more sense to me than most organized religions I know of, and of a goal -- to sow the seeds of humanity throughout space -- that I have always believed held the key to our survival as a species. God is change, indeed, but instead of fighting it or surrendering to it, just recognize it and use it to make your goals a reality. This message is contained within a work of fiction that paint a frightening picture of the future, but it rings very true to me.

1. Time Travellers
2. Delegating/Color Scheme
3. in the beginning, there was the Word
4. Intelligence
5. Laws of Physics

Go on now. Run along and read, then tell Vive how great she is.

1. Time Travellers
2. Delegating/Color Scheme
3. in the beginning, there was the Word
4. Intelligence
5. Laws of Physics

Go on now. Run along and read, then tell Vive how great she is.

'The Time Hunters' series Book #1

Paperback: 304 pages - Publisher: Berkley (July 1, 2008 ) - Language: English  -ISBN-10: 0425220842 - ISBN-13: 978-0425220849

Back of the Book reads:

"A rising star in the paranormal pantheon,"* Angela Knight returns to the future with a sexy Warlord who's sent back in time to stop a madman from killing...

In the twenty-third century, time travel is no longer just a flight of fancy. Tourists, historians, and criminals can leap though time at will. To police the time Jumpers, the Temporal Enforcement Agency has established a precinct in time, tucked away in the Georgia mountains.

Galar Arvid, a genetically altered Warlord and agent, has been sent ack to 2008 to save a pretty Atlanta artist from a Xeran time traveler who intends to kill her for profit. What Galar doesn't count on is the powerful desire Jessica Kelly ignites in him. But could a romance between them every work? A two-hundred-year chasm separates them, and even if they dart through time, there's still a maniacal killer on their tail...

(*Midwest Book Review)

Warrior on Amazon.com

Warrior on Chapters.ca

Warrior at Amazon.ca

22-Jul-08 to 25-Jul-08

Review: Another excellent Knight novel!

Usually I have a really hard time with sci-fi novels, especially those that are focused in the future. I find some authors go overboard and it doesn't feel real. Knight is exactly the opposite. The way the writes, everything feels comfortable, like you're there, in the future and everything feels like it's the way it ought to be. I really enjoy authors who can do that.

Jessica is an unrecognized artist who truly enjoys her work. Living with her roommate, Charlotte, she is trying to break out in the art world and isn't having much luck. A strong woman, she uses her brain and fights for her life.

We learn that, in the future, she's supposed to have been possibly murdered, although her body was never found. Galar is sent back to find out what happened, if it's possible that a future collector of her work wants her dead so that her art is more valuable/worth more. The rules are that he is not allowed to change the past, that he isn't only there to see what happened. However, looks and beliefs are deceiving, and the story holds a lot more than the obvious.

A Xeran battleborg is sent back in time to deal with the roommate - she is the object of his mission. But before he can complete his mission, Charlotte does something to Jess and hightails it out of there, leaving Jess to deal with what's to come. A fight on her hands, her life in jeopardy, she is brought into the future. At first, she has a hard time, but quickly learns that it's not bad.

She and Galar have formed a strong bond almost right from the first. It's great to see that bond go beyond the norm. While you do get some answers, others are not, and I found this strange. Obviously, the answers will come in future novels, but I hate it when a story is left unfinished. Even the characters are left wondering the what and why of it all, not to mention the who.

Truly a great novel, except for that. One star missing, but I won't miss the rest of the series because of it.

Rating:

Based on "a surprise clip shown at Comic Con" Thursday the sequel will not be called by the obvious correct choice: "Tron 2: Electric Boogaloo" but will be know by a far more nerdy epithet:

I Watch Stuff - This is Not the 'Tron 2' Title. It Can't Be. Seriously?

Anyway, upon opening iTunes, not only did I find Doctor Who and Torchwood, but many of my favorite science fiction shows. Now, I know that these shows have been available for a while, I just never took the time to look. Although now, I find myself spending a lot of time in the App Store. ;)

I was so excited when I found: Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Firefly, Supernatural, Babylon 5 and of course Star Trek. That's just to name a few; there's a lot more. If you're a big scifi fan like me, and you want to watch a few episodes on your iPod or iPhone, go visit the iTunes store. :)

SOME PLACE ARE FAR DARKER THAN DEEP SPACE

Some places are far darker than deep space. Places where the shadows smile. Where men go mad and lovers go missing. These stygian corners of existence are where reality is stretched thin and something hungry is waiting just outside the corner of your eye.

Turn out the lights, take a deep breath, and dare to visit one of these places.

Crescent is dark science fiction at it's most visceral. Phil Rossi weaves a tale that is reminiscent of old school Stephen King but with a shiny, new set of tricks and an appetite to terrify. There's sex. There's corruption. There's horror. And after you sweat your way through the first chapter, there's plenty more to keep you awake at night.

My Take: Phil has written a very scary tale. Theirs something haunting Cresent Station and it will have the hairs on your next standing a attention. Great sound effects and Phil has written and composed the music as well. You'll love some of the characters and hate some others. Will they get what they deserve? Get Crescent from Podiobooks and visit Phil Rossi site at crescentstation.net.

Notes from the Vault Crescent Vignettes as well as new Vignettes and other short fictionis also avaiable at Podiobooks. EDEN by Phil Rossi  is Coming Soon!

'Crimson City' series Book #5

Mass Market Paperback: 339 pages - Publisher: Love Spell (February 28, 2006) - Language: English - ISBN-10: 0505526727 - ISBN-13: 978-0505526724

Back of the Book reads:

Long ago Los Angeles became Crimson City, a glittering metropolis and sometime-battleground-sometime-home for humans, werewolves and vampires. Before that, demons ruled. And with the Crimson Veil now torn asunder, those demons are on their way back.

There exist those who oppose the Dark Ones: mystics attuned to the earth, the druids. From San Bernardino they come, sending one fot their mightiest - their Draig Uisge. He can shape energy, twist it to harm or heal. But he must have something to bend, and the requisite power can be summoned by one method alone ... and from one source, the beauty Xiao Fei, the Phoenix Tear. Her blood is the key, along with her exstasy; her union with Patrick means salvation. Yet in a world of vampires, werewolves and evil untamed, even a kiss can be deadly. Opposition lurks in every shadow, peril in every caress ... and both redemption and oblivion lie in one woman being ...

Seduced by Crimson

Seduced by Crimson on Amazon.com

Seduced by Crimson on Chapters.ca

Seduced by Crimson on Amazon.ca

18-Jul-08 to 22-Jul-08

Review: Better than A Darker Crimson...

But not by much.

I liked the story line and the plot, but it could have used a little more work. There was definitely more background on Xiao Fei, but you still don't get the entire story. How did she become a Phoenix Tear? You get more details of what she did as a Tear as a child, and the huge battle that she had faced, but you still don't get the how or why before it. And that was the way of it for all the characters in this series. I certainly hope the next book touches base more on the characters pasts.

The same with Patrick. His family are druids. Okay, got that, but where did they come from? How did they get to be in San Bernardino? All questions that you never get answers for. While the story does touch base on Patrick's past - as a kid, a teen, a young adult, you still don't get all of it.

Meanwhile, I liked both Xiao Fei and Patrick. I thought both strong characters, they act well together and learn about themselves and each other along the way.

The action was great, descriptions terrific. Very hard to put down, contantly wanting to know what's next.

Rating:

So I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight the other day, and I'm not going to bore you with another cookie-cutter review.  Besides this movie is all over the news, and it's making money hand over fist, so you have to be living under a rock, under another rock, to not know that this movie is great.  What I do want to talk about is how solid this movie was from top to bottom, and some of the themes that were weaved in that really impressed me.  You can take any movie that has come out this year--whether a dramatic, action, or otherwise--and The Dark Knight will match up to any of them.

This has to be one of the top comic book movies that has ever been made, and I think what surprised me the most was how deep the movie ended up being.  Comics have always been fairly deep, and have always been a form of social commentary.  As of late this has been translated into the movies better.  From here on out I'm going to talk about some of the specifics of the movie so if you haven't seen it then don't make the jump.

There's a scene near the end of the movie where Harvey Dent says "We were trying to be decent men in an indecent time."  This one line almost completely sums up the entirety of what The Dark Knight was questioning about current society.  Where is the line that good, decent people should or shouldn't cross in their pursuit of safety and justice.  The Joker was terrorizing Gotham City and decisions had to be made by the citizens whether they should capitulate to his threats and demands, or whether they should stoop to his level and fight fire with fire, or whether they should with all their power, and despite all casualties, fight against the Joker while retaining their social mores.  The Joker constantly tries to turn the citizens of Gotham against each other, and force them to cross the line and come down to his level, and some do.  But in one of the climatic scenes in the movie, both best and worst of Gotham's citizens decide that they won't play his game, and they won't cross that line.  This is an important theme and something that we as a society are struggling with.  We have our own Joker someone who "just wants to watch the world burn" (if you think people like Osama Bin Laden is fighting for freedom you're dead wrong.  People like him love the feeling of sowing chaos and destruction).  Yet how we fight that battle is up to us, and in many ways most of us have not crossed the line, unfortunately, it's only a few people at the top who have crossed the line.

Like Batman they have decided to trample on some of our most precious rights by illegally spying on citizens.  If you don't know what I'm talking about google FISA.  Unlike Batman, however, they haven't relinquished that power, but instead are still trying to exploit citizens, and keep their actions hidden in darkness.  Lucius Fox reluctantly crosses the line, and only because the situation was so dire.  Once again the question is raised that if the situation is desperate do we sacrifice our beliefs and values to win? or do we keep our mores intact and settle in for the long haul? even if it means extra pain and hardship.  The important thing to remember is that once the line is crossed every time thereafter it becomes easier and easier until there is no line anymore.  And that is when, the terrorists have won.  Once a people decide that revenge or victory is more important than the values that bind them together, they cease to be a people, and turn into a violent mob.

These were a couple of the most powerful messages that I saw in The Dark Knight, and they really struck me.  Not only because of their significance, but because they were mixed into the movie so perfectly and lightly, and the viewer wasn't beat over the head with it.  This is what good comics and good science fiction has always done.  They have always had the ability to speak about social concerns without becoming a political message.  Instead there they are placed in a world that is similar to ours, but different.  This difference helps the audience see these themes in a new light.  Rather than preaching they have been instruments of creating debate about important social topics.

I would hope that when the time comes for this years crop of movies to be awarded that The Dark Knight is rewarded with some important nominations, but I doubt it will be.  Why?  because many people still don't respect the medium of comics.  There are still many people who look down their nose at comics and those that read them, despite the fact that Hollywood, as an industry, has been riding on the back of comics, and science fiction for a long time now.  Where would the industry be in the last ten years? if not for all of these types of movies, which have been raking in the money, and keeping the industry afloat.  There would probably be a lot of people out of work.  There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of originality in the industry these days, but generally the most original have been those by people who have been 'raised' on comics and their like genres.  And I'm not even going to go into all the ideas, and advances in real science, that were inspired by science fiction.

That's my take, and of course, I'm sure there are plenty that will disagree with me, but regardless, that's how I see it.  However, maybe The Dark Knight will help change people's perceptions of the comic industry as a whole, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  Oh and by the way, anyone that sees this movie and still thinks that Jack Nicholson is the best Joker is crazy (don't believe me.  If you think that way then you agree with this guy who is one of the most idiotic and downright retarded people on Earth).  Heath Ledger was absolutely amazing, and deserving of all the Oscar buzz that is surrounding him.  Jack Nicholson was good, don't get me wrong, but he wasn't the psychotic Clown Prince of Crime, he was just a clown.  Sure some of that is on the director, but an actor of his stature is responsible for a lot of it too.  Anyways next time you see the movie enjoy it for its absolute brilliance, but also think about some of the questions that are posited by this movie that have great relevance for our society today.

S.M. Stirling

Roc, Sep 2008, $25.95

ISBN: 0451462289

It has been twenty-three years since the Change when earth plunged into a pre-electric era.  Mankind scrambled to survive as over ninety percent of the population died.  Clan Mackenzie led by High Priestess Juniper and the Bearkillers thrived on the land while the dictator who wanted to rule perished (see THE SUNSET LAND).  However a new danger has arisen; the prophet Sethaz and his flock slowly infiltrate the people surrounding Juniper and her people; he and his followers recruit or kill based on their cause being godly.

Meanwhile Juniper’s son Rudi and other friends and warriors from home journey east across what was once the proud United States of America towards Nantucket where he hopes to learn more about The Change. The Lady sent a messenger Ingolf from Nantucket to pick up The Sword and bring it home. The prophet knows of Rudi’s quest and sends his best assassins to prevent him from succeeding.  At the same time the President of the United States of Boise, who got the job by committing patricide allies with the prophet because he wants to expand into Pendleton with Mackenzie’s Western Oregon after that but they go to war to stop him.

This second tale in the second saga switches from the post apocalyptic thriller to a “Greek” Tragedy as the Gods manipulate and guide their followers and sinners.  Readers observe dark demonic possessions and frightening futuristic visions while scrying and other magic takes the saga in a new direction.  Fans will remain enthralled once the shock lets up as the tale is filled with action, strong characters in conflict, vivid descriptions of a battered dying land trying to come back to life two plus decades since the Change, and a great cliffhanging climax.

Harriet Klausner

Kiernan shares David Cronenberg's fascination with the flesh. Her work ponders the mysteries of the body: anatomy as identity, the corruptibility and transmutation of the flesh, the intersection between corporeality and spirituality. Characters in "Riding the White Bull" and "Zero Summer" are corrupted bodily by an alien virus, and in turn find themselves hunted and outside the bounds of the body politic, beyond hope of acceptance or salvation.

Other stories feature characters challenged by their bodies or who find themselves transformed within by changes without. Such is the case of the character Sylvia, in "Faces in Revolving Souls,"  who finds  herself transcendence, acceptance and ultimate destruction through a process of genetic tinkering that would not be out of place on the island of Dr. Moreau.

What it means to be "human" Is questioned in an "Ode to Katan Amano" a synthetic life form comes closer to being human through experiencing human art. Even seemingly fundamental assumptions about gender are challenged and ultimately broken, as seen in the final story of the collection, "Bradbury Weather," which features an all-female Martian colony where one woman may impregnate another.

There's a streak of the noir that runs through these stories, and a fatalistic embrace of a cruel and uncaring cosmos that would make H.P. Lovecraft proud. Kiernan's characters struggle not only with the burden of their bodies, but also with an ultimately hostile universe, an implication that's made explicit in an exchange between the character Ellis and her interrogator who is trying to learn all that he can about an alien menace in the story "Zero Summer."

"-has nothing to do with mankind," Ellis says. "I keep telling you that. I've said it again and again. None of it has anything to do with any of you."

"But people are dying."

"Do storms care that rain causes crops to grow?" she asks him. "Does a volcano care if it burns those same plants to ash and causes people to go hungry?"

"A is for Alien" is Kiernan at her best. The subtle dread of her horror fiction is unshackled, free to evolve into a nightmare carnival of the flesh that will transform readers as thoroughly and permanently as the characters in these stories. I consider this a must-have for any fan of her work.

This collection will be available in February of 2009 from Subterranean Press.

Pre-order it here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently a friend passed along this quote:

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
- Bertrand de Jouvenal -

I've frequently talked about guns, and several times explicitly mentioned that my basically liberal/libertarian political philosophy is completely comfortable with understanding the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution as being an individual right. Part of this is in realizing that the world is a dangerous place and that you have to make reasonable preparations to take care of yourself. And part of it is understanding that one check on the abuse of governmental power is a population which is armed and prepared to defend its civil liberties.

No, I have no illusions that I, with a few pistols and shotguns (or my flintlock), am any kind of a challenge to a modern police force, let alone an actual army. And that is the way it should be - no individual should be outside the law. But collectively, a populace armed with tens of millions of such weapons presents a real check on tyranny. The calculus of trying to use military-level force against the population of the US would have to take this into account; either overwhelming mass destruction (and I'm not saying it would have to include WMDs) would have to be employed, or such a military force would have to be willing to suffer significant casualties. This is a substantial disincentive to anyone who might be willing to attempt such a thing.

Not that I can't imagine possible scenarios where this may come to pass. In fact, one such is part of the 'history' of Communion of Dreams, following the initial Fire Flu of the backstory. I may get around to writing some of that one of these days, though there is already a fair amount of literature with that setting available.

Anyway, this rumination was prompted by my friend's quote, and on a nice post that I came across on MeFi that linked to a cool animation of assembling an M1911 .45:

If you would like to see an even better animation of how a 1911 functions, which allows you to hide or show various components as it operates, then go check out this site. I had shot a fairly standard 1911 a good deal when I was young, but was never particularly enamored of that style of gun, preferring more 'modern' semi-auto pistols. Until I was gifted with a very nice one from a friend's collection early this year - a modification on the standard design which provides for the additional safety of a double-action trigger. It is perhaps the sweetest-shooting pistol I have, even while being one of the most powerful ones. There is a lot to be said for the venerable design of the 1911, a gun said to be designed by a genius for use by morons, with ballistic performance suitable for service in four wars . Works for me.

Well, as I've said before, I know a lot of people don’t want a gun in their home. Fine, don’t have one. But if you are going to have one, learn to use it and store it safely. And if you're going to have one, you certainly could do a lot worse than have a 1911 model .45 of some variation.

Jim Downey

(Hat tip to Jerry for the quote!)

When designing a new universe it is necessary first to come up with a scheme within which to order the distribution of things like matter, energy, time, magic, happiness, etc.  The laws for your new universe will need to be broad enough to allow your vision to be expressed, but firm enough so that the whole thing doesn't come apart under the first slight strain or unforseen contingency.

Some technical minded Gods have a tendency to create a mess of ornate and complex laws of physics to govern the matter and energy within their universes.  They create numerous constants and special cases, they fill their matter up with particles of every size and flavour imagineable, in short they go a bit overboard from the very beginning.  This approach may appeal to some, but it also has some serious drawbacks.  We have found that it often leads intelligent societies to pick and niggle away at the physical laws, inevitably finding loopholes and inconsistencies within the structure of their particular reality.  Paradoxically, the more work a deity puts in to closing loopholes and planning every eventuality the more determined most races will become to poke into every little corner, looking for the a string they can pull to make the fabric of the universe unravel.

Thus we would like to remind you, gently but firmly, that some of the finest and most well ordered universes have been built on the dinner plate model, where everything sits together on a flat surface and a simple force pushes everything downward in the same direction.  The dinner plate may seem to modern deities a worn out option, it may seem dull and overused and tired, but it has the benefit of having stood the test of time in many versions of reality.  Thus it is that while we certainly encourage you to be creative when you go forth in designing basic laws for your new reality we think it is important to remember that simpler is often better in these situations.

I'm pretty excited about this comic. It's been in development for probably two years now, but I only got an artist on board in February. Richie is pulling off some great work. He has the aesthetic I wanted for the story down pat, and he's just as invested in it as I am. That's a rare gift for a writer, to have a freelance artist who isn't just in it for the money but loves the story and wants to see it because it's beautiful.

Radio Girl's basic premise is that, in 1994, the world's most famous teen superhero vanishes without a trace. She reappears in 2006 without having aged a day. Reconnecting with her parents and with her old allies, she must uncover the mystery of her disappearance, her purpose, and the meaning of her dreams, which are full of dreadful imagery culled straight from the plague years of Europe. During my research for the book, one character in particular caught my eye: Doctor Beak.

Doctor Beak is the colloquial name for the plague doctor, a name of obvious provenance. Look at that mask! The streets of a plague city were filled with them, physicians walking around in these beak masks with their empty eyes. They were designed, after a fashion, to protect doctors from the disease. The beak was filled with strong-smelling salts and herbs to keep the bad airs out, the plagues cause was not known for certain.

But it's an evocative image, and I was struck with the purpose: the ward off death. These men tried to be signs of life in a time of death, and only succeeded in being strange, terrifying portents of the plague-stricken cities. With that in mind, they seemed the perfect template for, well...these guys.

This is what Richie came up with when I sent him the image. This proves the man is either absolutely insane, or a certified genius. That cliche aside, I'm very happy with this design and with the overall direction of Richie's work.

For a series meant also to deal with the confrontation of childhood and maturity, and the popular culture for kids of the early 1990's, he's successfuly given the entire project a very animation-y texture.

I hope to continue cataloging our progress as we march towards our first finished issue, which will hopefully be done by early September.

I know I want one!

Haben Sie nicht manchmal das Gefühl, dass die Welt um uns herum von skrupellosen Konzernen beherrscht wird? Haben Sie auch dieses Gefühl, dass die großen Firmen allgegenwärtig sind, uns verfolgen, um uns auszunehmen?
Wünschen Sie sich nicht auch manchmal ein Welt, in der nicht das Kapital das Sagen hat?
Wenn sie all diese Fragen mit ja beantwortet haben, können sie ansatzweise nachvollziehen, was Max Barry durch den Kopf gegangen sein muss, als die Idee zu seinem letzten Roman Logoloand in seiner linken Gehirnhälfte heranreifte. Was dabei herausgekommen ist, kann man zweifellos als eine Dystopie bezeichnen (düstere Zukunftsvision), eine aber, die so weit nicht von unsere Wirklichkeit entfernt ist.

Logoland spielt irgendwann ein paar Jahrzehnte in der Zukunft. Konzerne regieren die Welt und es geht soweit, dass die Menschen in den U.S.A. die Firma bei der sie beschäftigt sind als Nachnamen tragen. Die Konzerne haben eigene Schulen, zahlen keine Steuern und wer keine Arbeit hat, lebt am Rande der Gesellschaft.

Glücklicherweise hat Hack Nike einen Job. Wie sein Name es verrät, arbeitet er für den Sportartikelhersteller Nike, wenn auch nur als kleines Licht beim Vetrieb von Merchandise Artikeln (Merchandise Distribution Officer). Doch als eines Tage der Wasserspender auf seiner Etage streikt und er ein paar Stockwerke höher im Marketingbereich sein Wasser holen geht, bietet sich ihm die Chance zum Aufstieg in die heiligen Hallen des Marketings. Dafür muss er lediglich ein paar Teenies umbringen, um den Verkauf eines Edelturnschuhs (Nike Mercurys – für günstige 2500 Dollar) zu pushen. So zumindest der Plan den beiden John Nikes (ja es gibt zwei davon) – ihres Zeichens Mitarbeiter des Guerilla-Marketings des Unternehmens. Wenn sich Jugendliche für ein paar Schuhe umbringen, müssen die wohl wirklich toll sein. So der einfache aber perfide Gedanke der beiden Johns. Hack, der allerdings von diesem Plan erst erfährt, als er schon den passenden Vertrag ungelesen unterschrieben hat.

Da der gute Mann aber einfach nicht in der Lage ist Menschen umzubringen und ihm sein Gewissen plagt, wendet er sich an die Polizei. Der zuständige Officer ist auch gleich sehr hilfsbereit und nimmt den Mordauftrag gegen einen gewissen Obolus an. In einer Welt, in der die Regierung nicht mehr das Sagen hat, muss man als Polizist sehen wo man bleibt. Weil man sich aber nicht selber die Hände dreckig machen will, wandert der Auftrag weiter an die NRA (National Rifle Association), wo man im Töten Erfahrung und wenig Gewissensbisse hat. Es kommt, wie es kommen muss und bei der Vorstellung der Nike Mercurys in einem Nike Shop, werden 10 Jugendliche erschossen. Von da an beginnt das Leben vieler Menschen sich zu verändern und in seltsamen Bahnen zu verlaufen.Eine davon ist Jennifer Government, eine Regierungsmistarbeiterin, die einem Bluthund gleich, die Spur des Mörders aufnimmt und versucht den Komplott aufzudecken.

Max Barry zeichnet eine Welt, die der unseren nicht unähnlich ist, und obwohl er den Leser immer wieder zum Schmunzeln bringt, kommt es gelegentlich mal vor, dass einem das Lachen im Halse stecken bleibt, wenn klar wird, dass viele der überspitzen Situationen und Aktionen der Konzerne gar nicht so weit hergeholt ist. Barrys Schreibstil ist angenehm knapp, pointiert und immer auf dem Punkt. Die einzelnen Abschnitte sind sehr kurz gehalten, fast wie bei einem literarischen Videoclip, was dem ganzen Buch ein großen Tempo gibt, was bei den Ereignissen von Logoland auch sehr gut passt. Einzig die Übersicht geht manchmal verloren, weil Max Barry sehr viele Charaktere auftauchen lässt, die er braucht um seine, teils wie eine Screwball-Komödie anmutende Geschichte, am Laufen zu halten. Dass dabei viele der Charaktere ständig an andere Orte reisen bzw auftauchen, macht es nicht leichter, dem Geschehen zu folgen. Hier wäre eine dramatis personae (Auflistung der Charaktere) günstig gewesen.

Logoland ist eine gelungene und witzige Satire auf das ständige Gewinnstreben der großen Unternehmen, die oftmals aber auch nachdenklich stimmt, vor allem wenn man sich selber für wirtschaftliche Zusammenhänge interessiert. Der Plot ist stürmisch, manchmal sogar ein Tick zu stürmisch, reißt den Leser aber sofort mit, so dass man das Buch nur schwer wieder aus der Hand legen kann. Wer intelligente Literatur mag, die zum schmunzeln, aber auch zum Nachdenken anregt, kann bedenkenlos zuschlagen.

von Fantasyguide

NOTE: the formula gives a "BEFORE WARP" stardate because star dates come do not come into existance until the year 2323 (when it is rumored that warp technology was invented, and hence the need for a time system which takes into account time distortion, subspace anomalies, etc).

It use the following formula:

Take a date such as December 20, 2370 13:12 hrs

YY = 2370 - 2323 = 47
DDD = (334+20)/365*1000 =~ 969
T = (13*60+12)/144 =~ .6

StarDate = 47969.6

The procedure is:

1. subtract 2323 from the current year.
2. use a special table to get the total # of days that have passed. Divide this number by 365 or 366, then multiply by 1000. Round to the nearest whole digit.
3. Multiply the hours by 60 and add the minutes. Divide this number by 144. Round this number.
4. Stardate!

by John Barnes
2nd Thousand Cultures novel

Two colonies on the same world feasting on perpetual hate for each other, slowly sliding toward a violent eruption that will annihilate both. This dissolution is mirrored on the personal level of the main characters, albeit with less violence and less clear-cut reasons, at least to Giraut, whose marriage seems to break at the seams with him unable to figure out the reason why.

Where One Million Open Doors was just an excellent, entertaining, smart read, Earth Made of Glass is this bit better that makes it brilliant. One warning up front, Barnes can be a mean bastard and here he is full on in bastard mode. This book is a gut-wrenching, painful yet incredible compelling read. Near the end some parts of it make you feel like walking over broken glass. Part of it is that everyone is trying, and the possibility of success always remains, even if you see Barnes setting everything up for a big fall. The outcome is never clear and the reader always hoping that the worst doesn't come to pass. And then it gets even worse. At times it's painful to go on, but hard to put down.

Rating: 5/5

The experience is rare. But it happened for me again the other day. The sentence that did it comes from John Wyndham's book The Day of the Triffids: "When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere."

The Day of the Triffids is favorably reviewed by its numerous readers. For example, it averages four-and-a-half stars at Amazon for sixty-nine customer reviews. But it's still not known very well outside the sci-fi community. Paul Thompson, of Devon, England, has dedicated a website to this book. It's called "The Reader's Guide to John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids."

Here is an artist's rendition of a triffid:

Best discussions of The Day of the Triffids

• Nick Gifford

If you're familiar with Wyndham's novel, please post your thoughts.

An intercomm was playing what sounded like pre-recorded canned laughter. When SImon investigated he received an electric shock (random event), which was completely unexpected and set he tone of fear. We found a book by a famous author open to page 136. We talked at some length about this author and what his work was about. At a dining room we found what appeared to be time-frozen humans in a macabre stage show. We found another book by a different author - one that the first author had roundly criticised - it was bookmaked to the same page. (We grabbed the Wizard of Oz books and opened them to these pages and found that they both had pictures on page 136. We returned to these images often to see if they could be interpreted.) Making our way to the armoury, because we were shitting ourselves by now, we discovered that half of the ship wasn't even 'real' in the sense of functioning - there were lockers, but they could not open and the work surfaces looked as if they were 'arranged' to look natural.

We found a firing range where genuine androids were frozen in the act of firing guns. We extracted the guns but they could not fire live ammo and found that they were affixed to the floor panels. Under the floor panels we found another passenger who had hidden there (random event). By crikey - he had a very suspicious story. We made our way to the bridge in the hope of getting a signal off. By now we were working on Simon's hypothesis that somehow we had been swept up into some bizarre museum exhibit, but the growing feeling of terror was that WE were not really human at all - we were somehow androids in this museum that had somehow become conscious.

 In the bridge Simon sabotaged the controls (that was some random event that really got us thinking) rather than send a signal. This was because he was now terrified that he was not human at all, and he did not want to know that his wife and daughter were a figment of his imagination. The NPC spoke to him about his cousin who went to the Naval academy with Simon. This calmed him for a while, but then he began to doubt who we was again. 

So the sabotaged controls turned everything off and we were plunged into darkness. The NPC vanished. Quaking with fear we became lost for a while, but found our way eventually back to our starting lounge. By now our terror had abated. Instead the ship was shown to be fake, not us, and this put us in an entirely different frame of mind. It was at this point we concluded that we were in a book. An immersive virtual reality device that uses the 'readers' experiences to create the plot in order to develop and reveal the author's themes. We were in the 'book' we had found and the interpretations on pages 136 became understandable, and with imense relief we decided to quit reading and awoke in our cabins at precisely 4:01.

I had invited Simon into the book to show him around as he had never engaged in such activities before. He was in fact the person who he thought of as a friend at the Naval Academy. And on a 10 week voyage there is not much else to do...

****

We played 8 scenes and generated many random events just because we felt we needed them. The emotional intensity of the game was high. It was easily the most immersed I have been in a game in a very very long time, notwithstanding the fantastic experience playing Mythic with Greg last week.

Technically we used the CLassic Traveller rules as the base set, but never referred to them once. It did make me feel as if I had a comfort blanket there, though. ALthough we agreed that the tech level and society was equivalent to Firefly, it quickly became evident that the true tech level was centuries in advance of that.

The book business came about when we were describing what was on a bench. One of the objects was a book. And once we stared to ask, "Who is it by?" "what is it called?" and so on it grew in importance. By chance I had a boxed set of Oz books by Frank Baum on the table, so we used these to generate random names and events. When we asked what page was the book open to we turned to that page in Wizard of Oz and were greeted with an illustration. We spent ages trying to figure out what the picture was a metaphor for. Every hypothesis that we put up the chaos table smashed down. Only the book remained a solid idea because of the Oz prop. So by the three quarter mark of the game we knew that somehow it was all about this guy's book. It all had to be connected around that point. Once we had that worked out we talked through the possibilities, added up the evidence and concluded that this must be the answer. And then we just knew that the adventure was over.

I later found this: http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/evolution_of_the_modern_cruise_trade_and_its_application_to_space_tourism.shtml 

This represents two out of two for Mythic. More than that: it was better than just satisfactory, it makes all other role-playing games seem lame.