Rex Libris - I Librarian

Posted on September 15, 2007 
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Here’s a fun one I thought I should make you all aware of from SLG publishing. I Librarian is the first collection of stories about Rex Libris the librarian for Middleton Public Library. Sound pretty tame does it? Well, he’s been a librarian for over two thousand years working as an agent of the deposed, and disgruntled former Egyptian god Thoth.

Rex travels throughout the universe to collect overdue books, by force when necessary. Battling strange alien despots and shadowy Samurai demons along the way. All the while trying to satisfy the publisher of his memoirs with sufficiently marketable plot contrivances.

By publishing is memoirs, Rex is breaking the ancient silence of the “Ordo Bibleotheca” that has for millennium influenced the rise and fall of civilizations through protecting knowledge …. and the public library system. He has the permission, albeit begrudged approval of Thoth, as long as he doesn’t start wearing spandex or contact lenses. That’s because Thoth doesn’t quite approve of the comic book genre.

This is a smart, quick witted series with a well contrived and refreshingly original plot wedgie. It’s self deprecating and ironic sense of humor reminds me a little of Buffy the Vampire slayer. It’s a great read, check it out!

The Deathly Hallows … a wrap up party

Posted on August 7, 2007 
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So Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is behind us now. Time to pause a moment and reflect.

Back in April of 2006 I shot off my mouth and made some predictions of what I thought would happen. I even wrote my own version of how I would end it, because yah know that’s what this site is all about.

So its time to face the music and run a tally and see how I did.

……….WARNING …….SPOILERS …….Follow……..
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Potter 7/21/07 where were you?

Posted on July 23, 2007 
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Well I and my clan joined in the fun at WizardStock in Hogwarts (Harvard) Yard. While the youngins weren’t quite up to staying long enough to ring in the release of the Deathly Hallows, it was a lot of fun. Most notable during our stay was the band Draco and the Malfoys. You may think you like Harry Potter, but these guys sure don’t! They’re band committed to representing the Slytherin perspective, and they do it well indeed. I took quick peek over at YouTube and found some of their hits, but nothing good yet from this weekend. The sang songs about Kicking Dobby, being the best Death Eater, Potions with Snape, and Partying like your evil. While it may seem strange to revel in hatred of Harry Potter on the eve of the release of the Deathly Hallows, this costumed crowd sure got the irony.

After some fun at Harvard, we ambled over to Newbury Comics, mostly to see what was going on just a few short hours before midnight. There was lots of Harry Potter toys and other merchandise to be had. And costumed salespeople to help you find it.

But what did my progeny latch onto? They both wanted a toy sonic screwdriver from Dr. Who!! I couldn’t be prouder. Their science fiction indoctrination is apparently proceeding well ahead of schedule, considering they’re only 8 and 6. And if you don’t know Doctor Who then you’ve got some homework to do!

So then we T’d it back to the car and headed home. We picked up our reserve copy at Borders the next day. But I’ll admit I’m not done yet.

So …. Where were you?

An Inconvenient Truth

Posted on June 30, 2007 
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I just saw Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth. Yeah I know its been around awhile, but hey that’s what Netflix is all about right? Some pretty thought provoking stuff, and even if you think Al Gore is blander than stale salt free pretzels, you need to see it. Someday one of your children, or grandchildren is going to ask you something like: “What the heck were you selfish @#$%^s thinking?” Consider yourself warned, and start working on your answer now.

Ok, that’s the public service portion of this post taken care of. But this is a website devoted to fiction. So I’ve decided to write about this movie as if it were a B grade science fiction film. And yes I know that President Bush already thinks it is, but to be fair he’s at best a Texas oil man so let’s take that opinion with a little grain of salt.

So here’s the plot: It starts with a pretty standard “pre-apocalyptic” wedgie. The scientists are all screaming like crazy waving their arms and shoving graphs in peoples faces. The gist being “holy crap!! There’s more C02 in the atmosphere than there’s been in over 650,000 years and the planets heating up like a wad of gum on a hot steel bumper. Things are already getting sticky and if we don’t do something soon not even Bruce Willis will be able to save our a**.” Meanwhile the politicians are all like: “Yeah yeah yeah, but how does this help my chances of getting re-elected. And lets just take out that last paragraph from the report so it doesn’t upset our friends in the oil industry. And what do the opinion polls show on this one?” After all, most politicians are old men who frankly, aren’t going to be around when the time comes to pay the piper on this one.

Then along comes a former vice president, late in life who missed being president by about two votes in one of the most questionable elections in history. This guy, maybe out of boredom, he is out of a job after all, actually starts reading some of the scientists reports. Maybe he’s played by Harrison Ford, I know he doesn’t look anything like Al Gore, but I think he’d be great for the part, and maybe more convincing too. Anyway, he starts going all over the world talking to scientists and doing lectures, showing movies and so forth. The sky really is basically falling but all the Hummer driving, coal burning, forest eating morons either don’t get it, or just couldn’t care less. All they seem to care about is getting the price of gas under 3$ a gallon and finding a more convenient Starbucks.

So here’s the fictional part:

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Buffy Season 8

Posted on April 3, 2007 
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That’s right sports fans, Buffy is back! Season 8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is out in comic book form from Dark Horse. Joss Whedon remains at the helm of the Buffyverse as writer. I’ve read the March edition and April is due out in a couple days. While one comic is perhaps not enough to predict where the storyline is going, it is possibly enough to get a flavor for how it will get there. It picks up shortly after the apocalyptic (for Sunnydale anyway) end of the TV Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 7. Sunnydale is a hole in the ground, and slayers are no longer in short supply. What I can say about it so far is that the “look” of the comic is quite good, albeit a bit dark, though it would have to be. Also, the story starts right in the middle of the action, with all of the quips and cultural references of the TV series. So far I love it and maybe in a couple more books I’ll post on where I think the story is going. But for now check it out and enjoy.

Scalzi Things

Posted on March 31, 2007 
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This post isn’t a predictive post or a better ending. I consider this more a public service announcement/ review. Lately I’ve read a couple of books by John Scalzi. http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/ If you like science fiction, and you have a sense of humor you should check out his work. I’ve been lurking his blog for awhile now and have read two of his books so far, and I intend to read more. His writing style is wry and conversational, and his characters are very human (even when technically they aren’t). There’s a real sense of humor in his writing, although I would not characterize it as “science fiction comedy”. But if you expect your science fiction to be serious and dry it might not be for you.

The first Scalzi book I read was an earlier one called Old Man’s War. It’s very solid well crafted science fiction. There’s some real science content and a great plotline. Old Man’s War is set in a relatively near future where the human race is in near constant conflict with a plethora of alien species for the few habitable worlds. To help fill the ranks of the fighting forces senior citizens are being recruited. They’re enticed by the promise of a new enhanced and youthful body to fight in, and assistance in settling on an alien world if they survive. The story revolves around the experiences of John Perry, one of these senior soldiers as he signs up on his 75th birthday. He quickly finds himself off world for the first time in a young strong body fighting strange alien species. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it has a real taste of one of the classics of science fiction and is generally a fun read to boot.

A more recent work by John Scalzi is Android’s Dream. This one is a more irreverent and satirical book about political intrigue and infighting around earths relations with a fourth rate alien power. It follows the story of Harry Creek a low level diplomat as opposing wings of earth’s government play a game of high stakes cat and mouse diplomacy with earth’s only real alien ally the Nidu. Pivotal to Android’s Dream is the Church of the Evolved Lamb. A religion started when a wealthy widower, Hayter-Ross, coned a con artist who tried to scam her by claiming he had divine inspiration and insight. From the ensuing religious nonsense a very real, successful and powerful church was born, with full knowledge of its heritage. This church set out to broker its influence and power to make the con man’s predictions come true. Really fun stuff. Not to mention that the first chapter is entirely devoted to a diplomatic incident where a human diplomat assassinates his alien counterpart using flatulent enabled technologies. I highly recommend this one, check it out you’ll be glad you did.

Doctor Who? (2005)

Posted on September 14, 2006 
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For those uninitiated in the Doctor Who series , it is the English equivalent of Star Trek. The original series ran from 1963 to 1989, followed by a TV movie in 1996 and now started again for the 2005 BBC season. It is famous for its quirky science fiction plotlines and unabashed low budget special affects. Think of it as the Hitchhikers guide meets Star Trek. Being a BBC series, the pace and the humor has always been very different than US productions. In other words, like Benny Hill, it was the kind of thing people either loved or hated, not a lot of middle ground.

Here’s a quick background for those too impatient to Google the plot. Basically Dr. Who is a renegade “Time Lord” who stumbles through space and time in a frequently malfunctioning device called a tardis. He has a long time habit of “collecting” human traveling companions to share his adventures and to contrast his eccentricities against. He tends to show up when and where some alien wedgie is happening and chaos ensues. So what’s this all about different Doctors? It is another excellent plot wedgie enabling the thread of the story to span generations of viewers. These Time Lords are like cats in that they are supposed to have nine lives. Basically when they are at deaths door, they regenerate and take on a whole new appearance and personality.

I recently discovered that 2005 season of Dr. Who was taken up by the SciFi channel. I enjoyed the Tom Baker season (the fourth Doctor) many years ago, but was less interested by the series with Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor. Anyway, I was excited to see where things were going with the series now. This latest Doctor portrayed by Christopher Eccleston has captured all of the humor and detached eccentricity that I enjoyed about Tom Baker’s portrayal of the Doctor. Although this Doctor has some darkness in his past that leaks out every now and then.

This season, now on DVD, has brought high quality production and special affects to the formerly camp and low budget series without also falling into the trap of making the plot too serious. There are pig aliens, living plastic, 2000 year old flat faces, and farting lizard aliens! What more could you ask? I’ll tell you what, there are also the Daleks. These are the big bads in the Dr. Who universe (Whoniverse?). In the past, though well written they lacked menace because they were built from garbage cans and toilet plungers. Well move over Borg, they’re a tough act now. Not to mention they’ve finally conquered stairs!

If you love Sci-Fi, and are able to take it with a dose of humor, then consider it homework to check this out.

Now about that ending

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Serenity

Posted on April 21, 2006 
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I hesitate to write about Serenity. I watched the movie without seeing the series Firefly that it was derived from. Also, Serenity was literally the movie that wouldn’t die. Without the fanatical Firefly fans, and their outrage when Firefly was cancelled there would be no Serenity. And yes, we all know that Joss Whedon is a god, so claiming to have a better ending is technically huberous. I was pleased while watching the movie that I never felt I was missing the point because I hadn’t seen Firefly.

The story stands up well without any confusing blanks for the un-initiated. It’s a wild combination of Outlaw Jose Wales, Mad Max, Star Wars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The defeated rebel turned outlaw, a Jose Wales meets Han Solo kind of character, named Mal captains a well-worn ship with a misfit crew on mercenary raids. They travel at the edges of civilization trying to avoid being noticed.

The view of the Universe in this tale is one without weird aliens, or serene worlds perfect for human population. Humanity has terra formed barren planets to spread civilization. The only monsters are called Raves, they are insane mutated human cannibals who strike without reason, and prefer to eat their victims alive. Basically they are berserker vampires without the fashion sense or style that they would have in Buffy or Angel.

One of the members of this misfit crew is River Tam, a psychotic telepath who has been seriously messed up by a secret government psy-ops organization. Picture the Vampire Slayer Faith with ballerina grace tripping on acid. River’s brother Simon has rescued her from the psy-ops group and is trying to hide her from the government by traveling with Mal and his crew.

The problem is that the government realizes River may have inadvertently been exposed to some heavy insider government knowledge through her telepathy. So the government sends a nameless uber fighter official to “clean-up” the problem. Chaos ensues.

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Harry Potter Book 7 (–update: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

Posted on April 3, 2006 
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The Harry Potter books by JK Rowling are among the best I’ve read in a long time. Now that may seem like gushy fan praise, but hold that thought. For the past seven years I’ve read very little but children’s stories and board books. You guessed it; I’ve been reading these books to my now seven-year-old daughter. Before children, or BC as I like to say I was a ravenous reader. After my daughter was born, or AD as I like to say, soon followed by my son, my reading was greatly curtailed.

The Harry Potter books have been a wonderful point of connection for my daughter and me. But along with that they are also well-written, well-crafted stories. This has helped fill my reading jones, though now my foot is tapping for book seven.

To that end, since this post is about book seven it obviously isn’t a critique of the ending. No, this is my first predictive post and it is a tall order. The Harry Potter books are far from predictable, so I thought I would first lay out a list of directions I think she’s going in with percentages representing how strongly I feel about them. Then I’ll give you my ending.

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Flaws in the Matrix

Posted on February 25, 2006 
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NEO

The Matrix trilogy had all the makings of really first rate science fiction: really good techno fluff, excessive action (can you say 20-minute car chase?), a huge special effects budget, and a hip, attractive cast. Other great science fiction movies have certainly had less going for them.

That’s why it’s too bad the ending stunk.

Right through the end of the second movie the Matrix Reloaded, I was pretty stoked about the direction the story was going. At the end, when Neo stops the machine while outside the matrix — I thought whoa, they’re still inside! Awesome twist and good example of machine-think: the machines lets all the humans who realize they’ve been inside the matrix think that they’ve escaped outside the matrix to Zion, while they’re really still inside another layer of the matrix. That’s exactly how a machine would solve the problem. Good stuff.

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