I am ecstatic that the movie Inception was not based on a novel, because that novel would most certainly have made me strongly consider retiring my one pen. If Christopher Nolan continues the writing, directing and producing quality he has exhibited with this and the last Batman movie, the rest of Hollywood should be concerned that he, Peter Jackson and a select group will corner the market of our minds.
Unlike The Matrix, The Sixth Sense and others of the genre, Inception not only pushes the boundaries of what movies expect from movie goers, but assumes enough intelligence on the populace to let us draw our own conclusion. I loved the ending (and, yes, no spoilers here).
To put a summary here would be to commit movie hari cari. All I can say (besides go see the flick) is this: Dom Cobb (Leanardo DeCaprio) is an expert at getting into dreams and finding secrets. Because of a tragedy involving his wife, he cannot enter the US and be reunited with his children. A Japanese businessman whom they were trying to steal secrets from recruits Dom and his team to insert an idea into the mind of an heir to a fortune, with the promise to Dom of reuniting him with his children. Dom has to recruit another “architect” because he cannot create any dream scapes without his dead wife intruding and because the Japanese businessman (well played by Ken Wantanabe) got rid of his last one. This happens to be Ellen Page who during a test dream is able to quickly bend Paris over on top of itself, making wine bars accessible in multiple dimensions.
The difference between this movie and others is that not only does it expect you to keep up (as one of my son’s friends said, you have to watch and pay attention to the whole movie), the story line keeps you emotionally involved while your brain is trying to differentiate dream from reality. The special effects are as good if not better than the previews, and DeCaprio, unfairly classified since Titanic, is excellent.
Best movies of the year thus far, and any movie that has Michael Caine in it is a must-see. But I am holding out for R.E.D. (Retired Extremely Dangerous) before final judgement. When my man Bruce Willis can jump out of a spinning car shooting, that is Oscar material.
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My notes on Mark Chadbourn’s excellent first novel in his Age of Misrule trilogy, World’s End, has been published on SFSignal.com.
An excerpt:
There are almost as many end of world novels as there are authors (yes, guilty!) in both science fiction and fantasy. My last article on SFSignal talked about different types of technology changes that can be found in sci-fi novels; Chadbourn’s series features a gradual technology collapse in a fantasy novel, with technology slowly but surely being replaced by a sense of the Earth, nature and magic. Chadbourn handles this transition seamlessly, taking the characters (and the reader) from a modern London to using Stonehenge as a refuge from creatures so heinous they cannot look upon them without nausea. Even though it was originally released in the late 90s by Gollancz in the UK, World’s End has a very 2012ish “a new age is coming” feel to it.
Read the entire review here.
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The movie The Lightning Thief, has excellent special effects (Hades in the fire and looking like an old rock musician is well done) and tells the story of Percy Jackson, half human, half Olympian God. Several easily recognized actors play Olympian roles (Uma Thurman is enjoyable as Medusa, Pierce Brosnan with a half-horse body at Chiron, Sean Bean (Boromir from Lord of the Rings and Odysseus in Try) plays Zeus), and, except for the likeness of Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) to my son’s friend Ryan and a few occasions of wooden acting, the kid’s parts (Percy, Annabeth, Grover) were well cast.
As with most, we noted several major differences in the movie versus Rick Riordan’s first novel in the Percy Jackson series. Since the movie was already two hours, one would assume they were cut for time. But there were also pieces that were left out that are needed if the next book in the series is turned into a movie. Slight spoilers below if you haven’t read the book: (more…)
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The Golden City is the final book in an ambitious trilogy by John Twelve Hawks, mixing a Orwellian 1984 big brother “Vast Machine”, the many worlds theory, quantum computing and martial arts. Sounds right up my alley, right? The first novel in the series, The Traveler, was enjoyable, well-paced, an excellent setup; the second, The Dark River, not so much (my notes).
This third book ties up most of the loose ends, and is as well-paced as the first. While the “good vs. evil” brother characters are predictably drawn, the other characters get more page time in this novel, and are quite enjoyable (especially Hollis). The ending has an Ayn Rand type speech (which makes you think that was the entire purpose for getting the trilogy out!) and leaves room for more books in these worlds. (more…)
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My friends at SFSignal.com invited me to interview Michael Hanlon about his new book Eternity: our next billion years.
Michael is the science editor for the Daily Mail in the UK. His book goes against the current doomsday grain and looks through a future where us humans are still hanging around. It is split into three parts: near future (new few centuries), mid-future (few thousand years) and far-future (the point where the Earth will actually die, a billion years hence). The chapters are mostly science essays, but there is some sprinkling of speculative fiction in the later chaps.
Michael’s book covers a wide range of topics including how the geo-political landscape may change in the next few years, what languages we might be speaking, how drought, famine and over-population will affect the world, the singularity, things that he doesn’t think will happen, things that would change the course of history if they did happen, and others.
After the break is an excerpt: (more…)
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Having read (recently) the Gap Series (back-to-back) and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (in school, about 100 years ago), I was looking forward to diving into this series, “The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant”.
Mr. Donaldson’s world building is complex. And though he includes what I wish every author would include (a “What Has Come Before” section before each of his books) it was difficult to pick up the story, even though this is the first book in a new series. Thus, this post will be longer than usual, notes for when I read the next three books in this (planned) four book series.
In this book, Dr. Linden Avery is the main character. She is running a mental institute which was started via funding from locals who recognized the tragedy from the earlier books (people sticking their hands into fire to summon Lord Foul the Despiser) and the lack of a facility in the area to treat such folks. Joan, Thomas Covenant’s estranged wife, is a patient in the facility. Linden has also adopted Jeremiah, one of the children from the tragedy who cannot communicate, and has one hand maimed from the fire similar to Covenant’s ‘half-hand’. (more…)
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Watching District 9 with my 18 year old this weekend 
and observing how is interest level changed made us realize that the movie is four movies in one. He was interested in some parts, bored in others and excited/laughing in others.
An alien ship stalls out of Johannesburg. The aliens are rescued from the ship, and, 20 years later, they are in a slum called District 9. Tension with the locals incites a movement to relocate them out of the city (to the cleverly named District 10)
The movie is:
- a political commentary; setting a ‘let’s discriminate against aliens’ movie in South Africa, still remembered for Apartheid/racial segregation is ironic and well done. The aliens are segregated, forced into a slum called District 9, and generally regarded as outsiders and inferiors (feeding them cat food?) by the residents (both black and white with interesting documentary like commentary). Obvious parallels are drawn to District Six in South Africa as the aliens are told they are to be forcibly relocated outside the city limits (and asked to sign documents in English to make sure their rights are protected!). As with most of these types of movies, the military/corporate complex (MNU) is portrayed as doing dissections and weapons research in secret. My son was casually interested in this part, but I could tell he was wondering why he came with me.
(more…)
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In this third book in the series, Stross’ world building gets more complex 
and even more interesting. Plus Miriam, our protagonist and heroine, gets into more trouble than she can get out of.
At the end of the last novel, Miriam discovered that her foster mother Iris was her real mother Patricia, and Patricia returned (somewhat unwillingly) to the world of the Clan after an attempt on her life. Mattias, the security chief of Miram’s Uncle the Duke, turned traitor and, with a well thought out plan, decimated the Clan’s safehouses and couriers in our world, and in turn informed the FBI that it was the Clan that was responsible for a large smuggling operation. Miriam’s lover Roland is killed in the destruction and takeover of the Clan safehouses. Miriam is kept under lock and key while she recovers, but is furious to find out that the business she set up in world 3 (which is using patents/inventions from our world to make money) is being run by someone else in the Clan. (more…)
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This is the second book of the Merchant Princes series (got the first four books in the series at a sale at Katy Budget Books). 
It is very much a straight continuation (i.e., no cliff hanger) from the 1st book, The Family Trade.
Miriam, fresh off several assassination attempts, is back in our world, bringing along Brill from the Clan’s home world (for background, from the first book, Miriam and others with similar DNA can world-walk by looking at a particular braid design; her family in world 2 is called the Clan, made up of six families; world 2 is about 150 years behind our world in development, and has a monarchy and hierarchical caste system). From one of the assassination attempts, she retrieved a locket from one of the assassins (whom Miriam killed); the locket contains a braid, but of a different design. She cannot use it to world walk from our world, but she can from world 2, and it takes her to…world 3, which is more advanced than world 2 (airships, primitve cars) but not as advanced as ours. (more…)
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This is the first book of the Merchant Princes series (got the first four books in the series at a sale at Katy Budget Books). 
The series combines the idea of parallel worlds with severe economics; each of the worlds are at a different stage of economic development, and our protagonist is determined to take advantage of this as a wealth creation mechanism.
Miriam Beckstein is a reporter on the trail of a huge story about drug smuggling. She and her investigative helper, Paulette, get fired upon presenting their story to management. In a funk, Miriam goes to see her foster mother, who sees this as a good time to give her a box of things from her “real mother”. This box includes a locket, which when opened shows a braid design that enables those of a particular bloodline to “world walk”. (more…)
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