Number6's Journal

Let's see, what of note is there to say? Fan Expo's in about a month, and I'm tentatively planning on going right now (to get Jewel Staite's autograph for my Firefly collection). I might even bring baked goods for in-line snacking and (if I work up the nerve) offering to others. I've got a plan to make "Fruity Oaty Bars" from Firefly/Serenity (well, I think they were only in Serenity), and since Blue Sun is the corporation behind the bars, I may try to do a blueberry-starfruity filling (Blue-Star is as close as I can get to Blue Sun). Yay, for obscure geekiness that only I will get. But, it depends on it being in season and in a store that I can get it (in previous years I've seen starfruits in my grocery store but I don't know when they start showing up). Also, I still haven't done a test batch and time's running out. So we'll see.

TV? It's been a long time since I've talked about TV that almost everything I have to say is old news. But let's see... Stranger Things is on Netflix (or you could get it magically another way)... and I quite liked it, it's like 80s Stephen King and 80s Steven Spielberg teamed up to make a movie set in the 80s but using today's effects. Not perfect, and I had an unreasonable amount of nerd rage at them getting D&D wrong (ask me in comments if you're curious), but overall quite well done, even if it is a bit nostalgia-baity.

Killing Joke cartoon came out and, just, ugh. I mean, the original story was iffy enough, but I sort of forgive it because Oracle came out of it (even if it was indirectly). But they added a 30 minute prologue focusing on Batgirl and... I WANTED a prologue focusing on Batgirl, but what they actually gave me was just awful, stupid ideas that if possible made the iffier elements of Killing Joke even WORSE. Why, DC, why?

I've been kind of on a rewatch binge lately, rewatched all of Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, and now moving on to Sliders. The Stargates were more or less as good as I remember it, Sliders... well, I knew it turned to suck eventually, but I'd forgotten how much wasn't that great even in the "good" seasons. Not all-around awful, and I'm still enjoying watching it, but just full of random cringey moments where I viscerally notice bad writing or acting (or the results of executive tampering). It was always a show that I loved more for potential than for what they did with it, and I still want to see a reboot done well. Oh, and it's fun spotting people in it. I was watching an episode and I thought, "Wait, is that Jeffrey Dean Morgan?" (the brother's father in Supernatural, Negan in The Walking Dead, Comedian in Watchmen), and... yup, it was! It took to the opening credits to be sure because he looked so young. He played a tough guy from a "civilization-has-collapsed" world who, chasing after his girlfriend, follows the Sliders to a world where SanFran is a penal colony.

I think that's all I remember for TV, so we'll move onto the bimonthly book roundup. As usual, Goodreads reviews copy-pasted here.

Finished: A World Out of Time by Larry Niven

A man with a terminal illness in the modern day has himself frozen as a last-ditch attempt to survive. He awakens hundreds of years in the future, in a completely new body and told that he must be in service to the State... or else. Soon, though, he gets a chance to escape and flee into Earth's far far future where many things have changed and survival is even more complicated.( Read more... )All in all, I've seen much better "trips into the far far future" tales than this.

About the only thing I took away from this book was the description of a far distant genetically altered version of a cat that looked pretty much just a head and tail with no limbs, which proved to me that I would still "awww" at a kitty even if you made it into something like a snake.

Finished: Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (Expanse #5)

( Read more... )In a series like this, you're not really advising people who aren't already invested in the books, so really reviews tend to boil down to "How does this compare to the rest of the series? Is it getting better? Is it getting worse? Is it still worth reading?" And so really all I probably needed to say is that this is one of the better books in the series and I'll absolutely be reading the next.

Finished: Packing Fraction and Other Stories of Science and Imagination (short stories)

A short book of even shorter short stories. This one I believe is targetted towards teens, with the goal of getting them into science fiction. The stories are interesting enough and deal with a few real issues alongside cool SF ideas, but both are made somewhat milder... not so much to match the sensibilities of teens, but so that parents might not complain. ( Read more... )I got this for about a buck at an online store. I'm not sure it'd be worth paying much more than that (more because of the short page count than quality reasons). But at that price, I'm not disappointed at least.

Finished: Echopraxia by Peter Watts (reread)

Reread, so I'll just say I think I liked it more the second time around, not as much effort needed to understand what's happening so the subtler charms are easier to enjoy.

Finished: Too Like The Lightning by Ada Palmer

Mycroft is a convicted criminal, sentenced to be a Servicer... forbidden to own property, and in exchange for food and shelter must work for whoever requires his services. Because he has a particular set of skills, this often means working for the upper echelon of 25th century society. And in the course of his work, Mycroft has encountered what seems like a miracle, a young boy who can bring art to life... literally.

This is a particularly hard book for me to review. There's so much going on here, and while much of it is good, and some I'd call very good, some of it rubs me the wrong way in terms of personal tastes. ( Read more... )So although I can certainly see talent here, and understand why this book is being highly praised in many circles, it's proving not so much tuned to my personal tastes. I'd probably rate it a 2, albeit a high one, but since it's a first novel where I'm traditionally more forgiving, and because it was on the high end of 2 anyway, I'll make it a three. I might still like to explore more of Ada Palmer's work in the future... but, at this point, I'm not sure I want to continue reading the rest of this story. I might, but it may be the sort of thing where, a few years down the line I may spontaneously decide that I wonder how it turned out, rather than buying it when it comes out. Or, perhaps, if I hear a lot of reviews where they talk about having addressed some of my personal difficulties with the book.

Finished: Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder (reread)

I've already read this several times and talked about it here even before I started doing Goodreads reviews.

Finished: The Passage by Justin Cronin

The US government, after obtaining samples of a virus that resembles classical vampirism, begins an ultra-secret project to refine and weaponize this discovery, by injecting variations on the virus into test subjects recruited from Death Row, and also a little girl who's not in the system. Naturally, everything goes according to plan and nothing goes wrong at all with this totally reasonable idea, but you might want to avoid the planet Earth for the next few centuries as it may be overrun with monsters.

This book's gotten a lot of hype... the author got apparently a huge advance for it, it was on the NYT bestseller list for a while, and there's talk of a movie adaptation, it's one of those books I've heard about for years since it came out.

And I wanted to like it so much. But I really didn't, at least not in total. (Warning, I will be a little bit more spoilery than usual...)( Read more... )So yeah, I ranted a lot about the book, and probably made it seem like I enjoyed it less than I did. I gave it two stars. I enjoyed it mildly, but... too much annoyed me, and I wanted it to be so much better, to even a little bit live up to the hype. Instead, it disappointed me. There are two other books in the series for those who don't have my issues with it... maybe they get better, maybe they even specifically address some of my problems in ways that would make me retract my position on the first book. But I don't think I'm ever going to find out.

Finished: Queen of Candesce by Karl Schroeder (reread)

Another multiple-time reread, nothing more to say.

Finished: Scratch Monkey by Charles Stross

Oshi Adjani works for an inconceivably advanced artificial intelligence, doing various jobs like taking out planetary dictatorships and mass-murderers. She believes what she's doing, even though it may require some despicable actions of her own, is for the good of humanity as a whole. And it may well be, but when Oshi discovers a secret about her boss, she can't let it lie. In punishment for questioning, she's given one last dangerous assignment, one that, if she completes it, she can go free. But it's an assignment so dangerous that the odds of surviving it are slim. The boss needs a scratch monkey, an agent that is fundamentally disposable. And that agent is Oshi.

Charles Stross has written some of my favorite books, books that spew novelty from every page and leave readers reeling with the feeling that they've really seen a potential future, past the Singularity where it's impossible to predict or even understand... and maybe you still don't entirely understand it, but you feel as close as someone's liable to come. Unfortunately, a lot of his recent output has been decidedly more grounded, as he's simply not interested in some of the same themes that he used to be. There's nothing wrong with this, but I am still interested, and I was craving something more like the old Stross. Then I discovered Scratch Monkey, an unpublished (but nearly published) novel that he posted for free on his website.( Read more... )Still, if you're like me and hoping for something to scratch a similar itch as Accelerando, and have read all his published work, this might be the thing for you. If Goodreads allowed finer-grain ratings, I'd probably put it somewhere in the high three stars, but since it doesn't, I'll round it up to four.

Finished: Company Town by Madeline Ashby
Hwa is a bodyguard working for a town built around an oil rig, off the coast of Newfoundland. Unlike virtually everyone else in town, she has no cybernetic attachments. She's hired to be the bodyguard to the son of the billionaire who just bought the whole town, who has been receiving very specific unusual death threats. Meanwhile, Hwa's old clients and friends are being targetted by a serial killer.

There's a lot of good in this book, and a few off-notes that don't entirely dampen my enthusiasm for it, but just keep it from being that much better.( Read more... )I think part of the problem was that it was a fairly short novel, it could have been filled out in ways where some of these swings didn't seem so dramatic. I liked it though, and I'd read more with these characters if the author chose to write more in this universe. I think it's another book that I might only give a 3.5 if I could give half stars, but if I have to choose, I think I'd round upward in this case.

Finished: Battle Royale Slam Book (Essays on the Cult Classic) (essay collection

That's right, I read a book of essays.

The Battle Royale Slam Book is a book of essays on the book, movie, and manga versions of Battle Royale.

Honestly, I'm not really sure why it needs a special book of essays. I mean, I love the book, but it's not the deepest work in the world. I wouldn't have read this at all, except that it happened to be part of a bundle of ebooks I bought, and I happened to already be rereading Battle Royale. So, I figured I'd keep an ereader open on my computer and read an essay now and then when I had some free time, maybe learn some additional context that I'd missed in the original. ( Read more... )I'm glad I got it for free (or rather as part of a bundle which already contained other books that were worth the full price I paid for said bundle), since I wouldn't have bought it alone, but I didn't hate it, I just mostly found it unnecessary. I guess two stars seems appropriate.

Finished: Battle Royale Remastered by Koushun Takami

42 students (average age roughly 15) are gassed on a school field trip and awaken on an island, where they're told they've been chosen for this year's Program. Everyone knows what that means... one class is chosen every year, and they will have to kill each other until only one survives. Some will team up, some will try to escape, and some are willing to kill people they've grown up with.

Battle Royale Remastered is a new translation of Koushun Takami's cult classic Battle Royale. I've already read the previous translation, and even reviewed it. The fact that I'm reading a retranslation should tell you already that I like the story a lot. So, although my rating is going to be the same (because I'm rating the book itself), in this review I will be talking specifically about the translation.( Read more... )

Started (or finished but haven't yet reviewed): Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen (received for free from a giveaway), The Future Is Japanese (short story collection), The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North, The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler (received for free from a giveaway)

Book Foo..

Finished: Accelerando, by Charles Stross (reread)
Started: Glasshouse, by Charles Stross (reread)

Accelerando's a reread of course, first time, but again, I really enjoyed it, and hope he does some more in this universe. There's just a whizzing of cool ideas, some of which go by too fast to grab. Moved on to Glasshouse which is not as good.

Finished: Old Twentieth, by Joe Haldeman
Started: The Year's Best SF 13, (short stories)

Old Twentieth was... mixed. Like unfortunately a lot of Haldeman's work, he starts telling an interesting, engaging story, which then suddenly goes off the rails at the end. Minor spoilers, but mostly back of the book stuff (with vague hints towards resolution), behind cut. ( Read more... )

Had a dream last night that people I hadn't talked to in a long time were messaging me online to tell me XET had returned. It wasn't a real return but sort of a "let's spin up the database for a night for old times sake and talk about old times" type deal. Still, nostalgia'd.

Another dream too that was pretty cool at the time but I've forgotten it, alas. Yesterday I did have a dream I later mistook for actually happening, but it was terribly mundane. A few days ago I bought some pie on sale. I forgot about it over the weekend (we have 2 freezers in our fridge, one of which I almost never go into, and it was in the other one). Anyway, I didn't know whether my roommates had any any left me my 1/3 or not. But yesterday I was absolutely sure there was 1/3 of it waiting for me to eat, because I'd actually seen it. Only to find when I went to look that it was untouched. Must have dreamed it. See, mundane.

In less mundane food stories, on Friday I had to get new shoes because my current ones were falling apart, and while I was doing so I saw something in a remainder bin... a sandwich maker. You know, one of those triangle shaped ones that heat both sides of the bread and press down and presto, hot sandwich, all sealed in. So yeah, it was pretty cheap and I bought one, and have been enjoying hot sandwiches on a regular basis the last few days. I've never had one before. A sandwich maker, I mean, not a hot sandwich.

Oh, and there should be another post on Thursday, although whether I'll be horribly depressed for it or horribly cheerful about it depends on what exactly happens on Thursday.

Bah... somehow deleted most of my post with an accidental keypress and couldn't undo!
Let's start off with another batch of found Prisoners of Gravity uploads

Racism (Feb 18th, 1993)
How racism is handled in SF and comics.
Part One: Louise Simonson (on covert, unintentional racism and tackling it in Superman), Will Eisner (on changing his brother's name so it doesn't seem Jewish, and his views on the roots of racism, and stereotypical racial 'looks' in comics), John Byrne (on a complaint he got about stereotyping when portraying a particular ethnic type... Canadians), Gilbert Hernandez (on subverting stereotypes and whether he's a spokesman), Denys Cowan (on comics as a White Male Club, and trying to change it)
Part Two: Milestone comics, cartoonist Dan Pirarro (general views on racism), Andre Norton (on including minority protagonists in her fantasy fiction, and the problems she's had trying to publish it, and the reactions she's got from the people she's tries to portray), Samuel R. Delany (on being one of the first black writers in SF, and including black characters as an aesthetic choice vs a political one), Karen Haber (on The Mutant Season, showing mutant characters as both victims and perpetrators of racism, and about SF dealing with issues like racism in the metaphor vs tackling the issue head on)
Part Three: Spider Robinson (on racism in the publishing industy, and a story of his own inadventant prejudice), William F. Wu (on the widespread geographical experience in Chinese Americans, and difference between Chinese characters in his works vs a white writer), Owl Goingback (on trying to dispel Native American stereotypes in SF), Jewelle Gomez (on The Gilda Stories gaining acceptance in academic communities, and it not being the standards she's aiming for)

Profiles: Feb 25th, 1993
Profiles on three creators: Jeff Smith of Bone, Fantasy authot Guy Gavriel Kay, and SF author Elizabeth Vonarburg. No detailed summary, just a few bits here and there.
Part One: Guy Gavriel Kay. Lessons he learned from finishing Tolkien's The Silmarillion.
Part Two: Jeff Smith, creator of Bone (includes interview with Neil Gaiman on discovering Bone) (also the introduction to the Vonarburg bit)
Part Three: Elizabeth Vonarburg

I'll just do two this time, but there's "Cyberbooks", "Immortality", and "First Contact" on tap still.

And I finally finished the Sixth Doctor's, Colin Baker's, run on Doctor Who. My thoughts below, as usual, broken up into sections:

The Doctor: Not all that appealing to me. ( Read more... )

The Companions: ( Read more... )

The Stories: ( Read more... )

What's next? Well, Seven, of course. I've only seen his first episode, but I like him more already so far. Once I'm done him, I'll have seen all the canonical Doctor's runs (either watching or reading transcripts of every episode). I've already finished a mini-milestone in that I've seen every on-screen regeneration, in context. I'll probably finish my old school watching by the time the Eleventh Doctor's run starts.

Moving on, before I go, Stargate Universe, minor spoilery comment on the mid-season finale, boiling down to I CALLED IT ( Read more... )

Oh, and, for anyone wondering, as expected, I did not wind up going to the Xmas party for my work. *shrug*

Apparently, in addition to his X-Men Forever ongoing series (which lets him pick up where he left off on the X-Men series in the 90s, and do it more or less as he likes it), he's also got another project in the works...

New Mutants Forever. A five issue miniseries, picking up "three minutes" after his last issue of New Mutants (that's issue #54).

Claremont can be iffy, but old school New Mutants is hard to pass up, I think I'll probably give this a look.

Prisoners of Gravity to start off with again.

Writers' Workshops/Clarion - November 10, 1993
More advice for writers, this time on how to become a better writer and focusing on the various Writer's Workshops.

Part One: Damon Knight (on how Clarion is set up), Kate Wilhelm (on what Clarion/other writer workshops does for a writer, and the 'writer's apprenticeship' period), Kristine Katheryn-Rusch (on what Clarion instructors do to encourage), Connie Willis (on how critiquing other people's work is what makes you a better writer), Geoff Ryman (on the training your own editor),
Part Two: Connie Willis (on her approach to teaching writing, and the importance of plotting as a skill), Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Clarion graduate, reading a bit of a story she did at Clarion, and giving her reaction to turning it in), Kim Antieu (on why Clarion tends to lead to getting successfully published), James Alan Gardner (on advice he got at Clarion that didn't particularly work for him, a Frost quote about writing vs talking about the stories), Kate Wilhelm (on how there's multiple ways to write), story about Harlan Ellison being kicked out of a writing class, Harlan Ellison (on inspiring fear in his Clarion students, and how everyone thinks they can write),
Part Three: Harlan Ellison continued (breaking the spirit of dilettantism, and giving The Great Secret of Writing), William F. Wu (about how something Harlan Ellison said inspired him for the story he's best known for), Geoff Ryman (on what Clarion gives participants than what they did before), Connie Willis (on the Clarion Slump, and learning to write in very small bits when you have very limited time), general advice, More on Nina Kiriki Hoffman's story reading.

Games: November 3, 1993
SF Authors using games people play for story fodder.

Part One: Terry Pratchett (reading from Small Gods), Lynda Barry (on her comic character Marlys who creates her own games, and why kids like inventing their own games), Poul Anderson (on "The Immortal Game", a story about a chess game from the point of a chessman), John Brunner (on adapting a real chess game and disguising it as a novel), Greg Bear (on Anvil of Stars, in which he has characters introducing chess, a zero sum game, to a pacifist alien race),
Part Two: Kristine Kathryn-Rusch (on poker playing a big role in her DS9 novel The Big Game and how poker reflects how people think), David Brin (on why the 'Game of Life' is important in Glory Season), Nancy Kress (on her story Touchdown which involves a game centered around the ruined planet Earth), Iain M. Banks (on the importance of Play, and how we use games much like animals use play, just on a different level, and the growing importance of games to simplify the complexity of life, and designing the game of Azad in The Player of Games),
Part Three: Steven Barnes (on real role playing games vs Dream Park, and why he doesn't game), Sean Stewart (on Dreamquest, a LARP, and how the difference between fantasy novel writing), Pierre Savoie (RPgamer, on how reading Ringworld the novel improves the experience of Ringworld the RPG, and how RPG can give insights to a novel universe its based on), David Pringle (on editing novels/short stories for Games Workshop based on Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, etc, and one particular book set in Near Future Earth)

Awards: January 28, 1993
Awards and what they mean to the creators who get them.
Part One: Kristine Kathryn-Rusch (on how important different awards are to SF writers), list of dfifferent awards, Samuel R. Delany (on the impact of winning many Hugos and Nebula awards), Jerry pournelle (on the benefit of awards giving a good break), John Brunner (on how awards don't transform your career instantly, but improves your long-term sales), Sharyn McCrumb (on how publishers work and how awards alter your treatment, and how sometimes they can be meaningless based on who's giving the awards), Joe Haldeman (on how the Forever War winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Ditmar, affected him, and the political aspects to awards)
Part Two: Nancy Kress (on her first Nebula award having no visible effect on her), James Morrow (on Nebula winning having a big psychological impact and getting him on the map, and the role of politics in the Nebula), Lisa Tuttle (on declining the Nebula Award for 1981), Gibson (on winning the triple award for Neuromancer, and how the location of the Worldcon might have helped him win the Hugo)
Part Three: Story about Neil Gaiman winning a World Fantasy Award and them rewriting the rules so comics can't be nominated, Neil Gaiman (on the effect of his awards being mainly to terrify him), Dave Gibbons (on winning the special Hugo Award for Watchmen), Harlan Ellison (on how him winning awards pisses people off, his thoughts about his award winning short story, Jeffty is Five, his disdain for awards, awards being detrimental to the writer), PoG itself winning an Aurora Award.

That's the last of the PoGs posted to Youtube at the moment, so next week I probably won't be doing any more.
In PoG related news, I think Neil Gaiman may be cyberstalking me. Well, not really, but it's more fun to say it that way. It's just that last week, right after I posted about the PoG episodes I watched (including two with him in it), he posted on twitter a link to the same ep. About 2 hours after. That might just be a weird coincidence, but it's the second time something like that's happened with him where I post something fairly obscure involving him that's been around for a while, and he posts about it elsewhere within hours. (Of course, more likely either there's an intermediate step of sharing from people I know, or he's got a Google Alert out on himself. If the latter's true, Hi there!).

In other TV news, lets see... not really much to talk about, actually. SGU was a not bad episode, but (spoilers ahead, and more unanswered questions) ( Read more... )

And, finally had Thanskgiving, since family was working last week. And actually some was working this week too, so it was a bit of a small affair with lots of leftovers. Was good... turkey, roast potatoes, ham, carrots, greek rice, french stick bread, pretty awesome gravy, pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Was quite good, and ofcourse nice to see family that I haven't seen in a while.

Projects: (October 3, 1991) - Isolated upcoming projects in comics, animation, and SF.
Part One: Mike Carlin (on The Psycho), George Pratt (on a comic project about the Blues), Neil Adams (on Bucky O'Hare the animated series based on a comic)
Part Two: James Morrow (on his upcoming novel Towing Jehovah), Michael Swanwick (on Stations of the Tide), William Gibson (on Virtual Light), Dan Simmons (on doing a movie treatment for Carrion Comfort, and co-writing a SF mystery involving fractals and chaos theory)
Part Three: Simmons continued (a bit specifically on the problems of combining SF and mystery), Michael Dorn (on a storyline he'd like to see in ST:TNG, connecting Worf to Cyrano de Bergerac, and his role in Star Trek 6), fandom rumors about ST6 from Toronto Trek, Walter Koenig (on writing a treatment for a ST movie that got rejected, and a suggestion he made for ST6 involving the death of a main character), a viewer letter about the 'death of Star Trek'.

Utopia: March 18, 1993
Utopias in comics and SF

Part One: Bruce Sterling (on Utopias being Bogus), Clive Barker (on Plato's horrible definition of Utopia), Alan Moore (on exploring Utopia in Miracleman, and Utopia as a verb, and the superhero dream being antihuman), Neil Gaiman (agreeing with Utopia as a verb, but disagreeing with the idea that Miracleman actually dealt with a Utopia, and the problem with Utopia is that once you've got it, you fill it with people), Mark Buckingham (on avoiding dealing with Miracleman himself and looking at the rest of the world), Neil Gaiman again (on pulling focus back away from Miracleman himself), Samuel R. Delany (on Triton as a 'sexual utopia', differences from SF thinking and Utopian thinking)
Part Two: Clive Barker (on why fantastic fiction is the perfect place for Utopias), James Morrow (on a 'Utopia' city based on complete honesty in City of Truth and a pacifist utopia in The Wine of Violence), Geoff Ryman (on the Child Garden being an ambiguous utopia, and why utopias often focus on a particular person against the society), Ian M. Banks (on using a protagonist opposed to the Culture in Consider Phlebas, and writing along the outskirts of a Utopia)
Part Three: Sean Stewart (on Passion Play, which involves a dystopia evolving out of an attempt to create a Christian Utopia, and the need for Faith for a society to work), Kim Stanley Robinson (on his utopia novel, Pacific Edge and the question of "Utopia: Can we get there from here?", and the problem of multinational corporations being the biggest threat to a 'better world', and ending his book on a sad note)

Ecology in comics and SF: April 22, 1993
Part One: Frederick Pohl (on Our Angry Earth, a non-fiction book on ecology with Isaac Asimov, and why he doesn't think Zero Population Growth is the most urgent need), Paul Chadwick (creator of Concrete, on what he sees as the biggest Ecological Problem facing us, OverPopulation, and whether/how politics should play a role), Kim Stanley Robinson (on the importance of population control)
Part Two: Paul Chadwick (discussing the religious "be fruitful and multiply" and reading a speech from Concrete about current population expansion), Kim Stanley Robinson (on the Earth's maximum sustainable population), Jerry Pournelle (on solutions to population growth by producing wealth), Joe Haldeman (on tackling overpopulation in The Forever War, and his personal choice not to contribute to it, compared to people in third world countries who sometimes have no choice)
Part Three: Barry B. Longyear (on why Zero Population Growth became 'uncool' and the problems of enacting it in reality), David Brin (on legislating legal population limits in his novel Earth, and the US "growing up", and protecting your greatgreatgreatgrandchildren as a 'genetic investment', and visiting Easter Island)

Next week I'll do Advice (which I thought I'd do this week but got a bit behind on time), Memory, and maybe Medicine & Nanotechnology.

Continuing on TV, I finally finished Tom Baker's run on Doctor Who. Watched the first Davison episode too. Might watch one more to get a sense of him since he spent most of this one in regeneration madness. Overall, my thoughts on the Fourth Doctor (and a bit that he sheds light on Ten) ( Read more... )
Do like the new team of companions so far. Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa give me a little bit of the old Jamie/Zoe vibe. Nice to have a set of companions with skills that mesh together well, instead of one companion having to either be superman/woman to compete with the Doctor, or be all but useless in the face of his genius except for legwork.

Otherwise, FlashForward's still in the 'not bad, but we'll see' territory. Heroes is still marginally better. I can't help but think that if they ditched almost all of the 2nd or 3rd season entirely, and just attached this season directly to this one with maybe a tiny bit of connective plot, many of the elements would be workable, even interesting (the current status of Sylar with respect to Matt would be an entertaining way of keeping the actor but not having the problems of the uberpowerful character) but I can't completely forget the past.

The only big new series premiere of the week is Stargate: Universe. Overall, I enjoyed it, although at present I think it's below both SG1 and Atlantis in quality. The early worries/complaints (usually based solely on casting) of it being "Stargate: 90210" seem to be wholly without merit, but there is a strong taste of the new BSG in terms of style. In fact, it looks almost as though... you know in 200 where they did parodies of other SF shows (and a few non-SF shows)? It looks almost as though somebody said, "Hey, let's copy BSG's style for one of those", except instead of being a parody, they did it completely seriously. Very similar. A bit disorienting, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. (a bit more spoilery stuff behind the cut) ( Read more... )

Prisoners of Gravity links first:

Women
Women in SF, Fantasy, and Comics

Part One: Trina Robbins (on how she first got hooked on comics), June Brigman (on why women don't get into comics, and trying to change it using Barbie comics), Louise Simonson (on lack of things in conventional superhero comics for women to relate to), Kate Worley of Omaha, the Cat Dancer (on whether she's bothered by being in one of the few prominent female comics creators), Elaine Lee (on the difficulty of breaking into comics and the 'boys club'), Chris Claremont (on why he was renowned for good female characters and how it became a cliche for him)
Part Two: Steve Bissett (on why comics are so slow to recognize women, and some of the key roles women played in comics). Shift of focus to SF. Lois McMaster Bujold (on whether SF is a good platform for a treatment of women's issues, and her most 'feminist' book), Veronica Hollinger (professor on SF) (on who are the landmark female figures in SF and male writers who are most 'feminist'), Candace Jane Dorsey (on leaving out gender pronouns in her stories), Pamela Argent (on 'strong female characters' who are just men in women bodies), Gregory Benford (on the tension between the sexes as being a good thing and some of the difficulties on juggling everything in SF compared to toher fields)
Part Three: Leona Gom (on creating a 'last man' in an all female world), a story about James Tiptree Jr. (actually a woman under a pen name) being asked to leave a summit on feminism in SF. Lois McMaster Bujold (on if there are difficulties in writing male viewpoints). Switch in focus to Fantasy: Karen Wehrstein (on her own challenges in writing women characters), Tanya Huff (on whether fantasy has improved in terms of the women, and info about something she changed about her own work on realizing it was somewhat sexist), Terence M. Green (on how men and women are different), Trina Robbins (on the complaint about things that interest women being 'banal')

Leisure - May 2, 1991
How we will spend out leisure time in the future, according to SF
Part One: Lois McMaster Bujold (on mandatory zero-gee workouts and the physiological adaptations of zero-g), Andrew Weiner (on some of his leisure-centered short stories, in particular one about filling time in a permanent unemployment), Christopher Hinz (on the idea of recreational space colonies), Jack Womack (on leisure time, or lack thereof, in his Draco books), Gregord Benford (on the management of leisure, and passive leisure), William Gibson (on dismissing 'television' as 'empty calories' leisure, and the mystery of TV and media and what it's doing to us)
Part Two: Alberto Manguel (editor) (on television in the future according to Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, and how it's somewhat come true, Terence M. Green (on children raised on TV and creating a video literate world), Bruce Sterling (on what he thinks of TV and his 1991 view of future of TV, and Virtual Reality), Douglas Adams (about Virtual Reality and using it to save the world, and creating virtual reality IN reality). Candace Jane Dorsey (on a baseball story on Mars in a collection she edits), Mark Chiarello (on baseball's imagery, and drawing a baseball card collection on the Negro League), Todd McFarlane (on how Spider-Man hangs out when not working), Walt Simonson (on how Thor spends his leisure time)
Part Three: Neil Gaiman (on how Miracle Man recharges), Louise Simonson (on Superhuman not having any leisure time, except for being Clark Kent), Ty Templeton (on his theory on how Superman kicks back), a clip of Superman Song by the Crash Test Dummies, Fabian Nicieza (on whether he'll show Alpha Flight in their leisure time, and what leisure time says about us), Steve Bissett (on the 24 Hour Comic, as a sort of 'game' for comic creators, and other games of artists (the surreal corpse)).

Censorship - October 25, 1990
Part One: Comics facing obsenity charges. Interviews with Harlan Ellison (on the good messages in a lot of SF), Kevin Eastman (on how his characterss influenced a kid to hurt himself), Harlan Ellison (on how the censors are exposed to the 'corrupting material' constantly, and standing up to censors), Steve Bissett (on the Comic Code Authority and the congressional hearings that led to it), Frank Miller (on him feeling relatively free from censorship lately), Steve Bissett (on temporarily dropping the comic code for the Spidey drug issue, and Swamp Thing deciding to do away with the CCA permanently)
Part Two: Spider and Jeanne Robinson (on the problems with censorship of sex in SF, and a particular unsavory reference that an author slipped past the censors), Jack Vance (on some of the censorship he faced), Spider Robinson (on Callahan's Lady, taking place in a brothel, and not being get the stories in the same magazine as the rest of the Callahan stories), Jack Vance (on the basic choices of censorship), Maryanne Neilsen (on whether, as an editor, she's a censor), David Lloyd (on creative choice to leave our detailed of violence and sex in V for Vendetta), Denys Cowan (on being uncomfortable with drawing a lynching scene)
Part Three: Elaine Lee (on handling violence in Starstruck), Elaine Lee and Charles Vess (on a particular censorship blowup around a comic back-up story about a young witch that includes her first period, when the first story had so much violence), Harlan Ellison (about the comic Taboo, and how art should unsettle you), Clive Barker (on worrying about a backlash, another Dr. Werthem).

Next week: Utopia, Ecology, and Advice for wannabe creators.

Now that that's out of the way, TV wrapup for the week. Doctor Who... well, I've met Adric. For some reason, in my head, I always pictured him older, from the name. Seems nice enough so far, although probably not one of my favorites. Only a few episodes left before I can say goodbye to Four and get to Five.

What premiered this week? House... it was okay, but I thought it dragged on too long focusing on House, and I wanted to see the others. And the ending annoyed me. (spoilers) ( Read more... )

Heroes also premiered and... well, I suppose, objectively speaking, it's probably a little better than last year. But it's still hard to watch and take seriously. The Trust has not just been lost, it's been thoroughly shattered and the pieces each taken on a separate boat ride in a different ocean by a different man who dumps it into the ocean at some random time not in sight of land. It's hard to take anything seriously after the stuff they pulled last year, because there's the feeling at at any moment, they could decide to ignore some plot point they've already established. Slightly more spoilery behind cut ( Read more... )

Dollhouse also premiered, and it wasn't bad, although they seem to be slightly unskeevying one of the characters at the expense of extra-skeevying one of the relatively unskeevy ones. We'll see how it goes, though, the revelations towards the end could be interesting to go on.

FlashForward... it's okay. Needs time to find it's footing to judge for sure. Not sure the premise really works as a basis for a series, but it's got my attention for a few episodes at least.

Fringe: Okay... the second episode of the second season of X-Files was about a genetic mutant Flukeman. Is it just some wacky coincidence or intentional homage that the Second episode of Fringe's Second Season feels like almost the same thing, only, you know, less interesting (because Fringe is mostly a less interesting version of X-files)?

Otherwise, not much. This week: Stargate Universe, the last thing for... oh, about a month or so probably that I'm looking forward to.

First up, Violence. Guess I was wrong about Brian Stableford being on this one. I know he was on one talking about it, maybe it was a special pacifism episode. Alas. Oh well.

Violence: March 7, 1991
The role of violence in comics and SF. Bit of a poor video/audio quality unfortunately, but not horrible-bad.

Part One: Todd McFarlane (complaining about parents complaining about too much violence nowadays), Ty Templeton (on why comics are full of violence), Walt Simonson (on the type of violence in his comics), Neil Gaiman (on how superhero comics portray an attractive portrait of violence, and taking out subtext and philosophy and such to write Batman), Bill Sienkiewicz (on his views of violence in comics and how it contrasts to the real world), Ty Templeton again (on why superhero comics dominate the form)
Part Two: Steve Bissett (on how the violence in Swamp Thing was different than most superhero comics), Lewis Shiner (on avoiding glorifying violence in fiction), Terry Beatty (on the violence in Ms. Tree and how he tries to emphasize the consequences), Peter Straub (on "the only way to understand violence is to wrap it in imagination", and whether he fears he's glorifying violence), Walter Hill (director of Warriors, Aliens 3, on how drama depends on violence
Part Three: Fantasy author Charles de Lint (on how he handles violence in his stories), SF author Jack Womack (on why he uses violence in his work), S.M. Stirling and Shirley Meier (on their novel the Cage and how much violence is in it, and how they approach violence), Lewis Shiner (on how first hand experience with violence changes people, and the attitudes that lead to violence), Neil Gaiman (on Punch and Judy).

Behind the cut: three old, not terribly good, from the first season, before it found its groove, eps, one focusing on some miscellaneous comics and anime, a Star Wars: TOS focused ep, and another Miscellaneous ep focusing a bit more on Dystopian visions)
( Read more... )

And sticking with old TV, just finished Meglos, which means I'm almost done with the Fourth Doctor. Next ep I believe introduces a new companion, Adric, one of the ones I've never seen anything of. Edit: And wow, I totally did not notice, until reading the wiki for the episode, that the religious leader was played by Jacquelline Hill, who played Barbara, one of the first batch of Companions).

More modern TVwise, Supernatural was okay, with a couple eye-rolling moments. Only really new thing was Frige. And Man, I'd forgotten how much that show bored me! Well, okay, that's a little harsh, but I keep wanting the show to be so much better. And it looked towards the end of last season it was picking up, but it took a bit of a step back with this episode.

Next week, though, things really ramp up. The two hour premiere of House, 2 hour premiere of Heroes (yeah, still watching, more out of masochism and lack of TV channels than anything else), Dollhouse, and I believe Flash Forward gets its premiere.

First up,
Form (March 22nd, 1991)
Discussions on the various forms, novella vs short story, trilogy vs series, in comics and speculative fiction.

Part One: Short Stories: Dave Duncan (on why he thinks SF works best in short stories), Crawford Kilian (on the short story as 'training ground' and area of experimentation), Jim Baen (on the strength of short stories/novellas in SF), Marianne Nelson (on why if you want to get into SF you should start with short stories). Novella/Novellette: Judith Merril (on why the Novella's almost unique to SF), a bit of history. The Serial: Neil Gaiman (on the problems and advantages of writing serial fiction, like his comic the Sandman, and the "Is Little Nell Dead Yet" phenomenon), Chris Claremont (differences on writing a novel and writing an ongoing series, and the why the book and the audience don't have to keep going together)
Part Two: Neil Gaiman (on benefits of writing Good Omens, compared to comic writing). Alternative Comics: Black and White. Gilbert Hernandez (on why Love and Rockets is Black and White), Ty Templeton (on why he enjoys black and white), Kevin Eastman (on problems he encountered in getting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles published). Novels: Jim Baen (on the benefits of the novel in SF). The Trilogy (and other variations): Guy Gavriel Kay (on the mundane reasons the trilogy has become a standard form in fantasy fiction, on the danger of writers going back to the well), Tanya Huff (on writing a Duology, and the repeated questions about the third book despite the (big spoilers)), a bit of a clip from Misery, Tanya Huff again (on why trilogy and series are so popular), George Zebrowski (on the problems of writing long term series fiction and how they're not artistic)
Part Three: The Graphic Novel: David Lloyd (artist on on V for Vendetta, and whether it benefitted from being repackaged as a Graphic novel), Will Eisner (on why he left serial comics for the Graphic Novel, and pioneering the form with A Contract With God). Conclusion: Dan Piraro (Bizarro, experimenting with animation based on his cartoon panels)

Chaos: (March 14th, 1991)
Chaos theory. A bit more heavy on the science (popularist science reporting that is), side with only a bit of discussion on its use in art/fiction/SF.

Part One James Gleick (explaining Chaos Theory itself, Fractals, the Butterfly Effect and why it took so long to reach the public consciousness), Caleb Howard (computer hacker, on impact of fractals on computer animation)
Part Two: CGi short film Panspermia, Jeff Evans (on sterility and unnatural perfection in computer graphics being corrected by fractals and chaos theory), James Gleick (on the fractalness of Ferns, and to be wary of the human tendency to pattern-recognize). Here's the slow switching over to Chaos theory in art and fiction: Bill Sienkiewicz (on using Fractals in Big Numbers, with Alan Moore, theological/philosophical implications on chaos theory and fractals), Jeff Evans (on that last topic), James Gleick (on misunderstanding of theory in general to extend to social/philosophical problems), the host talks about the tendency of SF writers to misunderstand science or to just use it as gobledegook to base their stories around
Part Three: George Zebrowski (on his reaction to James Gleick book about Chaos Theory), Garfield Reeve-Stevens (on his reaction to the book, and whether he plans to use Chaos theory in his work), Gregory Benford (on using Chaos Theory in SF), Douglas Adams (on his reaction after reading Chaos on how everything seems to fit in with it), James Gleick (on the idea catching fire in the culture at large).

Fear: October 31, 1991

Horror, the use of Fear itself as a theme in fiction, and what scares creators

Part One: Archie Goodwin (on role of fear in storytelling, the "safe scare", Stephen Jones (horror anthologist on the two basic emotions being Fear and Love, and how the best stories combine both, and the best use of fear he's read, the "show or don't show the monster" debate), Tanya Huff (on why we like to be scared, fear being like sex). Some examples of SF that uses Fear in them. Bob Shaw (on why he's so intrigued by fear, and his own phobia, and science as 'pushing away darkness to make us feel better')Part Two: Louis Shiner (on his use of Tesla and his phobias in his story White City), Brian Stableford (on why Fear's begun to play such a large role in his work, particularly his vampire novel the Empire of Fear, the current popularity of Horror, a nice scientific look at the connection between fear and arousal), Neil Gaiman (the role of Fear in Sandman, the difference between Fear and Horror), Pete Milligan and Grant Morrison (on exploring Fear and Dread in their comics, fear as dislocating the mind and the startings of religion)
Part Three: Clive Barker (on different types of fears, and all his personal fears, and why he's using less fear in his book Imajica, and how he doesn't think his early stories really evoked fear, or why fear's not especially interesting on its own, on what medium fear works best in), Jeff Ryman (and the role of Fear in the Wizard of Oz, fear as social control)

And Profiles, an episode where he profiles 3 specific creators, Daniel Clowes (independent comic 8Ball), Peter Straub (horror author), and Marv Newland (animator), but none of them especially interest me so no detailed breakdown (however, Part 2 does contain the complete short film "Bambi Meets Godzilla", done by Newland, and the third part is mostly Straub talking about horror so it works as a nice companion to the Fear ep).
Part One Part Two Part Three

Looking forward to next week, Violence, which I believe has interview bits with Brian Stableford about his pacifist space opera hero, Star Pilot Grainger, the first time I've seen it since I actually read (and loved) the books. PoG was one of the reasons for me trying them, too.

In other news, been having a bit of headaches lately, think it's probably eye strain. Which is annoying, cause I only have one left working and so many things I enjoy doing involve using it. Need perfect cyber-eyes to get invented now. And to become rich and handsome, and not at all socially awkward, so long as I'm dreaming.

TVwise... Glee's 2nd episode wasn't bad, not quite as fun as the first, but okay. Supernatural had its premiere, and, well, it was okay, a few fun bits, a few meh bits, but Bobby is awesome as usual.

Been watching old school Who as usual. I'll probably finish Four's run and then take a break for a while. Not because I specifically want to, but once regular TV starts up again I find I have less time for it since I have more I need to download (often legally, thanks to TV channel websites) that I missed during the regular week. I can pick up with Five in the summer or during the rerun-gaps that crop up every once in a while in the regular season. Just finished Shada, and the season's been reasonably fun. Think the Nightmare of Eden was one of my favorites of the recent batch. As for the big "Which Romana is better" debate? Right now I'm still putting them about even. I don't have a particular preference one way or the other. II has a slightly more friendly chemistry with the Doctor, true, but I kind of liked the slight standoffishness of I. So, again, they're about even, just II had a longer time to shine and slightly better stories, I think, but that's not the actress' fault so I can hardly hold it against that version.

That time again...

Februray 14th, 1991 - Projects: (Highlighting a few specific projects by creators in SF, Fantasy, and Comics, in 1991)

Part One: Interviews with Todd McFarlane (on changing the look of Spider-Man and how he writes), Charles Vess (on a Spider-Man story and illustrating a Sandman story about A Midsummer Night's Dream), Neil Gaiman (plans for the Sandman story Seasons of Mists and how he uses overly long chapter titles), George Pratt (on Enemy Ace and using it to make a statement on Vietnam),
Part Two: Interview with Will Eisner (on To The Heart of the Storm), bit of a rant on how SF and comics are disrespected in culture, Interviews with Frank Miller (on Elektra Lives Again and how Lynn Varley's coloring made some big differences), Jack Womack (on the Draco Corporation novels, specifically the 4th novel, Elvissey and the last books), Fabian Nicieza (on editing Barbie comics)
Part Three: Interview with Neil Gaiman (on The Books of Magic), a bit of 'cartoons for adults' but this ep cuts off abruptly before the interview with the creator.

Sci-Fi's True North (February 12, 1990)

Early ep (overuse of cheesy effects, longer interviews on more wide ranging topics), on the Canadian Identity in SF. Kind of a lame ep too.

Part One: Interviews With Lorna Toolis (on Toronto's library SF collection, on whether there's a Canadian style in SF, themes that crop up a lot in Canadian SF compared to US, top Canadian Writers, the Tesseracts collection (of Canadian SF), various magazines and the Canadian SF community), communications with other SF libraries)
Part Two: Bernie Finklestein (Rock & Roll guy and SF fan, on his earliest SF memories, the intersection of Rock & Roll and SF, the 50s paranoia about nuclear annihilation)
Part Three: Kent Burles (Canadian
comic artist, on his Planet of the Apes project, how he works with an American writer long-distance), Dave Ross (Canadian artist, about drawing Wolverine, problems with being a Canadian artist working in an American field, missing deadlines), viewer mail

Will Eisner and the Spirit - October 18th, 1990.
50th anniversary of the Spirit. Just links here, no summaries, because although I respect his contributions, I'm just not personally terribly interested in an ep all about him and the Spirit.

Part One Part Two Part Three

M-Space: Moebius and Merril, Spotlight on comic creator Moebius and SF Author Judith Merril, December 13th, 1990)
Part One: Mail, Interviews with Frank Miller (on Moebius' work), Jean Giraud (Moebius himself, on why he chose to work in comics, how he got started with drawing, why he still does it), Steve Leialoha (on why he likes Moebius' work), Moebius (on his collaborationals with filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky), Sergio Aragones (on Jodorowsky), Steve Bissette (on Moebius and Jodorowsky's comic colaboration Eyes of the Cat)
Part Two: Moebius (on The Incal, how he got into Science Fiction, Trina Robbins (raving about Moebius and why they have small audiences), Moebius (on how he sees himself). Switch in topic to Merril. Interviews with Judith Merrill (on how she got into writing Science Fiction, nice story about Ted (Theordore Sturgeon?)convinced her to try writing Science Fiction), Guy Gavriel Kay (on Merril's importance in improving the quality of the actual writing in science fiction), Merril (on being one of the very few women writers over her time, on her derivative novels she co-wrote super quickly, that became the most popular thing she's written)
Part Three: Merril's influence on an editor, introducing the New Wave, Interviews with Merril (on producing an anthology, producing Tesseracts Canadian SF anthology, why she left the US permanently for Canada during the Vietnam War, the Roshdale experiment, bringing her huge SF collection with her and so starting the Spaced Out Library, the SF Library in Toronto (now known as the Merril Collection))

(Next week's should be better, Form, Chaos, and Fear)


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Now that that's done, what else is new? Long weekend technically, but not for me, cause I still work. But yay, extra money. And yay for September, because it means the dry season for TV is nearing a close. I think most things I watch or am interesting in starting to watch start NEXT week, but there's a trickle here and there.

So far there's just one show that's hit my attention index, and it's a bit of a surprising one. Glee. Apparently it aired the first ep last year after American Idol, but since I don't care about that I never even heard about it, and just saw commercials and, last Wednesday, when it was on and nothing else was, decided to give it a try. ANd, y'know, I liked it. Which is odd, because I don't listen to music, so that it's set around a new Glee Club full of social rejects doing musical numbers doesn't do anything for me. And the show is a bit predictable and obvious in some ways. But it's also had a bit of a quirkyness to it that I liked. I think I like it in part because it hits on a couple of my squeepoints (like squickpoints, but opposite). (more behind cut). ( Read more... ) I'm not 100% sold on it, but I liked it enough to give it a couple episodes to try out.