News, Reviews, Resources, and Perspectives of Science Fiction & Fantasy

Tuesday 28 April 2009

REVIEWS : DVD : Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder

Slightly split decision: Howard thinks it's as good as The Beast With a Billion Backs and Bender's Game; Lawrence thinks it's the least of the four, but both agree it's still worth watching.

Wednesday 22 April 2009

REVIEWS : Books : Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, April

April New and Notable books, selected by Locus Magazine editors, include Jane Frank's Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary, the first two volumes of The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Farah Mendlesohn's On Joanna Russ, and titles by Beagle, Berry, Holland, Kiernan, Mann, McDevitt, McDonald, Melko, Pratt, Scholes, Simmons, Sterling, and Valente.

Wednesday 15 April 2009

REVIEWS : Books : Adrienne Martini reviews Adam Roberts

From Locus Magazine's April issue, Adrienne Martini reviews Adam Roberts' latest novel Yellow Blue Tibia.

To answer the most obvious question first, "yellow blue tibia" is the English phrase that sounds like the Russian words for "I love you." By the end of Adam Roberts's Yellow Blue Tibia, it all makes sense. Or, at least, the title does.

REVIEWS : Books : Stefan Dziemianowicz reviews Richard Matheson

From Locus Magazine's February issue, Stefan Dziemianowicz reviews a tribute anthology to Richard Matheson edited by Christopher Conlon.

To the extent that Stephen King has acknowledged Matheson as the single most important influence on his own writing, you could say that contemporary horror publishing is one huge tribute volume to Matheson's impact on the field.

Sunday 5 April 2009

REVIEWS : FILMS : Alien Trespass

What writers James Swift and Steven P. Fisher and director R.W. Goodwin clearly set out to do in 2007, fifty years after the fact, was to make the best science fiction film of 1957. And the highest compliment one can pay to their efforts is that they have brilliantly succeeded.

Monday 23 March 2009

REVIEWS : Books : Yesterday's Tomorrows: Ursula K. Le Guin

Graham Sleight's column from Locus Magazine looks at four classic titles by Ursula K. Le Guin.

You may find that she refuses some of the pleasures of the genre — explosions, space battles, cosmic perspectives, and the like — but the central premise of her work is that we have to be more adult than science fiction often allows. We have to work out how best to live with our fellow humans and the environments that gave birth to us, and working out how to do that is an adult task.

Friday 13 March 2009

REVIEWS : Books : Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, March

March New and Notable books, selected by Locus Magazine editors, include Ray Bradbury's We'll Always Have Paris, C.J. Cherryh's Regenesis, Thomas M. Disch's The Proteus Sails Again, Robin Anne Reid's Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Stanley Wiater et al.'s The Twilight and Other Zones: The Dark Worlds of Richard Matheson, and other titles by Anderson, Bloch, Bujold, Horton, Kress, Lukyanenko, McMann, Morrow, Priest, Resnick, and Stroud.

Monday 9 March 2009

REVIEWS : FILMS : Watchmen

This is a good, solid superhero action film. You'll be entertained, and you won't be bored. It's a fine way to spend three hours of your leisure time.

I just wanted it to be so much more.

Monday 23 February 2009

REVIEWS : Books : Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, February

February New and Notable books, selected by Locus Magazine editors, include Alison Goodman's Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Ellen Datlow's anthology Poe, Laura Miller's The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, Lisa Rogak's Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King, and other titles by Anderson, Baker, Blaylock, Gilman, Langan, Morgan, Phillips, Rottensteiner, Shea, Stevens, and Strahan.

Sunday 8 February 2009

REVIEWS : Films : Mommie Dreariest: A Review of Coraline

Neil Gaiman's Coraline is very much a gentle, charming fantasy, and whenever Hollywood applies its formulas for sure-fire box-office success, it rarely does "gentle" or "charming" very well. As a whole, then, the film struck me as a bit too blunt, too crass, too bombastic for my taste. It shouts while Gaiman whispers, dazzles while Gaiman tickles.

Thursday 22 January 2009

REVIEWS : DVDs :
Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs and Bender's Game

Lawrence Person: The Beast With a Billion Backs comes in a couple of notches below Bender's Big Score; however Bender's Game is, if anything, the best of the three thus far, and scales impressive heights of inspired lunacy.

Howard Waldrop: I'm glad Futurama hasn't dumbed anything down. It's gotten more intelligent...

Friday 16 January 2009

REVIEWS : Books : Locus Magazine's New & Notable Books, January

January New and Notable books, selected by Locus Magazine editors, include Ray Bradbury's Summer Morning, Summer Night, Christopher Barzak's The Love We Share Without Knowing, Istvan Jr. Csicsery-Ronay's The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction, Andrzej Sapkowski's Blood of Elves, and other titles by Lillian Stewart Carl & Martin H. Greenberg, Peter F. Hamilton, William Heaney, Jack McDevitt, Cherie Priest, Ken Scholes, Michael Swanwick, and Hank Wagner & Christopher Golden & Stephen R. Bissette.