Science Fiction

I don’t go to the movies very often. I think the last time I went to a theatre on purpose was to see the first of the current Star Trek movies, and then I only went because it was a private screening and I could reasonably expect the audience to shut the fuck up, turn off their damn phones, and pay attention to the film. I planed to write a paragraph here detailing why I hate going to the movies, but I think I just covered it, so let me write a different paragraph instead, about how I finally found a movie theatre that I will go to as long as it exists: the iPic theatre in Pasadena (also called Gold Class, I understand) is the only way I will ever watch a movie again for the rest of my life if I can help it. It costs much more than a typical multiplex, but it is entirely worth it, and this theatre has replaced the Arclight (which makes me sad, but sometime in the last couple of years, Arclight stopped enforcing the shut the fuck up and turn you goddamn phone off policy that had made it such an attractive destination for me for so long). I’ve really wanted to see Star Trek Into Darkness, but I had resigned myself to not seeing it until it was available to watch in the comfort of my own home … until Stepto, e, and my friend Jen all told me about the existence of a theatre that was actually enjoyable, instead of wall-to-wall bullshit advertising and people who have such little respect for the movies and the rest of the people in the audience, they belong at the gathering of the Juggalos instead of in a movie house. When I saw that one of these theatres was not only nearby but was also showing Star Trek Into Darkness, I looked at my schedule, gave myself an afternoon off, and took my entire family to see it. We just got home, and the rest of this post will be about my first impressions of the movie. If you haven’t seen it, do not read past the jump, or scroll past the giant picture of Bender B. Rodriguez I’ve placed for those of you who came here directly. I will discuss specific plot points and spoilers. You have been warned. The short version is: I loved it. I think it’s my favorite Star Trek movie ever, and I can’t wait to see what this crew does next. -SPOILERS BEYOND BENDER- Welcome to the rest of the post, person who has already seen Star Trek Into Darkness, or person who gives up his/her/its right to complain at me about spoilers because you were warned. Let’s talk about the movie, shall we? I could have done without the whole beginning, which felt gratuitous and largely disconnected from the rest of the film to me, but I suppose they needed a way to set up Spock putting the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the one, or the few. I had a very hard time accepting that the Enterprise could sit underwater, but I’m willing to accept it and get over it. The makeup on those aliens was awesome, though. I’ve read a lot of online criticism that Uhura didn’t do anything useful and was just there to weep and be weak around Spock. I honestly didn’t get that at all. She bravely faces down the fucking Klingons, knowing that she’s risking her life, and then is a badass during the climax when Spock and the ship need her the most. I suppose you can make an argument that she had no business bringing up relationship stuff with Spock in the middle of an important mission, but in a high stress situation maybe things bubbling beneath the surface just come up. It didn’t bother me, but I’m not a woman so I can’t speak to how women feel with the portrayal of 50% of the women in the movie. Yeah, there are two women of consequence in the film, and that is bullshit. So on the other end of the writing-for-women spectrum is the profound failure to do awesome stuff with Doctor Marcus. I was disappointed, and I imagine that there must be deleted scenes that make her much more interesting (I have no problem with Alice Eve’s performance. I thought sh

Making up some people, even with power armour. 4 out of 5 http://media.podcastingmanager.com/2/0/6/6/8/295141-286602/Media/rsg104_NP00.mp3

"KC: Will you tell us about your new novel, iD, out this month, and its protagonist, Javier? Javier is a self-replicating humanoid. He’s iterated about thirteen times, so he has a bunch of copies of himself running around. He has an intact failsafe, which means he can’t hurt human beings. (At least, not physically.) It also means he tends to fall for human beings — until recently. This book tests his devotion to another humanoid, Amy. And that test takes him on a big journey, where he thinks he’s looking for her but he’s really searching for himself out there on the road" 4 out of 5 http://www.mybookishways.com/2013/06/interview-madeline-ashby-author-of-vn-and-id.html

If you've been a fan of the Hotlist since the beginning, you are aware that I thoroughly enjoyed Joel Shepherd's original Cassandra Kresnov series. I wasn't aware that the author was planning to write additional books, so you can imagine my surprise when the ARC for 23 Years on Fire (Canada, USA, Europe) showed up in my mailbox today! Really looking forward to reading this one!! =)Here's the blurb:Commander Cassandra Kresnov has her hands full. She must lead an assault against the Federation world of Pyeongwha, where a terrible sociological phenomenon has unleashed hell against the civilian population. Then she faces the threat from a portion of League space known as New Torah, in which a ruthless regime of surviving corporations are building new synthetic soldiers but taking the technology in alarming directions.On the Torahn world of Pantala, Sandy encounters betrayal, crisis, and conspiracy on a scale previously unimaginable. Most challenging of all, she also meets three young street kids who stir emotions in her she didn't think she was capable of. Can the Federation's most lethal killer afford unexpected sentiment? What will be the cost if she is forced to choose between them and her mission, not only to her cause, but to her soul?I reckon that many of you have never heard of Shepherd or this series published by Pyr on this side of the pond. Well, you should definitely check it out!- The Cassandra Kresnov series by Joel Shepherd- Crossover (Canada, USA, Europe)- Breakaway (Canada, USA, Europe)- Killswitch (Canada, USA, Europe)Here's the blurb from the first volume:Crossover is the first novel in a series which follows the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an artificial person, or android, created by the League, one side of an interstellar war against the more powerful, conservative Federation. Cassandra is an experimental design — more intelligent, more creative, and far more dangerous than any that have preceded her. But with her intellect come questions, and a moral awakening. She deserts the League and heads incognito into the space of her former enemy, the Federation, in search of a new life.Her chosen world is Callay, and its enormous, decadent capital metropolis of Tanusha, where the concerns of the war are literally and figuratively so many light years away. But the war between the League and the Federation was ideological as much as political, with much of that ideological dispute regarding the very existence of artificial sentience and the rules that govern its creation. Cassandra discovers that even in Tanusha, the powerful entities of this bloody conflict have wound their tentacles. Many in the League and the Federation have cause to want her dead, and Cassandra’s history, inevitably, catches up with her.Cassandra finds herself at the mercy of a society whose values preclude her own right even to exist. But her presence in Tanusha reveals other fault lines, and when Federal agents attempt to assassinate the Callayan president, she finds herself thrust into the service of her former enemies, using her lethal skills to attempt to protect her former enemies from forces beyond their ability to control. As she struggles for her place and survival in a new world, Cassandra must forge new friendships with old enemies, while attempting to confront the most disturbing and deadly realities of her own existence.

Lifeforce Blu-Ray/DVD Combo (Collector's Edition) Director: Tobe Hooper Screenwriter: Dan O'Bannon, Don Jakoby Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart Scream Factory Rated R | 116 Minutes Release Date: June 18, 2013 Directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), 1985's Lifeforce stars Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, and Patrick Stewart. Based on Colin Wilson's 1976 novel, The Space Vampires, Lifeforce arrives on Blu-Ray June 18, 2013, and features both the film's original theatrical version and longer international. Presented by Scream! Factory, Lifeforce follows the crew of the space shuttle Churchill, who discover a 150-mile long spacecraft hidden in the corona of Halley's Comet. Inside the craft the crew finds hundreds of dead, desiccated bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid bodies in suspended animation within crystal coffins. [...]

blog.shakespearesglobe.com/when-we-met-joss-whedon-amy-acker-alexis-denisof/ A five-minute chat with video; it's dated last Wednesday but I don't think it's been posted here yet. Joss has already tweeted a couple of rather spiffy photos from the occasion: here and here.

Blake & Mortimer Volume 15: The Secret of the Swordfish Part  1 – The Incredible Chase By Edgar P. Jacobs Cinebook “In a past almost, but not entirely, like ours, the world lives in dread of a new power, an empire centred in Tibet and led by a megalomaniac. When the inevitable attack comes, it destroys all opposition, and capital cities across the planet are left burning. But, in Great Britain, Professor Mortimer, inventor of a mysterious weapon named the Swordfish, and his friend and protector Captain Blake, have escaped the destruction, and must make their way to a secret base…“ The fifteenth Cinebook volume of Jacobs’ classic takes us right back to where it all began, with the very first Blake & Mortimer volume, published in 1950. And frankly, it shows. Not just in the uncomfortable racial profiling with the whole “Yellow Empire” thing, but in the strange pacing and distinctly post-war optimism of having any chance of surviving WWIII. However, despite several problems with the book that really hampered my reading, there’s definitely something really thrilling and rather shocking in this first Blake and Mortimer. I say shocking because nothing can really prepare you for just how quickly and brutally Jacobs drops you into the alternate history of this post-WWII world of Blake & Mortimer. We’re actually entering the narrative some way in, with the cold war fully in effect, although not one involving Russia, instead the East is a tyrant running an empire from Tibet, aided by B&M’s nemesis Olrik. But you’re told that by Mortimer onpage 6: Which rather forces me to criticise before praising. This sort of thing really puts me off Jacobs’ B&M, the huge dialogue exposition is one problem, the overdoing the captions to the same end is another. And the third is the problem of developing the plot as a series of this happened, then this happened, then this happened things and connecting the events with a sequence of coincidences and accidents. I know it’s all part of the nostalgic charm of B&M and these tales particularly come from a far slower time, but this really does affect my enjoyment. The thing is, following that page of text with Mortimer delivering the whole background to the political climate of this alternate post-war world, there’s actually a particularly intense and thrilling section which takes us from cold war to new world order in just 8 pages. It’s completely unexpected, fast, furious, and decidedly brutal; by page 8 the world is at war, page 9 sees the machines of death flying across the globe and nuclear strikes have devastated Moscow, Calcutta, Hankou and Rome, by page 10 Paris, Berlin, Paris and London are destroyed, and by page 13 we have a new world order in place: Personally I’d be a little more upset than “How dreadful!”. But again, that slight understatement is typical of the tone here. Jacobs sets everything up beautifully in these early pages, really creates a sense of desperation, a world in ruins, the only hope seemingly with B&M and the mysterious Swordfish weapon they’re just days away from prototyping. And following the devastation both men are hunted across Europe and Asia, by plane, by foot, by truck, by armoured car, shot down, captured, freed, escape, more allies, hijack a plane, shot down again… all a bit breathless really. But somewhere along the line it goes from desperation and despair with a small band responsible for saving the world to two gents having a jolly good feast in the wreckage of their enemy’s plane. All a bit incongruous really, as if Jacobs has forgotten just how important their mission is, or just how bad the situation is. Again, probably overthinking this, and I know it’s probably one of those things to simply put down to the particular age and style of the strip, and no doubt B&M fans will want my head for this. But it’s a big part of what

(Jaime Hernandez getting ready for showtime, pic by Woodrow Phoenix) Top UK creator Woodrow Phoenix kindly drops us a line to let us know that his Comica conversation with the great Jaime Hernandez which took place last month is now online. The nice folk at Culturethèque, the online side of the Institut Francais in the UK, have put a good quality recording of it on their site. You need to register to hear it in full, but that is free and I should remind you that registering with them also lets you access a range of Francophone culture and literary works, including comics titles online, so well worth it. (Jaime talking to Woodrow on stage, photo by Bridget Hannigan)

It’s always a good week when the New Comic Book Day releases include work from Jeffrey Brown… Fresh-baked and on the racks this very day, A Matter of Life from Top Shelf. I want it. You want it. We shall have it. Oh yes, we shall…

How lovely is this very short animation from Maciek Janicki? Paper City is a brief animated film following a car driving around a landscape from which a whole city erupts in paper sculpture form as the car passes, then folds itself away again afterwards. Short but gorgeous work. Paper City from Maciek Janicki on Vimeo.