Archive for March, 2012
Twilight of the Gods, and Monsters:
A Review of Wrath of the Titans
by Gary Westfahl If people go to movies in order to be excited, they should definitely see Wrath of the Titans, for no one can deny that it is a tremendously exciting movie; they may not always understand precisely what is going on, but if one thrill is disappointing, they can be sure that another […]
Posted: March 31st, 2012 under Films.
Comments: 2
Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, late March
A mixed selection to close the month. The Good Story award goes to Interzone, to the Tem story, and to the Future is Japanese anthology, for the Sterling and the Valente. Publications Reviewed Tor.com, March 2012 Interzone #239 March-April 2012 Lightspeed, March 2012 The Future is Japanese, edited by Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington Tor.com, […]
Posted: March 30th, 2012 under Lois Tilton, Short Fiction.
Comments: 1
Russell Letson reviews Walter Jon Williams
Walter Jon Williams keeps on mix-and-matching genre elements and coming up with satisfying concoctions. In This Is Not a Game and Deep State, he combined near-future SF and international-intrigue materials in a now-familiar techno-thriller way. In The Fourth Wall, a sequel to that pair, he adds to the recipe one of my personal favorite guilty-pleasure […]
Posted: March 28th, 2012 under Books.
Comments: 1
Paul Di Filippo reviews Hari Kunzru
Experienced genre readers approaching the mere title of Hari Kunzru’s new slipstream novel, Gods Without Men, will surely flash upon an old riff of fantastika: those deities who lose human worshippers and are deprived of prayers and fear and respect and adoration will dwindle away in power and status, until finally they are rendered mortal […]
Posted: March 25th, 2012 under Books.
Comments: 1
A Cunning Confection, and Some Food for Thought: A Review of The Hunger Games
by Gary Westfahl So, does anybody really care what a man who will soon be a grandfather thinks about The Hunger Games? Certainly, in the language of the trade, I am not part of the film’s target demographic, and having avoided all contact with the books and films of the Twilight franchise, I can offer […]
Posted: March 24th, 2012 under Films.
Comments: 6
Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, mid-March
Belatedly, the review of the new British futurezine Arc, thanks to a friend who helped me overcome Technical Difficulties. Also the winter issue of Subterranean Online, which didn’t disappoint my expectations of finding some good stories therein. The award, however, goes to “Scry” in BCS. I am also announcing a change that publishers wishing to […]
Posted: March 22nd, 2012 under Lois Tilton, Short Fiction.
Comments: 1
Gary K. Wolfe reviews Caitlín R. Kiernan
There are least a few passages in her new novel The Drowning Girl: A Memoir in which Caitlín R. Kiernan seems determined to reinvent the terms of Gothic fiction from the ground up, and she comes amazingly close to succeeding. Her protagonist Imp (short for India Morgan Phelps) is a narrator so unreliable she doesn’t […]
Posted: March 21st, 2012 under Books.
Comments: none
Paul Di Filippo reviews Jack Vance
In the forthcoming volume of essays authored by Damien Broderick and myself, Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, we accord Jack Vance the slot at number 48, for his novel from 1996, Night Lamp. (The positions are assigned strictly chronologically, by publication date, not some estimate of comparative merit.) This is what we said […]
Posted: March 16th, 2012 under Books.
Comments: 4
Gary K. Wolfe reviews Tim Powers
It’s been more than two decades since Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard appeared in 1989, and, rather appallingly, it was out of print for several of those years until Tachyon issued a new edition a few years ago. It’s always been among my favorite Powers novels, partly because it’s a sheer wallow for […]
Posted: March 14th, 2012 under Books.
Comments: 12
Howard Waldrop and Lawrence Person review John Carter
Both: Split decision: Howard, after some reflection, just doesn’t like it. Lawrence thinks it’s a good action/adventure film, but not a great one. Howard Waldrop: John Carter is Edgar Rice Burroughs for people who’ve seen Avatar and Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence Person: It strikes me as a good-faith effort to capture the feel of A […]
Posted: March 11th, 2012 under Films.
Comments: 12