Bionic Man

Oh wow.  The first bionic man to become so as the result of voluntary amputation.  Amazing stuff!

And, on another note, three new impressive hires for The Hobbit.



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Existential Star Wars

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Xenia 2011

Imprint

slivers of you

mirror

pieces of me

     impressions

     imperfectly made

of faces

not clearly seen

Watch for Xenia in Shanghai this summer....





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Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing

I found a site with a nice run-down of the science fiction and fantasy scene in China here.  It's good to see the English-language introduction to the Chinese science fiction scene.  I'm not sure why I've never come across this site before!

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Atlas Shrugged

I just got home from a long train trip.  I was thinking during part of the ride on the express rail service about Atlas Shrugged, especially thinking about it from the perspective of science fiction.  When I got home, I searched and found this article on the same topic.  It's a pretty good read, so I thought it worth linking here.

I like the comments there about Rand's own views on sci-fi, and the idea of considering her masterpiece as a work within the genre.  Fun stuff.


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Splice

I recently picked up a cheap DVD of the movie Splice.  It's not amongst the greatest shows I've ever seen, but still, it made for an interesting way to pass an evening, and left me with some things to think about.

The film is that sci-fi/horror mix that seems to work well for provoking some thought, especially when it comes to questions surrounding the ethical issues of contemporary technology.  If you think Frankenstein, you'll not be far off here.   A whole lot of the elements in Splice will bring that old classic to mind — everything from the idea of hubris to the parent-child relationship that develops between a scientist and his/her "creation."  And of course, central to both tales, there's the whole horrible situation of men creating monsters, not only by their tampering with science, but through their not knowing how to properly nurture the beings brought to life.

If you like engaging these kind of issues, you'll probably like Splice.  It's a little cheesy in some parts, and I'm not crazy about the ending, but there's enough there to provoke thought to make it worth the couple of hours it takes to watch.


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A Couple of Short Stories

Over at my China-related blog, Tai Shan, I've recently posted some thoughts on a couple of Chinese sci-fi short stories.  You can take a look at my responses to Yang Ping's "Wizard World" and Han Song's "The Wheel of Samsara."

The two pieces are quite different from one another, but they give you a bit of an idea of the sort of work coming out of China's growing sci-fi scene today. Both stories are available online — links to them can be found at the posts linked above.

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Tomorrow When the War Began

While not exactly the sort of speculative book that I usually review here, John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began does address a sort of interesting "what if" question that somehow mirrors the possibilities for what the world could become in the foreseeable future, even as it reflects on the hard questions that we should be asking ourselves today.

Set in Australia, the tale of the teenagers who find themselves in very unexpected, very unpleasant circumstances after a week camping in the bush is one that is pretty engaging.  The characters are, for the most part, fairly believable young adults.  There were places here and there where I thought the young female narrator didn't quite sound like a girl of her age, but it wasn't as troubling as it is in some books.  Instead, it made me feel that she was an extraordinary girl — or, more appropriately, a pretty normal girl who rose to the challenges of the extraordinary circumstances in which she found herself.

The book is pretty much a page-turner.  I read through it much more quickly than I expected too, and found myself thinking about it when I had to put it down and go to attend to real life.  I liked the way some hard questions were addressed by Ellie.  The narrative style drew me in almost from the beginning.

It's easy to see why Tomorrow When the War Began won so many awards over the years.  I've not read any of the subsequent books in the series, but it seems they have garnered their share of recognition too.  Makes me think it's probably worth picking them up as well, when I see them.



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Use the Force

Funny stuff...




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ChemICKal Reactions

Karen L. Newman is a chemist and a poet.  In her poetry, she specializes in the writing of horror poetry.  ChemICKal Reactions brings these two roles together, presenting a whole alphabet of chemistry gone wrong.

The poems are fun to read through.  I found myself smiling at the gruesomeness of some of the possibilities presented, and cringing at others.  To get both reactions within a book that has a fairly narrow range to the premises of each poem is quite a feat.  When I started reading, I first thought, "Isn't this going to get monotonous, dealing with one chemical after another?"  So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book didn't generate that feel at all.  It's a good indicator of the extent of Newman's imagination that she can make the device work over and over in the collection without it getting into something of a rut.  I am impressed.

As a sort of a side note, I read the volume in its Kindle edition.  Sometimes poetry doesn't look very nice on the Kindle, but ChemICKal Reactions is formatted to handle the device pretty well.   It is one of the better jobs I've seen done with poetry books formatted for the device.  I'm pleased to see it, and hope it means good things are coming in poetry for the ebook reader.


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What do you get if you mix a little of On the Road with The Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore and Symbols?  I think American Gods does a pretty good job of exploring that possibility.

It took me a while to get into the reading of American Gods, but that might have had more to do with me than with Gaiman's writing.  Gaiman always tells a good tale, and he is always funny and entertaining.  American Gods is certainly no exception.

The story is fairly convoluted, and you never seem to be able to be 100% sure that you know quite what's going on.  In that way, the book allows you to sympathize with the protagonist, Shadow, because he's forever being led to places and into situations that he can't be quite sure he gets.  He just does what he has to do anyway, and things sort of fall into place in his mind as he goes along.  That's something of a metaphor for the reading experience with this book.  Do things seem a little confusing?  Well, just keep on reading and it will fall into place.

I really enjoyed Gaiman's telling of travels across the US.  The way the travels were woven into the narrative, and the sense of place was built up, was a fun way to make the story work.

The version of the book that I read is Gaiman's preferred version of the text, as per an author's note at the beginning of the book.  I don't know how it compares to other versions out there, but I think you can see signs in the one I read of a sort of careful — maybe even obsessive — attention to the little things that bring the land and the characters to life.  I don't know if I would've been quite as aware of it without that note at the beginning, but the effect of that careful plotting out of all the little things is a good one.

As with any Gaiman novel, this one is worth getting your hands on.





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Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I went to see Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader when it opened here. It was not bad as a movie, and I guess I liked it better than the others in the series so far. But... I sure didn't like the changes that were made to the original story. The book is so good, and I really hated seeing the departure from that story line.

I can't imagine what they're going to do to The Last Battle.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

I finally got to see the first half of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film, and thought i was pretty good. Not only did it follow the book pretty closely, but it did a great job of adapting the tale to the medium of film. Not all of the movies in the series have been as nicely adapted as this one. But, generally speaking, I thought the later films have been better than the earlier ones.

I'm really looking forward to the last installment of the films. I would've preferred that this one not be split into two sections, but then, it seems the only way to fit everything in. They did a pretty nice job of splitting it up, and if the final piece turns out as good as this one, then I think it will be a big success.


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The Last Hope

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At the Back of the North Wind

I finished reading George MacDonald's classic tale At the Back of the North Wind earlier this week, and reviewed it at the Christian Fiction website.  For those less interested in the Christian perspective in the novel, I thought a note here might be warranted.

George MacDonald is a great story-teller.  He can be really funny, and he draws up a past age through his writing.  In his day, children's literature was really just coming into its own, and MacDonald was a big part of that process.

At the Back of the North Wind is addressed to the child reader, but I think it certainly has a much broader appeal than that.  It is a well-constructed piece, fully of whimsy and imagination.  The places the novel takes us are well put together, with images that draw you in to want to read more.

There are many people who might like to lay claim to the title of father of the modern fantasy genre, but I think it is arguable that MacDonald forms at least a good bit of the root system of that whole branch of literature.  At the Back of the North Wind is one of the classic pieces that establishes him in the genre, written back in the days when no one really thought of such a genre existing at all.  He was admired by many writers who came after him, and his fiction left an indelible mark on this whole field of writing that has grown to be so huge in today's book market.



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Atlantis

I just finished reading Greg Donegan's Atlantis today, something I finished pretty much in two evenings this week.  It is a fast-paced, fun action tale with lots of sci-fi, adventure, and spy novel elements all mixed in.

Browsing through Amazon, I found the book is the first of a series.  The whole Atlantis Collection - Set of 6 titles - Atlantis, Assault on Atlantis, Atlantis Gate, Atlantis Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis Devil's Sea, Battle for Atlantis is available at Amazon. I think reading them all could be pretty fun, and this first one made me at least willing to keep an eye out for the others.

The story moves along quickly, following the unfolding of an intriguing plot in the company of some memorable characters.  If you're looking for  a way to while away a lazy weekend, you could do a lot worse than Atlantis.  I'm not sure about the rest of the series, but I think I'll find out before long.

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How to Train Your Dragon

Over the summer, I picked up a copy of How to Train Your Dragon off of a Bookcrossing shelf in Singapore.  It was a quick, easy, and enjoyable read that I finished in one evening. One of those sorts — fun and relaxing.

My friends who are moving in a few days recently gave me a copy of the DVD of How to Train Your Dragon.  I thought it would be fun to watch, since I enjoyed the book so much.  I was surprised to see how different the movie was from the book, but really had fun with it too.  I am glad my friends gave it to me, as I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own.  But with the difference between the two stories, it's fun to have experienced both versions.














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The Book of Eli

After we watched Inception together this summer, my oldest nephew recommended that I watch Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli.  Since he mentioned it, I was looking around for it, but having some trouble finding it.  After mentioning that to some friends, they kindly watched out for the DVD until they found it and bought it for me.  It took a while still after that, but tonight I finally got to sit down and watch the show.

My nephew's recommendation was a good one.  I liked the movie, thought the acting was pretty good, and very much enjoyed the premise of the show.  The whole notion of the relationship between language and power has long been one of my main interests.  This movie nicely captures that idea and puts it into a story that makes good sense.  The way that we use words, the power they have over us, and the way we too often try to use them to obtain power over others are matters all nicely explored in the film.

The movie reminds me some of Fahrenheit 451.  Maybe that's partly because it's a book that I recommended to my nephew this summer as well, and so was kind of mindful of the connections we'd shared this summer through the things we watched, read, and talked about.  I love those moments of connection, and especially enjoyed that part of watching The Book of Eli tonight — connecting with my nephew even when we are on opposite sides of the world at the moment.



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Testament of Andros

I am haunted.

I read James Blish's short cycle The Testament of Andros yesterday, and I can think of nothing else.   The way the cycle spirals around and around the three characters, the world's end, the sun.... it seems to be spiraling around and around in my brain in just the same way.

It's been some time since I last read anything by Blish, but as soon as I read this, I downloaded several more stories for my Kindle.  And I am planning on reading more of his longer works when I get back to Singapore, since they are on my shelf there.  I had almost forgotten just how good a writer he is.

If you've not read Testament of Andros, it is well worth picking up. It can be read in a very brief time, but will linger in the mind long after the reading, swirling round and round in an eery sort of way.  Just like the story itself does in the telling.  It makes for a wonderful reading effect, and reading after effect.





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Vampire Haiku

Ryan Mecum's Vampire Haiku (2009) sounds like just the sort of thing I should love, doesn't it? Being a speculative poet myself — one who loves haiku for both reading and writing — and having a... er, special interest in vampires, you'd think the book would be just my thing. And, well, I did enjoy reading it. But I also can't help noting some shortcomings.

Firstly, the work is not really much about haiku. It's more sentences with line breaks based on a 5-7-5 syllable count. Some of the sentences are clever, but very few of them are what I would call haiku. My favorite piece in the book is this one:

I have felt no joy
since the night she murdered me —
nor have I missed it.

That's nice, even poignant, but it isn't really a haiku. The syntax is, well, just a sentence. And there's an absence of seasonal reference. I do think there is one real haiku-like feature that some haiku tend to miss out on, and that is the twist. Unfortunately, though, this collection focuses on the syllable count aspect of haiku, which is probably the least important aspect. Many good haiku don't follow a 5-7-5 syllable count at all, and strict adherence to it often spoils what could be a nice poem otherwise.

That said, I did enjoy the story of Mecum's book. It was a fun read, and I'm glad I picked it up recently and was able to read it.

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