"What went wrong?"
Science Fiction
When Privacy Is Abolished, What’s a Murderer to Do?
"... he felt uncomfortable, as though that prescient Eye, years in the future, could with a wink summon the police. But it was separated from him by a barrier of time that only the natural processes could shorten. And, in fact, it had been watching him since his birth. You could look at it that way ..."
A Contemporary Reaction to ‘The Time Machine’
"... Wells has written a very clever story as to the condition of this planet in the year 802,701 A.D., though the two letters A.D. appear to have lost their meaning in that distant date ..."
Hines’s ‘The Unseen’ Is Worth a Look
I think I'll just start my review by saying that T. L. Hines's The Unseen is one of the most impressive thrillers I've read in some time—not just among Christian books, but among thrillers in general. I liked Hines' first novel, Waking Lazarus, quite a lot. This book—in my opinion—knocks it out of the park. It works on many levels, not only as a straight thriller, but as a cultural metaphor.
Lucas, the hero, is not strictly a part of the normal world. He moves from place to place in Washington, DC—abandoned buildings, service tunnels, even the sewer. He lives to watch other people, from hiding places he sets up behind walls and ceilings, “between the seams of society.” He's not a voyeur in the ordinary sense, however. He watches people in public places, or at work. He imagines what their lives are like. Lucas's watching obsession obviously mirrors various pathologies in modern society, from which (I suspect) few of us are entirely free. . . .
Pulped! — Reading Just for the Fun of It
"I’m on a crusade to prove that entertainment has value in itself, not just as a dose of sugar to help audiences swallow more important themes. Entertainment allows us to temporarily shut down our brains and waken later with emotions refreshed." - Hannah Sternberg
Van Damme Cinema: Meaningless, Silly, Senseless . . . in a Word, Priceless!
The young crime-fiction aficionado Patrick Ohl writes: I have a confession to make. I love action movies, especially all those movies from the 80s and 90s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, or any one of their rivals with the general exception of Steven Seagal. Dumb and derivative they may be, but I have plenty of fun watching the creative action, well-choreographed fights, and terrible acting. But above all, my guiltiest pleasures are watching Jean-Claude Van Damme movies.
I cannot explain this love of mine in any rational terms. Van Damme was at one point in his career considered Arnold Schwarzenegger without the price tag— like Arnold, he was consistently passed off as an American despite the heavily accented English, and his acting was almost always laughably bad. That being said, there are many minor gems in Van Damme’s career.
‘For Conspicuous Valor,’ a Conspicuously Good E-story
A novelty in publishing which has come in with the e-book, almost unremarked, is the e-story. Where we used to go to the pulp (and slick) magazines for our short science fiction, today we can often find such stories at low prices for downloading to our Kindles or Nooks. The downside is that, in the absence of traditional editorial apparatus, we're often not sure whether we'll be getting good work or vanity-published dreck.
"For Conspicuous Valor," by Darwin Garrison, is good work.
The Next ‘Blade Runner’ — Prequel, Sequel, or Remake?
'Blade Runner' initially polarized critics: some were displeased with the pacing, while others enjoyed its thematic complexity. The film performed poorly in North American theaters but, despite the box office failure of the film, it has since become a cult classic. 'Blade Runner' has been hailed for its production design, depicting a "retrofitted" future, and it remains a leading example of the neo-noir genre.
The Unsubtle Gay Subtext of the X-Men Movies
For many it comes as no surprise that one of Hollywood's priorities is to mainstream homosexuality. So, few should be surprised when a series of fantasy adventure films promote the gay agenda. X-Men is supposed to be the superhero series that secretly took gay issues into massive mainstream territory. Since the comic appeared in the '60s, pop-culture critics have drawn parallels between the mutants’ struggle to gain wider acceptance for being genetically ‘different,’ and the gay community's struggle for acceptance and recognition.
‘Temporary Duty’ Is an Extended Pleasure
I have good and not-so-good things to say about Temporary Duty, but I'll start with the good.
Considering its length and its price ($2.99 for the Kindle book), Temporary Duty is one of the best reading entertainment values you'll find today. It's quite long, and it's simply lots of fun. If you go back far enough to remember the sheer pleasure of the old space opera novels, like Heinlein's juveniles, that same pleasure is here in abundance—the wonder of space, the fascination of exotic aliens and strange cultures, the excitement of human ingenuity applied to interstellar challenges. You'll have a good time reading this book.
Cusack-Poe Movie: Maddest Thing Ever?
The upcoming theatrical film The Raven, evidently based verrrrrrrrry loosely on the stories and poems of the brilliant nineteenth century American writer Edgar Allan Poe, and starring John Cusack as Poe, looks as if it could be very good fun or just poopawful. Certainly it looks like quite possibly the maddest thing ever, which is saying a lot these days. Based on the trailer, however, I find myself strangely interested in seeing the great American writer battle evil on the mean streets of antebellum Baltimore even though I don’t like Cusack and never have. (That’s not a criticism of him or his movies, just a personal reaction.) See the trailer, and decide for yourself—if you dare:
Recent Comments