Musing about the world of Science Fiction

Just not that good at it

2008-08-22T11:41:00.001-07:00

I think I'm just not that good at writing reviews.. so I'm going to retire this blog. Oh well it was fun!

Fall of Hyperion

2008-07-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

I finished Hyperion a lil while back, and I have to say, it's one of the best scifi books I've read in a while!
Just the right about of mystery and explanation. The author spends a good amount of time explaining what the book is about, I'd say, the entire book! Each of the stories contribute a unique piece to the whole, leaving it at the end wanting so much more.

I enjoy the fact that the characters don't become "friends" as such. They defend each other, and definitely don't want harm to come to the others (wait, maybe not to the poet) but the author kept a separation that people who have known each other a week aren't bff's all of a sudden.

The next book (Fall of Hyperion) is serving to be quite different, but also very good. A different point of view, which also sees the points of view of the pilgrims. Very interesting, although some of the "tie ins" have felt a little more forced than in the first book.

Wootz

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

2008-06-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

Hyperion is my latest scifi book. Although I love the Star Trek universe, I don't think I can read any more of the books, they just aren't quite the same.

So far I'm loving this book, it definitely deserves any awards it's won (Hugo!). It's such an engaging story I find it very hard to put the book down. Which is awful for me, since I read before I sleep to relax my brain from the daily turmoil, and I end up getting caught up in the story!

The book has made me tired all week, that and working late Weds & Thurs, plus Dancing till late on Tuesday (ballroom not club).

On a personal note, I have an interview today at lunch time! I'm excited, because it's good to get back out there and practice getting new jobs, but I'm not sure I'm up to leaving my current job just yet.

Cheers

Q&A (Star Trek: TNG) by Keith R. A. DeCandido

2008-05-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'm almost half way through this book, and I've yet to get to the actual story! I swear it's all setup. While I love the characters, and like to hear about their lives, what's changed, how they like each other and so on, it gets a bit boring when nothing really happens.
That's a little unfair I guess, as some people I care nothing about have had some problems. I think the reason I think nothing has actually happened is because that's true for the main characters. Lots of side stories going on, but nothing center stage.

The book is well written, and definitely good enough to finish. I just hope Picard gets to see some action soon.

Tschüss!

SGA Fanfic - Castles in the Sky

2008-05-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

I got about 1/4 of the way through this story (it's very long) and think I need a break. Don't get me wrong, I love some serious Shep whump, I just feel like this is a little too awful.
I realised I had started skimming while I was reading. The torture that John endured went on too long for my tastes, and of course now his recovery is getting me tired. It's not that I expect everything to be good and sunny in the world of Stargate Atlantis and the "Team" but I need a little bit of joy so I can better appreciate the bad times.

The team reacts in a way that I would expect them to, and I feel the author (Stealth Dragon) has done a great job getting the characters spot on.

Until I'm ready to get back to the pain and suffering of poor John Sheppard, I've printed out a bunch of other fiction:
Practice to Deceive by Eildon Rhymer
Empty Vessels by Eildon Rhymer
Life Wasn't Meant to be Easy by Follow-ur-Shadow
Cold Race by SGAFan

That should keep me entertained on the treadmill through next week! Any recommendations are gladly accepted.

Cheers!

Young Jewel Staite on YouTube.com

2008-05-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

Wow look how young she was when she did Flash Forward. She appears at around 0:18!

Android's Dream

2008-05-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Android's Dream is a novel I'm reading right now, but I just can't seem to "get into it". It's not a bad book, it's well written, it's an interesting subject, but for some reason it's really easy to put down.

BSG has been.. boring for me lately. I just haven't liked the past few episodes, they feel like filler.

Stargate will be back on in July, so we're starting work on a new site next week. Hopefully it will be all and more of the last site.

JJ Abrams said some things earlier this week about the new Star Trek movie that has me concerned. Lots of noise and "recreating". While I think that's a brilliant idea.. there were also comments about him being a Star Wars fan, but Star Trek not so much. YIKES!! No wonder he didn't want William Shatner.. he doesn't embrace the cheese :(

Peace

Severely banal

2008-04-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

While flipping through channels on Sunday, desperately trying to find something to fill 15minutes of free time, I happened upon SciFi Channel showing John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars.
It reminded me of how much I disliked the film. Not for any particular reason, simply because it was so awful. It has the distinction of being the only VHS tape of a movie I bought, that I taped over.

Don't watch it, it will rot your brains!

Hehe

Stargate Action Toys!

2008-04-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

I got my Stargate Atlantis Series 2 Action Toys in the mail today from Diamond Select Toys.

After I unwrapped them I realised I needed to buy Series 1 as well in order to complete my Atlantis Stargate... BOOOOOOOOO

Going to see if there are any Steve the Wraith action figures left *hopes*

Now for the pictures!

Teyla looks much darker than her picture on the back of the boxes. McKay's bread is.. well.. lopsided, I think he had some trouble shaving! That and he tried to cover the grey in his stubble and dyed his beard hair a greenish color.

Strangely even though McKay is my favorite character, my favorite action toy is the Wraith Queen, she is especially well done!

Cheers

Before Dishonor by Peter David - ST:TNG

2008-04-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Before Dishonor by Peter David. It's set in the Star Trek, The Next Generation world, after the movie Nemesis.
There are a lot of things I liked about this novel. They use something in the books that has appeared in both TOS and TNG TV Series, and Mr Spock. Pretty much anything with Spock in it gets a nod from me!
Parts of it that seemed not so good were related to Janeway. The book has a lot of crossover to Janeway and Seven of Nine, but I feel the Janeway parts at the beginning were a little rushed, and I didn't feel that it kept very well with her character. They threw in a little Q for good measure, although not the regular Q, another Q (referred to in the book as Lady Q), but didn't take it very far.
I felt the ending was long coming, then happened too fast. It seemed like they kept around a background character just so they could use him in the end to tie up loose ends.

A character brought in to replace Deanna Troi was definitely the worst fit of them all. I honestly can't understand how that person was able to even possibly consider being a counselor when they seemed to be completely unable to understand ingenuity and compassion.

Overall an entertaining read, which combined some of my favorite TNG characters. I missed Riker, Data and Deanna Troi, who all left the enterprise during Nemesis.

Cheers

Logan's Run book worth the read?

2008-04-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about watching the movie again, but before the latest remake comes out, perhaps I should read the books?

Sounds interesting..

The idea that everyone needs to die before 21 would be harder to make into a film imo, since they need to get actors young enough to portray.

I don't know if it was thought about when they made that one episode of Stargate Atlantis (Childhood's End), but it does seem sort of similar (must die by certain age).

Woot!

Torchwood - Spoiled myself accidentaly

2008-04-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

When I decided to post today about the episode from Saturday night (here in Los Angeles) I figured it would be good to mention the name of the episode, so people could decide whether they'd seen it or not, and if it wouldn't spoil.

I decide wikipedia.org is usually pretty good with stuff like that, so off I go and look it up. For some reason completely unknown to me, I scroll down looking for an episode list and stop and read one line. It's the spoiler for the end of the season.. of course it is.. the only line on the whole page I read!

Here I am wanting to talk about: Episode Twelve "Fragments".
Finally some serious back story about each of them, and why they are there. Of course we all know about Gwen, because she was the first story in the series, but knowing why Toshiko is there (much sadder story than I imagined!) Owen, and Ianto.
The ending was surprising, although I was wondering when he would pop up again, but surprise over his companion though!

The image is from earlier in the season, but I wanted to include it because my favorite Dr Who companion is in it! Martha Jones is the best! Smart, funny, humble and more.

Cheers

Free Downloads of Stargate SG1

2008-04-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

A friend pointed me to the following page: Amazon Screening Room's Blog.

They have 4 episodes of Stargate SG1 for free download from Amazon UnBox!

I downloaded them all, even though I already own the 10 season DVD set.
After watching The Torment of Tantalus again, I realised how much I miss floppy haired Daniel Jackson. He was so cute, and so into the science of it. Less a gun toting muscle bound smart guy.

I've always loved Window of Opportunity. There are some really hilarious lines in it, and the way Richard Dean Anderson plays it is just brilliant. Some seriously good comic timing (from Christoper Judge too!).

I'd forgotten that the original Elizabeth Weir was actually a blonde. Did they ever explain that she changed completely? I can't quite remember.

Cheers!

I am Legend (not me.. the book & movie)

2008-04-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I watched the movie from last December titled "I am Legend". Honestly it was a ton better than I expected. If I'd know I was going to like it, I may have even seen it in the theatre.

I did some research on the book, and all three movies, then downloaded and watched "The last man on Earth", which was the first movie adaptation of the book, with input on the script by the author.
I was then informed that there was an alternate ending for the Will Smith movie, so watched that as well. I much preferred the alt ending for the Will Smith version. The suicide, and then random chick and child going to Vermont with a vial of blood that no one knew what to do with was just strange! I understand his character's death wish, honestly after dealing with that for three years I think I'd be quite barmy.

The version with Vincent Price was actually much better than I'd expected. The "vampire" people were quite convincing.. except for the whole "we're not actually dumb" part.. and the vampires with guns at the end. Perhaps I misunderstood the first 3/4 of the movie, it was just weird that they were suddenly lucid, and able to drive, fire guns, chase him, and generally appear quite normal.

I have ordered the book now, and am hoping to get some time to read it soon. I'm also interested in seeing "The Omega Man" as I'm pretty sure I've seen it in the past, but I have only scant recollections of what actually happened.

Best,

Am I nuts.. no Dr Who?

2008-03-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

I waited and watched BBC America on Saturday, and it seems I was wrong.. It's not a new season.

Checking on bbcamerica.com today I see next weeks episodes are also from last season, so _thankfully_ I've not missed any!

Reading a new fanfic from Stargate Atlantis right now (it's not new, just new to me) and it's been keeping me jogging longer (long story short, I read while I jog on the treadmill).
It's called: It’s Always Autumn in the Old Trees of Despair. So far very good! Will post thoughts about it once I've finished.. it's pretty long (which is good).

Finished reading "Empire" by Orson Scott Card today. That was pretty heavy stuff! Turned out different than I had expected. I think I was hoping it would turn into a bloody battle (not that I'm into that sort of thing) and was definitely more "alternate future history" but neat. A little too close to reality to comfort, lots of things to think about. It reads very differently from his earlier work, like the Ender's Game series.

The Ark of Truth seems to be doing well in DVD sales, I read on Gateworld.com that it's doing very well on sales! Go Stargate!

RIP Arthur C Clark

2008-03-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Sad news today, at the passing of Sir Arthur C. Clark.

Story at the Associated Press

Dr Who: How could I have not realised!

2008-03-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

There are only a few forums and message boards that I follow about SciFi related things, and mostly to do with Stargate Atlantis. This is my excuse as to why I completely missed the fact that BBC America has been playing the current season of Doctor Who since January.

I hate my stupid DVR, it's so flakey! I have it set to record ALL new episodes of Dr Who, and apparently it's decided that I'd rather actually not watch it at all. I've become lazy over the past 6 months or so since I've had said device, and I simply never watch regular TV anymore. I check through my saved programs, and watch from there, or go to TCM, or PPV.

Last week I was watching an episode of Coupling from BBC America, and noticed an Ad for Dr Who. Then I realised it was Sunday, but the Coupling episode was from the previous Friday.

If anyone can point me in the direction of "where" I might be able to catch up on this season I'd be ever so grateful! I checked iTunes, BBC America Website, Hulu.com.. can't think of anyplace else to check?

Best,

Eva

Much more specificly Science Fiction

2008-03-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

My last blog ended up being quite popular, but not for the reason I had hoped. Turns out the Science Fiction crowd (in particular Stargate) are extremely loyal, and avid readers. Now I have two blogs, one about my first love (developing web application) and one about my second love, Science Fiction.

Every day I read Science Fiction (books mostly), I watch it on TV (Stargate Atlantis, Dr Who, Torchwood, etc), and when I can I catch movies.

My original SciFi love is Star Trek, with Star Wars as a close second. How lucky we are now to have so much more to choose from on TV? In a world of "reality tv" there is still an entire cable TV channel dedicated to Science Fiction (barring the wrestling.. ).

Now to find a look for this blog which isn't totally objectionable, maybe enlist the help of a kindly designer I know?

Best,

Eva