Contact
Categories
Arts and Letters
Comics
Friends
News and Politics
Science
Archives
Admin
Category Archives: Reviews
The World of the Angrazi Raj
The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Starting with an intriguing alternate history premise (a comet impact in the 19th century instigates the British empire to relocate to the Raj. By 2030, this Indian-English empire … Continue reading
The Word For Human In Any Language
Embassytown, By China Mieville This was a strange one. Not quite what you’d expect, either form a space opera or from China Mieville, and both in a good way. I don’t even know if you’d want to call it Space … Continue reading
How To Find Your Own North Pole
I just finished reading Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat. Leave it to a French Verne Fanatic to get Steampunk right. Instead of just gluing a bunch of random gears to a top hat and calling it Steampunk, Valtat incorporates the aesthetic … Continue reading
The Sound of One Atlas Shrugging
So, Atlas Shrugged (Part 1 of what is sure to be the most interminable trilogy, ever) has a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As the faithful Randites tell it though, this is just the slander of parasites, who do not … Continue reading
Posted in Cry Me A Fucking River, Culture War, Movies, Reviews
Comments Off
Friends and Enemies
We weren’t going to see the Social Network but then we heard the inexplicable: that was good. You wouldn’t think there could be a way for this to be true. A 2 hour movie about the legal troubles of the … Continue reading
If You’re Seeing Snow, it’s Time to Change the Channel
The book club is discussing Neuromancer this month. This is the second book by William Gibson I’ve read, the first being Spook Country. Since they were written a good 20 years apart, I’m taking them as emblematic of his writing … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Reviews, Science Fiction
Comments Off
A Scenic View of Tannhäuser Gate
My book club will be discussing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on Saturday so I thought I’d write out my discussion topics beforehand. Which is why this may read like a rambling and unfocussed sort of thing than a … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Reviews, Science Fiction
Comments Off
Jets to the Sci-Fi Ghetto Leave Hourly
I just finished reading The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester. I am disappointed. Bester’s The Stars My Destination, I love. I read it last year for the first time and it’s now on my top 10 sci-fi list, right next … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Geek, Reviews, Science Fiction
Comments Off
Harry Potter and the Executive Short Shrift
The consensus about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is that it was a pretty good movie, but would have made a better TV series. I’ve been saying the same thing since The Goblet of Fire, and really about most … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Harry Potter, Movies, Reviews, Television
Comments Off
And Away
On Saturday, Elvira and our friend Luke and I went to see Up[1] and were mightily impressed. It really is amazing, the attention to detail the Pixar gang puts into their story-telling. There’s a ten minute, mostly silent montage that … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Reviews
2 Comments