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The Providence of Fire: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne: Book Two
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War is coming, secrets multiply and betrayal waits in the wings...The Empire's ruling family must be...
The Quantum Thief
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The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist...
Three Classic Novels: Ossian's Ride, October the First is Too Late, Fifth Planet
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In addition to being the man who coined the term 'the Big Bang', world-renowned astronomer Sir Fred...
The final novel published in John Wyndham's lifetime is something of a return to form, offering a very different and understated take on the theme of first contact with alien life. The Gores are an utterly ordinary middle-class family until twelve-year-old Matthew acquires what seems to be a very strange imaginary friend - Chocky, who keeps asking all kinds of strange questions about life on Earth. As Chocky's influence over Matthew grows, vested terrestrial interests take an interest in this strange situation...
The thing that makes Chocky work so well - the overwhelming ordinariness of most of the characters and settings, contrasted with the always-at-a-remove alien presence of Chocky - is also the thing that will probably pose the biggest barrier for modern audiences. Wyndham was writing SF that would be acceptable to mainstream sixties readers, and his dry, reserved, conventional narrative voice may have done the job back then, but it feels rather dated now. Nevertheless this is a strong story, very capably told, touching upon some interesting ideas about communication with a truly alien intelligence. Not quite like anything else I've ever read; possibly a minor classic.
The thing that makes Chocky work so well - the overwhelming ordinariness of most of the characters and settings, contrasted with the always-at-a-remove alien presence of Chocky - is also the thing that will probably pose the biggest barrier for modern audiences. Wyndham was writing SF that would be acceptable to mainstream sixties readers, and his dry, reserved, conventional narrative voice may have done the job back then, but it feels rather dated now. Nevertheless this is a strong story, very capably told, touching upon some interesting ideas about communication with a truly alien intelligence. Not quite like anything else I've ever read; possibly a minor classic.
Awix (3310 KP) rated A Wrinkle in the Skin in Books
Sep 13, 2019
Almost relentlessly bleak SF-disaster novel. An immense series of global earthquakes destroys civilisation overnight, leaving only a handful of survivors. The protagonist has previously been emotionally self-sufficient, but can he maintain this attitude in the face of the horror and desolation around him?
Worlds away from the 'cosy catastrophe' label which this kind of book is occasionally lumbered with, this anticipates The Road in many ways: the central image is of a man and a boy making their way across the devastated landscape, scavenging to survive and trying to avoid lawless mobs of other survivors. Christopher's ideas about human nature are crushingly cynical but unpleasantly compelling; the psychological depth of this book makes most similar works of fiction look frivolous and lightweight. Still, for all the skill with which it is written, this story is both tragic and depressing (the book does a good job of making you realise the difference between the two). It's telling that while it concludes on the promise of hope, it's only a promise: an actual happy ending would feel grotesquely inappropriate. Not without its strengths, but a tough read in many ways - other apocalypses are much more fun.
Worlds away from the 'cosy catastrophe' label which this kind of book is occasionally lumbered with, this anticipates The Road in many ways: the central image is of a man and a boy making their way across the devastated landscape, scavenging to survive and trying to avoid lawless mobs of other survivors. Christopher's ideas about human nature are crushingly cynical but unpleasantly compelling; the psychological depth of this book makes most similar works of fiction look frivolous and lightweight. Still, for all the skill with which it is written, this story is both tragic and depressing (the book does a good job of making you realise the difference between the two). It's telling that while it concludes on the promise of hope, it's only a promise: an actual happy ending would feel grotesquely inappropriate. Not without its strengths, but a tough read in many ways - other apocalypses are much more fun.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Hello Down There (1969) in Movies
May 10, 2020
The only performer to appear in three of the AFI's Hundred Greatest Films of All Time is Janet Leigh, which is quite an achievement, but she also turns up in a load of absolute dross, like this borderline-unwatchable musical comedy adventure about a family spending a month in an underwater house. Tony Randall is there for the older viewers; there are some swinging kids for the younger audience (a young Richard Dreyfuss keeps singing songs about goldfish); low-octane underwater thrills are occasionally attempted.
The list of people involved in this movie might lead one to expect something at least mildly interesting: Jack Arnold made many interesting SF B-movies, one of which (Creature from the Black Lagoon) featured co-director Browning in the title role; the cast list includes Randall, Leigh, Dreyfuss, and Roddy McDowell. And yet it feels almost aggressively anodyne and bland, horribly calculated, and made to TV-standard production values. Even when it was made this probably only appealed to the most undemanding viewers; nowadays it exerts a weird fascination if only as a relic of an unrecognisable sensibility.
The list of people involved in this movie might lead one to expect something at least mildly interesting: Jack Arnold made many interesting SF B-movies, one of which (Creature from the Black Lagoon) featured co-director Browning in the title role; the cast list includes Randall, Leigh, Dreyfuss, and Roddy McDowell. And yet it feels almost aggressively anodyne and bland, horribly calculated, and made to TV-standard production values. Even when it was made this probably only appealed to the most undemanding viewers; nowadays it exerts a weird fascination if only as a relic of an unrecognisable sensibility.
Seven Surrenders
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In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision for the needs of all, a...
Science fiction
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dunkirk (2017) in Movies
Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Feb 10, 2018)
Life's a Beach
I'm fully aware I'm swimming against the tide on this one, but I didn't really understand the rapturous reception Dunkirk got from most people. Yup, well-made; yup, well-acted; yup, a highly significant moment in history - but I found the actual story to be rather thin, and - apart from all the funny business with the chronology - it is wholly lacking in the usual imagination and ambition you'd expect from a Christopher Nolan film.
Apparently Nolan wrote the script over twenty years ago and said to his wife 'I must now become a hugely successful director of blockbusters, as this will give me the experience I need to make this film' - well, for me this does almost feel like retrograde step from the man responsible for Interstellar, Inception, and the Batman trilogy. Then again, those are all SF and fantasy movies, and he's never going to win the Oscar he deserves if he carries on doing that sort of thing.
I expect I would have been impressed by this film if it had been made by anyone else, or if I wasn't so familiar with Nolan's other work. As it is, this is the only Nolan movie in over a decade I can't see myself owning on DVD.
Apparently Nolan wrote the script over twenty years ago and said to his wife 'I must now become a hugely successful director of blockbusters, as this will give me the experience I need to make this film' - well, for me this does almost feel like retrograde step from the man responsible for Interstellar, Inception, and the Batman trilogy. Then again, those are all SF and fantasy movies, and he's never going to win the Oscar he deserves if he carries on doing that sort of thing.
I expect I would have been impressed by this film if it had been made by anyone else, or if I wasn't so familiar with Nolan's other work. As it is, this is the only Nolan movie in over a decade I can't see myself owning on DVD.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Invaders in TV
Mar 15, 2018 (Updated Mar 15, 2018)
One of the classic TV alien invasion shows; the theme tune and the various visual gimmicks (aliens with crooked little fingers who incinerate when killed) are quite well-remembered, along with (possibly) the fact that many of the episodes aren't actually any good.
Larry Cohen's original concept - a paranoid thriller with few overt SF elements - was rapidly abandoned, and Cohen himself had little involvement. The programme is really a victim of the time it was made: episodic storytelling means that the aliens come up with bizarrely different schemes on a weekly basis (weather control, infiltrating industry, man-eating butterflies), and there are nagging problems with the format - it is required that the aliens never just kill Vincent, and that he never manages to get evidence of their activity, either. Some would say that Roy Thinnes' intensely dour performance is not exactly what a show like this needs.
Still, there are some good individual episodes, and the iconography of the show does hang around in your head (it's clearly one of the shows that was a major influence on The X Files). It's a shame this kind of story has since been done to death as you could easily imagine a contemporary Invaders remake being really good (even though the 90s mini-series really wasn't).
Larry Cohen's original concept - a paranoid thriller with few overt SF elements - was rapidly abandoned, and Cohen himself had little involvement. The programme is really a victim of the time it was made: episodic storytelling means that the aliens come up with bizarrely different schemes on a weekly basis (weather control, infiltrating industry, man-eating butterflies), and there are nagging problems with the format - it is required that the aliens never just kill Vincent, and that he never manages to get evidence of their activity, either. Some would say that Roy Thinnes' intensely dour performance is not exactly what a show like this needs.
Still, there are some good individual episodes, and the iconography of the show does hang around in your head (it's clearly one of the shows that was a major influence on The X Files). It's a shame this kind of story has since been done to death as you could easily imagine a contemporary Invaders remake being really good (even though the 90s mini-series really wasn't).