For the past few years, each April 26th I have to look up why it’s “Alien Day”. The date is named after the planet LV-426, where the xenomorphs are first encountered in the original, 1979 Ridley Scott film. Well, I’ve been a fan of the horror-scifi franchise since I saw the sequel, Aliens. I’ve since watch any film in the series (good and bad) and read a lot of the comics. So, anyway, happy Alien Day to my fellow sci-fi fans.
Category: Bookshelf
Books, Music, Movies, etc.
Octavia Butler’s Oankali
Amy Deng’s Oankali for an art exercise “Imagining the Oankali.” A Google image search for Oankali and Ooloi does’t turn up much other than a lot of rough fan art, but I liked this drawing a lot; as much because of its analytical approach as the representation itself. For the second year now, I’ve read… Continue reading Octavia Butler’s Oankali
Great Year for My Reading Habit
Twenty Fourteen is shaping up to be a terrific year for my favorite authors and book series. Here are some of the books I can’t wait to read (in order of release date): 2/20: Influx by Daniel Suarez – I’ve not read the most recent books by Suarez, but I loved the Daemon series and… Continue reading Great Year for My Reading Habit
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
I recently listened to the direct-to-English translation of Solaris commissioned by Audible.com. While I could appreciate much of the novel, I frankly didn’t find it all that enjoyable of a read/listen. I felt guilty about my 3‑star review on Goodreads.com until I noticed that Patrick Rothfuss gave it 2 stars. Solaris by StanisÅ‚aw Lem My… Continue reading Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
The Windup Girl
I finished the audiobook of The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi multi-award winning novel about life in a dystopic Thailand after global warming and genetic engineering have wrecked much of modern society. Bacigalupi is a wonderful writer and it is an imaginative story, worthy of the praise and awards that were heaped on it after the… Continue reading The Windup Girl
Star Trek: The Animated Series Online
When I was a kid growing up in the eighties, in a very rural part of the country, my exposure to Star Trek was somewhat limited. I was too young to the original series that much, opting for Lost in Space reruns if they were on, instead. However, when Nickelodeon began showing reruns of Star… Continue reading Star Trek: The Animated Series Online
The Hyperion Cantos
Last night, I finished the final book in Dan Simmon’s epic science fiction tetralogy1, the Hyperion Cantos. My immediate reaction to the series’ conclusion was that I only want to read it again. They are just that great of a read. In fact, if anyone who knows me had read these previously and didn’t recommend them… Continue reading The Hyperion Cantos
Reading Zero History
Watching this video of the Festo AirPenguin, I’m reminded that everything in William Gibson (@greatdismal )‘s Bigend trilogy has already happened, just not yet in that order.
Pandorum
I watched Pandorum over the course of a couple of days this past week1. I really hadn’t seen or read a lot about the film, other than a trailer and a very short interview with Dennis Quaid on Leno (or some evening talk show). I wasn’t really sure what to expect; but whatever I was… Continue reading Pandorum
Eight Years and Still Suffering
It’s been eight years today since the coordinated attack on New York and Washington D.C. in which almost 3,000 people perished. Most of us have gone on with our lives; I know that feels like a lifetime ago when I recall where I was and what I was doing. However, for many of the first… Continue reading Eight Years and Still Suffering