Read This: Pontypool Changes Everything
Tony Burgess’s Pontypool Changes Everything is an unusual entry in the zombie novel field. In it, the danger of zombiehood comes though the corruption and failure of language, and Burgess creates a great deal of mayhem without splattering everything in sight.
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The Visit: Worth Stopping By
The Visit is quite an effective little horror film about two children meeting their grandparents for the first time. It relies on nothing but finely-tuned acting and sharp camera work to make it scary. And it was—I jumped, I flinched, I gasped in shocked surprise. Is it derivative? Absolutely. Is it predictable? Frequently. Is it scary? Yes, indeed.
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Read This: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
It is assumed that the androids of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’s dwindling Earth have their own desires and motivations, and are all but impossible to tell from natural humans without highly specialized empathy tests. In this world, it is not the androids’ ability to be self-aware that defines the difference, but their inability to feel for anyone but themselves. Or so the humans believe.
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Musings on “In the Walls of Eryx”
The popular focus on H.P. Lovecraft has long been on his Cthulhu Mythos. “In the Walls of Eryx” stands apart from that particularly haunted universe. Instead, its universe is a bit closer to home.
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Read This: Emergence
I first read Emergence, by David R. Palmer, in the magazine Analog back in 1981. I was thrilled with it then. The protagonist, Candy Smith-Foster, all of eleven years old, was a self-described plucky female adventurer taking on a depopulated post-apocalypse world with the help of her hyacinthine macaw companion. How could I not be thrilled?
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Read This: Dune
It is hard to believe it has been fifty years since Frank Herbert’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning Dune was published in August, 1965. The novel, and its titular planet, are still as vast and imposing as when they were new. Dune is space opera at its finest, a grand sweep of empire and conquest.
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Read This: Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?
If your interest in all things zombie extends beyond “It’s a virus!” or “It’s a fungus!”, to what could actually cause typical zombie behaviors, Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain by Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek might be just the book for you.
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Meet the Author: L. Sprague de Camp
I would like to offer a fresh introduction to L. Sprague de Camp–one of the old guard in the art of speculative fiction. He is, among other things, the author of The Compleat Enchanter, rejuvinator of Conan the Barbarian, biographer of Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, and master of sword and sorcery.
Read More →Fantastic Four: Missed Again
I didn’t want to trash Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, there are precious few aspects of it to praise: The cast was good. Some of the effects were pretty cool, especially the interdimensional travel. Doom was imposing with his fused metal skin and tattered cloak. The young Reed and Ben were cute. However, the whole thing ultimately fell flat.
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Ex Machina Thinks Before It Speaks
Ex Machina, written and directed by Alex Garland, is a beautiful, quiet, well-told little movie. It has complex characters, low-key effects and minimal flash, and gives its audience space to contemplate the hazards of artificial intelligence. In its understated way, Ex Machina gets under one’s skin.
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