Can't Wake Up: Awake

The show opens with a calm moment, as lights pass over the grass on the edge of a road and just before a screech signals imminent disaster. It's this moment that sets up the entire premise of Awake, starring Jason Isaacs (whom most people will remember as Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter). At the wheel is Michael Britten, a homicide detective who's about to have the worst imaginable tragedy: he collectively loses his wife and son in the accident. He's a man between two worlds: in one, his wife is alive, but his son has perished. In the other, his wife has died, but his son still lives. Britten lives each day by alternating: going to sleep in one world means waking up in another.

The pilot episode for Awake is stunningly brilliant: it's beautifully shot, directed by David Slade, with a great eye towards the visual styles that separate out the two worlds. One is soaked in bright shades where Britten's son is alive, while the other is clad in darker, moody tones. To keep them apart, Britten wears a wristband that corresponds with the two worlds: red for his son's reality, green for his wife's.

The premise of Awake has an incredible amount of potential: In each world, Britten works with a psychologist in each world, trying to figure out why he's experiencing each reality, and trying to cope with the idea that each presents to him: the other world is most certainly the imaginary one, a construct in his mind designed to cope with the loss of one of his loved ones. There are a number of elements touched on here in the show: trying to remember which world he's working in, trying to move on from the accident, and above all, trying to continue on with his life. Britten comes to the determination that the only way to move forward is to accept the situation: where this is the type of problem that would be the first impediment in front of the character, Awake looks elsewhere for story ideas.

This is the crux of where Awake has turned from what could be an interesting genre television show, and into the potential for a great one: it takes on some very heady issues: what is the real reality, how do you come to terms with losing the people important to you, and how do you react to trauma? It's delivered with smart writing and fantastic acting, scenes that had me at the edge of my seat while watching it a couple of weeks ago.

The high quality of the show reminds me of some other high-concept shows: NBC's 2009 show Kings, and ABC's 2007 show Daybreak. Unfortunately, both shows had limited runs: they ran for less than a season before they were cancelled due to low audience numbers, and I worry that this same fate might befall Awake before it gets a running start. Hopefully, excellent reviews in the New York Times, NPR, LA Times and Hollywood Reporter will help give the show the critical legitimacy to push it up over the edge.

What I have enjoyed so far in the show is that there is no clear or easy answer for Britten that has been painted out by lazy writers: the characters here are ones that are well crafted, and it's painful to think of what might happen to them, much like George R.R. Martin has demonstrated with his own characters and their inability to remain alive. Awake has an excellent cast that makes me dread some of what might be coming up for them. This also isn't one of the numerous LOST clones, trying to shock the audience into sticking with the show: questions and possibilities arise throughout in ways not seen since that show, but here, it feels far more organic, rather than the product of a writer's room.

Regardless of the length of Awake, it's something that I hope remains around because of the fantastic writing and acting that we've seen, not just because I'm looking to get to the end of the story. This is television at its very best, and for that reason, it's something that you should check out tonight when it airs at 9pm.

TRSF: The Best New Science Fiction

  While over at Boskone the other weekend, I resolved to not buy much from the convention market, and I was able to hold myself to that. I made a single purchase: Technology Review's 1st Science Fiction magazine: TRSF. I bought it because I'd heard good things: Ken Liu in particular, was a draw, and the full lineup of authors is a particularly strong one: Cory Doctorow, Joe Haldeman, Elizabeth Bear, Ma Boyong, Tobias Buckell, Pat Cadigan, Paul DiFilippo, Gwyneth Jones, Geoffrey Landis, Ken Liu, Ken MacLeod and Vandana Singh.

What I bought stunned me. Almost every story was gold: brilliant narratives that dripped with ideas, and each and every one sucked me right in while I rode back and forth to the convention on the T.

Cory Doctorow's story The Brave Little Toaster, depicting smart appliances was unexpectedly funny and relevant, while Indra's Web, by Vandana Singh was facinating. Lonely Islands (Tobias Bucknell), Private Space (Geoffrey A. Landis), Gods of the Forge (Elizabeth Bears) and The Flame is Roses, The Smoke is Briars (Gwyneth Jones) all hooked me from the get go, and made me think about the world around me in a lot of ways.

But then there were the stories that are still stuck in my head, ones that I've read a couple of times already: Real Artists, by Ken Liu, where a video student finds out just where the intersection between film art and business lie; Complete Sentence, by Joe Halderman, that takes a really frightening look at the mind and the punishment for crimes could lead (this one reminded me a little of Inception); The Mark Twain Robots, by Ma Boyong, which was a nice, modern take on Asimov's Three Laws; Pat Cardigan's Cody, involving data storage and biometrics; The Surface of Last Scattering, by Ken MacLeod, which was heartbreaking in more ways than one; and Specter-Bombing the Beer Goggles, by Paul Di Filippo, a nice look at apps and virtual reality (fit nicely with the book that I was reading at the time, David Louis Edelman's Infoquake).

The key thing with each book is the uniform quality of each of the stories: while published by Technology Review, none of these stories are necessarily about the cool technology that's available to the characters, but about how the characters have been impacted by the technology that surrounds them. In addition to that, it's not a book that's bound by the borders of the United States, and there's a real international flair in both the stories and the authors, which lends the book a certain credence as well. Each story is excellently realized when it comes to the worlds around them. Frighteningly, in most cases, the scenarios are very plausible, if not around the corner from the present day.

The entire issue is well worth the time to purchase and read through. This is one of those rare collections that's proven it's worth ten times over, and I absolutely can't wait to pick up the next issue. If you're a science fiction fan, you owe it to yourself to give this a read.

Boskone 49 Recap

This past weekend was Boskone 49, a science fiction / fantasy literature convention down in South Boston. After great experiences at ReaderCon the past couple of years, I decided to head down and partake in the fun for the spring, hitting up a bunch of panels and getting to meet up with people that I've largely talked to online over the past couple of years.

Stepping in the door (after a typical Boston driving experience) on Friday afternoon, I saw one of my former college professors, F. Brett Cox, and Lightspeed publisher John Joseph Adams, which was nice, before heading off to the first of several panels: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in the Classroom, led by Brett, where they talked at length about the recent acceptance of the genres in the academic field. Since Cyberpunk has become a subgenre, it's become relevant, but with the addition of several literary heavyweights, such as Michael Chabon and Margaret Atwood, it's become more acceptable.

Typically, short fiction seems to be one of the best ways to get the literary themes across, but novels and films are also well used. What everyone seemed to agree on was that students really took to the genre, regardless if they were fans: students seem to identify with it quite a bit more than other genres.

Someone on the panel had a great quote, one that applies to more than just learning, but also critical reviewing and thinking as well: "I get to look under the hood and see how this works."

The next panel was Occupy SF: Corporations in Science Fiction, which was a fascinating talk. Charles Stross opened with some interesting things to think about: what holds up value in an interstellar empire? Apparently, this is the topic of his next book, and it drove discussion a bit early on, with some discussions about the very nature of money and economics. In comparable situations, letters of credit have been used on Earth, but how does this work when distances across space can be hundreds, if not thousands of years? Stross also suggested that if we're going to use metals for currency, we should simply use plutonium: it literally burns a hole in our pockets, and if we have too much, we can simply blow it up.

Finally getting to the point of corporations, they were likened to that of a hive: individuals carry out instructions on the behalf of the corporate hive, for its own (and presumably theirs), betterment. This is fine, in theory, but when you have an unchecked capitalist model, it will simply consume itself, because people aren't good at looking and planning in the extreme long-term: corporations simply work to make money and continue their operations (good and bad).

Leadership followed this discussion, and the point to which we've gotten represents a major change in how corporations were led: a very good point was brought up about who leads these places and what governs them: corporate behavior rewards psychopaths, and interestingly, a set of objective rules are set up to govern success: the value of experience has been lessened, because the rise of the MBA degree essentially has made corporate leadership interchangeable. Top earners are promoted and valued, regardless of how they become those top earners. As someone in the audience commented, that undermines what the customers think of the corporation. Long-term, that matters, but not so much in the short term.

This was an enlightening talk, and it was one of a couple that were very, very thought provoking for me personally, and gave me some great, solid ideas for a couple of projects that I've got in the works.

Saturday morning, I started with SF As a Mirror on Society, which I came in for about half of. Fortunately, this time, I left my car in Cambridge and rode in on the T, which reminded me that I dearly miss public transportation. I wish that I could ride a bus, subway or train to work. As I entered, I came in on a discussion of the 'Other', and some discussion on how some of the neglected characters should be handled: essentially, not embellished.

Following that, it was off to lunch, with Theodore Quester and John Joseph Adams, the Lightspeed crew present at the convention. Good times.

Lunch went a bit long, and when I got back, I got into a panel a bit late: Robocop Futures. This was a fascinating panel. As I got in, there was some discussion on the the role of people in systems: increasingly, we're living in a world that's guided by policy, rather than human intervention. I was reminded of something that P.W. Singer talked about when talking about robotic systems: people in the loop. People are increasingly out of the loop, where they're able to defer responsibility.

This is connected to law policies: increasingly, there are mandatory sentences and policies. One of the panelists mentioned a case where a Briton was prevented from entering the US because of a tweet. In this instance, everybody involved knew that it wasn't a serious or credible threat: policy demanded that the airport report it to law enforcement, who was in turn forced to investigate it, despite knowing that it wasn't a serious or credible threat. In the same manner, mandatory minimums for certain crimes: people aren't able to use their judgment in the process.

This discussion ended up on automated systems, which parse our conversations online. Increasingly, we've found ourselves turning to automated systems that absolve us of responsibility. Fortunately, computers are pretty bad at making sense of human relations. At the same time, people in the system are the weaker links that can potentially be exploited.

After a short break, Table Top Games in the Digital Age was the next one, with Ethan Gilsdorf moderating. This one was really one of the bigger letdowns: I'd been hoping that there would be some discussion about how table-top gaming might make the jump into the digital age, but there was a lot of lamenting about how the day of face to face gaming seemed to be going by the wayside (from the audience as well). It felt very oppositional to me, rather than a group looking at what was both inevitable coming, but also how to work the social aspects into the gaming world. This was covered, but briefly.

The next panel was fascinating: War of the Worlds and Dracula, compared. Both novels are ones that I read a long time ago, back in college, and I've been meaning to revisit them at some point. Discussion started right off with a look at both novels as reactions to Britain's place in the world: essentially, they're both reverse colonization novels, with two different models that tapped into an undercurrent of fear from British society:

1. Invade, and replace the inhabitants with your own people.
2. Invade, and change the inhabitants into your own people.

As someone noted early on, the Martians did to the British what the British did to the Zulu: invade, use overwhelming force and wreck havoc. In addition to these two novels, there was an entire subgenre of invasion novels from around the 1870s, right around the same time that Germany had begun to gain power in Europe. Britain's place in the world had begun to fall, and that's expressed in these novels: it's not too unlike the Cold War between the USSR and US. Both novels feature bloodsuckers feeding on Englishmen.

Something that I realized shortly after that both novels relied on the inherent strengths within the British lifestyle and culture: The British prevailed because their very biology helped them in War of the Worlds, while Dracula was hunted down with modern technology, which again taps into the patriotic element of both books. It was a fantastic panel, one that I learned a lot from.

The panel on Cover Art was an interesting talk, and the last for the night, with representatives from Tor Books and Baen. Baen's was interesting, where they have a particular style to their covers, but it was interesting to see their rational behind the art. Tor had some great cover examples, and overall, it was fascinating to see everything that goes into the covers of a book, and how it's used as a marketing tool.

On Sunday, Joshua Bilmes (Agent), David G. Hartwell (Editor), Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Editor), John Scalzi (Writer) and Toni Weisskopfgot (Editor / Publisher) together for their Top Ten Tips for the Prospective Writer, which was a interesting talk for anyone who is looking to become a professional author. There were actually more than ten tips, but they were all good ones. In short form:

• Be a good writer.
• Get used to sucking. You're at the beginning of a journey through incompetence. Keep writing until you don't suck.
• Divest yourself of attachment to writing times/locations: set aside a time, and write where ever. You'll have a new excuse everywhere you go to not write.
• A writer can do anything, provide its not what he's supposed to be doing.
• Write every day. Now is a good time to write.
• Two things: you can be a writer, then you can be a published author.
• Treat it like a job: be professional about it, and commit to it.
• Write to entertain someone else, not you.
• Know your audience.
• Who's going to be your first audience? Your editor and publisher.
• Give yourself space with no other intention other than to learn. Write so that you know how to put together a story.
• Publishers want to see a manuscript that you care about: they don't want to see your nanowrimo novel.
• Acknowledgments are a good roadmap.
• Understanding the industry are extraordinarily important. You have a better chance sending things to the right people. However, it is a moving target: trends change quickly. Urban fantasy was big four years ago. Much smaller now. If something's hot, it's too late.
• Write the book that you'd like to read.
• Half of your money that you earn goes to taxes.
• There will be people who are better than you and some who are worse. Publishing isn't fair.
• Publishers will put money where they think they'll get a return.
• Workshops are good, but make sure that you apply the advice that you get. Do some work shopping and then stop. The same workshop will ultimately give you the same advice over and over again.
• Your submission manuscript that's accepted is your final one: you're in the pipeline, not your writing workshop. Don't make drastic changes.
• Wheaton's law: don't be a dick.
• Scifi has an unusual amount of flow between pro and fan. Be nice to others.
• Esteem of your peers: nice to have it, but it's not essential.
• Don't be distracted by non-paying things that don't help you.
• If you enjoy it, you should do it. Don't do it if you don't like it.
• Write the best that you can, understand that everyone else is writing the best that you can, and don't crap on people. Admire the good works of others.
• Learn how to apologize and learn how to do it sincerely.

Good primer of advice there from some people who know that it works.

I got to wander around a little, before ending up at John Scalzi's reading, where he read from his upcoming novel Red Shirts and his non-fiction book, 24 Frames into the Future.

Redshirts sounds hilarious, and I'm glad that I've been watching Star Trek, because it's got a lot of inspiration from that particular franchise. It'll be interesting to see what Trek fans think once it's published. John's got a very fun style when it comes to panels, and this one was rapt with attention and a healthy dose of dry wit. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stick around, due to a death in the family. I didn't get my copy of Fuzzy Nation signed, but that's okay: I got my copy of Rule 34 signed by Charles Stross, and The Warded Man by Peter Brett (which I'm going to read soon!), which was very cool.

With that, it was a good convention: I'm not sure I had as much fun as Readercon, but it was a good time, where I got to meet up with some very cool people: Myke Cole, F. Brett Cox, Peter Brett, John Scalzi, Charles Stross, Ian Tregillis (who's book Bitter Seeds is now on my to-read list), John Joseph Adams, Genevieve Valentine, Theodora Goss, Irene Gallo, and a whole bunch of others that I'm forgetting. Already, I can't wait to go back next year.

501st New England Garrison XO

Every year, the 501st Legion goes to the polls to elect new leadership for the group. This year, my friend Mike Brunco and I decided that we were going to run for the leadership roles, with Mike taking on the Commanding Officer position, and with me taking on the Executive Officer post.

Last night, at 7pm, Mike gave me a call and gave me the news: We'd won, and for the next year, the New England Garrison will be led under our command staff. Needless to say, we're thrilled and happy to be given the opportunity to lead the group.

Our reasons for running are mixed: we've both been troubled by levels of drama that have escalated in the group over the past year, and a lack of direction for the group as a whole. We're hoping to fix both. Interestingly, my day job has contributed to this: the past couple of years have been ones that have emphasized how an organization works, and how effective leaders lead. We're looking forward to putting some of the lessons in place. Despite our status as a volunteer organization, and that a lot of us do this sort of thing for fun, the coordination and direction for a group is a complicated, dedicated thing to undertake. We don't want to have an organization that just continues business as normal: that's a failure point for a lot of places, inside the business world and outside of it. We have a mission and passion that we want to keep going into the future, and we need to make that happen ourselves: I've no doubts that we'll be able to do that.

Lots of work in the meantime, though: we have ten days to get everything we want to do in place from a new way of bringing in recruits, putting our team together and so forth. It's going to be a good year, I think.

Lightspeed Magazine: My Year One

John Joseph Adams might have released his first anthology celebrating Lightspeed Magazine's first 12 months of outstanding stories, but Friday marked my own Year One with Lightspeed, and man, what a year it's been, working first as a slush reader, and now as one of the magazine's Editorial Assistants / Social Media person. I was a bit reluctant at first when asked, worried that I might be sucked into a world of terrible stories that I'd never get over. I found the contrary: slush reading has been an outstanding lesson in and of itself on what goes into an outstanding story, and there's a lot of good fiction that gets submitted. Over the last year, I've read hundreds of stories: some great, some bad. Over the last year, I've learned a couple of things from my work there:

First, a couple of disclaimers:

1. This isn't a how-to guide on how to get a story directly published in Lightspeed Magazine, other than that “write really well” is sort of the catch-all for every publication out there.
2. This is just my viewpoint, not Lightspeed's.

Rejections happen... a lot.

Lightspeed Magazine currently has 96 slots for fiction. Scratch that, half of those are reprints. You're left with 48 slots of original fiction. If you only write in one genre, cut that in half again: 24 slots for new, original science fiction stories and 24 slots for new, original fantasy stories. On the other end? There's a lot of authors submitting stories for those precious few slots every single day. That's a large pile of stories that comes to us, far more than we could ever hope to publish. The result is a ton of letters going out saying thanks, but not this time.

Getting past the slush readers requires one thing: a story that blows us away from the first page, and holds our attention. It has to hold the attention of others at the magazine: what works for one person might not work for someone else. Ultimately, the stories run the gauntlet, and are whittled down. The intended effect here is that we come out with a stable of short fiction that we're willing to stand behind. The result speaks for itself, I think: I've seen a ton of our stories on the “Best of” lists and end-of-the-year anthologies in the last couple of months. The magazine was nominated for a couple of Hugo Awards in its first year, and I've little doubt that we'll be listed in the next year. (I've got a couple of stories that I'd love to see win a shiny rocket, personally.)

Your Best Work Matters

Personally, I'm a stickler for detail, and the slush work has improved my own stories quite a bit, and my own submissions process:

1: refer to Christie Yant's blog post on cover letters and submitting, and follow it to a T. When I'm reading a story, it's useful to know if you've attended Clarion or you've been published in X, Y and Z magazines, but not things like “'I'm sure this will be rejected, but you never know'”: you don't need to give us reasons to reject your own story ahead of time.

The same diligence goes for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, weird formatting and so forth. This is a fantastic guide to refer to when it comes to the format of a manuscript. The font doesn’t bother me (provided it’s readable), but it’s good to make sure that you’ve read it through more than once, and that it’s not overly difficult for someone to read. Spelling and grammar can be easily fixed, but broken stories are harder. Remember, you're asking the magazine (at least, if you're submitting to a magazine that pays money) to buy something from you, which they in turn ask people to buy in a bound package, printed or otherwise. If someone hasn't put in the effort to carefully read over their story and put it through the ringer, what else haven't they done their due diligence on? Characters? Dialogue? Worldbuilding? If my faith in the story is shattered early on, it's hard to regain that as I read on.

2: After submitting, wait for a response, and then repeat. And repeat again.

Structure, characters, ideas, story

In 2008-2009, I wrote a handful of stories, and half-heartedly submitted them to a couple of markets, where they were pretty promptly rejected. I did the same thing when I was in high school, and received a couple of rejections before getting dejected myself. I've since written stories in 2011 that I'm much, much happier with.

Slush reading has done a couple of things for me: it's shown me that there are stories that go out on their first submission and get bought pretty quickly. (It doesn't happen often, but when it does, those stories are pretty amazing.) There's other authors that dutifully submit numerous times, improving each time, before we find something that we like. There are also a lot of stories that get a read through and are rejected. There are lessons to be learned from both: a story that's published is a great example of what it takes to be published. A story that's rejected is a great example of where there's something wrong with the story.

Plausibility is a big thing for me. Fiction is a window into our everyday lives, with an idea behind it that helps us better understand the world around us. The individual actions of the characters, what they say to each other and their motivations all contribute to some central point that is revealed through what happens. Often times, I come across stories where something doesn't quite fit: the character's motivations aren't clear, the dialogue isn't there or something along those lines, but underneath all of that, there's something in the world that the author has created that doesn't line up for me. Sometimes, it's as simple as a plot device that, when under scrutiny, doesn't make sense: A cyberpunk story where technology is obviously advanced, but the thinking behind the story hasn't caught up with the technology. Thinking to myself “why is this happening” isn't generally something that should be happening while reading it.

In other instances, I find myself asking the following question: how is this contributing to the style of story that it belongs to: does a time travel story warning of the dangers of killing one's grandfather add anything new or different to that? If no, I have to find a way to justify recommending it. (That's not to say that we won't get a story like that, that's worth publishing.)

In my own writing, I've found that I spend a lot of time planning out what's going to happen, trying to figure out what the best intersection between the idea that I've had fits with a set of characters, the world and its own rules, and what the characters do to best display said idea. A lot of ideas end up in the trash, or filed away for later. I'm still working at it.

Keep at it & learn from your mistakes

I see authors submit multiple stories, and I see people who've submitted for the first time. What I love seeing is an author who submits a story, and soon, comes back after with another story that's better. I hope, that once we reject a story, an author will go ahead and take a look over it again: something happened that made it a poor fit for the market, and in between my own submissions, I go re-read stories and see if there's something that's tripping them up somewhere. Even once a story is accepted somewhere, it goes through an editorial process that will further change the story. From my own experience with various military history projects, there's always something to improve, depending on the day, the mindset that I'm in, and so forth.

My own efforts at fiction are long processes: I plan, write and set aside for a month or two. I go back, revise (or throw out) and repeat. The story goes to a couple of beta readers, and comes back with edits. I try and get stories that improve from story to story. Hopefully, I'll look back on what I've written now at some point and find that I've improved from that point on, either with greater experience, different mindset or writing ability.

The key point is to continue to submit, and to realize that rejections aren't some sort of personal vendetta, but reinforcement that nothing less than the best will cut it. With that in mind, I go back, edit and try again, until I can get to that point.

Even once a person has sold a story, there's no guarantee that I'll like their next story; it's happened before.

I've yet to attend a writing workshop (recently - I am a very happy alum of the Champlain Young Writer's Conference, held every year in Burlington, Vermont's Champlain College), or writer's group, but the best educational experience that I've had is by far working in the middle of a slush pile. It's provided me with tons of examples of what not to do, what to do better, and what absolutely every story needs to have: a reason to turn to the next page. I'm looking forward to what the next year will bring.

(And, if I haven't scared you away with all that, submissions have changed.)

Geek Things of 2011

2011 was a busy year for all manner of geek things, from literature to films, to real world events.

A year ago, actor Pete Postlethwaite passed away on January 3rd. He was best known for his roles in Jurassic Park, and more recently, in the film Inception. He was an actor that I noticed when he popped up, and enjoyed his characters. Just the day before, actress Anne Frances died, She had starred in one of my favorite science fiction films, Forbidden Planet. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, was something I caught in early January, and was utterly blown away. It was easily the first Harry Potter adaptation that nailed the leap between mediums, and I was particularly impressed with the filming. In early January, author Jerry Weist died. He had penned a book that I had kept with me since high school, Bradbury: An Illustrated Life, which I open from time to time to pull in the vivid imagery of Bradbury’s life. The other film that I finally caught in January was The Social Network. It’s not science fictional by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s an interesting take on the geeks behind Facebook, and a great story regardless of what you think of the platform. In other January news, the Kepler satellite discovered 1,200 new worlds shortly after it went online, scanning distant stars for variations on their brightness. Over the rest of the year, it’s made some amazing finds. February started off with a down note, as Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series, passed away on the 5th at the age of 72. Jacques was a particularly early influence on me with his series, and I remember talking about them in the 4th grade with a couple of friends. Mossflower is still a favorite, and holds up well. The BBC released their short-lived show Outcasts in February, which I really enjoyed, even if British audiences didn’t: the show did poorly in the ratings, and was soon cancelled. The pilot was particularly beautiful, with some fantastic acting and stories. Unfortunately, like all really good television shows, it ended on a cliff-hanger, and I doubt that we’ll ever see any resolution. Still, it was fun while it lasted. Borders filed for bankruptcy in the middle of February, something that had long been expected. As a former employee of Borders, I was happy to see that the market takes care of poor management and vision, but at the same time, sad to see the #2 bookstore in the nation go down. Also in February, Space X orbited the Earth for the first time, the first private space company to accomplish such a feat. It’s a bit amazing, really, considering how fast the company has come, and for what their entry into space means. They’ll do some pretty impressive things in the rest of the year, and hopefully more of that in 2012. February also marked the time that I began working with Lightspeed Magazine as a slush reader. Christie and John asked me to come on board to help with the demand, and I began reading submissions for the magazine. I was a bit nervous at first, after reading a couple of rather horrendous stories out of the gate, but started getting into it. Over 2011, I read several hundred short stories, and recommended several that were published, which I’m very happy about. One of the books that I picked up for SF Signal was Embedded by Dan Abnett, one of the better military science fiction novels that I’ve read in recent months. I really hope that Abnett will return for new stories in this universe, because there’s a lot of potential for them after the ending of this book. This year marked the year that I got into the TV show Community, hardcore. Their episode Advanced Dungeons and Dragons blew me away, with a funny cast, entertaining story and a Lord of the Rings parody ten years out. Apparently NBC was against the episode, but I have to say, it got me into the show, buying all of the DVD sets out, and subscribing to the new episodes on iTunes. I hope that the show returns soon. One of my most anticipated books of the year, Leviathan Wakes by James A. Corey, was slated to be released in June, but I was able to get my hands on an advance copy in March, which I promptly blew through in a couple of days. The book was excellent, a fun space opera romp in our own solar system. I can’t wait for #2. Superbrothers released their Sword & Sworcery: The Ballad of the Spacebabies towards the end of March, an original fantasy RPG game for the iPad that was innovative, interesting and very fun to play. March brought the first of the year’s anticipated films, Battle: Los Angeles, to theaters. This was a film that was quite a bit of fun to watch: aliens vs. marines during an invasion. It’s not a perfect, thinking-person’s film, but it is one of the better depictions of infantry combat. Plus, great aliens. One of the coolest things that I did this year was find out about a conference hosted by NASA, on the History of Spaceflight, down in Washington DC. I took a couple of days off and flew down, and spent a couple of days in academic bliss, listening to a number of presentations about the history of spaceflight, and meeting some interesting people. On the same trip, I blew through three books, Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi, Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh, and Spectyr, by Phillipa Ballentine. Fuzzy Nation was highly entertaining, and I read through it in just a couple of hours on the plane, laughing the whole way. Soft Apocalypse, a whim buy at a train station Barnes and Noble, became my favorite book of the year, and I finished it on the way back home. In early May, I finished a short story, and began submitting it to a bunch of markets. I received by first of several rejections for it on May 18th. It’s a good milestone to have, and it’s currently out at the markets now. Hopefully, someone will pick it up. In late May, I travelled out to Belgium with a group from Norwich University, touring Battle of the Bulge sites. I spent the next six months finishing up and polishing the paper that I produced, and came up with a great history that I’m really happy with, setting the groundwork for another project. Dr. Who returned at the end of May, for a nice run of episodes, and I got back into the flow a bit, which is nice. At some point, I’ll need to marathon the rest of the modern series. While in Belgium, I began to read China Mieville’s new novel, Embassytown. It’s a fascinating read, one that I highly recommend. While it doesn’t top The City and The City, it’s very, very interesting. Also in June, we had a fantastic troop over at the Flying Pig Bookstore, the biggest in Vermont, with a number of troopers from MA coming up. I had thought that the X-Men film franchise had played itself out with the third entry (I haven’t seen the Wolverine films), but Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class was a nice return to the series with some great action and acting throughout. The best film of the summer though, was J.J. Abram’s Super 8. Harkening back to the Steven Spielberg films of the 1970s / 1980s, this film impressed me quite a bit. It had a good story, effects, but was also a nice homage to a great time in films. ReaderCon in July was a great break in the middle of the summer. I got to sit in on some great panels this year, and to meet some interesting people, as well as some familiar faces. The high points were meeting author Ken Liu, editors Scott Edelman, John Joseph Adams, and being in the same room as Neil Gaiman. NASA launched its last space shuttle flight with the STS-135 mission. The mission brought up supplies to the International Space Station, a quiet end for the program. It brought with it a number of reminiscences of the program, and quite a bit of talking in the media about the value of spaceflight. Marvel came back with another film in the run-up to The Avengers, Captain America. Of the rest of the prequels, this was one of the better ones, although it doesn’t come close to the first Iron Man film. Still, good adaptation. The Harry Potter franchise came to an end with The Deathly Hallows Part 2. The first part was the best of the series, and the second was almost as good, following the second half of the last book closely, although it took a bit more in the way of liberties, and it generally went to special effects over story for a bang. Cowboys and Aliens was one of the films that flopped this year, at the box office and from the critical response, but I thought it was quite a bit of fun. Entertaining above all else, with a decent story and effects. Harrison Ford did a fantastic job. Blake Charlton returned this year with his second novel, Spellbound, which continued his trilogy that he had started with Spellwright a couple of years ago. This book was a fun one, expanding on his fantastic world. As much as I like Blake’s book, though, Lev Grossman’s The Magician King came to me as the best fantasy novel of the year. I didn’t think that it was possible to improve on the first book, The Magicians, but somehow, he did it, and his sequel blew me away, completely. Right around the same time this fall as Grossman’s book, Borders closed down for good. The stores sold off their merchandise and closed their doors. Some, I was happy to see, were bought by Books A Million, but not everywhere. Limitless was a Bradley Cooper film that had gotten a little attention in 2011, and while I missed it in theaters, I was really impressed with it when I rented it. Smart, excellently filmed and with a very cool story, it’s one of the better science fiction films of the year. In September, I got into Halo hardcore, picking up Halo: Reach after a particularly trying day. I’ve long been a Halo fan, and I think this is one of the better games out there in the franchise. (No Flood). The mechanics work well, and it’s a neat addition to the story. Hopefully, we’ll see more one-offs like this. September 11th marked a very geektastic night, with a concert with Jonathan Coulton and They Might Be Giants over in Norwich, Vermont. They had a great set of music, and was generally well worth the drive out. I’ve long been a fan of Steven Soderbergh’s works, particularly Traffic (and the related film Syriana). His latest film, Contagion takes the same style of storytelling, and looks at world health and pandemics. It’s scary, but fantastic. One of the notable novels that I read this fall was Max Barry’s Machine Man. I read Jennifer Government when it first came out, back when I was in high school, and was happy to see that Barry still has the dark, sarcastic humor that he used to. One of the lower-profile shows that came out this year was Person of Interest. I only caught the pilot, but I really liked what it’s got: the mix between Minority Report and Brave New World. However, the TV show that I was really looking forward to was Fringe, which returned for Season 4 this year. I’m thrilled to see a science fiction show continue forward against all odds, and this season has been particularly good over the first half of the season. I can’t wait for it to return. This year also marks the first time that I was professionally published, with an article in Armchair General titled Changing the Skies. I did a little dance when I saw my name on the cover. My wife, Megan, really got into Terra Nova when it was released, watching it on Hulu while waiting for me to get out of work. (We work in the same place, but she gets out an hour or two before I do.) The pilot was pretty good, and I’ll likely catch up on the rest of it when it hits DVD. This year, the books that stood out for me were the ones that I didn’t know about earlier. This is so for T.C. McCarty’s Germline, which portrayed military journalist on the front lines. The biggest tech story of the year was that Steve Jobs died shortly after stepping aside from his roles at Apple. To be honest, I’m not sure what to think: he was a brilliant innovator, and clearly recognized the potential for not only how something would be used, but how it would change things. And, he was really abrasive, apparently. Something that was really quite a bit of fun earlier this year was getting to go up on stage with Weird Al Yankovich for 2 concerts in October. He regularly partners with local 501st groups to help with their stage show. I did it once back in 2008, and was thrilled to do it again this time around. Remember how I said I got into a real Halo fix earlier this year? Halo: Glasslands by Karen Traviss helped. She’s an excellent author, particularly when it comes to military fiction, and her take on the Halo universe is simply fantastic, with an awesome book under her belt that really redefines the universe a bit and sets up for the next trilogy of games. It wasn’t the best book of the year, but Ready Player One by Ernie Cline was a helluva lot of fun to read. Predictable, with a lot of references for everything, it’s what I would describe as the definitive geek primer. In December, I was promoted at Lightspeed Magazine to an Editorial Assistant. Most of my duties are about the same as being a slush reader, but I’ve been tasked with a bit more writing, and I’ve taken control of the site’s social media systems. In the middle of December, Joe Simone, who created Captain America, died. I’ve been an off-and-on fan of the comics, and the movie was fun, but he created an enduring character that is still going strong. I received a copy of Charles Stross’s latest book, Rule 34, which I’d been eagerly anticipating. One of the best books of the year, it gives a lot of food for thought. The Adventures of Tintin finally hit the silver screen, bringing one of my favorite childhood icons to motion. I really enjoyed the film: it captured the look and feel of the books nicely, and adapted three particularly difficult stories nicely. Finally, the week before Christmas was the perfect one for movie trailers. Three of the biggest films of next year were given a tease: The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, and Prometheus. Of the three, I’m looking forward to Prometheus the most, but all of them look to be excellent.

So, it’s been an interesting year, and I’m eagerly anticipating what’s to come in 2012.

Trilogy of Trailers

This past week has been a fantastic one for the promotional kick-off for a couple of highly anticipated films: The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, and Prometheus. The three films, together, make up the bulk of the movies that I'm most looking forward to so far. I don't usually get overly excited for trailers, but this week has been the exception. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sftuxbvGwiU]

Of the three, Prometheus looks the best. Ridley Scott's Alien is one of my all-time favorite science fiction films, and I'm excited to see a return to the universe under Scott's control. From everything that I had heard of the film, it looked interesting. The first glimpses of footage, however, make it look like it'll be a great film. I certainly hope so: science fiction is a genre that should be handled properly, and that's not something that happens all that often these days.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GokKUqLcvD8]

The Dark Knight Rises is interesting in that it gives us the first real look at where the final Nolan Batman film will go. It should be an interesting film, especially following up The Dark Knight, and I'm eager to see where Nolan will take the story.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0k3kHtyoqc]

Finally, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey feels like a long-overdue reunion with an old friend. It's been an entire decade since the Fellowship of the Ring started off the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the footage looks just like it should. Above all, Martin Freeman absolutely nails the younger version of Bilbo Baggins. More than just the footage though, I'm eagerly anticipating the eventual soundtrack for this film.

Of the three, Prometheus looks to be the most interesting, and of the three, it's got the best teaser: it gives us just enough of a look, a taste of the plot and some absolutely stunning visuals. *That's* the science fiction that I've been missing the past couple of years.

At the very least, I think that I'll be pulling out Alien, Lord of the Rings and Batman Begins over the holiday break.

2011 Reading Census

This year has been an interesting reading year for me, fluctuating between a bunch of really, really good books, and a couple that really sucked out any interest that I had in reading at that time, with a number of books in-between that I thought were fun reads. Here's what I got through in 2011:

1- Grey, Jon Armstrong (1-8) 2- The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (1-21) 3 - Hull Zero Three, Greg Bear (1-23) 4 - Hunger Games, Suzanne Clarke (2-1) 5 - The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (2-4) 6 - At The Queen's Command, Michael A. Stackpole (2-19) 7 - Mossflower, Brian Jacques (2-20) 8 - Embedded, Dan Abnett (3-7) 9 - Kraken, China Mieville (3-9) 10 - Leviathan Wakes, James A Corey (3-17) 11 - Little Fuzzy, H Beam Piper (3-28) 12 - Fahrenheit 451 Graphic Novel, Ray Bradbury (4-13) 13 - Yarn, Jon Armstrong (4-13) 14 - Welcome to the Greenhouse, Gordon Van Gelder (4-19) 15 - Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi (4-25) 16 - Spectyr, Philippa Ballentine (4-26) 17 - Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh (4-27) 18 - Blackout, Connie Willis (4-30) 19 - Locke & Key, Joe Hill (5-8) 20 - Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins, (5-22) 21 - Deathless, Catherynne Valente (5-27) 22 - Embassytown, China Mieville (6-18) 23 - Hex, Allen M. Steele (7-2) 24 - The Gravity Pilot, MM Buckner (7-4) 25 - A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin (7-15) 26 - The Big Roads, Earl Swift (7-19) 27 - Spellbound, Blake Charlton (8-2) 28 - The Magician King, Lev Grossman (8-4) 29 - Bright's Passage, Josh Ritter (8-5) 30 - Grave Peril, Jim Butcher (8-13) 31 - Spook Country, William Gibson (9-6) 32 - Machine Man, Max Barry (9-10) 33 - Crisis in Zefra, Karl Schroeder (9-15) 34 - Halo: The Fall Of Reach, Eric Nylund (10-1) 35 - Germline, TC McCarty (10-5) 36 - The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (10-16) Audio 37 - Halo: Glasslands, Karen Traviss (10-29) 38 - Red Herring, Archer Mayor (10-20) 39 - Ganymede, Cherie Priest (11-11) 40 - Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (11-20) 41 - Ready Player One, Ernie Cline (11-26) 42 - Open Season, Archer Mayor (12-5) 43 - Seed, Rob Zeigler (12-11) 44 - Rule 34, Charles Stross (12-??)

In the pipeline: X-Wing: Rogue Squadron, by Michael A. Stackpole, All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl and The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by Craig M. Mullaney. Rogue Squadron is something I'm going to finish up sometime this weekend, and All You Need is Kill is somewhere behind that. The other two are a bit denser, and while they're interesting, they're taxing to get through.

Interestingly, this was the first year where I really read books electronically. I've dabbled with it in the past, ever since I bought an iPad, but this year, I made the jump and read a small percentage digitally: 7 in all: Grey, Lifecycle of Software Objects, Embedded, Little Fuzzy, Crisis in Zephra, Ender's Game and Open Season. Add in Game of Thrones, with which I alternated between my paperback and ecopy, and that's 19%, or just under a fifth of my book pile existed on a hard drive somewhere, rather than a bookshelf.

An interesting thing about eBooks: there's really only a single novel that I read in which I felt really took advantage of the book’s digital nature: Crisis at Zephra. This novel, a short novella, really, was published by the Canadian Military, and incorporated a lot of data about new and upcoming technologies, and trends in said technology. I was limited in that I was reading on a wifi only iPad when I was away from the internet, which left me unable to click on the links scattered throughout the text, with explanations as to what the terms, technology and theory meant. This, I think, is where eBooks will eventually head: less reading experiences, and more immersive and interactive ones.

I've also been doing a bit more with book reviews, on a number of different sites: SF Signal, The Functional Nerds, Kirkus Reviews, and my own blog, with a total of 15 books (34%) read for a review. In this instance, I've written reviews for a number, but these are books that were given to me by either the website that I wrote the review for, or sent by an author or publicist for my own purposes, even if a review wasn't necessarily expected or promised. Just under a full third of my reading this year was subsidized by someone else, for review purposes. Of those books, I had a bit of fun, although my reviews weren't universally positive. The caveat to this, of course, is that a majority of my reading, (29 books in all - 65%) are for my own pleasure, and a minor attempt to whittle down my own to-read list. I've got a feeling that I'll never destroy the growing pile.

I've always described myself as a science fiction fan, rather than a fantasy one, and in years past, I've typically read more fantasy than science fiction. This year? I read 27 Science Fiction books (61%), 11 fantasy books (25%), 2 mystery novels (4.5%), 2 YA novels (4.5%), and 1 each of history and steampunk (2%). This year was certainly more science fictional than years past, which I'm happy about.

Interestingly, while I describe this year as being up and down, when looking over the list as a whole, there's only four books that I really didn't like. I thought just under half (20) were good, while just under a quarter (10%), were okay - decent, but nothing that really wowed me. 10 books in all really blew me away (22%). Of the books that I read this year, the more memorable were the really great ones, and of those, three really stood out for me: The Magician King, by Lev Grossman, Soft Apocalypse, by Will McIntosh, and The Dervish House, by Ian MacDonald. (See my top 10 list for the full number of ones that impressed me this year.) These books are astonishing reads, and I really hope that we'll see The Magician King and Soft Apocalypse get the attention they deserve: Grossman has gained a considerable amount of acclaim, but McIntosh's first novel feels like it's under the radar a bit, the underdog of the year. If you haven't read it: I can't recommend it highly enough. The Dervish House was nominated for a Hugo, but somehow ended up at the bottom of the polls. Still, it's nice to see it nominated.

Of the really bad books, these all stand out as ones that I had the most trouble getting through: Seed, by Rob Zeigler, The Gravity Pilot by M.M. Buckner, Deathless, by Catherynne Valente and Hex, by Allen M. Steele. I believe that the reason why they stand out so much is because they were all books that I had high hopes for: Seed was lauded as the successor to Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, and utterly failed at that, The Gravity Pilot looked interesting, and didn't work, Deathless was wonderfully written, but was a book that I simply couldn't get into, and Hex was part of Steele's Coyote universe, which started off so well, and has fallen so far with this book. There were some others, like Jack Campbell's Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught, which was so abysmally written that I couldn't even get through the first chapter, and Sarah Hall's Daughters of the North that I had a lot of trouble getting into and didn't finish.

Everything else in the middle was entertaining, and some excellent novels: Susanne Collins' Hunger Games was an excellent read, although the sequel was a bit too much of the same for my liking. I haven't reached #3, Mockingjay, and I'm awaiting that one's release in paperback. China Mieville's Embassytown was interesting, a little flawed, but brilliant all the same, although I have to say that I liked Kraken quite a bit more. Leviathan Wakes was a lot of fun to read, and a promising start to a new series, while John Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation was something I tore through in just a couple of hours on a plane. I finally got in on A Game of Thrones, and it lives up to the hype, somewhat. I even broke out of the SF/F genres, and picked up the fantastic The Big Roads, by Earl Swift, which was a fascinating look at the construction of roadways in the US. Karen Traviss's entry into the Halo universe was also a fantastic one, and it's dragged me in to that particular expanded world, as I picked up several other Halo novels, which will likely get read next time I'm on a Halo kick. I re-read Mossflower after Brian Jaqcues passed away, as well as Ender's Game, and found both books really lived up to my memories of them. Ernie Cline's Reader Player One was a fun, entertaining book, but it was lacking in other departments. Finally, I had a chance to go back and revisit Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which lives up to my first impressions wonderfully.

So, why quantify my enjoyment? I've generally been accused from people of taking things like this too seriously, in reviewing films or books that should be 'just for fun'. I've never subscribed to the ‘turn your brain off while you read/watch/listen’ train of thought, because I think that does a disservice to the author. Certainly, there's books or films that I've done that with, enjoying them because they were written to be enjoyed. But, distilling a year's worth of reading down into some easy statistics?

A couple of reasons: one, it helps me better understand my own interests by grounding them in reality. As mentioned, I firmly describe myself in the science fiction camp, but over the past couple of years, I've generally been surprised when I've read more fantasy than science fiction. My interests are all over the place, and I don't generally remember at a glance what I've read as a whole. I was a little surprised that I hadn't finished more than a single history book this year, despite the intense work that I did on various history projects: I've read portions of numerous historical texts, mainly about World War II and military history (including a couple that are still technically on the reading list), but never finished them, or needed to finish them. This might also be me forgetting to stick a book onto the 'Read' List.

Reading is an important part of what I do. I typically read at night, before I go to bed (increasingly, if I'm using my iPad, or at the beginning of the day, when I can get through 10-15 pages while I'm waiting for my computer to load up at work. Weekends usually mean a lot of time to blow through something, and when I was on public transportation for two trips earlier this year to Washington D.C. and Belgium, I read a lot: three books for each trip (for the DC trip, that was one book for the airplane, one for the second day on the train, and the third for the flight home, all in a couple of days.) Better understanding my own reading habits help me to read more, I think, and while it's not quantity over quality, I've got a massive backlog of books that I've bought. Looking over my list from this year, I had a total of 6 books - 13%! - came off of that list, which currently numbers around 100. These are all books that I've owned for more than a year, while a huge number of books that I picked up this year were released this year, and this also comes as a bit of a surprise.

My thoughts going into 2012 is that I’ll be whittling down the to-read list. There’s a lot of books that I do want to get to in the near future. Off the top of my head, I can think of a number that are edging up the list: George R.R. Martin's second entry in the Song of Ice and Fire, Clash of Kings is most certainly going to make it onto the list when the next season hits, the entire X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston will get re-read prior to the next novel in the series, Mercy Kill. I also want to revisit Timothy Zahn’s Icarus Hunt. I've also been wanting to begin David Louis Edelman's Infoquake, finish out William Gibson's Bigend trilogy with Zero History and get into Neal Stephenson, Iain M. Banks, and generally blow through a bunch of paperbacks and history books that I've had for a couple of years. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through a portion of that, and hopefully, I'll slow down the growth of my own library - we're running out of shelf space (again).

It’s been a fun year, with a lot of good stories all around. It looks like 2012 will be just as much fun.

Relevant Events & Art

 

Over on his blog, Mark Charan Newton talked briefly about the link between the Occupy movement and the upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, which seems to tap into the 99% idea with its recent trailer. I've got my doubts that a film of this magnitude would be directly influenced at the core by something that's happened: the Occupy movement has been around for around three months, and the film's timeline would predate that by a considerable amount of time. The marketing department, however, could certainly use the sudden relevancy of the issue and angle quite a bit of marketing towards that theme.

This has me thinking about the creation of films and art in general. Certainly, science fiction has a tendancy to be very relevant. Avatar and Moon in 2009 really took a stab at the state of environmentalism and energy consumption in the world, while this year's film In Time landed at the right moment, right when the Occupy movement started up a couple of months ago. These are big, societal issues, and if someone has their head to the ground, listening for what might come next, it's certainly easy to see some of these things happening down the road: the genre is a good place to examine such issues. While The Dark Knight Rises is already written, it's far from in the can: the next steps would be the post-production stage, where the editing shapes the footage into a regular, finished product, and I would be not at all surprised if some of the events in the tale end of 2011 will help to shape the film that we'll see next July.

Science Fiction is a relative genre, and often, the films that really last the longest are the ones that seem to retain a certain amount of relevancy the longest: films like Soylant Green, Silent Running or Outland are perfectly watchable, interesting films that hold up considerably well in the present moment, because they really carry messages that resonate: environmentalism, corporations running amok, and bleak futures, all of which we're seeing in full force in the present day. Certainly, the fact that the film Moon has drawn upon some of these films and become a critical success in the last couple of years is testament to that.

It would be facinating to take some of the politically charged films from the 1970s, go to the raw footage and recut and re-edit the film with the current context of today in mind to help shape the story. In all likelihood, I'm guessing that the films wouldn't change that much: the points those films made then are the same or similar now. Similarly, it would be interesting to take the footage that's been shot from The Dark Knight Rises and have it cut back in June 2011, and to compare the final product next year. How different would it be?

Bad SciFi Movie Night

A year or so ago, I posted up on Facebook that I had finally gotten a chance to watch Tron, and asked people what movies were worth looking into. The response was overwhelming, and I've come up with a long list of films that I should watch, along with some of my own research into cult classics and gems from the science fiction / fantasy genres. When Megan moved in to my apartment, we began what we jokingly referred to 'Bad SciFi Movie Night', running with the idea that most of the films from that time period are bad films.

It's entertaining, that whenever I post up something about Bad Scifi Movie Night, there's an inevitable flood of replies that the films that I'm watching *aren't* bad. It's true: while there have been some films that I've come across that have been hard to get through, most are outstanding. So, here's an explaination to what I can point to.

So far, Megan and I have run through an excellent list of films:

12 Monkeys, 2001, 2010, Alien*, Aliens*, Alien Nation, Batman, Blade Runner*, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind*, Dark Crystal, Dune, Enemy Mine, 5th Element*, Forbidden Planet*, Jason and the Argonauts, Gattaca, Highlander, Last Starfighter, Logan's Run, Omega Man, Outland, Planet of the Apes, Predator, Silent Running, Starship Troopers, Supernova, Soylant Green, The Thing, Tron, Total Recall and Westworld. (* indicates that I'd already seen and owned it, but rewatched it.)

Of those, there's some real classics that I've really, really loved: Alien, Alien Nation, Omega Man, Outland, Silent Running and Soylent Green. Others, I didn't like: Enemy Mine, Dark Crystal and Supernova. Win some, lose some.

What I'm enjoying about this watch-list is that it's an excellent opportunity to go through some of the roots of science fiction classics. Movies such as Alien, 2001, Blade Runner, Forbidden Planet and a couple others are real classics in the genre that have absolutely shaped the films that come after it. Part of this came out of my love for the film Moon, by Duncan Jones. In some of the interviews and commentaries that I've read/listened to, he's cited films such as Silent Running and Outland as direct inspirations for his first, brilliant film.

As a historian, my instincts are to look at the roots of what form the present. The films of the 1950s through the early 1990s form the basis for movies and popular culture of today - it's easy to recognize the phrase 'Soylent Green is People!', but it's also important to see some of the roots and themes of the stories from these movies. Understanding the past is important to understand the present, especially in something such as popular culture.

So, while Bad SciFi Movie Night is titled as such, it's not reflective of the quality of the films that we're watching: if anything, the films that we've gone through are just as good - better in some cases - than films that are coming out today.

Ender's Game and Military Strategy

The point that comes the most readily to mind when thinking about Ender's Game is the way military strategy is conceived of and executed. Of all of the Military Science Fiction novels that I've read, there are very few that really capture one of the major elements of combat, the strategic and leadership components that make a battlefield commander effective against an enemy force.

Humanity, under attack from an insectoid race known as the Formics (Buggers), fight tooth and nail to survive: first against a probing force, exploring our solar system, and a second time when a queen is to be installed for a permanent settlement. Earth is razed at points, and the countries of the world band together to form a cohesive military force to confront the military threat. In a number of ways, this is reminiscent of the overall strategy that worked effectively to combat the Axis powers during the Second World War.

Ender's education is the major element of the book that bears examination. From the beginning of the story, he understands a key component of warfare: render your enemy completely unable to pose a threat against you and your interests. Early on, he strikes out at a bully who is attempting to hurt him, noting later on that he would utterly destroy anyone who tries to harm him. It's a theme that's passed along through several points while at Battle School.

The same techniques apply as he is assigned to an army and begins learning the ropes to command an army of students on his own. There are several subsets to this: understanding just how to lead and most effectively lead the soldiers under his command, and effectively using those soldiers to carry out the goal in front of him.

From Bonzo, Ender learns what not to do: personal issues and ego can be exceptional motivators for success, but in his first army, Salamander, it's just as much a detriment to his own unit's cohesion, as Ender himself proves, when he breaks orders at one point to win a game. From other, fellow soldiers, such as Bean, he learns how it's important to use people at their most effective: while some might not be effective as platoon leaders, tapping into the strengths of those soldiers, and allowing them some degree of mobility or latitude to undertake parts of the army's overall mission. This essentially only works when there is a good deal of confidence in the abilities of the people below the leader. As equally important as leadership is, it's an essential key to delegate to sub-leaders who understand the end objective. In Bonzo's case, any strategy undertaken as such would likely not be effective. Under Ender, it propels him to the front of the standings amongst the students. This strategy would also prove effective when Ender is unknowingly fighting against the Formics, all the way to the end.

Militarily, Ender does a couple of interesting things: ensuring that any enemy can't strike back, but also learning from enemy soldiers and innovating accordingly. He moves around his soldiers into a different layout, allows a greater amount of latitude amongst his toon leaders, and uses his soldiers in unorthodox methods, such as using human shields or extra tools. These are key elements that real militaries utilize to undertake their missions, orienting themselves against one another by training to overcome individual systems and strategies.

With Ender's education, this is a military science fiction novel that does dual work with military strategy and tactics, both addressed at the same time, something that often doesn't happen in a novel in the genre. Furthermore, it does so within the framework of addressing some of the deepest moral elements in the genre: how does one even prepare for the total destruction of a race, and what's the impact? The fact that these elements are not only addressed, but really reinforced throughout the plot, make Ender's Game out to be one of the strongest within the genre.

Ender's Game and Bullying

Reading Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game ten years after I had first picked it up left me coming away from the book with several new insights into the story. I've found that the book was even more relevant than when I had first read it, accurately capturing how technology would be used for human interactions, while the military elements of the book hold an especially important place when looking at what the world is like today. Something that I didn't expect, however, was just how important the role of power was to the characters.

In a number of circles in the speculative fiction world, Orson Scott Card's name is an invitation for quite a bit of criticism due to his vocal opposition to a number of social issues, namely that of same-sex marriage. It's an interesting thing then, that the book is particularly relevant in the age of 'It Gets Better', following the suicides of numerous gay teenagers across the country after instances of bullying.

Bullying has become a hot-button issue for schools and communities across the country. Recently, in my home state of Vermont, an entire school, with a number of parents joining them, staged a sit-in to support a fellow teenager who had been bullied at the school over his sexual orientation. In the opening scenes of Ender's Game, a young Andrew Wiggin is attacked in a surprisingly similar manner:

"Hey, Third." Don't answer. Nothing to say. "Hey, Third, we're talkin to you, Third, hey bugger-lover, we're talkin to you."

The scene goes as one might expect: Andrew - Ender - is grabbed by several other children in the group and attacked, before striking out and kicking Stilson, and continued to pummel him until the other boy was unable to fight. At the end of the book, it's discovered that Ender actually killed his classmate.

Other incidents happen shortly thereafter at Ender's home, with his brother Peter and when he attends Battle School, when he's targeted by his first commander, Bonzo Madrid. Peter uses physical force to bully his younger brother, giving in to aggression that he later worked to mitigate and apologize for, while Bonzo attempted to use psychological force against the boy, keeping him isolated and using humiliation to dominate him. The actions of both are instrumental in Ender's desire to move forward in the novel, providing him with a good degree of motivation to succeed.

Card makes it a point to demonstrate that each of the boys who bullied Ender are weak in their own ways: Peter is unable to control his aggression, while both Stilson and Bonzo are afraid: Stilson because of his size, Bonzo because of the legacy that he faces due to his heritage. Bullying, from my own experience and from what I've generally heard from various places, is a technique to try an gain power over another person. Psychologically, they have their own issues, with the aggression a result of that. Card goes to some lengths to paint this aggression in a larger picture, symptoms of a system that's fighting tooth and nail to help the human race survive.

While reading Ender's Game, I couldn't help but think that the kids whom 'It Gets Better' is intended for wouldn't be helped somewhat by reading Ender's Game, and realizing that their stories aren't something new or sadly, even unique, but also that there is a way out at the end. Ender learns much at the hands of his own personal aggressors, learning to survive and to come out on top. At the same time, it's a good book for some of those at the other end of the engagement to read, to understand that there are other deeper and far more costly consequences to their actions, not only to their victims, but to themselves as well.

Card might not appreciate the irony of this, but Ender's Game feels like the perfect tool for a gay high school student to learn how to endure and survive those who are out to hurt them. But, regardless on his own views on how people should live their lives, it's a book that stands well on its own, and one that can go as far to make a miserable couple of years all that much better.

Technology and Ender's Game

A couple of weekends ago, I had a bit of time to revisit a book that I had last picked up while I was in High School: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. It's been one that I've long wanted to revisit, and since the time that I last cracked it open, I've graduated from college with two degrees in history: one specifically in military history, which has given me a unique view on the intersection between military science fiction and how militaries function in the real world.

There were three things that really jumped out at me while reading the novel: the use and conception of technology at the time, the degree to which bullying and power played into the plot, and the way in which military tactics and strategy was used.

Reading Ender's Game in 2011 was an experience that comes right out of the book, and from the perspective of a young high school kid back in 2001, the future has certainly crept up on us slowly, but certainly.

The obvious points is in the use of technology in everyday lives: the students learned and interacted with one another via desks. Reading the book just a couple of weeks ago on an iPad, I was struck at how dead on Card conceptualized the use of portable computers: students bring them with one another, send and receive messages, read, write and learn their lessons on something that could easily be an iPad or similar computer.

More than the physical objects that the characters interact with (after all, small, portable computers have been used in science fiction novels for ages), the way in which they interact with one another was also surprisingly familiar: the internet. Some of the details are slightly off, such as the degree to which people can be restricted from accessing certain contents, but what Card described in 1985 with Peter and Valentine's rise to power is identical to that of bloggers and the abilities to which they can voice opinions on their own, rather than voicing the opinions of a large organization.

What Card seems to have done was conceptualize not the technology, but how people do to interact with one another regardless of how they're hooked up. The introduction of the internet, social media and interactive media hasn't fundimentally changed how we do things, but represents a natural expression of technology and human interactions.

It's interesting to read the book after seeing the rise of such major changes from the ground level. In 2001, I saw the power of the news by watching the headlines change during September 11th, and again with the explosion in activity following the killing of Osama Bin Laden on Twitter. Reading Peter and Valentine's strategy to fulminate support during uncertain political times is strongly reminiscent of very notable people in the media today: political bloggers that capture a significant audience and have whom have the ability to push their own agenda towards solving problems that they see.

The use and conceptualization was one of the surprising highlights of Ender's Game that I'd not readily remembered or expected when returning to the story, but it was a welcome one. While science fiction has more misses when it comes to predicting the future than accurate predictions, Card certainly got a major part of our lives right.

Happy Birthday Halo!

Nine or so years ago, I worked as a counselor at a summer camp in northern Vermont, a job that involved long hours working with kids nearly twenty-four hours a day. Counselors worked under the supervision of village directors, who had their own cabins, and generally allowed use of the building as a break room for those couple of hours that we had off when we weren’t teaching classes or had some down time with no responsibilities. Where I had been introduced to Dungeons and Dragons while a counselor in training in 2000, I was introduced to Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved, something that suddenly appeared in each of the four villages, and something that everyone seemed to play.

Growing up, I had never really played video games at home – I’d played games on friend’s consoles at their homes. Halo was an eye-opening experience, one that appealed to me greatly after watching people play. I was drawn into the story, a tiny snapshot in a greater story that was both interactive and exciting at the same time. Where most of my friends had grown up on video games to various extents, I’ve never been all that great at them, and consequently, found myself playing the campaign over and over, playing the multiplayer sections when we organized major Halo tournaments late in the evenings. As a result, I’ve long enjoyed the first game, and when the black Xbox gave way to the white and error-prone Xbox 360, I found myself missing the game, but made the jump over to Halo 2 and 3 as they came out, as a whole variety of games exploded out of the gate.

Halo is a franchise that I suspect will continue to grow to the point where it rivals Star Wars or Star Trek, the standard bar for science fiction franchises and success. The first game, a decade old, has done some impressive things over its lifetime: each of its sequels have been pretty popular, to the point where midnight releases are the norm for new entries, and a growing body of fans have begun making their own Spartan armor costumes. 343 Industries have also continued to publish books that continue the series along in the moments that you're not behind the visor of Master Chief. Quality-wise, they run the gambit from pretty standard fare, to some pretty impressive stories by some very good authors. Then, there's the movie to consider, which has languished in development hell for the past couple of years. It's going to be made - the franchise has already proven itself with a vibrant fan base that it's grown - it's just a matter of Microsoft working with other companies over financial matters. I've also got few doubts that a Halo movie, if properly handled (or even improperly handled), will make whomever films it a lot of money that will further bring the series into the public's eye. If the live action commercials that they've released are any indication, it'll be something to see.

Halo, for me, stands out amongst a lot of other military science fiction stories. Like the Star Wars franchise, the first game doesn’t do anything other than drop you into the middle of a decades long conflict with little bits and pieces of a much larger story along the way, hands you a gun and has you play through the story. While the sequel games, novels and comics really flesh out the story, the first game was something special. I appreciated the somewhat realistic approach to the military that the game brought in, and the balancing between a contemporary story (that's really only gotten more relevant as the United States has been in a decade long war), and against some of the epic tropes of space opera. Like Star Wars, the Halo franchise seems to have pulled in influences from everything from Larry Niven's Ringworld or Iain M. Banks Culture series to Ridley Scott's Alien. The result is a product and story that checks all the boxes without feeling like there were boxes to be checked in the first place.

Yesterday, I picked up the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition, and for the first time in years, played the original Halo. It's a little clunky with the new graphics at points, but my memory of the game came flooding back as I blew through the first couple of levels: It's really stood up excellently, even after all these years. It's a good reminder of the start (and something I'd hoped would happen eventually - an HD reboot), as the franchise continues forward. Hopefully, in ten years, the series will still be going strong.

Currently Reading

It's been a while since I've stepped back and taken stock of what I've been reading, and with the end of the year rapidly approaching, there's a whole handful of books that I'm currently in the middle of or about to start up. Hopefully, I'll get through this short list by the end of the year, and begin building a list of anticipated books for 2012. (Although, like last year's list, it was only somewhat helpful.)

Currently Reading:

Ganymede, Cherie Priest. The 4th book in Priest's Clockwork Century series, we're dropped into the Louisiana area, slowly working our way across the US south east. Already, I like this book quite a bit more than Dreadnought, and while it's not quite as interesting or as much fun as Boneshaker was, I'm enjoying it when I have time to read. It's a good addition to the series, and I'm interested in how characters from several of the stories have begun to appear, making me wonder if the series isn't so open-ended as I first thought.

All You Need Is Kill, Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Earlier this fall, I was looking for some international military science fiction stories (i.e., not stories written from a perspective outside of the United States'), and seem to have found a good entry for modern-day Japan in this one. A bit like Groundhog Day with power armor and aliens, it's entertaining, and it's helping to confirm a couple of ideas that I've been working on in my head. Exciting stuff with this one, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Learning to Eat Soup With A Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam, John Nagl. My first non-Science Fiction / Fantasy / Fiction book in a little while, Nagl's book is a case study in counterinsurgency docrine and military pedagogy as it relates to military readiness and tactical continuity. Comparing the US experience in Vietnam and the UK experience in Malaya, it's a book that I wish that I'd read a while ago, while taking my Master's. It's short, but very dense, and very important for anyone who wants to understand how the modern military works.

Coming Up:

Ready Player One, Ernie Cline. A friend and classmate of mine turned me to this one. Written by Fanboys writer / director Ernie Cline, this book is absolutely loaded with geeky references throughout. The first couple of chapters were up for free a while ago, and when I had a spare moment last month, I'd downloaded the PDF and read it on my iPad in a single sitting, and have been wanting more ever since. I'm restraining myself from having this one jump the line, but it might very well do that soon.

Seed, Rob Zeigler. Paolo Bacigalupi's debut novel The Windup Girl is quite possibly one of the more pivotal books that I've picked up recently that's defined my view of science fiction. Seed looks to be in a similar vein of a near future of ecological destruction. I don't know that it'll be better, but it certainly looks as interesting.

Rule 34, Charles Stross. I really enjoyed Charles Stross's Halting State, and this loose sequel is something that I've been looking forward to picking up. Stross has a great understanding of how science fiction and the future work: it's not the technology, but the people and systems that they construct, and I think Halting State was a good example of this line of thinking. Hopefully, this one will be just as interesting.

I'm With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet, Bill McKibbon. McKibbon is a fellow Vermont resident, and has been very active lately in protesting a major pipeline that's under consideration. This anthology of short stories looks at what happens if he fails. I'm very interested in the current and growing trend of eco-fiction that's coming to bear, and this looks to be a good addition.

How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle, Gideon Rose. Megan's stolen this one from me and is enjoying it, and it's a topic that's ever more relevant as we approach the troop-withdrawal deadline at the end of the year.

Who Fears Death?, Nnedi Okorafor. This is the last book on an ever-long list, but it's one that I've had my eyes on for ages now. I've heard literally nothing but good things about this story, and it's good to see more non-US perspective stories coming out.

Machine Man, Max Barry

Max Barry released a video trailer for his latest novel, Machine Man, which completely and utterly sums up the tone of the entire novel. It's bitterly comedic, which is something I've come to expect from the writer.

Machine Man is easy to sum up in a single sentence: it's about a man who cuts off his own limbs to replace them with parts he makes himself. It's one of the few examples of cybernetics in fiction that I can think of readily (Robocop also comes to mind), and it's a fun, easy look at some of the problems associated with identity and of making one's self better.

Charles Neumann is a scientist for a major company that has its fingers everywhere, and after locating his missing cell phone, he accidentally looses his leg. After working on recovering, he builds his own prosthesis, and finds that he'd like a matching pair. The company is more than willing to accomodate him: he's able to build some incredible technology, and the team that he's assembled goes through breakthrough after breakthough, building all types of things to make people *better*.

The story is somewhat predictable, and Neumann begins to lose some of his humanity as he replaces more and more parts, putting his relationship with Lola in risk as he circles the drain.

I liked this book: it's a quick, fairly easy and immersive read, and I found myself going through a hundred pages a sitting before finishing it. Written as an online serial to complete the first draft, the book feels remarkably consistant, although there are points towards the end where it begins to drag and slow down a bit.

Machine Man is also very funny, something I remembered enjoying from the other book I have from Barry, Jennifer Government. It's a blistering satire at times, jumping right out of the gate with the problems associated with a missing smartphone that sets Charles down the path of becoming more machine than man. Anyone who's owned an iPhone knows exactly what I'm talking about, and Barry brings up some good points between the two characters: Lola has mechanical parts in order to survive from day to day (an artificial heart), while Charles simply feels like he's a robot anyway, and wants the convinience and advances that robotics would bring him.

While it's funny, pithy and sarcastic, it feels like there's a good point to be made here: with everything that technology allows us, how much is too much, but more importantly, would we be able to recognize our overdependance on technology if we even realized that we were depending on it too much? This isn't a case of Barry standing on the front porch yelling for kids to get off his lawn, but one of rationing and realizing that there can be too much of a good thing, and the book balances a fine line between cyberntic fight scenes and morality, telling a straightup tale of human nature.

It's a little frustrating at points for me personally, especially running up to the end, when it's clear that most of the characters, despite their tendencies to make clear and rational decisions, to continue making the same choices, despite what it's cost them. It's pointed out to Lola that she has had problems recognizing a person's character and getting too involved with their struggle, even to her detriment, something that largely happens again when she meets Charlie. The same is true for Charlie, who keeps building pieces of himself, no matter what it costs. It's a relevant message, one that bears paying close attention to.

At the end of the day, Barry's put together a solid, fun science fiction thriller that doesn't feel like a science fiction story: it feels contemporary (and, much to my annoyance, it's shelved as such, which made it difficult to find in Barnes and Noble), and highly realistic, as if it's a future that we're living in right now.

Science Fiction and the Frontier

Science Fiction in the United States has a very close relationship with the idea of the American West, the frontier. It is so ingrained into our cultural DNA, that presidents often associate the exploration of the heavens with the freedom and romance that the settlement of the American West afforded our country. Both Bush Presidents had some interesting words to say about the subject at various points in their terms in office:

"We'll build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the Moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own. . . . We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos", President George W. Bush, speech at NASA headquarters, 14 January 2004.

And,

"Our goal: To place Americans on Mars and to do it within the working lifetimes of scientists and engineers who will be recruited for the effort today. And just as Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to open the continent, our commitment to the Moon/Mars initiative will open the Universe. It's the opportunity of a lifetime, and offers a lifetime of opportunity", President George Bush, 2 February 1990.

At a recent conference at NASA Headquarters in April, this very subject was brought up:

It's very easy to see the influence that the West has on science fiction: the first Star Trek show was pitched to CBS as a 'Wagon Train to the Stars, while the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, certainly has its influences as well, while other films from the last 1970s and early 1980s are more explicitly influenced by western movie tropes: Westworld, written and directed by Michael Crichton, depicts a futuristic western amusement park, while Outland, directed by Peter Hyams, is heavily influenced by the western film 'High Noon', as a Federal Marshal goes up against company men in a mining colony on Io. Moving forward, the television show Firefly, created by Joss Whedon, compares the expansion of humanity into space with that of the expansion into North America. There's others, to be sure, with a new addition this week, Cowboys and Aliens. At the same time, the growing field of Steampunk (Cherie Priest's Boneshaker and Deadnought come immediately to mind), is likewise filled with images of the American West.

The West represents a romantic character vision of the United States. It was a time of intense growth, formative change, and really the last point where it's perceived that people could literally shape the country. At the same time, it's associated with the freedom for a person to make something of themselves, either by pulling up their roots and heading out to restart their lives in the wilderness, or to build an empire, as many of the industrial barons did throughout that time.

While people at the conference disagreed with the association - they likened it to not the west exploration, but to polar exploration - they did note that it's a valuable association to bring to bear, noting that the space program has often been justified with comparisons to the American West. It was the United State's mission (for better or for worse) to expand then, while space offers unlimited potential for (if highly expensive) growth for the future.

But more than that, the romance of the Wild West offers something to science fiction that I've really only seen in stories that have come out of the United States (granted, I'm not well read on non-US SF/F), which is the ability to tap into this idea that we are at our greatest when we're fresh, when we're exploring and discovering new lands, people and adventures, rather than sitting idly, stagnating as life becomes more and more complicated. In the current political and cultural problems that the US is currently facing, it's easy to see why stories, and particularly, science fiction, can succeed so well: it's relatable, and escapist at the same time.

As was talked about at the NASA History Conference, the differences in reality aren't really there: to travel from the East Coast to the West coast in the 1800s, one was reasonably certain of fairly low costs (in the hundreds of dollars), not to mention the potential for a livelihood, food and supplies, and the companionship of everyone else who had the same idea. Polar Exploration, on the other hand, holds no such assurances: the conditions are harsh, unlivable, with few prospects to live on, and a far higher cost.

Space travel falls far more closely with the latter style than the former, and as such, it's not marketed to the American public as such: it doesn't fit with our views of how things should be. And that's okay: the American west has its innumerable stories, a broad canvas from which to be influenced by. It's dramatic, tragic, and beautiful: a good place for stories.

A Game of Thrones & Epic Fantasy

This past weekend while at ReaderCon, I finally completed George R.R. Martin's first novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones, something I've been trying to do since I first bought the book in 2007. Epic fantasy doesn't do much for me: I'm annoyed at the sheer complexity of most of the stories, (most of it unnecessarily so) and while that's put me off from Martin's books for a long time, I'm coming to understand some key differences between his books and the others that I've often read. At the same time, I've been following along with the HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones, which helped me visualize which characters were which, along with the various storylines.

To my surprise, I liked A Game of Thrones, quite a bit, and not just because I enjoyed the television series. It was genuinely cool to read, and I can see where a lot of the praise comes from for the novels: the plotting is outstanding, but moreover, it sets itself apart from other epic fantasy by placing the reins in the hands of the characters.

From the onset, it's clear that there is a heavy push to define the actions of the story within the characters themselves. They drive the actions forward, rather than external factors: magical rings, destinies, prophecies, etc. Author and Times critic Lev Grossman claimed that Martin 'The American Tolkien', and I think that's an accurate description: in this modern day and age, the definitions that help to define the story have changed radically since the end of the 1st and 2nd World Wars, the environment that sparked J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The world isn't as polarized as it appears to have been back then: there's no epic war between the good of the Allies and the evil of the Axis powers. We live in a world full of problems that come from every side of the political spectrum, from across the world, and jumping into A Game of Thrones felt like something inspired by the last twenty years of geopolitics.

The reason for the complexity and incredible work on the characters here builds the story and keeps it running. Characters take on their own actions, and in turn, cause further actions. The attempted killing of Bran sparks anger from the Starks, who in turn kidnap Tyrion Lannister, which in turn sparks trouble of its own. The conflicts snowball, all within a greater story of politics and strife over the seven kingdoms.

This is in sharp contrast to other fantasy novels that I've read, notably The Lord of the Rings, which took the complete opposite approach: Frodo and Samwise aren't defining their own lives by taking the ring to Mordor, nor any of the supporting characters who aid them: their journey is defined by a greater need. Rather than their own strength of character defining their quest, the quest defines their strength of character. The books are no worse for wear due to the world view: Tolkien's own experiences during the 1st World War likely helped to shape is own world. The conflict that swept over Europe was so much larger and almost inconceivable to the person in the trenches: it's not a style of conflict where anybody would be able to influence the entire operation by themselves: the war defined the soldier's lives: it brought out the best that they had, and sometimes, asked for more.

The larger issue is one that falls out in A Song of Ice and Fire is the idea that a long lasting winter is coming, which pushes the first book into a bit of both worlds, and I suspect, the series as a whole, putting some constraints on what the characters will be able to do: just as much as we define the world around us, it has elements that are much larger, whether they're a destiny or simply the force of nature. What seems to set A Game of Thrones apart is that this larger problem is still approached through the actions of the characters: the conflicts of men go on in Westeros, while those manning the wall prepare for the inevitable worse as winter approaches.

There's other, character-based fantasy epics that come to mind: Harry Potter is a notable example of not only where characters help to define their actions, but actively seeks to contrast the idea that destiny and one's own choices define the character, especially in the run up to the finale in The Deathly Hallows. Of the two approaches, it's hard to say which is 'better' or even if it's a measure of quality for any given story. Certainly, it's worked well for A Game of Thrones.

Super 8

I’ve got a lot of love for some of the science fiction films from the 1970s, particularly because they were some of the earliest ones that I can remember. We had a VHS of E.T. that I remember watching periodically, and after my obsession with Star Wars, someone got me a copy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a film that’s slowly grown on me over the years, to the point where it’s one of my absolute favorites. J.J. Abram’s latest film, Super 8, helps to recall some of the best points of those films, and go right to the center of what makes a film truly great, rather than mere visual spectacle that’s designed to bring people in for the initial theater run. This film feels like the type that is designed to run the distance, and to become a film that will last for years to come, and serves as a great counter-film to another project that Abrams was involved with, Cloverfield.

Set in 1979, the film opens in the aftermath of a disaster that takes the live of Joe Lamb’s mother, setting his, and his father (one of the town’s deputies), into a bit of a flux, as they try to regain some stability and clarity in their lives. Joe escapes into work on a zombie film with his large and somewhat controlling friend Charles, along with the rest of their small clique of friends, hoping to submit their film to a film festival at the end of the summer. Bringing along the town drunk’s daughter, the lovely and standoffish Alice, they begin to film a scene at the train station when a train is deliberately derailed by their science teacher. Spectacle ensues, and the boys see something strange, before escaping as armed soldiers rush on scene. Chaos ensures in the town as town’s dogs and people go missing, strange things happen to electronics and cars, while the military moves in to clean up the mess, but refuse to answer any questions. All the while, the boys are trying to use the background as the perfect setting for their film.

Super 8 does a really good job splitting their duties between looking at the kid’s perspective and looking at how their parents see what’s going on, and Abrams excels here by putting together a great cast of new actors, with a lot of people pointing out the similarities between this and films such as E.T. and Stand By Me. I found some similarities between this and Freaks and Geeks as well. This group of kids really makes the movie: the story is character-driven, and the result is a great film that sees kids steering their own destinies. Ultimately, the kids are also believable, unlike in one of the trailers for an upcoming film, where a child sounds like an adult for their entire appearance. These kids feel just like I remember when I was 12, 13 or 14ish. It feels honest, and that gets major points.

Other cues from older films also help: Abrams ops for a slow buildup, and there’s some good camera work that supports that: the camera lingers, capturing some key moments throughout the film, while not abandoning the excitement when the train derails and the tanks roll through town. The creature that’s driving the main story here is also fleetingly seen until the last couple of moments, and feels far more Cloverfield than ET. It’s a great mechanism, with some great, geeky tension for the audience.

Still, there’s parts that don’t quite fit as well in the modern day and age, and the events in the film help to anchor the film nicely in the later days of the Cold War. At one point, a lady stands up in a crowd and declares that all of these problems must be a result of Soviet actions. A couple of people in the theater laughed at that, but looking at the state of the public during that era, it’s not far off the mark: Abrams captures the moment of the 1970s, but not in a way that’s readily relatable to the modern audience, at least when it comes to the big themes or historical relations. In a way, this is one of the bigger strengths of the film, because when it comes up against the films that it’s been compared to, it’s in good company, and it’s something that I could easily see being created forty years ago.

In one way, this is a bit of a bother to me when it comes to Abrams: for all that he is as a rising star with the science fiction / fantasy genres, he doesn’t do well at wholly original ideas – as original as one can get in fiction or entertainment. Looking at his track record, Star Trek, Mission Impossible, and now this film, there’s a great modern look at older franchises, television shows such as LOST or Fringe non-withstanding. It fits with our culture, one that looks to remixed albums, comic book characters that run back decades and movie and television franchises that have repeated themselves ad nauseum. Nostalgia is one component here, but another is familiarity.

Super 8 manages to really pull itself out of this lurch by being not only an original story, independent of franchise, while taking familiar tropes and moving them around on their own, but it doesn’t rely completely on them: the story is driven by its own architecture: the characters working with their environment as it sends fastballs their way.

This is also a whole different from from other efforts like Cloverfield, where the film is simply a group of people buffered by events around them, with no or little control of their actions and the world around them: this film is the diametric opposite, and I think for that reason, it's a story that will last far longer, and it honestly a better story for people get some type of message from.

I loved Super 8: I rarely want to see something more than one in theaters, and while it has its flaws here and there, it’s a film that excels on its many merits. Plus, it’s a film that has a bit of meta narrative, one that nods to the origins of the current crop of filmmakers , while giving something to everyone else in the theater. And? It’s a whole lot of fun. It’s hard to argue with that.

Currently Reading

I have a feeling that my reading will become a little more convoluted in a bit when I have a couple of reviewer copies coming in, and with a couple of books on the docket right at the moment, with some others in the queue, I need to get my head straight.

Battle: The Story of the Bulge, by John Toland

This is a definitive history of the Battle of the Bulge, one that I'm reading and referencing for the Battle of the Bulge project that I've been working on. I've also read through Gen. (RET) Ernest Harmon's Combat Commander and John Eisenhower's The Bitter Woods, which is yielding a lot of really good, detailed information on the strategic nature of the battle, but also some of the tactical elements as well. It's helping me fill in a number of blanks with some of the units that I'm currently researching. Toland's book is detailed, readable and very interesting.

Blackout, by Connie Willis

This is a book that I've had my eye on for a little while, and I bumped it up the list after trying - and failing - to get through Catherynne Valente's The Habitation of the Blessed. Keeping with the World War II theme, this story follows a couple of 2060 Oxford history students who have been going back in time to study various points. Things are starting to heat up a bit, and the book is moving along nicely. I can't wait to get further through it.

Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes

This is lauded as one of the best books to come out about Vietnam ever. I met (and got to talk with) Mr. Marlantes when he was presented the Colby Award for the novel - it's awarded to an outstanding first work dealing with military matters, and it joins a prestigious group of books. It's based loosely on his experiences in Vietnam, and while it's a big book, I'm taking my time with this one, taking in the language and the story. It's quite something so far.

Welcome To The Greenhouse: New Science Fiction On Climate Change, edited by Gordon Van Gelder

This book is one that caught my eye and I'm set to review it once I finish it. It covers what I'm predicting will be the next wave or dominant theme of science fiction: global warming (along the same lines that the Cold War dominated science fiction) and while some of the stories here haven't been that great, there have been some outstanding ones. I think thus far, the anthology succeeds when the stories are well grounded in reality, and I hope that the stories coming up are like that.

Coming up after this batch of books are a couple of new books that came in yesterday: Catherynne Valente's Deathless and John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation, along with Jack Campbell’s latest addition, Dreadnaught, in his Lost Fleet series, as well as Spectyr, by Philippa Ballantine, all slated for reviews over the next month or so. Along with those, there are a couple of other books that I want to tackle after that: Ian M. Bank's Use of Weapons is one that's high up on the list, as well as William Gibson's Spook Country (and eventually, Zero History), as well as N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdom. China Mieville's upcoming novel, Embassytown, is also high up there, with a number of good reviews already.

There's also a couple of non-fiction books that I'd like to get to. I need to get through to Footprints in the Dust, edited by Colin Burgess, about the Apollo 12-17 missions back in the 1970s, part of the Outward Odyssey series. I've fallen off that bandwagon for a little while as I read Ambassadors from Earth, and was put off by the horrid text, but this one looks like it'll interest me a bit more. I've picked up a couple of other books as well: John Keegan's First World War (A war I know precious little about), Thucydides, about the study of history and the upcoming Falling to Earth, by Francis French, about astronaut Al Worden.

There's a lot more beyond that, but it's a start.