Some Kind of Fairy Tale: George MacDonald

With October's Horror duo over with, I decided that it was time to shift gears again in preparation for the really big fantasy event of the year: The Hobbit, and thus focus on some of the background on Fantasy literature, which I haven't really focused on thus far. Like Science Fiction, context for the development of Tolkien's works relies on an earlier look at what came before, and the notable author that I became interested in was George MacDonald, who really jump started the Fantasy genre by creating a number of modern fairy tales that inspired many fantasy authors that came before him. He's not a household name like Mary Shelley, Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, but he was no less influential in his works, which went on to inspire authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Go read Some Kind of Fairy Tale over on Kirkus Reviews.

Sources Used:

George MacDonald, Michael R. Phillips: This biography of MacDonald is an interesting one, taking on both the man and his works, in both historical and narrative style. It's a good read, with quite a bit of information about the author and some of his major influences.

An Expression of Character: The Letters of George MacDonald: This volume contains the collected letters of MacDonald, which proved to be marginally useful for this piece: some of his books are mentioned, but nothing other than mentions of his books, rather than process (at least that I could find).

Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, Vol 3, Frank Magill: I've been talking a lot about Science Fiction recently, and as I've begun to look more closely at Fantasy literature, needed to pick up the companion to the Survey that I've been using. Also edited by Frank Magill, it covers a wide range of fantasy novels and authors. The entry for Phantastes is a great overview of MacDonald and his career, and was incredibly useful for this piece.

George MacDonald, William Raeper: This biography is another good insight into MacDonald and his life and really helped to support the other pieces that I referenced.

H.P. Lovecraft and the Other

With October a traditionally - horror themed month capped with Halloween, it seemed appropriate to follow up Bram Stoker and Dracula with another notable horror author: H.P. Lovecraft. Hugely influential in the horror genre, Lovecraft is an author that I got into while in college, with a course on Gothic Literature. I've found Lovecraft's stories to be delightfully macabre, and living in Vermont, I can identify with his love of the sheer age of the location, and can see just why this corner of the country is so suited for horror fiction.

Read up on H.P. Lovecraft and the Other over on Kirkus Reviews.

Sources Used:

The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, introduced by Robert Bloch: This collection of Lovecraft's stories is one that I've had since college, when I was first introduced to his works. Robert Bloch has a particularly good, if apologetic introduction to the man, laying out his life and some of the motivations behind his fiction.

Lovecraft - Tales, edited by Peter Straub: This tome from the Library of America Collection is an impressive book, not only for the stories that have been collected, but for a very comprehensive timeline in the back of the book (Philip K. Dick's own collections featured very similar reference material), which was particularly invaluable as an overview for Lovecraft's life.

Lovecraft: A Biography, by L. Sprauge de Camp: de Camp is someone that I would like to examine at some point in his own right, but for the time begin, his biography is eminently readable and extremely detailed, providing quite a bit of insight into his life and works.

Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, vol. 4, Frank Magill: This volume provides a great overview of Lovecraft's short fiction career, rather than an individual book. In this instance, the survey focuses on Lovecraft's Cthulhu works.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

It's October, and taking off from the end of September, we've shifting gears from Science Fiction to Horror Fiction on the Kirkus Reviews blog, where I get to tackle a novel that I've wanted to research in more depth for a while now: Dracula and its formation.

While I was in college, took a course in Gothic Literature, taught by Dr. F. Brett Cox, and had my eyes pried open to the fantastic gothic and horror world, something that I'd never been really interested in before that point. Dracula, Frankenstein and many others were books that we read, and for the first time, I read through Stoker's fantastic story, not realizing how much I didn't know about the story (and how much I did).

So, to hearken in the dreary fall season, go read Revisiting Bram Stoker's Horror Masterpiece, Dracula over on Kirkus Reviews!

Sources: As I've shifted from Science Fiction to Horror, most of my usual stand-by reference books don't apply, as they focus extensively on the history of Science Fiction, over that of Horror or Fantasy. Because of that, I had to do a bit more digging around for some background information, coming across some excellent books on the background of Dracula and Bram Stoker while doing so:

The Handbook for the Gothic, edited by Marie Mulvey-Roberts: This book provides a very brief thumbnail sketch of Stoker in the greater context of the Gothic literature movement, and provided a good starting point for a bunch of things.

Bram Stoker, Carol A. Senf: This scholarly biographical piece examines Stoker as a Gothic author, and examines more than just his Dracula books: there's some good background in his other, underappreciated novels, and at some point, I'd like to return and look at these in a bit more depth.

The New Annotated Dracula, by Bram Stoker / Leslie S. Klinger, ed.: For any Dracula / vampire / horror fan, this book is an essential purchase. It's a bit large and unwieldly, but Klinger has exhaustively researched the background of Stoker and his story, inserting annotations throughout the text and providing a bit of background on vampire fiction that predates Dracula. It's a stunning book, and I'm still reading it.

In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires, by Raymond T. McNally & Radu Florescu: This book takes on the search for Dracula as a historical character, looking at the background to Stoker's research and everything that essentially supports the inspiration for the character. In the middle of the book is a fantastic biographical sketch that sheds a considerable amount of light on Stoker's work and life.

Brief History of the Vampire Novel

I had a gap in the schedule, and it seemed like a good time to start getting ready for October. Somewhere, I decided that I wanted to take a look at a broad swath of a genre, and because I was working on the pieces for October (Dracula), it seemed as good a time as any to see where Dracula fits into the larger picture. Turning to social media, I asked people what they thought were some of the more important vampire novels, coming up with an impressive list that had to be really pared down. There's not a lot of surprises on it, but I did find a couple of interesting points: many people believe that Dracula was *the* original Vampire novel, when in fact it's predated by a number of others that in turn influenced Dracula. Stoker's novel proves to be a tipping point, and there's quite a bit of variety after the publication of that book.

Head over to Kirkus Reviews to read A Brief History of the Vampire Novel.

This is something that's bothered me over the past couple of years: frequently, people complain about how the Twilight novels have shifted away from the traditional vampire story. The results, in a bit way, show that this isn't the case: there's not really any 'traditional' vampire novel, because each has taken on liberties of their own, driving right down to the folklore level. Camilla, Varney, Dracula, Lestat, Edward, and others all have their quirks and differences. I've yet to sit down and steel myself to read Twilight, but at some point, I'll get to it.

For this piece, I was quite a bit looser than usual with my research: The Internet Speculative Fiction Database and Wikipedia provided chunks of information on each book, but at points, I went to author's pages and book profile pages for the main details. Of the books that I consulted, The Annotated Dracula is a particularly good resource that I'll talk about when the Dracula piece is up. Another excellent source that I've since found is In Search of Dracula, by Raymond T. McNally & Radu Florescu, which has a good section on post-Dracula vampire works.

Exploring Lost Worlds: Arthur Conan Doyle

My latest post for Kirkus Reviews is now up online. Originally, I'd planned on finishing out the Science Romances with Olaf Stapledon, but when went to see if there was anyone else to look up, I found a notable author that I'd overlooked: Athur Conan Doyle. While he's most famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories, he was a prolithic author. His novel The Lost World captured my imagination as a young teenager, and I was surprised to learn that there was more to that series. Read Exploring Lost Worlds: Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger over on Kirkus Reviews.

For Sources, I had a couple of notable ones:

Billion Year Spree, by Brian Aldiss: One of my usual suspects for sources, surprisingly, Robert and Disch's history don't have any mention of Conan Doyle's character, which surprised me a little. While he doesn't seem to have had the impact of other authors, his stories DO demonstrate the impact of Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe.

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley: This is a stunning biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, one that intertwines an incredible number of letters with commentary from the authors, which provides an incredible insight into Conan Doyle's busy life, his relationships with other authors and family members, and how he set about writing his stories. Highly recommended for anyone interested in ACD's works.

Survey of Science Fiction, Frank Magill: this series has been a good standby for background reference on the books, and this one had a good critical overview of The Lost World and the Poison Belt. (I think - I'm typing this up from memory, and I'm pretty sure that I read entries about these books from here - I'll check when I'm home.)

Rounding Out the Science Romances

Over on Kirkus Reviews, I have a bit of a roundup post that looks back over the posts that I've written, looking at the foundational stories of the genre, and how they all fit together in the bigger picture. You can read it over here. This isn't it for my coverage of the Science Romance period: in early September, I'll be going back and looking at Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger books, but after that, we'll be looking a bit at Horror and Fantasy, before moving on towards the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which should be very exciting.

This column has been a really fun thing to work with, both in the writing and researching components. Since starting this, I've relied heavily on the Kreitzburg Library for sources, and buying some books that I've been going back to time and time again.

The usual suspects that I generally go back to are the following works, and I really encourage anyone who's got a passing interest in the overall history of the genre to do themselves a favor and check them out:

Billion / Trillion Year Spree, by Brian Aldiss: This fantastic look at the genre comes in two editions. The Billion Year Spree is all Aldiss, while the Trillion Year Spree adds in some other material. Aldiss covers the genre in exhausting detail, and at points, pulls in material that other books don't touch, providing a really great look at science fiction and its formation.

History of Science Fiction, by Adam Roberts: Robert's history is one that I've really enjoyed for years now, and he covers the genre as a speculative sort of history, going far back into antiquity for some of the really deep roots of the genre.

The Stuff Dreams are Made Of, by Thomas Disch: Disch's book is a bit more on the popular history side of things, but what he does do is provide a great, high level snapshot of Science Fiction and it's progression from author to author.

Survey of Science Fiction, edited by Frank Magill: This series has been an invaluble purchase for me: a critical survey of the genre from around the 1970s, collecting thousands of reviews of notable science fiction novels. It's been a really good tool, especially for looking over books that I haven't read, or read a long time ago.

To compliment the posting up on Kirkus, here's a list of my source posts with additional sources specific to each author:

• Hugo Gernsback: Father of Science Fiction?
• Adapting Philip K. Dick
• Looking Far into the Future: Olaf Stapledon
• Jules Verne and the Moon
• H.G. Wells and the War of the Worlds
• Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012
• Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne
• A Meeting in Geneva: The Birth of ‘Frankenstein’

Hugo Gernsback: Father of Science Fiction?

With Chicon-7 coming next month, I wanted to take a look at the man behind the main event: the Hugo Award ceremony. Over on Kirkus Reviews, I've got a brief history of Hugo Gernsback, often called 'The Father of Science Fiction'. While it's true that Gernsback coined the term science fiction, we've seen that he's not the founded of the genre as a whole. Rather, he's the founder of a modern strain of science fiction, and his influence persists to this day. Read Hugo Gernsback: To Great Heights And Down Again over on Kirkus Reviews.

An interesting letter that I came across came from Alex Eisenstein, who left me with the impression that Gernsback sat at the crossroads between quality literary style and commercial success. While the two aren't mutually exclusive, looking at the attitudes science fiction over the last half-century, it's clear which style won out. Here's the sources that I used for this piece:

- American Inventors, Entrepreneurs and Business Visionaries, by Caharles W. Carey Jr.: This book compiles a number of profiles of people, including a good thumbnail of Gernsback’s life and accomplishments.

- Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones: This book is a great look at the rise of the comic book industry in the United States. Gernsback makes a brief appearance here in a section devoted to the pulps, which helps to provide a bit of extra insight into his life and how he influenced others.

- Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction, by Gary Westfahl: This is an an academic book on the man and his influence: it provided some in depth information on Gernsback, but it is quite dense at points.

- History of Science Fiction, by Adam Roberts: Roberts puts together a good profile and analysis of Gernsback’s contributions to the genre, highlighting not only his life, but how he affected the genre as a whole.

- The Trillion Year Spree, by Brian Aldiss: Aldiss is less kind to Gernsback, providing an notably critical profile of the man and his contributions to the genre.

- Wells, Verne, and Science, Alex Eisenstein, from Science Fiction Studies: This letter was a turning point in how I thought about this piece: rather than just looking at the contributions of Gernsback, it made me realize that the story is more about just how much he influenced the genre that we know and love.

For the Hugo Awards, I did a bit of research online between a couple of websites:

- INFOGRAPHIC: Everything You Need to Know about the Hugo Award: SF Signal’s Infographic covering the high points of the Hugos.

- A Short History of the Hugo Awards Process: This page on the official Hugo Awards website is a good one to look into for year to year, and a general overview of the award.

Adapting Philip K. Dick

This week on the Kirkus Reviews Blog, I jump ahead from some of the older stories to a very modern author: Philip K. Dick and the adaptations of his works.

This was an interesting article to write, because I wanted to tie it in with the upcoming movie release of Total Recall. Prior to writing it, I was able to find a number of the films and watch through them over the course of a weekend, to get a sense of how they were adapted. Some were a pleasant surprise: Total Recall and Screamers were two that I particularly liked. Others, like Paycheck and Next, I didn't like very much.

Dick's works have translated interestingly into film, I suspect because the premise that he's really known for - this world is not correct - is something that's easy for a film to capture and challenge its characters with in ways that audiences can easily understand.

Here's the sources that I used for this piece:

The Library of America Series (Four Novels of the 1960s, Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s, and Valis & Later Novels): This series examines notable works from American authors, seldomly looks at Science Fiction. These books are fantastic examples of the author's works, but are also excellent for their in-depth chronological look at Dick's life.

Minority Report Special Features: This is something that I watched way back, when Minority Report was the first DVD that I ever owned. It's an excellent collection of special features, not the least of which the one that talks about the adaptation of the story and how it came to be.

Prophets of Science Fiction: Philip K. Dick: This was a really neat one to watch, even as it glosses over much of Dick's life and dramatizes some of it. The most interesting thing was Ridley Scott's impressions of the man, whom he met at a screening. There's also some interesting points about how Minority Report was going to become a sequel to Total Recall.

Internet Speculative Fiction Database: This large archive was useful for tracking down the original publications of each of the stories, which allowed me to string them out in publication order.

The films: I was able to track down almost all of the films, with the exception of A Scanner Darkly and Radio Free Albemuth. Watching each (and reading most of the stories that they were based on) really helped to see what exactly was adapted.

Usual Suspects: The Stuff Dreams are Made Of, History of Science Fiction and Trillion Year Spree each have sections about Philip K. Dick and his works, which provide good background material on the life of the author and his contributions to the genre.

Looking Far into the Future: Olaf Stapledon

My latest post for the Kirkus Reviews Blog is now online! This time, we look at English author Olaf Stapledon and his legacy.

This wasn't the post I'd intended on writing. Originally, this spot had been reserved for an examination of C.S. Lewis, and his Out of a Silent Planet trilogy. As this series has progressed, I've been finding a curious evolution of the science fiction genre, something that will continue on. From Mary Shelley to Edgar Allan Poe, to Jules Verne and to H.G. Wells, there's a facinating story of connections between one another. They found influences in themselves, carrying ideas forward in time, changed somewhat by each author's own sensibilities. Following Wells, we find Olaf Stapledon, who by his own words, was influenced by Well's stories, and in turn, inspired future authors, such as Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Lewis, I found, wrote in opposition of the two, and in a large way, was out of place in my plans.

Stapledon was an interesting author, and the scale of his works and the themes behind them set him apart from just about everyone in the field at the time and since. Read Looking far, far into the future: Olaf Stapledon over on the Kirkus Reviews Blog!

Here's the sources that I used:

An Olaf Stapledon Reader, By Olaf Stapledon, Robert Crossley: This book contains an interesting series of articles on Stapledon and his writing, but of most interest is two letters that Olaf wrote to famed science fiction author H.G. Wells, where he talks about how the former influenced him.

The Olaf Stapledon Online Archive: Located here, the site for Stapledon contains a fairly good biography on the author and some of his works, which provided a good starting point for the biographical elements of this piece.

Last and First Men / Last Men of London, Olaf Stapledon: This collected version is a book that I picked up on a whim a couple of years ago, and read through Last and First Men. An interesting story, it was of particular use when coming to understand the scale and scope of Stapledon's efforts - it's a very different, but highly recommended novel.

Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography, by Neil McAleer: This biography of Clarke helped to confirm that Clarke was influenced by Stapledon's works.

Survey of Science Fiction, vol 3 & 5, Frank Magill: This book as usual, is a particularly useful resource in looking up specific meanings and critical reviews of Stapledon's works.

The History of Science Fiction, by Adam Roberts: Roberts devotes an entire glowing section to Stapledon's legacy, shedding some light on the author and his influences.

Jules Verne and the Moon

My latest column for Kirkus Reviews is now online! In it, I talk about Jules Verne and his fantastic novel From the Earth to the Moon. I recently talked about Jules Verne in his influences that stemmed from Edgar Allan Poe, and I was particularly eager to return to Verne as a major influence in the genre.

As July is the month where the anniversary of the first Moon landing rests, it seemed like a good time, although Verne's novels are closer to what happened with Apollo 8, when we first reached the moon, rather than landed on it.

You can read the entire post here on the Kirkus Reviews Blog.

Here's the sources that I used for the column this time around:

Billion Year Spree, by Brian Aldiss: Once again, this book provides some good background on Verne throughout, and some of the things that helped to influence him and this particular novel, especially Poe.

The History of Science Fiction, by Adam Roberts: Roberts takes to task the idea that Verne 'predicted' how the space program would be put together, and lambasts critics who nitpick Verne's story based on some of the things that he didn't get right - such as using a giant cannon to get into space as opposed to that of a rocket. It's a good perspective to understand, that Science Fiction doesn't predict the future, but if the author is paying good attention to science, it's not likely to change all that much, as is what happens in this situation.

Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Vol 3, by Frank Magill: Magill's collection provides a great analysis of From the Earth to the Moon in its themes and influences.

To a Distant Day: The Rocket Pioneers, by Chris Gainor: This is a great history (and part of a great series on human space exploration, the Outward Odyssey series), on the development of Rocket Science. This book points to a number of rocket pioneers who read Verne's stories and looked at how they could do that in real life. Verne's an excellent example of where fiction becomes real.

Jules Verne, inventor of science fiction by Peter Costello: This biography of Verne was a particularly good one, outlining much of Verne's life and some of his influences when it came to science fiction and storytelling. He's a facinating individual, and the book provides a good overview.

From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon, Jules Verne: Of course, there's the source material, in this instance, a nicely bound collected edition that my wive brought with her when she moved up to Vermont. This edition has several other books, and I look forward to someday reading it to whatever children we end up having.

H.G. Wells and the War of the Worlds

Over on the Kirkus Reviews blog, I've turned my attention to one of my absolute favorite science fiction novels, The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. One of the absolute greatest works of science fiction, it's a story that I've continually learned more about ever since I first read it so many years ago. You can read H.G. Wells and the Decline of Empires over on Kirkus' website.

There's a couple of unconventional sources that I used for this book, in addition to the usual sources that I've gone to continually for this column:

Experiment in autobiography; discoveries and conclusions of a very ordinary brain (since 1866) by H.G. Wells: For specific author information, one can do no wrong by going to the original source: in this instance, H.G. Wells' words. This biography is a little frustrating at points, because he doesn't talk much about his actual writing, but it does give a unique insight into his daily life around the time that he wrote this novel.

Not Separated at Birth: Dracula and The War of the Worlds (Panel Discussion): This wasn't a reference work, but a panel that included Charlie Stross, Gregory Feeley, David G. Hartwell, Faye Ringel and Darrell Schweitzer at Boskone 38 this past spring. I took a number of notes during the talk, which was a facinating comparison between both Dracula and War of the Worlds, and examining them as colonization novels, which was part of a much larger genre at that time.

Prophets of Science Fiction, H.G. Wells: Last year, the Science Channel and Ridley Scott partnered for a series titled The Prophets of Science Fiction, which examined a handful of notable authors in the genre, including H.G. Wells. Taking their works, the program alternatively looked at biography and some of the modern technological innovations that are fairly loosely associated with the works. It's not mindblowing, but the episode on Wells provides a nice snapshot of his life, while glossing over some of the other things, such as his social politics.

The usual sources of Billion/Trillion Year Spree, by Brian Aldiss, The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, by Thomas M. Disch, The History of Science Fiction, by Adam Roberts and the Survey of Science Fiction all had their own praises and examinations of Wells' novel and provide a great background into that era of science fiction.

The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells: of course, the best source of them all is the original novel by Wells. It's a brilliant, stunning work that is fresh every time I go back to it. If you've never read it, you're missing out on a classic.

Prometheus has Landed

Ridley Scott's addition to the Alien franchise has finally hit theaters following a fantastic marketing blitz. Prometheus is a good, but at points flawed, predecessor to his own 1979 start to the franchise. One of my more anticipated films of the year, I found it to be a decent film, living up to my somewhat lowered expectations, and certainly one that I'll watch again.

Prometheus follows a lot of similar formula as that of Aliens, with some notable differences. An archeological team comes up with a series of star maps that points the team to a distant world with extraterrestrial life. An interstellar expedition is assembled and financed, and sent off to a moon designated LV-223 in a far off system. Overseen by a robot overseer on the 200 day trip, the crew lands on the moon, and discover an unnatural feature. Suiting up, the scientific contingent set off to find what message might have been left behind. Helmets come off, people get lost and suddenly, chaos ensues as the relics infect the crew.

The key to enjoying Prometheus seems to be ignoring that the film is connected to the Alien universe. While it's not as good as Alien, I did enjoy it a bit more than Aliens, and when compared to your average summer blockbuster, Prometheus comes off rather well.

What's notable for Prometheus is how absolutely gorgeous it is: the design of the world is one of the best that I've seen, a spaceship that looks practical and well-rooted in the modern world, much as the Nostromo likely felt back when it was first released. Outside of the ship, the film is treated to a phenomenal opening credit scene, and continues to put together some wonderful planetscapes and general images. It's a slick, great movie, visually. Even the 3D, which I normally can't stand, worked exceptionally well throughout the film - there were none of the flat sections where the film reverts back to 2D outside of the action sequences. Here, it's seamlessly in the background, where it's never intrusive.

Prometheus's story is where the film begins to stumble, while also attempting some very ambitious things. There's a lot that Scott's tried to pack into the movie, ranging from overarching themes of science verses faith, the idea of maker-gods who have helped along the human race, to the responsibilities of science and technology. It's easy to see where the ideas are, and where they're attempting to go, but it's lost in a bit of a muddle. While watching the film, I got the distinct impression that there was quite a bit cut out of the movie to keep the run time under a certain level, and I can't help but wonder if somewhere down the road, we'll get the bits that were cut out, which will hopefully help to reinforce some of the characters and overarching themes.

Beyond that, some of the letdowns come with some of the really stupid things that the characters do throughout the movie. Characters take their helmets off at every point, even when it seems like it might be a really bad idea, quarantine protocols are ignored, and everything that should be done to keep a trillion dollar mission on schedule and safe really isn't done. This is where Prometheus is a disappointment: there's a lot of potential that's lost in the characters and their actions.

The characters frequently have their moments to shine: Charlize Theron does a fantastic job as Meredith Vickers, the Weyland Corporation rep, while Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw finally finds her legs towards the end of the film, after she's been pushed to the brink. Most notable, however, is David, portrayed by Michael Fassbender, the ship's robot who has some considerable issues when it comes to his maker, Peter Weyland. Frequently though, each of the characters are drawn with too broad a brush and the often come off poorly. Other characters, like Captain Janek and the bridge crew, have great appearances - Benedict Wong especially, but just little enough to make us want more.

Where the story really does work is looking at the big ideas, and I applaud the film for really trying something, rather than simply mirroring the audience's expectations. The idea of an alien race bringing their technology to seed a world, only to find that they've made a mistake is a rather epic idea, and I'm thrilled to see the ideas there: I simply wish that they'd been followed up on a bit more. The ideas of religion and science that come out of those ideas are similarly brought up, and not fully explored. While that's not great, I can't really think of the last major science fiction movie that put together interesting ideas with a dramatic story, (Maybe Inception?) and I'm happy to see a film at least try to do something a bit different.

Weirdly, this film felt very optimistic throughout: focusing on exploring and learning about our surroundings, it's an interesting change from many of the reactionary (and still excellent) science fiction out there, even up through the end. Where Alien was purely a horror film set in space, Prometheus feels more like a space opera film, with quite a few horror elements.

Looking back, the film is stymied by its lack of focus: there's several subplots, focusing on David/Weyland, the Engineers, and corporate intentions, all of which try to share the space with each other. The film never quite meshes in the way that it should have, and coupled with the extraordinarily high expectations set forth by the film's marketing contingent; it's no wonder that the film has received such mixed reviews. In a lot of ways, the film would have likely fared better if its connections to Alien had been completely severed, with it released as a stand-alone science fiction adventure. Here lies the major problem when attempting to bring back a well-worn franchise with an established fanbase: it's almost impossible to capture what everybody loved about it, and entrenched expectations really prevent the filmmakers from really innovating. Prometheus is able to get away from this a bit: I'm sure that continuity hounds and nitpickers will argue for a long time about this, but Scott really is able to pull out a good movie out for his return to the genre.

But, despite all of the issues with the film, I really enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for great imagery in the genre, and Prometheus certainly delivers here. But beyond that is a film that, once some of the extra baggage is ignored, is a decent film when you look at it against the lesser Alien films, or even the broad canon of summertime blockbusters. It doesn't quite stack up as high as Blade Runner and Alien do in the greater picture, but it's a good film that should have been great. I can live with that.

Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012

Over on the Kirkus Reviews Blog, I've written up a short sketch of Ray Bradbury's life, which you can read over here.

I'll forgo the usual sources that I've been posting: I've been seperated from my usual research materials (which are sitting on a shelf at home), and went for a number of obituaries, fan sites and articles about the legendary author.

For my part, Bradbury was a giant figure in my early science fiction years. I was first introduced to him while a student in High School, when my English teacher, Mrs. Page (seriously the best name for an English teacher), had us read Fahrenheit 451 for a class assignment. I blew through the book and paid more attention to class after that. At some point in class, we also read Soft Rains Will Come, and I was encouraged to read more of Bradbury's stories, particularly R is for Rocket and S is for Space. I picked up more of his books (although to this day, I've never been able to get through The Martian Chronicles), and whenever I picked up a new anthology, I always flipped to the Bradbury story first.

Bradbury's words always captured me and my imagination, bringing me out to Mars and back down to Earth, and there was always a story to fit whatever moon I was in when I picked up the book. Along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, Bradbury was the most influential for my young, impressionable mind, and I shall always appreciate his prose and his exceptional mind.

The Reading List

I haven't done one of these lately, and it feels as though my reading list has accumulated a bit too much. Recently, I've picked up and finished A Handmaiden's Tale, The Stars My Destination, and New Scientists' Arc 1.1, all of which were very good. Here's what I'm currently reading:

Fiction:

The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi: This one's one that I've had my eyes on for a little while, but it was a review from Charlie Stross that got me more interested in reading it. It's gotten very good reviews from all over, which is great for a first novel, although his writing style isn't the greatest for an impatient and fast reader like me - I'm having to slow down for fear of missing things.

Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: io9 recently pointed this one out in a book review, and I loved the premise. It's a fascinating read, and from a science fiction era that I'm really not familiar with: Cold War Soviet SF. So far, I'm really enjoying it.

The Nemesis List, by R.J. Frith: I came across this one randomly right before the wedding, when I was supposed to be buying wedding gifts for people. I'd never heard of it, despite the plot, and picked it up on a whim. So far, it's not impressing me, reminding me a lot of The Gravity Pilot in terms of writing style.

Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed: I've heard almost nothing but good things about this novel, and decided it was about time to sink into it. On the way back from the Wedding, Megan and I stopped by Flights of Fantasy in Albany, NY, where I found it. Enjoyed the first couple of chapters.

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, by John Scalzi: I've been waiting to get to this one since it was announced. I enjoyed Scalzi's last novel, Fuzzy Nation, and this looks to be pretty similar in style and tone, and having a nice, breezy novel to blow through will be excellent.

Nonfiction:

Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo, by Nicholas de Monchaux: This book rocks. It's absolutely stunning in its detail, covering the creation of the space suits used in Apollo, but taking in a greater view of the space race as it does so.

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education, by Craig M. Mullaney: Megan recommended this one to me as I was doing some writing, and it's an interesting read thus far, looking at the education of a West Point soldier who went on to Iraq.

Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam, by John A. Nagl: This one's one that I've been picking away at for a couple of months. It's a short but dense book on counterinsurgency. Very enlightening.

Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne

My latest column for Kirkus reviews has just been posted! While doing some reading on Edgar Allan Poe, I came across an interesting point: Poe only wrote a single novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which was later picked up upon by legendary science fiction author, Jules Verne in An Antarctic Mystery. In a large way, it was one of the first works of fan fiction! You can read the connection between Poe and Verne over on the Kirkus Reviews Blog.

For this piece, I used the following sources:

Billion Year Spree, by Brian Aldiss: Aldiss's first history of the genre, this book goes into extensive critical length for the roots of science fiction, and provide an excellent basis for Poe and his influences. While Aldiss doesn't regard Poe as the founding author of SF, he does count his influence. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes, and in particular, Extra! Extra! Poe invents science fiction, by John Tresch: this critical series covers Poe's literature, and this section by Tresch looks at his forays into science fiction, particularly Arthur Gordon Pym.. The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, by Thomas M. Disch: Another survey of the genre, which looks to Poe's status as an 'embarrassing ancestor'. Disch in particular labels Poe as one of the key figures in the history of Science Fiction. The History of Science Fiction, by Adam Roberts: Robert's history of the genre notes both Disch's and Aldiss's opinions, he doesn't quite go along with them, although he does outline in excellent detail the achievements that Poe did put forward and likewise places Poe high on the list of superior influences for authors to come, because of his writing and vision. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe, by Henry Allen: this excellent volume is a detailed account of Poe's life, and provides a great background in the events that surrounded Poe and his works. Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Vol 3, by Frank Magill: Magill's series is an excellent one, and this particular volume provides a critical account of Arthur Gordon Pym and the influences that helped to bring it about. Oddly, there isn't an entry for Verne's An Antarctic Mystery that I could find.

Finally, something that I came across while doing some of the research, this cartoon by Hark! A Vagrant, sums up the Poe - Verne relationship nicely:

A Meeting in Geneva: The Birth of 'Frankenstein'

My first column on Science Fiction / Fantasy history is now up on Kirkus Reviews! For this first post, I couldn't think of a better place to start than Mary Shelley's creation of Frankenstein in 1816 during a summer trip to Geneva, Switzerland. Frankenstein isn't the first root of the genre, but it is a solid one that has since been built on. You can read the article here on Kirkus Reviews.

A couple of books that I used for the research for this article were:

• The letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and edited by Betty T Bennett. A three volumn collection of Shelley's letters, which provided a great insight into her life around the time of her writing the book.
• Survey of Science Fiction Literature, by Frank Northen Magill. This is an academic survey that I recently picked up that has essays from thousands of SF/F novels up to around the 1970s. Great series of reviews of books, which also provides an incredible amount of background on the author and a critical look at the literature.
• Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions) by Mary Shelley and J. Paul Hunter. This edition provides the original text of the novel, plus extras: commentary, a couple of letters, and several reviews of the novel from when the book was first published.

Historical Science Fiction

Contracts have been signed, the post has been scheduled, and I can announce this now: I've been brought on board Kirkus Reviews as a columnist, where John DeNardo of SF Signal has been writing for the last couple of months. I'm pretty excited about this, because it's an opportunity where I can blend two of my long-standing interests together: History, and Science Fiction.

Starting in June, I'll be heading up a bi-weekly column that will examine (in small bites) the history of the science fiction genre by looking at the authors, books, trends and notable events that impacted the speculative fiction genre.

Science Fiction history is something that I've picked away at little by little over the years, and I can trace my interests back to a book that I bought in the fall of 2002: Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones, which expertly traces the history of the comic book industry from before its inception, all the way to the 1980s. Since then, I've picked up books over the years, various biographies of some of the greats, scholarly books on the history of the genre, light reading, and things that typically revolve around the inner workings of Science Fiction and Fantasy. To be able to start putting it together, a couple of times a month, is something that I've long wanted to do, but never really had the outlet to do so.

Studying the history of anything is important. The present day is a product of the past, and everything that has come before has left its fingerprints in everything that we do. To view anything in a vacuum is to strip it of meaning, and I hope that I'll be able to put together a resource that will inform and enlighten.

The first post will be up May 3rd, focusing on Mary Shelley and Geneva. Stay tuned!

2012 Hugo Thoughts

This past weekend, the Hugo award nominations were announced, with some great things on the ballot. The full list can be found here, and it's well worth checking out some of the entries on there.

Novels: I'm annoyed that Soft Apocalypse, by Will McIntosh didn't make the cut; it's the best novel that I read last year, and it's one of those books that blew me away twice. I'm also a little surprised that Charles Stross's Rule 34 didn't make an appearance, as well as Ready Player One, by Ernie Cline. (That's not a bad thing, because RPO really isn't a good book.) Of the ones on the list, I haven't read Among Others, Deadlines or Dance with Dragons, but I'm betting that Embassytown will take the trophy. I do hope, however, that Leviathan Wakes will be the winner: that book drips with awesomeness. Edit: Another novel that was overlooked? Lev Grossman's The Magician King. I'm stunned that that novel didn't make the cut.

I can't say much about the Novella and Novellette categories: I hope that Ken Liu takes Novella, and I hope that Charlie Jane Anders takes it for Novellette: the only stories that I've read on the list, but they're both excellent.

Best Short story: I'm sad that none of Lightspeed's stories made the cut, because there were some excellent ones there, but I'm rooting for Ken Liu's The Paper Menagrie, which is an absolutely brilliant short story. If you haven't read it, you really should do yourself a favor. John Scalzi's April Fool's Joke, Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue is a hilarious nomination, because it's technically a fun bit of writing. I liked Liu's story much better though.

Motion pictures: I wish that people would stop nominating Doctor Who every year for short form: there's quite a bit more when it comes to science fiction television. The pilot for Outcasts would have done nicely, as would several episodes of Fringe. I desperately want to see the episode of Community win, because that was one fantastic episode. Long form, I've no doubts that the entire run of Game of Thrones will win that one, although I would like to see Source Code win.

And, most exciting, Lightspeed Magazine picked up two nominations: Best Semiprozine and Best Editor, Short Form - John Joseph Adams. I've known about this for a couple of weeks, and while I'm not surprised, I think it's fantastic that the outfit has been recognized for the fantastic stories that it's put out. Being part of the Lightspeed team for just about all of 2011, it's also great to contribute to such an outlet.

I also write for SF Signal, mainly with book reviews, but also some columns, Mind Melds and Podcasts, and I was beyond excited to see the site nominated for the first time for Best Fanzine, and Best Fancast (SF Signal Podcast). Likewise, it's fantastic to have contributed a small part to such a fantastic site.

Is Military Science Fiction Nationalistic?

I've got a new piece up on io9, based around a question that I'd come up with after reading a book on counter-insurgency and institutional learning, Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam, by John Nagl. While reading it, I had a couple of points click into place when it came to how different countries approached warfare: there's a mix of history and internal learning that helps inform the present. Science fiction has a very similar effect: the genre is affected in turn by the ways that warfare is perceived.

A key point of Nagl's book is that a nation's own military history helps to inform the ways in which said nation will go to war and use its military. The United States has a different makeup of conflict DNA than Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan and accordingly, we have a different perception of not only the ways in which the military should operate, but also philosophically; how and why wars or battles should be fought. In the science fiction world, the stories are reactionary, typically looking at lessons learned from a past conflict, such as colonial battles (War of the Worlds), World War II / Korea (Starship Troopers), Vietnam (The Forever War), Iraq / Afghanistan (Control Point / Germline). Military science fiction has a passionate following, but I often wonder if at points, if some variety should be added to the mix. We know how we like to do things, but what about how others go about doing the same thing?

Predominantly, military science fiction is an American-centric genre: Most of the really big names in military science fiction, such as Joe Halderman (The Forever War), John Ringo (A Hymn Before Battle), David Drake (Hammer's Slammers) and David Weber (the Honor Harrington series) all served in the United States military, (as well as some of the newer authors, such as Myke Cole and D.B. Grady) whom have drawn upon their experiences and knowledge accordingly for their stories. Other authors who work in the genre, such as John Scalzi (Old Man's War), David J. Williams (Autumn Rain trilogy) and Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game), also hail from the United States and are likewise influenced by their home country. Indeed, the landmark entries in the genre from the US are remarkably consistent when it comes to the doctrine and style of warfare that the US has traditionally engaged in: overwhelming force for a clear, decisive objective.

You can read the full article here.

Armored: Coming to a Combat Zone Near You

Tomorrow, John Joseph Adam's latest original anthology, Armored, hits stores. I'm pretty excited for this one, because I've read most of it already. Last year, the book was announced, and I got to help out a bit with some of the behind the scenes work in getting the book up and running: slush reading, some recommendations, and thoughts that I had about the stories that I read.

This anthology really blew me away. There's a stunning cast of authors present here, each of them with some really great stories about characters in powered armor - or the powered armor itself. What I really liked above all else is that there's a real mix of unconventional takes on the power armor idea, and this anthology might surprise readers a bit: it's not all pure action (although there's plenty of that), and there's more than just straight up military sci fi here: there's a couple of genres mixed in here.

You can buy Armored here, take a look at some of the behind the scenes stuff over on John's website, and like the page over on Facebook. If you like power armor and some great military SF, this is the anthology to buy.