Books received 2/18/2014 Del Rey edition

Posted on by

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Crown of Renewal
Paladin’s Legacy

by Elizabeth Moon

Promo copy:

Acclaimed author Elizabeth Moon spins gripping, richly imagined epic fantasy novels that have earned comparisons to the work of such authors as Robin Hobb and Lois McMaster Bujold. In this volume, Moon’s brilliant masterwork reaches its triumphant conclusion.

The mysterious reappearance of magery throughout the land has been met with suspicion, fear, and violence. In the kingdom of Lyonya, Kieri, the half-elven, half-human king, struggles to balance the competing demands of his heritage while fighting a deadly threat to his rule: evil elves linked in some way to the rebirth of magic.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring kingdom of Tsaia, a set of ancient artifacts recovered by the former mercenary Dorrin Verrakai may hold the answer to the riddle of magery’s return. Thus Dorrin embarks on a dangerous quest to return these relics of a bygone age to their all-but-mythical place of origin. What she encounters there will change her in unimaginable ways—and spell doom or salvation for the entire world. Continue reading →

Stuff received 2/18/2014

Posted on by

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

The Future of the Mind
The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

by Michio Kaku

 Promo copy:

The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain. 

For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has become a startling reality. Recording memories, telepathy, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis are not only possible; they already exist.
 
The Future of the Mind gives us an authoritative and compelling look at the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics.  One day we might have a “smart pill” that can enhance our cognition; be able to upload our brain to a computer, neuron for neuron; send thoughts and emotions around the world on a “brain-net”; control computers and robots with our mind; push the very limits of immortality; and perhaps even send our consciousness across the universe.

Dr. Kaku takes us on a grand tour of what the future might hold, giving us not only a solid sense of how the brain functions but also how these technologies will change our daily lives. He even presents a radically new way to think about “consciousness” and applies it to provide fresh insight into mental illness, artificial intelligence and alien consciousness.

With Dr. Kaku’s deep understanding of modern science and keen eye for future developments, The Future of the Mind is a scientific tour de force–an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience. Continue reading →

Locus recommends THE APES OF WRATH

Posted on by
Cover by Alex Solis

Cover by Alex Solis

In the same February issue of Locus where Gardner Dozois reviewed Rayguns Over Texas, he included The Apes of Wrath among his recommended reprint anthology reads for 2013.

The best reprint anthology of the year was Twenty-First Century Science Fiction, edited by David G. Hartwell & Patrick Nielsen Hayden. There were also two big reprint anthologies for fans of the time-travel story, The Time Traveller’s Almanac, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, and The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley, and a book of ape stories, The Apes of Wrath, edited by Richard Klaw. There was also a collection of stories written at the Clarion West Writers Workshop, Telling Tales: The Clarion West 30 th Anniversary Anthology, edited by Ellen Datlow.

I’m honored to be included among such esteemed company.

It could be just that he reviewed Apes not that long ago and it was still sitting next to his computer, but I prefer the idea that Apes was indeed among the best of the year.

Locus reviews RAYGUNS OVER TEXAS

Posted on by
Cover by Rocky Kelley

Cover by Rocky Kelley

For the February Locus, Gardner Dozois reviewed Rayguns Over Texas.

In spite of the title, which implies freewheeling space opera, there’s only one raygun to be found in Rayguns Over Texas, an original anthology edited by Richard Klaw; most stories here don’t take us off Earth, and most don’t have anything to do with aliens (attacking or otherwise) or armadas of battling spaceships. That doesn’t mean that the anthology isn’t fun, though.

<snip>

Big Names of the loosely defined school of Texas SF – Bruce Sterling, Howard Waldrop, Steven Utley, Lisa Tuttle, Lewis Shiner – aren’t represented here with fiction (Sterling provides an introduction), but the writers who are here do a decent job of delivering that difficult-to-classify stuff typical of the Texas School of SF, somewhere between gonzo fantasy and horror in tone with occasional touches of cyberpunk, that was once called ‘‘outlaw fantasy,’’ or occasionally ‘‘cowpunk.’’

(Not including the “Big Names” was very a purposeful decision. One of the rules of the volume was that the writers needed to currently be living in Texas. Of all he mentioned, only Waldrop currently lives here.)

The most enjoyable story here is probably Mark Finn’s ‘‘Take a Left at the Cretaceous’’, in which Good Ole Boy long-distance truckers tangle with dinosaurs, but there’s other fun stuff as well.

Dozois’ other fun stuff included stories by Lawrence Person, Aaron Allston, Derek Austin Johnson, Chris N. Brown, and Jessica Reisman.

Trying Human

Posted on by

Valentine’s Day (a.k.a. Cash 4 Hallmark Fund) is a week away, and to celebrate the holiday of love, let’s talk about a romantic comedy…with aliens!

Title: Trying Human
Author: Emy Bitner
Start Date: 2008
Genre: Romantic comedy, sci-fi
Update Schedule: Whenever
Website: http://www.tryinghuman.com

Synopsis:

Trying Human involves the exploits of Area 51 over two generations which run parallel with each other. Starting in the 1940s, an alien spacecraft lands in Nevada, prompting an investigation and discovery of alien life and technology. One of the employees at the base, a military translator named Phillis, develops a relationship with EBE1–the surviving alien from the crash–much to the ire of her coworkers, who harbor a crush on her. Tensions heat up and Phillis winds up fatally shot, but she is kept alive using alien technology.

Fast-forward to the present day. A young receptionist named Rose sees a psychiatrist after suffering blackouts and nosebleeds. The psychiatrist uses hypnosis to recover one of her lost memories and she discovers that she is abducted by aliens on a regular basis. One of the aliens named Hue–a clone of EBE1 who is declared “defective” because he, unlike the others, can feel emotions–falls in love with Rose and tries to get her back following a failed abduction.

The relationships between all of these characters intertwine with an underground government conspiracy surrounding a group called the Majestic 12, whose job it is to monitor and cover-up alien activity on Earth which Rose’s boyfriend Roger has recently joined.

Recommended Age Group: 16 and up. It gets NSFW in some parts and there is occasional language and gore.

Strengths:

The writing is this comic’s greatest strength. The comic actually spans multiple subplots and characters (even more than my synopsis provides) and balances them all in a timely manner.

The artwork is also very strong. The flashbacks to the 1940s are deliberately sepia tone with occasional color motifs of red, while the present contains lots of shades of blue while also symbolically linking to the past with red.

The artist is also going back to the earliest chapters of her comic and redrawing them, making them more consistent with the current style that her art has evolved toward. Looking at both styles (you can compare them starting at Chapter 5 at the moment), even her older, rougher artwork looks very good.

Weaknesses:

The biggest problem with this comic is the pacing. Due to the comic’s sluggish update schedule and constant switching between the timelines, it becomes easy to forget what happened. Fun fact: When I was writing up this review, I had to reread the entire strip’s run over the span of a few hours and I saw some important details that I’d either missed or completely forgotten about since I first started reading the strip a couple of years ago. This strip is the easiest to follow when you’re marathoning it, but the slow updates may hinder your memory once you’ve caught up.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. It’s one of the most fascinating stories about aliens I’ve read in a long time. I’d recommend just reading through the whole archive once, then rewind to the beginning and read each storyline in chronological order. I personally found it easier to follow after I tried it that way, but results may vary.

Stuff received 1/26/2014

Posted on by

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Raising Steam

by Terry Pratchett

Promo copy:

Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man with a flat cap and a sliding rule. He has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and it’s soon drawing astonished crowds.

To the consternation of Ankh-Morpork’s formidable Patrician, Lord Vetinari, no one is in charge of this new invention. This needs to be rectified, and who better than the man he has already appointed master of the Post Office, the Mint, and the Royal Bank: Moist von Lipwig. Moist is not a man who enjoys hard work—unless it is dependent on words, which are not very heavy and don’t always need greasing. He does enjoy being alive, however, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse.

Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs, and some very angry dwarfs if he’s going to stop it all from going off the rails . . .

Almost lost my fingers yesterday as Brandy snatched this from me, screaming gleefully, “The NEW Pratchett! Gimme!”

Continue reading →

Books received 1/26/2014 Del Rey edition

Posted on by

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Red Rising

by Pierce Brown
Cover by Sail

Promo copy:

“Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow.”—Scott Sigler
 
Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

“I live for you,” I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Continue reading →

Goodbye to a Texas legend

Posted on by

arts_feature1-2

The extraordinary Neal Barrett Jr. has died.

Sadly, there’s a good chance that many of you have never heard of this literary wunderkind. Neal wrote damn near everything from science fiction to fantasy to mysteries to romance to westerns and young adult. He worked in a variety of media, producing traditional books, screenplays, comics, and even Texas historical markers (Neal use to joke that they were damn heavy to carry around and show people).

Continue reading →

Lost Review: Despicable Me

Posted on by

Beginning in December 2005 with my history of apes in film essay “Gorilla of Your Dreams” (the substantially update and revised version appears in The Apes of Wrath), I regularly contributed to Moving Pictures Magazine. First in the print incarnation and then for primarily the website. I contributed reviews and essays for the last three years of the publications existence. Following the June 2011 demise of both the print and website editions, all of the digital work for MPM disappeared into the ether. In the coming months (years?), I plan on reposting many of my reviews and articles.

Another geeky review. This time of the surprisingly clever Despicable Me.

Despicable_Me_Poster

 

Continue reading →

Revisiting the Uncanny Un-Collectibles 2014

Posted on by

In Fall 2010, twenty-eight of my friends and I compiled the Uncanny Un-Collectibles: Missing Comic Book Trades, a list of 52 comic series that deserved to be collected. In April 2012, I revisited the six part bitchfest to see if any of our wishes had been granted. I reported that six of the titles had been collected: Sugar and Spike, the Murphy Anderson and Neal Adams Earth-2 1960s Spectre stories, All-Star Squadron, Levitz/Giffen Legion of Super-Heroes, Flex Mentallo, and Chase. Last year, only two meager additions came out: Rip Hunter and Sea Devils.

How did things fare in 2013?

917491

Phantom Lady – The Complete Fox Collection

Collects Phantom Lady #13-23

Published February, 2013

Scott Cupp wrote:

Sandra Knight, a Senator’s daughter, masquerades as Phantom Lady, a skimpily clad heroine who defined the term “headlight comics.” Wearing little more than lingerie, she attacked crooks with abandon. Her skills were suspect at times as she frequently found herself in bondage situation. Primary artist Matt Baker was an expert at bondage art and brought Phantom Lady into the libidos of teenage boys everywhere. Dr. Wertham cited several issues of Phantom Lady in Seduction of the Innocent. There have been a couple of issues reprinted in Golden Age Greats from Paragon Press, but these were reduced in size and in black and white. There needs to be a good size reprint of all the Phantom Lady stories beginning with Police Comics #1. While Joe Kubert did several Phantom Lady pieces in Police, the truly memorable issues are the Fox issues. Continue reading →