With hints of the Hunger Games, Battle Royale, Ender’s Game and the guise of an educational setting, Pierce Brown’s science fiction novel, Red Rising, the first of a trilogy, is strongly written and completely engrossing. I’ll admit it took me about the first third of the book to get really hooked on the story,…
Tag: science fiction
Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (1979) – Terry Jones
I was looking forward to this recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of The Ten Commandments; the gang from Monty Python taking on religion. Brian (Graham Chapman) was born on the same day as Jesus, just in the stable next door, and consequently, spends his life…
Illuminae: The Illuminae Files Vol. 1 (2015) – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
This week’s trip to the Book Shelf found me reading a fantastic science fiction novel, that keeps it’s humanity with a pair of wonderful characters, Kady Grant, and Ezra Mason. Kady is not having a good day. She’s broken up with her boyfriend, Ezra, and on the same day, her planet, which is housing…
Star Trek: Triangle (1983) – Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath
There is one thing, and one thing only that is good about this Star Trek novel. It’s the last one written by Marshak and Culbreath. Once again, this one seems as nothing more than an excuse to write some shoddy fan fiction. One could argue that all the Star Trek novels are fan fiction,…
Barbarella (1968) – Roger Vadim
Jane Fonda steps into her first and only science fiction movie in this 1968 camp classic that is so bad that it almost comes round to good again, who am I kidding, it doesn’t get anywhere near to coming around to good. It’s also the next stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, so it…
Midnight Special (2016) – Jeff Nichols
Owing its pedigree to films of the 80s like John Carpenter’s Starman and Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Nichols writes and directs this science fiction road movie that is best viewed with little to no plot knowledge. So suffice to say, I won’t be saying much about story points in my review….
Stargate (1994) – Roland Emmerich
The adventures continue with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book, as I kcik back and enjoy Kurt Russell and James Spader in this science fiction actioner that seems to be heavily influenced by Chariots of the Gods, and wonderfully marries Egyptian mythology, with action, and space opera. Long before the successful television series, Colonel Jack O’Neil…
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008) – Edward Neumeier
Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) returns to the franchise in this second direct to DVD sequel that sees the fight with the bugs continue. After the second one, I don’t know if things would get better or worse, but with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book as my guide, I dove into the worlds, based loosely…
Sunshine (2007) – Danny Boyle
The Sci-Fi Chronicles checks in on Danny Boyle next, and as I’ve already done 28 Days Later, it was time to see what he did with spaceships and big budgets in his science fiction foray – Sunshine. The film has a standout cast, composed of Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Hiroyuki…
The Day of the Triffids (1963) – Steven Sekely
The Sci-Fi Chronicles brings me yet another film I’ve never seen, and yet feel I know, because it shows up everywhere, The Day of the Triffids. based on the classic science fiction tale by John Wyndham. This adaptation fairly mangles the original novel, tagging on a Hollywood Happy ending, or as happy as a…
The Mind Reels 