Orbit Books brings me my first real creepy novel of 2023, Episode Thirteen. Using the familiar structure of the found footage genre, something that has been co-opted successfully for all of the ghost-hunting shows that seem to plague reality television, DiLouie compiles a literary found footage film, offering up video transcripts, EVP recordings, text messages,…
Tag: science
Rendezvous with Rama (1973) – Arthur C. Clarke
I remember the first time I read this novel. My friend Dennis recommended it to me and conveniently enough, he had the entire series at hand, and I blazed through them. That was almost two decades ago, and I honestly don’t recall all the details of the story, but I know I loved the wonder…
TIFF ’22: The Wonder
With an opening, and an ending that reminds us that how we see stories is all perspective, The Wonder explores the line between fact and faith, science and religion. Based on the book by Emma Donoghue, The Wonder is beguiling, introspective, and moody. In the mid-19th century, an English nurse, Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) who…
Angels & Demons (2009) – Ron Howard
Tom Hanks reunites with Ron Howard to bring Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon back to the screen in his second adventure (his first in the novels). Once again the renowned symbologist finds himself in over his head, but his wits and knowledge will be key to surviving. When the pope dies, the Vatican seals itself off…
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) – Ishiro Honda
Godzilla is back! But he almost takes a backseat to the rest of the story, which sees an expansion of the Godzilla universe by bringing in aliens, flying saucers, and seeing the return of Rodan and King Ghidorah. When a new planet, Planet X, is discovered in orbit around Jupiter, a joint Japanese/American mission is…
The Three Body Problem (2008) – Liu Cixin
Wang Miao and Ye Wenjie are the central characters in a vast cast in this epic Chinese novel that is the first in a trilogy, also known as The Three Body Problem. Treating its subject matter with intelligence, and pouring on the science, the story takes us through the first steps of contact with an…
Black Order (2006) – James Rollins
Sigma Force is back in their bext adventure from author James Rollins, who once again combines high adventure, with science, technology, and little known corners of history to deliver another rollicking adventure. This time out, both Painter and Gray find themselves out in the field and caught up in the action in a tale that…
Map of Bones (2005) – James Rollins
James Rollins second novel in his Sigma Force series continues the highly enjoyable combination of science, mythology, history and high adventure. This time, Sigma Force’s Grey Pierce is assigned with his team to investigate a massacre at a church in Germany, and the subsequent theft of ancient Catholic relics. Relics that have some strange properties,…
Sandstorm (2004) – James Rollins
Craving a bit of arm chair adventure and travel I figured I would dig into the Sigma Force series by James Rollins and see what happens. I dug into the first big adventure, Sandstorm, and uses science fact, archaeology, and the action film template to deliver a rip-roaring adventure that takes us from North America…
Prince of Darkness (1987) – John Carpenter
Prince of Darkness was the third John Carpenter movie I saw ever, before that I was delighted with Big Trouble in Little China, and had found my favourite horror movie with The Things (Jaws is not a horror film, it’s an adventure movie).I remember seeing print ads for it on the back of the comic…
The Mind Reels 