"James Bolivar DiGriz, I arrest you on the charge –" I was waiting for the word charge; I thought it made a nice touch that way. As he said it I pressed the button that set off the charge of black powder in the ceiling, the crossbeam buckled and the three-ton safe dropped through right on the top of the cop's head. He squashed very nicely, thank you. The cloud of plaster dust settled and all I could see of him was one hand, slightly crumpled. It twitched a bit and the index finger pointed at me accusingly. His voice was a [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Big Trouble in Little China
September 20, 2013 By 3 Comments
"You know what Jack Burton always says?" "Who?" "Me. Jack Burton. Jack Burton always says… ahh, what the hell." Kurt Russell's played many roles throughout the years – from the Computer in Tennis Shoes to Snake Plissken to Colonel O'Neill in the original Stargate. But in many ways my favorite is his two-fisted everyman trucker, Jack Burton, who gets into a pulp-fiction adventure way over his head… all because he wins a bet and agrees to do a favor for a friend on the way to collect. Big [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: My Neighbor Totoro
September 18, 2013 By 1 Comment
In any discussion of anime, there are very few names that are spoken with almost unqualified awe and pleasure. There is Osamu Tezuka, "Anime no Kami", the founder of the industry in many ways. One could make a case for Leiji Matsumoto, creator of Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers), Galaxy Express 999, and Space Pirate Harlock. And there is Hayao Miyazaki, sometimes called the "Japanese Disney", creator of some of the most wonderful, magical films ever made (which I will review later), including Laputa: Castle in [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Galaxy Quest
September 16, 2013 By 6 Comments
"By Grabthar's hammer… by the suns of Warvan… you shall be avenged!" Galaxy Quest is a parody and tribute to the original Star Trek (with some added flavoring from Next Generation). For those unaware of the basic "setup", it takes place in a world like this one, in which the famous classic SF TV show was called "Galaxy Quest" which featured a fancy starship called the NESA Protector which had a crew featuring a womanizing captain, an alien science officer, and a token female communi... er, comPUTER officer,, and [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: A Wrinkle in Time
September 13, 2013 By 3 Comments
"It was a dark and stormy night…" A Wrinkle in Time does begin with exactly that line, perhaps the most mocked opening line in literary history and certainly the most famous, courtesy of Snoopy's eternally-rejected novel (and originally from the not-quite-as-bad-as-his-rep Edward Bulwer-Lytton). But for A Wrinkle in Time, it's the perfect opening line and helps set the stage, as well as foreshadowing the story to come; for there is indeed a dark and stormy time ahead for Meg Murry, high-school student (about [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Pacific Rim
September 11, 2013 By 2 Comments
Giant robots versus giant monsters. Done awesomely. I could pretty much end my review there, as it says all the important things right up front. But that would be probably overly short, and maybe just copy-and-pasting "GIANT ROBOTS versus GIANT MONSTERS" would get a little boring. Oh, and technically the title of this post should be "Going to be On My Shelves", I suppose, because I haven't got it yet. When I saw the trailers for Pacific Rim, I knew I'd be going to see it. But I still braced myself for [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Hal Clement and _Iceworld_
September 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) was famous throughout the Golden Age and beyond as one of the patron saints of hard science fiction. While he would allow for the existence of an FTL drive to get his protagonists to some particular location, Clement's works were almost entirely focused on constructing worlds that, as far as we knew, didn't exist – but could exist, based on what we knew, and from these hard-edged foundations build stories of first contact, of investigation, of exploration, and of friendship across the boundaries of [ Continue reading... ]
Under the Influence: Lord of the Flies
September 6, 2013 By 19 Comments
For those who know me, this entry's title may come as a shock. "Ryk, you hated Lord of the Flies! How can you list it as an influence?" Well, sometimes things that really suck can influence you, too. For those (fortunately) unfamiliar with Lord of the Flies, it is something of a deconstruction of the "shipwrecked people" subgenre of stories (codified by Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Mysterious Island) and often said to be specifically a response to The Coral Island. In it, a number of British [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Incredibles
September 4, 2013 By 6 Comments
There are very few movies – or, indeed, stories of any sort – which approach perfection. The Incredibles, Pixar's superhero-themed offering, is one of those few. Make no mistake – most of Pixar's work has been stellar, and even their worst products have managed to be entertaining. This is a track record unmatched by any other studio I can think of. But even within Pixar's oeuvre, The Incredibles stands out. I remember seeing the original advertisements – teasers – featuring Mr. Incredible getting a call from "the red [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Support Your Local Wizard (Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series)
August 23, 2013 By 16 Comments
I had read the first book, and part of the second, of this trilogy (So You Want to be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, and High Wizardry) many years ago, but recently I picked up this omnibus and read it to my son Gabriel. The basic concept of the series is that wizards have a task of supporting the basic order of the universe, in essence attempting to minimize or even reverse entropy. Nita Callahan is a young girl (12 to early teens) whose major love is reading, and who runs across a strange book titled "So You Want [ Continue reading... ]
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