I haven’t done a book review in a while, so this week I’m taking a look at February’s Sword & Laser Book Club pick. Also, on top of the earlier review, I do get into some spoilers regarding the plot’s reveals in the second half of the video, if you want something more in-depth.
Continue reading “The Fold: Book (Vlog) Review”
I’ve been following the Sword & Laser podcast for a while, but I never really had gotten around to reading along with any of their book picks until this year, with The Fold.
Continue reading “The Fold: Book Review”
We occasionally get new Cyberpunk anime every now and then, though usually, the protagonists of those series have some degree of… license by the establishment. The Major in Ghost in the Shell is a government agent. So are the protagonists of Cyber City Oedo 808. The Knight Sabers from Bubblegum Crisis are superhero mercenaries who contract with the government. Rare are the cyberpunk anime that have protagonists who work for hire, not only outside the law but in violation of the law. Akudama Drive is one of the series that fits that theme, and utterly nails the concept.
Continue reading “Akudama Drive: Anime Review”In the past I have reviewed several works from creators who are problematic, whether having previously committed sexual assault (David Eddings), or who have said very racist things and have endorsed genocide by a totalitarian dictatorship (Cixin Liu and the Chinese government’s oppression of Uyghurs), so it’s time for me to have something of a discussion of what goes into decisions of what I’m reviewing going forward, and my policies for reviewing works from problematic creators.
Also, for the record, Trans Rights are Human Rights. Black Lives Matter.
Continue reading “Reviewing Works From Problematic Creators: Editorial”This week I’m taking a look at another SF anime from last year, that, like Bodacious Space Pirates, borrows thematic notes from 50s Juvenile SF novels – but without the shitty racism, misogyny, or other crap.
Continue reading “Astra: Lost In Space – Anime Video Review”
I’ve finished reading Battle Angel Alita: Last Order – so it’s time to finally get into the back half of the manga.
Continue reading “Battle Angel Alita: Last Order (Second Half): Manga Review”
Matter is my first step into the world of The Culture. I’ve heard bits and pieces about it through a variety of other sources, from the absurd ship names, to the concept of Outside Context Problems, to the absurdly high tech level – but I’ve never actually read a novel in the universe. While Matter is not the first book in the series, it is a pretty good jumping on point to the series.
Continue reading “Matter: Book Review”
After completing Super Robot Wars V a year or so ago, I decided I wanted to watch some of the anime series from that show, particularly before moving on to X (along with wanting to watch a couple of the shows from X as well to set up the story for comparison). That, combined with the fact that I’d been watching various anime series on weekends with my parents, and that my mother had watched the original first season of Space Battleship Yamato while growing up in Hawaii, lead me to bump the reboot of that series up on my list.
Continue reading “Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Anime Review”
Virgin Books’ Doctor Who: New Adventures series was, back in the day, meant to provide fans of Doctor Who the thing they wanted after the show was put on indefinite hiatus after the serial Survival. Time’s Crucible is the 6th book in the series, part of a pair of thematically linked stories under the heading of “Cat’s Cradle”.
Continue reading “Doctor Who: Cat’s Cradle – Time’s Crucible Book Review”
There’s something to be said about a short film that gets in, does what it sets out to do, and gets out. Negadon: The Monster From Mars does exactly that.
Continue reading “Negadon: The Monster From Mars – Film Review”
It’s interesting to watch Royal Space force for the first time after having seen 07-Ghost, because it feels like this film does right everything that 07-Ghost does wrong, from a world-building standpoint.
Continue reading “Royal Space Force – Wings of Honneamise: Anime Review”
If I was going to describe ID: Invaded to someone in an elevator, it would be Inception crossed with Criminal Minds. It’s probably the closest I’ve come to a more standard procedural in a genre anime for quite some time, in a very imaginative way.
Continue reading “ID: Invaded – Anime Review”
Anime, often, cribs from works of western science fiction – particularly films. Star Wars, Star Trek, the Starship Troopers novel, and Lensmen have all been borrowed from or in some cases adapted outright. However, there are some instances where the level of cribbing doesn’t quite pan out, and Odin: Starlight Mutiny is one of those.
Continue reading “Odin: Starlight Mutiny – Anime Review”
Sadly, we are not done with the Hutts. Though this time they play second fiddle to Boba Fett.
Continue reading “Boba Fett – Death, Lies, and Treachery: Comic Review”
It has all come down to this, as we have the final book in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series.
Continue reading “Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Book 10 Review”
Battle Angel Alita ended – sort of – on an interesting note. Due to health issues, the mangaka, Yukito Kishiro, somewhat rushed the manga’s conclusion, quickly moving the story into the floating city of Zalem, before blitzing through the city coping with the revelation that everyone in the city has computer brains – and Alita ultimately ending up in control of the city. The sequel, Last Order, starts there, before going into an oddly different direction.
Continue reading “Battle Angel Alita – Last Order (1st Half): Manga Review”
The Electric State is very much a different book from Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. Those books had a retrospective narrative – the point of view for those books was from the viewpoint of someone looking back on events with a sense of nostalgia. The Electric State, on the other hand, has a more conventional narrative, while still having significant themes of memory, but definitely without the warmth of nostalgia.
Continue reading “The Electric State: Book Review”
A while back, on the internet, I stumbled across the work of artist Simon Stålenhag, in what was part of the Tales From The Loop project – though I did not know what it was at that time. So, when the art was collected into a series of books with a narrative behind them – along with a tabletop RPG, I figure it was time to properly check it out.
Continue reading “Tales from the Loop & Things from the Flood: Book Review”
I’ve read several of Tsutomu Nihei’s previous series and reviewed them for Bureau42, and in part here – Biomega and Blame, and I’d reviewed a couple of volumes of Knights of Sidonia at the Bureau, but I might as well get up to speed here.
Continue reading “Knights of Sidonia Vol. 1-7: Manga Review”
This time I’ve got the second of the Star Wars short story collections with Tales from Jabba’s Palace.
Continue reading “Tales from Jabba’s Palace: Book Review”
A while back, when I had started my fanzine with the intent of getting established science fiction fans, in particular, those who read fanzines (a demographic that is generally more likely to vote and nominate in the Hugos), to watch and nominate speculative fiction anime – I started with a list. I gave a list of anime series that had come out since the turn of the millennium which I thought literary speculative fiction fans would enjoy. Among them was Bodacious Space Pirates, a science fiction anime which I felt took the sense of adventure and wonder that was a fixture of ‘50s and ’60s YA Space Adventure science fiction, kept that, and dropped the obsolete political and social views that fill so many works of that period. Astra: Lost in Space is the next anime that tries this and pulls it off spectacularly.
Continue reading “Astra: Lost in Space – Anime Review”
This month we have the penultimate volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Continue reading “Legend of the Galactic Heroes Part 9: Book Review”
I’ve previously discussed the first installment of Michael A. Stackpole’s Rogue Squadron Comics earlier. Well, he’s not just limited to the medium of comics, this week we get to the first of his Rogue Squadron novels, but with a different lineup of the squadron.
Continue reading “X-Wing: Rogue Squadron – Book Review”
After Callista was introduced in Children of the Jedi, unlike other characters who were love interests of Luke, she was not forgotten by other authors, with Kevin J. Anderson’s novel Darksaber.
Continue reading “Darksaber by Kevin J. Anderson: Book Review”